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ST Editor warns PAP 4G leaders not to engage in "politics of dominance" and thumb down critics

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5 years ago

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Yesterday (13 Oct), Straits Times Opinion Editor Chua Mui Hoong wrote an opinion piece on ST warning 4G leaders from the People’s Action Party (PAP) not to go overboard and become perceived not as the dominant force leading the country, but as the domineering party ready and willing to thumb down its critics (‘PAP and the politics of dominance‘).
“I was disturbed by the way Education Minister Ong Ye Kung cited a few lines from Alfian Sa’at’s poetry to paint him as someone who might be disloyal to Singapore,” she wrote.
In particular, Ms Chua a literature student herself, was not pleased with the way Minister Ong had interpreted Singaporean playwright, Alfian Sa’at’s poetry titled “Singapore You Are Not My Country”, which was written when Mr Alfian was 21.
Minister Ong brought up Mr Alfian’s poetry during a recent Parliamentary debate on why Yale-NUS cancelled a controversial module on dissent, which Mr Alfian was supposed to teach. The minister said that the university was right to cancel the course and his ministry supported the decision. Academic freedom did not give anyone carte blanche to misuse universities for political advocacy, he said.
Ms Chua explained about her displeasure with the minister, “As a literature student, I know well enough that the views expressed by the narrator of a poem written in the first person should not be conflated with the poet’s own.”
“A male poet may write as a woman, or child; and a poet may write in the voice of an animal or even, as in the nursery rhyme, as a teapot. Writing ‘I am a teapot’ does not mean the poet sees himself literally as a teapot,” she added.
“It is simplistic to ascribe sentiments expressed in a form of literary fiction – a poem – directly to the poet.”
She further noted that Minister Ong, who graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science, should have known better to cite a few lines of Mr Alfian’s poem out of context and brand him being anti-Singapore.
Indeed, many netizens have talked about this on social media, with some expressing disappointment that a key PAP 4G leader can be so “uncompromising”.
Ms Chua opined that this episode when viewed in the context of a series of recent events these couple of years, when the Government has come down hard and strong against its critics, or has been uncompromising in spelling out red lines not to be crossed, PAP wants to continue to be the dominant force in Singapore extending even beyond electoral politics to also control public opinion and public discourse.
“In the brick-and-mortar agora of the past, it could make sure its voice was not only heard but also pre-eminent. In the agora that is the Internet and social media today, the PAP Government fears its voice might be drowned out, or diluted,” she said.
“This explains both its vigilance over mainstream media and its keenness to use legislative tools at its disposal to control the Internet space.”
Ms Chua thought that the PAP 4G leaders may be thinking that the “politics of dominance” would continue to carry them ahead to waves of electoral victory. She said, “In the area of political contest, or issues to do with political freedom, the PAP continues to operate by a familiar playbook that includes the occasional use of strong-arm tactics to counter critics.”
“However, the 2010s is not the 1980s, or even the 1990s,” she warned, referring to past tactics of silencing critics by the PAP before the turn of the century.
“Those of my generation and older, born in the 1960s and earlier, have seen partisan politics playing out, close up, throughout the last three decades. We saw political opponents slapped with defamation suits and bankrupted; we saw opposition politicians’ characters called into question (some deservedly). Whatever we may have felt, many of us could not exercise our choice at the ballot box. We were the Walkover Generation, in constituencies with frequent no contests,” she added.
“Today, those in my generation, in their 40s and 50s, are stable family burghers, stalwarts of their companies, leaders of corporations who understand the need for stability and good government. But Singaporeans also have a strong sense of fair play. Being dominant is one thing; coming across as bullying or unfairly targeting frailer opponents is quite another.”
She noted that today’s electoral landscape and voters are different from the past’s. “The opposition is stronger, and keen to contest in every constituency”, she said. Indeed, starting from 2011 GE, every constituency has been contested by the opposition.
Ms Chua further revealed that in the recent Yale-NUS episode, some of her Facebook friends who are young civil servants have even come out openly to defend Mr Alfian and disagree with the Education Minister.
Indeed, in the Yale-NUS episode, it was Minister Ong who came out looking the loser with him facing many personal attacks on social media while Mr Alfian urging netizens to confine their criticisms to the policies, not the person.
“In fighting to retain its dominant position in the Singapore political and intellectual landscape, the PAP Government has to tread carefully that it does not go overboard and become perceived not as the dominant force leading the country, but as the domineering party ready and willing to thumb down its critics,” she warned PAP.
Ms Chua is probably afraid that if the PAP 4G leaders continue to “thumb down” its critics in the enlightened era of social media and Internet, the dominant PAP might just lose its dominance in Parliament one day, and the editors in ST might just end up driving Grab.
 

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Current Affairs

Man arrested for alleged housebreaking and theft of mobile phones in Yishun

A 23-year-old man was arrested for allegedly breaking into a Yishun Ring Road rental flat and stealing eight mobile phones worth S$3,400 from five tenants. The Singapore Police responded swiftly on 1 September, identifying and apprehending the suspect on the same day. The man has been charged with housebreaking, which carries a potential 10-year jail term.

Published

5 days ago

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3 September 2024

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SINGAPORE: A 23-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly breaking into a rental flat along Yishun Ring Road and stealing eight mobile phones from five tenants.

The incident occurred in the early hours on Sunday (1 September), according to a statement from the Singapore Police Force.

The authorities reported that they received a call for assistance at around 5 a.m. on that day.

Officers from the Woodlands Police Division quickly responded and, through ground enquiries and police camera footage, were able to identify and apprehend the suspect on the same day.

The stolen mobile phones, with an estimated total value of approximately S$3,400, were recovered hidden under a nearby bin.

The suspect was charged in court on Monday with housebreaking with the intent to commit theft.

If convicted, he could face a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine.

In light of this incident, the police have advised property owners to take precautions to prevent similar crimes.

They recommend securing all doors, windows, and other openings with good quality grilles and padlocks when leaving premises unattended, even for short periods.

The installation of burglar alarms, motion sensor lights, and CCTV cameras to cover access points is also advised. Additionally, residents are urged to avoid keeping large sums of cash and valuables in their homes.

The investigation is ongoing.

Last month, police disclosed that a recent uptick in housebreaking incidents in private residential estates across Singapore has been traced to foreign syndicates, primarily involving Chinese nationals.

Preliminary investigations indicate that these syndicates operate in small groups, targeting homes by scaling perimeter walls or fences.

The suspects are believed to be transient travelers who enter Singapore on Social Visit Passes, typically just a day or two before committing the crimes.

Before this recent surge in break-ins, housebreaking cases were on the decline, with 59 reported in the first half of this year compared to 70 during the same period last year.

However, between 1 June and 4 August 2024, there were 10 reported housebreaking incidents, predominantly in private estates around the Rail Corridor and Bukit Timah Road.

The SPF has intensified efforts to engage residents near high-risk areas by distributing crime prevention advisories, erecting alert signs, and training them to patrol their neighborhoods, leading to an increase in reports of suspicious activity.

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Current Affairs

Consumers Association of Singapore fined S$20,000 for PDPA breaches following two data security incidents

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1 week ago

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30 August 2024

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The Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) has been fined S$20,000 by the Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) for breaches under the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA).

According to a judgement which was published on 28 August, the fine was imposed due to the consumer watchdog’s failure to implement reasonable security measures to protect the personal data in its possession and to establish necessary policies and practices required under the PDPA.

The breaches resulted in two significant incidents, one in October 2022 and another in June 2023, where the personal data of up to 34,760 individuals was potentially compromised.

Both incidents were handled under the Expedited Decision Procedure (EDP) at the request of CASE, with the organization admitting to all the facts and contraventions of the PDPA, leading to a faster resolution of the case.

The First Incident: Phishing Attack in October 2022

The first incident occurred in October 2022 when a threat actor accessed CASE’s email accounts and sent phishing emails from its official email addresses.

On 8 October 2022, some consumers received unsolicited emails from “[email protected],” which falsely claimed that their complaints had been escalated to the “collections and compensation department” and that they were eligible for compensation.

The recipients were asked to provide their banking details by clicking on a chat icon.

The following day, similar phishing emails were sent from “[email protected],” an account used for complaints that had progressed to mediation. CASE later discovered that the phishing emails had affected up to 22,542 email addresses.

Further investigations revealed that the phishing emails likely resulted from the threat actor obtaining login credentials from a CASE employee via a phishing attack.

The compromised accounts led to the sending of 5,205 phishing emails to 4,945 recipients. Although CASE acted swiftly to suspend the affected accounts and reset all administrator passwords, three consumers reported that they had clicked on the phishing links and collectively lost S$217,900. CASE subsequently lodged a police report.

The Second Incident: Data Breach During Vendor Migration

While PDPC was investigating the first incident, a second breach came to light in June 2023. On 22 June 2023, PDPC received a complaint about a phishing email that replicated a consumer’s complaint previously submitted to CASE.

This led to the discovery that the personal data of 12,218 individuals, including names, email addresses, contact numbers, and complaint details, had been exposed. The PDPC concluded that the breach likely occurred during a data migration exercise conducted by CASE between December 2019 and January 2020 when CASE switched vendors.

Investigations revealed that CASE’s contract with one of its vendors, Total eBiz Solutions Pte Ltd (TES), did not stipulate clear security responsibilities. This lack of contractual clarity contributed to the data breach during the migration process, highlighting CASE’s negligent vendor management.

PDPC Findings and Penalties

The PDPC found that CASE had failed to enforce its password management policy, with some passwords not meeting minimum length and complexity requirements and others remaining unchanged for up to four years. Furthermore, CASE’s vendor management was deemed negligent, as one of its contracts did not specify clear security responsibilities, putting personal data at risk.

CASE admitted to not conducting regular security awareness training for its staff, with the last session held five years before the first incident.

The PDPC also noted that CASE lacked an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) policy, particularly in relation to patching and maintaining IT systems. The absence of a documented IT infrastructure management plan, insufficient logging and monitoring practices, and the lack of security reviews over the three years preceding the first breach were significant failures highlighted in the judgment.

In assessing the financial penalty, the PDPC considered the nature and gravity of the breaches, the duration of non-compliance, and CASE’s annual turnover. The fine of $20,000 was determined to be appropriate in light of these factors.

Remedial Actions by CASE

It is said that CASE, which is headed by Mr Melvin Yong, People’s Action Party Member of Parliament for Radin Mas, has implemented several measures to enhance its cybersecurity in response to the breaches.

These include introducing multi-factor authentication for all web-based applications, strengthening password complexity requirements, decommissioning end-of-life devices, and implementing patch management software for security updates.

CASE has also revised its contracts with outsourced vendors to include data protection clauses and mandated annual data protection training for all staff members.

CASE is working towards obtaining the Cyber Essentials Mark and the Data Protection Trust Mark to reinforce its commitment to safeguarding personal data and complying with PDPA obligations.

The PDPC has directed CASE to review and update its data protection policies, rectify all identified security gaps, and report back within one week of completion. The organization has also been instructed to conduct a penetration test after addressing the vulnerabilities to ensure no further security gaps exist.

The post Consumers Association of Singapore fined S$20,000 for PDPA breaches following two data security incidents appeared first on Gutzy Asia.

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