Any hope the Government still harboured of the electorate accepting the “6.9 million” Population White Paper may have just gone up in flames. One must not underestimate the shock to the Singaporean psyche in seeing images of burning police vehicles, crowds attacking ambulances and rioting masses; for Singaporeans born post-independence, these things just do not…
Despite my differences in opinion with several leading Singaporean bloggers and blog-site owners on the MDA licensing rules, I have always respected their views and tried to engage them. I have also endeavoured to try to assist them in bridging the gap in communication between them and the Government. One reason is that for the…
The drama that has unfolded over Singapore’s Media Development Authority’s decision to license some news websites in Singapore is tragic: On the one hand, we have a government completely bewildered over the reaction towards what they see as a minor update to its regulatory laws. On the other hand, we have freedom-of-the-internet advocates going apoplectic…
The Competition Commission responded to an interview with me about the price-fixing decision against the Association of Modelling Professionals of Singapore. The interview is here: http://news.asiaone.com/print/News/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20130506-420591.html The ST Forum response is here: http://www.straitstimes.com/premium/forum-letters/story/modelling-agencies-price-fixing-had-adverse-effect-market-20130509 I have always found public battle of words on the pages of Forum pages unseemly and have chosen not to write in…
On the morning after the Malaysian General Elections, I posted a status update on my Facebook Page saying “I hope people who say the PAP is unfair now have a better reference point. Today you know what unfair is”. This elicited a flurry of rebuttals, many indignant that I was trying to excuse the PAP…
The question that has always bothered me is why people think that Singaporeans are losing jobs to foreigners merely because they are cheaper. Why would an employer hire a foreigner merely because he is cheaper? If he is cheaper but worse, I wouldn’t hire him. At the very least, he needs to be cheaper but…
http://www.moneysmart.sg/money-talks/hdb-loses-1-billion-a-year-and-why-you-shouldnt-care/ Been seeing this article doing the rounds on cyberspace and needed to debunk it. This blogger argues that HDB makes a loss because it buys land from SLA at market rates and it does not matter since it is from one government account to another. The alternative to buying land from SLA at market…
My friend Ravi Philemon wrote this blog post( http://www.raviphilemon.net/2013/02/no-longer-nation-of-immigrants.html ) presumably in response to my previous post. I understand much of what he is feeling. New immigrants also have to be diligently assimilated – I think rigorous citizenship classes is a start. Right now, new citizens do not need to undergo intensive history and cultural…
The protests against the White Paper on Population at Hong Lim Park have been making headlines around the world. In the meantime, in between exhortations by Ministers and pro-Establishment commentators to get above the emotional angst and emotive rhetoric, one is witnessing an anger startling not in its intensity, but by the way it cuts…
If the PAP is dying a death from a thousand cuts, the White Paper on Population is going to be an axe-blow. It is no wonder the Government held back on its publication before the by-election, not that it helped much anyway. Again, the problem with the White Paper is not in its content, but…
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