Alternative proposals for a better Singapore
Auditor-General Lim Soo Ping, just submitted his audit report for financial year 2008/09 to the President and Parliament on 1 July, and later released it on the Auditor-General’s Office (AGO) website.
The full report can be viewed here. I read through all 62 pages of it, and had a few observations.
I am cheered that Dr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, better known as SBY, has won his second term in as president of Indonesia, with a very comfortable margin which pollsters estimate at over 60%. Although the official results are not due till later this month, SBY has already declared victory and world leaders like Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong have already called him offering their congratulations.
This is a victory not only for him and his running mate, Boediono, the former central bank governor, but the great nation of Indonesia as well. The peaceful and fair election — contestations by SBY’s challenger Megawati notwithstanding — seals Indonesia’s transition from a military dictatorship under Suharto just over 10 years ago, to a thriving democracy with a free press and a steadily growing economy.
Continue reading “Victory for SBY, Indonesia…and ASEAN too?”
Png Eng Huat writes to the Straits Times Forum, 10 July 2009:
MAS should have been more objective
I REFER to Wednesday’s report, ‘MAS acts against 10 institutions’.
It seems the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has learnt little from the Lehman crisis. The crux of the sale of those toxic structured products was that their profits were oversold or misrepresented while their underlying risks were undersold.
In short, too much positive spin was put on the marketing of such products. In its latest report on the structured notes linked to Lehman Brothers, MAS has fallen into this ‘positive spin’ mode by highlighting the impressive statistics on settlement cases, while not addressing the pressing issue that most affected investors did not get any closure at all.
Continue reading “ST Forum: MAS should have been more objective”
Maria “Bertha” Hertogh (aka Nadra binte Ma’arof) died of leukaemia on 7 July 2009 in her home in Huijbergen, Netherlands, at the age of 72.
Hertogh’s name has been indelibly been printed on the minds of all Singaporeans, particularly those in the post-independence generations, as being synonymous with racial riots. Rarely is her name mentioned in local history and social studies textbooks, or National Education lessons, without the accompanying phrase, “We must never take our racial harmony for granted.”
Continue reading “Maria Hertogh dead, but the fearmongering will continue”
The new Nominated MP appointments are out:
I’m glad that Mr Viswa Sadasivan was selected, my opposition to the NMP scheme notwithstanding. Viswa is a very insightful and frank political commentator, although he has not be quoted in the press much the last few years. I attended a very enlightening off-the-cuff talk by him last year, where he commented that there is a “crisis of leadership” in our nation. I blogged about it on TOC (with his permission). If he doesn’t pull his punches, and speaks what he really thinks, I think he will make a good contribution to the discourse in Parliament.
I was glad to learn that Colonel Ishak bin Ismail will be promoted to the rank of Brigadier General come 1st July. As Commander of the 6th Division since last August — division commanders in Singapore are usually BGs — his promotion was unsurprising.
What makes his achievement so significant is the fact that he became a BG despite having two “strikes” against him: He is Malay in the Singapore army, and he is not a government scholar. Although I have never served under him, I am confident that the SAF would not place a man in command of one of our three Combined Arms Divisions just for the sake of political tokenism.
Nevertheless, Singaporeans should not be lulled into thinking that full meritocracy has arrived in the SAF. There are still many “sensitive” units that have recently naturalised citizens but not a single Malay in their ranks.
Continue reading “Malays deserve equal opportunities in the SAF”
I became one of probably hundreds of patients who were hauled to Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) in the past week for suspected Influenza A (H1N1), also known as swine flu. It wasn’t a very pleasant experience, but I’m in a way glad I got to witness first hand the fight in the trenches against this viral illness.
The episode started with my 4-day business trip to Australia last week. When I returned on Monday evening, I had a little runny nose and sore throat so decided to head straight from the airport to my GP clinic, even though I had breezed through the thermal scanners at Changi Airport without incident.
The Straits Times did an Insight piece about PAP MP Hri Kumar’s controversial proposal of having nominated (non-elected) ministers. They quoted some comments I made on my previous blog post:
For administrative aspects, there are already people like the permanent secretaries heading the various ministries, he notes.
The view is shared by IT consultant Gerald Giam, a founding member of the socio-political blog The Online Citizen.
He writes on his blog that ministers need to have the common touch; they need to be people who can empathise with ordinary Singaporeans.
‘If we open the doors to this segment of society to lead us, we will be fishing from the wrong pond. We will, in the long run, attract the wrong sort of people to lead our country – people with a different set of values and motivations,’ he says.
Mr Giam, Mr Siew and Dr Tan all say that a parallel cannot be drawn between Singapore’s parliamentary system and the presidential system in the United States, where the Cabinet is made up of people who are appointed, not elected.
Some friends have expressed to me publicly and privately that they in principle support the idea of non-elected ministers because some ministries (e.g., finance) need “technocratic minds”. However, I still maintain my disagreement with the idea.
Continue reading “Revamp the role of MPs to attract potential ministers”
I strongly reject PAP MP Hri Kumar’s suggestion in Parliament that the Prime Minister should be given the option to appoint individuals from outside the rank of elected MPs to his cabinet. He had argued that the pool of talent available to the PM will “increase substantially” and he can draw on the experience of many “capable individuals”.
This is a dangerous line of thinking which is not just undemocratic, but foolish as well.
Continue reading “Don’t turn my country into an administrative state”
From CNA:
Myanmar’s military government has “strongly rejected” a statement by the Association of Southeast Asian nations condemning the trial of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, state media said Monday.
Myanmar accused Thailand, which issued the statement one week ago as the rotating chairman of the 10-member bloc, of interfering in its internal affairs, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.
“This statement issued by the alternate ASEAN chairman — which is not in conformity with ASEAN practice, incorrect in facts, interfering in the internal affairs of Myanmar — is strongly rejected by Myanmar,” it said.
“It is sadly noted that the alternate ASEAN chairman failed to preserve the dignity of ASEAN, the dignity of Myanmar and the dignity of Thailand,” said the statement, which was also carried on state-run television and radio.
The ASEAN statement expressed “grave concern” over the treatment of Aung San Suu Kyi, a rare step by the group which hardly ever speaks out on the domestic political issues of its members, including Myanmar.
It is quite rare to hear a public rebuttal from the Myanmar government against ASEAN. The fact that they have taken this step indicates that they have been quite stung by ASEAN’s statement. At least is shows that the generals are not deaf to ASEAN.
Continue reading “Singaporeans strongly reject Myanmar generals”