Gerald Giam

Kenya Burning

I’m troubled by the post-election violence that is taking place in the East African nation of Kenya now. Following the presidential elections, which the incumbent President Mwai Kibaki apparently won by a razor thin margin, supporters of opposition leader Raila Odinga have gone on a rampage, killing many people from the dominant Kikuyu tribe in what has been dubbed by the Kenyan press as Rwandan-style “ethnic cleansing”. Over 300 people have already died.

At least 36 people were killed when the church they were hiding in was set ablaze, allegedly by members of the Kalenjin tribe — incidentally the tribe that produces most of the world-champion Kenyan runners.

For most of us in this part of the world, it is easy to dismiss as just another troubled African state unable to maintain basic social stability. The sad thing is that Kenya was supposed to be one of the leading lights in that troubled continent. It is the largest economy in East Africa and one of the more influential countries in Africa. Although rife with corruption, the economy has been performing quite decently for the past few years, with growth rates above 5 per cent.

I visited the capital, Nairobi, and the port city of Mombasa two years ago when I was with MFA. Although far from being a developed country, there seemed to be a lot of hope in the air for the future of the country. The Singapore Ambassador and his wife, whom I accompanied, even remarked that the situation there had improved tremendously from just a few years back. I remember the Philippines Charge d’Affaires there talking about how good the business opportunities were for those adventurous enough to venture there.

In fact, we met a few Singaporeans there who run several businesses, including a rose plantation, that were making good profits. Kenya is one of the biggest exporters of roses to Europe.

I don’t know what effect all this violence will have on Kenya’s economy, especially the tourism industry. One can only hope that the economy will continue to hum, even as politicians slug it out. But I just find it so unfortunate that some politicians there are so power hungry that they would rather stoke tribal anger and violence to squeeze out their victory.

Free Saudi blogger Fouad Al-Farhan!

I just read in the Straits Times today that Saudi Arabia’s most prominent blogger, Fouad Al-Farhan, was arrested on Dec 23 by the Saudi authorities for allegedly violating “non-security laws”. You can read the report in the New York Times.

In a letter sent to his friends just before he was picked up by the authorities, Fouad wrote:

I was told that there is an official order from a high-ranking official in the Ministry of the Interior to investigate me. They will pick me up anytime in the next 2 weeks.

The issue that caused all of this is because I wrote about the political prisoners here in Saudi Arabia and they think I’m running a online campaign promoting their issue. All what I did is wrote some pieces and put side banners and asked other bloggers to do the same.

He asked me to comply with him and sign an apology. I’m not sure if I’m ready to do that. An apology for what? Apologizing because I said the government is liar when they accused those guys to be supporting terrorism?

To expect the worst which is to be jailed for 3 days till we write good feedback about you and let u go.

There may be no jail and only apologizing letter. But, if it’s more than three days, it should be out. I don’t want to be forgotten in jail.”

I know this is Saudi Arabia, not exactly a bastion of democracy in the Middle East. The Kingdom is an absolute monarchy, and does not allow political parties, civil rights groups or public gatherings. Nevertheless, this news is still upsetting and repulsive to me.

Unlike most other Saudi bloggers, Fouad uses his real name and features his picture on his blog. In a post in December, he listed his 10 least favourite Saudi personalities, including a businessman prince, a prominent cleric, a minister, a mayor and the head of the judiciary.

One of Fouad’s fellow Saudi bloggers, Ahmad al-Omran, was quoted as saying, “It’s really sad that a blogger who is writing about important issues out in the open would get arrested, while there are extremists who call for violence and hate, and the government is not doing much.”

I lend my tiny voice to a global call for the immediate release of Fouad Al-Farhan and urge fellow Singaporean bloggers to do likewise.

Farewell to Benazir Bhutto

Bhutto at her final rally in Rawalpindi

My wife and I were just walking out of a restaurant after celebrating our 4th anniversary when I watched the CNN report that Pakistani opposition leader and former PM Benazir Bhutto was in critical condition after a suicide bomb attack in Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Moments later, reports started filtering in that she had died.

What a sad ending to a great hero in the eyes of so many. Here’s a quote by one of her supporters, posted on BBC:

My god am crying while writing this the news came two hours ago i have never felt so hopeless before, Benazir was the only hope for our wretched land. Its just so sad the loss cant be described in words.

Nabeel, Rawalpindi

I am no expert in Pakistani politics, but from what little I know, Bhutto was probably the “least bad” of all the candidates in the upcoming elections. Just a few days ago, she had boldly condemned Islamist extremists for their violent ways. Yesterday, security officials thwarted a would-be suicide attack by a 15-year old at her rally. Now she’s gotten assassinated, probably by one of those devils.

What a troubled land Pakistan is! I pray some glimmer of hope will appear for Pakistan’s suffering people soon.

Ferrero Roche (aka Bug Chocs)

My wife told me about this post in STOMP a few weeks back about “worms” being found in Ferrero Roche chocolates. I was not surprised. My sister had a similar experience some years back. I think it was at least 6 years ago. She bit into a Roche, only to discover a little white “worm” crawling out of the soft chocolate core.

I love chocolates but it took me over a year after that to start eating Roche again. Now this latest news has made me decide never to eat it ever again.

What the heck is wrong with Roche? It’s disgusting!

These are actually not worms, but maggots. Since the outer chocolate-nut layer of the Roche ball seals the inner core, my only explanation for maggots in the core is that flies laid their eggs in the chocolate mix in the factory (wherever that might be). So even after the inner chocolate ball is “sealed”, the eggs will hatch and the maggots will crawl out when someone bites into the Roche.

I did a search on the Net for more info and found these:

Some Singapore schoolgirls posted a video of the Roche maggots on YouTube back in July 07:

How about this one from Canada:

Or how about this report in Reuters:

In the case of the Reuters report, these were imitation Ferrero Roche made in China (hmm…why am I not surprised). In the STOMP case, Ferrero Roche in Singapore claimed that the goods in question were unauthorized parallel imports. But as far as I know, the Roche my sister bit into were genuine.

I shall not go all out to tarnish the name of the Italian chocolate maker. I might even give them the benefit of the doubt that they are a victim of shoddy China-made imitations. But I personally will stay away from all Roche forever.

Buyer beware!

Who really is "not ready" for a non-Chinese PM?

The recent announcement of Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s promotion to Finance Minister — in addition to his current Education portfolio — set many of tongues wagging as to whether he might be the successor to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong many moons from now. This in turn sparked a debate in the Straits Times as to whether Singaporeans (read: the Chinese-speaking majority) are ready to accept and support a non-Chinese prime minister.

This isn’t the first time this issue has surfaced. Mr Lee Kuan Yew once said that former Cabinet Minister S. Dhanabalan was one of the four men he considered as his successor, but decided against him as he felt Singapore was “not ready” for a non-Chinese prime minister. That was almost 20 years ago.

Fast forward to the year 2007, and this whole mantra of “Singaporeans are not ready for a non-Chinese PM” is getting very tiresome to listen to. It seems to be most repeated among the English-educated, ethnic Chinese elites, many of whom have little regular contact with both Chinese-speaking “heartlanders” and ethnic minorities. These elites assume that they know the thinking of the Chinese ground. Yet I wonder whether they are just using this as a cover for their own primordial mindsets.

Here are some of the arguments (undoubtedly from these elites) that have been put forth against having a non-Chinese PM:

“I am a realist and am inclined to agree with Mr S. Dhanabalan that Chinese Singaporeans are not ready to accept a non-Chinese prime minister….This is the reality and fact of life that we cannot pretend that such mindset does not exist.”

(Straits Times Forum, 1 Dec 07)

“If anything, the ascendency (sic) of China in this century is the very reason why Singapore CANNOT have a non-Chinese Singaporean as leader….A potential Malay candidate as leader will never do because of the region we are in. Neither is an Indian one wise since India is on a headlong fight for economic and political influence with China.”

(Comment on ST Forum, 5 Dec 07)

“Let’s be realistic. A majority chinese Singapore will never accept a non chinese PM. Even, i cannot accept it. I am not a racist fyi. Let me tell you why. First, we are a tiny island surrounded by hostile malay/muslim nation similar to Israel…”

(HardwareZone Forum, 30 Nov 07)

I find it hard to reconcile how a country that prides itself in meritocracy and rubbishes its neighbour up north for their racialist policies, apparently has the strongest proponents of meritocracy still harbouring this mindset. It reminds me of the oft-repeated mantra that Malay Singaporeans cannot be placed in sensitive positions in the military because their loyalty in times of war may be questionable.

The political reality in Singapore is that it is not up to the Chinese masses to choose their prime minister. Unlike in the US, the electorate does not directly elect their head of government. It is effectively the ruling party (or more specifically the PAP Central Executive Committee and its cadres) which chooses the prime minister, because the head of the ruling party is usually made the PM.

This means that if an eminently qualified minority is passed over for the prime ministership, it is because our elites do not want him there, not because “Singaporeans are not ready”.

Having said that, if it is true that Mr Shanmugaratnam is being groomed to be the next prime minister based solely on the merit of his abilities and character, then I applaud PM Lee for his progressive mindset.

There are so many areas in which Singaporeans were “not ready”, yet the government pushed through policies for what it deemed was in the country’s best interest. National service, English medium education, the casinos, CPF rate cuts and ministerial salaries are just a few that come to mind. Isn’t choosing the best qualified man or woman to lead the country, regardless of race or religion, far more important that all these policies?

This article was first published in theonlinecitizen.com.

83% Hike in Taxi Fares not Comforting at all

83 per cent.

Yes that’s how much more I calculated it would cost to take a cab from my mother-in-law’s place in Tiong Bahru to my home in Sembawang.

I am shocked by the magnitude of ComfortDelGro’s taxi fare hike this time. It’s one thing to increase the flag down rate and peak period surcharges, but to double the meter hop to 20 cents is plain profiteering.

ComfortDelGro earned almost $2.8 billion last year, with profits of over $300 million. Instead of sharing more of their profits with their drivers, they are upping their fares and trying to justify it by pointing to the plight of their drivers. I have no objection to cabbies earning a little more, but I’ll advise all the “uncles” to make hay while the sun shines. In no time, your rentals are going to also increase and your fuel subsidies reduced or removed.

The government has since 1998 deregulated taxi fares. This means that taxi companies are free to set whatever fares they like without seeking permission from the Public Transport Council. But deregulation only works well if there is fair competition. With 65 per cent of the taxis in Singapore, ComfortDelGro is as good as a monopoly. And it has played out time and again that whenever Comfort raises fares, the rest of the taxi companies follow suit. So much for competition.

The Taxi Operators’ Association, which called Comfort’s revision “fair and timely”, has also urged other taxi operators to adjust their taxi fares “as soon as possible”. I’m no expert in competition law, but doesn’t this smell like cartel behaviour?

The government always points out that taxis are a form of private transport and there are alternatives, like taking a bus or MRT.

Tell that to the pregnant mum who never gets a seat on the train because everyone is “sleeping”.

Tell that to the disabled man who doesn’t have a wheelchair friendly bus plying his route to work.

Tell that to the family who has to transport their sick grandmother to hospital for treatment several times a week.

I have always thought that taking cabs are still cheaper than owning a car. I haven’t done my sums yet, but maybe now it would be cheaper to buy a car to clog up our roads and pollute our air more.

Big brother policing Facebook

Straits Times Forum, 5 Dec 07

Police security checks conducted judiciously

I REFER to the letter from Mr Leow Zi Xiang, ‘Reader sees red over police reply’ (ST, Nov 28).

Police would like to assure the public that we conduct our security checks judiciously. During the Asean Summit, police conducted checks on about 140 persons seeking to enter the protected area around Shangri-La Hotel. Only about 20 were advised to leave. These decisions to check, advise or remove persons from the gazetted area were not made arbitrarily, but after careful appreciation of the situation.

According to our officer who first spotted him, Mr Leow was wearing a red football jersey, in the company of people wearing red T-shirts, the chosen colour of the Asean Summit protesters.

When he subsequently approached the protected area, the officer questioned him on his purpose in doing so. He said he was there for a walk but could not say where he was heading to. He insisted that he had a right to go wherever he wanted and was not able to give a satisfactory account of his presence there.

Mr Leow was then advised not to proceed further into the protected area. After he entered the area, he was turned away by police officers.

In his letter, Mr Leow asserts that police had impugned his integrity and suggested that he had not been completely honest in his account of events. He had portrayed himself as an innocent passer-by whom police had turned away just because he happened to be wearing a red football jersey.

However, the following fact showed otherwise. After Mr Leow’s letter was published, police were alerted by Internet users to the fact that he had declared openly on his Facebook page his intention to participate in an anti-Myanmar protest at the Shangri-La Hotel on Nov 19. The posting was accessible to all Facebook users.

Police will leave it to readers to come to their own conclusion about Mr Leow’s protest of innocence.

Audrey Ang (Ms)
Assistant Director (Media Relations)
Singapore Police Force

This is indeed a worrying admission: That the police are monitoring even the semi-private domain of Facebook. They cloaked it by writing that they were “alerted by Internet users” (read: we didn’t do it ourselves).

But how was this posting “accessible to all Facebook users”? It is (to my knowledge) not possible to see which “groups” a person is subscribed to unless you are his/her “friend”. I did a search on this guy, and it did show up a profile, but I can only send him a message, poke him, view his friends and add him as my friend.

No need to junk family values to get creative

This was published in today’s Straits Times with no edits:

Forum Editor
The Straits Times

Dear Sir,

I refer to the letter, “Get S’pore creative? Action speaks louder than words” (ST, Nov 24).

Mr John Rachmat argued that “fostering creativity can succeed only when (the Media Development Authority) does not reach for its censorship scissors the moment it sees anything remotely offensive to the sexual mores of the supposedly conservative Singaporean society”.

He further wrote that “Singapore has to decide whether it wishes to join the 21st century, or whether it wishes to cling to ‘traditional values’.”

I disagree with Mr Rachmat’s conflation of creativity and sexual liberalism.

Critics of Singapore’s moral censorship policy seem to find it rather fashionable to argue that it inhibits creativity. Nothing could be further from the truth. On the contrary, removing the weeds in the garden could help the truly beautiful flowers to grow and bloom.

Furthermore, I don’t see why Singapore cannot enter the 21st century while still upholding the traditional family values which have served our society so well.

Yours sincerely,
Gerald Giam

How to deliver economic growth but lose an election

How is it possible to preside over a booming economy and yet still lose a national election?

Australia’s outgoing Prime Minister John Howard may be puzzling over that question as he conceded defeat to the opposition Labor party in just-concluded federal elections.

“I have reformed the Australian economy and left it the envy of the world,” said a subdued Mr Howard as he conceded defeat after 11-and-a-half years in power. He had previously won four general elections and has presided over Australia’s booming economic growth since becoming prime minister in 1996.

Indeed, Mr Howard’s Liberal-National Coalition’s campaign theme was that the economy is safer in their hands than in the hands of an “inexperienced” Kevin Rudd, a former diplomat, the leader of the opposition and now prime minister-elect.

Booming economy but…

Most Australian voters obviously didn’t buy that argument. The Australian Labor Party swept to victory with over 53 per cent of the votes. In the process, as many as six Cabinet ministers and parliamentary secretaries in the ruling Coalition may have lost their parliamentary seats. Even Mr Howard’s own seat hangs in the balance, pending the final tally.

Despite the booming economy, many Australians may not have benefited from it. In a recent speech to the National Press Club, Mr Rudd (picture, left) charged that Mr Howard’s government “has failed to ensure along the way that the boom delivers not just for the national economy as a whole, but for working families and the household economy as well…It is a government that has grown insensitive to the living pressures facing working families.”

The staunchly pro-business orientation of the government may have turned many working Australians against them. One of the most contentious issues in this election was about WorkChoices, a sweeping set of industrial relations reforms pushed through by Mr Howard that was supported by business federations but which critics said hurt workers.

“Mr Howard treats working people as economic commodities,” decried Mr Rudd.

Lessons for Singapore

The results of the Australian elections provide some valuable lessons for Singapore. Just like the outgoing Australian government, the Singapore government has always boasted about its stellar management of the economy and its ability to “deliver the goods” (i.e., economic growth) to the country. It has strongly argued that the only way forward for Singapore is to “enlarge the pie” by growing the economy (read: help big businesses become more profitable) as this will eventually prosper all Singaporeans, including those at the bottom of the pyramid.

This “trickle-down economics” theory in reality is often just that — a trickle. Voters in open democracies have been known to reject this political rhetoric. Back in 2004, India’s ruling party, the BJP, also suffered a shock defeat at the polls despite its slogan of “India Shining” and the “feel good factor” from the economic growth fuelled by the strong IT services sector. Analysts saw the defeat as a result of a backlash from the impoverished masses of people who had not benefited from India’s economic growth.

I was in Australia recently and almost all the opposition television commercials I watched focused on the rising cost of living, reduced workers’ rights protections and higher interest rates. Sure, the war in Iraq and global warming played a part in swinging public opinion against the government, but they were probably minor factors.

The bottom line is that elections, even in advanced democracies and booming economies, are still always fought on bread-and-butter issues. Voters are not impressed by impressive macroeconomic growth figures. The government of the day may claim to have delivered the economic goods, but if those goods don’t reach the doorstep of the average working family, they might be shown the exit door by the electorate, just like in Australia and India.

MDA Senior Management Rapped!

Here is the music video that got the Media Development Authority (MDA) and its senior management rapped by Netizens:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksw2UqTyhhc&rel=1]

Personally I feel that although the video might be painful on the ears, it has definitely achieved its aim of getting MDA’s message across to a wider audience. Would the average viewer have bothered reading this message in MDA’s annual report?

No right? But with this video, at least many more young Singaporeans now know that MDA is trying hard to promote the arts and media, and is not just playing the role of a censor and regulator. This could inspire quite a few local budding filmmakers, animation creators and musicians to enter a career in the digital media industry, knowing that there is $10bn of government support behind it.

I applaud the MDA senior management for allowing themselves to be ridiculed just so that their message can get across to their intended audience.