This blog has moved to geraldgiam.wordpress.com Dear friends, readers and fellow bloggers, I have moved to a new blog address at geraldgiam.wordpress.com. All my previous posts and your comments can be viewed at the new site. I will still keep this blog address. But with immediate effect, comments on this site will be disabled. Thank you for your continued support and feedback. I look forward to seeing you in my new home! Warmest regards, $1 billion profit, so electricity tariffs raised 22% SP Services has announced that it has raised electricity tariffs 21.89% from 1 Oct to 31 Dec 2008. The Online Citizen's Leong Sze Hian has pointed out that SP Services' parent company, Singapore Power Ltd, made a profit of $1.086 billion in 2007. I checked out their website and indeed this is true. They made over $1 billion in PROFITS and they are increasing tariffs by 22%! And all this when oil Kindness and graciousness of our leader CONDOLENCE LETTER FROM PRIME MINISTER LEE HSIEN LOONG ON DEMISE OF JB JEYARETNAM 30 September 2008 Mr Kenneth Jeyaretnam Mr Philip Jeyaretnam Dear Kenneth and Philip Jeyaretnam I was sad to learn that your father, Mr Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, has passed away. Mr JB Jeyaretnam was a Member of Parliament for Anson constituency from 1981 till 1986, and a Non-Constituency Member of Parliament Passing of JBJ Former opposition MP & former Secretary-General of the Workers' Party, Mr JB Jeyaretnam has died early this morning from heart failure. I am so sad to hear of the passing of Mr Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, also known as JBJ. JBJ fought his whole life to bring change to Singapore. All he received from the Government were lawsuits, partisan vitriol and a smearing of his name. Most Singaporeans, Don’t be a stupid cupid This is the first of a two-part series in response to the marriage and parenthood package announced by the Prime Minister in his National Day Rally speech 2008. It was first published on The Online Citizen. In his National Day Rally speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced a slew of measures to increase Singapore’s fertility rate. It was the second time since taking over as prime The stork is still not quite convinced Among the goodies to be doled out by the government to encourage couples to have more kids are an additional one month of paid maternity leave, increased Baby Bonus and childcare subsidies, and more tax rebates for working mothers. I welcome the new measures announced by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. I have to confess that I am an interested party — my wife is due to give birth to our first Congratulations to our gold medalist, Yip Pin Xiu It's an awesome sight to see the Singapore flag being raised at the Olympic stage! Congratulations to Yip Pin Xiu on her gold medal winning performance! You have done our nation proud! Improving on the Govt's plans for public transport This was my prepared speech at Speakers' Corner on 13 September 2008. Good evening friends and fellow commuters! Thank you for taking the time to come down to Speakers' Corner this Saturday evening to attend our little event. We are truly very grateful for your presence and we hope we have made it worth your time! My name is Gerald Giam and I am representing The Online Citizen in summarizing Merdeka Malaysia On the eve of Anwar Ibrahim's promised date for his takeover of the Malaysian government, it looks like all systems go. The takeover may not happen tomorrow, but judging from events in recent days, it's not a matter of "if" but "when". First the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) started panicking and sent their MPs off on a "study trip" to Taiwan in a bid to prevent them from defecting on Sept 16th. Thank you for attending TOC's public transport forum I would like to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who took time off your precious Saturday evening to attend our public transport forum at Speakers' Corner today. Thank you also to my fellow bloggers who helped publicize the event on your blogs. There were over 100 people in attendance -- one of the largest turnouts at Speakers' Corner since it started. The event received good media coverage in The Online Citizen to hold Speakers' Corner event I will be speaking at Speakers' Corner this Saturday. Please come down to support! :) ------------------ The Public Transport Council (PTC) is expected to disclose its decision on whether to approve revisions for public transport fares by September 30. To engage the public in discussion about the expected fare hikes, The Online Citizen (TOC) will be holding an event at Speakers' Corner in Hong Police: Stop justifying the unjustifiable Straits Times Forum 9 Sep 2008 Why WP didn't get permit for event I REFER to last Thursday's letter by Mr Tan Ghee Gay, 'Why 'no' and 'yes'?', regarding police decisions with respect to the Workers' Party's (WP) proposed mass cycling event last year, and the carnival on Aug 31. Police do not issue permits for outdoor political events in public places due to the potential for disorder and unruly Bloggers do not advocate "near free-for-all" This was a letter sent by Choo Zhengxi to the Straits Times in response to an article about the so-called "Bloggers 13". We were not granted the right of reply. Your article in "'Bloggers 13' want near free-for-all" (Straits Times, Sept 4) misrepresented our group's response to the discussion paper of the Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society (AIMS). Contrary to the article’s e-Engagement - A paradigm shift needed Below is the transcript of my email interview with the Straits Times' Zakir Hussain. The article appeared in Straits Times Insight today, "Engagement in progress". ---------------------- Straits Times (ST): Aims suggests the Government should take part in online discussions and post comments on blogs, train civil servants how to respond to online comments, find ways to show people online that Get out of my elite neighbourhood Residents in the upper middle class neighbourhood of Serangoon Gardens have been up in arms about the government's plans to convert an old school into a dormitory for foreign workers. According to the Straits Times, 1,400 of the 7,000 households in the area have signed a petition demanding that the government change its mind. About 250 turned up at a town hall meeting yesterday with the two MPs New media and politics on CNA I was interviewed by Channel NewsAsia's Zainudin Afandi for a story on the increasing importance of the new media such as blogs and the Internet as a form of political expression in Singapore. The programme, Insight, will air on Thursday 21 Aug at 8.31pm on CNA. I'm told other interviewees include Workers' Party chairman Sylvia Lim and Foreign Minister George Yeo. Do tune in if you're interested One dis-united people? This is like totally a copyright violation but I think its so important that all Singaporeans, especially Chinese Singaporeans, read this heartfelt piece by Straits Times journalist Nur Dianah Suhaimi. It makes me feel ashamed that I myself have harboured some of the prejudiced and stereotyping attitudes described. Yet, I find I'm still in a minority in Singapore who cares to admit that the Of eggs and baskets The Sage of Singapore has spoken again. This time he told his grassroots supporters: "You vote in a Div 3 Government instead of a Div 1 Government, the whole economy will subside within three, four years. Finished!" The Straits Times reported that he said that to vote anything but top quality into office could lead to, among others, job losses and falling property prices. "We will be worse What I wanted to ask the Australian PM I took an afternoon off from work to attend the 29th Singapore Lecture at the Ritz-Carlton, during which Kevin Rudd, the Australian Prime Minister delivered a keynote address. I had a few questions to ask him, but unfortunately despite being one of the first to stand up in front of the mike, DPM Jayakumar, the lecture's chairman, overlooked me. Anyway some friends whom I bumped into there YouthQuake: The Evolving Role of Women in Singapore A plug on behalf of my friend Bernard who is organizing this. ---------------- "The Evolving Role of Women in Singapore" The Workers' Party Youth Wing is holding a public forum as part of the YouthQuake Forum Series. This forum series is into its fourth installment. The topic for this session focuses on how youth can propose and carry forward a refreshing new approach to women issues in Checking out the Internets and the Google This is a riotously funny MSNBC video on YouTube. About John McCain's admission to the New York Times that he doesn't know how to use computers. Comedian Michael Ian Black is just awesome. . Past performance no guarantee of future results Straits Times Forum, 26 July 2008: Opposition yet to show it can deliver, unlike PAP I REFER to Wednesday's letter by Mr Alvin Tan, 'JBJ must be careful if he wishes to espouse Singapore's cause'. I admire Mr J.B. Jeyaretnam for his fighting spirit. Even though he is 82, he is still actively engaged in politics. I hope he will retire graciously. I welcome an opposition, provided it is Obama: Dissent does not make one unpatriotic Barack Obama delivered another stirring address in Independence, Missouri a few days before the American independence day. In his speech, he defined what patriotism meant to him. So much of his speech is applicable even to Singapore and Singaporeans. Below are excerpts from his remarks. The full text of the speech can be found on at the Washington Post blog. Dissent does not make one Govt’s graduate equation needs balancing During last year’s National Day Rally speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced plans to set up a fourth university in Singapore, targeting 30 per cent of each cohort to enter publicly-funded universities. However, based on the past week’s news, it appears the Government is now preparing the ground for a possible downgrading of these plans. More education could mean less growth: Minister Passport blunder: It's Singaporeans who are negligent First they let a dangerous terrorist slip away during his toilet break, and Singaporeans were told we were complacent. Then, they let a retiree get through the checkpoints with the wrong passport. Now we are told we are negligent. Straits Times, 25 June Passport blunders leave S'poreans stranded By Jessica Lim Religion and its discontents Freedom of religion is one of the fundamental human rights that most of the world has agreed on — at least in principle. In practice, however, people in many countries continue to face restrictions to varying degrees in the practice of their own faith. In this article, we examine the situation in Singapore. A universal right Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) states Political Films and the Ruling Party During yesterday's Seminar on Internet Regulatory Reform, the subject of "party political" films was discussed and debated. For readers who are not already aware, films which promote any political party in Singapore are banned. The relevant legislation is Section 33 of the Films Act. Section 35 of the Films Act is an omnibus law that gives the Minister absolute discretion to ban any film that, Internet Content Consultative Committee I attended the Seminar on Internet Regulatory Reform at URA Centre this afternoon. The seminar was kindly sponsored and organised by NTU's Wee Kim Wee School of Communications, together with "Bloggers 13" -- the 13 bloggers who submitted the Proposals for Internet freedom in Singapore to the MICA Minister exactly two months ago. Special thanks must go to Dr Cherian George, who mooted the idea for Seminar on Internet Regulatory Reform, Sat 21 Jun, 2pm There will be a public forum this Saturday, 21 June 2008, on Internet regulatory reform. Organised by the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, it aims to contribute ideas to the government's ongoing review of Internet regulations. It will discuss the proposals submitted to the government recently by a group of independent bloggers. Mr Arun On opposition politicians The Straits Times asked for my views of four Singapore opposition politicians. The article appeared in today's Insight (login required). This was my full response to ST: Low Thia Khiang - Sustainable development Low seems to be approaching opposition politics with the aim of "sustainable development". Together with Sylvia Lim, he appears to be very slowly but steadily building up a political