One thing that has struck me since my return to Singapore after spending several years in Canada, was how the concept of race is still so entrenched in our society. I’m defined as a Chinese – I have to give that “correct” answer when asked (though I am somewhat tanned and could be Mal...
Furthermore, even if we wish to tap the talent and investments that foreigners can bring, why do we assume that they won’t relocate here unless we have the lowest tax rates? In fairness to the government, they themselves speak of how the “rule of law” (please don’t laugh), security of...
Within a space of slightly over two hours Friday night, two friends of mine mentioned Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s ‘pay one dollar, get four dollars’ sales pitch. “What do you think of that?” asked the latter of the two. I knew Singapore had become one of the gambling capitals of Asia, bu...
I welcome Singapore Government’s intention to invest S$1.1B to boost the public bus service standard. I am concerned however with the approach of directing injecting of funds. Both SBS and SMRT are public listed companies and direct Government funding will lead to a free ride for its ...
With a larger opposition presence in parliament, ministers and People’s Action Party (PAP) backbenchers have become more aggressive in making the case that government policies do indeed help the more disadvantaged in society. This became particularly notable during the recent parliame...
What is interesting about New Jersey is that civil unions for same-sex partners, with all the substantive rights of marriage, have been in place since 2006 when the state’s supreme court ruled that not giving same-sex couples the same rights as opposite-sex couples violated the equal ...
Six Burmese have been thrown out of Singapore in the last month or so when their residency passes were denied renewals. While the immigration office has not provided any explanation for any of these cases — and the silence itself can be read as sinister -– “they had some commonalities...
My earlier article on the proposed S$1.1 billion give-away to SMRT and SBS Transit, our two public bus companies, was, truth be told, rather rambling. I was trying to cover too much ground. A comment by Yuen has motivated me to try to re-state my case, this time in a more succinct way...
It is already unacceptable that the government gave SBS Transit and SMRT sectional monopolies. (The term oligopoly is often used, but since the two companies don’t even run the same routes, I think the term ‘sectional monopolies’ is more accurate). Surely, in return for the right to o...
The way larger households could move into higher income brackets even when the metric is household income per member is that those with more household members may have more “spare capacity”, i.e. non-working members who can take up (perhaps part-time) employment when the economy impro...
I am actually quite concerned with the number of Chinese nationals in Singapore. While i have nothing against them per se, their presence do speak of perhaps a more cynical and systematic move by the state to pull in more Mainland Chinese to balance what it deemed to be slower decline...
As mentioned in my earlier post Smoking out tobacco control and foreign student scholarships , when non-constituency member of parliament Yee Jenn Jong asked the Minister for Education about the numbers of government-funded scholarships for foreign students, what he got in reply were ...
MOM needs to be more proactive than reactive over salary complaints by foreign workers The recently reported strike by about 200 foreign workers at a worksite in Tampines over unpaid salaries once again highlights the inadequacy of existing systems for preventing such exploitation of ...
Firstly, your description of Antioch as “the famous Christian city that was ravaged by the crusades” is misleading. To most Christians, Antioch refers to the ancient city of the Bible from which most of the Apostles embarked on their evangelical journeys when the world was far from Ch...
Indeed, this perception seems to correspond to the Cru’s view of Singapore, which sees that along with ‘the growth in wealth, East Asia is witnessing increased materialism and moral decline.[11] ’ It is not just a battle for redemption in the name of Jesus Christ, but also to stop the...
The Christian Right has always prioritised evangelism and salvation as a key tenet in their ideologies, as compared to liberal Christianity, which has a greater focus on exigent suffering (humanitarian missions, social welfare, etc.). Reflected in this light, the Cru is typical of an ...
If LHL said he has no national agenda on hand, than I am worried whether he is worth his $2.2m leadership. Hougang is not outside Singapore and should apply equal and fair jurisdiction regardless of their party affiliation. Main stream media has lost its credibility for adopting less ...
With the sacking of Yaw Shin Leong from the Workers’ Party, announced 15 February 2012, the parliamentary seat of Hougang is now vacant. Prime Minister Lee Hsien-Loong, however, said he “will consider the matter carefully,” when asked the timing of the by-election. Offering a totally ...
It’s getting to the point where if you find homosexuality offensive and do not wish to be “confronted” with it, you’re going to need to withdraw from the modern world. For example, there’ll be films and music videos that fill the entertainment pages that you can’t watch. If your frien...
DEFAMATORY STATEMENTS PUBLISHED ON YAWNINGBREAD.WORDPRESS.COM 1. We act for Mr K Shanmugam. 2. We refer to the following comments that you have made on your website, yawningbread.wordpress.com, under the Responses section of the blog posting entitled “The Media and Yaw Shin Leong” pub...
Today carried a report of my dialogue with ITE students yesterday, noting the strong desire of the students to get a diploma. It quoted me as saying, “if everyone can move up, we will not have enough ITE graduates out there in the workforce”. Unfortunately, this was taken out of conte...
Another, perhaps less obvious, feature of the present debate is the silence of those citizens who agree that eldercare centres are needed and that there is no perfect answer as to where to locate them. I am pretty sure there are plenty of Singaporeans who can see the issue in this lig...
This week saw two milestones in the American march to gay equality. The federal court of appeal for the ninth circuit delivered its decision Tuesday that California’s Proposition 8 was unconstitutional, since it violated the United States Constitution. Here’s a 42-minute long press co...
A while back, I made a prediction that as opposition parties make headway into the political mainstream, new media will increasingly make those parties the objects of scrutiny. The oft-repeated complaint of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) and its government that new media tends...
This is almost a replay of the break-up of the Singapore Democratic Alliance (SDA) in 2010. The SDA then comprised the SPP, the Singapore Justice Party and the the Singapore Malay National Organisation (PKMS). But Chiam’s main antagonist was none other than SPP’s own Desmond Lim, who ...
Nonetheless, Alfie’s Home is a seductive story. Lots of gay teenagers are unhappy — not because they are gay, but because they are socially ostracised. But unless they think through it, they seldom make the distinction. All they know is that they are unhappy, and when a simplistic sto...
I am pleased to share more recent findings which show that our National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) driven by the Health Promotion Board (HPB) has resulted in 14,000 fewer cases of lung cancer and 4,700 fewer cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease between 1986 and 2006. H...
“MHA had planned to make these announcements on 25 January 2012, but as news of the investigations had already appeared, MHA decided to advance the media release by one day,” said the statement issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Friday, 27 January 2012, desperately denyin...
. . . low performance expectations coupled with narrowly defined vocational outcomes raise uncomfortable issues. It is impossible to talk of those at the bottom of the Singaporean educational system without acknowledging the dialectical tensions that exist within the wider society and...
. . . low performance expectations coupled with narrowly defined vocational outcomes raise uncomfortable issues. It is impossible to talk of those at the bottom of the Singaporean educational system without acknowledging the dialectical tensions that exist within the wider society and...
