Singapore Notes

The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) recently concluded a survey of more than 1,500 Singaporeans carried out between August and October 2014 to explore which are the influential Singapore stories and why, and who, do these stories resonate with. One of the summary findings claims that "Awareness of events does not equate to importance to respondents e.g. opening of two casinos."

Recall that the fractious decision of turning Singapore into Sin City - complete with two architectural monoliths symbolising Sodom and Gemmorah - was a divisive one that even pitted members of parliament against each other. How did that end up being of lesser importance to them and to future generations of Singaporeans? Adding insult to history, two epochal events are barely registered or rendered significant - the so-called "Marxist conspiracy" and Operation Cold Store.

Third on the awareness tableau was the major rail service breakdown in 2011, a minor hiccup compared to the recent North-South and East-West train disruption. That 2011 debacle brought down the high flying Saw Phaik Hwa who profited from sales of retail space at the cost of train and track maintenance. Since awareness does not translate to importance, so we are told, the equally clueless lieutenant general now put in charge is in no danger of receiving a pink slip. Despite the simultaneous breakdown of two lines inconveniencing 250,000 commuters. Inured to multifarious failings in the system governance and infrastructure, the people no longer seem to care.

Research analysts Varian Lim and Elaine Ho at the IPS Social Lab are saying that, beyond being a means of transportation, the MRT system represents Singapore’s journey from Third World to First. That being the case, the country must be grinding down to a halt.

Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin - still trying hard after all these years of OJT - had to comment on the video of a senior citizen being hit by a younger one:
"While there can be altercations within families, there are some lines that should not be crossed."

Whatever his motivation - this being election year and all - one wonders if the Minister would have kept mum if he was at another scene of a senior being smacked?

"In 1990, an incident occurred in a pre-cabinet meeting which was the beginning of entrenching further among the many in the core executive, resistance to Lee Hsien Loong's long term ambitions for prime ministership. Prior to this meeting Lee Hsien Loong had gone to the office of Richard Hu, the Minister of Finance, and removed a number of files without Hu's permission. At that time Lee's office was on the 48th floor of what is now Temasek Tower and Hu's was on the 50th floor.
At the pre-cabinet meeting Hu took Lee to task for doing this and was supported by Tony Tan. Lee's response was aggressive and insulting, he directly insulted Tan and Hu, a man of his father's age. This was a double insult to Hu, who was Lee's superior in cabinet and a person of an age who should of itself deserve respect in Chinese society. Suppiah Dhanabalan intervened and chastised Lee for his behaviour, demanding that he apologise to Hu, withdraw his remarks and not interfere in other minister's portfolios. A heated exchange occurred into which a number of other issues intruded and eventually Lee lost his temper, and reportedly reached across the table and slapped Dhanabalan across the face."

All parties involved in the altercation sealed their lips, continuing to subscribe to the tenet of all secrets staying within the PAP family. But during the 2005 National Day Rally speech broadcast, a rogue Goh Chok Tong decided to craft a different narrative:

"You may also have heard this old story about Loong. In case you have not, I'll tell you now. Back in 1990, Loong had a quarrel with Richard Hu. S. Dhanabalan sided with Richard. Loong lost his temper. He reached across the table and gave Dhanabalan a tight slap. The whole Cabinet was thrown into commotion. I then forced Loong to apologise. I must be suffering from amnesia. I just cannot remember this incident. Now you know how creative Singaporeans are."

Actually if Goh had bothered to visit the National Library, he could have read up the account in Ross Worthington's "Governance in Singapore". No need to check into the Institute of Mental Health, where creative Singaporeans are routinely locked up for assessment.

As for Dhanabalan's protection, the Vulnerable Adults Act - meant to help protect vulnerable adults suffering from third-party abuse and neglect - that will be introduced at the end of the year should come in useful. The Good Book says to turn the other cheek, but no one likes to be whacked a second time.

During the debate on Singapore Budget 2013, Member of Parliament (Aljunied GRC) and ex-police inspector Sylvia Lim proposed that law enforcement agencies should video record sessions whenever police statements are being taken. Apparently disputes over such statements raised by defence lawyers had to be resolved in trials-within-a-trial, and investigation officers - who quite often authored those statements - are usually called in to testify to veracity of same.

The politically correct justification then was that the practice, already prevalent in First World countries like Australia, the United Kingdom, and South Korea, could also save the court precious time and money. What was left unsaid is that unscrupulous law officers can write any damn thing to fix the vulnerable. (At the trial of former Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) chief Ng Boon Gay, when Deputy Director of Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) Teng Khee Fatt was challenged in court about a conflicting entry, he simply dismissed the incongruence with: "I left out the 'not'.") Senior Minister of State for Law Indranee Rajah was quick to snuff out further discussion by simply declaring from on high that the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had no plans to introduce video recording for the taking of statements. Full stop.

Yesterday, MHA released a press statement announcing that the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) will pilot video recording of interviews (VRI) during investigations from the first quarter of next year. It added that together with the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) and the Ministry of Law (MinLaw), it has been studying the feasibility of introducing video recording of interviews. Somebody was either not informed, or simply told a bald-faced lie in parliament.

The inter-agency workgroup said that while Singapore’s existing criminal investigation processes are robust, the implementation of VRI in Singapore will further strengthen confidence in the integrity of our criminal justice system. What the workgroup did not say is that the fundamental rights of any individual being questioned by law enforcement officers - the right against self-incrimination and the right of access to a lawyer - are still not addressed after 50 long years. So much for the robustness of criminal investigation processes in Singapore.

You know election fever is on when even the hearing impaired is roped into the political proselytising. The Singapore Association for the Deaf (SADeaf) has produced a series of general election-related sign language videos to help decipher the gobbledygook that will be spewed forth by politicians of various parties. The limited vocabulary include uniquely Singapore etymological gems like "Group Representation Constituencies", but not "gerrymandering" or "foreign talent". And the horrible person is signed off as a guy with tunnel-vision and a humongous ego. Surely the only key words in the American Sign Language (ASL) we need at the rallies are:

VOTE
Your vote is secret, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

REMEMBER
Those promises to do better? You haven't forgotten, have you?

RETURN
As in return-our-cpf, not let those clowns come back to parliament again.

BREAKDOWN
Not restricted just to trains. Mobile network, internet access, floods, you name it, we've got it.

FOOD
We all have to eat, but please don't trade your vote for a packet of chicken rice.

RAISE HAND
All in favour of VTO, kee-chiu!

"I think the playing field is level, if you do your work on the ground consistently," says the Deputy Prime Minister with the extensible Pinnochio nose. Explain that to Workers' Party's Yee Jenn Jong who literally walked the ground tirelessly for 4 years since the last General Election to recover from a narrow loss by 388 votes. If the dissolution of Joo Chiat is not a clear case of gerrymandering, what is?

The interesting aside to this is that Joo Chiat had always been a stronghold of Chan Soo Sen (GE2001: 83.5%, GE2006: 65%). Unfortunately his predilection for booze and karaoke was frowned upon by higher ups. They replaced him with Charles Chong for GE2011, the elitist who defended the $46,000 Le Cordon Bleu frolic of Permanent Secretary Tan Yong Soon with this:

“Maybe it made lesser mortals envious and they thought maybe he was a little bit boastful. Would people have taken offence if his wife (a senior investment counsellor at a bank) had paid for everything?”

For mocking the peasants, Chong barely scraped through with 51% of the votes. Meanwhile Chan, always a popular fixture (still is) at clan gatherings in the district, would bitterly complain to anyone within hearing range about how "they" had to bring in three civil servants to do his job.

Decades ago, E.W Barker was well known for sneaking off to the bar at the snooty Singapore Cricket Club to wet his whistle. But that didn't stop him from an illustrious career of 25 years in politics, serving as Minister for National Development (1965–75), Minister for Home Affairs (1972), Minister for the Environment (1975–79), Minister for Science and Technology (1977–81) and Minister for Labour (1983). Barker was a happy camper at law firms Braddell Brothers and Lee & Lee until the horrible person dragged him into parliament. Fortunately for him then, there was no sniffer dog with a sensitive nose for alcohol.

It remains to be seen how the 22,760 voters of Joo Chiat who were wiped off the electoral map to be absorbed ignominiously into the folds of Marine Parade will react. If they are bitter about being thwarted in their balloting intentions, the outcome can only be ugly. Gerrymandering can cut both ways.

When TIME's Zoher Adoolcarim and Hannah Beech interviewed Lee Hsien Loong for the "Singapore's Next Story" article (3 August 2015 issue), they did not shy off from asking about the conviction of a 16-year old and the litigation against a blogger. While the Straits Times write-up produced edited extracts, and quoted from the online transcript and hard copy, one important line was missed out:
"In this case, he's a 16-year old, so you have to deal with it appropriately because of a young age."

It would appear to all and sundry that the hue and cry from local and foreign human rights activists, in particular the United Nations Human Rights Office for South-east Asia (OHCHR), have come to nought. Specifically, OHCHR had expressed concern that the criminal sanctions considered in this case "seem disproportionate and inappropriate in terms of the international protections for freedom of expression and opinion". And it matters not to the prime minister that Singapore had signed off on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

To understand the kind of horrible person that approves of the traumatic detention of a child and cruel treatment in a mental institute, one has to appreciate his ideas of bad behavior. When asked if he were ever a rebellious teenager, he gave this notion of unpardonable sin: "I never had long hair or wore bell-bottoms."

One veteran human rights activist was dripping with sarcasm when she put the status quo in context: "We are overly respectful of our politicians. Our laws demand that of us." Read and weep.

Robert-François Damiens, who attempted assassination of King Louis XV in 1757, was the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering, the traditional and gruesome form of death penalty reserved for regicides (deliberate killing of a monarch):

"He was condemned to be tortured with red-hot pincers on four limbs and on each breast. His wounds were to be sprinkled with molten lead and boiling oil and his body was then to be torn in pieces by four horses, the remains being subsequently burnt."

If you saw the teary-eyed Lui Tuck Yew on television, you would have thought that's how he imagined the horrible fate of Moulmein-Kallang GRC, drawn and quartered to be scattered to the four constituencies: Holland-Bukit Timah GRC, Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, Tanjong Pagar GRC and the newly-created Jalan Besar GRC.

“For me of course there is a sense of disappointment because I have been with the residents for so many years already and I’ve really come to become very fond of them and I will miss them dearly.”

About to be derailed

Of course it's all play-acting. Following the cue of Lim Boon Heng, who cried like a baby after being told he was being laid off, and next rewarded with a plum assignment at Temasek Holdings, the bawling is just audition for higher office. Outdo Lim's histrionic theatrics, and Lui could be the next elected president. Just as many have forgotten about SR Nathan's service record with the Japanese police during World War II, nobody will remember the mess Lui made of the public transportation system.

And if the intel in the sidebar is accurate, Lui will still be around for awhile. In case you're are fantasizing about hooking him to four trains running in opposite directions of the North-South and East-West tracks, don't bother. His armed forces buddies will simply arrange for another simultaneous system breakdown, and the submariner will resurface to make our lives miserable again.

Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen thought he could simply call the shots for how the imminent general election would be run when he boasted on Sunday (Jul 26), "No Mr Lee Kuan Yew to tell us what's a better choice, no Mr Lee Kuan Yew to tell us, give comments on the choice that we make." He declared that new candidates will be formally introduced after National Day weekend, and the plan was for retiring members of parliament (MPs) to help introduce their successors.

Well, it would appear not everything is going according to plan. Indranee Rajah of Tanjong Pagar GRC introduced her "sister" according to her own schedule, officially unveiling the new face of Joan Pereira during a walkabout at Bukit Merah View Market on the very same Sunday Ng spoke. And Inderjit Singh had to post his farewell on Facebook way ahead of everybody else. Ng didn't take that initiative too kindly,

"We want to handle the retirement of our MPs more smoothly and I would prefer a more deliberate and a dignified manner.
You can post your retirement on Facebook, but I think as an MP who has served 15, 20, even 30 years - that's not the best way to do it."

The upcoming general election will be "watershed election" indeed, but not necessarily the way Ng intends it to be. The horrible person had already expounded his premonitions at the Singapore Global Dialogue (skip to 18:40) in October 2011, shortly after the electoral setback of the same year. Maybe Ng should listen carefully to the voice from the urn once more.

Desperate for an answer, SMRT's Desmond Kuek was obviously clutching at straws when he blamed a heavy downpour the night before July 7 for tripping the sophisticated train system. So obvious that he covered his own lie with a "could have, but then it is not something conclusive". Don't know, say don't know, lah!

The army general jetted in expensive experts from Sweden's Parsons Brinkerhoff and Japan's Meidensha Corporation - bill footed by Lui Tuck Yew's LTA - to check on the train power circuitry only to find that water ingress between the Tanjong Pagar and Raffles Place stations had short circuited the electrical system. Of course the explanation is mired in gobbledygook:

"However, the weak resistance of an insulator can allow electricity to flow through the insulator to the ground, resulting in a higher than normal voltage difference between the running rail and the ground."

Engineers identify and resolve potential problems by use of diagrams. The one on the left illustrates the third-rail conductor system of the Ginza line of the Tokyo Rapid Transit Authority (TRTA). Their voltage is 600 or 700 V. The insulators - usually made of fast-drying non-conducting material such as glass, porcelain, or composite materials - support the current-carrying third rail at every 2.5 to 5 m. How such passive components can be easily "contaminated" as SMRT claims staggers the mind. Since we don't know, we can't quiz the engineering challenged CEO why all the 30,662 insulators of the North-South East-West lines have to be changed out, and ultimately charged to the long suffering commuters via fare hikes. Maybe they are all fakes sourced from a dubious vendor in China.

Can you spot the SMRT leak?

What we can ask is why a patrol officer had spotted the leak (Kuek uses "viewed" and "observed" to blur the distinction further) and could classified it as "non-urgent". Was the operator waiting for the ponding to rise to knee high level? Worse, the same leak spot had been "repaired" 2 to 3 times over the past 8 months. If their engineers can use cable ties to secure the claw for the third rail, why didn't they use chewing gum to plug the leak? Oops, almost forgot, gum is still banned.
Kuek's lame "gimme another chance" excuse is pathetic:
"So in this particular case and with all instances, as we categorise, we make it an effort to try and repair all leaks even though we might have longer time frame to repair those leaks, we try to repair them as quickly as possible."

Notice how Kuek and his army buddies always obfuscate the issues with pseudo-technical jargon. Occam's razor (or Ockham's razor) says that the more wild assumptions you tend to make, the more unlikely the explanation is. Credibility at our public transportation system is in dire need of a serious reboot.

After being rebuked by Ng Eng Hen for jumping the gun, Inderjit Singh is now performing to script and doing what the natural aristocrats are demanding. The retiring People’s Action Party (PAP) Member of Parliament (MP) is now talking up the calibre of his likely successor. Actually he is supposed to introduce the new candidate only after National Day, but even Ng can't have the cake and eat it too.

Deemed a maverick for speaking up against the Population White Paper (PWP) and then taking refuge in the toilet when the voting started - good reason not to elect politicians with weak bladders and weaker constitutions - he once catalogued the shortcomings of his party's record:

"I suspect that there has been some amount of complacency that has crept into the system. Whether it is the MCE fiasco, or that of the lack of hospital beds or dealing with the Little India riot, the corruption cases in the many government agencies like The Singapore Civil Defense force, I detect a certain amount of complacency in our government agencies in dealing with these problems and the trend is not healthy and needs to be eradicated fast. If Singaporeans lose confidence in these key institutions, we will face greater problems in nation building in the future."

So why is he dancing again to the tune of our local variant of the Pied Piper of Hamelin? If he remembers the fable well, he should know the rats are led to a miserable end. It's not like he was sent off to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) to reflect and recant like a 16-year-old. The clue lies in his rebuttal of the “Inderjit Singh: Why I left the PAP” story. He says he remains a member of the PAP and will be assisting Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his election campaign in Ang Mo Kio GRC.

For the favoured, stepping down from office is like the Japanese practice for retired bureaucrats to "descend from heaven" (amakudari) into a lucrative job in a public corporation or private industry, purportedly to create a strong bond between private and public sectors. Play the game well, and he could be a Chandra Das, with a free hand to set up $2 companies like Action Information Management (AIM). Far from being tainted by the town council affair, Chandra Das has just been appointed non-Resident High Commissioner to Sri Lanka. If Inderjit Singh knows when to take a leak while the PWP votes were being counted, he sure knows how to go with the flow.

Jump, Sir? How high, Sir?

The official retirement age for commissioned officers in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) is 50 years old, up from 45 previously - adjusted in 2009 so that Colonel Ishak Ismail at age 46 could become the first Malay general in the SAF - and warrant officers and specialists retire at 55. Amidst all the talk about advancing the retirement age for a greying nation, it is plainly contrarian for a career officer of 29 years' service to hang up his star studded uniform at age 47.

Just after another general talked about pureness of heart, the latest lottery player resorts to deceit to beguile the public with, "While I do no rule out the option of returning to the Administrative Service...." The tragedy is that Ng Chee Meng is a qualified pilot, trained at great expense to the taxpayers, to defend the nation from the cockpit of a F-16 Falcon or F-14 Strike Eagle. Unlike Brigadier-General Hoo Cher Mou who was the first non-pilot to be appointed air force chief in Singapore, or any military in the world. Ng chose instead to eject from magnificent flying machines, and parachute into the gutter politics of a third world parliament.

"Given his tested leadership and proven capabilities, I would not at all be surprised if indeed he does (enter politics)," that was Ng Eng Hen, no relation, further insulting the intelligence of the electorate. The Lieutenant General's "leadership' and "capabilities" include sending our young men into the active combat zones of Afghanistan and the Gulf of Aden, while he had the cosy job of doing guard duty for a horrible person lying in state. That and the all important National Day Parade, our paper mill generals' acid test equivalent of John McCain's ordeal at Hotel Hanoi. Play spot the toy soldiers on August 9, you should be able to easily pick out the Rear-Admirals, Brigadier-Generals, Major-General, and the only guy in uniform, the Lieutenant-General. Don't be surprised if some foreign correspondent mistakes the line up at the Padang for Russia's Red Square Parade.

The first reaction to the news was like, desperate times require desperate measures. "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated ..." was occasioned by erroneous newspaper accounts of Mark Twain being ill or dead. Speculation about Lui Tuck Yew being out of the sweepstakes race has been torpedoed by his announcement of a public transportation fare reduction in December.

Even the coterie of sycophants at the Public Transport Council (PTC) was taken by surprise. They had just completed their dastardly deed of hiking fares by 2.8% in April in the face of nose-diving crude oil prices; their brains are good only for computational activity once a year. The PTC is supposed to be an independent body charged with regulating public transport fares, and the next review exercise is scheduled to begin at the end of the year, using 2014 indices. And what about the poor Lieutenant-General in charge of the trains, how is he going to pay for the 30,662 insulators of the North-South and East-West lines he promised to change out? Shelve it for the next spectacular breakdown?

And why implement in December? If a major-general can hand out free packet rice and provide buses to the rallies, why can't the rear-admiral be generous in September? Transport Minister Lui claims the intent is to celebrate the opening of the second phase of the Downtown Line. While every other minister is throwing taxpayers' money for the SG50 celebrations.

The Transport Minister is flexing his muscles to the max, "I encourage the PTC to pass on this 1.9 per cent reduction fully to commuters." You're the man, Lui, why not go the whole hog and demand a 5.0 % reduction from the "independent" PTC? Heck, push it to 50% - in line with the current SG50 mania - and the electorate will make you president.

When the camera started rolling as the two walked towards their places for the televised "A Conversation with the PM: Our Future, Our People" interview, Lee was heard saying to Ambassador-at-Large Chan Heng Chee, "Thank you for doing this." Doing what? If this was a conspiracy, how come we didn't get the memo?

Netizens who bothered to sit through the entire programme noted that it ended without any scrolling credits. Whoever produced it, directed it, scripted it, provided the lighting or sound, mysteriously decided to be anonymous. No sign of the MediaCorp or CNA logo either.

Without a doubt, the topic of discussion was about foreign worker intake. Singaporeans first woke up to the problem when a dormitory sprung up overnight at Serangoon Gardens. The residents were castigated for being selfish and ungrateful wretches, and we were told the aliens in our midst were transition workers, going home when the housing blocks have been constructed. Then commuters started to notice more strange faces on the trains, and even Anton Casey bitched about the olfactory pollution. The last straw was when middle management jobs were lost to the new comers - that many of these came with fake degrees was a discovery yet to be unveiled. The excuse used for damage control? It's a competitive world out there, and the spurs that need to be dug into behinds apply to the job market too. Too bad if the Singapore core is diluted with rogue elements, and the fragile identity ethos is being torn apart with new divisive entrants. Yang Yin was an officially credited member of the Integration and Naturalisation Champion (INC) committee in Intan Mokhtar's ward.

When Prof Chan presented him with a yes-no question ("Now with the curb on immigration flow, Prime Minister, have you won more support from people, compared to the angst of the PMETs and SMEs?), Lee went into classic evasive mode, a rehash of the "please bear with us, we are trying our best on your behalf" verbage last heard at Boat Quay during GE 2011:

"And you may agree with it, you may not agree with it, but I can tell you in complete honesty that I am trying my best to do this on your behalf. And I cannot avoid doing this because otherwise I think I will be letting you down."

That's a clear reminder right there that a nation has been let down. And a hint that the whole televised charade was an apology-in-advance. It has to be too humiliating to bow and scrape twice in one life time.

Ng Eng Hen is supposed to be the chief strategist for this coming election, but nobody seems to give a hoot to his edicts, namely (1)outgoing incumbents to introduce replacements after August 9, (2)don't use Facebook to broadcast retirement plans. And that advice about negative campaigning didn't last too long either - advisor Teo Chee Hean is already taking pot shots at a certain town council, even when his own National Research Foundation (NRF) does not pass muster with the Auditor General.

Former Transport Minister Raymond Lim was pretty loquacious when he was head of some think tank called the Round Table or something. Since re-elected in GE 2011, he lost his voice for the whole duration 12th Parliament was in session (10 October 2011 -). And he suddenly pipes up only to utter, "It has been a great privilege and honour for me to have served as your MP these past 14 years.”

Goh Chok Tong was more provocative. He used Facebook to call his own shots:

"As for me, A few friends have suggested that I retire as I have done enough for the country. But Marine Parade residents and many others urge me to stay on. They say the country and Marine Parade still need me.
Well, I will explain my decision at our ND dinner on 14 Aug. Wish me wisdom."

As we understand the status quo, his ultimate fate is determined only by two parties. One, the electorate, who sent George Yeo packing to Hong Kong, and two, the prime minister, who alone decides who stands and who falls. But Goh upped the ante by announcing the candidacy of Edwin Tong ("at my request"), the lawyer defending the round-tripping hijinks of the City Harvest Church pastor - and the infamous flow chart used to trace the circuitous movements of our Central Provident Fund (CPF). If that's not enough, Goh just declared that the Kate Spade aficionado will be back, complete with a live SG50 baby package. Who, pray tell, is really in charge?

Years ago, when there was speculation about the People's Action Party (PAP) splitting into two ranks to provide the people with alternate voices in parliament - as in give the people cake, and eat it too - the scenario was to have Goh leading one team, and Lee Hsien Loong the other. No need for messy opposition parties meeting in secret and provide horse trading stories to sell local newspapers. Don't you just love the smell of scandal in the morning?

You don't have to be the mother of someone detained without trial to walk away from the television set every time his image comes on. It's scary enough to see a horrible person speaking from the underworld, so the guys who wrote the subtitles had to tone down the hellfire and brimstone rhetoric to the bare minimum. Self censorship is so defeatist, the unexpurgated truth is more liberating:

"It is necessary to try and put some safeguards into the way in which people use their votes to bargain, to coerce, to push, to jostle and get what they want without running the risk of losing the services of the government, because one day, by mistake, they will lose the services of the government... You unscramble Singapore, well, you'll never put Humpty Dumpty together again."

"I ignore polling as a method of government. I think that shows a certain weakness of mind - an inability to chart a course whichever way the wind blows, whichever way the media encourages the people to go, you follow. If you can't force or are unwilling to force your people to follow you, with or without threats, you are not a leader."

"Mine is a very matter-of-fact approach to the problem. If you can select a population and they're educated and they're properly brought up, then you don't have to use too much of the stick because they would already have been trained. It's like with dogs. You train it in a proper way from small. It will know that it's got to leave, go outside to pee and to defecate. No, we are not that kind of society. We had to train adult dogs who even today deliberately urinate in the lifts."

"You know, the cure for all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government. You get that alternative and you'll never put Singapore together again: Humpty Dumpty cannot be put together again... and your asset values will be in peril, your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other people's countries, foreign workers."

"Supposing Catherine Lim was writing about me and not the prime minister...She would not dare, right? Because my posture, my response has been such that nobody doubts that if you take me on, I will put on knuckle-dusters and catch you in a cul de sac...Anybody who decides to take me on needs to put on knuckle dusters. If you think you can hurt me more than I can hurt you, try. There is no other way you can govern a Chinese society."

"Singaporeans, if I can chose an analogy, we are the hard disk of a computer, the foreign talent are the megabytes you add to your storage capacity. So your computer never hangs because you got enormous storage capacity."

"The final verdict will not be in the obituaries. The final verdict will be when the PhD students dig out the archives, read my old papers, assess what my enemies have said, sift the evidence and seek the truth."

Our boy is back, comparing the founding father with Osama bin Laden, rebutting criticism of his long hair, dancing hands and colourful language, and generally teaching fellow citizens of Singapore a lesson about criticising your own government.
In a 2015 report Freedom House, the US-based non-governmental organisation, labelled Singapore “partly free”, with the city-state scoring four out of seven for both political rights and civil liberties. One represents the most free.

According to the BBC, they spent $15 million to put up this year's National Day Parade. The figure has to be grossly understated considering the fancy hardware on show.

"If I have to shoot 200,000 students to save China
from another 100 years of disorder, so be it."

Made up like Andy's plastic soldiers from Toy Story

Design looks familiar, hope copyright not infringed

Used in Chiangmai? Why not Indonesia forest fires?

Perfect for aerial view of opposition party rallies.

Extra large smoking-causes-cancer stickers required.

Waste water! Waste water! Fine! Fine!

Just the thing to demolish horrible house at Oxley Rise.

What the mainstream media labelled as derisory horse trading turned out to be a demonstration of maturity in the opposition ranks. One by one, they sacrificed personal agendas for a common objective, the return of Singapore to Singaporeans.

Announcing his party's decision for not contesting in Ang Mo Kio GRC in the coming General Election, SingFirst Secretary-General Tan Jee Say said that they will leave the Reform Party (RP) to take on the People’s Action Party team there.

“Yes, we have decided earlier not to contest in Ang Mo Kio GRC in the spirit of opposition unity. This is not to dilute the opposition votes so as to give RP the best chance to win in Ang Mo Kio, a constituency helmed by the PM himself.”

At another camp, National Solidarity (NSP)'s Secretary-General Hazel Poa relinquished Marine Parade GRC and MacPherson SMC to avoid more multi-cornered fights which are likely to "dilute opposition votes and reduce the chances of a more diverse Parliament."

Meanwhile Workers' Party (WP)'s Sylvia Lim thanked NSP for the sacrifices so that they can focus on their targeted 10 constituencies announced. And NSP thanked Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) for withdrawing from Sembawang GRC “in the interest of opposition unity”.

So why is everybody playing nice? Is it the unintended effect of all those overtly sentimental songs with the home-heart-dream themes highlighted by a little boy? Don't be lulled by the rhetoric of a gentlemanly battle professed by Ng Eng Hen. The horrible person who said Deng Xiaoping was justified in crushing the young bodies of students with heavy tanks is just as likely to pass down the evil lessons of Mao:

“A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery; it cannot be so refined, so leisurely and gentle, so temperate, kind, courteous, restrained and magnanimous. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.”

The body language says it all: someone has to pay

When Ng Eng Hen said election season was officially on, it was as good as declaring open the hunting season - it's time to lock and load. Cecil the lion was not the only one caught in the cross hairs. Unlike gentlemen of the naval tradition, Rear Admiral Lui Tuck Yew was not prepared to go down with SS Sampan 2.0. Not for him the ignominy of suffering a kamikaze mission like George Yeo was assigned in 2011.

Lui's letter of resignation mentioned a promise of reappointment as a Cabinet Minister if he was re-elected. He knows too well about empty promises from horrible people. Like the promise to return one's life savings upon attaining age 55. And what about Lui's recent promise of a 1.9% decrease in public transport fares in December? Will that disappear too with his hasty departure?

Raymond Lim, Mah Bow Tan, Wong Kan Seng, all had at least 5 years of member of parliament allowances to tide over to the new income tax bracket. Poor Lui will just have to go cold turkey. Hope the wife won't have to work overseas as a dometic help. Fortunately Lui won't be clinking champagne glasses with businessmen who demand to drink only with millionaire ministers they can look up to.

Supporters of Lui will likely point out that the appointment of a (retrenched) DFS sales girl as CEO of SMRT was not his doing; ditto the bungling bunch of army general staff currently derailing the public transportation system. However, the Marina Coastal Expressway (MCE) opening screw up was definitely all his undoing.

"You reminded me that the responsibility of Government was a collective one," wrote Lui, knowing full well the hollowness of those words, having witnessed at first hand others being thrown under the bus. Namely those once in charge of transport, housing and homeland security. Better to walk away with head held high, instead of leaving it at the chopping block. He did tell the press, his departure “has nothing to do with family or health reasons”.

Last chance to show Wong can sing.

Singapore's then Minister Mentor (MM) said in an April 2008 email interview that the daring escape of Mas Selamat Kastari from the notorious Whitley Road Detention Centre (WRDC) on 27 February was a "very severe lesson in complacency". MM Lee said the country's security officers knew that fugitive Mas Selamat was "an escape artist", who had evaded arrest many times. "When you are complacent in handling a wily detainee, then you have been negligent," he concluded.

Mas Selamat was captured by Malaysian police during a raid on a house in Kampung Tawaka, Skudai, on 1 April 2009. Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng told Parliament on October 2010 that Mas Selamat "has not given a completely reliable account" of how he evaded being discovered even as a nationwide manhunt was launched to find him, as well as how he made his way to Malaysia. The nation remembers being informed earlier of another incomplete account, that either Mas Selamat was in Singapore, or he was not in Singapore.

Even as Wong, 68, announced yesterday he would not be contesting in the imminent General Election of 2015, many questions about the jailhouse breakout that would forever be associated with his complacency and negligence, are still not answered. Questions like who's bank account the $1 million bounty for information leading to the apprehension of Mas Selamat was deposited into. Or if the two individuals who made the offer ever paid up.

"I've walked through this long journey, more than three-quarters of my working life," Wong told adoring fans at his swansong. "Don't you think I deserve a rest?" Like the albatross weighing down on the seafarer in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", Wong must have been burdened by the stigma of the Mas Selamat saga. Just as another jailbird, Amos Yee, will be the curse on the last politician standing from his batch of 1984.

"Alone, alone, all, all alone,

Alone on a wide wide sea!

And never a saint took pity on

My soul in agony."

Awareness Does Not Reasonate

The Slap That Was Heard Around The World

The Law On Tape

Use Your Hands Campaign

Battle Enjoined

Bad Behaviour

Drawn And Quartered

Hiccups At The Starting Line

The Truth About The Leak

Descending From Heaven

It Starts With A Lie

The Man Of The Moment

The Interview That Never Was

Who's The Boss?

Speeches From Hell

He's Back!

Flexing Muscles

The Quiet Before The Storm

Time To Abandon Ship

Unfinished Business