Giving money for a good cause is welcomed but giving money to a politician for a good cause during a political election campaign is venturing into the political arena. By doing this, has the Rotary Club taken a new direction? Is the club taking a position in politics? Is it within the ambit of its constitution? I have always been a supporter of the Rotary Club but I was disappointed by this action.
It was reported in the ST Thursday 24th may 2012, and I quote ST:
“The Rotary Club is pledging a $100,000 gift to PAP candidate Desmond Choo’s initiative to retrofit aging toilets in Hougang.”… “The club decided to make this donation after watching a video produced by a group named “The People for Desmond Choo” (unquote).The cause is noble, helping aged people to sit rather than squat, a real problem when you are old. I applaud the Rotarians for that.
However the reason and timing for the donation is misplaced.
Is the Rotary Club giving to an individual PAP Desmond as reported in ST or to the old residents of Hougang?
Now that PAP Desmond lost to WP Png in the election, what is the Rotary Club’s stand?
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Toilet Tales
Chairman of the Foundation of Rotary Clubs, David Tong, has boldly stepped forward to clarify that its constitution bans members from taking part in any political activity in the name of the clubs. He was probably responding to former presidential candidate Tan Cheng Bok's Facebook posting, questioning the $100,000 offer to support PAP candidate Desmond Choo's scheme to upgrade old toilets in Hougang. Tan had commented the cause was noble, "However the reason and timing for the donation is misplaced."
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| Click to read the fine print |
The letter is addressed specifically to "Dear Mr. Desmond Choo Pey Ching, Hougang", and yet we are told Tapan Kumar Rao had not even met Choo before - how many strangers know him as Pey Ching? The last line reads emphatically, "I am sure, together we can make a difference." He must have crossed out "Always Here For You," that would be too obvious.
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Rotary's plan on Hougang flushed down the toilet
Some people do the obvious only to deny the obvious. I am talking about Rotary's plan to fund Desmond Choo's campaign with a $100k toilet upgrade, then claiming it has no political inclination.
This reminds me of Subhas Anandan's claim that the Association of Criminal Laywers of Singapore's (ACLS) attempt to set up a free legal clinic has no political links. Note that both these incidents took place at the height of the Hougang by election.
Here's the ACLS case - Free legal clinic at Hougang is a political gimmick
Here's the Rotary toilet case. No political intentions: Rotary Club of Singapore
The Rotary Club of Singapore is going ahead with a plan to help retrofit old toilets in Hougang, but dismissed suggestions that it was linked to political intentions.Only fools will believe Subhas and Kumar.
The club had raised eyebrows last week when it said it would raise $100,000 to support a scheme by People's Action Party candidate Desmond Choo.
The announcement, which came during the Hougang by-election campaign, prompted some to question its timing.
But the club's president Kumar Tapan Rao told The Straits Times on Monday: 'The Rotary Club is not making any donation to any political party. We are raising funds for a project to help the elderly in Singapore.'
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OPINION: Toilet money really non-political?
The club's president Kumar Tapan Rao told The Straits Times on Monday: 'The Rotary Club is not making any donation to any political party. We are raising funds for a project to help the elderly in Singapore.'"
Let's
see:
1. You announce your $100,000 donation a few days before the by-election.
2. You give it to the PAP candidate's program.
3. The PAP candidate himself announces your donation.
4. The donation benefits the residents of the ward the candidate is contesting.
1. You announce your $100,000 donation a few days before the by-election.
2. You give it to the PAP candidate's program.
3. The PAP candidate himself announces your donation.
4. The donation benefits the residents of the ward the candidate is contesting.
But it is all
non-political? Full
story
Tan Wah Piow and Toh Soh Lung to speak at Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand event
Entitled “Prelude to the post-Lee Kuan Yew era”, it will take place at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand and will feature two Singaporean lawyers speaking about the recent history of their young nation.
Entitled “Prelude to the post-Lee Kuan Yew era”, it will take place at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand and will feature two Singaporean lawyers speaking about the recent history of their young nation. Full story
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They Outsource Babies, Don't They?
Acting Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports Chan Chun Sing was quoting ex-DPM Wong Kan Seng when he said Singapore could turn its dismal total fertility rate (TFR) of 1.2 around, as Nordic countries managed to do, if it accepts women having children out of wedlock. That should make him popular in those countries, children born out of wedlock are usually associated with the "b" word.
In March 2011, Wong had quoted OECD figures to show that Sweden, Denmark and Norway have a high TFR because many people there are having babies out of wedlock as much as they are within marriage. What the keechiu general conveniently skipped was the qualification by Dr Yap Mui Teng, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, "although parents may not officially get married, they are more or less in stable cohabitating relationships.
Sometimes they go on to marry after a child is born." Something Brad Pitt and Angelina Joline planned to do, after having 3 biological and 3 adopted kids.
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NTUC Fairprice confirmed it went to China 4 times to recruit PRC workers
TR Emeritus (TRE) earlier published an article (‘NTUC FairPrice recruiting its staff from China instead of locally‘), reporting that advertisements of NTUC FairPrice looking for retail assistants, cashiers, store keepers and skilled fish cutting workers were found being put up in Shenyang, China.
TRE then wrote to NTUC asking about the matter and why, as a national labour movement, it would want to hire workers from China when any locals would be competent enough to fill the positions advertised.
NTUC FairPrice has since replied TRE’s query and confirmed that since 2011, it has conducted 4 recruitment exercises in China looking for PRC workers.
The reason given is that despite their ‘extensive’ recruitment efforts to hire locals, it is “still facing a manpower shortage just like most retailers here do”.
It assured that NTUC FairPrice’s recruitment policy has always been “to hire Singaporeans first” and boasted that 80% of NTUC FairPrice’s staff are Singapore citizens currently.
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Chinese no longer the top foreign property buyers in Singapore
Chinese buyers have lost out to Malaysians, who reclaimed top spot among foreigners buying Singapore properties despite the tough cooling measures introduced in December last year.
A report by DTZ Research revealed that the Chinese, including permanent residents (PRs), purchased 292 homes in Q1, down 54 percent from the 640 homes acquired in Q4 2011 – the lowest number in over two years.
This means that the proportion of Chinese buyers relative to non-Singaporeans fell to 23 percent from 29 percent last quarter, making it the lowest drop among all nationalities.
On the other hand, Malaysians had a high of 362 transactions, marking a 28 percent share among foreign buyers due to the larger number of Malaysian PRs in the country.
The latest measures include a 10 percent ABSD (additional buyer’s stamp duty) on all home purchases by foreigners. Meanwhile, PRs need to pay an extra three percent on their second and subsequent home purchases.
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Can Satan Play God?
"SHIOK MAN!!!"
That is the response of a dear relative to my email when I shared with her my thoughts that, after Workers Party Png Eng Huat's win in Hougang, there is hope yet for Singapore! She joined in the celebration in Hougang's at 1.30am on Sunday morning at Hougang Avenue 5.
After participating and videoing the celebration, I stayed up the whole night editing the video.
Apart from the blog, I have also uploaded the video on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA2dlcmdWyA
For the sake of our children and our children's children, we must stop this Arrogant Party from hurting us further.
They have been sitting in their ivory towers for so long that they are deaf and immune to the cry of the ordinary people. The only way to make PAP treat Singaporeans with respect is to vote in more opposition MPs. Without more opposition in Parliament, PAP will continue to treat us like dirt and walk all over us!
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Globalisation used to be the in thing
We plugged ourselves into the global system in every field. It was a good thing and we have had phenomenal growth by holding on to the coat tails of the American economy and system. And many countries too jumped in and everyone got hooked up into the same system. When the system is sound and doing well, everyone shares the prosperity. When the system is sick, everyone will be infected.
The unfortunate part today is that the global system is so sick, operated by crooks in all colours. And no matter how well run a country is, it needs a badly run country like the US or one in Europe to drag everyone else along. And this gets worst when many of the so called well run and well off countries are troubles themselves. Every crisis is an opportunity to patch up holes, and to create bigger holes.
And the rot does not stop here. The Americans and Europeans have plundered the system, corrupted the system and cheated the system for so long that it is no longer able to continue with just printing money for the crooks. They just cannot print fast enough.
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‘Not in my backyard’ syndrome hits Bishan
Yahoo! News
Singapore, 28 May 2012The Ministry of Health (MOH) plans to build a six to eight storey nursing home on the 0.3ha site, which is located at Bishan Street 13 and is closely flanked by Blocks 175, 181, 186 and 182 on three sides. Currently a fenced up football field, it is situated directly opposite Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Primary and Secondary Schools.
“I disagree with it [building a nursing home]. It will block the wind to our flats. They [MOH] should build the home somewhere else in Bishan, but not on this plot of land. There are better and bigger fields in this area,” said 25-year-old Hema Sedemparam, a nurse.
Housewife Madam Cheong echoed Sedemparam’s view, saying: “I’m not comfortable with it. I have lived more than 20 years here, and the air is good. But the nursing home is about seven floors high and will block the wind from my apartment.” Full story
Is this another ruse to attract more foreigners to become Singapore citizenship with free medical training?
Yahoo! News
Singapore, 28 May 2012More Singaporeans will likely join the healthcare sector once a planned new school of medicine opens, said Minister of Education Heng Swee Keat on Monday.
Speaking at the ground-breaking of the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in Nanyang Technology University’s (NTU’s) Novena campus, Heng pointed out the new school would “create more opportunities for Singaporeans locally” and that “more Singaporeans will choose to study medicine in Singapore and contribute to Singapore’s healthcare sector thereafter”. Full story
A National University of Singapore student who questioned whether a scholars programme has turned into a club for the elite has allegedly become the target of cyber-bullying.
In the article “Cyberbullying in NUS” published in online student newspaper The Kent Ridge Common (KRC) on Monday morning, student-writer Koh Choon Hwee said that Keira Chen, a history student under the University Scholars’ Programme (USP), has been called “stupid” and other names by fellow students since writing articles in the paper about the programme. Full story
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Foreign woman goes berserk after she's fined for illegal parking
STOMPer Supernovi says this foreign woman kicked up a big fuss after being issued a fine for parking illegally along a double yellow line at Bukit Timah. The police eventually had to be called in to resolve the matter.
Says the STOMPer:
"My friends and I were at Bukit Timah Plaza and we came upon a Chinese National woman getting booked for a parking offence along a double yellow line.
"Apparently, she insisted that the enforcement officer allow her a grace period but when she came back, she received a ticket.
"Question: Which enforcement officer will allow anyone any grace period for parking along a double yellow line?
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70% of 122,600 jobs created in Singapore last year went to foreigners
Says the STOMPer:
"My friends and I were at Bukit Timah Plaza and we came upon a Chinese National woman getting booked for a parking offence along a double yellow line.
"Apparently, she insisted that the enforcement officer allow her a grace period but when she came back, she received a ticket.
"Question: Which enforcement officer will allow anyone any grace period for parking along a double yellow line?
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70% of 122,600 jobs created in Singapore last year went to foreigners
Foreigners are in every industry, from construction workers to hedge-fund managers in Singapore.Bloomberg in its report (‘Ferrari Deaths Fuel Anti-Foreigner Anger as Singapore Votes‘, 25 May) has revealed that of the 122,600 jobs created in Singapore last year, about 70%, or 84,800 jobs, went to foreigners.
This is not surprising given that even Singapore’s own labour movement, NTUC, is spearing several recruitment drives into China to recruit cheap PRC workers to work in its supermarket chain, NTUC Fairprice (‘NTUC Fairprice recruiting its staff from China instead of locally‘).
In its report, Bloomberg wrote that the recent Ferrari crash involving a rich PRC Ma Chi, which killed 3 people and injured 2 others has fueled anti-foreigner anger in Singapore. The PRC sped through a red light in his $1.8 million Ferrari 599 GTO and slammed into a taxi, killing himself, the taxi driver and taxi passenger.
The crash was caught on camera and the video uploaded onto Youtube. The video quickly went viral and was viewed more than 7 million times. This prompted DPM Teo to write on his Facebook asking Singaporeans not to “blame all foreigners” in an attempt to defuse public anger over the PAP Government’s over-liberal immigration policies and the increasing wage gap in Singapore caused by the policies.
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Lee Kuan Yew: The next generation of leaders are making a bit of sacrifice
Former Minister Mentor (MM) Lee Kuan Yew claims that the next generation of leaders are not paid “very much” and therefore making a bit of “sacrifice” to be in the government.
Mr Lee, a staunch advocate of paying out-of-this-world salaries to attract the “best talents” into the government, was speaking at the annual Nikkei “The Future of Asia Conference” in Tokyo.
Commenting on Singapore’s leadership succession process, Mr Lee told the audience that Singapore is “very careful” in selecting its new leaders – by allowing them to work with senior leaders for long years before they take over the leadership.
Mr Lee said that this is important to ensure that leaders understand the intricacies of government and also maintain high standards of honesty and duty.
“I hope that successive leaders will bring in carefully selected people who have got the potential to do more than something for themselves. They’re not paid very much to do that. It must be a bit of a sacrifice, because the people with the potential to be ministers can easily earn bigger figures outside in the public sector.”
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The Reform Party of Singapore would like to congratulate Mr Png Eng Huat of the Workers’ Party on winning the by-election campaign in Hougang and with such a clear majority. The people of Hougang have spoken and MP-elect Mr Png is their chosen representative.
The people of Hougang have refused once again to be intimidated by the PAP’s threats to withhold state resources. They have also sent a clear message to the PAP expressing a firm disavowal of their personality and smear campaign election tactics which they propagate through their stranglehold on the Main Stream Media.
The PM has been reminded today that the Republic of Singapore is not his personal fiefdom. Let us continue to work in solidarity to put this reminder to the PM even more strongly in GE 2016.
Meanwhile let us not forget the erosion of our constitution and our freedom that has resulted due to a two thirds majority held by the PAP since 1960 which has allowed them to alter our constitution at will.
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WP rally in 2012 vs PAP rally in 1959
By James Tan : "WP rally in 2012 & PAP rally in 1959. Both rallies response were amazing. The PAP were once the popular party like today's WP. What went wrong with PAP today?"
WP rally vs PAP rally in 2012
By Bob Lee : WP vs PAP
