Jurong Town Council Employee Sacked .... Allegedly for Supporting the Opposition

I just read this on the Temasek Review:

A National Solidarity Party (NSP) supporter by the name of Geraldine Soh Shin Lin was sacked from her job at Jurong Town Council without any valid reasons given.

According to Ms Soh’s boyfriend Joel Kong who alerted us to the case on our Facebook, Ms Soh has been working at Jurong Town Council for three years without any incidents or warnings to note.

On 1 May, she was spotted by a fellow collegue selling merchandise at a NSP rally. On 3rd May, she was suspended without any valid reason by her superior Ong Ah Hai for seven days.

After her suspension, the Town Council informed a RC member who told Ms Soh’s father that she was suspended because she had ‘passed confidential information to the Opposition’ which Mr Kong vehemently denied.

Ms Soh was dismissed today after arriving in office for ‘poor performance’, but the Human Resource did not compensate her for the termination in accordance to MOM guidelines except a vague promise that she will be contacted again.

Mr Kong remains perturbed at his girlfriend’s sudden dismissal without a proper explanation being given:

“Compare this to her other colleagues who were told to support the PAP during Nomination Day, and subsequently missing from office for the whole day, my girlfriend did not use working hours to support the Opposition, while those who did suppoting the PAP were not penalised. Is the residents’ money supposed to fund PAP’s electorial campaign? She is currently unemployed as a result of this morning’s happenings,” he wrote.

The person who suspended and sacked Ms Soh is Mr Ho Thian Poh. He can be contacted at 6561 2222.

NSP’s Goh Meng Seng was unavailable for comments at Press Time.

I don't know any more details than what the Temasek Review has stated. And I do not know whether there might be any inaccuracies in their article.

But I think that the public should take an interest in this matter, and that the public has a right to know. At the very least, Jurong Town Council should come forward to clarify the situation.

If there is wrongdoing here, don't let them get away with this. Call that telephone number, and ask Mr Ho Thian Poh for an explanation. Or email the town council with your questions, at this address - enquiry@jrtc.org.sg.

You can also send them a fax at this number - 6562 4997. Or ask Tharman Shanmugaratnam for a clarification (he's now leading the Jurong GRC team). Tharman is on Facebook.

Golden Point Award 2011

Paul Tan, from the National Arts Council, just contacted me. Paul asked for help in publicising the 2011 Golden Point Award Competition. This is a national writing competition, with different categories for poetry and short stories, in English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil.

I won this competition back in 2005, when the rules permitted any Singaporean citizen or permanent resident to enter. That made the competition a very tough one, since you had to compete with the best writers in the whole country.

Since then, the competition rules have changed. Published writers and ex-1st prize winners (like myself) are no longer eligible to participate. The idea behind these new rules (which were introduced in 2009) was to discover new, unknown writing talent in Singapore.

So if you are a new, unknown writer and you think you can write well, do give this competition a shot. The prize money is quite generous - as generous as it gets in Singapore. $10,500 goes to the first-prize winner, in the form of cash, enrichment grants and gift vouchers.

Political Poems, Star Gazing and Literature Texts

I think that I have had an overdose of GE blogging. I'm going to take a break now and write about other stuff instead.

So far, 2011 has been quite a pleasant year for me as a writer. I have hardly written anything new, yet my older works keep getting featured in new publications.

This year, I appeared in a new anthology - & Words: Poems Singapore and Beyond, edited by Edwin Thumboo. I understand that the Education Ministry has recommended / approved this book for use in Singapore schools, as a literature text.

I also appeared in Man/Born/Free: Writings on the Human Spirit from Singapore, edited by Gwee Li Sui. This collection of short stories and poems contains some overtly political themes, and it's safe to say that it will never be approved by the Education Ministry.

It's a pity, because this anthology contains works from some of the most-acclaimed Singapore writers over a period of almost 60 years. Featured writers include Catherine Lim, Kirpal Singh, Lee Tzu Pheng, Boey Kim Cheng, Alfian Saat and Alvin Pang.

(Interestingly, it also includes writers like Edwin Thumboo, Tan Jin Quee, Said Zahari, James Puthucheary and Elangovan. The common factor among these writers is that at one point or another, they had been either been arrested or detained without trial, for their political beliefs, or their works had been banned).

(For example, Said Zahari is the same Said Zahari who was formerly the editor-in-chief of a newspaper, and an advocate of press freedom. He was detained under the ISA for 17 years without trial).

Anyway, political or not, you can buy the book from Kinokuniya or Select Books, or directly order it online from the publisher, Ethos Books.

Oh, and just yesterday, I received my free copy of Gazing at Stars, a new book published by Oxford University Press. This is a collection of short stories from writers in Asia (and includes Singapore writers Ovidia Yu and Tan Hwee Hwee). I didn't contribute any short story, but the publisher wanted to include a poem of mine, as an introduction to the book. In fact, the title of the book - "Gazing at Stars" - is taken from that poem.

Accident

.       And I,
........... gazing at stars,
stumbled over you,
...................... tripped
.............. and
....... fell painfully in love,
couldn't get up
................... for ages.

Gazing at Stars does not reproduce the short stories in their original form. Instead the language has been simplified. That's because the book is part of an international series of books intended to help non-native English speakers to read more and learn the language.

However, as the book is graded Level 6 (the highest level in the series), it makes good reading even for those who regard English as their first language.

What Do You Think of the Election Results?

I think that is a great day for Singapore. It could have been better, but overall it's a great day.

The victory of the Workers Party in Aljunied GRC is a truly historic moment for the nation. Congratulations, Mr Low! And I look forward to seeing the great value which I believe Chen Show Mao will bring to the national policy-making process in Parliament.

I'm also glad to see that Yaw Shin Leong has won very comfortably in Hougang. I think that this is evidence that Hougang residents do not see the Workers Party as just Low Thia Kiang - this is why they have placed their trust in Yaw too.

The PAP won in Marine Parade, and as I predicted many posts ago (in fact, it was my first GE2011 post), the infamous Tin Pei Ling gets to ride into Parliament as an MP, riding on the strength of Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong. Still the narrow margin of the PAP victory in Marine Parade will send a strong message to the PAP that they had better buck up and remember the people they are supposed to serve.

Nicole Seah, I am glad that you ran for elections. The odds were always against you, but I believe you knew that very well from the outset. Your campaign has awakened and inspired something in our collective hearts, about the need to help the poor and the underdogs in Singapore, and you have connected powerfully with native Singaporeans. I hope to see you again, in GE2016.

Tan Jee Say, I am sorry that you did not win. I know why you ran for election, I understand why you did it, and yes, I agree with you that the PAP has lost its moral compass. Take comfort in the fact that your hard work and great efforts in GE2011 may compel the PAP to start searching for its compass again.

Chiam See Tong, you are a hero in my eyes. You have been a brave voice in Parliament for so many years, and you have earned the admiration and respect of many. I feel that you have done enough, and in view of your age and health, I feel that it's time for you to retire and take a good rest. You will be fondly remembered, especially by the residents of Potong Pasir who steadfastly stood by you for so long, through the years of PAP bullying.

Lina Chiam, it was so close, so close! I don't know what to say. If you were standing beside me, I would give you a big, big hug. Take care, dear brave Lina, my best wishes to you.

Vivian, in an odd way, I'm glad that you did that smear thing against Vincent Wijeysingha. This ugly episode reveals something about your personality, and it's good for the people of Singapore to know. I've already met someone from your church who says that from now on, she'll be giving you a cold look every time she sees you.

Lee Kuan Yew, you might have saved George Yeo's job if you hadn't said rude things like "Chen Show Mao can go back to China" and "Aljunied voters shall repent." Pssst, here's a little bit of news for you - you're not God, and it isn't a sin for citizens to vote for whoever they like. You annoyed many voters there, next time consult your PR adviser first.

Hsien Loong, I hope that your apology was sincere. And that you're really going to change things and make things better for Singaporeans. If you do, then I promise to tell my blog readers all about it, as loudly as I can.

A Singaporean's Message for Polling Day

Today is Cooling Off Day and I wasn't going to post anything new. However someone forwarded me an article by one Ong Yi Xin, and it was also indicated that Yi Xin would like his message to be shared with as many Singaporeans as possible.

Yi Xin's article was well-written and extremely well-researched, and actually came with 15 footnotes and two annexes worth of supporting data ( one annex coming in the form of an Excel spreadsheet with lots of facts and figures).

I'm just giving you the main article itself. It's too good to miss:

Friends and fellow Singaporeans,

I am writing this letter as a concerned citizen, unaffiliated to any political party, to persuade you to vote wisely on May 7. I was and remain motivated by the increasingly large gap between the rhetoric we hear and the reality which all of us feel as ordinary citizens.

PM Lee has said that these elections are about our future, and that we should judge the PAP MPs on their track record. Plenty of ink has been spilled on various issues, but I want to touch on just three subjects: housing, socio-economic inequality and the electoral system.

Housing

We have been reminded time and again that HDB flats are affordable, a claim which we can examine most simply by comparing income to price . From 2000-2010, median monthly household income of residents rose from SGD3,638 to SGD5,000 (a 37% increase), while the resale price index for HDB flats rose from 108.3 to 164.0 (a 52% increase). Examining the data more carefully, we find that from 2005-2010, median incomes increased by 30%, but the resale price index leapt by 62%, i.e. HDB prices rose twice as quickly as median incomes in the last 5 years. Claims of affordability and progress don’t hold up when our parents took less time, with less income, to buy an HDB flat.

I would be less concerned if rising prices were not buttressed by the economically illiterate policy of “asset enhancement”. When the ministers speak of “asset enhancement”, they conveniently neglect the fact that leased assets (such as HDB flats) are by definition depreciating assets . Now repeat to yourselves the phrase “depreciating asset enhancement” – does that sound like a sustainable policy? Many have said that there is an implicit promise to renew the leases (e.g. via SERS , where the new flats come with new 99-year leases), but that comes with a cost: either the Singapore Land Authority forgoes income (in their words, raiding the reserves), or HDB pays to extend the lease (in my understanding, robbing taxpayers) . This is textbook fiscal irresponsibility.

Inequality

Socio-economic equality is important – the PAP has highlighted that with its last three election manifestos: “A people united – secure future, better life” (2001), “Staying together, moving ahead” (2006), and “Securing our future together” (2011). The statistics make for grimmer reading than taglines: the Gini coefficient , a measure of inequality, rose from .430 in 2000 to .452 in 2010 . The top 10% of households now earn close to 17 times what the bottom 10% do . More tellingly, the average real income of the bottom 10% of employed households dropped by 6.6% from 2000 to 2010, which indicates that we are leaving our weakest and poorest ever further behind.

This trend is unlikely to change, because our policy-makers are not incentivised to do so, no matter what the manifestos proclaim. Their base pay is determined formulaically by referencing it to a benchmark of the top earners across six professions . Their bonuses are pegged to absolute GDP growth and boosted by a discretionary component, presumably based on a subjective performance evaluation by the Prime Minister. Simply put, our Cabinet is paid more when the best-paid earn even more, when absolute (not per capita) GDP grows, and when they are judged favourably by their own peers. That does not strike me as a pay package which attracts those who truly wish to serve, nor motivates them (once elected) to listen to and speak up for the faintest voices in society.

Electoral system

In 2006, just over 1.1 million citizens cast valid votes for 47 contested seats . A PAP candidate was elected for every 16,625 PAP voters; the 375,143 votes cast for opposition candidates saw only two representatives returned to Parliament . While the British first-past-the-post (FPTP) system does lead to such outcomes , our unique, winner-takes-all GRC system has skewed it even further. This year, it is conceivable that as many as 85,000 voters will vote for the opposition in a single GRC, only to see 6 PAP MPs elected to Parliament .

The GRC system does not just mute a larger number of voices, but it also forces difficult choices on voters, who need to assess the entire slate of candidates. The contest in Aljunied GRC has thrown this into stark relief: is a single excellent candidate enough reason to vote in four others of hugely varying quality? What if one of the other candidates is rotten to the core? What if the excellent candidate passes away or steps down before the next General Elections ?

‘Cooling-off day’ is supposed to be a time to reflect, to help us make rational choices at the ballot box. The PAP’s track record and self-engineered compensation scheme leaves me with little doubt about the direction it will take our country towards should it even receive a shadow of a mandate. The electoral system tilts the results in their favour before a single vote has been cast.

I ask you, friends and fellow citizens, to vote wisely this Saturday: not for the PAP, but for Singapore and Singaporeans.

A friend and fellow Singaporean,
Ong Yi Xin