The Anti Neo-Democracy Theorist

My pet peeve about the otherwise excellent public transport in Singapore is the increasingly cramped MRT stations and trains at both peak and non-peak times. Unless we change the economic structure of our “public” transport system, I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Unfortunately.

An interesting article from Seah.

Strained by Fast Paced Growth

May 26, 2007
Insight Down South By Seah Chiang Nee

THE fast pace of population expansion is beginning to show up in the daily lives of Singaporeans. People are feeling the pinch of insufficient hospital beds and doctors, delayed buses and cramped trains, which runs counter to the city’s traditional image of efficiency.

Some public services are facing stresses in the wake of a 60% surge in the population in the past 16 years. In 1990, there were only 2.7 million people living here; today there are 4.3 million, one of the fastest rates of increase in the world.

This exerts pressures on space and manpower – resulting in shortages and over-crowdedness in some areas – and, of course, on cost structures.

Last year, the country – one of the most densely populated in the world – granted permanent residence to 58,200, and citizenship to 13,900, foreigners.

The crowds in the streets haven’t reached the frantic levels of that in Tokyo, Shanghai or Hong Kong – but given the ambition to push for a population to 6.5 million, it may not be too far away.

Another source could be the expected rise in the number of tourists from 9 million to 18 million after 2010, when two casino resorts start operation. The size of land, on the other hand, remains static.

A small-time businessman told me over lunch last week: “Almost every day, we read of public services being over-extended by higher demand. I think it’s an omen of things to come.”

His comment came after he had just gleaned the following news – all in one day – that reflected the impact of the expansion, and the government’s urgent efforts to cope with it:

> Hospitals. A serious shortage of beds led to a decision to build two more hospitals. This followed complaints about sick patients having to wait months before they got a specialist appointment or a bed.

> Public transport. More cases of late buses or overcrowded trains at peak periods. The bus company responded by setting up a website to inform passengers how long they would have to wait for their next bus.

> Energy. The government reported it was seeking alternative energy sources and amended the Gas Act to guarantee all players open access to the gas pipeline network here.

> Imported sand. A 300-foot barge arrived with 7000 tonnes of sand from Cambodia, to replace banned imports from Indonesia.

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A very interesting article. I am glad Singapore’s teachers are coming to America to learn how to facilitate not only the “correct” answers but to facilitate real forms of discussions among students in Singapore. In a globalized world, giving the “correct” answers is not enough - how to critique the “correct” answers might be better. Or better still, realize that the notion of “correctness” may actually be incorrect.

Singapore teachers observe area schools

May 26, 2007

By CATHERINE ANN VELASCO STAFF WRITER

PLAINFIELD — Despite the fact that Singapore’s eighth-graders rank No. 1 globally in science and math, a group of eight educators from the small Asian country came to Illinois to look at ways to engage their students in more hands-on learning that will last a lifetime.

While the test scores are good, Leong Beng Yuet Daphne, a vice principal of an all-girls school of 1,800, said they are not sure how well students understand the information for the long-term.

“We are focusing on learning instead of teaching. For many years, we focused on what is the correct answer,” said Leong during her Thursday visit to Indian Trail Middle School.

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EDB should come up with the human, financial and operational costs it spent on attracting UNSW to Singapore to the public or to parliament.

 The below FT report says that EDB subsidized UNSW 80 million dollars. Did we just lose 80 million dollars or did we not?

University pulls out of Singapore

By John Burton in Singapore

Published: May 24 2007 04:12 | Last updated: May 24 2007 04:12

Singapore’s goal of becoming a regional education hub has suffered a setback after the decision by Australia’s University of New South Wales to close its operations in the city-state just four months after it began.

UNSW had been selected by Singapore in 2004 to spearhead what was expected to be the centrepiece of the city-state’s ambitions to be “a global schoolhouse” by establishing a first full-scale foreign university campus with 15,000 students once the project was completed.

UNSW said Wednesday the decision was due to “lower than anticipated enrolments,” with only 148 students in the first semester, half of its projected target. “An intensive review of our operations in Singapore clearly indicates that to continue would involve an unacceptable level of risk to our institution,” said UNSW.

The University of Warwick in the UK, named by Singapore to operate a second planned comprehensive university, decided not to proceed with the project in 2005 after its faculty expressed concerns about the cost and potential curbs on academic freedom in the authoritarian city-state.

The withdrawal of UNSW means Singapore will have to find another two candidates for its foreign university project to complement its current offering of specialised schools, including overseas branches of Insead and the University of Chicago Business School.

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Credit: TIME 

While I was running on the treadmill in the gym watching CNN, I saw Larry King interviewing Al Gore on Larry King Live. Al Gore seems to be one of the most passionate and sincere American that is not running for the Presidency. Somehow, watching Hillary Clinton or even McCain on CNN doesn’t give me the same sincerity. I guess at this stage of the game, candidates have to be ideological (read-somewhat less rational in their policies options) in order to win the primaries - which mostly are only open to Democrats or Republicans. Such a shame - I thought Al Gore is far better, both in rhetoric and action - to many of the candidates running on the side for the Democrats.

TIME has a great article on Al Gore - one of their best articles ever written in terms of style and content.

TVD, my fellow SA colleague, has written a humorous account of JBJ’s re-entry into politics.

But my greatest admiration in this process was to JBJ’s sons and the few other anonymous Singaporeans who helped JBJ to clear his debts.

In an age where we are challenged to even forsake our parents, friends and relatives for material and political survivals and gains, I am glad that some Singaporeans have transcend our national ideology to believing in a higher calling in preserving human dignity and agency. Who is to say that Philip and Kenneth Jeyaratnam did not put their ideology, career and family on the line by helping their father?

What does it mean to be a Singaporean? Being top digits and succumbing to the easy way out for greatness? Or believing in a better and fairer society for all?

A nice gesture from the PCF

PAP Community Foundation to absorb GST hike for all services till end of year
By Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 20 May 2007 2254 hrs

SINGAPORE: The PAP Community Foundation, Singapore’s largest kindergarten chain, will absorb the 2 percentage point GST increase for all its services from July till the end of the year.

It will also freeze all fees for 12 months.

The Chairman of its Management Council, Mr Teo Chee Hean, announced this at a sports event on Sunday.

The moves will benefit some 50,000 children aged between 18 months and 14 years.

Apart from kindergartens, PCF also offers childcare, infant care and student care services. Fees for these services vary between different centres.

PCF says it wants to give the appropriate assistance to families who cannot cope financially.

The latest initiative to help parents cope follows a similar move at the last round of GST increases.

The Foundation estimates the latest move will cost it some $772,000.

“We are working for example with MCYS in their scheme to make sure that all the kids are able to go to kindergarten, and if any of the parents have difficulties, do approach their Members of Parliament, advisers to the grassroots, and we’ll do our best to help,” said Mr Teo, who is also the Defence Minister.

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There are numerous investigative angles that ST didn’t pick up/avoided in investigating the extent and impact of elitism in Singapore. Can you spot them? But more from me later.

The Straits Times (Singapore)

May 19, 2007 Saturday

High anxiety an elite affliction?

The term elitism is apt to trigger strong reactions, but a Straits Times survey suggests the angst over this phenomenon may be less widespread than one might have thought. And contrary to conventional wisdom, students in top schools are more likely than their peers to worry about being looked down upon or left out of the elite group. Ken Kwek takes a closer look at the survey findings and their implications

UNDERGRADUATE Ng Guan Ling’s A-level score of one A, two Bs and a C left her feeling inferior to her National Junior College schoolmates.

The 19-year-old, who is now studying business at Nanyang Technological University, recalls: ‘More than 80 per cent of my classmates got straight As.’

Students like Ms Ng, who hail from top-ranked schools, are far more likely than their peers in non-elite schools to suffer from either an inferiority or superiority complex centred around academic scores.

That is one of the findings of a recent Straits Times survey of young people’s views.

Overall, the findings point to what might be termed an ‘intra-elite anxiety’ over elites and elitism, with students in top schools more likely to say they experience elitist behaviour and feel pressure to enter the ranks of the elite.

What do the survey findings reveal about the similarities and differences between students from top schools and those from humbler backgrounds? What light do they shed on how elitism plays out in the Singapore context?

And do they imply that longstanding concerns over Singapore becoming an elitist society divided along class lines, may perhaps be overblown?
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Associate Professor Kirpal Singh, NMP Siew Kum Hong and Mr. Philip Overmye talks on the issue of Censorship and Boundaries in Singapore

Ironically, it seems that Mr. Philip Overmye’s remarks made the most sense.

My own take on boundaries in Singapore - there are only two REAL out of bounds markers in Singapore existing in a public sphere. I am not talking about the coffeshop talk in which Yao Souchou clearly dissected in his latest book.

These two OB-Markers are discourse on corruption in Singapore and the issues of corporate and economical finesse in Singapore.

In a sense, if you talk about politics, religion, sexual orientation and faith is a sensible way - where you are able to back up your theories with empirical data and information- I don’t the government will throw the stick at you.

But the other two OB markers- I am not sure where we could even start even if we think we have empirical data.

Very interesting article found here. Two descriptions struck me as interesting, beside Mr. Brown who is on the top 20

2. RAJA PETRA KAMARUDIN, MALAYSIA

Though more robust than that of Singapore, Malaysia’s media is nonetheless tame. All significant media outlets are sympathetic to the government, there is little investigative journalism and discussion of many issues is discouraged. The newspapers focus endlessly on crime and lifestyle issues, and Malaysians tend to buy them for their job ads and to find out what’s showing at the cinema. Increasingly, the serious reporting and commentary is done by bloggers, of which Raj Petra Kamarudin’s www.malaysia-today.net is the best.

Petra, a nephew of a former king of Malaysia, founded Malaysia-today in 2004 and works on it full time. The site now gets an astonishing 1.8 million hits on an average day, making it much more popular than any Malaysian newspaper. Malaysia-today plays an enormously important role in its attempts to keep the government accountable. It reports on ministers’ many business interests, nepotism and just about anything else that the government would prefer to keep quiet. Petra uses the site to denounce money politics, corruption and Malaysia’s endless fascination with race and race-based politics. A popular, ongoing series is the Khairy Chronicles, which provides an account of the doings of the prime minister’s young, unelected, but highly influential son-in-law.

Many reports have been made against Petra to the police, agents from Malaysia’s Special Branch have questioned him on several occasions and his computers have been seized. Recently, he reported how the government intended to use a nominee company to borrow $50 billion, in order to avoid recording the loan as government borrowing. He has also reported on a particularly grisly murder that appeared to implicate senior government figures.

19. DAVID WEBB, HONG KONG

David Webb runs one of the best websites devoted to corporate governance among listed companies anywhere - see www.webb-site.com. His commentaries on the misdeeds of many of Hong Kong’s listed companies are exceptionally well written, and are devastating in their forensic and careful analysis. Unfair related-party transactions between listed and privately held companies are a particular target of his; a recent post, for example, looks at Chinese oil company CNOOC’s attempt to force minority shareholders to approve more loans to a finance company set up by its state-owned parent.

Still relatively young, Webb is a former investment banker who moved to Hong Kong from London in 1991. He was corporate finance director of Barclays subsidiary BZW Asia, conducting equity issues and advisory mandates throughout Asia, until 1994, when he became in-house adviser to Wheelock, a local listed conglomerate, before retiring in 1998.

He made a small fortune from savvy stock investing and has devoted much of his time since to non-profit corporate governance advocacy work, most notably through his website, which has attracted a following among the investment community. He has become widely quoted on corporate governance issues in the Hong Kong and regional media. He holds small stakes in many companies in order to attend AGMs and hold directors accountable.

He was elected a non-executive director of Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing, which runs Hong Kong’s stock exchange, in 2003. Some were concerned that this would compromise his independence, but his withering and typically humiliating website commentaries have continued.

I meant for sometime to introduce everyone to this blog on current affairs in East and Southeast Asia by a group of Taiwan-based journalists, photographers and translators. They are currently writing for Newsweek, Reuters, Taipei Times, Far Eastern Economic Review, Asia Times and other publications. They place their articles as well as views on this blog called Thirsty Ghost. Also, I know one of the journalists and found out from him or her that working in Taiwan as an English language journalist is very challenging and rewarding.

One of them wrote an article on Singapore politics sometime back.

An interesting article on Taiwanese democracy was written recently by Jonathan Adams of Newsweek.

Enjoy reading!