The Anti Neo-Democracy Theorist

Both actually. While Mr Wang and some critics were quick to dismiss MDA’s senior executive attempts to sell Singapore as a media hub, I think it is one of those things could have unexpected positive effects in terms of a wider appraisal of MDA. People will laugh at MDA but could also take the opportunity to learn about what it does in Singapore. Perhaps hopefully, it would also bring about some wider pressures on MDA to better improve on what Reuters reported on critics “say[ing] this ambition [as shown in the media] does not rhyme with Singapore’s regular censorship of films and theatre and the many defamation lawsuits its government have launched against foreign media.”

Fundamentally, the MDA might have to work harder to work out long term strategies to live up to its apparent contradictory function - to promote the growth of the media industry and to manage content to protect core values and safeguard consumers’ interests. For example, I applaud the latest move by MDA to countermand their previous decision to ban Mass Effect and instead give a M-18 rating to Mass Effect. It shows that it can trust consumers to self-regulate while indulging in the establishment’s discourse of upholding the silent conservative majority in Singapore. 

In addition, I have also argued it is much better for the authorities to work within the new media rather than control it. That’s way I have taken a sanguine and even positive views on the P-65 blog, the Young PAP blog, George Yeo’s blog, and now this MDA’s youtube rap. Moreover, some of the stuff on entrapment that I feared with a heightened level of engagement by the PAP on the blogsphere has yet to materialize.

I am not sure driving the establishment out of the online media would achieve anything positive in any case. Perhaps MDA would come up with a better video, or better still a more open policy on censorship and selling Singapore the next time round?

Updated Comments: Sarek has kindly pointed out that the flats to be cleared are from WP’s Low’s constituency. Redevelopment is probably good for hougang as their estates become upgraded to a more snazzy outfit in that particular area. In the short term, it should have a negligible effect on voting patterns in the SMC but in the long run, it could prove to be interesting to watch. Would the new private houses constructed by 2009 in Hougang become the Sennett Estates of Potong Pasir SMC? (More than half of the people living in Sennett Estates, considered to be the more affluent area in the Potong Pasir SMC, voted for the PAP candidate in the 1997 General Election in which Chiam See Tong almost lost his seat to PAP candidate)

Do these blocks belong to the opposition constituency?

Hougang flats to be cleared

AS part of ongoing plans to revitalise older estates and make better use of land, nine blocks of properties which are about 33 years old in Hougang have been marked for clearance.

The affected properties — at Blocks 3, 4, 8 to 11, 11A to 14 in Hougang Neighbourhood 3 — include one and three-room rental flats, terrace workshops, rental shops, eating houses and a market/hawker centre. Part of the neighbourhood will be up for sale for private housing development in the second half of 2009 while the remaining site will be developed for residential/commercial use after 2010.

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Quotes of the day:

“I think we need to explain it better so people know … that we do care.”
- Lee Hsien Loong Nov 11, 2007

‘We need people who are different, with perhaps round holes for square pegs, to let a hundred flowers bloom and a thousand ideas take root within the party.’

- PAP MP Sam Tan, Nov 11, 2007

百花齐放，百家争鸣 (Let a hundred flowers bloom, let a hundred households debate)

- Mao Zedong in 1956 before his crackdown on thousands of intellectuals in successive years

The flurry of PAP reports in the media seems almost strange - it is as if elections are coming. There are a few ironies here. Even though commentators like to call the Workers’ Party (WP) the quiet party, the ironic thing is that it is probably the most quoted in the media now compared to Chiam’s SDA or Chee’s SDP. Another irony is that while the PAP is wary of losing Aljunied GRC, its own grassroot leaders complain that the minister in charge of the GRC is not doing enough to be around.

Moving away from these ironies, what I really feel heartened is PAP’s refreshing of its own party image to appeal to the heart of the voters. That is extremely important. However, while the party magazine can provide tips to wear their uniforms in a more appealing fashion, how effective will such cosmetic measures be in getting people excited about the PAP? Honestly, no one is going to buy the Petir over 8 days or cosmopolitan if they are remotely interested in the intersection between politics, fashion and entertainment news.

But what the PAP can do is to create opportunities for people to participate in and enjoy their activities, such as social events (cycling or yoga or charity outreach) conducted outdoors or even outdoor rallies to explain their policies to the people. In the age whether young people are increasingly not tuning it to the politics section of the newspaper, would outdoor rallies become better forums for the PAP to reach out to the people and explain its policies? Thus, the challenge for the PAP is as they continue to limit organized political party activities outdoors, they may limit their own political cards in reaching to the heart of the people.

The increasing apathy of voters cannot be blamed solely on the voters - surely the political parties can do a better job at reaching out to voters. Yet, it is not true that our politicians don’t have the will to do so. Our own limiting laws prevents PAP’s cycling trips, Eric Tan of WP from organizing a snazzy video in their WP 50th anniversary and Chee of SDP from demonstrating outside the Istana peacefully.

The PAP should think in the long term on what are the more effective methods in reaching Singaporeans. If they remove these limiting laws in Singapore, they, being the biggest and most well organized party, are the ones that can participate most fully in these wider political windows and opportunities. Of course, this will result in a seismic shift in PAP’s elitist and quiet grassroots approach in politics. The current comfortable contradictions of the PAP in fostering a depoliticized population and an active citizenry connected to the PAP would have to end. Outdoor rallies which has become so unacceptable in PAP’s outlook, might have to be reintroduced to reach out to a wider population. The party might have to be more involved in the public space and overcome the contradiction that might have serve the party well enough in the last 20 years.

If the PAP is sincere about winning the hearts of the voters, they might have to remove the chains from the ankles of all political parties. Only then, can apathy to the PAP and the political system be combated more effectively. By the way, this would benefit the PAP the most. And a party that knows how to change is indeed the People’s Action Party.

Aljunied still a hot topic
PAP predicts tougher contest in next polls
Monday • November 12, 2007
Loh Chee Kong
cheekong@mediacorp.com.sg

MORE than 18 months have passed but the rank and file of the People’s Action Party (PAP) is apparently still coming to terms with last year’s bruising electoral battle in Aljunied Group Representation Constituency — even as the party leadership gears up for what it predicts would be a tougher fight in the next elections.

At the PAP’s annual convention yesterday, amid the perennial national concerns on the declining birth rate and widening income gap, the Aljunied contest — one of the most closely watched in the 2006 General Election — was a hot topic among the 1,700 party activists who gathered at the National University of Singapore’s University Cultural Centre.

Following the Aljunied outcome, shouldn’t the PAP re-package itself so that it would appeal not only to the head, but also the heart, of the voter, a delegate asked.

Changes, cosmetic at first glance but a sign of the need to adapt to changing times, are evident. For one, the Petir, the PAP’s 52-year-old newsletter, was revamped and the new version launched yesterday.

In it, younger MPs shared fashion tips on how to carry off the party’s all-white dress code, an ensemble which does not endear itself to some Singaporeans, it was said.

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Alarming trends in Singapore’s widening income gap. Are we going to see Singapore going back to a 1920’s stratification where there were a few rich towkays, a civil service (related to the British colonial authorities) middle upper class and a country of coolies?

Singapore’s economic boom widens income gap

Fri Nov 9, 2007 2:40am EST

By Melanie Lee

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Carol John, 27, doesn’t own a bed. Every night she sleeps on thin mattresses which she shares with her three young children. Outside her one-room flat, a smell of sewage lingers in the common corridor.

Just a few kilometers away, on Singapore’s Sentosa island, Madhupati Singhania relaxes on his $435,000 yacht berthed at the city-state’s swanky One 15 Marina Club.

Income inequality is nothing new in free-market Singapore, but two years of blistering economic growth and a government policy of attracting wealthy expatriates have created a new class of super-rich, while a string of price increases for everything from bread to bus fares have made life harder for the poor.

“I can’t save anything, it’s so difficult for me,” John told Reuters. John, who is unemployed, relies on her husband’s S$600 (US$420) monthly salary and a S$100 government handout.

“We don’t benefit at all from the economy. As far as I know, my husband’s pay hasn’t gone up,” she said.

Singapore’s economy is firing on all cylinders, with a booming construction sector, record tourist arrivals and a fast-growing financial sector all contributing to a gross domestic product set to grow nearly 8 percent in 2007.

But the rising tide is not lifting every boat.

The proportion of Singapore residents earning less than S$1,000 ($690) a month rose to 18 percent last year, from 16 percent in 2002, central bank data released late last month show.

At the same time, the proportion of those earning S$8,000 and above rose from 4.7 percent to 6 percent in the same period.

“When a country becomes richer, you tend to see a widening of income inequality. Over the last few years it has been worse,” said econometrics professor Anthony Tay at SMU university.

Despite sporting a first-world GDP per capita of $29,000 — second only to Japan in Asia — Singapore has an income inequality profile more in line with third-world countries.

Singapore’s Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, has worsened from 42.5 in 1998 to 47.2 in 2006, and is now in league with the Philippines (46.1) and Guatemala (48.3), and worse than China (44.7), data from Singapore’s Household Survey and the World Bank show.

Other wealthy Asian nations such as Japan, Korea and Taiwan have more European-style Ginis of 24.9, 31.6 and 32.6.

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A really well written and interesting article from Newsweek. 

The Death Of Social Mobility
In the Asian Tiger economies, the next generation will struggle to do as well as their parents did.
By George Wehrfritz
NEWSWEEK
Updated: 2:28 PM ET Nov 3, 2007

On the face of it, Tin Shui Wai isn’t the embodiment of urban blight. Stacked up against France’s racially charged public-housing estates or America’s crumbling inner-city ”projects,” Hong Kong’s newest satellite town looks remarkably accommodating. But the landscaped common areas, colorful residential blocks and playgrounds mask an undeniable fact: the community of 271,000, where scores of narrow towers cluster like bamboo shoots in a thicket soaring 40 stories skyward, is a ghetto. Local unemployment stands at 20 percent, some five times the Hong Kong average. The local schools are some of Hong Kong’s worst, and many of the residents who do hold jobs are among the working poor, a class that’s burgeoning. Tin Shui Wai signifies not only the social and economic challenges facing Hong Kong but also those gripping its developmental cohort, a group of economies once lauded as East Asia’s ”four tigers.” That moniker—pinned to Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan back in the 1980s—hailed the trade-based economies that overcame resource shortages, widespread poverty and political turmoil to become industrialized, middle-class societies in a single generation. Along the way, their best and brightest rose from humble origins to become today’s tycoons, top scholars and political leaders.

One needn’t look farther than the various statehouses to view the beneficiaries of social mobility. Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Donald Tsang grew up in public housing. Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian, son of tenant farmers, graduated at the top of his class in law school. South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun was too poor to attend college but nonetheless passed the bar exam and practiced human-rights law. All three embody the boundless opportunities their fast-developing societies offered, though each rules during a time when the doors that were opened to them are shutting in the faces of today’s youngsters. These current leaders ”come from a generation that had a fairly equal starting point; everyone was low-income and there was a level playing field,” says John Sayer, head of Oxfam Hong Kong. ”Now we’re getting more class divisions.”

The tigers now are finding themselves in a situation loosely analogous to that which beset the American rust belt in the 1980s, when factory towns like Detroit and Pittsburgh went into decline and a middle class built on career manufacturing jobs suffered as a result. The tigers aren’t rust belts, to be sure, but as the drivers of growth have shifted away from manufacturing into various new industries and services, it’s no longer possible for young entrants into the labor market with little education and few skills to land jobs that pay living wages.

The new labor market is rigidly segmented: white-collar professionals occupy the top rungs of the ladder, a burgeoning service sector peopled by legions of temps and part-timers anchor the bottom, and the middle class clings nervously in between, even during periods of robust economic growth. ”As the tiger economies mature, they face economic polarization between the haves and have-nots,” says Lee Jie Hoon, an economist at the Samsung Economic Research Institute in Seoul. ”Wealth inequality is like the shadow of economic growth.”

In their prime, the tigers were voracious job creators. Although each followed a different growth strategy—South Korea built heavy industry, Taiwan mobilized small and medium enterprises, Singapore nurtured state-linked companies and Hong Kong embraced laissez-faire capitalism—all of them consumed a flood of surplus labor. Workers earned enough to feed their families, educate their kids, buy modest homes and even start businesses.

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We live in a bubble where we think all Singaporeans have equal opportunities to succeed in society through the education system.  However, the need to work after school really impedes students’ capabilities to concentrate on their studies. We tend to think that working and studying is no problem - but ask any adult who goes to night school. If it is such a big problem with adults, what more teenagers with their personal maturity problems at all? Life may not be fair all the time, but we can make it fairer. This article by the Straits Times clearly show otherwise. Kudos to Ho Ai Li from the Straits Times. In her incisive report on ITE students, she says:

Is it the students’ own fault that they cannot succeed in Singapore or are there strong impediments to their success in society? Is our education system meritocratic to the extent that people who have the most resources (tuition, don’t have to work after school, can attend ballet and piano class) should win in the system?  Is it time the state and the civil society pay more attention to the financial difficulties of ITE students? Would it be prudent if the government takes the bold step to waive the school fees for ITE students who express financial difficulties? If not the government, how about self help organizations like Mendaki, CDAC and others?

Straits Times
October 27, 2007 Saturday

Sorry, I’m late. I was working the night shift yesterday;
One in four ITE students holds down a job, and not all are part-time ones. HO AI LI joins students at ITE College East and files this report

AS BUS 31 grinds to a halt outside ITE College East, a stream of students in maroon, blue or white shirts, alight and rush in just before the clock strikes eight.

It’s a wet Monday at the college in Simei and a drizzle means longer lines at the electronic scanners, which students tap to mark their attendance.

Opened in 2005, ITE College East is the first of three regional ITE campuses here. By 2011, two more - College West and Central - will be up.

College East has a student strength of about 8,000 - half the size of a polytechnic, but nearly five times larger than other ITE campuses.

Tan Yee Ling is 20 minutes late for her class in Material Planning. The 22-year-old, looking cheerful with her orange earrings, steps into the logistics operations lab and takes a green plastic chair.

Yee Ling, an Integrated Logistics Management student, doesn’t get to sit down much: ITE courses are 70 per cent practical and 30 per cent theory. Exceptions are courses such as Electronics, where it is 40 per cent theory.

The logistics operations lab has been designed to help students make as seamless a transition from school to work as possible.

It looks like a warehouse. Besides conveyor belts, weighing and strapping machines, there are metal racks stacked to the ceiling with boxes. Look down a glass window on the right of the room and you see two $40,000 Linde forklifts, a metal ramp and more metal racks with boxes.

Twenty-two ITE students have just become the first here to get their forklift licences while still in school. Ms Shirley Yue is teaching them the process of packing a BOM, or bill of materials.

‘Shall we go through one round of the flow?’ asks Ms Yue, who like most ITE lecturers, has years of industry experience. ‘I need Orange and two others.’

Yee Ling, or ‘Orange’ as she is known, gets up and stands at the end of a green conveyor belt, at Station C, for ‘labelling and packing’. Two other girls take their places at kitting Stations A and B, where they put D-I-Y parts into plastic bags.

‘At the end of the day, it will come to you in a pretty box,’ says Ms Yue, looking smart in a white pant-suit.

Every 15 minutes or so, latecomers slip in quietly. One male student arrives near the end of the two-hour lesson at 9.50am. Nobody gets reprimanded.

Yee Ling’s posse of girl pals, all petite and pretty with flowing locks, stretch their arms on the wooden lab table and grumble about being tired.

Three of the four girls work part-time, including Yee Ling, who had pulled a night shift at a Japanese restaurant the day before.

Almost one in five students do not graduate, and the main reason is financial: their families need them to work.
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