Sentosa (Singapore) dream gets hazy
It was supposed to be Asia’s answer to glitzy Monaco, but plans to remake Sentosa into an island playground where rich foreigners and locals live and play are going to take longer than expected to materialise.
While key hotel projects and the Resorts World at Sentosa integrated resort are largely on schedule, things are not going as well at Sentosa Cove, the stretch of land on the island set aside for mainly residential use.
The plan was for some 2,500 oceanfront villas, waterway bungalows, hillside mansions and upscale condominiums to be built on the 117-hectare site. Earlier projections were that the bulk of the new homes would be ready by 2010.
But industry sources now say fewer than 1,000 homes are likely to be completed by the end of this year, and several developers are expected to delay their projects further.
City Developments, for example, has postponed its $580 million project comprising luxury apartments, shops and a five-star, 320-room Westin Hotel, originally slated to open this year.
One problem is that sales and prices of new homes on the island have dropped sharply in the last two quarters, exacerbated by the number of foreigners leaving Singapore.
Sentosa Cove was popular with foreigners as they could get permission to own land there with relative ease.
“The bulk of purchasers of luxury homes, both on the mainland and on Sentosa, were foreigners,” said Tay Huey Ying, director for research and advisory at Colliers International.
Colliers’ data, based on caveats lodged, shows that only one non-landed residential unit in Sentosa was sold in Q4 2008. In the first three months of this year, the number rose slightly to eight.
This is a far cry from transaction volumes at the height of the property boom in 2007. In Q1 2007, some 279 non-landed homes were sold in Sentosa. In Q2 that year, the transaction volume was 243.
Prices have also come down. Colliers’ data shows that the transacted price of non-landed properties at Sentosa Cove averaged $1,318 per square foot (psf) in Q1 2009 – down 45.8 per cent from the peak average of $2,431 psf recorded exactly one year ago in Q1 2008.
It should be noted, however, that these averages are based on small transaction volumes of eight units for Q1 2009, and 33 units for Q1 2008.
Occupancy levels are low too. Even for properties that are completed and fully sold, not every unit is occupied, said Nicholas Mak, director of research and consultancy at Knight Frank. At the fully sold The Berth by the Cove, which obtained its temporary occupation permit in 2006, occupancy is at 93-94 per cent, but market watchers say islandwide, the occupancy levels are much lower.
The picture is, however, somewhat brighter for other new and upcoming developments on the island.
Luxury hotel Capella Singapore, which opened its doors last week, is seeing strong demand – despite the fact that room rates start at $750.
“Response in our first week has been very positive, with an average of about 70 rooms per night,” revealed general manager Michael Luible. The hotel has 111 rooms.
Luible acknowledged that the hotel would not escape the effects of the economic slowdown, but pointed out that its guests are high net worth individuals who will continue to travel.
“We will, of course, monitor the economic situation carefully and plan our strategies accordingly,” he added.
Resorts World at Sentosa remains on-track for its soft opening, which will see Universal Studios, four of its six hotels as well as the casino ready in Q1 2010.
The four hotels – Hotel Michael, Maxims Tower, Festive Hotel and Hard Rock Hotel – will add about 1,350 rooms to Singapore’s inventory. The rest of the resort, which includes a spa and Maritime Museum, will open progressively thereafter.
Indeed, hopes are now pinned on the integrated resort which is designed to draw in visitors.
According to Suzanne Ho, deputy director of communications for Sentosa, foreign visitor arrivals have dipped since last September, in line with the downward trend of tourist arrivals into Singapore.
The lower visitor numbers are affecting food and beverage operators adversely. Ken Hasegawa, manager of Japanese restaurant Si Bon, reckoned that revenue has fallen by about 20 per cent recently.
Similarly, at Cool Deck, a bar along Siloso Beach, business is slow. Selina Huang, Cool Deck’s assistant manager, attributed the decrease to falling tourist arrivals. Just three months ago, close to 90 per cent of the bar’s clientele were tourists, most of whom stayed at the Rasa Sentosa Hotel. Now, only 40 per cent of patrons are tourists, she noted.
The decrease in demand is prompting some outlets to modify their pricing. Even il Lido Italian Restaurant has cut prices by about 20 per cent on average in response to a 40 to 50 per cent decrease in revenue over the past three months. Its seven-course meal now costs $120 instead of $180, and it has removed some expensive items – such as truffles and caviar – from the menu. – Business Times Singapore
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=26100.1
Monday, April 6, 2009
The panda that trampled on the true orchids
The panda that trampled on the true orchids
Monday, 6 April 2009
Ravi Philemon
“Earth Hour Singapore is taking place this Saturday March 28 at 8.30 pm…(and) official celebrations will be taking place at the Botanic Gardens…”, announced World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Singapore recently.
The Online Citizen was invited to the press conference which was to be held at the Botany Centre in the Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG). But the press conference was not to be. If there was a proper media conference as announced, a question was begging to be asked, “Why was Singapore Botanical Gardens chosen as the venue for the press conference and the multimedia presentation for the Earth Hour?”
This question begs the asking because SBG recently hosted an orchid naming ceremony for Thein Sein, the Prime Minister and the fourth-highest ranking general of the junta which rules Myanmar. The junta is well known for its atrocities against its own people and for the curbing of social and political rights.
A brutal indictment
In 2005, former Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel and South Africa’s retired Bishop Desmond M Tutu, wrote a report on Burma for the United Nations Security Council. The 2005 Havel/Tutu report was a complete indictment of the most brutal military dictatorship in the world today. The report indicated that the military kidnaps male children at an early age and trains them in the use of weapons by age eleven. It is estimated that nearly 70,000 children have been forced to join the military in this manner. The country is also the world’s leading producer of heroin and is heavily involved in drug trafficking.
In addition to the drugs and rampant child abuse, thousands of Burma villages have been systematically destroyed by the military Junta. Over 200,000 refugees have fled the country to escape the brutality of the regime. In Burma, there are no basic human rights, healthcare, education, political rights, or free speech. Atrocities like murder, rape, and forced labor are quite common.
In addition, HIV and AIDS are a major problem in the country as well. In effect, the military’s corrupt ruling Junta has succeeded in making Burma one of the poorest countries in the world.
More recently, Amnesty International reported on the Rohingyas, a Muslim ethnic minority in Burma who are subjected to multiple restrictions and human rights violations by the ruling junta - among them, restriction of movement, forced labour, forced eviction and land confiscation and various forms of extortion and arbitrary taxation.
A virus amongst the bona fide
SBG has tarnished and dishonored the true VIPs after whom orchid hybrids have been named in the VIP Orchid Garden of SBG. The orchid hybrids of bona-fide world leaders like Dendrobium Margaret Thatcher and Renantanda Akihito must have bowed their heads in shame to be placed alongside Dendrobium Thein Sein. Dendrobium Memoria Princess Diana and Vandaenopsis Nelson Mandela, the orchid hybrids of real social and human-rights activists, must have surely felt that Dendrobium Thein Sein was actually a virus among them.
Even if the WWF does not concern itself primarily with issues of human rights abuses of any regime, should not WWF havreconsidered using SBG as one of its main venue for its Earth Hour activities in Singapore to show its displeasure at the Botanical Gardens’ hosting of the orchid naming ceremony for Thein Sein; considering the fact that wildlife and natural resources are being abused by the ruling junta of Burma?
WWF itself has named Burma as a hot-spot for ivory and elephant trading and it had also cited that tiger and wildcats parts are often sold openly in Burma. London-based environmental group Global Witness estimates that 1.5 million tonnes of illegally logged timber; worth at least $350 million was shipped illegally into China in 2005.
WWF Singapore has no response
The Online Citizen queried WWF International with this very same question and they replied, “Thanks for your email and interest in WWF’s Earth Hour. Unfortunately, do the huge number of events happening around the world covering Earth Hour, we are not in a position to know the specific details of the event you mention. This would have been organized by the WWF-Singapore office…” after which they indicated the contact details for WWF Singapore.
Upon querying WWF Singapore, they replied, “I understand that you had some concerns regarding the use of the Botanical Gardens? I was interested to hear about your concerns from my colleagues but unfortunately on this occasion the issue you raise re: Myanmar is not really something the WWF has a response on.”
How could WWF Singapore not have a response to such a pertinent query? By refusing to answer a question that has a logical and precise relevance to the matter at hand, has WWF Singapore reneged on being the well-renowned environmental activist organisation that it is reputed to be? Did Weber Shandwick, the public relations firm which touts itself as “one of the world’s leading public relations firms with an unprecedented and award-winning network across Asia Pacific, reaching from China to Australia and India to Japan”, and hired by WWF Singapore to help organise the Earth Hour events, fail to advise the latter properly on the implications of using SBG by WWF Singapore for its events?
For over four decades the Panda logo has been a recognizable symbol of WWF and its efforts in wildlife and habitat conservation. But the Earth Hour celebration by the Panda in SBG is indeed a sad day; for it was a day when the Panda trampled on the true Orchids.
Organisations like WWF Singapore are in best position to exercise their corporate citizenry, to pressure SBG over the orchid naming issue. Having said that, should every organisation which professes to support human rights and green issues, now avoid using SBG since Dendrobium Thein Sein in all probability may not be removed from the SBG’s VIP Orchid Gardens? It is a decision best left to the organisations themselves. But such decisions should be done only after careful consideration of all options. And when queried on their right in exercising these options, such organisations should not reply “we have no response”, which actually means that they have not thought through the implications.
This year SBG celebrates its 150th anniversary. In conjunction with the celebrations SBG has organised a month long exhibition titled, “The seed that changed the world”. Should concerned Singaporeans boycott this exhibition because of the “Orchid that tainted the Gardens?”
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=26099.1
Monday, 6 April 2009
Ravi Philemon
“Earth Hour Singapore is taking place this Saturday March 28 at 8.30 pm…(and) official celebrations will be taking place at the Botanic Gardens…”, announced World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Singapore recently.
The Online Citizen was invited to the press conference which was to be held at the Botany Centre in the Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG). But the press conference was not to be. If there was a proper media conference as announced, a question was begging to be asked, “Why was Singapore Botanical Gardens chosen as the venue for the press conference and the multimedia presentation for the Earth Hour?”
This question begs the asking because SBG recently hosted an orchid naming ceremony for Thein Sein, the Prime Minister and the fourth-highest ranking general of the junta which rules Myanmar. The junta is well known for its atrocities against its own people and for the curbing of social and political rights.
A brutal indictment
In 2005, former Czech Republic President Vaclav Havel and South Africa’s retired Bishop Desmond M Tutu, wrote a report on Burma for the United Nations Security Council. The 2005 Havel/Tutu report was a complete indictment of the most brutal military dictatorship in the world today. The report indicated that the military kidnaps male children at an early age and trains them in the use of weapons by age eleven. It is estimated that nearly 70,000 children have been forced to join the military in this manner. The country is also the world’s leading producer of heroin and is heavily involved in drug trafficking.
In addition to the drugs and rampant child abuse, thousands of Burma villages have been systematically destroyed by the military Junta. Over 200,000 refugees have fled the country to escape the brutality of the regime. In Burma, there are no basic human rights, healthcare, education, political rights, or free speech. Atrocities like murder, rape, and forced labor are quite common.
In addition, HIV and AIDS are a major problem in the country as well. In effect, the military’s corrupt ruling Junta has succeeded in making Burma one of the poorest countries in the world.
More recently, Amnesty International reported on the Rohingyas, a Muslim ethnic minority in Burma who are subjected to multiple restrictions and human rights violations by the ruling junta - among them, restriction of movement, forced labour, forced eviction and land confiscation and various forms of extortion and arbitrary taxation.
A virus amongst the bona fide
SBG has tarnished and dishonored the true VIPs after whom orchid hybrids have been named in the VIP Orchid Garden of SBG. The orchid hybrids of bona-fide world leaders like Dendrobium Margaret Thatcher and Renantanda Akihito must have bowed their heads in shame to be placed alongside Dendrobium Thein Sein. Dendrobium Memoria Princess Diana and Vandaenopsis Nelson Mandela, the orchid hybrids of real social and human-rights activists, must have surely felt that Dendrobium Thein Sein was actually a virus among them.
Even if the WWF does not concern itself primarily with issues of human rights abuses of any regime, should not WWF havreconsidered using SBG as one of its main venue for its Earth Hour activities in Singapore to show its displeasure at the Botanical Gardens’ hosting of the orchid naming ceremony for Thein Sein; considering the fact that wildlife and natural resources are being abused by the ruling junta of Burma?
WWF itself has named Burma as a hot-spot for ivory and elephant trading and it had also cited that tiger and wildcats parts are often sold openly in Burma. London-based environmental group Global Witness estimates that 1.5 million tonnes of illegally logged timber; worth at least $350 million was shipped illegally into China in 2005.
WWF Singapore has no response
The Online Citizen queried WWF International with this very same question and they replied, “Thanks for your email and interest in WWF’s Earth Hour. Unfortunately, do the huge number of events happening around the world covering Earth Hour, we are not in a position to know the specific details of the event you mention. This would have been organized by the WWF-Singapore office…” after which they indicated the contact details for WWF Singapore.
Upon querying WWF Singapore, they replied, “I understand that you had some concerns regarding the use of the Botanical Gardens? I was interested to hear about your concerns from my colleagues but unfortunately on this occasion the issue you raise re: Myanmar is not really something the WWF has a response on.”
How could WWF Singapore not have a response to such a pertinent query? By refusing to answer a question that has a logical and precise relevance to the matter at hand, has WWF Singapore reneged on being the well-renowned environmental activist organisation that it is reputed to be? Did Weber Shandwick, the public relations firm which touts itself as “one of the world’s leading public relations firms with an unprecedented and award-winning network across Asia Pacific, reaching from China to Australia and India to Japan”, and hired by WWF Singapore to help organise the Earth Hour events, fail to advise the latter properly on the implications of using SBG by WWF Singapore for its events?
For over four decades the Panda logo has been a recognizable symbol of WWF and its efforts in wildlife and habitat conservation. But the Earth Hour celebration by the Panda in SBG is indeed a sad day; for it was a day when the Panda trampled on the true Orchids.
Organisations like WWF Singapore are in best position to exercise their corporate citizenry, to pressure SBG over the orchid naming issue. Having said that, should every organisation which professes to support human rights and green issues, now avoid using SBG since Dendrobium Thein Sein in all probability may not be removed from the SBG’s VIP Orchid Gardens? It is a decision best left to the organisations themselves. But such decisions should be done only after careful consideration of all options. And when queried on their right in exercising these options, such organisations should not reply “we have no response”, which actually means that they have not thought through the implications.
This year SBG celebrates its 150th anniversary. In conjunction with the celebrations SBG has organised a month long exhibition titled, “The seed that changed the world”. Should concerned Singaporeans boycott this exhibition because of the “Orchid that tainted the Gardens?”
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=26099.1
This Week is Kindness Week in Singapore
This Week is Kindness Week in Singapore
This week is designated Kindness Week and the Kindness Movement in Singapore has decided to extend the Kindness Week to 1 month....so it is going to be Kindness Month 2009 in Singapore. I tried very hard to find our PM's Kindness Week speech but it looks like he did not give a speech this year. All speeches by PM, MM and SMs are found here : [Link]. I was looking for a followup to the kind satay man story which he told in 2007.....but no luck. Just to recap:
.
"Mr Lee shared how he and his wife were touched by the thoughtfulness of a satay man in Malacca. They had ordered 40 sticks of satay but the experienced hawker only served them 25 sticks, as he knew that would be enough." - Channel News Asia [Link] Kindness Week 2007
..
It may be just a story to you but for public servants this story has an important moral and will followed as if it is govt policy. I was eager this year to find out what kindness means to our PM in this time of deep recession but he didn't give a speech so we are left guessing what is on his mind.
After some searching, I found out that this year's speech to launch Kindness Week was given by Lim Boon Heng. This former union leader, a representative of the common worker, should know what kindness is about. Given we are in a severe recession, I thought he would talk about how employers should treat employees with kindness and try not to retrench ....but he didn't. He spent most of his speech explaining why people should not say unkind things to executives who receive high bonuses. [Link] and that bonus is should not be a dirty word. Of course bonus is not a dirty word....we all know the dirty word in Singapore is welfare. Our former union leader feels that people should not mistake a bonus as "somebody getting something extra and undeserved and out of line with the current economic situation". Sure....I think Lim Boon Heng is only being fair - when a lowly worker gets retrenched, he deserves it....so it is only fair when a CEO gets $20M, he too is getting what he deserves. Basically, Lim Boon Heng is saying people get what they deserve - no more no less under the system the PAP govt has created and embraced. Let us not have our emotions get the better of us and think with a clear head. It is time for people to be kind and considerate towards those with high bonuses and not be resentful......
.
I'm so glad this ex-union leader gave us his frank views on bonuses - be it 8 months or $20M...the system we have today allocate all these fairly and equitably....so the is no point getting angry and trying to change things. There is nothing to change and the system is fine.
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=26098.1
This week is designated Kindness Week and the Kindness Movement in Singapore has decided to extend the Kindness Week to 1 month....so it is going to be Kindness Month 2009 in Singapore. I tried very hard to find our PM's Kindness Week speech but it looks like he did not give a speech this year. All speeches by PM, MM and SMs are found here : [Link]. I was looking for a followup to the kind satay man story which he told in 2007.....but no luck. Just to recap:
.
"Mr Lee shared how he and his wife were touched by the thoughtfulness of a satay man in Malacca. They had ordered 40 sticks of satay but the experienced hawker only served them 25 sticks, as he knew that would be enough." - Channel News Asia [Link] Kindness Week 2007
..
It may be just a story to you but for public servants this story has an important moral and will followed as if it is govt policy. I was eager this year to find out what kindness means to our PM in this time of deep recession but he didn't give a speech so we are left guessing what is on his mind.
After some searching, I found out that this year's speech to launch Kindness Week was given by Lim Boon Heng. This former union leader, a representative of the common worker, should know what kindness is about. Given we are in a severe recession, I thought he would talk about how employers should treat employees with kindness and try not to retrench ....but he didn't. He spent most of his speech explaining why people should not say unkind things to executives who receive high bonuses. [Link] and that bonus is should not be a dirty word. Of course bonus is not a dirty word....we all know the dirty word in Singapore is welfare. Our former union leader feels that people should not mistake a bonus as "somebody getting something extra and undeserved and out of line with the current economic situation". Sure....I think Lim Boon Heng is only being fair - when a lowly worker gets retrenched, he deserves it....so it is only fair when a CEO gets $20M, he too is getting what he deserves. Basically, Lim Boon Heng is saying people get what they deserve - no more no less under the system the PAP govt has created and embraced. Let us not have our emotions get the better of us and think with a clear head. It is time for people to be kind and considerate towards those with high bonuses and not be resentful......
.
I'm so glad this ex-union leader gave us his frank views on bonuses - be it 8 months or $20M...the system we have today allocate all these fairly and equitably....so the is no point getting angry and trying to change things. There is nothing to change and the system is fine.
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=26098.1
Gary Tan Yeong Hong has been charged
The case of PoThePanda… so far
Sometime ago, I was introduced to Gary Tan Yeong Hong a blogger who goes by the moniker PoThePanda.
On Wednesday 1st April 2009, Gary called me from court regarding some charges he was facing and asking for my possible attendance on 8th April 2009, Wednesday. As I could not make it on Wednesday bearing in mind a Court of Appeal hearing on that day, I requested for another date. This was then fixed as 6th April 2009 today.
This morning i appeared in Court No. 3 before District Judge Ng Peng Hong to represent Gary Tan Yeong Hong. The AGC was on Justice Online.
The AGC did not have its papers / file ready on Gary Tan’s case. The case was therefore adjourned till 915am tomorrow morning.
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=26097.1
Sometime ago, I was introduced to Gary Tan Yeong Hong a blogger who goes by the moniker PoThePanda.
On Wednesday 1st April 2009, Gary called me from court regarding some charges he was facing and asking for my possible attendance on 8th April 2009, Wednesday. As I could not make it on Wednesday bearing in mind a Court of Appeal hearing on that day, I requested for another date. This was then fixed as 6th April 2009 today.
This morning i appeared in Court No. 3 before District Judge Ng Peng Hong to represent Gary Tan Yeong Hong. The AGC was on Justice Online.
The AGC did not have its papers / file ready on Gary Tan’s case. The case was therefore adjourned till 915am tomorrow morning.
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=26097.1
Singapore to keep unemployment below 5.2%
Singapore to keep unemployment below 5.2%
Singapore aims to keep its unemployment rate below 5.2 percent this year, Xinhua reported yesterday. That means the unemployment rate could more than double this year.
Singapore's overall unemployment rate averaged 2.3 percent in 2008, up from 2.1 percent in 2007.
Singapore experienced 5.2 percent unemployment in March 2003 when it rose to that level from 4.2 percent in December 2002, according to another Xinhua report in 2003.
Australia is currently experiencing 5.2 percent unemployment, a four-year high, according to a Reuters report published by the Straits Times.
Singapore Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said yesterday the unemployment rate for the first quarter of 2009 is likely to be higher than for the fourth quarter of 2008 and detailed statistics will be released shortly. He said his ministry is seeing more retrenchment notices being issued.
But jobs are still available in several sectors, he added.
Not enough job ads to fill a newspaper pullout
However, job ads are reaching vanishing point in Singapore’s leading newspaper.
The Straits Times no longer publishes a regular separate pullout advertising jobs. Recruit, the job ads section, was tacked on to the Classified pullout on Saturday for a simple reason – the job ads did not fill enough pages to be run as a separate pullout. And even the few pages that were there included display ads for job training and not just job openings. The jobs available seemed to be mostly for technicians and retail workers. There were few openings for professionals.
The Manpower Minister is putting on a brave face.
Government schemes like the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur) are helping companies cut costs to save jobs, he said, reports Channel NewsAsia.
But how quickly the Singapore economy recovers depends much on external factors like the global economy’s performance, it added.
The minister was quoted as saying: “"We must prepare ourselves for another few quarters of downturn.”
In other words, the downturn is not likely to end soon and the Singapore economy has become like the global climate – dependent on the rest of the world.
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=26096.1
Singapore aims to keep its unemployment rate below 5.2 percent this year, Xinhua reported yesterday. That means the unemployment rate could more than double this year.
Singapore's overall unemployment rate averaged 2.3 percent in 2008, up from 2.1 percent in 2007.
Singapore experienced 5.2 percent unemployment in March 2003 when it rose to that level from 4.2 percent in December 2002, according to another Xinhua report in 2003.
Australia is currently experiencing 5.2 percent unemployment, a four-year high, according to a Reuters report published by the Straits Times.
Singapore Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong said yesterday the unemployment rate for the first quarter of 2009 is likely to be higher than for the fourth quarter of 2008 and detailed statistics will be released shortly. He said his ministry is seeing more retrenchment notices being issued.
But jobs are still available in several sectors, he added.
Not enough job ads to fill a newspaper pullout
However, job ads are reaching vanishing point in Singapore’s leading newspaper.
The Straits Times no longer publishes a regular separate pullout advertising jobs. Recruit, the job ads section, was tacked on to the Classified pullout on Saturday for a simple reason – the job ads did not fill enough pages to be run as a separate pullout. And even the few pages that were there included display ads for job training and not just job openings. The jobs available seemed to be mostly for technicians and retail workers. There were few openings for professionals.
The Manpower Minister is putting on a brave face.
Government schemes like the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (Spur) are helping companies cut costs to save jobs, he said, reports Channel NewsAsia.
But how quickly the Singapore economy recovers depends much on external factors like the global economy’s performance, it added.
The minister was quoted as saying: “"We must prepare ourselves for another few quarters of downturn.”
In other words, the downturn is not likely to end soon and the Singapore economy has become like the global climate – dependent on the rest of the world.
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=26096.1
Engaging netizens – time to come out of comfort zones, politicians
Engaging netizens – time to come out of comfort zones, politicians
Monday, 6 April 2009
Andrew Loh
If discussions on issues of importance are to progress, both parties have to accept that perhaps it is time to stop staying on their respective sides of the fence.
We have come some ways from the anonymous and sinister-sounding “counter-insurgents” which the government was reported to be sending into cyberspace to counter its online critics in January 2007.
Now, the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) is adopting a different approach. Its “embrace of the diversity of views”, mentioned by its newly-appointed president of its Youth Wing, Mr Teo Ser Luck, includes those in cyberspace. It wants to engage netizens upfront, it seems. And it has delegated the task to its youth branch, the Young PAP (YP). Mr Teo has made this his priority, apparently. “When I took over YP, I wanted to make sure there’s an embrace of diversity of views. So, you will see more diversity and more participation,” Mr Teo is reported to have told the Today newspaper.
While there will be cynics who will pooh-pooh this cyber outreach by the PAP, the move is to be applauded, nevertheless. Political parties in Singapore have, all this while, seemed unsure and hesitant about engaging netizens, including those from the opposition parties. So far, such engagements do not include what I would call “close quarter contacts”. Parties would put up articles or postings on their sites – and that’s about it. There are no replies from party elders to the comments from readers.
Dr Lim Wee Kiak, PAP MP for Sembawang GRC, has also been posting comments on other people’s Facebook accounts - commenting on Abdul Salim Harun’s Facebook, for example. Mr Salim, up till recently, was a Workers’ Party member. Dr Lim too had an exchange with this writer over the issue of foreign workers on this writer’s Facebook page. Most of the so-called P65 MPs have Facebook accounts.
A blog, which seems to have been created by either pro-PAP or pro-government supporters, was set up in 2008 to specifically counter the SDP’s views. Called Not My SDP, a reference to the SDP’s website which is named “http://yoursdp.org”, it is unknown who the people behind the blog are, though some suspect that it may have been set up by PAP grassroots members. Notmysdp perhaps is the clearest manifestation of the so-called “counter-insurgents” from the government. (TOC has written to the blog and is awaiting a reply.)
What about the opposition?
The WP’s youth wing has an official website which is best described as a ghost town, really, and thoroughly uninteresting. Its latest posting is an entry about the then newly-elected Youth Wing Executive Council – in August 2008. Party supporters previously set up The Hammersphere blog, but it has since also become inactive. The party’s youth wing got into the Facebook bandwagon recently. Besides the party’s official websites, the party has given no official endorsements to the other sites or blogs.
Party leaders write articles and post them on their official website. Dr Chee Soon Juan and assistant secretary general, Mr John Tan, would then highlight such postings on their Facebooks. Close-quarter dialogues between the leaders and readers are not very frequent. The SDP had, however, engaged forummers in 2007 on a forum for a one-week period, with party leaders discussing various issues with forummers. The party made a slight revamp to its website on April 6 to make it “more user friendly and easy on the eye.”
The Young Democrats, the SDP’s youth branch, has a Facebook “closed group” account. One has to request to join or be invited to join before one can have access.
The relatively new Reform Party’s chairman, Mr Ng Teck Siong, recently set up a Facebook account and has been noticed posting an occasional note on others’ pages.
The SPP’s Youth Impact too seems to be dormant on the Internet. The NSP and the RP have no youth wings.
It can thus be seen that there is much room for improvement for the political parties, if they want to engage the Internet generation. Engagement would and should go beyond the postings of reports or articles or pictures. The key is dialogue – and sadly, not many politicians are doing this.
Internet engagement by politicians is a new phenomena in Singapore – and parties on both sides of the fence are adopting tentative stances towards it. The politicians do not want to get into something they are not familiar with; while netizens are wary of politicians usurping Net space for their political agenda.
But if discussions on issues of importance are to progress, both parties have to accept that perhaps it is time to stop staying on their respective sides of the fence.
As of now no party leader has a presence on the Internet whose presence is of any consequence. Most seem to prefer to stay in their comfort zones. However, with a virtually 100 per cent broadband penetration rate in Singapore (as reported recently by the Straits Times), politicians cannot afford to ignore cyberspace much longer – and sooner or later, the fence will have to come down.
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=26069.1
Lee Wei Ling's choice for Singlehood
If the women in Singapore were looking for an champion for singlehood, this wasn’t it.
Writing another eye opening contribution that provides a peek into the life and times of a super talented family in Singapore, she revealed that as late as 10 years ago “there was a slim chance I might have got married.” Meaning, at age 44, Lee Wei Ling was still trying to stave off a lonely conclusion to a physical existence. Her rationalization that “better one person feeling lonely than two people miserable because they cannot adapt to each other” is as good a self denial as any. Probably never heard of couples who kiss and make up, in bed, under satin sheets. Dad didn’t exactly help by saying that “Your mother and I could be selfish and feel happy that you remain single and can look after us in our old age.” Especially when dad had earlier told the world she couldn’t cook to save her own life. Her repartee to that was, as the eldest son in a typical Peranakan family, father “cannot even crack a soft-boiled egg.”
All that material may make a great soap opera, but definitely not healthy ingredients for nationhood building. At least not for a nation of happy, well-adjusted, family orientated citizens.
You puzzle at her logic when she told of a first date at 21, when she dropped her doctor suitor (”like a hot potato”) because he brought her to a dinner party of rich socialites. Is she blind to the crowd that her father and brother rub shoulders with? The types that probably makes Obama a pariah because their take home pay is several times over that of the President of the USA?
Thankfully she was honest about her mistake telling a young single woman to spend 8 years pursuing a neurology course overseas. Poor dear returned to Singapore at her late 30s, and worries she may have missed her chance to get married. Perhaps her brain could not multi-task swotting and canoodling while on campus.
Once a senior management consultant, married and in her late 20s, confided that if she was still single, she wouldn’t have the confidence to rejoin the dating game. She was a pleasant and attractive lady, maybe not in physical attributes, spoke and dressed well, and it was tempting to tell her that should her ungrateful spouse dump her, she needn’t look far for another life partner. It boils down to a matter of choice. And freewill. Elements that separates civilised humans from the lower animals. And damn all those that try to take it from us.
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=26065.1
Writing another eye opening contribution that provides a peek into the life and times of a super talented family in Singapore, she revealed that as late as 10 years ago “there was a slim chance I might have got married.” Meaning, at age 44, Lee Wei Ling was still trying to stave off a lonely conclusion to a physical existence. Her rationalization that “better one person feeling lonely than two people miserable because they cannot adapt to each other” is as good a self denial as any. Probably never heard of couples who kiss and make up, in bed, under satin sheets. Dad didn’t exactly help by saying that “Your mother and I could be selfish and feel happy that you remain single and can look after us in our old age.” Especially when dad had earlier told the world she couldn’t cook to save her own life. Her repartee to that was, as the eldest son in a typical Peranakan family, father “cannot even crack a soft-boiled egg.”
All that material may make a great soap opera, but definitely not healthy ingredients for nationhood building. At least not for a nation of happy, well-adjusted, family orientated citizens.
You puzzle at her logic when she told of a first date at 21, when she dropped her doctor suitor (”like a hot potato”) because he brought her to a dinner party of rich socialites. Is she blind to the crowd that her father and brother rub shoulders with? The types that probably makes Obama a pariah because their take home pay is several times over that of the President of the USA?
Thankfully she was honest about her mistake telling a young single woman to spend 8 years pursuing a neurology course overseas. Poor dear returned to Singapore at her late 30s, and worries she may have missed her chance to get married. Perhaps her brain could not multi-task swotting and canoodling while on campus.
Once a senior management consultant, married and in her late 20s, confided that if she was still single, she wouldn’t have the confidence to rejoin the dating game. She was a pleasant and attractive lady, maybe not in physical attributes, spoke and dressed well, and it was tempting to tell her that should her ungrateful spouse dump her, she needn’t look far for another life partner. It boils down to a matter of choice. And freewill. Elements that separates civilised humans from the lower animals. And damn all those that try to take it from us.
http://forums.delphiforums.com/sunkopitiam/messages?msg=26065.1
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