Category: Rants

Random Discourse – Facebook Arrest & Blogger Clampdown

3 comments

If the government gahmen wants us to know that they monitor the social networking platforms and blog closely, and that it takes some of the things written seriously, it has certainly caught the attention of netizens. First, the arrest of Facebook user 27-year-old Abdul Malik Mohammed Ghazali (aka Malik Syasha Sotongz). He was charged for incitement of violence due to comments he made on Facebook where he had urged other users to ‘burn’ the MCYS mini$ter.

I will not comment on whether this overly outspoken sod meant it figuratively or literally. Neither will I speculate the outcome of the trial which he will go through since he is now officially charged. However, it is almost certain that local cyberspace (which I have come to view as overwhelmingly hostile to the powers-that-be) felt that the gahmen had over-reacted. To some, even the outcome of Abdul Malik’s trial is a already foregone conclusion.

Those who felt that Abdul Malik has meant his comment figuratively, would point to some comments made by the Prime Minister several years ago in an election rally about ‘fixing’ the opposition and cry foul over the alleged ‘double standards’ applied here. It really doesn’t matter to them that the authorities took Abdul Malik’s comments literally and seriously because a back-bencher MP from the ruling party was torched by an angry old ex-cabbie just a few years ago. As far as I am concerned, we can just expect criticisms to fly hot and furious in blogs, forums and the social networking platforms over the next few days regarding this matter. I personally wouldn’t be surprised if another few hotheads end up on the wrong side of the law for their comments over the matter.

As if this matter isn’t enough to fuel the fire… a blogger and NSman with the Singapore Police Force, Abdillah Zamzuri, was hauled in by his reservist unit for questioning. This is due to his blog post on the cuffing of Lianhe Wanbao photographer Shafie Goh. According to this article on xinmsn which reference exclusively to the rabidly anti-gahmen website Temasek Review, Zamzuri was charged for ‘Prejudice to the Conduct of Good Order/Discipline’. I find this article on xinmsn rather appalling, since it has no further updates on the matter, nor did it verify the source of the information other than referencing it to the Temasek Review, which in my opinion is extremely biased and rarely do a good job in ensuring that their articles are as factual as possible.

A fellow blogger pointed out that had Zamzuri not pointed out in his blog post that he is a reservist police officer, he might probably not be hauled in for questioning nor will he be charged. After all, what Zamzuri has done is the equivalent of commenting / criticising the employer (albeit in this case a part time one). In the private sector, a company may also press charges against employees when they openly criticised the company or another employee resulting in reputation loss.

I have a different and more simplistic view on both matters. Simply, the gahmen wants every netizen to be aware that it does monitor the Internet and it will not hesitate to act against netizens especially during the impending General Elections (GE). In my opinion, the ruling party has taken the lessons of the recent Malaysian GE seriously and is taking the steps to ensure one of the avenues (i.e. outspoken bloggers hostile to the gahmen) that brought about the disastrous showing of the Barisan Nasional (BN) will not happen here.

In a discussion with fellow blogger ErniesUrn on Facebook, he point out that this is ‘scare mongering’ and it cannot prevent a political tsunami (i.e. voters voting the other way) from happening, if it is to happen at all. To use high handed tactics (ranging from red tape, censorship etc.) to get the results desired would defeat the purpose of becoming democratic society and is counter productive to whatever targets that have been set – such as promoting Singapore to be a regional hub for Information, Arts and Culture, and even Sports.

I would not disagree that what he has mentioned would be detrimental to whatever targets (or objectives) we have set for our tiny little nation. In fact, while ErniesUrn pointed out that red tape would hurt our drive to be an Information Hub, I would consider the lack of transparency and accountability (over such matters as the losses suffered by Temasek Holding, the GIC and certain town councils) to be more damaging. When even the matter of whether someone in a town council got a hefty bonus isn’t even clarified, just what kind of Information Hub are we talking about when the people seems to be deliberately kept in the dark over some politically thorny issues?

As for being a Arts and Cultural Hub… first of all I don’t really give rat’s ass about the arts or whether the objective of being an Arts Hub falls on its face. I have heard the gripe about censorship often and how that is bad for the Arts and Entertainment. Yet I am still convinced that censorship is a necessary in certain aspects after considering the effect of the media on public opinion during the Vietnam War and the recent incident involving Israeli commandos on a Turkish ship, and how it partly caused the tragic end in the recent bus-standoff in Manila. Where to draw the line on how much censorship is necessary will be delicate. As for being a Cultural Hub, it is an utter farce trying to promote that when the authorities slap down Singlish – the very thing which we can consider as part of Singapore’s indigenous culture. Of course, there is no doubt the self-proclaimed ‘elites’ will want to wipe Singlish off the face of our country. I deeply suspect they couldn’t grasp the nuances of Singlish just like how angmohs (local slang for white foreigners) couldn’t catch when and where the lahs are placed. In fact, these ‘elites’ probably couldn’t understand the meaning of even the most simple of Singlish sentence and that alone would have shown them to be just how seriously out of touch with the common man.

As for the promotion of the Sports and Singapore to be a Sports Hub, I am never comfortable with the promotion of Sports as a career. It’s not because of the traditional Singaporean view that you must study hard or else you won’t earn enough money. It also doesn’t matter sportsman in Singapore are not really paid as well as those overseas. The core reason of my discomfort with it is that Sports is largely dependent on a person’s youthfulness and yet at the meantime we are talking about raising (or even abolishing) the retirement age. Consider this, just how long can you play table tennis or soccer, or remain the Taekwondo champion? Ultimately as a person ages his reflexes will start to deteriorate, and just how many will excel and gain sufficient fame to becomes coaches at the later stage of their lives? Even if a sportsman can rise to fame and gain wealth quickly at a young age, whether they knows how to handle their fame and maintain that wealth later in their life remains to be seen. Don’t forget, Singapore is a rather unforgiving place when a person mess up his life and it would be a long and hard struggle for a person with no other skills.

Either way, in our discussion we also talked about the matter of GDP growth and the immigration policies. As far as I am concerned, the GDP growth figures are nothing more but a bunch of numbers and some statistical mumbo jumbo if it does not translate into more money in the pocket of fellow Singaporeans and in the long run, greater social mobility.

The immigration policy however, would be one of the most thorny issues in the upcoming GE. As most Singaporeans are rather moderate, few of us are really opposed to the immigration policy. Yet, I have no doubt that it is our sincere wish that the gahmen look into tightening the criteria, and ensure that the issuing of citizenship and PR will be more stringent. Frankly, what is the point of allowing people from China and India into our country, when they form communities of their own, speaks an alien tongue (their own dialects) in our midst and refused to assimilate with us? And that would bring me back to the point of why we should not eliminate Singlish, because that is would form part of a cultural identity we can call our very own.

To summarise the point I am making here: Demagogic blog posts or comments are obviously undesirable, but they can only have an effect when people also feel very strongly about the issues raised in those blog posts. Such blog posts and comments will only spark off a fire when there is chaff for it to ignite. If the day comes when people take to the streets in response to someone’s rally on the Internet, it will be on issues or matters which they feel strong about – such as on 11th May 2010 when over 2000 people of local Chinese community rally at the Speakers’ Corner at Hong Lim Park to express their outrage at a suspected move by the Ministry of Education (MOE) to reduce the weightage of the mother tongue in the Primary School Leaving Exam (PSLE).

Any attempt to silence netizens will generally achieve the ‘Streisand Effect’, in which the information is publicized more widely and to a greater extent than it would have originally if no such attempt is made in the first place. Instead of wasting time and effort to ‘muffle’ netizens, the gahmen / ruling party will do better by improving on transparency and accountability, refining the immigration and public housing policy and even review some of the directions they have set for the nation and what they are going to promote as a result of them.

I ain’t gonna to rally to some extremist or radical inciting violence, but I seriously find the gahmen / ruling party wanting in particular on transparency and accountability. Not to mention the response from some of our political leaders lea-duhs on the matter of the recent floods clearly shows they care more about money than the general welfare of Singaporeans. How I feel about such issues will determine how I will vote in the next GE. I can no longer convincingly say I won’t vote for them if an opposition team decide to run in West Coast GRC, as compared to half a year ago when I will be hesitant to vote for the opposition.

As Hang Jebat has said, ‘raja adil raja disembah, raja zalim raja disanggah’ (a fair king is a king to obey, a cruel king is a king to fight against). I will ‘fight against’ the rulers who no longer feel for us with my vote when I get the opportunity to do so. Even if it might be insignificant to the final outcome, that is the least I can do for the democratic society I believed in.

Random Discourse – Bloggers, Blogging and Integrity

4 comments

There was a recent brouhaha regarding a ‘food blogger’ and a restaurant in Joo Chiat on Yahoo Singapore’s ‘Fit to Post’ section. As usual, in matters such as this everyone has a side to take, even though they don’t usually realised or admit they are taking sides.

I usually take sides as well… my own side that is.

As fellow blogger chillycraps said in a separate discussion, no one can actually say they know the truth other than those in the matter itself. From what I have gathered online, it is clear to me that both the restaurant and the blogger failed miserably in conflict resolution. It’s the word of the restaurant against that of the blogger and vice versa.

Since I mentioned the matter of conflict resolution, it means there is also a ‘public relations’ (PR) aspect in this matter. The fact that this conflict didn’t get resolved amicably do reflect badly on the PR person (or people) of the restaurant. The restaurant’s PR also seems to be out of touch with blogging scene when in their press statement it actually mentioned something about a blogger’s society / association, oblivious to the fact that the last time an association came around it went down with a bang. That said, I am in no position to determine whether the statement is sincere or otherwise, and I personally believe that there is no way to measure that so it’s high time for those who makes a fuss over that to get off their high horse and let the matter rest.

nadnut brought up the point of the PR’s failure. Knowing her to be a straight-talking person I know she has no other sinister objective or personal agenda in bringing this matter up. However, I am not quite sure about some of the people who readily agree and jump on the bandwagon. As I have mentioned, everybody takes sides in a matter – and it is usually their own. When someone appears to be on the same side, it simply means that part of the stand one has taken is in alignment with their agenda or personal objectives.

The reason I have such a Machiavellian view is that I have heard quite a bit of bad mouthing about the PR sector in general. While all of this is hearsay and I personally have not worked with any PR person (not to mention it will never happen since nothing on this blog will interest them), all that bad mouthing has caused me to be alarmed. It almost appear to me that beneath all that niceties, every PR person is manipulative and they all have a dark and sinister facet hidden from the public eye.

Anyway, it wouldn’t be objective if I only talk about the PR. So I’ll also talk about bloggers in general. While I am not accusing the blogger in this particular incident of anything, I have the general impression that some bloggers and in specific some of those so-called social media proponents have always act like they have a chip on their shoulders. It is my considered opinion that having bossed their way around in cyberspace long enough, they are so caught up by their own fame and false sense of invincibility to the point they take that into their real life. Thus, I really do not mind seeing some bloggers eat the humble pie just so they get a dose of reality.

On a side note, while I was browsing through some of the comments made by other bloggers on this matter, I read something a blog post making a point that ‘Blogging integrity’ is a false image that self-righteous (low traffic blogs) people is selling. It’s only saving grace was that it was not writtern by any of the ‘top bloggers’ in Singapore because if it was I wouldn’t have hesitated to start a whole new front in this to bring some traffic to these dead parts.

The premise that any person promoting blogging integrity is either jealous of the success of other bloggers or are just using that to promote themselves above the rest is utterly pathetic. It not only failed to address the matter of blogging integrity but it launches into an attack on not just the bloggers who promote it, but also their popularity! WHAT. THE. F@#$?!

It is crystal clear that this blogger is trying very hard to justify receiving the freebies and all the reviews on her blog. When she lashed out at those blogging about scandals as lacking in integrity, I was disappointed to see that she failed to touch on the fact that a blogger’s integrity is actually determined by the readers. After all, those who thinks I lacked integrity have already stopped reading my blog a long time ago and they would be completely indifferent to what I write!

Meanwhile, I have heard whispers of conspiracy claiming this to be an attempt by the traditional media to discredit the ‘new’ aka ‘social media’. It would be plausible if it was reported by one of the papers under the Singapore Press Holdings, but it is difficult to classify Yahoo as a form of traditional media completely since it has always been published electronically. That’s not mentioning that Yahoo Singapore seems to be embracing blogs and taking the ‘social media’ phenomenon in the local scene quite seriously. I sincerely do not know where this is coming from!

All said, I really hope that this matter will soon blow over. To many nondescript bloggers out there, blogging is nothing more than a hobby, if not an online / public diary to put down some of their thoughts. Many would talk about the blogger community but many nondescript bloggers really don’t give a flying hoot about what other bloggers are writing. In general, a large part of the social media scene has gone unnoticed while the PR sector creates a whole pantheon of celebrity bloggers. A lot of hype is then generated around them which in my opinion is nothing more but a traditional media strategy (which I believe some self proclaimed guru would disagree with me).

I’ll leave it for the readers to decide on which form of social media has more credibility or integrity. For e.g. between the spontaneous blog posts of a first time young mother about her baby and her opinion of different brand of diapers and blog posts coming from celebrity mother-bloggers invited by a PR-firm to the launch of a new diaper product, the choice is really yours on whose posts to take seriously.

Recommended Reads:
Blog@Ridz.sg – Thinking out loud: I am Singaporean. So what?
My Queenstown – Alexandra Hospital Part 3/3: Civilian Hospital
Times Of My Life – Holland Water – Hor Lan Shui

Random Discourse – Floods & Engineering

7 comments

I found the following letter to the ST Forum while going through this forum thread on ION Orchard:

Preserve open space at Orchard MRT station
25 Aug 05

In his National Day Rally speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spoke at length about the development of the Orchard Road, Bras Basah Road and Bugis Junction areas.

Old Photo

Orchard MRT (pre-ION Orchard days)

In particular, he said that the development of the Bras Basah Road area with the relocation of Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts and Singapore Management University there was to bring back students to re-create the buzz which he remembered as his old school was in that area.

However, what has happened to the old buildings there? They have become museums, and a landmark cathedral has been converted to serve as restaurants and pubs.

PM Lee presented a slide showing an imposing tower being built on the green hill behind Orchard MRT station. Would the prime minister in 40 years’ time then decide that there is not enough open space in the Orchard Road area and have a few obsolete buildings torn down?

Take New York, one of the cities PM Lee mentioned. Smack in the centre of Manhattan Island is prime property, ideal for all sorts of buildings, yet the early town planners literally carved out a huge section of the city for Central Park. In the Singaporean context, it would be considered a waste.

But it is not. The open space that is now Ngee Ann City is lost. The open space that was behind Wisma Atria is lost. The open space between Bras Basah Road and Stamford Road is lost. The Botanic Gardens is too inaccessible from Orchard Road.

The Orchard MRT station’s open space should be preserved. Must everything prime be built upon? Let us learn from the lessons of the evacuation of the Bras Basah Road area.

Michael Loh Yik Ming

Ultimately, the Urban Redevelopment Authority [URA] awarded that open space to a group led by CapitaLand Ltd which submitted the top bid of S$1.38 billion. A follow-up post revealed that the developers need to borrow S$1.56 billion in their bid to build Orchard Road’s biggest monument to consumerism. I wonder whether all of that money is subjected to GST. *chuckles*

Anyway, the PUB first blamed a blockage at the culvert (or whatever) in the Stamford Canal for the flood on June 16. When it flooded again on July 17, it then declared that even the capacity of the canal is found wanting. While the canal is an integral part of Orchard Road’s drainage system, ensuring that the canal is free from obstruction and improving its capacity may not be the complete solution to the problem. After all, the entire problem may not actually lie with the Stamford Canal itself. Is the PUB ignoring the entire system of drains feeding into it, and also the effect of surrounding developments to the flow of water into the canal? (I’ll get to that in awhile.)

Of course, it is not surprising that some have fingered ION Orchard as the cause of the recent Orchard Floods. I agree with them somewhat, since I believe that the small knoll originally in its place (on top of Orchard MRT Station) has a part to play in restricting the flow of water towards the Orchard Road / Scotts Road / Patterson Road junction. However, ION Orchard is only part of the problem.

Moving along Orchard Road, one would notice that there are several other notable changes as well, and the majority of them happened along a rare unconcealed stretch of the mostly concealed Stamford Canal. First of all, the redevelopment of the 30-year-old UOL Building. Next, Specialists’ Center and Hotel Phoenix is also redeveloped and two plots beside it which were previously car parks are now Orchard Central and 313 Somerset. Orchard Central in specific has concealed even more of the Stamford Canal. (See the combined screen shots taken from Google Earth below).


Click for full sized

Just as I am sure the sale of that 2 small plots for building 313 Somerset and Orchard Central would have put at least another billion into the government’s gahmen’s coffers, I dare wager that if there had been no changes to the surrounding area in the past 10 years, a well maintained and unobstructed Stamford Canal would probably have drained water at its designated capacity and kept the entire Orchard Road area dry.

In fact, forummer y2koh in this thread somewhat echoed the same opinion (though our conclusions are very different). He wrote that the reason for all these ‘flash floods’ (or ‘freak floods’) in any area may perhaps be the result of all the new property development in the vicinity. A few areas like Telok Kurau, Katong, Upper Thomson, Bt Timah, Balestier Road etc were mentioned to emphasise the point. I would like to add another: Commonwealth Avenue.

Now, anyone who regularly take a westbound MRT train towards Joo Koon will notice that the open field before Faith Methodist Church is now a multi-storey car park, and the old Tanglin Tech school compound is now several blocks of 40-storey HDB apartments. There used to be a large uncovered monsoon drain behind that car park, but it is now concealed to expand Tanglin Halt Road. (See the combined screen shots of the area taken from Google Earth.)


Click for full sized

Guess what? Not long after these HDB ‘skyscrapers’ were completed (around 2007), Commonwealth Avenue was flooded in 2008 according to these videos I found on Youtube [1] [2]. So the assertion that the cause of all these floods have very little to do with climate change or global warming maybe right.

Bearing that in mind, I’ll like to respond to a comment Lao Lee recently made regarding the floods before I end this post. I quote:

At the same time, whatever we do when we get extraordinary rains like we had recently, no amount of engineering can prevent flooding.

There’s a limited amount of space that’s been dug underground, limited amount of space you can run off for canals and if you have an extraordinary rainfall, well you got to prepare for it.

Somethings are beyond (that); it’s an act of God unless you want to lose half the roads and have canals.” – Lao Lee, 21-07-2010

I agree absolutely with Lao Lee that no amount of engineering can prevent all these floods, because no engineering may actually be required at all. Lao Lee is also right that we may have to lose half the roads for drains to alleviate the problem… in my opinion those roads which the pea-brains in the PWD or whatever had built on top of exposed monsoon / storm drains and canals! Well, perhaps we never needed those roads in the first place if the goons in the LTA can stop getting high from all the *ka-chings* coming from the COEs and ERP gantries.

Old Photo

313 Somerset construction site

Anyway, I have a rather simplistic view of this entire matter. In my opinion, if the Stamford Canal is blocked the immediate area upstream of the blockage will be inundated first. Otherwise, Malaysia’s claim that the floods in the upper reaches of Sungai Johor was the result of Singapore’s land reclamation around Pulau Tekong would actually be credible!

Next, if Stamford Canal is over-capacity, wouldn’t flooding occur along the banks where it is not concealed – i.e. parts of Somerset Road near UOL Building or parts of Orchard Road after Plaza Singapura? Is the area between Liat ‘JiaLat’ Towers and Lucky Plaza anywhere near the blocked culvert or any unconcealed portions of Stamford Canal?

My limited knowledge of water dynamics tells me that water always flow along the easiest path towards the lowest point. In my opinion, when 313 Orchard and Orchard Central were still nothing more but car parks, water flows unimpeded from Orchard Road (through them) into Stamford Canal. If not, they would have at least served the function of sinks (like the car park outside the KTM Station at Tanjong Pagar) for some of the run offs coming from Orchard Road itself. Now that 313 Orchard and Orchard Central has taken up the usual path that the water will take, it will simply flow along the widest open stretch in that area – Orchard Road itself – towards the lowest point in that area, the junction of Orchard Road / Scotts Road / Patterson Road. Even though I am not a civil engineer and I could be wrong about this, my opinion is that Orchard Road itself now serves as a shallow ‘instant storm drain’ for some of that water because it can’t find a better place to go!

Old Photo

Tanglin Halt monsoon drain: concealment underway

To emphasise my point, I’ll talk about Commonwealth Avenue again. With the open field now a multi-storey car park and part of the monsoon train concealed, most of the run off now end up in and overwhelm the 2-decade-old drains along Commonwealth Avenue. When overwhelmed, water that previously drains off from Commonwealth Avenue can go nowhere else except the road itself.

Simply put, the recent rains are not extraordinary. The meteorological services has not shown us that rainfall has hit a historical new high. The only engineering we need to look into, is all that mindless ‘civil engineering’ as a result of the endless property development in Singapore. All of these craps that the Tali-PAP gahmen and the so-called top talent multi-million mini$ter$ have given to Singaporeans are simply lame. When no serious study has been committed to look into the problem, it is difficult to believe any of their statements hold any water at all!

For too long has the Tali-PAP gahmen been short on accountability and grossly overpaid. Now it even dared to redefine its own ‘job description’ and tried to worm itself out of part of the job that is expected of them with nothing more than mere words that is not backed up with any concrete evidence. It is way past due time for a ‘regime change’ at the ballot box. After all, as an employee I would be fired by my boss if I can choose to do only the part of the job I liked (or do best) and disregard the rest. That, is obviously what this gahmen is now doing with regard to the floods.

Satire – Why we shouldn’t be building more drains

5 comments

Our Prime Mini$ter, Baby Lee said any attempt to eradicate flooding in Singapore would require plenty of money and land.

“If you are going to do that, you will need huge tracts of land put aside for huge monsoon drains, which will be empty most of the time, (and) the infrastructure will cost a lot of money and it is not worth it,” he said, speaking in the wake of the recent flash floods here.

I am impressed. Our Prime Minister has the superpower of prescience to know that it would take plenty of money and land to deal with the floods all over Singapore in just barely over a month. It almost certainly make me felt his S$3 million annual salary is worth it. All lesser mortals would have committed the PUB and the relevant mini$try to study and come up with plans on how to deal with the situation before they are capable of coming to that conclusion. Just imagine how much more money it would have cost us to conduct such a study?

In fact, it is more worth it for land to be released to build golf courses in Singapore. It is a fact that there isn’t enough land for golf courses because the Marina Bay Golf Course has to be built on reclaimed land. It really doesn’t matter the golf courses are also technically empty most of the time and they benefit only the rich. They are a such pretty sight when they aren’t in use during inclement weather. Just imagining the misty rain and grassland gave me an orgasm already. 9 golf courses on the main island of Singapore (not including the one in Sentosa) definitely is not enough. Forget about the environmental impact of golf courses, specifically the amount of water, chemical pesticides and fertilizers used for its maintenance. We will be watering them all with Newater, and NEA will monitor the level of chemical pesticides and fertilizers used to ensure they will not be harmful to Singaporeans.

Don’t forget that cost and profit is paramount in all decisions of the Tali-PAP government gahmen. Singapore, Inc is run just like any other corporation! If something would cost and not profit, the decision will certainly be a irrevocable no. That is why a lot of the old guard of the Tali-PAP no longer hold any position these days. They would have gone ahead with building the drains and paid the cost. That would be costly and unprofitable.

In fact, other than selling land to clubs to build more golf courses which catered to the rich, it is even more profitable to sell the land to a developer to turn it into more blocks of soulless apartments or shopping malls. Worse come to worst, the land can still be ‘sold’ to the HDB to turn into more ‘affordable housing’ which still take the entirety of many Singaporeans’ useful, working life to pay off. They would be daft to complain about this!

So, the car owners, home owners and shop owners can deal with the recurring cost of damage cost by the floods on their own. There is no way that can cost more than the gahmen to pay a one time cost to eliminate the problem entirely. All of Singapore Inc’s money are belong to the Tali-PAP. The Tali-PAP will decide how the money will be better spent. After all, the MAS can ‘create’ more out of thin air with the stroke of a pen and have the Singapore Mint made them.

It is not ironical that in spite of real rainy weather the gahmen will not even use a cent from the reserves to deal with the situation. That money is better used by Temasek and GIC to buy into money-losing American and European Investment banks. Be grateful they are ‘making losses’. Because if they did not buy high and sell low, more jobs maybe lost. By doing so, Singapore is helping put more money into the global markets and economy to fight the credit crunch and prevent a double dip recession. America will be happy and it will sell us more of their high tech weaponary which will keep us safe.

That is why we definitely can’t spend that money on drains! The more I think of it, the more I am moved to tears. They are tears of joy in knowing what a caring and responsible gahmen we have.

Random Discourse – Floods & A Handcuffed Reporter

2 comments

It was quite shocking when I saw this on Saturday’s evening tabloids. It’s not the reporter who got handcuffed that got my attention (though I’ll get back to that in awhile) but the so-called freak floods that happens every fifty years or so has happened again in less than fifty days. It’s not only the usual places like Bukit Timah that is flooded but Orchard, and it was exactly one month ago that Orchard Road turned into Sungei Orchard.

If God Himself is making a statement that He objects to being blamed for the floods, He certainly has a sense of humor. Though those who have a part to play and has suffered in His current ‘drama’ would hardly find it humorous.

I felt especially sorry for Wendy’s, which is under renovation after incurring S$500,000 in damages from last month’s flood. It was once again submerged in waist-deep water. Liat Towers clearly need to get some civil engineers in to study the viability of installing some kind of pump system to pump the water out into the sewage system during heavy rain since it is no use pumping back onto the drainage system when it has overflowed. I am actually tempted to ask the meteorological services to provide the public past records in which the same amount of rainfall was experienced, so we can see for ourselves whether similar flooding has occurred. Just why has our local press not taken the initiative to do this for our information once again points to the sub-par journalism standards in this country. It makes one wonder whether revealing the historical records would put certain departments or mini$tries or people in a very difficult position – such as revealing that the storms causing these so called ‘freak floods’ are not so uncommon after all. In fact, a rather bad tropical storm called Vamei hit us back in December 2001 and I remember that it went on raining for days. None of us were even informed we were hit by one of the worst storms in the history of Singapore and according to these records, Vamei was even classified as a Typhoon before it landed in Johor. Most of us probably still reported to work that day and I recalled seeing many ruined umbrellas in the trash can outside the office building one particular morning. Was there any floods in Orchard then? I have extracted the data related to Vamei from the site for easy reference (see below).


To understand the data format click here.

Just what excuse will Yaacob Ibrahim give this time round after the PUB cleared the blockage at that culvert or whatever? Perhaps some contractor didn’t do a good job, eh? After being paid a million dollars for his alleged talent, the million dollar mini$ter cannot expect us to be forgiving or patient in the face of such repeated fiascos. He and the well paid civil servants serpents under him do not need me to tell them to quit blaming the ‘freak weather’ for all these woes and instead take a hard look at the change of landscape in those areas and do a detailed study on what effect those changes brought to the area. To quote one of the tenants of Delfi Orchard, Ms Shanta Sundarason:

“So much for the ‘once in 50 years freak flood’ along Orchard Road. It would be nice for the problem to be addressed and dealt with, rather than a sweeping statement from the ministry.”

Singaporeans should give Shanta Sundarason a standing ovation for being forthright even though her response is still rather mild. In ancient China, the reason for the occurrence of such disasters is obvious: those in power has lost the Mandate of Heaven and until they atone for all their sins, the punishment will continue. Do not let Heaven wait too long, for when it makes the decision to pass the Mandate to another the reckoning that follow will definitely not be pleasant.

In ancient Japan, I will have given the mini$ter a katana, and he can use any public park for his final act of atonement (in traditional samurai fashion) to his dismal failure. In modern days however, there would normally be an outrage and a loud outcry for blood. When the disaster relief effort was badly managed after Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan in 8 Aug 2009, the entire cabinet there subsequently resigned. In Singapore, all the people can do is complain (or make #FAIL posters, or make songs about it) and then just dream on. We can’t even get the responsible mini$try to admit to the failure and we can definitely forget about even getting the mini$ter in charge of it to be accountable.

From the escape of Mas Selamat to the losses suffered by town councils ‘investing’ their sinking funds, from the failure to control runaway property prices to failure to successfully deal with our public transport and traffic woes, the accountability we have gotten from the highest levels here is as good as a big fat zero. When one considers that being accountable does not seem to be part of the requirement, I am tempted to agree with a Dr. Ng Eng Hen Ng Eng Eng that all our mini$ter$ are value for money even while some might say we should pay them lesser because of that.

This is the kind of caring and responsible government gahmen we are getting. To them, good economic performance and economic indicators is all about good governance. The other things are deemed insignificant. That is not a surprise since economic indicators would be the justification to the mini$ter$ own remuneration! It probably never occurred to them that even though a good economy ensure jobs for most people and indirectly the economic well being of Singaporeans, there is more to living than just having a job and money to go around. If economic performance the only indicator on how well this country is run, we should do away with all the other ministries except one – the one who will make the economic policies and ‘run’ the economy.

Now, let me get back to the part about the poor reporter. From what I understand, anybody convicted of ‘interfering’ with the police carrying out its ‘public duty’ will be sentenced to a jail term no less than three years or fined up to $2,500 or both. However, I have yet to find an official press statement (under ‘News Releases’) on the Singapore Police Force website on this matter even though the Temasek Review claimed that such a statement has been released. Perhaps I was looking at the wrong place though I would have expected this well established people journalist site to have linked the press statement for our reference.

It makes me wonder if the poor sod was dealt with that way as a subtle warning to all the ‘people journalists’ out there that those who report on news that is negative to Singapore’s image should desist ‘for their own good’. After all, I see no reason why the Lianhe Wanbao [联合晚报] reporter Wu Qing Shun [吴庆顺] should be treated that way from the newspaper report.

The newspaper report cited that Wu arrived at an affected area along Upper Bukit Timah around 7am. When Wu attempted to find a better angle to take a photo of a vehicle trapped in the flood he was stopped by a police officer. Even though he has politely asked to take one more photo, the police officer handcuffed him and threatened to take him to the station. According to an article on the Temasek Review, the police claimed that Mr Wu was handcuffed as he was posing a ‘danger’ to himself and others. He was released after ‘assessment’ which confirmed that he would not ‘hinder’ the police’s ‘rescue operations’.

There is a major contradiction between the newspaper report and the article on the Temasek Review – i.e. the newspaper report did not indicate that Wu was posing any danger to anyone or himself while the Temasek Review reference to a police release spoke about Wu endangering his own life and that of others. What sort of ‘danger’ has Wu placed himself and other people in? Unless Wu was already in a position of grave danger, the police officer should spend more time explaining why he should desist and leave. Was Wu already way ahead into a dangerous position and the police officer has moved forward to advise Wu to move back to somewhere safer? After all, if Wu was handcuffed because he is in a position where was posing a ‘danger’ to himself and others, then the police officer is also in danger and he has every right to use limited force to not just safeguard the life of Wu but that of himself.

Beside that, I am under the impression that all rescue operations were conducted by the SCDF (Singapore Civil Defense Force) and not the police. It was my understanding that the job of the police to cordon off any dangerous areas from the general public so this so-called police release is rather puzzling. That is the reason why I am making such a fuss over the linking of the police’s press release.

At this moment, I find both of these reports equally deplorable as they do not really give the general public the necessary and important information. It has left the public with more questions than answers and the only objective it has served was to give everyone the impression of police brutality or at the very minimum, a misuse of police authority.

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