Amnesty International 2007 Report On Singapore

Amnesty International is the world's watcher on human rights. Is Singapore a paradise as touted by its state-controlled press and media, or is it actually hell marketed and packaged with clean streets and self-claiming "1st world living"?

The tell-tell sign of which is which is actually the world biggest salary demanded by the government for running one of the world's smallest country. The citizens have no say about the matter and have no alternative either.

Well, you can decide for yourself by reading the following report from the source:

AI 2007 Annual Report on Singapore
Amnesty International
25 May 07

Head of state: S R Nathan
Head of government: Lee Hsien Loong
Death penalty: retentionist
International Criminal Court: not ratified

Freedom of expression and assembly came under increasingly close controls. Men arrested in previous years were held without charge or trial under the Internal Security Act amid fears that they were at risk of ill-treatment. Death sentences were imposed and at least five people were executed. Criminal offenders were sentenced to caning.

Background

The People's Action Party (PAP), which has dominated political life and wider society for nearly half a century, was re-elected for a five-year term in May. The party's stated commitment to building a more open society did not materialize.

Restrictions on free expression and assembly

• Civil defamation suits and criminal charges were used or threatened against government critics, human rights activists, Falun Gong practitioners and foreign news media. Tighter restrictions on several major foreign publications were announced in August, enabling the authorities to take punitive measures more easily.

• Dr Chee Soon Juan, leader of the opposition Singapore Democratic Party, was declared bankrupt in February when he was unable to pay damages of 500,000 Singapore dollars (approximately US$306,000) to two PAP leaders when a 2001 defamation suit ended. As a bankrupt, he was barred from seeking election. He was imprisoned for eight days in March for contempt of court after saying publicly that the judiciary lacked independence. In November he was sentenced to a prison term of five weeks for speaking in public without a permit. On his release he faced further criminal charges for speaking in public without a permit and attempting to leave the country without permission. In August the publisher and the editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review were sued for defamation in connection with a favourable article about him.

• J B Jeyaretnam, former leader of the opposition Workers' Party, unsuccessfully appealed against the bankruptcy imposed on him in 2001 after a series of politically motivated defamation suits. He remained unable to stand for re-election.

• Writer Lee Kin Mun was suspended by the state-owned newspaper Today following publication of a critical article on Singapore's living costs.

• Two Falun Gong practitioners were convicted of holding an illegal protest outside the Chinese Embassy and sentenced in November to prison terms of 15 days and 10 days respectively. Nine practitioners were charged with illegally assembling to distribute leaflets. Jaya Gibson, a British journalist and Falun Gong practitioner, was denied entry to Singapore.

• The government restricted both domestic and foreign activism relating to a meeting in Singapore of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in September, provoking worldwide criticism, including from both institutions.

Detention without charge or trial

At least 34 men remained in detention without charge or trial under the Internal Security Act. The authorities claimed the men were involved in militant Islamist groups and posed a security threat to Singapore. Seven detainees were reportedly released after co-operating with the authorities and responding well to "rehabilitation". In February, Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng was reported as saying that the treatment of such detainees was not a "tea party" but denied they had been tortured.

Conscientious objectors

At least eight conscientious objectors were imprisoned, and 12 others continued to serve their sentences during 2006. All were members of the banned Jehovah's Witnesses religious group. There were no moves towards offering an alternative to military service.

Death penalty and corporal punishment

At least five people were executed, two in June following conviction for drug trafficking, the others in November after being convicted of murder. Death sentences were handed down to at least five people.

The presence of foreign prisoners on death row raised the international profile of Singapore's high rate of executions. The UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions expressed concern about executions in Singapore and called for an end to death sentences for drug-related offences, arguing that the mandatory death sentence is a violation of international legal standards. In January the Singapore Law Society said it intended to carry out "an open-minded review of the legal issues" related to the death penalty.

People continued to be sentenced to caning throughout the year, including a 16-year-old boy convicted of theft and judged unsuitable for reformative training.

Click here to learn more about Amnesty International.

Making babies 101

For countries with declining birthrate like Singapore, maybe it's time to try sublime hypnosis. Try playing ads like this on TV during every intermissions and you might just be successful in programming their sub-conscious to want to "create more babies" for your continuous slavery.

Uniquely Singapore - Male Slavery

All men in Singapore have to go through a compulsory form of slavery called "National Service".

Here is a video from the Evil Bunny that shows it like it is:

Yaacob Ibrahim - Is this guy worth his million dollar salary?

There are idiots and there are imbeciles, and there is Yaacob Ibrahim.

From a news report by Tan Hui Leng of MediaCorp huileng@mediacorp. com.sg, he was reported to had said the followings:

"THINK not of the ministerial pay hike in terms of dollars and cents, but about the kind of Singapore that you want," said Environment and Water Resources Minister Dr Yaacob Ibrahim.

"Really it's not about me, it's not about the Cabinet, but I think the best question for you to ask is the first question asked in Parliament: What kind of a country are we? What is Singapore?" he said.

Dr Yaacob was responding to a resident's question on the link between the Goods and Services Tax (GST) hike and the ministerial pay increment at a dialogue session with residents during his ministerial visit to Tampines Central.

Dear Dr Yaacob, if it's not about you nor about the Cabinet, then all of you wouldn't be asking for that million dollar pay raise will you? Of course it is all about you and the Cabinet. Surely you and the Cabinet getting that million dollar pay raise has nothing to do with the "generous" $30 increase that those pitiful old folks are getting right? $290 for them is definitely dollars and cents, but your million dollar salary is not.

And you have to ask what kind of country are we and what is Singapore? Why don't you tell us? Are we a country where the income disparity between the rich and the poor had widen so much over the past years and yet you guys see nothing wrong with that and still want more money over the currently obscene level you are already getting? Singapore's growth in term of GDP and foreign reserves did little to benefit us, the poorer class and if this stay the course, it will never be. Is this the type of country and Singapore you are telling us that we want? Or is that what you want?

"I always explain this to visitors. I say you go to the US, if you have a riot in New York, you can go and stay in Los Angeles. In Singapore if you get a riot in Bedok, you cannot stay in Jurong," he said.

Of course not, but why will there ever be a riot in Singapore in the first place if the government is genuinely caring for the people? Do the poor peasants of Singapore have nothing better to do and create riots all day? In order for a riot to form, there must be a cause for it. Can the cause of this probable riot you are thinking of be due to the unreasonable ministerial pay hike? I will think so.

"The smallness of Singapore gives us a certain flexibility but ... our room for making mistakes is very, very narrow and ... if we get our policy wrong, I think that will be disastrous."

Does it mean that you and the cabinet had never been wrong before? Does it mean that all your policies in the past 40 years are all right? If it is so, then we wouldn't have this ever widening income discrepancy and you demanding a pay hike before this is resolved.

Because of that, he said, continuity in leadership is required in governing the country. He cited the Government's ability to overcome Singapore's water issues as an example. "Supposing the Government changes every five years, different policy, I don't think we could have a sustainable water supply for Singaporeans, " he said. "Only because the Government has been on it for the last 40 years, the same Government, committed to the same outcome, we have been able to achieve resilience in our water supply."

I disagree, the leadership of a government can change, but good policies that are already in place need not be changed, just the bad ones. I wonder where you get this idea from? Your degree from NUS in 1980, or your PhD from Stanford University in 1989? Whatever gave you the notion that if our government were to change today, we will have no water tomorrow?

Explaining the GST increase, Dr Yaacob said it is needed "primarily because we have some long-term problems emerging". "In order to fund projects for low-income families, we need to be able to raise some revenue," he said

Yes, you are right on this long-term problems emerging, and that problem is not the low income families but the ever insatiable thirst for salary increase by the current government. Look, your salary is already way, way high up there. If you think that's still not enough, go join the private sector. We can do without you and your pay hike. We can use the total cumulative sum of the ministerial pay hike to do something good for all the Singaporeans, especially the lower income ones, and we can all do without the GST increase since now we do not have to raise revenue to fund your salary hike.

Dr Yaacob also defended the civil service, saying the good performers deserve the pay. "Frankly speaking, you cannot find another civil service quite like it. It's an ecosystem. ... Look at other countries ?how the civil service is corrupt, inept, inefficient. Ours is on the ball. They get the job done."

So who appraise your performances and tell you that all of you are doing great? You yourself? Why not put this to a vote right now and let us Singaporeans tell you what we really think of your performance? You think you are on the ball and getting the job done? Then why are you asking for more money now when the poor gets poorer? Why are our men being discriminated against in job opportunities because they have NS liabilities? Why are Singaporeans being penalised and slapped with a fine for driving foreign vehicles into Singapore at all times while foreigners get to drive in for free at certain hours of the day?

Look, these are just a few examples among many others and they are long standing issues that haven't been resolved. Whatever make you think you are better? If you think you are solving problems, think again, because you might be the very problem that need solving.

Mr Lee Kuan Yew - Will you quit if we don't want to pay you the insane salary you want?

As you can see from the frequency of my postings, the ministerial pay hike issue had kept me sleepless for days already. I had read a lot of blogs, with many views telling the First FamiLEE to STFU etc. and I have some really serious thoughts.

Now, if Mr Lee Kuan Yew is implying that if we, the peasants, do not see the value and do not want to pay them the salary increase that they are asking for, then many of them will quit to join private sectors since we are unable to pay the rate to "retain" them.

Now, my question to Mr Lee Kuan Yew and all the ministers is this, "Suppose that we, the peasants, do not want you to have this salary increase as your current salary level is already way beyond obscene compared to all the 1st World countries, will you please quit now?"

If your answer is no, then I don't see the need for this salary increase.

But, if your answer is yes and you will quit right now if you don't get this salary increase, then I say good riddance because you are akin to blackmailing all of us. With the increasing income disparity between the rich and the poor, I seriously don't think you are doing a good job. I will rather take my chances and risk the scenario of having my wife work as a maid in some foreign lands as you had so omni-potently predicted than to give in to this unreasonable pay raise.

The way I see it is if you want to review the salary benchmark, then all your pays should be decrease by the percentage of the income slide in the poorest 10% of the population since the last salary review. Even then, it's still obscene. Obviously you are not doing a good job. A herd can only be as fast as its weakest members, so if you, as a leader of the herd, chooses to keep charging ahead despite the weakest falling further and further behind, then very soon, we wouldn't really have much of a herd left will we? In that case, whether you get that pay increase, stay or quit, doesn't really make a difference as this shows us that your heart is already no longer part of the herd even though your physical body is still here.

Singapore Rebel

This is a banned film on Dr Chee Soon Juan, leader of Singapore Democratic Party. Rather interesting to hear his side of the story without any censorship that we peasants are so used to by now.

Singapore Rebel:

Can Singapore's Elites Take Critism?

Unfortunately, that don't appear to be the case as it seems that they usually take it very personally and prefer to argue their stands with a lawsuit. Whatever happen to good old debate where both side eventually understand more of the other party's position so both can emerge amiably and as winners? Does winning a lawsuit make them right?

T.T Durai vs SPH had already shown us that he is in the wrong despite him winning all previous cases he filed against several allegations such as having gold taps and flying on first-class tickets. So all the lawsuits that our elites had filed in the past and won, are they all right? Or did they win because they have more moolah and power?

The Article From Far Eastern Economic Review - Singapore’s ‘Martyr,’ Chee Soon Juan

Singapore vs. criticism:

Banned conference in Singapore

It is of my view that if Singapore is to ban anything, then that thing must be damn good stuff.

Here are all the 3 parts of a conference by Dr Chee Soon Juan (leader of an opposition party) and his speech on his view of the plight of most Singaporeans and other issues.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Like I had said before, I don't really have much love for this guy, but what he said in this conference is pretty much about the sad but true state of Singapore. I think we can really use a lot of reforms in many areas.

JB Jeyaretnam - A Singaporean with balls

Let me tell you, I only have 2 balls but this old man here have got lots of balls. Despite being royally fucked by the First FamiLEE for so many times, Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam keeps coming back for more. If there ever was a hero in Singapore, this old man is definitely it.



Part 1:


Part2:

Something they don't teach you at school

I'll bet that even the elites going to schools on our taxpayer money don't even get to learn this in any of their syllabus. But then, with all the money they have, they can usually pay their way through any problem.

For us peasants, well, here's a tutorial on "hacking hotel pay channels". I am not suggesting anyone to actually go and try it out, so please, just view this as an educational material and know that there is always alternatives even when someone up there tells us die, die must pay.