Kelvin Teo, 'Increased focus on recruiting matured applicants into civil service in a move away from a scholarship focus?'
There is a wide debate over the effectiveness of our scholarship system. Basically, the scholarship boards of our government attempt to identify talented students straight after “A” levels. They are sponsered for their studies at top universities, and come back to serve their bond at various government bodies. The question with admitting these fresh out of “A” levels students is – 1) are they even sure of their choice to take up the scholarship and enter public service? 2) have they gleaned enough experience of their world around them, thought over what they have been through and then make an informed choice to enter our government service? The first two questions, these prospective scholars should be asking themselves. The third question is a relevant one that deals with their life experience – 3) have what they experienced thus far really prepared them for life in the work place of our government ministries?
Solo Bear, 'Gays and Gay Activists, You can't have your cake and eat it'
Looks like Sorry Rony is being scapegoated the way Thio and Josie were. Gays and gay activists simply cannot let go the ghost of Sorry Rony. One of the latest salvo from the gay camp is that since religion is protected under the Sedition Act, why not sexual minorities?
Here is the latest call from the gay community - "Equal treatment" of gays, under the Sedition Act.
E-Jay sees that the Sedition Act protects the sensitivities of the religious. Correct. What he does not see is the same Act prevents religionists from preaching their religion in such a way it offends people from another religion. For example, Christians cannot express their belief that Buddhists are not saved because they do not take Jesus as their Lord, in such a way it offends Buddhists (as in the Sorry Rony case).
Now if gays want to be in the league of religions, they have to accept ALL TERMS that come under the Sedition Act. That will also mean that gays must not preach their ideals such that they offend non-gays.
A2ED, 'To the 'Opposition' : The meaning of 'maintaining harmony''
In the days following the 3 Chinese teenagers and the Rony affair, there’s much that’s been said about the need ‘to maintain religious and racial harmony’.
To all those whom are inclined to make such a statement; or to observe that the government has done an admirable job in maintaining it; or that the harmony that’s been for quite a while must be ‘maintained’ - all of which i’ve come across amongst ‘neitzens’ - remember this, there is a great difference between maintaining a harmony despite the religious and racial status quo and maintaining it in respect of an egalitarian religious and racial status quo, just as there is a great difference between tolerance-cum-sensitivity and appreciation-cum-respect. Till the latter is proven to be true, the former can serve to maintain a fascist and racist state of a affairs.
The Secret Political Blog, 'De-constructing PM Lee Chinese New Year Message 2010'
What better way to mark an occasion so steeped in superstition than a message filled with mythology? In PM Lee’s Chinese New Year Message 2010, enough falsehoods have been weaved into a few hundred words that can rival two thousand years of Chinese civilization. Let us de-construct some juicy bits below:
"We are at a turning point in our economic development. We cannot continue importing foreign workers as liberally as before, because we will run up against space constraints. This means our total workforce will expand more slowly, which by itself would imply slower economic growth. To make up for this, and achieve the 3-5% growth target, we must raise productivity much faster, and do more with the resources that we have."
Space Constraints? What a euphemism; a term that grossly glosses over all the controversies of our liberal immigration policy; two words that make it sound like the only objection we have to foreigners is their uncanny ability to occupy space. What of the dilution of our culture, of second class citizenship, of sports medals won but lost forever, of the implied superiority of foreign talents, of a lost sense of entitlement, of pink ICs doled out freely, of the insulting depiction of the new hard-working migrant pitted against now-lazy Singaporeans with their thick hides un-spurred? Two words. Space Constraints. What a judicious economy of words, what un-paralleled summarizing skills.
The time has come to wrap up the site. The reasons are as stated in the 'notice' by MM, and we have not been directed to shut it down by 'higher beings';)
However, the additional reason which is not stated, but which we have discussed from the start, is that our sole purpose was to stimulate mutual consideration amongst bloggers of each other's viewpoints. That was not encouraged by SGdaily's approach. That is also one of the reasons we started the 'singazine feature' section at the top so that people can consider opposing views by bloggers instead of just TOC or TR. You can call it the 'madison square garden tag team championship' if you like, except that everyone can be part of either team. The whole structure of the site, such as the said 'singazine feature', 'blogger spotlight', and giving prominence to the daily blog lists above news articles, was for the purpose of elevating the value of the singaporean blogger as opposed to the TOC or TR. We recognise that TOC or TR are just a small part of the aggregate of the value of all bloggers. Hence, our elevation of the status of the humble blogger in our structure.
It is a fundamental democratic precept that we are not only made stronger in the consideration of the views of others, but in that act itself, we practice the valuation of the significance of each other whatever their status. That is why we frequently put opposing views on singazine feature, not because we support either viewpoint, but because we support the value of debate and mutual consideration amongst bloggers. We view bloggers as the real TOC and TR, amongst others, and we wanted to promote that view so as to temper the consequences of just waiting on the words of the prominent. The value of this lies in the opportunity it presents for truly discursive interaction between bloggers whatever their political inclinations. To date, unfortunately, quite a few seem to be operating as separate 'triad societies' whom are mutually antagonistic, ignore each other, whilst faithfully abiding by the dictates of their respective leaders. That's not democracy sir. That's popular fascism.
The point of the whole operation was to illustrate to local bloggers the value of being representative, encourage them to consider each other's views, and to stimulate change in existing blog aggregators - particularly Singaporedaily. We wanted to see as many 'views' of bloggers' articles and as many comments as one might see in TR on the sites of bloggers. In fact, the 'thank you' note we put out at each blogger's site before posting their article link at one time was in a way an invitation to them to come to singazine to consider the views of others and to appreciate true representation. We are not out to destroy or compete with other blog aggregators, but to illustrate the value of representation. It wasn't a 'war between blog aggregators' as it was the intention from the start to shut down Singazine once the stated message had been transmitted. If local bloggers are not going to learn from the example we put out and check on their own, then they truly deserve the government they get, and the type of 'opposition' that it produces.
As for Ng E-Jay's views on Singazine, it is ill-argued. Being pro-opposition does not have to come at the price of censoring out those who disagree with us. They really have to consider the value of constructive criticism, or are they against it just as the government has been in the past? He speaks about the need to censor opposing views so as to maintain unity in the opposition. Isn't that the same as having one race as a majority so as to bring about 'unity' amongst the people of singapore, or promoting one culture over others so as to engender cultural unity, or the PAP keeping their supporters from being too oppositional for the sake of 'unity'? It is worrying indeed that he thinks along lines that is identical with that of the party in power. if oppositional elements think along such lines when they aren't in power, what do you think we can expect when they are?
But then again, now, the PAP themselves seem to be considering oppositional opinions, such as that claimed by TR, Chua Chin Leng, amongst others, and which has seen them caving in on some issues. When are oppositional bloggers, or pro-PAP ones, going to start doing that amongst themselves? In our representation of all bloggers, and giving prominence to, amongst others, Not My SDP and Where Bears Roam Free, we took the first step. They are valuable in their proffering another take on things. And we appreciate that even though we might not agree with some of their views.
Secondly, singaporedaily, by purporting to be representative of singapore bloggers, is duty bound to represent all relevant articles. They may be 'privately-run', but they present themselves as a pro-democracy, anti-censorship, political site, and as implied in their name, representative of singapore socio-political bloggers - which they verifiably aren't. Being 'privately-run' is no defence for not being representative when you present yourself as a vehicle of change in the political milieu. For instance, some of the team has noted that they do not often, if at all, link the likes of Gopalan Nair, Solo Bear, Not My SDP, amongst others. If they believe that they are aggregating blogs with discerning taste, that cannot be assumed, it has to be proven. To date, they've done a regrettable job.
Singazine's purpose from the start was to represent all bloggers and illustrate the value of representation even if it doesn't agree with our personal views. For myself, I had initially refused to have my name associated with singazine as i was aware of much bias against myself amongst some bloggers and oppositional elements, and didn't want this to affect bloggers' objective appreciation of the representative nature of the site. If anyone was to ask you, Senor Fifi, who MM Sz is, tell them, s/he is the totality of all democratically-inclined bloggers and thus is not inclined to go against her/himself by censoring any part of her viewpoints, and considers all. There will be some whom might speculate whom MM might be, or what the agenda is and so on. But what is most important here is the points raised in this closing summation. We, as part of the Singazine team, are of no consequence. All that matters are the points discussed.
be well, and i'm sure I speak for the rest of the team, including yourself, when I extend those wishes to all Singaporean bloggers.
a2ed, for Singazine
NOTICE
We regret to inform all readers that Singazine will not be operating as a blog or news aggregator anymore.
We started up this site to illustrate the value of non-discriminatory representation of all bloggers so that there can be mutual consideration of ideas despite it not being in agreement with one's own viewpoint. Singaporedaily was doing a censorious job in that respect. Hence, we were compelled to start up Singazine as a democratic response to their regrettable approach. We hope that we've set a higher standard in respect to that and it is now up to you to check on your 'own'. While we check on the government, let's not forget to check on our own as well.
For now, we would like to direct readers to sgbreakingnews.com. We would like to advise them to include a categorical section like our 'blogger selections' so that people might be able to access daily and weekly blog listings in relevant categories. They are doing quite a good job already and we applaud them for their efforts. Just some tweaking on their part with regards to the aforementioned and they'll do fine. We are not in this for competition, but for inciting awareness. We'd also like to add, to sgbreakingnews, that directing people to 'popular posts' is not such a good idea unless you can be certain that what's popular is always insightful. For that, you'll have to be certain of the astuteness of the people. That cannot be said of any people of any time. Insight, not 'hits', is that which matters.
And in the past couple of months, we hope that we have done a more than adequate job in illustrating these points through practice.
Singazine.com will stand pending evolution. Perhaps we might return as a group of writers with avant garde perspectives not generally considered by most. If that describes you, email us. Don't 'join us'. Let's 'collaborate'. We'd rather have pro-objective writers than pro-PAP or pro-Opposition. We are only biased toward truth wherever it lays its hat.
To all bloggers, have faith in yourselves as the forwarders of new ideas. Don't think that insight can only come forth from the 'new media'. You can be the humble blogger who can forward that which no overly-lauded politician, blogger or new media ever thought of.
You are singazine, singaporekini, and so on and so forth. Don't forget that. Democracy is based on the valuation of the single individual. When that is absent, everything else is a farce.
IN HIS letter last Saturday, 'Life after PAP', Mr Ng Kok Lim asserts that Singaporeans have the inherent and innate ability to prosper and flourish, no matter who leads the country. In support of his argument, he mentions how various changes of government in the region have not been detrimental to the countries involved.
Separately, in his letter also last Saturday, 'Politically vibrant Singapore', Mr Albert Tay advocates competition in the political arena, which he says can only facilitate advancement.
Ethnically, Singaporeans are no different from the countries they migrated from. If, indeed, all work ethic is equal, every country in the region would have scaled the same peaks as Singapore. That we have achieved a standing in the world beyond expectations says as much about our resourcefulness to overcome hardship as it does about the quality of our leadership in our country's formative years.
We don't censor bloggers by playing favourites. You got something insightful to say, you're in - even if we don't agree with you, or think you're just full of sh*t. Do it in an academic style, kopi tiam style, or even broken Engrish, we don't care. All that matters is relatively unique insight, or, at least, a 'rant' that is 'for' or 'against' in various issues.
If we missed your blog or post, just email us. Singazine aims to be truly representative and needs your help for that. So you could say, YOU run this site, we just administer it. In other words, our 'team of writers' is you, and Singazine is the non-exclusive, all-inclusive offline citizen, online. Don't 'write for us', write for Singapore, and Humanity. We don't want to cramp your style or perspective.
And by the way, foreigners are most welcome here. You got any gripes or tales about us locals or your experiences here, let's hear it.
Only partial news articles will be published here in respect of copyright regulations.
This site is not sexist or bigoted, so to 'chiobu' you will have to go elsewhere. We don't mix the base and bias with politics.
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