"Gian Png" Temasek Needs Retail Investors?

For the benefit of those who do not understand the Hokien dialect, "Gian Png" literally means "hungry for rice" or if I may, "needs more money to survive".

Temasek needs retail investors? [Link]

It needs to update its Charter? [Link]

Does it actually matter to common citizens like me?

To whom does the murky money (whatever that's left) in Temasek (or even GIC) belongs to?

1. We, the citizens of Singapore?
2. The PAP Government?
3. Or "Monopoly Money" of the rich and famous to play with?

And who is accountable for the losses so far?

1. We, the citizens of Singapoor?
2. The PAP Government?
3. The Ministry of Finance (during LHL or Tharman's tenure)?
4. Temasek's Board of Directors (whoever they are)?
5. Chairman Dhanabalan?
6. CEO Ho Ching?
7. Or shall we put the blame on Chip Goodyear? Ooops . . '
   

Actually I think both Dhana and Ho Ching are loss for words to describe the loss so far.

Maybe the GreatGrandma of my granddaughter is right after all. She always advises me to let things be. Don't rant. Don't bitch. She tells me that the Power that is (be it PAP govt, CPF Board, HDB, IRA, the Police, the Judiciary, Temasek, etc) has the Power. Simple as that!

They do their "thing" and there's nothing non-elite citizens can do about it . . . except to rant, bitch or vote. And serious feedback (PR gimmick) so often requested even by the PM is nothing but another "chui kong lumpar song" ( mouth talks, testicles titillate).

NMP Viswa Sadasivan is one good example. It is so sad that feedback to build a more inclusive society is but a joke after NMP Viswa Sadasivan with his brilliant truth got shot down by LKY and NEH. The heart of the matter is: Truth bloody hurts! Both the giver and recipients!

Great Grandma (whose husband would be as young as LKY today but decided to let go at age 73) is wise enough to advise that voting them out would be tough because of the gerrymandeering and the silly GRC. One man one vote but one constituency needs 6 bloody MPs? It becomes a greater joke when the GRC is meant to protect the minority and the Pledge is nothing but an Aspiration. A bloody insult to the good names of David Marshall, JB Jeyaratnam, Rajaratnam, Othman Wok, E W Barker and other politicians who truly deserved their parliamentary seats, regardless of race language or religion. Of course, the Election Department under the purview of the PM's office [Link] is another reason why the Pledge is just an Aspiration.

Temasek
Old Charter?
New Charter?
Who cares
Except
The
Power
That
Is

Flip flop? Damage control? Call it what you may. A rose by any name would smell as sweet. Alas, Temasek doesn't.

Even if truth hurts,
The Art of Living is To Die Young . . . . . . . . As Late As Possible!

Yes, to every life, a little rain must fall.

We need the water.

feedmetothefish

Is Our Pledge an Aspiration Leading to Expiration?

I read MM's Pledge/Aspiration Tsunami but after watching the video [link], my heart skipped a beat or two and I almost had another heart attack!

As a Singaporean Cheena who's old enough to sing "God Save The Queen"; "Negara Ku" and "Majulah Singapura" as a National Anthem, I'm shocked by MM's retort to Viswa Sadasivan. It was uncalled for.

In his typical pompous way (though not as loud now) of demolishing what he finds irksome, MM gave examples of Indians (Brahmins not in Sinda and Non-Brahmin in Sinda) and Malays (getting pregnant at a young age) which I and many of my Mat, Neh and Grago friends find racially sick and nauseating. Hello, does he not know that young unmarried Singaporean Cheena girls get pregnant too? Wouldn't it be more politically correct to use young Chinese prego instead of Malay as an example?

Isn't the rich/poor divide, the elites/heartlanders divide a greater cause for concern than the divide within each race. For heavens sake, there are arseholes and good guys in each and every race! Let the Brahmins and the Indians be. And please, the history lesson of America (with crazy dates all jumbled up) is better left unheard.

Instead of tackling Viswa's pleas for government's accountability in gerrymandeering; media control; locals losing out because of foreign workers/talents influx; helping the poor and, the elites/peasants divide, MM went on with his "knuckle-duster-meet-you-at-the cul-de-sac" rhetoric to bring Viswa and everybody else "down to earth" by saying that the Pledge is an Aspiration.

If that's not enough, the guy who mocks all 55-year-old male Singaporeans for their active libido [sad link here] has to put in his $3millon worth. Extracted below is Channelnewsasia's report on Ng Eng Hen's response to NMP Viswa Sadasivan maiden speech in parliament.

"Singapore and Singaporeans cannot afford to ape any model, but must choose or create a solution which is best suited to our nation."

Dr Ng added that the government had consistently presented a "frank accounting" of the realities facing the republic, and if the PAP government was corrupt or incompetent, it would be voted out.

Mr Viswa, in reply, said he had been misunderstood on some points. "I'm not saying that the government is stuffing ballot boxes or doing things that are unconstitutional," he said.

"I was highlighting a lingering perception that I sensed on the ground that politically it's not a level playing field, and if you don't address this, there'll be growing cynicism, especially among our youth, who choose to express their displeasure through angry postings on the Net, which is not useful," he added.

Mr Viswa also clarified that when calling for a repoliticisation of Singaporeans, what he envisaged was not riots on every street corner, but simply getting more people interested in politics. He said he believed this would help Singapore going forward.

And this came from the mighty MM: "We’re here today, we have this building, we have all these facilities, and all around us is evidence of our accountability. Without being accountable, we would not have been re-elected and there would have been no Singapore of today.” [link]

Just when will they stop their chest-thumping? It eats me up because we are here today not because of Lee Kuan Yew or Ng Eng Hen alone.

We are where we are today because:

We, the citizens of Singapore
pledge ourselves as one united people,
regardless of race, language or religion,
to build a democratic society,
based on justice and equality,
so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and
progress for our nation.

And we bloody well did our part by working hard (in whatever job/vocation we did/still do) to improve this land that we call home. And yes, I treat my Mat, Neh, Grago and cheena friends as my brothers with racial and religious sensitivity as we are sensitive souls who accept the funny labels that we give each other! Instead of aspiring, my Mat, Neh, Grago and Cheena friends whom I've grown up with have been doing and living the Pledge since we were playing marbles and huntam bola! In our tiny ways, though we joke about ourselves like Kumar does [link], we've done our part in making the Singapore what it is today. Please lah, it's the people, the citizens regardless of race, language or religion that make it! Without the co-operation and hardwork of its citizens, the government can't do squat!

So please be sensitive to the sensitivities of others. It's just not nice as a Cheena (in whatever high falutin postion one may be) to draw ill examples of other races to justify one's paid contribution to society.

In 1965, Lee Kuan Yew cried when a Malaysian Malaysia could not be a reality.

In 2009, a 58-year-old Singaporean choked when he heard that a Singaporean Singapore is just an Aspiration.

To every life, a little rain must fall.

My concern is whether Aspiration will end up as Expiration?

feedmetothefish

Truth Hurts!

And it touched the raw nerves of the Old Man and got him going. . . . . . . . to the extent of belittling a new NMP.

So the National Pledge is nothing more than a high faluting - pompous; bombastic; haughty; pretentious "aspiration".

Poor Mr Rajaratnam must be turning in his grave.

We, the citizens of Singapore
pledge ourselves as one united people,
regardless of race, language or religion,
to build a democratic society,
based on justice and equality,
so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and
progress for our nation.

The citizens pledge but the government aspires . . .

Isn't that interesting?

To MM and PAP, the National Pledge is just an aspiration? And they had the temerity to do it on National Day in front of the TV and whole wide world?

Aspiration . . . WTF is that? Breathing? Hope? Goal? Ambition?

Isn't a Pledge a solemn promise or agreement to do or refrain from doing something?

So now we know the Pledge means nothing because it conflicts with our Constitution?

A case of meaningless "chui kong lumpar song*" for the past 4 decades?
*Translated from Hokkien: Mouth speaks, testicles titillates.

I do not see why MM had to interrupt his newspaper reading and physiotherapy [read below] and choked on Viswa's maiden speech. Read the speech [here], put your hand on heart, and pray tell is there malice in Viswa's speech? What's so 'false', 'flawed' or 'untrue' as claimed by MM?

Or is the MM annoyed and hurt by the naked truth of Viswa's maiden speech?

In the typical LKY style, Viswa got an earful (including a lesson in Sinda and his Indian ancestry). In his own way, "to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation", Viswa has spoken the truth which I and many appreciate.

It's interesting to note that they have had enough of Siew Kum Hong's truths and they threw him out. Now they have to deal with a new thorn - Viswa Sadasivan.

I am grateful to Viswa for living and doing the Pledge instead of 'aspiring'. You have done what my MP (whom I did not vote for) would never dream of doing. Please accept my sincere appreciation for taking the road less traveled and tell it like it is. Please keep up the good work! Your parents and those who love you will worry for you (as the great-grandma of my grandchild does) but truth will always prevail!

Truth hurts only those who are not truthful and insincere.

So is Viswa or MM high falutin?

Your answer is as good as mine :)

feedmetothefish

____________________________________________________________________

Dangerous to let highfalutin ideas go undemolished: MM

Edited transcript of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's rebuttal of NMP Viswa Sadasivan. -ST

Thu, Aug 20, 2009
The Straits Times

SIR, I had not intended to intervene in any debate. I was doing physiotherapy just now and reading the newspapers and I thought I should bring the House back to earth.

Mr Rajaratnam had great virtues in the midst of despondency after a series of race riots when we were thrown out of Malaysia. Our Malays in Singapore were apprehensive that now that we (Chinese) were the majority, we (Chinese) would in turn treat them the way a Malay majority (in Malaysia) treated us. He drafted these words and rose above the present. He was a great idealist. His draft came to me; I trimmed out the unachievable, and the Pledge as it stands is his work after I've trimmed it. What is it? An ideology? No, it's an aspiration. Will we achieve it? I do not know. We'll have to keep on trying. Are we a nation? In transition.

Sir, reference was made to the Constitution. The Constitution of Singapore enjoins us to specially look after the position of the Malays and other minorities. Article 152 says: 'Minorities and Special Position of Malays. It shall be the responsibility of the Government constantly to care for the interests of the racial and religious minorities in Singapore. The Government shall exercise its functions in such manner as to recognise the special position of the Malays who are the indigenous people of Singapore and, accordingly, it should be the responsibility of the Government to protect, safeguard, support, foster, promote their political, educational, religious, economic, social and cultural interests and the Malay language.'

And on Muslim religion, Article 153: 'The Legislature shall by law make provision for regulating Muslim religious affairs and for constituting a council to advise the President in matters of the Muslim religion.'

Our Constitution states expressly that it is a duty of the Government not to treat everybody as equal. It's not reality, it's not practical, it will lead to grave and irreparable damage if we work on that principle.

So the Pledge was an aspiration. As Malays have progressed and more have joined the middle class with university degrees and professional qualifications, we have asked Mendaki to ask them to agree not to have their special rights of free education at university, but to take the fees they were entitled to and use the money to help more disadvantaged Malays.

So we're trying to reach a position where there is a level playing field for everybody but it's going to take decades, if not centuries, and we may never get there.

Now let me read the American Constitution. The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, reads: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.' That's 1776.

The US Constitution passed a few years later says: 'We, the people of the United States' (this is the preamble) 'in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings and liberties to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution of the United States.'

Nowhere does it say that the blacks would be differently treated. But the blacks did not get the vote until many decades later. Racial segregation was not ended until the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s with Martin Luther King and his famous We Dare To Dream speech. Enormous riots took place and eventually, then President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964. From 1776, it was more than 200 years before an exceptional half-black American became President.

My colleague (Nominated MP Viswa Sadasivan) says we are trying to put square pegs into round holes. Will we ever make the pegs the same? No. You suggest to the Malays that we abolish the (Article 152) provisions in the Constitution, you will have grave disquiet. We start on the basis that this is reality: We will not be able to get a Chinese minister or an Indian minister to persuade Malay parents to look after their daughters more carefully and not have teenage pregnancies which lead to failed marriages. Can a Chinese MP or an Indian MP do that? The Malays will say to him: 'You're interfering in my private life.' But we (the Government) have funded Mendaki and Muis (Islamic Religious Council of Singapore), and they have a committee to try and reduce the numbers of such delinquents.

The way that Singapore has made progress is by a realistic step-by-step approach. It may take us centuries before we get to a similar position as the Americans. They go to wars, the blacks and the whites together. In the World War I, the blacks did not carry arms, they carried the ammo, they were not given the honour to fight. In World War II, they went back, these ex-GIs - those who could make it to university were given the GI grants - they went back to their black ghettos and stayed there. Today there are still black ghettos.

These are the realities. The American Constitution does not say that you will treat blacks differently but our Constitution spells out the duty of the Government to treat Malays and other minorities with extra care.

So the basis on which the NMP has placed his argument is false and flawed. It's completely untrue, it's got no basis whatsoever. I thought to myself, perhaps I should bring this House back to earth and remind everybody what our starting point is. If we don't recognise where we started from, we will fail.

Nobody can speak with the knowledge that I have; I knew the circumstances in which the Pledge was made. I admire the sentiments of Mr Raja. In August 1965, my worry was, what would the Malays in Singapore do, now that they knew they were a minority? When I returned on Aug9, on the advice of our Special Branch, I did not go back to my house. I stayed at Sri Temasek (in the Istana), which was my official residence. I stayed there for one week, then I went to Changi Cottage and stayed there for two months to make sure that everything subsided.

These are realities. Today, 44 years later, we have a Malay community, I believe, at peace, convinced that we are not discriminating against them, convinced that we are including them in our society.

NMP Viswa used to work in Sinda. I'm told for 10 years. He will know Indians are not equal. Brahmins will not be in Sinda. It is the non-Brahmins who are in Sinda. So I think it is dangerous to allow such highfalutin ideas to go undemolished and mislead Singapore.

The $3.71 Million Performance

If not for cable TV, the only show in Singapore for TV tomorrow (Sunday, 16 Aug 2009) between 6pm (or is it 7pm) to 10pm will be the "At Last, The $3,710,000 Show!"

Though the Star of the show is paid much more than the stars of years gone by, every year, year in year out, we get the same "PM knows best" assessment of the current situation and how great the Nightmarish 'A Team' is doing to make Singapore better!

The assessment is always good! If it's not good, as it is now, the fault is always with someone else - globalisation, USA, China, Europe or even our neighbours! Or plain Singaporeans who simply do not measure up!

Check out what's on the ground and in the msm lately:

• We must be mindful of racial and religious harmony (as if we aren't)
  
• We must not let 'democracy' screw up Singapore's stability (as if we can wear kangaroo T'shirt and not go to jail)
  
• Hidden cameras in Hong Lim Park (for safety indeed)
  
• We must be more 'welcoming' to foreign workers (and not let them serve NS)
  
• We must 'get real' and tighten our belts (while ministers are still enjoying their $millions)
• We must encourage our fathers and mothers to work as cleaners in hotels (I'd love my 80+ year-old mum to be the Queen of England!)
  
• We must be 'more forgiving' to those responsible for the mess we are in. Be it Mas Selamat, Temasek, GIC or even the Town Councils who gamble and give away our money to Lehman Brothers. (Or are those at the top so super that they don't shit?)
  

The performance tomorrow, as usual, will be all talk, though lately, some videos and graphics have been added to keep the audience awake.

Alas, however hard they try, the poor cameramen still find it very difficult not to capture the very important specially selected audience from dozing off when The Man just go on and on about the current situation in Singapore and what great plans he and his NightmareTeam has to make Singapore better, again and again!

History of this particular show tells us of:

• "Stop at 2"
• "Build A Rugged Society"
• "More Good Years"
• "Have More Children If You Can Afford"
• "Screw Graduates and Make Clever Babies"
• "Build A More Inclusive Society"

There are more and you know the rest.

I know I won't be fooled again in watching the same. It's just too painful watching a guy talking for more than 3 hours. Experts tell me that a human's attention span lasting for 45 minutes is already an awesome feat! It tortures me to see audience trying their utmost to look attentive, forced to laugh at jokes that aren't funny and fearing for their well-being should they be caught in camera with their eyes shut close because the speaker can't cut it!

Hope springs eternal and I love pleasant surprises.

It would be nice if the Star announces that Ministers and their Nightmare Team will take a pay cut or contribute the obscene 40% increase (which they had since their last increase) to help the deserving poor before more Singaporeans destitute themselves through no fault of theirs! It'll do that nation good. It'll put a stop to the mockery of National Service and Nation Building!

It would be nice if, for once, the Star of the Show can admit that it's okay to screw up. Why keep putting up a front and not admit that some things are not right due to one's bad decisions. Nobody's perfect!

If Barrack Obama who earns only one-sixth the Star's salary can be man enough to admit his mistake, I do not see why the Star can't.

Surprise me!

It'll be nice!

It may even win more votes without giving away goodies bags!

Me? I'll catch a more star-studded show in watching a soccer game in the English Premier League!

feedmetothefish

Can one be more honest than this?

Truth Hurts!

If you have not visited http://www.insanepoly.com/ it's time you do.

What written below by insanepoly is so nakedly honest that no true blue Singaporean should miss.

It's so good that I have copied wholesale from his blog [link] and paste it below.

I Don’t Care For National Day.

National Day came and went with barely a blip on my radar.

I don’t celebrate National Day.

I don’t put up flags, I don’t watch the parade and I don’t listen to any of that manufactured bullshit songs like Count On Me Singapore, Stand Up for Singapore nonsense. The only thing I celebrate is that I don’t have to turn up for work that day. In fact, that morning when I went to the gym for my workout, I seemed to be the only one attired in full black workout gear while everybody else seemingly wore red or white. Not that I had intentionally wore black, just that when I looked around, I realized I was the only one in black in a sea of red and white. Freudian slip perhaps.

Honestly I see no reason to celebrate.

Celebrate what?

Celebrate that one political party has hijacked my country, its institutions and everything it stands for? Celebrate that Singapore the nation has become PAP the political party which in turn has become the government which in turn has become the civil service. The lines are so blurred that I don’t even know where one starts and the other ends.

Singapore, PAP, NTUC, People’s Association, HDB, SAF, SIA, ST GIC, CPF and everything in between seems to be nothing more than extensions of one monolithic entity that seeks to control every aspect of our lives and wants nothing more than to make living batteries out of us and turn this country into a mega corporation.

Celebrate that? Seriously?

Everywhere I turn my head there are posters and banners with all sort of feel good sound good exhortations to celebrate National Day. Ministers and MPs smiling down benevolently at us while pictures of citizens are conveniently Photoshopped beside them as if to say we are all one people, one nation.

National Day, PAP Day- what difference does it make? Those posters and banners put up by the town councils and grassroots organizations seems identical to those election banners and posters put up by the PAP during election. Who the fuck really knows the difference?

The only thing I know is that between the political leaders and us- its one Corporation, two people. They make millions while we try to eke out a living. We stay together while they move ahead indeed. One people one nation is for suckers who still buy that bullshit. Its very telling that among that challenges spelled out by Goh Chok Tong, narrowing the worst income gap among all developed nations is not one of them.

Count on me Singapore?

If Singapore counts on me than can I count of Singapore in return? Can I count on Singapore to bail me out when I am poor and jobless? Can I count on Singapore to treat me when I am sick and penniless? Can I count on Singapore to provide me with a social safety net? Can I count on Singapore when I am old and alone? Can I count on Singapore if I suffer permanent injury in the course of NS?

It used to be said at least you can count of your CPF when you’ve reach retirement. Now who the fuck knows. They went ahead and changed the law so that if the CPF fund becomes insolvent, they can actually not pay you your money which they took away without asking for your permission. So as a Singaporean, who can I really count on except myself.

Stand up for Singapore?

Did Singapore stand up for those who lost their life savings because banks sold unsafe financial products? Did Singapore stand up for those who got conned by paper mills selling degrees of dubious origins? Did Singapore stand up for those lost their lives performing their duty as male citizens. Amid the sound and fury of the National Day parade, was there a moment of silence for those fallen NSMen? Did Singapore stand up for those people who can’t stand up for themselves. Did Singapore stand up to the transport companies that increases their fares year after year in good or bad times?

I think at some point during the celebrations, everyone was supposed to stand up and recite the Singapore Pledge together. Do these people even know what they are reciting or are they just going through the motions? Do you even know the true meaning of the pledge?

I for one did not recite the pledge for in reciting it would be the tacit support of a gross hypocrisy. To build a democratic country? When one thinks of democracy, singapore is just about as far away from that as you can get.

The truth is there is nothing in the world I want more than to celebrate National Day, to proudly stand and declare myself Singaporean.

But I can’t. I can’t celebrate National Day while Singapore remains a nation in captivity and its people stripped of their rights and civil liberties. I can’t celebrate National Day until Singapore is returned to its rightful owners- the people of Singapore.

If some fucker came into your house and stole all your stuff, you sure as hell don’t celebrate that.

My sincere appreciation to insanepoly for telling it like it is.

I'm learning some.

feedmetothefish

Putting The Money Where The Mouth Is.

Singapore time 8.22pm of 9 Aug 2009 was a "Universal Pledge Moment" (reported ST) where many were hyped, cajoled and encouraged to recite:

"We, the citizens of Singapore pledge ourselves as one united people, regardless of race, language or religion, to build a democratic society, based on justice and equality, so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation. "


I missed the 8.22pm show last night because it was just that. A show. A well promoted show planned very much in advance, similar to the factitious 4 Million Smiles Advertisement for visitors of IMF & World Bank Meeting in Singapore 2006!

I remember the last time I recited our National Pledge with gusto and heartfelt warmth and national fervour was in a Sports Stadium in Serangoon. That magic moment of doing what came naturally on 5 May 2006 is worth remembering. There was no hype, no rehearsal, no shebang, no countdown, no goodie bags! Just the good feeling of suppressed nationalistic pride brought forth by the political opponents of PAP, namely Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim of Workers' Party and, the synergy of thousands of Singaporeans who were sick and tired of being sick and tired of the politics that was, and still is.

Unlike the 8.22pm Pledge Special, there was no prior main stream media advertisement on when to say the Pledge. There was no cajoling. There was no pre-planned "Universal Pledge Moment" with 'qitters' or Singaporeans 'stayers', staying elsewhere!

With hands on hearts, I sincerely hope that political leaders who did their 8.22 Special last night stay true to what they did. Unless my understanding of the words 'equality', 'justice' and 'democracy' means something else, I think the leaders of this land need to put right the Pledge or change what Mr Rajaratnam wrote more than 40 years ago.

I cringe, my heart aches and I 'kor cheoh' (laugh in bitterness) when leaders of this land speak of "building a democratic society based on justice and equality so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation" when they do otherwise. Eg:

• When the Senior Minister told my friends (living at the wrong place at the wrong time) that they'll get served last in HDB and Lift Upgrading just because they live in opposition wards like Hougang and Potong Pasir.
  This makes a joke of ' building a democratic society' in our Pledge.
  
  
• The money I pay for the conservancy of the estate I live in got lost in Lehman Bros and nobody (especially the caretaker MPs) cares to explain to me what went wrong.
  This makes a joke of 'equality' in our Pledge.
  
  
• We wonder if the money in Temasek in GIC belongs to the citizens of Singapore? If the person responsible for the loss of billions in Temasek also made a mess of the succession plan, the buck had to stop somewhere. We've been told so often that there's no free lunch in meritocratic Singapore and each must pull his/her socks to earn his/her keep. If one doesn't measure up, off one goes! So why some get the sack while others continue to keep the bag?
  This makes a joke of 'justice' in our Pledge.
  
  
• If Ministers in Singapore pays themselves up to $3.7 millions (with the PM getting six times the salary of Barack Obama) but bitch about welfare for the poor, waste precious time arguing about the $30 allowance increase for destitutes to eat at hawker centre, food court or restaurant, then something is very wrong.
  This makes a joke of "happiness, prosperity and progress for our nation" in our Pledge.

Or is "happiness, prosperity and progress" meant for a chosen few?

With hands on hearts, its time for the chosen few to put the money where the mouth is, instead of where the pockets are!

Just where did the idea of 8.22 Pledge Special come from? Was it from an awesome evening of "unity and togetherness" in a stadium in Serangoon 3 years ago? I wonder. See the "the moment" here[Link]

Don't get me wrong. Like Singaporeans who took the pledge last night, I'm proud to take the Pledge as I did in 2006. However, I just hate it when it's so bloody contrived and doesn't cut with the real Singapore that we live in!

The greatest irony is:
Saying the Pledge is easy but living the Pledge is tough and dangerous.

Consider this:
To really "build a democratic society based on justice and equality" in Singapore, does one need to do a Chia Thye Poh; a Tan Wah Peow; a JB Jeyaratnam; a Tang Liang Hong or even a Chee Soon Juan?

Universal Pledge Moment?

feedmetothefish