Tag Archives: government

Many Singaporeans are now asking whether this figure is an overkill for the government, as the money used will obviously be out of the tax payers pockets. While it makes sense for the self-employed to be compensated for being quarantined, especially the taxi drivers, delivery riders or any others whose income depends on how they go out and carry out their jobs, does it make sense for the those who are salaried employees to be compensated? While it can be argued that their employers would lose working hours due to those quarantined, is the $100 a day figure too high?

It is a well held believe of many Singaporeans that the Government does not trust its own citizens in interpreting data. Heck, the Government does not even trust Singaporeans to know what is fake news and what is not. Trust works both ways, but apparently, not for these 4G Leaders.

There is no reason to hold POFMA applications in Chambers. Conversely, there is every reason to have such applications heard in open court as a matter of public interest, especially, in light of the intentions and objectives of POFMA, particularly, as repeatedly assured by the Government, namely, to filter out fake news. The public is entitled to know why the subject information so classified as fake news is legitimately fake news, as opposed to being wrongfully so declared.

The recent online debate about how foreign students are perceived to receive much more aid in terms of their education in Singapore than Singaporeans themselves had the government scrambling with their PR machinery, first inducing the POFMA to Lim Tean who first made the claim, and then the government acting by announcing more bursary and aid to local students from next year onwards. It is clear that such issues resonates with Singaporeans, and thus, the government had to act fast.

But what about the Government themselves? Can they ever be issued with POFMA? After all, telling half truths and not the full facts is a common tactic used by governments the world over. So, to be better than the rest, why not the Singapore government come out with actual facts, with stats and reports to back up what they want to disprove, instead of just issuing Correction Orders?

The government’s response to the Bukit Batok fire has been deafeningly silent, despite clear evidence of gross negligence on the part of the town council in failing to ensure fire safety regulations were followed. Attempting to shift responsibility to the contractor does not diminish the town council’s culpability. One can only imagine the ruling party’s reaction had the fire taken place in Aljunied-Hougang Town Council.

That every time a mistake is made, it is the lower ranked staff that gets the blame, while the leaders, normally PAP Ministers and MPs, say sorry and moved on with their cushy pay secured a long time ago. It’s appalling that the buck stops with the men at the bottom, while the men at the top receives not even a reprimand.

I am concerned that there have been 3 instances of Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act (POFMA) being invoked - all against articles critical of the government. My view is that POFMA was indeed passed ahead of a General Election which is looming. The Government has a track-record of enacting laws targeting online criticisms and ahead of elections for the last 10 years.

This clearly showed that the policy was not overly thought through, because if they were, then the funding would have been announced together with the policy. Jose Raymond opined that the realisation from the government that they had created a bigger problem after they banned the PMDs only came after the delivery riders came out and stated their rice bowls were gone overnight.

The fact that GST is going to be raised sooner or later now does not even surprise Singaporeans anymore. So, is integrity really about telling Singaporeans in advance about the expected hike, or actually apologising to Singaporeans that all those noise about GST not being raised were in the end not true? Shouldn't DPM Heng, who is also the Finance Minister, show more integrity to Singaporeans by saying that the government could not fulfill its promise of just four years before, and thus apologise for this breaking of promise? That is integrity.