Low Thia Kiang Whacked Minister Ng Eng Seng

Govt has made 3 commitments on MTL: Low Thia Khiang
By Cai Haoxiang

WORKERS' Party chief Low Thia Khiang said in an e-mail statement in Chinese yesterday that the Government's reassurances about the mother tongue issue meant it has made three commitments on its teaching and standing.

One, the Ministry of Education (MOE) will never again review the weighting of mother tongue languages in the Primary School Leaving Examination, nor will it find other avenues to do so.

Two, the MOE committee set up to review the teaching and testing of the mother tongue languages will only chart the directions for their teaching in the next 10 to 15 years, and not re-examine their value in the education system.

Three, the mother tongue at primary level holds the same weighting in terms of teaching hours and examination marks as other subjects.

Mr Low said this final undertaking is based on Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's statement that the mother tongue will continue to be the cornerstone of Singapore's education policy in the future, as it was in the past.

He then pointedly added: 'If the MOE feels I have misunderstood, please immediately clarify to avoid creating the wrong impression again (and cause) people to feel happy for nothing.'

Mr Low's statement comes a day after PM Lee and Education Minister Ng Eng Hen held a media conference addressing the mother tongue weighting at the PSLE.

The opposition MP, a former secondary school Chinese-language teacher, also scoffed at Dr Ng's acknowledgement that his recent remarks gave the wrong impression that the mother tongue weighting at the PSLE may be cut.

Dr Ng had said on Tuesday: 'I think I should have chosen my words more carefully and apologise for creating that wrong impression.'

Mr Low said: 'I am perplexed and find it hard to understand how Dr Ng said he made the wrong choice of words to create the wrong impression. Is it possible that Singaporeans who care about education and Chinese-language education... all misunderstood Dr Ng's meaning?

'Is it because newspapers reported it wrongly, leading to the mistaken impression of the public, or did Dr Ng and PM Lee wake up in the nick of time and quickly took good advice to prevent this issue from becoming a burden in the next general election?'

Noting that Dr Ng had demonstrated a strong command of English when speaking in Parliament, he added: 'I am surprised he couldn't find the right words.'

Maid caught having sex with 12-year-old Boy in HDB flat

An Indonesian maid working in Singapore was hauled to court for having sex with her employer's 12-year-old son.

The 27-year-old is alleged to have caused the boy - with his consent - to engage in oral sex at the HDB unit in the east on Dec 25 last year.

She is also accused of causing the boy to have sex with her sometime at end-June and mid-December last year.

The fourth charge under the Children and Young Persons Act states that she committed an obscene act with a child by engaging in sex and oral sex with him between end-June and Dec 25.

The court has ordered the name of the victim to be withheld or anything that will lead to his identification.

If convicted of the sexual penetration of a minor under 16, she can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined on each charge.

The maximum penalty is a fine of up to S$5,000 (RM11,600) and/or a jail term of up to two years.

The short and bespectacled domestic worker was offered bail of S$20,000 (RM46,400). Her passport was impounded.

She will appear in court again on May 19.

Singaporean boy turned into a Monster

Two years ago, Singaporean Koh Kim Swee, now 23, hit his mother on the head with a hammer and was jailed 15 months.

The unrepentant son hurt her again two months ago.

He slashed his 49-year-old mother's forehead with a 19cm-long knife along the common corridor outside their flat at Jurong East Street 21 on March 18 - over a trivial matter.

On Thursday, he was jailed 30 months and ordered to be caned six strokes after he admitted to the charge earlier this week.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Prem Raj told Community Court Judge May Mesenas that Koh confronted his mother who was then mopping the floor of the living room and demanded why she had washed his cup.

When she denied this, he scolded her repeatedly and insisted that she had washed his cup when he had ordered her not to.

Koh became increasingly agitated and aggressive and started to shout at his mother.

Lee then decided to leave for her own safety as she knew from past encounters that he would do something to harm her.

Just as she was stepping out of the corridor, Koh, who was wielding a knife in his right hand, slashed her on the left side of her head.

When he tried to slash her again, she managed to stop him by holding on to the blade of the knife, injuring her left hand and arm. Her screams alerted her neighbours.

Lee ran to the lift lobby and sought the help of her neighbours on the first floor. She was treated in hospital for cuts and her head and left arm.
- Straits Times/ANN

Gambling experiment proves costly for Singaporeans

It was very odd in 2005 when the government of Singapore, which always takes an intrusive and nanny-ish interest in the moral well-being of the Lion City's citizens, decided to allow gambling. Singapore's previous experience with gambling, back nearly 200 years ago when it was a British outpost, was that the usual accompaniments of crime, prostitution, drug addiction and loan sharking were hard to avoid.

But Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong believed a few casinos would give the city-state some added zing as a tourist attraction, especially for high-roller Chinese Communist Party officials who love nothing better than to gamble away state assets. So earlier this year two casinos opened in Singapore and last week the Straits Times newspaper published the first analysis by Bank of America-Merrill Lynch. Well, it seems efforts to dissuade Singaporeans from using the casinos by imposing a $70 daily levy and $1,500 for a year have not been successful.

Up to 60 per cent of the patrons are Singaporeans, who are betting the large amounts that were expected from the longed-for Communist party high rollers.

Minister of Health Khaw suffered heart attack

May 15, 2010
Khaw leaves hospital
By Salma Khalik,
HEALTH Minister Khaw Boon Wan, 56, left hospital for home yesterday afternoon, following a successful heart bypass 11 days ago.

He looked cheerful as he shook hands and said goodbye to the medical staff of the National Heart Centre (NHC).

The minister, who has been on medication for years to keep his high cholesterol levels under control, was found to have a blockage in his heart during a routine health check-up.
-------------------------------------------
8th May 2010
Health Minister recovering well in hospital
He underwent successful coronary artery bypass surgery on Tuesday May 4. He is currently recovering well in hospital, and is expected to be discharged home in a few days. He should be returning to a full work schedule in a few weeks' time.

During the next 3 weeks, the responsibility of the Minister for Health will be covered by Mr Raymond Lim.

The Prime Minister and his Cabinet colleagues have also wished Minister Khaw a speedy recovery.

Minister Khaw Boon Wan underwent a routine medical check-up recently and was found to have an abnormal stress ECG (electrocardiogram). Further tests revealed significant narrowing of a major heart artery.
----------------------------------------------

From: Maximillian Caugilia
Subject: Re: Minister of Health Khaw suffered heart attack

Health Minister kanna health problem.Worst, kanna rich-man disease
hor....
This is so ironic, but expected from ministers who are earning
millions out of the sufferings and hardships of the people they had
once pledged to serve and not exploit.
-----------------------------------------------
On May 11, 12:17 am, "David Teo" wrote:

> Yes, I think it is not just about today's life. It's also about what happens
> to the soul after the physical body ceases to exist. I.e. if you believe in
> after life. I believe good begets good and evil begets evil. Christians and
> Muslims believe they can go to heaven. Buddhists believe they will
> reincarnate until they reach the perfect state. Whatever our beliefs, I
> think we should all do good. Ordinary people in their own ordinary ways,
> employers in their magnanimous ways and politicians in their benevolent
> ways. This will make the world a less miserable place to live in. Although I
> strongly disagree with Khaw's position that medical services is affordable,
> I wish him speedy recovery. And that he will also reflect upon the misery of
> people who are jobless and have to under go surgery which costs several
> thousands.

From: Zanzibar
When Khaw returns to work next 2 weeks, he should take the initiative
to disclose and show to the public in a transparent way as to how much
his bill was charged for his heart operation.

He should disclose how much more charges he accumulated as he went for
his medical reviews and revisits.

He should also disclose what are those costs of those kinds of high
end medicines that he was given and changed during his weekly,
monthly, and 3 monthly checkups at the hospital that will be
administred to him in the next 6 to 12 months.

He should disclose how much was his physio-therapy cost, too.

By this way, he should be able to say his high costs is paid for by
the taxpayers money or becasue he bought expensive insurance in order
to pay for the high of them.

By this way he should be able to see how much charges will be. He
should be able to reflect how expensive it will be for ordinary lay
people.

He shoudl be able to say how many people cannot afford his way of
medical costs and charges.

He rrecently had advocated to the hospitals to disclose in detail of
the cost of charges on their website so thta the pblci can make
informed choices and decisions of the array of charges involved in the
operation and hospitalisation.

Legal Conference - Big Screwed-up at MarinaBaySands

From: Zanzibar
Subject: Re: Who made the decision to hold conference at MBS?

On May 7, 11:42 pm, "truth" wrote:

> The legal conference at MBS was a disaster and caused substantial damages to
> the Singapore Hospitality Industry. Singapore's image for efficient and
> quality services also took a very hard knock. These are intangible cost to
> Singapore. Whoever made the decision to host the conference at MBS must be
> punished. How can they take such huge risks with a new and untried outfit ?

I assumed those guys who decided on MBS could have made their decision
long time ago. They want theirs to be a world first in a MBS.

Very likely from the top. Evryone can watch in the next 6 to 12 months
that most of the Govt and GLC venue of meetings could be held at
Sands. There may not even any venue for RWS..maybe a handful only just
to please and happy them . Even schools and JC graduation pomps dineer
and dance, mediacorp awards, GLc and Govt conferences may plan their
Dinner and Dance at Sands too instead.

This could also be in line with directives from the top to support
MBS. This sort of conference often planned 6 to 8 months ahead of
time. It had to gather the people to attend, and so on.

However maybe no one had expected a breakdown to occur. Usually in a
large conference venue, even like suntec and hotel conferencing
ballroom, there is always a standy of people like an engineer or
technician to supervise and monitor the switch room to ensure that
everything inside the confeernce room is working and was working ok.

However, from the look of things, the breakdown of the entire aircon
system and power system even outside of the conference venue showed
that there was some kind of screwed-up or negligene in supervising and
ensuring the systems will work according to the demand. But
unfortunately it failed.

From: Maximillian Caugilia
LOL... Singapore Tourism Board is promoting the IR as the lead venues
in hope to clinch major meetings and conventions.... What an
affirmation of Meeting & Convention City Singapore..... While other
countries are getting their facilities up and running effectively,
Singapore now seems to go back in time to become a poor place to hold
meetings with this kind of major international screwup. Yup, it can
only happen in Uniquely Singapore or YourSingapore!

Another MRT suicide - this time at Bedok station

Man jumped at Bedok MRT: Was suicide a result of losing $70K at casino?

A man committed suicide by jumping onto the track of an oncoming train at Bedok MRT station, causing eastbound trains from Eunos to Tanah Merah to be disrupted today (May 7).

According to the news report on The Straits Times website, the incident occurred at 1.42pm.

The track was blood stained, caused by the train wheels rolling over and crushing the man’s body against the metal track.

The man’s body was seen covered with blood and his flesh exposed on certain parts of his body.

One of the man’s arm was also severed and seen lying a few meters away from his body.

It is not known whether the victim is still alive or already dead (which most likely will be the case).

The cause of the incident is still being investigated.

SMRT said that is had deployed buses to assist stranded passengers at the two MRT stations.

It is believed that the man is an unemployed who was retrenched during the downturn and is unable to sustain his lifelihood due to the high cost of living in Singapore. With foreigners taking up jobs, this aged man stands no chance of getting another job.

Videos of MRT suicide (parental guidance required):
http://mrt-videos.blogspot.com/search/label/Suicide

PM Lee under pressure to call for General Election

From: "truth"
Subject: LHL under tremendous pressure to call for an early election

The dark clouds are spreading fast and the little sunshine in Singapore will
soon disappear. As I have posted some weeks ago, LHL is caught in between
the devil and the deep blue sea.

They have no had enough time to massage the
sourish ground. On the other hand they have to act fast as the global
financial situation is deteriorating rapidly.

Whether we see a double dip or not Singapore will be adversely affected due to its' heavy reliance on exports to the West which is in big shit. I hope the oppositions are ready.

An election could come as soon as a matter of weeks.

Orchard Rd and Geylang Rd invaded by rats

From: "truth"
Subject: Orchard Rd infested with rats

truth comment: the surface looks good but beneath is a can of worms. this
rat problem is pervasive in singapore. the death in the geyland food court
was caused by rat infestations.

the pest controller used rat poisons and
food were contaminated by the rats carrying the poisons. the rat poisons
used only start to kill after 3 days. the reason is rats sacrifice one of
them to task new food and if that fella dies within 24 hours they avoided
the food. so the new rat poison has delayed effect to kill more rats and
also spread the poison to food consume by humans.

the symptions of the two
dead persons were similar to that of rat poison - continuous bleeding. the
chemical is used for blood thinning in heart attack and stroke treatment.
----------------------------------------

Orchard Road is invaded by mice and more businesses have to cope with their
Mice problem which are looking for food in the bushes, and tree trunks.

Bushes at Orchard Road are filled with mice holes, the surrounding businesses often see a few mice in the Orchard Plaza area, and are forced to take some action.

This is indeed shocking for so many rodents to be running around Orchard Road, Orchard Plaza is next to these bushes, and many businesses have pointed out that the problem of rat began to appear from the end of last year.

Wong (48 years old, clothing store owner) said that, six months ago, he found the cookies placed in the store often bitten badly, but I do not know that was from the mouse.

"Later, I sat in the afternoon enjoy the cool air outside the shop, only to find there are more than 10 rats, in the bushes in front of the shop drill holes there, people feel very sick about it."

On one occasion, Mr Wong saw more than 30 mice, in the bushes channeling to go into shops, some even climbed up into ceiling.

Many merchants said some regular customers know this have been going on in the River Valley Road area and avoided these areas, and change the building's entrance into the shops.

Mr Wong said that the staff of several pest control companies have been spraying in the area last week, but the effect is not significant.

"When it rains heavily the day before yesterday, a few rats even ran into my shop, frightened my 14-month-old baby. Rodent problem to continue to get dirty here, I am considering moving out here after the expiration of the lease. "

Beware of CPF Life Scam

From: yansimon52
On May 3, 8:32 pm, zero wrote:

> This is to inform all CPF members should be very cautious when signing
> up for the so called CPF Life Scheme.

> It is a big con scam.

> I recently found out some elderly CPF members had money from their CPF
> retirement account deducted as "Annual Life Premium Deduction" ranging
> from hundreds to almost a thousands of dollars but the actual payout
> from the scheme is less than S$50 per month.

> This is quite shocking because through out the whole CPF Life
> consultation exercise last year, the idea of having a annual premium
> deduction from CPF member's RA account as well as its quantum were not
> raised and consulted at all.

> In addition, all CPF Life members were not informed of this "Annual Life
> Premium Deduction" when they sign up for it.

> And the funniest thing is how could the quantum of CPF Life annual
> premium deduction be 10-100X more than its monthly payout ?

> Logically, if the yearly premium is so high while the monthly payout is
> so low, though the scheme will run for 20 years or more, all 30,000 CPF
> Life members will eventually exhaust their RA account after several
> years of premium deductions where and how would CPF Life member received
> their monthly payout ?

> To conclude, CPF Life is another screwed up money sucking game.

As I said....this is their (MIWs) con job of screwing you rubbish
ppl...those with low CPF saving......to either give up your
citizenship and stay elsewhere and die elsewhere...or you just lan lan
let the govt siphon away your CPF over time...until you up the lorry.
Don't ever dream of getting a well deserved 'rest and relax' twilight
years after all those years of hard work you did for the country.
In fact, this CPF Life scheme has hurt alot of those low income
workers (whose saving range from $20K to $80K (with low CPF saving).
They (CPF/govt) still got the cheek to tell you that for those with
$80K cpf saving...you could used up 30K for your housing..to buy your
so-called 'studio apt' for old folk .LOL...LOL...

On average those 1 rm 1 hall studio apt are selling at 70K to
80K...HDB already con you with this sort of high prices...so your 30K
(plus need to top up in cash about 40K) plough into this studio apt
(LOL) will lead you high and dry in your twilight years....lan lan
until your up the lorry.

Well...our MIWs would tell you rubbish ppl that they wanted to make
sure or to take care of you of your well being right thru your old
age....they say they will give you $200 to $300 monthly allowance.
Wowww.....what can this $300 do for you in our Sg high cost of living?
I think social welfare give up higher allowance that this pathetic
monthly $200 to $300 CPF Life scheme.
Can say its another scam job created by our 'too smart alec' MIWs.

This time I bet you the ruling party PAP is gonna face an uphill task
in this coming erection....for their being 'too smart'.
Do you know that how many poor ppl fall into this low CPF saving
category?