Posts tagged: politics
Zhongnanhai:
I’ve taken great interest in a couple of stories recently which are exposing well-formed – but for many, unseen – cracks between the Mainland and Hong Kong. The first one is this: luxury retailer Dolce & Gabbana found themselves thrust onto the front pages of Hong Kong (and international) newspapers after refusing to allow Hong Kong customers to take photos of the Hong Kong store, but apparently allowed Mainland shoppers to snap away. The second one is on growing concerns over the increasing number of Mainland women who are coming into Hong Kong and giving birth, thus ensuring their offspring have Hong Kong right-of-abode.
It’s very sad, but still, there’s hope. The PRC has not yet to learn the subtleties of soft power and the way they are pushing their agenda, it would not need a child to see through it.
As long as goodwill towards PRC does not increase among the Hong Kong people, PRC can never successfully “take-over” HK.
Politics 101
Yahoo!:
We’ve tallied up a list of Asia Pacific’s highest paid politicians based on figures from a number of publicly available sources including The Economist.
Singapore still tops the chart by a margin, even after a pay cut.
Siew Kum Hong:
There have always been two types of criticisms leveled at ministerial salaries. The first category comprised criticisms of the formula itself, that it led to distortions and did not achieve the outcomes we wanted. These are technical criticisms that implicitly endorsed the principle of pegging ministerial salaries at a discount to supposedly equivalent private-sector salaries.
The second category comprised criticisms of the absolute amount of ministerial salaries, which are seen as being excessive in their absolute amounts and completely out of touch with normal Singaporeans. These are political criticisms that will persist regardless of the formula used, because they stem from a fundamental perception that the absolute salaries are simply unjustifiably high, regardless of the formula used.
Agreed.
The Telegraph:
Critics immediately swamped online forums to slam the new salary scheme, which was recommended by an independent committee whose proposals Lee has agreed to implement.
“Ordinary minister’s salary still higher than US President! Still too high! Pure Nonsense!” wrote a reader who signed off as Lim Lao Pe on the Yahoo! Singapore portal.
Honest article title.
The Worker’s Party:
Rather than an approach that assumes top earners are also top talent, WP recommends a whole-of-government, people-up approach to determining ministerial salaries.
WP has identified this approach in the way 12 developed economies determine their politicians’ salaries. The economies are Australia, Canada, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom and the United States. In most of these economies, a minister’s salary is set at multiples of that of an MP, which is in turn set at the salary of a senior management grade in the civil service. This is the approach that Singapore should take, as political office is in the genre of public service.
WP proposes that MPs’ allowances should be pegged to the salaries of divisional directors in the Civil Service (excluding the Administrative Service)2. Civil service salaries are currently competitively benchmarked to general wage levels of Singaporeans. The salaries of ministers and the Prime Minister should be set at reasonable multiples of an MP’s allowance.
WP is supportive of a variable component which takes into account both national objectives being achieved through a whole-of-government effort, as well as the individual performance of ministers. While the suggested National Bonus incorporates some indices, WP believes that the formula should reflect that some national goals are longer-term in nature, requiring an assessment over the term of a government, not annually; some bonus payments may need to be deferred. We also propose to do away with the Annual Variable Component as this is unnecessary, since there is already a National Bonus based on national economic outcomes. The sum of the total variable components should be capped at a reasonable number of months.
WP further believes that the procedure for any review or change of the salary structure for political office should be transparent and subject to Parliamentary approval.
Very reasonable and sound proposals.
AsiaOne News:
A Straits Times special report today detailed his list of accomplishments to date which, the paper said, has fuelled talks that he is the frontrunner to become the next prime minister.
So, they’re trying to sweeten people’s impression of this person? Icky.
OK…I reported it on air and now I’m getting into trouble for it?? TheCC line is DOWN rite? I did nothing wrong rite?
— Hossan Leong (@HossanLeong) December 14, 2011
So, someone got censured for reporting facts. If this is the direction that the media in Singapore is going to take, I’m beyond certain that their demise is understated.
[via]
Yahoo! Southeast Asia has filed a memorandum of appearance with the courts to defend itself against allegations by Singapore Press Holdings that the digital media company had infringed on its copyright.
“We intend to vigorously defend ourselves against this suit,” said Yahoo! Southeast Asia Managing Editor Alan Soon. “Our editorial business model of acquired, commissioned and original content is proven.”
In its claim, SPH cited 23 articles which it alleged were reproduced from its stable of newspapers without permission. Yahoo! has denied the allegations in an earlier letter to SPH’s lawyers.
Looks like they’ve got bored with their old gun and found a new one. This will be an extremely interesting case—23 articles are alleged to be reproduced without permission. I’d like to see for myself.
Workers Party MP Chen Show Mao Parliament speech (by watchtowerv).
Spoken like a statesmen. Awesome speech in English; an even more awesome speech in Mandarin.
Low Thia Khiang vs Lim Swee Say & Lee Yi Shyan in Parliament—21 Oct 2011 (by 154media)
The Straits Times:
The man who has been linked to the Temasek Review sociopolitical website was arrested last month for offences under the Parliamentary Elections Act.
Revenge?
The Straits Times reporting:
The Advertising Standards Authority of Singapore has suspended Abercrombie & Fitch’s (A&F) advertisement at Knightsbridge for breaching local guidelines on decency.
You’ve got to be kidding me. This must be the fastest and greatest that the Singaporean society has ever regressed yet.
CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Representative Ron Paul what we should do if a 30-year-old man who chose not to purchase health insurance suddenly found himself in need of six months of intensive care. Mr. Paul replied, “That’s what freedom is all about — taking your own risks.” Mr. Blitzer pressed him again, asking whether “society should just let him die.”
And the crowd erupted with cheers and shouts of “Yeah!”
Great. Republicans are behaving as if compassion for fellow human beings is a chore.
But the starting point must be to get the projections right. In this respect — to have a brand new hospital full within 12 months, and the whole system groaning under the weight of unforeseen demand with no new hospital for 3 – 4 more years to come — the record is rather less than sterling.
I remember during the GE2011, one of the complaints against the then Health Minister was that the increase in hospital beds was outright insufficient.
This smells too similar to the way the HDB managed its public housing supply.
Now, there is proof that healthcare infrastructure growth is woefully insufficient and the then Health Minister now handles housing.
