Sunday, July 30, 2006

our education minister first mentioned about hiring native speakers of the english language to our shore to teach english and help us improve our standard of the language in early JUNE. he was opening the subject to debates and until now a conclusion has not been reached yet, without e education ministry stepping out to say that they are/are not going to go ahead with the plan.

surprise surprise.. an ad from education ministry was published in a britain leading newspaper looking for english, geography, literature and history teachers.. guess when the ad appeared? it was in may and the interview they were holding was in early june is London.

they taking us as fools? what democracy is there? what about being a more open society and allowing the citizens to participate and to share their views in certain policies. they pretend to listen, when decisions have already been made. just like e IR, as last term opposition MP Mr Steve Chia pointed out that before they open the casino to debate, they have already decided, whether or not to go ahead with it depends on how feasible the proposals are. So if they really choose not to go ahead with the casinos, it would be becuz that none of the proposals are good enough, not because of the people's objection.

dun get me wrong, i fully support the decision to create two IRs with casino. it is the way they go about doing things, all of us have been taken for a ride. wth.. credit to The Newpaper, i got this piece of news from there, but its only a report hidden somewhere in the middle. I would have put it on the first page if i was the editor. but still credit for the journalist who wrote about the news. i am beginning to wonder if they understand the true meaning of democracy.. if u cannot practice it, dun fake it.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

well i believe in all countries that says they r democratic, they ain't that democratic actually. If you look at US, the supposedly largest and advocate of democracy, they are not really practising what they preach. Take for instance the dubai taking over their port, they stop it actually. If by the definition of democractic, they shouldn't put a barrier there. I think sg is democractic enough to let us participate in the debate. The report may have said that they start choosing the native speakers way before they open up the debate. But look in another way. The interview need to take a long time. Including the visa, accomodation, familiarisation, perhaps a short NIE stint? If we only proceed after the debate have finish n the dust have settled, we would waste too much time. I think the govt is trying to do things simultaneously.

And seriously, do u think in all democractic society citizen can have their voice heard in all aspect of things? if so, why bother to vote and choose leaders where everyone and anyone can be a leader.

Lastly, how rationale do you think singaporean are? Beside that, the people will always be the 1 complaining regardless of which country you r born in. So no matter wat a govt do, they will be subjected to criticism.

i feel you care about our country well being but i suggest you post more of solution than mere ranting or else you are just like the average singaporean.

Anonymous said...

oh and 1 more thing, do have reservation about the chee guy. in order to know his policies, its better you hear him speak "live" which i did.

i can say chee really poison the sg mind and doesnt really offer concrete solutions

Anonymous said...

i heard him speak, i read his books. he is a misunderstood figure.

im sad that u think singaporeans are not rationale, since u r a singaporean too. the govt thinks like you. they think that they can make e best decision for us.

doing things simultaneously? so if we disagree to the project they are going to send all the native speakers back, having given them a contract, settling their housin, training them? where is the money coming from?

i always give a solution to my complains? like e fine imposed for NEL. i said give free rides to all commuters for a day. for the barriers installed, i say take e money and give it to the poor. i agree with the IR. if they intend to build just come out and make a statement "i want to build an IR". why fake democracy?

like i've said, our media is ranked so low for open-ness is becuz of the control by the govt. how many times we hear chee talk politics on tv? they only show him shouting and screaming. did they ever show the ugly side of our current govt? are they all saints who doesn have temper and emotions? thats unfair. and that applies to proven oppositions like mr chiam and mr low, even mr steve chia.

alot of singaporeans complain, but they do have concrete solutions? go check out e political forums. but who is going to listen to them? the govt who thinks whats best for us?

Anonymous said...

So do you think u r rationale? Do you think by giving free ride a day, you are going to solve the problem and coming with the finances to help?

You think human are all rationale beings? do think about this carefully about the word rationale.

If we hire the native speakers, true the money come from our pocket. But if money coming from our pockets could improve the level of english don't you think money is well spent? Lets bring the word " rationale" back into the picture. As all of us went thru sch, we shld know our local teachers even peppered their words with singlish off and during class. If you ask a singaporean, he may say :" oh forget bout the natives, lets preserve our own people job" is this rationale? do singaporean look at the big picture?

As for freedom of press. I think we are free enough because we never curb the internet as in China. Recall back the prophet mohammad case where the danes publish it and it cause a furoe. Supposedly our press is free enough. Other country can and are able to stomach a little furoe. But given our land mass do you think we can? One little furoe all other countries pull out their invesment, races tension increase.

Sometimes its not just for the sake of democracy and we just free willy about it.

If you talk about political broadcasting, true Chee didn't receive any but neither does the ruling. You shld hear chee in public, see how he gather the mass and just force feed his idea of democracy.

Lastly, can asian think? do asian r ready for a real democracy? Democracy is not all about war cry, demostration. Look at the thais, philipines, indonesia. are asian rationale? If they arent, what make us do, our history even lesser than theirs.

You can post annoymously in the forum, ask singaporean to voice out, nobody dares. Is this rationale consider the welfare of the country is at stake?

1 day there are at least 4 million commuters. 1 trip cost easily 1 dollar. spend 4 million dollars a day per month. multiply that by a year. if u do that, aren't u giving the transport companies more chance to increase their fares and in the end, is this a rationale ans?

Its good to always say:" oh let give this give that" but you must remember, once you start give, u cant stop it. Ask bush to stop the welfare system and u got wat i mean

Talk about chee book. politicians always will protray the goodness of themselves. in a big picture, japan will justify that they conquer to liberate while china will stroke nationalistic feeling. its the same regardless.

Anonymous said...

heh heh.....ok lah i am not that pro govt. a part of me just wanna find axe to grind thats y i rebutt u.

but my rebuttal are serious. but its good u r participative in sg future. do bingji do tat?

Anonymous said...

so you think by giving sbs transit a fine helps? removing money from left pocket to put into right pocket?

is it definite tat native speakers will improve our english? can all understand their accent? will the ft be able to adapt in singapore? will they quit after teaching for a month becuz of climate, food, or homesick? the govt shld have more faith with our own countrymen. or u using money to try and see if hiring native speakers will help. like what our govt loves to do. just use money if they are unsure about certain things to try. if not feasible, nevermind, use money to destroy it and build again. so many bus stops has been built at punggol, and got tore down and rebuild again, because of the location of the bus stops are few metres off where they wan it to be. why dun they plan properly first before building? becuz they think like you. we have money. we can build and destroy and build again.

we are free enough? then the survey must be wrong huh.. 140++ out of 160+.. i dun have to comment about that. u r right, its easy to create tension here. so my point is if you cannot free the press, step out and say u cannot.. dun wayang and say we are a democratic country and blahblahblah.

let us look at chee's intention again. what is he doing all these for? he knows he wont win votes by behaving like that. so why is he still continuing what hes doing? im sick of explaining that point.

u offended alot of asians. including me. but thats typical s'pore govt's thinking. that we cannot think and we are not ready for democracy. but the govt dare not step out and say that we are not ready. they still say singapore is a free country.

u got me wrong. i said free ride for a day. not a day every month. as usual, just like our govt, seldom take people's suggestions seriously and just brush it off.

im not asking the govt to give me anything. i merely challenged their way of doing things and want them t0 help the poor ppl. see how many poor old folks out thereband u might get the picture. what do you mean by once u give u cant stop? so thats the reason why they refuse to give? thats very sad. they would rather spend e money freely and extravagantly, like painting ECP to wayang for the IMF, than to help the poor old ppl who helped shape singapore into what it is today.

im not saying we have a lousy govt. but they can be more frank, listen more and be more compassionate. prices rise and rise, while wages stagnant or lowered, how long can be survive? u heard of water conservance tax? our govt actually tax us for every drop of water. water is a basic commodity. we drink water, we need water to bathe and wash our clothes, so its a basic need. yet our govt tax us from the veryy first drop of water that comes off our tap. is that fair? when certain ministries are wasting power and energy, i wont name but it is my personal experience. they dun even off their computer after they knock off. ALL computers are on thru e night... this is really a sad place to live in.

Anonymous said...

anyway do me a favour and end this debate here, or it wouldn be fair to the other owner of the blog. i thank u for sharing your views with me. really appreciate that u read my post and bother to post a reply.

Anonymous said...

sure mate. all respect given :)


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