Snowden - Man of The Year in GUARDIAN

Year of Snowden and his revelations

Below is an extract of an article in China Daily on 2013-12-13 by Chen Weihua

There is no doubt in my mind that former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden should have been Time magazine's Person of the Year in 2013.... if the Person of the Year is someone who has done the most to influence the world in 2013 for better or worse, then Snowden should have had no competitor this year.
Snowden's revelations since early June awakened the whole world - government, corporations and ordinary people alike.
People have realized that they are under massive surveillance, through various NSA programs, such as PRISM, XKeyscore and Tempora, and the mining of telephone metadata. They have had to redefine the word privacy....

Snowden's revelations came as the US was busily attempting to label China a major hacker against the US, and showed that whatever China or any other country is doing in cyberspace simply pales to insignificance compared with the actions of the NSA. The NSA has not only hacked into China's cell phone and telecom companies as well as universities and hospitals, it has also spied on many other countries, including many of its allies, as well as 35 world leaders.
Last week, Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom, said that his paper had published only 1 percent of the 58,000 files passed on by Snowden. If 1 percent of Snowden's disclosures are so damning of the US, it's hard to imagine what the impact would be if the remaining 99 percent is also made public....

While Snowden is widely seen as a hero and a whistleblower, the US government and many US politicians have tried hard to paint him as a criminal and traitor. The US federal prosecutors have charged Snowden with violating the 1917 Espionage Act....

I don't know why Time magazine did not select Snowden as the Person of the Year. Hopefully it is not because that the controversial nature of his revelations inside the US. It is certainly not controversial at all in the rest of the world....

If the arrival of Pope Francis has been a breath of fresh air, the revelations by Snowden have been an earthquake whose shockwaves have been felt around the world. Time magazine got it wrong. There was no one more influential this year.
The author, based in Washington, is deputy editor of China Daily USA.

A great PR man doing a great PR job

Say whatever you like about Baey Yam Keng, he is indeed a first class PR man. Just for a $2.50 nasi padang meal, he is able to arouse enough publicity to himself that no one or organization could attract even after spending several million dollars on a top notch PR agency to do such a job.
 
Baey Yam Keng’s name is in everyone’s lip. His photographs, selfies, are everywhere, in the main media and social media. His facebook is hot. He outshines everyone, even the PM and the President as the most talked about guy in town. He even out done the Little India riot. No one is going to forget him. He monopolises the news for a whole week and still counting.
 
After this term in office he could go back to PR and will be the most sought after guy in the industry to carry any advertising job. You just have to give it to him when generating publicity is concerned. Well done man.
 
The whole publicity stance costs him $2.50, meals and drinks included. Oh, he added another $3.70 for another meal to extend the publicity campaign and raise it to a higher pitch. Can any PR agency do it, all $6.20 to be in everyone’s lips and in every media? 

Baey’s the man.

Time to say a few good words for the men in blue

Never in any country had the police run away from rioters without hitting back. Never in a riot that the only people injured or got beaten up were the policemen. What happened in Little India is uniquely Singapore.
 
Over the years, with a more educated and well disciplined people that are law abiding, the law enforcers too have gradually adopted a new doctrine that is more people friendly. The police and the people are the same people of the country. And this fact is made more pertinent by the number of NS men in the force. The men in blue and the people do not see each other as the opposite and people felt very comfortable with the men in blue, often making themselves a nuisance in police posts and burdening the police with their silly idiosyncracies.
 
When the traffic accident happened, the police and civil defence officers rushed to the ground to render help and first aid. Never would they imagine that they would be set upon by a mob and became victims themselves. The attack must have shocked the officers who could not know how to react except to run for safety. They forgot that their role was to keep peace and control the rowdy crowd. I would not claim that officers were complacent. It was just out of the normal.
 
When the police cars and ambulance were overturned and torched, they were more in awe of the events exploding in front of them. Most of the young officers would not have seen such violence in their life time. Everything had been peaceful in Little India. It was only a traffic accident. How come like that?
 
There were no thoughts of retaliation, to whack the rioters. This in a way helped not to escalate the rioting, or it could encourage the mobs to be more brazen, depending on how one looked at it. The aftermath is that no one can accuse the men in blue of police brutality. If there was, it was mob brutality against the policemen.
 
When reinforcement finally came, the officers went in only with one purpose, to arrest the rioters. The baton was never used. In one video clip that was circulating, the officers were just escorting the rioters to the police van. The pedestrian spectators were more worried for the policemen than them. The rioters could run or turn violent. And many of the spectators were shouting to the men in blue to cuff the rioters. The policemen were so civil to disbelief. They were treating the rioters just like any other Singaporeans, friendly and without any sense of anger. In most countries, the rioters in the hands of the police or in the process of arresting them would be rewarded with several whacks of the baton to let them know the heavy hand of the law.
 
Not in Singapore, not our men in blue. Fortunately this was a small version of a full scale riot. Our men could be in bokok or in the emergency wards if the situation blossomed into a pandemonium. Actually it was just like the exercises the men in blue held as part of their training. No undue force needed or applied.
 
The proof of the civility of our men in blue was a total absence of wild accusations against them, that the rioters were brutally bashed up. The home policemen of these rioters would have had a whale of a time teaching the rioters who was the boss.
It was a happy ending for both parties though the men in blue took all the blows and all the injuries, including the embarrassing torching of their vehicles and ambulances. The last figure tossing around was 16 vehicles. Ouch, quite some money to be burnt and really pai seh.
 
Now what? The police really need to revise their doctrines in handling a mob, especially a foreign one when rioting is normal in their country. And the police must know that they would get violent and could maim and kill. The police need to indoctrinate into their officers that this is not wayang kulit. This is the real stuff and they need to be more exertive and even teach the rioters with their brand of violence to keep them in check. Rioters only know the language of force. They used force to intimidate and to achieve their goals. A civilized and nice nice police force is going to look not very nice at the end of a riot in the truest sense.
 
Let’s be prepared in case more violence came their way. The men in blue cannot be too nice to a mob or they could get themselves killed. And they were able to escort the bus driver and his female attendant to safety but not before they were bashed by the rioters. At least they got out of it alive. There was bravery and the commitment to protect and save lives. Kudos to the men in blue. This called for a medal for the few brave guys. It was so lucky none of them ended in black plastic bags.
 
PS. I read in the main media this morning that some rioters are accusing the men in blue of violence during custody. Now there is a big investigation going on and the police deputy commissioner has said that if the allegation is false, the accusers will see justice in return. This is like a murderer accusing the authority of violation of human rights when his back is whipped. The rioters cannot be expecting to be escorted around by pretty nurses do they?

The creepy Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)

The last negotiation for the TPP was held in Singapore with the Americans having very high hope that Singapore as the Chairman of the talk would deliver to Obama an agreement before the end of the year. Somehow the Americans have this very loyal and diligent ally to do its bidding in getting things done when the Americans are no longer able to do so with so much distrust it has built up over the years. No one really trusts the Americans anymore, not its western allies. And the most remarkable thing is that the American Congress was also suspicious of this TPP. In the words of Nancy Pelosi, she urged the Congress to approve the TPP as time was the essence and once it is signed, Congress would then have a chance to know what the TPP is all about.

Can you believe that? The American Congress was asked to sign a blank cheque without knowing what they were signing? And if the American Congress refused to sign something they did not know, why would any country feel so confident and so good that they should blindly sign on the dotted line? Are these people stupid or crazy or being bribed or under a spell?


The TPP has aroused intense suspicion and much opposition in the US Congress but not from some of the loyal American cronies who think of nothing but to go along. At the Singapore session, the Asian negotiating partners too have refused to bow to Washington’s pressure to conclude the deal before the end of they year so that Obama can celebrate Christmas with this Christmas present.

One important feature of the TPP that is sending cold sweat down the spines of the negotiating parties is its secretive nature. Many things are concealed and the parties negotiating it have no clue whatsoever. It is really amazing, really bizarre that the Americans could proposed a trade pact with secret terms that the signing parties have no privy to and are expected to sign, or presumably stupid enough to do so. And there are some parties who pretended to be so intelligent and so knowledgeable to sign the pact without knowing the secretive parts of the pact. Or maybe these few insiders knew what were the non disclosed terms in the pact. But this is very unlikely. How could they be so privileged to know when the American Congress was not allowed to know?

‘This secret treaty gives the public no chance to examine the contents,
and even govts have no right to comment.’ From the look of it, this treaty is going to be hundreds of times more dangerous than the CECA Singapore signed with India. Should Singaporeans allow the govt to go ahead and sign this TPP when the American Congress is also feeling uncomfortable and insecure and signing it would only make them look like fools?

There must be more transparency and the parties signing the agreement must know what they are signing. This is basic. The Americans are as good as saying, trust us, no need to worry, it is good for you. My God, how many govts are willing to be treated like naïve little children, offered a lollipop and happily impress their thumb prints on a piece of paper that may sign the lives of their citizens away?

If the Singapore govt is going to sign this TPP, should the Singaporeans object to it and demand to know what the govt is signing? We did not ask what the govt was signing when the CECA was signed. Now we know and the citizens would want to tear it to pieces. Are Singaporeans daft enough to allow the govt to sign another sweeping agreement that they did not know and neither does the govt?

Is this fiction or is this real? This signing of the TPP is like something the British colonialists made the Temengong signed in the early 19th century. But then the Temengong did not have any option as the offer could not be resisted At the moment the Singapore govt seems to be the most comfortable with the TPP and is behaving like the pipe piper. It is so scary.

We are immigrants!!!!???

Thomas Cook posted this in TRE on the riot in Little India..
 
‘I summarize it in few points below & hope you take note it and pass to as many friends & citizens as possible:
Today’s America prosper due to the early immigrants arrive there.
Today’s Germany prosper due to the early immigrants arrive there.
Today’s Australia prosper due to the early immigrants arrive there.
Today’s Singapore prosper due to our fore parents arrive here.
Need I say more?’
 
What this Thomas Cook was implying is that we are immigrants and forever immigrants and we must open our arms to welcome more immigrants. I am not going to deal with the size of this little piece of rock we called a country. Anyone who cannot imagine how small we are and still keep calling for more people to settle here is not only mad but dangerous to the well being of the citizens of this island.
 
My main point is that our fore fathers or our parents are immigrants. We are not immigrants. We are born here, built a modern city on the sweat on our backs. We own this place. We are not immigrants anymore.
 
Our forefathers came to a place that was hardly a country. The early Americans and Australians went to different lands as immigrants. Their roots were immigrants, but the present Americans and Australians are no longer immigrants.
 
What many people are spouting is that we are forever immigrants and we have no right to this land. We must share it with whoever that comes along and wears a badge, ‘I am immigrant’. How foolish can these people be? They do not understand what is ownership? They stupidly want to share whatever they have with foreigners and they believe that they owe it to the foreigners. The homes or properties that you bought and owned, you want to share with anyone that comes along?
 
Sinkies must start to get rid of this silly immigrant mentality. That is history. Today you are owners of this island. You want to invite foreigners here to kick you out of this island? You believe the foreigners have the same equal rights as you to be here?
Now which twit is implanting this silliness in the minds of daft Sinkies? Sinkies who believe in this nonsense deserve to be boat people one day. PMEs deserve to lose their jobs to foreigners. Our children deserve to be deprived of university places. Sinkies don’t deserve to be owners of this island…coz you are immigrants. Damn it!