Littlespeck downs his pen - Seah Chiang Nee

‘A generation of Malaysians and readers around the world have grown up with Seah Chiang Nee’s columns on Singapore. Illness, however, has forced him to ease up and he has decided to stop being a columnist in The Star. In this farewell interview with Soo Ewe Jin, Seah gives his readers an insight into his illustrious career as a journalist.
FOR the past 28 years, readers of this newspaper have been given a weekly analysis of the goings-on in Singapore through the column of veteran journalist Seah Chiang Nee, Insight Down South.
 
Seah began his career in 1960 as a Reuters correspondent based in Singapore. During that 10-year stint, he was in (then south) Vietnam for 40 months to cover the war.
He joined the Singapore Herald in 1970, as Malaysia bureau chief and later as news editor, before it was forced to close after a run-in with the Singapore Government.
From 1972 to 1973, he worked for The Asian, the world’s first regional weekly newspaper, based in Bangkok, to cover Thailand and Indochina – Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
 
He then moved on to be news editor of the Hong Kong Standard before returning to Singapore in 1974 to serve as foreign editor with The Straits Times.
 
From 1982 to 1985, he served as editor of the Singapore Monitor. And in 1986, he started writing for The Star. Seah also became the first South-East Asian to undergo a heart transplant at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital back in 1985.
And he already belongs to that rare club of those who have lived for more than 20 years as a heart transplant patient.
 
Because of age and health reasons, Seah will no longer be writing his column. In an email interview, he reflects on this journey with The Star….’
 
The above is a piece in the Star Online written by Soo Ewe Jin in honour of this senior gentleman of the media. He lived through it, through the tumultuous period of Singapore as a young new nation, its flirtation with Malaysia and then independence as a new nation, prospered and be what it is today. Whether Chiang Nee would have the privilege of seeing the next change to this prosperous nation, or for how long more, only God knows.
 
For those who are unfamiliar, Chiang Nee is the first heart transplant patient and the longest surviving one, alive. May he enjoy his retirement and get a good rest watching from the safety on the sideline and also have the pleasure of time to reflect on the days gone by.
 
Best wishes, Chiang Nee, the grand old man of the media.

CPF becoming a hot potato issue

With the latest increases in the Minimum Sum to be retained in the CPF and Medisave Accounts, the CPF savings scheme is now a hot potato issue among the account holders. Many felt cheated while some felt glad that the govt is raising the minimum sum to provide for their retirement needs. Below are two comments from bloggers in the TRE on this topic.

1. Sperm:
Likely PAP squandered away all our CPF money , we become a country of bankrupts ?
 
2. Im a layman.
I dont concur because I ask myself a few questions first.
Did the CPF ever default since its inception in 1955?
The ruling party has a non nonsense reputation when it comes to credibility & integrity in finance.
It has fed this donkey (cpf) with a higher than bank savings rate since inception so that the people will have a bigger nest egg.
Which member upon reaching 55 and minusing the prescribed asset hasnt been paid back the balance?
 
Commentator Sperm belongs to one camp that is being troubled by this obsession and funny logic to keep raising the minimum sum. They are suspicious and worried that the CPF has not enough money to pay them and has to resort to locking away their savings by all kinds of schemes and means for as long as it can. How valid are their concerns and suspicions? At best it is only a gut feel as nobody really knows and the govt is not coming up with official statistics except statements to assure the people that their money is safe.
 
In the case of commentator ‘I m a layman’, he is a happy man. He is very confident that all the money is there and there is nothing to worry about. He even commented that until now, the govt has not defaulted in any payments to the account holders when they reached the retirement age of 55. And he is right. Those who had reached the age of 55 earlier had happily received their CPF savings in cash. Those that reached 55 in the last few years also had received some of their money in cash but with some of their savings lock up in Minimum Sums Schemes and Medisave. But they are not complaining much as they still got to receive a fairly substantial sum at 55.
 
Now this is a thing of the past. The new 55 can only withdrawal the amount after setting aside the minimum sums in the RA and MA, nearly $200k or $5k as many did not have enough to cover the minimum sums. The govt is not renegating on the payout at 55. The govt sure pay out if one has the money to be paid out. Just make sure your balances are more than the two minimum sums and you will receive your money.
 
Now who is accusing the govt for not being able to meet their obligations and not paying out the money when it is due? Not true right. So commentator ‘I m a layman’ is right. Do not underestimate the intelligence of a layman. He is clever like hell. You cannot cheat a layman unless he volunteers to be cheated, willingly, happily and gratefully.

Kopi Level - Yellow

Cherian George joining HK university

I just have to write about Cherian George. You know how difficult it is and how much resources are needed to produce a professor in this city? Do you know how much more difficult it is to produce a good professor that is worth his title? Cherian George is one of the rarity, an ex journalist who has earned his stripes and good enough to be ‘promoted to associate professor in 2009, the same year he won a teaching excellence award from the university (NTU)’. And he received his doctorate not from some funny university but from Stanford University. Stanford, my friend, is no funny university but among the best in the USA and in the world.

NTU did not seem to be flattered by his qualifications and his teaching excellence. Maybe it is a kind of policy to send our talents overseas and replace them with foreign talents from overseas to create the right kind of buzz and the right kind of vibrancy that local talents cannot offer. Maybe George will have a better chance if he takes up a foreign citizenship and return as a FT.

Cherian George is going to Hong Kong’s Baptist University’s School of Communication. I am wondering if this exchange is good for the grooming and nurturing of local talents. Or is it that instant trees are still the way to go, instant foreign talents are the best.

Best wishes to Cherian George. Hong Kong has gained a talent that we rejected. We should send more recruitment teams overseas to recruit Sinkie talents to come back home. Cherian, just wait, in a few years time there may be a Sinkie team going to Hong Kong to beg you to come back and tell you how good this city state is and how valuable you are and how much they missed you.

Kopi Level - Yellow

Food for thought – No security breach

When the bank manager arrived at the bank on Monday morning, everything was normal. The security guards were at their post. The security cameras were working normally. The doors were locked as usual and he had to unlock it with his bunch of keys.

He opened the vault to check everything was fine. Yes, everything was fine. The vault was all in order, nothing missing, except the money in the vault.

He called a press conference. During the briefing he told the media, there was no breach of security. All the locks and security apparatus were not tempered with and working fine. We have the best security system guarding the bank.

Only the money was missing.

Have a good Sunday.

Graffiti vandals – are they NSmen?

Many people are wondering if the 5 young men are NSmen given their newly shaven heads. The fact that they are 17 said no. But they could be preparing for their enlistment as 18 is just around the corner. Some said their heads were shaven after being arrested. This I find it difficult to believe. I remember clearly that the rioters I the Little India case were not shaven at all. Can anyone confirm this? I may have dementia you know. I am sure the police have SOP about when and how to shave the heads of people under their care. Innocent until proven guilty. The young men, or actually children as legally defined since they are below 18, have not been found guilty by the courts yet. Is there a procedure to shave their heads?

I am very sure that army boys when enlisted will have their heads shaven on the first day. I am very sure all convicted prisoners will also have their heads shaven on the first day in prison. The boys are not convicted prisoners yet. Who ordered their heads to be shaven and is it the proper thing to do? But we are presuming, the boys could have shaven their own heads to prepare themselves to be NSmen to serve the country.

Choo Zheng Xi, a lawyer, has quoted some legal provisions that protect the rights of minors or children under the age of 18. He also felt that the AGC should intervene to protect the interest of these boys from all the excessive publicity in this case, names and faces prominently flashed across the media. Not only that the law provides legal protection to the young, morally, the society too would want to protect the young, and the adults should have some decency to want to protect the vulnerable and still young in the head children.

These are our children. They are mischievous, outrageous, defiance, unruly or whatever, just like children. They are definitely nicer than the rioters in Little India. They did not pelt stones to hurt anyone or the police. They did not burn police cars. They are in a way playful and not knowing the consequences and the severity of the law.

Should they be dealt with just like any criminals? Shall they be whipped or shall they be made an example of to deter other youths from doing the same? Shall the adults behave like responsible adults and look at them as children growing up, in search of an identity, and identity crisis, a part of the growing up process?

It is so easy to throw the book at them and whack them as hard as provided under the law. Poor thing. Did I say poor thing? Or shall one blindfold oneself and say it without any passion, a crime is a crime? Compassion, kindness movement, forgiveness and acting like responsible adults, do these words mean anything?

Kopi Level - Green