Politics

Amid widespread reports that our neighbours Malaysia are in talks to legalise cannabis for medical use, Singapore authorities strongly confirmed that they will not follow the lead of Malaysia, in surely a blow to the local drug users community.

The Ministry of Home Affairs reiterated that Singapore's position on the drug use will be purely based on scientific evidence, clearly a dig at the Malaysian counterparts. MHA further reiterated that a literature review conducted by the IMH clearly showed that cannabis is addictive and harmful especially to the brain. 

There is no word yet on whether the authorities are also relooking their position on Minister's unusually high salaries, when they actually do nothing. Literature review online have clearly showed that insane amount of salary and power at the very top is addictive and harmful, especially when a Minister opens his mouth and sprouts nonsense. 

Politics is not politics if there are no spats. Reform Party's Kenneth Jeyaretnam was unhappy with local activist group Function 8 for organising a memorial service for his father without permission. Function 8 allegedly planned a 10th anniversary memorial for J B Jeyaretnam that was slated for 23 Sep 2018. Dr G Raman, Chee Soon Juan and Teo Soh Lung were supposed to speak at the event.

However, they eventually cancelled the event due to KJ's objection. In a Facebook post, KJ said that he is "very disappointed" that they used his father's name and images without his permission. He felt that Function 8 hijacked his father's reputation to achieve their political ends. 

"[Function 8 is] not a political organisation. It's not a cause associated with JBJ. We have the right to protect JBJ's legacy and if we don't take these actions then every Tom, Dick and Harry will organise an event with the most tenuous link or no link at all to JBJ, in order to raise money for themselves or their pet cause". 

According to KJ, this could all have been avoided if they bothered to contact him right from the start. He was still seething as he recalled how he had helped them in the past: "I instructed my party's activists to work with Chee [Soon Juan] when he fought the by-election. Please don't teach me about opposition unity. I've done more than anyone".

While some may think that KJ was being selfish, he definitely has the right to as it is something that dearly concerns him. Furthermore, neither he nor his family members were invited!

What an ugly turn of things. Way to remember somebody?

Who will be our next Prime Minister? Who will have what it takes to be our next Prime Minister?

In a corporate governance conference yesterday, Minister K Shanmugam dropped hints that the next PM will come from the PAP's Central Executive Committee (CEC). The PAP holds a party conference once every two years and elects a CEC. The event will take place later this year and judging from the positions different leaders will hold within the CEC, it will be an indication of who will be Singapore's next PM. 

Currently, the new generation of leaders are reportedly working hard, coming up with policies and meeting up regularly to discuss the future of our nation. 

Who do Singaporeans want to see as our next PM? What kind of qualities should he exhibit? Our 4G leaders may be working hard but is it in the right direction? Are they formulating policies without listening to the people? 

Most Singaporeans are looking for a less stressful and costly lifestyle. We want someone who can resolve or at least address our bread and butter issues. If nobody from the 4G generation has achieved that so far, what are the chances that this will be a change for the better?

GG lah.

Singapore's Education Minister Ong Ye Kung has publicly stated that Singapore needs an injection of more foreign talent in areas that include software programming. To validate his point for more foreign talent, he blames Singapore's aging population and a shortage of high -tech workers.

He also for the first time made the government's stand clear, they will maintain very little restriction on foreign talent for high end jobs like in the technology industry, but they will have a quota system for lower skilled industries. 

So, the man tipped to be a candidate as Singapore's next PM has assured Singaporeans that the government will keep their word, in that foreign talent in areas such as construction will have e quota, but foreign talent in high end jobs will not be restricted. Because Singaporeans lack the quality and skill for high end jobs, but we are told we can do low skilled ones. Much like the Minister himself, need a back door entrance to go to Parliament, because his talent not good enough to win an election on his own merit.

Amidst online vitriol on Ministerial salaries, our dear Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong clarified that he does not get paid for his duties. "ESM is merely a title with no pay", he said. In other words, Singaporeans should be grateful to Lau Goh for volunteering to help us even though he did indirectly call us "mediocre". 

Lau Goh also mentioned that he will not "do a Mahathir", which means he is unlikely to run for opposition in future. That is good news as he is talking more rubbish and getting cocky nowadays. 

Dear ESM Goh, thanks for telling us how noble you are by serving Singaporeans without getting paid. Then again, if the Government is doing well enough to help Singaporeans today, we will not be harping on ministerial salaries in the first place. Now that he's getting old, maybe it's time to think about what more can be done for needy Singaporeans and start listening to people instead. 

MP Seah Kian Peng is in deep shit. Function 8, a local initiative that encourages civic discussions on politics, recently called for Seah and Minister K Shanmugam to step down from the Select Committee of deliberate online falsehoods. This comes after Seah publicly disapproved of the meeting between Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Singaporeans Thum Ping Tjin, Kirsten Han, Jolovan Wham and Sonny Liew. 

In a recent Facebook post, Function 8 said that his allegations were unfounded. It was unhappy that Seah brought in Teo Soh Lung, a former Singapore Democratic Party member, and accused her of believing that Singapore still belongs to Malaysia.

Although Function 8 was aware that Seah had already apologised, it was perplexed that Seah did not remove the "offending post" and blamed other ministers for helping to spread his baseless accusations. 

"As members of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods, Seah Kian Peng and Shanmugam should not spread falsehoods. They have acted irresponsibly. They should resign from the Committee and apologise to the young Singaporeans and Teo Soh Lung. We urge them to admit their mistakes and do the right thing and resign."

The group insists that there is nothing wrong or illegal about having some local activists meet with Mahathir. To them, it is simply about exchanging views on politics. While it is hard to believe that there is ever anything "simple" in politics, do you think Seah really took it too far? Perhaps he really was asking for it. 

Credit to Function 8