Aljunied GRC’s PAP team thanks residents for their support

Aljunied GRC’s PAP team thanks residents for their support

 

SINGAPORE : The five—member People’s Action Party (PAP) team that contested the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency (GRC) in the General Election went around the constituency thanking their supporters on Tuesday evening.

Former chairman of Aljunied Town Council, Cynthia Phua, said the Town Council is now taking stock of the many on—going contracts.

She said her priority is to ensure there is a proper handover under the guidelines of the Ministry of National Development.

As to whether the winning Workers’ Party (WP) team can use the current Town Council premises, Madam Phua said this matter is between the WP and the HDB.

The PAP team said it will continue to serve the grassroots organisations in Aljunied.

Zainul Abidin Rasheed said: " I will continue to be advisor of the grassroots organisation, until such time that PM decides otherwise. If not, I will continue to put the team together.

" My heart is still with the people of Bedok Reservoir and Aljunied GRC. I will certainly want to continue to serve them, but I have to look at the other options available first and what I need to do."

— CNA/ms

What will happen to George Yeo?

Photocredits: ST/Joyce Fang  

The People’s Action Party (PAP) lost in Aljunied with 45.29% of the votes, while the Worker’s Party (WP) won with 54.71% of the votes.

George Yeo’s team has lost in Aljunied, in other words. At the risk of sounding melodramatic, I sincerely think this is a tragedy. I am heartened that our opposition, in the form of WP, are on the ascent, but George Yeo is quite the unlucky casualty of this turn in Singaporean politics.

There are many other PAP candidates that I would have rather ‘let go’ than George Yeo : Wong Kan Seng (Mas Selamat debacle), Mah Bow Tan (HDB flats very affordable?) and Vivian Balakrishnan (needless homophobia in the run-up to elections).

George Yeo on the other hand has been the gracious incumbent, welcoming a strong team from WP (“That just means we [PAP] have to work harder!” he said), and now the gracious member of the defeated party.

“We fought hard. We have no regrets. – George Yeo”   reads the live feed from the Straits Times live coverage of the elections results.

George Yeo has played an instrumental role in improving relations with the Middle East as a student interested in Middle Eastern Studies, this loss is felt even more keenly.

As a South Asian Studies minor, George Yeo’s efforts in reviving the Nalanda University in India were also greatly heartening. However, who will now take over George Yeo’s role in government as a promoter of the arts, culture, and history?

Indeed, what happens to George Yeo for the next 5 years?

Will George Yeo stay and fight in Aljunied in 2016, or will he change to another GRC/SMC?

What lessons will the PAP draw from this loss?

Now that WP has won in Aljunied, I hope that in the next elections, they choose to stand in GRCs where the more unpopular PAP candidates are standing – we all know who they are! – instead of in districts where enlightened George Yeo-types are standing. [point of clarification, raised in the comments section: as in, stay in Aljunied, but expand into other GRCs strategically, starting with those GRCs that have more unpopular PAP candidates]

I hope George Yeo can continue to contribute to Singapore, and I wish to let him know that even though Aljunied didn’t vote for him, he does have his supporters elsewhere who have appreciated his contributions and efforts for Singapore.

Edit: These videos were added about 3 hours after the post was published.



Although the PAP does have many ‘bad’ and proud eggs, let’s not forget the fact that there are a few good men in the party, one of whom is George Yeo. While we rejoice in the fact that the Worker’s Party has given a breath of life to the opposition in Singapore, let’s not get carried away with the gains and also reflect upon the losses.

AVA investigating alleged case of restaurant selling dog meat

AVA investigating alleged case of restaurant selling dog meat

 

SINGAPORE : The Agri—Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) is investigating an alleged case of a restaurant selling dog meat to patrons.

It has taken samples for testing to ascertain the type of meat used.

The Internet has been abuzz with comments of an eatery — identified as Song Hua Jiang Restaurant — located at Jurong East Avenue 1 featuring dog meat in its menu.

One of its dishes was apparently described as containing " braised dog meat, tofu and cabbage" .

AVA said in a statement that under the law, meat can only be imported from AVA—approved sources which have met public health and food safety standards.

Authorities also ensure that local slaughter houses meet standards of safety and welfare in the treatment and handling of live animals for slaughter.

AVA said it accepts only internationally humane methods and " there is no known humane methods of slaughtering dogs for human consumption" .

It added there are also no premises licensed for the slaughter of dogs in Singapore.

Anyone caught illegally slaughtering animals for human consumption or importing dog meat could be fined up to S$10,000 and jailed up to 12 months.

— CNA/al

Deal Lawyer Chen Makes Initial Offering in Singapore Parliament Elections

Scheme. " Legitimacy is a generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions" (Suchman, 1995, p. 574, emphasis in original)

COMMERCE RESEARCH PAPER SERIES NO. 04-6

ISSN: 1441-3906

Legitimacy theory has become one of the most cited theories within the social and environmental accounting area. Yet there remains deep scepticism amongst many researchers that it offers any real insight into the voluntary disclosures of corporations. This brief paper outlines responses to two specific concerns identified in the literature. It will eventually form part of a much larger project addressing a range of issues associated with legitimacy theory. First, the paper brings some of the more recent developments in the management and ethical literature on legitimacy and corporations to the accounting table. Second, there are contributions to the theory that have already been made by accounting researchers that are yet to be fully recognised. The author believes that legitimacy theory does offer a powerful mechanism for understanding voluntary social and environmental disclosures made by corporations, and that this understanding would provide a vehicle for engaging in critical public debate.

The problem for legitimacy theory in contributing to our understanding of accounting disclosure specifically, and as a theory in general, is that the term has on occasion been used fairly loosely.

This is not a problem of the theory itself, and the observation could be equally applied to a range of theories in a range of disciplines (see for example Caudill (1997) on the abuse of Evolutionary Theory). Failure to adequately specify the theory has been identified by Suchman (1995, p. 572, emphasis in original), who observed that " Many researchers employ the term legitimacy, but few define it" . Hybels (1995, p. 241) comments that " As the tradesmen [sic] of social science have groped to build elaborate theoretical structures with which to shelter their careers and disciplines, legitimation has been a blind man’s hammer." This paper begins to address these issues.

CEO to announce shake-up

LONDON

HSBC said yesterday it made a pre-tax profit of US$4.9 billion (S$6 billion) in the three months ended March, down from US$5.7 billion a year ago, though higher than the US$4.4 billion in the fourth quarter. Net income rose 58 per cent to US$4.15 billion, boosted by lower taxes.

HSBC said it would take a US$440-million provision to compensate British customers who were wrongly sold insurance as banks scrapped a legal fight on the issue, which has implicated most of the UK’s big banks. That provision — and markedly higher staff costs in investment banking — helped lift the ratio of costs to revenue to 60.9 per cent from 55 per cent in the previous quarter.

HSBC chief executive Stuart Gulliver said: “We have increased our emphasis on cost management ... launching a number of cost reduction programmes”

These will be covered in more detail tomorrow.

The bank also said its performance last month was “satisfactory and in line with expectations”.

Also tomorrow, Mr Gulliver will unveil a radical shake-up, expected to outline dramatic cost-cutting, a pull back from some of the 87 countries it has a presence in, and possibly the sale of its United States credit card business.

— Profits at HSBC Holdings fell 14 per cent in the first quarter from the corresponding period a year ago as a jump in costs offset a fall in bad debts at Europe’s biggest bank.Agencies