By Channel NewsAsia, Updated: 30/07/2011
Tony Tan refutes allegations of preferential treatment for son
Dr Tony Tan (photo: channelnewsasia.com, Hester Tan)
SINGAPORE: Presidential hopeful Dr Tony Tan has refuted online allegations that one of his sons received preferential treatment during National Service (NS).
In a statement posted on Friday night on his Facebook page, Dr Tan — who served as Minister for Defence from 1995 to 2003 — said his son, Dr Patrick Tan, served the latter part of his NS during the tenure.
" My sons all completed their National Service obligations fully and I have never intervened in their postings," he said.
Having spent over three decades in public service, Dr Tan said he is " acutely aware of the scrutiny to which public figures are subjected" .
" Responsibility and integrity governed my choice to serve Singapore for over three decades, motivated me to run for President, and are values I have lived by and instilled in my family," he added.
Dr Tan said he is " deeply disappointed" by the rumours. " I am confident that Singaporeans are savvy enough to see through these distractions and will make up their minds based on solid facts and focus on the real issues at hand," he added.
On Dr Tony Tan’s Facebook page, a netizen named Jessica Tan posed the following question: " ’Elected President candidate Dr Tony Tan helped his son to escape military National Service. He had arranged for his son to do civilian work (research work at National Cancer Centre) and be paid NS salary. It is legally right but morally wrong ?.’... can Dr Tony Tan verify the above statement?"
Earlier on Friday night, Dr Patrick Tan also issued a statement on his father’s Facebook page chronicling his NS stint.
Dr Patrick Tan said he entered NS in 1988 and completed Basic Military Training and his Junior Term at Officer Cadet School.
He was awarded a President’s Scholarship and a Loke Cheng Kim Scholarship to study medicine in the United States, where medical training " typically comprises of a pre—medical degree followed by a graduate medical degree" .
He returned to Singapore in 2000 " ready to complete" his NS, and was attached to the Defence Medical and Environmental Research Institute.
At that time, he said melioidosis — also known as " soil disease" — was a serious concern to MINDEF as it had been affecting soldiers in the field and " is a potential bio—terrorism threat" . " I was instructed to apply the knowledge I had obtained in my MD PhD to study melioidosis," he added.
Throughout his NS, he maintained he received an NS man’s salary and fulfilled all requirements of NS.
He said: " The current allegations — mostly posted anonymously on the Internet — are false. It seems clear that such rumours are intended to hurt my father, which makes it all the more painful for me." —
TODAY
Very easy to have car number under control -
HDB flat dwellers - 50k to 100k - one car
Condo dwellers earning 500k to 1 million - one big and one small
landed proprty - 2 cars maximum
pharoah88 ( Date: 26-Jul-2011 10:17) Posted:
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Time to reduce car import taxes
Letter from Wong Liang Yuan
It is understandable that landscarce Singapore requires high car prices to keep its car population under control.
While the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) system provides that effective means of controlling the car population, the current level of import taxes on cars reduces the standard of living for Singaporeans.
The costs to car buyers here come mainly from three factors:
The Open Market Value (OMV) of the car (the actual landed cost of the car), import taxes comprising the additional registration fee (100 per cent of OMV) and excise duty (20 per cent) and, finally, the COE cost.
With the current new methodology of COE quotas based on actual vehicle de-registrations, the government has an effective control on the actual vehicle population, allowing the free market to price the “right” to own a car for 10 years.
Ever since the new methodology was put in place, and with lower quotas, this “right” has become increasingly more expensive to consumers.
What I find counter-productive is that after bidding and paying large amounts of S$50,000 to S$70,000 for the right to car ownership, consumers have to further pay import taxes of 120 per cent on their cars.
What is the purpose of this sizeable tax amount, which distorts the prices of cars?
It makes better cars (and by better, I refer to higher fuel efficiency, greater comfort levels, et cetera) more costly and more out-of-reach of the consumer.
The high car import tax system here was put in place decades before the establishment of the COE system in 1990, and it is about time this tax system is reviewed.
With an effective means of controlling the car population through COE quotas based on actual de-registrations, the government should not keep the prohibitive import taxes on cars. |
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The Sing dollar is already trading at the high end of the (exchange rate policy band),
growth is shaky, and
inflation is high.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Chua Hak Bin
OVERHEARD:
sIngApOre lOvEs INFLATION
bEcAUsE it mAxImIsEs G S T
By Agence France-Presse, Updated: 27/07/2011
Singapore A380 turns back after engine shuts down
Singapore Airlines said Wednesday an Airbus A380 bound for Hong Kong was forced to return to the city-state this week after one of its engines shut down.
Flight SQ856, carrying 368 passengers, turned back 20 minutes into the flight on Monday " after engine number 3 shut down during the aircraft climb" , the airline said in a statement.
" Following inspections of the affected aircraft in conjunction with Rolls Royce, an engine change was put in place and the aircraft went back into operation on 27 July," it said.
" Investigations are currently being carried out on the affected engine in conjunction with Airbus and Rolls Royce."
SIA said the pilots turned back the flight as a " precautionary measure" and no one was hurt.
Problems with Rolls Royce engines in A380 aircraft -- the world's biggest passenger plane -- came to light after a Qantas superjumbo made an emergency landing in Singapore in November last year because of a mid-air engine explosion.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in a report that the blast on the Qantas aircraft could have been caused by a possible manufacturing issue related to oil pipes in the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine.
The Australian safety watchdog said the problem could lead to fatigue cracking, oil leakage and potential engine failure from an oil fire. Qantas initially grounded its whole A380 fleet over the incident.
dId sIa bUy ALL the wrOng aIrplAnes ? ? ? ?
blAstIng A380 ? ? ? ?
By Channel NewsAsia, Updated: 27/07/2011
President can be alternative channel to Parliament: Tan Kin Lian
Tan Kin Lian (Photo: channelnewsasia.com, Hester Tan)
SINGAPORE: Presidential hopeful Tan Kin Lian believes the president can act as an alternative channel to Parliament.
Speaking to reporters before delivering a talk on Wednesday evening, Mr Tan said Singaporeans should not just depend on one avenue to convey their views on important issues.
The former NTUC Income chief was invited by the Marketing Institute of Singapore to speak on the subject of " Leadership Guided by Values" .
Mr Tan said values such as honesty, fairness, courage, positive attitude, and public service, can help businesses to strive. These values can also be used in political leadership.
He is using the same values as part of his election platform in his bid to run for president.
Mr Tan added the president can play a useful role in conveying views of the people. He said Singaporeans can still turn to their MPs in raising concerns, but the president can be an alternative channel.
He said: " Of course, we don’t want that to be exercised in a way that is quarrelsome, we don’t want to quarrel with the government. Of course, people say Parliament is the way to convey those views but I think we should not only depend on one channel. Parliament may have its own obstacles and structural obstacles. So the president could be another useful channel.
" Of course, the idea is that the president should work in cooperation with the government to bring some of these views of the people and I think this can be a very useful role for the president."
Mr Tan expressed his confidence in getting the Certificate of Eligibility to contest in the Presidential Election.
He also wished Andrew Kuan all the best in making a second attempt at running for the presidency.
Mr Kuan, who is the former chief financial officer of JTC, collected application forms for the Certificate of Eligibility at the Elections Department on Wednesday morning.
Mr Tan said it is good that more people are contesting in the Presidential Election as this gives Singaporeans a wider choice.
—CNA/ac
OVERHEARD:
He wOUld be a FAIR, COURAGEOUS, POSITIVE, PUBLIC SERVICE president.
He earlier deemed S$300,000 compensation as adequate for himself as PRESIDENT.
This is POSITIVE ATTITUDE for PUBLIC SERVICE.
In his " PROMISED WORDS" , he should be donating whatever presidential compensation in EXCESS of S$300,000 to CHARITIES ? ? ? ?
Default now, or suffer more expensive crisis later
Ron Paul
Debate over the debt ceiling has reached a fever pitch in recent weeks, with each side trying to outdo the other in a game of political chicken. If you believe some of the things that are being written, the world will come to an end if the United States defaults on even the tiniest portion of its debt.drives down interest rates below the market rate, lowering the cost of borrowing encourages malinvestment and causes economic miscalculation as resources are diverted from the highest value use as reflected in true consumer preferences.
In strict terms, the default being discussed will occur if the US fails to meet its debt obligations, through failure to pay either interest or principal due a bondholder.
Proponents of raising the debt ceiling claim that a default on Aug 2 is unprecedented and will result in calamity (never mind that this is simply an arbitrary date, easily changed, marking a congressional recess).
My expectations of such a scenario are more sanguine. The US government defaulted at least three times on its obligations during the 20th century.
In 1934, the government banned ownership of gold and eliminated the right to exchange gold certificates for gold coins.
It then immediately revalued gold from US$20.67 (S$25) per troy ounce to US$35, thus devaluing the dollar holdings of all Americans by 40 per cent.
From 1934 to 1968, the federal government continued to issue and redeem silver certificates, notes that circulated as legal tender that could be redeemed for silver coins or silver bars. In 1968, Congress unilaterally reneged on this obligation, too.
From 1934 to 1971, foreign governments were permitted by the US government to exchange their dollars for gold through the gold window.
In 1971, President Richard Nixon severed this final link between the dollar and gold by closing the gold window, thus, in effect defaulting once again on a debt obligation of the US government.
No longer constrained by any sort of commodity backing, the federal government was now free to engage in almost unlimited fiscal profligacy, the only check on its spending being the market’s appetite for Treasury debt.
Despite the defaults in 1934, 1968 and 1971to purchase Treasury debt and thereby fund the government’s deficit spending. If these major defaults did not result in decreased investor appetite for US obligations, I see no reason why defaulting on a small amount of debt this August would cause any major changes.
The national debt now stands at just over US$14 trillion (S$16.9 trillion), while net total liabilities are estimated at over US$200 trillion. The government is insolvent, as there is no way that this massive sum of liabilities can ever be paid off.
Successive Congresses and administrations have shown absolutely no restraint when it comes to the budget process, and the idea that either of the two parties is serious about getting our fiscal house in order is laughable.
The Austrian School’s theory of the business cycle describes how loose central bank monetary policy causes booms and busts:
It
Loose monetary policy caused the dotcom bubble and the housing bubble, and now is causing the government debt bubble.
Singapore in SAME BOAT ? ? ? ?
For far too long, the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy and quantitative easing have kept interest rates artificially low, enabling the government to drastically increase its spending by funding its profligacy through new debt whose service costs were lower than they otherwise would have been.
Neither Republicans nor Democrats sought to end this gravy train, with one party prioritising war spending and the other prioritising welfare spending, and with both supporting both types of spending. But now, with the end of the second round of quantitative easing, the federal funds rate at the zero bound, and the debt limit maxed out, Congress finds itself in a real quandary.
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