Dear A.S.S. Editor

Did not take Malaysia authorities that long to react to Singapore's government announcement of foreign vehicles having to pay to enter Singapore.

Our government recently announced that vehicles entering via the two causeways will have to pay $6.50, on top of the $35 VEP charge from 17 February onwards, a move they said to match Malaysia's own introduction of VEP charges. But Malaysia had said that it is now their turn to review the charges, as Singapore are charging above what Malaysia are charging. So, in another tit-for-tat move, Malaysia will possibly increase their own VEP charges.

While the two authorities fight over who can charge more for VEP, it is the average citizens of both countries that suffer. They are the ones who will be paying the price for this petty squabbling. Might as well just close the causeways to cars, and get the train system to work as soon as possible.

Rizal Saad

A.S.S. Contributor

In response to Singapore's decision to impose a Reciprocal Road Charge of S$6.40 on foreign-registered cars coming into Singapore, Malaysia Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said they may be forced to respond and mirror Singapore's VEP fee of $35 charged to vehicles entering Malaysia.

Liow defended Malaysia's decision to impose a RM20 road charge because Malaysia did not impose a VEP when Singapore did it in 1973.

Liow was quoted as saying:

"If Singapore insist on it (imposing the RRC) and do not reconsider their decision, we may be forced to implement the VEP policy practised by Singapore."

He added that Malaysia will also review measures to regulate entry of foreign-registered cars into Malaysia

Dear A.S.S,

Why made collecting new notes so kangkor (difficult) ha ??? My wife and I went to the bank at 10.30 am. Long queues already formed. Two confusing queues - one for red packets and one for new notes. One customer only one packet. One customer only limited to $1000 $10 notes and maximum $400 $2 notes. What about two packs - one for my wife? Cannot! What about my extended family? Cannot!!! Can give extra red packet ? Also cannot!!! Can I re- queue and collect? Cannot ! Don't try Uncle, I can recognize you hor.So don't try.Ask your wife to queue hor....

Why so unfriendly towards our elderly Singaporeans ? I saw one elderly uncle begging for one more red packet for his grandchildren. He was rudely denied by the staff with the security officer standing firmly and looking rather threateningly. The staff then disappeared to refill his small bag- telling those in the queue to wait for ten minutes. This went on several times.

Meanwhile those in the queue for the new notes were given a number and they had to wait for their turn. I was in the queue at 10.30 am and I got my new notes at 11.45 am. I had my lunch and did a short window shopping. My car park cost me $5!!!!

The whole of AMK no ATM withdrawal of new notes. The nearest CC I think is at Yishun South CC.

What a lousy start man...Why people are so unfriendly and so officious....Give and take lah....

A.S.S Contributor
Heartache Ah Gongsan...

Dear A.S.S. Editor

The fifth NEWater plabt was officially opened today at Changi. Based on the reports, the opening of the fifth plant can now meet 40% of Singapore's water needs.

This would mean that Singapore would have to rely less and less on the Linggiu Reservoir in Johor. However, since NEWater plants means that water will be treated and re-treated to make sure that it is safe for consumption, that means the cost for maintaining the plants will be quite high. Will this high cost then be passed on to the consumers?

Will we see our water bill going sky high soon?

Farid T

A.S.S. Contributor

Dear A.S.S,

She !!! 101% China staff of BreakTalk bakery at East Point Mall , NO work gloves wearing , wrapping the tray of cakes as well as She is a cashier collecting money !!! My anger grows when I told her to put on a pair of work gloves . She argued back saying her bare hands DID'NT touch the cakes so they are " clean" in plastic wrapping She did !!! Don't she knows that germs from money might wrapped too !!! First minute my action is called NEA !!! 1800 225 5632 !

Next I will message send over to the management of BreadTalk with photos as evidence !!!

Victor Lee
A.S.S Contributor

Singaporean employees should wake up to the fact that they are alone in their times of need, no thanks to our pseudo workers’ unions.

These pseudo workers’ unions such as NTUC, SATU, BATU. etc were set up by the pro-business PAP government whose focus is on running a business empire funded by taxpayers. Workers’ welfare has always been sacrificed to enrich management and increase profits.

It therefore should not surprise anyone that GLC Surbana Jurong has recently dismissed dozens of workers, citing “poor performance” instead of retrenching them. This is to avoid paying millions in benefits.

Up to 65 employees – all based in Singapore – are affected. Instead of being upfront, Surbana tried to downplay this by highlighting the number of terminations as a percentage of its “global 13,000-strong workforce”.

Singaporeans are of course not interested in Surbana’s operations elsewhere so why the 13,000 global workforce figure instead of 3000 locally? Same PAP habit of stating half truths?

Surbana has made a rather stupid statement when it said that “a small number of poor performers were communicated with and released”. Is ‘up to 65’ really a “small number”? And coincidentally all were assessed to be poor performers at the same time?

There is more to this than meets the eye.

Leong Sze Hian has already pointed out that the correct percentage is much higher – about 2.16%. If 2.16% or 3098 public servants of the 143,000-strong public service are terminated, will the PAP government state this as a ‘small number’?

To top that, most of the 18 workers represented by 2 pseudo unions are over the age of 62. This means they had been Surbana’s employees for decades. The reason for Surbana to prefer termination to retrenchment is clear for all with eyes to see.

Thanks to social media, half truths and lies are easily exposed.

Those who have been unfairly dismissed have decided to fight back. They shared with TOC that Surbana had given them 2 choices, both of which saved millions for Surbana. The workers would have been terminated if they had not resigned.

The TOC article has confirmed that many workers had been with Surbana for more than 20 years, when it was still a stat board. And Surbana wants the public to believe all of them became underperformers overnight.

Despite the ‘assistance’ provided by MOM and NTUC ass sec-gen Zainal Sapari to Surbana’s former employees, this is all merely wayang, one which we have seen countless times.

Rank and file workers in GLCs and private companies had better vote wisely at the next GE as anyone could be the next victim of our pro business government.

If we did not have pseudo workers’ unions, Surbana would not have dared terminate its employees to save on retrenchment benefits. Our bloody useless workers’ unions have in fact not been helping workers for decades but assisting the government to shortchange them.

Parking at Taxi Stand pretending car breakdown to avoid parking fee or summon.

On the 17th January, at around 2pm, I noticed this poor lady was stuck in a taxi stand because her red colored car had broken down just outside Queensway Shopping Centre right next to Queenstown Neighborhood Police Centre. Looked upset with head down.

5 minutes later, I realized I was wrong and she was not the owner of the red car (SLB 5442Y) but the front silver (SLE5185Z) car which belonged to her male friend. She was put there to 'jaga' the cars. The friend soon appeared, giving her a surprise from her back. Then both greeted each other and the guy started laughing, conveniently closed the bonnet and looked around. Then both of them drove off happily, all this time while many taxis were trying to get into queue and not able to because they 'THOUGHT' like me that the two cars needed help and one was actually broken down.

I think this kind of act blur behaviour is disgusting and obnoxious. When did Singapore become such a country? What do you think?

Fadil Amin
A.S.S Contributor

<Credits: The Alternative View>

Train delay alert: [EWL]UPDATE:

Pls add 15 mins travel time from #JooKoon towards #Clementi,due to a track fault at #Clementi.

A reader told us that he has been stuck in the train at Clementi Station for close to 40 mins since 8 am due to the track fault. Are you similarly affected?

Dear A.S.S. Editor

The Ministry of Education is finally going to review all their long-overdue university tuition fees loans, after being flagged by the AG earlier on their failure to promptly follow up on the outstanding loans. The loans amounted to over half a billion dollars.

The review is supposed to be done by June. So far, MOE had only finished reviewing 20% of the outstanding loans since September. They are working closely with banks and universities to monitor the loans and track them more closely. Also in the AG report, Nanyang Poly was taken to task for allowing the use of the name of a registered charity to solicit donations for needy graduates, which was unauthorised.

Wow! Half a billion dollars worth of loans not tracked properly, and use of unauthorised soliciting of donations! Can get away with this quietly?

Wonder why this issue was not trumpeted more in the media. Maybe because of the loans being handed out to scholars who would one day run the media themselves? Future prospects, better not tarnish their reputations. And news reported only when MOE getting their act in order, so can say, we take action immediately.

Jason Chye

A.S.S. Contributor

<Article by Chee Soon Juan>

SINGAPORE'S PRESENT SITUATION vis-a-vis China is the result of a confused mishmash of positions forced together by a government inept at handling change.

Our foreign, economic, immigration and internal security policies towards the Chinese have become an interlocking muddle making it all but impossible for us to send out a clear and consistent signal.

We adhere to the One China policy which, by itself, is not a wrong thing to do.

But as far as the South China Sea (SCS) is concerned, we unnecessarily injected ourselves into a dispute whose resolution was as convoluted as it was going to be protracted. Our interests would have been better served if we had left the controversy to the claimants.

Instead, we chose to stand with the US, echoing its position that according to international law the SCS must remain a free navigation channel. Again, by itself, there is little to fault such a stand.

But we did not stop there. We became the biggest cheerleader for the Trans Pacific Partnership which the US made clear was not just a trade agreement but a tool to re-balance power in Asia (code for the US' effort to contain China), publicly ridiculed China with ill-advised jokes – in front of an American audience to boot, insulted the Middle Kingdom saying that it was no longer one, condescendingly lectured it on the rule of law, reveled in a state dinner at the White House and, to cap it off, invited the US naval forces to dock at Changi.

Read also An American tail

If this is not tone-deafness at its finest, then it must be the most witless act of provocation in human history.

One must wonder if all this has made China even more determined to develop the port in Malacca which observers speculate could double up as a military outpost or push ahead with the One-Belt-One-Road project or intensify its effort with Thailand to cut the Kra canal.

These developments could render the SCS dispute moot, that is, even if the US gets it way and enforces a free channel, Singapore would be crippled as a trading port.

Our situation is made incalculably more untenable with the huge number of Chinese nationals on the island. Our economy, facilitated by an overly liberal immigration policy, actively recruits Chinese nationals into our workforce. Estimates have it anywhere between 500,000 to 1 million people from the PRC living and working in Singapore.

If armed conflict erupts between the US and China, can we be certain how our Chinese guest workers will react? Nationalistic fervour, if one needs to be reminded, is not confined to a country's borders.

If even a fraction of them decide to publicly vent their anger, it could make the riot in Little India look like a Sunday morning picnic.

There is also the not insignificant matter of our investments in China. Not-so-fun fact: We are the biggest foreign investor in the country. Trade between our two economies stood at more than $115 billion in 2013.

None of this entails us to genuflect to Beijing, no one gets to bully us. But, as I said, there is a difference between making a principled stand and unnecessarily provoking a giant of a friend who can inflict immense damage to our tiny island.

If we are to truly maintain our standing as a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, then we must re-calibrate our relations with the US (whose commitment to this part of the world has taken on an air of unpredictability anyway), reduce our dependence on Chinese workers (and workers from other nations for that matter), re-assure Beijing of our commitment to the One-China policy, maintain our present stance on the SCS controversy but refrain from getting further involved in the imbroglio, and insist on our ministers, especially the Prime Minister, taking a course in international diplomacy.

Then focus on getting our country ready for the future.

Dear A.S.S. Editor

I laugh at the irony that the husband of Dr Susan Lim filing a complaint against the Law Society, indicating that the opposing lawyers who won the case against her had inflated their fees.

Dr Lim had lost a court battle to block a disciplinary hearing against her over $24 million she had billed a patient in 2007, and was subsequently found guilty on 94 charges of overcharging the sister of the Queen of Brunei, who died of cancer in 2007. She had also been ordered to pay the legal costs for the Singapore Medical Council, which amounted to $370,000.

So the husband thinks that the wife was overcharged. Wonder what he thinks when the wife overcharged the late sister of the Queen of Brunei.

Soh S. T.

A.S.S. Contributor

First we have drivers who drive against the flow of traffic.

Now this? Who can explain? This happened at Jurong West.

A 40 year old woman living in Pasir Ris was conveyed to Changi General Hospital with lacerations on her forehead after crows attacked her out of the blue. The incident happened at Block 106 Pasir Ris Street 12 during evening at 7.10pm.

Eyewitness said they saw a few children feeding crows and after, the crows flew around and attacked the woman. There was a lot of blood on the victim's head and blood splattered on the ground as she screamed in pain.

AVA has since activated their crow culling contractors and one crow's nest was removed. The authorities urged members of the public to not feed the birds as it will encourage them to congregate and result in nuisance and hygiene issues.

Dear A.S.S. Editor

The chairman of the authority that oversees Port Klang, Kong Cho Ha said that the massive port industrial city planed for Malaysia's Carey Island will not be a threat to Singapore's port. The terminal at Carey Island is planned to be ready by 2025.

Singapore is also building its own new terminal in Tuas, which is slated to be even bigger than the one that Malaysia has planned. Kong said that the Malaysia port will be complement to Singapore's Tuas one, not a direct competitor.

But maybe the timing of the building of the new ports are on purpose. Would this be the next issue that Malaysia and Singapore will go head to head in? We already have the VEP challenge, maybe next the Big New Port challenge coming our way?

Dear A.S.S. Editor

How come today's news say that the there will be more COEs to be offered in the February to April period, an almost 8.9% increase?

I thought the reason the government have the COE ruling is to manage the number of cars in the road? Means now the government think that the cars on the road are better able to make use of "empty" spaces in our roads? Wah, that means what, more COE, means COE might be cheaper during this period? Also means, after April, the roads and expressways will always continually have jams? More cars, but roads still remain the same.

Did the government think this through or not? Force citizens to take public transport because of traffic jams everywhere, but the MRT always have delay. How like that?

Song H. X.

A.S.S. Contributor

Veteran politician Chiam See Tong and former national swimmer, Ang Peng Siong are working to set up a foundation aimed at providing financial aid to people who need it but are unable to get access to it with the existing systems.

It was reported that Mr Chiam had submitted an application for the foundation to the Registry of Socieities (ROS) last November. It is likely that Mr Chiam would hear from ROS come Februrary.

The foundation would be named after Mr Chiam who is the secretary-general of the Singapore People’s Party. Mr Chiam has also enlisted the help of Mr Ang Peng Siong to head the foundation’s board of governors.

<Facebook post by Edwin Francis>

Soo...about to step into National Gallery when I saw this duck behaving oddly. Turns out she was separated from her ducklings 5 hours before, and came back for them. This is part of their trek back to the river. A couple of Gallery staff and I followed them part way, stopping traffic in front of Old Parliament House.

They got around quite a bit!

<Facebook post by Min>

What kind of crap lawmakers do we have here? They are quick to amend laws to censor freedom of speech and protect the PAP-govt but they allow such unfair labour laws to exist? This poor foreign worker's case highlights how pathetic our labour laws are. Our Labour Court has no teeth to enforce any directive it gives to derelict employers i.e. it can ask them to pay up but they have no power to punish those who ignore the request.

Instead cheated workers are told by MOM no less to go to State Court by themselves and pay more than $1000 to apply for a court seizure of the employer's assets and auction them off to recover unpaid wages! WTH.

And tucked away in a tiny sidebar report MOM says it gets 4,500 salary claims by foreign workers Every Year, a large number by any measure. Yet, as usual our G tried to downplay it by playing with percentages saying it is "less than 0.4%" of the foreign workforce. Lastly MOM declared "salary recover matters are civil claims" between employer and worker. Right, just imagine a powerless and penniless worker trying to go up against his big bad boss in court. We seriously have 3rd world labour laws in a 1st world country. What a poor reflection on our country #singaporelabourlaws #MOMSingapore #ministryofmanpowe #shameonMOM

,facebook post by Petrina Kow>

My 13 year old daughter ran out of a guest lecture in tears on Monday. It was a talk on crime prevention by a member of the Police Force. But somewhere between warning them about sexual predators and taking precautions came some very disturbing statements about how girls are 'responsible' and 'asking for it' if they wear short skirts because the boys 'can't help themselves'. Even though the students, boys included raised their concerns, the Teachers didn't step in to mediate this very dangerous narrative. The room was visibly agitated and apparently the kids got a scolding from the teacher in charge after the guest left for being 'rude' and asking him 'difficult' questions.

I am sharing this because we really need to stop this attitude that girls deserve any kind of abuse. NOBODY deserves ANY kind of abuse. And when we see it, we must empower ourselves to take a stand.

I raise this because I am appalled that such attitudes are allowed to permeate our law enforcement agencies who are supposed to protect our citizens.

I am concerned because there are girls and boys in that talk who might have suffered some form of assault who are now NOT going report the case because of this public shaming.

I share this video because this is one of the ways our well-meaning but poorly educated police officers could conduct the training/talk.

<Facebook post by Maidin Packer>

A CHINESE FUNERAL & A MALAY WEDDING: I was having lunch at the void deck of Blk 256 Pasir Ris when I saw a funeral procession passing by slowly. Some wedding guests were standing along the side of the void deck to show respect. THIS IS SO SINGAPORE!

I rushed out to photograph it. But the van carrying the deceased was about to pass there, with family members on foot. I stood still to show respect. A few of them noticed and nodded. I nodded back. By the time I walked across, the main funeral party had passed. Photo 1 was the best I could get. Photo 2 showed a bit more of both. Later, as I was driving back, I saw the procession again at the main road (photo 3).

CLEARLY, WE HAVE GROWN TO RESPECT EACH OTHER.