'National interest' halts arms corruption inquiry

Guardian Unlimited
It could have been such a great success story of "no one is above the law"...

TODAYonline

TODAYonline
Interesting report done by SIIA regarding transparency...now where does evozero go to read the report?...

another death on the tracks

very sad...another death on the MRT tracks...see straits times article below.

----------------------

Dec 3, 2006
Train hits man, service disrupted

THE southbound train service was disrupted yesterday when a man was hit by a train at Admiralty station.

According to an SMRT spokesman, the incident occurred at 2.08pm.

This disrupted the service between Woodlands and Sembawang stations, and affected about 6,000 passengers.

Service resumed at 3.22pm.

The police were notified at around 2.15pm and found a body, believed to be that of a Chinese man in his mid-20s, under the train carriage.

He was clad in a white T-shirt and grey bermudas and pronounced dead on the spot at about 2.40pm.

Police are investigating the unnatural death.

SMRT passengers who were unable to complete their journey due to the disruption can claim a full fare refund.

They can do so from the passenger service centre at any of the 51 SMRT stations within the next three working days.

Gala dinners, jive bands and Tom Cruise: how the Scientologists woo City police | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

Gala dinners, jive bands and Tom Cruise: how the Scientologists woo City police | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

· Unlikely relationship has blossomed since July 7
· Contacts are mutually beneficial, claims group

Sandra Laville
Wednesday November 22, 2006
The Guardian

It began with tea and biscuits for constables at the police cordon after the July 7 terrorist attacks, progressed to lunches with senior officers and continues with regular invitations to gala nights and jive concerts.

The Church of Scientology appears to be involved in an effort to woo officers from the City of London police - an unlikely partnership perhaps, but one that seems to be blossoming. Details of how more than 20 officers, from constables to chief superintendents, have been invited to a series of engagements by the scientologists over the last 15 months have been revealed by a freedom of information inquiry by the Guardian.

Article continues

---

---

The hospitality included guest invitations in May for two constables and a sergeant to attend the premiere of Mission Impossible 3 in Leicester Square, where they were able to rub shoulders with the best known Scientologist of all and the star of the film, Tom Cruise.

The Guardian requested details of meetings between police and scientologists after a senior officer from the City appeared as a guest speaker at the opening of the £23m Scientology centre near St Paul's Cathedral last month.

At the lavish ceremony, Chief Superintendent Kevin Hurley, the fourth most senior officer in the force, praised the scientologists for the support they had provided after the July 7 attacks, when followers of L Ron Hubbard's movement appeared at the police cordons of the Aldgate bomb site offering help to those involved in the emergency operation. The relationship flourished in the following months, according to the City police's register of hospitality, which all officers are required to fill out.

Since July 7 the Church of Scientology has invited four police constables, an inspector and a chief superintendent to a charity dinner at their British headquarters, Saint Hill Manor in East Grinstead, West Sussex, where the officers received a donation of £5,000 for a City of London children's charity.

The hospitality continued with a member of the Hubbard Foundation buying lunch for about £20 for a chief superintendent at Boisdale restaurant in Bishopsgate, central London, where the £28 set menu currently includes mini-Macsween haggis, fish or meat of the day and raspberry cranachan.

Most of the engagements detailed in the register of hospitality were approved by a senior officer: either Frank Armstrong, the assistant commissioner of City police, Mr Hurley or his colleague Chief Superintendent Ken Stewart.

But the register of hospitality contains gaps on at least two occasions, where it is not known which officer attended an event or who authorised it.

The invitations to the Mission Impossible 3 premiere in May for three officers were followed in August by another event at the East Grinstead centre for an unknown number of officers. In September the register does not specify how many officers attended a concert at Bishopsgate police station by the Jive Aces; a band made up of Scientologists whose advertising states that they play "hot jive" and "big band swing".

The night before last month's grand opening of the Church of Scientology's centre in the City, one of the force's two chief superintendents joined a detective superintendent, a uniformed constable and a detective constable at a star-studded charity dinner at Saint Hill Manor, where prizes are awarded to followers who donate the biggest sums to the movement.

The dinner was attended by Cruise, who sat at a special table nearest the past year's biggest donors.

The next day, Sunday October 22, a sergeant recorded being offered refreshments worth between £3 and £5 by scientologists as he was policing the opening of the London centre. Another officer, a constable, was a guest at a charity gala in East Grinstead the following night, where he recorded receiving £50 worth of hospitality. Most recently, on October 24, two sergeants and two constables attended a Jive Aces concert at Saint Hill.

The relationship between the police and the scientologists comes despite controversy that the tactics adopted by the church are akin to that of a cult and the Charity Commission's refusal to recognise it as a religion in the UK.

The scientologists have also been criticised in the US over their role in counselling firefighters and police officers after the September 11 attacks when they set up a a medical clinic two blocks from Ground Zero in New York for professionals involved in the emergency operation.

Inside the centre some firefighters abandoned the medical care and emotional counselling provided to them by the fire department's doctors, and instead took up a treatment devised by Hubbard. This included saunas, physical workouts and taking pills; a treatment which constitutes the scientologists controversial detoxification programme.

Mark Salter, a London-based psychiatrist said the scientologists were trying to replicate their ideology by disseminating it as widely as possible.

"You may well find that one or two police officers become followers. Look at the masons, I am sure they are well represented inside the police force," he said.

"They are a cult who are trying to maximise their influence by putting feelers out and using spin to make contacts and network in quite dangerous ways."

Janet Kenyon-Laveau, spokeswoman for the Church of Scientology in the UK, said the relationship between the police and followers was mutually beneficial, with followers engaged in clean-up campaigns in drug ridden inner city areas, which were praised by the police.

The City of London police declined to comment.

Singapore Idiot

adapted from green day's song...not meant to be sung...

Don't want to be a Singapore idiot.
Don't want a nation under the new media
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mind fuck Singapore.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Well maybe I'm the faggot Singapore.
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along to the age of paranoia.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Don't want to be a Singapore idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It's calling out to idiot Singapore.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Philippines: Abolition of the death penalty

Amnesty International
Good news from the Philippines, who have decided to abolish the death penalty.

Sylvia Lim elected as NCMP

061129.pdf (application/pdf Object)
First published in the Government Gazette, Electronic Edition, on 11th May 2006 at 5.00 pm.
No. 1171— PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS ACT (CHAPTER 218)
In accordance with section 52 of the Parliamentary Elections Act, I, Tan Boon
Huat, Returning Officer, declare Lim Swee Lian Sylvia of the Workers’ Party as
the candidate elected as a non-constituency Member of Parliament.
Dated this 11th day of May 2006.

James Gomez is still liar, dishonest despite stern warning: MM Lee

Channelnewsasia.com
like what evozero mentioned earlier, LKY doesn't want to let the matter rest...

WP's Gomez let off with stern warning in run-in with Elections Dept

Channelnewsasia.com
will this be the last development in the saga? i sincerely hope so, but reality may not be so kind...

From Dictatorship to Democracy

Albert Einstein Institution - Publications - From Dictatorship to Democracy
another day, another book to read... this one looks promising, by its title alone...

criminal intimidation

Criminal intimidation
as expected, PAP is not letting go of the gomez issue...see here.

Electoral boundary changes - Aljunied to disappear in 2011?

yax-553 Electoral boundary changes: as opaque as ever
has the dust settled in the 2006 singapore elections? maybe, but evozero is worried about aljunied GRC. with such a close fight there, the PAP will be keen change the boundaries in its favour. will it be cheng san part 2, where that GRC was sent into oblivion after a close fight in 1997? yawning bread's insightful discussion of changes for the 2006 elections points to such a possibility.

Application Procedures

Police Elections Liaison Office

wah, apply for permit so cheem...

The following types of permits are issued by the PELO:

• Election Meetings (Outdoor and Indoor – issued on daily basis till the eve of Polling Day);
• Perambulating Vehicles; and
• Assembly Centres (where supporters gather to listen to speeches by candidates after election results have been announced – issued from 4 May 2006).

System of Allocation: First-Come-First-Serve

The First-Come-First-Serve method of allocation has been chosen as it is currently the most transparent and equitable method for the allocation of Election Meeting sites.

Permit Application Queue Rules :

• Candidates or election agents are to sit in the order that they arrive in.
• Queue tickets will be issued from 8.30 am onwards to only candidates or their authorised election agents, except for Nomination Day where queue tickets will be issued from 2.00 pm.
• Candidates or their authorised election agents in the queue are to retain their queue ticket and remain seated till their queue number is flashed.
• Applications will be processed in turn.

Rules for Application

• Only candidates or their authorised election agents can make applications in respect of their constituency.
• The list of speakers must accompany an application for election meetings.
• Persons prohibited from conducting election activity include:
  
  • A Primary or Secondary school student;
  • An undischarged bankrupt;
  • A Criminal Law (Temp Provision) Supervisee; and
  • Anyone who is not a citizen of Singapore.
    
• Applicants can only submit one application for a rally site each time for one of the three time slots available for the following day:

1. 7 am to 10 am
2. 12 pm to 3 pm
3. 7 pm to 10 pm

• Applicants may submit their application to use a Perambulating Vehicle at the same time.
• Applicants must obtain the consent of the owner of the respective sites. To facilitate this, staff from the Singapore Sports Council (SSC), National Parks Board (NParks) and Housing & Development Board (HDB) will be present at the SPF Police Elections Meeting Office to grant the necessary approvals.
• Applicants are to ensure that all application forms are duly completed before submission.

Shadow Cabinet - Where to start?

SINGOV : Government A-Z
Having talked about implimenting a shadow cabinet in Singapore, to provide balance to the ruling party, the next step is to look at the various ministries. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, not yet anyway. First up (alphabetically) is MCYS. At first it may seem like there is nothing much to comment about this ministry. But such is the good thing about using a shadow cabinet system is that you can scrutinize every detail. What does MCYS cover? According to their website, they aim to build a cohesive and resilient society by fostering :

• Socially Responsible Individuals
• Inspired and Committed Youth
• Strong and Stable Families
• A Caring and Active Community
• A Sporting People

A closer look (via SGDI) reveals the ministry's portfolio, namely

• Family Formation & Stability
• Social Cohesion
• Social Support

Under "Family Formation & Stability", we find the following departments

• Family Education Department
• Family Services Division
• Social Development Unit
• Family Policy Unit

Let's go through them one by one.

Said Zahari's 17 Years pulled from SIFF screening

OB Markers for Singapore Filmmakers
I was looking forward to today's screening at the free programme of the SIFF. Martyn See's documentary, Zahari's 17 Years, was scheduled to be shown as one of the non-finalists for this year's Singapore Shorts film award. It seems that it was pulled at short notice. Found a trailer here anyway.

Ex-detainees took part in communist subversion

ST Forum
March 8, 2006
Ex-detainees took part in communist subversion

IN 'EX-POLITICAL detainees want their story told' (ST, Feb 27), The Straits Times reported that ex-ISA detainees Tan Jing Quee and Michael Fernandez claimed that they and fellow ex-detainees should be recognised as 'loyal citizens, contributing to Singapore's progress', and that their detentions were not justified.

In a subsequent article, 'Time to let dissidents' tales out of the closet' (ST, March 3), Ms Chua Mui Hoong argued that 'it is time for these other stories to come out of the closet' and only then 'can Singapore truly live up to the stirring slogan of an 'open and inclusive' society - embracing not only those with similar views but also dissidents'.

Mr Tan and Mr Fernandez were not political dissidents or opposition members engaged in the democratic process. They belonged to the Communist United Front (CUF) which supported the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM). The CPM was an underground organisation which used terror and violence to subvert the democratic process and overthrow the elected governments of Singapore and Malaysia. Many innocent lives were lost, victims of the CPM's armed struggle.

The CUF was a key part of the CPM's strategy to infiltrate, subvert and exploit legally-established organisations, such as trade unions and student associations, to create civil disorder and destabilise the country.

Together with the CPM, it was responsible for violent demonstrations, sit-ins, boycotts, illegal strikes, sabotage and riots that resulted in deaths and injuries, destruction of property, political instability and economic losses. Mr Tan and Mr Fernandez took part in this communist subversion. They were detained for threatening the security, stability and economic well-being of Singapore, and not for holding different political views or pursuing lawful, democratic political activities.

Mr Tan and Mr Fernandez were arrested in October 1963 and September 1964 respectively for carrying out CUF activities in the University of Malaya (Singapore) and in trade unions.

Mr Tan was released in 1966 and Mr Fernandez in 1973. Both were re-arrested in February 1977 for joining a group and undertaking activities which aimed to rebuild the CUF to support the CPM's continuing violent struggle. They were released later that year, and both renounced communism.

With the communists having lost the battle for the hearts and minds of the people, Mr Tan and Mr Fernandez are now trying to project themselves as nationalists and democrats who also contributed to Singapore's progress. They may be hoping that a younger generation of Singaporeans with no personal memory of the past will be taken in. As they had renounced communism, the Government had let them put the past behind them, and enabled them and their families to enjoy the progress and prosperity of Singapore, like everyone else.

However, they and other ex-communists and supporters cannot be allowed to re-write history by watering down communist atrocities, subversion and other unlawful activities and glossing over the harm they caused to so many victims and the threat they posed to our country. Had the CUF and CPM succeeded, Singapore would never have achieved what we have today - a peaceful, prosperous and multi-ethnic democratic society.

Ong-Chew Peck Wan (Mrs)
Director
Corporate Communications Division for Permanent Secretary
Ministry of Home Affairs

Malaysia plans 'crooked' bridge

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Malaysia plans 'crooked' bridge
The epic story of Malaysia-Singapore relations continues...

what does it mean when u see a EOD vehicle outside HDB Hub? the answer was actually clear after a quick look through the news

Gerrymandering

Gerrymandering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
a good read. explains more on how it works

shadow cabinet

for any opposition party that seeks to provide the balance to the ruling party, a shadow cabinet is often the best place to start. this may be more practical than setting out a manifesto first, as the various shadow ministers can keep track of their individual portfolios, and formulate policies from the ground up. the most prominent is, i suppose the shadow cabinet in the U.K.