Mas Selamat's Family

No Singaporean doesn't know Mas Selamat, the infamous Jemaah Islamiah leader whose escape from Whitley Detention centre in 2008 brought much embarrasment to Singapore. However, few know about his family, without whom Mas Selamat would not been able to successfully escape.

Two days after he fled from Whitley Detention Centre on February 27, 2008, Mas Selamat put a tudung over his head and wore make-up as part of his disguise as a Muslim woman, which successfully aided him in his trans-country escape attempt.

But this could not be done without family members who harboured him in their HDB flat two days after his escape.Family members - Asmom, his borther, Nu Ainin Asmom, his niece, Aisa, his sister-in-law, as well as Mahadir, his nephew, not only provided a place to sleep and gave him food and drinks, but also lent money to him and offered him their hairnets, sarong to disguise as a woman.

As a result, when Mas Selamat was being re-captured and re-detained in Singapore in 2009, his family were also arrested for helping him, and were all sentenced to over a year period of jail. Clearly, the government wants to send a strong warning message to all Singaporeans that anyone who aids terrorist activities would face serious consequences.

However, has the government not considered that the motivation behind the aid offfered by Mas Selamat's famaily is not one of supporting terrorist cause, but more of kinship and family love towards their family member?

The government claimed that "kin's acts don't reflect on community", and asserted without evidence that "all Singaporeans across the communities will feel disappointed with the actions of Asmom and his family". Putting words in our mouth, the government seems to picture our coomunity as one that should be totally impartial, even to a the point of betraying your borther?

Will you turn your wife or your mother to court if you found out she was actually a terrorist leader? Of course not.

The government should really be more humanitarian in their judgement.

Students studying in groups in the library, rushing through their daily homework; students tapping furiously at the keyboards, their eyes sweeping through lines and lines of words; students dashing past, running to their next destination for their important lectures. Throughout their entire globe, a phenomenon is happening. Students and adults alike, are faced with a constant pressure that they have to bear: stress. Is stress really an unwelcomed visitor into our world, our society and our private lives? Undoubtedly, it is. It sweeps through the entire nation, entering houses stealthily under the cover of darkness, and like a gas, it enters our bedrooms, sliding through the doors and affecting everyone, causing people to do several extremist means, such as committing suicide, just to escape.. On the other hand, committing suicide may not be the only result of stress, in fact it actually even leads to self-motivation and peer pressure, which causes people to do better than usual.

Stress is constantly surrounding us, like how the hot and humid weather bears down its weight upon us. People may believe that stress is harmful to oneself and may even affect one’s grades. However, self-motivation may also bloom from one’s stressful life. For instance, someone who leads a stressful life and is able to cope with stress, and has poor grades and a poor attitude to life, may be saddened by his grades and in the end, he is able to activate the potential that is innate in him, through self-motivation. Stress activates self-motivation as the willingness in him to do well and excel is present. Therefore, one may think that stress is harmful to one, but yet, they do not think of the benefits that stress may bring.

There are different types of motivation, such as self-motivation and peer pressure. All these contribute to the benefits of stress. However, one may never understand how peer pressure can help oneself. When there is stress, the people around you will also be affected. As you are self-motivated, you will become more hardworking, more efficient and faster as you finish your work. The people around you will soon become under the same pressure as you are as they are afraid to lose out to you due to our students’ competitive nature. This will cause them to undergo peer pressure, by being afraid to lose out to others. For instance, would Usain Bolt exceed his limits and expectations running on a track with competitors around him, trying to push him to his limits or would Usain Bolt exceed expectations and perform better just by running on a track with the stadium empty, devoid of any people? Therefore, one may think that stress is harmful, but it indeed brings some benefits.

However, there are also banes in which stress will harm oneself while leading a stressful life. Indeed there are some who will succumb to pressure, committing suicide in order to be able to escape and getaway from this stressful life, and while no one expects to commit suicide without reason, undue stress can compel one to do the unthinkable and this can happen to anyone who face stress. For instance, one who leads a stressful life and is unable to cope with the amount of stress may think of escaping, as a resort to remove the burden off their shoulders. They have a totally contrasting and different mindset as compared to those who have a competitive nature, as they will never succumb to the thought of committing suicide or other extremist means in order to escape from reality. In true fact, those who are competitive will continue on, constantly trying to get ahead of the others. Therefore, stress has banes too, such as the extreme cases of people committing suicides.

Stress is a double-edged sword, it causes people to be motivated, be it through peer pressure or self-motivation and it also causes the unthinkable to happen, like one committing suicide, through the pressure and burden on their shoulders. One must never be narrow-minded and just consider the banes of stress. Instead, one must be able to understand the true meaning of stress and the ways in order to cope with it, in order to be able to use it effectively and to his own advantage. We can disregard the importance of stress and brush it off as an unnecessary evil visitor in our lives. Yet we can also embrace stress head-on and turn it into motivation for oneself and for others.

I believe in facing stress, then choosing periods of time to avoid it totally. In this way, I can complete my task yet still enjoy the process fully.

Don't sell your flat?

I was amused when MM Lee said so.

The government, as we all know, has been extremely worried over the property market recently, and have taken many measures to protect young citizens who simply want and need a roof over their heads.

Cooling measures such as compulsory time levy before public property can be sold, construction of more government HDB flats etc. have all but proven to be effective in really cooling down the market and its increasing transactions that pushes prices of public property up.

MM and PM Lee have over the past few months, not only come up with policies, but also seized opportunities and occasions as platforms to subtly influence the public to treat property as "homes", instead of "assets" through talks and speeches.

As such, when MM Lee pointed out so explicitly an "advice" that Singaporeans living in HDB flats should not sell their flats away, it was surprising.

If residents do not sell their flats away, it would easily translate into less supply, and increasing demand, as more and more foreign workers and young couples seek public property for cheap housing. And this would mean that property prices would further appreciate, as foreigners generously fork out more and more money to get property.

If we look at this matter from a personal view, it would equally be as stupid to keep property. MM Lee mentioned that "With economy growth, your property value would keep appreciating, so it would be stupid to sell it away now".

30 years ago, property prices were 10 times cheaper than what they are today, due to globalization and increasing wealth of Singaporeans. Faced with a bought-low, can sell high situation, why wouldn't Singaporeans be tempted to earn a handsome profit from transactions, and use the profit to buy a landed property? Besides, will things really turn out like what MM Lee said? Analyst have predicted that the property bubble would most likely break in 2 years time.

The government's policies of constructing new property and upgrading old property isn't fast or effective enough. The root of the problem is over-surge in foreigners and PRs, because they are the ones who continuously push property prices up, with their wealth.

The government needs to regulate the number of foreigners entering Singapore, if not, young couples who need homes, really cannot compare to their wealth limit and purchasing power.

Media Coverage: The Other side of the story

With reference to 16/11/2010 Today article "Cover both sides of the story", I would like to strongly agree with Mrs. Lim on her concerns that newspaper should portray both sides of the story.

Mrs Lim, in her comment, has indeed reflected an important point, that the government has failed to mention, or deliberately ignored. Of course, we don't the extreme scene of sensational news and entertainment reporting, but at least at least, we want the government to give journalist a bit more freedom such that it doesn't reach the level of sensational news, but instead reaches the level of a "balanced news" that presents both sides of the story.

Mr Shanmugum pointed out that it is vital Singaporeans "make decisions based a common source of information and news". However, is this "common" source of information equivalent to only propaganda and stories that put the government in good light, yet deprives citizens of the rights to make decisions after knowing both sides of the story.

One very good example would be the recent gang fights. These are fights that involve death and very serious injuries, and have these gangs have proven to disrupt the peace of neighborhoods and reputation of our country. Such serious social problems, however, gets pinned down by the government one day later with statements saying that these gangs are only "street-corner gangs" that consists of teenagers that are "afraid" themselves, and finally saying that there is no need to take any drastic measures to crack down on these gangs, telling readers not to worry.

Isn't this clearly a sign of the government protecting itself from constructive comments from netizens such as "police should be more alert", "government should have found out earlier", the "government is doing too little to ensure our security"?

The government uses these statements of saying that "there is no need to panic" to protect the fact that it has not done enough to crack down on gangs, yet two days later, the government started to come out "crack down" measures to ues force and investigation to quickly solve the problem.

As such, from these one-side news, should we be wary when in face of these gangsters, or not? Should we really take measures to protect against these gangsters, or should we follow the government's protection statement of relaxing?

Lastly, one-sided news that only favour government policies, usually suppress complaints from the minorty that are urgent and apt, but are not published just because they portray the government in the bad light. As such, these actions made these resident unheard in our society, which claims to be "democratic".

With this, I rest my case here, and hope my post would not be deleted by the government.

Singapore gangs

The recent appearance of “street-corner” gangs such as “369” has shocked many - the government, netizens and citizens living in small neighborhoods. While one week ago, one may think that local gangs have been eradicated, this assumption is totally proven wrong one week later, with a serious gang fight (over 10 casualties, 3 dead) in Bukit Panjang.

It may seem foolish to join gangs, especially in partially law and military state like Singapore. However, if we sit down and take the time to properly think of this matter, we would realize the gravity of this social problem - from the overwhelming drivers that encourage youths to join gangs, to the overarching adverse social effects this would bring.

The most attractive factor about gangs that encourage many youths nowadays to join, is the fact that is gives these youths, who mostly come from broken families or have family problems, a sense of identity, and a false sense of brotherhood and home, which actually merely translates to fighting and playing in arcades together in reality.

For some, they can easily be victims of bullying in school themselves, or are cowards want or are afraid to step out of their “security zone”. These timid people join gangs, usually prestigious ones to seek a sense of security and safety, as well as to gain back their confidence, because they are not afraid only when they are all together.

Why do we often find that youths involved in gangs have unsatisfactory academic results? The reason is simple - students who have lousy grades often lose their sense of usefulness and worth, as well self-confidence. As such, they join gangs because only in street-corner gangs, they can easily score A1 in things like gaming, billiard, poker, drinking, drub-abusing, and fighting, and this helps them regain their sense of worth and self-confidence.

Lastly, some of these youths are simply lonely - they may be the only child in the family, or live in broken family. They simply want to seek entertainment with a bunch of friends that can accompany them.

So, what dangers do these timid, lonely or cowardly youths exactly bring to Singapore, that caused it to be such a hot topic?

Firstly, because these youths have a strong desire to prove themselves, and find their confidence, they often get involved in fights, and more major gang fights such as the recent one in Bukit Panjang. From these gang fights to a small action of throwing away a beer bottle, these actions do endanger residents, and threaten the peace of the neighborhood. Even if the physical consequences are not serious, residents will constantly live in fear and cannot have a peace of mind.

Furthermore, gangs often go to pub and disco places such as Clarke Quay, which happens to a tourist attraction too, due to its night clubs and beautiful scenery. If vulgarities, cigarettes, beer, rowdy / violent behavior is what Singapore has to show these foreign tourist, then Singapore’s reputation as a safe city and “global hub” would be tarnished.

Lastly, gangs also have personal harms to the youths themselves. When in a mob attitude, they often do not think clearly, and may do foolish actions, such as drug abuse, gang fighting, that can easily lead to years of imprisonment.

As such, the government should and must seriously consider the social gravity of this issue and carry out some feasible measures to solve the problem. These youths are inherently timid, so the government can suppress them and eradicate them using force. Once they are not in mob, the government can also consider giving them counselling to regain their confidence, or set up associations that operate classes to help them pick up a skill that can secure them reasonable-paying jobs, so that they can find their sense of worth.

Obesity Problem

Recent reports show that already 10 - or 10.8 per cent of the population are obese. This may seem like a small number but estimations show that by the two decades, this figure would potentially triple, and this is a indeed a worrying trend.

There are many reasons and causes that lead to this mysterious trend. As a netizen pointed out, due to increasing urban development and industrialization, coupled with Singapore's already small land space, there are really indeed less "playing field" and other outdoor space and facilities. This attributes to the inability for children to gather together to play outdoor games, especially in urban areas, where the at 15 minutes walk to "nearby" parks further discourages children from stepping out of their comfort zone in their homes.

Not only is there inconvenience for outdoor activities nowadays, there is also increasing convenience for indoor activities, such as using the computer and going to the internet over the past decade. From the introduction of computer, macintosh and advanced software, to increasing broadband speeds (1 gb), and more and more internet social networking platforms, games etc. The computer indeed provides much convenience in work, as well as fun entertainment for modern kids.

And all these really do discourage "computer couches" from exercising, walking, as well as carrying out other activities outdoors. It seems that their most frequent position is that of sitting in front of the computer, since they can also interact with the world through email and networking sites. Lack of exercise, even small exercise such as walking causes the accumulation of fats, which will eventually lead to obesity.

The seriousness of the problem is further gravitated by the fact that at the turn of the century, food is and will never be as healthy as before. For example, it has become difficult to find chicken without steroids nowadays. With advanced technology, even potato can be fried over 4 times again to ensure that it is heated! The general increase in oil and unhealthiness in food greatly explains the increase in acne, body oil and fats in youths today.

So what? Reports show that today, 47% of people over 60 years old have either heart attack, diabetes or stroke problems, whereas the figure was only around 24% 30 years ago. This clearly illustrates how an unhealthy lifestyle would lead to serious health problems.

Medical science has also proven that obese people have generally less stamina, physical endurance and energy. This can easily be translated to frequent spells of fatigue and lack of energy experienced in work, that might affect work performance.

And not only are obese people physically compromised, being fat my also affect their psychological well-being too. It is a foregone conclusion that obesity has always carried that heaviest social stigma, alongside with pre-marital pregnancy and bachelorship at old age. Manifestations of this can be even spotted in school where discriminatory terms such as "fatso", "freak", "pig" are common.

As such, it is vital that we protect our own well-being - in health, physical, and psychological by at least not only watching the food we eat, but also maintaining a exercise routine that can be sticked to consistently.

Obesity Problem

Singapore censorship really good?

With reference to Today 06/11/2010 headline article, "Good for US, but not for Singapore".

Media censorship has long been a controversial topic debated over elite schools, criticized among netizens, as well as younger Singaporeans who have been influenced by the Western culture and idealogy of "freedom" and "liberialism".

The fact that the PAP is carrying out media-censorship over media platforms such as local newspaper, online and TV news reporting etc. is definitely. If one visits foreign online news portals, he would only find the same "breaking" news only days after in our Straits Times newspaper.

Although this matter has been ignored by many of the older generations, it started to become a hot topic for the younger generation elites at the turn of the century, with advancing information technology that effectively connects Singapore to Western culture. Complaints of "lack of sensational news", "inability to see the true story behind bigger events that happen in Singapore" are rampant, but slowly died down as they get ignored by the government.

As such, many are confused and determined that Minister of Home affairs, Mr Shanmugam, is indeed digging his own grave, when he released a press statement, that is predicted to be controversial, and will spark up past debates and more controversy over this issue.

However, it is instead understandable why the government is explaining its stand. There are really only a few controversial actions that the government is doing that raises public unhappiness, especially with increasing number of educated population. As such, with the General Elections around the corner, the PAP tries to "clear up" some of the unhappiness raised among the public, which one significant one is the complain of lack of democracy, freedom and liberalism.

However, what Mr Shanmugam said is not all bullshit. Although it is true that with one of hthe few motives of making government policies look good, there is an element of party interest involved in censorship, there are also true advantages of controlling the media, and giving news presses less freedom and independence to do whatever they want.

In U.S., 4/5 of newspapers published report mainly sensational news - deliberately finding faults in governmental policies, satiring of recent nationals events, focusing more on actors and actresses etc., so much so that the news reported have already deviated from its objective of reporting news. This motivation is fueled by the need and desire to earn more money, as the public would no doubt be more interested in sensational news, and it strips the public of real or sufficient news information and updates.

Furthermore, over-fast news reporting often leads to riots and rebellions in developing and less-developed countries. Sometimes, when a chain of undesired, sometimes small events that portray the government in "bad light" happen together, and get published in succession, it often leads to great public anger, leading to undesired riots that threaten the stability and peace of the country. As such, although there are ineffective or perhaps unfair governmental policies that have not been reported in the newspaper, it is understandable that PAP cannot be perfect. What is definitely more important is the peace and stability of that country.

Although there are clear disvantages of not being able to know both sides of certain stories, being hidden from some governmental failures, and being unable to get sufficient sensational news to entertain our lives, let us nonetheless accept the wiser choice for our society.