brown vs bhavani: how the drama unfolded

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Regarding TODAY

Some of you have been asking, so here goes.
I have been informed that TODAY has suspended my column.
It has been a trying few days for me, my family, my mum and my friends. Thank you all for your emails, letters, calls, SMSes, blogs and comments, I don't know what to say.
Thanks.
mrbrown


3rd July 2006
Distorting the truth, mr brown?
When a columnist becomes a 'partisan player' in politics

Letter from K BHAVANI
Press Secretary to the Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts

Your mr brown column, "S'poreans are fed, up with progress!" (June 30) poured sarcasm on many issues, including the recent General Household Survey, price increases in electricity tariffs and taxi fares, our IT plans, the Progress Package and means testing for special school fees.

The results of the General Household Survey were only available after the General Election. But similar data from the Household Expenditure Survey had been published last year before the election.

There was no reason to suppress the information. It confirmed what we had told Singaporeans all along, that globalisation would stretch out incomes.

mr brown must also know that price increases in electricity tariffs and taxi fares are the inevitable result of higher oil prices.

These were precisely the reasons for the Progress Package — to help lower income Singaporeans cope with higher costs of living.

Our IT plans are critical to Singapore's competitive position and will improve the job chances of individual Singaporeans. It is wrong of mr brown to make light of them.

As for means testing for special school fees, we understand mr brown's disappointment as the father of an autistic child. However, with means testing, we can devote more resources to families who need more help.

mr brown's views on all these issues distort the truth. They are polemics dressed up as analysis, blaming the Government for all that he is unhappy with. He offers no alternatives or solutions. His piece is calculated to encourage cynicism and despondency, which can only make things worse, not better, for those he professes to sympathise with.

mr brown is entitled to his views. But opinions which are widely circulated in a regular column in a serious newspaper should meet higher standards. Instead of a diatribe mr brown should offer constructive criticism and alternatives. And he should come out from behind his pseudonym to defend his views openly.

It is not the role of journalists or newspapers in Singapore to champion issues, or campaign for or against the Government. If a columnist presents himself as a non-political observer, while exploiting his access to the mass media to undermine the Government's standing with the electorate, then he is no longer a constructive critic, but a partisan player in politics.

30th June 2006

S'POREANS ARE FED, UP WITH PROGRESS! (by mrbrown)

Moving ahead is great but it would be even greater to be able to make ends meet

THINGS are certainly looking up for Singapore again. Up, up, and away.

Household incomes are up, I read. Sure, the bottom third of our country isactually seeing their incomes (or as one newspaper called it, "wages")shrink, but the rest of us purportedly are making more money.

Okay, if you say so.

As sure as Superman Returns, our cost of living is also on the up. Exceptwe are not able to leap over high costs in a single bound.

Cost of watching World Cup is up. Price of electricity is up. Comfort'staxi fares are going up. Oh, sorry, it was called "being revised". Eventhe prata man at my coffeeshop just raised the price of his prata by 10cents. He was also revising his prata prices.

So Singaporeans need to try to "up" their incomes, I am sure, in the lightof our rising costs. Have you upped yours?

We are very thankful for the timing of all this good news, of course. Justafter the elections, for instance. By that I mean that getting theimportant event out of the way means we can now concentrate on trying topay our bills.

It would have been too taxing on the brain if those price increases wereannounced during the election period, thereby affecting our ability tochoose wisely.

The other reason I am glad with the timing of the cost of living increasesand wages going down, is that we can now deploy our Progress Package topay for some of these bills.

Wait, what? You spent it all on that fancy pair of shoes on the day yousaw your money in your account? Too bad for you then.

As I break into my Progress Package reserves to see if it is enough to paythe bills, I feel an overwhelming sense of progress. I feel like I amreally staying together with my fellow Singaporeans and moving forward.

There is even talk of future roads like underground expressways beingoutsourced to private sector companies to build, so that they, in turn,levy a toll on those of us who use these roads.

I understand the cost of building these roads is high, and the Governmentis relooking the financing of these big road projects.

Silly me, I thought my road tax and COE was enough to pay for publicroads.

Maybe we can start financing all kinds of expensive projects this way infuture. We could build upgraded lifts for older HDB blocks, and chargetolls on a per use basis.

You walk into your new lift on the first floor, and the scanner reads thecontactless cashcard chip embedded in your forehead. This chip would bepart of the recently-announced Intelligent Nation 2015 plan, you know,that initiative to make us a smart nation?

So you, the smart contactless-cashcard-chip-enhanced Singaporean would gointo your lift, and when you get off at your floor, the lift would deductthe toll from your chip, and you would hear a beep.The higher you live, the more expensive the lift toll.

Now you know why I started climbing stairs for exercise, as I mentioned inmy last column. I plan to prepare for that day when I have to pay to usemy lift. God help you if some kid presses all the lift buttons in thelift, as kids are wont to do. You will be beeping all the way to yourflat.

The same chip could be used to pay for supermarket items. You just carryyour bags of rice and groceries past the cashierless cashier counter, andthe total will be deducted from your contactless cashcard automatically.

You will not even know you just got poorer. And if your contactlesscashcard runs out of funds (making it a contactless CASHLESS cashcard),you just cannot use paid services.

The door of the lift won't close, the bus won't stop for you, taxis willautomatically display "On Call" when their chip scanners detect you'rebroke.Sure, paying bills that only seem to go up is painful, but by Jove, we aregoing to make sure it is at least convenient.

No more opening your wallet and fiddling with dirty notes and coins. Juststand there and hear your income beeped away. No fuss, no muss! I cannotwait to be a Smart e-Singaporean.

I also found out recently that my first-born daughter's special schoolfees were going up. This is because of this thing called "Means Testing",where they test your means, then if you are not poor enough, you lose someor all of the subsidy you've been getting for your special child'stherapy.

I think I am looking at about a $100 increase, which is a more than a 100per cent increase, but who's counting, right? We can afford it, but we doknow many families who cannot, even those that are making more money thanwe are, on paper.

But don't worry. Most of you don't have this problem. Your normal kids cango to regular school for very low fees, and I am sure they will notintroduce means testing for your cases.

We need your gifted and talented kids to help our country do welleconomically, so that our kids with special needs can get a little moretherapy to help them to walk and talk. And hey, maybe if the country doesreally well, the special-needs kids will get a little more subsidy.

Like I said, progress.

High-definition televisions, a high-speed broadband wireless network,underground expressways, and contactless cashcard system - all our signsof progress.

I am happy for progress, of course but I would be just as happy to makeends meet and to see my autistic first-born grow up able to talk and fendfor herself in this society when I am gone.

That is something my wife and I will pay all we can pay to see in ourlifetimes.

Comments:
There is no need for comments from me.
Everyhing is self-explanatory here.
Draw your own conclusions.
Cheers and have a great day ( including mrbrown)

Dr. Huang