Singabloodypore

US sees progress in curbing trafficking of Filipinos to Singapore

noreply@blogspirit.com (soci) — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:30:00 +0000

By Cynthia Balana
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:18:00 05/14/2008

MANILA, Philippines -- The US State Department has acknowledged the overall progress being made by the Philippines in curbing human trafficking, the Philippine embassy in Singapore said on Wednesday.

Philippine Ambassador Belen Fule-Anota said that Ambassador Steven E. Steiner of the US Department of State's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons made this statement when he met with officials of the Philippine Presidential Task Force on Human Trafficking who came to investigate the alarming increase in the trafficking of Filipinos in the city-state.

In that meeting, Anota proposed to improve inter-agency cooperation, particularly in the areas of rehabilitation, re-integration and witness protection for the victims, and the prosecution of traffickers.

Steiner, who visited the embassy on the sidelines of a meeting in Singapore, took note of the ongoing bilateral cooperation between the Philippines and the US. Embassy officials exchanged notes with him and discussed possible areas for strengthening bilateral cooperation.

In a report submitted to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) early this year, the embassy cited an alarming increase in human trafficking cases from 125 in 2006 to 212 in 2007, a surge of 70 percent. There were only 59 recorded cases in 2005.

Of the 212 human trafficking victims in 2007, 57 or 27 percent admitted to either having engaged in prostitution or were coerced by their Filipino and Singaporean handlers to prostitute themselves. Of the 57 victims, 39 were pub workers, 15 worked in the escort service, while three were pick-up girls.

Failed Singapore Campus Cost $47m

noreply@blogspirit.com (soci) — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:25:00 +0000

Harriet Alexander and Brian Robins
May 15, 2008

THE University of NSW lost $47.6 million through the closure of its Singapore campus, the first official figures to disclose the extent of the financial fallout over the controversial enterprise show.

Its Asia campus was the most expensive offshore venture so far by an Australian university.

The NSW Auditor-General's annual report on the state's 10 public universities reveals that the University of NSW was forced to repay about $29 million in loans, $13.8 million in grants and $3.5 million in staff payouts when it decided to pull the plug on the campus and its 148 students just 10 weeks after it opened early last year. The Singaporean Government had contributed nearly $26 million in loans and grants towards its establishment, resulting in an ugly dispute over liability of costs when the university pulled out. The audit showed the university was forced to reimburse Singapore the $26 million.

The audit raised concerns about a possible conflict of interest when the campus was terminated.

The university's Asia president, Greg Whittred, was also a member of Singapore's Economic Development Board, the main creditor when the campus collapsed.

PM Lee Hsien Loong and MM Lee Kuan Yew in Court

noreply@blogspirit.com (soci) — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:55:00 +0000

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew were due to appear in court on Monday the 12th of May 2008. The case has been adjourned for two weeks.

But there was a turn of events on Monday. Lawyers for the Prime Minister and Minister Mentor said a major part of Monday’s hearing was centred on whether issues which were meant to be dealt in chambers should be heard in open court.

The SDP and its lawyers felt they were of matters of public interest and hence should be heard in open court.

But the judge finally decided that these matters could also be dealt with and heard in chambers.

The Chees also wanted Justice Belinda Ang to disqualify herself from hearing the case on the grounds that she had awarded the Lees a summary judgment in 2006 after the Chees had walked out of court.

But this was dismissed, with Justice Ang emphasising that it is her duty to hear all cases presented to her.

Also dismissed was an application to allow a representative from the Malaysian Bar Council to be admitted to observe the hearings in chambers. Link to CNA

Even Channel News Asia deems it to be newsworthy and yet the 'powerful' bloggers in the Singapore blogosphere have much better things to discuss...

Does Singapore deserve its press freedom ranking? YES.

Your maid could be worth $23K a month -

NTUC Fairprice Profitability and the Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility

Is the Singapore blogosphere asleep or has it simply been co-opted?

Silence...

I won't recuse myself: Judge Ang

noreply@blogspirit.com (soci) — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:50:00 +0000

The hearing for damages assessment during which the Lees will be cross-examined will take place on 26-28 May 08. This will be held in open court.

Monday, 12 May 2008
Singapore Democrats

Parties spent the entire day in Judge Belinda Ang's chambers today exchanging legal arguments. The Judge had refused to hold the session in open court.

The defendants comprising of the SDP, Ms Chee Siok Chin and Dr Chee Soon Juan had wanted two preliminary applications heard in open court.

These were: One, the application by the defence for the Judge to recuse herself and, two, the plaintiffs' application to strike out the defendants' Affidavit Evidence-in-Chief (AEIC). The AEICs spell out the defence's case.

Justice must manifestly seen to be done

Dr Chee said that the Singaporean public and international community had misgivings about the Judiciary especially when it came to defamation cases involving the PAP and opposition.

"If the legal arguments are sound and the judgment is sound, there is no reason why the proceedings should not be held in open court," Dr Chee argued.

Plaintiffs' lawyer Davinder Singh contended that the arguments are "private" and that there was "nothing exceptional" about the case.

Ms Chee Siok Chin countered that the plaintiffs' attempt to strike out the defendants' AEICs would "chop off the legs" of the defence case, as these affidavits formed the heart of the SDP's defence.

In such an important matter, Mr Singh's arguments should be heard by everyone in open court.

Court hearing on defamation award adjourned

noreply@blogspirit.com (soci) — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:03:49 +0000

Channel NewsAsia - 28 minutes ago

SINGAPORE: The High Court hearing to assess damages claimed by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew against an opposition political party, has been adjourned for two weeks.

PM Lee and MM Lee are taking the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) and its leaders to task for defamation.

On Monday, the High Court adjourned the hearing to give SDP and its lawyers more time to prepare their arguments.

The outcome will now be known on 26 May.

The article at the centre of the defamation action appeared in the SDP publication "Demokrat" in April 2006 with the headline "Government’s role in the NKF scandal".

The court found that the article defamed PM Lee and MM Lee.

Both leaders successfully obtained a summary judgement against SDP chief Dr Chee Soon Juan, his sister Chee Siok Chin and the party.

After two years of court procedures, all that is left now is to assess the quantum of damages.

Both PM Lee and MM Lee were to have taken the stand from Monday to Wednesday.

But there was a turn of events on Monday. Lawyers for the Prime Minister and Minister Mentor said a major part of Monday’s hearing was centred on whether issues which were meant to be dealt in chambers should be heard in open court.

The SDP and its lawyers felt they were of matters of public interest and hence should be heard in open court.

But the judge finally decided that these matters could also be dealt with and heard in chambers.

The Chees also wanted Justice Belinda Ang to disqualify herself from hearing the case on the grounds that she had awarded the Lees a summary judgment in 2006 after the Chees had walked out of court.

But this was dismissed, with Justice Ang emphasising that it is her duty to hear all cases presented to her.

Also dismissed was an application to allow a representative from the Malaysian Bar Council to be admitted to observe the hearings in chambers.

Another point brought up on Monday was the affidavit known as "Evidence in Chief" filed by the SDP, its leaders and a former opposition election candidate Francis Seow.

Lawyers for the Singapore leaders want them to be struck off, arguing they are irrelevant to the hearings.

This matter will now come up for hearing in chambers on 22 May, four days before the court sits again to start proceedings to assess the damages claimed by PM Lee and MM Lee. — CNA/ir

Singapore foreign minister arrives in N. Korea

noreply@blogspirit.com (soci) — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:58:58 +0000

AP
Posted: 2008-05-10 06:23:46

BEIJING, May 10 (Kyodo) - Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo and his party arrived in Pyongyang on Saturday, North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency reported.

The KCNA report, monitored in Beijing, gave no further details of Yeo's visit, but Singapore's Foreign Ministry said Friday that he would be making a five-day official visit to North Korea from Saturday, accompanied by a business delegation.

It marks the first official trip to North Korea by a Singapore Cabinet minister.

Singapore currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and will host this year's annual gathering of foreign ministers from ASEAN and countries outside the region, including North Korea.

Yeo is expected to hold talks in Pyongyang with his North Korean counterpart Pak Ui Chun, who is expected to come to Singapore in July to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum, a multilateral security forum.

The two foreign ministers held bilateral talks last August in Manila on the sidelines of the annual ASEAN meetings.

Yeo is expected to reiterate Singapore's hope of seeing progress in the six-party talks on denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

He has stressed in his public speeches that it is important to hold out hope to North Korea of rapid economic development once it changes policy.

Starting a Party, and Hoping to Crash Singapore’s Parliament Again

noreply@blogspirit.com (soci) — Mon, 12 May 2008 10:00:47 +0000

An article spotted on The New York Times...

By SETH MYDANS
Published: May 10, 2008
SINGAPORE

IT might seem late for a fresh start, but that is the story of J. B. Jeyaretnam’s life, a political intruder who refuses to stay away.

Last month he was back after six years of political banishment, the grand old man of political opposition ready to joust again with Singapore’s immovable political establishment.

“We are just beginning!” he exclaimed at a small news conference announcing the formation of a new party, the Reform Party.

It was an unusual phrase to hear from an 82-year-old man who has been running for office — when the courts would allow him — since 1971.

But Mr. Jeyaretnam seems unable to stop pushing, a man at the mercy of his own force of personality, certain of his principles, uninhibited and seemingly immune to intimidation.

He paid his way out of bankruptcy a year ago, after having been convicted in 2001 of defaming members of the ruling party; ordered to pay damages; barred from the practice of law; and expelled for the second time from Parliament.

He says he has lost count of the number of times he has been sued for defamation for his political statements.

“We in Singapore are denied the rights to speak up, to tell the government to change course,” he said at the news conference.

He widened his eyes and smiled a puckish smile, displaying three large, widely spaced teeth, and rededicated himself to the rescue of his nation.

“The most important thing,” he said, “is that what we have to bring about — and I’m saying it quite seriously — is the liberation of our people, the empowerment of our people.”

It seemed an outsize vision for this lone crusader at this late stage. He said 10 people had enrolled in his party; others had declined to step out into the cold light of open opposition.

But it is not so much his mission or his party that drew reporters, but the phenomenon of Mr. Jeyaretnam himself.

His persistence and his defeats are woven through Singapore’s history as a sort of counterpoint to its steady rise to affluence and economic success. In its 42 years, this city-state of 4.5 million people has built what its founder, former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, in a recent interview called “a first world oasis in a third world region.”

Most people accept restrictions on civil liberties and free speech as the price of their material well-being. Few people, even the discontents, call for fundamental change as Mr. Jeyaretnam does.

“We are quite narrow minded,” a 16-year-old high school student said, asking that her name not be used when talking about Mr. Jeyaretnam. “We think about getting a degree, getting a good job, that’s all. There aren’t any political discussions. It’s not really our culture. We just study and that’s it.”

WHATEVER his support, and whether or not he held a seat, Mr. Jeyaretnam has represented the idea of an opposition in a system that offers little role for one.

Singapore's Lee Hsien Loong In Court

noreply@blogspirit.com (soci) — Sun, 11 May 2008 15:22:57 +0000

Sunday, 11 May 2008
Singapore Democrats

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will be the first of the plaintiffs' witnesses to take the stand when the hearing to assess damages begins on Monday.

He and his father, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, are suing the Singapore Democrats for defamation over an article published in The New Democrat in 2006 comparing the running of NKF with the PAP's rule over the country.

But the PM is not expected to come to court until the afternoon. The morning will be put aside to hear an application that the Lees have taken to strike out the Affidavit Evidence-in-Chief (AEIC) of the defendants.

The AEICs lay out the case that the Lees have inflated their claims about their reputations by controlling the media, crushing any dissent, and manipulating elections. (Read full AEIC here.)

The defence have also provided evidence that the reputations of the plantiffs are not quite so sterling in communities not within the control of the PAP such as those living in other countries as well as on the Internet.

One such person is former solicitor-general Mr Francis Seow who has also filed an AEIC supporting the SDP's case.

Mr Seow states that he was detained by the Internal Security Department (ISD) on the orders of Mr Lee Kuan Yew. While under detention, he was threatened by ISD officers to not stand for elections as an opposition candidate.