The year in review: 10 top news of 2009 in Singapore

Johnpennreturn SG

December 31, 2009

The Temasek Review Team

With year 2009 drawing to a close, let us recall the top ten news of the year. Counting down, we take you through the most significant news of the year as seen by The Temasek Review:

#10. Torching of Seng Han Thong:

Yio Chu Kang MP Seng Han Thong got off to a bad start to the year when he was set on fire by a resident during a community event. The culprit, Ong Kah Chua was said to be “mentally deranged”. He was never charged in court for any crime and is currently incarcerated at IMH indefinitely at the President’s “pleasure”. Seng’s plight did not draw much sympathy from netizens who gloated over his misfortune prompting a deputy police superintendent to warn that “action” might be taken against those who spread “baseless and malicious rumors” in cyberspace.

#9. “Suicide” of David Widjaja:

21 old Indonesian NTU student David Widjaja allegedly stabbed his professor Chan Kup Luk before leaping down to a grisly death. The mainstream media attributed his death to over-indulgence in computer games. His family claimed that he was not depressed and he had no reason to kill himself. Witnesses at the scene said they saw David running out of Prof Chan’s room shouting “Help, somebody is trying to kill me!”. A coroner’s court was convened three months later at the family’s insistence, but the verdict of his unfortunate death remained unchanged: “suicide”.

#8. Mysterious death of SAF Medical Officer Dr Alan Ooi:

Dr Alan Ooi went missing for eight months before his body was found in Australia. Just before his death, he sent a farewell email to his family and close friends. All sorts of wild speculations about the cause of his death were circulated in the mainstream media including depression, gambling woes, relationship problems and addiction to computer games. Chinese tabloid Shin Min Daily published an extract of his farewell email which highlighted a failed relationship. An anonymous reader sent us his entire email which we dutifully published on our site the very next day – Dr Ooi had been extremely unhappy about his work in the SAF. He had wanted to break his bond, but was not allowed to do so. The family had written to MINDEF to seek an answer which it obliged with a vague reply in the Straits Times. Like many other cases, we will never know the real cause of Dr Ooi’s death.

#7. Ping Pong saga Part 2 – Lee Bee Wah versus Liu Guodong:

Eight months after pissing off an entire nation with her unwarranted outburst at the Beijing Olympics, PAP MP Lee Bee Wah showed Singaporeans again why she could not be trusted with her mouth. In an interview with the Straits Times on why the contract of former coach of the Singapore Table-Tennis team, Liu Guodong, was not renewed, Lee was quoted saying that he had some “problems” in his character and professionalism. A fuming Liu flew all the way from China to Singapore to seek clarification from Lee. Lee did not meet him in person, but sent two STTA officials over who tried to con Liu to sign a document in English which he could not read to absolve Lee Bee Wah from all legal liabilities. Liu did not sign and returned to China. The case is still not closed yet. Lee subsequently act blur and refrained from commenting further on the matter, but Liu said he had not ruled out taking legal action against Lee.

#6. Singapore’s population hitting the 5 million mark:

Due to the nation’s declining birth rates, the ruling party has resorted to “mass-importing” foreigners from elsewhere to keep the population growing. Foreigners now make up 36 per cent of Singapore’s population, up from 14 per cent in 1990. The target is supposedly 6.5 million, but many Singaporeans are already up in arms over the ruling party’s ill-conceived immigration policy which forced Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to make a rare concession during his National Day Rally speech in which he promised Singaporeans that he would “slow” the inflow of foreigners. Three months later, his father MM Lee Kuan Yew exhorted Singaporeans again to “bear” with the tide of immigrants which has now grown to become a flood and a nightmare for many ordinary Singaporeans.

#5. Record high prices of HDB flats which remain “affordable”:

Prices of HDB flats continue to climb in spite of the sluggish economy with that of resale flats hitting a record high in June this year, contributed partly by rising demand from the relentless influx of foreigners as well as limited numbers of new flats built in the preceding three years. Despite widespread frustration and resentment on the ground at the sky-rocketing prices, HDB continues to insist that public housing remain “affordable” to Singaporeans. National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan chided home buyers for being “choosy” while his deputy Grace Fu said that rising prices of flats help to “create wealth” for Singaporeans.

#4. Departure of Chip Goodyear and re-appointment of Ho Ching as Temasek CEO:

The former CEO of mining giant BHP Bilton made the headlines earlier this year when he was appointed to take over Ho Ching as CEO of Temasek Holdings. The manpower changeover was supposed to take place half a year later, but it didn’t. The Temasek Board dropped a bombshell two weeks before the stipulated date for its CEO-designate to assume his position officially: Chip had left Temasek due to “strategic differences” and Ho Ching was re-appointed as CEO (after losing billions of dollars in overseas investments). Finance Minister Tharman was grilled in parliament by his own PAP colleagues on the real reasons behind Chip’s departure. He refused to reveal more, saying that it is not in the “strategic interest” of Singapore to do so.

#3. Temasek and GIC “burning a hole” in the nation’s reserves:

The “buy high, sell low” syndrome continues to plague both sovereign wealth funds. Temasek Holdings bought shares in Barclays bank at a high in 2008 last year and sold them at a low in January this year, making an estimated loss of USD$850 million dollars. In contrast, Abu Dhabi made a profit of USD$2 billion dollars by selling them a few months later. Still, the loss pales in comparison to its USD$4.6 billion loss when it offloaded its stake in Bank of America again at a low price. While Temasek Holdings was pretty transparent in its investments losses, very little is known about GIC’s losses. According to a report in September by Wall Street Journal, GIC suffered a loss of around SGD$59 billion dollars in the fiscal year ended March. The news was never reported by the Singapore media.

#2. Zhang Yuanyuan proclaimed her loyalty to China:

Chinese citizen and Singapore PR Zhang Yuanyuan became a “celebrity” overnight when she flashed her blue Singapore IC on China’s CCTV7 and proclaimed her loyalty to China. Zhang had returned to Beijing to take part in its National Day parade. While netizens bombarded her for her callous behavior, PAP ministers came out in strong support of her. Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said Zhang could not be faulted as she is “only” a Singapore PR, not citizen. It was later revealed that Zhang came to Singapore in 2003 armed with a diploma from an unknown institution in China to study English. She later found work as a Chinese language teacher in a private school and got her Singapore PR within two months of application. She would have become a Singapore citizen had she chose to remain in Singapore.

#1. AWARE saga: The show of youth power

When a group of Christian ladies seized control of feminist NGO AWARE during its AGM in March, nobody would expect it to turn into a protracted saga which went on to become the number one hot-selling news in Singapore and captured the attention of the entire nation. The AWARE Old Guards accused the newcomers of launching a “constitutional coup” to take over the organization and called for an EGM to “reclaim” it. Egged on by the state media, Singapore’s Generation Y responded and came out in full force to support the Old Guards. More than 2,000 people turned up at Suntec Convention Center for the EGM on 2 May which lasted a marathon 7 hours from 2pm to 9pm with President Josie Lau bowing out in disgrace eventually. A few memorable quotes were uttered at the EGM such as Thio Su Mien’s “You have no respect for your senior” and Sally Ang’s “Shut up and sit down!” The ruling party must have watched the show with trepidation from the sidelines. Singapore youth have shown that they are capable of organizing themselves and making their votes count.

The Temasek Review team will take to wish all our readers a Happy New Year. See you in 2010 as we prepare to take another great leap forward into the unknown.