publichouse.sg

By Ravi Philemon

The article in Economist 'Reaping what they sow', in saying that the City Harvest Church's (CHC)case 'worries those who see corruption as a growing problem', has tried to link the CHC saga to the other ongoing corruption cases in this city-state.  But only, the alleged misuse of funds case against City Harvest Church, may not be a clear-cut case of corruption.

Before Kong Hee, there were  other religious leaders who have been investigated, and some others like Ming Yi and Joachim Kang, who have been jailed.

But what does cases like CHC say about governance in religious organisations? And why did the earlier governance review by the Commissioner of Charities not reveal any irregularities in CHC's case?

To understand why the earlier governance review did not pinpoint any irregularities in the CHC's case, one must understand what the primary purpose of such a review is.

By Ng Jing Song

3 RSIS academics propose an immigration bonus to get Singaporeans to accept foreigners.

A few academics from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) recently proposed an Immigration Bonus to “[alleviate] the unpleasant consequences of immigration by making the benefits of having a foreign presence in Singapore more tangible." “[The] bonus will serve as an important signal to Singaporeans of how their fortunes are intertwined with foreigners as the Immigration Bonus will increase and decrease in tandem with the number of foreigners allowed into Singapore," the academics say.

The bonus would be drawn “from a revenue pool of immigrant labour levies”, and "would be largely akin to the GST Bonus doled out periodically to Singaporeans."

This proposal, titled "An immigration bonus for Singaporeans? - Making the foreigner more acceptable", employs shoddy economic logic and, more egregiously, blithely ignores the vulgar influence of money on this sensitive matter.

By Stacy Ooi

What do politicians and London Weight Management have in common? AWARE weighs in.

The Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) will hold its annual gender equality award ceremony on 10th September at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel. Called The Supersonic Big Ball, the awards are a relatively young event, launched only last year, that seeks to chip away at patriarchal attitudes in society.

One of the features in this year's event will be an AWARE auction featuring Singapore’s most famous fashion item. MP for Marine Parade GRC, Tin Pei Ling, has donated her Kate Spade bag to raise funds for AWARE. A picture of her posing with the item surfaced during the General Election last year and became the target for criticism and ridicule. Ms Tin, whose grassroots experience includes working with disadvantaged women, is glad to give up the bag for a ‘very worthy cause’. Other significant auction items include jewellery from local social enterprise Saught, and artwork from local artist Manjeet Shergill.

By Stacy Ooi

Singaporeans in Conversation, or SGin(C) for short, was a dialogue held on the 4th of August with Minister Chan Chun Sing as guest of honour. The attendees were largely Singaporeans pursuing degrees in overseas universities who’d gathered that day to discuss national identity and the absence of patriotic sentiment amongst Singaporeans. Overseas students were a suitable group to pose this topic to as living overseas sharpens one’s sense of difference from other cultures, making one think more about what makes one Singaporean. Immigration and the fast-changing Singaporean landscape were also discussed as potential threats to our national identity. We were all split into groups to discuss the topics – does Singaporean national identity exist? Is there a need for it? The function room filled with clamour and passionate mini speeches across the groups; kids who’d sacrificed a Saturday morning to debate what might seem to some a pointlessly academic topic irrelevant to daily life.