SMRT strike – it’s about employees, not nationalities
To continue to parrot the argument that the workers did not and should not have taken things into their own hands is to be blind to the reality these workers face. And to stick our heads in the sand, while trumpeting the righteousness of dealing with illegal action swiftly, is to ignore the bigger issue here of the power imbalance between the employee and her employer.
The government's extreme pro-business attitude needs to be addressed and re-looked. It is perhaps the most important issue here, giving rise to the skewed labour landscape for employees, both local and foreign.
Read the full article by Andrew Loh on Yahoo Singapore.
Regional group condemns actions on SMRT workers
Press release by FORUM-ASIA:
Singapore: Punitive action against bus drivers on strike condemned
(Bangkok, 5 December 2012): Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) strongly condemned the detention and prosecution by the Singapore authorities against the bus drivers who went on strike over a wage dispute on 26 and 27 November 2012. The Bangkok-based regional human rights organisation, representing 47 NGOs in 16 countries across Asia, further called for their immediate release and for all charges against them to be dropped.
The five bus drivers, all of whom are Chinese nationals, have been charged under the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act in relation to a strike on 26-27 November 2012 involving over 170 Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT) bus drivers that is deemed illegal by the authorities. One of the five, Bao Feng Shan, pleaded guilty to charges under Section 9(1) of the Criminal Law (Temporary Provisions) Act for his involvement in the strike and was sentenced to 6 weeks in prison. He was not legally represented in remand or in court. Meanwhile, four others have been charged under Section 10(a) of the same Act, for allegedly instigating and inciting other bus drivers to participate in the strike. They are still in remand and are expected to appear in court on 6 December 2012. One from among the group has been charged with a further count of incitement for posting a notice on a website to call other workers to strike.
Surely, we can't be proud of MOM's actions
By Andrew Loh
The decision by the authorities to repatriate 29 of the Chinese SMRT workers is deplorable. There didn’t seem to have been consideration accorded to the mitigating factors which were present in this situation. The authorities’ deportation of the 29 smacks of highhandedness and there are serious questions which need to be asked.
But first, it is a well known fact among those who work with migrant workers that one of the fears of these lowly-paid workers is that of being repatriated. The reason is simple: many of them pay huge amounts in agency fees – money borrowed from friends and relatives, from sale of their possessions and property - to come to Singapore to work and to be repatriated means they will suffer perhaps a lifetime of debt. It is because of this fear, among others, which also prevents them from raising complaints against their employers when they are maltreated. Many do suffer in silence.
PH Exclusive: Tan Wah Piow - Exile with a cause
By Biddy Low
Who is Tan Wah Piow?
His is a name riddled with such fearful labels by our state's government and media - exile, rioter; "Marxist Mastermind." Yet as I sat with him in our video interview, I perceived none of the shadowy demeanour one might expect from a man of his reputation. Instead, he displayed a candour befitting of a free and fearless spirit.
In 1976, Wah Piow, then a young man of 24, escaped to the UK and sought asylum from what he believed was a precarious situation. He had just been released from prison after an 8-month long term. The charges of rioting and illegal assembly were the result of a "frame-up", he claimed, a plan adopted by the government to make an example of him and subvert a growing interest in social causes among the student body at the university.
A collective memory of the late Mr Tay Hong Seng
The following is a tribute from friends of Mr Tay Hong Seng, one of the Internal Security Act (ISA) detainees of Operation Spectrum in 1987. Mr Tay passed away on 26 November.
30 Nov 2012
Tay Hong Seng, born 9 September 1950 sadly departed on 26 November 2012. He worked for Lian He Zaobao and had written some 600 articles under his byline.
He studied Business and Economics at Sheffield University in the 1970s and spent a year in Japan as part of his course. He was one of the key members of the Federation of United Kingdom and Eire Malaysian and Singapore Student movement (FUEMSSO). In 1976 when Tan Wah Piow sought exile in the UK, he with his other colleagues organised various meetings throughout the country to publicise the repression that was then going on in Singapore. He was fondly called "Lao Tay" by all those who knew him in UK because he was slightly older than them and also because of his mannerism. A tribute described him as follows:
Time to reinstate workers' rights, says SDP
Statement from the Singapore Democratic Party on the SMRT workers' strike:
Time to reinstate workers' rights
Singapore's workers have been exploited for far too long. Since the detention of opposition and trade union leaders like Lim Chin Siong and the eradication of free trade unions together with the restructuring of the employment laws in the 1960s, the PAP has, together with Western neoliberals, systematically dismantled the legitimate rights of the Singaporean worker.
While we have the highest number of millionaires per capita making us the richest country in the world, nearly 5 percent of our workers are paid $500 a month. Their wages have not risen in the last 10 years. The result is an enormous income inequality, the highest in the industrialised world.
NSP calls for fair treatment of SMRT drivers
For Immediate Release
National Solidarity Party’s statement on the strike at SMRT
28 November 2012
Singapore
The National Solidarity Party (NSP) regrets the strike action taken by some SMRT bus drivers. Whatever their grievances, their action unfortunately broke the law and the rule of law must be respected by all, Singaporeans or not.
However, it takes two hands to clap and in a conflict, it is seldom the fault of only one party. So far, responses to this incident have mostly focused on the illegal nature of the strike, so we would like to present the other side of the coin for a more balanced discussion.
What are the causes that led us to this breakdown in our labour relations?
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