Jaslyn Go’s Blog

Re: Time for ICA and MHA to take responsibility for their mistakes
Wednesday, 16 July, 2008 11:28 AM
From: “STForum”

Thank you for writing to us. We do appreciate your making the effort.

We receive up to 70 letters each day. Limited space means we can publish only about a dozen every weekday.
This means having to make often-difficult editorial judgments on which letters to publish.

We regret we are unable to publish your letter.

If your letter relates to a matter under the purview of a government department, you may want to visit
www.sgdi.gov.sg for a list of officials to contact.

Yours sincerely

Ms Noor Aiza
for Forum Editor
The Straits Times

Time for ICA and MHA to take responsibility for their mistakes
Tuesday, 15 July, 2008 9:20 AM
To: stforum@sph.com.sg, news@newstoday.com.sg

My experience at the Woodland and Tuas checkpoint left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

I was driving towards Woodland checkpoint early on Sunday morning (13 July 2008) before 8am and was stuck in one of the worst customs jam I ever came across in the many years traveling to Malaysia. I made a detour to Tuas checkpoint thinking that it might be a better choice.

When I reached Tuas, there was already a long queue forming. Only when my turn came did I realise what is the cause of the customs jam. All of us were required to get down to give apply out thumb print to the singular available thumb print recognition device set up for this purpose.

When I headed back from Malaysia at 11+pm towards Woodlands, clearing Malaysia’s custom was such a breeze, but at the Singapore causeway, the same customs jam I witnessed in the morning awaited me.

The traffic was crawling at 12 midnight. It took me 1.5 hours just to reach the custom booth. The ICA staff came out from his booth, and told us in a very harsh tone to wind down our windows and reveal all our faces.
My two kids were crying from the long wait and I requested that he make it fast and not to hold us up unnecessarily.

After clearing from the customs booth, another jam awaited at the secondary clearing with again 1 lane open for vehicle to go through.

Now, the ICA would like to have us think that after their 2 recent hiccups, they need to be more vigilant and stringent in their checks.

My questions however are,

1) Is our ICA so poor as to only have one operation biometric device?

2) Is our ICA so capable only to be able to maintain vigilance at one customs secondary clearing?

3) why do we citizens have to pay for ICA’s mistakes? Given the time wasted and inconvenience caused to us, time is economical lost to us too.

4) if the ICA thinks that due to their negligence, the stringent checks are necessary, shouldn’t they be deploying more personnel to handle the stringent checks and minimize their inconvenience caused to motorists? (1 lane for motorists on the left side of the customs to handle such a jam??)

5) the department responsible for the negligence should be taken to task and made to answer for it, motorists should not be paying for the mistakes of that department. If there is any economic loss, ICA should pay, not the motorist. (i.e. deploying more staffs, opening up more counters, have a portable biometric device instead of inconveniencing motorists to alight to apply the thumbprint imprinted, they should be moving around with a portable device that allow them to come to us than we go to them)

6) cost of deploying more staffs, use of portable device etc should be borne by the respective departments or pay cut from the HOD be used for this purpose and not taxpayers money.

7) ICA staff may be doing their job, but they should learn to be more polite when they do so, they should be the one seeking our cooperation to ameliorate their mistakes made and not demanding our cooperation in a harsh and unfriendly tone as it we owed it to them.

Citizens should not be paying for the mistakes made by the Government. It is time for respective departments, in this case ICA and MHA, to take responsibility for their mistakes.

For once..ST Forum took less than 24 hours to reject my letter

From: “STForum” View Contact Details
Subject: Re: ST Forum – in response to Mr Lim Yao Ho’s “Chees’ potshots at Govt diminish our reputation”
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:32:50 +0800

Thank you for writing to us. We do appreciate your making the effort.

We receive up to 70 letters each day. Limited space means we can publish only about a dozen every weekday.
This means having to make often-difficult editorial judgments on which letters to publish.

We regret we are unable to publish your letter.

If your letter relates to a matter under the purview of a government department, you may want to visit
www.sgdi.gov.sg for a list of officials to contact.

Yours sincerely

Ms Noor Aiza
for Forum Editor
The Straits Times

Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 13:42:08 +0800 (CST)
Subject: ST Forum – in response to Mr Lim Yao Ho’s “Chees’ potshots at Govt diminish our reputation”
To: stforum@sph.com.sg

I am writing in response to Mr Lim Yao Ho ST Forum letter on June 5 2008.

I would like to state that I had over a period of 5 months written 8 emails to my MP Mr Baey Yam Keng with regards to matters brought up during his MP block visit. Mr Baey did not even bother to respond to me at all.

I took the matter 1 step higher by writing to Tanjong Pagar GRC’s MPs which includes MM Mr Lee KY. Over a period of 3 months, 2 emails were sent and still I have not receive any response from them.

I had also on 3 occasions wrote in to ST forum page with matters related to MHA and also the GST rebate, yet ST has chosen not to publish my letters.

Now I would like to know Mr Lim Yao Ho’s basis to say that the “Government goes out of its way to canvass the views of ordinary citizens”.

Am I not more ordinary than you are?

There are many ways to engage this Government and I have chosen to write to them but I have yet to get a response from them, so what went wrong? Does our Government selectively choose whom they respond to?

Our Government can make us proud only when they can stand up to our questioning especially in the face of foreign attention / exposure. No one is capable of embarrassing our Government except our Government itself..

Jaslyn Go

From: “STForum”
Subject: Re: ST Forum – GST Credits – Why our children are forgotten
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:48:55 +0800

Thank you for writing to us. We do appreciate your making the effort.

We receive up to 70 letters each day. Limited space means we can publish only about a dozen every weekday.
This means having to make often-difficult editorial judgments on which letters to publish.

We regret we are unable to publish your letter.

If your letter relates to a matter under the purview of a government department, you may want to visit
www.sgdi.gov.sg for a list of officials to contact.

Yours sincerely

Ms Noor Aiza
for Forum Editor
The Straits Times

Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:18:31 +0800 (CST)
Subject: ST Forum – GST Credits – Why our children are forgotten
To: stforum@sph.com.sg

According to the Government, the recent GST Credits were given “to help Singaporeans cope with the 2% GST increase from 1st July 2007″. I was given $200 GST Credits this year, which I believe is what most Singaporeans are getting.

However, I am a mother of two, and my children are not entitled to GST credits. Why have our young been forgotten? Our dependents should also be entitled to GST rebates for milk powder, diapers, health care costs, childcare services, school fees, textbooks, etc.

If the Government wants to encourage its citizens to procreate, why are our young children exluded from the GST rebates, leaving parents bearing the brunt of the GST increase?

How can the Government claim to have introduced a comprehensive GST Offset Package in Budget 2007 when our young have been forgotten?

From: “STForum”
Subject: Re: Letter to the Forum with regards to Police Intimidation
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2008 17:33:11 +0800

Thank you for writing to us. We do appreciate your making the effort.

We receive up to 70 letters each day. Limited space means we can publish only about a dozen every weekday.
This means having to make often-difficult editorial judgments on which letters to publish.

We regret we are unable to publish your letter.

If your letter relates to a matter under the purview of a government department, you may want to visit
www.sgdi.gov.sg for a list of officials to contact.

Yours sincerely

Ms Noor Aiza
for Forum Editor
The Straits Times

Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:48:20 +0800 (CST)
Subject: Letter to the Forum with regards to Police Intimidation
To: stforum@sph.com.sg

I was a participant in the 15 March 2008 protest organized by SDP along with two of my young children.

On 20th March 2008, at about 9.45pm, while trying to put my two tired kids to sleep, a loud bang on my door jolted them up.

At the door, I was greeted by two non-uniformed police officers who identified themselves and told me that I was under investigation for participating in an illegal assembly and procession.

My questions are:

1) Since they could identify me as one of the protesters, I am sure they are well aware that I have two young children. Did they need to bang on my door so hard? Yes, my door bell is not working, but my ears are. I am certainly not deaf!

2) Is this police way of intimidating citizens who are not afraid of exercising their constitutional rights to participate in a peaceful protest?

3) Do the police want my young children to see them as intimidating figures rather than as “friendly neighbourhood policemen”, as they like to market themselves to be?

4) What has become of our society if even speaking up is a crime, citizen are being intimidated for doing so, and yet limping terrorists are out on the loose?

From: STForum
Subject: Re: Letter to the Forum with regards to 15 March Protest
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:30:17 +0800

Thank you for writing to us. We do appreciate your making the effort.

We receive up to 70 letters each day. Limited space means we can publish only about a dozen every weekday.
This means having to make often-difficult editorial judgments on which letters to publish.

We regret we are unable to publish your letter.

If your letter relates to a matter under the purview of a government department, you may want to visit
www.sgdi.gov.sg for a list of officials to contact.

Yours sincerely

Ms Noor Aiza
for Forum Editor
The Straits Times

Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:50:27 +0800 (CST)
Subject: Letter to the Forum with regards to 15 March Protest
To: stforum@sph.com.sg

I refer to the peaceful protest by SDP held on 15 March 2008.

I got to know about the protest through word of mouth and decided to exercise my constitutional rights as a Singapore Citizen by participating together with my two young children. My purpose was simple: to highlight the rising cost of living that is affecting me and my family.

Recent increases in childcare costs, milk powder, transportation and medical costs, are taking a toll on families like me with very young dependents.

What started out as a peaceful protest turned unnecessarily rowdy in the end because the police held up the group of protesters outside Funan Digimall and prevented them from moving.

The police intervention created a scene that attracted big crowds of passersby.

As a Citizen who is non-partisan, I will support causes I believe in, regardless of who the organizers are. In times of price hikes where we were told by our ministers to buy house brand bread, eat frozen meat, I do not think I have the spare cash to enjoy the luxury of junk foods. It’s World Consumer Day on 15 March 2008, so what is wrong with protesting about the recent escalating price hikes?

What has become of our society if even speaking up has become a crime, and peaceful protests end up with arrest, yet limping terrorists are out on the loose?