A Nation’s Shame
March 5th, 2010 | 
Author: By Tan Keng Leng
It was reported in the Friday, 19/02/2010 edition of The New Paper that serial sex offender Khairulhizam Din Ahmad had been convicted of robbing a 15-year old girl, hence called “Mariam”, after tricking her into having sex with him. Khairulhizam, who had a string of previous convictions before this, including molesting an 11-year old girl in 2007, stabbing his wife in 1997 and drugging, molesting and robbing an Indonesian maid in 1990, had approached “Mariam” and promised to pay her $400/- for sex. After having sex though, not only did he fail to pay the girl, who cannot be named because of her age, he proceeded to rob her of her schoolbag, which contained valuables worth about $220/-.
So why did “Mariam” agree to have sex with him then? According to the report, it was because she was desperate to obtain money quickly so as to buy food for her siblings. Did this happen because her parents didn’t earn enough to support the family? Were either or possibly both of them dead or in prison? The report did not state the reasons for the family’s predicament, nor did it state if the family was on public assistance or had applied for it and were rejected.
This was not the first instance where an underage child had sold him/herself for sex. There had been a previous instance where a teenage boy, hence called “Charles”, had prostituted himself on a gay website to earn money to buy designer goods. 5 gay men accepted his proposal; they have since all been convicted for it.
Child prostitution and pedophilia will always be present in any society, even the most developed ones with the best social welfare programs. According to news reports, “Charles” did not come from a family in financial difficulties; he was simply materialistic. Khairulhizam’s victim on the other hand clearly came from a family in financial distress, otherwise she wouldn’t be desperate enough to sell herself to feed her family.
What Khairulhizam and the 5 gay men did, preying on young children, was shocking and disgusting. Far more shocking and disgusting though is the fact that unlike “Charles”, “Mariam” was not selling herself to buy designer goods her family couldn’t afford; she did it out of love for her family and desperation to feed her siblings.
This is something that shouldn’t happen in a First World nation like Singapore, but it did nonetheless. How many other families out there are in similar circumstances as “Mariam’s” family? Are such families on public assistance, or have they applied for it but were rejected? For that matter, are they even aware of the existence of such public assistance programs?
When PM Lee announced that GST will be raised from 5% to 7%, he justified it by saying that the money raised will be used for such public assistance programs. However, when PAP backbencher Dr. Lily Neo called for public assistance to be raised by $100/- per month from $300/- to $400/-, MM Lee curtly told her off and said that welfare programs will create a crutch mentality among the needy. When Dr. Neo, one of the few PAP MPs who show genuine concern for the needy and less-fortunate appealed to MCYS Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan to “at least ensure that the poor can afford three meals a day”, he condescendingly asked her “and where do they expect to eat their meals, in a hawker center, foodcourt or restaurant?” The amount was eventually raised by a paltry $30/- per month including 20% CPF deduction. Or in other words, the actual amount of money that the low-income families received was only $324/- per month after CPF deduction.
At $324/- per month, this will work out to $64/80 per person per month for a typical family of 5. Assuming that a typical month consists of 30 days, this works out to less than $2/20 per person per day. Given that nowadays, even the cheapest packet of fried noodles or vermicelli from an economic rice & noodle stall costs 80 cents, this means that a person will need a minimum of $2/40 per day to have three meals a day. This is assuming that the person eats nothing but fried noodles three meals a day everyday, something that scarcely constitutes a balanced diet.
Exactly how Dr. Balakrishnan, a medical doctor by profession came to the conclusion that $324/- per month is sufficient to ensure three meals a day for truly needy people is a mystery.
More unbelievably, while the government refuses to provide a comprehensive social security blanket for needy locals, Dr. Balakrishnan has a kitty worth $10,000,000/- dollars to help foreigners integrate themselves within Singapore. Why the government sees it fit to provide public assistance to foreigners to acclimatize themselves to the country when these people chose to come here of their own free will when it steadfastly refuses to provide anything more than the bare minimum to needy locals is something known only to themselves.
Nor is MCYS’ $10,000,000/- budget for integrating foreigners the only benefit they get at the expense of locals. For example, PRC scholars are provided with free English language lessons at taxpayers’ expense so as to bridge the gulf in standards between themselves and locals. Given that English is the fundamental building block of the local education system, this means that the PRC students must be struggling in school and are thus unworthy of their scholarships. Why the government is willing to provide free education to PRC students while doing just the bare minimum for needy locals is something only they can understand.
This contradiction becomes even more pronounced when one considers that Dr. Balakrishnan actually told a university student at a forum that foreigners are absolutely necessary because otherwise in 20 years time, locals will need to pay significantly higher taxes to provide just such a social security blanket for the elderly. The question that the students should have asked him at the forum but failed to do so is this: why should locals pay significantly higher taxes for the government to provide a comprehensive social security blanket when they have steadfastly always refused to do so because “it would create a crutch mentality”?
Actually, by increasing public assistance by $30/-, this works out to an expenditure of $900,000/- per month more, assuming that there are 30,000 families on public assistance. This will work out to a total of $10,800,000/- more per year, a sum the government can easily afford without having to raise taxes. At the very most, the Prime Minister can always abolish such redundant posts as Senior Minister, Minister Mentor and 1 Deputy Prime Minister. After all, these posts didn’t exist before, proving that they’re entirely unnecessary. This will save $9,000,000/- per year, meaning that the actual increase in expenditure for public assistance programs will be only $1,800,000/- per year.
So what exactly was the money collected from the increase taxation used for? Probably to pay for cost overruns on the two integrated resorts; it was definitely used to fund massive pay increments that the government awarded itself.
Adding insult to injury, in this year’s Budget, it was announced that GST may rise up to 10% and ministers given a pay increment of up to 8.8%. So what will the extra money be used for, besides increasing their own salaries? According to Finance Minister Tharman Shanmuguratnam, some of the money will be used to retrain locals “to improve their productivity”.
Obviously nobody told him that all the retraining in the world is worthless when one cannot get a decent paying job because of low cost foreign workers.
The obvious solutions to problems like “Mariam’s” lie in comprehensive social security blankets and poverty alleviation programs. Yet these are the very things that the government refuses to implement because “it would create a crutch mentality among the poor”. This is even more ludicrous when one considers the government openly encourages locals to donate to private charities when this will also create the same sort of “crutch mentality” among them. One cannot help but think that the real problem isn’t the government’s fear of creating a “crutch mentality” among needy locals, but rather their plain refusal to help them.
P.M. Lee once said “no Singaporean will be left behind” as long as he is the Prime Minister. He also said “Singaporeans will always come first” for him.
One cannot help but wonder if “Mariam’s” parents still believe him after what happened to their daughter.
Other articles by Tan Keng Leng:
1. 10 reasons why Singaporeans will never come first in PM Lee’s administration
2. Open letter to PM Lee expressing unhappiness at his pro-foreigner policy
Posted in 43 Responses to “A Nation’s Shame”
Loading ...
Alex Tan Allan Ooi AWARE Chee Soon Juan Chiam See Tong Claire Lee David Widjaja DBS Dr Allan Ooi Dr Silviu Ionescu Foyce Le Xuan George Yeo GIC highnote5 highnotes5 Hong Lim Park Jack Lin Xinli Jack Neo Jack Neo affair Jack Neo press conference Jack Neo scandal Josie Lau Josie Lau Meng Lee Lee Kuan Yew Lehman brothers Lighthouse Evangelism Malaysia MAS minibonds Miss Singapore World NTU stabbing Pastor Rony Tan Ris Low Romanian diplomat in hit-and-run Rony Tan S-League Sex silviu ionescu Singapore Tan Kin Lian Thio Su Mien Tiger Woods affair Tong Kok Wai Top 8 Wendy Chong
WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck and Luke Morton requires Flash Player 9 or better.
I think TR should stop writing article like this to capitalize on other people’s private misfortunate to push its own political agenda.
Do u have ‘Mariam’’s approval?
this is sad. surely he is a sick person that need to be lock up for very very long time.
I don’t how many times must our leaders and government repeat themselves. You guys really really very stupid, cannot understand English, is it?
These children are Singaporeans, right?
So, I shall repeat once more: “SINGAPOREANS, YOU DIE, YOUR BUSINESS.”
Don’t blame the govt for not doing enough for us hor.
keep our shopping malls going
They already tried very hard and trying still.
They invited FTs for our own good:
1) increase income of low wage families,
2) drive spurs in our hide so we can upgrade ourselves,
3) increase productivity without the need to increase salary,
4) take up jobs we shunned including PMET positions,
5) replace elderly workers who are slow and lazy
6) crowd our public transport so we can strive to buy cars
7) grow our GDP
Wah lau ay, FTs so beneficial to us, you all still complain, no wonder govt said we are “Champion Complainers”. Singaporeans are really “DAFT”.
讲多无谓，食多会載。
Mr Tan,
Good article. I especially agree with you on:
“When PM Lee announced that GST will be raised from 5% to 7%, he justified it by saying that the money raised will be used for such public assistance programs. However, when PAP backbencher Dr. Lily Neo called for public assistance to be raised by $100/- per month from $300/- to $400/-, MM Lee curtly told her off and said that welfare programs will create a crutch mentality among the needy.”
Dear Parents,
Voting for PAP->More foreigners come in->take our jobs and depress wages->Ministers increase their own salary and one of your daughters has to sell herself for $400 to feed your other kids.
Is this the future you want for your kids?
funny that every crime is a result of the government’s policy.. I not pro government or what, just that find it funny. This can happen anywhere in the world, when there is proverty, there will be such things. No good government policies is going to stop that.
also i find it funny that posting comments on this website need moderation. Shouldn’t it be free posting. Should this website promote free speech or anything? why require moderation?
No wonder all comments seems so negative against government, because all comments promoting government is censor by the moderators (correct me if I am wrong as this is my fourth posting). Funny Funny Funny
I still waiting for the moderation for my previous 2 comments. So many comments on the Press being the mouthpiece of the Government, so now why it take so long for my two comments on this website? Do I need to be post something negtaive about the government so that my comment get posted here fast?
//The Sims
I think it is more sickening to pass policies that enrich yourselves without milking the very people you are supposed to serve.
go do your work.
I think your PA assistance figures are incorrect. Single pple get $330 per mth; couples get almost double and families even more. In addition, the many helping hands approach will see pple under PA getting other help as well such as groceries, food vouchers etc. If you know of any genuine case of need, help them to approach the family service centres. Or the RC. Or the MP.
@ Tan Keng Leng
This is something that shouldn’t happen in a First World nation like Singapore, but it did nonetheless
Are u saying that if public assistance is increase, something like this will not happen to “Mariam”. You seem to be blaming for the wrong reasons, I do not agree with you on this. Fair comments please, or TR will just fade away.
The part that i agree with you is that public assistance should be increase for needy families, instead of throwing money at some stupid integration program which the govt is doing.
@ xyman
I somewhat agree with u that not every crime is the fault of govt. TR should not tie this article with govt not giving more public assistance to needy family.
I agree with the article except that part about the child being exploited. This is 2 different cases separated and does not overlap at all.
quotes from MPs
“NO ONE WILL BE LEFT BEHIND”
“NO CHILD WILL BE LEFT BEHIND”
“SINGAPOREANS COME FIRST”
” PROMISED TO MAKE SINGAPORE LIVING STANDARD LIKE THE SWISS”
” PROMISED 3% SALARIES INCREASE ”
” PROMISED SLOW DOWN OF FTs INTO SINGAPORE”
IF THEY HAVE DONE THEIR JOB WELL FOR THE PAST 5-10 YEARS , THEY DO NOT NEED ALL THE ABOVE PROMISES . THEREFORE , SINCE PAPAYA HAVE FAILED AGAIN AND AGAIN BY SCRWING UP ALL THEIR POLICIES WHICH ARE CLEALY IN FAVOUR OF THE GARMAN ONLY, WE WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO VOTE THEM OUT IN THE NEXT ELECTION .
To xingrencha,
Incorrect or correct is not a issue here as people comment without solid knowledge or think that comment is correct. Because after posting, they will only be responsible to the user here, not to the real world.
And people that read these comments without knowing the fact will think that these comments is indeed a fact. That is the real world.
I believe the GST will increase to 10% as I remembered that many years ago a mp once compared our GST to a country in europe(I thk is Austria) whereby VAT is 22%.
Report the truth ! TR has done a good job again.
There is really a lot of social problems in Singapore! No amount of GDP is able to conceal it – real shame.
I notice many of the retarded posters here lack compassion for the people.
Where is the MP who is suppose to help her?
@ The Sims on Fri, 5th Mar 2010 9:17 am
“I think TR should stop writing article like this to capitalize on other people’s private misfortunate to push its own political agenda.”
If TR stop writing such articles, then we Singaporeans will not know the real sad happenings in Singapore and more important, what our selfish government have been doing. Giving themselves 8.8% pay rise and yet not sincerely helping those who are in need.
I truly thank TR for highlighting the plight of this poor young girl. I thank the writer Tan Keng Leng for putting in the effort to highlight and share with us his analytical and thought provoking view.
It would be good if you, The Sims, could reach out and help out instead of passing such nonsensical uncalled for comments. Are you paid by the sickening government to write nonsense here? If so, may I suggest you stop doing that and instead do something beneficial for fellow Singaporeans particularly those in need. I doubt you will provide any help.
“Do u have ‘Mariam’’s approval?”
What nonsense are you talking about? TR only comment on a Today’s article. What approval do you need to comment on a newspaper reporting.
I am sure what TR is speaking the truth. Otherwise we all know that our government will sue them in court.
U are really a shameless POS to go on posting all over your rubbish. Go continue to lap on your equally shameless masters’ arse. Go be a cry baby. U Shameless POS.
First of all, I think TR has done a good job to be an alternative news provider with analysis that the MSM chooses not to cover. For this incident, TR analysed the case, and provided possible causes and suggested solutions to it. It may not be entirely objective, but the most important contribution of the TR report is to highlight the issue and trigger awareness and discussion among Singaporeans. However, I would appreciate if TR could extend its coverage to provide ways for people to help the victim in this report. Ultimately, I hope Singaporeans do more than just critizing but actually seek ways to help if it is within one’s capability.
I’m very very sad that after so many years of governance, our leaders are still struggling to help singaporeans put food on our tables and roof over our heads.
We were promised Swiss standard of living many years ago. We were promised “more good years!” to come. What happened???
Our quality of life has gone much worse, natural born citizens are discriminated aganist in favor of foreigners. Why is this happening to us?
How can leaders honestly look at the mirror each day and go on collecting million dollar salaries? Where is the integrity and conscience. Where are the million dollars equivalent life – transforming solutions? Why are we getting cheap and easy-way-out solutions?
Singaporeans, what in the world is happening to us? WAKE UP!!! before it’s too late.
Double standards TR.
I also prostitute myself everytime what, to buy iPhone and maxiPad but TR also never report here nor help me advertsise. hehe.
@the sims: so what if TR has an agenda? the ‘worst’ it can do is to discuss and evaluate FACTS (an underaged girl is exploited), it is up to readers to believe the analysis, just like it is up to the same readers to believe if the words coming out of the PAP’s mouths are credible.
Honestly, what happened to our swiss standard of living and more good years???
Cry For Me Singapore (Count on Me Singapore)
We have a bleakness for tomorrow, bend over, bend over
We have a goal for Singapore, open the door, open the door
You and me, have no more jobs, cry together, heart to heart
We’re going to show the world what PAP has done
We bend over, screw us over
There is nothing down the road that we can strive for
We are told we’re too lazy we need more foreigners
There’s a despair in the air, it’s a feeling we all share
We’re going to build a better life, for PAP and foreigners
We bend over, screw us over
Cry for me Singapore, cry for me I lost my job and more
You and me, we’ll do our part, cry together, heart to heart
We’re going to show the world what PAP has done
We bend over, screw us over
Chorus:
Cry for me Singapore, Cry for me Singapore
Cry for me to I lost my job and more, cry for me Singapore
s
To: dunbeanidiot on Fri, 5th Mar 2010 9:42 am
1) increase income of low wage families,
– yes, increase by a mere 9% (accumulative from 2006 – 2009). but they also increase our cost of living to 200% (e.g HDB price)
2) drive spurs in our hide so we can upgrade ourselves
– yes, make us want to upgrade ourselve. but those low income families don’t have the income to feed themselve alrdy, whats dollar they have left to upgrade themselve?
3) increase productivity without the need to increase salary,
– yes, companies increase productivity at the cost of singaporean having to stick at the same wages as FT, so where would be the increase in income as stated by you?
4) take up jobs we shunned including PMET positions,
– I totally agree with this
5) replace elderly workers who are slow and lazy
– yes, they replace elderly worker, so that elderly doesn’t have kids to support them.. how are they to support themselve?
6) crowd our public transport so we can strive to buy cars
– yes, strive us to buy cars while LTA is encouraging us to take public transport… Very nice argument there “dunbeanidiot”
7) grow our GDP
– IF YOU HAVEN’T BEEN READING NEWS REPORT. OUR GDP HAS BEEN DECREASING.
out of the 7 valid point you said.. only one is visible…so dun talk rot here….
I think all of us has been left behind, except for MM Lee, SM Goh, PM Lee and all other ministers who pocketed millions of money from taxation and GST they collected.
<>
Someone impersonating me?? it shows how far people do to discredit people or just make a nuisance here.
PAP says Swiss standards of living ! But what they did not tell you is Swiss standard for themselves and not us !!!
So you see they fufilled their promise by paying themselves millions of dollars and leaving the citizens to suffer !!
VOTE PAP OUT !!! TIME FOR CHANGE !!!
Is amazing that I am just a nobody and just started posting TODAY, 05/03/2010, and people can start impersonating me and post. See post:
@—————————————————-
Double standards TR.
I also prostitute myself everytime what, to buy iPhone and maxiPad but TR also never report here nor help me advertsise. hehe.
Nobel Winner Slams Singapore Over HIV Treatment Costs (Update1)
March 05, 2010, 2:31 AM EST
(Adds activist’s comments in fifth and sixth paragraphs.)
By Simeon Bennett
March 5 (Bloomberg) — Singapore’s insistence on charging for HIV tests and treatment is hindering progress on controlling the spread of the virus in the city-state, said Francoise Barre- Sinoussi, winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine for her co- discovery of the virus that causes AIDS.
New HIV infections in the nation of 4.6 million people rose to 456 in 2008 from 242 in 2003, according to the health ministry. Barre-Sinoussi, 62, said the burden is probably greater because people may be dissuaded from getting tested.
“The stigma, the fact that they have to pay for everything, it’s the worst conditions for stimulating people to be tested and treated,” she said in an interview at the French embassy in Singapore yesterday. “The numbers they announce are probably much lower than the numbers they have.”
Singapore’s government has opened more anonymous testing clinics, boosted HIV education programs and produced a soap opera to curb new infections of HIV, which have doubled in the past 10 years, even as the spread of the virus slowed in neighboring Malaysia and Thailand.
Treatment can cost as much as S$1,500 ($1,073) a month in Singapore and most insurers don’t cover the costs, said Stuart Koe, chief executive officer of Fridae.com, Asia’s largest gay Web site. Generic versions of AIDS drugs aren’t available in Singapore and doctors in the city-state often advise patients to buy cheaper, copycat pills in Malaysia or Thailand, he said.
“It’s a shame because Singapore is considered by many to be a developed country,” Koe said in a telephone interview yesterday. “The HIV-AIDS community here is way behind most of the neighboring countries as a result.”
The health ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment. The government said in January it would subsidize HIV treatment for patients who can’t afford it.
‘Difficult to Accept’
An anonymous HIV test costs S$30, according to Action for AIDS, which runs Singapore’s biggest anonymous testing clinic.
“Coming from a country where everything is free, it’s difficult to accept,” said Barre-Sinoussi, who is head of Institut Pasteur’s regulation of retroviral infections unit in Paris. “The situation is even worse than in developing countries not far from here. In Cambodia, everything is free.”
In France, which has 64 million people, new cases fell to 6,940 from 8,930 over the same period, data presented at an AIDS conference last month show.
In 1983, Barre-Sinoussi co-wrote a report with Luc Montagnier in the journal Science that detailed the discovery of the pathogen that later became known as human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV.
HIV-AIDS is the world’s deadliest infectious disease. About 33 million people were living with HIV, 2.7 million were newly infected with the virus and 2 million people died from an AIDS- related complication in 2008, according to the World Health Organization’s latest estimates.
–Editors: Phil Serafino, Jason Gale
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-05/nobel-winner-slams-singapore-over-hiv-treatment-costs-update1-.html
Xyman, it is obvious that the author is saying that if “Mariam’s” family received adequate public assistance, she would not have been so desperate as to prostitute herself to buy food for her siblings and would not have gotten herself into such trouble.
In YOUR case, assuming you are an adult, all I can say is I hope scum like you catch AIDS from prostituting yourself to buy stuff you can’t afford.
@ The Sims
This is a social commentary piece, no real names are mentioned and there is no opportunistic capitalisation here.
@xyman…
You said it perfectly “This can happen anywhere in the world, when there is proverty, there will be such things.”
WHEN THERE IS PROVERTY…
So my question to you is… WHY IS THERE PROVERTY IN SINGAPORE?
■xyman on Fri, 5th Mar 2010 2:07 pm
Someone impersonating me?? it shows how far people do to discredit people or just make a nuisance here.
You cannot blame these people, after some times they start to learned the same thing from those MIW. We all learned from each other, don’t we?
Alright guys, I think it is very obvious that xyman is a miw supporter, possibly ypap, and the reason why he is posting such moronic comments here is because he wants to distract everyone with his stupid antics from the REAL issue here.
That is: THE GOVERNMENT HAS FAILED IN ITS DUTY OF ENSURING ADEQUATE PUBLIC ASSISTANCE FOR NEEDY LOCALS, and that is the reason WHY “Mariam” eventually fell prey to a monster like Khairulhizam.
Because she was desperate enough to prostitute herself to buy food for her siblings.
Singapore was never a ‘first world’ country to begin with. Don’t believe the self-flattery found in LKY’s memoirs. He merely wanted to vindicate himself as the island’s saviour. Ego problem again, but hardly surprising.
All Singapore had was a relatively decent GDP growth, and along with it the infrastructure. This too is on the decline. Take away the economic growth, and there’s nothing left inside the hollow shell.
Vote out PAP to save Singapore !!!
the only “crutch mentality” i see here is that of PAP govt. they are depending on the crutch we taxpayers give them generously
It is indeed MCYS’ shame that children have to prostitute themselves to make ends meet while they squander $10million on foreigners.
When lky warned that with a “good dose of incompetent government… our women will become maids in other people’s countries, foreign workers”, it really shows that PAP IS EXCEEDINGLY INCOMPETENT.
Which is worse?
(a) Our women as maids in other people’s countries
(b) Our women as maids even in their own land
(c) Our women as prostitutes even in their own land
The only cure to this OVERDOSE OF INCOMPETENT GOVERNMENT IS TO VOTE THE PAP OUT.
its no surprising to see above some comments by 30% of Singaporeans who are wretched,selfish and wicked and who care less about the pain and suffering of the rest of Singaporeans. these 30% benefit from the policies of PAP government to the extent that they cant get that level of benefit from any other governments. they are willing to sacrifice the 70% of Singaporeans for that. we need to put these 30% in their rightful place as we need to put PAP politicians in their rightful place