Blog Posts by Andrew Loh

The Court of Appeal has allowed the Attorney-General Chambers to withdraw its appeal against the application by …

The Court of Appeal (CA) has allowed the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) to withdraw its appeal against the application by Hougang resident Vellama Marie Muthu seeking the Court to declare that the Prime Minister does not have "unfettered discretion" in deciding whether and when to call by-elections.

The High Court will now hear the case on a date to be decided.

In a hearing that lasted half an hour on Wednesday morning, senior counsel David Chong, acting for the AGC, said the withdrawal was because the AGC felt there is no substratum in the case brought by Vellama now since the Prime Minister has called a by-election in the Hougang constituency.

In short, he argued that there is no case to be heard and thus the AGC is withdrawing its appeal against Justice Pillai's decision in March for the case to be heard in open court.

The AGC's appeal was also objected to by M Ravi, lawyer for Vellama, who had filed an application to strike out the AGC's appeal. M Ravi said the AGC's

Hougang resident Vellama Marie Muthu rescinds her offer to withdraw her application from the Court. (Yahoo! photo/Andrew …

Vallama Marie Muthu's application to the High Court to order the Prime Minister to call a by-election in Hougang, and to declare that the PM does not have "unfettered discretion" in deciding whether or when to call by-elections, has taken another turn.

In the latest development on Sunday, Vellama's lawyer, M Ravi, informed the Attorney General's Chambers (AGC) that Vellama is rescinding her offer to withdraw her application from the Court.

This follows comments made by the AGC to Vellama's offer, made on Friday, 11 May. In that offer to the AGC, M Ravi said his client is prepared to withdraw her application because "the factual objective of her litigation has now been achieved" with the Prime Minister having called a by-election in Hougang.

Her offer to the AGC, however, was made on the conditions that the AGC withdraw its appeal against High Court judge Philip Pillai's decision on 3 April to allow the case to be heard. Also, the AGC should not seek costs against Vellama in the case.

Not many Singaporeans can distinguish between the mandatory death penalty and the death penalty. (Getty Images …

Singapore's mandatory death penalty for capital crimes is well known. Increasingly, however, critics of the law have been more vocal in recent years. Awareness of the death penalty has grown, albeit rather slowly, among Singaporeans as campaigners against this particular law continue to seek its abolition.

Many Singaporeans, however, still do not or cannot make the distinction between the idea of the death penalty (DP) and that of the mandatory death penalty (MDP) in capital cases. The MDP provides that anyone who is found guilty of a capital crime must be sentenced to death.

Judges have no discretionary powers to mete out any other sentence.

For example, if one is found guilty of trafficking above the statutory threshold of a certain prohibited drug, the sentence is automatic death. That is the only and compulsory sentence the trial judge can and must mete out.

While some have called for the total abolition of the death penalty itself, others want the process by which the mandatory

If you've been following the stampede of objections after one professor suggested "shock therapy" to up the wages of the lower income, you would have read that higher wages alone is considered a potentially "dangerous" thing.

It can cause all sorts of ill effects, which the prime minister himself laid out in no uncertain terms. "Business costs would go up, affecting Singapore's competitiveness, and inflation could rise," the Straits Times reported him as having said in his May Day message.

I pity the low-income earners. It seems that asking for a pay rise engenders much hand-wringing from the powers-that-be. The bottom strata of our society, who do not work less hard than anyone else, is required to raise productivity before talk of any wage increase is entertained. Preferably, they should raise it by 3 per cent every year for the next 10 years, as Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam had pledged to achieve.

Otherwise, the low income earners might cause businesses to go bust,

Broadcasts by Rediffusion were a part of life for many older Singaporeans, says our blogger. (Getty Images)

"Mrs Grace Fu, Senior Minister of State for Information, Communications and the Arts, said the closure of Redifussion will be a loss to many but 'demands are changing and it is a commercial decision'." — Straits Times, 10 April, 2012.

Rediffusion is a radio service which began life in Singapore in 1949, just after the war. It gained popularity among Singapore's ethnic Chinese community with its programmes in Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese. The government's focus on promoting bilingualism, basically English and a mother tongue, saw dialect programmes banned from the air waves in 1982. That decision was changed in the late 1990s to allow several hours of dialect programmes.

Now, after 63 years in operation, Rediffusion has announced it is shutting down on 30 April. Pleas for help from the station have so far fallen on deaf ears. The government, as Fu's comments seem to indicate, is willing to let "commercial decision" or market forces decide the fate of this icon of

NSP member Nicole Seah confirmed on Monday that she will not be contesting the Hougang by-election. (Yahoo! file …"I have no intention of contesting in the Hougang by-election if it happens," National Solidarity Party (NSP) member Nicole Seah posted on her Facebook page. "Anyone else who does so is not taking into consideration the work of Workers' Party MP Low Thia Khiang in retaining one of Singapore's longest-serving opposition wards."

Seah's statement puts paid to speculation of her possible involvement in the contest. However, her party itself is keeping its options open. Its secretary-general, Hazel Poa, when asked by reporters in February about the NSP contesting in Hougang, said the party was "unable to give a definitive reply… as its Central Executive Committee needs to meet and decide on whether to contest."

The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) has also said it will not be contesting the by-election, explaining that its "primary concern is that the constituency of Hougang remains in the hands of the opposition." However, the SDP does not seem to rule out entirely its participation in the

Minister for Transport Lui said that there will be no transport concessions for polytechnic students and the disabled. …

Why, Mr Lui?

It's been 13 years since the first call was made by the disabled community for concessionary travel on the public transport system. They have sent letters to the transport operators and the Ministry for Transport, held events at Speakers' Corner and gone online to gather support.

Members of Parliament, such as the Workers' Party's (WP) Sylvia Lim, lent their voices to the call. "The government has often said that we should build an inclusive society," Lim said in Parliament in March 2010. "It therefore should not take a back seat on this issue."

She added, "The government cannot wash its hands off the matter by saying that the public transport system is operated commercially and it is up to the public transport operators (PTOs) to decide. The disabled have no bargaining power against the big companies."

In February 2011, finally a light seemed to have appeared at the end of the tunnel on the issue. The government unveiled its "Enabling Masterplan 2012-2016" which aims

More action should be taken to address the Singaporeans-foreigners debate. (Yahoo! file photo)

COMMENT

Member of Parliament for Tampines group representation constituency Baey Yam Keng recently had to apologise for his comments with regards to Chinese scholar Sun Xu's remarks that "there are more dogs than humans in Singapore."

Sun studies at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

His remarks set off a storm of protests among Singaporeans, especially online. Baey added to the controversy when he said in a New Paper report that Singaporeans also "need to reflect" on their own behaviour.

The paper reported: "Mr Baey weighed in on the issue during an interview with The New Paper published last Wednesday. He said people should not jump to the conclusion that all foreign students are like Mr Sun and that Singaporeans also 'need to reflect' and ask whether 'we (have behaved) the way they described'."

It was like throwing a matchstick into a tinderbox, and Singaporeans turned their anger to Baey. The MP later issued an apology, in Parliament, for his remarks. "I do not think