Singaporeans: Ng Ser Miang should resign as Chairman of Singapore YOG Organizing Committee
August 19th, 2010 | 
Author: OPINION
The Singapore 2010 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) was billed by both the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the PAP regime as a “premier” world sporting event, but turned out to be a FLOP of EPIC proportion with the games doomed even before it was officially opened, dogged by controversies of “DOG” food being given to volunteers who are forced to work for long hours without rest under inhumane conditions which makes a mockery of the Olympian values of “excellence, friendship and respect.”
The latest scandal to engulf the YOG – a mass food poisoning outbreak at two YOG venues affecting some 26 volunteers including the duty doctor must the straw which breaks the camel’s back. Enough is enough. Singaporeans have witnessed enough of Mr Ng’s utter incompetence in managing or rather mismanaging the YOG in the past few days which has made a dent on Singapore’s international reputation.
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If Mr Ng has any sense of shame left in him, he should tender his RESIGNATION from the Singapore YOG Organizing Committee (SYOGOC) with immediate effect and let somebody else take over him.
There are five compelling reasons why Mr Ng’s current position is no longer tenable:
1. Lack of support from Singaporeans and poor turnout at the games:
Imagine playing to an almost empty stadium with no applause from the audience – that is the unfamiliar scenario which most of the YOG athletes find themselves in. Over at the Marina promontory, the live bands have been playing to a near empty crowd even on Sundays where the number of volunteers far outnumber that of spectators.
Mr Ng has more than two years as the Chairman of SYOGOC to engage Singaporeans to lend their support to the YOG. How did it turn out to be this way? He spent $8.9 million dollars to put up giant YOG billboards and banners all over the island and still 88 percent of Singaporeans professed that they are not interested in the YOG at all.
2. Forcing students to generate fake enthusiasm and support for the YOG:
Due to the lack of genuine interest from Singaporeans, the SYOGOC has to resort to massive astroturfing using public resources via the Ministry of Education to coerce our students to support the YOG overtly or covertly which shouldn’t be the case. Many primary schools “mobilized” their students to line the roads to cheer for the YOG torch rally be it in the rains or under the hot sun with scant regard for their personal safety and health. Does Mr Ng feel proud of such fake show of support for the YOG?
When asked by Associated Press last week if Singapore students are being forced to support the YOG, Mr Ng denied it flatly:
“There will always be stories flying around. Just look at the faces of the children that are there, the sparkle in their eyes and the smile on their faces. Those are not things you can force. I don’t think anyone will be forced to come to watch the torch relay or the games. So I don’t think there is any coercion,”
It is a shame that as the President of SYOGOC, Mr Ng is completely clueless about what is going on and is divorced from the reality on the ground. For this reason alone, he deserves to be sacked.
3. Mis-treating Singapore volunteers:
The President of the International Olympic Committee Mr Jacques Rogge said that the fundamental principle of the YOG is to provide education to young people at an age where they are receptive. What message is SYOGOC sending out to our youth and the foreigners by treating Singapore volunteers as mere “slaves”?
Many of the volunteers are not helping out at the YOG out of their own will, but are coerced to do so under the threat of corrective work order, detention or losing their testimonials should they not comply with their schools’ orders. There are complaints from volunteers that they are being forced to work for long hours with little rest with some returning homes way past twelve midnights. They are given inadequate and substandard food and have to put up with the endless nagging and heckling from their supervisors. Let us not forget that they are students and they are taking precious time off their studies to volunteer for the YOG. Shouldn’t they be treated with a bit of respect?
Charity begins at home. It defeats the purpose of hosting the YOG by treating Singapore volunteers so shabbily while rolling out the red carpet to welcome the foreign athletes and officials.
4. Mass food poisoning scandal:
The mass food poisoning scandal involving 26 Singapore volunteers at two different YOG venues after taking food provided by SYOGOC has dealt an irreversible blow to Singapore’s international reputation. This shouldn’t have happened. Have you heard of any such scandals in past Olympic games?
To compound matters, SYOGOC did not come clean with the public and inform the other volunteers of what happened immediately on the same day. The news was only leaked out three days later after the Temasek Review wrote an article on it asking if the incident did really happen.
It appears that SYOGOC cares more about the reputation of the games than the health of the volunteers who should be informed about the food poisoning outbreak and given the option of bringing their own home-cooked food to the YOG venues since the investigations into the cause are not concluded yet. What if more volunteers come down with diarrhoea after the first case?
5. Safety at YOG venues:
Two near mishaps occurred on Wednesday alone which could have resulted in mass casualties. In the morning, a photographer from China’s CCTV station fell down from a temporary platform when covering the YOG weight-lifting event at Toa Payoh stadium. In the afternoon, a roof canvas at *SCAPE collapsed under a heavy downpour. Fortunately, nobody was injured. Such roof canvases are commonly used in Singapore and their collapses are almost never heard of. Where does the problem arise? Again, Mr Ng did not bother to explain to an increasingly frustrated citizenry desperate for answers.
For the litany of comical screw-ups which have seriously damaged Singapore’s reputation and lessened the prestige of the YOG, Mr Ng should step down as the Chairman of SYOGOC.
Most importantly, under Mr Ng’s leadership, he has accomplished the rare feat of converting the “Youth Olympic Games” into the “Youth Arirang Games” reminiscent of the annual Arirang mass games conducted by North Korea in which hundreds of thousands of North Koreans are mobilized to participate or support the event to glorify the despotic regime under Kim Jong IL.
EDITORS’ NOTE:
Singaporeans, please feel free to email us to share your frustrations, anger and grievances against the YOG. Your views matter alot to us. You are a citizen of Singapore and as a citizen, you have the right to speak up. Let us be your uncensored voice and fight for your rights.
Foreign journalists, please stay tuned on our site and Facebook for the latest updates on the ground about the YOG. You can never get any authentic or accurate news from the Singapore media which is ranked a pathetic 133th in terms of press freedom by international media watchdog Reporters without Borders last year. All the papers in Singapore are owned by a single media company – Singapore Press Holdings whose Chairman is a former PAP minister Dr Tony Tan.
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6th reason to quit or be fired is the Great Ticket Sales Screw-Up.
Uses tax payer money and spent about $2million for MOE to buy up the tickets.
When true fans try to buy tickets – all sold out!! Yet… the seats are empty during the events… what irony!
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YOG CHAIRMAN NG SER MIANG IS A VERY BRAVE MAN
EVEN TILL TODAY, MINISTER VIVIAN BALAKRISHNAN, MAYOR TEO SER LUCK N MOE MINISTER NG ENG HEN,
DARE NOT OPEN THEIR MOUTH TO COMMENT ON ALL THE ALLEGATIONS ONLINE ON, MONEY ‘OVERUN’ TO SGD400million AND THE ‘THREATS/ILL TREATMENT’, AND ‘SCREAMS’ OF ‘CHILDREN ABUSE’.
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And now Blakrishnan wants to RESELL the tickets to the public!! LOL!!! – earn from selling the same item twice… what a great business model! First take tax payer money and then con the public money…. what great leeders we have!
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Absolutely agree with the author. Also those ministers responsible
should also tender in their resignations with immediate effect.
Unique Singapore is now Unique SINKAPOOR!……..’JIAT LAT’
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There are many PAP’s lapdogs who volunteer to host such events like F1, YOG, Water Festival, Cultural Shows, etc for self-interests. Most of these events have big budgets from the govt (actually taxpayers’ money) and many a time, most of the business activities related to the events would be given to the lapdogs’ companies which would then sub-contract out.
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EVEN TILL TODAY, MINISTER VIVIAN BALAKRISHNAN, MAYOR TEO SER LUCK N MOE MINISTER NG ENG HENG,
DARE NOT OPEN THEIR MOUTH TO COMMENT ON ALL THE ALLEGATIONS ONLINE ON, MONEY ‘OVERUN’ TO SGD400million AND THE ‘THREATS/ILL TREATMENT’, AND ‘SCREAMS’ OF ‘CHILDREN ABUSE’.
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not only him, but also that guy who cant plan a proper budget should be shown the door, we don’t need these kinds of rubbish to serve us.
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Is reselling tickets leagal? Isnt it touting? Are they allowed in free? What the hell is going on? So many questions, none answered. Sigh.
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Of course in an event of this magnitude some problems are bound to happen. The YOG committee was given only 2.5 years to organise and I think they have done a good job except for the massive cost overrun.
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@Sun-Tsu: what rubbish, 2.5 yrs is a very long time, how long do you want, 10 years? And the “massive cost overrun” is unacceptable per se, hello, balloon FOUR times u know?
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Ng is lying about student volunteers participation. And left a bad taste in the mouth.Lack of honesty and leadership.
Why he needed to do that?
He shld have come clean and honest about the whole students issue. So, it must be better to resign.
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YOG Singapore paid Ng to talk nonsense. He used taxpayers monies to travel round the world on private jet and stayed in 6 stars hotels.
Hes looking rather stupid..and talk rubbish.
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NDP was like Arirang too. But the performances is not even on par with Arirang.
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Parents and people of singapore should know what to do in the next General Elections?
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VOTE PAP OUT VOTE PAP OUT VOTE PAP OUT.
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No, I don’t want Ng Ser Miang to resign.
He is the only elite that dares to rebut Err Lee BW, the pet WIW. He is also brave enough to be the first one to address the YOG issues publicly.
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He is being tested and the result shows that he has no leadership quality.
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bloody shame, shame, shame
what a disgrace
stand down
now
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to @Sun-Tsu:
what rubbish ? remember vivian asked what you want ? you want 2.5yrs , 5 yrs or 10yrs ?
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Ng Ah Meng resembles the dead Ah Meng of Mandai zoo. May be he is one of her offsprings.
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Ha, ha, ha. Message from the YOG Commitee to the local volunteers is this
Shut up and eat your dog food. Otherwise, we will give you poisoned food. Take it or leave it. We are insensitive to your view. You die not my problem.
Ha, ha, ha.
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Hey you missed out on one more very good reason
Busting the budget for the games to reach close to $400M.
Where is the justification for this?
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IOC MUST INVESTIGATE ALL THE REPORTED ‘CHILDREN ABUSE’ CASES, IF IOC DONT INVESTIGATE,
IT MEANS IOC SUPPORTS CHILDREN ABUSE.
IT MEANS IOC PRESIDENT JACQUES ROGGE SUPPORTS CHILDREN ABUSE
IT MEANS IOC VICE PRESIDENT NG SER MIANG SUPPORTS CHILDREN ABUSE
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No self-respecting native Singaporean will ever attend YOG. We pity the students who were forced to attend against their young wills.
Hopefully, they learn to be self-respecting adults when they are grow up. These are the kind of people we need for a sustainable Singapore, not sycophants.
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I sense the fox is saying the grapes are sour.
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Ng Ser Miang cannot be sacked or resigned, he is well protected by extremely powerful familee. he is untouchable. So stop dreaming of ever to see him get sacked or resigned.
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IT MEANS IOC VICE PRESIDENT NG SER MIANG SUPPORTS CHILDREN ABUSE
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Your report is bias so far. It is right for Chairman YOG to response. There are bound to be minor mishaps but not big to dampen the YOG. Food – sad it happen, i am sure the caterer by now would have been replaced or appropriate action taken. Long hours.. well if all bloggers here volunteer 4 hours each, the students will be relief.. i am impressed by the high standards of the facilities, the TV coverage and the passion of the sports by youth. The standards of competition are high. Hey enjoy and stop gribbings over nothing.
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The BIG one will be ‘Election’, by then will be to late to talk about ‘minor mishap’! He is going to be jobless soon!
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If the abuse cases are not investigated, i curse all the children of the presents leaders children to be slaves for 3 generations.
Also all the MPs will have to pay for it, for making our young serve other nations as servant.
We the Parents of Singapore did not scarifice our family time to have our children to be servants to others!
YOG should have employed these youths from China, India or Philipines!
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I think the old fart has already in mind to do us all in and create for himself a new singapore and keep his party in power forever liao, bye bye to the true blues.
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haha you guys should be really glad that singapore won the bid to host the yog though O.o u guys actually got something to blast the government about. please do not call people names or insult their families, it just takes away whatever credibility this website even have in the first place. You complain that the state media reports are biased? while yours are too. The food report is good…until u threw in your vengeance and perspective. They are doing something about it which achieves your aim (u did have an aim right?) And if you guys havent realised this games is not just about the competition, the athletes are also taking part in activities that extend beyond sport so you dont know the full picture of the yog. if there is any real complaints it should be targeted towards the dismal publicity campaigns. stop throwing singapore’s face in your “attempt” to save it.
“YOG should have employed these youths from China, India or Philipines!” LOL with such parents i really pity singapore’s youths
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