singapore defends its record against hrw

the human rights watch group, hrw, has published a report condemning singapore's record of maid abuses and the lack of legislations to protect them. this has elicited a strong response from the mom who protested that the report is a gross exaggeration and the conditions for maids are improving. no matter how much we shout about how good we are, if we think it is reasonable to give maids one off day in a month, this tells very badly on the values we placed on decency. even when we work 5 and 1/2 days with 1 and 1/2 days off we are already complaining. and we can argue that it is ok for maids to work 29 days out of 30/31 days. how are we going to defend our position as being reasonable and a fair and kind employer who treats another human decently?

my public apology

the 4 singaporeans who made a public protest at robinson road had their case thrown out of court because of 3 letters, n k f. the judge ruled that by linking the cpf board and other entities with nkf, 'the protesters had used insulting and abusive words against "persons responsible for the finances of those bodies".'...He called their actions "tantamount to insinuations of mismanagement and financial impropriety." since the nkf saga, i have made many posts here referring to the 3 letters n k f. and if these letters were found in the same post where some reputable organisations were also mentioned, i would like to deny any intention to insinuate anything unfavourable. now i am not sure whether mentioning the name of the late president nair together with other founding fathers of singapore will be deemed unacceptable. in the papers today, there have been good words about his past contributions.

al zarqawi's iraq force in china

according to debka weekly, dec 7, a small unit of al zarqawi's iraq force (part of al qaeda) has been assigned a new mission: to a start a campaign in china. it then went on to describe in detail how the small potent force smuggled into a chinese border town of kushi in xinjiang in nov, absorbed into the muslim extremist cells there. the fine details were astonishing, with names of places for secret rendevous, names of some terrorist leaders were also mentioned. this gives the impression that someone was closely monitoring all their movements, tracking them and knowing exactly what these secret forces were up to. funny thing is that no one was able or willing to nab them along the way. and the information was passed on to the russians and the chinese who were all caught by surprise and stumbling all over to pass the information around and trying to intercept them. with such detail information, no one can afford not to take them seriously. it is better to assume that it is true than to be sorry. one question to ask is why would the iraqi forces fighting the americans in iraq want to mess up china and drag china and russia into the fray to wallop them? are these arabs that stupid? that if russia and china were to standby quietly on the side lines, they would have more rooms to play with against the americans, only one enemy and one front? the second thought that comes to my mind is that this could be another disinformation paid by the americans to drag the russians and chinese into the conflict. ask a simple question. who is going to benefit from this information? why or how could such a covert operation by the iraqi forces becomes public knowledge? it is like news of a boys scout excursion trip rather than a serious discreet cell whose movements are meant to be very secretive. if the americans are so good in all their intelligence and monitoring of the insurgent activities, the war in iraq and afganistan would have long been over. osama would long have been caught. now, is this news genuine or another story from spin doctors. just wondering. this news is available at littlespeck.com today.

shall i support abolishing capital punishment

the last few weeks there have been many letters and voices in support of abolishing capital punishment. the singapore govt has been labelled as cruel, barbaric, inhuman, and all things bad and unkind because of the death penalty. we cannot be so cruel and barbaric to a criminal. this brings back memories of the hours when the two saf scholars were bashed to death in australia. during the last few minutes of their tragic lives, i could only hear the sound of a baseball bat whacking on their bodies, wham, wham, bonk, bonk... the latter sounds were from metal bats hitting the skull. and you could hear the cries and plea to stop, the fear and anguish in the two helpless young men, fear, shock and crying for mercy. did the killer show them any mercy? was the killer any less cruel or barbaric? should we show mercy to the killer if he did not show mercy to his two victims? and there were many badly beaten up victims, children, women and old folks, being bashed and banged till their bodies limp....and died a painful and frightful death. can anyone feel the pain of the parents and wives of these two young men, knowing how helpless they were at the mercy of a cruel killer? wham, wham, thud, thud...pleeeeese no, no, help...........pl who shall we show our mercy to? the reasoning put forth in several of the arguments is that the death penalty will not deter those who are bent to kill. but itsn't that the point? it is exactly meant for this group of incorrigible killers, that nothing can stop them from killing that they should be put away before they go on to kill more people. and for the fearful group that would have been deterred from killing because of the death penalty, and avoided killing, then the death penalty has helped to save some lives and prevented some from taking lives. at times i think it is more evil and wicked to let an incorrigible or senseless killer on the lose again, all because the law spared his life. and he went out to kill again, to inflict more pain to the innocent. those who supported the abolishing of the death penalty must share the sin and guilt of these criminals and be answerable to the victims and their love ones. there are times when one has to be hard to be kind. and let not trying to be kind and ended up perpetuating cruelties, pain and suffering on the innocents. who is more evil?

where greed will take man to

During the hours of creation..... He said to the cow: "Ah Gu (cow), today I have created you! Your job is to go to the field with the farmer all day long. You will provide the energy to pull things! You will also provide milk for people to drink! You are to work all day under the sun! In return, you will only eat grass. For that, you will have a life span of 50 years." Ah Gu objected. "What.. I work all day in the sun and I get only to eat grass! On top of that, I have to give my milk away! This is tough and you want me to live 50 years! I'll take 20 and you can have the remaining 30 years back!" God agreed. On the next day, God created the dog. He said to the dog. "Ah Kow (dog), I have created you for a purpose. You are to sit all day by the door of your master's house! Should anyone come in, you are to bark at them! In return, you will eat your master's leftovers. I'll give you a life span of 20 years." Ah Kow objected. " What! I have to sit by the door all day and will need to bark at people, and what do I get...LEFTOVERS... This isn't right, I'll take 10 and you can have the remaining 10 years back!" God agreed again. On the third day, God created the monkey. He said to the monkey. "Lao Kao (monkey), your job is to entertain people. You will make them laugh, act stupid and make faces! You will also do somersaults and swing on trees to amaze them. In return, you will get to eat bananas and peanuts. For that, I'll give you 20 years to live." Naturally the monkey objected. "This is ridiculous, I gotta make faces and make people laugh? Let's not even come to the part about the trees and somersaults. Tell you what, I'll give 10 years of my life to thank you for my existence and I'll take 10. What do you think?" God agreed again. On the forth day, God created humans. God said to the man. "You are my best piece of work, for that, you will only need to sleep, eat, sleep, play, eat, sleep again and do nothing else.You will get to eat all the best things and play with the best toys. All you need to do is enjoy all your life. For this kinda of life, I'll give you 20 years." Just like the rest, the man objected. "What, all I need to do is relax and enjoy myself and I have only 20 years to live? Tell you what, you've 30 years back from Ah Gu, 10 years from Ah Kow and another 10 from Lao Kao and you probably don't know what to do with all those lifes. Why not I take them all and I'll have 70 years to live?" God being such good natured, agreed with a smile..... AND THAT IS WHY..... We eat, sleep, play and enjoy for the first 20 years of our lives when we are growing up. Work like a cow for the next 30 to raise our family. Sit outside the door and bark at people for the next 10 when we are retired. And finally, we make faces and perform monkey tricks to entertain our grandchildren for the final 10 years. GET IT ?????

moderation on the road to privatisation

as we embarked on this unending road to privatisation, let us take a step back and ponder, and ask, are we all going money crazy? are we going bonkers that money is the solution to everything? the privatisation of hospitals, public transports, education, independent schools etc all boils down to one thing, money. can this be moderated, say keep the fees of a few top notched schools down as normal schools while govt provide them with a bigger subsidy? this way, not every bright child or their parents needs to grimace every month when school fee is due. similarly, the 3 classes of hospital wards be priced in such a way that c class is really subsidised for those who don't need the frills, b class with some frills, and a class mainly to generate profits like private hospitals. we cannot go on down the slippery path of no return like the prices of hdb. no way to unwind unless we are prepared to upset a lot of people, hurt a lot of people and the banks and economy. or like the relentless push for high salary for workers. now it is payback time. our high cost of living will continue to go up but not the salary. and the problems the people are facing are aggravated by the diverging forces of higher cost but dwindling income. it is time to hold the brakes and return to some sense. otherwise we will be hearing the sound..'snap' very soon.

singapore the yuppy

singapore is just like a yuppy, young and upward mobile, vibrant, rich, and craving for all the trappings of being affluent. the 5 Cs, theatres, latest mobile phones, palm tops, laptops, holidays, fine cuisines, pubbing, fine wines and women.... singapore have almost attained all the trappings of what a rich country should or must have. country clubs, marinas, durians, theme parks, revolving viewing towers, bungee jumping, ferris wheels, formula one speedboat races, turf clubs, and now crazy horses, and casinoes in the line up. what else that we want but have not attained as trappings of a rich and successful nation? we have climbed mount everest, swam across the english channel, walked the antartic, collected as many golds as we could in sports, in the guinness book of record, have maids in tow....oh, still one more to go, the world cup. sure we will get the world cup. then we can tell the world we are number one. we have arrived.

the unwanted 5 Cs

ask any prs why they did not want to take up citizenship here. you will get a very telling grin on his face. without uttering a word, you will get the message on how stupid your question is. who would want to get a citizenship that comes with so many hindrances, obligations and disadvantages. who would want their sons to be conscripted at the prime of their lives? 2 1/2 years of youth, the most wonderful part of a young man's life, and another 20 years of reservist liabilities. conscription is never a choice thing to do. who would want to be a citizen and got to get their cpf money lockup practically for life? who would want to be a citizen and have their lives and lifestyle practically controlled by the state or system? as a pr, when the time is ripe, they could pack up, collect all their savings, and move back home or some where that is cheap to live their twilight years. why would they want to stay here to feed the high cost of living when there are cheaper alternatives. the prs are very happy as they are, minus the 5 Cs.

the causeway - a forgotten landmark

the whole world is boasting about how beautiful is their bridge, the san francisco bridge, sydney bridge, crooked bridge, and all kinds of bridge. if i am not mistaken, there is one and only one causeway. and this causeway is so unique that it joins the furthest southern tip of the great asian continent to another great piece of land, an island called the red dot. this vital fact that man can walk all over asia and will end up here, after crossing the causeway, could be turned into a great tourist attraction, a unique piece of information that often people take for granted. the causeway is our link to asia. stepping across the causeway into asia.

ministers should play god

yes, minister should play god, be separated from the normal functioning of the organisations they are overseeing. minister of communications should be detached from lta or transport companies, health minister be detached from hospitals, etc so that they need not be identified with these organisations and need not have to protect and defend their positions, and can then be objective and even object or disagree with these organisations. that is why they need to be god, to stay above the fray. what we have now is that ministers become part of the organisations in their portfolios and any unfavourable policies or decisions, the ministers would have to come out and defend them. for any criticisms on these policies and decisions will be regarded as a criticism of the minister. as politicians, they should be politicians and not administrators or ceos. they should balance the interests of the organisations and the people affected by these organisations. let the ceos or heads of ministries, stats boards and organisations do the explanations.

Accounting body wants more transparency

the institute of certified public accountants of singapore, icpas, wanted stricter guidelines for charities. uh, is this the real problem? all sizable organisations, including nkf are audited by internal or external auditors. and quite often it is the auditing that is at fault. then what happens to the auditors? nothing. absolutely nothing. what is really needed is accountability. anyone who is tasked to do a job as a professional must be held responsible if he fails to do a decent job. negligence is no excuse. the directors, the management, the auditors, are all accountable and must be brought to task. there is no point in having stricter rules and more rules if there is no will to enforce it, to execute it and to take wrong doers to task. lets start with the directors, management and of course, the auditors. the auditors are paid to audit and report any shortcomings. if they did not do a good job, they shall not be allowed to walk away quietly.

bird flu, just wondering

the recent outbreak of bird flu all over the world and the linkage to human death, the reports of the ever constant mutation of the the virus, all pointed to a world epidemic, or pandemic. is the world over reacting? is everyone falling prey to the hype by drug companies and academics and ended up amassing expensive drugs and killing all the birds before we starve the human race to death? bird flu is not something new. it has always been there. the bird flu virus have been in existence for as long as there are viruses in the air and in all things, probably since time immemorial. just wondering if it is necessary to wipe out all the birds and stocks for every case of infection? all kinds of viruses are there in the air, water or tissues. that is how nature provides for the continue propagation, existence and death of matter, a continuous recycling process. very likely in any flock of healthy migrating birds, or in a farm, one would be able to test and find the presence of the bird flu virus. the death of a bird is likely because of its weak resistance to the virus or a new strain of virus. but letting nature takes its own course, either the birds will develop their own resistance or the virus further mutates into a less deadly form. just wondering.

once a president

it always baffles me to watch saddam hussein on tv, as a prisoner. how on earth can a foreign soldier invade your country and put your president or prime minister behind bars and then present to the people as a prisoner? is this acceptable international law, international code of practice? who is the next president or prime minister to be turned a prisoner? can another country do it instead of the usa and be acceptable to the world community, or will the world community just squeeze their own balls and keep quiet, can't do anything about it? hey, our capital punishment is seen as barbaric by some nations. can they use that as an excuse to invade us and put our prime minister behind bars too? why are the iraqis happily going about trying their own president because a foreign power tells them to do so?

when did selangor have a japanese mentri besar

i remember the name khir johari. but khir toyo, mohd khir toyo, is the mentri besar of selangor. is he japanese? definitely not. only bumis can be a mentri besar. but never heard of a malay name like toyo before. toyo is definitely japanese, or at least sounds like toyota. a name can be misleading. or is there a misprint?

dr lee wai leng, the other side of...

everybody knows who lee wai leng is. i hope so. and many only see one side of her, the daughter of lky, a president scholar and a prominent doctor who pulled the plug on the malpractice of a foreign talent. not many know the other side of lee wai leng, the human side. she shares her view in a pretty long article today in the straits time forum on the choice of top schools. what came out from the article, apart from some sensible advices, is a very human and down to earth person, and it came out very genuine and sincere. in the same article we got to know an unknown lee wai leng, her thoughts and views and how she made some tough decisions as a young student. let me just quote a small paragraph of what she wrote. 'i learnt more valuable lessons such as empathy for the less academicaly inclined, that there were other aspects of the human mind such as integrity, honesty, courage, generosity and compassion that are just as if not more important than academic ability.'

people in high office must be thick skinned

this is the advice king bhumibol gave to thaksin. thaksin has been under intense criticism from another media tycoon, and his authority and integrity are being challenged. there are many ways to respond to such an attack. but thaksin chose to sue his opponents. wonder where he learnt such a tactic to hit back at his opponents? must be his training in the usa i supposed. the king also modestly told him that to err is human and that the king himself had erred in many occasions when he was young. the king also corrected the misconception that the king can do no wrong. and he finally told thaksin to drop his lawsuits against his opponent. this is the price to be paid for being in political office. there will be many criticisms. it is part of the job. some will take criticism as a motivation to come up on top of it, to prove that the criticism was unjustified. some may runaway from criticism. and of course, some will sue.

a dog park at east coast park

well, with $160 million to be spent, great ideas are aplenty. a letter to the today's forum from jessica chan asked for a big dog park with facilities like dog cafe, pet shops, place for dog shows, place for dog obedient classes etc. shoo, shoo, we need more space for dogs. excuse me?

melvyn tan's concert

the mistake made by melvyn tan is not to denounce his citizenship earlier, ie, before he is due for ns. if he had done so and taken up another citizenship then there will not be the need to call him up. he would not be a defaulter and he could return as a visitor or even live here as a pr. the irony is that his delay is probably due to his desire to retain his citizenship, continue to be a singaporean, and that is something he values. while on the other hand some will be quite decisive in giving up the singapore citizenship and prepared to cut off all ties here. as much as the country appreciates his talent and sincerity to return and contribute whatever he has, accepting melvyn tan has and will upset the whole ns system and all the ns men past, present and future. the $3,000 fine was a way of telling melvyn tan that he is welcomed home. but given the reaction to this reception, no one can really tell how bad this will turn out eventually. how could the nation answer to all the ns men to treat melvyn tan as an exception? how could the nation reconcile the return of a prodigal son? any leniency shown to defaulters will have to contend with the feelings of hundreds of thousand of ns men. there must be a way to accept our sons who have made a wrong decision when they were young or when their parents miscalculated. but whatever ways, it must not be seen as to encourage young men to abscond when they are called up for ns and think that the nation will welcome them with open arms, one day. perhaps allowing them to return as prs is not a bad idea. and melvyn tan could just do that if he had denounced his citizenship before he is callup. it is more a technical fault. could there be a formula to allow our sons to return and be singaporeans again without incurring the wrath of all ns men? it is a pity that melvyn tan has to cancel his concert.

corporate governance by khaw boon wan

according to khaw boon wan, 'the key points about corporate govenance, aside from accountability and transparency, is checks and balances. This is not your own company, your own family business. Even if it is your own family business, and you have minority shareholders, you have to be accountable.' in corporate governance you need watchdogs to watch the professional management. but how can watchdogs be watchdogs if they are appointed by the people they are supposed to watch?

how truthful is the media?

the rot in the integrity and reliability of the american establishment and media is starting to show. selling, publishing and disseminating false information are now out into the open. there is no need for denials. only the stubbornly naive and well conditioned mind will still attest to believe the words of the american establishment and the western media. for decades and perhaps centuries, the western media and literature have been feeding and conditioning the minds and thinking processes of the world, especially the ex colonial countries. they have set the agenda, feed the doctored input and direct their views and behaviour to serve western interests. and many asians and africans are totally oblivious to such covert manouvres and swear by the western press as the god of freedom and truth. sure there are many truths, not that all were lies. all the truths will be truths as long as they serve their intended purposes and objectives. and among the truths will be all the untruths and half truths and lies that were presented as truths. the wmd in iraq is the greatest of all truths. the other aspect is the untold truths. and for the same reasons, many truths were kept hidden and not revealed. the number of american casualties in iraq is the truth. the untold truth is the number of iraqi casualties. not appropriate to tell. and you can't accuse them for lying by not talking about it. the recent drug trafficking case is another example of unspoken truths. the less than pristine background of the twins and their criminal records were deliberately not spoken. they don't lie. but they don't tell the whole truth. shall we ask how truthful is the media? or how much truths that they will not tell? which is more pertinent and which is a disservice to the public who wants to know the whole truth? one needs not tell a lie to lie. However, Howard said it was important to be realistic about what could be achieved. "If anyone imagines a diplomatic offensive by Australia is going to change the attitude of China, or the attitude of Singapore or Malaysia or other countries in the region to capital punishment, then I think they are mistaken," he said on Australian Broadcasting Corp. television. howard is telling the truth but excludes the usa when bush has spoken in favour of capital punishment. what howard had done is to paint a picture that all these countries are somewhat barbaric for having capital punishment but not the usa.