Speaking in personal or private capacity

Is this a new style, to speak in one’s private capacity as an individual? I think it is perfectly alright if the president of a brothel or casino were to speak in his private capacity about the green movement or about saving the earth. But what happens if the president of a brothel were to suggest how he thinks the brothel should operate, or the president of a casino were to comment on how a casino could be better managed? This is akin to a president of a country saying that something is wrong in the country and such and such a thing could have been done to make it right. Then he turns around and says, hey, speaking only in private capacity and not as a President. And mind you, if these presidents were all collecting their dues as incumbent presidents, be it a brothel or casino or a country, then what can the people make out of it? Why don't they make the changes when in office?

Good times for the hardlanders

The hardlanders or heartlanders form the bulk of the population and the majority of public housing owners. And 80% of housing in the island are public housing. And when the prices of public housing are up, it means good times are here for the hardlanders. Today's main article in the media is that prices of resale public housing flats are soaring, including cash over valuation which buyers are willing to cough out upfront, an amount that is in addition to the valuation price. This has gone up four folds on the average, from $3000 to $12000. All the hardlanders are beaming with a big smile knowing that the flats they bought are appreciating in prices. And many are making calculations and alternative plans on their new found wealth. Some will be selling their flats for a better price, and upgrade to private properties. Some will use the money to buy a palace in some less expensive countries. Some will downgrade into smaller units and set aside the balance for retirements or for a trip around the world. Some may go the extra mile and opt to rent a flat. After all at 60 or 70, how many more years are left. So no need to buy into another property. Keep the cash hoards and feel rich. In the kopitiams many will be calling themselves millionaires or half a millionaires. They will be laughing every day at their richness instead of waiting for a statement from the CPF once a quarter to tell them they have plenty of money in their CPF accounts. The feeling must be good. For the single old men, time is going to be real good. For the single old gals, can also be good. Let's welcome the PRs, the young and the old, the rich and the not so rich. The rich can buy over all the flats from the Singaporeans. And the not so rich can service them and make them live the lives of the rich. Time for celebration and parties in the heartlands. The asset enhancement policy is bearing fruits. Singaporeans must be grateful to the govt for their good fortunes.

What's left for Singaporeans?

Below is the first para of a Financial Times article posted in Singapore News Alternative about the surge of rich Russians coming to paradise. Financial Times, 21 Oct 2009 Singapore is attracting a surge of Russian investment as rich business people seek a politically stable home for their personal wealth as well as exposure to Asia’s rapid recovery from the global financial crisis. Officials and bankers say significant sums have been deposited in the island state’s booming private banking sector, with Russian money also flowing into the stock market through investments in property and luxury services companies. The issue is that other than investing in productive industries, a lot of money will be sunk in properties. If rich foreigners are flooding the market and buying up everything, eventually what will be left for the citizens? Yes, it is good money, like selling Alaska. Before we sell everything, there is a need to calibrate how much can be sold and how much should be reserved for citizens. (Ok, bad economics). Otherwise, the whole of the city, Orchard Road and Bukit Timah will be owned by foreigners and the citizens being left out. Exceptions will be the Istana and Oxley Rise.

Imminent collapse of American financial system

Obama is going to slash the pay of the top 25 wage earners in corporations that received financial aid from the govt. And fear is spreading across corporate America, not fear by the affected executives whose pay will be cut, but the fear of them quitting to join other organisations or fleeing to other countries. America will lose its super talents and the American financial system will collapse. America needs them to save their own financial organisations. This is the biggest bull that the American public is being made to believe. It is exactly this same bunch of idiots that caused the financial collapse of the American corporations and nearly the whole world. These are no talents but super crooks and thieves. I doubt any country with govt that has intellect that is better than kids will want to recruit these crooks to mess up their financial system. American shall say good riddance to them. Imagine the trillions of dollars poured into the financial systems of all the countries to avoid a total collapse of the world economy, and these crooks are starting to pay themselves astronomical salaries and bonuses again just because they cooked the books to register a few hundred millions in profits. What about the billions and trillions lost? When are they going to pay back? America will not collapse without them.

The fallacious truth of authority

The renowned Thai pathologist, Dr Pornthip Rojanasunand, is retained by the Selangor State Govt as an expert witness to the suspicious death of Teoh Beng Hock. The official version, after official autopsy reports, suggested that the likely cause of death is suicide. Dr Pornthip's conclusion is that there is an 80% chance that it is homicide. She found many irregularities including strangulation marks, head hit by a blunt object and anal penetration! Her findings were objected by Govt lawyers on grounds that she did not conduct the autopsy. So the people who conducted the autopsy must be telling the truth. This is the fallacious logic of authority. I was there, I saw it, I touched it, so I know what it is and I am telling the truth. The real truth lies in the facts and evidence. The controversial findings would not have been possible if providence was not in Teoh's favour. It so happened that the State Govt is controlled by the opposition PKR. And now we are hearing a different truth. Darkness cannot be covered forever and light must come through in this case. The dark ages of Malaysian politics must come to an end.

Blogging is a waste of time (part 2)

I was lambasted by a friend for raising the controversial issue of LUP in the two opposition wards. To him there was nothing wrong with the way it was done and the govt had the right to appoint whoever they want to announce the LUP. Raising such issues in a blog is a complete waste of time. Using the same argument, the half page article by Sue Ann Chia in the ST today must be a bigger waste of time, and ST must be wasting time and money allowing the issues to be printed on its pages. Why would ST choose to air this issue over again? I think the editors or someone up there must be feeling uncomfortable that if Singaporeans are so dumb, or choose to be ostriches, and refuse to question controversial issues affecting their lives and the political development of the people, the continued existence of Singapore and Singaporeans as a thinking people is questionable. Is it a good thing for Singaporeans to just shut up when they are confronted with controversies or even questionable decisions by the govt? Some may think so, assuming that everything is in good hands. So they can sleep in peace, happily making money. What kind of Singaporeans will we have if this be the case? Why are we complaining that Singaporeans are apathetic and apolitical and regretted that this is not a good thing? Should Singaporeans be more political, more aware of the political developments and affairs of their country? Should those who are raising issues and questioning controversial policies be called fools or the other way round, that the greater fools are the silent majority who allowed themselves to be pushed around like sheep, not knowing, not wanting to knowing, not to bother and think that all is well? I thank Sue Ann Chia and the ST for raising this issue again to stir the dull and numb minds of Singaporeans and to educate them to be thinking citizens.

136 loan sharks arrested

Almost half of these arrested, according to Eng Hen, are youths. And if I am not mistaken, the rest are in their early 20s. I will not call them loan sharks but ikan bilis. The sharks are still safe, hiding in deep waters or away in safer zones. When will the sharks be caught?

Apathy in Law Society Elections

More seats than candidates available for the Law Society Elections. The media reported that there were 8 seats and only 4 candidates standing for them. And the President and another incumbent in the senior category were returned unopposed. Also in another category two candidates were the sole nominees. The former President Chandra Mohan was lamenting at the state of apathy in the society and liken it to the general apathy in the population. What I would suggest is for the society to revamp its election rules. The President be only reserved for candidates that have incomes of more than $10m or have more than 20 years of practice. And the critieria for the next few candidates be slightly lower, say $8m annual income and 15 years of practice and so on. For the general committee members level, they can stand as a group of 5 or 10 candidates. Would these suggestions be of help to improve the apathy and more candidates coming forward to stand for office?

Elevating terrorists to cult status

With shocking disbelief I kept reading flattery comments about the great limping terrorist and the expert suicide bomb maker in the media. In the case of the former, his greatest achievement was to escape from detention, while the later was credited for several bombings in Indonesia and the death of innocent people. They were showered with praises as charismatic, super intelligent, great in deception and disguises, experts in their arts of sabotage and military skills. If the little military training and knowledge they had should qualified them to be so glorified, we should better do some glorifications for our own combatants and leaders or they will pale in comparison to these two terrorists. The bad consequences of flattery remarks on two terrorists could raise them to cult status and attracting more naive and gullible recruits into their cause. Would it be better to call a spade a spade, like a half baked school dropout limping terrorist, a killer of innocent people in suicide bombings, misfits of the community, mad men, criminals etc etc? We do not want a Che Quevara and his guerilla fighters fighting the govt do we?

A serious proposition by a blogger

Below are some recommendations by Gerald Giam on how to solve the high prices of housing. The full post is at his blog http://geraldgiam.sg. It shows that bloggers can put up serious articles that are as good as those in the paid media or papers submitted in Parliament. Here it is. I have a few suggestions on how we can lower the cost of public housing for Singaporeans, without causing asset destruction or panic selling. Sell new flats at cost-plus pricing The first thing HDB should do is to reduce the price of its new flats. HDB maintains that flats remain “affordable” and that it still provides a “market subsidy” for buyers. The market subsidy simply means that new HDB flats are priced lower than existing resale properties in the same area. It is not based on the cost of construction and land. Mr Leong Sze Hian from The Online Citizen has calculated that HDB could be making a profit of over $170,000 per flatin the new Punggol development. Mr See Leong Kit, in a letter published in TODAY, also arrived at a similar estimate of $140,000 profit per unit for the Pinnacle@Duxton development. For a start, in the spirit transparency, HDB should disclose the profits it makes from each project ─ by showing how much exactly it cost them to build the flats alongside the prices that they are being sold for. HDB is a government agency. It should not behave like a profit-maximising corporation. There is no reason why new HDB flats cannot be priced at cost plus ─ no more than 5% above the cost price of building the flat and acquiring the land. Reducing the price of new flats will immediately make it more affordable for many more lower- and middle-income couples who do not have the savings to pay over $300,000 for a new flat. It would also have a knock on effect of slowly lowering the price of resale flats, which would also benefit home buyers. Perhaps HDB is concerned that these homeowners will sell their flat 5 years later for an obscene profit in the open market. To prevent this from happening, HDB could require that the flats cannot be sold for more than 10% above the cost price (adjusted for inflation) for the first 10 years. This will prevent home owners from profiting excessively after receiving the government subsidy. Another way of reducing costs is to build flats without all the frills. In recent years, HDB seems to have taken on the mindset of a private developer, coming up with ways on how to meet the apparent demand from yuppie Singaporeans for condo-style living. This is treading down the wrong path. HDB flats should remain no-frills public housing. There is no need to provide posh condo lookalikes and price them like private apartments. Those who want a more high-class living environment should consider buying private properties. Build more new flats During a parliamentary debate in September, opposition leader Low Thia Khiang questioned whether HDB is under-building flats to meet the demand of flat buyers. Mr Mah Bow Tan dismissed it, saying simply that there was “no basis to say HDB is under-building”. He fanned out statistics that showed that the HDB built 2,400 flats in 2007, 8,000 in 2008 and another 8,000 this year. As always, government statistics don’t tell the full story. Just last week, the Sale of Balanced Flats launched by HDB received over 20,691 applications for only 2,132 available flats ─ almost 10 times oversubscribed. The recent Punggol Residences Built-to-Order five-room flats released in August were also 10 times oversubscribed, with 1,587 balloters for just 154 units. The PAP government has dismissed these clear indications that there is a shortage of flats by suggesting that most of those people who applied were just trying their luck and not really interested in buying a place to stay. This is an insult to the thousands of home buyers who have tried numerous times but failed to find a flat that fits their basic requirements. It is likely that the main reason why the HDB does not want to build more new flats is because it will lower the overall price of even the resale market, which may be politically troublesome for them. The HDB needs to examine whether it’s mandate is to provide affordable housing for Singaporeans, or feed voters with unsustainable promises of constantly increasing home asset prices. PRs increasing flat demand Part of the reason for the high prices of resale flats is the large influx of foreigners who take up permanent residency, thus making them eligible to buy HDB flats in the open market. A recent ERA report revealed that 40% of resale flat buyers are permanent residents (PR). This is a phenomenal proportion, considering that HDB flats were built to house Singaporeans, not foreigners. It’s questionable whether all of these PRs intend to sink their roots in Singapore or whether they see Singapore as a stepping stone to better opportunities in the US, or Australia, or back in China when conditions there improve. I welcome foreigners to come to Singapore, to contribute to our economy and add to our social diversity. Many of my friends and colleagues are foreigners, and I have seen the benefits many of them have brought to Singapore. However, I am strongly opposed to the government’s policy of allowing in so many foreigners in such a short amount of time, as this has put a severe strain on the housing market, the public transport system and the job situation. The immigration policy is so liberal that within weeks of arriving in Singapore, a foreigner with the right qualifications can apply for PR and get it approved within three months. Without having contributed even a year to Singapore, these PRs are eligible to buy public housing and benefit from a system which Singaporeans have spent a lifetime building up. Impose waiting period for PRs to buy flats To rectify this, I propose that all PRs must have lived and worked continuously in Singapore for at least three years before they are allowed to buy HDB flats. This would filter out all those PRs who have shown little commitment to our country and are just taking up residence in order to be able to buy a subsidised flat, save on rental and sell it a few years later for a huge profit. Lest this proposal causes alarm to skilled workers who are considering applying for PR, I would point out that under this proposed policy, HDB should look at the entire duration that the PR has been in Singapore, not just the period since he got his blue NRIC. Skilled foreigners who have demonstrated a commitment to making Singapore their home should have no worries about this new policy disadvantaging them. Conclusion I have laid out in this article just a few suggestions on reining in unaffordable public housing costs for home buyers. It is a work-in-progress and by no means comprehensive. I hope that policy makers will consider some of these suggestions for the sake of the thousands of Singaporean home buyers ─ including future home buyers ─ who are just seeking for a decent roof over their head.

Psycho analysing an angry blogger

In two days, this blogger posted 3 comments under the nick of Macdonald Bloggers, Pee on it and Empty Empathy in www.mysingaporenews.blogspot.com in the threads 'Blogging is a waste of time' and 'Amazing Grace'. It was a rare opportunity to look at the content of such a post to reveal what or who is behind these angry comments. For a start let me make a general assumption that both of us do not know each other except for the postings. So he was angry with my posts and sought to destroy me as a blogger, not my posts and views. I am making another assumption that he must have read plenty of my posts, can't be just because of one post and he became so incensed. If the latter, then he is fit to register in IMH. For he claimed that I am flawed and writing rubbish and all the bloggers reading my posts are foolish, listening to a fool. Now why and how could a person be so infuriated by my posts? He came across as a person in rage, blabbing non stop, at the top of his voice, and pointing an intimidating finger at me? Is he of sound mind? I am using he as a neutral term for he could be a she, but more likely he. One thing for sure, in his rage he could not see what he was writing, or he was just a careless person, and all kinds of mistakes, spelling and grammatical errors splashed across his 3 comments. It could also mean that he is a very impulsive person, that when provoked, or felt provoked, he lost his mind, he must let it off immediately from his chest. This is typical of a person who cannot control his own emotion. His 3 comments showed how bitter and combative he is. He just wanted to whack and whack. A very dangerous man that is ruled by his emotion than his head. Uncontrollable! The other thing is that he isn't that clever either. He thought by posting under 3 different nicks he could easily pass off as 3 bloggers. But he failed to cover his tracks. All his style and mannerism were exposed in his posts. Not clever indeed. But he believes he is very clever. My conclusion, a very impulsive, aggressive and angry man that can go into a rage and becomes very destructive. He loses his cool easily and will shout at the top of his voice to win an argument by drowning out his opponents. He is also careless but very conceited. He thought by a barrage of shouting and pointing fingers at his target, he will win the argument. Unfortunately in a blog, people can quietly and carefully read through his posts over and over again, coolly, to dissect him and know what he really is. Imagine if one day someone were to reveal his identity and tell his peers that these were his posts, and the kind of person he is? His alumni, colleagues, friends, if he still has, his alma mater, professional associations, clients, etc will be shocked to know him, the true person behind that false facade he is showing to the world. What kind of upbring did he gone through? Not very good indeed.

The monopolistic competition myth continues in Parliament

The competition between Singtel and Starhub has exploded the myth of competition in a monopolistic environment with people shaking their heads and fearing that they will be the ultimate sacrificial lambs. Can there really be competition that will benefit the consumers? This issue was raised in Parliament yesterday. This was what Lui Tuck Yew, the Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts had to say. The Govt could fix the price service provider could charge the consumers. 'But a move like this, even if intended to keep prices low for viewers, may backfire and deprive them of programming altogether. It is like fixing the prices of public flats and HDB will not build affordable and quality flats anymore. In HDB's case, it is a national duty to build flats, so it will still build. But a programme provider like the EPL may not want to sell their products to Singapore, and all the football fans will suffer. See, the problem is not so easy to solve. Can there be other ways out? Can we open up the sky to look for better and cheaper solutions? Satellite disks? Free competition what? Free market is good for consumers and we believe in the principle of free market forces, free trade and free flow of information. Can this avenue be considered?

The oldies are a treasure to an organisation!

Did anyone say this?When have oldies became a treasure to an organisation and must be duly rewarded? Sounded like the grandpas and grandmas are the treasures in a family. There is now a reawakening and a new call to be good to the oldies. No longer were they seen as retards, slow and useless piece of woods to be quickly discarded when they hit retirement age, at 55 or 60. Now people are seriously saying that the oldies must be paid according to their worth and contributions, not to cut their pay when they reached the magical age of senility. Is there a change of heart or a case of today I proclaim the oldies as bad, tomorrow as good, then I suka suka say they are bad again, good, bad....It was bearly 10 years ago when many oldies, or not even oldies, were given the red ticket to retire unceremoniously. Many were in their early 50s and many are still jobless or driving taxis despite their experience in managerial and executive positions. Can these premature sacking of the oldies be reversed, and these not really oldies but now oldies be invited into the workforce again? Or can they claim for some kind of compensation for the bad mistakes done to them in the past? Who was the wise kid who decided that these not so oldies should go? Who is the wise kid today to say the oldies must be treasured? My god, what kind of mindset change could happen so fast? The think tanks must be thinking too hard and go flipping about with such a major and serious issues. How could they not know that oldies are treasures, that oldies need to work till 80 or 90, but only today to realise this?

Amazing Grace

Hi everyone, my apologies for not being able to post yesterday as I was hosting a party and couldn't slip away. Now the party is over and I am back with my daily sermons for which some may regard it as the sermons of a fool. Oh, incidentally the number of hits and visitors to my blog shot up by 10% during my absence. I am just curious. Were the bloggers missing on my sermons of a fool and kept coming back hoping that I threw in a post? Anyway, may god be compassionate and deliver those who could not bear to read the sermons of a fool from my blog. But if they choose to stay and listen to this fool, they are most welcomed to be intoxicated by my foolishness.

Blogging is a waste of time!

Blogging, whinning, complaining, writing letters to forums to air your disagreements etc were a complete waste of time. This was the message I got in a discussion with some friends. Why bothered whether it was Low or Chiam or Sitoh or Eric making the announcements on the LUP? It was money spent for the good of the people. There was no issue or the issue was too small to talk about. Later I discovered why it was a waste of time. All these talks would be worth nothing, and nothing changed. Go and form an opposition party and take on the govt if you think strongly of issues or else get on with your life and let the govt do what they think best. If this is the kind of attitude that Singaporeans should adopt, then there will be peace in paradise. And everything will be well taken care of. There will be no need for the ST to spare 3 or 4 pages on the public housing issues today. In an article, 'Insight examines the six most hotly debated issues among house hunters today' by Tan Hui Yee, the following were discussed: 1. Are permanent residents driving up resale flat prices? 2. Are investors pushing up prices of resale flats. 3. Are new HDB flats really subsidised? 4. Are new flats affordable? 5. Is $8000 income ceiling too low? 6. Are leftovers flats really 'undesirable'? Though I would expect more insights from these articles than just what have been discussed publicly, it is good that ST officially dealt with these issues and gave it a wider coverage. And there was a letter from Lim Yuin Chien responding to Sylvia Lim's rebutt. What Lim Yuin Chien said is simply, 'Let's agree to disagree.' What this means is very similar to what I heard last night, that the govt will do it its way and you can disagree. But if you want to do it differently from the govt, make sure you form the govt, ie, form an alternative party and vote the govt out if you can. Otherwise, tough.

And we want our workers to be CBF

In order to be CBF, our workers must be cheap, work better and faster. Now there is a new call, not to cut the pay of older workers. Can the older workers be faster than the younger workers, better, possible. Then while the rest of the workers are expected to be cheap or cheaper, would the older workers also be cheap and cheaper? 3 old workers doing the work of 7? In the private sector when everything is about competition, when the money paid to the workers must come from somewhere, from the revenue or at the expense of profit, it is easier said than done to keep paying workers the way they are being paid. Unless of course the organisation can print its own money or money is not an issue. By all means, pay the older workers what they deserve and more, pay them pension as well, or gratuities for long service at the same time. Is there a contradiction?

What CBF?

What is CBF? Someone asked. It means cheaper, better and faster workers. Cheap and good, that’s what it means. How can cheap be good? Singaporeans only know that cheap means no good. You want anything good, you must pay for it. Good public housing, good market price. Good medical, high fees. Good govt, pay them well. If we are not willing to pay the price for it, we will get poor quality public housing, poor medical care and lousy quality govt. Can we really have good and cheap workers? But this is only one part of the equation. Can our workers afford to be cheap when housing is not cheap, medical is not cheap, govt is not cheap, cost of living is not cheap? Cheap worker and high cost of living is a ‘bao si’ or sure die combination. When housing, rentals and everything keep going up, how to get by if the pay is not going up? Ah, here is the secret. Cheap and better worker does not mean low wages. Our workers can expect their wages to go up. Productivity will be improved through mechanization or improvement in work processes. Or anyway, 3 workers do 7 workers’ work. It will mean higher productivity growth versus lower wage growth, but still growth, I think. Tiok boh?

'Ya1 Ban2'

Ha, the 2 words did not make any sense to many. Try to read it in Hokien. The second word should sound like 'barn'. They are used to describe the callous and unreasonable logic and reasons of the rich and powerful whose argument would always end in 'head I win, tail you lose', no matter how illogical their position is. Someone has used these terms to describe the LUP in Hougang and Potong Pasir. From the beginning I thought the award of LUP in the two opposition wards was to bring a message that the govt is neutral, fair and just, and will allocate national resources to all the tax payers equally, regardless of race, language and religion and the MPs they have elected. Such a message should rightly be received positively by the people in general. How is it that the LUPs in the two constituencies have ended like this? All the comments I have heard are like people being incensed, angry, unfair, highhandedness, no respect for the people's choice and many undescribable words that cannot be posted here. It is as good as a good PR exercise turning sour. It is like winning a battle and losing a war. It is better not to have the LUP instead. I think this LUP is going to cost the govt more votes in the next general election rather than to turn the tide against the two opposition candidates. Of course some of you may totally disagree with my observations and claim that the govt has scored big by bringing the LUPs into the constituencies, and the two rejected candidates in the last election, now the govt's appointed advisers in the constituencies, will now stand a better chance to be elected for their great effort and role in the LUPs.

A message that comes too late

Khairy Jamaluddin, the new UMNO Youth boss, has set a new agenda. He is calling on the Malays to stand up, have a new mindset and to lead Malaysia forward with compassion and magnanimity towards all races. He told the Malays to get rid of the seige mentality, that they are slow, backward, and needed to be protected, to 'civilisational confidence'. What he meant was that Malays must be confident of themselves and their ability to compete equally with everyone, with the ethnic minorities at home and the people across the world. 'For too long, Malays and Umno have been caught in a mindset that is negative and overly defensive....' Reflecting on this negative mindset, one wonders how a people who see themselves as backward, slow and lacking in intellect, be able to lead a nation forward? And that was what Malaysia was for the last 30 years under Mahathir. The latter claimed that Malays were stupid or less able than the rest, not sure if it includes himself. And if that is true, how then can Malaysia progress if it is being led by the less able? Would Khairy's new message see a more confident and self assured Malay step forward to face the world squarely, as well as their minorities, and to move forward with the rest of the world?

Cannot buy drinks for me

You guys, especially Wally, please don't buy drinks or chicken rice for me. The latest I heard is that bloggers who received gifts or whatever in kind or money, must declare or else...hmmm. And if any of you buy me drinks and I say good things about you without declaring that I have been bought by you or I am now beholden to you, then I will be in trouble. Actually not like this lah. The MDA, I heard in the kopitiam only, is pondering to introduce controls on bloggers who received payments or goodies from merchants and then wrote glowing reports about them to promote their products or services. It is like kind of advertisement ya. I wonder those analysts writing about stocks were also in such category and must declare as well. What if I write good reports about cameras and the cameras are really good, the truth, can or not? Can they pay me to tell the truth because I really believe the cameras are good?