I think it is important for us to ensure that they (ordinary Singaporeans) read the RIGHT thing. Yaacob Ibrahim, Minister of Information on BBC.
What is the RIGHT thing to read? I think everyone must be very interested to know what this RIGHT thing is. Yaacob could do the ordinary Singaporeans a favour by explaining what this RIGHT is all about. I also want to know the RIGHT thing, to write the RIGHT thing, so that my readers will also have the benefit of reading the RIGHT thing.
Doesn’t anyone of you want to know the RIGHT thing also? After reading so many wrong things in cyberspace, Singaporeans need to be enlightened by the ‘us’ to teach them the RIGHT thing which presumably must be good for the Singaporeans. Yaacob must be generous to tell us what it is and not keep the RIGHT thing for us. It must be something good and he should not keep us in suspense, wondering what this RIGHT thing is all about.
I confess I have not the faintest idea what this RIGHT thing is. Please help, please enlighten us. Thank you so very much.
Pinkie Lee said, "We are servants of the people." How can servants tell their bosses what is the right thing to read. He is working too hard by going beyond his job scope.
ReplyDeleteReuters
ReplyDelete[Insight: A Singapore wealth manager under fire amid crackdown]
By Rachel Armstrong and John O'Callaghan
SINGAPORE | Sun Jun 2, 2013 8:01pm EDT
"The email landed at a tough time for David Chong, the colorful founder and chairman of Portcullis TrustNet,
one of Asia's biggest wealth advisory companies.
The email from a group of investigative journalists said
it wanted to expose how the rich compound the world's economic problems by using offshore tax loopholes to minimize tax payments."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/03/us-portcullis-wealth-insight-idUSBRE9510EK20130603
@ RB 8.44am
ReplyDelete//” I confess I have not the faintest idea what this RIGHT thing is.”//
RB,
Sometimes, it does not matter, going by history.
Books were burnt and banned, scholars buried alive during the Qin Dynasty ( BC 221 - BC 207 ) in China. Weapons were banned, peasants enslaved to perform harsh and deadly labour works, death penalties and draconian laws imposed on the citizenry ….....
Ironically, it was the shortest history in the entire Chinese 5,000 years recorded history. Arguably, it lasted only 15 years from BC 221 to BC 207.
Despite its indisputable importance in Chinese history, the Qin Dynasty could not escape its ultimate fate of a most utter, dramatic and tragic demise.
Arguably, the Qin Dynasty was the “Greatest” despite its shortest reign.
This was the greatest irony and a “cruel” twist of fate despite the “recorded cruelty and notoriety”.
Under the Qin Dynasty, over 500 years ( BC 771 – BC 221 ) of war and strife in China was finally ended. It laid the foundation for a centralised government in the whole of China for the next over 2000 years till present days.
Political union was achieved in BC 221 under Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Otherwise, China may still be like modern day 27-member EU ( European Union ) or 17-member EZ ( EuroZone ) countries.
Economic union was also ramped through via an enforced single common currency aka modern day EZ ( 1999 to present ) style ( but with much more success and definitely spanning a much longer period of over 2000 years), common units of measurement and uniformed taxation system .
Cultural union was achieved via a single common language. If not for Qin Dynasty, modern day China could have been like modern day India or Europe with no single common official language. Imagine the kind of potential problems, oppositions and difficulties if a single common language were to be imposed in current India or EU or EZ. Imposing Mandarin as the common language then was not dissimilar to having English as the common language in modern day Singapore. It enabled administration, communication, commerce and trade, cultural exchange, literary development, education etc to be carried out almost seamlessly within a common united territory. That is its ultimate contribution to the subsequent 2000 over years of development in China till present days.
Looking at the present day EZ, their economic union at times smacks off “wheels and spokes” coming off the side of their “unified economy” at the periphery such as the “PIIGS” nations. After two World Wars in the 20th century, the Napoleonic Wars in the early 19th century and the many treaties signed after WWII, political union in EZ or EU is arguably still a very far distant, if not impossible, dream. Such is the scale of the momentous difficulties in unifying so many people of so many different cultures despite several millennium of shared existence in a more or less defined territorial frontier.
Often, history is evolutionary. Just like the law of nature, till now, no man can prevent the tides when the moon makes its revolution round the earth. Just like tides and business cycles, when it comes, it comes …....
redbean:
ReplyDelete>> I confess I have not the faintest idea what this RIGHT thing is.
The RIGHT thing to read is what the government deems "right" for you to read. That is exactly what Ministers Yaacoub and Shanmugam mean.
But it doesn't end there: you are also told what the WRONG things to say are, and if you push it too far, you get sued, fined or jailed.
...BUT WAIT...THERE'S MORE!!...
You are also told the WRONG things to hear, play and see or watch at the movies or on TV.
RIGHT and WRONG are what you are told is right and wrong. By the government. It is crystal clear to me what that means. It is stipulated in law. Which makes most people in Singapore law breakers.
Lucky the government got "light touch"...hur hur hur...
MRT rails are cracking up all over. Is this the result of heavier trains being used? Heard someone mentioned that they bought heavy trains and this led to the dislodging of clips in the NS line earlier. Now the cracks happening and looks like getting worst and worst.
ReplyDeleteWhen Yak Cock says "to ensure Singaporeans read the right thing"
ReplyDeletemaybe it means anything that supports what the PAP tells us is true.
e.g.
1. CPF is not a tax
2. CPF money belongs to Singaporeans
3. GST is to help the poor
4. and etc.
Talking about MRT trains just brings to mind my wondering while sitting inside a train from Novena to Ang Mo Kio. There was a horrible screeching sound as if the train was crushing some birds outside and seems to come from the roof. Along the way, the train stopped several times for half a minute or so. What is happening with our MRT system? If they cannot tolerate more frequent train schedules, why resort to stopping the train every now and then in order to let the front train move further away.
ReplyDeleteI wonder whether the tunnels are now giving problems. Concrete they may be, but the presence of water seepage and the use of steel is a recipe for corrosion. I hope they do some serious checking above besides concentrating below.
LHL responds to your MRT concerns.
ReplyDelete