How the white Americans cheat the world to get rich

They were enterprising, yes, but they would not have been that enterprising without cheating the rest of the world to get a jump start to wealth and glory. The wealth of the white Americans are built on cheats and deceits, on plunders, violations of human rights and laws, and wars. Let me put it in very plain terms for all to understand.
 
First they came and conquered, killing the native Americans and stole all their land, for free and termination of a civilization of people. They got free land from the native Americans, a whole continent of it. That is why they called America the Land of the Free!
 
Next, they built their farms and agriculture on free labour. Yes, they had free labour from the African continents. They treated the Africans as beasts of burden, as slaves, to work for free for the white farmers. Now you know why America is called the land of the free, free labour, pleasures from the African womenfolks included.
 
This is not enough, they got free labour from the Chinamen to build railroads. The Chinamen were treated not much different from the slaves from Africa. See, everything is free in the Land of the Free, to the white men.
 
After stealing land and exploiting free labour, another remembers anything about human rights, they got free money from the rest of the world. How did they do it?
 
It’s elementary Watson! The rest of the world have to give free money to the Americans to spend lavishly on themselves. Still dunno how they did it? Petrol dollar! Let me give you a simple analogy. If India or Indonesia or Japan needs to buy petrol, they must buy US dollars first. They need to go to an American bank and exchange their rupees, rupiahs and yen for American dollars to buy oil from the Arabs. The Arabs gave away their oil, lost their oil to get American dollars. The Indians, Indonesians, Japanese, the rest of their world, lost their currencies to get the oil. The Americans did nothing but collected all the monies from the rest of the world. All they did was to print American dollars without a sweat for the billions, trillions, quadrillions, the rest of the world voluntarily gave to them in exchange for the papers they printed.
 
Now you understand how the Americans got so rich without having to work? Now you understand why petrol dollar is so important to the Americans, to make them so rich without having to work a day? In the Land of the Free, they get free money from the rest of the world to spend. The biggest and most lucrative product of the USA is the American dollar.
 
With all the wealth they accumulated from free land, free labour and free money, they could invest in R and D, in education, in the finer things in life. But they did more. They continue to exploit the rest of the world by starting wars, starting fires every where. Then they sell them weapons to fight more wars. And as the rest of the world are madly engaging in wars, they forget that they have to build their countries, develop their countries and build a better life for their people.
 
The rest of the world are so lost in fighting wars, preparing for wars, engaged in arm race, to buy more weapons for wars. And the American military war complex keeps producing more weapons for the rest of the world to indulge in wars while the Americans continue to live in peace in homeland America, Land of the Free.
 
The Americans don’t just export weapons, they export wars. This is how the Americans destabilised countries, kept them busy fighting and buying weapons and forgot about developing their countries and economies.
 
Thank you very much.

59 interviewees attended the Select Committee on fake news

Out of 59 people interviewed by this Committee, only 4 objected to more stringent laws to curb fake news. Oops, I forgot to add the Facebook rep and the objections from Google and Twitters. So, with so many people in favour of stringent laws, not sure about the 3.5 million Singaporeans, the majority win. So the people favour more stringent laws to protect them from fake news. Anyone out there saying No? I can’t hear you, or you are not counted, irrelevant. The gods said so and have decided.
 
From the reports in the media, the impression I got from the questions posed by the committee members, it seems that they are all for more stringent laws and they were there to convince everyone interviewed why more stringent laws are needed. At least that is what I perceived. My question, is the job of this Select Committee to gather feedback, a consultation platform, or is its job to tell everyone interviewed to comply, that more stringent laws on fake news are good?
 
Oh, Edwin Tong said the existing laws not enough and many things related to fake news cannot be charged in court. Please, can I have some examples of what are not covered by the existing laws and fake news writers can write them and get a way from being charged in courts? Surely there must be real examples right? It cannot be red herrings right, or test balloons? Oops, cannot say test balloons, afterwards got to apologise.
 
I think everyone would like Edwin Tong or whoever who said that there are things that are not covered by existing laws to give specific examples and not just say things but cannot give examples right? Please do not use the Cambridge Analytica case as this is cyber espionage or cyber warfare. This is more than just fake news, it is conspiracy.
 
It cannot be like got people go to Batam and spent all their CPF savings to live like emperors for a few days so everyone’s CPF savings kena locked up. Can give examples or not? Or if only a handful, why everyone is punished? Why waste so much of the time of super talents and demi gods to talk about something that only a handful of people would violate and better still, not covered by our existing laws? How much money and precious time were wasted on this thing called fake news? Come to think about it everything one does not agree can be fake news.
 
What do you think?
_________________

Don’t fake the news

Ever since Donald Trump became US president, it’s been my habit to do constant Google checks for any wayward sparks the gentleman may care to generate in the waking hours of his day. And he has been most obliging. Just hours ago, The Guardian online reported that Trump had tweeted “misleading photos” to suggest that his proposed 2,000-mile “wall” with Mexico was underway. How? Well, the guy simply tweeted images of work being done on a 2-mile stretch of barrier last month BEFORE Congress refused to fully fund the wall’s construction. In fact, Congress had since agreed to allot only US$1.6 billion for a project estimated to cost over $20 billion. In short, Trump was using images of work done on a 2-mile stretch to create the illusion of work done on a 2,000-mile stretch. (“Great briefing this afternoon on the start of our Southern Border WALL!” gushed the man)

In a week where fake news was very much in the news, Trump’s action showed that it is not just the media or ordinary netizens who are capable of faking the news. If it suits their purpose, governments and leaders are equally adept at online fabrications. Academic Dr Norman Vasu said at the public hearings of the Select Committee on deliberate online falsehoods that there are six categories of online falsehoods based on the degree of threat they pose, with disinformation aimed at undermining society topping the list. Under this categorisation, Trump’s misleading photos on the Great Wall of Mexico would probably rank somewhere near the bottom. But a fake is a fake, so shouldn’t Americans ask the president to take down the phony photos? Or must it really be sufficiently serious?  If so, who decides how serious? If it’s the government, then who will order a take-down if the government is behind the fake news (as in Trump’s case)?  

Fake news is a by-product of Internet technology. In the pre-Internet age, we only have to contend with rumours, spread by word of mouth, not click of mouse. Hence the attendant issues we now face have no precedent or proven solutions. But one thing remains the same. As in the past, the role of the government is a bone of contention. Activists claim we don’t need new laws as there are enough existing ones to deal with online falsehoods.  What is needed is greater public access to information and improved media literacy. Not so, says the government as it pointed to a poll last year indicating that over 90% of Singaporeans supported stronger laws to remove or correct fake news. Whatever it may be, there’s no faking that we are all in new territory and it’ll take us a while to get it right.

Xi and Kim show hands to Trump and the Americans

It is official, Kim Jong Un visited Beijing and had a photograph taken with Xi Jinping and their respective first ladies. All the foolish talks about China and North Korea breaking up and relations at a low would now sound so hollow. Trump and his scheming idiots thought they got China by the balls to do their biddings, above all, to betray and abandon North Korea. They were congratulating themselves that they were so successful in creating a rift between the two neighbours with historical ties in fighting the Americans, and probably sniggering at how easy to drive them apart. Many stupid western analysts still cling to this farce and trying to explain that Kim is making a last minute effort to gain China’s support when the support was and is there all the time, and that the superficial rift was just that, to play along with the Americans.
 
This visit by Kim, his first visit overseas and to meet a leader of another nation, speaks clearly where his confidence lies and who he regards as his most reliable and important friend. Since the Korean War against the USA, China had withdrawn every single soldier fighting in that war from Korean soil. On the other hand the Americans refused to leave and had made South Korea a semi colony with the Americans commanding the South Korean soldiers.
 
On the other hand North Korea is a full fledged independent state in charge of its own destiny and sovereignty. China did not behave like the devious and treacherous Americans, to sit tight and refuse to leave. China could easily use the same excuse, American troops are still in South Korea, as justification to remain in North Korea. But the Chinese honoured their obligations and respect the independence of the North Koreans, and completely withdrew from North Korea.
 
For a while, the ugly and treacherous Americans have the world believing in their sneaky tricks of driving a wedge between China and its closest ally, North Korea. China even went along to agree to the American led sanctions against the North Koreans. Many fools really believed that China has become the enemy of North Korea and the North Koreans are depending on the Russians to protect and defend them. Should this be the case, Kim would be in Moscow to visit Putin.
 
The truth is out. The devious Americans really believed that China is weak and could be pushed around, conduct provocations in the South China Sea islands and waging a trade war with China thinking that China has no card to play. China has now thrown an ace at the Americans with this Kim visit. China would do more if the Americans did not desist from their provocation and aggression. Next China could withdraw support for the American sanctions against the North Koreans, and more to come.
 
As the Americans foolishly step up the pressure on China, China will respond accordingly and with more vigour and force. Let there be no mistake that China would not walk away when its core interests are challenged. China would not abandon its close allies and let them be bullied by the Americans. China cannot afford to do so or it would lose credibility in the eyes of big and small nations of the world that China is a reliable and dependable friend in times of need.
 
The game has just begun. China has stood up to the Americans for the world to see. Anyone still believes that China could be pushed around by the Americans and betray its friends? Anyone still believe that there was a big rift between China and North Korea and this visit was a desperate move by Kim to mend fences with China, or China and North Korea telling the bullies that they have been duped all this while? Are the Chinese and North Koreans so naïve to believe that the Americans could drive them apart by provocative acts, threats and sanctions?

Shanmugam the real PM?

In an article in thestatestimesreview titled ‘Singapore’s real PM is K Shanmugam, not Lee Hsien Loong’, Alex Tan has an interesting read on the political development in Singapore. Of course this is just his opinion. I would take a different view on this, but here are some paragraphs from the article.
 
‘Like the Chinese dynasty history where rouge Prime Ministers controlled their puppet emperors, Singapore’s Law Minister K Shanmugam has a similar rein over the weak Prime Minister. It certainly doesn’t help with Lee Hsien Loong being ...fickle-minded, but a blanket silence on the furious debates raging in the recent headlines only goes to show the extent of his impotence….
Spend money? Lee Hsien Loong and Ho Ching is there. Raise taxes? Heng Swee Keat will take care of it. Day-to-day government affairs? Leave it to the Law Minister.
This begs the question: Who is then the real Prime Minister?....
Welding two heavyweight ministerial profiles, Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam wrote his own green paper, sat in his own Select Committee and now he is going to enact new his own censorship laws. He went to Parliament calling Sylvia Lim “dishonest” and slithered away when facts proved him wrong. The same snake of a minister wrote new laws allowing policemen to lethally shoot protesters, strip search women, and give himself extra-judiciary powers to ban media and communication.
K Shanmugam is no longer only a Law Minister, his new lawless powers made him the new dictator of Singapore – surpassing the PM and his two deputy PMs. Lee Hsien Loong is only as relevant as Halimah Yacob, his premiership is just ceremonial while the one in full power is the Law Minister.
Lee Hsien Loong may be stepping down, but everyone is asking the wrong question who is the actual one in power. The likely PM successor, Minister Chan Chun Sing, will be just another puppet to K Shanmugam.’

My point that differs from Alex Tan is that what Hsien Loong is doing is about delegation of duties. With all the ministers being paid millions, how can they not be expected to assume full duties and responsibilities in their ministries? And these are not your normal average people, they are super super talents and not allowing them to do their jobs would be a disservice and injustice to their super super talents.
Hsien Loong is doing the right thing by making them work and not sitting on their butts. Shanmugam is seen as doing a lot of work simply because he has two ministries under him. So he has to work harder and the unquestionable talent to go with it.
 
Of course there would be people who would question the danger of too much power given to one man, in Shanmugam, and the risk that he could usurp his power to be the real or de facto PM. The possibility is there, but Hsien Loong is in full control and would not allow it to happen. The two DPMs knew, and the 4th generation leaders also knew that Hsien Loong is the one calling the shot.
 
Shanmugam would not be the next PM even if Alex Tan thinks he is wielding too much power as a minister versus his other colleagues, even the DPMs. It looks that way but this is only an impression. What is the real politikings behind the scene only Hsien Loong knows. He is the PM and he is in charge.
 
OK both views are just opinions. Please don’t label them as fake news. Everyone is entitled to his view and opinion. You guys reading can have yours as well, and very different from the two of us.
 
I am not sure what those fake news control freaks would be thinking. They all look so innocent and holy. You know a devil when you see one.

China needs to change its appeasement policy towards the USA

China has been operating under the policy of appeasement in the face of American and western provocation and aggression since the opening of its economy. Under Deng Xiaoping’s era, he advocated that China should avoid trouble, even ‘eat bitter pill’, stay out of trouble and dispute to concentrate on economic growth and development. This policy of non involvement and avoiding confrontation and conflict with the USA is still in place and is proving to be outdated and detrimental to the continue growth and rise of China as a sovereign state.
 
China must learn its bitter lesson of the past, when it was weak and invited hostile western countries and Japan to invade and to colonise China with wars and intimidation. The western countries, led by the USA, are still viewing China’s non interference and non aggression and non retaliation policies as a sign of weakness and are pressuring and challenging China in all areas, including trade wars, the Taiwan independence and the South China Sea. Even little countries would happily align with the Americans to take pot shots at China whenever a contentious issue is presented, thinking and believing that a weak China would not react or hit back. It is very safe to slam China in support of the Americans. A weak China as perceived by the hostile and unfriendly countries would invite provocations, challenges and intimidation just like the weak China of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
 
Can China afford to continue with its policies of appeasement and walking away from provocations and confrontations? Is it good for China to appear weak and hapless in the face of American and western pressure and aggressive challenges?
 
China today is no longer hapless and weak like the past Qing Dynasty. China is now the second most powerful country in the world and would be wise to make the world understand and acknowledge this fact to keep provocations and unfriendly acts at bay. Appearing weak and appeasing the aggressors are exactly the reasons that brought about the continuous provocative challenges to China in the South China Sea, the inciting of Taiwan’s independence and the looming trade war.
 
China must take a stand, change its non aggressive and appeasement policy to suit its stature as a big power if it wants to deter adventurism and hostile intention. Unfriendly and hostile countries with ill intent and agenda must know that China is not a weak state but would hit back with as much force and power as it deems fit to aggressive intents and acts from unfriendly countries, particularly the little pretentious powers. China must mean business if it is to have a respectable standing in the international community, to be respected as a big power and not to be trifled with.
 
The day has come for China to stand up as a big power and not to be pushed around, to be challenged and not to push back the aggressive and hostile forces. A policy of weakness, of inaction and appeasement would do more harm to China than one of strength. The whole world is also looking for a China that can stand up to the aggression of the USA and western powers, to protect the small countries from being threatened by these powers. Small countries need another super power to balance the equation in international relations for peace and stability.
 
China has a big and critical role to balance the military and belligerent might of the USA and its equally bellicose western allies. Not facing up to these hostile countries is being irresponsible as the hapless little countries would have no one to turn, no one to defend their rights and independence except to submit to the threats of USA and western powers.
 
The world needs a new balance of power for peace and stability and to protect and defend the interest of the smaller and weaker states. The USA, the world’s most belligerent evil Empire, has been conducting wars every day for the last 7 decades, wars of aggression, invasion, covert wars, cyber wars, media wars and now trade wars. The Americans are not afraid of wars. They lived by wars and love wars. To stop them from their warmongering, the only way is to hit back with more wars. That is the only language they understand.

Trump – You are fired

Trump is reprising his role in the Apprentice with a new vigour and vitality. This time he is real. He is proving to be the no nonsense boss. Anyone that falls below his expectation will be fired. Trump as a leader of a nation has no excuse or tolerance for sub par performance or non performance. Anyone in his cabinet must perform or be sacked.
 
In a way Trump is showing the world of incompetent leaders what leadership is all about. It is all about putting good men and women in position of power, authority and responsibility. He cannot accept mediocrity. This speaks very well of Trump and leaders of nation state have a lot to learn from him. Leaders that tolerate incompetence and nincompoohs or surrounded themselves with clowns are doing a disservice to their countries and people.
 
Trump may be harsh but very decisive. He is still in the process of finding good men and women to make America great again. He would find them sooner or later and America would be great again. Never in the history of the USA and the democratic world where so many pretentious men and women, cronies, were put into positions of power and responsibility but doing nothing useful or failing in their jobs.
 
Trump is changing everything to do the right thing. Do your job and do it right or be fired. There is no excuse for incompetence. Many in the establishment have been dead wood for too long and pretending to be working and pretending to be doing a good job. No one can bluff Trump. He kicked asses.
 
Trump is proving himself to be one of the rare leaders that popped up in time of great crisis. There is a crisis of leadership in the USA and the democratic world. Great leaders, real leaders, are needed to lead, not to mislead.

The media - Truth is stranger than fiction

Below are a few paragraphs from the statestimesreview ridiculing the top officials of The Straits Times for lying in an open hearing. I as usual disagree with thestatestimes for their criticisms of the most respectable and serious and always reporting the truth newspaper in Singapore. I also disagree with their low ranking for credibility at 151st in the world. Of course you are free to disagree with me and my biased opinion. I would not be offended as I also have very thick skin. I would not demand an apology, I swear.

'Openly lying at the Select Committee’s hearing, Singapore’s state media claimed that they are “serious journalism” and independent from the ruling party’s influence.

Singapore’s state media, comprising of Mediacorp and Singapore’s Press Holdings, are collectively ranked 151st in the world for credibility. The shameful ranking puts Singapore media among the third world nations like Iraq and North Korea, but the editors representing the two propaganda state media, senior editors of Mediacorp and editor of Straits Times, protested insisting they are not biased:

“Over the last five, 10 years we’ve tried extremely hard to be fair, balanced and objective because we see our role as not trying to play up one party or the other, but to give our readers as much information as they can to make decisions for themselves. If we were biased, we would be clearly called out on social media. It would backfire and affect our credibility, so we wouldn’t be inclined to do that. I don’t think it does anybody any service if we tried to … it would be a disservice to our readers, a disservice to our journalists, and ultimately I think a disservice to Singapore.”
The propagandists also said that the internet is the reason why trust in the mainstream media has fallen, and called for the government to impose more censorship on the internet “to level the playing field with the mainstream media”:'

I know that it is very difficult to dispute the poor rankings of international bodies on anything but only to agree with them when the rankings are good. It is only human to hear the good stuff, read the good stuff. I just dunno how an international body could give The Straits Times such a low ranking when it is as reputable as the New York Times, the Washington Post etc as it always carried their unbiased, objective and well researched political western propaganda to attack, ridicule and rubbish any country that is being demonished by the American Empire. See how many pages were given to western journalists to write and condemn Asian countries from the western perspectives. Somehoe Singapore could not produce any good journalist to write news from our own perspective and interest of Asians. But these are foreign news and not the fault of the paper. They never write them, maybe even have to pay to have the right to publish these western fake news.  Oops, they are alternative news from the West, not fake.

A good point to note is that for the last 5 or 10 years The Straits Times have been trying extremely hard to be fair, balanced and objective in reporting local news. Never mind what they were doing before the last 5 or 10 years. Maybe then it was easier to report fair, balanced and objective news or they were reporting something else. They could not be reporting unfair, unbalanced and unobjective news right? Come to think of it, should it not be a natural thing, a moral thing, a thing of honour, to be reporting fair, balanced and objective news? Is this not the responsibility and purpose of a news media?

Anyway, if they have to try extremely hard, they must have good reasons to work extremely hard just to be fair, balanced and objective. Not sure what or who is making them working so hard when it should be second nature, the right thing to do.  Telling the truth is so easy. Every child can do that without any effort. On this ground I think we should be very appreciative of them for telling us their problem without having to say it. This is the best honourable journalists could say or do under the circumstances.

Let's believe in the honour and fairness of our journalists for giving us so respectable unbiased news, not fake news, all these 5 or 10 years under extremely difficult conditions. Let's not believe in their lowly 151st world ranking. And thestatestimesreview should not criticise them so unfairly.

As they said, wait till you are wearing the shoes or be in their position, only then would you understand their hardship and difficulties. Whatever they are saying or not saying, and confessing or not confessing, I like.

Cynical Investor – Meng Seng doesn’t know his Chinese history

‘Our very own Wu Sangui (Silence of Goh Meng Seng) who wants us to kowtow to Xi because China’s a peaceful nation doesn’t know his Chinese history because he doesn’t know how China was created: by emperors who waged war. And he was from a Chinese-language school?’
 
The above was written by Cynical Investor rubbishing Goh Meng Seng for not knowing Chinese history, implying that China was not a peaceful nation and also implying that the American and European Empires were peaceful countries. OK he did not write this last part but from where he is coming, China is or was a belligerent state compares to the USA and other European countries. He ended by asking this,
 
‘Or he is a lackey of Xi?’
 
Shall I ask Cynical Investor is he an American or western lackey? Did he know the history of the USA and the western colonialists? Did he know how the Europeans massacred the native Americans by the tens of millions to take over their land? Did he know that the then Europeans continued to conquer and took over the land belonging to the Mexicans and other natives to make what the USA is today? Did he know that the Americans have been on a war path since the end of WW2, fighting wars everyday, Korean War, Vietnam War, wars in Middle East, in Eastern Europe, in Latin America, in Africa, in Central Asia? Did he know anything about the British Empire, the Dutch Empire, the Spaniards, Portugese, the French and the Germans and the Japanese Empires?
 
As for China, after the defeat by the British in the Opium War in 1840s, China was a disintegrated country until 1949, a victim of Western colonialism and Japanese Imperialism? And until today, modern China had only engaged in three defensive wars, in the Korean War to drive the Americans from the Yalu River to the 38th parallel, the 1962 Sino Indian Border War after the Indians attacked Chinese border positions to seize Chinese territories, and the border war with Vietnam to force the Vietnamese to withdraw from Laos and Cambodia at the request of Asean countries, especially Thailand.  

Some idiots are digging out the thousand years of Chinese history to condemn China as a warring state. How relevant was this ancient history of China to modern China against the warmongering Americans and Europeans today? 

Shall I call Cynical Investors our very own modern day Japanese traitor stirring hatred against modern day Chinese and China. Did he want the Chinese to kowtow to the Americans and the Westerners? Agree? Did he know Chinese history?
 
From the Yuan Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, China was actually invaded and conquered by the Mongols and the Manchus, ruled by these foreigners. The fact that these foreigners eventually were assimilated by the Chinese Civilisation did not make their aggression and invasion of other states an act of Chinese aggression and expansionism.
 
China was a victim of invasion and occupation by hostile foreign forces, not the aggressor that these ignoramus made China to be. From 1271, the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the Chinese as a civilisation was never an expansionist people, conquering and invading other countries. This is about 800 years of Chinese history, and longer if the Song Dynasty was included, that China and the Chinese Civilisation was not the belligerent state that the stupid want to make it to be.
 
Many parts of Chinese territories and islands are still occupied by the invading foreigners till today.

PS.
 
'Shashi Tharoor is author of “Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India.” He chairs the Indian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. Below are some of this comments in the book.
 
“History,” Winston Churchill said, “will be kind to me, for I intend to write it myself.” He needn’t have bothered. He was one of the great mass murderers of the 20th century, yet is the only one, unlike Hitler and Stalin, to have escaped historical odium in the West. He has been crowned with a Nobel Prize (for literature, no less), and now, an actor portraying him (Gary Oldman) has been awarded an Oscar....
 
Dealing with unrest in Mesopotamia in 1921, as secretary of state for the colonies, Churchill acted as a war criminal: “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against the uncivilised tribes; it would spread a lively terror.” He ordered large-scale bombing of Mesopotamia, with an entire village wiped out in 45 minutes.
 
In Afghanistan, Churchill declared that the Pashtuns “needed to recognise the superiority of [the British] race” and that “all who resist will be killed without quarter.” He wrote: “We proceeded systematically, village by village, and we destroyed the houses, filled up the wells, blew down the towers, cut down the great shady trees, burned the crops and broke the reservoirs in punitive devastation. … Every tribesman caught was speared or cut down at once.”....
 
Churchill’s beatification as an apostle of freedom seems all the more preposterous given his 1941 declaration that the Atlantic Charter’s principles would not apply to India and the colored colonies. He refused to see people of color as entitled to the same rights as himself. ''

Churchill must be one of the greatest western heroes of Cynical Investor. I only hope Cynical Investor is not Indian, but I am sure he is a coloured person.

American Arrogance, Aggression and Imperialism. Part 3

US president Trump is a devil incarnate. He has now surrounded himself with a hundred percent war hawks in his cabinet whose hawkish views on foreign policies are in sync with his. His latest addition, John Bolton is a racist and white supremacist who has no qualms showing his extreme views and has always been a devil's advocate on attacking China, North Korea and Iran. Trump may be setting the background for war with Russia, Iran, China and DPRK. The world is in a critical stage and may end up in thermonuclear war and armageddon for mankind.

The problem is too many ex-colonnial countries especially those in South East Asia or to be more explicit ASEAN countries like to sleep with the devil, the Evil Empire. Well, US has might, military might and to them they may equate might is right and so they think US has the right to do all the evil deeds against others and there shall be no question asked. Many of these ASEAN leaders have their own personal self interest and agenda and cannot think in terms of wider benefits for ASEAN and their countries.Their warped minds have been captured and enslaved by US subtle propaganda to think and follow  the ways and decisions of Washington. By now they should have realised that US is and has been an evil aggressive and expansionist country that has been on a wild rampage for the last two hundred and forty years attacking, killing. conquering and taking over and annexing other people's lands practically with impunity. They should be more pro-active in their thinking to pre-empt US from turning South East Asia and the South China Sea region into a hot bed of strive and warfare concocted by US as it has done to the Arabs in the Middle East.

ASEAN politicians especially the leaders appear to be daft and ignorant of world history and politics. It is incumbent that they should ground themselves in world history and politics to get a better and true perspectives of the world.s present situation so that they can make a better judgement themselves and not be dictated by the likes and dislikes of US and Western imperialists.

There will never be peace in this world so long as the Evil Empire arrogates to itself the right and the power to control every country and to hold every country in servile obedience to American dictates and hegemony as what its predecessor and forbears imperial Britain had done. Let the ASEAN leaders and politicians listen and learn from the native American Indians, " Never trust whitemen, for they speak with fork tongues. "

Well, trust whitemen at your own peril. In the Middle East US plays on the narrow interest and mistrust among the Arabs religious bigotry of the Sunnis and the Shites and sow further dissension and deeper mistrust among them that they are easily manipulated by Imperial US to strive and fight among themselves not knowing that destabilisation , choas and wars ultimately suit the American agenda of taking full control of the Middle East and there together with the oil and other rich mineral resources beneath the Arab soil and seas. ASEAN countries must be wary of evil and insidious American manipulation in the South China Sea and not fall into the same fatal trap that the Arabs in the Middle East had fallen. ASEAN leaders and politicians must be more sanguine about the truth and history of Asia especially the South China Sea region and not rely on the Evil Empire's toxic propaganda whose aim is to plunge the region in permanent wars and turmoil among some ASEAN countries and China just as what is happening in the Middle East because of evil American plots and scheming.

China is not aggressive and expansionist which is the hallmark of imperialist US, Japan and the West.  Just like all the ASEAN countries, China, India and all African and South American countries had been held in bondage for decades or hundreds of years. China has no soldiers or military bases outside China unlike US which has over one thousand military bases all over the globe. These American military bases will ensure all countries listen and obey American dictates or otherwise face destruction and regime change. America has fought more than two hundred and thirty wars of aggression and expansion since 1775 to pursue its aim and ambition of eventually conquering the whole world under US total dictates and hegemony. Since the end of Second World War in 1945 America has continually attacked, dismembered countless countries, killing millions of people , carried out assassinations of national leaders who did not listen and follow American dictates and  brutally carried out regime change as seen in Iraq, Libya, Korsovo, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. The Evil Empire intends to carry out regime change in Syria and North Korea or DPRK but has been stopped by Russia's intervention. The Evil Empire's next targets for regime change  are some South American countries like Venezuela, Brazil, Ecaudor, Bolivia and Peru and some other African countries like Sudan,Somailia, Nigeria and Angola and also may be Cambolia, Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand in South East Asia.

It is timely to warn ASEAN countries not to be taken in by American toxic propaganda and go into unnecessary permanent strive and wars among themselves or with China. The Evil Empires's aim is to pick up the pieces after the war torn countries have sapped their energy and strength and rule over everybody as an overlord and thus enrich the Evil Empire with all the wealth and resources under its total control and hegemony.

Southernglory1

Friday, 23rd March,2018

More power to the police to stop people anyhow take pictures

A new law is being tabled in Parliament to forbid the public from taking images, video or still, of serious incidents aka like terrorist attacks. Under this new Communication Stop Order law, it says as reported in thenewpaper, ‘the commissioner of police when authorized by the home affairs minister’ can invoke this law.
 
I hope I am reading this correctly, ie, the home affairs minister must authorize first, then the commissioner of police can give the order. If not, any police officer on the spot can suka suka stop anyone from taking video/pictures using their mobile phones or anything in hand. Is this correct? I can still remember a police officer arresting a photographer, I think a reporter, from taking pictures of a flood, or was it something else, ponding?
 
And some MPs were raising the issue of abuse of power in Parliament. I think this would not be the case. Singaporeans are born with a special DNA and abuse of power would never happen to them. You can never find a single case of abuse of power in the history of Singapore. Everything is done legally. How can there be abuse of power when things are done legally, eg ministerial salary, compulsory CPF insurance schemes? Please don’t accuse the govt of abuse of power to do anything. It is just not in their DNA. They are also Singaporeans and have this exceptional DNA in them.
 
The CSO is to prevent ‘irresponsible communication’. Actually if this is the case, taking pictures and videos should be alright as the intent is to prevent people from communicating irresponsibly like fake news. Tiok boh? Let people take lah, just make sure they do not anyhow post it to shame anyone for irresponsible behavior like anyhow park or anyhow shit or shit anywhere should be good enough. Tiok boh?
 
Ok, get the intent and purpose of this CSO right from the start. What is it supposed to prevent? Irresponsible communication? I read this in thenewpaper. ‘Mrs Teo said this is not its intention as it is meant to stop “irresponsible communication” when asked about forbidding people from taking pictures. So if people take pictures and videos but did not communicate or communicate responsibly, like passing them to help the police to work on the case must be ok right? And if passing to the police is ok, then they must be allowed to take right. If cannot take how to pass to police to help the police? You tell me lah.
 
So what is the real intention, to prevent people from taking images or to prevent people from communicating irresponsibly?
 
PS. I was thinking of including incorruptibility as part of Singaporean’s exceptional DNA. But on second thought, this one is conditional, that they be paid out of this world’s salary or else. So this Singaporean exceptionalism no count.

All that glitters is not gold

By now, most Singaporeans would have read how the maverick artist in our midst had been thwarted yet again in her bid at self-expression. I am talking about Miss Priyageetha Dia of the golden staircase fame of course. A year ago, Priya, then a final-year Lasalle fine arts student, covered the staircase on the 20^th floor of her HDB block with gold foil and sparked a debate on whether it was art or vandalism. Whatever it was, she had to remove it after the town council deemed it “unauthorised” and “not permissible”.

Last Sunday, she was back at it again. This time, she hung gold coloured sheets on the outer walls of her block using flag hooks on the corridor ledge --

and met with a similar fate for a similar reason. She had to remove the sheets after the town council said she did not seek their permission prior to hanging them up. To be fair, they were acting on residents’ complaints but one wonders if they would have said yes even if she had asked for permission and there were no complaints.

Obviously not everything she touches turns into gold but you can’t fault the girl for not trying. Asked why she did not first seek permission, Priya said: “I wanted to execute the project without modifying it to the town council’s guidelines. I wanted it to be raw and original.”  Spoken like a true artist. And  for some out-of-the-box thinking that the Government so craves, let’s hear it from her again: “I want to create an intervention with the HDB space.  The hooks along the corridor are only for the national flag, I want to provoke its functionality by hanging another material.”

Compare this with some of the residents’ complaints - “The sheets look like incense paper” & “they are very noisy when blown by the wind” - and you have a fair idea of the ocean of conformity and groupthink that poor Priya is marooned in. The problem is not only confined to the citizenry. It extends to the political leadership as well. At a forum on political succession on Tuesday (20 Mar), ex-NMP Eugene Tan said there are no standout candidates because none has left a deep impression. More ominously, the panel felt that regardless of who the next prime minister is, “it will be more of the same, with the new leader unlikely to veer from the tried and tested ways”. Rubbing salt into wound, another ex-NMP Zulkifli Baharudin opined: “While people want a leader who is daring and transformative, we have inputted our own conservative attitudes in choosing the next generation leader. So we are not going to get it.”

I am hoping against hope that he is wrong. Singapore needs nimble, innovative and out-of-the-box people. We need more - not less - people who dare to question conventions. People who dare to ask “why not?” Most of all, we need a PM who dares to take on this eternal conundrum of Singapore society - how to maintain a highly ordered and disciplined society without imposing rigid conformity or frightening every potential Van Gogh, Steve Jobs and Priya back into their mother’s womb. Will we have such a PM?

Indranee - Male police officer to search female suspect terrorists

Again my initial shock to this suggestion was unfounded after careful consideration and thinking about all the positive things that could come out from this change in our law. Many conservative males would be aghast at the thought of men searching women and their hands groping all over the female torso and private parts. But hey, think positively and there are really many good things from this crazy and demeaning idea. Sorry woman, if a woman minister can suggest it, then it must be ok.

First, a terrorist needs no sympathy, not even if it is a female terrorist. A terrorist, male or female, is very dangerous and deadly. So a man would definitely do a better job searching a female suspect. What if the suspicion is unfounded? Just too bad, better to err on the side of safety, so they said. Be safe than be sorry.

And didn't you people know that it is very difficult to recruit female police officers? Maybe this could be a contributing factor for this change. Also the police is finding hard to recruit male officers but with this change I am sure it would be a great incentive for men to want to join the police force, to grope, oops, I mean search female suspects. They would say, with pleasure Sir. You can imagine how motivated the male officers assigned to do this job. M'am, strip please, I am just doing my job. Many would volunteer for the job. One slight drawback is that there will be a big jam at the airport checking counters as the females lined up for checks could be exceptionally long. And pretty and sexy looking women may find themselves picked for body search. There is nothing personal or the male officers picking on the pretty ones. The terrorists would definitely choose the pretty ones for such tasks as they would look pretty and harmless. And the male officers would prefer to use their hands instead of machine, thus a great savings from having to buy expensive high tech machine.

Even if the local men still refuse to join the police force it would not be a problem. The foreigners, especially those from the third world, would line up for the jobs and the queue could run from Kallang Immigration Centre to JB. They would not bargain for more pay when a job comes with pleasure.

The most direct benefit from this new law would be that no female terrorist would want to try their luck in Singapore anymore as they would not want to be searched by men police officers. Ok, there would be exceptions. The thought of it would terrorise any potential female terrorist from coming here. And Singapore would be safe from this angle and the only terrorist that would come would be the male ones. It would make the job of searching focused mainly on the male suspects. Even then, I suspect the male officers would still be diligently searching the women coming through our immigration checkpoints. You would never imagine how motivated these male officers would be, conducting their search duties, with pleasure and with glee.

Now, who is still against such an excellent idea?  I definitely support as it would make Singapore so much safer. When a woman minister said it is ok, it must be ok. And when a PAP minister said it is ok, all the PAP ministers and MP would definitely vote for it.

Shiok.

Criminals can serve jail sentences at home

When I heard that MP Murali asked in Parliament if Kong Hee can serve his jail sentence at home I was really shock. Who in his right mind would ever think of that except for minor crimes. Any crime that deserved a jail sentence cannot be minor.  When I recovered from my shocking spell and recomposed myself, I started to appreciate what this Murali had in mind. He came across as a very caring MP, caring for voters in his ward. Oops, I am not sure if Kong Hee is a PR, a local, or a citizen. Can anyone confirm this? And if indeed Kong Hee is a citizen then his MP should be speaking for him. I also think Murali is not his MP. Where is Kong Hee's MP, sleeping, not caring for the people that voted for him?

I have further thoughts on this matter and the more I think about it, the more I am convinced that Murali has very good intention. Put it this way, cheating a few million dollars without intention to cheat and never benefiting from it except for his wife, should not be dealt with so harshly. And Kong Hee is such a nice guy, saving so many poor souls and helping them to be rich and to go to heaven. These must be good mitigating factors to deserve serving his jail sentence at home.

There are also obvious tangible and financial benefits and considerations to support Murali's thought. It is very costly to keep a person in prison. The cell and the bed, the medical support and the 'Or tau png' ie black bean rice, also cost money. There will be so much savings if Kong Hee would to serve his sentence at home and pay for his own cell, his own food and medical services.  And the cell and cells for such cases would be needed for those creating fake news or cannot pay their compulsory CPF insurance schemes. The prison must prepare to cater for more intakes with so many new laws coming up.

An added financial incentive would be that prisoners granted jail sentences at home would have to pay $100 a day for this privilege. And there will be no discount for holidays and Sundays. The govt coffers would be much richer if the sentence of 7 years, ie 7x365x$100 is paid. I think this is great idea. And the rich prisoners would be more than willing to serve their jail sentence at home so that the cell space could be allocated to other more needy cases, the hardups that cannot afford to pay.

What do you think, good idea or not? I fully agree with Murali though Shanmugam has rejected it. This is indeed a fine idea from a very clever and caring MP. 'Mo tak teng'. Any idea that makes money for the govt, I like. Then perhaps they would spare the people's savings in the CPF from more compulsory schemes.

Stupidity of Asean leaders is unlimited

The recent Asean Summit Meeting with a little country like Australia, big only in land mass, speaks for itself, that Asean leaders are still wearing blinkers and could not tell the difference between a dwarf and a giant. But this is not the most stupid part of this meeting. In the concluding message, Turnbull had this to say as he assumed the role of big brother of the little coloured people.
 
‘Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the conclusion of an Asean-Australia special summit. Mr Turnbull said Asean and Australia reaffirmed their commitment to respond strongly and resolutely in the face of the reclusive state’s “reckless and illegal nuclear-missile programmes”.’ CNA

What is so reckless about North Korea having nuclear weapons to protect themselves and prevent themselves from the same fate as Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi people when the USA is going to make its nuclear arsenal more deadly? What grave concerns? When have the North Koreans used nuclear weapons on any country? When have the North Koreans threaten to nuke any Asean country or want to conduct a preemptive strike into any of these silly countries? Is there any reason for the North Koreans to want to do so? The grave concern is the USA threatening to conduct a preemptive strike against North Korea. Can the stupid Asean leaders see the difference?

Which evil country has been threatening to nuke other countries by accusing other countries as a threat to them? Which evil country had actually nuked another country? Which evil country has been conducting wars of invasion, regime change everyday for the last seven decades? Which evil country has been stoking war, provoking and instigating for war?

Isn’t such a country more reckless and dangerous instead of North Korea? Asean was formed to foster closer economic ties among its member countries and with other countries. Why is Asean now behaving like an American lackey singing the American lies and demonising countries that the Americans want them to demonise? Why allowed the Americans and Australia to set the agenda?

While North Korea is repeatedly being bashed by silly Asean leaders, the smarter European countries are having their own friendly negotiations with the North Koreans without having any fear of a ‘reckless’ nuclear North Korea. Why are European countries feeling so safe and secure and why are some silly Asean countries feeling so unsafe and unsecure of North Korea? The Swedes and Finns are very comfortable talking to the North Koreans and making friends with the North Koreans. And if I am not mistaken, some Asean countries are also quietly trading with the North Koreans except those semi colonised non independent countries that are controlled by the Americans.
 
What have Asean countries got to fear North Korea about when all its neighbours are not uttering a word except those allied with the evil Empire and wanting to invade that country? Why waste time talking about a non problem just because the Americans and the Australians want to make it a problem?
 
When would Asean leaders grow up and think independently, that North Korea is not the concern of Asean, and to tell the Americans that it would not want to be dragged around by the ears by the Americans?
 
Angmoh tua kee is it?

PS. If the sillies had their ways, in 30 years time Singapore would have a bigger population than Australia. Would Asean then hold a summit as a group with Singapore?

The most successful fake news campaign – demonizing China and the Chinese Civilisation

Fake news as a weapon of war to confuse, mislead, attack and demoralise the enemies is nothing new. It is a consistent campaign conducted over time, years, decades, even centuries, to destroy the enemy without anyone knowing what was going on. In the words of Michael Raska, from S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies ...fake news is a weapon used for invasion by other countries. “A campaign of disinformation, where falsehoods are spread subtly and gradually, could be the first step in an attack on Singapore. This is especially so for foreign actors who want to attack Singapore, but cannot do so using military means.”
 
The most successful fake news campaign was conducted by the West and western media to demonise China and the Chinese Civilisation over the last few centuries. If you remove the word ‘Singapore’ in the above quote and insert ‘China’, it is exactly what was happening in the past till today and going on everyday even in articles from western mischievous writers in our local papers.
 
China was a victim of invasion, colonialism and imperialism until the country was bankrupted, the people humiliated and demoralised and their confidence as a civilisation totally destroyed. But the West and western media glorified their wars and invasion of China and the rest of the world as if Imperialism and Colonialism were the good things, the invaders and murderers and plunderers were the heroes, the good guys, knighted as Sir this and Sir that by their kings and queens. And the real victims, the Africans, the Asians, the Indians and the Chinese were the bad guys.
 
The success of this fake news campaign is so damaging till today that many Asian leaders are still fearing China as a war monger waiting to conquer and invade their countries when the real invaders were the Western countries and Japan. And to many people of Chinese origins in SE Asia, they even despised China and the Chinese Civilisation, ashamed to be Chinese, even hating the Chinese without knowing why but for the reasons planted into their unthinking mind by the western media.
 
And when the West ridiculed China, passed rude remarks about Chinese, they would giggle and agree, thinking that they were not Chinese and had nothing to do with being Chinese though they have yellow skin and Chinese parentage. Many would join in the attack and pass humiliating remarks about Chinese, not admitting that they were Chinese. Some may even want to change the colour of their skin, bleach them to be whites.
 
The local media did not help, in fact continue to publish articles of western origins that were anti China and the Chinese civilisation regularly as if they were truths and not fake news. The common angle that these western articles took would be China may be building roads and infrastructures for the developing countries, but China did not do it for humanitarian grounds but eyeing their natural resources. What is wrong with exchanging their work in infrastructure development with raw materials when these countries could not pay with currencies? Do they expect China to build all the infrastructures for free? Compares with the West selling arms and goods to these countries, for free, for humanitarian reasons? The colonisation of these countries was for humanitarian reasons, to civilise these countries, by robbing them of their land and natural resources without paying a single cent?
 
The media has been well exploited by the West for centuries to gold plate their evils deeds, their plunderings and killings of Asians and Africans while at the same time demonising other Asian and African countries. There was no condemnation of the mass murders and genocides conducted by the white Europeans in the past and in recent years. The native Americans, the African native slaves, the mass killings in North Korea, Japan, Vietnam, in Iraq, Libya, Syria, in Afghanistan, in many north African states, in Latin America, in the Philippines.
 
Practically all western media are in the job of passing fake news to glorify the West, the European Empires, the American evil Empire, their killings by the hundreds of thousands in the Middle East and Africa with impunity while accusing the Asian leaders of crimes against humanity. Duterte is a key victim, Assad, Kim Jong Un, now Aung San Suu Kyi, soon would be Najib. Putin and Xi are on the wanted hate list.
 
Who are the real producers of fake news? Main media or social media? The main role of mysingaporenews is to question and cast doubts on what the main media is pushing as the truth. Mysingaporenews will question what it thinks is fake news, half truths or misinformation to let the readers find their own truths.
 
Who is conducting a campaign of misinformation and falsehood, reputable western media? All the big names in the media industry are printing real news, not misinformation with private and hidden agenda?
 
What a joke!

PS. Anyone who has Chinese blood in him or her is a victim of this smear campaign originated from the West, even if he/she thinks he/she is a banana.

Fighting Deliberate onLine Falsehoods, with Whose Truths?

by MIKOspace

Singapore has begun public hearings by a Parliamentary Select Committee into Deliberate Online Falsehoods. After a few days of hearings, the emergent motherhood consensus is that deliberate online falsehoods can fracture and rapture social trust to the extent as to injure public safety and harm social order should they lead to pervasive and destructive civil disobedience.

I have underlined and emphasized the word “deliberate” so as to highlight its vague distinctions with “unknowing” or “unconscious” types of online falsehoods.  Admittedly, these apparent distinctions are rapidly lost in various intellectual and semantic translations.    

Misinformation, half-truths and fake news are in fact not new.  We are surrounded by all forms of fake and false information in advertisements, man-made religions, philosophies, news articles and public relations spins. Official censorship together with the ideological control of the news and publishing media are also propaganda serving specific and particular power and economic interests.    

According to The Oxford English Dictionary, the new word for 2016 is “post-truth”.  It refers to the existence of “alternative” truths. Whither therefore the status of “deliberate falsehoods” in the internet era of “post-truths”?

The sobering truth is that all information is “deliberate” falsehood and partial-truths to varying degree. Indeed, many would even challenge this statement itself as “deliberate” falsehood and a half-truth!  And they would be neither wrong nor right! Even as I strenuously state it with the sincerest of conviction and belief!  To me therefore, it is a fully true statement. And it also does not matter to me if you should consider it a falsehood. 

Indeed, what difference does it matter? Herein lies the challenge in the war against “deliberate” online falsehood. If you don’t believe it, then don’t.  If you believe it, then own it and make it your very own!

In The Prince, Niccolo Machiavelli’s advised that “… he who seeks to deceive will always find someone who will allow himself to be deceived.”  To Machiavelli, the people are simple-minded, naïve and gullible, and therefore can be easily manipulated all the time (by those who have the power to do so). [italic words added are mine]. Indeed, Machiavelli of course could not be more wrong or right.

With today’s Internet, Google, Facebook, Instagram, Whatsapp … etc, we can expect unpredictable hysteria by the “naïve, gullible and simple-minded” at a greater speed and with dire public safety consequences.  Facebook has boasted of its active influence on the Arab Spring.  Both Facebook and Google do not however agreed to any restrictions or ban on the posting of partial truths, falsehoods and fake news. Quite understandably, no social media has the credentials to assume the role as a Truth-Watcher or Gate-Keeper on the Internet.

Every computer or mobile phone is a microphone for anyone who has something to say or write truth to the rest of the world. Indeed, no legitimate voice should be silenced, but it is arguable as to whether every voice should deserve equal air time on the proverbial social media microphone. The opportunity to be heard and thereby to influence is not a natural inherent birth right. Concepts, opinions, perceived facts and thought belong to the marketplace of ideas and innovations in the highly contested space of social reality.  Whatever and whichever prevailed are socially filtered and constructed through a process of mental and cultural construction that differentiate “falsehoods” from the applicable and practicable truths. Unfortunately, this truth-making process is often corrupted and interfered by crooked and less honourable people in positions of power.           

Action Sensors on onLine Falsehoods

It is not within the capability and capacity of the Parliamentary Select Committee into Deliberate Online Falsehoods (PSCDOF), nor does it has the wisdom, competency and moral aptitude, to recommend and define the parameters of the vast arrays of applicable and practicable truths for the diverse Singapore population.

There are three (3) Action Sensors to evaluate whether corrective actions are necessary on alleged online falsehoods. The Action Sensors are (1) Content; (2) Context; and (3) Consequences. They are inter-related to be considered together integratively.  

Content

A mere statement or publication, however disagreeable or objectionable, does not render itself sufficient to be chastised or proscribed or punished. Since most information is incapable to be absolutely 100% true, partially true information likewise cannot be regarded to be totally false. The absolute truthfulness of statements and publications may often be irrelevant to those who find them objectionable or disagreeable.

This is obviously true with regard to any information pertaining to religious beliefs, traditions and practices held by believers or regarded by nonbelievers. Absolute truth is totally immaterial and irrelevant to believers and nonbelievers.

Within science in the disciplines of medicine, physical and biological sciences, there are also wide disagreements over theories, models and methods and which in turn provide the motivation and momentum for further research and their innovations.  Social sciences clashed repeatedly over the validity and reliability of their predictions, findings and theories.      

As long as the contents of statements or publications are within the permissible bounds of applicable defamatory, libel and slander laws, there should be no basis for any punitive actions.

Context

The context of disagreeable or objectionable statements or publications is an important factor to understand the motivation and purpose of their author(s).    What is known regarding the degree of intellectual acuity and their respective depth of technical knowledge in the subject(s) expressed or written about?  What audience or readers are addressed by the authors? Are the purposes personal, educational, political, social, economic and/or casual conversational?  Is the context closed or opened, referring to whether the statements and publications are intended for named individuals or a defined specific group or for the unspecified public?  A careful assessment of the context is critical to adjudge and infer whether the author(s) intend to cause chaos and mischief, harm public safety, denigrate self-respect, destroy self-esteem, entertain, educate and/or informational.            

As long as there is no intention to disrupt social harmony or harm public safety, vigorous debates and conversations among well-informed and knowledgeable individuals in deeply divisive subject matters such as politics, religions, history, traditions and personal preferences, especially where one has the freedom to choose to enjoin, rebut or leave the discussions or debate, there should be no need for any interference by government officials or state authorities. 

Consequences

When the conflation of content and context resulted in damaging the social fabric of harmony, increased religious and racial tensions, disrupting social peace and harm public safety, enforcement actions are not only necessary, they are vital to restore peaceful social order. This is however applicable only in genuinely democratic societies. The strength of democracy does not however require the prohibition of falsehoods, but in their counter arguments and vigorous rebuttal where they matter.

Ironically, in freely democratic elections, the amounts of misinformation which deploy deliberate online and print falsehoods often multiply to overwhelm the voters.  Examples from the USA, UK, Europe and neighbouring nations require no elaboration.

However, to advocate by insisting on absolute truthfulness during elections is disingenuous and naïve. It is also a no-brainer proposition. Internet accessibility drives the momentum of both volume and quantity of information and misinformation.  Just as misinformation, half-truths and fake news are part and parcel of daily human society, they are also indispensably integral for many politicians during elections to grab and win the benefits of power and privileges.  

Use IoT to Manage onLine Falsehoods 

A non-partisan infrastructure comprising a mix of local and foreign election watchers with security enforcement powers is needed to assure that social peace is preserved and public safety maintained at a high level during and between the election periods.

The key in the effective management of online falsehood is NOT the utopian promotion of truth.  It is in the control and minimisation of the negative disruptive consequences of less-than-truthful information that matters. The following four (4) strategies using Internet-of-Things [IoT] can create a favourable impact:

[1] Technology

Eliminate anonymous internet postings.  Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Social Media owners eg Facebook, Twitter, Instagram … etc must maintain registration of the valid and legitimate names of their subscribers who want to access and be accessible from Singapore.  This would also include any websites who allow feedback and comments on all things Singaporeans. Web-site and social media owners shall be held legally and punitively responsible for harm and damage to individuals and public safety.

[2] Education

Develop a high level of debating skills in our students, including critical thinking and independent thought.  Regular research and essay writing on contentious subjects, field trips, followed by presentations and questions from peers, teachers and visitors would help to reduce students’ simple-minded gullibility and naivety.  

[3] Public Discourse

Promote regular public forum to encourage debates and critical discussions on interesting subject topics, and to learn the etiquette of mutually respectful conversations.  This would also raise the quality of comments and debates on the internet.

[4] Legal and Regulatory

Without anonymity, online actors who choose to cause social chaos and mischief, harm public safety, denigrate self-respect and destroy self-esteem of individuals and communities should face the full extent of incarceration and other legal punitive measures.

Freedom is our noble and privileged foundation to secure for ourselves, our children, our grandchildren and fellow Singaporeans the right to speak and write truth to power and the world. Every Singaporean should be educated to know and understand that they should not pre-digest any opinion unthinkingly, and they should not gullibly swallow everything that come through the internet and social media taps.  

Read, listen and research everything of relevance and interest; question all but believe none of them; and arrive at your very own conclusions. There is no other victorious way to combat deliberate online falsehoods.  

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