Importing electricity - Fools will never learn

SINGAPORE: A trial which will see Singapore import electricity from Peninsular Malaysia will be a "useful first step" in preparation for further moves to connect to the regional power grid, said experts.

Announced in late October, the trial will see Singapore import 100 megawatts (MW) of electricity from Malaysia for two years. This will make up about 1.5 per cent of Singapore’s peak electricity demand.

The move is part of Singapore's plan to strengthen the "regional grid architecture", said Minister for Trade and Industry Chan Chun Sing in a keynote speech delivered at the opening of the Singapore International Energy Week in October. 

“This will allow the region to share the clean energy sources that different countries may have, and we’ll start this with Malaysia," he said. "Once the concept takes off, we’ll be able to extend this to other regional players." CNA

The above article proudly told the story of Singapore experimenting with importing electricity from Malaysia. Unbelieveable is the word that came to my mind. Stupidity has no cure also popped up. Would Singapore ever learn from the past, the painful past when we were squeezed by the balls by Malaysia, threatening to cut off our water supply?  Even Indonesia at one point wanted to cut off our supply of natural gas. Now they cancelled the HSR with very serious consequences for Singapore.

What do these mean to Singapore's viability and survival as a nation state? How can a nation, so small, so vulnerable, allows its essential services to be dependent on foreign suppliers, especially those that have exhibited very hostile behaviour towards Singapore and wanting to use the supply and control of essential services to strangle us?

In time of peace, everything looks so fine if one just look as far as the tip of the nose. But politics and international relations can turn sour, turn foul over night and the sleeping partner could turn enemy. Is this too difficult to understand?

But we need more electricity, more power, more water! Really? Nobody is forcing Singapore to expand its population beyond its limited land and resources. Nobody is saying that economic growth is only through population growth. Anyone toying with unlimited population growth is toying with our future, endangering our future. It is an existential issue.

Do not put too much into the mouth and get choke to death. Knowing our limitations and live with those limitations is only being rational and practical, not delusional and gambling with our future. Unless there is new technology that can create water/electricity without depending on our potential enemies, then go ahead. To pursue ambitious economic growth and compromising our security and survival by placing trust and dependency on external parties that have proven untrustworthy is stupidity in the extreme.

Being screwed once is painful but still bearable and we can pick ourselves up, like the water problem by building our own water resources. This is not enough a lesson to learn to be independent? Being screwed a second time, by offering our ass, what to call it? And making long term national plans without the benefits of hindsight, without considering historical precedents, is simply naive and exposing signs of ignorance. Putting faith and trust in the goodwill of potential enemies are simply unmentionable.

It is only 1.5% of our peak requirement, so it is safe. Is that so? Do we want our balls to be squeezed a second time? Drug addiction always starts small and then gets to the point of no return, quite similar to our growing population policy. The balloon must keep on growing....

What do you think?

PS. Just stop the dangerous plan to keep on increasing our population to a point of no return, to undermine our viability as a small island state. Plan to live within our means is an age old wisdom. If we don't have wild ambition of unlimited population growth, we would not need to gamble and make precarious plans that could compromise our well beings and existence. 

In the past we have depended on real foreign experts from the first world to formulate our economic development plans. Then we did not have the talents to do so. Today, do we still need to depend on foreigners to plan for us, do we blindly follow the recommendations of foreigners without thinking and analysing the merits of the plan? Maybe we need to, because we have no talents anymore even after paying them in the millions. And any foreigner is a better talent than our millionaires despite the many frauds that were exposed in the academia.

Did someone say first world Singapore is now depending on third world talents to move back into the third world? If third world talents are so talented, their talents and great ideas would make their third world countries first world, they need not be here to teach the first world nitwits how to progress to third world. 

How to tell the kids in awe of the magicians that their magic is not real?