Time to stop the housing ponzi

The pioneer of Singapore’s public housing, Dr Liu Thai Ker, has spoken on the need for HDB to return the basics. Dr Aline Wong also joined the call. HDB should go back to provide a roof for all Singaporeans. More and more senior elites from the establishment are saying that things are not going right and needed to take a step back. And the solutions offered by Liu Thai Ker to stop the housing ponzi are not calculus but simple common sense. Build public flats with no frills and build a little extra to the supply. The prices of public housing will adjust accordingly.

The same call was made by Boon Wan but with many catches. Back to basics to offer cheaper flats will necessitate adjusting the products for sale and one could end up buying half an apple, like shorter lease, conditions to sell back to HDB and all the jazz. Why like that?

In today’s media, it was reported that 2 rm and 3 rm flats can be sold at a net price of $57k and $159k respectively after setting off the grants. Hey these prices are quite decent and reasonable. If this can be done, why is there a need to tweak the terms of sales to bring down the prices? Many silly suggestions to make HDB prices cheaper were made by muddle head Singaporeans. The actual cost of building public flat is very much lower and the sale price can be brought down without all the silly suggestions. The fact that the cost of building the flats is being kept secret is telling a big story.

What so far transpired in the media is that the Govt is preoccupied with the need to keep property prices going up. If we don’t bring in more migrants, property prices will come down. What rubbish. Now you understand why 6.9m is necessary? It is to prop up property prices as part of the ponzi scheme. The SERS and en bloc sales will not be feasible without more and more buyers in the pipeline. Every old flat pulled down must be replaced by 5 new flats to justify the cost of rebuilding. Thus, it means you need 5 times the buyers to sustain the scheme. The population must continue to grow even after 6.9m if the property price is go be kept up.

This gravity defying act, by meddling with market forces and supply and demand will all come to naught without the increasing influx of migrants. The 99 year lease will dictate that all such flats must end up with zero value unless they can be pulled down before the lease expires. The ponzi scheme must come to an end sooner or later as the island just cannot keep taking in more and more people and the price of flats keep going up while the workers remain as CBF.

It is better to stop the ponzi housing scheme now with lesser people being hurt and less badly than to allow it to snowball to monstrosity and beyond control, like the American national debt. Too big to do anything or unsolvable without a total collapse of the system.

Obituary – Today we mourn the passing of Feed Me To The Fish

A day has passed and no more news from Fish. His blog is filled with condolence messages to Mrs Fish and the family. It is sad that our social media has lost a booming voice in defense of the common Singaporeans. His last stand was in Hong Lim Park on Feb 16. He was not a lone. His family was with him, and the 4000 Singaporeans that turned up to keep him company. It was an opportunity I missed to meet this honourable man.

Fish will be remembered by all the keyboard warriors in cyberspace and all those who read his blog and are touched by his humble sincerity to fight for the average Singaporeans. I can still remember him singing with gusto from his troubled heart,

‘Do you hear the people sing?

Singing the song of angry men

This is the music of a people

Who would not be slaves again!

When the beating of the heart

Echoes the beating of the drums

There is a life about to start when tomorrow comes’

Fish was very happy that night after the Worker’s Party reclaimed Hougang in a by election. He was joyous as he shared the moment with the people on the streets of Hougang and his video with all in cyberspace.

Bless you Fish. RIP.

So much deference, so little substance

‘Former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew was speaking at a dialogue on 20th Mar 2013 organized by Standard Chartered Bank [Link] with US Federal Reserve and former chairman of US President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board, Paul Volcker. Also included was Standard Chartered group CEO Peter Sands.’ Quoted from TRE.

This gathering is best remembered as the last pose to honour the passing of a political giant. His view on population growth as if it is the only way to achieve economic growth was swallowed like a bitter pill, solemnly without much protest, more in due deference to his stature as a senior statesman.

Volcker the economist politely contradicted this flawed growth theory by growing population with this comment, ‘the world “cannot continue to grow” indefinitely, and would have to resign to “being like Japan” eventually. This is in response to LKY lamenting that Japan’s refusal to admit immigrants would see the population halved and eventually becoming nothing. A simple extrapolation on paper may say so, but the realities of how the human race will adjust to different situation will see the race’s continued existence into the future short of a nasty catastrophic disaster.

The assertion that China or all countries must continue to grow their population must be greeted with disbelief. The world would be a better place if the population is reduced by a third, and countries like China and India and even Japan could be better off with a 20% or 30% population reduction. There will be more for everyone and all the unnecessary economic activities to support a bigger population can be made redundant and the resources allocated to more productive and useful things for the rest of the population. Mother earth and the oceans would have a reprieve and time to nurse their wounds and to replenish the livestocks in them.

Population growth for economic growth up to a point becomes meaningless and disastrous, self defeating and self destroying.

The other point harped upon is the value of foreign talents with the assumption that the talents come in peace and to bring goodness to the people. What if the talents are here with their private agenda, to promote their own interests at the expense of the citizens? A country or its govt owes its right to be the govt to look after the interests of its citizens and not the good of foreigners no matter how talented they are. It is treason to allow foreigners to destroy the local population and to rob away their wealth and the right to a good life.

Every country can do away with foreigners when the end result is not a betterment of its citizens. To hell with foreign talents. Every country can grow at their own pace without the need for foreign talents unless these talents are there to advance and complement the general well being of the citizens.

Tan Chuan Jin, We have a situation.

Tan Chuan Jin must have discovered that he has landed up in a shit hole when the lid on the problems of discrimination and victimization of Singaporeans in the job market was lifted. He must be cursing himself for the mess he has inherited. At least Boon Wan did know what he was in for and was prepared to have shit up to his neck in housing. Boon Wan is still struggling but unable to get them off. There were just too much shit and he too deep in shit. The housing problem has taken a life of its own and cutting any corners would cause pain in other corners.

Did Tan Chuan Jin know what he was in for? Before he knew anything, his little stuff is already half cooked. The discussion in Parliament and the peep into the problems were too revealing and frightening to know the whole truth. It seems that he had some preview to what was coming and had some serious discussion with Tharman and needing Tharman’s weight to move some boulders along the path.

There are high expectations from the citizens for Tan Chuan Jin to do a successful Herculean lift. Any half baked measures like in housing will not do. This problem is very serious and hit the citizens real bad and more and more citizens are feeling the pain. Can Tan Chuan Jin rise to the occasion to clear this shit or would he be sucked into the shit hole like Boon Wan?

The PAP, if it knows how much its fate in 2016 rests on how Chuan Jin tackle this issue, must also want him to do a good job and give him all the clout he needs. Tan Chuan Jin cannot fail or he would fail himself and the party. He has only a couple of years to clean up the shit as the smell is spreading too fast and wide.

For an Acting Minister, his task is the biggest and most difficult to unscrew. No lip service and no time to delay, no honeymoon years for this young man. All eyes are on him and the true blue displaced, victimized and discriminated Singaporeans are looking to him like the savior, The One that is coming to lift them up from their miserable existence.

Any foreign company operating here and stuffed by mainly foreigners has very little value add to the people and country except to raise the rentals of office space and property prices. They should not be allowed to be here as there is no gain for us. We are a multi racial country and we must not permit the practice of racism in the country and worst, against our very own citizens by foreigners. No organization must be allowed to practice racism in our country. Their licences must be cancelled with immediate effect if they are found guilty of this racist act.

The ball is now in Tan Chuan Jin’s feet. He can pick it up, blow the whistle or continue to play the game like them shiok, nothing wrong what. Have Singaporeans been led to the slaughter house with blinkers on?

Open letter to Acting Minister over Unfair Unemployment Practices at banks in spore

Complaint Against Unfair Unemployment Practices at Swiss Italian Private Bank

Dear Acting Minister,
It has been almost a month since our email dated 22 Feb 2013 was sent to your kind self. And it's extremely disappointing that we have not heard from you nor your ministry to date.

We sincerely hope you are not merely paying lip service to your own pledge in Nov 2011 to ensure that Singaporeans remain the core of our workforce in companies operating here.

Being accountable for what you have said, we would like to highlight the unfair unemployment practices against Singaporeans at a Swiss Italian private bank XXX Bank. We would like to know what actions are you or your ministry going to take to rectify the situation.

1) Until the middle of last year, almost all the Heads of Department/Section in the bank’s Wealth Management Department consist of foreign Indians:

Head of WMS (Malaysian Indian)
Head of Active Advisory (India Indian)
Head of Strategic Advisory (UK Indian)
Head of Investment Strategy (India Indian)
Head of Structured Product (India Indian)

It was only in May 2012 that a local was engaged by the bank as Head of Product Strategy. And that was the result of an unfortunate event further elaborated below.

Where is the hiring and developing of a Singaporean Core the TAFEP and the government have been advocating all this time?

2) Sometime in late 2011, an anonymous complaint letter against one of the India Indians was sent to the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Instead of launching an investigation into the India indian, the bank shockingly chose to cover up for the latter and terminated the services of 2 Singaporeans. They then created the Product Strategy to take over some of the major responsibilities held by the India Indian in an effort to minimise the damage done.

Prior to that, the Singaporean Head of WMS was forced to step down after he openly questioned the competency of the same India Indian. The Deputy CEO, another India Indian, also reduced the Singaporean's responsibilities and remuneration, and this led to his resignation.

In all, it's disheartening that 3 Singaporeans lost their jobs simply because the management chose to shield one of their own kind.

Where is the protection afforded to Singaporeans against biased senior management who use unfair hiring/firing to favour their own countrymen in this case?

3) The bank has a discriminatory hiring practice, using every opportunity to recruit foreign Indians, whenever possible, for positions within the WMS department. It is not hard to understand why, given that the Deputy CEO is an India Indian.

Some examples: In Nov 2010, the bank went all the way out to recruit an India Indian for the position of Investment Analyst in the department.

Sometime in Mar 2011, another India Indian was also employed by the bank as an Advisory Associate in the same department when all these low level positions could have easily been filled by local Singaporeans.

Even the department’s risk manager is a new Singapore citizen who was previously an India Indian.

In fact, almost half the interns in the department during 2010 and 2011 are foreign Indians. Furthermore, if you exclude the investment advisors reporting to XXX HK (but based in Singapore), more than half the advisors ranked AVP and above in the department are foreign Indians too. This is clearly unacceptable.

We completely agree with Mr. Brenton Ong's letter to the ST Forum dated 28 Feb 2013 that many Singaporeans are unhappy with the "liberal recruitment of foreign professionals, managers and executives". In fact, almost 9 out of 10 Singaporeans now support curbs on foreign workers, especially PMETs.

In a ST article dated 25 Jan 2013, the Prime Minister was quoted as saying the PAP government is on the side of Singaporeans. Is it really true... then why are there so many foreigners performing jobs that can be easily filled by locals?

And in many cases, the foreign talent are not as "talented" as what the government paints them to be. They are simply here at the expense of Singaporeans, taking advantage of the government's lax pro foreigner policies.

As such, the PAP government especially the Ministry of Manpower must be held fully accountable (to what they have said) by investigating and penalizing firms with discriminatory employment practices and hiring/firing policies. Otherwise, we should vote for somebody else who can protect Singaporeans' jobs. Thank you.

The above letter is posted in TRE and CNA forum. I copied from the latter.

Foreign talents needed?

‘A TR Emeritus (TRE) reader posted a comment [Link] on TRE yesterday (19 Mar) highlighting that a Junior College (JC) is looking for English tutors for its international scholars.’

It is normal for a college to hire a good English tutor to teach English or GP. Wait a minute, the adjective English means the subject English and not a native English tutor. There is no requirement to engage a native speaking English tutor to teach the subject when a local Singaporean can do the job equally well. And don’t forget, many Singaporeans are technically native English speakers as English is the language they were borne with and spoken for their whole life in an English speaking environment. The criteria shall be good grades in English, trained or experienced in teaching the subject and not being English. Being English has nothing to do with being able to teach the language well.

The confusion with the term talent and ability has been so misleading, wishy washy that many Singaporeans have been conned and stupidly accept the presence of foreign talents. Allow me to give a simple example to illustrate the silliness of people at the top. If a photographer is assigned to take a picnic or dinner event, what camera shall he use? A point and shoot, a prosumer mid price camera, an entry point DSLR or a high end professional DSLR? If the result is to print 4R or 5R prints, actually any of these cameras with at least a 6 megapixel sensor is more than adequate for the job. Anything more, a DSLR, entry level or professional, is over killed. There is no need for the additional resolution and camera power. Most of the shots are point and shoot scenario. Even some difficult lighting situations would not be a problem with a point and shoot. There is no need for a foreign talent or super talent when a normal talent will be more than adequate to do the job. This does not take into account that many foreign talents fall short of being talent or are really worst off than local talents, or fakes. Many jobs can be done by any Singaporean.

In the case of the English tutor, what does this mean, only a native speaking English native can do or anyone proven to be good with good grades would be better able to do the job? Singapore in practice is an English speaking society and our understanding and command of the language are not inferior to native English speakers. You are looking at the professional level and not the Ah Lians in the shopping centres. If the ad is to engage native English, it is an insult to the abilities of all good English Language teachers here, and an insult to the person putting up the ad as well.

He knows not what he is doing. Still living in the 1950s and 60s. I hope I am wrong and indeed the college is not looking for native English tutors but just good English Language tutors. It could be just the way it is worded.

A national manpower audit is needed in the banking, finance and IT industry

‘Acting Minister for Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin talked about creating fair and inclusive workplaces for Singaporeans… one important aspect is to take a firm stand against discriminatory employment practices against Singaporeans (‘Minister Tan: We’re taking a firm stand against discriminatory employment practices‘)….

He broke down the frustrations of Singaporeans into three categories:

1. ‘hiring-their-own-kind’ practices

2. Undue Haste in the Recruitment Process

3. Lower-cost foreign professionals substituting Singaporean PMEs’

The above is quoted from an article in TRE about Tan Chuan Jin’s reply to Gerald Giam in Parliament. He also mentioned a few meetings he had with employers about the problem and Tharman was also involved. This showed that the matter was taken at very high level. But from what he had said, it appeared that MOM was just starting to scratch the surface of a huge problem that has remained buried for too long and not enough is being done.

What the MOM could do for a start is to do an audit of all the financial institutions on the breakdown of their PME staff and with Singaporean stated clearly as a separate group and not lumped together with PRs. The audit should also be extended to institutions and businesses that hired a lot of IT personnel. This act alone will show the employers that the govt meant business and it is time to clean up their dubious acts against Singaporeans or the Govt will do the cleaning for them.

Perhaps the MOM can make it more transparent by reporting a few companies that have been discriminating against Singaporeans in the workplace in the main media. Let’s give the main media a chance to do a patriotic act for once. I am repeating this word ‘Singaporean’ to be distinct from PRs. In fact it is opportune for the Govt to separate Singaporeans from PRs to give a clearer picture of the shit Singaporeans have been stuffed in their mouth without knowing in all official statistics.

Scratching a few pimples is not enough. The problem is massive and widespread and the Singaporeans demand more positive intervention from the Govt. The May Day protest Rally at Hong Lim must include this as a major issue.

Some people have asked what’s next after the protest Rally? Is it just to be there as a show of force or should the organizers work towards some kind of actions like a petition to the Hsien Loong. Don’t bother about a petition to the President. It is not in his terms of reference to meddle with such issues. He has more important tasks to take care of, like guarding our reserves. The MOM can talk, the protest Rally can talk, but what is urgently needed are concrete steps to stop the rot as it is hurting Singaporeans badly for too long.

Misplaced smugness is not appreciated

In the comment & analysis page of the Today paper there is an article by a Charles Tan Meah Yang, writing from London about his feel of the social political scene here. He is an Investment Analysis working in London and should be above average in IQ and what he said must be worthy to be given prominence in the main media.

He raised two points, 1, Singaporeans should stop making emotionally charged, one sided complaints if they are unwilling to offer pragmatic suggestions/solutions and defend them vigorously against scrutiny. 2, politicians need to avoid making unilateral decisions without due communication to the electorate; they too must be prepared to justify and defend their policies instead of waving off concerns.

I fully agree with his second point but totally disagree with his first. His premise is that Singaporeans can complain but must also come out with a solution. This is flawed in many ways and smell of misplaced smugness. In the first place, most people that complained are your average citizens and you cannot expect them to be able to come up with a coherent and workable solution to national issues. And why should they when they are not paid to do so while the people in charge are full time doing the job, with all the information, supporting staff and resources and being handsomely rewarded?

He quoted an example of a chat with a taxi driver and concluded that the people are complaining but not able to give a solution. But that is exactly the point. If the people can provide the solution, there is no need to employ all the super talents with super talented pay. He unconsciously admitted that feedback is important to the Govt and that is exactly what the people are doing, feedback, kpkb when it hurts, complained to let the Govt know.

Does anyone really think that the men in the street, not on the job, without the information and resources, could do a better job or do the job for the ministers and his ministries? And if he cannot provide the solution he should shut up? Who then is going to provide the feedback to the Govt? This reminds me of what someone said, if one is going to comment about politics, one must join a political party. What crap! It is the job of the people who are paid to do the job to do a good job especially when they demanded out of this world salary. It is the right of the people to comment, to kpkb and to curse and swear when things are not right or hurting them.

Did I make my point clear? Is this logic so difficult to understand? Any minister that still talks cock and demand a solution from the people that complain needs to be knocked hard on his head. This kind of smugness is not appreciated and unwarranted. You want me to give you a solution to do the job for you, pay me the consultancy fee. There is no free lunch. What you take the people for?

REACH – 9 in 10 support tighten foreign workers

‘REACH announced today (18 Mar) that in a telephone poll, close to 9 in 10 of respondents were supportive of measures to tighten foreign worker inflow.’ This is the findings of the Govt feedback website. What is laughable is that though a tightening of foreign workers is desirable, it misses the main issue of the citizen’s pain. It is not foreign workers that the Singaporeans are angry about. It is jobs at the PMET level that qualified and experienced local PMETs have been booted out and replaced by foreigner that really matters. While the people were kpkb about foreign talents, the Govt apparently refused to engage on this and kept talking about foreign workers when many of the jobs at these level were shunned by the locals. The local PMETs want to be employed and are angry for being replaced.

In another article by Reuter, I quote, ‘Citigroup (C.N), the largest banking employer in Singapore, said more than 80 percent of its nearly 10,000 staff in the city-state were Singapore citizens or permanent residents.’ This is likely the case in many banks including local banks. Even Jollibee when faced with a boycott, sang the same song, that 79% of its employed are Singaporeans and PRs. What is the problem with these statements? PRs are not citizens, not Singaporeans. How many of these employed are Singaporeans? The statistics must be broken down to reflect the actual number or percentage of Singaporeans that are employed at PME level. The country does not belong to PRs.

The Govt must be serious in tackling this discrimination against Singaporeans in the work place. Two things the Govt can do, 1, imposed a quota on Singaporeans versus others at PME level, and 2, all GLCs and Govt agencies, including ministries must hire a Singaporean to head the HR dept or division. This is to ensure more transparency and to protect Singaporean interests. These are the minimum the Govt can do to protect its citizens. If the Govt cannot even do this, it has failed in is duty to protect its people and it is time for a change of Govt.

Following these, the MOM and Tafep must investigate and take the errant employers to task with heavy fines and curtailing their privileges to hire foreigners. Forget about the shit that foreign companies will scoot and move out from this city. Hiring foreigners is only a small part of the whole picture of the attractiveness of Singapore as a business centre and HQ. There are many anecdotes of foreign companies bringing in inexperience young graduates to be trained by the locals and subsequently be promoted to boss over the same locals.

The whole employment policies on hiring foreign talents at PME and top management level need an overhaul. We cannot keep filling these positions with foreigners, including PRs, and hollow out our local talent pool. Eventually no local talents can fill these positions. The Govt is doing the people a disservice if this is allowed to continue like it is now.

Fair hiring policies for hiring locals

There is a small column on the front page of ST yesterday with this clip, ‘Governments around the world must ensure citizens get a fair shot at landing jobs in the face of competition from foreign workers. As Singapore grapples with this delicate balancing act, a team of Straits Times correspondents examines how the authorities in Britain, Australia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia are dealing with this thorny issue.’

It is amazing but good that the main media is starting to show an interest in the unfair practices in the job market against the citizens. Does this mean that they were not interested before, did not know that there is a big problem here, or not told to cover this topic? Anyway, now that they are interested, let’s hope they will do more investigative journalism to reveal the plight of the jobless or underemployed PMETs here and give a helping hand to Gilbert Goh in Transitioning.org. Businesses and employers that discriminate against Singaporeans must be exposed and taken to task. After all these PMETs are fellow citizens or could be their friends or friend’s friends or some distant relatives. But no, these PMETs are mostly remotedly linked to some of the correspondents or not at all. Among the correspondents that wrote on the subjects were Jonathan Eyal, Jonathan Pearlman, and Li Xueying from HongKong. I presume Lee Seok Hwai, Tan Hui Yee and Zakir Hussain are Singaporeans.

What did they discover? All the countries practises a similar policy of citizens first to the extent of being protectionist. They believe in looking after their citizens first and foreigners last. How silly of them, no wonder their countries are not as progressive as Singapore. They are losing all the great talents from the whole world. Did I hear that some foreign talents in Singapore are going to scoot when the Govt is going to tighten hiring of foreigners? Would they be welcome in these countries mentioned? Would these countries open their arms in eager expectation to welcome these foreign talents?

Some of the comments in the articles were: ‘Britain operates one of the strictiest foreign labour control regimes in the industrialized world.’ In HongKong there were three hurdles to cross and a Supplementary Law to regulate the inflow of foreign workers so that the job prospects and wage levels of local workers would be protected. And ‘Australia has a varied arsenal of weapons to protect the interests of local job applicants against foreign competition….The President of the Migration Institute of Australia, Ms Angela Chan, said the requirements for sponsoring foreigners were “very tough” and were designed to compel employers to try to hire locals.’ In Taiwan, ‘Locals over foreigners’ is written into Law. ‘Article 42 of the Employment Services Act, which took effect in 1992, says, “no employment of foreign workers may jeopardize national’s opportunity in employment, their employment terms, economic development or social mobility.’

In Thailand, ‘A 1973 decree…forbids foreigners from working in 39 fields, including hair cutting and shoemaking. Neither can a foreigner be a tour guide or a lawyer. Medical professionals must take a test in Thai before being allowed to practice. Indonesia also has strict laws to restrict foreign white collar workers to specific sectors and permits need to be renewed annually. There were only 55,000 foreigners working in Indonesia in 2011.

What does all this information mean? These countries are protectionists and thus unprogressive. No wonder Singapore is number One, the fastest growing global city. And foreigners working here have all the blessings from the Govt. This one no country can beat. And we have a MOM and Tafep. Now who are these organizations protecting? I believe they are protecting the Singaporeans and PRs. And I also believe the MOM knows exactly the practices of the above mentioned countries and must have designed our foreign talent policies in line with their practices.

Singapore and Singaporeans are number One. Would the media go on a crusade to save jobs for our PMETs? Or would these reports be a one off case and nothing will be mentioned again and local PMETs continue to be cast aside while foreign talents take all the plum jobs from them?

Is National Conversation meant to be serious?

The Natcon has been a govt initiative to discuss about the future of the country and the well being of the people. I think this is the agenda. And I think this is a very serious matter and should include bread and butter issues. Or should the Natcon be about painting a wonderful future, a fantasy land to feel good about? Should the problems facing the people, especially the young people that are going to live the future be of a major concern and topic in the Natcon?

What do you think? Should serious bread and butter issue be raised and discussed?

Japan in a mood for war

Under the revived hawkish leader PM Abe, Japan is geared to return to militarism and is calling for war. It is going to tear away all the pacific treaties signed with the Americans after the defeat in WW2. The cries of war are all over Japan. Japan will fight to keep the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands it seized from China at all cost. There is a new tension, a romanticism of old Imperial Japan that once ruled East Asia.

Japan is a small country relative to China but is threatening China once again. It chased Chinese surveillance ships at Diaoyu/Senkaku, arrested Chinese fishing boats, nationalized the Islands as Japanese territories, scrambled fighter jets to intercept non military aircraft from China. It is boosting its defence expenditure to acquire more military aircraft and ships. Wherever Abe stepped foot on, he is calling for tougher actions to defend the Islands and accusing China of provocations. It even tried to convince the Obama regime to join force to fight China. It is trying to convince the Asean countries that China is the enemy.

Japan is still caught in the memories of the 19th and 20th Centuries when, despite its smallness in size, could raid and invade neighbouring countries that were poor and underdeveloped, including a broken China that was bankrupt of everything except a sea of poor peasants. Under those circumstances, Japan, like the Europeans powers, with their huge military hardware and soldiers, could look superior to the rest. It conquered Korea, Manchuria, Southeast Asia and almost the whole of China.

China was weak and had no resources to fight a war, no finance, no modern industries, no modern armies, a corrupt leadership under a dying Manchu Dynasty and an inexperienced bunch of revolutionaries. But China fought with all the handicaps and weaknesses to prevent the country from being taken over by the invading Japanese. The Japanese could control some major cities but not the Chinese people in the whole country. In a war of attrition, Japan could never subdue and rule China even at it poorest and deplorable condition.

The China today is a renewed nation with resources, finances and all the industries, including war industries, and the three armed military services with modern weaponry and a central united command. Japanese must be in delusion to think that it still can fight China when the cards are stacked differently this time, in favour of China. A war between Japan and China would tell a completely different story.

The reality today is that Japan is a small country, small in every aspect, even the military forces vis a vis China. No matter how much Japan militarized and armed its people, it is still a small country to China. It is now a mismatch that only the Japanese hawks refuse to see. A small country like Japan wants to go to war with China and thinking of winning?

The new China and new Chinese are no longer poor hungry peasants and rag tag soldiers. There is a new vibrancy and spirit in these new people who believe in a new destiny. As far as China is concerned, Japan is no longer a threat. Period.

All the hawkish calls in Tokyo are just a make belief, a drumming up of national pride and arrogance but refusing to admit the new reality. Japan is no longer in the same league as China. It would even have problems attacking Korea and could be the other way. It would not be able to run through Southeast Asia like it used to do. Vietnam would simply stop it in its path.

Japan, Abe and all the hawks and rightists leaders are dreaming in the past. The world has changed. Japan is a small country and cannot be a big power that it used to be. Those days are over. The earlier that Japan recognizes this hard truth the better it is for the Japanese to live under the new world order and be a respectable world citizen, without having wild thoughts of going to war. This time it would not be Hiroshima and Nagasaki being flattened. The whole of Japan will be waste land and the casualties will make Japanese a threatened life form.

HR professionals must do national service to recruit Singaporeans

Nation building has been a continuous process for this little island of less than 50 years. We became a nation by accident in a way, by the grace of colonialism and a twist of fate. The colonialists came, grabbed whatever they wanted from the nascent countries everywhere when the natives were still evolving in different stages of civilisation. Nationhood was an alien concept to these tribal people that grew and lived naturally in their land. There were tribal chiefs, princes, kings, sultans, rajas etc etc but no nation or country recognisable with defined territories and sovereignties. The borders were porous, expanded or shrunk depending on the powers of the chieftains. It was easy for the colonialists to take over everything under the barrel of their guns. They lumped everything they could seize under their empires, breaking down all barriers of tribes, kingdoms or whatever.

Singapore existed for many centuries as a loot of the British Empire, part of the Straits Settlements that include Malacca and Penang, three entities separated by land and water hundreds of miles apart. The colonialists treated them as little jigsaw pieces and pieced them together or took them apart at their whims and fancies. Immigrants moved freely with the consent of the colonialists to meet their needs of the moment. There was no citizenship, no ownership, just subjects of Empires or free or indentured labour marketed by the human traders of the day.

1959, 1963 and 1965 were milestones in our history that saw this island becoming a country and nation with its own citizens. This was followed by years of daily drumming of a nation state, of being citizens of a country, our country, our people and our land. We have to gel as one people. And as citizens, live, work and fight to earn our rights to be equal in our very own country. We pledge to look after one another, for a better life for ourselves and our children.

We almost made it as a nation, almost, until things took a crooked turn. Overnight we were told we were not a nation or just a nation in the making, just a city. Worst, some even regard it as a hotel, free for all, anyone can come and stake his claim in the island, just like the citizens, with no barriers to entry. The silly cries of meritocracy prevailed and became the mantra of the day. Anyone that is good, or faked to be good, has all the right to step over the undead bodies of the citizens, to climb over them for the fruits of labour planted by the pioneers of this islands, the forebears of the daft citizens.

Meritocracy was embraced without question and distinction of nationalities. Many citizens fell on the sidelines and were disregarded as losers and have no place and right to protest. They were seen as simply no good. Foreign talents, the biggest myth that is being perpetuated in this city, not a country, are the new privileged class. They have more rights than the citizens by virtue of their claims to talents. The truth, many were fakes or just below average cons from third world countries.

The slack and neglect to recognise the worth and rights of citizens have allowed many foreigners to be here, some issued with citizenships, some as PRs, some with Employment Passes to dominate the job market in executive, managerial and top management levels. No one cares. Everyone forgotten that we are a country, a nation of people. We invited foreigners to take over our jobs and our city. And the foreigners were not going to be shy about this golden opportunity offered to them by the daft citizens of this failed nation. They seized the moment to dig in, bring in all their tribes, to set root here, easing or knocking down the citizens to make way for their buddies and tribesmen to gain a foothold in a paradise painted with gold. They are now entrenched, all with the blessing of top management and the human resource practitioners. And the best part, the govt did not know and has nothing to do with it.

The management of businesses and private institutions are only interested in their bottom lines. And the HR staff just tagged along, to recruit foreigners without a thought to the citizens. I think even ministries and GLCs too did not bother or care a hoot that they are taking in non citizens and abandoning the citizens. It was just not something that matters. Citizens, non citizens, they all look alike, they only want the headcounts.

The problem grows and is now a big problem when the displaced citizens have grown too big to be ignored. There is a sudden awakening, the disadvantaged citizens are not going to take it lying down anymore. They are staking their claims as citizens and wanted to be treated as citizens above others.

The management of businesses and enterprises, the ministries and GLCs and their HR now have a job cut out for them. They have a national duty to recruit citizens first above all else. All management and HRs must start to take care of citizens or failing which, they too will be replaced in a matter of time.

The HRs is the first line of defence of the citizen’s rights to employment. They must stop the crazy calls of meritocracy and foreign talents and start to think country, nation and citizens first. And they must report discrimination and victimisation of citizens at workplace by foreigners or management if they are unable to make things right. The HRs must stand on the side of the miserable citizens that have lost their jobs to foreigners, to give citizens a chance to employment, to reclaim their rights to work and live with dignity as citizens of a nation, not a hotel without owners.

The human resource practitioners have a vital role to care for the citizens and to protect the citizens from the hordes of foreigners here to replace the citizens from their jobs. This is a call to the HR practitioners to do national service. Their job is not to blindly recruit foreigners and to kick the citizens aside. Their future is with the citizens of this nation and they must close ranks with the citizens, to move forward together as one people. They must not be the enemies of the citizens of this country.

Hsien Loong visiting Washington as the White Knight

Hsien Loong is scheduled to meet Obama next month at Washington. Obama must be eagerly waiting for him this time as Hsien Loong is likely to bring along a big container of cash with him. And the Americans, especially the arms merchants must be praying that Hsien Loong arrived safely and be treated with more than a red carpet welcome.

The fate of the trouble stricken F35 multi role fighter of the American Empire could be saved by the White Knight in Hsien Loong. In yesterday’s paper it was said that the F35 is risking diving into a ‘death spiral’ because of the US budget cut. The Americans are running out of cash to support the production of this aircraft with many order cancellations or reductions. This would push up the already unbelieveable cost of several hundred millions per piece.

Hsien Loong could simply whisper to Obama for a bargain. How about Singapore picking up all the slacks, say we take a hundred pieces, we pay cash, but at a price Singapore cannot refuse, not with the normal Singapore premium of course? Singapore is fame for buying rubbish, troubled or bankrupt companies and paying a premium for it. The F35 is in deep shit and Singapore can come to the rescue without having to pay a hefty premium for them. Like they said, it is a win win deal, not the kind like Citibank or whatever banks Singapore bought and lost more money during the financial crisis .

With this deal, Singapore not only can scrap all the F5s, it can also lelong the F16s and replaced them with the F35s. The capabilities of these aircraft would make Singapore the most powerful airpower in the region, at least on paper. And Obama and his arms merchants will be eternally grateful to this rich kid that comes out of nowhere to save their lives.

Picking up a hundred pieces of F35s should be no problem with the profits made from the two SWFs. Sup sup suey. Bring them home.

We tax our sicks, our oldies, our jobless,…

I must keep repeating this if I have to. We claim to have the lowest personal income tax in the world or among the rich countries. We practise progressive taxations and tax the rich more than the poor. Really?

Please don’t forget that with GST, everyone is taxed, rich or poor, alive or dead, and the worst are the sick and the jobless, retirees.  If you talk about progressive taxations, the GST taxes the most at the poor and jobless level as all the items they consumed, including services, are taxed. And I say again, those that are yet to be borne or those who have left, dead, would still need to pay GST for their last journey.

As for the sick, what kind of people would levy taxes on people already sick, suffering, and being robbed in the hospitals by unprecedented hospital bills? Did the Sultan of Brunei’s relative pay GST as well? For those multi million dollar bills, at 7%, it is quite a handsome sum. But they are really nothing to the super rich. It is the 7% levied on the low incomes, in basic necessities, essentials and medical, that is really inhuman. I sounded like a softie socialist on a Sunday morning. : )

PS. The special children with disorder syndromes also pay heavily for GST.

It’s my child, no way….

Parental love is unmatched in human kindness, unparallelled, priceless and only one way, to give all they had.  Eve Yap wrote an article in the Sunday Times on the special love that parents sacrificed their precious children that come in all forms and shapes and sizes. She blurted out with a long list of disorders that children could be inflicted with, Antley Bixler syndrome, Pyruvate dehydrogenase complex deficiency, Cornelia de Lange syndrome and spinal muscular atrophy, just to name a few, would have murdered the parents trying to pronounce these words and understand what they are. These are names of serious disorders that threaten the normal physical and mental development of children and are often live threatening. Children struck with such disorders need special care, full day attention, costly operations, special diet and may have their lives terminated at the slightest mishap.

It is at times like this, when the parents are most vulnerable, physically, financially, emotionally drained and psychologically in despair that the best in human kindness and parental love are displayed beyond belief. These parents gave up jobs to stay by their babies, struggle with debts to pay for their diet, operations and care, and suffered emotional and psychological stigmatisation for having difficult babies. Hurt, stressed out, emotionally and financially, they soldiered on with babies that may not even reach pre schools. Forget about the straight As and the beautiful family photographs to show around. The lives of these parents evolved around the lives of their babies. Nothing else matters. They live each day for their special babies.

One couple were asked three times over a period of five years if they wanted the child to be resuscitated. The answer was Yes. ‘As long as her child wills it, they will fight alongside her.’

Parents in such difficult parenthood conundrum could take the easy way out like our govt policy on foreign talents. If the locals are not good enough, replace them with foreign talents, the best that money can buy. Why struggle and waste time on one that is not going to make it? If only parents were so mean and calculative, things would be very different. But no parents worth the name of being called mother or father would abandon their children when their children needed them most. Parental love supercedes all things, particularly human greed for money and financial well being. 

Thank God humans are not made the way politicians are made. Politicians pride themselves by calling them tough decisions to make for the good of country and people. The meaning of self sacrificing parents does not come with what is in it for me or how much. The dire the situation, the greater the love and devotion and sacrifice from the parents.

Policies that gone too far

If there is anything that this Govt is to be remembered for it must be the string of policies that have gone too far and no longer able to pull back to avoid further damages to people and country. My apologies, this is just my view. The Govt definitely disagree and believe all the policies are well thought out and calibrated. There cannot be any policy that is not carefully conceived and allowed to go too far. And all the policies are good for the people and country. These are the two extreme views of where Govt policies are heading and the consequences or benefits that came along.

I would just name a few that I think have gone too far with disastrous impact on the people and country. Some in the Govt, especially the ministers, still think that high ministerial pay is a matter of a few plates of char kway teow. The truth is that it filters down to the top few levels of political leaders and the top civil servants that ended with a huge payroll that the people will have to pay. This spreads to affect practically every aspect of the country’s social and economic activities leading to extremely high cost of living that is going to destroy the fabric and lifestyle of the average citizens. High ministerial salary is not a simple and isolated matter. It is felt in every corner of the country from the industries, the high compensation expected by all the top management and professionals to high property and car prices and high prices of everything.

High prices of properties and cars were allowed to carry on for too long with the Govt believing they are good things. Must be. They quietly and happily sanctioned the trend, and for those with many properties, seeing their net worth ballooning without having to work. It must be very good. Such selfish and short sighted views are expected from leaders without 20/20 vision, quite natural. By the time they realised that the policies have gone too far, there is no returning back. The various excuses that Boon Wan shared in Parliament are the hard truths that the people must live with. There is no turning back and those that cannot keep up, the only way is to sell them half a flat or a quarter of a flat.

As for high car prices, the fat bank account ministers would be saying cannot afford there is the efficient public transport as an option. And the higher the prices of car, of taxis, the better it is as it is only natural that luxury and convenience come with a price. They can afford all the luxuries with their extremely high income and there is no need to spare a thought for the losers who cannot make it.

The most serious policy that has gone too far is population growth and the influx of foreigners. Singaporeans are now virtually a minority in their home country. The call for foreigners to integrate with Singaporeans is a farce. The time has come for Singaporeans to integrate with foreigners and learn and to accept the foreigners’ way of life and idiosyncrasies. What is dire is that the Singaporeans have been battered and cowed all the years by the Govt that they have lost their fighting spirit of a can do people. They have resigned to their fate that the only way forward is to migrate or accept a lower existence here, playing second fiddle to foreigners taking over their jobs and a better life.

The revelation of the great numbers of foreigners here is simply frightening and beyond belief. And the numbers, and the Govt’s constant reminder of how great the foreigners are and how grateful the citizens must show to their saviours have bred a legion of foreigners who have no qualms in rubbishing the citizens, discriminate and victimise them at place of work and employment opportunities. And no one cares, no one bothers, no one in the Govt really cares two hoots of such a vicious development in the country of Singaporeans.

The recent show of disapproval in Parliament is a sickening farce. How could the parliamentarians raise the issues now as if they just woke up from their sleep, or were their minds went on holiday all this while?  And funny, they took the cue from the netizens. They heard it from the netizens. They did not know, really, they did not know. Or was it again another policy that they knew and approved and went along and allowed it to go too far?

Immediate and tough measures must be taken immediately by the MOM to mean business and return the country to Singaporeans. The country has been invaded and the foreigners have taken over many parts of the island, including businesses and high paying jobs. Talk cock and sing songs in Parliament are just that.

These are just a couple of examples of policies allowed to go too far. There are many many more that have resulted in higher and higher cost of living, the medical fees, education and allowing the tertiary institutions to be swarmed with foreigners to replace the local academics. How silly can it be? And the replaced academics too behave like daft and helpless average Sinkies, accepting their fate and cannot do anything about it.

Is there still time to recover the country from these wild policies that take on a life of their own to the detriment of people and country?  Is it too late for anything to be done and Singaporeans should just raise their hands and the white flag, give up their country and move their butts somewhere else. Let the better talented foreigners to keep the Singapore flag flying, if they did not change it sometimes in the future? Should the country exist for the people or people for the country?

They are going to bring in more foreigners to increase the population to 6.9m in 2030. So, has the population and immigration policies gone too far or still have many miles to go? They why the spectacle of protest and speaking up for Singaporeans and why not revisit the Population White Paper to stop the flow of more immigrants? As long as the White Paper is not stop, all the talks are meaningless, simply wayang. There is a big connect between the White Paper and the fate of Singaporeans facing the influx of more immigrants.

Big brother wants to check our underwear

After several weeks of saying no to the Americans for a reinvestigation into the Shane Todd suicide case, Singapore has finally caved in. Shanmugam has promised a public enquiry with full participation by the Americans, including the Todd family. The concerns of the Todd family on the death of their son which they understood was not simply a suicide, is understandable. All families will be in grief over the premature death of their children and would want to know the truth. When there is doubt being raised, it is difficult for the parents to want to let it go and move on. I sympathise and emphatise with the Todd family.

From the angle of compassion and the misgivings of the parents, it is good that a thorough investigation be conducted to appease the family and clear all lingering doubts. From the perspective of a country, allowing such a request could have many negative implications. The first misgiving is a kind of agreement that our Police may not have done a good job. This brings forth a question of integrity and competence of the men in blue. And if it is proven that they were less than professional in their investigation, it would not be pretty.

The other issue is the honour and sovereignty of a nation and its legal and administrative system. By allowing another govt to demand a re investigation over the death of its citizens is setting a very dangerous precedent that may be difficult to ignore for similar requests in the future. What this request amounts to is that a big and powerful country can demand and insist to be invited in to conduct their own inquiry if it is unhappy or does not agree with another country’s findings.

We may have excellent relations with the US, but we are not the 52nd state of the USA. We are a first world country, rule by law, full transparency and a professional police force with many officers trained by the Americans and the FBI. We have adopted many of the good practices of the Americans. Why is our professional integrity being questioned? If nothing undoing is discovered, life goes on. If more doubts are discovered or negligence or inadequacy, quite easily to claim and dispute, there will be many red faces.

How many people would want to be stripped to their underwear for a third party to have a look, to check and fumble with the testicles?

$8 by pass, 30% cheaper flats…?

Boon Wan must have read all the negative comments after his infamous $8 open heart by pass surgery in Class A ward. Thought he would be more careful as his popularity among the people fell by a few notches. Anymore such blurbs would be disastrous to his credibility and what he said. People would be more careful when he said things that are too good to be true.

When he announced in Parliament that HDB was going back to basics, to provide housing for the people, I refused to use the word affordable anymore, I thought he really meant business this time round. I was kind of encouraged when he said new flats could be 30% cheaper. I don’t doubt the feasibility of this as the actual cost, still a non transparent transparent official secret, is definitely something to hide from the people. The building cost is definitely quite low and the sales price of HDB flats can be brought down much lower than 30%, if only the true construction cost is known. Anyway, I gave him the benefit of the doubt even though it was too good to be true.

Now, to the disappointment of everyone again, but many have seen it coming, the 30% cheaper flats will come with many conditions. Simply put, he is pitching to sell an apple for half its price, but it will be half an apple, not the whole apple. Singaporeans are used to this kind of talks, nothing new anymore. The worrying thing is the 6.9m population and the higher quality of living in 2030. Read the fine prints or wait for all the terms and conditions that have yet to be spelt out.

PMETs, level playing field is not good enough

Parliament discussed quite a bit about the plight of local PMETs being discriminated and victimized by foreign companies and even local companies that have foreigners in the management. The sad thing about this episode is that if the kpkb in cyberspace was not there, no one wanted to know of this problem. It was not reported in the main media and neither was MOM doing much about it. And the daft PMETs accepted their pathetic existence to become self employed, under employed or unemployed.

The whole thing is so ridiculous when the citizens allowed themselves to be bashed around in their homeland. This may be due to the current day mantra that Singapore is no longer for Singaporeans. Some said publicly that it is an empty slogan. I think it is and that is why this employment shit is hitting the fan. It is all about meritocracy and foreigners who claimed or faked and deceived to look meritorious will get the cake. Or is it meritocrazy, when merit is as fake as a degree from the degree mill?

So finally the MOM knows about this problem, the ministers and MPs know that there is such a problem affecting Singaporeans and degrading Singaporeans and robbing Singaporeans of their dignity and self respect, by fucking foreingers. This is like a scientific discovery! The worst affected is the finance industry. We are a major financial centre and we are employing third world talents or people from third world villages to be our finance professionals as if we don’t have people qualified to fill such positions. At the way things are developing, soon we will hollow ourselves of our own financial talents as our locals are not found good enough, not hired, and all the top financial professionals were foreigners here to learn the rope and skills. It is unbelieveable that such a thing is happening under our nose. Singapore, a world financial centre and its daft citizens all unfit to be finance professionals and needed to be replaced by third world talents. This is a bad joke right? To quote Gerald Giam, we are now transferring banking and financial skills to foreigners instead and Singaporeans will soon be reduced to taxi drivers and self employed agents.

So now we know the problem. A bit late isn’t it? This shit did not happen overnight. It has been like this for many years. Anyone sleeping or on drugs? So what are we going to do about it? Some things are going to be done by MOM. Tan Chuan Jin is working on it. But read between the lines and all the excuses that were said in Parliament, this cannot, that cannot work, not so simple, not so easy….what it means is that it is going to be a half hearted measure. It is unlikely to be pushed through but some wayang to appease the anger in cyberspace. The organizers of May Day Protest in Hong Lim would have more to say on this.

The MOM is going to ensure a level playing field wow! My goodness, when all things are equal, it must be Singaporeans first, no buts. A level playing field in our home country to provide jobs for Singaporeans is not enough. Singaporeans must have first priority. Which country and which idiotic govt practices such silly employment policies in the whole world of civilized people to victimize its own citizens? I don’t blame the foreign companies for discriminating against Singaporeans. I don’t blame local companies, including govt services and GLCs where the employment practices favour foreigners. Where is this discrimination coming from? Who is encouraging discrimination against Singaporeans?

What do you think?

Japan Asean Co Prosperity Sphere

‘Japan and Asean can regard security cooperation as a realistic option because China is their common adversary.’ Dr Hideshi Takesada, a Japanese defence expert, former professor at South Korea’s Yonsei Unversity.

This is the gist of the vice ministerial meeting in Tokyo hosted by the Japanese for the Asean ministers. It is a new tag to bring the Asean countries into the Japanese sphere of influence not much different from the failed Asia Co Prosperity Sphere of the Second World War. The difference then and now is that Japan was the enemy, the invader of China and Asean countries. Now Japan is touting China as the common enemy of Japan and Asean.

Would the Asean countries bite this Japanese line and pitch themselves as the enemy of China, taking sides with their brutal and barbaric occupation force that attempted to colonise and rule over them? Japan has a real pricky problem with China, having seized Chinese territories during its imperial days through wars. There are disputes between some Asean countries with China but over islands in the South China Sea that have not belonged to any Asean countries in the first place. The Asean countries like Vietnam and the Philippines, including Malaysia and Brunei are staking claims over some rocks in the high seas that China had claimed centuries ago.

Japan is arrogantly and adamantly sticking to keep the Chinese territories it seized from China and is likely to go to war with China for that. Would the Asean countries be prepared to go to war with Japan against China for uninhabited islands that they are just staking claims to but with very little supporting documents of ownership?

The stage for a Sino Japanese war is imminent. Would the Asean countries, those with counter claims against China, willing to be sucked into such a war and fight for the Japanese that was the aggressor and holding on to war loots from China? Japan is luring the Asean countries and telling them China is their common enemy. Are the Asean countries that gullible to be conned by another revisionist Japan Asean Co Prosperity Sphere with Japan as the over lord? The tagline is very humiliating to the Asean Ministers attending the Meeting. The Japanese must be thinking that the Asean Ministers are impressionable little school boys with no knowledge of the past, of Japanese colonialism and atrocities, and can be easily talked into fighting with Japan against China.

Foreigners issued with Employment Agency Licence

‘De Luna was actually issued a licence to operate her own employment agency, RSD, in Jul 2010. While still engaged as director of RSD, she set up another agency with her husband, William, without obtaining a licence for it. William was then in Singapore on a social visit pass.’ Quoted from TRE.

The process of bringing in foreign workers to work here involves local knowledge of both countries. At the PMET level there are the Search and Recruitment Agencies and Consultancies. These businesses are similar in nature to student agencies bringing in foreign students to study here. At the executive search level, the recruitment of foreigners to work here is or was not a major business as the number used to be small and at very senior levels or for specialized jobs. The line is now blur with recruitment agencies bringing in huge numbers of low and medium level executives that are nothing different from recruiting workers.

Again this is an area that approving foreigners to operate recruiting/employment agencies will put the local agencies at a huge disadvantage. Our agencies will not have the local knowledge that the foreigners located here will have in their home countries. And these foreigners being here will have local knowledge as well.

The question, why don’t Singaporean agencies operate offices in the foreign countries where the workers are? There is a comparative cost disadvantage here for Singapore agencies. Would it be cheaper for the agencies of both countries to operate within their territories and cooperate in the recruitment process as it was originally done and the cost savings filter down to the workers? Both sides will do their own business and earn their keeps respectively?

There are many agency licences eg recruitment/employment for maids, foreign workers, junior executives, housing agents, student agents etc etc that do not need to be given to foreigners to compete with our locals right here. There is no real value or skills added except putting more competition and even unfair advantages to the foreigners. There is no loss if foreigners are not issued with such licences and our local agencies could thrive or more locals could take up such small businesses.

Limiting such licences cannot be protectionism. Opening them to foreigners to come here will only make life of local small businesses tougher. What or where is the advantage to have foreigners coming here to set up such small businesses that locals are more than adequate to provide. No need foreign talents really.

Leadership style and generation gap

The leadership styles of the first generation political and govt leaders and those of the present generation have quite distinct features. In those days, political leaders and permanent secretaries were more individualistic, more confident and also abrasive. The fact that they were tasked to carry on the responsibilities of building a nation and the single mindedness in the way they went about their mission could also be a cause for their domineering and high demands on people working with them. There is no room for errors. Niceties were things that did not exist, or a rarity. These individuals behaved like gods in their own right. They were bossy and arrogant and ruthless. They were very task oriented, task masters. From the PM and his permanent secretaries, even to the RSM in SAFTI, each one was a terror in his own right and personality.

No one dared to make mistakes. Minister of Housing took his own life. The permanent secretaries went screaming, yelling and smashing things when things went wrong, particularly in Mindef. Senior officers trembled when called to see to the perm sec. There was little camaraderie at the senior level. Everyone was expected to perform and to perform. Many heads rolled. The bosses were real mean and had little tolerance for incompetence.

Such impersonal leadership style has its good and bad consequences. LKY, Goh Keng Swee, Pang Tee Pow, Howe Yoon Chong were names most fear for those having to work with them. The good part was that things got done efficiently or people got removed. Many second generation ministers were removed prematurely for under performing.

Some time in the late eighties the management style changed. The next generation of permanent secretaries took over the helm and valued teamwork, relationship became important. Political leadership also took on a kinder style. A change in a perm sec or CEO would see a new team being installed in the organization. The CEO or perm sec would bring along his most trusted lieutenants, people he had worked with, comfortable with, tested and dependable. He needed not to watch his backside when the men around him were his men. When he played tennis, all would play tennis. When he refused to play golf, all would not play golf.

It was a different leadership style and different personality cults. Though this style was supposedly more friendly, it could also be unforgiving for those not in the same camp. But generally those within the camp were assured of their rice bowls, maybe iron rice bowls. Heads no longer get chopped. The tolerance for mistakes and underperformance was must higher. Wrong doers were forgiven, ka ki lang mah!

This last feature could be the weakest link in the new leadership style. Ka ki lang, or my people were put into positions of power and responsibility. This could be good and bad depending on the people being put into those positions. Poor or bad performers were tolerated and remained to make more mistakes. This was getting more obvious by the days and very glaring today. No one seemed to have to answer for his mistakes, no matter how gross. It is kind of ok, never mind, put him aside, let’s move on. No one gets shouted at. Everyone is pally pally with the bosses and the bosses with their kakis.

The softer and team building style is easier to live with and everyone is just a close associate, a close friend. And if only they all performs well and doesn’t make grave mistakes, life will be a bed of roses. Unfortunately it is not to be so. It starts to rot and smell.

The harsher and less tolerant style was boorish, intolerance and hard on the individuals, on dignities and pride, very impersonal, but very task oriented and very little wastage holding onto not too able talents. No good, out you go and next please. It did not smell nice but smelling good was not an issue.

The old civil servants and politicians paid their price for serving under hard nosed no nonsense bosses. Some got very disenchanted and really pissed off, losing their pride and self esteem. Today, everyday is like a party, everyone so friendly and warmth and easy going no matter how they messed up things. Working life under the new style leadership is like a ball.

Oh, I forgot. The bosses then were mean, and so was the pay. Today the pay was so fat and comfortable that no one would want to retire or offend the more than friendly and generous bosses to trifle with their good fortune.

Singapore can learn from the West how to become a big and powerful country

                    The West inclusive of Russia and USA will teach Singapore how to become a big power through war and aggression.

It is a good idea that Singapore's defence minister is upgrading Singapore defense with the intention to buy the most up to date  US all purpose fighter aircraft F 35 as well as the latest and most advanced submarines. What a clever forward looking defense minister we have? But what an oversight he had as someone suggested he should also build the all powerful aircraft carriers and the all fearful space killer satellites and ICBMs to enable Singapore to conduct strategic cyber warfare when the needs arise. But all the money spend on the strategic military hardwares will be nullified if they are not used and employed. I suggest since Singapore like to ape or follow the West ( inclusive of Russia ) especially US way of thinking and doing things it should adopt their policy of vicious aggression, invasion and conquest. Remember England was only a tiny country of less than one hundred and fifty thousand square miles about four hundred years ago , around between the years 1600 to 1700. Then it went on a rampage of aggression, invasion and conquest through raw military might. It invaded and controlled  the whole of North America until the secession in 1775 of the thirteen states to form the nucleus of the satanic United States of America. Then it went on to attack and invade Africa, India , Australia and eastern part of China. The US of thirteen states comprising an original   territory of only about five hundred thousand square miles followed the footsteps of its predecessor England and went on never ending streaks of aggressions and conquests when it swallowed up all the self governing native Indian states as well as invading and annexing about one million six hundred and fifty thousand square miles of Mexican lands comprising the present states of Florida, Texas, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and California. US then continued its aggression and conquest across the Pacific Ocean when it forcibly invaded and annexed the island kingdoms of Hawaii and Guam. Russia which originally had a territory of about less than half a million square miles followed the aggressive war path of England. It attacked and invaded much of Finland, Sweland, all the separate and independent states or kingdoms in the Caucasian region as well as Ukraine and  all the territories around Black Sea. Russia continued its aggression and invasion across north Asia  and took away by force illegally about four million square miles of Chinese lands extending from lands around Lake Baikal to the Maritime Province facing the Pacific Ocean. From a small country of about half a million square miles Russia has extended its territory to about nine million square miles through war and aggression. Malaysia and Indonesia acquired much lands and territories at the expense of many different states with the collusion of the British and the Dutch. So there is a precedence for Singapore to expand its territories through war and aggression and of course through military might . A country or nation in a small dot of a few hundred square kilometres is unsustainable. In any case Britain had sold out the people of Singapore, Penang, Malacca and Sarawak which originally should have been merged or united to form the country of  Sinpenmasawak.  Now Singapore is not only rich and wealthy but also well equipped with superior military might. So there is nothing to stop us from taking Penang, Malacca and Sarawak and if possible Johore , Batam and Bintan Islands for after all these territories were arbitrarily divided between the British and the Dutch to prevent fighting between themselves. Only  when Singapore can expand and command vast territories then it will be able to accommodate not only 6.9 million people but also not less than 69.9 million people. So you see England, Russia , US and many other countries started small but now they are very big through military might , war and aggression. They have shown us the way how to expand and become big, strong and sustainable. So what is stopping us now. All we need now is to gang up with one big power and once we have achieved our purpose we can tell this big power ally to go to hell. Singapore has a bright future if it can expand, and unite the territories and the people around its periphery. After all nations wax and wane , coalesce and cast asunder and now is the time for Singapore to wax and coalesce and form a strong truly multi-racial nation.

Housing prices - No room for failures

The most talk about slogan in town is Singaporeans cannot afford to fall sick. A few days stay in the privatized govt hospital can clean up whatever savings the patient has. Hospital bills are no joking matter and a few weeks or longer can lead to bankruptcy to many.

The other dreaded problem is people falling into hard times and losing their homes. With housing prices so high, several years to wait for one from the BTO schemes, anyone caught losing his home is as good as losing his pants. How could a person losing his jobs and losing his home through some misfortune or business failure afford to buy a home again? Possible but very very tough. And if this happens to a family, the family members will be in dire straits.

Not able to fall sick, now don’t ever lose your home. Some may use their homes like they say, as gambling chips, trading and hoping to make gains, may end up unable to buy one back again. The two bites of the cherry may not hit home to some but when it hits, it is too late to regret once both cherries are gone.

Don’t pray pray when housing prices are getting beyond the reach of more and more Singaporeans.

More transparency in the stock market

I must applaud the move by SGX for improving transparency in the stock market by reporting on the number of short sell positions in each trading session. Though this is not something new as other exchanges have been doing so, it is still a step forward in the name of greater transparency.

Transparency must be good for everyone. For one, investors can have some knowledge of the number of short positions in the stock market the day before. Traders and investors could now have a bit more information on what others are doing and how many stocks are being shorted.

There are two misgivings though. While shortists would have to indicate their short positions, there is no way to know how many of these positions are covered in the same day. Thus the balance open position is still a mystery to the traders and investors looking at the SGX report. The information is at best incomplete or giving a false picture of outstanding short positions. The second misgiving is that the report only comes out the next day, after the trading session is over. So there is really not much that the traders and investors could do except for a little hindsight of what had happened the day after.

Now things would be quite different if one is a big trader or fund that has access to super computers that are plucked into the SGX system. Such computers would not only now able to see how many buyers and sellers of a stock, of every stock in the market, it will now be able to see who is shorting and whether the positions are covered back when shortists have to indicate their sell positions. If only I were to be able to get hold of such a computer to peep into the trading activities in the market, would I therefore be able to capitalise on the sensitive information that the normal traders or small investors would not have and take advantage of it? Would the super computers be telling the big fund managers that such and such a stock has a big short position and not covered, and the fund could then do the necessary to reap an easy profit all because the shortist’s position is now in the open, open knowledge to the super computers only?

If a fund manager is privy to such sensitive information and takes advantage of it, would it be a violation of the stock exchange rulings for insider trading or unfair practices vis a vis other investors and traders? I am not sure how much information the big funds and traders have with their super computers plucked into the SGX system and whether they are really playing an unfair game, playing in an unlevel playing field?

Who knows, or is there anyone out there that can give a clearer picture of what is going on, what is happening, what advantages did the super computers give to their operators? With short selling now in the open in the name of transparency, can there also be more transparency as to the capability of the super computers, what are they doing and what advantages do they have against those trading without super computers?

A need for an Asean consensus on military spending

Eng Hen is boasting about Singapore eyeing the most advanced multi role F 35 fighters the Americans are developing, and new submarines too. All these are good as long as our pocket is deep and the people need not be shortchanged for other public services from the Govt. In a way these are very expensive toys that are very nice to have. I would even suggest we should have satellite defense system, killer satellites with leading edge technology and even ICBMs with multiple nuclear warheads. And of course the supersize aircraft carrier that can sail the seven seas. By the way, when an ICBM takes off it won’t land anywhere within a few thousand km radius unless it flies vertically, burns itself out and falls back under gravity.

While I am getting carried away with wild wet dreams, someone please jolt me back to reality. What are these expensive weapons for? Who are they intended to pitch against? Do we need a battalion of tanks to fight a mob? Do we need a fleet of warships to fight against sampans? The question is, who are our possible enemies and what are their capabilities? How far more do we want to have to be one step ahead of our ‘enemies’ to feel secure?

Then the obvious thing, if we up the bets, our ‘enemies’ also can up the bets. So I up you, up me, all for the sake of upping the stakes but with no ends to it. And who is gonna benefit from these extravagant expenses? The arms merchants of course.

The world has changed, and the possibility of wars between states in Asean region has diminished, at least under the present conditions. Oops, what’s happening in Sabah? While it is necessary to prepare for war in peace, it is even more necessary to build confidence between states, to build good relations and make peace more enduring with less deadly weapons pointing at one another.

There is now an Asean organization and relations between the Asean states are relatively very good. Would it then be possible and better for the Asean states to start discussing about arms reduction in the region, not only to keep big power influence minimal, but stop an arms race among the Asean countries? Time and effort spend towards this goal would be more productive, and save a lot of money and resources by keeping the military profile and budget of Asean countries as low as agreeable given the respective needs and considerations of countries, big and small.

If Singapore is not going to buy those monster killer weapons, there is less likely for the neighbours to want to buy even better or comparable machine. Save the money for better use. Think of consolidating the present status quo. There is no need to keep ramping up GDP growth, population growth, better military hardware growth etc etc. If the Asean countries can reach a consensus to accept a certain level of military hardware and build up, would it not be better for all instead of blindly buying and buying and expanding and expanding, to be what, a big time gangster? Who are we trying to frighten when a better way is to agree to lower the temperature? I am not saying no defence but at a level to keep everyone happy and comfortable without any need for excesses.

Putin's speech on February,4th , 2013

On February 4th, 2013, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, addressed the Duma,

(Russian Parliament), and gave a speech about the tensions with minorities in Russia:

"In Russia live Russians. Any minority, from anywhere, if it wants to live in Russia, to work and eat in Russia, should speak Russian, and should respect the Russian laws. If they prefer Shari ‘a Law, then we advise them to go to those places where that's the state law.

Russia does not need minorities. Minorities need Russia, and we will not grant them special privileges, or try to change our laws to fit their desires, no matter how loud they yell 'discrimination'.

We better learn from the suicides of America, England, Holland and France, if we are to survive as a nation. The Russian customs and traditions are not compatible with the lack of culture or the primitive ways of most minorities.

When this honourable legislative body thinks of creating new laws, it should have in mind the national interest first, observing that the minorities are not Russians.

The politicians in the Duma gave Putin a standing ovation for five minutes!

May Day at Hong Lim – A sequel to the Feb 26 White Paper Protest

Gilbert Goh is organizing a second protest on the Population White Paper on May Day at Hong Lim Park once again. The mission of this protest is similar but would include more issues like jobs for Singaporeans, CPF, minimum wage and others. He is targeting a 10,000 crowd this time. This second protest rally will allow those who have missed the first one not to miss it again.

Among the speakers that have been lined up so far are M Ravi and Braema Mathi from Maruah Singapore. He is working to get more civic societies to come on board.

This is looking to be a rally the disillusioned Singaporeans are looking for having missed out on the first one. The momentum and support from the earlier rally in February could make this a must attend rally for true blue Singaporeans. After having experienced the first mass rally, the organizers are likely to be better prepared for the crowd this time.

The Govt cannot build more flats( part 2)

Even if there is genuine demand for more flats, the Govt, according to Boon Wan, will not build more flats as this will affect some 80,000 owners who are living on rental income. Is this an important reason not to build flats for those who need them? Another possible reason, build more flats will bring down prices. Is this also another reason not to build enough flats to meet the demand?

What is the mission of HDB? To build flats to provide an income to the owners? To build flats and to ensure the prices will not fall? Or to build flats so that the citizens will have a roof over their heads?

But the Govt will build more flats for more people that are going to be imported to increase the population to 6.9m. And it is going to build several hundred thousand units for this purpose. So opposition better don’t speak up against having more foreign workers to build these flats.

Is Boon Wan meddling with the supply and demand of flats and the market forces? Is it not the Govt’s top priority to build flats for its citizens to live in, have babies, to bring up a family? The rental income cannot be a major concern, and some price fluctuation due to market forces must be a natural order of things. Why is this preoccupation to support and prop up property prices to disadvantage and victimize genuine home buyers? The current property prices are abnormally high and need to be lowered by balancing the supply and demand and definitely not by curtailing its supply.

What kind of logic is this? The interests of the young home buyers and genuine home owners are expendable so that others can get higher rental income or be happy cause their property prices remain high on paper?

What do you think?

A monumental change in the making in the Singapore polity

I thought I sense something big is happening in the politics of this island. But I rule them out as voices from the lunatic fringe, congregating mostly in blogosphere. The anger and spitefulness cannot be missed and growing daily. Then, blogosphere is the equivalent of Liang Shan or Mt Liang in the classic Water Margin, where the heroes or victims of the establishment called home. So, I can only take the grumbling as a little disturbance and would come to nothing eventually. It is too small a group of people kpkb daily and awaiting for doomsday or a political judgement day.

Other than netizens in cyberspace, uneasiness and a sense of despair and helpless also pervade in casual discussions. The mood is that the ruling party has lost is support and trust from the people. The Presidential Election and the two by elections were seen as the harbingers of more of the same to come. The little crowd in Hong Lim too was read by many that it is not as small as it looked and the unhappiness is more widespread than thought.

Seah Chiang Nee, the ex ST editor, also wrote about the increasing vocal elite that were once part of the establishment and expressing their misgivings and disagreement quite openly. Then yesterday I read Catherine Lim, a doyen of govt critics, in an article about the PAP losing it. The party has lost its long taken for granted trust and support of the people. The people are cynical, and questioning, and doubtful of the direction going forward as plotted by the Govt.

In Catherine Lim’s view, all is not lost. The PAP only needs to cleanse its past by embracing the ex political dissidents that were forced out of the country, some released from political detention, and bows for forgiveness. That would show some sincerity and humility of the unpleasant past, and to emerge from the dark side in sparkling white once again.

I am less sanguine about this assessment and less optimistic that the problem is just about a dark chapter of our political history. I think the problems are more basic, bread and butter issues, jobs, cost of living and the increasing tension brought about by a misplaced foreign talent group that have proven to be more a pain in the arse than people deserving to be welcomed as new partners in our economic and social development. Many citizens are feeling cheated by Govt policies and a future of a highly intense society, of having to pay more for less, smaller homes, no cars, bank breaking hospital fees, and having to compete unfairly with foreign mobs that are haughty, cocky, unworthy and untrustworthy while feasting on our hospitality and taking away good jobs from the locals.

The PAP is losing its grip on the voters in more ways than could be envisaged. I don’t see any hope of them regaining the trust and support of the people like in the past. It is a slippery downward slide to oblivion. I qualify to say that my readings are one sided. Then again, the truth will surface very soon when grassroots leaders are also getting ambivalent about what is installed for them in the next GE.

Things are not looking pretty for the PAP. Feel free to disagree with my diagnosis. I am just a political watcher and commentator and I am looking at the scenario through tinted lens.

Norwegian Oil SWF gains 13.4% in 2012

‘(10 Mar) – Norway’s oil fund, one of the biggest investors in the world, rose in value by 13.4% last year, its second-best performance ever.

The central bank said the fund’s investments in shares jumped by 18.1% in 2012, boosted by soaring equity indexes around the world.

It is now worth 3.8tn krone (£450bn; $670bn), up from 3.3tn krone in 2011….’

This is a snippet that I read posted in TRE. How much did our SWFs made last year? The Norwegians seemed to be doing very well at face value from this report. If the Norwegians are doing so much better than our SWFs, maybe it will be a good thing to learn from them, their strategies, who are their fund managers and where did they invest their funds.

There must be something that the Norwegians are doing right. But numbers are numbers and they can mean all kinds of things and also dependent on accounting practices. At 13.4%, it is still a good number in any count.

Can we borrow some of their fund managers?

The Govt cannot continue to build more flats

‘For instance, the Govt cannot continue to build more flats to meet new housing demand as this would mean “hurting the many home owners who can now rent out their properties.”’ Khaw Boon Wan.

The above is quoted in the main media. So, can the govt continue to build another few hundred thousand units for the 6.9m population?

What do you think? Controlling the supply? Can continue to bring in more migrants?

Managing faked or unrecognised degrees

I can only hope and pray that this problem plaguing the country and disadvantaging Singaporean PMETs is a small one that doesn’t need much bother from the Govt. If in reality it is an iceberg waiting to sink the Singapore Titantic, woe will befall the citizens of this island when the ship and the iceberg collide.

Tan Chuan Jin and his Tafep are trying to do something about it. Just wondering how serious is this call or would it just be a passing remark to be forgotten the next morning? The implications of foreign PMETs replacing local PMETs are serious, wide ranging and unacceptable, from stealing the jobs from the locals, discrimination of locals, cheating and victimising the locals, depriving the local PMETs from acquiring skills and experience, and the larger implications are social unrest when locals are out of jobs, unable to feed themselves and families and servicing heavy housing mortgages. Worst case scenario, it is like an invasion of foreigners that will become PRs and citizens to oust the true blue citizens from eking a low down existence in their own country. The natives will find it hard to live in this expensive place without a job while foreigners are taking their jobs and living happily here at the local’s expense. How can this be?

The humiliating part is for the fake talents or half baked talents to think that they can screw the better local talents, screw their jobs, boss around with them and kick them around, with unrecognised degrees, no degrees or fake papers. It is amazing that a first world sophisticated city can fall victim to third world swindlers and con men and women, and very happy going about it without a care.

While the problem has surface and the Govt looking like looking into it, there are two aspects that need to be addressed immediately. One is the number of foreign PMETs that can be employed in any company or institution. A quota like those for foreign workers will be more palatable to the citizens that have lost their jobs to these PMETs, and their children will eventually also be victims to the scam that can be treason in nature.

The second part is to eradicate faked or half past six degrees from God knows where. This is a mammoth task that requires a big number in manpower to investigate. The MOM is unlikely to be able to deal with it even with the recruitment of a few battalions of officers. It may take more than 500 man years to cleanse this shit hole. What could be an alternative is to get these foreigners to have their qualifications certified and guaranteed by institutions, preferably foreign banks or financial institutions or their employers, that can be fined when the qualifications were found to be faked. Don’t ask a local institution to be the guarantor as it would end up paying for the frauds of foreigners. Such institutions could turn this into another business and would have the spread of manpower and expertise to do the job without the Govt carrying the burden and cost to police the fake degrees.

The Govt could conduct spot checks in a more targeted manner and get the guarantors to pay for the slips. This part is crucial or else the whole scheme could be another bigger scam. Bounty hunters can be hire to check on such violations which will be quite effective too. There are obvious problems as the guarantors will have to be reliable and be able and willing to do the due diligence and be able to pay the fines and repatriation costs.

A guarantor system is not the only way to tackle this shit situation and there must be many better and more efficient ideas that the talents in the MOM could come up with. The important part is to kill this problem fast for the sake of Singaporeans and the country.