Too much government

This is a favourite theme of Matilah Singapura. Too much govt is bad. In a way I agree. When there is too much govt, the space for private individuals and private enterprise shrinks. This is especially true in business. The govt, no matter how fair it portends to be, is still the govt. It has power, monopoly, huge resources etc on its side. And better still, it has all the supertalents to pit against the Ah Bengs and Ah Sengs, the Ahmads and the Muthus. No fight. The field is not level. On the other hand, too much govt means more jobs. More work will be created for more people. More money needs to be spent from the govt's coffer, and more taxes surely. There are pros and cons for having too much govt. Will too much govt create more jobs and leading to more employment? Or will too much govt leads to having a few people wearing plenty of hats and getting several salaries and becoming overpaid? And the people made to pay for more taxes? Too much govt is a good reason to justify for more taxes, more GSTs. What is important is that the money collected must be spread around and benefit the people and not a few individuals. Preferably private enterprises are preferred to create and generate demands for goods and services and not the govt. For private enterprises are subject to true market forces and the demands generated are really needed by the consumers and not forced upon the consumers. And the consumers will pay a fair price and also have the choice to buy or not to buy.

The happiness of having plenty

Most Singaporean schools have strict rules regarding uniforms for conformity. It also serves the purpose of reducing any sense of unease on children when the wealthy children attend schools all dressed up to their nines, branded school bags, branded shoes, branded watches etc. This is what most schools have been doing. There are many wealthy parents who would not mind showering on their children the best they could afford to. But there are also many who are struggling even to buy a pair of decent shoes.

Schools intentionally play down on such flaunting of wealth so that the lesser beings do not feel so underprivileged and uncomfortable. Children are innocent and should not be exposed to such vulgarities of the adult’s world..

Thus many schools standardise the wearing of footwears to something simple, no expensive jewelry, no expensive watches or even handphones. And this code of practice has been in force, officially and unofficially, for a long time. The principals and the ministry must have seen some wisdom in this practice and rightly so.

Of late things are starting to change a little. The latest craze that schools have adopted for their rich kids is in the guise of greater exposure and education in the form of expensive trips abroad to the USA, Europe, Japan, China or the Australasia. I must admit that these are great experiences for young children to travel and to satisfy the senses. Everyone will agree that these are indeed very enriching experiences. Pardon my punt.

But again, how will such trips do to the psychic of the poor beings who cannot afford them but only to ogle and envy at their more fortunate friends? Often only a small group will be able to afford such trips. Or maybe I am wrong and many can afford it. I surely would not be able to squeeze out that kind of money for a little escapee for my children. But then it is great news for the schools. ‘We sent our children on overseas education tour! To the Grand Canyon or to the Great Wall of China or to see the Great Pyramids.’ These will certainly raise the profile of the schools positively.

Schools may want to take a step back and try to understand the pressure being placed upon borderline parents who can barely afford them but have to cough out the few thousand dollars that they could have used for better and more important things. Or what about the young minds who could not understand why their parents could not afford to send them on such wonderful trips, and having to listen in awe, the stories from their close friends who went and returned and become so much more knowledgeable?

Our educators should be more thoughtful of what they are doing to their charges and not to encourage them to spend on expensive thrills which would not really do them that much good. Perhaps I may be wrong as I am not an educator and could not see the great benefits that such trips bring to the children. Maybe these children would eventually top their classes and become worldly wise adults. Who knows? The educators are the experts in these areas. I am just looking at the slightly negative angle which may be something that the schools have considered.

Anyway, I still believe that schools should leave the expensive pampering and indulgence to the parents in their private time and minimise the pressure on other children and their not so well off parents as well. Schools may unconsciously inculcate such values of snobbishness and keeping up with the Joneses at such tender age when the children could not appreciate how difficult it is for money to come by. Poor parents and poor children should not be made to feel that much poorer and deprived.

The Best Business

There are two businesses that I would consider to be the most lucrative and worth investing in. The consumers are plenty and all cash rich and all scratching their heads on how to use their cash hoards. Many businesses are good but there is always a problem of debt collection or bad debts. In these two biz, there is no bad debts. How good can it get? I am referring to Hospitals and the Last Rites. As we walk towards the future, all the oldies here will be so rich and probably die with all their money unspent. With a minimum sum that is going to exceed $100k and a Medisave Account that will shoot pass the $30k limit, most of the oldies will have more than a $100k in their CPF account, and untouchable except for the little ration that they will receive monthly. A shrewd businessman should be able to unlock this money and transfer them into his revenue account. One package is hospital retreats. Develop hospitalisation packages for the oldies to spend their holidays in 6 Stars hospitals, with all the spas and fine food and wine and pampering thrown in. A little creativity is needed to use some medical terms to qualify these oldies for their escapade, spending the money that they might not live to see. Another package will be for the finest hour, The Last Rite. The oldies can select a package to invite all their friends and relatives for their last party. They can decide on the venue, menu, the trimmings, order the Mercedes or Rolls Royce to go with them, etc and the guest lists, the best bands etc while they lay in peace. Imagine a $100k party or more, depending on how much is left in their Retirement Account, all to go at one go to make a memorable departure from this world and to feast all their friends and relatives. It is a way to make a big bang as one exits from this world. Otherwise the money will just go to the state.

freedom for grandpas and grandmas

The Grandpas and Grandmas should be allowed to spend their money at their own time and not be rationed. It is time to stop forcing grandpas and grandmas to save for tomorrow. For they may have no tomorrow. Stop the legislation requiring grandpas and grandmas to contribute to their CPF and Medisave. Make these optional at their age. Free the senior citizens from a life of regulations and programming of their life activities. Return freedom to them. Let them, for once, to live their own lives, plan their own lives and mess up their own lives if they so choose. They have earned their rights to do what they want, to be free. There should be no compulsion for more savings after 55.

no sands no money

The Singaporean construction contractors should take the Indonesian ban on sand in its stride. Look for alternative sources. Pay a little more. This is a purely economic transaction just like coal, minerals, oil etc. If the Indonesian refused to sell, so be it. With money, there will be other takers. The losers will be the Indonesians. If a country cannot or will not trade its produces, then it should remain penniless. And all the eager beavers should stop pouring money into Indonesia and see how they make ends meet. It will be criminal if our contractors are trying to exchange money for sand but the Indons refused the exchange and other Singaporeans rushing in to give them the money. The message must be clear. No sands, no money.

charities should pay good money

Chua Mui Hoong wrote, 'Do away with cheap and good.' In her article she questioned the perception of people that honchos of charities should not be paid well. Her argument is that these honchos must be rewarded at market rate like any organisations. That charities should pay good money for good people. This argument immediately falls flat with NKF and Youth Challenge as outstanding examples of paying good money for frauds. The other point is the assumption that charities should be run like commercial businesses. This is exactly what is wrong with charities. Charities are charities and should be run like charities. Charities should be run by charitable people with a heart and not one with money in his head. People who wants to make their millions shall not run charities. These are money from the hearts, public money given to help needy people. Not for people to get rich. Go and get rich in the private sector. Make all the money if you can and no one will raise an eyebrow. But making money and getting filthy rich on public money is unacceptable. This is one of the fallacies that Singaporeans are made to believe. That every man is driven by money. And it is good to employ men by using money as the key motivator and nothing else.

Looking to run a Charity

The last time I wrote about my intention to start a Charity Organisation. Looks like I am late and need to speed up my search for a good charity to take over or start a new one. There are so many peanuts to be picked, big ones and small ones. And there is no need to worry. Yap Su Yin wrote in the Straits Times, 'Who will pay the extra cost for good governance?' Yes it is too costly to have good governance. Better not to incur such cost. And it is very comforting to hear Assoc Prof Mak Yuen Teen saying, 'Therefore, it may be difficult to take action against (past and present) boards for negligence or breaching their duties, unless there is an element of dishonesty or fraud involved. I don't think there is much you can do against the (previous) boards.' Prof Mak was referring to the new Youth Challenge saga. Since it is so difficult to find anyone guilty, and corporate governance is going to be too costly to be considered, then more volunteers should be encouraged to run more charities. Just act honestly and no one can find fault with them even if they pay themselves crazy or their friends crazy. Just make sure that everything is approved by the board or some one else.

Singaporeans are not crazy about Crazy Horse

Looks like that is the picture for the moment. Is it because we have too many priests among us or is it that Singaporeans are doers rather that spectators? The boat loads of Singaporeans visiting Bintang and Batam seem to prove that it is the latter. Perhaps it is the economy. And Singaporeans are just not able to afford the price tag. What Crazy Horse should do is to apply for subsidies just like the Durians. There are just not enough rich and crazy people to pay so much for class acts and crazy horses. In order to sustain such an appetite, financial subsidies are needed. Crazy Horse should reclassify itself as a exotic arts performance and get some grants for it. Or is it the rules and regulations that prevent the Crazy Horse from becoming a financial success? Restriction in advertisement? Maybe that is true. After the first couple of months of publicity on opening, many people would have forgotten about its existence. Would the two IRs fall into the same fate eventually, stillbirth because of too many restrictions and controls that they become not viable?

street battle with loansharks

Street battle with loan sharks This is like pitting textbooks and supertalents against street smarts Ah Bengs. And with 10,221 reported cases of harassment and 29 arrests, looks like Ah Bengs are outsmarting the academics. Maybe the number 29 has gone up after yesterday's islandwide sweep. How long will this battle go on? Will loansharks be sent to sea, or will they continue to find a safe haven to operate in this little island?

nkf story - a sequel

A sequel in the making The saga of Charity Organisations has proven to be a lively and intricate concoctions of plots and subplots. Now this will be given an extended run with a sequel in the making. Youth Challenge has proven to be every inch a worthy successor to the infamous NKF saga and we are now being given a preview of more to come. What is interesting will be the ending. Will it end with the triumph of morals over pragmatism or pragmatism over morals. Or would goodness win over moneyism or vice versa.

grandpa and grandma saving for their future

At 55, many would want to slow down, withdraw their CPF and take life a bit easier. Some will live longer, some will get badly ill, and some will die the next day. The number of people dying the next day or before hitting 60 will be as many as those with serious illnesses associated with old age. At these age groups, or older, when the body is malfunctioning, what is there left in life to carry on? What is life if one is bedridden or have to spend every cent in one's savings or Medisave Account? Would it be better to use the money to enjoy the last few years and let nature takes its own course? But at 55, if one has some time and want to keep oneself occupied, and continues to work, one is expected to continue to contribute to the CPF/Medisave. And when the Medisave account exceeds the legally provided limit, one is still compelled to contribute only to see the money overflow into a Retirement Account to be rationed to you. At 55 or 65 or 75, what is there to save when one can kick the bucket the next day or next moment? Technically, if one continues to work, even at 90 or 100, one still must contribute to CPF/Medisave. How ridiculous can this be? Is there anyone thinking?

nkf story - irregularities were the norm

When irregularities were the norm As the story continues, more irregularities were exposed. But it seemed that all these irregularities were accepted as the norm. No one questions or bothers to question. Or is it that everyone was a party to the irregularities? Or is it that for personal and vested interests, it is better to just do and don't ask, don't see and don't say. Everything was fine. Everything seems so good. Everyone so happy. How can it be wrong? All the statistics looked so good. Everyone was patting everyone on the shoulder saying well done.

eager beaver got slapped

The eager beaver got slapped again. Indonesia banned sand export to us. The funny thing is that whenever there is a little problem in our neighbouring countries, our eager beavers will all jump on their feet to want to help with their time and money. On the other hand the recipients will either see this as a poor effort to curry favour, in bad taste, just to show how prosperous we are. And even thinking that we are doing it to please them for some goodies in return. And the Malaysian flood is also seeing our people rushing to help. Do people appreciate or would people turn around and say, "Get lost, hypocrites! We don't need your help." Our neighbours would rather let their water flow into the sea, or sand go to waste than trade them for money. They only want money to be given freely. And when they know that we need a commodity badly, be sure they will ban it to keep it from us. The next thing they will do is to ban maids when Singaporeans are too dependent on maids. This will come when maids will no longer be allowed to come to Singapore. More SEZs?

loan shark country getting better

Loan sharks active as ever. This is reported in the Today paper. More than 10,000 cases of harrassments or activities reported. In fact 10,221 cases in 2006, an increase of 47% from 8,600 cases in 2005. Ho Peng kee asked for more time to tackle the problem. So far only 294 persons were arrested on related offences. Looks like the loan shark syndicates are outwitting the police. They used electronic banking facilities, virtual transactions, debtors bank accounts, telephone numbers etc. They are so sophisticated that the police would need 'extensive intelligence gathering and investigation' to bring them to court. Tough job for the police when the criminals are so smart. In the meantime the people are encouraged to form neighbourhood watch group to help themselves, like the good old days.

nkf story - the lie detector

The Lie Detector I was reading the story of the one eyed dragon and how he told the court that he killed his victim by accident, misfired! Firing 6 shots by accident. Now what has this got to do in this thread? I thought everyone called to the witness box will have to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? Looks like it is the other way round, to tell the lie, the whole lie and nothing but the lie. And then let the human lie detector to detect who is telling a bigger lie. There are two problems. The person telling lies can be a damn great liar that his lies become truth. The second problem is that the lie detector may wake up from the wrong side of the bed and misfunction. Justice is so scary.

nkf story- the moral of the story

The moral of the story When a student is ready, the teacher will appear. The NKF story is the mother of all teachers. It has so much to teach for those who are willing to learn. But there are those with eyes but cannot see, with ears but cannot hear. And there are those in a state of delirium and will not see nor hear anything. NKF is a case of being blinded by success. The bigger the success, the bigger the blindness. When it is so successful, no one can see their own mistakes or faults. How can they be doing anything wrong when everyone is so happy and money is pouring in like crazy? Then when money gets too much, people loose their bearing. Their perception of the value of money got distorted. What is $600,000 when you have several millions and with more money pouring in for no reasons. And many just sit there and collect money, in millions, just reading newspaper and having tea. The mind is sound but in a different level of soundness. And I can swear in court that everyone of them is doing an honest job, sincerely and honestly, and professionally, for the good of the charity and the patients. They just measure things in different ways, do things in different ways and using different rules. The people shall not judge them using the people's own rules of goodness. Especially the poor people. When they are living in those squalid conditions and struggling to make ends meet, to them a few thousand dollars will be damn big deal. Actually even $600k is chicken feet. For a good CEO he should deserve more. Society must use different yardstick and measurement for different people, the rich, the not so rich and the poor. Different world, different rules and different life.

nkf story - the master stroke

Reading the mind of the master As the story goes, the master has everything thought out and waiting to deliver his master stroke. While the new NKF and all the defendants were busy consulting their legal counsels and emptying their bank accounts, thanks to Drew and Napier, the new NKF can save their legal fees, the master has everything worked out. And very likely he is going to declare he will accept all responsibilities and will not have the need to appear in court. Just bill him for everything. No problem. Then after paying his legal counsel he will declare that he is left with only $2000 in his bank account. What happens to all the money that he made? Oh, did you remember that he was in Vegas?

the most popular singaporean serial

'In Parliament' - the most popular Singapore TV Serial I am going to be glued to the TV sson. So will all the Singaporeans and even foreign workers. Singapore parliament will be more colourful if the parliamentarians have their way. I am not talking about Lily Neo's elegant Beijing cheongsam or Ho Geok Choo's Versace. Neither am I referring to Eng Hen's Zegna or Mah Bow Tan's yellow and blue jacket. Parliament is going to be very colourful with dialects. Imagine Choktong saying, 'Lin peh pah si buay chow.' And Low Thia Khiang interrupting him saying, 'Tee ah, aga aga thio hor ah.' They will be so popular with the Ngee Ann Kong Si and Hock Kien Huay Kuan that these associations will start Teochew and Hokkien classses for their members. And Mah Bow Tan will not want to lose out by delivering his HDB speech in Hylam. He may engage Ngiam Tong Dow to be his private tutor to brush up a little on his mother tongue. All just to please his Hylam Clan. And Hsien Loong would be pressured to prove to his Khek Association that he can speak Khek as well. Then Inderjit, Jayakumar and Vivian will have to speak in punjabi or Tamil or whatever Indian dialects that are their mother tongues. The Malay MPs will have an easier task. I think Malay is the only dialect maybe with a little slangs from different parts, but basically Malay. And Singapore Tourism Board can promote visits to Singapore Parliament. Now Jack Neo, please move aside. When the talents speak dialects, your dialect movies will not be able to compete. The good thing is that there will be more jobs for translators and interpreters. And while the mother speakers were enjoying themselves in their nuances and flair of their dialects, no one will be able to understand them except listening through the translators. Parliament will thus have extended sessions to cope with the extra time needed. Now that will be Uniquely Singapore. And China will follow suit to abolish Putonghua and Shih Huangti will turn in his grave. And no sweat. China too will become a more colour nation with 2367 dialects to be spoken across the nation. Wow, Singapore is going to set a world trend, speaking dialects and mother tongue. And India will ban English in its Parliament.

nkf story - Grilling of the Minnow

Grilling of the Minnow For the whole of last week, the NKF story was centred on a subplot to grill a minnow, Jayaraman. He was made to be as guilty and look so bad in the eyes of everyone. The counsels had more or less painted a picture that he was a willing party to all the actions that he did, submitting memos for payments to Forte, rushing the payments out, despite his claim that the system was not up to specs. The question is how guilty is this minnow? Could he do otherwise when he was over powered and over ranked? It seems that he was a middle manager who feared to lose his jobs and was sticking to it come what may. He knew that something was wrong but the bosses sidelined him and made him do what he did, in a way comprising his opposition to the whole deal. Can we blame him? And if he is a foreign talent, he would be even under more pressure to tow the line. And the powers he had to contend with are so overwhelming that short of leaving the job, he will just have to do the necessary administrative chores as told. If he was a foreign talent, it would not be easy for him just to walk away without a job. He just have to bear it out. This grilling of the minnow is just an appetiser for the main course. Looking at the pace of it, looks like the main course will only be served in six months time, at least.

Singapore buckling under Thai pressure

Singapore buckling under Thai pressure After the comment by Kishore that Thaksin had done an unkind act to us, I saw this headline in Today's paper, 'Was Thaksin a good friend after all?' The article by PN Balji speaks for itself. In the face of Thai pressure we are questioning our actions towards a good friend albeit one who has been ousted by a military coup. Thaksin had been a good friend before, a very good friend of Singapore when he was Prime Minister. Bilateral relations was at its best. Now that he is out, that the Thai military junta wanted him to disappear, should we tow the line and tell Thaksin to quietly disappear too. Shall we tell Thaksin that he is no longer useful to us and we do not need such a friend? I think if we do such a thing, we will lose big in the international community. We will become a fair weather friend. We need not accord Thaksin the honour and protocol of a Prime Minister, but we can accord him some decency as a former national leader, as another national stateman. This is the least that we should do. Unless Thaksin has been found guilty of a crime, becomes a criminal, that will be another matter. Other national leaders should see comfort in how we treat a fallen national leaders. For it may be their turn the next time. The politics of ASEAN and in fact the world is such that one can be in power one day and in disgrace the next. The military coup leaders may think that it will not happen to them. It will. Singapore must treat every dignitary with some respect and decency. It is bad if we spit out the cherry when some one tells us to do so.