Chinese Singaporean or Singaporean Chinese?

Why is citizenship so important to Chinese Singaporeans? I am writing from the perspective of the Chinese Singaporeans. I cannot speak on behalf of the other Singaporeans as I am not wearing their shoes. Please excuse me for just looking at this issue from a specific angle. Many Chinese Singaporeans have taken for granted their good fortune as a citizen of this island. They failed to appreciate how exceptional this situation is. And some have become so cocky while some becoming too careless (loose in their minds) to think that losing it is okay. Look around us or at the world at large and see if there is a little corner where a person of Chinese origin can live freely as an individual, free from discrimination, victimization and even brutality. This little island is probably the only bastion for Chinese Singaporeans to live a life of his own, the way he wants it. He can turn his dreams to reality, to excel in anything that he wanted to be if he only puts in the effort, and to walk tall, speaks to anyone equally without fear, without having to stoop lower. And when he has achieved his dreams, built his fortune, he does not need to apologise or share it with any strangers who will visit him under any guises, but actually demanding that his pocket be filled or he will not have any peace. Some silly Chinese Singaporeans may think that there is always New Zealand, Australia, the UK or the US to migrate to. Yes, if they have the wealth to go over and live a peaceful life of plenty, as a private citizen. But that is all. Their station in life in these adopted countries will be merely as guests in a hotel, paying for all the services. But let them not forget, anyone could trespass their freedom, infringe on their rights, intimidate them or violate them physically or mentally. And when faced with such aggression, they can only walk away, quietly and sheepishly. For those countries can never be home like Singapore. There will be no pride, no dignity and no self respect. They might kid themselves among their small circle of friends. I know some will disagree. And they are right too. For a few individual cases, they could still be equals in other lands. But here is where they have all the rights and respect as an individual. It is a basic privilege that any citizen or decent human being should have, without fear or prejudice. This is how important citizenship is to the Chinese Singaporeans. But would any of them be foolhardy to compromise this right of theirs and carelessly give it away? For once lost, they can never ever dream of having it back. They will then be just like any overseas Chinese, the Malaysian Chinese, Filipino Chinese or Indonesian Chinese. To be kicked around, bullied and manhandled in anyway the power of the land wish to. They will then be called the Singaporean Chinese, the equals of Malaysian or Indonesian Chinese, in the same boat, turning in circles and not going anywhere. Would Chinese Singaporeans think that all is fine, that whoever comes into power will treat them fairly and equally? Never bet on that. No power to be can guarantee fairness to all and be magnanimous to those under their control. When all the chips in your hand are gone, the holder of all the chips will call the shot. Sadly, Li Ao is right. The stupid Singaporeans are slowly marching forward, oblivious to losing this right to self determination, to live as an equal among all citizens, free from discrimination and coercion. When that day arrives, Chinese Singaporeans will have no where else to go to. We cannot and must not become second class citizens in our own island, the only island in the world that offers us the right to a normal life. That is how important this citizenship is to the Chinese Singaporeans. The Chinese Singaporean is an oddity that can go up in smokes, and we will all become Singaporean Chinese, trying to exist in a world that has no place for us, a bit like the Jews before Israel.

One dollar for you one grand for me

It was only last weekend when Abdullah and Hsien Loong met in Langkawi and everything seemed to have taken off from a sound footing. It was all warmth and an eagerness to work together for mutual benefits. It only takes a few days and the mood changes. The fear has returned. The acrimony of the past, the mistrust of others and of self. Why should there be so much fear of the Singaporeans when negotiating for a deal to benefit both parties? Both enter the negotiation with a I want List. And before signing anything, both parties will have to satisfy themselves that their wish list is fulfilled. Then why should it be that after a few years down the road one party will complain that they have been taken for a ride, that they have been cheated? And now even the fear of losing jurisdiction over their own territories? I can understand such a fear after being colonised by big powers for so long. But such thing can never happen in a hypersensitive polity when everyone is politicised. It is just unimaginable that any country will ever sign away their rights to self determination. The only country that may do so is one that think too highly of itself and think that it can get away with it. The Malaysians are going to negotiate with the Singaporeans on an equal basis. It is unlike a small consumer accepting the top down terms from a monopolistic giant. One dollar for you and one thousand dollars for me. In an unequal relationship, the one getting the one dollar has to accept the deal compliantly. But a sovereign state would not accept such nonsense or an unequal treaty. The Malaysians must start to believe in themselves. What happens to Malaysia boleh?

Gravity defying act

The New NKF is going to become a model organisation in another way. The new management has just taken over for a short period of time and the cost to dialysis patients has gone down by 4 times. This is gravity defying, unheard off and unnatural in the Singapore context. How can cost go down instead of going up? Would they be sending out the wrong signal, that medical cost can actually come down instead of going up? Anyway, good work New NKF.

the malaysian nightmare

We have a reputation of having a lot of talented men in govt. And these men are well honed in negotiation skills and always get the best deal for us and make the other party looks stupid. And this reputation is going to haunt us and undermine our relations with Malaysia. They really fear us. What ever deal we propose or agree or accept will make them worry. They fear that they will get lesser benefits from the deal and we will get more. They fear that we will take them for a ride. Above all, they fear that the truth will be out for all to see, their incompetence when negotiating a deal with Singaporeans. How they have become so paranoid and frighten of Singaporeans and their own lack of ability to negotiate a deal that is favourable to themselves is quite startling. Don't they have any faith or confidence in themselves? Abdullah and Hsien Loong have just agreed on a few things to do together and you can see their immediate reactions of horrors!

NKF Story - A kinder Singapore

Whatever had happened or caused to have happened, the NKF has turned Singapore into a kinder society. Richard Yong and Loo Say San both got a slap on the wrist after being found guilty of the charge for failing in their duties as directors. Each was fined $5000 for allowing a $1.3 million deal to go to waste. Though the $5000 fine was the maximum allowable other than jail terms, the judge said it reflected the 'gravity of the matter'. For a grave matter like the loss of $1.3 million, a $5000 fine is grave and appropriate. This is one step forward towards a kinder Singapore. If the punishment is too severe, we may not have any good men coming forward to serve in public service. There must be incentives to attract good people and talented people to serve the people. And from the judge's comment that Richard Yong was only an 'ornament' without any real understanding of what was going on when he went along to Chennai to negotiate the deal, it tells a lot about the talents in NKF. And even Loo Say San 'was not aware of NKF's right under the agreement'. Both instances said that they are not competent and thus should not be made to feel too guilty about not doing a good job. Their intention were good. They volunteered to serve the people in a charity. They are not aware that they were not competent to do the job. They were not party to a collusion or acquaintance to a crime. They did not benefit from the deal. The $5000 fine was thus very appropriate and we shall just move on. Case close. And NKF may want to offer higher pay to recruit better talents to run the show. Paying peanuts is what they get. If they want talents, they need to pay in the millions.

Laws to maintain fair recruitment.

A letter by Sangeetha Bysheim in the Today paper described her experience in applying for a job. She said that all her interviews were by expatriates. This, she concluded, could be that most of the top jobs are occupied by expatriates or two, expatriates are likely to be less discriminatory. She had a point. And she suggested that we must have laws to prevent discrimination at work places, and in employment, especially when we are inviting more talented foreigners to take the place of less talented locals in the job market. I have a better idea and easier to implement. Appoint all the expatriates to the top jobs of organisations, or at least as the HR Managers. This will ensure that there will be fair play and foreigners will be given a fairer chance of getting employment here.

Can you afford to plan for retirement?

Professional people find it astonishing that 50% of Singaporeans did not plan for their retirement. The point is that how many Singaporeans can afford to plan for their retirement? Take the example of a two paycheck average $5k income family with two children. I believe this is representative of an average Singaporean family. With 30% CPF contribution over a period of 30 years, his CPF savings should be $1500 x 14 x 30, using 14 mths pay and all things remaining unchanged. This will give $630k. The remaining will be his take home pay at $1.68 mil. I f household expenses plus personal expenses for the two parents is $3k pm, total is $1.08 mil. The cost of raising two children to university level at $200k each is $400k. Presumably he owns a car for 20 years and monthly expenditure, including instalment etc is $800. This will cost him $192k. Then we have $1.68m less all these expenses the balance is $8000! Nothing left really. And all the holidays, social commitments, hospital bills etc are not even considered. His only savings is in the CPF. And the full amount would probably be used to pay for a 5 rm HDB flat and a little left in the Medisave. Can he afford to plan and save? Even if he is a thrifty person, thriftyness is frown upon in this island, he may put aside $100k. And all he needs is a major hospitalisation of one member of his family and it will be wiped out. In order to be meaningful, two old folks need to have about $200k in their CPF on retirement. This is based on the minimum sum and Medisave expectation of the CPF Board. If these average Singaporeans have no spare cash to save, what is there to plan? Just work and work is the best plan, really.

Cooking a Prime Minister

Taking on what Balji had said about the recruitment process of Singapore's future Prime Minister and his view that the current process may not be able to find one that meets our future needs, he presumed that there are other better methods for this. Now, what's wrong with the current process? It is a meticulous and systematic process, done in a methodical manner. It is just like a recipe. You decide on what you want to cook, find the material, go through the whole cooking process and pop, the perfect roast lamb or suckling pig is ready to be served. The academics would have a lot to pick from such a system. The choice of the final product, whether it is best to have a roast lamb or curry chicken or sucking pig, is very subjective. Then the quality of the ingredients will also be questioned. Can we pick or cook a national leader the way we cook a general or top civil servant? Historically a national leader, an exceptional leader, was thrown up by events and circumstances. They used to say that history makes a leader, or is it a leader makes history? Compare our system to the Western model and the Chinese model I think ours is closer to the latter. The American model chooses leaders based more on public appeal, a good looker, a smooth talker, and a lot of marketing and packaging. Not much intelligence needed. The Chinese model churns out a national leader through the many levels of screening and sieving. And the leader must prove himself all the way up. He needs to fight all the way, and that needs quite a bit of intelligence, real leadership and perseverence. Ours is a handpick system that looks at the quality of the candidate based on a known recipe. The leaders of today or yesterday will describe what they think the future leader should be like, and they go around looking for one that fits the mould. It is a cook leader. Is there a better system, or which is the best? Very subjective indeed.

Myth 138

Properties the best long term bet Many Singaporeans are laughing all the way to the banks with en bloc sales. And property investment is the big game in town. We are selling Sentosa Cove and other coastal developments at a high premium to the world's rich and famous. In the same breath we are preparing for global warming. And the forecast is that water level may rise by 4 metres or more. And we are going to built dykes around the island. Would Sentosa Cove still be there in 30 years when the water level rises? Would Sentosa Resort and our Marina Resort still be there and not be under water? Shouldn't these coastal developments be marketed for a 30 year lease?

Planning for retirement

Over the last few weeks we have heard warning voices of how Singaporeans are going to cope in their old age. There were concerns that Singaporeans are not planning for their retirement. It is all a big irony, an unbelievable irony! Singaporeans not planning for their retirement? Or do they need to? When we are talking about planning for retirement, what we are saying is saving that pot of gold so that we can live gracefully without becoming a burden to anyone. And the insurance agents will throw all the policies to you and say these are what you need. The painful thing is that after 20 or 30 years down the line they will tell you that you are not adequately covered. Not enough, after paying all the premiums! What about CPF? Singaporeans have the highest saving rate in Asia other than Japan. Probably the second highest in the world. We are saving at least 30% of our income. And again not enough. How I wish I have a million dollar income. Then I will also complain not enough. How many Singaporeans can afford to save some more when they are already saving more than 30% of their monthly income and struggling to make ends meet? How many have the luxury of earning a million a year and still complain not enough? The majority of Singaporeans will never save enough for their retirement if the cost of living is to run up continuously, and at an alarming rate. The only way out is to work till they die. And is there a need for Singaporeans to plan for their retirement when the govt is planning for them by withholding their life long savings in the CPF to be released in drips at their old age? There is no need for the lower income Singaporeans to plan for their retirement. They cannot afford to. They just need to work and work and work. The state has assumed the role of planning for the Singaporeans' retirement. How can anyone expect the Singaporeans to plan and save when they are already squeezed to save in the CPF and have nothing left to save? Do we really expect ordinary hand to mouth Singaporeans to save in the CPF, buy insurance policies and save some more in their personal savings accounts? Only million dollar Singaporeans can do that.

what's the dif?

Gordon Brown is taking over the Premiership of UK from Blair. And his top agenda is to transfer power from 10 Downing Street to Parliament in the matter of making war. Parliament will now have the power instead of the Prime Minister to wage war, a move to prevent another PM making a unilateral decision on war. This decision will make a tremendous change to the power of the British Premiership. The Parliamentarians will have a good debate and make the decision. Transfer this to our Parliament, everyone hearing this will give a big yawn. What's the dif? Parliament to decide or PM to decide, is there a difference here? The answer is obvious if we look at the debate in Parliament and how decisions were made. Were decisions made in Parliament or made even before a debate in Parliament? Where do we go into the future? Balji this morning explore the great challenge of a new PM for Singapore. The underlying assumption is that decisions, or the future of Singapore shall be decided by one man, the PM, and not Parliament. I would like to take this further to explore the viability of Singapore in the future. I see dark clouds if we are foolish enough to ignore the dangers we are treading. I see a new diaspora of Singaporeans being displaced in their homeland. And unlike the Chinese or Indian diaspora, the Singaporean diaspora will not last one generation. Too little to mean anything, just like the dying baba culture. I will deal with this more specifically come Sunday morning.

Headhunters are busy

Yes, headhunters in Singapore are really busy. They have been swamped and overwhelmed by the number of hopeful candidates who wanted to make Singapore their home, so that they could have a go at the general election. Many are attracted by the carrots we are hanging for the better talents that we want. We are raising the bar several notches higher and going to a level of talents we have not seen before. We used to go for the $1m talents. Now we are going for the $3 mil or maybe more millions talents the world can offer. And they are all coming to Singapore, the land of opportunities. Headhunters are also recruiting the other way. There are great demands for our talents too. Warren Buffett is looking for someone to replace him to manage his investment company. And he is looking at the right place. And George Bush is vacating his office soon. So is Chen Shui Bian. But these countries must be able to afford our supertalents. They don't come cheap. Who knows, a Singaporean may be headhunted to run for the President of the USA or Taiwan. The ASEAN countries would love to have one of our supertalents. For many years they have privately expressed that they would love to have LKY as their PM. But this is unlikely. They cannot afford the price tag.

A time to rethink citizenship

As a sign of respect to those parents devastated by the air crash in Taiwan and losing their precious sons, I kept quiet for the whole morning after posting 'The Ultimate Sacrifice.' More than 18 years of caring for a son, all of a sudden he was gone. And the parents accepted what happene, and only hanged on to grief their losses. It was duty and honour for the nation. How can the state repay this gratitude and pain of the parents and those who missed them? We have came this far as a nation. We must not erode what we have achieved this far and mess it up with the foreign talent thing. The people, the citizens, is all the nation got in time of need. Not superficial talents that would scoot at the slightest unease. They, the foreign talents, have nothing to hold them here. They are here only for the good time.

The Ultimate Sacrifice

Quietly and unceremoniously they packed up and left for a journey to adulthood. More importantly it was a call of duty to serve the country. Young men, bright eyed 18 year olds, were enlisted to be trained as soldiers and other uniformed services the day they finished their secondary schools. For the next two to two an a half years, they belong to the state. The parents reluctantly, hesitantly, and tentatively let them go. But deep inside them they harbour an unspoken fear. Many return to rejoin their families after their National Service Training. Some don't. We have just witnessed another undescribed grief of parents whose precious sons failed to return home, alive. The tragedy of losing someone so precious, someone about to embark on a journey of life as an adult, getting a job, courting a girlfriend, getting married, becoming a father in his own right, all vanished, while answering the call of duty. The pain was suffered in silence. The parents accepted that as any citizens would do so. It is the price of citizenship. The ultimate sacrifice the citizens made for the country. We are the citizens of this island. Are we appreciated or are we just some digits that can be replaced by foreigners with no qualms and conscience? All parents share the grief of these unfortunate parents quietly, in their hearts. The sacrifice to the nation is not only the NS men, but the parents, the siblings and all who knew the fallen men.

building more bridges

Bridge obsession One thing I can say about Malaysian leaders, they are obsessed with building bridges. Penang island has two bridges now. Probably a third is in the pipeline. Singapore has two bridges, and more are expected. Abdullah has said that Malaysia and Singapore should be joined by many bridges. We have, many people to people and business bridges. One other thing that I find it strange is the need to burn or cut bridges to build new ones. The causeway is the most efficient of all the bridges that are built to link two places. Why the need to cut it? If the Malaysians are really interested in improving land transport then a simpler way is to expand the causeway to a 10 or 20 lane land bridge. And if they still want to build more bridges, I know that collecting toll is a very easy and sure profit business, they may want to think of links to the eastern coast of Malaysia and Singapore. A link to Desaru will be more meaningful while the present causeway be enlarged to cater for more users when the IDR takes off. Travellers to the east coast can have a short cut to their destinations, saving travel time and distance. The days of thinking crookedly to built crooked bridges should be thrown away to the dawn of history and a rationally conceived bridge should be built to benefit both sides, cheap and efficient. And not expensive and good to collect higher toll fees.

of law and lawlessness

The two granite executives arrested in Karimum have been let out of their windowless cell where 4 prisoners were cramped in and with one toilet hole to share. But they cannot leave the island, reportedly Batam. Or is it Karimun or Sumatra? The little cell that they were imprisoned may be adequate to the villagers, but to Singaporeans who are used to modern sanitation comfort and cleanliness, this is equivalent to mental bashing. And what had these two executives done? They were mere employees of a company engaging in lawful activities in an Indonesian island. And they were arrested when they voluntarily went there to assist in an investigation on a sabotage and bombing of their company's facilities. And they were kept incommunicado from the world for several weeks, without visitors. The world must take note of such tribal acts and be wary when sending their executives to such a country. The foundation of law in that country is built on lawlessness by the law enforcer. The arrest of the two executives is clearly politically motivated. There is no reason or justification to treat 'assumed' commercial crime violators in that manner. They are innocent until proven guilty. But in this case, they were more than guilty for things they are presumed to have done which everyone knew that they did not do. Compare to how China handled the case of Ching Cheong, the Straits Times journalists, when they had been monitoring him for years and have all the evidence to arrest him. He is being treated more humanely than our executives. And his charge is treason, espionage. He could be jailed for life. When is Indonesian gonna join the civilisation of a new and modern world?

Aspiration of the Young

I want to be a doctor. I want to be a pilot. I want to be a teacher. These were the aspirations of a time not too long ago. The aspirations of the new generation is to become a millionaire or multi millionaire. And children in schools are writing about becoming ministers. To them this is the surest road to becoming instant multi millionaires. I want to be a minister is the new aspirations of the Singapore Young.

Are extraordinary, or are we first world?

We have been looking at economic numbers to support our claim that we have arrived at the corridor of first world nations. If the qualifications are limited to just money, we are quite comfortably in the safe zone of being first world. No one can deny that what we have, and what the people have, generally, is money and material wealth. We are rich, real or on paper, but we are rich. We can afford many creature comfort and have taken them as basic needs, for granted. Let's look at another aspect of whether we are there. One area to look at is the viability and acceptance of the political system and the fate of the political leaders when they step down from office. Would the new govt and leaders continue with the system that they have inherited or would they do a house cleaning and throw out the old and in with the new? And would the political leaders exit the political arena without any hiccups, not charge in courts and thrown into jail or have to escape from paradise? We have seen many countries where there were regime change and new systems were brought in to replace the old system. And political leaders have been thrown into jails or threatened with all kinds of charges, corruption, nepotism, abuse of power etc. All these had happened within the ASEAN countries, in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam etc. The three relatively more settled countries in terms of political system and the fate of their political leaders are Brunei, Malaysia and ourselves. Brunei's ruling royalties are very well regarded and they treat their people very well. That system looks like going to be there forever. Malaysia has proven to be quite stable until Anwar was thrown into jail. But he has been rehabilitated. A small blemish. And Mahathir is still around, happily shooting at anyone at his convenience. In the case of Singapore, we have not have a regime change as yet and things look quite good. The way it goes, our top political leaders would be able to enjoy their retirement from politics gracefully and enjoy their fruits of labour. And the political system will endure and continue in perpetuity. In this sense, we are extraordinary and deserve the first world label. I cannot forsee a new govt coming into power and tear away at all the systems that have been entrenched and legally protected by the Constitution. And neither would our leaders have to flee once they step down from power, like Marcos. And this is first world standard that we can expect.

a new direction needed

The Extradition Treaty and Defence Cooperation Agreement have been signed. The sand ban is still there. Our men are still in their cell, not charged in court and not allowed visitors. A few of the barges have been released but many still detained at the Indonesian's pleasure. Nothing is going to change when the legal systems or the way laws are administered are so different. The signing of the two agreements should be the beginning of disengagement. Singapore shall seriously work out ways to develop other relations and cooperations with other countries that have similar legal systems and mindsets as us. When law is equivalent to lawlessness, we are asking to be slapped in our face every now and then if we continue foolishly to flirt with people of a different dimension. Compare to the Malaysians, with Mahathir out of the way, and if he is not replaced by another psychopath, there are many reasonable men over there. And our history, political and legal systems are very similar. We can expect to be treated more fairly and be able to talk sense when parochial politics is out of the way. Let this be a lesson for Singapore to reassess the situation and strike out on a new direction. We cannot be self sufficient in many things. But we cannot be dependent on unreliable partners.

WYSWYG

SINGAPORE: Police are investigating a theft in Pasir Ris that took place in broad daylight - vandals have taken, of all things, metal railings. Support rails on an access path, specially built for the elderly and disabled, no longer exist at Pasir Ris Drive 6. It is the same at Drive 1 also. Pasir Ris-Punggol Town Council says it would take at least three weeks to replace the railings, at a cost of S$20,000. Some residents said they actually saw the suspected vandals at work, but did not realise they were witnessing a crime. "I saw them sawing the railings around 3pm the day before. But I thought they were contractors. There were three workers, and another two men who looked like they were supervisors," says Pasir Ris resident Eliza Khong. - CNA/yy This is what will happen when a country is no longer a country. The citizens no longer think, and do not think anything belongs to them. We are all just passerbys. Citizens or visitors, no difference. No ownership, no responsibility, no care. And the people who cut away the railings know this. It is free for all, take what you like. It is really WYSWYG.