MSM accused of sensationalisation

Not I say one hor. I only read in the Today paper this morning that msm has been sensationalising the prices of the property market by publishing a one sided picture without qualification or any supplementary comments. And this has led to some saying that it is sensationalising the issue. I thought our msm were objective and all reports were carefully written in a mild, calm and balanced manner. Just plain reporting of facts that have been confirmed and deemed to be accurate. I think if there is any sensationalistion of issues, it must be in cyberspace where all the postings were anything but professional.

How proactive are we?

Today the hot topic is property prices shooting up, including rental of HDB flats. And the govt is saying don't worry, a lot of supply are coming downstream. It was only a few months ago when we heard of HDB over built and a lot of flats are still not sold. We also heard of changes in HDB policies not to build bigger flats and then to build bigger flats. If we are really proactive, we should be anticipating all the demographic changes coming our way and all the demand and supply issues. All the information are generated in the msm. Even the public knew about all the influx of foreigners and the 6 million population. Why are we reacting and trying to coop with all the impending changes instead of being ready for them without any surprises? Oh we are still planning and planning and planning ahead.

TV broadcasting - Time for liberalisation

With Singtel and Starhub providing a full range of programmes in competition with Media Corp, and with more broadcasters and programme providers coming into the fray, it is time to discard the archaic TV Licensing Scheme where consumers have to pay $110 to a sole provider whose programmes are hardly what the consumers want. Let the consumers have the choice of who to pay the $110 to. Oh, it is to the govt, but at least let the consumers have the choice to pick the service providers. Why should consumers pay $110 for Media Corp programmes that they don't watch and pay extra to watch programmes from other service providers? Doesn't make sense right?

Generation aXed - a thought provoking article

The above title of an article by Cheong Suk Wai in the Sunday Times is a very interesting article to read. She started by talking about this guy, I presumed must be a man, telling her that the country or the world will be a better place without the labourers or labourer's genes. The crux of this guy's theory is that good genes produce good genes. A very familiar line of thought. Then she cheekily quoted this Prof Wald who was asked to donate his sperm to the sperm bank for Nobel Prize winners so that the world will have more good genes. And the professor's reply was that his Nobel Prize genes came from a poor tailor. His own genes only produced two guitarists. Reading the article at face value is funny and a bit of an anti climax. But read in between the lines and the messages and all its nuances come through quite clearly. And there are many messages to be discovered. This is a real treasure hunt. One of the key message can be traced from these quotes: 'Now I don't know what he made of me, but my stunned silence throughout his tirade did not mean I agreed with it.' This is very Singaporean. Many audacious things happened recently, and all we hear is silence. 'But time and tribulation have taught me that the best response to such head scratching pronouncements is to say what you know in the very pit of your gut to be right and real.' What Suk Wai was saying is that you must be polite and say nicely to him but not to offend him or make him think that he is really an idiot. So her way of replying to the guy is this: 'What would competition be like when there are only good genes to compete against other good genes?' She did not talk back or demonstrate violently. She did not tell him he was wrong. She just asked a few plain questions. Hmmm, very similar to what I have been doing all these while.

Ranking a World Class govt

While we cherish and got delighted and gratified by all the number One rankings showered upon us, it is about time we do something for ourselves. Other countries have their private agenda for ranking countries to achieve their covert objectives. The one that comes out very clearly is the ranking of world class universities. By insisting in the goodness of having foreigners, academic staff and students, as good, highly desirable and a pre requisite to quality education and a high ranking, countries that feel insecure and needed a high ranking to boost up their egos will easily succumb to such seductions and import more foreigner academic staff and paid them handsomely to make their rankings look good. So, with a simple survey ranking, many academics were in hot demand all over the world. And the unwritten truth is that good academics are western academics. So the world has helped to get more western academics employed and with healthy bank accounts. It is practically a one way traffic as not many Asians or Africans will be good enough to be employed in western universities. Some may call this neo colonialism of the educated minds. A ranking of govts as world class, not first class, can also adopt some of the criteria used for world class universities. Needless to say, the foreign component is important. So govt will be encouraged to recruit foreigners into their ranks to boost the fertile mindsets of their contemporaries. Having cross fertilisation of ideas will definitely stimulate more innovative and novel thinking in govt. It is definitely better than incestuous thoughts. The other advantage is that with world govt feeling the need to employ foreigners into their ranks to be ranked among the tops, there will be more exchanges of people and ideas and this will bring the world closer as one big family. The seed of a world govt and international citizenship may be born through such a survey. Singapore will have a great advantage in having its fine politicians being recruited not only to third world countries but also first world countries. We will then be able to export our world class expertise in govt to the world. And we will benefit by having some of the best political brains in our govt. No politicians can resist the temptation of being paid world best salaries to be a political leader here. And it will not be a surprise to have Bush, Blair, Chirac, Putin, Abe all queuing with their CVs in hand at our doorstep. We will have truly world best politicians governing us.

Myth 152

Saving not enough It is a myth that people will never save enough for their retirement. It is like the insurance salesperson coming to you every other day to tell you that you are under covered and needed more insurance even if you have several millions covered. What is enough or not enough is very subjective. People earning several millions will say they are not having enough. So is someone earning $600. How much is enough is not dependent on how much one saved but how much one wants to spend. If one spends within his means, any reasonable amount is enough. And with other sources of income or savings, even $30k savings are more than enough for one who does not need to spend as he is fully provided for. For someone who wants to sail first class around the world for the rest of his life, several millions may not be enough for his lifestyle. We shall not dictate to the people on what is enough or not enough. It is subjective and personal and not a science. Why are we being forced to save so much and for who?

Good times are here

The msm have been reporting that corporations are having a hard time looking for talents and will pay practically anything to the right candidates. And talented professionals could really call their shots on how much they want. Today the media again splashes the good news over several pages showing how easy it is for fresh graduates to land a job and how well they are being paid. The headache lies in the human resource dept. How to adjust the salaries of those recruited over the last few years and how much is enough. When fresh grads are getting $3000, $3500 or more, how can they continue to pay their recent hires less? And taken into considerations their few years in the organisations, how far should the adjustments go? This is especially sensitive and critical to large organisations especially govt and stats boards where fresh grads are taken in every year. For the average run of the mill graduates, no problem. No need to adjust too much as they can be easily replaced or they can't command much in other jobs. The problem lies in the talented and good graduates that they took in. These are their very bright future leaders and they can easily judge whether they have been shortchanged by the organisations. They are no fools and if the adjustments are not equitable and fair, they will leave at the first opportunity. Those who are staying or keeping mum are those that have not yet landed a job of their desires or under bond. When the path is clear, sayonara. Human resource administrators will have to review their recent intakes carefully and do the due diligence before a mass walkout is at hand. This is the good time, the golden years, and people, especially the young talents, will also want to be paid in gold and not peanuts.

Islamic State: The story untold

Malaysia is an Islamic State. Period. No one shall talk about it anymore. It is sensitive and makes people nervous. It may remind people of many conspiracy theories. It may make political leaders kiss their krises, or people may run amok. The press and media have been told not to report about it. And slowly but surely, govt agencies will issue decrees to invoke Islamic principles for the people, muslims and non muslims, to conduct their lives. Snoop squads will be formed to invade homes and check on the residents to see if they live their lives according to islamic principles. Though the supreme court is supreme under the constitution, all matters that involved islamic principles are out of their juridistion and referred to the syariah courts. There you have it. How could the supreme court or secular courts protect the rights of the minorities when they have no jurisdictions over islamic matters? How could the minorities seek redress in secular courts when these courts just raise their hands and say, not my problem?

Myth 151 - No beggar in Singapore

No beggar in Singapore Technically there is no beggar in Singapore except for a few baskers and a few rich beggars that make begging their profession. And we also do not believe in free lunch and no charity from the state. We are not a welfare state. The reality is that we only beg big time, and in style. Everyday there is news of some kind of begging in the media, or on TV, telling people how good it is to give and how stylish and noble it is to beg. And the proxies to all the beggars are the celebrities and the leaders, all dressed in their Sunday best and asking for donations. This is first world style of begging. We don't encourage begging. But if you must, do it in style in a big way. Why waste your effort begging for a dollar or two when you can beg for millions?

Notable quotes from Sammyboy forum.

We want the tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth. You want the tooth? You can't handle the tooth. Ouch, the tooth hurts. It is an inconvenient tooth. Just a little distractions.

notable quotes - mahathir

'When you're coming up from behind to catch up, you have to run faster, you have to make more effort.' Mahathir Mohamad Without the NEP the bumis will regress. That's what Mahathir said. With the NEP for almost 40 years, they are still behind. They have not made good use of the policy. So they must run faster to catch up. Who would want to run faster when there is no need to run, where money drops onto their laps? This is the irony of the NEP. It is based on the wrong assumption that people would voluntarily want to work hard when they don't have to. Like it or not, it is a double edged sword. It cuts both ways.

MOE, not 987

MOE corrected the misleading data It is 18% and not 4.3%. That is the official data, 4,218 foreign students offereed places in local universities, not 987 in the latest intake.

Myth 150 - Threats in Parliament

I read some postings in other forums discussing about Sylvia Lim being threatened by Jayakumar, a law minister and DPM. Now this is ridiculous. In a first world country like ours, such things will never occur here. This may happen in third world countries or in Taiwan Parliament, or maybe a communist country, but definitely not in our democratic Parliament. Further, we have carefully chosen the best men of impeccable character, honourable and intelligent to become politicians, they will not resort to such tactics to intimidate other parliamentarians. We will become a joke if this really happen. In a kingdom or in communist state where abuse of power is common and prevalent, these things happen. For those in power know that their power is forever. In our democratically elected govt, power is only for a short duration. And everyone knows that they can become ordinary citizens the next day. So fooling around with unrestraint power or abusing power can only be temporary and the day of reckoning will come when they step down from power. And such abuses are very rare if we look at all the happily retired politicians. They live among the people without anyone spitting at them or threatening them now that they have no power. Our politicians are sensible people and will not do that. Those people who commented about the threats are stretching the argument a bit too far. Nothing will happen to Sylvia Lim.

Let the religious have a say on GAY

Andy Ho suggested in his article in the ST that we should let the religious have a say on the gay issue. The religious is generally assumed to have a higher morality than the atheist on such issues. I beg to differ. Religion should not be allowed to interfere in state and secular matters. The Americans, though more inclined to Christianity, will not allow it to be part of the state belief system. It is best to leave state and religion separate. Every religion has their own set of strong beliefs on moral issues. And not everyone agrees to them. It is best that such beliefs be left among their believers and in the confines of their religious sacred grounds. No religion is superior to another and no religion must be allowed to impose their values and systems of beliefs on other people, atheists or people of other religions. There cannot be peace when religion is mixed with politics. Some extremists will emerge in time to invoke god to suppress the free will of others, and in the name of god, wickedness will be seen to be right. Let religion grow as a personal pursuit but not be allowed to become a national belief to govern a country.

Myth 149 - The Incorruptible Asian Minds

Asians are more superior to the Westerners. They are incorruptible to power and wealth. And these are the basis from which all dynasties and Asian empires were based on. So when they came to power, they will concentrate all the powers in their own hands, in the families or among the cronies. Another interpretation of this is that they believe that they have the mandate of heaven and they are given the right to kick the asses of all the lowly masses anyway they want. Compare this to the West, the Western philosophers believe that men are corruptible. The more powerful they become, the more corruptible they will be. And the American founding fathers refused to take any chances on the incorruptibility of man and enshrined into their Constitutions the separation of power. They don't even trust their elected presidents. And rightly so. Anyone who thinks that it is acceptable to place all the powers to an individual or office will be the first to be hanged. And no American will be able to invoke any nonsensical theories to dismiss anyone challenging the concentration of power in any office. And what is happening today in America is the best vindication of the wisdom of their founding fathers. Without the separation of powers, Bush and his gangsters will be killing all the Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East, plunging the world into another world war, and will get away with it, unstoppable.

Malaysia is an Islamic State

It is official and no need to beat around the bush. Najib has said it. Malaysia is an Islamic state and is governed under Islamic Laws and principles, but protects minority rights. He said Malaysia has never been a secular state. Only silly non Muslim Malaysians think that Malaysia was a secular state. Prepare to have their hands chop off when they steal. Prepare to close all the nightspots and entertainments. Lights out at 10pm. If the non Muslims still do not speak out and make a stand, it will be like 1955. The position of Malaysia becoming an Islamic state will become defacto and then dejure. The next demand will be sunat to be clean.

CPF for old age

With the increasing uses of the CPF savings, and with the runaway cost of living, it is necessary to decide what is more important. Is it retirement fund or a flat, or education for children? For many, their CPF savings will never be enough for any one of these big ticket items, and worst if they are going to use it for so many things. Ng Eng Hen is right to say that those who have a lot of CPF savings have no need to use them as they are mostly very rich and have a lot of money for many other things. It is the 'eat not full, hunger cannot die' heartlanders that have to juggle on what to spend and how much to spend. They are the ones that have little in their CPF savings but stupidly insisting on using them for the education of their children. But what choices do they have when they are struggling to make ends meet and education is not cheap? And there are many other bills to pay too. One good solution is to follow the policy of the old NKF. Save for the future and forget about the now. If they cannot manage their day to day living, it is their problem. They will be very thankful if they live old enough and see a big nest egg waiting for them. Their golden years, provided their money is still worth what they are and have some purchasing power left. These poor people are real irritants and irresponsible. Not enough money still want to take out their retirement funds to spend. Why can't they think and behave like the rich, don't touch their CPF savings? It it for their own good.

Priority tertiary education for locals

28,000 locals applied and nearly half were offered places. This means about 14,000 places were offered to locals. This is a big number given the average birth rate of Singaporeans at about 35,000. Hey, that is 40% of each year's cohort. Then why are Singaporeans complaining that they cannot get admission to local universities. And the govt's target is only 25%. The actual intake was 23.5% or 8,225 students out or 35,000. Where is the balance of 14,000, ie about 5,700 comes from? Is the intake 8,225 or 14,000? And how many of these are citizens? Locals are not necessarily citizens. Or can we assume that 8,225 are citizens? If this is so, then the percentage of non citizen locals, ie PRs, is 41%. So for every 5 students admitted, 3 are citizens and 2 are PRs. But the actual intake could only be 8225, as 14,000 places were just offered and not necessarily accepted. The numbers are my guestimates based on the data provided in the paper and may not be accurate. What is the real number? Also, should it be a local-foreign problem or a citizen-non citizen issue?

Princelings and Whistle blowers

Two letters by Chan Hwa Loon and Lin Junjie in the ST discussed about the Hongyi saga. Chan Hwa Loon was more concerned about the possibility of an attempt to cover up a princeling which is a step towards the direction of feudalism. That is very bad for a young and modern country like ours to take. Protection of princelings and covering their misdeeds is worst than nepotism. He expects the SAF to shed light on this issue given the rumours in cyberspace. The consequence is serious if we have such a culture in public services. Lin Junjie was more concerned about how a whistle blower is treated. If Hongyi did what he did out of frustration over an issue of favouritism and condoning a breach of military discipline, then his action should be taken as a positive act and be commended. Why should he be punished instead for raising a serious bloop in the SAF? Who else would dare to stand out and be a whistle blower? There must be an official channel or culture to protect whistle blowers who risk everything to disclose a misconduct or foul play. This saga has opened up a can of worms. Thanks to the brave act of a young man. Now should he be punished or be commended?

Tell your story

LKY wrote to the ST forum encouraging the first generation leaders and pioneers to write their stories as they are, as truthfully as possible for the future generations. He has openly admitted his respect for Chin Peng, a worthy political opponent. What is important is to tell truthfully without distortion, and to respect each other for who they were. A man worthy of respect is a man who believes in his ideas even if that was not favoured by history, and his principles. Once a person stoops to play dirty and disregard basic human decency and behaviour, he is not worthy of any respect. Basically it is still between good decent men and indecent men and not about talents or clever men who are crooks.