Johor

Johor 'Sell it to Singapore!' A tongue-in-cheek solution from a Malaysian. Fun to read. The Anti-jihadist. Oct 24, 2007 Ladies and gentleman, Malaysia is facing a cash crunch. The oil, lifeblood of the Government's treasury, is running out. Hugely expensive programmes such as NEP and subsidies are politically untouchable, so hence must run in perpetuity. And of course Malaysia will in the future need more massive Merdeka parades, more shiny new Russian jets to overfly said parades, and more spaceflight participants to consume teh tarik and commit khalwat in orbit. So many expenses and dwindling income. What to do? Simply put, Malaysia seriously needs a lot of cash...and the little cash-loaded red dot to our south (which need not yet be named) needs real estate and resources. So my friends, with my tongue placed firmly in cheek, I would like to offer this simple answer for Malaysia's impending financial woes. Let's sell Johor to Singapore!.... The Anti-Jihadist http://pedestrianinfidel.blogspot.com/ This is part of an article I pulled from littlespeck.com. It is a post good for reading on a Sunday morning and let the imagination runs wild. Look at the possibilities for economic growth. And I think Singaporeans would not mind having the Sultan of Johore installed as the ceremonial ruler for life. And the Sultan will have achieve his dream of Singapore returning to Johore. This is just my personal view. In commercial terms it is called reverse takeover.

The Gay Debate continues

There is a report in the msm that the debate is turning ugly in cyberspace and in the public arena. It is an unusual debate where values and ingrained prejudiced brought up by years indoctrination were tested. People either are totally against it or for it. Everyone seems to hold a very strong view on the issue. The issue is another case of one group trying to impose their rights and wrong on another. The other is asking for acceptance and more. To be allowed to do as they pleased like any ordinary human beans. I did post a bit on what could have happened down the line. Even without making any judgemental statements, some are still appalled at my comments. Look at it seriously or cheekily, if 25% of the world population is gay, the opposite 25% will not have a chance to procreate. Or am I wrong and gays do want to procreate? Then stretch the imagination a little further. If 25% of the population becomes monks and priests, another 25% will also be deprived from procreation. All in, 100% will be doing all kinds of things except making babies. Whither the human race? Maybe this is a good thing. Why bother to be born to die? Why bother to leave paradise only to want to get back.

What a great opportunity for reporting

The gay debate is proving to be a welcomed relief for the msm. For once they are reporting vigorously on practically every word spoken in Parliament, even verbatim. The subject really was given a good airing with every single view reported, and in style. And how many pages over how many days. And how many hours did Parliament devote for this hot topic? Any time limits to speak? But every Parliamentarians relished at the opportunity to speak from their hearts. Wish the CPF and the annuity and other bread and butter issues were given the same intense treatment.

$364 million lost by Sembawang Marine

Another outcry for more corporate governance. After so many incidences of malpractice, the APB case etc, now Sembawang Marine is hit. Did we learn or is it all lip service? What happens to our corporate image as a squeaky clean country with excellent corporate governance? And it happens to GLCs! Shall we keep stumbling along with all the incestious relationship in the corporate world? What is wrong is wrong and has to be weeded out once and for all. Now we do not know how deep rooted are such malpractices in our public and private organisations. It took the NKF to shake up everyone. But APB did not have the same impact. Would Sembawang Marine do what NKF did to the corporate world?

The gay debate

It must be a very interesting debate in Parliament and many interesting things must have been said about gays and gay rights. I have not been following and could have missed many issues that were discussed. What I would like to know is how big is the number. In the case of mental illnesses, there is a 1 in 6 hit rate. If the gay population is also 1 in 6 then the issue is going to be with us for a long time. Historically, or biologically, human beans are meant to be male or female. The deviant genes that created the 70% or 60% male or female are rare and societies could live with it, either accepting their presence or outcasting them and deport them somewhere. Today, gays seem to be everywhere and getting rid of them or pretending that they don't exist is no longer a solution. The two camps arguing about gay rights did have their valid points. And I think Parliament did make a wise decision under current mindset and acceptable cultural and religious values. As we go down the line, how would the people accept two guys necking and kissing in the train or the bus? How would the public deal with cases of boys being raped by men? The office or public places will become very colourful with men looking like women and vice versa. We might even have to build new toilet facilities for the male, female and either or. Strange that Singapore is now the battle front for gay rights and what we do could set the direction for the movements in the future

Police and their handling of civil activities

The MPs had a field day asking Ho Peng Kee about how the police handled the public especially with regards to the wearing of T shirts with printed messages and holding of public forums. The way the police handled T shirts seemed to be the key attraction after the White Elephant Incident. And it seems that they are still doing the same thing in the case of the Myanmese protest against the military rule. And Ho Peng Kee was rather apologetic and tried to explain away as over reactions. I think we should be easy on the police after all they are there to protect the people. They have the people's interest and safety at heart. They are just doing what other police forces are doing so cannot be too far wrong. Just make sure they don't take on the style of Rela officers or the Myanmese police then we should be quite ok.

notable quotes - Ho Peng Kee

'The police have no intention to monitor what takes place online...Neither should Netizens, bloggers and the many of us who regularly send SMS messages worry.' Ho Peng Kee The is the strongest and clearest message coming from the govt that they are not monitoring cyberspace activities. I believe Ho Peng Kee is telling the truth. The police have many more important things to do than to waste public resources on such activities. The only time when they start to monitor is likely to be in response to some official complaints. And those two doggies that were trying to mess up my blogs, disappeared recently, were definitely not from the police. As where they were from, your guess is as good as mine.

The msm need to be with the people

PN Balji continued with LKY's discussion, in the Today paper, on the role of the msm and their need to reinvent themselves in the face of the sprouting out of more alternative reportings and commentaries in cyberspace. The advantage of cyberspace, in being free, real and human like, talking and reporting with character and feelings, is hard to beat. And then it is interactive and responsive, it is the people's own news and views. Not something that is being forced onto the people. The people can relate and take ownership of their own news. LKY's comment of not just reporting the whats but the whys is going to put a challenge to msm reporters. For many of the whys cannot be reported succintly. And there goes the credibility of msm. And according to Balji, they need to be creative, sensitive, meaningful and responsible. Quite a herculean task. As a political trophy, hmmm, how to report in a way that is objective and balance is going to be tricky.

Making the annuity bullshit real

There are so many things that the people are gasping in disbelief. The small payout and the payout age at 85. Both seem so unreal and irrelevant. What the govt should do is to address this bullshit seriously and come out with something that is real. The $300 is definitely not going to be enough and either you provide for a reasonable sum, or might as well don't provide at all. With inflation and the depreciation of money, in 30 years time, the minimum for subsistence existence could be $1000 pm. Then at that age, you need life supporting equipment, weekly or monthly medical checkup, annual checkup or overhaul. Other than the subsistence allowance, the medical part could easily be another few hundred thousands. How much then is enough? Half a million or one million? If this problem is real and we need to address it as a real problem, then the bullshiting must be realistic. And the 85 years payout age. This is a joke.

Time to raise taxi fares

There were many calls in the msm to curb the irresponsible ways of cabbies and their exploitation of foreign tourists. Our reputation as a paradise island for tourists is going to be badly affected. We cannot allow this to continue. On the other hand, with cost of operating the taxis going up, with food prices going up, how are the cab drivers going to maintain their lowly lifestyle? They need to earn enough to feed their families. It is time to raise taxi fares. How many years have they been driving their taxis without an increase in fare? If there is no increase, their income will quickly be swallowed by the runaway inflations. Poor chaps. But if the fares are raised, all the commuters who have to take taxis will be hurt again and their salaries must be raised too. That must be the way to go forward. And everyone will be happy and taxi touts will go away.

Not so good news today.

Prices of chicken up by 20% and flour by 30%. So the 2% extra on GST is chicken feed actually. But it sure adds on to the increases in chicken and flour prices. With GST at 7%, the respective increases will be 21.4% and 32.1% respectively. So how much will a plate of chicken rice or a loaf of bread going to cost? No need to worry, another few cents more only. Still affordable. Now with all the prices keep going up, it is time to raise the salary again. Everyone shall get 10% increment from the workers to those at the very top, or their life style will be affected.

DPM's responses to Timothy Cooper

These are some questions posed by Cooper of US based human rights group Worldrights and Jayakumar's reply. I am split between putting it in the Myth column, Signs of Progress, or Decline, Notable Quotes or in the Gems of Parliament column in Redbeanforum. And I will just quote them from what was reported in the ST. I will leave it to readers to form their own opinions/comments which I believe will range wildly from the unbelieveable to the amusing and to the very pragmatic necessary evil and the rule of law. 'Cooper asked how it was that there were no libel cases where people had successfully defended themselves against government officials. He charged that the legal playing field was not level. Jayakumar said the question must be whether libel suits were brought with "arguments and substance". Singapore leaders sued for a reason: to uphold their integrity and character. Cooper asked why permits are routinely denied to political opponents who want to stage gatherings, but are granted to the PAP. Jayakumar said for densely populated Singapore, the govt has kept strict laws for public gatherings and processions. It requires and grants permits on considerations of law and order, with particular care paid to gatherings base on race, language and religion, and public gatherings by political parties and figures. The rules apply to all parties, including the ruling PAP, which has to also apply for permits, he said.'

Singaporean Toh demoted at UN

It is a shame for a world organisation like the UN to suffer from the bickering of office politics and demoted an innocent man from his post. It is a dark day for the UN and for Ban Ki Moon. Andrew Toh must stand up and fight against the injustice and the Singapore govt must do all it can to see to its fair and just ending. Toh and the Singapore govt should take out a suit against the UN and all those involved in incriminating Toh. The whole episode is so disgraceful and reflected so poorly on UN and its Secretary General.

notable quotes - Bala Rajaratnam

'My plea is to prevent malicious individuals and aggressive lawyers from abusing the litigation process.' Bala S Rajaratnam In view of the rising legal cost and the lessons of Jonathan Lock, people are more concerned with how people and lawyers can abuse their financial and professional clout to the disadvantage of the poorer and weaker citizens. It is timely that there is a called for an alternative route for justice. Not the kind where you need money to buy justice.

Banning racist blogs and forums

Taking down racist blogs and forums Oooh, they are taking down racist blogs and forums in cyberspace. I agree that this is necessary as many of the blogs/forums are really instigating antagonistic groups to hate and violence. The only problem is that it is like swatting mosquitoes in your little room while millions of mosquitoes are swarming outside or in public places. How effective is that?

67,000 millionaires

67,000 Singaporeans have more than US$1m in assets. My immediate thought is that these millionaires should be exempted from the compulsory annuity scheme. Not only have they proven themselves to be capable of managing their finances and income, they surely have plenty of money to look after them in their old age. In fact any Singaporean with a net asset of S$1million should be exempted. Or those with half a million should also be exempted. Would they be or would they be treated like incapable and irresponsible children, unthinking and cannot manage their life time finances?

Good News Day

Today Singaporeans are greeted by another piece of good news. The 3 power companies will be sold to commercial operators who have promised to improve the system and bring down the cost. There will be another first in introducing a new meter and electronic payment systems. New meters will be introduced to measure usage. Meter cost has come down. Users will have to pay upfront to help them manage their usage. While introducing all the new processes and equipment, the new operators will have to bid with other interested parties for the gencos. Obviously they will have to pay a premium for the right to buy and operate them. Unless the existing gencos are going to sell them below cost, which is unlikely, they will have to invest quite a substantial sum initially. Their sunk cost and operating cost cannot be lower than the present operators. With all these costs and with profits in mind, it is amazing that they can reduce the cost of users and the present gencos cannot, and make profits some more. It must be the efficiency of privatisation and competition between 2 or 3 operators. You can be sure that it is a free market and there will not be any cartel or price fixing. Singaporeans can look forward to more efficient and cheaper power supply.

The CPF Karma

So far all the official reasons given for the Minimum Sum, the $30k Medisave and the Annuity are meant to be good for the people. But in reality, the poor chaps, those who have very little, do not believe that they are good for them. Some do, and those who don't need these money may bear with it, and grudgingly accept their fate. What is important is the real intent of the policymakers. Let us pray for them that the real intent is for the good of the people and not something else. The karma for bad intention by withholding people's money and let them suffer when they don't have to is not going to be light. If the intention is bad, not what was spoken officially, please think again and amend the policies. Please do not bring bad karma upon yourself by harming the poor and helpless people by depriving them from the use of their hard earned money.

one flew over the cuckoo's nest

Employer or employee's market? Few months ago it was reported in the msm that employers are willing to pay many times more for good candidates. And employees can expect higher remuneration with more pay rises. Today it is reported that employees are asking for 10% more than employers are willing to pay and employers are unwiling to pay. It also said that Singaporean employees are now aware of their value because they were bilingual and can seek employment in China and Hongkong. Wow, bi lingual Singaporeans can now flock to greener pastures. And the vacant positions that are paying lousy money can go to the monolingual FTs. So Singaporeans can all fly away from their nests to earn big bucks in foreign soil and the their nests can be taken over by the cuckoos.

notable quotes - loh chee kong

One man's 'acceptable business practice' is another man's kickback. Loh Chee Kong This quote is quite universal and can be applied to many situations.