Singapore delegates visit US to learn about poverty

Singapore delegation visits Marshall to discuss poverty issues Thursday, March 13, 2008 By RACHEL HARPER/Staff writer Nine representatives from Singapore visited Missouri Valley Community Action Agency in Marshall Tuesday, March 11, to learn new and creative ways to address poverty. "We are extremely pleased you decided to come to Missouri, we are still flabbergasted," said Missouri Association for Community Action (MACA) Executive Director Elaine West. "We hope this will be a beneficial experience for you and us." I copy the above from Sammyboy.com. Singapore is really going places. We went to Japan to learn how to look after our aged. Now we are in America to learn how to look after our poor. We will definitely be better off in looking after these two groups of people.

Improving public transport - Taxi bus

The bus and MRT system will now be boosted with a taxi-bus system. Taxis will now operate more like buses and MRT with designated stops to pick up and unload passengers. Maybe the next step is to charge taxi fares according to the number of taxi stops and have regulated taxi routes. I hope the little convenience which used to differentiate taxis from buses and MRT, like bringing passengers to their doorstep, will not be missed. And for the lost of such a convenience, taxi fare can be lowered to meet the new level of service.

Abolish NEP?!

There seems to be a tacit agreement among the opposition parties to abolish the NEP. The new Selangor MB Khalid Ibrahim of PKR said he will abolish the NEP. DAP Lim Guan Eng, CM of Penang also said so. Guan Eng was strongly attacked and warned by Abdullah not to stir racial feelings. Khalid was not touched. It is thus a case of who said it and also how it was spoken. I believe the opposition coalition agreed that the NEP breeds corruption, croynism and nepotism and should be replaced by a fairer and more equitable formula. The issue now is how to go about it without affecting the special position of the bumiputras. And this I believe the coalition also shares a common ground. Now they will have to articulate to the people that they will help all the races and still recognise the special position of the bumiputras. This assurance is vital. Wish them well.

Keep people informed with timely information

Li Xueying calls for more timely and correct information to keep the public informed and avoid wild speculations. In her article in the Straits Times she referred to Mas Selamat case as an example. So was the NTU lecturer's article that more jobs were going to foreigners and being attacked for being 'irresponsible an unprofessionable.' And strangely, the recent MOM reports actually vindicated what the NTU lecturer had said. Poor bugger. The public deserves to be informed as they are not illiterates or idiots that can't handle information.

The temporary nature of being

Temasek has sold Tuas Power to China's Huaneng Group. It is a pure business transaction like Temasek buying other foreign commercial institutions. We buy and we sell for profits. We sell our core assets and buy other country's assets. Now, what else are we going to sell? DBS, SIA, Keppel or PSA? I think as long as there is profit and makes commercial sense, we will likely sell them. How about Sentosa? Things are getting very temporal, and decisions are made based on practical and functional considerations. I think we should seriously think of selling citizenship. Our citizenship is highly priced and valued and should not be given away cheaply. All things are temporary and transient. Nothing to cry about if we sell them away. We can buy other things too. Time to think of buying Australia.

Guided by different principles

More than two weeks have passed. They are still trying to catch him. A few thousand uniformed men and several thousands running around doing it for free. Would these freelancers really be motivated to do it? We have long been championing the principle of paying for talent and contribution. We pay very well for talents as their work are talented work and cannot be for free. Else we will cheapen their self worth. Now we are expecting people to run around to catch the most wanted man for free. And mind you, their time and effort, food and transportation all costs money. They have out of the pocket expenses while running all over the place. I think some will do it zealously for the stupid idealism of duty and nation. But this is a dying breed. Many that go along could be just wayanging. It is time to live by the true principle and pay the talents for the capture of Mas Selamat. And the price should be at least a couple of millions after so many failed to catch him. Time to put up a $3 million reward for the most wanted man if we want him badly. We cannot live by two separate principles, one demanding high rewards for work done and one demanding people to slog for free on idealistic principles.

Story of woman seeing Mas Selamat

The msm reported that a woman saw Mas Selemat crossing Thomson Road and looking lost. And Mas Selamat was taking a stroll, unhurried and without fear of being discovered. How credible is this story? If that was Mas Selamat, it means that he either sneaked out or walked out of the detention centre on his own, unassisted. And he had all the time in the world to walk all the way to Thomson Road without a search party breathing down his neck. The journey must have taken him half an hour or so. This also implies that till the time he was seen at Thomson Road, no one was aware that he was missing or had escaped. Could this be when his escape from the toilet could easily be discovered in a few minutes and a search party must be all over the place. The story is highly improbable.

Pertinent lessons from Malaysia

Below are 3 lessons which I fully agree with PN Balji of the Today paper. Lesson 1: A good leader must lead from the front, especially when it comes to important issues. Lesson 2: Be discerning when listening to views and trust the right people. Finally ownership. It is now 5 days since the electoral hammering....It is time for Abdullah to own up to the damage inflicted on his party and the people who had pinned their hopes on him. Lesson 3: Accept responsibility, assess the mood of the people and decide how to move on. What a good piece of lesson and what a nice timing.

Lim Guan Eng better be careful

The DAP is going to abolish NEP in Penang! PAS is saying they are not agreeing to it. Lim Guan Eng better not be another cock and plunge Penang and Malaysia into another nightmare. The ultras are licking their wounds and are looking for an excuse to let loose their anger. And blood tasting is what they may be looking for. The position of PAS is more sensible. PAS also did not totally agree with the NEP. What they want is to modify the NEP to benefit all races, especially the poor. That should be the way to go for DAP. Review the NEP, keep the good and discard the bad, change a little here and there to benefit all Malaysians. Throwing it out into the bin without a second look is inviting for trouble. In a time like this, a lot of good common sense is needed to take in the sensibilities of all the races. Lim Kit Siang better quickly whisper to him a few pieces of good advice along this line.

Myth 174 - No Estate Duty

We have just scrapped Estate Duty and the super rich are all popping their champagne. I am going to argue that this is another Singapore myth. What is Estate Duty? In brief it is a tax on a citizen's life long accummulation of wealth, his properties and money. With the scrapping of the Estate Duty, this is gone. For the average Singaporean, his life long accummulated wealth is his HDB flat and the money in his CPF. These are his material assets. All he has. HDB flat is safe, but not his CPF. In a way the Estate Duty now comes in another form. It has transformed to tax the estate of a citizen in advance. You guess it, the Minimum Sum and the Medisave are Estate Duty taxed in advance. No they will tell you that they are different and for different objectives. And they will be returned to you at the appropriate time when they decide to. So for 40, 50 or 60 years, maybe more, the citizens will be dumping real money into the CPF and in return they will get an IOU chit from the CPF saying how much it owes the citizen. And only the CPF has the authority to decide when to give it back to the citizen and at its terms. Still not really like Estate Duty leh. True. Let's take an extreme case where a citizen only has a little Minimum Sum and his Medisave. And he dies without any surviving relations. Where does the money go to? This is as good as it gets to being an Estate Duty Tax. And it is 100% tax! Whether this is equivalent or far from what Estate Duty is, it all depends on one's perception and definition. (Check with Matilah) Now who does not pay this transformed Estate Duty? Those on pension scheme and the super rich who are able to work around the CPF ruling and not contributing to it. Even they do so, it is less than the smallest peanuts in relations to their wealth.

The magic of Malaysian politics

It is unbelieveable that the only person that has all the cards to play is someone that is not even an elected MP. Anwar is now calling the shots, manouvring and shuffling the cards. Abdullah the PM is the captain of a sinking ship and watching perilously at the possibility of his crews jumping over board. And it takes only one GE with the ruling party still the majority govt to shake the political landscape. It is simply amazing. Everyone gravitating towards Anwar and watching what he is going to do next and when he is going to be the next PM.

Increasing relevance of Cyberspace

The Malaysian GE has shot cyberspace into the limelight. Many claimed credit should go to cyberspace for breaking the govt's stranglehold on one sided reporting in favour of the BN. And cyberspace came to the rescue to provide an alternative view that the people had been deprived of. Below are some comments which I extracted from The Straits Times by Jeremy Au Yong. Said the site's owner Raja Petra Kamarudin: 'Traffic went up so high that I could not get on to update the site.' The massive visitor numbers put up by both websites, gave one of the clearest indications yet, of just how much the Malaysian public have been turning to alternative media for its political news. With opposition parties feeling shut out of traditional news media, they turned to the Internet to air their views. And it seems many Malaysians follow them there. Said Mr Premesh: 'The alternative media has broken the monopoly of the government on the media and provided a platform for information distribution. It gave a platform for people not in power.' And some now say, cyberspace was where the recent election was lost. Mr Tony Pua, a Democratic Action Party candidate who made his name as a blogger, said the Internet played a pivotal role in informing people about the issues. Although he admitted that he was surprised at how effective it turned out to be. 'The Internet may be more instrumental than people thought it would be. This was not expected by anyone,' he said. And no one was caught more off-guard than the government, said Mr Premesh: 'They thought it wouldn't reach beyond the segment of the community that had Internet access. They didn't consider the spillover effect. 'If you had gone to a rally, you would have seen that the people are well aware of the issues, issues that were only broadcast on alternative media. The Internet fed the information into a certain part of the community, and it spread from there.' He referred to stories like the alleged links between murdered Mongolian model Altantunya Shaariibuu and Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, as well as the judiciary scandal involving Datuk VK Lingam. Raja Petra felt that the Internet's biggest contribution was in getting the middle class to the ballot booths. 'Alternative media cured the apathy the middle class has. They were no longer saying: 'Let's not bother.' Suddenly, it was let's go and give the opposition a chance,' he said.

The goodness coming from the GE

The Malaysians have two men to thank for the results of the GE and a new Malaysia. Credit must go to Anwar for bringing about two unlikely bedfellows together to share a common dream, a Malaysian Malaysia. And credit must also go to Abdullah for allowing this to happen. Today, Abdullah is talking about a Malaysia for all Malaysians, a fair and level playing field, uniting all Malaysians and prosperity for all. This is a stark contrast from the pre election days when he allowed UMNO to be more extremist than PAS. UMNO was then trying to be more Islamic and more Malay than whatever PAS stood for. UMNO was trying to outdo PAS! Now PAS has moderated its position, and this caught UMNO with its pants down. Now a new tune is being sung by all parties, in the govt and the alternative govt. Everyone is talking about a Malaysian Malaysia. The challenge to the future is whether Anwar is strong and dynamic enough to keep PAS under check and not going the extreme Islamic path. And on Abdullah's part, whether he can rein in the ultras in his party and return UMNO to be a party for all Malaysians. His problems are more difficult as there is also the big issue of corruption among his close aides and ministers. UMNO needs a thorough clean up and many of his corrupt gangs must go. To think that Samy Vello is still thinking of leading MIC as a component member of the BN speaks a lot about where UMNO is.

Of ethics, pride and shame

Singapore is the second least corrupt country in Asia after Hongkong. Not a bad medal to wear. But is this tooth or truth? A CEO running a huge organisation may be stripped of all his responsibilities and kicked upstair and given a grand title like Master CEO or Grand Master... and continue to receive his obscene pay. His new job description could be in charge of the welfare of the tea lady and the toilet cleaners. And he continues happily going to office looking after the tea lady and cleaners, and with great pride and a lot of pay. Is this corruption? A board director who does not do anything material, who may not even attend board meetings, and continues to collect his fat director's fee happily. Is this corruption? In the strict sense of the definition, these are not corruption. The things that border people are ethics, pride and shame. Do these people have any ethical values to talk about? Are they proud of what they are doing? Do they have any sense of guilt or shame? Are they the role models in our society?

No words from Mas Selamat's family

I have been trying to hear from Mas Selamat's family and see what they have to say on his escape. After two weeks, still nothing heard. Neither was there any report on them. I think they must have given up on Mas Selamat. Or the journalists have all given up on them too. They are not news worthy, falling in the same category like how Mas Selamat escape. There may be people who want to know. But no one thinks it is important to follow up and do a write up about them. Would the family want to know where Mas Selamat is, or is he dead or alive?

Call for govt to take over public transport

Ng E Jay wrote to the ST calling for the govt to take over public transport as privatisation does not lead to more competition and efficiency. Has Ng E Jay forgotten that only through privatisation can organisations become more efficient? Taking over by the govt, according to our conventional wisdom, is a step backward, and public transport will become less efficient. Only through privatisation can public transport become efficient. And that is the tooth. Are Singaporean gullible or unthinking?

Malaysia's rite of passage

Below is a comment by Shad Saleem Faruqi in the Mypaper which I find very relevant. New Politics 'The electorate is not, any more, swayed exclusively by racial and religious appeal. The old technique of appealing to people's fear and insecurities did not work. The feudal hold of party overlords seems to have weakened. The Malay electorate seems to have cast off traditional loyalties. A maturing electorate saw through all the political rhetoric, the issues of corruption, arrogance of power and price rises.... The voting population has demonstrated that there are limits to its gullibility.' Shad is a Professor of Law at Universiti Teknologi Mara.

A city for dogs

I wrote earlier about dogs competing for space with human beans. I just come a cross an article in the Today paper reminding readers that it is an offence to abandon dogs. And the fine is $10k. Not a small sum to commit such a crime. I am wondering whether there is a similar act for abandoning parents or children. Just wondering. While we are going all out to protect the dogs, spare a thought for the human beans that are abandoned.

Malaysians have shown the way

It is possible to bring down an over confident ruling party. The Malaysians have done it, though the ruling party was not brought down yet, but the writing is on the wall. The facade of infallibility has been breached. All it needs is a confluence of many factors, big and small. Together they will tip the scale. The situation and conditions in Malaysia are quite similar except appearing in different hues. Removing the distractions, they are the same kinds of problem facing the people. And they have a few foolish ministers and some good for nothing ministers to help the people made up their minds. In our past elections, our ministers were the pillars of strength to lift or carry an entire GRC based on their reputation and weight. Would this assumption still holds true? In my observation, some are becoming a liability to the GRCs. They will bring down the GRCs instead. That is how bad things have changed. The momentum and direction have been set by the Malaysians. There is a high probability that they will be emulated here, in the next GE.

Paradise contracts terminal illness

Not possible? Paradise is like a rich fat man, well fed, overdosed of too much goodness, and full of bad cholesterol and high blood pressure, and contracting a terminal illness like what some rich man could. Given proper treatment, its life can be extended for quite sometime, or at worst hooked onto some tubes. What kind of treatment is paradise receiving? In most instances what paradise is getting is morphine jab. Not enough workers, inject foreign workers. Roads jammed, erect ERPs. Rising cost of living, throw them some money. Lack of talent, throw them some money. Taxi problems, raised fare. Public transport problems, raised fares. Education standard not high enough, raised fees. Feed the service providers and all will be well. And if morphine does not work, which it often the case as the effect is temporary, try chemotherapy. Chemo will work. But if the illness does not kill the patient, chemo will, or the many side effects will. Paradise cannot survive on morphine and chemo alone. We need more brilliant solutions. If a couple of millions would not do, then go for 10 or 20 million solutions, or a hundred million dollar solutions if there is such a thing. Actually a 2 million or 10 million or hundred million solution may be the same solution. We may be paying for the hype.