Wanted - Dead or Alive: Matilah Singapura

Now where has this guy gone? Arrested in Bangkok for having a drink too many?

Same bed different dreams

When the foreigners landed in paradise, it is like waking up to a dream comes true. Everything is exactly what they want and are looking for. The beautiful infrastructure, the gleaming buildings that they can desire to be home, the first world lifestyle, and jobs aplenty. Then the great hosts welcoming them with red carpets and open arms. What a beautiful dream. The elite too wake up to a reality that many could only dream off. Everyday is wine, women and song. No need to work too. Just manage their assets well. Make sure that property prices and all prices go up. Property prices up means asset value increase. Rental up means income increase. Higher ERP means having the road to themselves. Jobs, no need jobs. No need to work. Some are even luckier. Being paid in millions to go on holidays or sipping teas attending board meetings. The citizens, the Singaporeans, wake up to a different dream. Tighten your belt, don't expect charity or welfare. Look after yourself and live within your means. Work till you die. Downgrade lifestyle and expectations. Eat less, use less, take bus or walk. Actually the writing is on the wall. Move out if you can't fit in. Even the foreigners are singing the same song. Move out if you are so unhappy. We are here to replace you. All you ingrates, not knowing how lucky you are. And the system is designed for the locals to move out. Money lock up in CPF cannot touch. So got money as good as no money. When one is going to work till he drops dead, there is no need for savings for retirement anymore. Outdated concept. The message is very clear, that you can have your money only if you move out. Migrate, denounce your citizenship and the money will be returned to you. And good bye, good riddance. All in the same bed but different dreams.

Why 2 senior ministers and 2 DPMs?

There is an article in Zaobao forum on 8 Jul discussing why the PM needs two senior ministers and two DPMs to assist him. Given the super talent nature of all the ministers, surely the PM should be capable to hold the fort himself, alone. The forumer were trying to reason why is there a need for so many ministers to assist the PM. Subsequently he set this aside and commented on the impression of all the PMs, including the Chief Ministers that Singapore has had and found only David Marshall was the only one who could inspire and create a special aura around him. He then suggested that if the senior ministers were to volunteer to serve the country by taking a $1 salary, the people will greatly admire them for their greatness. After all every one of them have fortunes that could last several generations. Money is not an issue to them. Don't forget they are still receiving their great pensions, probably in the millions. This is an interesting article, really.

Buying 100 of the world's most advanced fighters

This is surely unbelieveable for a tiny dot to acquired such formidable weapons, the F35. At US$68 mil a piece, wow, we will surely become the most well equipped air force in the world. We will become invincible! I am worried about my income tax and more taxes, and our national reserves. Such advanced aircraft, with stealth capability, are employed by sophisticated airforces like the Americans and other super powers to evade equally sophisticated defensive radar systems. And the capability of the aircraft is to achieve air superiority over equally capable aircraft. Looking around, who are our enemies and what to they have? Do we need them when the defence is made up of coconut trees and catapults? But can't be too sure. If we upgrade, they also upgrade. We spend more, they also can spend more. I will like to be the arms merchants, inspiring the boys to spend more money on their toys to be one up against each other.

Is switching to CNG a trap?

Petrol prices shot up and converting to CNG becomes an attractive option. Now the converts are crying foul. After spending so much money to convert their petrol cars to CNG, they are now at the mercy of the CNG suppliers. With only two points, maybe more later, it is a MONOPOLY! CNG price has shot up by 25% in 3 months from $1.28 per kg to $1.59. And prices of CNG were not affected like the speculation in oil. Producer price of CNG was stable during the whole duration. Someone sleeping to allow such profiteering to go on under the clear blue sky. Wake up, wake up. Oh never mind. It is ok to sleep until master says 'Fetch', then start running.

Another step forward

Cyberspace is gaining ground in Malaysia. The Malaysian Govt has accepted that online journalists are also journalists and have started to issue press passes for them to cover official events. Now there is no need to be paid as a journalists to be recognised as a journalist. The paid journalists can no longer thump down at the online news providers. And Singapore has taken a ginger step forward to dip its toe into cyberspace. Ministers are signing up in Facebook to test water. Workers Party also has its own Facebook. The breakwater has been broken. The flood water is going to fill the land.

Oil price down by US$5!

Oil price took a knock and ended at US$136, a $5 fall. We must demand that petrol prices be cut immediately by at least 10c a litre. The petrol companies have been very prompt in raising their pump prices. It is time that they be equally prompt to cut their prices. If not, CASE better step in immediately, not to ask questions, but to insist on an immediate cut. With Iran willing to talk on its nuclear programme, the pressure for oil price to go up is lesser as the mad men in White House have lesser reasons to attack Iran. And speculators are going to run for cover.

Monster without and monster within

I used to write about the fear of bringing a monster home to tend to the babies and the old folks. It is a genuine fear as the maid that is brought home is mostly an unknown element. You would not know of her past, her medical history or her psyche. And we left our infants and invalids to their care when care was not in their minds. Many tragedies had happened and many regretted their follies to leave their precious loved ones to a complete stranger that turned out to be a monster. That is only one perspective. There are monsters within. The employers are equally possible to unveal their dark sides. Many are cruel, wicked and inhumans. Today ST published about this 'former airforce sergeant Tong Chew Wei' who treated his maid no better than the African slaves in America once. One meal a day and worked till 3am. Then the beating and ill treatment. Yes we have such cruel specimens in paradise. We need to terminate them asap. Or at least present them for public flogging at the padang. We need to put a stop to such evil and wicked treatments of other human beans. It is just unacceptable and intolerable and cannot be condoned, whether they are citizens or our fellow men. No one should think it is ok to ill treat the children of lesser gods. The heavy hand of the law must be used to deal with such vicious creatures. They have not listened, will not listen, and will continue to do what they are doing, thinking that they will be dealt with less harshly. Make a few as an example. Let's do it. There can be no exceptions.

How are we evolving?

This is Sanjay Perera's article on how Singapore is evolving and he believes 'Singapore is becoming a fair and just society.' Any FT or new citizen who first set foot on this paradise will have the same impression. Singapore is indeed a paradise of fairness, justice and equality. At least when compare to where they come from. When your reference point is one of dastardly mismanaged countries, who can deny that Singapore is the paragon of all goodness in public administration. I think if you ask the Singaporeans, not the residents, many will have a different opinion. Many will be very cynical. For they grew up, see and live with the changes which many are not comfortable with. And Sanjay concluded his article by saying, 'We should ask ourselves how we want to define ourselves and what kind of society we want, free from what others think we should be.' It is understandable that as a new citizen, I am presuming that he is one, it is reasonable to have such a view. The locals will be grinning, with a big dose of cynicism. Who is 'We' that Sanjay thinks he is referring to? The 'We' is a select group of elite that decide everything. The people are not the 'We' in this sense. No, who wants to listen to the people? We will decide what is best for the people. We will tell the people what is good for them and make it compulsory for them. We will decide their lives, even their money. At the rate we are evolving, Singapore will become what India was during the times of the Maharajahs. Just give it a little more time.

Are oil companies making hefty profits?

Oil price surges over the last few months. So petrol prices naturally go up. The people accept it. Whenever the price of oil goes up, within days, oil companies will raise their pump prices. The rising cost is passed to the consumers without fail. Have yet to see prices coming down when oil price comes down. T he oil companies is not only protecting their profits. At the same time they are likely to be making more profits along the way. Then there is the currency exchange which will add up to their profits. They buy in US dollars and sell to the motorists in the stronger Sing dollars. As long as the Sing dollar is strenthening against the US$, there is the extraordinary gain. Perhaps all these have been priced in and the petrol prices could be much higher. The petrol companies have passed their extraordinary gains to the consumers. Maybe.

Saiful Burkhari being threatened

Saiful Burkhari has received threats to his life and is now under police protection. Anwar also received threats and I believe Balasubramaniam also received threats to his life. Where is Balasubramaniam? Under whose protection? What happens if the people giving the protection will likely be the people that do the killing? In the case of Saiful, it is so easy to kill him and put the blame on Anwar. Where is safe in Malaysia? In a matter of a few months, the whole climate of politics has changed. Actually not true. This kind of politics started during the time of Mahathir. Many were threatened but kept quiet. Judges and politicians are now starting to talk about it. Who has ruined Malaysia? The exact people who proclaimed that they were the protectors of Malaysia have done it.

Bloggers, please stop blogging

This is the plea of Abdullah Badawai for all bloggers to stop blogging. He is putting it squarely on the shoulders of bloggers and those who SMS for creating a climate of fear in Malaysia. The atmosphere is now full of anxiety, tension and cynicism. Even the credibility of his govt and all the national leaders are now in question. Thanks or no thanks to the bloggers. The TOM is non consequential. When the national media is no longer credible or believeable, it is only natural that the people desert them and seek news from where they think is reliable. The TOM is not only telling and repeating stale and unsatisfactory news, it is no longer worth listening to. That is how bad Malaysian media industry has become. What next? After the plea, if unheeded, there may be sanctions and clamping down. Blogging could be banned in Malaysia and bloggers persecuted, arrested and jailed. Their fingers will be chopped off. A new witchhunt will begin and a new enemy of the state will be declared. Yes, bloggers will be the new enemy. The pen is mightier than the sword. The fingers are mightier than the pen. All the bloggers will run into hiding, into the jungle for fear of persecution and had their fingers chopped. Long live the revolution! Long live the bloggers. These will be the new war cry.

We feel safe with our men in uniform

What is happening in Malaysia is frightening. Just over a few years, the state of safety and security has gone to such a low that one has to run away from the people who are supposed to protect you. Balasubramaniam, the PI who signed a Statutory Declaration that Najib Razak knew the murdered Mongolian model is now on the run. He must have feared for his life and the lives of his family. The police has made a public assurance to guarantee his safety, just like Anwar's wife asking Abdullah to guarantee his safety. There is now a manhunt going on for him and his family on a scale no lesser than Mas Selamat. Would it be a hunt in vain, that he no longer exists? Silencing becomes pertinent and seems like an acceptable option in Malaysian politics today. And several candidates are ripe to be silenced. Who will be next? Balasubramaniam, Anwar Ibrahim, the Razak Baginda in prison are so perilous. When a country reaches such a state when the citizens fear the law enforcing officers for their lives, it is very serious.

Find your own truth

This marketing manager Murray Lim must be quite pissed off to the extend that he took his own camera, his car and time, and went about collecting evidence on the road conditions to prove that it was not that bad. He definitely disagreed with the findings of the LTA to justify more ERPs and higher toll rates. He took 9 days and presented his evidence to LTA. Of course his evidence was not accepted. What he thought was good traffic flow may not be what LTA thought was good. It is like a parent demanding 100 marks from his child when the child thought 99 is good enough. When both parties work on different terms of reference, of course the one in authority is right. It is their terms of reference that will be used to decide what the policy should be. Good try.

The law is the law

To keep Singaporeans from committing crimes abroad, some of our laws have been amended, if I am not wrong, to charge Singaporeans who went overseas for child sex. These Singaporeans would not escape punishment on their return as committing such an offence overseas or locally is still an offence. TOM reported that there were at least 350 Singaporeans who had kidney transplants overseas. And now that our law forbids such acts and regarded them as an offence, will the long arm of the law go searching to haul all these offenders to courts? The law is the law, so they said.

Today acknowledges cyberspace

Today is changing its presentation and one of the reasons is that there is a new reader in cyberspace. According to Today, this new reader is 'one who is more tech savvy, who is plugged into real time news, impatient and who moves through information fast. We need to keep pace with you.' The cyberspace has arrived. No one is going to wait for the newsboy to deliver the paper the next morning. The news is here 24/7, non stop and unstoppable. We are living with news and creating news and demanding news at all times. Today will try to keep pace, that is only in its online version. But with paid professionals who work on regular or regimented hours, it will have a hard time keeping up with the readers who will be in and out of the internet or be there all the time. Today's news is fast and furious. Time waits for no one. So is the news today.

With heart and mission

Vivian Balakrishnan was famous for his answer to Lily Neo in parliament when the later pleaded to his ministry to increase the allowance for those on public assistance scheme. His reply was something like, do they want to eat in a restaurant or a food court or in a hawker centre. This image has been stucked with Vivian since then. I think Vivian is having a change of heart. Despite all the great men still talking about the virtues of market forces and not meddling with them even when prices are escalating without control when a little control is demanded and can stop the spiralling, Vivian is saying something else. 'Government policies and the free market are no longer enough to ensure economic growth....No longer can (these)...guarantee that there is no hunger, poverty and unfairness in the world.' In essence what he said is that 'he believes the cooperatives' way of doing business, "with heart and mission", is even more critical.' The heart is coming into the picture in govt policies. This will be good news to the less fortunate and they should stop accusing the govt of not having a heart. The heart is appearing and growing. And this will be the case if everyone thinks like Vivian and acted on it. If....

Giving is the greatest act of Charity

To give selflessly is the greatest act of Charity. Singaporeans were encouraged to give their money and whatever, in charity shows, not for anything in return, but an act of love, to help the less fortunate. But when something is tied to this act, to give and to receive in turn for the good deed, it is no longer a charitable act. If one wants to give, one must give without any thought of getting something back. As the greatest debate on organ trading descended on paradise, we are hearing two opposing views on this sensitive and painful issues of organ donation. The do gooders, the champions of the poor and unfortunate, the protector of the weak, say no, we cannot exploit them. The value of their organs is priceless. On the other corner, the people who have experienced the pain and despair of a dying kidney failure patient, were strongly in favour of legalising the trade. They have lived through their parts of seeing a loved one dying. They have gone through the desperation of finding all avenues of help closed to them. They have lived like the end of tomorrow was staring at them. Only the availability of an organ could bring back some hope to their lives. Their argument is that the donors will also stand a chance to benefit from his involuntary act other than saving a life. The money he gets could bring to them a new lease of a better life. Is that wrong? When there is no compulsion, no exploitation, with all the regulations in place to ensure that it is a deal that is as fair as possible to both parties, would not that be sufficient to let the transaction go through? Only the donor will know how bad he needs the money and how much he is willing to part with his organ. He has his own price given his own situation. No price is right or too expensive. But price is relative, just like the price of a human life. Some are dirt cheap or worthless. Some rather die than live. There is one group that is conspicuously absent from this debate. The hard thinking, pragmatic and market mechanism believers. This group can be expected to come out and say the brutal truth. Or at least say something that we should not meddle with the market forces and let the market determine the value of the organ. Maybe they are waiting for someone close to be afflicted with this modern day plague before they speak out in favour of organ trading. Or maybe they are indulging in such trade quietly, not wanting to be known that they too have done it. For the moment, the gods of righteousness and high moral win. Organ trading should not be allowed. The law should deal harshly with those who committed such despicable acts of exploiting the poor and desperate. And those who went overseas quietly to have it done, they should be punished on their return. This is the current morality on organ trading in paradise. I am saying current because the standard of morality is subjective, relative and variable from place to place and in time.

Not a matter of faith, but of rights

July 5, 2008 I REFER to the open letter NTUC Income chief executive officer Tan Suee Chieh sent to me last Wednesday and, presumably, to the rest of Income's policyholders. It is unfortunate that Mr Tan and his new management team have not grasped the fundamental concern of existing policyholders regarding Income's bonus-restructuring exercise. Contrary to what he believes is a question of faith in him and his management team, the bone of contention for most policyholders is about how Income has unilaterally restructured the bonus scheme on not only new insurance plans, but existing ones as well. The key question Mr Tan and his management team should ask is this: If the customer had known that Income would execute an about-turn and change the bonus proportion at its own discretion, would the then-prospective policyholder have signed up? It should be the right of each consumer or policyholder, not the insurer, to determine what is in his best interest. The fact that NTUC Income has unilaterally implemented the change in the bonus scheme without allowing existing policyholders the choice of opting in or out shows a complete disregard for the sanctity of policy agreements and policyholders' rights and freedom to choose. I must therefore question the sincerity of Income's 'guided principles' to protect and enhance the interests of its policyholders. It is like telling a child he is being locked in a cage to prevent him falling down and getting hurt. As society progresses and the financial sector matures, we expect a more balanced approach to consumers' rights. Dennis Liu The above is a letter printed in the ST forum. Just reflect a little on what other organisations are doing the same thing and getting away with it. Changing the terms and conditions midstream, claiming that it is for your own good and leaving you with no right to object or to opt out. This is the kind of degeneration of the rights of the people or consumers. An organisation can do what it wants, changing the goal posts, and get away with it.

It is hip to be poor!

At a time when we celebrate our Golden Years, it is also a time to be hip to be poor in paradise. Let's help the losers feel a little better by telling teaching them to brag out loudly on how to stinge a few cents to get by. Let's not be shy about it. When one does not have the money, do the things that the have nots have been doing, and make them sound fashionable. The ST have reported 30 great ways to save, to tighten your belt, as a new life style. I too have been doing them quietly for many years, a bit ashame of the kinds of things I did to save some money. I walk instead of taking public transport, to save a few cents. But I will say that it is for exercise, for health reasons. I climb the stairs, also for the same reasons, but not telling people that I can't afford to join the famous gyms. I wear cheap watches or plastic ones, deliberately as if to dress down on purposes but actually can afford the $30k branded ones. Wear cheap imitation jeans from Bugis or pasar malam, tear and cut them everywhere to look authentically poor but hip. And everything is DIY to save on cost. Drink plain water and give the reasons that caffeinated drinks are bad for health. And I don't go to the barber, kept my hair long, tied it into a pony tail and look neither male nor female, then say it is the style, like artistes or movie stars. Feels great. There are many excuses to save money and act cool at the same time. Oh, I don't eat sharksfin too, to save the sharks. And to be eco friendly, I stop driving to town. Shhhhh, can't afford the high fuel cost and the high ERPs. Never mind squeezing, sweating and smelling all the body odour. Just got to bear with it. There is an Ah Q emerging inside me.