Talking about insensitivity

Bilahari Kausikan, the Permanent Secretary of MFA, is reported to be leading a delegation to KL to discuss the final phase of the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station land swap deal. Bilahari’s name is also in the lips of many Malaysians for what was reported in American diplomatic sting operations and leaked by WikiLeaks. His views and comments on Malaysia and Malaysian leadership were anything but complimentary. And if there is anything that the Malaysians would want to do with him, it is best not mentioned. For Singapore to send Bilahari to KL for such an important meeting so soon after the WikiLeaks revelation can be seen as being confident that Malaysia and Malaysians will be able to put them aside and negotiate professionally and objectively. It also rule up the discomfort by individuals that often behave strangely because of their own personalities and the baggage they carried with them. These must be the assessment from the Singapore side. Let’s hope the assessment is right and the negotiation goes well under Bilahari’s leadership. His diplomatic skills will be put to a tough test. I am just wondering what he will say to the Malaysians to appease them and be on top of the problem. People have been complaining that Singapore and Singaporeans are arrogant and insensitive. I say no, Singapore and Singaporeans are not arrogant and insensitive. They are just very arrogant and very insensitive. But I think I may be wrong. I really hope so.

Bilahari leading high power delegation to KL

The Star, 14 December 2010 SINGAPORE’S most senior Foreign Ministry official Bilahari Kausikan is heading for Kuala Lumpur on Dec 22 as a leader of a delegation to discuss KTM Berhad’s land swap deal in Singapore agreed in May by the Prime Ministers of the two countries.... This is going to be an interesting meeting for Bilahari. The Malaysians may want to feast him with durians after what he had said about their leadership.

A good piece of advice from ST

The ST Editorial commented on China’s Nobel prize anger as overdone. It said no need to be like that lah. For a great nation that is confident of itself, it should just simply ignored the little country called Norway and its award of the prize to Liu Xiaobo. I also agree. Why get so work up by a silly bunch of people in the Nobel Peace Prize Committee? The same piece of advice is relevant to the WikiLeaks fiasco. All the great nations that are confident of themselves should simply ignore all the leaks even if they embarrassed them. Treat them as some rubbish coming out from small people and ignore them. Then peace and calm shall return to the whole world. And the Americans will find that their effort in throwing a spanner into the world of diplomacy an effort in vain. Great and confident nations should be able to see through the evil scheme and remain calm, not to be provoked into making the situation any worst. Are there any great and confident nations out there that will take this advice seriously?

Good names for MRT stations

We have Phoenix, Petir and Pending in the Bukit Panjang LRT line. We are going to have Kadaloor, Coral Edge and Riviera in Sengkang. The ST asked whether these names ring a bell. I heard a thud. Maybe I shall offer a few nice sounding names that will ring a bell. Obama ok? Harry Potter should definitely ring a bell if Obama doesn’t. Mickey Mouse will be music to the children. Buckingham Palace, this should sound glorifying. Pavarotti is another excellent name for a train station. ‘You have arrived at Pavarotti Station.’ OK, OK, I got carried away a bit. Do we have a basis in selecting names for MRT stations? Old landmarks are acceptable. Honouring our historical personalities is also OK. But how to relate to Devan Nair Station in Sengkang? Did Devan lived there before, his birth place, or any institution or landmark that reminds people of him there? A better way out is to hold a naming contest. But don’t engage the professional agencies. They will charge a million bucks for a name. Get the people to suggest and the winners be awarded with a prizes. $1000 for each station name accepted. There will be many participants and the involvement of the people will make them feel proud and comfy with the names they have chosen. Let me guess what the people will choose. The kids will like Valkrie, Ironman or Spiderman. The youth would love to call the station Angelina Jolie or Christie Chung. Who are they anyway? The aunties would be crazy with names like Baey Yong Joon. But those aunties in the grassroot organizations would probably vote in favour of Lim Sway Say or Lim Boon Heng. The well heeled and well travelled may want things like Metzingen, Baden Baden, Marienplatz or something like that. Come to think of it, finding a good name for a station is not easy huh. Better leave it to the supertalents and live with Kadaloor, Coral Edge and Riviera. Never mind if they don’t ring a bell. One final attempt, Timbuktu!

American allies forced to show hands

What WikiLeaks said about Singaporean leaders? Hmmm, I declared that I am a Singaporean and I must always say good things about my country and our leaders. It is tough to say not so nice things about them. I can’t call them sneaky or that they have said stupid things. It is very difficult to say it in a diplomatic way that will come out as reasonable and acceptable to the readers after what the Americans have leaked on them. The hallmark of Singapore is all about standing on high moral grounds. Be responsible and respectable in what we say and do. WikiLeaks destroyed all that. Or the Americans destroyed all that. George Yeo was embarrassed and his peers in the other countries may not want to talk to him anymore. If they do, it will be about playing golf or food and wine. He has to, after seeing the horror of the information being pasted on the pages of our own media. There is no where to hide. It is everywhere in the internet for all to see. And more dirty laundry will be aired. Perhaps George Yeo may want to despatch a special envoy to all the countries we called friends and explain to them that the bad things we said about them in confidence must be respected. They are not supposed to know. Let’s put all this aside and move on. After all, if not taken out of context the vulgar comments meant well. Back at MFA he may want to issue a new directive, that we should not bad mouth any country or their leaders even when spoken in confidence. We must expect that they will be leaked to compromise our relations with our friends. And the red flag must be flown once we have to talk to the American diplomats. They are so dangerous that with them as friends we don’t need enemies anymore. And tell Tommy and Bilahari and whoever, no need to explain what they have said. It would only make things worst. Keeping quiet is the best thing to do now. Better, dig a hole in the ground and bury their heads in it. It is a very painful lesson to be learnt at this stage of their lives, to be betrayed by their trusted friends in America. Do we still have any friends left? Can leaders of other countries trust us anymore? What WikiLeaks have done is to stop the gossipings and bad mouthing behind the backs of other countries. And Singapore not only has a swelled head and ego to match in dispensing political wisdom, now has two swelled black eyes to complete the image.

The US attacks its allies

The US has launched the most massive and destructive attack on its allies through the WilkiLeaks. It has created an ill feeling throughout the whole diplomatic community. No one is spared. OK, not really. A few of the US core allies are practically free from any embarrassing leaks. Those that suffered the most from the leaks are peripheral allies or allies that attempt to balance their relationship between the US and China. Countries like Singapore, even Australia, will be fixed very nicely and will suffer an unkind fate for being an American ally. They will have a hard time trying to appease China and to mend their relationship. It will never be the same again. The party that benefited most from the fracas is the US of course. Countries that fell victims should return the American kindness by having their own version of WikiLeaks and see how red the faces of the Americans will be. For the time being the Americans must be having a good laugh at the silly political leaders that were foolish enough to have confidence in the Americans and that the Americans will not compromise them at any cost. They are now left to lick their own wounds. They are simply dispensable. Could the leak be prevented? Why were there no leaks from other countries? Were the security systems of other countries more superior than the Americans? It cannot be, the US is the most sophisticate military power and guarding their own electronic/cable communications with all kinds of complicated codes, cannot be easily penetrated. And their CIAs and all the intelligent agencies are world best. How could the leak have gone to far and so big? It will be ridiculous to think that the Chinese communication security system is far more superior to the Americans. Or for that matter, Singapore or any third world countries. Let’s have a few leaks on what the Americans say to their allies, to the Israelis, Japanese and South Koreans, or to Saudi Arabia, or to the European nations. The attack on its allies through WikiLeaks is a precedent that the Americans have set and they will have to pay for it. They cannot get away Scot free from this kind of black operations. For one, they have proven to be unreliable and dangerous as an ally. They cannot be trusted.

Red passport in danger

Philippine airport police nabs Singaporean national for carrying shabu Inquirer.net, 10 Dec 2010 MANILA, Philippines--A Singaporean national was arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 Thursday for allegedly sneaking illegal drugs into the country, police said on Friday. Soa K.H., 36, had just arrived from Thailand via the Thai Airways Flight TG-620 when airport authorities arrested him before 2 p.m., according to a report from the police's National Operations Center. Singaporean arrested at NAIA for shabu possession - GMANews.TV Posted by admin at Friday, December 10, 2010 0 comments Singaporean nabbed in Johor for drug trafficking Malaysia Star, 10 Dec 2010 JOHOR BARU: Police have busted a drug trafficking syndicate with the arrest of three people including a Singaporean and seizure of more than RM271,000 worth of syabu and Eramin 5 pills. Johor Police chief Deputy Comm Datuk Mohd Mokhtar Mohd Shariff said police officers from the State Narcotics Department raided a house in Taman Setia Tropika following a tip-off at 3.30am on Dec 6 .... Above are Singaporeans making headlines for the wrong stuff. The squeaky clean Singaporean image is taking a bashing around the world. My red passport was a cherished and respectable document that could whisk me through many international airports with accorded respect from the immigration authorities. The citizens of less dignified countries looked in awe at the power of our red passport. At the rate Singaporeans are hitting the headlines for drug traffickings and other crimes, it would not be long when holders of our red passports would have to join the long queue to be thoroughly search, like high suspects for crimes. We are progressing in the wrong fields.

The paranoid obsession of North Korea

North Korea and the Kim family have become our public enemy number one if we go by the amount of hate reports on them as an indicator. We have almost daily angry reports of how bad the country has been managed by a family of irrational, naïve and incompetent family who are still living in the forgotten era of the past. They are expected to throw tantrums, wanting to show their manhood, provocative of their neighbours to prove their worthiness and never grow up. The picture painted of the North Koreans is just the reversed of the fairy tale existence of handsome princes and princesses of the European genre, prince charmings, no matter how dull they were and princesses that really look no better than our Ah Lians and with a brain to match. There is a stable of local and foreign talents masquerading as serious analysts and reporters pushing out vile and childish stories about North Korea and shafting them down the throat of the innocent and ignorant public. As days go by, one wonders whether it is the North Koreans that are immature and obnoxious or it is the reporters/analysts that churned out garbage at their expense. The other interesting question is why the obsession and hatred of the North Koreans that have really nothing to do with us nor affect our existence in anyway. The Korean waves that our youth and aunties are embracing originate from the South. Maybe there is nothing harmless to write about locally and hacking at a distant isolated country is the second best thing to do. Or is there a dark agenda to the whole episode? It resembles a kind of political evangelism.

Modern day pirates, slave traders and drug peddlers

They used to make it big time catching slaves and trading them for profit. The same group was also active in piracy along the coast of Africa, but not of the Somali kind. They were Europeans. Some went further to China to push drugs, selling opium to the stupid Chinamen. And many built huge mansions in England, Europe and America from their lucrative businesses. Brown University was named after a slave trader. Jardines, Mathesons, Brooklyns, Rockefellers, Rothschild and what else, were all infamous and even became conglomerates. They were the heroes of the crowns and were knighted as members of their empires. There were no moral issues, no righteousness, no fair play, no wrong, all for good and clean profits. And they became respectable gentlemen and nobilities. And they got to be addressed as Sir. The modern pirates, drug peddlers and slave traders are also in respectable industries and professions. The finance industry is infested with these great gentlemen and talents. They pushed toxic notes, toxic bonds and improvised all kinds of rules and regulations and gaming of all kinds, to fleece the unwary and the weary, the innocent and ignorant and the not so well connected. And the modern day robbers, pirates and drug peddlers would also be knighted, respectable, and would build mansions all over the world, hop and sail in their private jets and yachts. And there is also no need to be woolly about morality, about fair play and about righteousness. These are only the concerns for the losers to cry over with, after they were fleeced.

China should raise the Korean tension issue in the UN

While the belligerent parties are bent on provoking the North Koreans with more war games in the Yellow Sea and the borders of North Korea, and calling the North Koreans provocative, China should not keep quiet and let the unjust blame game to go on. China must name the gangsters as they are and bring the matter to the UN to let the world community knows who are the real provocateurs. China cannot afford to be on the defensive and allow the US to put the blame on her when the US is the real culprit in the whole crisis. The american deception and ill intent to raise tension in the Korean Peninsula must be revealed for all to see. One simple resolution that the UN can adopt is to stop all parties from conducting war games in the Yellow Sea and 200km from the Korean borders. This alone should be good enough to lower the tension in the peninsula. If not, the belligerent countries will continue to carry their big guns to threaten North Korea. In addition, China shall call for a thorough investigation on the blowing up of Choenan and find who is the real murderer of the South Korean seamen. This incident must not be forgotten and laid to rest without giving justice to the dead men and their families. It must be pursued rigorously. Otherwise more innocent people would be killed with more of such incidents to raise tension and war between the two Koreans will be repeated. The two Koreans too must support such an investigation, and avoid conducting war games to provoke one another.

Another isolated youth slashing incident

A 23 year old was slashed in Yishun for asking a group of teenagers for his lost mobile phone. The youngest of the slashers was only 13. They attacked the 23 year old with parangs and leaving him bleeding with many cuts. He was lucky to be alive. This must be another isolated incident involving wayward youths. I don’t think they are gang members, just nice little neighbourhood kids on an outing together. The only difference today is that kids don’t only carry mobile phones only. They also tucked a parang in their waist pouch. And they are willing to wield the parangs and chop anyone when confronted. This is how far our society has progressed. We have upgraded our communications skill, from talking to arguing to quarrelling and now to slashing. And the fashion gadgets the kids are attaching to their bodies include tattoos and parangs, not 3 inch jack knives or pen knives. Any slashing incident is just a once in 50 year affair. And our nice neighbourhood kids will not be involved in any gangland warfare. Maybe a little staring incident now and then. Nothing to worry about. Singapore is still a very safe city.

In praise of Greed

68 medical specialists left the public sector to go into private practice. And the lure is a ten fold increase in income. Current income of public sector specialists ranges from $12k to $60k pm or $160k to three quarter of a million as compare to a million to 5 million in the private sector. And with COE hitting the $100k mark soon, these poor doctors would not be able to buy a decent car to drive. Nothing is wrong with the specialists wanting to earn a few millions a year. What is fearful is that the next round of salary increment in the public sector for medical specialists would push medical fees out into deep space. But that is the price to pay for a booming economy when there is so much money to be made and with a price tag of a few millions for anything as only small change. The way it is going, all the specialists should soon end up in the private sector, and more private hospitals can be built to reap more profits from this life and death business. The public sector can never hope to compete with the private sector on money alone. If they do, it will create a continuous domino theory with every other professional expecting to earn more than the doctors, starting with the politicians. We now have a great trend going in the property sectors when everything is for sale for more profits. And the foreigners are not short of cash with liquidity flooding the world’s financial system. The Chinese, the Indians, the Europeans and Americans are all pouring their petty cash here to sweep up every available property left. The recent announcement of Caldecott Hill being available for good residential properties could see more being built and sold off. And the GDP numbers are going to look very good indeed. Everything is for sale, for profit and for money. For those who fall into the CBF category of workers, tighten your seat belt and trouser’s belt. The ride is going to be exhilarating. We are in the best of time of our economic boom. The big cars are selling fast even with $60k for a piece of COE. The good times are here.

Responsibilities of Stock Exchanges

Goh Eng Yeow wrote an article in the ST on 6 Dec expressing concern on the role of high speed trading and the interests of small traders. High speed trading as an instrument used by big funds to take advantage of sophisticated computer technology is giving the funds an unfair advantage against the small traders. With the aid of high speed computers, the fund is able to tap into the system to know the queues of buy and sell and more, and could then come to a quick decision to buy and sell to its favour. When funds are trading in a big way, high volume and high speed, against the small investors or the rest of the investors, the losers are obvious. What then is the position of the stock exchanges on this new development? There are some fundamental responsibilities and roles which the stock exchanges are governed by its own regulations to uphold and to protect investors. Among these are: 1. Provide a level playing field. With the participation of high speed trading, is the playing field level? Is there an unfair advantage in favour of high speed traders? 2. Churning is against the regulations of stock exchanges. 3. Buying and selling without change of ownership is a violation of stock exchange regulations. 4. Buying and selling and creating a false market through such actions is also a violation of stock exchange regulations. 5. Is the trading of big funds transparent to the small investors when transparency is a hallmark of a proper stock exchange? How could stock exchanges protect the interests of investors and maintain the integrity of the system without compromising on its own regulatory role with the introduction of high speed trading? Is there a problem here?

Julian Assange for Nobel Peace Prize

No other man deserves the Nobel Peace Prize more than Julian Assange. He took on the world’s most belligerent country in modern history, to stop it from waging more wars around the world. He tries to stop the Evil Empire from pulling wools over the eyes of Americans and peoples of the world on its war crimes. He stood up for investigative reporting, press freedom and freedom of expression. For these noble objectives he is now hounded down and arrested on drum up charges like rape. He is now the number one enemy of the Evil Empire, and he fought alone with a handful of loyal and dedicated staff. While he is being ostracized and criminalized, the biggest criminal against humanity is awarded the Nobel Peace Price for trying to start more wars while continuing to commit more troops to on going wars. The Nobel Peace Prize Committee is rightly called a Committee of Clowns for awarding the respectable Peace Prize to an undeserving candidate while the most deserving is left in the lurch.

The pathetic Asians

After a few centuries of colonization and manipulations by the West, I thought Asians would have wise up and stop fighting and killing each other. I thought Chinese would not fight Chinese, Koreans would not fight Koreans, Vietnamese would not fight Vietnamese, and in general, Asians would not fight Asians. The sad fact is that Asians would keep being led by the nose by the west, even a woman like Hilary is smart enough to make the Asians hate each other and want to gorge each other’s eyes out. When would Asians stand up and reflect on themselves and think for themselves? When would Asians think of their own interests and stop being manipulated by the West to kill each other? The Americans is starting wars all over Asia but not Europe or North America. Maybe the Asians are truly of lower intellect and can be easily hook winked by the West. Just look the rubbish articles coming out of the West and printed in Asian media like gospel truths. And Asians are supposed to lap it up happily without question. Mahbubani and other Asian thinkers have a lot of work to do to kick the Asian arses and wake them up. Asians can think? Ha! Until today, Asians are dependent on one source of news and logic which they believe are reliable, truthful and accurate, from the West. Bloody silly Asians. They deserve to be colonized once again and to be subjects of western empires. Reading todays’ ST, a new thinker has emerged in the name of Peh Shing Huei. He chastised China for running out of ideas and being a ‘one trick pony’ in the seemingly unsolvable North Korean dilemma. He, like all westerners, took the stance that it was all North Korea’s fault and North Korea is run by an irrational mad man and his son and causing all the problems even China cannot handle. He quoted some Taiwanese as an authority to back up his view. China will do better if the talent of Peh can be harnessed and the North Korean issue will be solved immediately. Peh must have many tricks up his sleeves. Hu JinTao and his comrades are just untalented Chinese leaders that may need a little help from Peh Shing Huei. For the time being, the North Koreans are good enough to be called names like ‘son of a bitch’ by all the western sympathizers and talented reporters. I must change my earlier pronouncement that Asians cannot think. Asians can really think and write articles of great wisdom in the media.

Another motorist complaining of being robbed

A letter to the ST forum complained that the motor insurance is just like day light robbery. No accident, premium still goes up. Got accident, premium goes up higher. So what the hell is happening? What are motorists paying? Protection money? The insurance premium is more than the road tax the motorists are paying. Weren’t some jokers said they were working on this to help the motorists? Who is making all the motor insurance money by the way? The insurance companies claimed that they are losing hundreds of millions. But they would not give up the business. There is a big rat somewhere.

The Americans and South Koreans hell bent on war

They continue to provoke the North Koreans by conducting more war games. And they are complaining that the North Koreans are provocative. And they want China to rein in the North Koreans! The countries that are provocative and need reining in are the Americans and the South Koreans. If they stop their provocation and stop their war games at the border with North Korea, there will be no tension. Here we have the devil calling everyone devil. The best part is that they are going to blame China for the next Korean War. They are not meeting in Washington planning when to start the war. Since the South Koreans are bent on killing the North Koreans, and themselves being killed, and the US and Japan most willing to join in the killing, China should just fold its arms and watch. Let them go merrily to kill each other. China should just say, go ahead, it’s my pleasure. In the meantime China should just tell the world what the Americans are up to.

COV slipping down, is it good?

Why are people making comments like as if it is a good thing that COV is coming down? If it is good to keep it down, it should not have gone up so high in the first place. Oh, market forces, can’t be helped. But the govt is helping to push it down with all the curbs and cooling measures, which means it can be helped. A young couple was happy that they could afford a resale flat at $350k with a $15k COV. Happy like shit, as if striking lottery. Their combined income is $3,500 pm. Even with a $50k grant, it is still more than $300k for that unit. With the mortgages and interest, it is probably something like $600k by the time the loan is fully repaid. How many months or years of income is that? Nearly 20 years. It means that this couple would have to work for 20 years for free just to pay for that flat. Don’t they need money to survive, to bring up children? Never mind, these are the losers in our society. Think about the good stuff. Many residents are owning properties worth millions and feeling so rich. And their properties are going to go up in value with more investors flooding here. Singapore is now the top city for property investment. To maintain this shining title, our property prices must go up. And for COV to come down, that is bad. It is working the other way. Maybe it is temporary as election is around the corner. Singaporeans will have more to cheer after the election when their property prices shoot to the sky once more. And the young couple mentioned above can pat their own back to congratulate themselves for making a wise decision. Their $350k flat may then be worth $500k and they will be sitting on a fat profit, and feeling very rich.

Difficult to plan housing needs on a macro basis

This is what Lim Hwee Hua said at the Kampong Chai Chee dialogue. How many people agree with this statement? The residents were angry at the high prices of public flats which they knew were driven by exceptionally high demand and low supply. Any man in the street will be able to tell why when the distortion of demand and supply is so huge. No need super talent feats. Only those who chose not to see will say they don’t know. I don’t believe that someone is sleeping on the job. Neither do I believe that there is no data to show the macro pattern of population growth. The population growth is not 100k or 200k, it is once in 50 years type of increase! What is the real reason for the fiasco? Like they said, the truth will never surface aka Mas Selamat’s escape. Another comment from Lim Hwee Hua is that first time flat buyers are finding it difficult to buy flats because COV is too high. Is that so? What about the prices of new flats and resale flats? If it is just COV, then prices of new flats and resale flats are affordable. Sure affordable as many are snapped up on launches, except that the buyers will hang millstones on their necks and pray that they will be able to repay the loans over the next 30 years. When there is no other choices, the buyers will just have to take whatever that is available at the price of the sellers.

Korean War – An American Conspiracy Revealed

The Americans are adamant that the Korean War must be reignited. They needed the war to generate more revenue for the American weapons industry and, politically and strategically, to entrench their position in the Korean Peninsula. Minus the tension, the two Koreans will be talking and getting closer, possibly reuniting which will force out American bases in Korea. So the game plan is to get the two fighting at all cost. The start was nuclear weapons in the North. This would put a lot of pressure on the North and western opinion against them. The most deadly attempt is likely to be the Choenan which killed many South Korean soldiers. It was a good reason for the South to attack the North. But the amateurish prank soon was uncovered and the South could not use it as a reason to fight the North. It should be a reason for the South to declare war with whoever that killed their soldiers. Who is this party? The Americans are not going to give up easily just because Choenan did not go as planned. More provocations needed, more war games to provoke the North. This came when the North retaliated by bombing Yeonpyeong. Now there is good reason for the South to get work up. The number of death in this instance is much lesser than Choenan. But there is clear proof this time that the North fired the artillery. No media in the world has raised the issue of American/South Korean provocations by conducting regular war games at the border with the North Koreans. This is not to be spoken. Now the next step is to push the South Koreans into war. This will be followed by roping in more Asian countries into the conspiracy. Japan, Nato, Australia and NZ forces are guaranteed to be a part of this new war. The trick is to get the Asian countries into it. Remember the Asian Tour by Obama? The picture is getting clearer. The Americans wanted the Indians and the Indonesians to come on board in this new coalition against North Korea and its allies. The Indonesians will not be drawn in. India is still a high possibility. When the new Korean War breaks out, there will still be two dependable Asean countries to step forward to join the Americans to kill the Koreans, both North and South. No prizes for guessing. The real loser in a renewed Korean War will be the people and nation of Korea. They will become history. Any survivors will likely become subjects of their new colonial masters.