Trading madness or irresponsibility?

Matthew Lynn, a Bloomberg News columnist, wrote an article in the Today paper about high speed trading to the fine tune of picoseconds, just to take advantage of the next guy who does not have technology as an aid. Now what is a picosecond? This is Matthew’s definition, ‘a picosecond is one trillionth of a second, or …a picosecond is to one second what one second is to 31,700 years.’ This is the direction the stock market trading is heading to. Hey, wait a minute, what is a stock market, a jackpot machine, a casino or a game of chance? ‘A stock market has two core functions. It exists for companies to raise capital needed to invest in their business. And it should help ordinary people to make a decent return on their savings by investing in those enterprises.’ I quote Matthew. And this is nothing new. Why are the regulators allowing themselves to be led by the nose by the big funds to change the nature of stock trading from investment to one of pure gambling, by odds and speed? Mathew added that ‘at a certain point, you have to step back and ask whether this is a road we really want to go down, and whether it performs any useful function.’ He concluded by saying that ‘The stock exchanges should call a halt – and tell the traders that if they only want to hold their investments for a picoseconds, they might be better off going somewhere else. Like a racetrack.’ I would like to add that it is highly irresponsible for stock exchanges to allow this to happen as it not only gives the hedge fund an unfair advantage over other traders, which is a fundamental principle it must uphold, such trading methodology will eventually lead to the destruction of the stock market itself. High speed trading and many other variable methodologies are undermining all the cardinal principles of stock markets, eg churning, creating a false market, uneven playing field, buying and selling without change of ownership etc etc. The rot has started and its natural ending is the demise of the stockbroking industry if this deceptive trend is not stopped.

Relying on cheap labour unsustainable

Eureka! Eureka! Singapore has finally discovered that relying on cheap foreign labour for economic growth is unsustainable. The govt is now advising the companies to change their business model to raise real productivity instead of just employing more and more cheap labour. The govt is doing the thinking again, to help the unthinking Singaporeans, this time to increase their productivity by other means. This is good news or bad news? If companies are not going to import more foreign workers, will it affect our economic growth? What about the businesses that are dependent on foreign workers, like those in Geylang? I think it will also affect property prices and rentals. Maybe not. I don’t think the spending power of cheap labour really help much to generate economic activities and growth. The only businesses they provide, other than in Geylang, will be public transport and loitering in the casinos and all the public parks. They would also provide more jobs for themselves as cleaners, to clean up the litters they left behind. If lesser cheap workers are imported, the casino operators will be most happy, the local commuters will also be happy. Not sure if the public transport providers will be happy as the trains and buses will be less crowded and their revenue will be affected. Singaporeans and Singaporean businesses will have to make adjustment to live with the presence of lesser cheap foreign workers.

A Japanese lesson

By the time the last head is counted, there could be tens of thousands of Japanese dead after the one in a century 9 on the Richter scale earthquake. The flooding water that rushed to the shore and inland, flooding everything in sight was 10m high. Yet, the Japanese were calm, stoic, as if it was just part and parcel of living in Japan. No panic, no kpkb, no screaming and crocodile tears. They put up a brave front despite the destruction and loss of life. Coming home to Singapore, you should look at the faces of the lucky Singaporeans who escaped death while holidaying in Japan or missing a connecting flight to America. There were grief, fear, and some were sobbing. What a frightening experience and a narrow escape from death. Come nearer to Orchard Road, we had the once in 50 years flood of 2 feet deep water. What a disaster! What a comic disaster. It was just an afternoon monsoon rain that could help to clear the longkangs of the debris that needed a strong flushing. Boo, boo, boo, crying all round and blaming everyone and the govt for not preventing a flash flood caused by two hours of tropical rain. Singaporeans must grow up, learn to take disasters in their stride. The two feet of flood in Orchard Road should be time for a little fun in the rain. Throw some soap powder into it and have a free foam party. Enjoy and have fun the next time when it floods. No need to kpkb on spilling a glass of water. Learn from the Japanese. The next campaign for nation building, clap and have fun in Orchard Road when it floods. Enjoy the blessing of water from the sky. Take a bath or have a party. There are worst calamities than a little flood. And for those who are hell bent to have a nuclear plant here, because no choice, too many people and oil too expensive, the Japanese lesson will help them build a better nuclear plant that will never fail. If the local super talents here are not good enough, the foreign talents will swarm here to say aye aye, they can build one for us and guarantee it will never fail. They will not live long enough to see it fail for sure. By then they would have taken the money and gone.

The 4th Dimension

A clash of life forces at the frontier of two dimensions.

Need for a major restructuring of the workforce

Singaporeans should be grateful that 106,600 PMET jobs are being taken up by the Filipinos. This is the same as the thousands of construction workers and maids doing jobs that Singaporeans did not want to do. What Singaporeans should do is to retrain themselves for higher paying jobs. Not retraining PMETs to do lower level jobs. If this is the case, then someone’s ass need to be kicked. There are plenty of high paying jobs in Singapore that Singaporeans should aspire to do. Those jobs that Singaporeans are no longer competitive, should go to foreign talents. We should welcome the Filipinos and the rest to be our PMETs. Singaporeans can then seek jobs that these foreign talents cannot do and pay better. I am looking at Members of Parliaments, mayors, town council chiefs, President, or other political jobs. These are high paying jobs that Singaporeans should aspire to do. There may not be that many now but more can be created. We can have more MPs, more mayors, vice mayors, PMs, dep PMs, asst dep PMs, Presidents, Vice Presidents, and even Senior Presidents, or executive Presidents etc etc. And of course there are plenty of directors to be appointed in public and private companies. Singaporeans are barking at the wrong tree to fight with cheaper foreign talents to be PMETs. There are better and higher paying jobs waiting for Singaporeans in govt and in politics.

Japan caught sleeping

The nuclear meltdown may happen. All systems failed. Human error compounded by a huge earthquake. Did they plan for such a day? They must have. The construction of a nuclear power station must have taken into account all the possibilities of a meltdown and to prevent it from happening. It happened. But what was disappointing is that the 8.9 Richter scale quake did not lead to an immediate evacuation of coastal villages and towns. If it did, it was too slow. The Japanese have been preparing for such eventualities all their lives. They have tsunami drills regularly, more regular than conducting war games with the Americans. How could so many lives be swept away if there was a tsunami warning and evacuation of the coastal people? Caught sleeping? If it is a once in 50 years act of God, maybe excusable. But earthquakes and tsunamis are part and parcel of the Japanese life and they are very well prepared and equipped to deal with them. Japan caught sleeping. The world expects the Japanese to do much better in preventing such disasters. They are very meticulous and systematic people. They have failed their own people this time.

106,600 PMET jobs for Filipinos

This is how successful we are in job creation. And if you add the others, we could have created at least half a million PMET jobs for all the foreign talents here. It is indeed a great feat and something to crow about. It is also a great feat that so many ex PMETs are now driving taxis or becoming agents or self employed, and struggling to make a living. Yes, we are an all inclusive country, including all foreigners as well. For those Singaporean PMETs who are still left in the lurch, it must be their own inept, that they could not compete with the foreign talents. Serve them right. And if they have a big mortgage to service and growing children that need to support, it must be their bad karma. I do try to believe that it is all the faults of these ex PMETs for their own failures. Somehow I also have this niggering feeling that something is not right. Maybe 10%, statistically never wrong, to presume that there will be some that deserved to be in the shit hole. For the rest, I believe they are true Singaporeans at heart and are hard working and will be the ideal employees like all Singaporeans are, work and work and work. It is sad that so many of our own PMETs have ended up in such a dire strait, and many in the prime of their lives. The option is to be retrained as service workers, and their valuable training, experience and expertise be dumped into the longkangs. There is no need for their skills as they can be replaced by cheaper and hungrier foreign talents. Is there anything wrong about this state of affair?

Today we plan for economic growth

Our economic growth is the envy of many countries. We took pride in our economic growth and place all our bets on it. Economic growth, growing the economic pie, is the answer to all our social problems. And the key to our economic growth is economic activity, and the basic ingredient is human beans. The more human beans there are, the more economic activities can be generated and all the numbers added up to a lovely piece of cake, a bigger cake for all. The formula is simple. More human beans, more work, more productivity, more revenue, more activities, more needs, and more of everything. There is more creation of wealth, more consumption, more expenditure, more demands which will create more and more demands of other supporting and service activities. Today we plan for growth. Tomorrow this growth will dictate how the economy will run and all the other human activities. More people mean more food, housing, transportation, jobs, services and space. We can build up and build down. We can share the piece of rock with more people and more people. There will be higher demand for food, water and electric power. So more facilities will be built to store water and generate power. The nuclear option will not be an option but a necessity. There is no way out. The nuclear disaster that is awaiting to blow up in Japan must be food for thought for many who think it is a logical road to take. Our economic growth and growing population and needs for power will push us down this road. Japan, with probably the most efficient and trained workforce, is now staring at a human disaster they think will not happen. It happened. They are trying to play it down. People from a radius of 20km were evacuated. If we have a nuclear plant on our shore, 20km radius means the sea. No where to evacuate, no where to run. And the beautiful architectural feat of high rise buildings, the new Towers of Babel, are massive disasters and tragedies waiting to happen. They are death traps. So are the massive underground living space. No, we don’t have to face an earthquake or a tsunami. The worst we could get was a little tremor from a distant quake far away. And the water level, if there is, will be a knee deep flood in Orchard Road. We are blessed with no dramatic natural disaster, yet. We cannot escape from human error and human created disasters. With so many people packed tightly together, even a full loaded sardine packed train can take several hundred out at one go. A high rise collapse can be more destructive. Our planning for economic growth today could be our planning for a major disaster tomorrow. If the Japanese can foul up a top security nuclear plant with all the safety measures, the lesser beans of this region better restrain their ego trips and don’t think they can do better than the Japanese.

A vote for Greed

Greed is good. And that is coming out quite freely from all the successful people. There is no denying the fact that our prosperity has been driven by the power of Greed. Greed is the greatest motivating force that transformed what we were to what we are today. Greed is now the prevailing culture in this great and affluent city. Anyone who does not subscribe to the goodness of Greed or condemns Greed is condemning themselves to mediocrity. Greed has brought the best out of our super talents in all fields. Through Greed, they have reached the peak of their fields of expertise and are among the best in the world, with many excelling and becoming the bestest of the best, or at least in the income that they can command. The highest paid professionals in several fields are Singaporeans. We can boast of the highest paid President, PM, ministers etc etc and surgeons and lawyers. In other words, Greed has propelled our citizens to the top of their profession. The belief that goodness, ethics, morality, sacrifices, selflessness, are virtues is only meant for the losers or the idealists. The pragmatic and talented know that these are useless values only to be taught to children. They have no time for such idealism. They are busy making themselves worthy and reaping the reward of Greed. Because they are so good, they can demand any price they wanted. A dying man needing some expert to save his life will have to take the price. And asking a million a day is reasonable in a life and death situation. The more professional one may go one step further and ask the victim if he has the money to pay before proceeding to save him. Check the affordability of the victim first. In a highly competitive world, Greed is nothing to be ashamed of, and is doing us well, to compete and be the best in our pursuit for excellence. The culture of Greed pervades every level of our society and is being practised zealously to a fine art. And the epitome of Greed is not the contribution but how much one is able to ask to be paid. Some may do very little and being paid a ransom. That is the ultimate art of Greed at the highest level. It is time to vote for Greed. Give a resounding vote of confidence that Greed is Good. No kidding.

$4,267,500 for the President

Up from $3,376,800, the President's pay is now $4,267,500. And the govt announced this in Parliament and believing that it will go down well with the people, or the people will quietly accept it. I am not sure if this is arrogance or what? Maybe the govt knows that the people will accept everything as long as it is passed in Parliament. It happened. What can you do about it? One thing the people can do, clap, clap and say the President deserves it. It is peanuts really, compared to the medical bill a good surgeon can charge. It is peanuts really, as it cost less than $1 from every resident in the island of more than 5m people. Cheap, cheap.

How stupid can one get?

I was reading the papers today about the cruel beating and harsh regime administered to two brothers age 9 and 11 under the care of a taskmaster. The boys were caned till they bled for dozing off while studying. They had to wake up at 4.30am to study and slept at 11pm. The parents thought that the taskmaster could discipline the boys and probably improve their grades. The harsh regime is common in China, and with a little trace of the sadism in a book praising Tiger mums. Beat them into shape. It is for their own good. The more you beat them, the better they will turn out. And many silly ‘masters’ employed such methods on their students. The notables who went through such regimes are Jackie Chan, Samo Hung and their peers. Many were maimed for life. Still many silly parents allowed their children to be cruelly beaten for their own good. How stupid can people be to perpetuate such barbaric behavior on the young? And there are adults who still think beating and cruelty are good to shape up children. I would recommend caning for the taskmaster and the parents. I thought such mentality only can be found in the rural areas among illiterate and ignorant farmers. ‘The 45 year old electronics scientist was sentenced to six months’ jail…’ ST. Poor boys.

A new national problem

Worrying about the jobless yodas. Our oldies are going jobless, unemployed, unemployable. Serious problem! We need to find jobs for them. We need to restructure jobs, amend legislations, to let all the old fools to continue working, till they drop dead on their jobs. What is happening? What have happened to the happily retired and living on a nest of life long savings? We are and were a nation of big savers. We save more than anyone else. What have happened to our savings? Why must oldies keep on working to earn some money to live on? Crazy thought. What have gone wrong to our great retirement schemes and plans? What happens to the golden years, to see the world, to enjoy the grandchildren, to be happily retired, lying on a rocking chair and reading a book or watching the sunset? Now it is like a big crisis to have all the oldies hanging around, jobless! They must have jobs, they must be working, so say all of us. No more golden years? Soon golden age will also be passé.

Message from Parliament

We need more foreign talents. And we need more foreign talents. We have more than 5 million bodies in this piece of rock. And we need more foreign talents. When we are at 6 million, we still need foreign talents. When we are at 10 million, we still need foreign talents. When we are at 20 million, we will still need foreign talents. We need the bodies to ensure economic growth. Our economic growth is vital to our survival. Without economic growth, we will be history. And our economic growth depends on bodies. We need bodies to fill up our trains and buses. We need to fill them to the brim or else it is inefficiency and unprofitable. We need bodies to fill up our shopping centres and food courts. If not, business will be bad and rentals will fall. We need more bodies to fill up the factories and offices, or rentals will fall too. We need more foreign talents. We need more bodies to buy up all the properties, housing or commercial, or else prices will fall. And when all the properties are bought, we need to build more to generate more economic growth, and we need more bodies, and we need more foreign talents. And our roads must also be filled with cars or else it will be a waste of resources. A jammed pack road system is a sign of prosperity and high economic activity. Also good for COEs and ERPs. Our world class hospitals need to be filled. Can’t imagine if they are half empty or 70% filled. We need more bodies to fill them, from staffing to patients. Every head counts for economic growth. For the sake of economic growth and efficiency, we need to keep growing our population. And since the locals are not reproducing enough, we need to bring in more foreign talents. Don’t worry, economic growth is everything and it will not stop. We will keep growing, and keep needing foreign talents, and more bodies.

Comforting words in Parliament

Raymond Lim spoke in Parliament about his ministry’s plan for public transportation. More trains, more buses, higher frequencies, and best of all, more comfortable rides. Gone were the comparisons with Tokyo’s sardine can trains. It used to be the reference point, that if our trains were not as crowded as Tokyo’s, we are still not there, not up to Tokyo’s standard. Now comfort and higher frequencies are important. Thank you. And there is more money for everyone. The students are going to get more assistance with their school fees and the qualifying income has been raised. The poorer groups of citizens too will be seeing more help coming their way. Is this part of the election process or what? If it is part of the election process, a pre election morphine jab, what will the post election process be like? For sure, the fares will go up. The delay in fare hikes is only temporary. And for sure, someone is going to say, hey, all this costs money. And money must come from somewhere. Anyway it is a nice change. I am hoping that Boon Wan will also say that medical fees are too high. But no, when an open heart surgery cost only $8 out of pocket, it cannot be too high. In fact it is too cheap. And then we have seen medical bills in the tens of millions. Seriously, there is no reason to say that our medical bills in govt privatized hospitals are too high. The only way to say that they are too high is to ignore the $8 open heart surgery as only good for the likes of Boon Wan. Hope he will share with the people how he could do it. And also the $24.8m medical bill must be seen in a different light. Taking these two examples as anomalies, perhaps, maybe, we can then take a serious look at those $150k or $200k bills and say yes, honestly, undisputably, they are extraordinary high and not suitable for ordinary people. In reality, any bill that is above a couple of thousands is high. Any bill that is in 5 digits is very high and very unaffordable to the average Singaporeans. But they are lucky, with so much money in their Medisave and all the Ms to pay for them. What if they have no Ms? And would somebody admit that the prices of public housing is no longer affordable to many average Singaporeans? It will be a pleasant sound to hear. But I just heard a loud No, they are very affordable. Hey, this is pre election time, would it not be nice to say something nice?

Why is there a need to apologise?

LKY has made a statement that he stood to be corrected on his comment that the Malays should loosen up a little in their observance of Islamic norms. He was just being polite. As an elder statesman, he was being generous to offer his advice for the Malays to integrate better with the other communities. For him to have made the statement, the reason is obvious. If the Malays have integrated at a pace and level that he found comfortable, he would not have to say this. The Malays may think otherwise and feel that they have integrated very well and no need further advice. It is just a matter of perception from two different perspectives. Some may agree with him, some may not. I am still reading many comments that LKY needs to apologise. Apologise for what? For trying to them to be better integrated? Is that a derogatory remark, something that hurts? If the Malays disagree with his observation, just tell him they don’t agree. Both need not see eye to eye. Actually the way LKY puts it, the comment was most polite. He is not demanding the Malays to do what he wanted or else…. He did not reprimand the Malays for the pace of integration which he found still not good enough. The more the Malays and the other communities integrate with each other, the better it is for hotel building. Oops, I slip. I mean nation building. Even if it is just a hotel, integration of all parties working and living in the hotel cannot be bad. Need to apologise for wishing the community to be better? Come on, grow up lah. Take off the blinkers and see the world from the level of a higher good and stop being so petty and personal. The Malays are lucky that the MM is thinking about their problems and how to help them along. He could just keep quiet and pretend, which everyone is doing, that all is fine.

Ignoring the people

The flame that is burning in the Middle East is all about the rulers ignoring the people. There you have dictators and kingships and democratically elected leaders who are dictators in all counts of the word ruling the people at their own fancy. The people were just subjects or masses that could be ignored. And the leaders thought they own the people, the country and all its wealth. Now the time has come when the people no longer wanted to be ignored. They are taking their countries back. They are throwing out the dictators and royalties too. It is only a matter of time as the tide has changed. There is no where to hide and no where to run. The ignoring of the people have gone on for too long. Some may want to relate the crisis in the Middle East to the situation in South East Asia, and in Asia, with fingers pointing to China and praying that China should be the next to fall. There are differences. Every country is different. The oppression and subjugation of the people in the Middle East and their standard of living are all grievances that prompted the people to rise against the rulers. Relatively the people in Asia and South East Asia are fairing much better. China is a big contradiction but a country that is making the most progress to improve the livelihood of its people. Many are getting richer by the day and the middle class is growing. China and the Chinese have never seen such good times for several centuries. At the rate it is moving, China is heading towards its golden age. The rest of the western craps like freedom of expression will fall into place as the country grows in affluence and abundance and when everyone is well fed and well clothed. Singapore is another aberration. A little pearl of progress, a little shining light as far as economic growth and material wealth are concerned. Are the rulers here guilty of ignoring the people too? There were some demands, nothing critical, for more transparency. What are the assets worth under the wings of GIC and Temasek? The rulers have explained that for strategic and business reasons, cannot tell. How much assets are the elected President supposed to guard? Too complicated and will take many hundreds of manhours to tell. I think the rulers are still working on it, another work in progress. Both explanations are reasonable from the perspective of the rulers. Then what about the cost of building public housing? So far also no answer. There is no commercial or national consideration to keep this information confidential. Would the rulers tell? The people have been asking for so long and have been ignored for so long until the issue is as good as forgotten. After a few times of being ignored, case closed. Such issues are not life threatening and not telling will not make any difference. There will be no uprising over such minor non disclosures. No need to tell. No problem at all.

Can Malays bridge the gap?

This was the title of an article in the Sunday Times yesterday. The conclusion is that they need more help from the govt. And this mentality of more help from the govt can last in perpetuity. 100 years down the road, they will still face the same problem and will still need more help from the govt unless…. Apparently they did not know why. I may sound arrogant to make this remark, but that is obvious. No one wants to say it. Saying it will only draw all the brickbats and accusations and demands for apologies just like what LKY had to face recently. If one does not want to look at the problem squarely, one can never solve the problem. Period. Having said this, I think it is a myth that the Malays are not doing well. I think they have done exceedingly well. Am I kidding? No. To measure how well one does, one needs to know what one is aspiring to be and what one is prepared to contribute and work towards that goal. There are two elements here, the goal and the effort. What is the goal of the Malay community? Are they seeking materialism or religious comfort and way of life? Some may want the rewards of materialism which mean that one must put in all the time and effort to achieve that. You want to be a CEO, a doctor, a lawyer or whatever in the corporate world and industry, what is needed from you? You can’t be there if you don’t work for it. Many Malay families have reached these positions, though more are welcomed. Then there are those who aspire to be imams and religious leaders. They pursue higher education in this field. They succeeded and became religious leaders. But religious leaders don’t come with big houses, big cars and big pay packets unlike some mega churches. They have achieved what they wanted and should be happy with their achievements. They are not under achievers. They have different motivations and goals in life. And the in betweens, some wanted to be footballers, musicians, singers, performers, some wanted to be salespersons, some wanted to be workers, and they put in the equivalent effort to achieve these goals. And they are there. You can’t say that they have not achieved. There are many great Malay footballers and in fact the whole national team are Malay footballers if the foreigners are excluded. They did well in their chosen field. And there are some who just wanted to get married, make babies and enjoy life, with little pressure and stress, and not having to work 12 or 16 hours daily. That is their goals in life. They too have achieved. You can’t claim that they are failures because they are not professionals and did not live in big houses and driving big cars. It is their aspirations and the time and effort they put in to get what they wanted. One other point that surfaced in the article is that the Malays cannot succeed because they are the minority and did not have the numbers. Is that reason valid? Just look at the Indians and the Chinese, they are minorities in countries around the world. They did not need the numbers to be successful. The Indians are exceedingly successful not only here but in the US. They literally own and managed some of the biggest American and European banks. And they are minorities, absolute minorities in the exact meaning of the word. The Chinese too are coping quite well in many western countries, as minorities though not excelling the way the Indians do.. Numbers is not and never the only reason to be successful. It is what you want and what you are prepared to put in to get it. How many Indians or Chinese are there in the West? In many of the countries, they are not even 1% of the population. And they did not ask their govt for help. They just do it. So, is there a problem, a contradiction, or just a wrongful perception? Can the Malay bridge the gap? What gap? The gap of material success is attainable if they set that as their goal and work towards it.

‘Marriage is not all about money’

Sam Tan, the MP in Tanjong Pagar GRC said, and added that ‘You don’t need to wait for the Finance Minister to dish out incentives to get married.’ So is making babies, a natural process that one does not need a university degree to figure out what it is and how complicated is the process. The teens and pre teens are doing it happily and enjoying every bit of it. The moral of the story is, don’t think too much, ‘Just do it’. Why is getting married and making babies such an angst among the thinking Singaporeans? Yes, they think too much. They think from cradle to grave, and wanting their whole life to be lined with gold. If that was the thinking of their parents, many would not be here today. Many of their parents and grandparents were just too poor to think and worry about feeding them and bringing them up. They did not need Nike to tell them to just do it. They were well ahead of Nike’s philosophy. And many of the young are doing it even before they passed their teens. Some got married before they even started to earn a living, all with the blessings of their wise parents and elders. It may be a case of following the leader. They have done it and cannot be wrong. And they too did not need the advice of a MP to do what they wanted to do. Getting married is the simplest thing to do. Housing is never a problem. Some were given landed properties by their parents, who have planned well ahead for them, as marriage gifts. Those without such thinking parents can always live with their parents under one roof in their spacious HDB flats. Our 2 and 3 rm flats are a luxury compared to what the Hongkongers are having. And when the babies come in the following months, it will be complete, three generations under one roof. This is what living is all about. This is what a happy extended family is all about. No need to have maids when the grandparents are around to baby sit. Don’t worry, everything will take care of itself. The flats will come one day. The babies will grow up on their own and take care of themselves. If one thinks too much, there will be no marriages and no babies. And that is a serious problem for the country. The country really needs more unthinking people to just get married and make babies to drive economic growth. We need the super talents to think and the non talents to work. It is a perfect arrangement, both complimenting each other. Everyone is happy.

The level of intolerance

PAS has just raided several shops selling lottery tickets in Kelantan. They find gambling against their values and life style and would not allow it to be on sale despite the provision of the Federal Law. Selling lottery tickets and some forms of gambling like betting on 4D, horse racing, and a casino in Genting Highland, are allowed under the Federal law. If I am not mistaken, night clubs and bars were also banned in Kelantan. The MCA is raising its protest as an infringement into the rights of the non muslims. Just because the state govt does not agree with the lifestyle of other races, it does not have a right to ban them. If this precedent is upheld, then many things can be banned and the non muslims will have to live like the muslims in Kelantan, no eating of pork, no night spots or night entertain, no bars, no gambling, no movies, no drinking and maybe no drinking of alcohol as well. What else will be banned? This is the kind of intolerance that is getting more pervasive and intruding into the lives and social activities of other minority races. This is the kind of danger when political power falls into the hands of intolerant groups or people that have no qualms about imposing their wills and beliefs on the minorities. The big question is how intolerance is PAS should it won political power in Malaysia? For the moment there are some moderate voices within the group and some forms of give and take. When the chips are down, when the more secular parties lost power to the likes of PAS, what would be left of the rights of the minorities in Malaysia?

Who pays GST?

I must repeat what I said about GST again. 1. Unborn babies pay GST. Mothers to be have to visit gynaecologists for consultancy. Pay GST. 2. Babies pay GST. All baby food, clothing and utensils, including pampers and pacificiers subject to GST. 3. Children pay GST. All their food and clothings and accessories include GST. 4. The jobless pay GST. They pay GST for food and clothing and whatever. 5. The retirees pay GST. They pay GST for food and clothing and medical bills. Since people like to use percentage as a measurement or for comparison, how many percent of the incomes of the above goes to GST?