2013, a world in real trouble, fabricated trouble or insisted trouble

The whole world is in trouble. The American and European economies are in deep and real trouble. There is no denying that the USA is already a bankrupt nation, living in debt and printing money to keep the façade of prosperity for another few years. How long would it be able to sustain its high spending and high consumption economy in the absence of real economic growth and productivity is everyone’s guess. The enormous money printed by the Fed and churned up in the stock market and financial system is fictitious money. The American debt will keep growing and the greenback will keep depreciating.

In Europe several countries are in bankruptcy or near bankruptcy. The old wealth from conquest and colonialism is disappearing. The productive capacity of Europe cannot sustain the high standard of living and welfare that the Europeans are enjoying today and into the future. European economies are no longer competitive and productive.

The Middle East and several African nations in the peripheral are in dire straits. Their countries at war or devastated by wars, and their economies in ruin and would take years to recover. Thanks to the do gooders and their saviours that came to save them by destroying them first.

And there are countries that are perceived or told to be in trouble. The North Korea, Myanmar, now saved by opening up with the blessing and support of Asean, Iran and a few others on the list called the Axis of Evil. These countries are told to be in trouble, forever in trouble. Their people and leaders are all neurotics, mad and insane. They are perpetually messing up their own economies and wanting to burn down the whole world. Someone must have poisoned their food or water supply to drug them to be in a constant state of insanity and hostility to the people of the world. Their population are equality mad or ignorant of their own well being. In other words, their population are all idiots who cannot think or act for their own good, all in a state of delusion.

There is a third kind of countries in trouble, countries that the West insisted and prayed and hoped to be in trouble. These are countries that are told to be facing enormous troubles within that they are at the verge of imploding. They have no system, daft leaders, they did not know how to run their countries, the leadership is corrupt and facing ills of every kind. And the civilised and rich free world are eagerly waiting for their immediate collapse.

China is one such country. Despite the unbelieveable and record breaking speed it made to change a poverty stricken country of 1.3b people into one of the richest and most powerful country in the world, the western world, media and analysts are all saying that China is going to collapse. They are saying that the Chinese leaderships are made up of inepts, did not know what they are doing and will crash their economy very soon.

None of them would want to see the more than 10% growth rate of its economies sustained over the last 30 years. No, the numbers are faked, doctored and untruth. The truth, 1.3b people are being fed very well, quality of life improving, getting richer, becoming the factory of the world and all the luxury goods salesmen are in China peddling their overpriced goods to the country with the most millionaires and billionaires. No, this is not true. China is making up all these stories. The trillions of dollars of trade surplus are also fiction!

How could a country of 1.3b people turned themselves into an economic, political and military powerhouse when they are all fools, did not know what they are doing, mired with corruptions and all kinds of problems, and when the world economies were crashing, the big bankers and richest countries in the world were forming a beeline to China asking for charity and donations?

The Chinese leadership did not know what they are doing. They cannot think. Their policies are uncoordinated. The leadership is facing internal strife and infighting. They are in a mess. They do not know how to conduct diplomacy. They are belligerent. They are in trouble. Really?

2013, a year of reflection and introspection

As we greeted the new year 2013, we leave behind a year of notoriety, a year of great revelation, a year of shocking realities, a year that is best summed up by George Yeo’s famous comment, ‘Everything looks so perfect from the outside, but it is not real’. I can’t remember his exact words, but this is the gist of what he said during an interview in his private capacity as an ordinary citizen with the highsight of being in the govt in the year 2012.

Many things have been unveiled, more skeletons are coming out of the cupboards, many red faces for sure. Do not be misled by perfection. When everything looks so fine, so perfect, that is only a veneer of deception.

2013 is going to be more explosive than 2012 for sure. Sit back and relax and watch the events unfold. The truth is greater than fiction.

Should happiness be a national goal?

It’s the beginning of another year. Let me wish everyone a happy new year. Happiness is always intrinsic in new year greetings of all races and cultures. Wealth is the other main item in new year greetings. Health is also creeping in as a major concern as it is no longer a case of living healthily but a fear of falling sick and being robbed by the health providers and be emptied of one’s savings.

I was intrigued by the topic of happiness in a CNA programme that greeted me in the new year. The topic was whether happiness should be a national goal. The participants and panels were equally enlightened to know that this elusive subject is something that is best not to trifle with. They understood that happiness is a vague concept that meant so many things to so many people that one could hardly put a handle on it. Eventually the discussion tried to narrow down to equate happiness with material well being of the individuals and economic growth at the national level.

The nation’s economic growth as a convenient tool to measure happiness was also disparagingly dismissed as pure nonsense, a tool that could easily be abused by the perpetrators of the notion that economic growth is happiness. There is no doubt that economic well being or materialism could make life very comfortable, and living very convenient. But that’s where it ends.

The role of making people happy must not be passed to the hands of the govt. It is dangerous and can be exploited for all the wrong reasons. It is not that the govt does not know what happiness is, it is a very subjective thing and no one is wiser. What is sad is for a govt to assume this role that it knows better, it knows how to make people happy, and channel resources towards this goal like asset enhancement. One of the panellists said, it is ridiculous and bad for the govt to take money from the people through taxes and to pass back the money to the people and tell them it will make them happy. It is best the people keep their own money and decide what they want to do with their money to make themselves happy. Immediately the national ponzi scheme came to mind.

The concept of happiness is not directly related to material well being. Nevertheless, economic well being is something that the people want. This is about raising the quality of life of the people in material comfort. Many could be contented to be living well. Whether they are happy or unhappy is a totally different issue that only an individual will know. Only an individual could satisfy his own curiosity and idiosyncrasy of what he can be happy or what can make him happy. Basically the panellist disagreed with a role for the govt in making the people happy. But when the voting was called, 70% of the votes wanted happiness to be a national goal. Do they mean that they want the govt, who probably has as vague an idea as them on what is happiness, to mess around with their happiness or to tell them how to be happy or what makes them happy?

It is a strange conclusion to an interesting discussion. May 2013 be a happy new year for all of you, if you know what can make you happy. Maybe it is easier to know what will make you unhappy and you can start from that premise to stay happy.

DPRK has right to launch its satellite

China should never alienate the DPRK people for doing something they consider it their right to do. China and the Chinese people should never forget the difficulties they encountered in their pursuit of national independence and national revival in the past. The new Chinese leader Xi Jinping has just started talking about Chinese dreams of revival in the past few days. While China and the Chinese people think that they have the right to fulfill their national dream, how can China hope to deprive the DPRK people of those same rights to fulfill their dreams of national independence and a national revival?
As one of the oldest civilizations in the world, China and the Chinese people should never forget their national moral principle: jisuo buyu, wushi yuren ( do not impose on other people things you do not like yourselves) .
As the only third world country representative in the UN Security Council with the power of veto, China must uphold the principles that are fair to the aspirations of the vast population in the third world, which accounts for eighty percent of humanity, in order to be worthy of its permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
Our world is full of trouble and miseries, and our future looks dim, exactly because a few powerful nations do whatever they please in this world in complete disregard of the principles of fairness to all. They use their advanced weapons, such as unmanned drones, to kill people they regard as a threat. They do not even need to prove to anybody in a court or anywhere that these people who are targeted by these lethal weapons deserve the death penalty before they are killed by the push of a button.
Nobody has made any outcry about these inhumane killings carried out in the third world by the US military and the CIA. Who give them the right to condemn North Korea for launching a satellite for peaceful purposes? The people of the world need to wake up to the real dangers present in this world, and support the weak third world countries' right to defend themselves.

Posted by Professor Han Dongping

Hillary Clinton the evil American demon politician

Hilary Clinton is a vicious wicked aggressive warmongering woman and a trouble maker in the traditional satanic line of evil American supremacist exceptionalism. She is also  very extremely anti-China and anti-Chinese. She has told much lies about China and adopted endless evil confrontational policies geared to stop Chinese peaceful development with the intention to split and weaken China and thus eventually hoping to destroy China and the Chinese people. Her wicked policies include supporting the terrorists brigands of the demon Dalai Lama and the Uighur separatists as well as stoking problems in the East China sea and the South China Sea hoping thus to drive Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines to start an open warfare with China. She should be cursed by all Chinese and all peace loving people and if there is such thing as a God she should be instantly despatched to hell so that she will not be able to cause any more trouble in this world.

Bomb threats or pranks intolerable for public safety and security

An Indian national by the name of Aditya Bhatia, a foreign student at the Global Indian International School, has posted in his facebook a threat against Singapore. He wrote that he would take a ‘big big revenge” on Singapore when he leaves the country… he is going to spit everywhere…he will “plant bombs on Marina Bay Sands”

This is no joke and no small threat. Anyone mentioning the word ‘bomb’ in the airport can be expected to be whisked into custody and subject to intensive interrogation by the police. Here is an explicit comment on an act of terrorism, planting bombs at the Marina Bay Sands.

For the police not to take action or to treat this case as a childish prank is unacceptable. Some had been arrested in the past for making reports of bombs over the phone. The country cannot afford to take such pranks or threats for granted. If this is not curbed immediately, it could lead to more of such nonsense being repeated. After a while, nobody will take them seriously, just like crying wolf. That will be serious as the guards will be down and a genuine threat may be mistaken for another prank and lives and properties could be lost.

No one, yes, no one, must be allowed to make such threats even as joke or a prank, or as an expression in a moment of folly or anger. The police must punish the culprit severely and make this case or any such cases forbidden to fool around with.

How safe are our women folks?

The horrific rape and the death of a medical student in India must be an eye opener to the people here, and also the authority for the risk it is taking with our women folks. Foreign workers, not only from India, but from other third world countries are simply country folks that are basically hungry and a bit wild with their basic instinct.

We have half a million of them here or there about. Many are living in very close proximity with our women folks, our oldies and children. While our men folks are away, working, many of these shift workers are hanging around in the void decks and corridors of HDB and even condos, with too much time in hand and nothing to do.

Like it or not, these are hungry men, and their basic instinct and sexual desire are often unsatisfied. Their roving hearts, roving eyes can easily be aroused and who knows what they could do. When the men folks are not around, the women folks are easy victims to such hungry men.

How safe are our women folks in the midst of these foreign workers? Are we playing with fire, taking for granted that nothing will go wrong, that in our home ground, we are safe. The foreign maids and Geylang could take off some pressure for the moment. But it would never be able to remove all the built up pressure and lust that need to be released. And all it needs is a moment of folly, a moment of animal lust and some people’s life will be in ruin.

Sobering realities

There is no free lunch and nothing comes free. The extremely high cost of govt, and the extremely high cost to keep the yodas’ salary in the millions when they don’t need them, when they have abundance of them, but not time, is the biggest flaw in the distribution of wealth in this Sin City. And where is the money coming from for all the big paychecks, for good work, bad work and for doing sweet nothing?

The sobering realities that Sinkies have not come to terms with, are not thinking or did not want to think about, is the high cost to maintain this govt and the coterie of elite in high places and collecting humongous paychecks. If the super talented elite could generate and create incomes for their paychecks and their gregarious appetite for millions, it would be another issue that is less worrisome. The problem is when they are not creating the revenue and income to pay themselves, then the money must come from the people in all kinds of ways and schemes.

Paying the yodas and elite at the kind of salary and perks and whatever, is like throwing money into a black hole, and the demand is for more and more. And the poor and average Sinkies, many still did not know, will be the ultimate paymasters to make the rich richer and themselves poorer.

The Sinkies must wish that the two sovereign funds make more profits. The constant and regular reports of the SWFs losing hundreds of millions or billions at every sour deal must not be greeted with joy and celebration. The losses will need to be patched up, and where is the most convenient source of income to do that? Sinkies must pray and pray that the SWFs are doing well and could generate enough profits for the yodas and elite. In that way, the poor Sinkies could be spared from coughing out more and not deplete whatever little savings they have squirreled away in the CPF.
This is the sobering truth. The poor Sinkies are subsidising and paying for the well being of the rich elite. Sinkies must not wish any local GLCs to make big profits as the source of revenue is likely from them. When the big landlords and public services or privatised public services are trumpeting their huge profits, they are profits made from the Sinkies, unless the profits are from overseas investments.

Be aware of this sobering truth. It is the hard truth Sinkies are paying for.

COE, a dangerous elitist trend of thought

In Saturday’s ST forum, two articles were published on the COE on how to make it effective as an instrument to control car ownership. Both thoughts were similar and highly elitist in nature. One former wanted to raise the cost of driving into congested area. Another wanted to make it more painful and unpleasurable to drive. There need to be more congestion to force people to take public transport.

Both forumers wanted to punish those who wish to drive by more or less the same solution, suggesting pay more until it hurts. For the rich this kind of reasoning and method of controlling driving is what they are wishing for. What is another hundred bucks when they could cough out a few hundred thousands to get a luxury car like small change? Who would be hurt most, those who cannot afford the high cost but must use private transportation out of no choice.

Elitism and elitist thoughts are very prevalent among the rich and super rich. They only think of the convenience money can buy for them and not how this kind of solution will make life very difficult, not only inconvenient to many average Sinkies. As it is, taxi fare must increase with higher COE. Public transport fare must also increase when more switched to public transport and the operators will claim the need to acquire more vehicles or upgrade the system.

The bottom line, the poor consumers down the bottom end would have to pay more for less, taking the same public transport and having to pay more for it. And the roads will be freer with lesser cars on the road, for the convenience and satisfaction of the rich that could afford the luxury of driving.

Original idea, original concept, original paintings

Talking about originality, the paintings created by the Art of RAR technique are absolutely original and conceptualised by Mother Nature. They are entirely new, unthought of by any human beings. They are Nature's own work, bearing Nature's trademark of exclusivity in every piece.

The works of many great masters are originals, and also imitations, or inspired by other masters' works. They pick up ideas from each other, innovate or refresh, made improvements to create more exciting works of art.

In the case of Art of RAR, Mother Nature does not need any inspiration from other human masters to create her own art pieces. There is no need to copy or imitate or improve on anyone else works. The works are Mother Nature's thumbprints and origin.

As time goes by, it is likely that such works of art will provide inspiration for other painters to become more creative and to produce even better works. Human artists and painters need inspiration, sometimes guidance from all sources, particularly from Nature. Mother Nature is the source of everything and will create works to inspire and to raise the level of art to ever higher art forms.

Mother Nature is original, the origin.

Brutal gang rape victim from India died in Mt Elizabeth Hospital

The 23-year-old victim of the brutal gang rape and assault in Delhi died early this morning at the Mt Elizabeth Hospital here. The attack against this young medical student by animals walking on two legs has triggered mass protest in Delhi that is infamous for sexual crimes against the females. This poor young woman will now become another statistics and will soon be forgotten.

No one will know her name except her relations. She will only be known as the rape victim, like all the brutalised women in a male chauvinistic society that think of nothing about abusing women sexually. Many politicians and scions of powerful families have been involved in such sexual violence and got away Scot free, and still running for political office or remain in political office.

Women should be careful and not get too close to such highly sex individuals. Wearing sexy clothing, short skirts, etc, could trigger their animal desire. There are many foreign workers here who are alone, sex starved and have the same mentality. The men in blue should be extra careful not to loosen their control over such potential behaviour. Sinkie women are too innocent and did not know what they are asking for in their company. Do not tempt them. It's your fault if you do.

India needs a revolution and this can only be championed by their women, to defend themselves against such heinous violations from highly sex men. Rest in peace, sex victim and victims.

PAP clean sweep in Punggol East by election

The prospect of a 5 corner contest in the Punggol East by election led me to take a peep at my crystal ball. And the result is a clean sweep for the PAP with an unbelieveable victory of 90% of the votes. The opposition parties lost their deposits, everyone of them. No, this is no fluke. There is no hint or sign of fraud that led to this scintillating result for the ruling party. It is the best endorsement for the PAP and a thrashing for the folly and silliness of opposition parties that rightly do not deserve any support from the voters. The people decide to kick their silly asses to wake them up.

The thinking goes like this. What are the opposition parties trying to do? It is clear as day light that going on more than a straight fight would put their chances of winning very low. 3 corners are as good as losing outright. Anything more might as well forget the trouble, save the money and effort and don’t waste the people’s time. All they could gain, perhaps, is some cheap air time, some cheap publicity, to say a few angry words to the people. What else do they seriously think of achieving in a 5 corner fight? To prove their stupidity?

The other thinking is that there are moles present in the opposition parties that want to deliver the seat to the PAP. But the people would not know who is the mole, or how many are moles. And knowing that the outcome is going to be a PAP victory, might as well deliver the votes to the PAP and teach the clowns or moles a lesson. This could be an explanation of the final result. And there is no need to curse and swear for the missed opportunity just like the President Election. There is no point in blaming the other candidates that they should have pulled out of the race.

When opposition parties are thinking of having a wild party in every by election, to have a good time at all cost, they are not going to get any sympathy vote from the people. The people may be daft, but not silly. If the opposition parties are not serious and wanting to make every by election counts, why should the people take them seriously?

Under the present circumstances, with 5 parties contesting, my crystal ball is crystal clear who the eventual winner will be. No need guessing.

The National Celebration

The national football team won the Suzuki Cup for the 4^th time, beating Thailand who was also vying for a fourth time victory. It was a big victory, something similar to the medals the table tennis team won in the Olympics. It was also cause for a national celebration.

The victories of the two teams have many things in common.  Both were great sporting achievements for the country, with imported players. The table tennis team was nearly a complete foreign talent team. The football team was regulated and the number of foreign players was restricted. One cannot help but to notice the foreign faces all over, including the coach. After so many years of foreign coaches, some are begging for the coach to stay on as there was no local talent coach available, trained and prepared to take over the national team when the current coach leaves. In terms of coaches, the table tennis team is looking more like a total dependency on foreign talents.

The other big similarity was the victory tours. Both teams were paraded in some parts of the city with autograph and photo taking sessions. Both were touted as big national events. There were great expectations of the citizens flooding the streets to welcome the heroes and heroines. There were reports of a national celebration, trophies to bring Singaporeans together, to make Singaporeans proud.

I was not in any of the celebrations. Based on the media, the celebrations were more muted, attended by a few diehard fans. There was no spontaneous outburst of joy that the country and its citizens have achieved greatness in the sporting fields. Whatever celebrations they seemed to have fizzled out in double quick time. There were no street parties or overnight parties happening across the island. Not many people even bother to talk about it.

Should Singaporeans rally to such successes and feel proud to be Singaporeans that Singaporeans can be world beaters?

Medical fees for the seniors in Hongkong

‘…in HK everybody enjoys virtually free medical benefits. This is especially worthwhile for seniors who have more needs to see a doctor. In HK, all government hospitals charge a maximum of only HK$100 = S$16 for the treatment of any disease inclusive of all medicines, regardless of how many times the patient has to come back to see the doctor. …’

This is an extract from an article by AFP on the benefits of growing old in Hongkong. One of the biggest bug bear of ageing is medical fee. And if I read the article right, ‘everybody enjoys virtually free medical benefits’ in HK, not free totally but the cost must be quite minimal compares to what Sinkies are paying in our public hospitals. And $16 for the seniors, inclusive of medicine is a steal. And there is no mean testing to see who gets what or how much difference must be the subsidies. They are not that mean and petty.

Hongkong is very similar in nature to Sin City in many ways, including standard of living, cost of living and even taxation. Why shouldn’t our govt use the HK medical model to structure our medical services, particularly the fees for citizens and senior citizens? Why is it that HK can afford such medical benefits for its citizens and we cannot despite the billions or maybe trillions of reserves that we boast about? And the subsidies for medical services must be quite enormous for the HK Govt to bear, and the best part, it is not going bankrupt for providing them.

In the same article it was suggested that the cost savings by the HK Govt is that they don’t pay their politicians and civil servants ‘out of this world’ salary. And they too are not corrupt, quite as corruption free as Sin Govt. Should Sin Govt learn from HK Govt or vice versa, to provide good quality medical services to the citizens at very reasonable cost, but not very affordable cost? Is the quality of the medical service in HK much lower than that in Sin or comparable while the cost to the HK people is really peanuts?

The most frightening thing in Sin today is to fall sick, young or old. Many will be facing bankruptcy even with Medisave and Medishield unless one is very well provided with private insurance to end up paying less than $10 for a major op.

Punggol East a circus or a walkover

The news today, 5 parties will be contesting the Punggol East SMC when the by election is called. The parties announcing to be in the contest are WP, SDA, SDP and Reform Party, and the incumbent party PAP. The news is immediately met with a roar of ludicrity. Four opposition parties competing against each other and against the PAP would be as silly as it could be. The Presidential Election did not seem to teach any of the parties any thing.

In a tight contest of one versus one, any opposition party would still be in a tough position to think of winning. Are the parties real, in announcing that they all want to be in, for what? Are they thinking of a circus for entertainment or are they serious in thinking of winning and dislodging the PAP from Punggol East? At face value, it is just too clownish to be true except for SDA.

The other possibility is that Zhuge Liang is at work again. It is as real and as unreal. Everyone will be kept guessing. PAP will be kept guessing as well. Only on Nomination Day will the truth be out as to the number of parties will be contesting. Let’s hope reasons will prevail and sensibility will be the order of the day.

Yawning Bread thinking aloud on by election candidate

Yawning Bread did a bit of introspection as to the problem facing the PAP in finding a suitable candidate for the Punggol East by election. He ruled out Ong Ye Kung and Desmond Choo as possible candidates for obvious reasons. One has left politics and one a two time loser in Hougang. It is going to drain on him emotionally and psychologically to stand up in an election with so much controversies and negativities.

But there must be many candidates in the PAP’s reserved list. One thing for sure, the new candidate is likely to be put under the finest comb to be whiter than white, and more proper than a priest or a nun. And very likely, the candidate would have to declare in public that there is no misconduct in his record, in the past or in the future. The demand for such a candidate is going to be very stringent and PAP cannot be found not to have done its job in making a thorough screening for any flaws that could surface during and after the by election.

I can imagine the PM or DPM standing on stage to guarantee the moral virtues and integrity of the chosen candidate. It must be the most perfect candidate the PAP has ever put up for an election. The voters can be assured of a very fine and flawless candidate to serve them.

The opposition must take note of this and may have to offer another equally flawless candidate this time round. They had the experience of Hougang and should find this a familiar situation.

High COE will lead to higher cost of living

The equation is straight and simple. When a car or van is costing double, the operating cost will go up accordingly. Any business that needs the use of cars and vans, including taxis, not sure about school buses, will simply have to raise their cost. The hawkers and foodcourt operators that need to move their goods and raw material, or the suppliers, will have to incur the additional cost, and these will conveniently be passed down to the consumers, the lowest feeder in the hierarchy of existence.

Don’t think high COE just affects those who want to own cars. It affects everyone, every business, directly or indirectly. Of course those who need a car will be hit most and some will be hit earlier when their COE expire. Some are hoping that it will not happen too fast, but the clock is ticking and the old car they are holding to will be history as days gone by. And the real crunch will hit them hard. Many would have to readjust, a new lifestyle, and the buses and MRTs will have higher loads, and more crams again.

Low corruption rate doesn’t mean no corruption

Just like Wong Kan Seng said about low crime rate doesn’t mean no crime, low corruption rate does not mean there is no corruption. According to the stats, of all the cases investigated by CPIB, only 7.5% involved civil servants. And of the 135 cases charged last year, only 6 were from the public service. The numbers look quite healthy for a city that is famed for being corruption free. The few high profile cases recently do not tarnish the good reputation of the public service.

The problem of corruption is prevalent in many other countries and how to deal with them is first to recognize the problem. Countries that don’t recognize that there is a problem will have no corruption problem to deal with in the first place. Some are true and some are fiction, or corruption being disguised in various forms.

China is getting very serious in this business, recognizing that it is a serious problem and has to be dealt with urgently and with the full might of the state machinery. Vice Premier Wang Qishan has been tasked to clean up corruption, the most senior minister in the new leadership appointed for the task. Many cases were revealed publicly. The most startling change is to allow the media/blogs to publish cases of corruption that have not been proven. Luo Changping, the deputy MD of a news magazine Caijing, famed for publishing corruption in high places, received a call by the police that they will protect him. His publication of such cases used to be censored immediately and be visited by the security officers. Now his publication could remain untouched for months.

Wang Qishan also urged other officials to read the French Revolution written by Alexis de Tocqueville. The 19th Century French Revolution led many aristocrats to the guillotine, not much different from the Communist Revolution in China in 1949. Wang Qishan’s message was clear, ‘The biggest failing of the old regime was the corruption of the rulers.’ Said Dr Gao Yi, a history professor at Peking University.

The corruption problem in China is huge and pervasive and would take more than one man and a few years to eradicate. They know they have a serious problem that could lead to regime change.

After Palmer comes AIM

The Aljunied Hougang Town Council was given a red card of sort in the town council’s audit. This put Aljunied Hougang as the only one, I think, with a red card, which was bad when all the PAP Town Councils were mostly all greens except for a few yellow cards.

This event has led to the Worker’s Party making its defence as to why it was given a red card which made them looked bad. The problem was in the Town Council Management System for collection of town council fees from the residents which was terminated and WP could not get one up running in time. It was not due to any missing numbers or money.

The protest by WP led to some defending on why the system was terminated and the surfacing of a $2 company called AIM. The three directors of the company, the only staff with no employees, were Chandra Das, Lau Ping Sum and Chew Heng Ching, all former PAP MPs. The facts so far, the PAP Town Council developed the system, sold to AIM on a public tender. AIM bought it for $140k and leases back the system to the town councils for a monthly fee of $785 pm each. AIM then subcontracts National Computer Services to manage and service the system on its behalf. Apparently AIM could practically recover the full sum of $140k paid in a year and subsequent years will be more like profits.

The revelation of the company AIM and the details of the sale and the lease back of the Town Council Management System have led to many questions now being asked that are not looking good on the part of the Town Councils. Teo Ho Pin, Coordinating Chairman of PAP TCs would now have to fill in the blanks for all the questions being asked. How would this look from the point of efficiency, transparency, correctness and proper would depend on Teo Ho Pin’s answers. And the answers would likely to be in public and may even be raised in Parliament. This is going to overshadow the exciting details of the Palmer Affair for sure.

COE, a time bomb in the making

When COE of small cars costs $81k and big cars $100k, it is it. The anger has not become an outburst yet as many car owners are still hanging on to the last few months of their old cars. When their COE expires, when the need is genuine and serious, the cries will not be merely a whimper. Many less well off families are heavily dependent on private transport to get around. Public transportation would not do to these people when it is not just a matter of inconvenience but real difficulties getting to them. The very old, the very sick, the handicaps, the children that need to be ferry around to inaccessible schools will be the first victims to this ingenious and talented scheme to control car population.

The rich will go about their lives as if nothing has happened and many would quietly be saying, cannot afford private transport, take public transport lah. Why so difficult?

When more and more people ended up in such difficult situation, the noise is not going to be loud and unpleasant. It is could lead to an outcry, a revolt against the establishment that smugly sat in high heavens and making judgement on the loser mortals. How long could the losers bear with the difficulties of moving around or not able to move around anymore unless with great pain and trouble or paying a small fortune?

The time has come for a change, for a system that cares for the ordinary and the average Sinkies, a system that does not snub at the losers and telling them to buck up, to work harder, to earn more if they want to live better. The losers cannot write their own paychecks. The fact is that many of the losers are working very hard trying to make ends meet, to make their lives better. Now, with the huge population, with limited land and space left to provide for easier mode of transportation, and when owning private transportation is going to cost an arm or a leg, something gonna give. And some are still saying we need more people to come in to fill the space and take up the slag in property prices, to support property prices or the price will collapse.

The pain of this vicious cycle of high economic growth, high population growth, and high usage of land and space is starting to hurt.