Thailand heading for civil unrest and political strife

The stage is set for a civil war in Thailand. The tough stand taken by Suthep and his yellow shirts is a sign that he has been given an edict to get rid of Yingluck. This is shown in his confidence and persistent to push to the end. He would not compromise, he is showing his cards without taking it out. They are even talking of arresting Yingluck for treason. This is the last push by the monarchy to stay in power.
 
The red shirts have been exceptionally restrained and non confrontational so far. They have been on the retreat, on the defensive, trying to appeal for reasons and negotiation. They have finally come to the conclusion that there is no option left. Either they fight or they would be kicked out with Yingluck and her parties.
 
The red shirts have started to stand up to tell the yellow shirts that they would fight for their freedom and democracy. They would not accept an undemocratic govt in the form of a dictatorship.
 
Thailand is like heading towards a revolution or a civil war. It is now all in, all the chips are on the table and winners take all. The end result could be a strengthened and revived monarchy to rule for another hundred years or a republic without the monarchy or a ceremonial monarchy that would have no say in Thai politics once the dust settles.
 
Yingluck and the red shirts have tried to avoid bloodshed and a civil war. The yellow shirts will not have that and are pushing for an all out war. This run up to the snap election is going to be critical to Thai politics and a dramatic change could take place in the next couple of months or weeks when the red shirts are forced to march into Bangkok.

The hour has arrived

The owl came and it said ‘hoot, hoot’. Initially many people were wondering, guessing, what was the owl trying to say? What was the message this bird was bringing? What was the meaning of ‘hoot, hoot’. Now the message is clear.
 
Thank you, wise owl. ‘Hoot ah!’ The owl of the moment, the hour came and gone, living behind a mess, in Little India. Is this an isolated incident just like the arrival of the owl. It could be. But if the hour of mayhem returns, it is not going to be an isolated incident anymore.
 
If the owl returns a second time, the message is likely to be much more severe. The riot could be of much greater scale after they have a trial run of what they could do and could do more to hurt. I can’t imagine what it would be like but it would be like riots elsewhere. And if it does happened a second time, this govt must take full responsibility and there can be no excuses except a mass resignation.
 
We have peace, stability, security and progress for nearly 50 years. We have in our midst a horde of foreigners to the tune of more than a million, one third of our population. And when they are together, you think it is possible to control them? All it needs is a few trouble makers and our homes will be burning and there will be bodies on the streets. This is no pray pray rubbish. This can be real. Alarmist? How many would believe a riot like last Sunday could happen in this peaceful and prosperous city of graceful, polite and govt fearing citizens? An isolated incident?
 
You know how to write complacency? When the next hour of mayhem comes knocking at your door…. All it needs is a mischievous media to report some malicious news and you would not even know what hits you. That report by Sun TV could result in more deaths with Chinese being attacked on sight.
 
When nothing happens, you will call this alarmist. When something real bad happens, you will call this foresight, proactive and wisdom.

Very racist and mischievous reporting by India’s TV media

‘Sun TV released a TV Tamil news about the Little India riot on Mon (9 Dec) at 7pm, saying that Indian foreign workers were attacked by Chinese Singaporeans. And that the person who died in the accident was pushed off from the bus by the female bus driver. (Can you believe that you can have this kind of lies being reported as truth? This is my comment.)

The news was later put on youtube – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql6gWTc_Dn4 and went viral on the Net instantly.


Currently, the video has been removed but not before netizens translated it:
’


The above is posted in TRE. See how mischievous and racist people can be to resort to this kind of contorted reporting and fabrication of the truth? This kind of reporting cannot be taken lightly and a small apology be accepted and case closed. The damage has been done and many would have their pea brains filled with hatred against Singapore and Chinese. Only racist and sly people would do such a thing to incite hatred and violence against the Chinese here. And it also has world wide consequences as racists would jump on it and may attack Chinese in other countries, notably in India where hatred for Chinese is quite severe. Just read their media and you will understand.

The Singapore govt must get to the bottom of this report, to find out who filed this, or is it a fabrication of Sun TV and its editorial stuff. And if there is really so much hatred for Chinese in India, the Singapore govt must review the CECA and its policies on recruiting more Indians into the island. If it is the work of an individual or a few individuals, they must be exposed.

Singaporean Chinese have so often been attacked erroneously as racists by racists in Singapore for things they have not done or have no intent of being racists. The Singapore govt needs to erase this anti Chinese thoughts among the slimy and racists disguising themselves as the innocents and using every false excuse to label the Chinese here as racists. This mischievous thought and line of thinking must not be swept under the carpet. We cannot become their silent victims.

Conduct a thorough investigation and flush out the culprits. Singaporean Chinese must stop being silly and allow others to put such a racist tag on them without resisting. If this is repeated long enough, the lie will be believed and the innocents and other races would believe that it is true.

How on earth would some fuckers file such a slanderous and insidious report to Sun TV and why the station was so happy and ready to put it on air? Daft Sinkies don’t even know that they have been sodomised. They don’t even know how they die. There is a conspiracy to tarnish the Chinese as very bad people, to put them on the defensive by this kind of wild attacks and misinformation. Be on your guard against such bigotry and lies.

Irresponsible news reporting from The Wall Street Journal - Asia

Singapore Riot Signals Foreign-Labor Strains
Hundreds of Workers From South Asia Protest Killing of Indian Man

This is the most irresponsible headline to come from The Wall Street Journal – Asia online on Dec 9. A drunk worker died in a traffic accident is not the same as the killing of an Indian man. How could such a reputable news media make such a sensational and irresponsible reporting? What is the intent of the media for reporting it this way? What is the govt going to do about this?

Which cock talking about xenophobia?

Why are people talking about xenophobia after the rioting in Little India? It was a traffic accident caused by a drunk foreign worker. Period. And who got beaten up, the local bus driver and the woman bus assistant. And the follow up, police officers and medical personnel and civil defence officers got beaten and pelted with stones by the foreign workers. And ambulance and police cars were overturned.
 
And not a single local got involved in any brawl or attacking the rioting foreigners who set several vehicles ablaze. And the police were so restrained that not a single shot was fired, no water cannon, no beating up of the foreigners even when their officers were beaten and bleeding.
 
What the fuck is this xenophobia talk? It is foreigners rioting and attacking the locals and police because of a traffic accident. Assholes should stop talking through their asses. There is no xenophobia. If there is, it is xenophobia by foreigners against the locals.

Mob rules in Thailand

Thailand is dumping democracy into the Chao Phraya River. This is the third popularly elected govt that has been forced by undemocratic forces to step down and wanting to install a non elected and undemocratic govt in its place. Where are the western champions of democracy? Where is the USA? Are they going to stand by the side of a democratically elected govt? Or they are playing dumb as it is not in their interest to protect a democratically elected govt but a mob? The silence is extremely loud.
 
Yingluck and Thaksin were both elected by the people of Thailand but forced to dissolve their govt by undemocratic forces. Now Yingluck is calling for another general election but this is also turned down by the undemocratic forces and the power behind these forces. Where is Thailand heading to, an autocratic state, a pure monarchy, or a military regime?
 
The prophecy that there would not be another king in Thailand may come true when these forces are allowed to destroy Thai democracy. The Thai monarchy may go along as a collateral to the sweeping changes in Thai politics. The majority of the Thais are outside Bangkok and they could be forced into a general uprising against Bangkok and bring down the ruling elite supported by the military. When that happens, a Republic of Thailand minus the monarch could be next on the card.
 
Thailand may want to dump democracy but democracy shall triumph instead. And when that happens, what kind of Thailand would survive the rout? Would Thailand do away with the monarchy to fulfill the prophecy? It is looking like history will take its natural course to allow the monarchy to alienate itself from the people and bring its own destruction. The only little authority and revere left in the monarchy will go when the big tree falls.
 
Thaksin and Yingluck will outlive the big tree and will return in triumph, possibly after a period of turmoil and unrest and revolt in the kingdom. The tyranny of the minority will not lust.

Stop the insanity

People are hurt, the foreign workers, PRs and our citizens, including law enforcing officers. One foreign worker died. The rioting may be uncalled for. But what do you expect from a mob that behaved exactly like a mob? And it is normal! Why are Sinkies crying about. It is only abnormal to daft Sinkies. If you came from the same place you will shrug it off and walk away. Still it is insane to Sinkies that a fatal traffic accident could lead to street riot. It is insane that police cars and ambulance were over turned and burnt when they were there to help and had nothing to do with the death of the foreign worker. It is normal, get it?

Stop the insanity! Stop the biggest insanity of all insanities, the influx of several hundred thousands of foreign workers and allowing them to be at the same place at the same time and drinking to get drunk. The insanity is not the rioting or the rioters. The insanity is the people that allowed all these forces to come together, like Kan Seng said, a confluence of forces that led to this ugly rioting. The insanity is that they did not even think it will happen. It is normal, get it?

Stephen Hawkings confirmed the theory of the Big Bang. We had our Big Bang. Is it not big enough? Is it just an isolated incident and all because of alcohol? It would not happen again if we stop selling liquor, have more police patrol, have better traffic control. Holy shit! How daft are these people?

When Stephen Hawkings confirmed the Theory of the Big Bang, that the universe started by a big bang, everyone was so happy. See, he had proven the origins of the universe with science. But that was not the beginning of the universe that what people would like to believe. Stephen Hawkings went one step further. He theorised that in order to have a big bang, a bang that is to powerful to explode and created a universe of infinite size, there must be a concentration of energy huge enough to create the big bang. This energy must be there before the big bang can go bang.

The riot can only happen when the forces of insanity are there in the first place. These forces of insanity, like the forces that caused the big bang, are not desired to be known. No one wants to believe that this insanity is the cause of the riot, or like the confluence of forces resulting in the big bang.

The COI is not going to tell you about this insanity. It is something that no one would want to speak about. Stop this insanity if you do not want to see a bigger bang after this. Stop the insanity.

Oops, the wise will say 6.9m is ok and 8m will be better. Who doesn’t know that? But remember, it is a choice, to want to go down that road. And the choice must reside with the citizens that are going to live through it. The govt is there to govt. Yes, but don’t forget, you are not the govt. You are the elected govt for a term. You can be booted out in the next GE. You are just an ELECTED govt!

TRE scores on live reporting of the riot

While the media was still reporting the PAP convention and the new resolution, while the PAP leaders were making their war cries, the rioting had already started. And citizen journalists were everywhere covering the incident, not knowing the danger they were exposed to, and video recording the violence on site. And all they had were their mobile phones. And these little gadgets proved so worthy of their invention. And they downloaded the videos and information into TRE instantly to share. They are giving CNN and Fox News a run of the money in live coverage of the rioting in Little India.
 
Wow, this is a big feather on the hat of TRE. The whole world must be tuned in to TRE for the latest reports. The viewership must have hit a new high.
 
Well done TRE. You have done it. No need expensive professional reporters. The reports and videos were just what the people wanted to see. No need any verification or clarification, no need editorial approval. They were straight from the scene, the real stuff.
 
You want to read what was happening from the main media, wait till tomorrow morning. The power and influence of social media are unmatched by snail news.

Chiam See Tong speaks

He has been quiet for quite some time probably due to his senior years. I think after listening to the PAP’s convention war cry, he really ‘buay song’ and has to say something. And this is a bit of what he said and posted in TRE.
 
‘Today, Minister Chan Chun Sing said that the PAP will “do battle everywhere as necessary” and not concede physical and cyber space to get their message across.
I’m not sure if I’m the only one who thinks this sounds like government propaganda. We live in a democratic nation, and I hope the government knows and respects that. Already, our press standards and rankings are among the lowest globally.
 
I do not understand why the PAP wants to fight dissenting voices, since the voices come from the voters….’
 
Speaking our against govt policies that hurt the people is the right of the people, just like freedom of speech. This is fundamental to a democracy. So, what is the PAP going to fight, to quarrel with the people, to prove that they are right, doing the right thing?
 
The kpkb by the people is only symptomic and not the sickness. The noise is a sign that the people are unhappy and not the problem. The problem is in the policies. Won’t it be better for the PAP to address the real source of the kpkb, get the policies right, and the kpkb will go away? Trying to argue with the people can go on and on until the face turn green. And if the policies are not changed, and if the people don’t agree, it would be a big waste of time and resources. Minister’s time is not cheap ya. Use the time wisely to do good for the people and all things will turn out good. Instead of kpkb, it will be praises and admiration.
 
Better go and read Sun Tsu again and see what the strategist had to say about fighting your own shadows.

The govt is asking, ‘What is the cause of this riot’

My view is that anyone who has a little brain and asking this question does not deserve an answer. You don’t need a super talent to know the answer. You don’t need to start an inquiry to know the answer. When you do that, it is an indication that you do not want to know the truth, you do not want to know the answer.

We have something like half a million foreign workers here. And one can agree that many of them are decent workers out here to do a decent job, to earn a decent living to feed their family. But with half a million, you only need to have 1% that is unhappy for whatever reasons, you can stare into a horde of 5 thousand potential rioters. This is a big number game, big data.

Let’s not kid ourselves that you can’t find 1% that will be trouble makers for the right or wrong reasons. And given the conditions and terms of their employment, many of them, maybe 50% or more would have problems and grudges and difficulties earning a decent living because of exploitations. And who is the biggest beneficiary to this scam? No prizes for guessing. And when they gathered together in tens of thousands or a hundred thousand, you think every will be peaceful forever, no trouble will come from these nice people? Are you born yesterday?

Have we learnt our lesson after this event? Do we sincerely believe that everything is alright, do a little cosmetic changes, don’t sell liquor, more police patrol, etc etc will avoid another riot? You can’t be so naïve right?

The root of the problem is still there. Half a million of exploited workers, underpaid, over worked and living and working in unsatisfactory conditions are tinder waiting to be set alight. And don’t forget, these are simple folks from the villages, uneducated, callous, boorish, with no social graces, and will turn foul and wild at the slightest provocation, no matter how decent and nice they are?

Have we not built enough flats to stop bringing in more of such nice people here? Boon Wan at one time threatened that he would not have the workers to build the flats for Sinkies. Now his happy problem is that he is slowing down his building programme. So?

Is this an opportune time to take our winnings and walk away unhurt? What had happened could be very much worse, and the worst is still out there waiting to happen. Have a little wisdom, or count the probabilities, stop the greed, start to unwind and reduce the presence of these very nice and simple folks here. Let them go, stop exploiting them for their cheap labour. Do a bit of charity, do some good deeds by not ensnaring so many of them here. The consequences of the next incident could be one that we cannot afford to pay for.

Take this as a lesson, a reminder, like the owl, that things can go awfully wrong and we will regret to continue down this path. Or shall we continue to bring more of them here, refuse to listen, be like deaf frogs, no ‘hew’, and believe that we can get away with it a second time like this one, with minimum casualties and damages to properties.

Do we want to see Singapore burning before calling it off? Do we really not understand what this whole incident is all about, we do not know how it came about?

Who’s kidding? Remember a picnic on East Coast Park could cause a riot? Here we have a mob in a hundred thousand every weekend, foreigners, single men, hungry, new to our way of life, exploited and all in debt. You have a perfect concoction to go on a rampage. You mean you dunno?

After the riot, what’s next?

The riot last night is a reminder that Singapore has not done enough in integrating the foreigners to our way of life. This kind of thing, a traffic accident, may cause some distraught to the victims and family members, if they are Sinkies, and it would be looked upon as an accident just like accidents in NS. The affected would get angry but no rioting. To the foreigners, rioting is part of their DNA. No kidding, they just demonstrated how it works. It is just how they would react in their home countries.
 
So? Instead of putting all the blames wrongly, let’s sit back and see what we have not done right and what we could do better. One thing I think we have not done well is the integration process. We have not taught them enough of our way of life. We need to put in more effort in this area.
 
Let’s appoint a minister that has a passion and tender loving care for foreigners here to organize another integration campaign to make the foreigners become more like us. Then allocate another $10m for it. Maybe $10m is not enough since this was the sum allocated to the last campaign. Let’s be more generous since we have plenty of money in the kitty. How about $50m, will it work? $50m or $100m, it will be money well spent and no more rioting and no more burning of police cars and injuries to our men in blue.
It is something that needs to be done. Let’s do it. Let’s take the fight to the foreigners, with flowers and good food and a lot of tender loving kindness.
 
What do you think?

PAP, check!

We are now in the end game. The first check move has been made. How many moves will it take to a checkmate? I think it is a bit too late to read ‘How to play Chess by Karpov’ and to adopt new strategy and change tactics.
 
In the end game it is all forced moves. And the defender can only react while the attacker dictates the game and waiting for the final move…checkmate.

Rioting in Little India

This is real, not an exercise. 400 people rioted and 18 casualties, including 10 police officers and four from the Civil Defence. 5 vehicles were overturned – 3 from the Police and one SCDF ambulance and a motor cycle. 300 police officers were deployed from the Special Operations Command and the Gurkha Contingent. 27 Asians were arrested at press time.
 
The incident happened around 9.30pm last night when a private coach knocked down and killed a pedestrian. A press conference was held at 2am by Chee Hean, Shanmugam and Police Chief Teo Joo Hee.
The situation is now under control and things have calmed down for the moment. Police are still investigating and more arrests are coming. How this would lead to is anyone’s guess.
 
After 50 years, we finally have a communal riot right in the heart of Singapore. The timing was surreal. Channel 5 just concluded its screening of ‘There was a time’ with a lot of emphasis on the riots in the past. Boon Wan was worried about the foreigners forming enclaves in HDB estates. And the PAP just concluded a major exercise to refocus on what it done wrong and how to get things right again. Now we have this rude reminder that rioting can easily erupt with the slightest incident, a road accident.
The lessons of the past did not seem to be a lesson at all. No on take heed to the enclaves that are forming, and worse, by hundreds of thousands of foreigners congregating at a particular spot. Like George Yeo said, everything looks so perfect. Now the ugliness is raring its head. All the idealism on paper is now torn to pieces by the hard realities on the ground.
 
A lot of soul searching needs to take place after this. Many policies need to be reviewed immediately and the complacency of nothing will go wrong is stark. This is no joking matter. Back to the drawing board, and is anyone still thinking that 6.9m is a good idea? Is there any enclave forming in Little India and other parts of the island? Bitter fruit for thought, surely.
 
We were so lucky to get away with just a few casualties. Little India could be burning and the safety of those residents living in the area could be jeopardized. My God, it is happening. Did anyone see this coming?

Fandi - Welcome home

Ever since the madness about FTs extended to our little pond of sports, I have given up following what was happening to the national football team. All I heard was that the standard has gone from bad to worse despite the silly money being paid to all the foreign players and coaches. So much money wasted, so much time wasted and so many local talents wasted, all for some naïve bugger’s fetish craze for foreigners.

This morning the news reported that Fandi has been appointed as the coach for the Lions XII, taken over from Sundramoorthy. I can only presume that this is the national team. I can only say it is high time we put the screws in our heads back in their proper place and stop coveting other people’s fallen talents. We need to spend our money on our children, our very own talents. We need to nurture our talents, support them and give them pride to be Singaporeans and not be despised as not good enough by FTs. The devious and demeaning thinking and attitude of our silly leaders must be given a good shaking and get the stench of foreigners off them.

To be frank, what we have is a team of potatoes. And no matter who is brought in to coach them, they will play like potatoes, maybe a little better or a little worse. To turn potatoes into world champions cannot be done by simply hiring a foreign coach or a few ‘has been’ foreign footballers. We have to be realistic in our expectations. We must have our own pride. No, Fandi is not going to turn our potato footballers into world champions. And please, do not blame him for not being able to do that. No foreign coaches can do that either. It has been proven.

What Fandi can do is to do us proud as Singaporeans again, kicking the ball in the field and running around for Singapore by Singaporeans. We need to look inward and rely on ourselves, our own children, to bring us glory. We have done that in the past, all on our own, local coaches and local footballers. We must know out limitations and be content that we are regional champions. Forget about the World Cup. Oh, you want to spend our millions to buy the world’s best coach and the best players, go ahead. Make sure it is your own money.

We have had our flirtations with foreign coaches and foreign players and we know what we could get after throwing away good money that could go to our boys. We have Sundramoorthy who did just as good as the foreign coaches. Now we have Fandi back, our very own international football star. Let’s give him the fullest support and let him do us proud. But don’t have delusionary wet dreams that he must bring us the World Cup. Fandi would do his best with the potato footballers we have and they will gel around him as a national team. We can then cheer ‘Fandi’ instead of some queer names from dunno where. Shouting them would not mean anything to anyone of us.

Let’s hear Fandi’s name in everyone’s lips once again. Let our boys grow with him and for every Singaporean to feel really proud when the boys bring home a trophy, no matter how small. They are our own talents, not some FTs from God knows where.

The Secret of the Wonder Weapon That Israel Will Show Off to Obama

There was an article in Time World online in March 2013 by a Karl Vick on the Iron Dome that Israel showed to Obama during his visit early this year. In that article it revealed many myths and facts about the claims of missile systems like the Patriots which were much inferior to what the Israelis have produced. It was claimed that no previous missile system has performed anywhere near the Iron Dome. The kill rate is so impressive, a 84% success hit.

What does this mean? The myth or claims that the Patriots were so invincible as if it could destroy near to 100% of incoming missiles was simply rubbish. When 84% was claimed to be so impressive, something that the Israelis were so proud to show to Obama, what could be the hit rate of the Patriots? It must be quite a distance off the 84% mark. A 60% hit rate would be very generous for the Patriots, and it is more likely to be in the 50% or lesser, which is quite the norm.

What else did the article inadvertently disclosed that were otherwise top secret information? A battery of the Iron Dome costs $50m and comes with 20 missiles, a radar and a control and command system. Each missile thus costs something like $2.5m US dollars.

What were these missiles used to hit, or what did the Palestinians threw at the Israelis? According to the report, since 2005, 4,000 home made missiles were fired into Israel, each costing a few hundred dollars. And the Iron Dome missile uses a contact fuse, meaning it explodes on contact with the incoming missile, a direct hit. It also means one missile can hit one incoming missile.

Let’s work on the numbers. Assuming there is an attack and 500 missiles were launched by the Palestinians. With a theoretical hit rate of 84%, only 420 missiles could be brought down by 500 Iron Dome missiles and 80 will get through. And that is the best theoretical hit rate. In a real situation, the hit rate cannot be that high given all sorts of things that could go wrong.

Anyway, another number worth noting. It needs 1.2 missiles to bring down an enemy missile or $3m. Get the picture? It takes $3m to bring down a Palestinian missile that costs only a few hundred bucks. It sure is a very costly missile system. But wait a minute, this is the best, the Iron Dome. What would be the numbers if the Patriot System is used? Impressive isn’t it?

Now the myth of the invincibility of the Patriots and Iron Dome. The Palestinian missiles are cheap home made missiles that have no ECM or counter measures against a defensive missile. Those that are going to be launched by the Russians, Chinese, Iranians and North Koreans, come with counter measures that would greatly reduce the kill rates of the Patriots and Iron Dome. And there is the tactic of raining missiles which will saturate a very expensive defensive system that only has a few missiles to fire will mean that many will just go through undefended. In a small country and a small area to defend, the cost of these expensive American and Israeli systems may be manageable. When the country is big, to deploy them to cover every air space is simply unsustainable on the defence budget.

All the hypes about the prowess of the Patriots are just hogwash. The Israelis don’t even respect them and found them wanting and have to develop their better Iron Dome. The true kill rate must be quite disappointing but not published.

We don’t need another freedom fighter

Many Afrikaans are remembering Nelson Mandela as the man who fought for their freedom, who fought discrimination against them by the European rulers of their land. Many world leaders are also doing the same, praising a man who fought for the freedom of his people.

How many ever noticed or realised that the South Afrikaans were the native of South Africa and they had to fight for their freedom from foreign rules, from foreigners? It is so pathetic that if the white men did not conquer and colonise their country there was no need for any fighting at all, no need for so many deaths and wounded, no need for so many to be imprisoned and tortured as terrorists. And definitely no need for so many tragedies and tragic stories of broken homes and families.

The painful stories of the South Afrikaans must not go in vain. People of the world must treasure their country, protect themselves and their way of lives from cunning and scheming foreigners that would seize the opportunity to take over their country and turn them into subjects, servants and slaves in their home land.

Sinkies have lately starting to reveal how they are being cheated, discriminated in their own country by foreigners who were invited in hordes to live and work in their country. The foreigners are quietly turning against the Sinkies and the daft Sinkies are happily going about their lives, taking it for granted that they will always be the owners of this island. If the foreigners keep coming in and gang up against them in the near future, the fate of the South Afrikaans can be theirs. By then it would be too late to resist. And they can only hope that 100 years down the road, their progenies could have the chance to celebrate the release of one of their freedom fighters like Nelson Mandela, imprisoned for 27 years and branded as a terrorist for fighting for their freedom that were taken away. And in the meantime, till that day comes, they will live as third class oppressed citizens in their homeland, ruled by foreigners and be discriminated by foreigners in all areas, their homes, land and jobs taken away from them.

The daft Sinkies must understand the lessons of history and not to take for granted their rights and freedom as citizens of their homeland. When it is lost, it will be a very costly and dreadful affair to think of taking back their country. Sinkies must be aware and be politically conscious of what is happening around them, what is happening to their country and fight at the slightest sign that their country is being sold or taken away from them by foreigners. The foreigners must not be allowed to gain a foothold here to take over this country and run the citizens into gallows or into the seas.

Pray we don’t have to worship a hero as a freedom fighter. We don’t need that hero, we don’t need that experience, we just want to be the way it is. Wake up daft Sinkies, before you lose everything and be cursed by your children and grand children for losing this country for them. What is happening in recent years is not fiction or wild imagination. Don’t there be a day when your children or grandchildren were to ask you in your face, ‘What were you doing when the foreigners were taking over the country?

The 7 Highest Paid Political Leaders in the World (2013) You must be joking!

The rankings below is by Yahoo, Ryan Ong of MoneySmart – Thu, Mar 21, 2013

7th Place: Francois Hollande, President of France

Approximate salary: SGD $291,680 per annum
Needs to manage: Approx. 65 million people, 675,000+ square kilometers, at least 400 kinds of cheese
In Singapore, his pay amounts to: Inability to buy a car with his entire month’s pay cheque. Come on, France.

6th Place: Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada

Approximate salary: SGD $387,351 per annum
Needs to manage: Approx. 34.4 million people, almost 10 million square kilometers, hockey violence and American tourists
In Singapore, his pay amounts to: His entire month’s pay cheque should just about make the down payment on a 5 room flat.

5th Place: Uhuru Kenyatta, President of Kenya

Approximate salary: SGD $390,561 per annum
Needs to manage: Approx. 41.6 million people, 580,000+ square kilometers, and convincing the International Criminal Court that he hasn’t committed crimes against humanity. His case is probably next in line, after the producers of Jersey Shore.
In Singapore, his pay amounts to: His entire month’s pay cheque is less than Nparks once paid for 26 bicycles. Also, people need to stop cracking jokes about corruption in Africa. I’m just saying.

4th Place: Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland

Approximate salary: SGD $404,950 per annum
Needs to manage: Around 4.5 million people, 84,000+ square kilometers, and a self-inflicted pay cut. Approx. 65 “Irish invention” jokes per hour.

In Singapore, his pay amounts to: An average golf club membership. If he doesn’t go for too many frills.

3rd Place: Barack Obama, President of the United States of America

Approximate salary: SGD $500,720 per annum
Needs to manage: Around 314 million people, 9.8 million+ square kilometers, Republicans, and the Free World.
In Singapore, his pay amounts to: His entire month’s pay cheque might cover the Cash Over Valuation of a resale flat (in a mature estate).

2nd Place: Donald Tsang, Chief Executive of Hong Kong

Approximate salary: SGD $642,173 per annum
Needs to manage: Just over 7 million people, 1,100+ square kilometers, more triad violence than a mongrel has fleas.
In Singapore, his pay amounts to: Something we’d consider “a good start”, every time we review the cost of living.

1st Place: Lee Hsien Loong, Prime Minister of Singapore

Approximate salary: $2.2 million per annum
Needs to manage: Around 5.1 million people, 710 square kilometers, high inflation, immigration issues.
His pay amounts to: About four or five other people on this list…combined.
But hey, we’ve got a safe, clean country. And if you’d like to spy on other people’s salaries some more,...

Know any other highly paid leader we missed? Comment and let us know!

Yahoo and Ryan Ong,  are you joking? Every one of our cabinet minister is earning more than the second highest political leader in the world. Even our ministers of state are earning more than him. Close my eyes I would say at least 30 political leaders in Singapore, unless our ministers and ministers of state are not political leaders, are earning more than Donald Tsang, the second highest in the whole world. And if I am not mistaken, even our parlimentary secretaries and mayors could also be earning more than him and Obama.

You want to know more? Ask the MPs how much they are earning.

And you may want to include the bonuses, if you are talking about per annum. Used to be up to 24 months plus 13th month and another month for leadership.

Being pro active or reactive?

Preventing racial enclaves forming has been a corner stone of our social harmony policy to avoid racial clashes like those happened in our past. This policy has been in force in the allocation of HDB flats to the citizens for years. Given an estimate ratio of 75/15/8/2 among the races, the distribution of ethnic groups in the housing estates is more or less in accordance with this formula.

Boon Wan has said that he is now studying the distribution of foreigners in HDB estates as the percentage in some blocks is as high as 9% or even 18%. Foo Mee Har had raised this as a concern early in the year and suggested a 10% cap to prevent tension among foreigners and locals. Boon Wan is still studying and will come out with the magic number in due course. Did they know that this will happen when HDB relax the policy on subletting to foreigners? Would they have thought about it earlier and come out with some numbers by being proactive?

The presence of huge numbers of foreigners and their peculiar customs could be uncomfortable and irritating. So too would our lifestyle be to them. The worse aspect is the security of the family members, the oldies, the young and the womenfolk in the presence of strange foreigners. We have just read a case of a foreigner that was driven into desperation to commit daylight robbery in Geylang. When they are comfortable, things may be peaceful. But things can get ugly when some of them got into drugs or gambling debt and would do anything to save themselves.

The other bigger problem is the enclaves of foreigners in private estates and condominiums. Is it acceptable to have foreigners forming a majority in private developments or even taking over the whole estate? Anyone thinking about this? Any proactive bugger starting to scratch his head? Or would they wait for something painful to happen before they put on their thinking cap?

Is there freedom of expression?

The ST reported that Hri Kumar continued his attack on WP’s silence on controversial issues this morning. WP was invited to a seminar, dunno who was the organiser, with a topic, ‘Is it true to say…there is freedom of expression in Singapore’. Two days before the seminar the WP declined to send a representative. In Hri Kumar’s view, WP had missed a good opportunity to talk about such a hot and troubling issue in this city state. And as usual, WP chose to remain silence.

The attitude or strategy of the WP is something only they understood and outsiders can at most speculate on what they were up to. Coming back to freedom of expression, whether there is or there isn’t, nothing will come out from a seminar except allowing some blowing of hot air.

To some quarters, there is definitely freedom of expression here. If in doubt, ask the politicians, or ask the main media. They will swear with the lives of their grandfathers that there is definitely freedom of expression. Just because the WP chooses to be silent and many people choose to be reticent do not mean there is no freedom of expression. It is their fault for not speaking out. How true. For those who want to be double safe, just say the right thing and you can express anything you like. Why is Alex in court? This is nothing to do with freedom of expression. He was allowed to express his view freely. That was how they heard him. Otherwise they would not know what he said.

I remember an old Russian joke of an American leader visiting Moscow in the days of the Cold War. The Americans could not help to take a jab at the Russians by challenging them about freedom of expression whenever they met. The American said to his Russian host, ‘In America, we can even say fuck President Johnson in public’. The Russians nodded and said they too could do that. And he climbed on top of a table to mean business and shouted, ‘Fuck President Johnson’. See, freedom of expression.

Anyone wants to argue there is no freedom of expression here?

US needs balanced Asia policy

US needs balanced Asia policy
Updated: 2013-12-06 07:19
By Colin Speakman ( China Daily)
Comments Print Mail Large Medium  Small

The Cairo Conference held 70 years ago between leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom and China, resulted in a declaration broadcast through radio on Dec 1, 1943, that all the territories Japan had taken from China such as northeastern China and Taiwan, including the Diaoyu Islands, should be returned to China.

Japan finally signed the Instrument of Surrender on Sept 2, 1945, and by doing so accepted the terms of the Potsdam Proclamation of July 26, 1945. That proclamation stipulated, in clause 8, that the terms of the Cairo Declaration shall be carried out and that Japanese sovereignty shall be limited to four specified islands, which did not include the Diaoyu Islands.

History tells us that the next steps were not so straightforward, especially in relations between China and the US. There followed a testing period in international relations, including an unhelpful 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, which failed to recognize China's territorial interests as both the Chinese mainland and Taiwan were absent.

Equally unfortunate was the decision in 1972 to include the Diaoyu Islands in the scope of the reversion of Okinawa prefecture to Japanese rule, after the latter was placed under US trusteeship in 1945. This resulted in the current situation, in which the disputed islands are seen by the US as being within the range of the application of the Japan-US Security Treaty, while saying that administration does not imply sovereignty.

It was the Chinese people who suffered at the hands of the Japanese during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression that started in 1937. As someone who has lived in Nanjing and visited the moving Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum, it is not hard to understand the pain and suffering of the Chinese people when Japanese troops killed about 300,000 Chinese nationals, including women and children, in Nanjing, then China's capital, in two weeks in December 1937. It is equally hard to understand why Japanese leaders, in the face of overwhelming evidence, often deny the scale of the Nanjing massacre, claim that Korean sex slaves worked willingly and continue to worship at the Yasukuni Shrine, which honors World War II criminals. This is in stark contrast to Germany apologizing for its World War II crimes.

Yet China remains focused on peaceful resolution of disputes - and the Diaoyu Islands have been a disputed territory for more than 30 years - and has been willing to put the islands' issue on the back-burner for later generations to address, as Deng Xiaoping suggested, "when there is more wisdom" and perhaps when global interconnections make unnecessary friction clearly undesirable.


It was Japan that re-ignited the issue in September 2012 when it announced the "nationalization" of the Diaoyu Islands. The action is nothing but part of Japan's greater aggressiveness toward China.

China has realized that passively accepting Japan's aggressive actions would lead others to believe that no issue of territorial integrity is involved in the Diaoyu Islands dispute. So China has rightly responded to the provocation. Japan has had an ADIZ for many years, so China has the right to establish one over the territory it claims. When such events occur, it is not helpful for the US to appear to take sides.

US Vice-President Joe Biden is paying a visit to Japan, China and the Republic of Korea this week and, as an experienced hand in foreign policy, he should know that a balanced approach to international relations in the region is needed.

By appearing too readily to support the aggressor in Sino-Japanese issues, the US is exhibiting a lack of understanding of Chinese people's feelings. Also, this does not help the relationship between the two most important powers of the 21st century. The Diaoyu Islands dispute must be resolved directly between China and Japan. The US and China fought together to defeat a Japan bent on territorial acquisition and that lesson of history must not be forgotten.

The author is an economist and director of China Programs at CAPA International Education, an UK-US based organization that cooperates with Capital Normal University and Shanghai International Studies University.

(China Daily 12/06/2013 page9