My Sunday sermon – The naked man or The naked truth

My sermon for today is about this man walking around naked in the main street in broad daylight. Then he saw an Ah Pek rummaging a dustbin for drink cans. He was angry and called the police on his expensive iPhone.

The police arrived to attend to his complaint. He pointed to the Ah Pek and annoyingly told the police the Ah Pek was naked. The Ah Pek only had a pair of trousers on but no tops. The policemen looked at each other and then walked away. The naked man kept shouting, ‘Arrest the Ah Pek, he is naked!’

By then there was a big crowd around the naked man. Everyone was astounded by the action of the naked man. They were also wondering why the policemen did not take the naked man away instead. Some were suggesting that the naked man must be an important man. Some were saying he was obviously mad, cuckoo. Everyone could see that there was really nothing wrong with the Ah Pek. The naked man was the complainant.

A few people actually shouted at the naked man, telling him that he was the one that was naked. But it seemed that the naked man was deaf. And he continued strutting around like a peacock, completely naked. I think he sincerely and honestly believed he was fully dressed and no one could see his nakedness.

End of story. End of sermon. I just hope everyone is still sane. And I hope someone would hand the naked man a mirror. I think this sermon is simple enough and no explanation required. This is perhaps an extreme form of delusion. It is not a case of bi polar, neither is it dementia.

AHPETC – A classical novel in the making

In schools, literature books are often used for character analysis whereby the characters were slowly revealed a little at a time as they entered the story, through their actions, inactions, what they said, what they did not say, and the truths and the lies they committed. The Water Margin is one of the four Chinese classics that told the stories of 108 heroes, wronged by the system, made victims of the state and turned bandits, and then returned to the fold of officialdom.

A book like AHPETC, standing for All Human Personalities Exposed Through Controversy or Conspiracy, would be an interesting addition to the list of local literature books that deserved a place among the great books chosen by MOE for our students. This book is easy to write and very current, and all that needs to be done is to compile all the speeches made in Parliament or articles printed in the local media will do.

And there is a compelling story behind the AHPETC to back up the characters with plots and counter plots, with conspiracies mixed with truths and half truths, with fabricated truths and lies, with virtues and pretentious virtues, and everything that is needed to make a great story. But as the book’s title stands for, it is a fascinating way to reveal the characters, fake and real personalities and goodness of 108 or 109 heroes or anti heroes in the story now playing in Parliament.

Among the sub plots of loyalty, infidelity, deceit and honour, righteousness, treachery, heroes defending the common folks against crooks and bandits, the use of power and threats, oppression, friendship and betrayal, every character will be carefully painted out in great details. There will be the honourable, the generous, the honest, the religious, the reasonable man, the righteous, the statesmen versus the dark side of the vicious and dishonourable, the cheats, the devious, bandits, gangsters, liars, ball lickers, cronies, the untrustworthy, the deceitful, the corrupt, and the sly, and many shades of human characters all at play individually or in combination. Of course the hypocrites would be aplenty. Then there would be the heroes fighting for the poor men against injustice, the plotters and conspirators plotting against the enemies, and for good measures one could even see spies, agents, moles, infiltrators, subversive elements all in the story.

And there is always the moral of the story of the good versus the bad and how the good will triumph over the bad, or evil over goodness, all built around the main plot, the Crime of the Century. The subplots could include coercion and pressure, harassments, subversions and cloak and daggers stuff. Great stuff.

I am so eager to start working on this book for the good of posterity. It would become a classic on understanding human characters and their motivations and ambition, how they compromised themselves for selfish interests. It would join the Hard Truths and other great books like From Third World to First World and the impending and highly expected modern classic From Third World to First World as literary treasures.

Would there be anyone willing to sponsor the publication of such a great classic in the making? I think it will in good company with George Orwell’s Animal Farm and 1984.

AHPETC – more articles in the ST today

Another 3 pages of the ST were devoted to the ‘Crime of the Century’ in Singapore politics. More than half of today’s front page was on this topic. I have been given these articles a miss for obvious reasons. It is very taxing to read unless I am writing my Ph D thesis. Maybe one day I shall write a book about the political crimes in Sin City. Reading the headlines would be enough to know the content in the ST articles. A few snippets like the occasional highlighted quotes would be about the most I could spare with my precious time on the issue.

I did notice a couple of interesting ones and I would like to post them here for reflection. Although the principles, concerns and moral values etc are supposed to be about the AHPETC case, I think they are for general applications and can be applied to all cases of wrong doings. There cannot be exceptions or else the bandits would be using them to run down on their victims and appearing to be god like. Justice, righteousness and human decency apply to all mortals.

The first quote by Heng Swee Kiat is this:

‘I am very concerned about the pattern in which the WP has betrayed the people’s trust. It has a consistent pattern of denial, deflection and protection of its managing agent, which suggests a serious rot is happening.’

My head was shaking after reading it. The ST added this to the quote. ‘Education Minister Heng Swee Keat, accusing gthe Workers’ Party(WP) of lacking integrity in dealings with managing agent FM Solutions and Services (FMSS), owned by eye officers of the WP run town council.’

The second quote is by Hri Kumar.

‘Why should the WP be let off easy just because it is the opposition? And why should its residents be forced to accept anything less than full accountability? This cannot be the right way forward.’

My head was shaking from left to right too reading this. ST added this, ‘Mr Hri Kumar Nair (Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC), on why the WP town council must he held to the same standards as other entities that have been audited by the Auditor-General’s Office.

I think it is more interesting to read about the political ‘Crime of the Century’ in Malaysia involving Anwar and all the indisputable hard evidence brought to bear against him by the authority. It would be good if the Malaysian ST could orchestrate and produce a few pages of articles on the juicy details for public consumption and turn the paper into an evening tabloid on sexy stuff. What a disappointment.

I must say the Malaysian ST is sexier to read than our very predictable ST.

GE 2015/16 - PAP won Round 2 against WP

If one is to read the deluge of articles in the main media on the AHPETC saga, one would get away with the impression that PAP has won both rounds. The first Round was several pages of the AGO’s report on all the breaches committed by the AHPETC. The second Round was in Parliament when Shanmugam spoke like a God scolding the WP and accusing them of being unlawful and losing public money and many other things. And Boon Wan joined in to withhold $7m of subsidies for S&CC that should be given to AHPETC until they clean up the mess.
 
With these two victories and perhaps more to come if the AHPETC were to be charged in court for criminal breaches, it would be 3 successive rounds of victories for the PAP. It would also look like PAP has demolished the WP and would easily win the GE hands down. But this is only one side of the story.
 
Reading the social media the mood and temper changed sides. The issues were bullying tactics, unfair tactics, abuses of the system, etc etc that were leveled at the PAP by the netizens. There was outrage, cries of infamy! They were not interested in what the PAP was accusing the AHPETC for, dismissing them as pure hypocrisies. They totally ignored these as part of politicking to discredit the WP, nothing more, nothing less. They were angry by these and many other attacks on the WP.
 
The question now is what would all these mean in the GE? Would the voters be won over by the PAP for their righteousness in discrediting the WP? Or would all the tactics and actions of the PAP be seen as unfair bullying and be translated into sympathetic votes for the WP? Would the voters be so pissed that they would stand up for the underdog against the Goliath swinging his sledgehammer? There are bound to be a lot of cynicism and many were saying that the PAP were winning battles but losing the war. The hearts and minds of the voters are shaken by the strong and heavy hand tactics of the PAP in its dealings or fixing of its political enemies.
 
On the other hand the PAP and its supporters would be smiling at how clever they bashed or fixed up the WP and whitewashed it to oblivion and congratulating themselves for a job well done, and waiting to pop champagne after the GE. There must be a lot of optimism and praises in the PAP camp. They won, or shouts of ‘We won’ can be heard though the GE is still waiting to happen.
 
First the PAP threw out the goodies to sweeten the ground. Now they hung the strongest opposition, in a way sealing the fate of the WP, untrustworthy, could even be charged in court and disqualified. What is there left to be done than to call the GE? Oh, wait, more goodies coming from the Budget and viola, what a piece of cake, time to eat the pudding.
 
The social media and the lunatic fringe are just that, kpkb and making noise in the wilderness. What do you think? Great strategy? One camp crying foul and another popping champagne. Who would ultimately triumph in the GE? Who is the devil and who is god must be pretty clear to both sides and the bystanders.

In Politics – a matter of whiter than white

I had a few minutes of watching In Parliament on the telly last night and saw the expected fireworks on display. Though I did not want to waste my time going through the drag, I still could figure out what were the main issues and points in discussion. Going forward, I hope all the opposition political parties will review the sessions over and over again as a lot of lessons could be learnt from it. From the administrative point of view I would hazard to offer a few suggestions to the opposition political parties so that they would avoid the treacherous path ahead.
 
The situation, the opposition parties must know that the realities are not as simple and straight forward as they thought it to be. They cannot take things likely and easily as they are dealing with a team of politicians that are white, flawless, spot less and god like. This is the starting point. To stand a chance of surviving the ordeal, they need to be whiter than white. Just being white or blue but with some spot is not enough. Every spot would be put under the magnifying glass to check the details, for the little blemishes and hair if any.
 
Administrative procedures and process cannot be slipshod. The rules cannot be compromised. And having husband and wife team, with one with the authority to approve what the other is doing is a big no no. And when money is concerned, it is worst. It demands the highest level of integrity, transparency and accountability. There cannot be any room for conflict of interest. This is basic, fundamental in administration and accounting. Even a schoolboy would know. Do not think other people can do it so you can also. A conflict of interest is a conflict of interest. Period. There is no exception, no otherwise.
 
And here there is public money involved. A lot of public money is involved, millions. And I would like to quote Shanmugam, ‘The rhetoric from the Workers’ Party (WP) is always about helping the poor man. The reality is that the WP took money from the man in the street and gave it to FMSS. Maybe thee was no one taking the money, through the back door in the dark of the night, because the money was going out in broad daylight, through the front door.’
 
I hope this is not too difficult to understand. No political party should go around talking about helping the poor man and then ended up taking their money from them and gave it to some other organizations or to themselves. This is the first cardinal sin. Cheating the poor man! Don’t ever be accused of cheating the poor man. You cannot cheat a poor man. They know. How can anyone or party does this and get away with it? The second point, even if it is approved legally or officially, it is still theft in a way, like money going through the front door. Yes, how can people do such a thing and think they can get away with it?
 
All opposition parties must learnt these rules from the PAP, be very careful with the people’s money, the public money. The PAP has done this very well, beyond reproach. Every cent must be accountable. No taking the public money from the front door and not in the dark of the night. Both are equally wrong.
 
The lessons are painful but there are a lot of hard truths in them. Be whiter than white. White is not enough unless you are in power. Until you are in a position of absolute power, be clean, be transparent, be accountable. And when people ask you to tell the truth in Parliament, to come clean, you must answer and come clean. How to be clean and transparent when you refused to tell, to come clean?

AHPETC actions ‘unlawful’, public monies lost

These are two very serious charges made by Shanmugam and appearing on the front page news today. I would presume, yes I am a layman and do not understand if this is different from breaking the law, that unlawful means breaking the law. What should the Govt do when the Law Minister accused the AHPETC of being ‘unlawful’ even with inverted commas? I would again presume, or shall I think, the Govt or the Law Minister is going to file charges against the AHPETC for breaking the law, or is it breaking some rules and regulations or procedures of the Town Council Acts that may not amount to criminal charges?
 
And the second charge, for causing the lost of public monies, not stolen or theft, but could also be charged for negligence or not doing due diligence in their fiduciary duties. So, should the AHPETC be preparing for a criminal lawsuit coming their way?
 
When the Law Minister said AHPETC broke the law, or ‘unlawful’, it is not play, play and the AHPETC better start to pray, pray on what is the next move by the Law Minister.
 
Let’s wait for In Parliament Act 2.

Obama going to war with ISIS

Obama is asking Congress for approval to go to war against ISIS. This is the second time after the fabricated invasion of Iraq by George Bush that the USA would be put on a war footing. I must say that this ISIS is more real than the Saddam Hussein’s WMD thing. So we can see the world’s Number One super power going to take on an insurgency that wants to be world Number One as well. Who will win? On paper the Americans could erase the ISIS by carpet bombing like they did in Vietnam and Laos. So, what is the problem?
 
The problem is that the Americans would not do it. They just want a war outside of the US, a war they can be manage from a distance and get everyone involved for a long long time. And the American war industry will be laughing all the way to the banks. War is very important to the Americans. They must always created tensions all over the world, get the people agitated and raise the tension, limited warfare, and buy more arms.
Would this fight against the ISIS be different? Would the Americans go in, bash around and then withdraw, leaving a big mess behind but not solving anything? Syria, watch it, it is coming. Can the Americans clean up the ISIS insurgents given their war arsenal and the number of troops available? Or is this just another operation to get the rest of the world on an arms buying spree?
 
If the Americans cannot deal with ISIS, what else would it be able to do? I think a better solution will be to invite the Japanese to do the cleaning job as Abe is so eager to do so. Then Congress need not have to send any American boys and girls to the makers. Congress should just tell Obama to support the Japanese to send in the Japanese Imperial troops to avenge the beheading of two Japanese. It would be cleaner, faster and cheaper, and knowing the expertise of the Japanese, they would do a good job at beheading the ISIS fighters. Would that not be nice?
 
Or would it not lead to more deals for the American war merchants? That is not a problem surely. The Americans can offer all the arms they want to expend and the Japanese contribute the troops. Just a humble win win suggestion.
 
Howdy Obama? The American peasant pa and ma would love you for not sending their children to another war. And the war merchants too would be grateful for the money rolling in for their weapons sold. There is no need to bring in the expired Empire of Britain or Nato forces. You will have a very willing Japanese Imperial Army to do the job and the war merchants happily offering all their weapons for sale. And all the American boys and girls would be safe at home watching telly.

GE 2015/16 – A new political gambit

In the western version of politics called democracy, the winner is the party that won the most votes. Historically, the opposing parties would be out there canvassing for votes, for the hearts and minds of the voters. The more voters they can convince to their sides, the better the chance of winning an election.
 
Political parties thus often go all out with all kinds of strategies to win votes. Pork barrel politics is a famous and seldom failed tactic. Throw money to the voters to buy their votes. The other is fear. Frighten the voters so that they have no choice but to vote in your favour. How to frighten the voters and strike fear in them? A third method is to discredit or fix the enemies. Run down the enemies, find faults with them, show off their mistakes and blunders to the voters, but do not in the process expose your own mistakes or the dirty tricks one is using. It can backfire. The voters today are not daft. They are watching with a cynical smile.
 
Today, we are seeing a new strategy evolving, initially unintended, but starting to gain a foothold among the political parties. In this strategy, it is about making the least mistakes to the point of doing nothing. Not losing votes is wining if the other parties are well known for shooting their own feet. The more they shoot themselves, the more votes they will lose. And not only that, these votes could go to the opposing parties.
 
The game is on. Do less to preserve and protect one’s position and votes. Let the enemy happily make mistakes after mistakes to do themselves in. Such a strategy is easier to apply for the opposition parties and has a negative bias for the ruling political party. The opposition parties not in govt can disappear or be invisible when issues crop up. The ruling party must deal with the problems and if handed badly, would lose votes for sure, especially when the election is around the corner. The opposition parties may at worst be disregarded for non involvement and they could fall back on not being able to do anything as they are not the govt. They could also remain reticent completely and let the ruling party foul it up completely.
 
It looks like this strategy is working and very cost effective for the opposition parties when the ruling party has a penchant to trip on everything they stepped on. And the opposition parties are happily counting the number of trippings and the number of votes flying their way.
 
Looks like in this GE the ruling party is working very hard trying to win votes and working very hard unintentionally to lose votes. Think Brampton bikes, Aim, hawker centre roofs, AHPEC TC accounts, rats, Hong Lim heckling, PME jobs, population, CPF, Medishield Life, and the latest, Thaipusam. This is another very hot potato to handle with extreme care.
 
Who will be losing votes and who will be picking up votes? It is tough time for the ruling party. They have to work carefully hard this time, to win votes and not to lose votes. The opposition parties only need to play it safe, consolidate their positions and hold the ground, and picking up the loose votes sent flying their way.
 
The game is on.

PS: Kopi almost dried up.

Hard choices on healthcare?

We are so rich today, probably with trillions in our reserves. No one outside the govt really knows how much is there. Only a very privilege few would have this access. President Ong asked for it but did not get the answer. And after so many years have passed, the answer is still not forthcoming. And the Govt is so proud to declare that only 1.6% of our GDP was spent on healthcare.
 
When the country was poor, barely anything in the reserves, we were able to provide free healthcare to our citizens, rich or poor did not matter. I have weekly dental treatments at the Institute of Health all for free in the late 50s and early 60s. My God how did they do it? They even sent a big and comfortable coach to fetch the students for medical treatments, extraction, fillings and fixing dentures. All free! The Govt was poor but caring, with priorities in the health of the citizens. Who would not vote for such a Govt? The Govt had good solid support from the people for at least 30 years. Today some fools were chastising the pioneers for voting the PAP then.
 
Today we have a better healthcare system that is more like Frankenstein. You don’t want to be treated. You can’t afford to be treated and be given a deadly bill that may kill you instantly. It is right for Hsien Loong to remind the people, ‘But every dollar spent on healthcare is a dollar “taken from taxpayers, and one dollar less to be spent somewhere else, whether it’s on education , on healthcare, on housing, on defence or on the personal needs of our people.’
 
Fully agree. A very wise and prudent statement. I would like to add, every dollar spent on foreign students, or $2 billion dollars on last count, is money taken from our taxpayers that should rightly be spent on the children of taxpayers. Tiok boh? And if $2b and still going up, if this could be cut off from funding foreign students, maybe the choice for healthcare need not be so hard. And if we stop spending on the extravagance, parties, education trips, ego trips, helping countries that don’t need our help, I think our health choices could even be easy, or at least easier. No one is asking for a return to the good old days and the good old PAP days when health care is practically free. 

If we save a few dollars here and there instead of wasting on monuments, vanity projects and building monuments for other countries, I think things would be very different. We need wise leaders to spend our taxpayers’ money wisely. Knowing prudence and to talk about prudence is the beginning to wisdom. Get the priorities right! Stop spending OPM like a rich man's son.
 
What do you think?

‘Fabrication from political conspiracy to end my career’

The judiciary is independent. The victim said no. The victim is accusing the judiciary for conspiracy to end his political career. ‘I maintain my innocence…This, to me, is a political conspiracy to stop my political career. I will walk again for the third time into prison, but rest assured that I will walk in with my head held high.’ This was what Anwar said after the Malaysian High Court upheld his conviction.
 
Many of his followers and many Malaysians watching the saga could not help but to nod in agreement with Anwar. The Govt and the judiciary were out to get him. Are they wronged to form this conclusion? They may be wrong, but they will be right when they vote out the Govt that used the judiciary to fix its political opponents.
 
Anwar’s daughter Nurul Izzah said this would not be the end. The Malaysian politicians are made of harder stuff and would fight political injustice that blatantly flout the judiciary system to spite the people. They would take down the Govt and the judiciary along with it in the next GE. That is something to watch.
 
Silencing the political opponents will not be taken lightly. The Malaysian public is not daft. UMNO would pay a heavy price for it. It is cutting the Malay votes right in the middle and kicking the non Malay votes to the opposition in the process. It would have to face the moment of truth in the next GE. A ruling party is on its way out by committing abuses against the country and people. Too long in power that they cannot see what they are doing is unacceptable to the voters.

Temasek rated as high risk by S&P

Temasek is now at war with S&P rating agency for grouping it together with countries like Greece and Jamaica. These two names, Greece and Jamaica, send shivers down the spine of any organisation or country when they are seen as like them. How can Temasek be like Greece and Jamaica? Sure Temasek cannot tahan and must respond, to get out of this bad neighbourhood. If only our govt could get out of the 3rd world neighbourhood and stop stuff more 3rd worlds into this island. You cannot be 1st world filled with 3rd world bodies, like you cannot be AAA when in the company of Greece and Jamaica.

Why would S&P make such a drastic move, is it motivated by some sinister agenda? Even a layman would be wondering how come Temasek is down there right at the bottom of the pile of shit. The reason is logical. It is the criteria used in the assessment, or selective use of data. Some people used data selectively to search their agenda. I will write about this latter. In this case it is unlikely that S&P is targeting Temasek or Hongkong by this move though highly possible given the western agenda.

According to our Singaporean foreign talent, Chris K, an executive director in the finance industry but not wanted here, probably not good enough in the local context but good enough to be in London and Toyko, the rating is based on Standalone Rating and Asset Liquidity. His full article on this subject is posted in TRE.

Standalone Rating means rating the agency as a separate entity, divorced from its association with its mother organisation, like assessing the son on his own merit and not be affected by the halo of his father, or in Temasek’s case, not to be affected the Singapore as a country. With Singapore as a backing, like the trumpet they were blowing, there is no risk. What is losing a few hundred billions? We can sell power stations, hotels, banks, airlines, and even the whole island if needed be. See how safe Temasek is?

The second point is Asset Liquidity. Temasek is big, very big, and owners of very big assets. This can be a plus or negative depending on the situation. Big assets are not readily and easily disposable at short notice unless selling at a discount. Big assets are not easily bought as the buyer needs big and deep pockets. So buying big assets should be cheaper right, like bulk purchasing. Only fools will buy big assets and pay a premium for it when there are no other buyers with the same deep pockets. There is a story that some big banks and funds have been aggregating assets to make them big, like a monster, to dupe the fools with deep pockets to pay for them with OPM. Anyway that is just a story.

Chris K also added that some organisations with AAA rating are tempted to take unnecessary risk, as they think they are too big to fall. With their huge financial bankings, they act and behave like a monster, stomping around and grabbing anything they could lay their hands on, with OPM in their pockets. Such risky behaviour is implicit, like a philandering son out on a rampage to show how much money he has.

So, does Temasek has a case against S&P for being shafted into the wrong hole with the wrong company? Or should Temasek’s rating be AAA as it is owned by the Singapore Govt and has the whole island and the Govt assets, and the CPF also, a source of cheap fund, to fall back on? A prodigal son is AAA because his father is a tycoon.

More Singaporean bashing and more foreigner ass kissing

The recent spate of Singaporean bashing by the political leaders is becoming a trend that the ST Editorial also wrote a piece on 6 Feb saying foreigners were at fault is rubbish. There were also Singaporeans in the Laneway Musical Festival, so cannot blame the foreigners, Singaporeans were also at fault.
 
The same kind of logic should apply to Hong Lim. Hong Lim was always clean after a Singaporean event. And there were also some foreigners present. So the foreigners were the ones that kept Hong Lim clean too.
 
I was hoping that someone has some statistics on the number of Singaporeans at the Laneway musical and the number of foreign filth there. I deliberately used foreign filth since they were glorified as the clean and responsible darlings of the elite by the elite. Even if there were some Singaporeans there so what? Would everyone with a moustache be your father? I can’t believe that our elite were so defensive of the foreign filth and felt so free to kick, admonish and rebuke the Singaporeans and assuming that the Singaporeans were the guilty ones and the ones that needed to be scolded. Did anyone of them say anything about the foreign filth that left all the filth behind?
 
Have the elite turned against the Singaporeans? What is the agenda? Where are they going?

The end of Anwar 安华

The attack on Chinese businesses by UMNO’s Agriculture Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob was like a premonition of the end of Anwar安华. The long and dragging saga of Anwar’s sodomy charge came to a close this morning. The Court of Appeal upheld the earlier conviction and Anwar is going to jail for another 5 years. This will mark the end of his political career for sure. I don’t see how Anwar could get out of this fix short of a violent outbreak of public demonstration by his supporters on a national scale.
 
In his final parting shot, this is what Anwar said, "You could have carved your names but in bowing to the dictates of your political masters, you have become partners in the murder of the judiciary. You chose to remain on the dark side," ….
 
The judges walked out of the court before Anwar could finish what he wanted to say. It was a sad ending for Anwar and his supporters. The opposition camp will be thrown into disarray. Would there be hope of a return or release of Anwar? Not under this govt.
 
Selamat jalan, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, DSAI. His supporters would be shouting hidup Anwar, hidup DSAI. Nothing is going to change, nothing is ever going to change anymore. What a sad ending to this true son of Malaysia. He is a real fighter but the odds were too big against him. Malaysia has lost a brilliant son!

GE 2015/16 – What would it be?

After the PGP the PAP delivered two more panaceas, the Medishield Life Insurance and the revisions to the CPF scheme. And the PAP is pleased from what Hsien Loong has said, from the happy and smiling faces in Parliament, you know they have done it. You can feel it, the contentment and confidence that they have done right this time and they assumed, or they thought, the people are also pleased.
 
If the assumption and thinking are true and correct, the PAP is going to have a walkover in the coming GE. When the people are happy with the govt, with all the panaceas, you can bet they will all vote for the PAP, for more good years and for betterer Medishild Life and CPF schemes. 

What would it be? A Tham Weng Kay commented in an editorial piece titled, ‘PM on CPF: Many don’t jump around in Hong Lim Park’. His comments were pretty long and I just quote a para here:
 
‘Lee Hsien Loong, MORE LIKELY THAN NOT THE DRASTICALLY REDUCTION OF VOTES TO THE FAVOUR OF PAP IN THIS COMING GENERAL ELECTION THAT WILL CONTRIBUTE TO THE DOWNFALL AND COLLAPSE OF THIS ENTIRE PAP GOVERNANCE WILL SPEAK FOR ITSELF AS TO WHETHER OR NOT SINGAPOREANS ARE : QUIETLY KNOWS (this is a good deal) OR ALL THESE ARE EVIL AND WICKED CPF PROCEDURAL SCHEMES CRAFTED BY YOU AND YOUR TEAM OF DEMON SPIRITS…!!!!’
 
Obviously Tham Weng Kay did not find the panaceas amusing or was convinced by their goodness. And he is putting his bet down that many Singaporeans would share his reservations and views, that the panaceas were nothing much to them.
 
Who is right? The PAP have been working very hard for the GE and rolling out all the good stuff, according to them, to win the votes. Would the voters see the good stuff as good stuff and be won over? Or would they sneer at the good stuff as election gimmicks and dump them as well as their votes to the opposition?
 
There can only be two outcomes in the GE, either the PAP wins or the PAP loses. In the former case, they will all be beaming their million dollar smiles for doing a good job and approved by the people. In the latter, can’t imagine how they would look like, after doing so much and assuming they have done good, only to be booted out.
 
There can be only two scenarios. Which one?

Death Threats against Singaporeans Embolden

One Month after Edz Ello, Death Threats against PM Lee

By MIKOspace

The curtain of silence over the earlier death threats against Singapore and Singaporeans appears to have emboldened others to do the same. This time, death threats are directed at Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.  It was reported that the Singapore Police have started investigating after Facebook posts showing photographs of bullets were addressed to PM Lee.  No further details were provided by the Police.

It has been just over 1 month after a Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) nurse posted inflammatory threats to “kick out Singaporeans” and “prayed for Singaporean deaths” on his Facebook on 3 Jan 2015. Also discovered was the pattern of derogatory anti-Singapore and anti-Singaporean remarks on the TTSH nurse’s Facebook [ID: Edz Ello] after the expose of his inflammatory death threats against Singaporeans.

After the hospital had wrongly placed the nurse on administrative duties, pending purported police investigations of the death threats instead of the standard HRM practice of suspending the Staff during the police investigations as well as an Internal Inquiry, TTSH changed its mind and decided to dismiss the nurse on 9 Jan 2015. 

The current status of the nurse, who is a foreigner, whether he is remanded in Police custody for his own safety (and Singaporeans’), or still at large in Singapore, is unknown. The Singapore Police has not reported the outcome of its purported investigations into Edz Ello’s death threats against Singaporeans.  

No information is available at this point as to whether the latest death threats against PM Lee are related or associated directly or indirectly with the earlier ones on Singaporeans by Edz Ello, and whether his friends or accomplices or co-conspirators are involved.

No death threats should be trivialized or given cursory dismissal.  Neither should they be “laugh away” as a Singapore politician had suggested. The politician scolded the more than 2,000 Singaporeans who reacted angrily to Edz Ello’s post and chided them as “petty”, “insecure”, “thin-skin”, too sensitive and “easily offended”.   

Would Mr Calvin Cheng, who was a Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) from 2009-2011, now also accuse PM Lee of being “petty”, “insecure”, “thin-skin”, too sensitive and “easily offended” and advise PM Lee to “just laugh it off” the latest death threats instead of wasting Police resources to investigate them?

A month ago, a bartender was indicted on a charge of threatening to kill United States House Speaker John Boehner, possibly by poisoning his drink.  The bartender formerly worked in the same country club as the Speaker.

Investigations into the 2 Tsarneav brothers who set off two bombs that killed 3 and injured 260 more people at the Boston Marathon on 15 April 2013 found notes threatening the deaths of Americans.

Our collective national response to any national death threats to our leaders or any Singaporeans must be resolute, unambiguous, decisive and categorical.  In these times of social media, it may seem stupid that our “enemies” would want to announce its threats so openly and ubiquitously; but it takes a clever and extremely intelligent adversary to proclaim its intention loudly in the hope that we would not take him (them) seriously, especially on a social media as petty and inessential as Facebook.  

Choose wisely, people.  Our earlier silent and dismissive response to Edz Ello may have sent the wrong message of weakness, indifference and indolence.  Our new message in response to fresh death threats against PM Lee must not make the same mistakes. 

 

Read more:

More Death Threats against Singaporeans

Defending Singapore

CPF – I want to defer my withdrawal to age 90

One of the major recommendations by the CPF Review Committee is to encourage withdrawal of CPF savings to age 70. The assumption is that people live longer and many will live past 85. This is a fair recommendation, not sure about the assumption. If one has 15 more years to live, it is logical and reasonable to hold back CPF withdrawals till age 70 or even more. There is also the assumption that one would be hopping around like a young man/woman and needing all the more to fool around, to enjoy life to the fullest. Those senior seniors would be swinging around instead of sitting in a wheelchair and eating only porridge and nothing else.
 
To cut the matter short, I would like to delay my withdrawal to age 90, if only someone with the authority and ability to tell me that I will still be living at 100. Anyone out there can to this, can tell with 100% or 99% certainty that I can live that long?
 
I am quite certain that 30% would probably die at 60, another 30% by 70 and by 80 probably 90% would have gone to the maker. So, what is the point of delaying your withdrawal to 70 or 90 when many would have kicked the bucket by 70?
Yes, tell me that I can live to 100 and I will have to consider keeping my CPF money till 90 before withdrawing. Fair?
 
As for the statistical truth of more people living to 85 and older, this is a general statement. Maybe the govt can help to fine tune the probabilities. There is no point having a few hundred thousand in your CPF savings when you are dead at 60, 65 or 70. There is no point even if you live for another 5 years with a few hundred thousand in your CPF. There is no point to have a few hundred thousand when you are 80 or 90 when all you can do is to sit in a wheelchair and stare at the walls, and unable to do anything.
 
So, a fine tuning agency to help the people to determine how long more they will live past 70 would be useful. At least it can narrow down the odds medically. And the oldies can seek a second opinion with the spiritual source or fortune tellers to confirm their life expectancies. With these two data, the probabilities would be higher and more meaningful to leave the money in the CPF and to be able to enjoy the lifetime savings.
 
Pity would be those who struggled and saved for a lifetime but not able to spend a single cent of their savings. Who is a better god to bet whether a person would live past 70 or would die before that? Perhaps another insurance scheme would come in handy for people to withdraw their money at 55 and place a bet that they would live longer and covered by this over 70 years insurance. At least the seniors could spend their money in their 60s, and if things turn out so bad that they would have another 20 years to go, the insurance could provide for the remaining years in bed or in wheelchair. The sum need not be too high, no need a few hundred thousand except for those who refuse to die and want to live forever.
 
Good suggestion or not? Can tell me how long would I live?

Who is more merciful? To let you spend your money while you are still alive or to help you save your money and make you dead rich?

Savages and animals not wanted to patrol Asian waters

ISIS cut the throat of two Japanese that had no reasons to be In Syria. And the Japanese, especially Abe and his Imperialist ministers went berserk, stomping their feet and vouching revenge. Cutting the heads of two innocent civilians is just unacceptable. It is barbaric, inhuman, vicious, cruelty of the worst kind. Only savages and animals would commit such monstrous acts. Abe and the Japanese are swearing that they would rearm to be able to go to Syria to attack the ISIS and save the two Japanese.
 
In 1937, the Chinese did not go to Japan to have their heads severed. Several millions were killed, including pregnant women and babies, with their heads cut off by the Japanese who went to China. And many more heads were cut off in Southeast Asia, in the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaya and Indonesia. I don’t think any heads were cut off in Singapore as some Sinkies are very happy to forget this part of their history. They are also in praise of the Japanese as very nice people, the Americans said told them. Yes the Americans said so, despite the stealth attack on Pearl Harbour that killed several thousand American boys and girls that were sleeping after a night of parties.
 
Did the Americans remember the atrocities of the Japanese against them and Asians? Or they did remember and would like to unleash these brutal savages, in business suits, to roam and rule Asia and Southeast Asia? The Americans are giving all their blessings and support to the Beast of Asia to rule again, to serve American interests in containing China, a country that has not invaded Southeast Asia, did not commit genocide on the Southeast Asians, but branded as a dangerous and aggressive country. And the descendants of savages in Japan are now painted as the nice and peaceful people, dependable and trustworthy to keep peace in the region.
 
Are the Japanese honest, reliable and trustworthy? Abe and his gang are whitewashing all their dastard and barbaric deeds in World War 2. They refused to acknowledge, refused to remember the evil things they done to the people of Asia and Southeast Asia. They cannot remember the Rape of Nanjing, Unit 731, the colonization of Korea, the comfort women and all the hundreds of thousands of beheading. And they are fuming mad when two Japanese were beheaded in Syria when they should not be there.
 
Can the descendants of these savage invaders be invited to guard the waters of East Asia? Can they be trusted to rule the waters of East Asia? Only fools will believe that the Japanese can be trusted to rule over them. I would be more comfortable if the Japanese are invited to rule the Indian Ocean as they have not committed the barbarity they did in East and Southeast Asia. The Americans could also invite the Japanese to rule the seas of eastern Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. The Japanese did not have any bad records there except for Pearl Harbour.
 
The Asians and Southeast Asians must say no to the savages and invaders that cut off their citizens’ heads to impose fear in them when they invaded. Would the Japanese remember the hundreds of thousands of people’s heads their invading armies had cut off? Their heads were cut off like the Kenji and Yukawa. Where are the revulsion, the anger, the contempt, and the remorse?

Using facts and figures to discredit yourself and your case

Our govt and elite pride themselves as no nonsense organisations and people, and they often used facts and figures and statistics to prove their case. This is obviously good and it was obvious in the past that facts and statistics were convincing. I said that was in the past when people were simpler and easy to persuade due to ignorance, low level of education, and unsophistication. Can people still use facts and statistics to prove their case? Sure, when the faith and trust of the people are there, the audience would believe in genuine data, not distorted data, selective data or fabricated data. They trust the person providing and using the data.

Today, everyone with a little education knows that statistics lied, facts also lied as they can be fabricated or twisted to give a false or distorted truth. Maybe some in govt and authority are wondering why people no longer believed in what they said, even with facts and statistics. They could be wondering why they were so clever to come out with their sets of statistics, but still could not convince the audience. The only thing I could think of is that they thought, yes, people nowadays can think, or started to think, that they are the only smart asses around but still think the people are daft.

Take the case of SGX presenting its slew of statistics after 1,200 remisiers signed a petition to Tharman. The SGX must have thought their data were flawless and convincing, and telling the truth. I am not going to question that, and I swear I did not read or hear the data being presented. I don’t even know who presented what. All I heard was a session of disbelief and head shaking of course.

The best answer to what the SGX statistics presented meant to the public is in Narayana Narayana’s letter to the Straits Times. And I produced the gist of the letter here.

The Forum Editor,
The Straits Times,
Singapore.

6th February 2015.

SGX's kneejerk response 'SGX cites rise in retail activity to rebut petition' (ST Money February 6 2015) is on a par with its
earlier equally defensive support of its change in the tradeable market-lot from 1000 previously to 100 units wef January
19 2015 ('Retail demand for 100-share lot encouraging' - ST Money - January 20 2015).

The assumption that 'the opening of '71,043. new CDP accounts in the past year, a 12 per cent rise' would somehow translate
into corresponding increase in trading activity defies logic. A friend who was offered preferential allotment in an IPO opened a
CDP account simply because he needed one to park/hold the shares. He has no intention, nor inclination, to trade at all.

It is telling that 'more than half of 1.7million CDP accounts have share investments' with the inevitable corollary that the rest 'less than half' do not. It would be educative to learn how many among the former have an investment other than SingTel shares allotted two decades back.



SGX asserts with a slew of statistics that 'the number of daily retail investors/transactions has skyrocketed (sic)...since 100-unit board lots were introduced...'). Sad to say, this optimism appears to be at odds with the 'Market Summary' published daily in the Straits Times. Admittedly, '2 billion shares worth $1.1 billion were traded' on January 21 (ST Jenuary 22 pg B11) but much of that gilt disappears when taking into consideration that 'Top Activitist' hogged the limelight with 616.4 million turnover - trading at '0.1 cent - On other days, trading has at best been desultory, and just yesterday (February 5) volume dipped below one billion, a benchmark of sorts….

What do you think? Should SGX be thinking that it has presented its case well and the matter shall be closed? Should Tharman or the MAS be satisfied that there is really no issue and there is nothing else to pursue? The Stock Market is in the pink of health!

What do you think the public, the investors, and the remisiers were thinking? Does the SGX believe that these people believe in the statistics presented? Should SGX, MAS and Tharman all agree that we should move on, the SGX has explained and that’s it?

The issue, if there is a problem, is the problem real? If the problem is real, you cannot just walk away after saying your piece. The problem will come back hounding you. And if one is presenting something that no one believes in, instead of convincing the audience, one is as good as discrediting oneself. There will be a lost of faith and trust.

Now I am wondering what would Tharman and the MAS be thinking? Would they be saying what Boon Wan said, that he thought the tender of the columbarium were in order and that he had to put the matter right? The number of people affected, and the votes going to be lost, would be more than the number of aggrieved potential buyers of Sengkang West in this case. 1,200 signed up and there are a few thousands more in support of the letter but chose not to sign for whatever reasons.

Where to go from here? Everything is fine?

Hsien Loong received death threats

This must be the most important piece of news today. It has never happened in our history, to my recollection, for a death threat against a Prime Minister or President or even a minister. I even cherished the thought that our political leaders are the safest, they could walk around in public places unescorted, with people only asking for their autographs. This death threat changes everything.
 
The threat is direct and serious. The threat against me by Raymond was to see me at my funeral and asking me to prepare a mugshot for the lorry head. In this case it is about bullets into Hsien Loong’s head. The police are investigating.
 
The threat is reported in The Real Singapore and I quote:
 
‘Police have confirmed that they have received a report about threats made on facebook against Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
 
They explained that investigations are ongoing in to the threats which included a death threat to PM Lee.
 
The online postings on a Facebook page challenged PM Lee and the Poloice to find them before PM Lee was shot in the head.
 
Another post by the same page also suggested that a bomb has been planted at Changi Airport.
 
More details about the specific threats here: ONLINE HACKERS THREATEN TO SHOOT PM LEE HSIEN LOONG IN THE HEAD’
 
This is no joking matter.

Smart mosquito traps – To laugh or to cry?

There is an article  in the ST with a photograph of a foreign talent pushing a platform of potted plants and a water contraption, the aggregate is called Ovitrap, or in layman language a mosquito trap. It is supposed to be a smart device that would lure mosquitoes to lay their eggs there and the water would be purged regularly and refilled automatically. NEA has granted a patent attorney to a Martin Schweiger to conduct a pilot trial on this smart device on condition that he would have to closely monitor to see that it works.

I remember during the dengue outbreak a few years back, a local lecturer, I think, conceived of a similar concept, by laying water contraptions in strategic locations around housing estates for the mosquitoes to lay eggs and then to pour the water away. It is as simple as that. Some laughed at the simplicity of the idea without wanting to know how effective it could be and how cheap and efficient to operate the concept given the abundance of resident committees to give a hand.

The problem is that he did not call the idea a smart idea and did not put in a few batteries and water pump to do the job automatically, in the current thinking calling it a smart mosquito trap. Also I think he is a local and is not recognizable as a talent. In this island, locals are branded as daft and foreigners as talents.

So the same concept, one is laughed away, another is seen as a smart device and approved for trial. The first one, not so smart, can be operated cheaply and efficiently, the other is going to cost a lot of money. Oh, the mantra, it must be expensive to be good.

Shall I laugh or cry for the increasing stupidity of a people that no longer thinks, incapable of thinking, and is in complete reliance of foreigners for ideas?