Is Singapore turning against China?

Two articles in the media on 17 Dec, one questioning the deployment of American spy planes in Singapore to conduct missions in the South China Sea to provoke China, and another saying that more SE Asian countries are turning against China, plus a few more articles repeating the American’s anti China position in the South China Sea would suggest that Singapore has up its ante against China in the contest between China and the US.

Singapore used to be neutral, walking a tight rope to be nice to both China and the US and making itself useful to both super powers. In granting more landing rights and acting as a military outpost for the Americans in its pivot to Asia, to challenge and contain China, the author Douglas Chua posed the question, ‘US plane deployment here poses neutrality question’. He added, ‘In the strategic gamble between two powers over sovereignty and freedom of navigation, would we not be drawn into a large involvement in the event of open conflict?’

There is also another issue of Singapore sinking slowly into the embrace of the Americans and compromising on its sovereignty, in the same way South Korea and Japan have became, semi colonies of the American Empire. The Americans would not leave South Korea and Japan, and their military bases are there for good and the two countries are just that, semi colonies, with foreign soldiers in their land and they could not do anything about it. Would Singapore undermine its sovereignty by allowing the Americans to encroach more and more into its sovereignty and independence?

The deluge of anti China articles in the main media, including a few more today notably by Reuters and Agencies, putting China in a very bad light and glorifying the Americans as the shining white knight, that the Americans are needed to balance an assertive China, are they done with the approval of the govt to keep promoting such a line? Is the Singapore govt taking the side of the Americans, shifting away from its neutral position and becoming more anti China with all the publications in the main media and the slant it is taking?

And, quoting Douglas Chua, ‘…the mission of these P8 aircraft using Singapore as a springboard…They are part of the US’ strategic thrust in the South China Sea, a thrust that challenges China’s sovereignty claims, which the US does not recognize. If we are faced with an ultimatum to annul this agreement, would we comply?’

Singapore is increasingly painting itself into a corner, to choose between China and the US. Which side would Singapore choose when conflict broke out between the two super powers?

Amos Yee on the run

Just found out that Amos Yee has escaped from paradise. The police wanted him to report at the police station for his anti religious comment in his Facebook about Islam, and Calvin Cheng. I could not understand why, but Amos Yee found this call to assist in an investigation pretty intimidating or frightening or ominous that it warranted him to run away from home, from his country and becomes a fugitive, a wanted man.

Why is this investigation so serious? What have gone through Amos Yee’s mind that there is no other way and if he reports to the police he could expect the worst? Justifiable? I dunno, I am not Amos Yee.

Amos has resurfaced in the Facebook to console his mother and that he is ok and would be able to look after himself but did not disclosed where he is. And he took the opportunity to show his middle finger to the govt several times and taunting the govt with something like come and get me if you can.

What’s next Amos? Would he be seeking political asylum in the US or in UK and use his new residence as a safe shelter to the govt in the comfort and safety of foreign shore? Would he in the process gain more publicity for himself and the govt in a new war of words?

Or as someone has said Amos Yee has gone bonkers? Or would someone suggest that he should be locked up in IMH? Could this be the fear that drove Amos Yee to flee from paradise?

What do you think is the real reason for Amos to run and make himself a wanted man, no chance of returning to his country and facing arrest on sight?

SGX – Global Exchange of the Year

In November, Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s put Noble’s BBB rating under review for downgrading to junk status, ie untradeable. Noble’s share price has since plunged to below 40c. Today (16 Dec) the share price moved up to 43c on news of Cofco wanting to buy up the remaining 49% of Noble Agri.

The important point is that at 40c, Noble is at risk of being downgraded to junk stock. What about the hundreds of stocks in the SGX that are trading below 10c or below 1c?  Are these junk stocks as well? Or can they be having a better rating than Noble’s BBB?

Anyway, with so many junk stocks in the SGX, it did not affect the quality of the
Exchange and SGX has been named the Global Exchange of the Year by a derivative magazine Futures & Options World.  According to Business Times, ‘It was lauded for growing its offshore Asian equity derivatives suite, broadening its commodities clearing and over the counter business and continuing to expand its currency futures portfolio and turnover, SGX said.’

What more can you say about the SGX? The award speaks for itself. Everything is fine, perfectly fine. This is the best stock exchange in the world.

Ok, the award is all about derivative trading, commodities and currency futures. I am not sure if SGX would get what kind of award if it is assessed with the hundreds of penny stocks in the main board.

What do you think?

The American Empire calling for help

The Americans are going to their allies asking for help and more contributions to fight ISIS. They need more men, more weapons and more support of any kind to fight the rag tag foot soldiers whose mode of military transport is Japanese made pick ups and weapons from arms smugglers.  How big is this ISIS force, how well organized, how well armed, what kind of weapons do they have, got tanks, got aircraft, got naval ships?

What kind of military forces are the Americans, the world’s unchallenged Number One super power with weapons of any kind, the most sophisticated kind, boasting of the best trained fighting men and machine, the bravest of them all, the deadliest weapons, they have everything that is enough to control the whole world. They have seven aircraft carrier groups with each group having enough fire power to destroy ISIS thousands of times over. Why are the Americans calling for more help, contributions and participations of their allies?

Does it make sense? The most powerful military force mankind has even built and seen, could not defeat a rag tag foot soldiers of 30,000 men, mostly volunteers from little corners of the world and come running around in the desert?  Is that an organized fighting machine capable of fighting the American war machine? The desert is unlike the jungles and mountains of Vietnam and Korea. The desert is a piece of cake for the American fire power to show how effective it can be. It is a cakewalk in the desert.

The Americans could go in and wipe the arses of the ISIS clean in matters of days if they so wanted to. Why is this need to drag in the allies? Yes, why is there a need to coerce their allies to be involved in fighting the desert rats when the Americans could do it on their own, singlehandedly? And what is the point if their closest European allies are contributing 2 or 3 aircraft or one or two ships when a carrier group has hundreds of aircraft and hundreds of ships to do the job?

Funny? No, just think a little more and ask what is the intent of the Americans to drag innocent and distant allies to fight in the desert when they don’t need to? The Europeans are the smartest and trying their best to avoid being entangled in a war that they should not be involved and giving all the lip services they could to the Americans without really contributing or only minimal contributions. Why should they be sending their sons to fight a war they did not start, have no reason to be there?

Who created ISIS and who turned ISIS into an uncontrollable monster? Why get involved and invite unnecessary trouble to their homeland, to their people?

It is about time Singapore learn from Malaysia

The Star reported, ‘PETALING JAYA: Employers of expatriates can be jailed or fined if the application for an employment pass is found to contain fake supporting documents, said the Immigration Department.

Immigration director-general Datuk Seri Mustafa Ibrahim (pic) said those employers found guilty of submitting forged documents can be jailed up to seven years or fined, or both….The companies cannot blame their consultants or agents because a director of the company making an application must be present to authorise the agents,” he said.’

Malaysia is facing the problem of fake certificates and cheats in the same way we are facing. The difference is that we are in a state of denial and people are wondering aloud why all the super talents are acting this way. Is there something that the public does not know or is there a private agenda? The measures we are taking to address this problem is superficial and as the social media has been saying, a big wayang.

So, should Singapore wake up its idea and learn something from Malaysia, tackle the problem at the source, target the employers, the CEOs or Directors for any wrong doing? You can bet none of these turkeys would dare to be funny anymore and there will be order and normalcy in the employment market and Singaporeans would no longer be kicked around like hapless orphans. There will be no need to have so many training programmes to train displaced Singaporeans to be security guards and taxi drivers.

Would MOM do it? Fat hope. There are many simple and effective measures to check on the problems of fakes and cheats. The big question is whether it is the right thing or wrong thing to do. We have the best super talents and there is no reason why they cannot come out with a super talented solution to this fake and cheat problem. What is baffling and puzzling is why not? It cannot be that they are so stupid that they can’t think of a better solution than what the Malaysians can come up with. Why?

Singaporean first policy bad for integration

According to a Professor Elaine Ho, the Govt’s measures to differentiate Singaporeans from PRs and with more benefits for Singaporeans are unhealthy to the integration of foreigners to our society.  We need to integrate the new citizens, do we need to integrate foreigners? Never mind, just bear in mind that at the rate we are converting foreigners into citizens and the presence of PRs and non citizen foreigners, it is only a matter of time that Singaporeans would have to integrate with the foreigners instead. There are just too many of them and too Singaporeans to integrate them. I think this is already the case.

The professor’s point is that the new citizens and PRs in recent years are richer than the earlier batches of migrants. And with the more restrictive public housing policies and quotas on PRs, many of them are buying private properties instead. This leads further to segregate the richer foreigners from the average Singaporeans in the public housing estate. Now this is bad. The professor said, ‘What we want is (for immigrants) to be living alongside the average Singaporeans.’ I cannot understand why but this must be good for the immigrants and the average Singaporeans. Is it because the richer foreigners can rub off their richness to the average Singaporeans or the other way? Never mind.

The idea is good, it is integration. And it is not good for the richer immigrants to have their children studying in international schools. They must study in local schools to integrate with the average Singaporeans. Another very good idea in social engineering, just make sure got enough public school places for them. And make it compulsory for children of foreigners to study in public schools to integrate with the average Singaporeans.

Wait a minute, why would the richer immigrants or the richer Singaporeans want to integrate with the average Singaporeans? Do they have similar interests or lifestyle? Do they speak the same lingo and share the same jokes? ‘Still, Singaporeans also have to be conscious of reaching out to new immigrants, said Assoc Prof Ho.’ Uh, I have one question for the professor, do the richer immigrants want to mix with the average Singaporeans when they are living in their private apartments and enjoying the company of equally richer neighbours? How are the average HDB Singaporeans going to reach out to the richer immigrants of different social standings?

Or should the richer immigrants be made to live in public housing as a govt policy on integration? But it would mean HDB must build more flats for the immigrants.

Why is this obsession to integrate foreigners to average Singaporeans? Are there richer Singaporeans that they can integrate with in private condos?  Would it be enough for the richer foreigners to interact with the richer Singaporeans, go for fine dining and theatres? Don’t forget that different social classes have a natural tendency to interact with the same people with the same social status, and this is normal.

The chicken and ducks would only want to be with their own kind. What is the fuzz all about? Can these clever people stop meddling with how people live and who they want to play with?

What about a foreigner first policy? I think it will be good for integration.

Wuzhen: Ancient town cruising on information superhighway

By Chua Chin Leng (chinadaily.com.cn)Updated: 2015-12-14 13:22
In a few days, more than 2,000 delegates from the modern cities of the world, Internet and computer savvy, will descend into this little water town that could be mistaken for a town from Lee Ang's Wuxia movie 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon'.

The water town of Wuzhen in Zhejiang with 1,300 years of history is anything but an unlikely candidate to host the 2nd World Internet Conference (WIC). It hosted the first WIC in 2014 and the delegates were so impressed by its modern Internet facilities, an ancient town all wired up for the challenges of 21st Century demands of the Internet world, that Wuzhen is now the permanent home for the WIC.

An aerial view of the town gives the impression of a sleepy ancient town, wholly intact in colors and architecture as if time has stood still. There are no gleaming glass panel skyscrapers in the vicinity to this little town of 57,000 inhabitants that boasts of all the smart and innovative technologies one can think of, e-commerce, Internet financing, intelligent logistics, cloud computing, big data, Internet driven information and medical technologies and 380 start ups in the last six months.
Quoting from Ge Huijun, director of the publicity department of the CPC Zhejiang Provincial Committee:

"Wuzhen has fully merged with the "Internet Plus" concept, with online medical services, smart tourism, and intelligent traffic successively put into operation. Its charm will further increase with the free Wi-Fi."

President Xi Jinping will arrive in this little town to give the keynote speech this week. In his company will be Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Kazakhstan, Karim Massimov, Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Temir Sarivev, and Prime Minister of Tajikistan Kokhir Rasulzoda and many ministerial-ranked officials. Many representatives of leading Internet technology companies will also be showcasing their latest products and equipment during the conference not unlike what is happening in Silicon Valley.

The presence of Xi marks the importance of this conference and China's intent to play a leading role in cyber development and cyber security. The theme of the conference is 'Our Interconnected world shared and governed by all, Building a Cyberspace Community of Shared Destiny'. Up in the agenda will be the structuring of cyberspace regulations and governance, two contentious areas where the issues of national security, freedom of expression and transparency would be put to test. With 650 million Internet and mobile users, China would be in a position to chart the course and direction of cyberspace development, in governance, technologies and innovations.

The contrasting backdrop of ancient Wuzhen and the task of the WIC is a testament of the past and present, of history and cutting-edge innovations, when the different dimensions of time come together.

The author is a political observer from Singapore.

How good is our air defence today

Senang Diri’s confidence assurance article, ‘Forging Sabre 2015 XFS 15 is proof of concept for Singapore's deterrence strategy’ is pleasing to read and for the innocent and untrained mind, a big confidence building, to feel very safe and please with our defence capability. Let me quote his first paragraph,

‘Six moving targets - the same number found in a typical rocket artillery battery - were destroyed at the same time by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) during its Forging Sabre war games.’

Senang Diri gave a detailed account of this major ADEX in Arizona and how effective and advance are our air defence forces. Hitting 6 moving targets at one time is a great feat. In the early years, the exercises will have target streaming in one at a time to be shot at. Now they are practicing on hitting 6 targets at one go. When would they be able to hit 10 or 20 targets coming in at the same time? Or when would they go test a real situation scenario where the enemy would throw in their one hundred attack aircraft all at one go?

The Taiwanese shrank in fear when the PRC said they would rain 1000 missiles onto Taiwan at one go. The American Naval Carrier Group Commander and his 10,000 crew would equally shrink their balls if the Chinese were to fly 200 DF21s or DF26s at the same time at the aircraft carrier when they only need on hit to sink a carrier. How are they going to block a rain of a few hundred missiles? What kind of defence umbrella can shield them from such a heavy downpour? Iron Dome or Iron Net full of holes?

In an exercise scenario, you can programme the enemy to send in the number of targets at your own choosing. A smart enemy, actually no need to be smarter than the average guy guarding the sky, will want to send in all they have to saturated the defence system to a point of jamming or confusing the defenders and stretching whatever limited resources they have.

And not sure if they have added further sophistications like electronic jamming by the attackers, flares, evasion and decoy attackers? In an exercise scenario, the enemy is supposed to be dumb, flying straight and level to be intercepted and hit by the defence weapons.  And the defenders are safe and sound and allow to do what they wanted and not under stress of being attacked or disrupted at the same time. In a real situation, the enemy forces will be deploying everything they got at the defenders on the ground as well. A real situation is dynamic, full of deceptions and evasions and counter defensive tactics involved, no sitting duck scenario. The enemy attackers would be flying at levels difficult to detect and destroy.

In an exercise it is so easy to plan the attack and plan the defence as well and testing the defence at the level it is competent at not the level that will be challenging or the level of incompetence.

Never confuse between what is real and an exercise scenario. What would be the real nature of our external threat? Should we be practicing how to defend against an attack by Martians or to watch out for real and imminent threats by terrorists?

Who says the Americans should be the leader of the world?

Someone asked me this question. Why should the Americans be the natural leader of the world? Many of the westernized countries or anglophiles will not ask such a question. They have been eating potatoes and hamburgers everyday and think this is their normal diet. They have forgotten that they used to eat rice and noodles. They do not question why breakfast must be bacon and eggs and not porridge or nasi lemak.

After the victory over Germany and Japan, American leadership as the most powerful country to rule the world was unquestionable. No one bothered or thought there was a need to ask such a question. There was no challenger. And since then, the western media kept repeating that America is Number One, America is a benevolent superpower, all kindness and compassion, all virtuous, like the army of God. After a few decades of growing up with Pax Americana, and with America dictating the norms, controlling world media, those who got brains or those who got no brains, or those who got brains but forgot to use it for thinking, they will all echo the same truth. America is a fair and benevolent super power that created a world of peace for the rest of the world to progress and improve their lives. That was true. The Americans rebuilt Europe and Japan didn’t they? Under the American World Order, there was peace and stability and all should be thankful to the Americans. Where got war? Korea, Vietnam Pakistan, Afghanistan, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa were all so peaceful. Under Pax Americana there was no war. Just believe that this is the truth.

Who is asking why the Americans should rule the world? They did a very good job didn’t they? Now there is a China growing economically strong and everyone is saying, we need the Americans to balance the rising power of China, or this bad China would conquer every country and be the new evil hegemon. And every turkey kept gloating this silly myth and every monkey will nod his head like real. They forgot time has changed. The Americans today are not the Americans immediately after WW2. They forgot that they have a brain in between their ears, a thing called the grey matter that they can use to think.

How did China become the evil hegemon or will become the evil hegemon of tomorrow? Why is there a need for the world’s Number One hegemon to balance a militarily weak Number Two that may or may not be the next hegemon? Did someone speak to God and God said so, that China is the new evil hegemon and must be checked by the current hegemon? Did anyone ever ask the village bully to balance a new kid coming into the village, presuming that the new kid must be evil, worst than the incumbent bully?

Kishore told the Americans, if you want China to behave well, you better behave well, teach the Chinese to behave by showing good examples, not by threats of B52s and warships. Clinton, the husband, also said so when he was the President. The China of tomorrow will act and behave the way the Americans are behaving today against China. The Americans will create a new and belligerent hegemon in China if it keeps misbehaving like a bad hegemon towards China.

Who is saying that America is needed to balance the rise of China? Did he think before he said that? Or someone else did the thinking for him and he just parrots what someone else said before, without thinking?

Why should the Americans be the natural choice to rule the world?

The 3 Ks of Singapore’s political tapestry

The kiasu, kiasi and kia chenghu mentality of Singaporeans is most pronounced in the political landscape for many decades. Opposition parties tended to play it safe, avoid controversies for fear of having a date with Sue. Many of the pioneering generations of politicians have learnt it the hard way and paid for it dearly, bankrupted and spending time in jail. So one cannot simply blame the opposition parties for wanting to play it safe, see nothing, hear nothing and say nothing.

The most successful of the opposition parties, the Workers Party, thought they had the successful formula to take on the ruling party, by the tortoise and hare race, slow and steady and they will get there at the end of the day. They avoided controversies and concentrated on building grassroot support, devoted to solving municipal affairs, to show the residents that they are indeed a very hard working party working for the people. It failed badly in the last GE, but not just because they did not work hard and adopted a wrong policy. Of course there were many other factors that led to a farcical result that no seasoned political observer thought was real.

Opposition parties cannot just work quietly on the ground, to clean and sweep the roads, make sure that the drains are cleared and the amenities are working. They are national parties and should be involved in national issues affecting the people. Not saying anything, not doing anything would not do. They must speak up and stand up to be noticed, to mean business.

After the debacle of the last GE, it was like a death bell to the opposition parties. If they cannot reinvent themselves and discard the 3Ks, they can forget about standing for election in the next GE and think the people will give them their votes. As political parties, political leaders, Kiasu, Kiasi and Kia chenghu, how are they going to represent the people, to speak up for the people? There are risk, big risk, but this is politics. If one is afraid of risk taking, then one should not be in politics.

Some changes are starting to happen albeit very carefully and in a very small way. We are hearing the opposition parties starting to talk about current issues. The MRT breakdowns and the Hepatitis C outbreak are receiving attention from the opposition parties. Chee Soon Juan has been vocal and so is Goh Meng Seng. And it is a welcoming change that the WP is also coming out from the caves in Hougang and Aljunied to speak up on the same issues. The new and second generation leaders in WP like Leon Perera, Dennis Tan, Gerald Giam are breaking away from the old mould of Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim and are speaking out.

Yes, opposition leaders that want to be leaders must speak out. How can political leaders aspiring to be national leaders have on opinion or views on issues that are affecting the people? Ridiculous! If political leaders are afraid of Sue, better to find safety in a 8 to 5 job as an employee. There is still time, 4 years to the next GE, for the opposition leaders to make themselves known and heard by the people, to speak up for the people and to tell the govt that wrong is wrong, mistake is mistake, and take the govt to task if they fumbled, just like the PAP took them to task in the AHPETC affair. Take the bull by the horns and face the music, challenge the conventional thoughts, challenge the ruling govt, but without being reckless.

The opposition parties must work hard from now, not during the few days before the GE. There is a need for a dynamic change and a new paradigm in the way they want to politic and to win the hearts and minds of the people. Running away and hiding in the caves are not an option. Stand up, speak out to be counted. You need to make yourself a familiar face with the people, to be easily recognizable, to be assessed and to prove yourself that you are able to form the next govt. You have 4 years to establish a credential of credibility.

Amos Yee arrested again

In the news yesterday a teenager was arrested for making derogatory remarks against a religion. Though no name was mentioned, there were hints that it was Amos. Amos has confirmed that it is him.

So, everyone is speculating how many years will Amos be spending behind bars this time. For the police to arrest him, they must have serious evidence, and Amos is as good as guilty. And if he has posted in his Facebook, it will all be in black and white, hard evidence.

How many years? I think it should not be more than 8 years. Kong Hee only got 8 years for an offence involving $50m of round trippings.  Unless what Amos posted is more serious than the $50m, at most this looks like the maximum sentence he is going to get.  His first application to be in Changi somehow was short spent. This time his will become a PR, or a few years at least, flirting on religious issues.

I would advise people like Veritas and Matilah Singapura to take note of the seriousness of religious matters and avoid making uncontrollable and inflammatory remarks on religion in this blog.

War of Words

This phrase use to be an expression of harmless bickering between two parties, yelling and screaming at each other, or using the media to attack another party but limited to just that, words. There is no intention to carry the matter any further but just to show displeasure or to show who is the bigger bully or for the purpose of propaganda, to sink the ideas into the unthinking minds.

The war of words has taken a very different meaning, very serious and very damaging without any open conflict, and very, very effective and costly today.  The Americans have been spending billions and trillions in building up a military force that would turn any country into dust if they wanted to. That is how formidable and destructive is the American war machine. No country today is able to match the Americans in any specific area of contest with a clear advantage and a war with America is as good as courting self destruction. Of course the Americans also know that a few countries out there could bring America along to the Stone Age should the Americans are mad enough to want to go to war with them.

The Americans at best could play the game of chicken with other nuclear powers, to threaten and hoping that the other party would back out. But if both stay on course, ultimately both would have to back out. Crashing head on will end up in pieces for both chickens. The use of military power against another super power is a no option, rendering the superiority in military hardware relatively futile. The Americans overwhelming military superiority could stlll be used effectively against weaker enemies. However this again has been proven to be quite ineffective in the Middle East and a big drain on the American resources.

The most effective warfare today has turned out to be the War of Words. ISIS have just warned the Americans to withdraw its troops and involvement in the Middle East or else  they will hit at every 7 eleven stores around the world, or at any MacDonald or Kentucky fastfood outlets, or every Apple stores, Coffee beans, Starbucks or any American brand establishments worldwide.  Such threats may or may not take place, just like threats of bombs inside an aircraft. What happens is that the authority will have to act, securities beefed up, more checks, more delays and inconvenience and more cancellations. When an airline or establishment is on the hit list of a terrorist group, you can bet business will be affected. The customers will stay away when there are other alternatives available. Why would customers patronize an establishment on the hit list? Parents would keep their young away for sure.

As an example, an open threat to say Starbucks or MacDonald, what would happen to their business? It is a War of Words, but very effective and very easy and cheap to conduct. Any attempt to defend such soft targets is going to be exceptionally costly in manpower and resources. Even then, it is going to be in vain. All the billion dollar high tech leading edge military equipment and weapons are utterly hapless and useless in this kind of warfare. ISIS can be expected to increase its effort in this form of warfare. Yes, it is like calling wolf. One time, two times, three times, nothing happens. Seven times, eight times, twenty times, nothing happens, then kaboom, one store got hit. Confidence collapse and business goes down. No innocent customers would want to frequent the store, just in case.

This War of Words would be the new normal and all the security forces would be running around all for nothing but cannot afford not to run around. It is now so easy to make the Americans dance. Just issue a threat. F35s, B52s, nuclear missiles, nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, Poseidon, drones, got any use?

Welcome to the Third World War of Words where the Americans did not have any advantage but all the disadvantages. It is all a new ball game that has no form of effective defence. Just waiting for a threat to be made good, with no time and space dimension. The Talibans could not do it, the Al Qaeda could not do it. ISIS can. It could call on the nearly one hundred countries it is drawing its recruits from, the self radicalized individuals, a one man war machine, with a knife or a handgun. The affected countries and their people, their businesses and lifestyle, will all go crazy.

ISIS is now calling the shot. ISIS has the initiative. ISIS decides the time and place. ISIS is in control, not the Americans anymore. The Americans are on the defensive. The next stage, the Americans will be on the run, back home to protect homeland security, when the streets are on fire, under attack.

Have guns will travel

The Americans are stitching up a military alliance in the region and this time with eager beaver Singapore as the darling to project American military power in the region. Following closely on the heels are the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia, all very happy to put on the gun belt and become gunslingers.  Singapore has just raised its level of cooperation with the Americans to offer Singapore as a launching pad for American spy planes to conduct surveillance in the region. The concept of peace and neutrality for Asean is being diluted and forgotten. The 30 years of peace and prosperity have been taken for granted and maybe too peaceful for the liking and a bit more tension and perhaps war in the region would be interesting.

China has taken this news in a muted response but hinting that Singapore is trying to play with fire and may get burnt if not careful. The only export that the Americans are pushing to the world and its allies, other than the Apple mobile phone is the gun. The Americans are stoking the fires of war and furiously signing military alliances and offering to sell their military hardware as tension grows.

China has just offered $60b of economic aid to Africa and signing up with Indonesia and Thailand to build hi speed train and competing in India and Malaysia for a similar project. China is going around the world selling equipments and infrastructure development while the Americans are going around the world selling arms and signing up gangsters to control the world militarily. The Americans know that they have nothing else to offer to the world other than weapons of war. They are no longer competitive in the manufacturing and production processes for consumer goods for the good of the people.

Selling arms and stoking tension are the new businesses of the Americans. And to make sure there are buyers, they must make sure there are enemies and the need for their weapons. They must sign more military alliances and conduct more military exercises so that countries in the region will have to spend more on their military and buy more weapons. They need to be prepared for wars and need to buy better and better weapons.

Securities agencies need to clear China’s investment in India

I got this quote from an article in the Today paper on 11 Dec about India awarding a bullet train project to Japan.  Here it is, ‘In September, China was given the right to assess the feasibility of a high speed train link between New Delhi and Chennai, in the south, after getting clearance from India’s security agencies wary of Chinese involvement in infrastructure areas such as telecoms and railways.’

The above statement emphasized the important role played by the security agencies of India in guarding national interests and external threats. Foreign investors cannot simply get into India and do any business they like, building infrastructure, communications, strategic industries like power plants and water resources, IT and control of the banking and finance industry.

The big question is how involved are our security agencies in the trading of national assets, in the recruitment of so many foreigners here, in foreigners being employed in sensitive industries like national securities, IT, banking and finance?  Do we face the same external threats like India or other countries that our security agencies should be involved in approving strategic investments and industries and also the employment of foreigners to senior positions in govt and govt linked organizations? There is a standard practice in all countries for the security agencies to vet and clear even their own citizens for appointments in the uniformed services and other security sensitive services.

How are our security agencies involved in the commercial sectors like banking and finance, IT, communications and even the medical industries? Do these industries, and the employment of foreigners in senior appointments require a robust regime of vetting and clearance from the security agencies here? Are the security agencies too busy watching out for terrorists and anti national elements but employment in govt and the private sector, foreign investments etc are out of their purview? Should the security agencies be more closely involved in the influx of foreigners into the country?

Maybe they already are. Maybe we need not be so sensitive with such matters as they posed lesser security concerns. No countries will be interested in taking over this little red dot.  Just wondering aloud.

Freedom of a Rising Sun from the East (FARSE)

With the Chinese increasing their activities in the South China Sea Islands by building more man made structures in the islands, there is a big risk that the Chinese might block the sun from rising. The US govt is very concern about the Chinese construction activities in the South China Sea. You just can’t be sure that the Chinese would not block the sun from rising in the East. In order to protect the freedom of a rising sun from the East, the Americans have sent their warships and war planes to threaten the Chinese and demanding that the Chinese stop reclaiming more islands and building man made structures on the islands. The mission in short is called FARSE, to protect Freedom of a Rising Sun from the East.

This Chinese threat to the freedom of the sun rising from the East has been a key topic in all the regional meetings with the countries in the region. And some of the countries believe truly that there is a real threat that the Chinese will obstruct and prevent the sun from rising in the East. They too are moving closer to the Americans and signing more military pacts with the Americans to protect and defend FARSE.

Singapore is the latest member to upgrade its military cooperation with the Americans and is reported that it would allow the Americans to deploy P8 Poseidon surveillance plane from the island to survey the South China Sea. There have been conflicting reports whether the deployment of P8 is to defend FARSE and a part of the enhanced military pact.

Whatever, FARSE is going to play a big role in the American’s relations with the Asean states and China. Some are still wondering aloud, ‘What the FARSE is all about?’ Is this FARSE real or imaginary? Can China really block the sun from rising in the East? The Americans said it is real and will zealously want to make sure the sun will rise from the East. Their intent is to sign up all the Asean nations and form a new military alliance called FARSE Organisation and all the members will be called FARSE members, to protect the rising sun from the East. Every mission will be called FARSE mission and every meeting will be called FARSE meeting.

PS. Was Japan also called the rising sun from the East? Are the FARSE members also be protecting and ensuring that the rising sun from the East will rise to become the new Imperial Japan?

What can the govt of the people, by the people, for the people do?

I do not know how many Singaporeans out there are still trying to send out their resume looking for a job and after 6 months or a year or more and still could not land a job. I do not know how many are so stressed up, depressed and lost all confidence in themselves and how many are feeling so worthless and ashamed of themselves that they have withdrawn from society and hiding in some corners in despair. I do not know how many could have gone bonkers and how many just try to make ends meet with whatever jobs, temp jobs or part time jobs or manual labour jobs to get by.

Perhaps Gilbert Goh could dedicate a column in his Transitioning.org to list down the names of Singaporeans that are struggling for months or years and still unable to get a job. With the identity verified, the person can be identified with a pseudo name but with other details like qualifications, experience and duration of unemployment made known. Jobless and underemployed Singaporeans must be encouraged to put their names on the list. The numbers would get the MOM thinking.

The number of these unemployed and underemployed could be quite substantial while some silly Singaporeans are sneering at them as useless, too demanding or choosy or whatever shit they could shit on them.  Would someone want to do something to take care of these educated, some highly educated and experienced Singaporeans when there are more than 1m foreigners, many fakes and cheats, are having a good time here, fully employed, gainfully employed, over employed and depriving these Singaporeans from their right to be gainfully employed?

MOM could set up a task force to compile an inventory of these Singaporeans who are desperately in need of a decent job. Freeze approving Employment Passes and when an organization put in an application for foreign talents, send them a list of qualified Singaporeans for them to pick. Until these jobless and unemployed Singaporeans are employed, no approval shall be given for Employment Passes except on very highly skill jobs. In fact all the middle level management jobs should be closely monitored and given Singaporeans the first right of employment. Any job that a Singaporean can do should be given to a Singaporean.

And make it a law that the Human Resource dept must be headed by a Singaporean. New citizens of less than 10 years and PRs not acceptable to be head of HR dept. This would really help the Singaporeans left in the lurch and no need for silly and worthless talks of compassion and a caring and inclusive govt. And there will be no need for silly training courses to train to be underemployed. Make it happen, make it real.

Swee Say, what do you think? Can do or not can do?

PS. There are some glitches in Blogger and I can't get the font to the size I want. Those having problems can click on the gear like icon on top right of screen to change the size of fonts to your desire. 150% would be just right.

Defending SGX CEO Loh Boon Chye

Below is a comment by a TKSS in TRE

TKSS:
December 8, 2015 at 11:46 pm  TKSS(Quote)
The problem lies with the choice and finding the right man/woman to run the business.
Look at SMRT, do we have the right CEO?

He is probably the one that is pushing the idea of nationalising SMRT
Look at SGX, Loh Boh Chye (sorry I mean Boon Chye) who replaces Magnus Bocker
The present incumbent maintains status quo to the demolished exchange left by his predecessor.
What does the present CEO do. He make changes to Organization Structure.

Its like rearranging the deck chairs or running around redecorating the passengers cabins when Titanic has struck the iceberg and is sinking fast to the Atlantic seabed.

I am not sure about the comment on SMRT. I think the comment about Loh Boon Chye is unfair. I think he is doing all the right things. And actually there is nothing much needed to be done as SGX is in the pink of health. The market is so vibrant, the derivative trade is doubling or tripling in volume and the profits of SGX is growing. Why should Loh Boon Chye want to do anything when there is nothing wrong with the market? When it is not broken, do not fix it. The SGX is not broken yet.

Maintaining status quo is the best thing and the right thing to do. Changes to organization structure like changing deck chairs is normal when a new man is on board. Maybe he is cutting cost to save some money or making the SGX more efficient. Must be good.

I think Loh Boon Chye knows what he is doing. Everything is just fine. Don’t worry, SGX is in good hands. Magnus Bocker had done a fantastic job in improving liquidity and the volume is getting better and better.

What is this thing about the Titanic hitting an iceberg and sinking? Rubbish. This is not the Atlantic Ocean and our sea bed is not very deep, cannot sink one. Even if sunk it will still look like floating.  Nothing to worry about. Trust me. Oops, I mean trust him.

I saw on the news that SGX is going to be more targeted when it advises investors to ‘Trade with caution’. What does this mean when SGX has to put such a cautionary message? Does SGX know something is wrong, and if there is something wrong, would it be better to let the investors know what is wrong?

What about telling the investors the exact workings of super computers being plugged into the SGX? What are these computers doing, how are they taking advantage of the information they are accessible to? How many of these computers are plugged into SGX and if they violated SGX’s principle of fair play? Having such data that the public did not have, would it constitute front running or insider trading? What are the risks faced by the innocent investors trading against these computers?  It would be good if SGX could educate the public on the workings of these computers.

PS. The typo errors in the above quote of TKSS is inherent in the original comment.

Trump for President

He is absolutely controversial. He is exceptional and he is America. Trump is what America is all about, exceptionalism, about being different, and had the cake and eat it too. His latest comment about banning Muslims from entering the USA is going to take everyone straight on and demanding them to take a stand. The politically correct politicians wanting to sound right are already slamming him and setting him up for target practice.

The point is that they have no better solutions than what Trump is proposing. Is there another Presidential candidate or politician in Washington that has a better solution to protect the lives of Americans in homeland? No, the answer is no. They will come up with many half baked solutions all full of holes to deal with the threat from ISIS and lone suicide bomber or gunman just shooting at anyone on sight.

The outcry against Trump today is loud and expected. Just wait for a few more gunmen running wild in the streets of America and cutting down more innocent Americans in broad daylight and on the TV screens, showing live while they are shooting away, then you will see how the public opinion will change. The events on the streets will turn towards supporting Trump for President when pressure mounts, when more lives are taken and when fear becomes real.  Crazy men killing Americans need crazy solutions from a crazy President.

Trump is real and unplugged, uncensored. The rest of the politicians and presidential hopefuls are just politicians, saying the right things and hoping to be elected for the wrong reasons. Quietly they may want to say what Donald Trump is saying. What Trump said strikes a cord in the hearts of many Americans. America homeland will have no peace and security if no one is brave enough to do the right thing. Looks like there is only one man left standing up, one man up to the task….he is Donald Trump, the mean machine.

Trump for President and moving into the White House is a high possibility. ISIS can help him by doing a few more shootings on the streets of America. And Trump will be the word on the lips of all conservative Americans and the extreme right. There is still a lot of time for events to turn to favour Trump for President.

Would it be awful if it happens? It is outrageous. So is Trump. The Americans may have to go down on their knees begging for Trump….to be President when things get worse.

PS. The mediocre leaders among the presidential hopefuls are so hopeless and could only say the safe things. What kind of leadership can they be expected to provide, saying the right things that the Americans expect them to say? America needs strong and exceptional leaders, not weak and lame leaders afraid to say and do the right things.

MH370 – Australian bomohs hard at work

The disappearance of MH370 is still unresolved.  This is an obvious case of espionage and foul play but no one has any evidence to pin down the culprit. The only hope now is for someone who is pricked by his conscience to blow the whistle before they are silenced.

No one can fault the Australians for trying to help. The victims and their families would want to know what happened. What is sickening is that the Australians have been waving their magic wands and claiming it was here, it was there, very sure, confirmed by their modern bomohs and modern broom sticks. Have not the Australians been crying wolf once too many?

Now they are crying out loud that they are damn sure it is in the Indian Ocean again. And they have their bomohs and their gazebos to prove that it is almost sure, almost certain that they got it right this time.  And for countries with a lot of victims, they cannot say no to the merciful cry for help, to try to locate the aircraft.

For those who believe in the theories of black ops, the aircraft is likely to be anywhere except where the Australians are pointing to. Do the Australians have an agenda to distract the searchers to the wrong place, to keep them searching everywhere except the right place?  And to make it look real, someone may plant a bottle or a shoe to make it look real and likely.

When would the truth be found and the wicked and devious bastards be caught and make to pay a heavy price for this evil act on the lives of 239 victims and the pain and sufferings of their loved ones?

Would the modern day bomohs touch their hearts and stop fooling around with people’s pain and emotions and do the right thing?  If they are real and sincere to help, well,… but if the intent is wicked or to milk the money from desperate victims and their countries, it is real bad. This hideous crime must be exposed. It is a crime against humanity and only the vilest of people would commit such an act, taking away 239 innocent lives. And for those who went around spinning the story of a mad pilot and a mad crew, please stop your nonsense. You need a big team of people to take over an aircraft with 239 people and without anyone able to send out an emergency call.

    

Preparing for the next Presidential Election

I think the next Presidential Election should be around the corner, due in  mid 2017. Everything is pretty quiet at the moment. Tony Tan is likely to be fielded again as he seems to be the perfect fit for the Presidency and for the ruling govt. There is so much chemistry between the President and the Prime Minister that everything is just working fine with this couple. It is unlikely that another candidate will be thrown in to replace Tony Tan unless due to some unforeseeable circumstances.

Who would come into the fray this time from outside the establishment? Of the last three presidential candidates, Tan Kin Lian is unlikely to stand this time given his poor showing in the last PE. Tan Jee Say could still make a try as he did not do too badly then. But he would have to resign from his Singaporean First Party first to be eligible. Would he want to given the bad publicity in the aftermath of the last GE?

Tan Cheng Bock looks more like a certainty this time. He is still looking very good in his own way and in a two candidate fight his chances of getting elected is as good as anyone else. For those who want a non PAP candidate, Cheng Bock would be a very good choice and he would really be a challenger to Tony Tan.

Now, would there be any surprises waiting lurking behind the corners? Would there be any new potential candidates to enter the fray to provide more than a 3 corner fight and split the votes again? Given the stringent criteria, not many people are qualified to be a candidate and those who are qualified are people that would think very carefully if they intend to stand as they are likely to be public figures and closely linked to the establishment.

So far no newcomer has indicated their intention to run. It would be nice to see a 2 horse race for the PE. But knowing the possibilities, you can bet there will be some dark horses out there wanting to put in their 4 million dollar bets. And multiplying this by 6 years that is a cool $24m stakes, not counting bonuses that would easily double or triple that sum, awaiting the successful candidate. How about that, between $50m to $75m for the winner to guard the reserves of the nation?