Politicians of all colours – Empty your cup

Slowly we are seeing a new breed of politicians appearing, the serious and with a purpose and with a view, not to contest an election just to be in Parliament and thought they had arrived as a politician. On a personal level, yes, to be trusted and voted into Parliament by the people placing their hopes on them, to serve them and to work for their well being, not for the money that they are going to get.

Though the presence of younger and brighter politicians are starting to change the landscape of opposition politics, the bad news is that they are still trapped by the baggage of the past, of an inward looking opposition crippled by years of division, mistrust, personal agenda and vested interests. The new blood would not be able to achieve anything but more of the same if they did not break free from the clutches of history, to chart a new course to challenge the ailing ruling party.

It was unbelieveable that the ruling party could gain more grounds in the last GE and nearly whitewashed the opposition despite a slate of very good and promising candidates against a series of bad policies that made life for the Singaporeans very difficult and worse in the years ahead. Some last minute stop gap measures and handouts helped to win some votes for the time being. But the inherent flaws of economic and social policies cannot be hidden and kept from affecting the people negatively. Big failures and problems will raise their ugly heads when the pressure and conditions changed for the worst. Today’s Singapore Business Federation’s recommendations to the govt are a polite reminder of the flaws and problems faced by the businesses in particular and the people in general.

Would the new opposition blood be able to make any difference in the next GE? If they continue with the same set up, with all the parties continuing in their bickering, with the leaders all wanting to be Indian chiefs as their main priority, continues to be divided and weak, the game is over before it even started.

The good men and women in politics, both in the ruling party and the opposition, must make a clean break from the kind of politics that we have seen in the past decades and find a new paradigm for a new Singapore. The politics and leadership of the ruling party have become irrelevant and unsustainable. The politics of the opposition is ineffective and a waste of time and resources.

The good men and women in politics, with their hearts in the right place, must know that they need to do something to change the course of politics in this city, to take the people forward with a better social economic formula for a better life. Going forward with the same formula is only waiting for the fuse of a time bomb waiting to ignite and bring an end to an unsustainable social, economic and political model.

Empty the cup, get a fresh start, put down the difference, break ranks from the current parties, put aside the personal dream of becoming a PM, pick up a good team of good men and women, regardless of political parties, form a new party for the next GE. Clobber the new party together by the end of the year and there will still be ample time of 3 years to get noticed, recognized and for the people to believe that there is a real alternative of good men and women to take over from the ruling party, to lead the country in the next lap of growth and prosperity.

China sending its professors back to school

No, it is not another cultural revolution. China is unhappy that the academics, especially the professors, that are sitting in boardrooms as independent directors. They are ordering the professors out of the board rooms, to stop corruption. How could this be called corruption? The professors are contributing their expertise in the boardrooms and also to provide the right connections between business and the academia, for the business honchos to tap on the expertise of the professors.

The professors are not the only people banned from independent directorship. Top govt officials holding paid corporate positions in the education sector are also clamped down. The overlapping of govt/academia and business is not acceptable in the clampdown against corruption. ‘The ministry on Nov 3 ordered deans, deputy deans and managers at middle level and above to report their part time jobs, saying those who do not do so in a timely or accurate fashion will be punished based on the severity of violations.’ Bloomberg.

This is one of the things that China did not learn from Singapore. This must be the reason why Singapore is so progressive and China is not. Singapore businesses have no problem with who are their independent directors or where they come from as long as they are honest and incorruptible men and women with the right connections and expertise to add value to the companies. Perhaps this is something the Chinese did not have, honest and incorruptible men and women that can wear many hats and be independent directors and would not be accused of corruption because they are just incorruptible. Just pay them well to make sure they are not corrupt.

With the kind of pay the Chinese are paying, no wonder they have a big corruption problem. They must send more delegations to Singapore and learn from Singapore on how to keep people from falling to corruption. According to world surveys, Singapore is the least corrupt country in Asia. Just pay them not to corrupt.

The only thing good about China is that when it is clamping down on corruption, it is serious about it and big shots are also caught in the net. Xi Jinping was quoted to have said in his book that no one is immune from punishment. China still got a lot to learn.

Car free day, car lite society, healthy and happier Singapore

There were two forum letters in the ST on 5 Dec praising car free day and car lite society and how healthy and happier Singaporeans would be. The other letter wanted to make car driving more inconvenient, all for the purpose of discouraging car ownership and to encourage walking, oops, now taking public transport as a healthy and happier way of life. I can’t tell the difference between sitting in a car and in public transport except that the latter you would need to walk a short distance to the stations.

Anyway, this is the kind of Singaporeans that we should have for the future, very positive and very willing to change for the better. I can visualize what they would be thinking next to save the world and lead a healthier and leaner life. Eat less and exercise more. And they will also tell the govt to build smaller HDB flats to waste lesser of natural resources. They would probably sleep at 10pm every day to save on electricity. And they will even suggest to work less, or don’t work, to live better. Why work so hard? Living is good and people must enjoy life more instead of work and work.

Just hope they would not throw stones at people owning and driving cars to make it more inconvenience for the drivers, to encourage them to walk and stop driving. What would be the new slogan? Cars are bad, bicycles are good? Landed properties are bad, HDB flats are good, smaller HDB flats betterer? Oh, they may even say earn less good, earn lesser even better, cause no need to spend on expensive cars and big houses.

Singaporeans will soon lead a happier and healthier life without cars and without having to pay for millions to live in big houses. Teaching dogs to do silly tricks is easy. Teaching Singaporeans to think and act silly is even easier.

When would Singaporeans be shouting eat shit is good?

16,000 more BTO flats

Property prices coming down for so many months. Every month 0.5 per cent, 12 months 6 per cent already. So serious. If another 12 months, another 6 per cent, chiat lat man. Quick, tell the Minister things are getting bad. There is a property glut, must remove all the curbing measures to let property prices to rise again. Statistics showed that in the last 10 years property prices had gone up by 200 per cent leh. So how, down 6 per cent kpkb and want minister to remove all the restrictions, tiok boh.

Luckily the minister is not fooled. Build some more, building another 16,000 BTO to keep the property prices from ballooning again. I can understand this and this is good for the people except the property developers and speculators. If you just have one property living in it, it is better that your $10m property be cheaper and has lesser property tax of pay. Those sitting on $50m property but no selling, those with several properties but not selling, will not be too happy for property prices to go up and pay more property taxes.

By the way, I support the govt to build more HDB flats for the average citizens. Keep the price low so that the people really can afford them and still got some money for retirement. Imagine if we could unwind the stupidity of not building HDB flats under the last regime, we would have solved our property problems when we had 20,000 units unsold, or at least the problem would be not so serious when the influx of foreigners hit the market.

I really hope there now some serious thinking in the govt for the good of the average Singaporeans by building more HDB flats and with a little surplus so keep HDB prices within the means of the average Singaporeans to be able to afford 4 or 5rm flats, not 2 rm flats only.Think the people first, think Singaporean first policy. If the PAP can really change its policies and care for the people, starting first with housing policies, then employment policies, then CPF policies, education policies, I think they can survive and still be in power to celebrate SG100.

There is another view on why the govt is continuing with the building of 16,000 units of BTO flats. I don’t blame them for thinking on the bad side. This view said the 16,000 units and more to come would still not be enough for the 6.9m population. The govt is building for the 6.9m not to bring down HDB prices and the cost of living. And the new MRT lines would still lead to jams and breakdowns as the capacity would not be enough. If this view is true, then the leopard really cannot change its spots.

Now which view is the real one? Who do you think?

Housing in Singapore is affordable!

Really, housing in Singapore is really affordable. The HDB and the govt have been saying this almost everyday. In 2010, Mah Bow Tan said that ‘more than 80 per cent’ of new flat buyers in the same scenario, ie, ‘were repaying their housing loans using their CPF and did not have to fork out cash’. How to disagree when the govt and then minister for housing said so?  Housing is affordable. It depends on who is saying and using what numbers, and who you want to believe.

Then why are the property professionals saying ‘what they would like to see from the authorities is more data, such as the number of years needed for households to pay off their flats, or the ratio of the flat’s price to household income tracked over a period of time.’ What these professionals are saying is that they don’t believe in what the govt and the minister said. And the reason is simple, so simple. It depends on so many things that are so hazy and subjective that anyone can claim anything they want by nitpicking on what they want to use as the data.

Let me point out a few misleading facts. The above comments about affordability, 80 percent paying using CPF and not having to touch cash, therefore affordable? And another number quoted is that ‘they are using a quarter of their monthly income on average to repay their housing loans’. This is below the international affordability benchmarks of 30 to 35 percent. Don’t forget, the CPF contribution is 17 + 20  percent! Using a $2000 monthly income, the total is $340 +$400 = $740 or 37 per cent if one is using all his monthly CPF contribution. What about those having to top up with cash? The bottom line is 37%. How did they get the number of 25 per cent or a quarter of their income? Ok, maybe got to deduct for Medisave etc.

And income is household income, not individual or one income. And the affordability is about HDB flat at the bottom, 2rm or 3rm flats. What about bigger flats, what about private properties, 3m, 30m, 50m? Should Singaporeans be happy and contented that 2rm flats are affordable?

What about retirement? How much is left for retirement after paying for affordable 2rm HDB flats? What about the number of years to repay? If one needs 30 years to repay, how many years left for one to save for retirement?  In reality, many would be paying and paying for their entire life as they are not stopping at the first HDB flat. This means no time to save for retirement, nothing much left for retirement.

Can anyone ask why until today, when everyone has been kpkbing about housing affordability, there is still no agreement as to what is the acceptable formula to measure affordability? Simple, because everyone wants to use data to suit his agenda to tell the things he wants the people to know. In other words the truth is selective truth, biased truth, distorted truth, nothing but the truth.

Some analysts are suggesting using the mid range of the average Singaporeans with $3k or $4k household income and the price of a 4 rm flat to be used as the average data for the average Singaporean, not the data of the bottom feeders as the national data. Or there could be different sets of data, for the 2rm, 3 and 4 rm, 5rm and above, private condos and landed properties to show the different grades of affordability.

Using a figure, those of the lowest income and with govt subsidies and grants, is not a fair measure of affordability. Who is kidding who? Is this a case of statistics lying or people lying?

Did anyone say honest men don't lie? 

Why school is written as skool?

Has anyone wonder why skool is the new word for school? I think it is cute, just like writing govt as garment and yew think everyone will appreciate the creativity of the word. My First Skool must be the first step to creativity. To promote creativity, to be different like yew know ya, everything goes. If our skools will progress along this line we will have many Steve Jobs and Bill Gates or Zuckerbergs in the future, provided no one will snuff out this creativity streak in the young. I am not going to challenge the professional educators on why this is a good thing or a bad thing.

The young minds are innocent and impressionable and skool would be in their vocabularly for life. What about the adults who would view things differently, maybe cynically. Some are already commenting that this is a Freudian slip, that our schools are really nothing but skools. They are not schools any more but this new thing called skool and not sure what it means or what it is doing.

What is a skool and what is it supposed to produce, Stool or R2D2? R2D2 is famous for being a mobile storehouse for information and data. Not sure if it is programmed to think, but it sure is a remarkable robot that is a super encyclopedia. Whatever that is fed into R2D2 will come out like stool, freely and smoothly, not a word or a comma missing.

Would our schools be transformed over time, into skools as a natural process? What do yew think?

The new Singaporean

After the passing of the pioneer generation Singapore will go on with a new breed of Singaporeans. For this I really mean new Singaporeans, not the new citizens or the masses of foreigners. The new Singaporeans will be very new in many aspects.

First, they are born at a time of prosperity and have not faced real hardship, at least most of them. They did not know what it would be like when there was no roof on the head, no job, no food on the table and having to go hungry, wearing old clothes and begging for jobs.

The new Singaporeans have a totally new mindset, very confident and assured of themselves. Nothing will go wrong or can go wrong. There is a super efficient govt that would take care of them and of everything. Tomorrow is always better. Life is a party

When foreigners are flooding the island, taking up many jobs, the new Singaporeans would not feel a thing and believe it is for the better, to better their lives. There is nothing wrong with that. Life is good and the foreigners are contributing to the vibrancy of the island. The legislating away of their life savings also did not mean anything to them. It is a good thing. The idea of no car ownership and taking public transport are also good things.

All the new concepts are embraced happily as the way life should be. Their degrees and certificates are new too, some never got to use them. Some never got to use their brains too. No need to think. Some no need to work and their brains are preserved in pristine condition, never work before, never put in positions to test if their brains can function at higher levels of demands. This is unlike the pioneer generation when they had to work real hard, to crack their brains to be successful. Today, success is on the table. There is nothing to think about.  Ya, life is a party. Just enjoy and live life without a worry, without having to think. The good govt will do all the thinking and planning. The new Singaporean brain is really well kept and new. They are in great demand for brain transplants, the fresh and hardly used or unused brains available in Sin City. Everyone is praising how good and new the Singaporean brain is, hardly used, clean and hygienic, fed with the best food and preserved by the best medical system. And fully loaded with information from the best education system, waiting to be used.

Someone used the term the unthinking Singapore flock in TRE. He must have noticed that the new Singaporeans did not use their brains any more. Let the chenghu do whatever they think is right, whatever chenghu said is right. Chenghu said must be good, just do. If any wrong they have a good chenghu to take care of everything.

The new mode of transport, walking or cycling

The opening of the Downtown Line was supposed to bring more options to commuters traveling to and from the city. It is also touted as the good news for the future, to lesser dependence on the convenience of cars and private transport. So, go forth and spread the good news. With so many train lines criss crossing the island, going anywhere would now be a breeze and super efficient. This would lead to more car owners leaving their cars behind or not even wanting to pay for the cut throat prices of car ownership. Singapore is working towards a car light city. I can’t help but to repeat, this is the good news.

Last Tuesday and Wednesday morning saw the East West Line slowing to a crawl during morning peak hours. Many commuters were late for work. Thursday morning, the new Downtown Line was disrupted in less than a week from its test run. Lateness has become a new normal, due to train stoppages, slowdowns or breakdowns. We cannot expect to push a button and everything works anymore.

What are the options when the most important public transport is no longer reliable and cars are so super expensive? Walking and cycling. These two modes of moving from place to place will become the alternative to public transport. Singaporeans must be prepared to use their heads, oops, I mean use their legs, to move around.

It is time to promote healthy living by walking from one end of the island to the other end, from Changi Point to Tuas and vice versa, from Woodlands to World Trade Centre and back.  It is good for Singaporeans. It will not affect their quality of life. In fact they will be more healthy and fit, like the coolies of the 1940s and 50s. Just get use to it and pretend it is good for health, healthy living, quality lifestyle. Better still, promote it as the new aspiration of Singaporeans. Condition the Singaporeans to love walking and bicycles and to sneer at car ownership as something bad. Stop all the promotions and advertisements on driving posh cars just like stopping the advertisements on cigarettes.

And to make sure the good news of lesser cars in this city becomes a reality, introduce an additional lifestyle tax of $100k for car ownership. That would leave only the multi millionaires and billionaires to be the only people able to own cars. And when the population of cars has fallen, there will be no need for all the ERP gantries or car parks in HDB, freeing more space to increase the population to 10m or 20m.

Singaporeans must be rejoicing at the good news on how good life will be going forward, without cars and with so many train lines to bring them to wherever they want to go.

Living at the Edge of Tomorrow

by MIKOspace

I began last year into a new cycle of my life

Towards the light of truth.

Living a life by choice, not by chance,

Listening only to my inner voice,

Not the random thoughts of others;

Without any delusions and illusions of false religions, myths, Superstitions, man-made beliefs, lies and more true lies,

Or the false promises of competition and domination,

Celestial hope and economic exploitation.

In 2016, I shall continue the pursuit of truth

Beyond conflated myths, facts, and fiction,
To discover the true faith that bridges there to here.
Faith has strengthen as unbelief & disbelief debunked,
Knowledge and wisdom overcome delusions & illusions,
Happiness discovered by sharing joy and well-being with others,

As life's journey continues at the edge of tomorrow;

In 2016 at the edge of tomorrow,
Many will wish that tomorrow will not come;

For them, tomorrow is a dreamy mirage,

A mere extension of their yesterday.

Wake up in 2016;

Make changes, not excuses,

Re-create your tomorrow
And banish tomorrow's inevitability

Of broken hearts and shattered dreams,

Of unrequited love and promises unfulfilled,
Of disappointments and pain.

Of lies and more true lies,

Of elusive happiness and dreamy mirages.

2016 shall bring new pathways and fresh challenges

And unimaginable opportunities;
Doors to unexplored prospects shall open,

Embark fresh journeys to the other side.

Seize the moment - carpe diem?

But, why?  No, wait.
Be patience - life is short, why rush through?
Life’s an adventure, not a race; 

Pause to smell the flowers,
Appreciate creation diversity,
Understand the multicultural palette
In life's awesome mix of trials and tribulations,
Embrace the mystery of pain and suffering

Along moments of rare joy and happiness.

Questions the very purpose of Creation;
Can there be peace without wars?
Joy & happiness without pain & sadness?
Abundance without poverty?
Living without sickness & disease?
Sharing without exploiting?
Collaboration without domination?
Loving without hurting or being hurt?
To live like no tomorrow?

Yes, we can.

Just a little consideration for others;

Just giving from what we have;

Just sharing a little more from our abundance;

Just be happy adding value for a little less profit;

Just being more gracious and less calculative;

Just be joyful to assist and serve without gain;

Just go make poverty history;

Just win the race against racism;

Just a little more love for your loved ones;

Just pray for the power of love

To vanquish the love for power.

Just choose to do the things that others won’t

So that you can always do the things that they can’t;

It is so simple to make a better tomorrow.

At the edge of tomorrow, peep into your future
To live for today like no tomorrow.
Today, surrender your desires, greed and ambitions.
Give up this life today;

Leave the life you have been pursuing
And embrace the life that has been waiting for you,

Letting go the things passed for they are past,

Free yourself and choose freedom for life.

Expect nothing in return,

Know that life is no house of cards,

Believe not in promises ancient or recent,

Gratitude is not a quid pro quo,

Your efforts are rarely appreciated,

Nor your brilliant talents discovered.

Least understood shall be your love

And you can be hurt only by those you love. 

Yesterday is past and finished,

Decide what your tomorrow can be

At the edge of tomorrow today.

Standing at the edge of 2016,

I look afar, distant, up and down,

Squinting my eyes for tomorrow’s light.

I could feel the wind across my face,

The breeze of hope from tomorrow, I ponder.

A distant noise beckons in my bones,

A rumbling, pulsing and purring voice;

So surreal and not seems human.

I could see it with my heart

And feel in my mind.

The light expands as I stare into it

Filling the space of our distance from here to there;

Out of a sudden, I could see it

Staring back at me, oh my tomorrow,

The life awaiting me beckons;

And today shall begin again

The first day of the rest of my life

As I live the edge of tomorrow.

PS. The above piece is by Michael Heng and is a good start to the 2017.  My advice to most people who are deep into reading religious scriptures is to first understand the context in which the scriptures were written, the knowledge of the time and the intellect of the religious teachers or script writers then.

Any average graduate today would have accessed to far more knowledge and information about the universe and life and he should use this knowledge intelligently and not be awed by the ancients knowing how little they knew then.

The other point is that there is a very big difference between spiritual knowledge and the values of what is good and bad of wanting to live as a good person of God or religion. Spiritual knowledge must be acquired by spiritual training and is in a totally different realm and anyone who put into practice would acquire them. This knowledge cannot be acquired by reading religious text or getting a Ph D. And a practitioner without any academic training or learning, an illiterate, could still acquire it and be a master in his own right for knowing the spiritual world that a non practitioner or a believer would not know.

Khairy also ‘beh tahan’

‘The houses with the ‘crosses’ in Langkawi. Now repainted…We waste too much time on stupid issues.’ Khairy Jamaluddin, Youth and Sports Minister of Malaysia.

Former Cabinet Minister Zaid Ibrahim was quoted to be unhappy with the setting up of a Malay Mall operated only by Malay stall holders and a new airline, Rayani Air, that would not serve alcohol, with stewardesses wearing tudungs and reading Islamic prayers on take off, as bad commercial ideas capitalizing on Islam for profit.

I have not made any comment on the above to avoid being attacked by a dog hiding in the corner of this blog to accuse me for being insensitive and anti Islam or anti Malay. I am glad that progressive bumiputra leaders could see rubbish and would stand up to call them rubbish.  At the rate these unproductive and regressive protests continue, things would only get more ridiculous and the bumiputras would only get more angry and uncontrollable when they should be directing their energy and time on more productive things to uplift the well beings of fellow bumiputras.

The timely intervention by Zaid and Khairy would hopefully bring a stop to such wasteful and destructive energy. And hopefully they are strong enough and not become targets of attacks for being anti Islam or anti bumiputras. As someone commented, how would the bumiputras deal with cross road junctions? Are they going to demolish them for being Christian in nature? Would all the Cross Streets be renamed to Crescent Streets or something that has nothing to do with the cross?

Malaysian leaders should lead the bumiputras, if they are not interested in the general Malaysian population, towards more productive and progressive pursuits to improve their lives and well beings. They should not be stopping the bumiputras from crossing the streets or any cross over activities or events because they are related to the cross, literally. Please don’t be cross just because I write about it in my blog.

The happenings and achievements of the year

The USA’s achievements of the year, launching Apple iphone6, forming TTP, sailing warship and flying warplanes to challenge China, sending more boots into Syria, signing more military pacts with more American allies, issuing more threats and sanctions against Iran and North Korea.

The achievements of China, launching One Belt One Road, forming AIIB, signing contracts to build bullet trains in Indonesia, Thailand and the USA, launching new brand names like Alibaba, Xiaomi, reclaiming islands from the sea, building train network to Europe and Africa.

What are the achievements of Singapore? Celebrating SG50, found a buyer for NOL, making Kopitiam and NTUC Fairprice the new brand names of emerging enterprises, Khaw Boon Wan incharge of running the train system, new train downtown line, hosting American spy planes to conduct Freedom of Navigation in South China Sea, new museum and art galleries, SGX winning the best regulated stock exchange in the world, building smart cities in India. The list is very long.

Singapore probably achieved more than the two super powers, not forgetting punching above its weight. I could have added buying F35s but not sure if the deal is on or off. Oh, planning to have lesser cars and more car free days and more walking and bicycle lanes. This is the new aspiration of Singaporeans, not to buy cars.

Happy New Year to everyone.

China should say a big thank you to the USA

This is what visiting Iraq Prime Minister said and reported in China Daily.

‘Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told China Daily on Wednesday.

In an interview on the second day of his first visit to China since taking office in September last year, al-Abadi also voiced confidence over increasing crude oil exports to China, as Iraq is "hoping to double oil exports in the coming years".

He stressed the key role of railways in Iraq and plans to expand the network to about 5,000 kilometers from the current 2,000 km.

Iraq, after the upheaval of recent years, is in dire need of infrastructure as it beefs up economic growth.

Al-Abadi confirmed that Chinese companies "are very interested" in expanding the railway network. Earlier on Wednesday, he attended a meeting of business leaders representing up to 60 Chinese companies involved in sectors including telecommunications, infrastructure and insurance.

"They bring me their technology. ... I think they can expand the network in Iraq," he said, adding that the expanded network "can act both for the people and for goods”’

I am not sure what to say. Are the Americans trying to do a favour to China or the Arab countries by bombing them to Stone Age and allowing China to come in and rebuild these flattened countries?  Would Iraq and other Arab countries be grateful to the Americans for doing them such a big favour, leveling their countries to rubbles and make them easier to rebuild?

I know China would not have to say thank you as their effort to rebuild these broken and destroyed countries would be attacked by the Americans and American media in the name of exploitation and taking advantage of the Arab countries.  They would have nothing good to say. The fact that the Iraqi PM was in China and inviting China to rebuild Iraq speak for themselves.

The American and western media and American step children all over the world can sing all the songs they want about bad China and good America. The fact, the Arab countries are suffering and paying for the crimes of the Americans. And China is there to help to rebuild their countries at competitive Chinese prices.

More progressive news – The best stock market in the world

Hongkong has pipped New York for the top spot in IPOs listing for 2015. Not very sure where Singapore stood on this but we have heard that this is the best managed and regulated stock exchange in the world, or at least in Asia. And the SGX has been announcing increasing trading volumes for derivatives and its come is improving and making more millions, from trading bonds and other commodities.

These are healthy and positive news for the stock broking industry. Singapore has, in the last few years, transformed its stock broking industry into an industry of the future. Stock and stock prices have increasingly become irrelevant in the new business model. We used to have blue chips trading at $20 to $40, mid range stocks between $5 to $10, and cheap stocks between $1 to $2. Today our blue chips are trading at around $10, midrange around $1 to $3 and at the bottom, 1c to 2c or less than 1c. But this is changing fast as the new rules required the super penny stocks to consolidate, just like post CLOB Malaysian shares, 1000 shares became 10 or 1 share, to improve the prices to between 20c and 40c. It will look less ridiculous for the main board when the exercise is completed.

But these changes would mean nothing when trading activities is no longer there or needed. The exchange doesn’t even need investors or retail traders. The computers are doing all the trading and trading in derivatives. The net effect, there will be no need for stock listing. That speaks for the lack of IPOs in the SGX. There will be no need for traders and also no need for remisiers. Many have left the industry and many on the way. Broking houses are still doing roaring business without the need for remisiers and planning to retrench more in the new year. Some have started.

Have no fear, all these are just teething problems for an industry in transition to be better. In the new stock trading business, cannot call it stock broking business as there will be little broking activities left. The word stock would also become misleading if trading is all about derivatives. There will be no need for stocks, no need for traders, no need for remisiers, no need for broking houses. The industry will just have computers trading against each other on derivatives from anything they can write on.

The industry of 40,000 people would become very manpower efficient. The new business model would probably need less than 1000 people to provide the supporting roles mainly programmers and derivative writers and the rest run virtually by computers.

Singapore has embarked on the most innovative change in an old industry. Not sure what would be the new name for the stock exchange. Definitely there is no need for the word stock as stocks would be replaced by derivatives. Exchange may need to be changed too as it would no longer be an exchange but more like a computer game. I am sure the new name for this industry would be something fascinating and pleasing to the ear, futuristic like ‘You know ya’ or something like that.

This is progress. No other exchange could have thought of it. We are ahead of the world in transforming our stock exchange into something else, unheard of. That is how innovative we have become.

The silly Americans at it again

The Americans are warning Europe not to grant market economy status to China. The reason, the Chinese will flood the European market with cheap goods. And thiat is bad. The Europeans must pay for more expensive goods from the Americans or force the Chinese to sell them goods at higher prices. That is good.

Would the Europeans want to pay for more expensive goods or cheap goods from China? And by buying cheaper goods from China, the Chinese would be investing in a big way in Europe with more infrastructure development to the tune of S$465b. Now this again must be bad deal in the eyes of the Americans. But the Europeans need the investment to kick start and revive their slowing economy.

Whatever the Chinese are doing must be bad.  The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is bad as it would mean China would gain more influence in the Asia.  Giving cheap loans to help countries to develop their infrastructure is bad unless the money comes from the American controlled World Bank or Japanese controlled ADB. The One Belt One Road is bad as China would benefit and the rest lose out to China.  It is only good for China! Maybe the Americans should sell more weapons to the Europeans, at American prices of course. That must be good.

I was watching a documentary in Channel News Asia on the under nourished and starving children in the Philippines. More than 3m of Philippines’ children are suffering from malnutrition in the same scale as those in the Sahara and tropical region of Africa. And what did the Americans do to help the Philippines? Send them more weapons and warships. What about feeding the hungry and stunted children, to give them proper meals? No that is bad.

If the Philippines would behave better, China may send in ship loads of food for its hungry children and let them grow up as normal and healthy human beans with a full stomach. The children can wait, bickering with China and thumping chests and sailing in American warships are more important than feeding millions of hungry children.

Would Europe listen to the mischievous Americans, refuse China’s billions of dollars of investment and the benefits of buying cheap goods from China that the Americans said, are bad, real bad?

We are progressing, tomorrow will be better

Let me repeat the familiar story of the islander in an island far, far away. When the rich tourist on vacation in the island saw him wasting his time under the coconut tree having his siesta, he offered him his advice on how to grow rich and to retire happily with a lot of money and not having to work again. The islander asked the tourist for his age. The tourist was 65. The islanders told him at best he had 15 years to enjoy his life while the islander who was 30 and had 50 years to enjoy life under the clear blue sky, turquoise water and without a worry.

Why are Singaporeans working so hard for, to be rich, to have a good life, to enjoy life?  Our parents relatively were rich in their own ways, earning a couple of thousand dollars a month and living in semi Ds that cost maybe two years of income and a car to drive the family around to eat air. The children could happily hop on the family car and go dating with their friends. They had so much free space and free time then.

Today, a semi D would probably cost more than 30 years of a $100k annual income and a car would cost a hand or a leg. But the people are rich and happy and are told to aspire for better things in life. A 800 sq ft pigeon hole in the sky is very good living, quality living. And they should aspire to take public transport, to cycle or to walk, to adopt a healthy lifestyle while the multimillionaire would drive their limousines around expressways and the average Singaporeans should get use to taking public transport and get squeezed.

The govt is also helping and making life without cars easier with no car days in the city and building more bicycle lanes for the new and rich lifestyle of future Singaporeans.

Is this what is called progress? Are these the aspirations of our young? What would be the next phase of progress after acquiring all the good degrees when all the jobs are either taken over by foreigners or by robots and machine? A life of leisure in a tropical island without stress and wants, no job, no home and no income and no car? How to survive then? Got govt subsidies I think.

Let's celebrate car free day. And better get used to the idea that owning a car is at best a wet dream in the future for the average Singaporeans.

Sustainable growth is in dire need for China

By Chua Chin Leng (chinadaily.com.cn)Updated: 2015-12-24 15:33

After three decades of double-digit growth, China has embarked on new development track with moderate growth rate around 7 percent annually. Even at this conservative growth rate, the Chinese economy could double itself in seven years to a US$20 trillion economy. It could be regarded as miraculous growth for a huge economy.

China has arrived at a point where rapid economic growth becomes a big challenge and risk overheating. In fact it was the fear of overheating that prompted the Chinese government to rein in the high growth rate.

China has little to fear of external factors dragging down its economy that is built on a very broad base of economic activities, from agriculture to manufacturing, tourism and finance etc. China has a lot of rooms to grow, and to continue growing at the new normal of a mature or maturing economy at 5 percent to 7 percent is not an issue.

The big question is whether China wants to push so hard to continue with its past growth rate of more than 10% or to take a breather and grow at a more leisure pace of 7 percent?

The last three to four decades of heady growth naturally led to many inequalities and inefficiencies in the Chinese economy like unequal distribution of wealth, unequal rate of growth across region, unequal growth in different industries and priorities. The inequalities itself would present great challenges but also opportunities for the Chinese economy to continue to grow as it seeks to level up these inequalities, diversify its industrial and manufacturing base, bringing growth and development to less developed regions and industries.

The obvious and often touted strategy to sustain a high growth rate is to steer the export oriented economy to raising internal consumption of consumer goods and services. The sheer size of 1.3 billion consumers, far more than the combined market of the US and Europe, would keep the Chinese manufacturers and producers very busy for a long time to come. China can be a self sufficient and domestic driven economy with the advantage of size.

There are also many industries that are still growing, such as the defense industries, pharmaceuticals and the redevelopment of the central and western regions of China. There are also many new industries such as renewable energies that could become the new engines of growth to keep the economy happily rumbling, albeit at a more sustainable and respectable growth rate.

And the banking and finance industry is just opening up and with great potential to contribute a bigger share to the economy.

The issue of the Chinese economy is not about growth but about sustainable growth, about managing growth for the good of its people, better distribution of wealth to uplift the well being of the population, to spread growth to all corners of the country.

The break-neck speed of the past decades of double digit growth should be tempered with more control in the direction of growth, in being selective of the industries to grow, in capitalizing on the green revolution, to turn green and the use of green technology.

China should take this opportunity to transform the economy and country into a country of the new century with measured and manageable growth, with a clear purpose and direction.

The author is a political observer from Singapore.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and don't represent views of China Daily website.