Strange things will happen to our property owners

The 99 year lease, be it for private properties or HDB flats, would morph into a snow man when the time comes. When the lease expires or about to expire, someone who owns a 2 rm or 3rm flat with a balance of 50 year or 70 year lease would be richer than one owning a 5 rm flat or executive flat or even a private property with a 5 year lease or lesser. For at the end of the lease, the value of the no life lease property technically becomes 0. The land plus the property would go back to the owner of the land.

What this means is that 99 year leasehold owners are sitting on a time bomb, a vanishing asset. SG100 will see many properties go up in smokes and the rich owners, if their sole asset is the 99 year leasehold property that is slipping from their grips, be it $3m or $1m, will go pooh pooh.

Maybe this is a good thing, when wealth of one generation will not be passed down to the third generation to continue to be wealthy without having to work, just living on the value of a piece of appreciating property. The diminishing lease and value of 99 year leasehold properties will be like a reset every 2 or 3 generation. And that will be a time when 2 or 3 roomers still with a substantial lease remaining, will become richer than those whose lease expired. They would be looking at the new poor neighbours whose private properties or big HDB flats just become no more, homeless.

SG100 will be a time of reckoning, when the poor becomes rich and rich becomes poor. Things will turn upside down.

Good system for the average Singaporeans. Only those with freehold properties and not subject to estate duties will be rich forever and live happily ever after. The rich have it all thought out, the system will protect them and their wealth for generations to come.

GE 2015 – 2 confirmations

Let me revisit this shocking GE that knocked everyone out of his comfort zones. The results were not expected by all quarters. There were shocking disappointments and shocking disbeliefs in the camps of the losers and winners. The results of GE2015 confirmed two broad issues. The first is a near total rejection of the opposition camp. The mucking around of standing for election for the sake of standing for election is not going to be treated kindly by the electorate. Be serious, the electorate is not going to elect one or two persons to parliament to satisfy their egos. The electorate is looking for a serious contender, a real alternative party that can form the next govt should the time comes when the ruling party is no longer wanted. Getting one or two persons to parliament is meaningless. Getting a few people to parliament is useless. Come up with a strong party with a slate of good candidates that can mean business. No more merrymakers and party poopers.

The electorate is not writing off the opposition parties but wanting something that is real and effective, to present a real alternative to the ruling party. I have written about this and calling all serious minded politicians of all camps that want to see Singapore well and to serve the interests of the Singaporeans to get their acts together, discard all their inhibitions and historical baggages and party idiosyncrasies, personal pride and egos, come together on a new slate, with the best men and women available to form a new party or coalition for the next GE.

The second confirmation, if you want to agree with me, is the endorsement of the PAP, what the PAP has been doing and its policies. The GE was in a way saying that they were all or at least 69.8% were in support of the PAP and its policies. So the PAP can continue to do what it thinks is good for the people and country. The PAP can continue with the influx of more immigrants, towards 6.9m or more. The PAP can continue with the foreign talents are best to replace the lazy and no talent citizens. The PMETs can be trained to become taxi drivers, security guards or go overseas to earn their livings. The policies on the CPF, housing, high ministerial pay, high cost of living etc etc are all good and should continue.  The GE 2015 results said the electorate supported the PAP’s policies.

This is the second confirmation. More and more of the same, more scholarships for foreigners, more top jobs for foreigners, the people are happy with what is happening, the people are happy with the ruling govt.  We are heading in the right direction towards more good years till SG100. Just do what you think is right.

Benjamin Lim: A boy died, a father’s cry

I reproduce part of Benjamin’s father’s open letter posted in the TOC here. It broke my heart. I don’t care how many people are happily celebrating their CNY. Benjamin’s family are going through hell now reflecting on the agonizing and harrowing moments poor Benjamin had to go through it, all alone, trembling in fear, in the hands of strangers that have full authority over his freedom and the fate of his life. Let this never happened again to any child in this country.

‘There are now reports and statements from the relevant authorities that procedure will be subjected to review in regard to police questioning of minors without the presence of an adult. As Benjamin’s father, I felt this is necessary, but it came too late. It is necessary because we pray that the same treatment my son received from the police, will never ever happen again to another child.

The school, in my opinion, should never have handed over my son to five police officers during recess hours without having to wait for the arrival of family members. I hate to think of the amount of fear he had at that moment, how helpless he was then. To be escorted to the car park from the principle’s office, one student in uniform accompanied by a few adults in civilian clothes with police ID cards, how discreet this could be? I felt the embarrassment and the shame my son was subjected to.

As Benjamin’s father, it broke my heart when I later found out that my son was brought to the principle’s office with one bun on his hand; and a drink on the other from the school canteen.

I cannot understand why the teacher; or office staff did not allow my son to at least finish his food at the canteen before s/he brought him to the principle’s office. It was reported that my son was allowed to finish his breakfast before being taken to the police station. But that was after the interview. My boy had his last meal in the school, a cold bun.

Those adults that were with him at that moment, the police officers and staffs of Northview Secondary School, may I take this opportunity to tell you that my son would prefer to have his meal when it is hot.

When Benjamin finally left the police station at 2.50pm, he told his mother and sister that he was not given anything to eat, nothing to drink throughout the 3 or more hours of engagement with police investigators in the police station. At his age, my son gets hungry very fast after one meal. Just a cold bun and a drink, and we cannot be sure if he did finish the bun because he was under pressure then. Benjamin must be feeling hungry, thirsty, throughout the few hours he was with the police investigator. I can imagine the anxiety felt by my son throughout the ordeal.

As Benjamin’s father, it is now my duty to seek justice for my son. We do not know if he has indeed committed the alleged offence of “outrage of modesty” of the 11-year-old girl. Until the coroner hearing, we do not want to speculate whether the offence has indeed taken place.

That said, as parents we cannot forget and we cannot forgive the way my son was treated, from the school to the time he was in police custody. I have this to say to the school authorities. We as parents we entrusted our children to you. You have a duty to ensure that our children are appropriately taken care of, reasonably protected and have their interest in your priority.

To the police, I have to tell you that by sending 5 plainclothes officers to one secondary school in 2 unmarked police vehicles are never discreet. You are there to look for one secondary 3 student. You are not there to apprehend an adult suspect with full ability to escape or capable in single combat.

To Benjamin’s friends and team mates from the National Police Cadet Corps, thank you for the lovely cards and your encouraging words to SGT (NPCC) Benjamin Lim. To his colleagues from McDonald’s, he loved his job and he was grateful to be part of the team. If the branch manager would allow, please give your consent for him to keep his staff’s ID card.

Last but not least, on behalf of the family, I thank everyone for coming forward to show their support to Benjamin. We have created an email account dedicated to Benjamin, benjamin26012016@yahoo.com.sg. Friends and members of public are welcome to write to us.’

It is so painful to read the letter and to imagine what went through the mind of a 14 year old boy, alone, helpless, no one to turn to, gripped in fear, at the mercy of strangers in the name of the law of the country. Benjamin must be hoping that papa or mama was there with him, or at least a caring teacher to hold his hands, to support and comfort him during the harrowing hours in the police station.

This traumatic ordeal is going to haunt many people through the lunar New Year festivities.

Why so much deference to the PAP?

I quote this comment from Low Thia Khiang from the Statestimes Review, ‘“I have seen how the PAP works. And of course the rejection is because we don’t allow political parties to use common areas. You use the PA – the People’s Association, you use grassroots advisers – come on, let’s be honest about that.

…We understand the political reality. We understand that the struggle for functional democracy by a loyal opposition must be fought from within the existing system, under the law legislated by Parliament, even though we disagree with them.”

says Workers’ Party Low Thia Kiang, who lamented about the state of Singapore politics in Parliament today (Jan 29).’

I am not sure if this was the exact words of Low Thia Khiang quoted verbatim. I find the phrase ‘loyal opposition’ so creepy. What is there to be loyal or not loyal to be in the opposition? Opposition parties should only be loyal to Singaporeans, and that includes the PAP.  There is no need to be loyal to a ruling party. What does Low Thia Khiang meant by calling himself ‘loyal opposition’? What if he is not a ‘loyal opposition’? Should the opposition parties by ‘loyal opposition’ ie loyal to the ruling party or loyal to the state?

Is this phrase superfluous, unnecessary, a sign of weakness, meek? An opposition is an opposition and should disagree when it disagrees with the ruling party. The disagreement should be based on the national good, national interest and the people’s interest. It could be just a different way of looking at things and wanting to do things differently, no one knows which is the right way or wrong way except to look at it from the interest of the people as first principle.

So, when oppose just oppose lah. There is no necessity to claim to be ‘loyal opposition’.  What do you think? Tiok boh? No need to be ‘khek kee’ mah, as long as one is not saying or doing anything wrong to the country and citizens.

SGX: What is the elephant?

I will borrow a favorite question from a blogger here, ‘Why did the chicken cross the road?’ To find out what is an elephant. I have several questions that I would like to ask, not expecting an answer from the SGX, so better address them to MAS and to Heng Swee Kiat better still. Hopefully then people will see the light.

How much does it cost a fund to set up an operation here to trade using super computers? Initial cost of $50m to $100m and an annual overhead of $30m? How much would be the returns for such an operation to be profitable and sustainable? I reckon a return of $50m per annum would be the bottom line. Could such an operation deriving profits from skimming arbitrages and front running on inefficiencies in the market make this kind of money and be worth the high set up and operating cost? Why would computer traders invest so much capital and overheads to make a few dollars? Cannot be right? How many of such computer traders are here with their super computers plugged into the SGX system to feed on live data to trade against the rest of the innocent investors?

Assuming there are 10 such computer operators, could be 20 or more, with each expecting a return of $50m annually to justify the cost of investment, it would mean they would have to scoop up $500m from the market. This cannot be achieved by just arbitraging or front running. What other advantages did the computer traders have over the other traders to be able to rake in millions in guaranteed profits and not reveal to the public? What about information like keying into the system to tell the super computers that someone is shorting? Would the supercomputers be computing on how to take advantage of such information to make profits?

The computers are having price sensitive information, like who buys what or sells what at what price and at what volumes that ordinary investors did not have. Isn’t this insider trading? Isn’t this front running? Aren’t these a violation of SGX’s principle of providing a level playing field for fair trading? Are these acttivities criminal?

Now what would I like to ask Heng Swee Kiat and the MAS?

1.     How many super computers are plugged into the SGX trading system?

2.     What are they doing, what price sensitive information the computer traders would have that other investors did not have?

3.     Are computer traders, with their access to the SGX system and data and trading to profit from such information a violation of SGX trading rules and regulations and a crime?

4.     What are the records of the profits of the computer traders

5.     Would MAS/Heng Swee Kiat ask SGX to explain to the public/investors how the super computers work, the live data they are mining from the SGX system and how are these used to profit from the system? If the computers are not plugged into the SGX system, if the computers are operating independently within the premises of computer traders, they have all the rights to confidentiality of their computers. But the computers are now plugged into the SGX to take advantage of the system, their operations cannot be confidential anymore. There is a need for more transparency to see if there are cheating the system and the investors. The public/investors have all the rights to know what they are up against. It is only fair.

I hope these questions can be brought to the Remisiers Society and to the attention of MAS and Heng Swee Kiat. Make these questions public, get the media to raise it for public awareness and to educate the public on what is going on and whether there is any violation of the SGX’s trading rules and regulation, whether it is criminal to begin with.

Get the elephant out of the system if you want a fair system, a level playing field.

Benjamin Lim: A life gone through apathy and bo chap

I reproduced a few paras from a post, ‘Where is compassion’ in TRE by a Zarina Jaffar, a teacher on Benjamin’s tragic and unwarranted death.

‘To Benjamin’s parents, no words are enough to release you from your pain. Your boy is a good son. Society, rules and order are cruel towards him. May Benjamin soul rest in peace.

To the Policemen, Principal, Vice Principal, Counsellor, what you fail to do when Benjamin is alive, put it right in his death. His parents need closure. There is no need to give excuses and get defensive. A wrong can never be right if it is wrong. Give the much-needed closure that Benjamin’s parents now and the answer they are seeking. That is the most honourable things you guys can do now, but the burden of guilt will always be yours to deal with.

To the Ministry of Education, please take a personal interest in this case and assist Benjamin parents to come to terms with their loss.

To the society, let’s show our love and support to Benjamin parents in their hours of needs especially with the upcoming Chinese New year. I similarly lost a loved one eight years ago. But the pain of what Benjamin parents is going trough, none of us will ever understand.’

To those people who directly or indirectly contributed to Benjamin’s death, may this episode haunt their conscience for the rest of their lives.  He was only 14! And the insensitive Today paper has an article with this title, MPs, expert laud police review of interview process involving minors’.  Why review now when it should not have happened?  A child must be protected and the law is there to protect a child. And it was quoted that the police are now considering whether adults are appropriate to be present during interviews of minors and whether the proceeding should be video recorded. Unbelieveable! Still living in the medieval age.

And ‘According to an ex police officer who did not wish to be named, the police currently do not allow other parties to be present during interviews because it might hamper investigations. The police knew something is drastically wrong with the procedures. Would they also investigate what actually happened that led to the boy’s death? A healthy normal boy went to school, after being brought to the police station by 5 policemen, returned home and jumped out of the window. Dead. Gone forever. The family lost a son out of the blue.

Shanmugam, what have you got to say? This happened in your watch.

Conquest in the name of ‘Freedom of Navigation’

The USA was the last country to sign the N Resolution on Human Rights and has been going around boasting about protecting human rights. The reason for its reluctance to endorse the UN Resolution on Human Rights was the guilt to being the biggest and most atrocious violators of human rights in human history, the robbing of native North American land, the genocide of the Red Indians and the enslavement of millions of black Africans for more than a century.

The USA still refusing to commit to a stand that it would not use nuclear weapons on any country and has the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world. And it is condemning and pressuring countries trying to possess nuclear weapons.

The USA still refuses to rectify the UN Convention on the Laws of the Sea, UNCLOS. And it is going everywhere, especially in the South China Sea demanding other countries to abide by the UNCLOS which it refuses to follow. This is the American hypocrisy.

Now, in the name of ‘Freedom of Navigation’ and pivot to Asia, it has embarked on the conquest of Asia starting with the South China Sea. It wants to control the South China Sea as part of the American hegemony, part of the American Empire. The daft Asian countries still sleeping and did not know the intention of the Americans. They want to conquer and control the South China Sea in the pretext of fronting up against China.

The Americans are bringing their military hardware and soldiers into the region, sailing their warships and flying their war planes in the South China Sea. If the Asean countries still refuse to remove their blinkers, they would be part of the Empire when interference of their domestic politics is fair game and regime change is a right of the Americans and the Empire.

The Americans are back to re colonise South East Asia. Wake up before it is too late.

SGX promises more dialogue with remisiers

This was the title of an article by a Wong Wei Han in ST on 30 Jan 16.  After reading the content of the article I was wondering whether I should cry or laugh at the silliness of the dialogue. Just the title itself makes me sick. The once in 50 years dialogue would lead to more dialogues. Is more dialogue the solution to the remisiers’ problem? Yes it is the remisiers’ problem. The moribund stock market is the remisiers’ problem. It is definitely not the MAS or SGX’s problem for one good reason. They did not see any problem with the stock market. The stock market is doing very well.

Can you imagine what happened at the dialogue? There were ducks and chickens quacking and cackling but there was no meeting of minds. The frustrated remisiers were there not just for a dialogue per se. They were there not just to complain or vent their frustrations. They were there telling the MAS and SGX that something must be done quickly to save the dying market and industry.

But what happened? The MAS and SGX must be thinking these remisiers must be desperate. There is nothing wrong with the market and nothing needs to be done. And if there is any problem it is the remisiers’ problem, no business, low income and cannot make a living. What has that got to do with the MAS and SGX? Ok, MAS and SGX will be compassionate enough to lend a listening ear. They will have more dialogues if that is what the remisiers want. Ok, happy now?

And the article did narrow done to one big problem that was causing the remisiers the pain and the loss of income, the highly unpopular Minimum Trading Price (MTP). Wow, they finally discovered that this was the problem. ‘The MTP requirement is forcing many companies to consolidate their shares, which has wiped out hundreds of millions in shareholder value and further pressured the already bearish market.’ I am not going to ask who allowed the prices of main board stocks to be split into super penny worthless shares. The good news, this is the problem and if this problem is solved the market will recover and all the remisiers will be happy again as their business will be back. I am very sure this is not the elephant that I was talking about. Anyone sees the elephant yet?

And not all remisiers are so daft. ‘Other remisiers agreed that while the discussion was not in depth and no concrete solutions emerged, the dialogue itself was a welcome gesture.’ So, what are they expecting the MAS and SGX to do when they cannot see anything wrong with the market? Or what would the remisiers want the MAS and SGX to do? What is the elephant?

‘In a statement to The Straits Times, SGX’s rep said: “We are aware there are many long held misconceptions about our market, and we wanted to assure the remisiers that their views and suggestions are heard, and have been, or are being addressed.”’ I see, it is all a matter of misconceptions, nothing serious. Just explain the misconceptions away and all will be fine. Have more dialogues.

If you see a doctor and the doctor did not see anything wrong with you or think that you are not sick, only a misconception, there is no need for any remedies what?  This is what comes out of the dialogue. The ducks said no problem. The chicken said got, then what is the problem? MTP?

More than 100 remisiers and several top MAS and SGX officials spent 3 hours in a dialogue and what came out of it? Has anything been achieved, anything concrete waiting to be done?  One positive result is that there will be more dialogues to explain away any misconceptions…’He (Mr Loh) promised that he will pay attention to our (remisiers) problems and to have more frequent dialogues with us. It’s premature to say whether our (remisiers) issues will be resolved. There is nothing wrong with the market. It is the remisiers and the remisiers’ problems ok?

Luckily no one says ‘No one owes you a living.’

So sad, so sad, so sick....

CAN: Special safe guards needed for criminal cases involving minors

February 2nd, 2016 | Author: Online Press

Singapore based NGO, Community Action Network (CAN) has issued a statement expressing its concern over  the death of 14-year-old, Benjamin Lim who died of “unnatural causes” on Tuesday late afternoon after being interviewed by the police without the accompaniment of his parents.
Below is their statement in full
Community Action Network (CAN) would like to highlight the fact that as a signatory to the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC), Singapore should amend the Child and Young Persons Act (CYPA) to reflect the country’s ratification of the CRC, especially where the defined age of the child is concerned.
It is also clear that we need to implement special safe guards in place for criminal cases involving minors to ensure that those who find themselves assisting with the police in an investigation as a suspect, do not feel intimidated under any circumstances which may lead to trauma.
CAN is of the opinion that the tragic incident involving Benjamin Lim Jun Hui, a 14-year-old who died of “unnatural causes” on Tuesday, could have been prevented had everyone involved in the investigation of this case showed sensitivity towards the fact that they were investigating a minor.
Last but not least, we find it absurd that while public spaces are heavily surveilled with security cameras, interrogation rooms are not fitted with any cameras to allow for transparency of the interrogation process, which may be useful in an incident like this.

Endorsees: Shelley Thio, Roy Ngerng, Jennifer Teo, Woon Tien Wei, Rachel Zeng, Lynn Lee, and Jolovan Wham from Community Action Network together with individual endorsees, Vincent Law and Jevon Ng

The Community Action Network is a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) based in Singapore concerned about freedom of expression, and civil and political rights.
Background of the case – The secondary three student  was taken to the police station for investigation by five plainclothes police officers from his school on Tuesday morning and was interviewed for over 3 hours. Benjamin had been alleged to have molested an 11-year-old girl on Monday afternoon which he denies. Shortly after returning home with his mother and sister from the police station, he locked himself in his room and jumped out the window.
Read the full story on The Online Citizen.

I just have to reproduce this piece posted in TRE. Would the truth be uncovered to this premature death of a young boy? When a society is sick, the adults are also sick. Don't be deceived by the appearance that all is fine. All the fuck talk about compassion, caring society, about highly trained and educated personnel, how could it lead to this unnatural death out of the blue? This is like handcuffing little kids for petty crimes and misbehaviours and accepted as normal.

Najib is untouchable at home, but not abroad

‘KUALA LUMPUR: The Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) of Switzerland on Saturday (Jan 30) said it will hand a formal request for assistance on 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) in the coming days, according to a spokesman for the OAG. 

"The request for mutual assistance will be handed over to the Malaysian authorities in Kuala Lumpur in the coming days; i.e. a representative of the Swiss government will transfer the OAG's mutual assistance request in the coming days to the respective Malaysian authority in charge," said Andre Marty. "This procedure is well established based on international mutual assistance law."… CNA

It is interesting to note why Switzerland, an innocuous and supposedly politically neutral country, is so interested in the 1MDB case. Why the sudden interest in Malaysia and Najib? Who do you think is behind this development and indirectly is telling Najib that he is not going to get away. Someone is pulling the strings and wanting to settle scores with Najib. Is this the prelude to a regime change?

Najib could be safe at home, but out of the country, like his money, there are many vultures waiting to feast on him.  Someone or some forces are bent on doing Najib in. This is the price to pay for sleeping with the devil.

Take care. Rosmah would be powerless outside Malaysia.

Elected President – Confirming a badly thought out scheme?

When this scheme was pushed through in Parliament, it was touted as the cure all remedy to prevent a rogue govt from dipping into the national reserves. At that time it was the best thought out plan to guard against a rogue govt. In the last few days, everyone in Parliament were condemning this as a loosely thought out scheme with many loopholes that needed to be patched. It is not funny for such an important institution in the Constitution to be aired in Parliament as something flimsy and flawed.

Did anyone then notice anything wrong with this scheme? Why suddenly it was like ‘alamak’ this Elected President scheme is so dangerous and must quickly be changed or else in the next GE we will have a rogue as a president.  Which rogue is likely to become the next Elected President? Or was it that Kishore had an enlightenment, or was it that he woke up from the wrong side of the bed and knocked his head, then God spoke to him, that the Elected President scheme can end up with a rogue president? Was this Elected President scheme designed to prevent a rogue govt from robbing the reserves, and now the scheme itself is also feared to produce a rogue president?  And they want a group of appointed men and women to guard the president? Do they need to guard the group of wise men and women just in case they also become rogues? At this point in time they could not see far into the future. Maybe Kishore would wake up another day and shout, die die, the people guarding the Elected President can also be rogues. Then how, form another committee to guard the wise men and women?

Why was this Elected President a scheme deemed necessary then? I remember that they needed the authority and power of the people to be vested in the President, someone that is elected by the people will have the authority to deal with the elected govt.  Is it not funny that they now proposed to have a few appointed men, not elected by the people, dunno where they got their authority from, to control the Elected President, to veto the President?  Can a few not elected men or women check on a President elected by the majority of the citizens, the 35% is an exception and a bad example. It could be a President elected by 90% of the people! Got logic or not? This is worse than having non elected MPs acting as MPs to control elected MPs or to vote against elected MPs in Parliament.

By the way, why they never think of minority interest then? Why now, must explain or not?  And would this compromise the Elected Presidency? The minority MPs had rightly pointed out that they did not want a minority president that is not worthy, not meritocratic but put there because he is a minority. This is the same reasoning as getting a degree from our university by competing fairly with everyone, not being given a place and a degree because one is a minority. That would compromise the person and his degree if done that way. So, how to deal with this concern and reservation of the minority interest?

I hope after this amendment there will not be more Kishores down the road to cry wolf and said got more problems with the Elected President scheme and more amendments must be made. The rogue idea is really getting everyone very nervous and having nightmares, cannot sleep. Naughty Kishore, better not come up with more bright and scary ideas in the future. He is not known to be the only thinker in this city state for nothing. When he thinks, the unthinking and not thinking will take everything he said as gospel truth. It will happen, in the next PE!

It would be better for Kishore to come up with a complete solution instead of what were being proposed that appeared to have more holes than plasters.  The final result will be full of plasters patching over all the holes.  And it would also be better for Kishore to do the explanation as well to make it sound scholarly and coherent and from a disinterested party.

PS. Under our stringent criteria, it is believed that rich and high position men will not be rogues. Only poor and less able men will likely to be rogues. George Bush Jr and Obama would not even qualify to stand for election as an Elected President without executive powers here.

Is the NCMP another scheme due for more tweakings?

The Lee Li Lian snub of the NCMP seat revealed quite a number of problems, that the scheme was not well thought out, just like the Elected President scheme. There are so many lose ends that were flying loosely in the air and it takes a Lee Li Lian to expose the inadequacy of the thinking process towards the NCMP scheme. There is no need for a Kishore to wake up and exclaim, ‘Gosh, the NCMP scheme could lead to rogue MPs being put into Parliament.’

First point, the scheme did not cater for a case when a candidate refuses to accept the offer of a NCMP seat. The provision was to let Parliament to use its discretion. Now they did not know what to do? Who should the rejected seat be offered to and on what grounds? Can the party of the candidate offer another replacement from the same party from the next best candidate? Or should the party appeal or request to the election office or whoever is authorized to make such a decision?

With the provision of a number of NCMP seats, would it be an automatic process for the office or whoever, to offer the NCMP seat to the next best qualified candidate? Or should it be left as vacant when an offer is turned down? If this be so, what if all 12 candidates offered turned down, no NCMP?

Another point, if the best performing losing candidate happens to be a GRC, should not the offer of NCMP be to all the candidates in the best losing GRC?  Why one only? Isn’t a GRC a version of ‘one for all, all for one’?

Another consideration, is the minority interest a matter of concern here?  If a whole GRC team is offered, then the minority candidate issue would not become an issue. If it is offered to one instead of a GRC team, does it not compromise the intent and purpose of the GRC? Don’t simply brush this aside as a non issue in the case of NCMP.

There must be proper procedures to take care of as there are many variable known possibles. And a case like a candidate refusing to accept a NCMP seat is most possible and should have been taken care off before it becomes an issue and wasting so much time in Parliament for people to ‘chut pattern’ or ‘cho kah chiu’ and making everyone looking so lost and angry. It leaves so much room for politicking.

So, when would a COI be appointed to look into this NCMP scheme to patch up the holes?

SGX – The elephant that no one wants to see

It was not just an elephant that no one sees, but no one wants to see or talk about as if there is a dark force telling them not to say anything about it. SGX held a public dialogue and it was a damn big deal. It never happened before! They never think it was necessary to do so. Mohamed must go to the mountain, don’t expect the mountain to come to Mohamed. So there was a public forum, for what, to hear about the elephant, to talk about the elephant? Anyone going there with any inkling of hope that something meaningful would come out of it must have his mental faculty checked.

The people in charge in the SGX and MAS are not idiots. They are the super talents of the land, the crème ala crème of our establishment. They did not know what is happening, they did not know the elephant was there, they could not see the elephant? Heard of the emperor’s new clothe? Who in his right mind, earning millions happily would dare or want to risk telling the emperor he is naked and get slapped?

So what did SGX try to do in the dialogue? As usual, telling the good stuff and hoping the audience would hear only the good stuff. They said, ‘bo how seow bo kong’ if you know what it means. The stock market is very healthy, really, as good as it could be, we are performing better than many major markets in the whole wide world. Ok, enough of ‘how seow’. And sure enough, the remisiers and everyone in the industry present at the forum could not stomach the ‘how seow’ being thrown at them. They did not want to hear the ‘good stuff’.

Hey, don’t think the remisiers, dealers and sundry are really daft, blindly reading the media and hearing only what people wanted them to hear. They are the practitioners, the people on the ground, losing their pants, their clients losing their life savings, and many are quitting a moribund industry. The stock market is doing well, according to who and on what criteria? No sensible person would say that without looking silly.

Ok, I confess I was not at the session, knowing what it would be like it would be a futile and time wasting effort to be there. The only thing good coming out of it, if you think it is good, is for the letting out of steam and frustration, to tell them to look at the elephant.  Luckily the remisiers and dealers did not riot or throw their shoes at the panel. But many would leave the forum more frustrated than ever, knowing that no one that is in a position to do something was there to listen and to want to do something right. They were there to tell everyone that everything was fine, just like when they first decided to bring in the foreign funds and introduced all the changes to make high speed computer trading a bliss, at the expense of the rest of the players, taking advantage of computer power to cheat and fleece the innocents.

Remember what they said? The big funds, the computers plugged into the system, were the way going forward. This was the new thing and must follow market practice. There would be plentiful of liquidity and plentiful of trading activities. The stock market would spin out of control and everyone would be doing roaring businesses. Oops, this last sentence is just my exaggeration. But they did said the future was so bright and business would be so good that tomorrow could only be better. The rest is history.

Yes the stock market is very healthy. In another six months or so, maybe half of the remisiers and dealers would also pack up and leave. The broking houses would be operating on half strength and trying to break even in a losing battle in the best stock market in the world. Now, if the market is so good, why would the Singapore Business Federation rush a paper to appeal to the govt to reinvest in the local stock market that they could not raise fund from the market, a key function of the market, and they had to call the stock market a moribund stock market? Are they lying or someone else is lying?

And if the market is so good, why are the remisiers and dealers fleeing and why are the broking houses starting to make plans to cut staff and downsize? And why were the SGX and MAS deemed it necessary to break protocol, to come to Mohamed, to want to listen to Mohamed? Oops, sorry again, my mistake. They came to tell Mohamed the good news, that everything is fine, just fine.

Ok, let me hold my horses and quote a few comments that Rajan whatsapped to me from SI chat to give you an idea of the farce that happened at the forum and you can make up your own mind on the fruitfulness or futility of the chat session. This is the culture of the establishment. If they cannot convince you, they will confuse you. Remember the clown saying everyday that public housing was affordable? Actually more clowns are still singing the same tune.

 

Ok, here are the quotes:

1. If the remisiers, dealers are frustrated, what would the tens of thousands of lousy listing sufferers from S cheats to sinking SMEs do?
2. The outpour of anger and frustration among dealers and TRs was ‘encouraging’.
3. SGX began the day saying how Singapore exchange healthcare stocks has outperformed…put out a chart that’s says How our index has out performed SSEC since 2007(the grammar and typo errors are inherent in the posts). This went on for an hour, I can’t believe it, …’until a young man from DBSV interrupted and pointed out that they are cherry picking data points. The healthcare computation index was skewed and that if they had used another time period, the outcome would be different. (KNN)
4. He then went on to talk about how sick is the market. At lunch time yesterday half of the counters on sgx were not traded. The top 100 counters has only certain values etc etc. Things get heated up.
5. Soon remisiers one by one poured out their views on how S cheats, lousy SMEs, business trusts etc etc destroyed wealth savings of their friends, themselves and clients.
6. The outpouring was great.
7. It’s heartening to hear TRs questioning the morality, the extend of greed, the damage done to the investing public, the lives of those who depends on the industry from remisiers to backroom were given a chance to air.
8. Heard the young man talked about…remisiers, ex simex driving taxis and colleagues leaving…he grieved at the sorry state of affairs in the industry after years of mismanagement…How billions of market capitalizations were lost…lives broken….

 

The above comments are not new, did not happen yesterday. And you can bet that the people in the govt too knew about it. The sad thing is that all their heads were buried in the sand. No one dares to tell the truth, no one wants to tell the truth, no one wants to know the truth. You can bet Hsien Loong, Tharman, Heng Swee Kiat and every minister know what is happening to the stock market. The big question, why the reticence, why the inaction? Why is everyone looking the other way? This is the biggest mystery. This is the pathetic state of things. Who is responsible for this shit?

 

No one really, no one is responsible though many are taking millions and millions as salaries. ‘No one owes you a living. You die your business.’  Heard of the phrase ‘bo cheng hu’? Did the dialogue achieve anything or meant to achieve anything?

 

Thank you for bearing with me.

The philosphy of Goodlife Makan

The ESM has launched a new initiative in his Marine Parade ward to bring life to the senior citizens. It is called Goodlife Makan, where the seniors are encouraged to do things together, and what else is better than food? Goodlife Makan is all about the seniors and makan. And if I am not mistaken, Monfort Caré is taking care of the cost of the project.

“When we discuss challenges facing old people, we tend to look at them as problems – who will look after them, do they need more funds, what will be the cost of looking after them? That is the wrong approach. It's how to turn that into strengths - what can they do for themselves? How can they help others?” said ESM Goh.

How true is the above statement. Old people all got problems. The poor ones got poor problems, the rich ones got rich problems. Some got no money and would really appreciate Goodlife Makan for a day of free makan, I am presuming here, and a day of socialising. Some got so much money that the money becomes a problem itself.

Yes, the right approach is to turn their challenges into strength. The poor should just enjoy themselves without having to pay for it since they got no money anyway. And the rich should be given the opportunity to show their generosity and pay for the makan. Like that win win. The poor would be grateful to the rich and the rich would be thankful there is a useful way to spend their money. Otherwise so much money would only go to waste. Now they can really do something for themselves, to enjoy the pleasure of sharing a little of their wealth and good fortune with those that have little.

Nice thought on a Sunday morning. But putting it into practice is not easy.

Japanese history repeating itself

Historians read the past to understand what is happening today. There is another way of looking at history by looking at what is happening today to understand what happened in the past. The history of Japan during WW2 is still cloaked with controversies. Who were the real villains that led Japan to its barbaric invasion of Asia and South East Asian? The verdict at the military tribunal put the blame on the Emperor Hirohito, the father of present Emperor of Japan. Many members of the royal families were also found guilty, among them many princes who held command positions in the Imperial Army.

Did the tribunal nailed the real culprits that led Japan to the disastrous war or the Emperor Hirohito was made a scapegoat and the politicians and soldiers who wanted the war and did the butchering of the people they invaded? Emperor Akhihito is now touring the Pacific countries, including Japan and is showing remorse and repentance to the victims of the Japanese invasion and barbarity.  He acknowledged the crimes of Japan in WW2 but was not allowed to say much by the politicians, just like his father during the WW2. The Emperor was just a figure head if what is happening today was the same as the past. The politicians called the shot then and now. Japan was dragged into WW2 by the politicians and the soldiers, not by the Emperor.

While the Emperor and other members of the Imperial household have spoken about the horrors of wars, and feeling repentance over the criminal acts of the Japanese Imperial Armies and the politicians then, the politicians today are shutting up the Emperor and embarking a another mission to rearm Japan, tearing away the pacifist Constitution, and going around the world thumping their chests that they would want to engage in wars. They are building more weapons of wars and signing military alliances and supporting and agitating for wars.

Should Japan embark on WW3 and lose, the fingers must point directly at the politicians and Shinzo Abe and his gang in the govt. They are the ones that are pushing Japan to the path of militarism and war. The Imperial household has nothing to do with what the politicians are doing and wanting to commit Japan on a war path.

In the next war tribunal, the Japanese Emperor must not be made another scapegoat to take the blame from the politicians. The evidence is all there and mounting up daily, the deeds and words of Abe and his gangs of militants.

National Day a day of mourning

How many countries would celebrate or mark their National Day as a day of mourning? 26 Jan is the National Day of Australia but also the day of mourning. Here is why.

‘Sydney, Australia - For many Australians the national Australia Day holiday is a chance to celebrate their country with a day off from work and a drink. For Indigenous Australians, it is a day of protest and mourning.

Several thousand Indigenous Australians and their supporters marched through the streets of Sydney to protest at what they have renamed 'Invasion Day', which marks the 1788 establishment of the first British penal colony.’ Al Jazeera

Now you know why. Every story and event has two sides. The winner’s side and the loser’s side, the conqueror’s story and the defeated’s story. 26 Jan is the day the British, I think led by James Cook, landed Australia and robbed it from the native aborigines, then later gave the land to their convicts from England. Yes, the white Australians would celebrate this day just like the white Americans would celebrate Thanksgiving Day, the day Columbus landed on North America and robbed the continent from the native Red Indians.

The bananas have also been celebrating Thanksgiving Day and some may join the Australians to celebrate Australian Day without knowing why. To the natives of both continents, both days are days of sorrow, genocide and mourning. One side would be celebrating stealing the lunch of the natives and their land and killing them, the other side mourning for the losses of their land and people and subjugation.


Ignorance is bliss but also stupidity and looking silly. You may still want to ask why such events were not reported in the western media.

The Philippines is not the Sick Man of Asia

There have been many misguided comments that the Philippines is the new Sick Man of Asia. This is not true. The only semblance of a Sick Man is its economy, that is not doing as well as the Asean states. Other than this, the Philippines is every inch a proud sovereign state. The Pinoys are a proud people and had recently driven the colonial master, the USA, out of their country. They have reclaimed full independence of their national sovereignty, with no foreign bases and soldiers in their country. They are even standing up to fight China and competing to claim islands in the South China Sea as theirs. They even want to claim or take over Singapore as their new colony. They may not be rich, but the Philippines is anything but a Sick Man of Asia.

Reflect what qualified China of the 19^th Century as the Sick Man of Asia, the conditions of the country and people. China was not only economically weak, the country was cut up by foreigners with foreign concessions where foreigners lived like they owned the country, in their own enclaves in Shanghai. The foreigners have more rights in China than the locals. When they ended up in court, the court would rule in favour of them. And the corrupt elites were sleeping with the foreigners, allowing more foreigners into the country, taking over businesses and anything that had economic values, even messing around with the govt. The foreigners were having all the good jobs and top jobs in the country.

What about the locals? The local Chinese were kicked aside, no jobs and begging the foreigners for jobs. The foreigners were in control of everything. the govt, the economy and jobs and wining, dining and partying everyday. The natives lost all pride as citizens of the country. Got bashed by the foreigners, kicked around by the foreigners, insulted and abused by the foreigners, as good as no talents. And the natives could not do anything and the govt could not do anything. The elites would not dare offend the powerful foreigners. The natives lost all fighting spirit in their own country. Many escaped overseas to find jobs and to look for a better life. The people lost hope in their own country and their elites.

Did the Philippines meet these conditions? Some, but not all. The Pinoys are still in charge in their own countries and foreigners could not boss around with them of abuse them. The foreigners know that in the Philippines, the Pinoys are the owners and they better behave well in front of the Pinoys. They would not dare to beat up a Pinoy. There is still pride in the Pinoys. How can they be called the Sick Man of Asia?  It is not just about money? Money is dignity? It is national pride, the pride as a nation, as a people. Lose that, you become the Sick Man of Asia.

A Sick Man of Asia is when a country is taken over by foreigners, run by foreigners, foreigners could boss around with the locals and the locals are helpless when abused by the foreigners. When the foreigners formed and lived in foreign enclaves and sneering and despising the natives. And the natives lost all pride and spirit to live, lost confidence in themselves, all planning to run away from the country, when their very own govt cannot protect them, cannot offer them good jobs, and the good jobs were taken over by foreigners.

I definitely disagree that the Philippines is the Sick Man of Asia. They even despise daft Sinkies.

The trend of development in GRCs

The statisticians and social scientists that read trends to predict the future and who are looking at the trend of GRC development would point to one conclusion. I show you the conclusion later.

We started with single seat constituencies. Every MP stood for one constituency to represent one constituency of people. Then the conventional wisdom and realities changed. There was a need to ensure minority candidates are present in Parliament. The wisdom of the day said the people would be voting on ethnic grounds and minority candidates would not be elected in the future. No one was up to it to question this hard truth. So that was it. There shall be light, oops, there shall be GRCs. Each GRC should have 3 or 4 candidates with one from the minorities.

After a few elections, different needs appeared. Now the reason was not to ensure minority representation but other convenient or practical reasons like economy of scale, efficiency, expediency, ministers very busy so need other MPs to cover for them, or when one dies, others can cover the dead MP’s duties and so on and on. See the shifting goal posts and reasons?

Then we have bigger and bigger GRCs, the unsinkable battleship, the bigger the battle. Weak oppositions were struggling to catch up to field even a GRC with decent candidate and with the cash. But that was their problem. Big GRCs were good and the intent and purpose were good. It was good for the politics of the country, like Elected President was better than Appointed President.

Then again things changed. Big GRCs not so good leh. So must have lesser big GRCs. Reasons I am still blur. And now I heard there is a need to have more smaller GRCs and SMCs. Reasons I also dunno but must be good for the political system and for the country and people.

See the trend and reasoning? So the next change, what would be the next change, what is the trend leading to? Yes, GRCs are bad and we must go back to SMCs.  Why, because the people are not really racist, they are Singaporeans and colour blind. The Singaporeans would vote for good candidates regardless of race, language and religion. This is in the national pledge, idiot. There is no need for GRCs. And some may be wondering, which smart alec came up with this GRC thing? What crap! But this is the future. I am bringing this up as a social scientist would do, to study the social trend and make a prediction of the future political system as the trend will take. As they say, things will come around in circles.

All back to square one. In the process everyone was taken for a ride without a say and without knowing why.  And who knows, there will be no more Elected President in the future and the President sitting in the Istana will be just a ceremonial president and no multi million dollar salaries in the future, just a presidential stipends of $500k a year.

Hillary Clinton to be indicted!

John Harding seems to be very well informed of such exciting news. He is working on a leak that Hillary is going to be indicted by the FBI while I am working on a story on how to get Hillary to run in the next GE as a candidate for the opposition parties.

John Harding is still working on his story but I will just quote this from his blog.

‘Obama does not want to be linked to Hillary Clinton as the Benghazi attack was staged by a State Department hired jihadist security outfit in connection with and as a cover-up for the transfer of Libya’s vast arms cache to al-Qaeda and ISIS mercenaries in Syria and Iraq.’

This is bizarre news. If true, Hillary’s ambition to be the first female President of the Empire will go up in smokes.

Wow John.

PS. This is the strength of the American democratic system when there is real separation of power, where a rogue executive, even the President, can be indicted, not only a Secretary of State. And they don’t suka suka change their constitution because someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed, or someone had a nightmare.

Revisionism of the Constitution and Political System

While many changes are being proposed in Parliament, I think it is important at this point to note that Singapore is a democracy and the citizens have certain rights enshrined in the Constitution. In a democracy, the citizens are the owners of the country and have the right to elect who they want to represent them in Parliament and who should be the President of the country. The citizens also have the right to stand for election as the people’s representative in Parliament as well as to be the President of the State. Any legislation that removed these rights of the people must be unconstitutional. What would the legal minds say of these assertions? I bet none would dare to open his or her mouth on these issues. So the citizens will be just as blind and as dumb with regard to their rights as citizens on these issues. The big question, can a ruling party legislate away the rights of the people to stand for election as the President of the country? The so called restrictive and limiting criteria to be eligible as a presidential candidate are like the natural aristocrats carving out a niche for themselves, excluding the masses, depriving the masses of a basic right as a citizen of the country.

I hope all of you can share your views here and in other forum or public discussions whether the proposals to the changes to the Elected President system violate the Constitution, undermine the rights of the citizens to be president and to elect the President of the State.

I am not going to suggest an easier method to satisfy the conventional mantra of the day, that the candidate for the Presidency must have blue or purple blood. If that be the case a simpler solution would be to legislate that only the scions of ex Presidents and Prime Ministers are eligible to stand for election as the next President. This would also solve the minority representation issue.

Having said that, the people must not be misled by the shifting goal posts. The citizens must not forget the first principles, that is, they are the owners of this country. Every citizen has the right to stand for election as the President of the State and that it is their right to elect whoever they want to be the President of the State, blue blood, purple blood or red blood is not an issue or limiting factor. In a democracy, the people can even elect a beggar or a blind man to be the president of the state. It is democracy and it is their democratic right. No one can take this right from the people. No one can legislate this right away from the people. Do not treat the people as daft and unthinking and would anyhow suka suka elect any rogue to be the President. Please do not insult the intellect of the electorate.

Tiok boh?

They said everything begins with a good intention. The devil is in the details. Watch the details carefully.