voters will not vote out a pm

this is a comment by dr ho khai leong on the wp's intent to field a team at angmokio grc. why won't the electorate vote out a pm? such a question or thought seems so naive in the singapore context. the pm winning his seat is a given. would this hold true in other parts of the world? many pm's and presidents have been booted out by their electorate. why not in singapore? can it happen? are the people's vote so easily taken for granted, that the pm must be voted in?

gst: we need discrimination

is it right to tax those who are struggling to make ends meet? many singaporeans on the lower end of the income bracket did not pay taxes before, until the introduction of the gst. this is a sweeping tax formula that does not discriminate the people who are being taxed. it is super efficient as an instrument of collecting taxes for the govt and covers practically every consumable items. now all singaporeans are being taxed. this taxation through gst hits the poor more than anyone else. yes, it also means that the rich will also have to pay more in their purchases of big ticket items like housing and cars. to be socially more just, perhaps a little discrimination shall be introduced into the system to leave out the lower income group. they are now taxed quite heavily all because of gst. basic necessities like food and water, transportation, medical, housing and conservancy fees are all subject to gst. the amount of gst paid under just these few items will come to several hundred dollars. transportation at a monthly expenditure of $100 per head multiply by 2 adults and a child could easily come to $250 or $3000 per annum. gst payable is already $150. does the govt have any interest to alleviate the poor from being taxed so heavily? would they introduce some discriminatory rules into the gst to favour the lower income group? i think this is a first in the world for the poor of a country to shoulder such a huge tax burden relative to their income.

singapore's golden years

it was a time when confidence was high. everyone was thinking of a better tomorrow and actually expecting it. pay rises were huge and frequent. year end bonuses were equally enormous. everyone was upgrading and every residential project was swarm by prospective buyers. other than house huntings, the other thing worth doing is playing golf all over. playing in singapore and malaysia is not good enough. australia, china, thailand and other distant golf courses were frequented by singaporeans. those were the good times. the golden years of singapore. when i was told that, i thought otherwise. there were more golden years to come. that was just the beginning. a peek to what more good things will come the singaporean way. but we also wondered whether that would be the end. and it seemed so. it came so fast and furious, only about 10 years ago and vanished in less than 10 years. now what happens? even hdb flats nobody wants. selling cheap also no takers. and the govt has to give out $1 billion to help 240,000 people, countables, who are in hard times. the number of not countables and facing hard times is unknown. but the rich are getting richer and faster. the ugly face of greed is popping out everywhere. a huge house build on weak foundation will collapse on its own weight.

renaisance in science and technology

the world is on fire, firing all three engines instead of 2 and 1/4. for the last few centuries the advancement of science and technology was basically supported by the european civilisation. then this splitted with a strong branch growing in the usa and a little branch in japan. today, usa, europe and asia are pulling in their weights together with china, india and korea joining japan as the full asian branch. with all three engines firing together, the rate of growth and progress in science and technology are likely to be in leaps and bounds. the impetus of such a powerful combination of human energy and resources can propel the world at a pace not seen in history. however, these energy must be carefully harnessed for peaceful economic growth and competition and not in war. the consequence of a third world war will be more devastating as the promises of tomorrow.

red packet or gold paper

i read that gold packet is getting popular and is preferred more than the traditional red packet for the lunar new year. one of the reasons may be novelty, to be different. and gold seems a more expensive item to hold. and gold prices is surging again. why not give gold packet instead of red packet? this reminds me of the attempt to have tiger dance instead of lion dance in malaysia a few years back. in their craze for something different, to be different, to be creative i supposed, people will try out new ideas. but trying out new things must be a result of improving something and not going backwards. the idea of fuzzy logic is good for those who build it from a base of logic. otherwise fuzzy logic is nonsense. all the man in the street has fuzzy logic as their thinking and thoughts are unstructured and totally fuzzy, with no logic. what has this got to do with changing angpow to kim cua(gold paper) or next time geen cua(silver paper)? a lion dance is built on the fabled and mystical lion which is an auspicious animal. the tiger in the chinese tradition is a vicious animal and anything but auspicious. during chinese new year there will be lion dances to ward away bad luck and welcome good fortune. tiger is most inappropriate for such purposes. the red packet, the colour of red during the lunar new year is also for a specific purpose. to ward off bad luck and the mystical beast or nian. red is everywhere, in clothing, pasted on the side of doors, in food presentation, and of course red packet for good luck and protection. red is more than a colour of choice but with traditional significance. what's wrong with kim cua? nothing wrong unless the mind wanders a little to include geen cua. kim cua is used in prayers to the deities and geen cua for the dead. sometimes kim cua is also burnt for the dead. how does it sound giving kim cua on chinese new year? last year when we gave kim cua or gold packets, we did received some not very favourable comments. some people may be offended by it on such an auspicious day when saying the right thing, right words and right sound mean so much. it will be disastrous if someone utters the word kim cua instead of kimpow. the latter is so unfamiliar while kim cua is a common usage and may be splurted out. happy chinese new year!