s rajaratnam: speak up. if you don't who would?

a bulbir singh from seremban, malaysia, wrote to the straits times forum on his encounter with rajaratnam in the 1960s when raja visited seremban. during the visit raja said that young people of malaysia must take a keen interest in what was happening in the nation and speak up. 'if you don't, who would? and if you don't, some day your kids and grandkids would ask, "pa, grandpa, you were there when these matters were discussed. why did you not speak up then? what would i say?" bulbir singh said that ever since he had not stopped speaking up for his country. and he did that often. as concerned citizens of singapore, if we don't speak up, why fight to be a citizen? why called yourself a citizen? might as well be a pr. no responisibility and no obligation. just live your own life and be an anarchist. just concern with self and nothing else. if the govt think it is their right to gag the people, then they will have to answer for it. and if the people abscond or surrender their right to talk, then they deserve it.

uob makes $1.7 billion profit

wee cho yaw has done it again. $1.7 billion profit. i think uob makes the most money compare to all the other local banks. and i think uob is the only one without foreign talents. the talents are found in the father and son team. both local talents.

mr mean is here

school tuition fees are subject to means testing? how much a student pays depends on the affordability of his parents? well, is this 1984 or 2084? when such mean mentality is put to practice in all sectors of our lives, we have to be tagged, with all information made available to the authority. a loaf of bread will be priced differently according to the income level of the consumer. in fact everything will have a different price. from each his best and to each his worth. hey i thought this is an outdated socialist or communist concept. from each his best and to each his needs. now ain't the world getting meaner when mean people are in charge? i mean mean testing. they are not mean but they love mean testing and adore mean testing. mean is the way to go. lets all get comfortable with being mean. mean or mean testing is going to be our way of life.

half mast: consistency or to be not

s rajaratnam's departure and the honour of a half mast has raised questions. and many were thinking, how it causes a lot of discomfort in several quarters. devan nair may be a doubtful starter. but teng cheong seems to receive many sympathetic calls and grumbling about the half mast he was not given. this will go down our history book and will resurface every now and then. a half mast is given to a founding father who rightly deserves the honour. for consistency, we can expect keng swee, chin chye, othman, pang boon and nyuk lin to be given the same honour when they take their turns to go home. after this batch would the honour be bestowed to the second generations of leaders? chok tong as pm, would likely be given a half mast. what about the rest of the ministers? so far all are living their lives quite correctly as honourable people. but one slip and tongues go awagging.

dependency strategy

the more people depends on the govt, the more they need the govt/ruling party. if this dependency relationship can be created, then the ruling party will have the people at its beck and call. the trick is to make the people eat from your hand. now how to do that? make everything very expensive or make things just a bit difficult to afford or need to be helped. then offer help to them. they will forever be grateful. this is the real part. on the fiction part, just shout everything is affordable. and we all know what affordability means to different people. affordable to who? a millionaire or a beggar? affordable to someone who earns $20k a month or someone who earns $1k a month? how could anyone shout 'affordable' when the term is so relative?