myth 26

'Singaporeans vote for politicians who can serve them' Singaporeans go to the polls to elect Members of Parliament who can serve them, who can take care of them. This is only partially true. The truth is that Singaporeans vote a govt so that they, the people, can serve the govt. When they go to the polls, they are actually going there to surrender their rights, or put it in another way, to vote for a govt to control them, tell them what they can do, cannot do, what is good for them, what is not good for them. And this ritual occurs every 4 or 5 years without fail. And after the ritual is over, the govt will start to think of all the best rules and regulations and laws to protect the Singaporeans from their immaturity and wanting to hurt themselves. And the people will feel so secured and safe, that their future is in good hands.

please pity the poor road bullies

A controversial US research indicates that road bullies are suffering from a serious mental disorder. And Cheow Xin Yi in his article in Today paper asked, 'Spare a kind thught for that horny blasting, expletive spouting road bully?' According to the US study, it suggests that the idiot behind the wheel may be the victim of an obscure mental condition described as intermittent explosive disorder(IED). Poor chaps, they are violent not because they wanted to but because they are sick and unable to control themselves. Or maybe they should send these IEDs to Iraq as a counter measure against the Iraqi IEDs, Improvished Electronic Devices used to kill American soldiers. I believe the American IEDs will prove very effective. A local pyschiatrist, Dr Ang Yong Guan, spoke about the case of a young man who would overturn table because people stared at him and would want to beat up the other person. When asked, he said, 'I have always been like that, but I didn't know why I am like that.' Another victim of IED. What a pitiful guy. The only thing that is common among these bullies is that they seemed to be picking only on guys that are smaller and easier to beat. And I think that probably points out to the right solution to prevent them from going into a rage. I would strongly recommend that these poor bullies be caned at least 24 strokes by a guy bigger than them when they fell victim to their own sickness. I think that is the only way society can help them to help themselves. I really, sincerely, honestly, feel very sorry for them. And if 24 strokes of the cane still cannot help them, double the caning. Up to a point I think the pain should wake them out from their sickness.

myth 25

This myth has been on the lips of many people for a long time. There have been rumours and speculations that the PAP has at least two factions competing for dominance, one led by Choktong and another by Hsienloong. And many hope, and have been hoping still, that a split in the party will see two equally balanced parties coming out of it which is good for Singapore, something that Singapore really needs. But all these hopes were in vain. The PAP remain as united as a party as ever. Choktong was elevated as the SM like LKY and behaves like LKY did when he was a SM, taking orders from the PM. The PM is the undisputed captain of the team and decides who should do what. The best example recently was the dispatch of Choktong to Potong Pasir and Hougang which Choktong did like a good soldier. That is party discipline and conduct which should be enough to dispel the thought of a party divided. Maybe after Hsienloong, as for now there is no way that the party can split into two factions. Hsienloong is too strongly entrenched in his position as the PM and with a new team and the summary retirement of some old guards would make his position doubly secured. And dissidents within the party, if any, will now be too small a force to make any impact and splitting is no longer a viable option.

more high paying jobs for singaporeans

Toilet Specialist is a novel and innovative way of creating jobs for the oldies that are no longer worthy of their existence in our young society. And to train them in a polytechnic and getting a diploma in toilet fineries will put them in good stead for many more useful years in jobs that Singaporeans shunned. I can immediately see the potential of these specialists. We can export them as foreign talents to countries like China or India or other Asian and Southeast Asian states to teach them how to manage their toilets and raise their standard of public hygiene. The Indonesians and Phillippines export their domestic helps, we can export our uncles and aunties, oops, I mean Toilet Specialists, armed with diplomas to lend them more weight in what they say or do. This is a second career for retired bankers, managers, engineers etc who are no longer employable in our young and vibrant society. They could eventually contribute another source of foreign exchange to our economy, a kind of a second wind. We have done another first.

another reason to hire native English teachers

Chua Mui Hoong wrote her piece today explaining the need for native speakers. Her reasons, why not, as long as they are trained and capable. Then why not trained Singaporeans who are capable? If the conditions are capabilities and being trained to do the job, you don't need native speakers. She then argued that with native speakers, you can create a conducive environment for the language to flourish. True, how many do you need to create such an environment? 5 native speakers in a school? Here is her answer and the main problems that our society will have to deal with. 'Students need good speech models. Hiring a few more hundred English lanuguage teachers can help create a good English speaking environment in neighbourhood schools. Students will benefit.' Sure I also agree. Just have 100 native English speaking teachers should be sufficient for a school to provide such an environment. Just a minute, how many teachers are there in a school, 50? How many schools are there? There are 178 primary schools. Just primary schools alone we will need to recruit 17,800 native speakers to provide the environment. And do we still have room for local teachers? If training the teachers is the solution, maybe recruit a few native speaking teachers if we can't find any local teachers good enough. But this will not be able to create the conducive environment as required. Or like some local international schools did, hire a few foreign looking teachers and print their faces on the school magazines, that will give some credibility that the schools are really international and world class with world class foreign looking teachers.