teach the indons the fine thing

Now Indonesia is angry with Singapore for raising the haze problem at the UN. To the Indonesians, haze is a domestic problem. If only they can keep the haze under wrap an not share with their neighbours. Just like smoking is a personal habit, but don't exhale after inhaling as your neighbour will have to share the secondhand smoke with all its leftover nicotine plus your bad breath. (Where is matilah? Please don't tell him I say this.) And Indonesia claims that it has all the expertise which in this case they must have kept it and not telling the world. Lets hope they will use their expertise to stop the haze fast. They must have mustered the skill and concealing it all these years. So generous of the Indonesians. Like kungfu masters. Actually the easiest way is to borrow Singapore's fine formula and the Indonesian govt will be laughing to the bank. Just introduce a fine system and make the plantation owner pay and pay. For the small farmers, a smaller fine will do. Anyway their little fire would not have cause so much smoke. The small farmers are not that good at creating smoke screens.

myth 90

'China is the most corrupt nation' If we brand countries according to the number of cases of corruption and people brought to court as a guide, China is definitely the most corrupt country in the world. Next should be South Korea. And the rest of the world are relatively free from corruption. Singapore can be grouped together with Malaysia, Indonesia and even the USA as corruption free country. There is hardly anyone being brought to court for corruption. Even the NKF case, the legal fraternity also pronounced that there is no evidence for corruption. At worst it is mismanagement. And the few cases of corporate honchos being found guilty in court, these are commercial crimes, like the Enron case. Not corruption at all. In the case of Malaysia and Indonesia, better still. Where got corruption? Mahathir has challenged anyone to prove that there is corruption in Malaysia. So the world is a very clean and healthy place. Virtually corruption free.

Johore like New Territories of Hongkong?

If only Malaysia is serious, sign a 100 year agreement with Singapore (JTC/HDB) to develop and manage JB Singapore style but with full sovereignty remaining with Malaysia. Let the developers and infrastructure professionals to go in and develop JB into a twin city of Singapore, the same efficiency and security. The tricky part is the law enforcer. The Malaysian govt can be guaranteed of a larger and more vibrant JB with all the features of a metropolis within 20 years. A larger scale Singapore integrated into the smaller Singapore like Hongkong and the New territories. Do they have the will and the vision to want to see that happens?

oldies, you are wanted, in Oz.

Oldies wanted! Below is quoted from Soc.cul.spore. There is a way out for some oldies. The local paper quoted the WA police as saying that they are sending a recruiting team to Singapore. WA is extremely short of police officers. To make up for the difficulty of getting Aussie, they have recruited British bobbies. They now think that Singapore police officers who have to retire at 45 will make good cops in WA with their years of experience. The Singapore system value youth and vitality while the Australian system value experience and wisdom.

can johore become a metropolis?

To turn Johore into a metropolis is not just hardware, cheap land and money. They will need a host of other softwares to get it really moving. They can't one day say you are welcomed and tomorrow say you are not welcomed. They can't change the law today and backdate it 5 years to strip an investor of his properties and assets. They also need the whole govt machinery to tell the investors and vistors that they are welcomed. They cannot have civil servants, police or custom officers making life difficult to foreigners or irritating foreigners or preying to take advantage of foreigners. They cannot have a place that is so hostile to investors and visitors. Investors and visitors bring money to the land. They need to be very sure that they are safe and not be robbed by robbers and govt officers. The investors and visitors need to feel that they are welcomed and not seen as intruding into other people's land.