JB, a sad state of affair

Abdul Ghani met the demonstrators who were unhappy with the high crime rate in JB. As usual, he warned the demonstrators that it could lead to unexpected consequences. Now what did he meant by that when what the demonstrators were asking was for tighter law enforcement against crimes? Are the demonstrators going to be hurt instead of the criminals? It seems that there are two kinds of citizens. One protected by the law even if they turned to crime. The other of no consequence to the law even when they are victims of crime committed by the former.

What is Singapore Post up to?

I thought no organisation is to price in the 2% GST increase to the consumers? In his reply to Leong Sze Hian, Tay Poh Choo, a VP from SingPost said, 'As a GST registered company, Singpost collects GST on behalf of the Govt. In this exercise, we would like to assure the public that there will be no increase in revenue for Singpost.' And the 1c increase in postage is exactly 2%. Ok, accepted. And Singpost will absorb the 2% increase for all other local weight steps. 'We will return 1% of the franked postage to franked mail customers from 1 July.' Puzzled, 2%, 1%? Why take all the trouble?

myth 145

Finally David Gerald called it a myth The independence of independent director is a myth. I have said that before and now David Gerald is putting it on record in the media. The mechanism in the appointment of independent directors in contrary to the objective of having independent directors. David has agreed with my suggestions that an independent body must be appointed to provide directors unrelated to the organisation and its management. Only then can independent directors function independently and speak with a strong and impartial voice to self guard the interest of minority shareholders. I have suggested that MAS or SGX appoint SIAS as such a body. David has included included SID and two accounting bodies. I personally do not favour SID or any other bodies. I still prefer SIAS whose members are minority shareholders and have a genuine interest to safeguard their own interests. You need the owners, especially minority owners, to look after their own interest. Never trust anyone else.

We are progressing

We have over taken New York as the 14th most expensive city to live in. The rate of this climb is short of meteoric. From 46th in 2004, we leapfrogged to 34th and then 17th and today 14th. Our next target is Hongkong, currently 5th. We only lost out in rentals. Our public transport cost is already almost double that of Hongkong and our hamburger meal is $1.50 more. Maybe we have already over taken Hongkong as the report was probably based on last year's data. The phenomenon rise in our property prices and rentals is beating all records. If we have not beaten Hongkong yet, we are very close. By the time we are 6.5 million, the top slot will definitely be reserved for us. Then we can tell the world we are number one again.

Its the fault of the Internet

No it is the fault of the education system. No it is the fault of society. No it is BSE. It is so easy to blame someone else except to see the truth. The Abdul Basheer Abdul Kader incident is an exciting peep into the minds of radicals. Many conveniently point to the internet as the source of the evil. And in Today, Dharmendra Yadav quoted his foreign friend saying that it is our education system. A system that taught the people to think and acquire new knowledge but not to ask questions. What a contradiction. Now why would a professionally trained person like Abdul Basheer rejected all the goodies that he could have, the million dollar salary akan datang, to fight in the mountains of Afghanistan, to die for a cause? Perplexing questions are best answered by simple answers. It is the fault of the internet.