Hishamuddin Hussein Onn, Jekyll or Hyde?

'We cannot afford tension or conflict between the races. If diversity is to remain our strength, communities must be brought together, not driven apart by unscrupulous politiking.' Hishamuddin Hussein Onn And he remembers the legacy of his father, Tun Hussein Onn, peace and racial harmony for development. I hope this is the real Hishamuddin. Which is real, the kris kissing, butt kicking, and threatening blood will flow, or this sensible speech? Who wrote his speech?

Hsien Loong's National Day Rally

What the speech will strike people, other than the enormous memory and command of the language of Hsien Loong, is that it is a rich govt's rally speech. Only a rich govt can afford all the plans that he revealed and the promise of delivering them. It contains a lot of things for the people at various levels. It has taken his last speech on the vision of a new Singapore a step further with more for the masses and the lower income. In all fairness, no country or govt, I think, could make such a generous offer to the people. But then, there are still areas that need to be looked at it more intensely. Ok, we are not building bridges and roads to collect more tolls. But many of the things that the govt is going to build will be paid by the people. They are not freebies. Even looking after the aged is how to plan their savings to last longer. Ok, 1% more for $60k. That is a plus. But shouldn't this be paid in the past as the compulsory savings should be managed and invested to generate higher returns all these while? And there were signs of fine tuning the CPF savings to fit the needs of different groups of people. But still not enough. The minimum sum was untouched. This sum is so meaningless to so many people. The attempt to close the gap between the rich and poor is barking up the wrong tree. Agreed that the govt should not hold back the rich from getting richer. Let them get richer. And also there is no way that the income of the lower income group can be artificially inflated at no cost. They will pay themselves out of the competition. It is a double aged sword. It is a futile exercise. What Hsien Loong completely missed out is the runaway cost of living. If this area can be arrested, then the people, especially the lower income group, will be richer and their money can be stretched a little longer. So will the savings of the retirees. The only way to hold back rising cost is to return public and essential services back to the nation and run at cost plus and not just for profit and the interest of the shareholders, or to line the pockets of top management. The concept of profit for profit sake must be relooked at. Even GLCs must not forget that they have a national duty to look after the people, eg in the area of job creation and employment. It is irresponsible to use public money simply to generate profit. Profit for who and for what if the people are being squeezed or retrenched just to improve the bottom line? Without reining in the cost of living, not only the lower income group will suffer. It will undermine our competitiveness as an operating base for foreign corporations in a matter of time.

No French cap in Paradise

The beautiful thing about living in Paradise is that there is no need for a cap. Everything will just go up, no need for any cap. Get what I mean? In our paradise, we can defy gravity forever. But that is our unspoken tooth or truth. Where got gravity in paradise? So we can expect everything to go up, all the prices must go up. All the cost of living must go up. But have no fear, all our salaries will also go up. We can be paid more and more everyday, so that we can afford to pay for all the GST, ERP, and all the fees needed to live and get around. No country can be so blessed as us. But we are in paradise. We do not need to conform to the any economic or natural rules, principles or laws. We decide our own operational parameters. Affordability is never an issue. We will make sure that everything is affordable to everyone. The prices will be raised, and the income will also be raised to catch up with the prices. Why is it that a TV set, or a PC, or fridge, or a camera, no matter how many improvements added into it, will still be sold at about the same price in the world market, including paradise? Are these affected by globalisation, by competition from around the world? The quality and power of these instruments have increased by 100s of folds, but the prices remain fairly the same. Is it because of affordability? Should these manufacturers raise their prices to atmospheric level since their products are of super quality? They should as their products are definitely of super quality and created by their super talents. If they do not price their products to world class prices, how are they to feed their super talents? Or are they under paying their super talents? Aren't they afraid that their super talents would quit, go elsewhere to get more money? Do we see all the super talents coming to paradise? Or we are seeing only the third or fourth rate talents here? And they too must be happy to know that there is no cap here and may one day shoot to the sky. At the rate we are going, our workers can expect to be paid in tens of thousands in a matter of time.

Feeling tired?

How many of you out there have been working for 30 or 40 years and feeling tired? Or how many of you are looking at your ageing parents, still working, and looking tired? An average Singaporean will spend about 15 to 20 years of his life in the confines of a school, from nursery onwards, cramming life sustaining information. And then he is expected to keep working for the next 50 years or so. Is that what our life should be? Why is it that our poor parents and grandparents were able to retire and slow down, and still live on and why, we are much better educated, and richer, cannot afford to retire? It is a strange development indeed? The richer we get, the worst we become and the more we need to slog to keep ourselves alive. There used to be a pension scheme that is life sustaining. There used to be a CPF scheme that worked. What happens? Now the pension scheme is as good as gone or eaten up by inflation. And the CPF is never enough. So we need to work and work and work. When I say 'we' I mean those who need to work to keep themselves alive. Not those who do not need to work but who work for fun and pleasure, for ego or some personal reasons, or a very profitable way of passing time, but really do not need to work. When a person has to work to live, and seeing that his work is getting more meaningless, his income is dwindling, and he cannot stop work, it can be very tiring and depressing. It is no fun to work in this way. Anyone looking forward to live to a ripe old age? It is a tiring thought. It is a new rat race, a never ending rat race. Like walking in the middle of a conveying belt and going no where. Have we screw up our life?

Been there, done that, will do it again

Billions of dollars were wiped out of the stock market in recent weeks by the sub prime loan collapse in the US. Though far away, we were not spared. What then is this sub prime loan and can we learn anything from it? The gist of this mess is 'clever' financing and refinancing. Lending to high risk debtors to buy properties and repackaged the high risk loans into something else thinking that the risk will go away. This is the American version of loan shark financing, except more glitzy and sophisticated. But when interest rate soared and the bad debtors defaulted or cannot afford to pay, the house of cards collapsed. It all started by not only selling properties. The housing agents, property developers and their collaborators, all joined in to paint a glory picture of a property boom. Prices were raised higher and higher or chased up. Analysts and reporters, maybe even paid, wrote about the euphoria as if it will never end. And during a time of low interest rate, buyers were roped into the mad rush as if they would miss out if they did not buy then. There was the fear of missing out, the greed of making money in a property boom, the selfish manipulation of property developers and their accomplices, the media, helped to shore up the whole industry. Sounds familiar? Were the regulators involved as well? The funny thing about this is that we have been through it and beaten very badly only 10 years ago. And we are going through the whole process again, driving up property prices, writing about how high the prices will go and how big is the liquidity that will absorb all the properties, that it is a sellers market. And we add in the foreign buyers into the pot, plus the en bloc phenomenon, all add in to the fury of a property boom and bubble. Why are we allowing this bubble to grow only to see it go bust? Why are we so irresponsible? There are really two kinds of property buyers. The very rich, including the speculators, buying and selling for profit. The next is the genuine property owners, the Singaporeans who need a roof over their heads. This group can only afford what their income dictates. Property prices that shot beyond their income will always be out of reach to them. And if those who have vested interest in high property prices continue to fan and allow the prices to shoot to the sky, the genuine buyers will be the one to lose out. Because of the limited income of the lower income group, maybe 70 or 80% of the population, they just cannot participate in the private property market. This sector can only be supported by the rich and foreign money. Maybe we should bring more foreigners to buy up all the private properties. Will we be digging our own grave?