Not necessary for 6.5m population

Ngiam Tong Dow has reviewed his thoughts and felt that the population target of 6.5m needs to be reviewed. This is an old number done many years back and the changes in technology has made this number not so valid today. I think he is feeling the sense of frustration and despair among the population on this push for 6.5m. He is calling for a rethink. Sad that with so many brilliant brains, it needs an old master to tell them what to do. Don't they think? Are they brave enough to relook at old premises and say, hey, they don't look right?

Different perspective of wrongdoings

Venerable Ming Yi said the amount unaccounted for is only a couple of hundred thousand. No big deal. 'The Sunday Times understands that the amount of money not accounted for adds up to a few million dollars, and not a few hundred thousand as the Venerable Ming Yi has said.' When people are used to big sums of money, their perspectives on the value of money changed. It is less hand half a peanut. Nothing to cry about. When they shit, probably more than a peanut will ooze out. And people were literally hanged for cheating on taxi fares for a few dollars. And public transport commuters can be jailed for cheating on the fares for a few cents. This is the new Theory on the Relativity of Money.

Malaysians marched in protest

It is unusual for such a huge turnout of mass protest against the Malaysian govt and the political system. 50,000 protesters, many dressed in royal yellow as a sign of respect to the royalties, marched to the palace to hand in a protest note to the king for political reform. The official press put the number as 10,000. Never believe in the numbers provided by the official press. What is happening to Malaysia? Has the system got so rotten that the people are rising to call for a change? Apparently, from all the happenings and reports, corruption in the system has reached a point that it is an open secret. The country is disintegrating in the hands of politicians who only know how to politic and line their pockets and nothing else. The Malaysians are so fed up with the politicians that they are siding with the royalties and pleading to the royalties to take a more active role in its politics. This is something unheard off in the past 30 years. The politicians are cornered. Their political gimmicks and games designed for their own aggrandizement have been exposed. The ground has shifted and a dramatic change of events is taking shape for a new Malaysia and a new social contract. If that is the message of this latest protest.

Raise the political barrier

Vivian Balakrishnan had a lively discussion with 100 young activists and an impressive 10 questions were asked. Not bad for Singapore standard of active participation in a dialogue. 3 questions is standard and 10 is excellent in a depoliticised citizenry. The key issue raised was the need for a high standard of integrity among political aspirants. Vivian mused that 'many people are asking us to dumb down our political system. Lower the hurdles, lower the standards, lower the penalties, lower the deposits, so that we can have apparently more contest.' He added that he 'would rather have a high political hurdles, so that anybody who seriously enters the contest is a good, strong, honest person, willing to pay the prices and able to withstand the scrutiny of the public.' In one mouthful he has said that the govt will set the rules and standards for entering politics. A hard fact that the people must live with. The power of the day sings the song. Also, no one will take issues with maintaining high standards of conduct and integrity. These must be the basic qualities expected of national leaders. What is questionable is to link ability to pay a high deposit, or rich people, as people of high integrity, is unacceptable. There are many good people with very high integrity but do not have the money for deposit and were out of the system, cut off by the system. The next point is that these people of high integrity must be prepared to pay a high price. Why should entering politics be equated to paying a high price? Who is exacting this high price and under what circumstances? When we expect good people of high integrity to come into politics, the assumption is that they will conduct themselves exemplarily and would not behave like clowns or hit people below the belt. The issue of paying a high political price is unnecessary and is a threat that our system can do without. Not that people going into politics can destroy another with impunity. Unjustified and unsubstantiated attacks on any opponent must be paid with a high price. But this high price must not be there as a criteria or condition in our political system if we are to open the net wide enough to really get the good people into politics. Yes, it is dangerous to lower the criteria to enter politics. But a good political system must not have unjustified high barriers to keep good people out. A lot of money and high political price as a threat are something we can do without.

Night ERP charges

Not very long ago, if I can remember, control of road congestion is to free the roads to facilitate commercial activities. Our business and trading activities must not be curtailed by a clogged road and nothing moves. The CBD and Orchard Road gantries were set up to free the area from traffic jams. It is interesting to see the introduction of night ERP charges in CTE till 10.30 pm for home bound traffic. After 6pm, most of the commercial activities other than shopping, food and entertainment must have closed shop. And these are people going home or doing their social activities. The CTE may be slow, but it is leisure time. Why the need to activate the ERP charges? If this logic is allowed to get through, weekend and holiday ERP charges will soon be introduced as well. The activation of ERP charges will then be dependent on road congestion and nothing to do with the slowing down of commercial and business activities. Then come weekends or holidays, no chance of driving around freely. Pay to drive every where and on every day.