Salma Khalik chastising some mean Singaporeans

While Boon Wan was trying to be as generous and not mean, some Singaporeans are urging the minister to be less generous and more mean. This has made Salma to write a piece to question the generosity and compassion of these Singaporeans for their less well off neighbours. Now, Salma has gone soft. And this is bad. Those Singaporeans who cannot afford to pay for the medical bills do not deserve to be warded in the first place. With ample opportunities in Singapore for everyone to make millions and live a life of plenty, and if these people are still stretching their hands out for subsidies, then they should be told off. Face the brutal truth. If they cannot afford it, just too bad. How can they keep asking for charity and welfare? Now this tone of mine should please the two paid bloggers in my blog.

Overhaul of bus system - back to basics

Raymond Lim is another hard working minister working very hard to overhaul our efficient transport system that has been made more efficient by privatisation and the merging of several providers to gain from the economy of scales. Why is it still inefficient really bugs me? The key changes to Raymond's reform of the system are: 1. transport system to serve commuters' interest and not to make more money. This is the most radical change I think. 2. Central control and planning by the govt and not by the providers. Ooh, are the privatised management more capable, efficient and commercially wise? 3. More providers to generate competition for better service? What, what's that? 4. This may not be a major issue, but hey, finally season pass is coming. What the above changes boil down to is that the transport system should be taken back by the govt and be made a public service to serve the commuters. The concept that these privatised transport providers would want to be efficient and provide the best service without making profit is a big flaw in the assumption. And don't ever forget the argument, the famed argument, that they have to answer to their shareholders. Then how? This contradition cannot be resolved without making transport providers as an essential govt service. I will strongly recommend that the bus and MRT systems be returned to the govt as a stats board. Then we can talk about providing a service for the people without making profit as a key objective. And if this 'stats board' is still inefficient in spite of the super talents with super pay managing them, fire the whole bunch and get a new team. Privatisation is not a cure all for inefficiency and incompetence. The concept is as tooth as the tooth. I have personally seen many private organisations managed by clowns just to protect their own jobs and pay without any concern of where the organisation is heading. I will write about this tomorrow.

We have done well

I need to post something positive and encouraging to appease the couple of paid bloggers in my blog, mysingaporenews.blogspot.com. Otherwise they will keep smearing me for pointing out the less positive things around us. Like Lily Neo said, the attacks and bullying in cyberspace is not one to one but they come in wolf packs. So let me make them happier a bit. We have done very well as a country. No one is going to dispute this fact except the sour grapes. We are the pearl in muddy water, and we sparkle while others fade away. The best indicators to watch how far we have progressed and how well we are doing will be the issues raised in Parliament. We no longer talk about serious problems that will mess up the economy or the people's lives. We are talking about building dreams and bigger dreams and moving closer towards a paradise on earth. We live well, well educated, well fed, and travel around to see the world not on a shoe string budget. Singaporeans are very comfortable as a people. And now in Parliament we can talk about issues like husband and wife in bed, we talk about little girls' exploits in the internet, and we will probably talk about hip hops, about movies, importing foreign sports talents to win medals for us, about saving the world and going green, or about anything that don't really concerns us at all. Oh I forgot, we can also talk about achieving world records in the Guinness Book of Records. See, this is how far we have progressed. These are the luxuries of a well managed and prosperous country when all the real problems have been solved. Now we can even afford to set up a defacto Ministry for the Elders to look after their welfare. I could not put it better in any other ways. Yes we are doing very well.

Boon Wan's new initiative

Compulsory disclosure of hospital bills from private hospitals. This is another big step forward towards greater transparency and will benefit the patients and the industry. Don't be shy, tell us how much you charge. It is an honourable profession with honourable professionals and this should not be a problem. Actually I am not too concern with private hospitals as these are places for those who can afford and voluntarily choose to go there. They would not mind paying and they have an option not to go there. What I think will be more important will be the bills of other industries where customers have no where else to go. The first one that comes to my mind is the legal industry where people really have no choice but to go to the lawyers when they are in legal trouble. This profession is also run by professionals, honourable and learned counsels and asking them to disclose their bills will be most welcome.

School bullying in Parliament

Lily Neo has had enough. The bullying is so serious that she is taking it to parliament. Actually I would rather she continue to raise the issue of medical cost and the proposed and already decided mean testing again. Such issues cannot be raised once and put to rest, spoken and forgotten. I hope other MPs will raise issues like the freedom of choice to decide how the people should spend their money and to stop the compulsory taking of the people's money for whatever good reasons. The question of the people's money as sacred and untouchable right, should be raised. This right must be returned to the people. Otherwise, we will continuously hear of compulsory this or that but basically taking away money from the people. The people no longer can determine what to do with their money. The people's money is as good as not their money. Well, would there be any daring MPs who will take up more interesting and substantive things to parliament?