Guided by different principles

More than two weeks have passed. They are still trying to catch him. A few thousand uniformed men and several thousands running around doing it for free. Would these freelancers really be motivated to do it? We have long been championing the principle of paying for talent and contribution. We pay very well for talents as their work are talented work and cannot be for free. Else we will cheapen their self worth. Now we are expecting people to run around to catch the most wanted man for free. And mind you, their time and effort, food and transportation all costs money. They have out of the pocket expenses while running all over the place. I think some will do it zealously for the stupid idealism of duty and nation. But this is a dying breed. Many that go along could be just wayanging. It is time to live by the true principle and pay the talents for the capture of Mas Selamat. And the price should be at least a couple of millions after so many failed to catch him. Time to put up a $3 million reward for the most wanted man if we want him badly. We cannot live by two separate principles, one demanding high rewards for work done and one demanding people to slog for free on idealistic principles.

Story of woman seeing Mas Selamat

The msm reported that a woman saw Mas Selemat crossing Thomson Road and looking lost. And Mas Selamat was taking a stroll, unhurried and without fear of being discovered. How credible is this story? If that was Mas Selamat, it means that he either sneaked out or walked out of the detention centre on his own, unassisted. And he had all the time in the world to walk all the way to Thomson Road without a search party breathing down his neck. The journey must have taken him half an hour or so. This also implies that till the time he was seen at Thomson Road, no one was aware that he was missing or had escaped. Could this be when his escape from the toilet could easily be discovered in a few minutes and a search party must be all over the place. The story is highly improbable.

Pertinent lessons from Malaysia

Below are 3 lessons which I fully agree with PN Balji of the Today paper. Lesson 1: A good leader must lead from the front, especially when it comes to important issues. Lesson 2: Be discerning when listening to views and trust the right people. Finally ownership. It is now 5 days since the electoral hammering....It is time for Abdullah to own up to the damage inflicted on his party and the people who had pinned their hopes on him. Lesson 3: Accept responsibility, assess the mood of the people and decide how to move on. What a good piece of lesson and what a nice timing.

Lim Guan Eng better be careful

The DAP is going to abolish NEP in Penang! PAS is saying they are not agreeing to it. Lim Guan Eng better not be another cock and plunge Penang and Malaysia into another nightmare. The ultras are licking their wounds and are looking for an excuse to let loose their anger. And blood tasting is what they may be looking for. The position of PAS is more sensible. PAS also did not totally agree with the NEP. What they want is to modify the NEP to benefit all races, especially the poor. That should be the way to go for DAP. Review the NEP, keep the good and discard the bad, change a little here and there to benefit all Malaysians. Throwing it out into the bin without a second look is inviting for trouble. In a time like this, a lot of good common sense is needed to take in the sensibilities of all the races. Lim Kit Siang better quickly whisper to him a few pieces of good advice along this line.

Myth 174 - No Estate Duty

We have just scrapped Estate Duty and the super rich are all popping their champagne. I am going to argue that this is another Singapore myth. What is Estate Duty? In brief it is a tax on a citizen's life long accummulation of wealth, his properties and money. With the scrapping of the Estate Duty, this is gone. For the average Singaporean, his life long accummulated wealth is his HDB flat and the money in his CPF. These are his material assets. All he has. HDB flat is safe, but not his CPF. In a way the Estate Duty now comes in another form. It has transformed to tax the estate of a citizen in advance. You guess it, the Minimum Sum and the Medisave are Estate Duty taxed in advance. No they will tell you that they are different and for different objectives. And they will be returned to you at the appropriate time when they decide to. So for 40, 50 or 60 years, maybe more, the citizens will be dumping real money into the CPF and in return they will get an IOU chit from the CPF saying how much it owes the citizen. And only the CPF has the authority to decide when to give it back to the citizen and at its terms. Still not really like Estate Duty leh. True. Let's take an extreme case where a citizen only has a little Minimum Sum and his Medisave. And he dies without any surviving relations. Where does the money go to? This is as good as it gets to being an Estate Duty Tax. And it is 100% tax! Whether this is equivalent or far from what Estate Duty is, it all depends on one's perception and definition. (Check with Matilah) Now who does not pay this transformed Estate Duty? Those on pension scheme and the super rich who are able to work around the CPF ruling and not contributing to it. Even they do so, it is less than the smallest peanuts in relations to their wealth.