A bad PR exercise

The Home Team has received a lot of bashing recently and Kan Seng may think it is time to do some morale boosting to keep their spirit high. There was a long news clip last night on Kan Seng's speech to the Home Team and another front page news in the msm. Many may have mocked the Home Team in cyberspace and it is natural for the Home Team to feel that the comments were unfair and unhelpful. But to think that it is time to air their grouses now may be a bit too premature if only they know what were said and not printed anywhere. The mistake was not only unacceptable, but approaches incredulity. It is hard for the people to accept it as a complacency or a lapse. It is also natural for the people to want to air their disappointment. No doubt some of the ridiculing may have gone overboard, but it is best that the Home Team accept the blame, continue with their good work and move on. The last thing the Home Team should do now is to take on public opinion or even to tell the public how sophisticated they are, how able are they to find a few hundred empty houses etc etc. What for when Mas Selamat is still on the loose? The morale boosting pep talk is best done in house as many officers have sweated and sacrificed their time that they could well spend with their loved ones. I think the majority of the people still have high regards for the Home Team and they should take the criticisms and praises as and when deserved.

Petrol price hike again

Oil price hits US$111. A good and justifiable reason to hike petrol prices. Is it? If I am not mistaken, oil prices are traded using US$. We are paying in S$. S$ is appreciating against US$. The petrol price hike is in S$. Are the price hike justifiable? Is CASE looking into this to make sure consumers are not taken for a ride and petrol companies are not profiteering? Can any thing be done to absorb the price hike? With a higher base price for petrol, revenue from petrol tax and GST will go up proportionally. Can this be adjusted to absorb the hike? Oil price cannot be controlled by us, external factors. But taxes are within our control. Or are we looking forward to another pleasant surprise of budget surpluses next year?

Hospital Resort concept

We are now seeing more people refusing to be discharged from our hospitals. Now why? Are our hospitals so comfortable, like hotels and resorts, that people are having a good time recuperating there than getting themselves discharged? Or is the hospital cost still too low and the patients find them still affordable? I think relatively the hospitals must be giving good value for money vis a vis the hotels. Otherwise these patients would have move out to stay in the hotels instead. Or is it because they have some savings in the Medisave which they might as well spend them or else it would be left untouched? I think Boon Wan must rethink his idea of making hospitals more comfortable and affordable. The latter is a contradiction. Make it cheap they do not want to leave. Die die want to stay in the hospitals. Boon Wan may want to reintroduce the natural selector concept in the hospitals. This may be a way to discharge patients and provide more bed space for those who really need them.

3-4 passengers per sq metre

Is this an acceptable standard in our MRT? No doubt many countries even use a higher figure than us. Just because there are people being sardined, does not mean that it is acceptable. We need to define what is our own acceptable standard. We have been encouraging our people to drink sewer water, or put it bluntly, shit water, urine water. Hmmm, is this really our standard of well being? 3-4 passenger per sq metre, if one is to include space taken by seats, that could reduce the capacity, the density is much higher. Maybe we are ok if we consider the fact that we are smaller and more petite. What is important is to find our own standard of comfort and not blindly quote other people's standard to determine what is good for us.

Do we need change?

Come to think of it, we don't need any change. We have the best political system in the world. We have proven to the world that ours is a system that works. Our people are paid among the highest in the world in every profession. Even our cleaners and sweepers are being paid more than managers and professionals in many countries. This is not simple boasting. It is real. We have defied all the philosophers and even the founding fathers of America. We have a system that is better than democracy or communism. It is our unique brand. We have ensured that only the best and talented and incorruptibles are selected to lead the countries. We don't even need a strong opposition to act as the nations's conscience. We don't need to build an infrastructure of checks and balances. With upright and honest people in charge, nothing can go wrong. And if come to the worst, we have vested powers in a strong elected President to check the abuses of a rogue govt. It is time the world comes to learn from us. This is our greatest contrirbution to mankind. A near perfect system that will check itself from any wrong doings or falling into the hands of a rogue dictator or a bunch of crooks in the future. Who says our system is fallible? If it is, it will have been tweaked long ago. We don't leave such things to chance.