Race and Religion the hot topic

After Hsien Loong's ND Rally, race and religion have taken on a higher profile with poeple agreeing that they should be discussed openly and not be tabooed, or fearing that someone will come knocking at your door. The general mood is that it is time for issues of race and religion be discussed. I think before such a great happening becomes a reality, people must accept certain limitations, constraints and ground rules to abide by. It is easy to start talking about them. But it is not easy to close the topic when things get heated up and when young blood or instigators join the fray. Discussing such issues, the demand for maturity, respect, sensitivity and an understanding ear are very high as the views put forth, when the views are true, genuine and from the heart, can be very tough to the wrong listener. In the case of religion, I think it is more difficult as certain doctrines and seeds of division and hatred are already deeply embedded over centuries in religious books. Unless such dangerous views are removed from these books, they will always be used by the wrong group as reasons to fight and kill. For such views and doctrines, which many believers chose to ignore or pretend that they do not exist, are intolerable or breed intolerance of those not of the same sect. Many are outright destructive. Would a revision be done by the wise men of today to erase those words, phrases and doctrines of the ancient and do a cleansing of these old books so that future generations can live in peace without such historical notes to invite them to be intolerable or to kill those who do not subscribe to their beliefs? How real, genuine and sincere can believers be when the doctrines are not of peace, not of tolerance and acceptance of others?

The return of LKY

LKY was in his robust best yesterday in Parliament. He stood up reluctantly to demolish a motion by Viswa Sadasivan calling for more equality among the races. LKY's position is that the Malays were the indigenous people of the land and were protected under Article 152 of the Constitution. Their special privilege and position cannot be removed by equality for all races. He was like a young man, full of fire in his belly despite his age. He stamped his authority and made it very clear that he is still in charge, that he is the boss. And when a difficult situation arises, he will be there. And this is bad. By his strong and persistent presence in Parliament, he has exposed a whopping big hole in the succession formula. Did any of the minister see the dangerous trend that Viswa was pointing? And is there anyone that can stand up and defend the position as robustly as he did, establishing himself as the boss man, to be able to speak in full authority and with that kind of forcefulness of a true leader? My view is that LKY should stay in the background and let the young ministers to take charge and fight their own battle, to be their own men. And he will do them a great favour by not rushing to battle as the point man. He cannot be around forever and it is better that the new leaders establish themselves fast while he is still around to avoid creating a kind of vacuum through the lack of a tested and accepted leader securely in place, one who can speak in authority and people will listen, like listening to him. Many people can see this problem. Unfortunately many wise men will choose to remain reticent and pretend that everything is going just fine.

Regulator did not overpay for MRT doors

This is the heading of an article in the ST today in response to the gripes in cyberspace over the cost of MRT screen doors. The article quoted 3 other sources for comparison. Half height doors 1. SMRT at $65.6k per door 2. Paris at $47k per door 3. Taipei's Danshui/Nangang lines at $84k per door Full height doors 4. Taipei's Neihu Line at $54.7k per door. Just the numbers, Taipei's Danshui/Nangang lines are the most expensive. But these were built in 2006 when material costs were much higher. The other 3 were built around the same period which are better comparison. The Paris line is being built by a Swiss company and their labour and material cost cannot be cheaper than ours. But they are 34.7% cheaper. The Neihu line is full height doors and is still 16.6% cheaper. The best comparison is between the Paris line and ours as the number of doors built are 1992 and 1920 respectively. And both are half height. Length of lines are 10km for Paris and 11km for our MRT. Both are being installed now. The numbers say that we are paying much more than Paris and Neihu lines. True or not?

Fine or jail for putting up tent at Changi

A resident was caught and charged for putting up a tent at Changi beach without a licence. He was fined $800 which he could not afford to pay. Instead he was jailed for 4 days. Wally, I hope it is not you. I am sure you pay for your licence : )

Loan sharks still a problem here!

It was a problem. Now it is a scourge of the land. What happens, haven't the men in blue been chasing after them all these while? Oh, they are now very sophisticated. Maybe even smarter than our men in blue. So it is difficult to deal with them or wipe them out. I can't imagine how the home team is going to deal with the big syndicates when the IRs are operating if they can't even handle the loanshark problem. Maybe the loan shark syndicates also send their key personnel on scholarships to Harvard and Cambridge to outsmart our brightest. It is now a talent versus talent game. Wait till the IRs are open and we will have another new ball game.