The end of the Mahathir's story

He chose his date for his last battle, May 13. They rejected him. Still, a month later, he spoke with the same venom. He tried to incite the Malays against the other races. Thank God, they ignored him. That was his last show and he failed. During his reign, a speech like that would have UMNO leaders kissing the keris, UMNO Youth supporters on the streets of KL and Kampong Bahru, threatening to run amok. And further south, Johore UMNO branch will be shouting across the causeway at you know who. These could only happened in a coordinated move by an edict. This time no edict and the event slipped away. So hopefully will Mahathir. But his legacy and the mindset he helped to nurture over the 20 over years of his leadership will continue to drive the thinking of conservative and ultra Malays. Vincent Tan may not get his toto booth licence with the conservative Malays threatening to organise a 100,000 men protest. A Chinese group attempted to take over a bank but the Malays protested that banks should be Malay owned. I am not sure if there is still a Chinese owned bank in Malaysia.

Selfish, unsportsmanlike, small minded

Vivian Balakrishnan lashed out at people who attacked the foreign sports talents as selfish, unsportsmanlike, small minded and many more. He also stressed that our survival and prosperity are dependent on the foreign talents. So without foreign talents we are doomed. I am 100% sure that without foreign sporting talents, our survival and prosperity will not be affected a wee bit except for the lack of sporting glory. I am also very sure that many critics did not attacked the foreign talents for their contributions but more for the foreign talent policy. The foreign talent policy is like taking a short cut, coveting other people's talents instead of using the same money and resources to nurture our very own talents. Would it make any difference if the resources were given to our children instead of buying talents? Vivian also talked about the X factor present in the North and South Korean teams. Obviously you can't buy X factor with money. And I also believe that it is treacherous to place our future, survival and prosperity, on foreign talents that can be bought by money. A nation's survival depends hell of a lot on X factor which no amount of money can buy. Many will die not for money or glory but for a conviction to country and nation. But some may called them silly idealists. Then again it is the silly idealists that countries depend on in desperate time of needs. The talents that can be bought by money would have bought themselves an air ticket out at the first opportunity.

Terrorist attacks are a threat to national security

Are private organizations up to it in protecting themselves from terrorist attacks? The terrorists are not your daily thieves and robbers. They are well trained and well armed. Like Mas Selamat, some of them are experts in destructive warfare, and highly intelligent. What kind of staff do the private organizations have to defend themselves in the event of an attack? Are they trained and armed, as well armed as the terrorists, and as intelligent as them? The private organizations may be able to secure their place of work with technology and the handful of security guards which, unfortunate to say, many are from the Dad’s Army, some ex detainees for petty crimes, and some fat ladies. Pit them against the well trained experts of terrorist armies, well, the odds are like Argentina against Singapore in football. Shall the responsibility of defending against terrorist acts be the responsibility of private organizations? Terrorism has changed the face of security of private organizations and businesses. It does not draw lines and boundaries, no war or civilian targets or battle fronts. It is trained terrorists against untrained or superficially trained security guards. This is a new ball game.

Punished for being self employed

Many of the oldies are fully retired and living on whatever they have left in their savings, plus whatever they could withdraw from their CPF. Some oldies refused to quit and wanted to continue working. Getting a job is out of question unless you are a super human bean and indispensable. They may even pay you millions to keep you employed, happily. So the less talented and not so super human beans will try to be self employed. Some may sell things in pasar malam, some as agents of this and that, except secret agents, some may try driving taxis. Some may want to start a small biz. What they all wanted to do is to earn a living, post retirement. What they did not bargain for is that by being self employed, they must pay protection money to the CPF in the form of medisave contribution. They don’t care whether you have any other insurance to cover your backside, they don’t care whether you can afford to pay this protection money. They just say you pay if you want to be in business. And they will tell you that it is for your own good. What a ransom against the oldies who are trying to be independent and not drawing down on their little savings. What kind of business cost is this? Bloody shit! It is like being punished for trying to help yourself. And they are trying to help you by taking more money from you. Or are they making things more difficult for the oldies to want to be self reliant? If they sincerely want to help the oldies, self employed oldies should be exempted from contributing to Medisave to reduce their business cost.

Don’t be ungrateful

There is this line of thought with regards to employing foreign talents here. It goes like this. Our forebears were foreign talents too. We must not forget our beginnings and must appreciate foreigners as they were like our forebears before. We should therefore welcome foreigners and treat them like one of us. Is this the right thinking, the acceptable thinking to determine govt policies on recruiting foreign talents, especially to top positions, instead of true blue Singaporeans. Yes, I must agree that our forefathers were migrants. I must also say that they came to a no man’s land. There was no country but a British colony. The British only cared about the wealth they could bring back to England. What the migrants did, whether they survived, what happened to this colony and its future well being, were not too much of their concern. And in 1969 they decided that it was time to pack up and go home. The migrants were left to fend for themselves, find their own ways, and build this rock into a country. That was the beginning of a generation of migrants sticking together to make this island their home, a home for themselves and their children. They slogged in pretty harsh conditions, and very low pay, without knowing if they could succeed. No proper housing or infrastructure. Not much of a govt until they formed one. And through their hard work and sacrifices, we have this beautiful and wealthy island we called home. We are the descendants of these migrants. They were not welcomed here as foreign talents but labourers, coolies, transient workers. We are the inheritance of the island country that they willed to us. Let not anyone be ungrateful to the children of the poor labourers who laid the foundation of this country, with their blood, sweat and tears. They did not have a good time. They did not complained, for they were striving for a better tomorrow for their children. Today we have a country. We called ourselves citizens. We pledged to defend it by doing 2 to 2 ½ years of National Service. The descendants of these children deserve to inherit this country and all it can provide. We can welcome new migrants to share our wealth. But we must always think of ourselves first. The best must be given to our own children. It is ungrateful to shower Ginny comes lately with all the goodies and tell the descendants of the nation builders to step aside if they are not good enough. Don’t be ungrateful, don’t forget your roots and the works of your forebears. I am very sure they did not slog so that new migrants will come first and their descendants come second. If we proceed along this thinking that new and old citizens, and worst, PRs, deserve equal rights and equal chances, and better chances, soon the new citizens will tell the old citizens to get lost if they can’t make it here. If we forget the distinction between ourselves and others, we will soon lose our place in the sun, in the island our forefathers built for us. And no citizens will take their citizenships and responsibilities seriously anymore. What for?