Chok Tong's words of wisdom

Those who are complaining about not being able to buy that flat or house, not enough car parks, crowded MRTs, are victims of our own success. Think about those who are struggling to make ends meet, can't even afford to take MRTs and put things in perspective. There are people who are in much worst situation than the grouses and complaints in the media. Or think about Africa, then we will know how lucky we are. I would like to look at these problems from another angle, the people who caused all these problems. We cannot just blame the people who are complaining. Sure there are some who are responsible for their own plights. Some were lesser endowed and unable to compete or do the normal things and were left behind. We need to stare hard at those creators of the problems. In many cases, the problem creators are very well paid for their jobs, and should not be creating problems for the people. These are the people that need to think a little about the people who are hurt by their decisions. The fare hike is one issue. Though many can very well afford the few cents increases, there are some who really cannot. Why don't the decision makers take them into consideration? don't they care, or they just want a simple solution that gives them the mostest returns? Insufficient car parks? Who created the problem? Blame it on the people's success? Or do the decision makers think that each family shall only can only own one car? This is the same mentality as those who decided to build HDB flats smaller. They want to own more cars, want to live in big mansions themselves. But when they look at the miserable people, they dictated that they should have the bare minimum and be done with it. So we don't have enough car parks and living in little mickey mouse flats. And why are we having all these housing problems? The problems caused by itself or the people are causing the problems? Nay, it is bad policies one after another. It is bad decisions one after another. The latest case of unhappiness is the NSRA. It was all unnecessary if a little more thought is put into it. But it was a rash and arrogant decision to write off a few hundred thousand ex NS men with total disregard to their feelings. It only needs 5% of them to be unhappy enough to be vocal, we will have a bad problem at hand. So, shall we tell the people to count their blessings and stop complaining when jokers keep creating problems for the people?

Stop At Two will return

At the rate our population is growing, Stop At Two policy will make a come back not too far in the future. Be it 6.5m or 10m, it will be hit in no time. And looking at the rate of congestion everywhere, in public transport, on the road, competing for services, school places, I think we will hit the limit much quickerer than we hit 6.5m. And when that breaking point is reached, there will be strong pressure to limit population increases. No more space for anymore heads. We could also hit a major financial crisis when the world economy turns into a tail spin. Companies go bust, jobs lost, huge unemployment. We will be in a similar position as the British pull out in early 1970s. A new NS for women may be introduced to absorb the jobless. Population restraining measures will also come in. Stop At Two v2.01 will be enforced. Third child will face discrimination in all fronts. No priority in schooling or medical benefits. It may come sooner than you think. Many things will come in full circle.

Different aspiration and different angst

For those who are earning million dollar incomes, they could conveniently brush aside the $9000 NSRA. What is $9000 when they are swimming in a pool of money? There is a different story for those who are sleeping on a piece of mat. A letter to the Today forum today highlighted the angst of the lesser beings that drooled at the chance of touching that miserable $9000 to some. It was about the earlier batches of NS men, a 60 year old who has nothing much left after bring up his children and thinking of what that $9000 could mean to him. I know that the elite would laugh at such desires of the have nots. It is indeed a different world out there. This NSRA case is a manifestation of how people with different means would look at issues from a very different perspective. I wonder if the award distribution would be different if the decision makers were people that are less well off. Yes, it is a case of hawker centre, food court or restaurant mentality. We can sneer at those who only think hawker centre and salivate at the sight of a plate of kway teow while the regular restaurant customers would snub at a bowl of sharks fin that have too little fins in it. Politicians must think like a politician and look at the electorate at large.

The M1 satellite map

M1 put out an advert with a double page spread of a Singapore map taken from a satellite. It was a very clear map on the state of development or build up of the island. Other than the catchment areas around the reservoirs, we are as good as 90% fully built. There were a few scattered plots of land left which could be taken up in no time. Finish! Where do we go from here? It is clear that the next big phase of development will be down under or destroy and rebuild. All the land with lowly built properties would be next to be mowed down to ground zero and new pinnacles will take their places. That's a good way to realise the value of all the little precious land we got. And we can then sell them away to make more money to be kept in our reserves or to invest overseas. Investing in overseas is a great way to grow our wealth. Each plot of our land is worth a hundred or thousand times what we can get in other parts of the world. By trading ours to the rich investors, we should be able to buy up land that are hundreds or thousand times what we have sold. Then we can have scattered colonies all over the whole and we can call them the Greater Singapore. All we need is a little more focus and planning and not to buy anything that did not fall into this Greater Singapore Plan. We can then become a bigger country: )

Notable quote: Don't pray pray with NS

'...for male citizens, NS obligations have the highest priority, ahead of studies and personal reasons,.... Judge V K Rajah Goh Khim Siong was jailed for four months for evading NS. The importance of NS and how it affects the personal life of all male citizens cannot be understated. Goh Khim Siong had been deferring his NS to complete his studies, to look after his parents and brothers, cut no ice and was jailed for 4 months before starting his NS from scratch. This is how serious this obligation to the country is. No one should trifle or rubbish this obligation as just a passing phase in life. The NSRA is just a token to this heavy responsibility and tedious constitutional commitment. What the govt can do is to make this sweeter by tying it to the right to purchase a HDB flat for all NS men who have completed his NS liability. With housing becoming so 'AFFORDABLE' to some jokers but so unafforable to many NS men, the linkage will make NS much more palatable and meaningful. The NS men will be more committed to serve the country and to defend his home. At least he has something to fight for and to defend for.