Of moles and conspiracies in Singapore politics

The latest break away in the Reform Party saddens those who are hoping against all hopes that a reasonably able alternative party could appear in the next general election. The longing for a stronger alternative voice in Parliament was seeing some light at the end of the tunnel until this happened. Some able and young aspiring politicians quit, and in so doing dashes the hope of a good contest in the GE. Many speculations were floating around as to why the break at this critical time. Conspiracies, moles, inept or personality conflicts or whatever, all breeds nothing good for the cause of an alternative voice. The most distaste reason, if it turns out to be true, is to have moles working from within a party to bring it down. The country deserves good people, people with integrity, to come forward to serve the nation. Good people, whether from the ruling party or alternative parties, are good people. Politics may be a dirty game to some, but it should not be made dirtier by people with lesser integrity, to play the role of moles to undermine another party. Good and talented people must have self respect and not to be involved in such roles for the good of themselves, the country and the people. It is not worth it to compromise one’s self respect and integrity to do such dirty works for any reasons. For the moment this is all speculation. I doubt anyone with some intelligence and dignity, and worthy to be a leader and a man, or a woman, would stoop so low to become moles. The conflicts in political parties are inevitable as different personalities and objectives are involved. For whatever reasons, the interest of the nation and the people must be above all else, and all private personal interests. Let’s pray that we will have good and decent people in the ruling party as well as the alternative parties to be leaders of the country.

The Good and Bad News of inflation

January’s 5.5% hike in inflation is the second highest in two years. If this goes on every month, the inflation for the whole year will be probably 3 to 3.5%. Pardon my poor arithmetic. See the good and the bad news? Inflation is good news really. The higher the better. It means that the economy is doing very well and people have a lot of money to spend and can afford to pay more and more. Look at the high property prices and the high COEs, where got problem. The queues are there everyday.. For property buyers, the higher the inflation, the longer will be the queue as they will make instant profit after every purchase. The price will shoot up everyday. Buying property will be such a wonderful experience. A commentator, couldn’t remember his name, said that this high inflation is already expected. So nothing to worry about. It is all well planned and managed. Looking at how comfortable and happy Singaporeans are today, we can actually use inflation as a measurement of happiness index. The higher the inflation, the happier the people. At least 80% of property owners (HDB owners) will be praying that inflation goes through their flat roofs and all can be instant multi millionaires. Good for the coming general election.

Amidst chaos there is a golden lining

The Middle East is in turmoil. New Zealand’s Christchurch is in rubbles with many dead or waiting to be rescued. The Asian stock markets tumbled with many incurring huge losses. Everything is looking bleak despite a people’s budget to help the lower income earners to overcome the inflation beast. But not all is lost or not all is bad news. I just read that there is a profession that could bring in a revenue of $24.8 m over 7 months of work. This works out to be roughly about $3.5m every month. Not bad for a job when compared to our ministers earning that in a year. Now I can even say that minister’s pay is peanuts. If there is any job that I wanna be, this must be the job, a surgeon. This is the bill Dr Susan Lim charged to her patient, a royalty from Brunei. The bill has become a controversy and is fully reported in the ST today. It was also reported that the final bill, after discounts and whatever, is now about a quarter of the original bill and still unpaid. Even at one quarter the sum of $800k a month is still a princely sum. All I can say is nice. I wish I could have such an income. I am drooling and all wet thinking of the bill. World class medical treatment will come with world class bill for world class quality of professional services. You want the best, be prepared to pay for the best. Is this a Guinness Record? A $8 bill for a heart bypass must be a steal. Please don't complain about how expensive our public privatised hospital bills are. Be really grateful.

Conning the silly Asian Asses

The big Western banks and funds are managed by their best financial and engineering talents and are out to rob the world. They have conceived and designed the most complicated and advanced financial systems that almost guaranteed maximum profits and minimum losses to themselves. And they are selling these systems to the silly Asian Asses who bought them hook, line and sinkers. They only need to dangle the carrot of a combined war chest of several hundred billions of cash. They will bring the cash to the silly Asian Asses if the latter would abide by their terms and conditions, and how the game should be played. They can’t be bringing their war chest to give away to the silly Asian Asses for sure. They are there to rob! The American regulators have now understood how and what these reckless and irresponsible bankers are doing, gambling with high stakes, using other people’s money. They can’t lose, except other people’s money. And they stand to win and line their pockets with millions when they have control of the game. Paul Geithner in his latest speech called for an international system to prevent these rogues from gambling and robbing the innocent investors of their money. America is working out a system to tighten and regulate the activities of these big financial robbers and wanted the rest of the world to implement the same tight regulations to curb this menace. Geithner wanted to see a level playing field to prevent these rogues from moving from one country to another where the legislation and regulation are lax to enable them to do damage to the innocent. For the moment, the silly Asian Asses still have greed covering their eyes and could not see the harm and damage that these rogues could create to their financial systems even when billions have been extracted and robbed from their local investors. When would it end, when would deregulation be stopped and more regulations be introduced to protect the integrity of the financial systems across the world?

Of Glorious Past

Egypt, India and China were three old civilizations that survived the times, intact. They were once the centre of civilizations, the centre of knowledge, culture, science and engineering, philosophy and the arts. And for many centuries their people were proud of their achievements. The pyramids and astronomy were the pride of the Egyptians, the Yogas, religions and great architectural wonders were what Indians were known for, the Chinese bragged about gun powder and printing blocks. Those were their glorious pasts. Obsolete! Then a quiet industrial revolution took off in little Europe and the little countries became empire builders. They ran over the Egyptians, the Indians and Chinese and made themselves masters of these people. The great civilizations became history, and its people and culture were scorned upon as bankrupt ideas. For centuries, they became the laggards of civilizations. But their glories lived on in the minds of many, including lesser countries around the world. Many still hold them in awe as centres of learning and are sending their next generations to learn ancient knowledge and past glories that are of little relevance to the modern world. There are signs of revival in India and China, to reclaim their past greatness and be recognized again as respectable civilizations. Thanks to little Singapore, the Chinese came and learn, and brought home our model of development, studied, improved on it and adapted it for their own development. They have surpassed Singapore by leaps and bounds. And they are not looking back. What could little Singapore offer to an ancient civilization of several thousand years? Singapore may be a flash in the pan, a little light from a shooting star in the dark sky, but Singapore can be that flash of light in a sea of ignorance. Singapore may fade away fast, but it has its little moment of brightness, to light up the dark sky and to show the way. Ancient civilizations, no matter how great, will need to adapt to the changes of modernity, adapt and reinvent themselves, or they will become the ruins of history. India and China have sent many of their youngs to the centres of modern knowledge in the West, to learn from the very best, to feed, cloth and house their people, to give them a better life. If they have not done that and continue to live in their past glories, what would be the fate of their people today? Or how far could they advance if they have chosen to send their young to learn the ancient ways in Egypt? Would they be wasting their money and resources and talents to learn to live in the past, with ancient wisdom, knowledge and values?