My second daft Singaporean story for the day

Transport fares are going up, as sure as the sun will rise. This law is more permanent and unyielding than the law of gravity. So what can the Singaporeans do? KPKB is one thing. The next logical thing in the daft Singaporean mind is to say, fare goes up we want to see improvement in services. If no improvement, cannot.

So they are willing to concede to have more fare hikes if there is improvement in services. And they are still complaining that the service quality is bad. Now what does this mean? After 10 or 20 fare hikes, the same daft Singaporeans demanding that service quality be improved and the promises that fare hikes would lead to improvements, and what is the situation now?

Was there any improvement in the service quality after every fare hike? Or would this call for improvement be just a lip service that the daft Singaporeans sought to appease themselves, that there is nothing else they could do? If I were the operator, I will simply say the fare hike will improve the service quality.

Come next year, ask for fare hike to improve quality again. Imagine if there were 20 fare hikes and really 20 times improvement in quality, our transport services must be the best in the world. What or where were the improvements after every fare hike?

But of course, this time the call for fare hike is not to improve service quality but due to higher cost, petrol, manpower and also new buses. Ok, the later could be related to better services, with new and more comfortable buses. But the main part is higher cost. So what is this call about improving services?

Myth 230 - The Presidential Myth

Before 31 Aug is up Singaporeans would have voted for a Tan to be their next Elected President. And many are gearing up for the event, to decide who they want as the President. They want to use their vote to pick their man. This is one myth that they did not bother to think about. No they did not decide, or cannot decide, who should be their man to be President.

No? The man to be the next Elected President will be decided by the Presidential Election Council, by three wise men. They will pick the man or men whom they decide will be suitable to be the President of Singapore. Only then can the Singaporean cast their vote. If they so decide on one candidate, Singaporeans would LL have to accept it. So, who decides who can be the Elected President of Singapore? The citizens?

Then again, this is only one of the myths. The second myth is that the three men could only decide on whoever was deemed good enough, eligible, by someone else. The criteria, the conditions were already decided before the three wise men can say who? This is the bigger myth that daft Singaporeans totally forgotten. That is why we need more thinking foreigners to lead the unthinking and simplistic Singaporeans. They simply can’t think, can’t see anything beyond their noses.

Who really decides who can be the Elected President of Singapore? You tell me.

Let’s teach the Brits

Rupert Murdoch was quoted to have told the British Govt that they should emulate Singapore in paying millions to their political leaders. In that way the politicians can be cleaner and less corrupt, no need to resort to making spurious expense claims, or having dinners with him and Murdoch picking up the tabs. I think this is a wise thing to say.

Singapore has the cleanest and least corrupt govt in the world, by paying them not to be corrupt. We should share our world best formula with the British and the West, plus the ingenious arguments. They will be very thankful that they could finally learn something from the East. We are the pathfinders for a govt that is not corrupt, with a pay that is so good that makes corruption obsolete.

The British and the Americans would surely love the formula. Obama could be looking at $200m and David Cameron could probably be looking at 50m sterling pounds. Given that they have not been corrupted with their present salaries, maybe a 50% discount from these amounts would be enough to send them to the moon in glee.

If we do away with the President…

Think of all the advantages of doing away with the president. I can think of all the good things and nothing bad. There is no need to hold on to this historical legacy. Why waste so much money and land just to keep up such an image? Even the British were thinking of doing away with their monarchy many years back. The only reason is that the British monarchy provides jobs for the people. Dunno who is paying for it.

In our case we don’t need those jobs. We have full employment and the staff can be deployed into more productive areas. But don’t think of building properties on the Istana land for sale. Keep it as a green lung, a park in the city for the benefits of the people, everyday, not 3 or 4 times a year. The property belongs to the people and everyone should be allowed to benefit from it, not a few individuals under the present system.

And I am sure our foreign workers would love to have the Istana park for leisure over the weekend. We need all the free space we can get hold of to share with the people and to loosen up the crunch.

So much money saved. And no need to spend time and money just to elect a ceremonial head that is mainly a rubber stamp but collecting millions and millions from the public coffer. This is definitely bad.

How many of you agree with doing away with this office? To me it is not an institution that is a must have, definitely no need to be so costly. If we are so preoccupied with high offices or monarchys, it may be more romantic to instal a royal family. Then we can have coronations, prince and princess, uncles and aunties of royal families. These will be good stuff for fairy tale authors and the media.

Battlestar Galactica Singapore

I was reading the discussion on how the three universities have been colonized by foreigners. Oops, maybe colonized is not an appropriate term. There seems to be a pre occupation and adoration of foreigners from academic staff to students. Some said it got to do with the rankings. The more foreign or alien elements there are, the higher will be the rankings for the universities. I say, to hell with it. If our university’s high rankings are due to the presence of foreigners and not the quality of local staff and local students, forget it. Want Liverpool to represent Singapore in the World Cup?

Then again, many will disagree with me. A brand, a good brand, is important. Who cares if the handbags are made in China or Thailand. They care if it is meant to be made in Italy but then found to be from China. Other than this little aberration, a top brand is a top brand. Made in China or Thailand or Indonesia, also can. Actually some of the products out sourced to these countries are still working just as well. My Nikon is made in China.

How could this relate to a degree Made in Singapore but with academics from Europe and America and students from third world countries? Yes, on paper the ranking is high and nice, maybe close to Harvard, MIT or Cambridge huh? Can stand side by side with such premier academia must be good. But would employers buy the degree and say good degree? Would the graduates be sought after as quality graduates? Or would employers go after graduates from third world countries for cheapos or graduates from second or third tier universities in western universities as quality? The job market never lies. The truth is out there.

What about Battlestar Galactica? Are our universities turning into Battlestar Galactica? Those of you who have watched this Hollywood creation will know who are the masters and the majority in Battlestar Galactica. They ruled the universe. Is this the bigger game plan, to turn Singapore into a Battlestar Galactica where the locals will play second fiddles, as supporting casts? Yes Captain, what’s his name? Not Spock, something more western. Oh yes, Commander William Adama, I think.

No lah, this cannot be lah. It is Singaporeans first. Just look at some of the big local institutions headed by foreigners for a little contradictions. But can’t blame these institutions as the local employees are just not good enough. It is the low quality of locals to be blamed. Would UOB be headed by a foreign talent soon? What about SIA, GIC, Temasek?

Battlestar Galactica cannot be the big game plan. It would only become a reality out of necessity and circumstances, when the locals are not good enough, that our world best and highly ranked universities are unable to produce the world best local talents to put the mantra ‘Singaporeans first’ into a national practice, where Singaporeans will be highly sought after to head our big institutions.

For the time being, Battlestar Galactica Singapore will sail on to bring glory to Singapore.