When politicians were naïve

Those were the days, not too long ago, when politicians were naïve, just a figure of speech. They were young and highly charged, with bellies full of fire, to serve the people and the country. That was a time when the country was ruled by foreigners, the colonial masters. To these young intellects, the first question that bumped into their heads was why should the country be run by foreigners who were no better than them. Probably they also believed that they could do better for country and people when they were in charge.

That kind of idealistic thinking set a trend that changed the course of our history. Young and eager men and women fought to take back this country, to run it for the betterment of its own people. When they succeeded, the locals took charge of all the major ministries and institutions, to manage them for the good of the locals, not for the Queen of England. And with the locals thinking locals, and when the political leaders were thinking of bettering the lives of the people, things changed dramatically. It was local politicians and people serving local people, for the interest and good of the people.

Has anything changed? The politicians have all changed except for one. But everything else has changed. Oh, they are still saying that they are serving the people and the people’s interests. This has not changed. But the substance has. While the first generation of leaders replaced the foreigners with locals, we are seeing more foreigners replacing the locals. Don’t be conned by the term ‘new citizens’. And as for serving the people, this is relative depending on how one views it.

There used to be the govt providing facilities, building facilities, including housing and transportation, ahead of the people’s needs, and waiting for the people to benefit from them. The people needed housing, and houses were built. Schools, hospitals, transportation, jobs, industries, were waiting for the people. Today, the people have to queue up, to wait for these services and facilities. They don’t build public housing to wait for the people. The people wait for the housings to be built. The people wait for schools for their children, wait for hospital spaces and medical services, transportations etc etc.

Jobs then were localized, decolonized. Today we are seeing a new kind of colonization in jobs. Foreigners are taking over the juicy and plum jobs all over again. And this is good, progress of a different kind. Foreigners changed shirt and become instant citizens to take over jobs from Singaporeans. From displacing foreigners we are replacing locals with foreigners/new citizens.

It is scary when a politician stands out and proclaims that he is in politics to serve the people and country. Scary indeed. The naïve politicians of the past were admirable, respectable and sincere in what they said and did. There were some honesty in their ethics, ambitions and idealism for being politicians.

Today they are pragmatic and honest. No more young and idealistic. They may even say if I am not pay so much, don’t call me. And they will delay the opening of an MRT station because there is not enough load, not profitable, not justifiable. They will build public housings, but you wait for another few years for them to be built. They cannot afford to build and wait for the people. Hospitals, transportations, public services, must be justified in terms of profits before they are built. There are exceptions of course, like public parks which were built together with public housing.

With some exceptions here and there, the ethos for public service is never the same again.

Haloween and PAP MPs

Just visited Mr Brown’s blog and got a bit confused. He wrote that a PAP MP turned up at a Haloween party and was mistaken for playing the role of a PAP MP. Or was it someone turned up at a Haloween party dressed up as a PAP MP. Which is which?

What I know is that people either dressed up as cut out pumpkins, Frankenstein or Dracula for Haloween. Dressing up as a PAP MP must be pretty out of place. Not frightening at all. Sure cannot frighten any children there.

According to Mr Brown, he got the most applause and recognition for being in PAP MP uniform. And he did the hand shaking act damn well. And Mr Brown gave him the best candy he had.

Weird. I still didn’t get the punch line.

Pakistan’s fate awaiting Asean

The plight of Pakistan today is simply pathetic. And they deserved every minute of it for flirting with the evil Empire. Once invited in, the Empire has no respect for the host, for national sovereignty or territorial integrity. They will brush the host aside and do what they want, like the raid on Obama deep inside Pakistan’s territory. Now they blatantly attacked and killed nearly 30 Pakistani soldiers in a prolonged and deliberate attack. So what are you going to do now Pakistan? The Empire has killed your soldiers.

Before the flirtation, the Americans would not dare to enter Pakistani territory or attack any Pakistani military positions. Now, it is fire at your own target and at your own time, at any Pakistani targets inside Pakistan.

Musharaff thought it was a great honour to be invited to the White House, to be feasted by the Emperor. He did not bargain for the outcome of his country becoming a semi colony of the Empire. That is the price Pakistan is paying today.

Asean leaders must be having wet dreams of being feasted in the White House as the honoured guest of the Emperor. The olive leaf has been waved and the invitation waiting to be delivered. Would Asean leaders take the bait and ended up with the same fate as Pakistan? For their personal ego of being seated on the right side of the Emperor, the price is their countries’ integrity as an independent nation, free from the Emperor’s troops. Some are eagerly waiting for the invitation, for the honour. The temptation is great.

Kishore Mahbubani – top 100 thinkers

Kishore has been listed as one of the world’s top 100 thinkers by a US based Foreign Policy magazine. It is a great honour to be there among the Europeans in an European centric magazine that only understands western language and thoughts.

Who is this guy? He is not angmoh. He is the Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. He got to thank the school for not replacing him with an angmoh to give the school greater credibility and be more believeable in the western intellectual circuit. Think of it, it is one of the rare corners of Singapore where the top dog is a Singaporean. For this reason alone, it is worthy to keep this School relevant as a pride of the country, that a Singaporean is found good enough to head the school.

I am not sure how long before the CEOs of the 3 local universities be headed by foreigners as obviously there are just not enough local talents of international stature to raise the profiles and rankings of these world class universities. Having foreigners to front these universities, like many of the Singapore institutions, is a good thing as they will spread the news of Singapore and how great this island is. Their presence will put the universities connected to the best universities of the West.

Then again, if we do not allow out Singaporeans a chance to take on high profile positions, how would they gain recognition by the international community? How would someone like Kishore be recognized if he ended up just another professor in the School of Lee Kuan Yew or any local universities?

Our angmoh is good mentality is a self debasing policy. If we keep giving the plump jobs to foreigners, our local talents will forever have their heads under water, to be another statistics and nothing more. We need to give more chances to the local talents and thinkers to be in the limelight, to be seen and heard, to be recognized.

Good that we have someone like Kishore. But he could be the last, just like we have a Lee Kuan Yew, and he will be the last titan this little island ever produced.

When the crunch comes

Seah Chiang Nee wrote the above article in his Littlespeck blog. He is reading the warnings by the political leaders of an impending recession coming Singapore’s way and how it will impact the people.

The worst hit will be the PMETs, especially those with a million dollar or half a million dollar mortgage. What will they do if one of the paymasters got retrenched?

Don’t forget that there are many who have several hundred thousand dollar mortgages in HDB flats. There are many Singaporeans in this category which includes many PRs as well. When the crunch comes, when they lose their jobs, the 30 year mortgage will not go away. They all depend solely on their monthly incomes to service the debt.

I reckon this time the impact will be much greater as the outstanding housing loan sizes are much bigger, all expecting a 30 year free ride without having to worry about any financial crisis.

Just a few months back, it was all sunny skies and full of optimism. Dark clouds are forming overnight.

Be frightened, be very frightened.