1963 we were part of Malaysia. Before we became independent in 1965, we were in an undeclared war with Indonesia that opposed the formation of Malaysia. Our two Singapore Infantry Regiments were sent to East Malaysia and Johore to defend Malaysia, and their barracks were occupied by new troops from Malaysia. Great musical chair strategy.
I could not remember the exact dates and details, but when the two SIRs returned, one or both could not move into their barracks and had to camp in the field in Farrer Park. The old soldiers could fill in the gaps on this part of our history. It was a precarious time when foreign troops were in our soil in a way, yes we a state of Malaysia then. We were once colonized by the British, then conquered by the Japanese and then became part of Malaysia. It was sheer good fortune that we were given independence without bloodshed. It was dicey that our troops could return to their barracks. It was like your flats being occupied by your FT tenants and you had to squat in the field.
The lack of a credible military force to defend our country was something that most scared the light out of our pioneering leaders. We then had the colonial masters around whose main interest was to keep us independent and friendly to their interests in the Far East. As long as they were around, we were safe within their protective umbrella, and as a semi colony. The stark reality of being walked over by a foreign power led to a hurried effort to build up an army of our own.
1967 saw the first batch of our local boys being trained in SAFTI by the Israeli advisors. The following years saw the dispatched of more young men to the UK for training for our future Navy and Air Force. And we thought time was on our side, to gradually build up our defence capabilities only to be hit with a double whammy. The British decided to pull out from their bases here in early 1970s. This was a big hit to our trading economy. And our national defence was still in infancy. We had just introduced National Service a couple of years back and everyone in uniform was still technically a trainee. Everything had to be short circuited to gain time. It was all a mad rush to put an army together out of nothing.
We were in a vacuum of sort as far as soldiers were concerned. Without the people willingly coming forward despite that it was called National Service, we would have a hard time building up an army. The people responded to the call of the nation and everyone played his part in a big jigsaw puzzle with blank pieces. And every piece had to fit or knock in to fit at the quickest time possible. It was that easy if we don’t think about it. It was DIY quick fix and hoped for the best.
Though we were fortunate not to have been in a war during our formative years, it was a critical time, and a treacherous time. The British were there holding the umbrella. But they could fold it up if the people and govt did not have the resolve to pull it through. If the govt was weak and could not rally the people to build a nation for themselves, we would have been doomed, economically and politically as a country. The British could give up and give the island to anyone able to hold it together. They could have abandoned us if we did not treasure the moment and the opportunity.
The early batches of NS men were there to fill up the void, to hold the fort for the time being while the bigger picture was being put into place. Their sheer presence was what was needed in those precarious moments of truth, to exist or to fade away, or be taken over. Our future would have been different if the people did not gel together to answer the call of a young nation in the making.
Those were the times when nothing was a luxury. Everyone was a piece of the big jigsaw puzzle in formation, the NS men, the workers, the entrepreneurs and the civil service and the govt. They were living for a strange new mission, to build a country, a nation. It was not starting a SME. And many things they were doing were completely alien to them. They were all learning on the job, doing things for the first time. Yep, like the blind leading the blind. It was only forty odd years ago. Many have walked in those days and have vivid memories of their experience.
We have forgotten. We have forgotten the difficult times, the times when personal sacrifices were part and parcel of nation building. Many civil servants and military officers were just told to get the job done with no issues of sacrifices. We forgot that at one time we were struggling to turn this island into a country. We forgot the price our parents paid for what it is today. $90 NS allowance and rubbery meat that bounced off the floor. The bread and kaya for breakfast were not much different from what prisoners got then. Today, we talk about sacrifices like having diarrheoa. Every little drop of shit is damn big sacrifice. If the NS men of then did not turn up at CMPB in Kallang, or if there were violent protest to NS, how would we have turned out today, an independent state or part of someone else’s state?
We have forgotten that together we have built a country, a nation. And still some would rubbish it as a state in the making. So we can give it away, invite everyone here and issue citizenship certificates like toilet papers. Come, take, it is no man’s land. We are migrants or descendants of migrants. You migrant, good, same same. Come share my home. Feed yourself and take all you want. There is no ownership to this land. No one feels that it belongs to the pioneering migrants who crafted it out as a country and wanted to make this home for their descendants.
And the daft descendants are calling themselves migrants and not owners of a country their forefathers have fought, worked and died for. They are willing to share with anyone, give to anyone. How generous!
How stupid can they be? No, they don’t think so. They don’t know that this is home, their country. When there is no ownership, you can expect what it will become next. Think public toilets. The daft Sinkies don’t deserve this country. And the new arrivals will tell them to go if they are not happy here.
When you lose your inheritance…or sell your inheritance away….
3/14/2012
3/13/2012
Reverse emigration
This may be a new concept to some but is not new in reality. A good example is the USA and Australia where the migrants became so extensive and a majority over the local population that they became the dominant political force of their country of adoption. It could be easier for it to happen in Australia, and New Zealand for that matter, as the local populations were small. For it to happen in the USA required extraordinary circumstances like mass and uncontrolled new migrants and a reversed process like genocide of the local population.
Reverse emigration is very easily effected in a small island and small population like ours. We could actually be near the tipping point where foreigners are more than the locals. It could already have been if PRs are recognized as foreigners, plus all the temporary stayers.
What would happen are the effects of life on the locals when the locals become a minority in their own country. We are not feeling the pressure yet as the language of English is still widely used officially and informally. When foreign languages become the lingua franca, when signboards are changed, when lifestyle and social habits are changed, when foreigners are imposing their rights over the locals, the impact would be more felt and immediate.
Would there be a day where there are more foreigners in a train or bus than locals? Would there be a day when the HR depts are dominated by foreigners who choose to hire foreigners and discriminate against the locals? Would there be a day when foreigners dominate the civil service and govt and policies are more favourable to foreigners? Would there be a day when foreigners are given free scholarship to study in our universities and locals would have to beg, borrow or steal to do that?
Would there be a day when foreigners would freely cut queues for services in retail outlets or public services because the providers of services were foreigners and not locals? Would there be a day where the landlords are foreigners and the tenants are locals? Would there be a day when signs are put up saying no Singaporeans and dogs are allowed?
Reverse emigration can become an ugly reality if we are not careful. Or are we there already? Without thinking, having more foreigners here seems so fun and so good for the economy. The world seems to be able to live with the reverse emigration in the USA, Australia and New Zealand. Some of the uncaring elite also share the view that it is better as the new migrants are much more talented and have led these countries to greater heights and better quality of life and development. Sounds very familiar to our meritocracy when talents are welcome and non talent locals are encouraged to go to Bintan, Batam and JB.
When would the seriousness of reverse emigration really hit the daft Sinkies for them to feel the pain? Unfortunately the day they felt it, it would be too late. When that day comes, Sinkies will find themselves in another country without physically migrating or moving. The foreigners moved in and became the majority. The complacent Sinkies got emigrated by staying put.
Reverse emigration is very easily effected in a small island and small population like ours. We could actually be near the tipping point where foreigners are more than the locals. It could already have been if PRs are recognized as foreigners, plus all the temporary stayers.
What would happen are the effects of life on the locals when the locals become a minority in their own country. We are not feeling the pressure yet as the language of English is still widely used officially and informally. When foreign languages become the lingua franca, when signboards are changed, when lifestyle and social habits are changed, when foreigners are imposing their rights over the locals, the impact would be more felt and immediate.
Would there be a day where there are more foreigners in a train or bus than locals? Would there be a day when the HR depts are dominated by foreigners who choose to hire foreigners and discriminate against the locals? Would there be a day when foreigners dominate the civil service and govt and policies are more favourable to foreigners? Would there be a day when foreigners are given free scholarship to study in our universities and locals would have to beg, borrow or steal to do that?
Would there be a day when foreigners would freely cut queues for services in retail outlets or public services because the providers of services were foreigners and not locals? Would there be a day where the landlords are foreigners and the tenants are locals? Would there be a day when signs are put up saying no Singaporeans and dogs are allowed?
Reverse emigration can become an ugly reality if we are not careful. Or are we there already? Without thinking, having more foreigners here seems so fun and so good for the economy. The world seems to be able to live with the reverse emigration in the USA, Australia and New Zealand. Some of the uncaring elite also share the view that it is better as the new migrants are much more talented and have led these countries to greater heights and better quality of life and development. Sounds very familiar to our meritocracy when talents are welcome and non talent locals are encouraged to go to Bintan, Batam and JB.
When would the seriousness of reverse emigration really hit the daft Sinkies for them to feel the pain? Unfortunately the day they felt it, it would be too late. When that day comes, Sinkies will find themselves in another country without physically migrating or moving. The foreigners moved in and became the majority. The complacent Sinkies got emigrated by staying put.
The changing fortunes of LKY
1970, I was a young man in the land of our past colonial masters. I was in a pub one evening and the bartender told me that they would all be watching the TV later that night. I was curious. What was so important on the TV and why must he said that to me. I asked. His reply was that our Lee Kuan Yew would be speaking on their TV live that night. And probably the whole of England would be watching and listening to his wise words.
Those were the prime years of LKY. He was highly regarded, highly admired and highly listened to all over the world. He still does. The local citizens too were captivated by his oratory skills for decades too. Over time this following has gradually shifted, from great admiration to cautious and guarded reticence, to private criticism. This morning I read Feedmetothefish. He quoted an article by a Judy Zhou who openly criticized LKY, his policies and the way he demolished his political opponents. And she is not alone.
Criticism of LKY is getting more prevalent and more fortright today. Some could be very nasty. It is something that was unspeakable in his heydays. The foreigners are still holding him in high regards for his achievements and for the shining little jewel called Singapore. They did not have to live with his policies and his knuckle duster. Those who have and those who are living in the little jewel and disagreeing with or hurt by many of his policies are having different thoughts.
The changing perception of LKY is mirrored in the changing perception of his party, his ministers and MPs. From a time of high regards, deference and acceptance, it is now open criticism, questioning and opposition to ideas and policies that are no longer accepted with reluctance. The awe is gone and skepticism has crept in, and unstoppable when nothing seems right and everything seems wrong. It is a strange development, but it is happening. No amount of propaganda can remove the new perception of both LKY and his party and his chosen political leaders.
They still have 60% of the votes in the last GE and 35% of the vote for their sponsored President. How would these numbers changed come the next GE? A good indicator will be the coming Hougang by election, if there is one. It will be the harbinger of the PAP’s fortune in the next GE.
Those were the prime years of LKY. He was highly regarded, highly admired and highly listened to all over the world. He still does. The local citizens too were captivated by his oratory skills for decades too. Over time this following has gradually shifted, from great admiration to cautious and guarded reticence, to private criticism. This morning I read Feedmetothefish. He quoted an article by a Judy Zhou who openly criticized LKY, his policies and the way he demolished his political opponents. And she is not alone.
Criticism of LKY is getting more prevalent and more fortright today. Some could be very nasty. It is something that was unspeakable in his heydays. The foreigners are still holding him in high regards for his achievements and for the shining little jewel called Singapore. They did not have to live with his policies and his knuckle duster. Those who have and those who are living in the little jewel and disagreeing with or hurt by many of his policies are having different thoughts.
The changing perception of LKY is mirrored in the changing perception of his party, his ministers and MPs. From a time of high regards, deference and acceptance, it is now open criticism, questioning and opposition to ideas and policies that are no longer accepted with reluctance. The awe is gone and skepticism has crept in, and unstoppable when nothing seems right and everything seems wrong. It is a strange development, but it is happening. No amount of propaganda can remove the new perception of both LKY and his party and his chosen political leaders.
They still have 60% of the votes in the last GE and 35% of the vote for their sponsored President. How would these numbers changed come the next GE? A good indicator will be the coming Hougang by election, if there is one. It will be the harbinger of the PAP’s fortune in the next GE.
The untold nation builders of the 1950s
In the 1950s we were still not a country or a nation. We were a colony of the British Empire. After the war, the people were getting more politicised and aware that the British were colonial masters and running this island for their own interests. The interests of the people were secondary. The British only think of the purse of the king or queen in England. A few elites started thinking that they could run this island better, for the people who were making this place their home.
A simple thought of taking control of the country and to decide their own future became the seed of fermentation and the struggle for independence. The people wanted to determine their own future and not be led by the colonialists with their own agenda. They wanted a better distribution of the wealth of the island by seizing political power.
The few good men did what they needed to do. They agitated the people to stand up and fight for their own future. The otherwise stateless and docile people, the workers, were politicised. They could see a better future if they were willing to fight and risk their lives. The people were awakened to the possibilities, to be their own masters and not the servants. Those days they used to end their letters with the phrase, ‘Your obedient servant.’
The servant mentality was removed. They were unshackled. And they fought for what we have today. They continued to slog after independence to build a fairer and more equitable society for themselves and their children.
The course of our history would have been different if they have been cowed, frightened, kiasu and kiasi. The course of history would have been different if they have been apathetic, kia cheng hu, and remained docile and obedient to the power of the day.
They took their future into their own hands, to shape it the way they wanted it to be. The people decided what was best for them. Without their courage to confront the colonial govt, to fight for their own good, we would not be what we are today. We only have to thank them for standing up, to face the selfishness of the colonial govt, to say, ‘give me back my island.’ We would decide what was best for us.
History always have great moments like this, when being compliant, being docile, being obedient, being afraid, were not an option. The generations of the 50s gave us this country. As our inheritance, it is tragic to lose this country by default and sheer negligence on our part. It will be a great tragedy and an unfilial act to our forefathers, our benefactors, who fought for a country for us and our children. They were migrants to a non country. They gave us a country we can call home. We are no longer migrants and stateless.
The descendants and beneficiaries of the sacrifices of our nation builders have a duty and responsibility to protect this little island they inherited. It must not be given away freely to anyone on any flimsy excuses. If we lose this inheritance through inaction, the tragic shame will be on every Singaporean.
A simple thought of taking control of the country and to decide their own future became the seed of fermentation and the struggle for independence. The people wanted to determine their own future and not be led by the colonialists with their own agenda. They wanted a better distribution of the wealth of the island by seizing political power.
The few good men did what they needed to do. They agitated the people to stand up and fight for their own future. The otherwise stateless and docile people, the workers, were politicised. They could see a better future if they were willing to fight and risk their lives. The people were awakened to the possibilities, to be their own masters and not the servants. Those days they used to end their letters with the phrase, ‘Your obedient servant.’
The servant mentality was removed. They were unshackled. And they fought for what we have today. They continued to slog after independence to build a fairer and more equitable society for themselves and their children.
The course of our history would have been different if they have been cowed, frightened, kiasu and kiasi. The course of history would have been different if they have been apathetic, kia cheng hu, and remained docile and obedient to the power of the day.
They took their future into their own hands, to shape it the way they wanted it to be. The people decided what was best for them. Without their courage to confront the colonial govt, to fight for their own good, we would not be what we are today. We only have to thank them for standing up, to face the selfishness of the colonial govt, to say, ‘give me back my island.’ We would decide what was best for us.
History always have great moments like this, when being compliant, being docile, being obedient, being afraid, were not an option. The generations of the 50s gave us this country. As our inheritance, it is tragic to lose this country by default and sheer negligence on our part. It will be a great tragedy and an unfilial act to our forefathers, our benefactors, who fought for a country for us and our children. They were migrants to a non country. They gave us a country we can call home. We are no longer migrants and stateless.
The descendants and beneficiaries of the sacrifices of our nation builders have a duty and responsibility to protect this little island they inherited. It must not be given away freely to anyone on any flimsy excuses. If we lose this inheritance through inaction, the tragic shame will be on every Singaporean.
3/12/2012
A reminder to nuclear infidelity
Yesterday was the anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. Channel News Asia devoted nearly the whole day of its programmes to remind everyone of this tragedy and how the Japanese are coping with it. Flirting with danger is a trait of daft human beans. Many have nothing better to do than to jump over high buildings for fun. Some tied a string on their legs and jumped over mountain cliffs or tall bridges. Cool. Anything that is flirtatious is tempting, a temptation that is simply exciting and nothing else.
While CNA was reminding the world of the nuclear disaster in Japan, is it also sending a signal to the flirtatious that flirting with nuclear disaster is a very dangerous thing to do and to be avoided at all costs? Is our flirtation with nuclear energy still on course as we plan ahead for a population of 10m or more? The wild ambition to grow our population to be richer and richer in economic numbers is one of the primary causes of this flirtation. We need not only nuclear energy but may other resources to sustain such a huge population, water, food, infrastructure, in fact everything, to feed the needs of a 10m population.
The good thing is that we will get there. We will build a nuclear power station that would not go wrong. Going wrong is not an option. But should there be a slight mishap like the Fukushima, the damage will be contained. The Jap’s incompetence screwed it up, we won’t. And if there is an explosion, the explosion will be small enough not to risk sinking the island. That we will make sure. What if the explosion is big enough? No worry, the design will make it blow out through the other side of the earth. The island will be made perfectly safe with a perfectly safe nuclear power station underneath. That is how good our nuclear fantasy can be.
The CNA memorial is only good for the converts who are now living in fear and dreaming of a nuclear disaster everyday. They are the fools. For the brilliant and super talented, nothing is beyond them. We will triumph with the best talents money can buy and the best technology that will not fail us. That is how good we are.
While CNA was reminding the world of the nuclear disaster in Japan, is it also sending a signal to the flirtatious that flirting with nuclear disaster is a very dangerous thing to do and to be avoided at all costs? Is our flirtation with nuclear energy still on course as we plan ahead for a population of 10m or more? The wild ambition to grow our population to be richer and richer in economic numbers is one of the primary causes of this flirtation. We need not only nuclear energy but may other resources to sustain such a huge population, water, food, infrastructure, in fact everything, to feed the needs of a 10m population.
The good thing is that we will get there. We will build a nuclear power station that would not go wrong. Going wrong is not an option. But should there be a slight mishap like the Fukushima, the damage will be contained. The Jap’s incompetence screwed it up, we won’t. And if there is an explosion, the explosion will be small enough not to risk sinking the island. That we will make sure. What if the explosion is big enough? No worry, the design will make it blow out through the other side of the earth. The island will be made perfectly safe with a perfectly safe nuclear power station underneath. That is how good our nuclear fantasy can be.
The CNA memorial is only good for the converts who are now living in fear and dreaming of a nuclear disaster everyday. They are the fools. For the brilliant and super talented, nothing is beyond them. We will triumph with the best talents money can buy and the best technology that will not fail us. That is how good we are.
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