One good reason to welcome more foreigners

As a small country, we need to trade with everyone to survive. We need free trade and open skies to trade freely, to move freely. It is a quid pro quo thing. We let your goods in, you let our goods in, no taxes.

This same principle is applicable to recognition of university degrees. You recognize our degrees we recognize yours. And if we let your people come here freely, work here freely, live here freely, the same must be reciprocated.

Now Sinkies, please understand this logic. Our island is so small, so cram. Would it not be nice to be able to live in big countries with a lot of land? Let the people of the world come here freely and we move to their countries freely as well. They can come and buy and live in our HDB flats and we be allowed to move to their countries, buy land and build landed properties. Those bigger countries would have no problem or feel insecure to welcome us. Would this be good? Would it be good to live in big countries where properties are cheap, cars are cheap and lifestyle slow and easy?

And when we recognize their degrees, their doctors and lawyers and engineers can practice here, so can our professionals practice in their countries. Imagine Sinkies can go anywhere and work and practice anywhere. Imagine we are welcome everywhere. And we can rent out our HDB flats, collect the rentals, and live in landed properties in other countries. And those from other countries come and live in our small little flats, pay us a lot of money to live in their countries. That would be really nice. The world is our oyster!

Imagine all the people in the world, living in peace and harmony. But I am just a dreamer, and I am not the only one.

The days of the Miserables…lawyers

Who do you think lawyers? Are we seeing the days of the miserable lawyers and the legal profession? Or things will go on as normal? The respect and high regards for the legal profession and the learned counsels, will it be tainted or will it continue to glow and shine?

I think it all depends on the outcome of the EGM and whether the legal eagles find it important enough to even attend this EGM. Would the 50 calling for the EGM be the voices in the wilderness and abandon by their colleagues in the profession? Will they be the only 50 members present?

Alienation of the leadership

There was a time when aspiring leaders will shout, follow me, and jump into the deep end of any crisis to face the bullets first. Leadership is by leading, by setting examples, by telling and doing what leaders expect the followers to do. When leaders lead by examples, the followers will follow all the way. When leaders say charge, and they stand behind to watch, who is going to charge, who is going to be the idiot to be shot first? Only the soldiers can do that.

When leaders eat rice, the men eat rice. When the men eat porridge or gruel, the leaders too did the same. That is what leadership is all about, be with the people, share wealth and toil, share joy and woes. The men will not mind if the leaders have rice and they have porridge or gruel. It would be something else when the leaders have meat and fish and the men have only plain gruel. Got it?

When leaders demand to be paid in the millions and told the people it is alright to live with $1k pm. When leaders demand to live in 20k sq ft properties and build smaller and smaller flats for the people, and tell the people to live within their means, I think you got a problem.

When leaders declare that wide income gap is normal and the wider the gap the more normal it is, you got a bigger problem. There is a big gap, a credibility gap. The daft followers will continue to follow blindly. They are not daft for no reason. But not many are daft, and not many will remain daft all the time.

Serve NS to protect what? To protect the huge properties and wealth of leaders, or their little shoe box flats? Heard or pragmatism? Or nothing of their own to protect since they don’t even own a little flat to cover their heads? Only daft Sinkies will protect other people’s wealth and well being when their well beings don’t mean anything to those they are protecting. Does this make sense or so difficult to understand? What is an aspiration? A belief that is good to believe in only, a make belief.

Is there a connect, or a credibility gap between the leaders and the led? Do the leaders lead by setting good examples that the people will die for, or to die for an aspiration? Is everyone is part of a bigger whole, everyone feels that they are part of a bigger entity called nation and country?

Maybe the people don’t mind living within their means and dying for their great leaders bathing in wealth and glory. After all they have been told to know and accept their lesser stations in life.

Racism in Singapore

Recently the outcry against racism is getting louder. Many, even a minister, are raising issues of racism openly. Yes, there are incidents of racism in this island and there is nothing to hide, or better to sweep them under the carpet. The case of this elderly man berating his Indian neighbour for unpleasant smell, unhygienic lifestyle, and turning his flat into a squalor, has been given special prominence by the minister in his Facebook posting. What is the intent of the minister, to prove that there is racism, to use this as an issue in the national dialogue or to say that racism exists in little pockets in the society?

Short of saying that this elderly man’s IQ or EQ is suspect, that he did not find anything wrong complaining to Minister Shanmugam who is obviously an Indian, I just dunno what to say. With such a strange behavior from an elderly man, it is equally strange to trump this as a good example of racism. And the case only helps to confirm the mindset of those who see racism as a big issue in this island. And some took the opportunity to beat drums and gongs to the screams of, hear, hear, there is racism in Sinkieland.

And the drum and gong beaters are raising their pitch higher, which is very unfortunate. No one in his right mind will deny that there is racism here and everywhere in the world. It is a matter of degree and seriousness. No one will accept the racial slurs by the elderly man even he if he is not the average Sinkie man one encounters in the island and thus not excusable.

The point is this, is racism really a big issue in the island? Since 1969, has there been any racially incited conflict or killings, of people being attacked physically or verbally abused in public because of race? There were a handful of racist postings in the blogs by some hot young men and they were immediately taken to task by the police. And these were about the most serious incidents of racial discrimination one could find. It is quite embarrassing really.

What more can you ask for? For those who believe that this island is a racist place populated by a racist majority victimizing the minorities, why not choose a country that has a more pleasant environment where different races live in better harmony than in this little island? No we are not perfect, but trying to.

Yes, I am offended as a Sinkie. I seeing more accusation and agitation of racism in this country I called home. And no, I am not saying that there is no racism, but when they manifest, they are so mild and so few in between to warrant the sounding of a tsunami coming. There are bound to be a few bad hats in all communities. But the bad hats here don’t beat up people or shoot people with guns. This is Singapore, a multi culture and racial city state with no equals in the world as far as race relations is concerned.

Sinkies should feel offended when people keep harping about racism in the city and tell the racist off. Only racists go around seeing everything racist using their racist lens.

Attack the complainant and miss the complaint

The elderly gentleman was complaining about his neighbour because he was Indian. Any insinuation? No, this elderly gentleman must be a racist at heart. Right or wrong?

By the way, what was he complaining about? Bad smell, dirty habits, and what else? Now that the focus is on this elderly man, what happen to his complaints? Were his complaints valid and need to be addressed? HDB flats are homes to the ordinary Sinkies, not a farm or pig sty for pigs. The residents deserved to have a clean and healthy environment, no dirty and smelly neighbours and neighbours clogging up the walkways or turning their flats into health or fire hazards. No IMH patients running around abusing or threatening the neighbours with physical harm.

While the complainant now has been turned into a villain, a racist, it could be easier to accept his complaints as valid if he is not so dense to keep repeating the fact that the neighbour was from a different race but just about the problems. Then his complaints may be accepted and dealt with. In this case everyone forgot about the reasons for the complaints.

A similar case was Sylvia Lim raising the disquiet in Woffle’s case in Parliament. She was questioned and intimidated as if she was the wrongdoer. Is this the proper way to deal with a complainant, a messenger or a whistle blower? It is like killing the messenger of bad news to avoid hearing more bad news. Divert the attention from the issue and make the complainant the problem.