Elitism and the elitist class have been bundled and sold to the non elite masses as the cure all for all the ills in the country and society, and that the elite hold all the answers to the well being of the people. That followed a couple of decades of elitism pays, and the elite paid themselves handsomely like they were the gods of the day, or at least some openly compared themselves to the immortals. And be very grateful to the elite.
The first shock wave came with the admission in the fallibility of the elite, that the elite made mistakes. This was, for many years unheard of and inconceiveable to even mention it in official statements. The elite know best and admission of mistakes is simply undermining the myth and against the well being of the elite. This was a very successful facade built around the elite that they became unquestionable, godlike. But when mistakes piled up to a small mountain, there can be no denial, and no where to run and hide.
The next shocker came from the Law Society, the learned people who know the law, the defenders of justice, when certain members of the council put themselves in the limelight of public scrutiny and scorn. Now the members of this elite society are asking questions, unhappy with the ridicule they have to face up with and are calling an EGM to iron things out. This group of elite being caught in an embarrassing position in the public’s eye is more pertinent given the fact that they are a primary source of our political leadership. And questions of impropriety are going to make the public very uncomfortable with them.
The other highly regarded group, the medical profession, also came under the spotlight with the country’s top surgeon being questioned by the Medical Board for questionable pricing. The case ended with a single medical professional being found to be in the wrong was understandable as long as the profession and its coterie of highly regarded individuals are still respected and trusted by the public. Fortunately only ONE is found to have done wrong.
It would be dreadful if the Council of the medical profession, the highest body, is in question. And that was exactly what happened in Sunday’s headline. The judges of the Court of Appeal chastised the Singapore Medical Council with a number of ‘scathing comments’ that would put a big dent to the elite halo. This came after the Council took another medical professional, an aesthetician, to task for applying untested beauty treatments and excessive billings.
Some of the comments from the judges include, ‘unjust that the council chose to pick on one doctor, when many others were doing similar treatments, …hauling up a doctor for treatments done a year before guidelines were issued, and it was wrong to punish a doctor retrospectively,…the council for not knowing exactly what it wanted to punish the doctor for, and for not providing the necessary evidence, making the whole process “legally embarrassing”.’ Legally embarrassing!
Such comments led MP Lam Pin Min, Chairman of the GPC for Health to say, ‘MOH and SMC really need to relook and audit the SMC’s processes, to ensure that it lives up to its professional and ethical accountability to the medical community and the public.’ He added that ‘as professional watchdog, it “needs to be impartial, just and aboveboard in its dealings with patients and doctors”. Just read in between the lines.
Such public dressing down of professionals that are the elite of this elitist society has never been done before and will continue to chip at the infallibility of the elite. The impeccability of the elite, in govt, in law and in medicine, three of the highest paid professions, is now shaken. The elitist myth has now been brought down to earth from it rarified ethereal realm of existence. And many are being queued to face punishment at the courts for personal indiscretion.
The case of the Medical Council could prove interesting and many could and were asked to seek a second opinion or for redress for cases dealt with by the Council whose ‘professional and ethical accountability’ are now being questioned by the highest court of law in the country. Susan Lim may have a case to retrieve her honour.
9/24/2012
9/23/2012
First bad news from the National Conversation
Heard over the news that Sinkieland can take up to 6m people
and anything above that could be tricky. This means we have room for another
700,000 heads to fill up every corner of the island. After that no more growth.
Our local population is 3.5m and if the growth rate is 1.5%, we could self
produce about 52,000 annually. This plus another 25,000 FTs, in less than 10
years we will be filled to the brim.
As the economic growth rate of the island is tied to the
increase in population, in ten years time we would likely to go into a
recession unless there is continued population growth. It looks like in ten
years time we will be facing serious economic growth issues unless the citizens
relented and allow the govt of the day to continue to fill up the island with
more people and bear with the congestion. The good thing, other than economic
growth is that their ageing HDB flats will still have a chance to appreciate in
value.
Many would probably not be around by then and may not be
witnesses to the new prosperity of the day when HDB flats would be $2m and
Sinkies will be the undisputed richest people in the world. The caveat is for
the citizens to agree to more growth and more people in the island. If not,
things can go tumbling down, including property prices and lesser jobs for the
people. So it will no longer be a matter of choice. Bring in more people or
sink.
The people must be wise for their own good to think further
and bigger, that the population should not be held at ransom at 6m. Think 10m
and 20m and more for continuous economic growth. It must not stop and cannot be
stopped at 6m or any million.
Between a chit chat and a global dialogue
The ST has two interesting articles yesterday which I
believe should qualify as something serious and worthy of reading than about
some little girl’s diary or how I shampoo my dog. The first article was about a
chit chat between two very senior gentlemen about to be hit by dementia or
senility. Fortunately, at the ripe old age of the nineties, their minds are
still lucid and functioning as fine as they could be. The other article was
about a dialogue between middle age intellectuals with big titles but ended up
more like a TV commercial repeating stereotype views and ideas that lack depth
and insight to the evolving geopolitical scenario that is being played up in
the Asia Pacific region.
In the chit chat, the issues were more about the dominance
of civilisations and their roles towards humanity and the progress of human
beans. It eventually narrowed down to the western missionary zeal to teach the
world how to live and what is good and right. And there is the trigger happy
righteousness to intervene into other nations to save the pathetic and the uncivilised.
Genocide was briefly touched on with questions about the missed opportunities
or the right or wrong to intercede in the events at Chechnya,
Rwanda, Kampuchea
and even Tiananmen Square.
The wise men simply grouped them together as matters of
genocide. Were they? What is genocide? I think there is no need to define what
is genocide as the answer is simply obvious. Tiananmen was a political
uprising, a people’s grievance against a govt and its policies, nothing about
genocide though it was put down forcefully with military force.
Chechnya
is genocide, and so is Rwanda,
and so is the holocaust of WW2. But conveniently no one would like to remember
the greatest genocide of human history, the termination of the Red Indians. In
all definition, the killing of 100m or there about of a civilisation of people
by virtue of their race, for whatever reasons, political, economic or religion,
must be genocide.
And should there be an intervention by any powers, it should
be the savings of the Red Indians that were brutally and systematically put
down. And there are still a few that are living and waiting to be saved but
conveniently forgotten by the greatest human rights provocateur among nations.
Or is it that the violators were the human rights provocateurs themselves? This
is history or western history’s biggest hypocrisy.
In the dialogue, it was clear that the world exists only for
the Americans and the Americans or the Empire decides what and who should be placed
where and at which pigeon hole. Any country that dares to challenge this status
quo, called the balance of power, in favour of the Empire is evil and must be
put back into his respective hole, exceptions like Israel, Japan and the allies
with the Empires blessing. The Americans spoke like there is only one world
view, or one view that counts, and that is the Empire’s.
China’s
rise as an economic and military power is seen as a challenged to the status
quo and not permissible. It can only be allowed and accommodated if the Empire
said so. And so are the other smaller countries. Those that tried would be
brutally put down by military intervention in the name of human rights and
regime change. Their enemy Number One is not China
but the Muslim World that lives by a religious order that is in direct conflict
and opposed everything the Empire stands by. But this has been well taken care
of, and the Muslim World is torn and tattered and would be kept at least 50
years behind the rest of the world in all spheres of development.
Having taken care of this enemy, the Americans see it their
right to shift all its military assets to the Asia Pacific to prevent the rise
of China, as a
‘friendly measure’ to maintain peace and for the progress of the region. And all
believes that this is true and a right thing to do.
According to the top proponent of the Empire, he said that ‘China
was widely perceived in the US
and the region as behaving in unusually assertive fashion.’ The Empire needs
only think about what it perceives of others. Does the Empire ever think of
what the rest of the world perceive of its behaviour, its aggressiveness, war
mongering and assertiveness in intervention and regime change? No, doesn’t
matter, immaterial? Yes, the Empire does not care two hoots what it does and
how it is being perceived. That was exactly how the woman from the White House
felt so shock when its ambassador was killed in Libya.
How could that be? How could there be so much hatred against the Empire? Never
mind, only a passing thought. The Empire will get down to business as usual,
formenting dissent, inciting, conniving and starting wars.
Why the need for more wars? The Empire’s emissary admitted,
‘the US had done so far, moving its assets from other parts of the world to the
Asia Pacific region, had reached the end of its usefulness and that there was a
need to spend on new weapons.’ He added that the Empire ‘should maintain spending
at 3 to 4 per cent of GDP’ on new weapons. This is perhaps the most clearly
stated reason for the Empire’s action, to profit from more arms and weapons
manufacturing.
Between the two pieces of works, I find the chit chat
between two senior gentlemen having coffee and a puff, without the trappings of
power and title more enlightening that the Global Dialogue that it was called.
The stereotyping of views is so pedestrian and more like MacDonald’s hamburger
commercial.
9/22/2012
CHEATING EXPOSED BY SULTAN of Johore.
'Defence Ministry Acquisition of Rapid Intervention Vehicles Wednesday, 12 September 2012
The reprimand by the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Ismail on the acquisition of Rapid Intervention Vehicles (RIVs) at exhorbitant prices highlights the malaise in the Ministry of Defence procurement exercises
Tony Pua
On Saturday 8 September 2012, the Sultan of Johor, Sultan Ibrahim Ismail asked that “nobody should take advantage of the situation for personal gains when acquiring equipment for the Special Forces,” adding that recently four Rapid Intervention Vehicles (RIV) were purchased for RM2.76mil or RM690,000 eachby the Ministry of Defence
Sultan Ibrahim then displayed one of the RIV vehicles and another personal vehicle that he purchased for RM150,000.
“Which of these will be your choice? I do not understand why government purchases involve exorbitant charges that do not make sense,” Sultan Ibrahim, who is also a Colonel in the Special Forces, was reported to have said.
The above acquisition follows a series of controversial procurement of defence vehicles by the Ministry of Defence that have raised major question marks over whether the tax payers are getting value for their money….'
I received the above attachment in an email
that is circulating around. What I posted is only a small part of the article.
The original included purchases of helicopters, naval vessels, weapons, etc,
etc..
What is interesting is the accompanying
comment that our Brompton Bikes were chicken feat compare to the value of these
purchases. I dunno if that is something we should be proud of. What is wrong is
wrong, and there is no comfort for a pot to calling a kettle black.
This revelation by the Sultan is like the returning
of a kindness by the royalties to the govt. The royalties were shamed by the
Mahathir govt for similar accusations and now they are reciprocating the niceties
to redeem themselves.
9/21/2012
Agreeing with William Pesek
This western journalist has an article deemed worthy to be published in the Today paper yesterday, titled ‘Why outrage over islands full of goats is crazy’. He is of course referring to the tension between China and Japan. It is a little piece of wasteland, why quarrel over it and threatening to go to war? Simply foolish. At least the British were smarter to fight over the Falklands, somewhere in the Antartic, thousands of miles away from civilization. But Falkland is a bit bigger, with human beans instead of goats.
And he could envision a few Japanese being dragged into the streets in Shanghai, beaten and killed. The bigger picture could be lynching by mobs in white robes and silly conical hats, or simply gunned down like the Wild Wild West in the streets.
China and Japan should end this silly row now, he added. I fully agree with his perception of the pettiness in this quarrel. The British had long stopped quarrelling with the Americans over the North American continent. That is a very meaty piece of pie. And so have the Red Indians. They too have given up for good reasons, even for a piece of land the size of a continent. The aborigines in Australia too have given up fighting for their continent. And the Maoris too have given up fighting for New Zealand and happily sharing the islands with the Europeans. No need to fight over goat land right.
China must think big like the Europeans. If they want to fight a war, look for something big, like the Americas, or at least the Middle eastern countries, or north Africa where there are plenty of oil. That’s what the Europeans and the Americans are doing. And what is happening to Japan, trying to fight with China over a piece of rock when they were coveting for the whole of Asia at one time?
And Willaim Pesek suggested that the two countries should bring their dispute to the USA and let Obama be the broker, to divide it between them. By the way, who was the asshole who took the Chinese islands and handed it to the Japanese? And why is this asshole not coming out to explain why they did it in the first place? Remember, they wanted to return the islands to Chiang Kai Shek but that man had his hands full fighting China and told the Americans to hold it in trust till a later date.
Did the Americans, while fighting Communism, had anything to do with the handing over of the islands to Japan with the agreement that the US be allowed to build a military base on the islands? Would the Americans explain the legality of such an act, handling over another country’s territory that America was not the legal owner, to another country was not the legal owner?
And would Pesek be living happily with his neighbor for cutting away a corner of his garden for keeps sake?
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