The National Celebration

The national football team won the Suzuki Cup for the 4^th time, beating Thailand who was also vying for a fourth time victory. It was a big victory, something similar to the medals the table tennis team won in the Olympics. It was also cause for a national celebration.

The victories of the two teams have many things in common.  Both were great sporting achievements for the country, with imported players. The table tennis team was nearly a complete foreign talent team. The football team was regulated and the number of foreign players was restricted. One cannot help but to notice the foreign faces all over, including the coach. After so many years of foreign coaches, some are begging for the coach to stay on as there was no local talent coach available, trained and prepared to take over the national team when the current coach leaves. In terms of coaches, the table tennis team is looking more like a total dependency on foreign talents.

The other big similarity was the victory tours. Both teams were paraded in some parts of the city with autograph and photo taking sessions. Both were touted as big national events. There were great expectations of the citizens flooding the streets to welcome the heroes and heroines. There were reports of a national celebration, trophies to bring Singaporeans together, to make Singaporeans proud.

I was not in any of the celebrations. Based on the media, the celebrations were more muted, attended by a few diehard fans. There was no spontaneous outburst of joy that the country and its citizens have achieved greatness in the sporting fields. Whatever celebrations they seemed to have fizzled out in double quick time. There were no street parties or overnight parties happening across the island. Not many people even bother to talk about it.

Should Singaporeans rally to such successes and feel proud to be Singaporeans that Singaporeans can be world beaters?

Medical fees for the seniors in Hongkong

‘…in HK everybody enjoys virtually free medical benefits. This is especially worthwhile for seniors who have more needs to see a doctor. In HK, all government hospitals charge a maximum of only HK$100 = S$16 for the treatment of any disease inclusive of all medicines, regardless of how many times the patient has to come back to see the doctor. …’

This is an extract from an article by AFP on the benefits of growing old in Hongkong. One of the biggest bug bear of ageing is medical fee. And if I read the article right, ‘everybody enjoys virtually free medical benefits’ in HK, not free totally but the cost must be quite minimal compares to what Sinkies are paying in our public hospitals. And $16 for the seniors, inclusive of medicine is a steal. And there is no mean testing to see who gets what or how much difference must be the subsidies. They are not that mean and petty.

Hongkong is very similar in nature to Sin City in many ways, including standard of living, cost of living and even taxation. Why shouldn’t our govt use the HK medical model to structure our medical services, particularly the fees for citizens and senior citizens? Why is it that HK can afford such medical benefits for its citizens and we cannot despite the billions or maybe trillions of reserves that we boast about? And the subsidies for medical services must be quite enormous for the HK Govt to bear, and the best part, it is not going bankrupt for providing them.

In the same article it was suggested that the cost savings by the HK Govt is that they don’t pay their politicians and civil servants ‘out of this world’ salary. And they too are not corrupt, quite as corruption free as Sin Govt. Should Sin Govt learn from HK Govt or vice versa, to provide good quality medical services to the citizens at very reasonable cost, but not very affordable cost? Is the quality of the medical service in HK much lower than that in Sin or comparable while the cost to the HK people is really peanuts?

The most frightening thing in Sin today is to fall sick, young or old. Many will be facing bankruptcy even with Medisave and Medishield unless one is very well provided with private insurance to end up paying less than $10 for a major op.

Punggol East a circus or a walkover

The news today, 5 parties will be contesting the Punggol East SMC when the by election is called. The parties announcing to be in the contest are WP, SDA, SDP and Reform Party, and the incumbent party PAP. The news is immediately met with a roar of ludicrity. Four opposition parties competing against each other and against the PAP would be as silly as it could be. The Presidential Election did not seem to teach any of the parties any thing.

In a tight contest of one versus one, any opposition party would still be in a tough position to think of winning. Are the parties real, in announcing that they all want to be in, for what? Are they thinking of a circus for entertainment or are they serious in thinking of winning and dislodging the PAP from Punggol East? At face value, it is just too clownish to be true except for SDA.

The other possibility is that Zhuge Liang is at work again. It is as real and as unreal. Everyone will be kept guessing. PAP will be kept guessing as well. Only on Nomination Day will the truth be out as to the number of parties will be contesting. Let’s hope reasons will prevail and sensibility will be the order of the day.

Yawning Bread thinking aloud on by election candidate

Yawning Bread did a bit of introspection as to the problem facing the PAP in finding a suitable candidate for the Punggol East by election. He ruled out Ong Ye Kung and Desmond Choo as possible candidates for obvious reasons. One has left politics and one a two time loser in Hougang. It is going to drain on him emotionally and psychologically to stand up in an election with so much controversies and negativities.

But there must be many candidates in the PAP’s reserved list. One thing for sure, the new candidate is likely to be put under the finest comb to be whiter than white, and more proper than a priest or a nun. And very likely, the candidate would have to declare in public that there is no misconduct in his record, in the past or in the future. The demand for such a candidate is going to be very stringent and PAP cannot be found not to have done its job in making a thorough screening for any flaws that could surface during and after the by election.

I can imagine the PM or DPM standing on stage to guarantee the moral virtues and integrity of the chosen candidate. It must be the most perfect candidate the PAP has ever put up for an election. The voters can be assured of a very fine and flawless candidate to serve them.

The opposition must take note of this and may have to offer another equally flawless candidate this time round. They had the experience of Hougang and should find this a familiar situation.

High COE will lead to higher cost of living

The equation is straight and simple. When a car or van is costing double, the operating cost will go up accordingly. Any business that needs the use of cars and vans, including taxis, not sure about school buses, will simply have to raise their cost. The hawkers and foodcourt operators that need to move their goods and raw material, or the suppliers, will have to incur the additional cost, and these will conveniently be passed down to the consumers, the lowest feeder in the hierarchy of existence.

Don’t think high COE just affects those who want to own cars. It affects everyone, every business, directly or indirectly. Of course those who need a car will be hit most and some will be hit earlier when their COE expire. Some are hoping that it will not happen too fast, but the clock is ticking and the old car they are holding to will be history as days gone by. And the real crunch will hit them hard. Many would have to readjust, a new lifestyle, and the buses and MRTs will have higher loads, and more crams again.