‘The police came down took our statements separately and this is what Officer Lynkamillah told me:
1. They cannot arrest Sonuvabitch because it's not in the rulebooks, despite having assaulted a girl.
2. They issued me a medical form to go to the hospital for check ups.
Best part? I HAVE TO PAY THE BILL! No compensation whatsoever.
3. I have to go down to the central police station to speak to whoever I
need to speak to in order to pursue the case IF I wanted to. Which
means at the moment there are no investigations whatsoever and they
cannot charge Sonuvabitch for anything.
4. Since Sonuvabitch holds a pink IC, the case would take about a year before anything is done.
Excuse me?
That is the biggest insult I've heard all night. I was assaulted and
nothing can be done. I put my trust in the police because I thought they
would protect a normal citizen like me. Never have I been more wrong.
The way Officer Lynkamillah was so apathetic and not the least bit
apologetic, about not being able to haul Sonuvabitch's ass to lock up,
really disappoints me.
And I quote them, "You will not be arrested if you or your friends punch Sonuvabitch back."
The above is posted by a Etterorua Red in The Real Singapore in her
post, ‘I was punched twice by some guy and police said they can’t arrest
him.’ The two girls were insulted by a stranger who made them up to be
prostituted and insulted them by taunting them for $20. She slapped him
and got punched twice. Called the police and regretted for wasting her
time.
If the police are not there to protect innocent citizens from being
beaten up, who is there to protect the citizens? Is it now a sport to
beat up Singaporeans and walk away? Just make sure it is not grievous
hurt and it will be fair game. The police will come if summoned, take
down the statements and you got to say thank you to them. You have to
pay for justice by engaging a lawyer to sue the attacker, provided you
have his particulars and the money to pursue the case. For the not so
rich Sinkies, tough.
What is happening to this City? Can the citizens feel safe any more? Can
anyone blame her for saying, ‘I have lost complete faith in humanity
and in the police?’ What do you think? Should the citizens be protected
from assault, from being beaten up?
Would we be facing a situation when the bullies would say, 'I beat so what? Sue me lah, sue me lah!'
7/15/2013
You can play the game, so can I
WASHINGTON: The United States told China in talks on Thursday it was
"very disappointed" that Beijing did not hand over US intelligence
leaker Edward Snowden when he fled to Hong Kong. (Quoted from CNA)And
elsewhere around the world people are standing up to defend Snowden. In
Germany, the Germans too are calling to defend and protect this man.
‘Demonstrators stand in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate to show their
support for US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden. (AFP/Ole Spata)
The Americans were furious. This is how it feels when another country harbours or protects your dissidents. China has been furious for too long and for too many times when the Americans snubbed them in their face by protecting and even smuggling Chinese dissidents out of China and hosting them in big publicity events in the US to embarrass China. Of course the Americans could not remember how many times they did this to China and other countries. And now they are furious over Snowden, they are feeling hurt!
This is the beginning of a game that if the Americans can play, others too can play. If the Americans can spy and snoop at other countries, conduct cyber espionage and attacking other countries computer systems, other countries too can do the same to them. American exceptionalism is now international exceptionalism. Everyone has the right to play the same game. And there will be more Snowdens and Assanges coming out of America.
America must get use to being on the receiving end from now and going forward. Just like cyber hacking, the US can hack China and China can hack at the US. It is two way traffic. The days when American can do anything to any country as it liked is over. America can no longer fly U2 spy planes over the territories of other countries to photograph whatever they fancied freely. They may be tempted to fly drones instead. But be warned that other countries can do likewise.
The world has changed and America no longer can dominate and dictate to the whole world. So, would America now hand over Chinese dissidents to China?
The Americans were furious. This is how it feels when another country harbours or protects your dissidents. China has been furious for too long and for too many times when the Americans snubbed them in their face by protecting and even smuggling Chinese dissidents out of China and hosting them in big publicity events in the US to embarrass China. Of course the Americans could not remember how many times they did this to China and other countries. And now they are furious over Snowden, they are feeling hurt!
This is the beginning of a game that if the Americans can play, others too can play. If the Americans can spy and snoop at other countries, conduct cyber espionage and attacking other countries computer systems, other countries too can do the same to them. American exceptionalism is now international exceptionalism. Everyone has the right to play the same game. And there will be more Snowdens and Assanges coming out of America.
America must get use to being on the receiving end from now and going forward. Just like cyber hacking, the US can hack China and China can hack at the US. It is two way traffic. The days when American can do anything to any country as it liked is over. America can no longer fly U2 spy planes over the territories of other countries to photograph whatever they fancied freely. They may be tempted to fly drones instead. But be warned that other countries can do likewise.
The world has changed and America no longer can dominate and dictate to the whole world. So, would America now hand over Chinese dissidents to China?
Vivian Balakrishnan: Help hold down health costs
Vivian spoke to a batch of graduating medical students about the higher
callings of medicine and the need to hold down medical costs. Though the
call is genuine it is only going to be another vain effort just like
the rising cost of properties and the general high cost of everything.
The high medical cost is something that the new graduates cannot do anything about. They are like someone caught in a high speed treadmill and unable to stop running. The high cost is partly contributed by their seniors in the profession who more or less set the standard for pricing their expertise. But they too are victims of a vicious cycle of high inflation.
Who is the culprit for high and ridiculous medical cost? The medical professionals have to foot the bills for their practices and also to earn enough to live well and with dignity. A large portion of their cost is property cost either in rentals or in acquiring the property for the practice. And property is also needed for the medical professionals to live well. In other words, the main culprit is high property prices. Who is the bugger causing high property prices?
And there is a whole lot of other prices and costs going up and passed to the consumers. The high cost of owning a few luxury cars, the expensive lifestyle and holidays etc etc will be borne by the consumers for sure. The sad part is that many consumers of medical services are the average Sinkies that barely have $10k in their savings and medical bills can come to tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.
How can medical cost be brought down? How can young medical graduates help to bring down medical cost when they have to quickly earn enough to cover their investments in the medical education and the overheads, properties for practice and living, and all the trimmings of a good life they are looking forward to? We cannot expect the doctors to live poorly can we?
What has happened to this noble profession that was once so highly regarded to one that is no different from another money making profession? Who contributed to this devious state of affair? It is easy to make such a call to keep medical cost down, or any cost down. Does the high inflationary system allow it to happen? Who is responsible for the high inflationary system?
The high medical cost is something that the new graduates cannot do anything about. They are like someone caught in a high speed treadmill and unable to stop running. The high cost is partly contributed by their seniors in the profession who more or less set the standard for pricing their expertise. But they too are victims of a vicious cycle of high inflation.
Who is the culprit for high and ridiculous medical cost? The medical professionals have to foot the bills for their practices and also to earn enough to live well and with dignity. A large portion of their cost is property cost either in rentals or in acquiring the property for the practice. And property is also needed for the medical professionals to live well. In other words, the main culprit is high property prices. Who is the bugger causing high property prices?
And there is a whole lot of other prices and costs going up and passed to the consumers. The high cost of owning a few luxury cars, the expensive lifestyle and holidays etc etc will be borne by the consumers for sure. The sad part is that many consumers of medical services are the average Sinkies that barely have $10k in their savings and medical bills can come to tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands.
How can medical cost be brought down? How can young medical graduates help to bring down medical cost when they have to quickly earn enough to cover their investments in the medical education and the overheads, properties for practice and living, and all the trimmings of a good life they are looking forward to? We cannot expect the doctors to live poorly can we?
What has happened to this noble profession that was once so highly regarded to one that is no different from another money making profession? Who contributed to this devious state of affair? It is easy to make such a call to keep medical cost down, or any cost down. Does the high inflationary system allow it to happen? Who is responsible for the high inflationary system?
Setting the agenda, calling the shot and making monkeys running around
Just when the cleaning of the hawker centre dispute was fading away,
Vivian Balakrishnan threw down the gauntlet in Parliament, calling
Sylvia Lim and Pritam Singh and the WP names and challenging them to sue
him in court. Initially some might have thought that this was the
position of a minister trying to make his mark. Then the PMO issued one
statement after another to support the stand of Vivian and confirmed
that it was the stand of the Govt to hold the WP to account for what
they said and done in the hawker centre cleaning issue. The Govt is
questioning the integrity, honesty and trustworthiness of the WP. The
Govt is taking the fight to the WP and demanding the latter to pick up
the gauntlet and do battle.
Low Thia Khiang has replied that he would not pursue this matter and have a run in with the PAP that would be time consuming, energy sapping and financially draining on the limited finance of his party. A drawn out battle is something that the WP would not want to be dragged into. They would rather continue with what they have to do to serve their constituencies and not politicking to win a battle with the time and place and agenda set by the PAP. They would want to leave the matter as it is and let the people decide whether they have done wrong or whether they are worthy to be voted in again.
The PAP has in a way decided that the WP is guilty and wanted this to be confirmed in this chosen battle, preferably in court, to be judged by the court. They are taking on the roles of judge and executioner. The WP chose to have the issue be judged by the people like in Hougang and Punggol East. Let the people be the final arbiter of who is right or wrong, or who is good or bad.
The question is how important is this issue over the other major issues that are left in the air and the many national issues that the people are unhappy about? Obviously the PAP would think that this is of paramount importance and needs to be settled. The WP may disagree and want to move on to deal with other more pressing and important matters, and would see this as simply politicking and bickering for votes.
At the recent DBS Insights Asia Conference, Hsien Loong was quoted to advise whoever governs Singapore to ‘try very hard to keep the politics clean and straight, constructive,’ and, ‘where you’re solving problems and not just slogging it out, fighting with one another’. There are two points here, keep politics clean and straight, and avoid bickering and politicking to score political points. How would these points measure up with the PAP upping the temperature on the hawker centre cleaning issue and not to let it pass and not to move on?
Low Thia Khiang has replied that he would not pursue this matter and have a run in with the PAP that would be time consuming, energy sapping and financially draining on the limited finance of his party. A drawn out battle is something that the WP would not want to be dragged into. They would rather continue with what they have to do to serve their constituencies and not politicking to win a battle with the time and place and agenda set by the PAP. They would want to leave the matter as it is and let the people decide whether they have done wrong or whether they are worthy to be voted in again.
The PAP has in a way decided that the WP is guilty and wanted this to be confirmed in this chosen battle, preferably in court, to be judged by the court. They are taking on the roles of judge and executioner. The WP chose to have the issue be judged by the people like in Hougang and Punggol East. Let the people be the final arbiter of who is right or wrong, or who is good or bad.
The question is how important is this issue over the other major issues that are left in the air and the many national issues that the people are unhappy about? Obviously the PAP would think that this is of paramount importance and needs to be settled. The WP may disagree and want to move on to deal with other more pressing and important matters, and would see this as simply politicking and bickering for votes.
At the recent DBS Insights Asia Conference, Hsien Loong was quoted to advise whoever governs Singapore to ‘try very hard to keep the politics clean and straight, constructive,’ and, ‘where you’re solving problems and not just slogging it out, fighting with one another’. There are two points here, keep politics clean and straight, and avoid bickering and politicking to score political points. How would these points measure up with the PAP upping the temperature on the hawker centre cleaning issue and not to let it pass and not to move on?
7/14/2013
Politics is about power
In PS 101 the wet behind the ear political science students will be going everywhere talking about power in politics. Power is everything in politics. First year students will be made to think so as that was the first book on politics that they would be reading. And that would probably be their first assignment to submit.
As one progresses through the course, he would find that politics is about power but also about many other things. Any political leader that believes only in power will end up as a dictator, often a ruthless one who only thinks of himself and the power he wields. Familiar names like Marcos, Hitler, Mussolini, kings and military junta everywhere, all ruled for power and for their self preservation. The people are secondary or far down the line of importance.
Politics is about the well being of the people, the citizens of the country, not just about power and non citizens, not about the well beings of foreigners, not just about the existence of a state at the expense of its citizens.
When naïve political leaders got the formula wrong, thinking that politics is about power, about self preservation, about vested interests, about the well beings of foreigners, it is about time the people abandon ship and start to think of their own interest and own good.
Political leaders are like a ship and the people the water that keeps it afloat. The water can support the ship and sink the ship if they wanted to. Make no mistake about it. Political leaders that think they are there for the power to rule the people are in the wrong place and for the wrong reasons. Western democracy is afraid of the politics of power and has built in mechanisms to prevent the domination, control and abuse of power by political rulers.
One man one vote, 4 or 5 year term of office, limitation of tenure of the Chief Executive to two terms in office, separation of power, rule of law, the constitution etc etc, are all created to curb the power of power crazy politicians whose main interest is political power and monopoly of power.
PS101 and the politics of power is only a small part of politics. The political science students will go on to learn about different political philosophies, about govt, public administration, national interests, development economics, about benevolent leadership, about the well being of the people, about distribution of wealth, about jobs and the economy and a whole lot of other things. By the end of the course, a political science student would have all but forgotten about the politics of power unless his ambition is to be a dictator. And there will still be those who are obsessed with power and power is their only reason to be in politics.
No, politics is about people. No it is not about the people but about the citizens, the well being of its citizens. I must admit that this assertion about what is politics is youthful idealism bordering on being naive.
Vivian is right. In realpolitik, it is about power, about the contest for power and nothing else.
As one progresses through the course, he would find that politics is about power but also about many other things. Any political leader that believes only in power will end up as a dictator, often a ruthless one who only thinks of himself and the power he wields. Familiar names like Marcos, Hitler, Mussolini, kings and military junta everywhere, all ruled for power and for their self preservation. The people are secondary or far down the line of importance.
Politics is about the well being of the people, the citizens of the country, not just about power and non citizens, not about the well beings of foreigners, not just about the existence of a state at the expense of its citizens.
When naïve political leaders got the formula wrong, thinking that politics is about power, about self preservation, about vested interests, about the well beings of foreigners, it is about time the people abandon ship and start to think of their own interest and own good.
Political leaders are like a ship and the people the water that keeps it afloat. The water can support the ship and sink the ship if they wanted to. Make no mistake about it. Political leaders that think they are there for the power to rule the people are in the wrong place and for the wrong reasons. Western democracy is afraid of the politics of power and has built in mechanisms to prevent the domination, control and abuse of power by political rulers.
One man one vote, 4 or 5 year term of office, limitation of tenure of the Chief Executive to two terms in office, separation of power, rule of law, the constitution etc etc, are all created to curb the power of power crazy politicians whose main interest is political power and monopoly of power.
PS101 and the politics of power is only a small part of politics. The political science students will go on to learn about different political philosophies, about govt, public administration, national interests, development economics, about benevolent leadership, about the well being of the people, about distribution of wealth, about jobs and the economy and a whole lot of other things. By the end of the course, a political science student would have all but forgotten about the politics of power unless his ambition is to be a dictator. And there will still be those who are obsessed with power and power is their only reason to be in politics.
No, politics is about people. No it is not about the people but about the citizens, the well being of its citizens. I must admit that this assertion about what is politics is youthful idealism bordering on being naive.
Vivian is right. In realpolitik, it is about power, about the contest for power and nothing else.
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