Chin Peng, a commentary from an armchair expert

It is so easy to make comments on another historical figure with a little knowledge of the person and events. It is even easier to selectively choose information to fit into a construct that one chose to use. Chin Peng was a hero, Chin Peng was a freedom fighter, Chin Peng was a terrorist, a fanatic, a simpleton or a genius. Just take your pick. I can choose any one of these tags to write a story on Chin Peng and it would sound even more credible if I called myself an expert, a professor or add a Ph D behind my name.  Let me just give my 2 cents worth of what I know of this man from the history books, news and some self proclaimed expert knowledge on this man.
 
Chin Peng and his comrades were anti Japanese fighter first and foremost. In the 1940s, the timing and years are important as they defined who and what of a man he was. Both Singapore and Malaya were British colonies, not countries. No citizenship or rights of citizenship for the likes of Chin Peng. Their loyalty was to the Chinese civilization and an ancient China. They were also British subjects if I am not mistaken for being in Malaya.
 
There was a war of aggression in China conducted by the Japanese. Chin Peng fought under the Malayan People’s Anti Japanese Army. They were also part of Force 136 supported by and supporting the British. They were fighting on the side of the British when the Japanese invaded Malaya and Singapore. Up to this point Chin Peng and his men/women were on the right side of history, fighting an aggressor, the Japanese. He was a war hero and awarded the OBE by the British Empire. His men paraded at our Padang in a victory parade. His OBE was withdrawn when he took the side of the communist to fight an anti colonial war against the British. Chin Peng was a good man turned bad for fighting the British. If one is a member of the British Empire, Chin Peng was bad. If one was anti colonialism, Chin Peng was a patriot.
 
Communism in the early 1930s and 40s was favoured by the revolutionary Chinese over the corrupt Chinese Nationalist Party, the KMT. Chin Peng was a communist, so was bad and on the wrong side. He was good in the history books of CCP. How one looks at Chin Peng would depend on one’s political inclination.
 
The Malayan Emergency was not a war of terrorism but a war against the colonial master. Remember, 1948, Malaya was a British colony. The natives could be fighting for their freedom from colonial rule as well. Some fought, some chose to live with the colonial master, some simply did nothing, and some worked and conspired with the British against the CPM.
 
When the British outlawed the Labour Movement and started to arrest the communist elements, the MPAJA was changed to MPABA, an anti British Army. This was subsequently changed to the Malayan Peoples Liberation Army fighting for the independence of Malaya from the British Empire.
 
History would look at Chin Peng differently if they had won and gained independence for Malaya from the British. They lost that war and signed a truce in 1955 in Baling. Malaya only gained independence from the British in 1957. The CPM withdrew to the Thai Malayan border and kept a low profile. The fact that a Thai Princess and many Thai generals paid their last respect to Chin Peng spoke of a close and friendly working relationship between them, and that Chin Peng was not a nuisance or menace to Thailand. They regarded him as a friend.
 
Chin Peng was kept away from Malaysia more because of domestic political reasons than for his revolutionary past. He could have been welcomed back as a nationalist, a hero if he was a bumiputra. He was a soldier, nothing more and nothing less. For some joker armchair critics to put him in the same league as terrorists and the bombing of America is simply a wild and cheap shot. Ever since the end of the Malayan Emergency, Chin Peng and his men lived peacefully in Thailand and probably became Thai citizens.
 
These are my comments on this historical figure of the twentieth century, one of the last survivors of those turbulent times.

Gan Kim Yong learning well from Japan

Gan Kim Yong and his teams of officials from the Health and Housing ministries have returned from their fact finding and learning mission in Japan on ageing problems. He has learnt well, many times better than Boon Heng. In yesterday’s ST he has already came out with a list of innovative initiatives learnt from Japan for implementation. He is also setting up a committee to look deeper into the ageing population problems.
 
Among the things that the team has learnt for implementations are:
 
1. A need for support services during working hours when the young are at work. Also in cases of oldies living alone, night services are also needed.
2. Medical practitioners and polyclinics should be located near the ageing population.
3. Employ the elderly, and retirement age should be raised to 67. Only the Japanese could come up with such a clever idea. Didn’t we been employing people up to 90 and onwards?
4. Need for home care and more nursing homes as our population ages. Dunno if these facilities are provided free.
5. More support to caregivers, probably salary increases.
 
The govt should send more such study trips to learn from other countries to make life better for Singaporeans. They have forgotten to send Chuan Jin and the NTUC officials to study how other countries are handling their foreign workers and immigrant problems and if foreigners were discriminating their citizens how to deal with such problems. Maybe after such an enlightening trip the MOM could introduce more effective measures or at least get enlightened.
 
Money well spent for sure, every cent of it.

Mah Bow Tan, poor thing

The thread on Mah Bow Tan in TRE is getting quite a review of the wrong kind. It was about Mah Bow Tan’s interview by Sin Min on his stepping down as a minister. Mah Bow Tan said he had given his best years to public service and it was time to make way for a better man, in Khaw Boon Wan, to take over the MND ministry.
 
Why were the comments on Mah Bow Tan so negative? He had done extremely well during his tenure in Housing and Transport. The transportation problem was nothing with SMRT running smoothly and efficiently with the woman in charge, and chalking up millions in profits every year. There were hardly any breakdowns or disruptions of services. COE prices were quite low. Look at the price of COE now, $80K+. It would not have gone up so high if Mah Bow Tan is still in charge. And SMRT would not experience so many breakdowns.
 
And housing was anything but affordable. There were some complaints but overall housing prices were affordable compare to the prices now. And Khaw has to ramp up the building programmes to meet the unstoppable demands. Looks like Khaw is not doing much better.
 
And the truth is that he was still the man to anchor his Tampines GRC team to victory. This showed that he was any time better and more popular than George Yeo, and has good ground support.
 
The views in TRE are a distortion of the truth. If Khaw Boon Wan cannot bring down housing prices to more affordable levels, Mah Bow Tan could make a come back to do what he knew best, making housing prices affordable again. Since Khaw Boon Wan took over, there seemed to be so many housing problems when there was none. The daft Sinkies just do not know how to appreciate the great contributions of Mah Bow Tan and are simply ungrateful and disgraceful.
 
Poor thing.Hsien Loong should give him a public star in the next National Day.

Halimah Yacob has spoken – more drastic measures if…

 Halimah is the next most senior politician after Chuan Jin to have spoken about the need to hire Singaporeans instead of replacing them with rubbish foreigners. She is coaxing the employers to take note of the govt’s intent towards this new policy and to act or face more drastic measures coming their way. She also asked the NTUC to be the watchdog, to monitor the situation and to squeal on the recalcitrant employers.
 
These are the right things to say given the unforgiving mood of hurt Sinkies and their hurt pocket and pride. The anger is bursting and the noise of discontent is getting louder, thanks to the internet. You don’t hear such things in the main media. Maybe the other half of Sinkies of the main media genre are very happy and comfortable with the situation and thus do not know what the fuzz is all about. The people are all very happy getting rich. No problem at all.
 
Halimah is not exactly a minister to step into this fiasco to highlight the flaws in this foreign talent nonsense, at least she carries some weight. Are the rest of the ministers in agreement with Chuan Jin and Halimah to want to support this change? Relatively we have a new and junior minister in Chuan Jin and a Speaker of the House talking about the issue. What signal is the govt sending to the employers, that this is a serious or not really that serious issue? Is this just a wayang to appease the Sinkies and not to ruffle the feathers of the employers?
 
Halimah has missed out one big employer that she has all the muscle to exert some pressure to do the right thing. She can tell the civil service, stats board and of course the GLCs to make the first move. Reading the comments in TRE, she may want to start off with DBS. The govt can issue directives to support this policy. Failing to do so will be seen as NATO.
 
When is the govt going to do something concrete and not just talk only? Or would the govt really act on this?

Singapore about to introduce a ‘living tax’

It is still work in progress, but Hsien Loong had spoken about it at the National Day Rally and he has recently confirmed it during the Ask the PM live TV chat show. This ‘living tax’, where every living citizen will have to pay for being alive is going to be implemented very soon. Only the details have yet to be finalised. From what was said, from a baby to the oldies, everyone pays. It is a kind of tax from cradle to grave!

Oh, you have not heard about it. I am telling you now, it is not called a tax and not really a tax. It is called Medishield Life, just like the CPF Minimum Sum Schemes, they are also not called tax. To be exact, it is called Medishield Life Insurance Scheme for everyone, young and old, sick or healthy, no one will be missed. It is compulsory! It is as good as till death do we part. And very likely from the very moment when a child is born. I am waiting to hear the angels sing. One can choose to buy or not to buy an insurance policy. One can choose to adapt a healthy lifestyle to avoid being robbed by the medical professionals. This one there is no such option. Healthy or sick, you pay. If it is not a tax, what is it? You tell me.

The GST is a very regressive tax where the poor actually pay more as a percentage of their income. Even those without an income have to pay the GST as long as one has to consume goods and services. But compares to the Medishield Life, GST is nothing, or at least one can be selective and opt out. One can eat or consume less or not consuming at all to avoid paying GST. In the case of Medishield Life, there is no escape.

Now the little problem is what would the govt do to those who really cannot pay and do not have any minimum sum locked up in their CPF to be carved away? A legalised compulsory scheme imposing on the people to pay means that not paying is an offence. It must be. Hsien Loong has mentioned about peer pressure, making your neighbours or families or friends know that you did not pay your dues, a way of shaming one in public. Would the expertise of Ah Long runners be called upon for this? Would the full force of the law be applied, with policemen knocking at your door for not paying? The evil is in the details, so they say. Wait for the details. Many are so happy about this comprehensive ‘cover all’ insurance scheme and earnestly waiting for it to be implemented. So it must be a good thing.

Poor Sinkies are going to incur another unwarranted and unwanted cost of living expenses imposed on them by the caring and paternalistic govt. The govt is very foresighted and always been thinking of how to take good care of the people, and with the people paying for whatever schemes the govt can think of. It knows the people are over reliant on the govt.

The foreigners need not have to pay for this living tax for sure. The non citizens, not sure about the PRs, are not so lucky and will not be affected. And if PRs are affected, their children and dependents who are not PRs would definitely not be affected. Heheh, being citizens has its privileges, to pay another tax.

With such a comprehensive and all encompassing scheme that makes every living citizen pays, at $1k per citizen, it will be $3.3b added to the GDP I think. If PRs were to be added, that is another 540m annually. With an unthinking population over reliant on the govt to think and plan for them, it is so easy to generate this kind of money with very little effort but a stroke of the pen. There is no need to waste time and effort selling the product. It’s a done deal and a very lucrative one. A super extraordinary salesman and his super product, exceptional talent!

Would there be a political price to pay for this living tax?  Oops, I mean compulsory Medishield Life Insurance Scheme for all citizens, or is it for locals only? One thing for sure, the cost of living of the people, especially the lower income and the ‘no income’ will just become more unbearable or simply unbearable and unaffordable.

Thank God you are alive and have the good fortune and privilege to pay for this ‘living tax’. Is this a blessing or a curse?