When trust is an issue

 
When Chok Tong handed power over to Hsien Loong, the PAP govt was still smooth sailing and trust was not an issue. It was riding on its past glories and good track record. The govt had delivered a better life for most of the citizens and trust was a given. The people trusted the govt and allowed the govt to do what they did best while the people went about their lives with a certain level of contentment.
 
The trust was still there in the first few years of Hsien Loong’s premiership. Today Hsien Loong is asking the people to trust the govt. This is a tell tale sign that something is not right, or something seriously not right. The govt must have felt it. This time the feedback on how dissatisfied the people are with the govt got through. Even if the grassroot leaders are still telling only the good news, there are many other sources and events that said the sentiments of the people are not with the govt. The by elections and election for the President did not bode well for the ruling govt.
 
For a govt that thinks and believes that it is doing all the right things for the good of the people and to lose the trust of the people is a strange feeling. Either the govt is doing all the wrong things but thinking that they were the right things, or the people are just ungrateful and too demanding. It could be a mix of both.
 
So? Is Hsien Loong’s plea for trust going to be received kindly and reciprocated by the people? Or is it going to be a futile last gasp to regain the lost confidence and votes of the people? It cannot be just a plea and expecting the people to come back to give him a big hug. There must be things that went wrong that drove the people away from the PAP. And these must be put right if the support and trust are going to return.
 
What should the PAP do to win back the trust of the people? Policies and leadership are two of the main bugbears that make the people lost their trust of the PAP. The leadership today, and the leaders, are simply appalling. They don’t lead and still think they could talk down to the people with fuzzy logics and loose talks. When ministers and MPs could not explain govt policies coherently to the people, they lose the people.
 
And bad policies don’t help either. Maybe it is unfair to blame them when the policies are unacceptable to the people and cannot be explained away even by the cleverest minister. Bad policies are bad policies. Policies that don’t benefit the people or make lives more difficult will be just that. No amount of communication of fake and obtused reasonings and logics can change them.
 
the people start to trust the govt again? I think it is not so easy. The people want the govt to prove that it is worthy of trust, to deserve to be trusted again. So far no good, and getting worse by the day. The people are not saying anything. They can’t, or even if they do, is the govt and the political leaders listening or willing to listen? There is a huge gap in the meetings of minds. The govt only want to hear what it wants to hear. The people are saying things that the govt does not want to know. How can there be trust?

The govt needs to do the right thing to gain the trust of the people. And the people are the ones to decide whether it is the right thing or the wrong thing.

Make Singapore safe for Singaporeans

Another case of a foreigner, must be another talent, a talented cook, got drunk and bashed up a taxi driver, damaged a motocycle and a taxi door. He was sentenced to a miserable 2 weeks’ jail. The foreign talent, Garfield Gordon Angove III, 38, was also fined $1,000 and had to pay $3,500 to the taxi driver for assaulting him.
 
The sheepish and timid citizens are furious. The beating of these citizens by foreigners who were given the opportunity to work and make a good living by the good grace of the govt, not necessarily of the people, has gone one too far. Too many timid citizens had been beaten by foreigners and they are not going to take it quietly any longer. They are screaming for blood. They want the court to give a heavier sentence, not a miserable 2 weeks. Is this how valuable the life of a citizen of this City, just bashed them up and 2 weeks’ jail is about it, with a few thousands to pay for medical, pain and suffering as compensation? Did the sheeples shout cheap, cheap, cheap?
 
Would the govt wake up, just like the issue of discrimination against Singaporeans by foreigners for employment, and start to take the beating of citizens seriously? Would the govt protect the citizens and take a strong stand to stop this abuse of its citizens by foreigners? If so, making an example of such rogues that were given the highly prized title of foreign talents to spite the less talented locals is in order.
 
The govt should make it clear that these foreigners are here as our guests and not here to beat up the hosts. If they do so, they should be deported immediately, within 24 hours once found guilty by the courts. How can these foreign rogues be invited here to take the jobs away from the locals, enjoy our hospitality and still go about beating up the locals and get away practically scot free?
 
The people should demand that the govt they trust to protect them, protect them from bodily harm especially from the foreigners brought in by the govt, to take a tough stand against such foreigners. It is the govt’s fault for bringing these rogues in big numbers here, and to praise them sky high as talents when many are simply rubbish, rogues, crooks and cheats, to kick them out if they beat up the citizens.
 
This is the least the govt must do for the unpopular open door policy. The people did not ask to be beaten by foreigners. Kick them out if they thrashed our hospitality. This would remind the foreigners to behave and to show some respect to the owners of this City. They are guests and can be thrown out if they misbehaved. Or shall we go all the way, since we loved the foreigners so much and so eager to please them, to throw out the citizens that made foreigners unhappy to want to beat them instead?
 
Should the govt send a strong message to foreigners that this is the home of Singaporeans? Beating Sinkies as a past time is not acceptable. Or should the govt remind the Sinkies that the foreigners are their benefactors, and it is ok to be beaten by the foreigners once a while, and stop whining? Who to trust?
 
Make Singapore safe for Singaporeans, from being beaten by foreigners? Unbelieveable! Uniquely Singapore.

UMNO leaders claim that they are natives of Malaya is utter rubish.

Like Chin Peng, Lim Chin Siong was at the forefront fighting against the British Imperialist for the independence of Singapore and Malaysia. Whether he was a communist or not  is immaterial and as many suggested he should rightfully be considered a hero and one of the founding fathers of independent Singapore.

Malays were not the first arrivals in Singapore and Malaya. The Indians and the Chinese were in Singapore and Malaya long before the Malays. The Chinese and Indians came as traders or travellers for the discovery of geographical knowledge although some Indians stayed to found small Hindu states in which they did not prejudice against other races. The Chinese in the hay day of its wealthy and mighty civilization could have occupied and colonised all the lands she discovered but she did not and that reflects the true nature of benign Chinese Civilization which always respect other people or other countries big or small. The Malays who came from different parts of Indonesia, like the Bugis from Celebes, the Boyans,Mingnankerbaus and Javanese from Java and the Bataks and Achinese from Sumatra which all came later after the Chinese and the Indians on the contrary share similar aggressive traits as the barbaric White Men - The Europeans for their chieftains were no more than pirates and robbers who occupied different parts of Malaya and founded domains or enclaves and called themselve penghulus or temenggongs . There was never a Malay state until the British Imperialist came to the scene in the late eighteen century when it occupied all the lands south of Thailand and consolidated them into one political unit called Malaya for convenience of control. So to say that the Malays are sons of the soil is all rubbish and hogwash. The original natives of the peninsula south of Thailand are the Sakais who are of Mongoloid race and they came from Southern China about ten thousand years ago.

After the Second World War the British sold out the interest of the Indians and the Chinese when it granted independence to Malaya without protecting the political rights of the Sakais, the Indians and the Chinese. Of course the Indian and Chinese leaders of the time during the negotiation for independence were downright stupid and idiotic because they cared only for their own personal narrow interest and did not consider the dire consequence of not securing the political rights of the Indians and the Chinese as well as that of the natives, the aborigines.

The second set back for the Indians and the Chinese was during the negotiation for merger with Sabah and Sarawak in 1965. At the time there were not many Malays in Sabah and Sarawak. Other than the natives who are the dayaks and the Ibans there were actually more Chinese than the Malays in the two territories prior to the merger. Why were the Indian and Chinese leaders of the time outmaneuvered by the Malay leaders to deprive the Indians and Chinese of equal political rights. As a result not only the Indians and the Chinese but also the Ibans, the dayaks and others are now suffering at the mercy of the highly racist and corrupted UMNO leaders. Generally speaking the ordinary Malays are simple,kind ,sincere and decent people. It is the pseudo  Malay leaders in UMNO  who are tainted with Pakistani, Javanese and Boyanese or Bugis blood who are ultra racist and extremist  that are now creating havoc for other races.

Population White Paper Protest 5 Oct - 4pm

Press release                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                             
A little update on our forthcoming protest this weekend at Hong Lim Part (5th Oct, 4pm).                                                                                                             
To date, we have six employers participating in the job fair offering various kinds of positions. We thank them for making the efforts to employ Singaporeans first proactively. We welcome more employers to sign up with us.                       

The employers will be there by 3.30pm to set up and prepare for the job fair.                
We also managed to gather?seven brave speakers for this event. Their names are as follows:
1. Leong Sze Hian
2. Robert Teh – retiree
3. Roy Yi Ling – blogger and health? care executive
4. Ariffin – secondary school student
5. Daryl Nihility?- interior design marketing executive
6. Fatimah Akhtar – architect
7. Alex Tan – operations executive                                                                             
Gilbert Louis will also be singing two songs during the protest.Free finger food and drinks will be offered on that day.

We have printed 100,000 flyers for distribution commencing today at various MRT stations and housing areas. The CBD area will be covered as well.                             
We have order eight hundred We Want Change tee shirts and five hundred caps for sales – please support our cause by grabbing a shirt or cap. They will be sold at a affordable price for all.                                                           

We will also dedicate one hour of the 3-hour programme to a Real Conversation whereby the people can ask our panel speakers any questions they want. They should not make a speech during the session though.                                                          

There won’t be any press conference prior to the event but there will be one after the event. Reporters please email me at gilbert@transitioning.org if you need further information on our third protest against the population white paper.         

See you soon Singapore! Be the change you want happen in our country.                                                                                                                                           
Thanks & Warmest Regards,                                                                                                                                                                                                      
Gilbert Goh                                                                                                 
President                                                                  
http://www.transitioning.org/ – unemployment support services                                       

Trust is such a difficult topic to write

I have been trying very hard to write about this new sensitivity. Everyone is talking about trust, including Hsien Loong and how important it is to gain the trust of the people. Now how should I deal with this topic? Shall I talk about the distrust the people have of the govt? Shall I talk about how the govt is losing the trust of the people? Shall I talk about what the govt can do to win back the trust of the people? Or shall I talk about how the govt tried so hard to lose the trust of the people?
 
After tossing the idea around, I came back to square one. How to talk about trust with people you don’t trust? How to discuss trust with people who are lying to you with a straight face? How to believe in people, trust people when they don’t trust you and are not telling you the truth? How to trust people who are not trustworthy?
 
I give up. I think it is easier to talk to children about trust. They are so innocent and so trusting. And children don’t lie, and they did not know what is a lie, those that have yet to think and behave like lying adults. I think going to the kindergarten is the best place to talk about trust, trusting children. Unfortunately the children don’t come to my blog so it is a waste of time really, to try to write this thing call trust when trust is all about deception. Trust me only to be cheated, trust me only to be deceived.
 
How to write about trust when there is no trust, when there is nothing and no one to be trusted?