Send them home

The police have completed their investigation and 28 foreign workers had been charged in court for rioting. Another 53 are waiting for deportation. Some were given warnings. This is the end of the first chapter of this nasty incident. Hopefully there is no need to open a few more chapters and followed by a sequel. The accident that caused the death of the foreign worker by a bus is still under investigation and this would ensure the story would not end just yet.
 
There were comments that our laws may not have been fair for not giving the foreign workers due for deportation a fair hearing. But our laws do not provide that comfort. The arrival of foreigners to work here is on their free will, like someone accepting a job offer voluntarily. The owner of this land has the same right to ask the foreigner to leave without the need to give a reason, or like an employee resigning from a company without the need to give a reason.
 
Under the Immigration Act, we do have a provision ‘that someone has acted contrary to our interest or public security or safety, to ask them to leave.’ Throwing the book to the foreign workers may appear to be harsh as these are people from different countries, different culture and different socio economic background. They could be behaving normally as rioting is normal to them in their country. But this does not mean that we have to accept their normal and to tolerate their wildness and lawlessness. They have to accept what is normal to us, to be civilized, to learn what modernity is all about and the social norms of a developed country. We must not go down to their level.
 
This also does not imply that people in developed countries, like ours or the west, would not behave like animals. The aggressive and boorish behaviour of some foreigners that are in the PME levels have been in display many times, with Sinkies on the receiving end. The Law Minister should make use of this same Immigration Act to send those unruly and uncouth animals home as well. We must apply the Act fairly across the spectrum of people regardless of their income and appointments.
 
Send them home if they are nasty to Sinkies. This is our right ya? We need to make an example out of some foreigners that think they own this country. Start by sending the cyclist in Vivo City home. No reason is needed. That will send a message to the hooligans in suits that they are also hooligans and will be dealt with like hooligans. We do not have to live with monkeys.

US gangster behaviour in the South China Sea and the PACIFIC OCEAN

Communication key to avoid sea incidents

Global Times | 2013-12-16 0:43:01 By Global Times

Share on twitter Share on facebook Share on sinaweibo Share on linkedin More Sharing Services 2  E-mail   Print

The US media has reported, citing sources from the American military, that on December 5 the Cowpens, a US guided missile cruiser, was forced to take evasive action to avoid a collision with a Chinese warship when the Cowpens was near the Liaoning aircraft carrier in the South China Sea.

Anonymous sources from the US side called it a "dangerous maneuver" and said the US has made protests to China through diplomatic and military means. A statement issued by the US Pacific Fleet said that the State Department has taken the issue up with China and thinks the acts of both "not uncommon." As of last night, the Chinese military has not responded. This is not the first time that Chinese and American warships have confronted each other in the South China Sea. Airborne confrontations have also occurred often.

It is a fact that China has already announced three regions in the South China Sea as its military areas. The outside world knows that they are used for scientific research and training of the Liaoning aircraft carrier. Meanwhile, many areas in the South China Sea are China's exclusive economic zones. Clearly, the US missile cruiser has come to China's threshold and posed a threat to China's military security.

If the American navy and air force always encroach near China's doorstep, "confrontation" is bound to take place. In 2001, the collision between an American spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet was such an accident resulting from constant confrontation between the two.

The US side demands the Chinese navy and air force abide by "rules." Such rules are only served at American convenience to conduct inspections and show off its military strength. They do not belong to international laws. With its overall strength as the backing, the US forces the world to abide by them.

But the US should not go too far. Especially, it should show respect for China's legal interests and concerns for its own security and should not harm China's security at will.

We don't think the South China Sea is a stage where the US 7th Fleet flaunts its prowess. We try to avoid friction because we wish for a new type of major power relationship with the US rather than being pressured by this fleet.

The China-US crisis management system should be based on past rules on the one hand. On the other hand, China should also participate in rule-making. American leaders have welcomed China's peaceful rise, but they didn't actually respect the fact that as China's interests expand and its strength increases, its concern for security also deepens.

As China's strength grows, the US should learn to communicate with and respect China if it doesn't want a collision on the sea or in the air.

China should speed up empowering itself. Only when the US feels China is a well-matched adversary, will it deal with China in a reasonable way. China is trying to avoid friction with the US. But it should also be firm about safeguarding its own interests.

This has nothing to do with the "China threat" theory. Only when the world acknowledges China's deterrence, could the South and East China Seas stay in peace. We will bear every risk involved in this process.

Samurai in the train

A man or was it a boy, dressed up in a samurai attire complete with a samurai sword boarded a train in Paya Lebar and went to town. Some passengers were wondering if he was involved in some cosplay event until he unshielded his sword which looked very real. Then panic struck.
 
Apparently the men jumped over the gate at Paya Lebar station and the MRT staff alerted the police. Inside the train the passengers kept a safe distance from the man while the police stood in front to protect them. After the man left the train, the police went into pursuit and eventually arrested him after a struggle. Presumably the man was of unsound mind at this moment.
 
There is a photo of the man in the train in the ST. His face and hand were blurred, very likely he is a juvenile and there is a need to protect his identity. It cannot be a case of the media protecting a potentially dangerous criminal or too shy to show who he was.. It is a practice to protect the identity of young people caught in violation of the law. This guy must be very young. It is so thoughtful of the media.

Crooked bridge and crooked expressway

When Mahathir insisted on building his crooked bridge everyone had a good laugh. For whatever crazy reasons, he wanted to demolish a land bridge in the form of a solid causeway just to build a bridge in its place, presumably more efficient in that way and awe inspiring. Fortunately the Malaysian govt had the commonsense not to believe him and his crooked bridge.

How can a bridge be more efficient that a piece of land with relatively little maintenance and could easily be expanded to take in more load? How could a straight causeway, with shorter distance to travel be less effective than a crooked bridge with more distance to cover and high in the air? And there would be the cost of demolition and relocation cost of the causeway and the water pipes and all the businesses in JB town to account for.

While the crooked bridge is now history, Singapore has built a crooked expressway in Marina South and capped with an undersea tunnel and earning the accolade of being the most expensive stretch of road on earth. While Mahathir failed to get his pet project off the ground, Singapore got its pet project underground and under the sea.

In many ways, the crooked bridge and the crooked expressway have a lot of similarities. Cost is definitely one. A simple surface road plus a bridge could be much cheaper than the elaborate and highly geared tunnel with so many electrical and safety gadgets attached to it. And it is crooked, and its existence led to a stretch of ECP being chopped off. The trade off is a bigger piece of land to build more highrise buildings. Driving through a straight expressway from Tanjong Pagar to Fort Road must be faster and more economical on fuel and tyre wear for sure. Could a straight tunnel work and still create additional space?

Suffice to note these similarities, and there are many more that are obvious to everyone. Both are state of the art engineering feats, and monuments of achievements for whoever desired them, a legacy of sort.

And one thing for sure, the crooked bridge and crooked expressway would cost the users that much more in tolls to be paid and time to travel for the unnecessary distance added on. To the masterminds of these two projects, there must be great reasons and benefits to build them crooked instead of straight. Crooked is definite better than straight in both cases.

1.1m foreign workers, not 500k

In a Bloomberg report today, it is stated that the number of foreign workers here is 1.1m and not 500k. In the same report it quoted Chuan Jin as saying that the govt is slowing down the number of foreign worker intake in view of the riot in Little India.
This change in policy would invite criticism from the same bunch of idiots accusing Singapore of racism, discrimination and exploitation of foreign workers. Now when lesser workers are allowed, they will change their tune and would demand that more workers be allowed to work here. These double headed snakes would always have their say, that Singapore owes them a living but they could not do anything to provide better jobs and decent standard of living for their fellowmen in their own dastard countries.
 
1.1m or 500k is still too big a number for a highly densely populated island to absorb. And the risk of rioting, in bigger number, is always there. With more than 1m of them here, there will be 1m reason to trigger a riot. With 500k, there will be 500k reasons to do the same.
 
Are our police prepared and equipped to deal with a mob of 50,000 on the street? Do we have the manpower, equipment and resources to be mobilized when there is an outbreak of violence? How many men will be needed to quell such an unrest? It only takes 20 minutes to set the city and the housing estates ablaze. It is not easy to mobilize so many uniform men to take on such an urgent task even if this is carefully planned and with many drills conducted to get the men ready. I have not seen such an exercise carried out in a scale that may be warranted one day.
 
We have been playing with fire for so long and getting away with it through our good fortune. After the Little India Riot, the reality of such an eventuality is getting very real and the risk that much higher. As of today, if a massive riot occurs, I am very pessimistic of the outcome. I don’t think our police are ready for it. And the likelihood is that they would not have enough troops on the ground and a joint operation with the support of the military must be in order.
 
How fast can the govt mobilize enough men in a short span of time to deal with a major unrest is a big question. The root of the problem is the big number of foreign workers in our midst. Would we get away a second time with minimal life lost, injured or equipment and buildings razed?
 
Oh, it is an isolated incident that would happen once in 50 years. Not to worry. The next one will be another 50 year.