Baey Yam Keng - a startling revelation

Was it a Freudian slip or was it a well crafted revelation to serve a specific agenda, this was what Baey said at the Young Guns forum on 29 Jan 14. ‘I am 100 per cent sure that not everyone is a PAP member. I’m very sure there are people who voted for opposition. And you have to take my word for that because I know more than you on CCC.
 
What a revelation! What was the intent and purpose for saying this? Was Baey trying to say he is very well informed, or was he bragging that he knows a lot of things? Or was it just a slip of the moment that he got carried away and said something he shouldn’t be saying?
 
Did Baey revealed anything? How was he to know that CCC members voted for the opposition? The vote is a secret right? I think I know the answer. The CCC members who voted for the opposition told him personally. Or maybe the CCC members told other CCC members and they told Baey. It must be like that. There is no other official means to know who voted for the opposition, unless there are things that I dunno as a layman. Layman does not know many things, they are simple minded people and will take everything at face value. Tiok boh?

Japan is up to mischief again

After being defeated in WW2 and suffering from two Atomic bombs for its aggressive invasion of its neighbours and trying to conquer and rule South East Asia, Japan has not learnt its lessons on wars. It is stirring up tension and trying to create misgivings among the countries in the region with misinformation. In its latest attempt it falsely reported that China was trying to introduce another ADIZ in the South China Sea. By saying so, it is sowing discord between China and the South East Asian neighbours.
 
What the Japanese are doing today is more dangerous than in the Second World War. Then it was more or less fighting the war alone after dividing the world and areas of control with the Nazis in Germany. It was ambitious enough to want to rule the whole of East Asia and South East Asia. Today it is joining forces with the Americans in its renewed attempt to be the top regional power of the region. And in this announcement the Americans are happily joining in to warn China of declaring an ADIZ in the region. The arrogant Americans take pleasure to warn every country they so choose as their right as the evil Empire. The Americans knew that it was a lie fabricated by the Japanese but jumped on it as an excuse to threaten China. An upmanship to tell the world it can still do so to any country and with the implied threat of a military attack.
 
China is not going to accept being bullied by the Americans any more. It could use the opportunity to defy the Americans and impose an ADIZ and see what the Americans are going to do about it. However, China has a bigger interest in forging a closer relation with the South East Asian countries and would not want to make such a move to give the Japanese and the Americans an advantage in crying wolf.
 
The East China Sea ADIZ is a necessary move as Japan and the Americans posed an immediate danger to China’s security and a threat of an air strike. Japan also has an ADIZ stretching to the Chinese coast. It was thus a tit for tat move directed against the Japanese. The South East Asian countries do not pose any threat to China except a few irritations from the Philippines and Vietnam. Both can easily be dealt with by a cane. And both would behave without the American gangsters provoking them from behind.
 
Japan is raring its hostile intent all over again and is reckless, without a care on the consequences of inciting a war with China. They have no regards to how destructive a war today would be, with Japan’s major cities flatten and gone up in smokes should it escalate into a nuclear war. This is how preposterous and crazy the Japanese are in the pursuit of their wild imperialist ambition, to be the Number One military power in the region.
 
Japan is willing to risk the total annihilation of its country and people. The right wing militant group is simply mad to think that war with China is an option, a tea party.
China rightfully replied sternly that it would “‘respond effectively to any provocation’ that risked disrupting order in East Asia.” China must make it very clear that it would go to war with Japan and the Americans if provoked in order to keep them away from adventurism. The two gangsters are very trigger happy and the use of military force to advance their national goals is in their blood.
 
The countries of the world, particularly in South East Asia, should not be a party to this madness. They only have to lose, to be dragged into a very destructive war, and nothing to gain from an open military conflict.
 
The wild military ambition of the mad Japanese must be stopped in its path now. America must be told off to stop agitating and inciting war in the region.

Low cost engineering the way to go

We need more top academics to endorse the virtues of low cost engineering to restructure our universities and economic strategies for growth. Recently there was a professor from NTU making very positive views on the superiority of India in low cost engineering. And reading between the lines, NTU may be considering introducing low cost engineering courses to produce engineers that are experts in this area.

With Singapore unable or finding it challenging to compete in anything of substance and quality, low cost engineering may be the way to go. We could tap into India’s low cost labour and production methods in low cost engineering to produce goods that can be marketed with a price advantage. The Tata Nano is an excellent car for our market given the smallness in size. There is really no need for super cars with super price tags as they would run out of roads by the time they squeezed into third gear. A cheap Nano is exactly what we need for a small city and buzzing from the HDB flats to the market or neighbourhood shops.

A Nano cost only US$8K. With the high COE prices, a Nano could still be priced below $90K. Quality should not be an issue. The reports by BBC that ‘Five of India's most popular small cars have failed crash tests conducted by a UK-based car safety watchdog’ should be no cost for alarm. The cars tested included models made in India by Ford, Volkswagen and Hyundai. For the price you can’t be expecting German quality right?
 
The cars could only be made cheaply by some cost cutting like stripping some safety features. There is a price for everything, A good quality car cannot be cheap. One cannot be dreaming of all the safety features and quality parts when one is buying low cost cars manufactured using low cost engineering and labour. There is a market for such low cost products. Not everyone can afford a few hundred thousands for an European or Japanese or even Korean made cars.
 
It is all about practicality and being realistic in the consumers’ expectation. Low cost engineering, low cost labour and low cost products can find its low niche even in an expensive first world city. We only need to have quality products and services in politics and govts. The rest of the industries can offer a range, from the best to the lowest cost products.
 
The only consideration is whether Singaporeans could cope with the income if they are trained in low cost engineering, producing low cost products and drawing low cost salary. For the super talents, there are many, some are thumping their chests to open up the economy to foreigners as they feel confident enough to take on the best in the world, they can continue to compete in the higher end jobs. Many would not even mind competing with fakes as they know that they are really good and fakes or foreign talents are no match for them. They will survive under all circumstances even outperforming cheats and fakes.
 
For the normal average Sinkies, they should lower their expectations and embrace low cost engineering as a new opportunity. With CECA they can become expats in India and compete with the brilliant Indian low cost engineers for jobs there. India is a continent and there should be no problem finding a job there.
 
We have been encouraging our people to downgrade, from housing, jobs and homes. So it is normal to downgrade our pursuit of knowledge from high tech to low cost engineering, from producing high quality goods and services to low quality engineering stuff. Never mind if we move from 1st World to 3rd World. We are nearly there. A low cost manufacturing hub.

Kopi level - Yellow

HDB – what a pleasant gesture

It is a nice feeling to read something in the news that brings a smile on your face. A HDB parking ticket stuck on the windscreen spelt trouble or money blown away. Jocelyn Loh had such a ticket on Saturday on her windscreen and her CNY mood crumbled immediately. How much would she have to pay for visiting her newborn nephew during the CNY season? It was a double happiness affair!
 
To her pleasant surprise there was a little note scribbled on the parking ticket with the words, ‘I give you chanes(chance) . Happy new year’. It was a little gesture that made the day for her. Hopefully other motorists who did the same act would also have the same little surprise in the spirit of the New Year. Hopefully the warden would not be slapped by HDB for the little discretion exercised to show a little graciousness in our talk money only society.
 
Compare this incident with the NEA and AHPETC incident, one can only shake the head and feel embarrassed by the unthoughtful act of making people miserable during a festive season. And we thought kindness is in the air with a Singapore Kindness Movement campaign being launched. What happened, they did not coordinate this matter and only the SKM people know and want kindness to be spread but not the rest of the establishment?
 
Nice gesture HDB. Still waiting for SMRT to show some kind gesture to the student being charged in court. Oops, they can’t do anything now. Only the authority can exercise some mercy.
 
Happy New Year everyone. And Happy New Year HDB, especially the warden. We need to have a soul and not unthinking and unfeeling robots that do not have any feelings or life in them. Can't imagine them talking about kindness.

WP, to slap or not to slap the driver

After Low Thia Kiang’s infamous analogy of slapping a driver that had gone to sleep or taking the wrong turn, there were high expectations that the slapping would continue and be more frequently done. This is especially so when the driver is seen to have been driving wildly, speeding and breaking all the traffic rules. With this background, one can appreciate why there is a sense of anger and frustration when the slapping somehow has stopped.  Some were even accusing the co driver for falling asleep or been bought over by the driver. Many are now using this self assigned role of the WP to judge their performance, and found them wanting.

Why has the slapping stopped suddenly? The curiosities surrounding this turn of event are growing. Has the WP back tracked on what it professed to do? It is definitely not a case of a driver driving well and proper and no reason to slap. That makes thing more uncomfortable and the critics more impatient. You could actually hear them screaming for more slapping. The unlikely thing now is that the critics are turning around to slap the co driver for sleeping on the job instead, for inaction.

What would you do if you were Low Thia Kiang or the WP? One school of thought is that it is better to let the driver continues driving all over the place and to the wrong place or over a cliff. Why bother to correct him? Would it not be better to let the driver in his drunken stupor or state of delirium to drive over the cliff?

There is some wisdom and practical values to this. When the enemy is making all the mistakes, do not stop him. Instead, the enemy should be encouraged to make more mistakes and believing that everything is fine. Now, is this the new strategy of the WP? To make sense of what is happening, this is the only logical reason. The WP cannot be seen as inept or losing their little balls if they want to be the main opposition party to take on the PAP. Losing credibility in the eyes of their supporters is a very serious slip and would undermine their efforts to win more supporters and voters to their side.

The good thing about a good teacher or a good driver constantly slapping a driver to take the right course of action is that it would benefit the driver more than the co driver/teacher. For all the hard work of slapping, everything turns out well and the co driver cannot reap any rewards for his effort. Let it fall, let the wayward driver drives in whatever way he wants, let him get into accidents and crash the car would be a better result but with a bigger price to pay for the passengers.

To slap or not to slap the driver is a tough choice really.