Singapore’s Painful Chapter

CNA aired a half hour documentary on Konfrontasi and the bombing of MacDonald House last night with the above title. Among those who were interviewed were Shanmugam, Barry Desker and Bilveer Singh and the family members of the victims of the bombing.

The main points that came out from all of them were that Indonesia must be sensitive to its neighbours, meaning us, and our feelings in whatever it does or did in this case, the naming of the frigate after Usman and Harun. It was all about us and our sensitivities and after a while one got quite embarrassed by the repetition of these few points in isolation, one incident perspective. It was all about us, and never about them, the Indonesians. The Indonesians must take note of how it would affect us as if we were angels.

When I mentioned the word angels, many of you would know what I mean without further elaboration. I would advise CNA not to repeat airing the episode if we don’t come out as arrogant, ignorant and insensitive to Indonesia and demanding sensitivity to be a one way traffic.

Good neighbourly relations must be based on mutual respect and reciprocity. We are standing on very weak grounds to harp about this single episode to rub in a point. It shows how naive we are in a complex and tricky relationship with Indonesia, how daft we are and how we failed to look at things from the Indonesian perspective. We are actually begging to be slapped real hard by the Indonesians and without knowing why. Can you believe it?

There are so many things that are best left unspoken and to let this chapter come to a quick closure, the faster the better. We must not come across as aloof, full of ourselves and thinking that we can do no wrong to our neighbours and this is a great opportunity to show how righteous and honourable we are, with a halo over our head.

Kopi level - Green

Terrorists in Spanish courts

A Spanish judge deemed that he was an authority to judge international affairs/citizens outside of Spain. When Spain was a colonial power, they could think that they owned the world or were masters of the world just like the Americans today. This piece of archaic law allowing Spanish courts to hear international affairs were abused by some dissidents and the Spanish judge arrogantly and mischievously thought it was within its powers to hear the charges. The Spanish govt is now trying to remove this piece of history from their laws after complaints by China.
 
What happened was that some Tibetans went to a Spanish court to sue China for quelling unrest in the state of Tibet, its autonomous region. And the judge got the audacity to find China guilty of its internal affairs and had issued a warrant of arrest for its former President Jiang Zemin.
 
China has protested to the Spanish govt for this silly scam. What China could do is to declare the judge and the prosecutor as terrorists intending to kidnap their former President and issue an arrest warrant on the terrorist judge and prosecutor, wanted dead or alive. China could also offer a bounty for their arrest and handover to China. This kind of terrorist activities must not be allowed to get away under the cover of a country’s judicial system.
 
Can’t imagine Indonesia or another country prosecute our ministers in their courts of law and then issue an arrest warrant. Only silly Spaniards could think it is ok in this 21st Century. It is a terrorist act against the leaders of another country.

CPF, a simple effective schemeinto a complicated failed scheme

When the CPF was first introduced it was a simple savings scheme for retirement. You put some money aside and when you retired you take everything out at 55. Simple and neat. Under that system and at one time at 25% + 25%, if I am not wrong, the savings grew rapidly, helped by 6% or 7% interest rate. Everything was fine, really. There were great trust and faith in that system.
 
When the savings got too big, people started to get clever ideas, just like the foreigners queuing outside our PM and DPM Finance’s offices asking for financial help. The foreigners know that we have a lot of money to give if they know how and what to say. We have been very generous when they rubbed us the right way.
 
Now where am I? Oh, the people have a lot of money in their CPF accounts. There is no need to sell HDB flats so cheaply right? The people were rich and could afford to pay more for their flats. Along the way some got carried away and HDB flats were priced to suit the savings of the people. Very affordable indeed! The more the people saved, the higher the HDB prices. The people could afford to pay until nothing left in this affordability game.
 
This should be a good thing if the people had paid all their savings for the flats, no need to pay them interest or return to them. And even better still, if they sell their flats, they have to pay back to CPF with interest some more, lagi shiok. Then some people had smarter ideas. So much money laid idle in the CPF. Should invest them wisely and get higher returns and profit the balance. Who can disagree with this kind of logic and game plan. Hire the best brains money can buy, sure make money one, if not in the short run, sure make in the long run. Historical data showed that over 20 or 30 years, the returned could be 20 or 30%. Bao chiat one. How to lose money, or how can lose money?
 
The CPF savers should feel very secure. At least they are reporting profits of 7% or more, like 14% or 17%? Then why suddenly a new legislation was passed to reduce the interest rate to 2.5% in Ordinary Account and 4% in Special or Retirement Account, and no guarantee some more? No one smelt a rat. And another legislation was passed to provide for a liquidation of the CPF if it does not have enough money to pay the savers. Correct me if I am wrong, but I remembered it was put up by Gan Kim Yong, I think. No one smelt a rat either. A sure win investment plan, every year registering high profit, then interest rates paid to CPF holders getting lower and lower and even made provision for the CPF to go bust, then no need to pay back. What is going on? No one asked the right question or no one wanted to ask the right questions.
 
Then more sub accounts were invented within the CPF. Special Account and Retirement Account. Wait a minute, isn’t the whole CPF savings a savings account for retirement? Why now got Retirement Account some more? Then Minimum Sum for Retirement Account or is it Ordinary Account, I am lost on this. Then minimum sum for Medisave. First they created Medisave Account, then Medisave Account also got Minimum Sum? What’s that? And the minimum sum gets bigger and bigger every year, for the good of the savers. Must be lah. Oh, all these accounts are to ensure that the money would always be there till the savers koyak.
 
When the withdrawal age was pushed back from 55 to 62, no one complained or no one objected. No one smelt any rat. Now it is to 65 or maybe older. Still no one complains. If there were any complaints, it seemed that no one heard or got the message.
 
The gradual incremental changes of the CPF Scheme were made without much resistance except the very first attempt by then Finance Minister Howe Yoon Choong. The Union objected strongly and it was dropped for a few years. The rest is history. We now have a CPF savings scheme that is unrecognizable from its original form.
 
With the impending Medishield Life, the money would be stuck in the CPF for good or would be spent without the savers touching it. Oh I forgot. How come when home owners sold their flats, the interests accrued over the years must be returned to the CPF for safe keeping when they should be returned to the owners who had retired or passed 55 years of age?
 
Today we have a very complicated CPF Scheme that would end up with very little money left after deducting for housing and medical and a few other approved schemes compares to the earlier simple scheme when the savers would have quite a big chunk of money to withdraw at 55. Now at 55, very likely you get $5K.
 
Isn’t the CPF meant for retirement? Why when a person retires, he can only get $5K and the rest transferred to another Retirement Account? Why must a person still pledge his home to a Minimum Sum when he has already retired? Or why can’t he use the money transferred to his Retirement Account to pay for his housing when he now needs the money more desperately?
If these terms were made known in the beginning, no one would want to join the scheme. Of course they can make it compulsory, just like the Medishield Life. Now it is looking so beautiful and glowing. Think what they can do to the CPF Scheme and what they can also do to the Medishield Life and the Medishield Minimum Sum in your CPF savings ten or twenty years down the road. You would not recognize them.
The CPF scheme that was once the envy of other countries is turning into another big screw up. Now it has become a scheme when one can only smile at the numbers printed on it. Those who spent their whole life working and savings and thinking that when they retired they could become a king for a moment had their dreams shattered facing a stone wall. Many would get $5k if they are lucky.

When people are too smart or think they are too smart

Singapore is blessed with so many smart people, they called them talents or super talents. And often these people become too smart for their own good and for the good of the masses. Oops, maybe I shall not call this a blessing. When people think they are too smart and can get away with anything they want, thinking that the masses are plain daft, you will have a very serious problem. The smarter they think they are the more serious will be the problem.
 
Now what am I getting at? Wrong. I am referring to the City Harvest case in court. I have not been following and I must confess that I only have a very skimpy idea of the truth and what the case is all about. The truth shall set you free. From the headlines in the media I could gather that some people are very smart and believing that they are very smart, and could get away with anything they desired, with the help of God. They said, when God is willing, everything goes. Who is there to challenge the Almighty?
 
For the believers of God, God is supreme and infallible. The moral of the story is that if it is fallible, then one is praying to the wrong God. Human beans, no matter how smart are fallible. A false God is also fallible. Putting the two together, it only double confirms the theory that what is fallible will fall doubly fast and doubly hard. Amen.
 
Verily verily I said unto you. Whoever believes in me shalt have everlasting life.

Big brother India is watching over us

According to liveMint.com, ‘New Delhi: India is in touch with authorities in Singapore to ensure that an Indian national found guilty of rioting in the city-state’s Little India district in December receives legal assistance and that the due process of law is followed, an Indian official said on Tuesday.
 
“We are in contact with the Singapore side to ensure that the facts of the case are fully investigated and due action is taken. A senior Indian diplomat (secretary, East) Anil Wadhwa will be travelling to Singapore shortly to discuss bilateral issues including matters relating to the riots,” Indian foreign ministry spokesman Syed Akbaruddin said.’
 
What is India implying? We are a 3rd World country running a kangaroo court and would not give its citizen a fair trial? And it is sending a senior diplomat (already here) to watch over our court proceedings? Is he going to insist a retrial, that the bus driver must be found guilty? Hey, someone might have stupidly signed the CECA but that does not make us a colony of India ya. You don’t trust our world best legal system? A lot of international cases, including those from India are being heard in our version of an international arbitration court. If you don’t believe or don’t trust us, please ask Shanmugam.
 
KNN, a 3rd World country trying to tell us we are not good enough? Or is India hoping to get something out of the incident or wanting to twist our arms? And this is the country we want to celebrate 150 years of good relations and they don’t even trust our legal processes and insulting our system by sending someone to check on us.
I say, cancel the bilateral celebrations and save the money to give to the pioneer generation.
 
What do you think? This is definitely more unfriendly than the naming of Indonesian naval craft with no malice intended. India not happy when the court found the driver innocent from causing a drunk’s death? What is India expecting from us, want to go for a tit for tat like it did to the USA? We are more powderful than the USA if India does not know.

Kopi level - Green, nearly Blue