ESM Goh calling for review of social policies

I was quite excited when this piece of news popped up on the evening news. After all Chok Tong was once the mover and shaker of our little island and instrumental in all the major policies. When LKY opened the door to Chinese nationals to the island, he responded with his forward policy to India with the signing of the landmark and earth shaking CECA. Both policies have benefitted Singapore greatly, I think, though some may disagree, in terms of population growth and its accessory rewards of a vibrant economy and property prices, bringing great prosperity to the citizens and to those renting homes and of course the train and bus companies.
 
The influx of PRC Chinese and India Indians have greatly affected the social fabric of our society and, despite the great economic benefits, there are increasing social ills and concerns simmering among the population. So, I thought Chok Tong, with his experience and wisdom as the Emeritus Senior Minister, would be sharing them with the younger ministers to rebalance the social compact.
 
We have grown over the years from frowning at Singaporean quitters to glorifying foreign quitters to our shores. Both have serious consequences if left alone to flourish unguided by govt measures. I must say the glorification of foreign quitters have been so successful, more successful than the Stop At Two policy, that it will grow on its own steam to steam roll over the last remaining few pathetic and talentless Sinkies left on our shore. If this trend continues, we would need to build a museum to house the memories of the pioneering generation or to legislate a reservation to protect their welfare and existence.
 
For a start Chok Tong is calling for the forming of a committee to take social policies more seriously and to look into the interests of all the stakeholders, probably this would include all the new stakeholders as well. Forming committees to understand problems is a good new beginning. We just had a great committee looking into the problems of rioting in Little India. And the Tourism Board is also setting up a fund for the tourist industry to understand what the tourists really want to see in Singapore. Such committees are really useful as without them many policies, money and effort would be wasted without knowing what are the right things to do. Cannot imagine how so many policies and activities were formulated and executed in the past without the benefits of the valuable inputs of committees. Would it not be better to form more of such committees ahead of policy formulations and, like in the case of tourist attractions, not to build gigantic and unauthentic attractions that the tourists did not want to see? Millions and billions of dollars could be saved, time and manpower too.
 
Setting up committees and conducting research and surveys are a good start to all good policies and tourist attractions.

Kopi level - Green

From independence to servitude

The war cry of Malaysia is ‘Malaysia Boleh’. This is how Malaysia wants its people to feel, to psyche themselves up to build a prosperous nation. In 1965, we became independent. We were cast adrift like a flotsam in the ocean. We either swim or sink. We did not shout Singapore Boleh. We just do it. We did not sink, we turnaround an entrepot trading country into a prosperous city with manufacturing and financial services as the main driving sectors of our economy.
 
When we became independent, we were more or less in the same state of social and economic development as our neighbours. Some were better off than us. In a way we were the most risky state because of our physical limitations. Our people were not up to it to turn the country into an industrial and manufacturing state. We were ill prepared for that role. We were ill prepared for all aspects of building a nation. Our talent pool was very small. Our leaders and top civil servants were mostly lowly educated. Many were non graduates, many with only a school certificate or less. The trained and skilled workforce was non existence. We had to start from scratch.
 
The govt knew our limitations and weaknesses. They asked for outside assistance to train our people to build our nation. We brought in advisors from around the world to teach us how to industrialise. We levelled the hills and forest, we built housing and industrial estates. We built schools to educate our people. There were no foreign talents running here to help us. We relied on our very own people, the govt then had faith in our people to build a prosperous nation together.
 
It was all about self reliance, about independence, about training and nurturing our people to build our nation. We did not cry Singapore Boleh. We did it. From 3rd World to 1st World, with our own people.
 
Today, we have a very well educated, trained and skilled workforce. More than 50% of our new workforce is tertiary educated. We have been producing scholars and scholars, thousands of them over the years. Today, our scholars had a sudden awakening. Other than them, the countries are made of daft Sinkies. We need to import foreign talents to replace them or we will sink. As long as they are foreign talents, fakes also can, we will bring them in without questions. Fakes are better than daft Sinkies. We need the help of all the fakes to bring us back to the 3rd world. We have transformed ourselves from a ‘can do’ nation of hardworking and ‘never say die’ people to one when everything is ‘tak boleh’ without the help of foreigners. We are now a hopeless nation without foreign talents.
 
Everywhere, every industry, every level, we are now dependent on foreigners to run this country. Our people, the best workers in the world, the best educated in the region, are now being bullied and discriminated by the foreigners with dubious qualifications, and at their mercy for jobs.
 
At the rate it is going, if the Sinkies did not sink, the country will. How could a country be so desperate and dependent on 3rd World fake talents? How could a country, once proud of its highly rated and educated citizens, be rejecting its citizens in favour of unknown and questionable foreigners?
 
What are our scholars thinking? Are they smoking pots or popping ecstasy pills?

There is a sinking feelings, but some Sinkies do not think so.

Kopi level - Green

Japan crying wolf

For the whole of last week the western media were aggressively painting a picture of a timid and frighten little Japanese boy hiding behind Uncle Sam in fear of being attacked by the Chinaman. They made it so real with the Japanese politicians acting very panicky that China was going to overrun Japan in the like of the Russians taking over Crimea. And for no reason China is being propped up as the big bad wolf again to the delight of the western thinking audience.
 
In reality Japan has a military force that could challenge China for supremacy in East Asia. It has never stopped bullying and harassing China since its defeat in WW2. Its military is strong enough to overrun the two Koreas once again. Its problem with China and South Korea is caused by its seizure of their territories during the days of Japanese Imperialism.
 
Not only had the Japanese been scrambling fighter jets to intercept Chinese aircraft, it has regularly been arresting Chinese fishing boats in the disputed islands with China and Korea. Is that the act of a timid and frighten nation needing protection from the Americans? Japan is behaving like the Yakuza against its neighbours.
 
Recently it was emboldened enough to threaten to take military actions against China. It arrogantly announced the building up of its military forces and openly sided with the Philippines and India to fight China in case of war.
 
The most dangerous act of the cunning and lying Japanese is its latest announcement to shoot down North Korean missiles. This is an act of hostility, an act of war. Any attempt to do so would force the North Koreans to declare war on Japan. Now, would a frighten little short ass nation be so trigger happy to shoot down another country’s missile that is not aim at Japan? Only the Japanese and the Americans would commit such a hostile act against another country.
 
The western media and the Americans are totally blinded to their ally’s hostile acts and intention and instead playing it up against its neighbours, painting the neighbours as the aggressors instead. Reading the western media will give the readers a strongly skewed and biased view of China and the Koreans and giving the impressions that Japan is such an innocent and peace loving nation and being bullied by its neighbours. The truth is that Japan has always been the aggressor and the bully. But this is not what the western media and the Americans would want the world to know for their own vested interest. Their goal of dominating the world and Asia with Japan as an ally would dictate their views and actions against countries in the region, particularly China and the Koreans.
 
The world must stop listening to the lies of the Japanese and the western media and the Evil Empire. One is acting like a victim and the other drumming up to support the lie.

Kopi level - Green

Sermon of a dead fish

For those who have been to the market, a dead fish can be just as good looking as the one swimming in the ocean, with its scales and colour intact. The fishmonger will tell you it is fresh and will poke at it to show you how good it is. No matter how fresh and alive it appears, it is a dead fish. Its head is dead and the rotting process has started. It has no life and no feeling. It is only a matter of time before the smell and rot spread across the whole body. But this will take some time.

The fishmonger will offer the fish to you at the best price he could get from you, for a fresh but dead fish. You would have to cook and consume it while it is still fresh or it would lose its value fast. The process of rotting is silent and unseen. It is the work of the billions of bacteria and micro organisms in and outside the body of the fish. When the brain is dead, it no longer controls the defensive mechanism to protect the body from the attacks of these foreign organisms. And the organisms will have their meal of the whole body, and as they eat away, it will manifest itself first with the stench and then the rot. At its final stage, the maggots would wriggle out of the rotting flesh to make a point that it is all over.

A ‘bo cheng hu’ country is like a dead fish that is brain dead. A country without a head, or ‘bo cheng hu’ will run on its own for a while, but keeps drifting and spiralling down towards self destruction. In such a state, there will be things like autonomy or deregulation, where every sector, institution, ministry or department will be running on their own, serving their little narrow interests without a clear and defined common goal. And they could tear the whole country apart and still looking very good individually, like a gleaming dead fish. It is like a soulless nation, just a country existing without a purpose, without knowing that it has a people to look after.

Kopi level - Yellow

Aspiration of the new Sinkies

Our parents aspired to live in landed properties, or at least a private flat. If that is too much, a bigger HUDC or executive flats also can. And of course, the prized possession of a car to take the family out to ‘chiat hong’ or joy ride. That was the simple aspirations of what a better life was then. And they did not need to be a graduate, they did not need two incomes to be able to live that kind of lifestyle.

Many of these babyboomers have retired or semi retired. Many are very lucky to have a landed or private property, or a bigger HDB flats to fall back on, to downgrade and live on the spare cash as retirement fund. Many have gone the full circle of HDB flats, private properties and car ownership and back to a smaller HDB flat and no car but taking public transport. And some are happy with this formula.

What is the new aspiration of our well educated young? Many are graduates of the universities or polytechnics. And many are two income families. It seems that their aspiration is for a small HDB flat and no cars. Their only wish as far as transportation is concerned is for the public transport providers to provide a reliable service. Many have given up the idea of car ownership and ownership of private properties. A few of the more successful young people would still be able to do that. But the majority of the middle income families, with two incomes, will not be able to do so.

And not to forget, many of the babyboomer generation belonged to the socalled sandwiched class, supporting their parents and bringing up families, and still could afford larger homes and cars. The new young families are luckier with lesser of them having to support their parents who could look after themselves by downgrading and cashing out.

When this group of young people’s time comes for them to retire, not many would have the comfort of downgrading from their HDB flats, to cash out and live on that. Hopefully their CPF is still around and adequate to do that. You cannot be sure about this as the babyboomer generation also believed that their CPF savings would be enough for retirement. Many will not have the luxury of experiencing the HDB flat, private property and back to HDB cycle. Many will live a life without knowing what it means to owning a car. All they could afford would be very high tech bicycles.

Is this an aspiration worthy of a Swiss standard of living? Is this something to work a life time for? Let me try to figure out what kind of aspirations the maids and foreign workers would have? Some told me they will go home, buy a land to build their own house, maybe buy a car and set up a small business, all achievable if they work for maybe 6 to 10 years here. No need to spend a small fortune on a tertiary education as well.

But Sinkies must congratulate themselves for a better quality of life in the world’s most expensive city and stress free life for themselves and their children. Did I just say stress free?

Kopi level - Yellow