Salute China for standing up to the bullying by Vietnam and the Philippines

Vietnamese ships have been encircling the Chinese oil rig inside Chinese territory in the South China Sea to harass and ram the rig for several weeks. Chinese coast guards and fishing boats have been defending the oil rig and blocking the aggressive advances of the Vietnamese boats.
 
China finally lost its patience after weeks of persistence harassments by the Vietnamese boats. This also came after the killings of Chinese workers and the burning of Chinese factories in Vietnam. Yesterday, 26 May, one Vietnamese fishing boat attempted to break the Chinese defence line was rammed and sunk. The Vietnamese sailors were picked up by other Vietnamese boats in the area.
 
China has to act fast to stem the hostile actions of the Vietnamese. This sinking would also serve as a warning to the Pinoys that China meant business and would take on the Americans if provoked further. China would not yield in the presence of the American naval fleet and would go to war with the Americans if forced to.
 
China has no option and to remain defensive under such adverse provocations would be read as a sign of weakness and would embolden the Vietnamese and the Pinoys and the Americans as well.
 
The sinking of the Vietnamese fishing boat could lead to an escalation of tension in the South China Sea and even open warfare. China must be prepared for this scenario as the two pesky countries would be coming back more aggressively with the support of the Americans. The Americans would be pushing hard for the two belligerent countries to attack China and force China to retaliate. Like it or not, China would have to hit back as the Americans would not allow the Chinese in peace.
 
War is imminent in the South China Sea.

Jonathan Eyal and his western lens

Jonathan Eyal has been given a special place in the ST to expound his western views on Asian affairs and influencing the unthinking minds of his Asian readers. His position is always about American exceptionalism and that the Americans either has the right to continue kicking the asses of Asians or the Americans are so innocent, angelic, and would not do anything mischievous or slimy. The Americans don’t conduct spying activities.
 
His latest article, ‘US China cyber nefarious new face’, on the Americans charging 5 Chinese officials in China for cyberspying in American courts is like the Americans doing the right thing and the Chinese doing the wrong thing as usual. The Americans would not do such a thing, spying on foreign corporations to steal commercial secrets. Neither would Americans be spying on foreign leaders until it was exposed by Edward Snowden. Before the revelations by Snowden, Eyal would likely to swear that the Americans would not indulge in such a dastardly thing, to spy on foreign leaders, listening to their mobiles and private conversations, even the leaders of their allies.
 
This is what Eyal said, ‘While the Snowden revelations raise questions,… none has indicated the existence of a deliberate US programme targeting foreign corporations in order to steal their know how.’ Yeah, before Snowden, there was also no indication of the existence of deliberate US programme targeting foreign leaders too.
 
How old is this Eyal, 3 years old? He is so innocent. Maybe he should consider writing nursery rhymes or fairy tales where the prince will ride into the sunset to live happily ever after with his princess. The gullible Asians would love to read his fairy tales of precocious innocence.
 
Oh, in his concluding paragraph he warns China that the US would launch a cyber attack against China if China does not stop snooping on American corporations. The snooping around of American corporations was started by the Chinese. The nice and innocent Americans would not have started it. CIA stands for Children Intelligence Association and NSA stands for National Students Association.

Kopi Level - Green

Everything is improving

This is the message I got while watching the special programme on Parliament Reopens hosted by Sharon Tong. The panelists included Gerald Giam, Chan Chun Sing, Tan Su Shan and Zulkifli Baharuddin, the latter two, one an NMP and the other ex NMP, more or less agreed that everything was improving. And at the rate they were improving, things would get better by the next GE.
 
The first thing that was improving according to the panelists was property supply and prices. The supply problem has been taken care of after 77,000 units were offered by HDB in the last 2 or 3 years. So, from under building to ramping up building more flats, the shortages immediately improved. What a clever piece of decision making. I never thought it could be solved so easily. How come they never think of it in the first place? They must have found a genius to think of such an ingenious solution. Layman or common people would have great difficulties even trying to think about it.
 
And property prices are coming down by 0.6%! Very encouraging indeed. How much have property prices gone up in the last 10 years? 100%, 200% or 300%? Anyone got any idea? I think, without even looking at statistics, just gut feel, the prices of HDB flats bought direct from HDB and now available in the resale market are easily 2 or 3 times the original sales price. At 0.6% change, how many hundred years would be needed for the price to come down by 50% or 30%?
 
What else is improving? I saw a figure on the issue of Employment Pass. It went down from 80,000 to 40,000 last year. And employment of locals gone up from 40,000 to 80,000. What a miracle. And rightly, logically, by not issuing more EPs, the locals would naturally be employed to fill up the positions. Wait a minute, how many of the locals are citizens? Someohow I got this uneasy feeling that when they lumped everything under ‘locals’ the number of citizens cannot be too many. Just my gut feel. So, things are improving. Ho say leow.
 
Another area of improvement is the number of stoppages of trains. This has gone down from its peak. Since when were there so many incidents of train stoppages? When was the time when train stoppages were a rarity? Is it really improving? What is the reference point? Zero stoppages or high stoppages?
 
I think there was another point mentioned as improving. Oh, income gap is improving, I mean narrowing. Sure what, with the wages of cleaners increased from less than $1000 to $1000, the gap must have closed up a bit. One caveat for this to be true, the top earners must not be earning more, assuming that their income stagnates or not changing. Like that sure the income gap will be narrowing.
 
I must agree that things are getting rosier when the major bugbears are improving. I can’t disagree with the panelists. No wonder they all looked so happy, and so was the minister.

Kopi Level - Green

Roy Ngerng is not alone

The defamation suit against Roy Ngerng by Hsien Loong is not a case of Hsien Loong versus Roy Ngerng. It has taken on a national character. When it started it was like Goliath going to thump down David. And it was a non event as the ending was as good as history.
 
No one could envisage the outcry and ground swell in support of Roy Ngerng. The outpouring of support for Roy in the social media is only a tip of the iceberg. Many are opening up their Ovaltine tins and counting how much they have to donate to Roy’s legal fee. Some volunteered to donate their CPF savings to Roy. Some are calling for a public donation in the event of an expensive legal tussle in court.
 
This event is turning into the masses, comprising the CPF members affected on one side, and Hsien Loong on the other. Hsien Loong is looking like taking on the CPF members instead of Roy alone. The rallying cry in support of Roy is getting louder. There could be a bigger turnout in Hong Lim on 7 June than expected.
 
The Hong Lim Rally on CPF could be an indication of how strong is the ground and how strong the support for Roy. And there are many silent supporters not saying anything but fully behind Roy and waiting to donate money to Roy’s cause.
 
Roy is turning into a rallying point in this CPF saga. The people, and there are at least two million CPF holders, could be taking sides with Roy and turning this defamation lawsuit into a Battle Royale between the govt and the people. The event is just beginning to unfold and the trophy at stake is the CPF money.
 
Would this molehill turn into a mountain of grievances and an exploding volcano? Or would Hsien Loong take his winnings and walk away to close the chapter?
 
Fish could be singing in background. ‘Hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men….’

Kopi Level - Green

Chuan Jin – CPF is your money

It is good that Chuan Jin came out to try to clarify the issues of CPF money and why the Govt is devising all the schemes to help the CPF members. I am wondering how many people buy his logic and explanations and are satisfied by what Chuan Jin said, or is Chuan Jin thinking that he has done his job in clarifying the misconceptions or wrong perceptions by the CPF members.
 
There are two key principles involved in the CPF saving scheme. One is that the CPF savings are the people’s money, not the Govt’s money. Chuan Jin has clarified this point, that the money is the people’s money. So, would the Govt still think it can meddle with the people’s money as it deems fit, as if the money belongs to the Govt? On what moral ground does the Govt think would justify its actions? The people are stupid or would throw away their money in Batam? Is this a reasonable and acceptable explanation for the Govt to keep the people’s money from the people? The people cannot manage their money? The same logic applies to the people in Govt, even if they have hundreds of millions when they retired, can they handle their money and not squander it away?
 
The second point is about retirement. CPF savings should be returned to the owners when they retired. When retirement age was 55, the money was returned at 55. Now because people live longer, work longer and retire later, the retirement age has been raised, to 60, 62, 65 and so on. Why is it that not all the money was returned to the people when they retired?
 
The logic of people living longer is not a new phenomenon relative to their retirement age. When people were retiring at 55, many lived till their 70s or 80s or 90s. The money was returned and they had to manage them and their lives. Some would do it better some would not. No one was arrogant enough to play God, to assume the role of God, to decide to arbitrarily hold on to the people’s money then.
 
The only difference maybe the people in Govt then did not think they were Gods or immortals or super beans that were smarter than the masses. Today they are different, they know best and arrogated themselves as demigods, even knowing how long a person would live, and how stupid and irresponsible the masses are in the handling of their money.
 
Remember the bell curve. This is applicable in nearly all situations. Today, there will still be people who would be stupid or through bad luck or bad decisions, lose their life savings before they die. Today, even among the immortals and demigods, there will also be some who would be stupid and lose all their millions before they die. What is the difference? There is no exception in the bell curve.
 
Back to the retirement age. This is now used, together with longer lifespan, to prolong keeping the people’s money in the CPF. So, if the retirement age is 80 or 90 or 100, the people can only take back their CPF at these ages? Oh, technically the people can still take back their CPF at 55, this has not changed except for this thing called the Minimum Sum. And do not forget there is another Minimum Sum that many would not get to touch, the Medisave Minimum Sum.
 
The Minimum Sums have changed the whole concept of CPF and the right of the people to their money. So, did Chuan Jin clarify what the CPF is all about and why the Govt has the right to meddle with the people’s life savings to the satisfaction of the people? Does Chuan Jin and the Govt really believe that the CPF money is the people’s money or otherwise? If it is the people’s money, what right does the Govt has to keep the money from the people in the Minimum Sums?
 
Did Chuan Jin address the people’s problems and concerns with their life savings?

Kopi Level - Yellow