Watching Parliament debate is like watching a horror movie

I managed to catch a couple of minutes of the news when the CPF was discussed. They were talking about the withdrawal of CPF on retirement. The argument went something like this. The govt allowed CPF members to withdraw their money in one lump sum at 55 at a time when life was short. The people were expected to die in 5 or 7 years after retiring at 55. Today, life expectancy is 82, so there is a need to ensure that people have the money to spend after retirement. Letting them have the money at one go and at too early an age would mean depleting the saving faster.
 
Jumping onto this logic, Lim Bee Wah asked the govt to consider working backwards from 82 to allow the people to get a lump sum on retirement. Most retirees are looking forward to touch their life time savings when they retired. Chuan Jin’s reply, extending the logic of longer lifespan, it was not possible to know how long people would live after 82. They could go on living and it was necessary to make sure that they have money to go on living.
 
Here came my goose pimples, and my hair stood on ends. Fear crept up and I was really frightened, like watching a horror movie. No, Chuan Jin and Lim Bee Wah did not turn into Dracula or vampire. It was this sense of wholesome goodness for the people, so caring and so earnest to want the people to live well till their last day. I cannot imagine that there are really people that are so virtuous, so good and so genuine in this world to really want to help other people. No, don’t get me wrong. Chuan Jin was really sincere in wanting to help the retirees. I would have doubts if it was someone else selling his koyok.
 
It was too good to be true. And the scary part is that it was true. And they are going to make sure that the retirees will have the money to spend, and no lump sum return of their savings, and the payback will be delayed for as long as possible to make the money last, perhaps another 100 years. Oops, I shouldn’t say that. They might believe people will live to 200 years and make your CPF savings provide for it. Bad idea to say that. And the people will have to leave their money with the CPF for a very very long time. Irene Yap, or is it Renee Yap, should not gripe about withdrawing her money in the CPF. Going forward, CPF retirees would be expected to leave their money in the CPF to last them their life time being alive.
 
This is now a case of better to overprovide than underprovide. Chuan Jin is right to say that no one can predict how long a person would live beyond 82. But he was silence on how many would not live beyond 55 or 60. Anyway, this part is not important as they would not be a burden to themselves or to the state if they die young.
 
Gan Kim Yong should follow the same principles in his Medishield Life scheme. I think Gan Kim Yong is doing the opposite by providing the minimum, B2/C wards intead of A wards or private hospital wards. Should not Gan Kim Yong follow the same logic, provide for the best, for all contingencies like Chuan Jin? Or why don’t Chuan Jin borrow the principle of Gan Kim Yong, provide for the basics or minimum, and the extra or excessive part would be an option? Gan Kim Yong may be providing for B2/C wards but the people can opt for better wards by voluntarily paying more. For a compulsory across the board scheme, this is a sensible approach.
 
In the case of the CPF, the govt can go for the best, though it claimed to be using the lower income Singaporean as the benchmark, as the money to be retained in the CPF comes from the people themselves. If the money is to come from the govt, would the govt use the same yardstick, to demand the people to keep so much money in the CPF/minimum sum after retirement?
 
I still remember the saying, when the govt says it wants to help you, is so serious and happy and voluntarily offering to help you, be frighten, be very frighten. The thought of saving enough CPF to live up to 100 years or 200 years is really damn scary. I could not sleep the whole night. It was a frightening display of human goodness at its extreme. You don’t need enemies if you have people thinking like that and planning your life and your money…for your own good.

Kopi Level - Green

Meritocracy to the hilt

This post is going to make some quarters very happy and appreciative, those Sinkies that think they are very clever and meritocratic and are better than the FTs. This group has no interest in the less able Sinkies that would be run down into the gutters. They have very low tolerance for the less clever Sinkies. They will thump their chests and shout, ‘Bring in the FTs!’ The other group will be the FTs here and many on the way. They will be beaming and grinning at the stupidity of this suggestion but will appreciate how it will favour them. Paradise is beckoning.
 
Meritocracy is really good. We can have the best of the world to make this a most prosperous piece of real estate in the world. There is no room for mediocrity and no need for bleeding hearts. It is like the law of the jungle, Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, where Nature demands only the fittest to survive. Good genes are needed for the survival of the human race. The less able, the NGs, should be abandoned, culled if necessary, citizenship is no protection in pure meritocracy, regardless of everything, including nationality.
 
The final outcome, a city of the best and brightest and richest, a human paradise! But the island cannot just have the best and very best. The dirty work, the manual work, the service workers to service the rich and cleverest must be around to serve. Only the middle group, the neither good nor bad ie the average Sinkie or middle class, will not be able to find any meaningful existence in such a meritocratic city. You are either the best, to be served, or the lowest life form in the pecking order, to serve.
 
Shall this be something to look forward to? A city of two classes, the super rich and the lowest manual workers and service providers, and both are foreigners.

Kopi Level - Green

Occupy Central – A subversive dimension

The streets of Hongkong erupted with Occupy Central when more than 10,000 protestors put on a show of people power to challenge the centre of power in Beijing. The call or civil disobedience came from an unassuming law don, Dr Benny Tai. Dr Tai was propelled to stardom with his article ‘Civil disobedience, the most lethal weapon’ in his otherwise not very well read weekly column in the newspaper. He is now a household name in Hongkong with the pro democracy movement.
 
The 10,000 strong march, to break the law, came after a mock referendum held to vote for the right to determine who should be the CEO of Hongkong. According to Hongkong correspondent, Li Xueying, Dr Tai was trying to spur democracy by turning to subversion. Could such a tactic be applicable to Sin City? Would any blogger or columnist dare to incite subversion and challenge the govt in its policies?
 
What could be certain is the publicity and politicial stardom, like Roy Ngerng, to be bestowed on the subversive writer. Maybe he/she could be another household name like Roy Ngerng. But that is not all.
 
I doubt there will be anyone who would be tempted or encouraged by Dr Tai to gain publicity in this manner and to spur democracy by calling for a break the law protest like Occupy Raffles Place. Hey, it was done before but there were no 10,000 protestors, not even 10 turned up at Raffles Place. And no one gained instant fame. And the state of democratic movement remains the same as before. There is no tolerance for democractic movement in a democracy. Or is a democracy to start with?

Kopi Level - Green

Only 200 think Hsien Loong not fit to be PM

The protest rally last Saturday at Hong Lim only attracted a small crowd of about 200 people. The issue was that Hsien Loong was not fit to be the PM. The keynote speaker was Goh Meng Seng who listed a number of points on why he thought Hsien Loong was not fit to be the PM.
 
Looking at the number of people listening to him, it was apparent that only 200 people agreed with him. Only 200 people thought Hsien Loong was not fit to be the PM. This compares very poorly to a population of nearly 4m people who did not turn up and thus did not support the motion of the protest rally. In other words, Hsien Loong is fit to be the PM.
 
It would be a different matter if there was a 10,000 crowd or better, 26,000 crowd like the Pink Party, then the message would be different. A 6,000 crowd at the first PWP Protest was also too small to make any difference and 6.9m target would soon be a reality. A 200 protest crowd in this rally is like saying the opposite, the majority of the people are happy with Hsien Loong’s leadership and think him fit to be the PM.
 
For Goh Meng Send and those who have doubts about his suitability, the poor turnout is double confirmed that Hsien Loong is doing well.

Kopi Level - Green

Shinzo Abe, the 21st Century Hitler

Shinzo Abe is revealing himself as the most dangerous man in the 21st Century. His ‘Meiji Restoration’ is militarism, a mirror of Hitler’s Germany. Japan is going to be the new military power and unstoppable. And Abe is likely to have most of the victim countries of Japanese military expansion and invasion of the Second World War supporting him. And Abe is going to tell these countries, ‘We may have invaded your country, defeated your armies, looted your country, raped your women and massacred your people, we now come in peace. Trust Japan!’ And these countries will all say, ‘Yes, Yes.’
 
The Philippines with many Pinoys massacred by the Japanese Imperial Army have already offered their support for the remilitarizing of Japan. Vietnam is next on the list despite being colonized by Japan. The Australians, with many of their soldiers died in the Changi Prison after being interned as prisoners of war, will host Abe and listen to his call to support Japan’s rise as a military power.
 
Who is next? America is a no brainer despite the sinking of their Pacific Fleet in Pearl Harbour. America is the one behind the Japanese remilitarization to counter the rise of China. India is also a likely candidate to support Japan for the same reason. India got a better affinity with the Japanese Imperial Army when Subhas Chandra Bose formed the Indian National Army with the support of the latter against the British.
 
Would Indonesia and Malaysia join the queue to fall in line with Japanese militarism? Singapore is a good friend of Japan and would likely say yes. After all the Singapore govt has made a call to forget about the heinous crimes of the Japanese in WW2.
 
The revival of Japanese Imperialism is a certainty and likely to be welcomed by the American allies and Southeast Asian countries who have all forgotten about the Japanese invasion and atrocities inflicted on their people. They trust the Japanese and the most dangerous man of the 21st Century, Shinzo Abe.
And the Japanese have been telling these former colonies that they have behaved very well after the war. 

What the Japanese did not say is that they had no choice but to behave as they were muzzled and put on a leash by the Americans. If the muzzle had been removed and the leash cut earlier, this beast would have returned to its animal like behavior earlier. Now the Americans have chosen to unleash this beast to run wild against China. And even before the muzzle has been removed, it is snarling at China and Korea and itching for a fight. Abe has reinterpreted the constitution so that Japan can wage wars again!
 
Beware of this beast, a beast is always a beast.

Kopi Level - Green