Peaceful protest against PWP - 31 Jan 2015

Press release: Peaceful protest against 6.9 million Population White Paper (2 years after) – Sat 31st Jan from 4pm to 7pm.

A permit has been granted by NParks and we will abide by all the rules and regulations related to the protest.

Two years have lapsed since the government introduces the population white paper in January 2013 – passed in Parliament without a whimper of a complaint due to the majority rule of the PAP.

Gilbert Goh - Organiser

Public Transport works better when the Community Drives Them.

Singapore’s Public Transport Social Enterprise (PTSE).

By MIKOspace

The latest arbitrary, non-transparent and unreasonable public transport fare hike creates a severe Crisis of Public Trust with serious far-reaching social consequences.  Both ComfortDelgro and SMRT have cited incredulous rising costs and lower profits to justify a public transport fare hike of 2.8% effective April 2015.  And surprisingly, the Public Transport Council (PTC) agreed.

                                

Indeed, their Betrayal of Public Trust has finally come to a head as our public transport operators (PTOs) traded social conscience and responsibility for profits as they gradually erode the sacred Social Contract in Public Transport with Singaporean commuters.

The Betrayal of Public Trust

The PTO case in support of their claims of rising costs and lower profits has not been made available by the PTC to the commuting public.  Never mind that the formula used by the PTC to “compute” fare increase is mathematically flawed.

According to an independent DBS Bank report BEFORE the fare increase announcement, earnings by ComfortDelgro and SMRT are estimated to increase by 4% and 7% respectively, mostly resulting from the sharp 50% oil price drop over the past 6 months and which is expected to remain low and lower in the near future.  Energy and fuel account for 9% to 14% of our PTO costs.  

ComfortDelgro also benefits from the $1.1billion the Singapore Government agreed in 2013 to provide for the purchase and maintenance of new buses over 10 years from 2014. In 2015, it would therefore receive another $110 million from this public handout, thereby subsidising its hitherto huge corporate profits.

The truth is that the PTO awaits huge public subsidies and do not provide reserves from their profits for public transport operating assets development, investments and timely replacement. Commuters are therefore constantly plagued by overcrowding, delays, breakdowns and other manifestations of inefficiency, poor management and poor service standards. 

Read more in Full Article

In further violation of their public duty commitment to make all fare increase “affordable”, the new fare increase has to be subsidised by a further $7.5million.  In making unjustified and un-affordable fare increases, the case of PTOs’ betrayal of the public trust is undeniably conclusive and decisive.

Public Transport Social Enterprise (PTSE) Solution

In the wake of the failure of PTOs to act in the best socially responsible manner, the solution is to replace them with Social Enterprise organisations. A Social Enterprise is a business organisation that focuses on creating social impact by tackling social issues, improve communities, improve life-style and improve the environment. It reinvests profits back into the business and the Community.

Public Transport Social Enterprises (PTSE)

The era of a new Public Transport Social Contract begins with PTSE.  Some key characteristics with PTSE are:

[1] A Mindset Change and Strategic Leadership

The PTSE goal is nothing less than to change the world of Public Transport for the common good of Singapore commuters and Singapore overall. Strategic leadership with enhanced social responsibility values are needed to steer PTSE onto the higher ground to embrace a natural tripartite partnership with public transport commuters and government.  Specifically, the vision is to empower a continuous enjoyment of public transport at a constant low and lower fare through continuous social investments and responsible management. 

[2] Community Profit-Sharing

Under a Commuters Profit-Sharing (CPS) Scheme, the profits of PTSE companies at the end of the financial year can be proportionally shared in the 30:30:40 ratios between the Singaporean commuters, the PTSE companies and the government.  The government takes 30% of the profits and the PTSEs retain another 30%.  The remainder 40% is shared with Singaporean commuters in some relation to their total spending during the year. 

This CPS Scheme also acts like a profits buffer which returns “excessive” profits to its stakeholders, trims “excess” fares and regulate for a normal, reasonable level of returns on assets deployed. In this way, community profit-sharing creates a balanced Public Transport eco-System for Future Generations. The Management and employees of PTSE also enjoy gain-sharing bonuses … , even as the Government obtains early returns for its social investments in public transport infrastructure and operating assets.

Read more in Full Article

[3] Public Transport Commuter Consultative Council (PTCCC)

We need to replace and enlarge the PTC to be more inclusive and effective. The new National Public Transport Commuters Consultative Councils (NPTCCC) is created and it in turn forms Community Public Transport Commuters Consultative Committee (CPTCCC) in each and every community constituencies. The PTCCC/NPTCCC embraces social responsibility and transparency as its twin operating guide and the values of honesty, mutuality and trust in directing its conduct. Membership is voluntary and …..

The NPTCCC is supported by a Professional Resource Panel consisting of …..

Read more in Full Article

The NeXT Steps ….

The road to create Singapore’s National Transport Social Enterprises begins with a strategic plan and time-table to re-acquire all public transport operating assets in the hands of current PTOs. SMRT is originally created by public funds. It can now be dissolved and re-constituted into a new PTSE directly owning at least 80% of its operating assets. The operating assets funded by public funds in ComfortDelgro are to be re-acquired and transferred to another PTSE.  In any case, all license for the operation of mass public transportation like train and buses shall henceforth be issued to PTSE only.

Read Full Article:

Restoring Public Trust in Singapore

http://miko-wisdom.blogspot.sg/2015/01/restoring-public-trust-in-singapore.html

International Holocaust Day

An apology from the Asians that are too far away and detached from the Holocaust to remember this day. It is good that Jonathan Eyal wrote about it In the ST two days back to remember the cruelties inflicted on a people by virtue of their race and killing 6m Jews and 1m gypsies in the concentration camps in Europe.
 
The Jews have done well as a people since then, controlling many economies with many richest men and Nobel Prize winners. They even control the American economy and the USA. No doubt about it. And they also control the media. They can write all about the holocaust and get it remembered by the rest of the world, and if the world forgets, does not want to remember, they will make sure the rest of the world remember the pains and sufferings they had gone true under Nazi Germany.
 
The Red Indians of North America do not have this privilege. They were terminated to near extinction. According to American authors and archives, the number varies between 70 million to 100 million Red Indians butchered in the prairies. It was a continent far away from the rest of the world and the European invaders could do as they pleased, without world opinion sitting on them, with no media to tell the world of the genocide of a civilization. And today, they are too few and too inconsequential to be heard, like the American bisons, slaughtered to extinction.
 
Would the world or the UN remember the 70m to 100m Red Indians slaughtered by the European conquerors in their homeland now called the United States of America? Would there be an International Red Indian Genocide Day to remember the dead that cried for help and mercy but no one heard them?
 
Would there be an International Slavery Day for the African slaves brought to America? Would there be an International Nanjing Massacre Day? Would there be an International Comfort Women Day?
 
I don’t think there will be an International ‘Sook Ching’ Massacre Chinese Day. Only a few hundred thousand died, not millions, so not important enough. And the children and descendants of the massacred have forgiven the Japanese murderers. And no one would want to remember or write about them. There is no Jonathan Eyal among them, proud enough to want to remember.

Sinkie – The Naked Man

Singaporeans have been increasing been stripped of their clothing and many are as good as walking around naked, or in the Emperor’s new clothe. For the poor or those needing govt subsidies or financial assistance, they are familiar with being stripped naked to a stranger who wanted to know everything ‘under’ their clothing before granting them the privilege of govt grants or subsidies. The Mean Testing in hospitals and similar schemes many ministries are infamous for asking very embarrassing and personal questions of the applicants. They would want you to strip to your underwear or turn out your pockets to make sure they are empty.
 
Mean Testing is meant only to the poor and desperados, so humiliating them is acceptable. We have something that makes Mean Testing looked very tame and friendly. The new powers given to the Medishield Life Scheme to put everyone under the microscope is like a futuristic nightmare comes true. There is nothing left that is called personal and private. Your body and private parts are not private anymore. Your money and your bank accounts are no longer private and out of bound to the govt.
 
The bill that is waiting to be passed allows the authority to look into your medical files, to review your medical conditions at will. The bills allow the authority to dip into your bank accounts, to take from your pay cheques, to imprison you for not paying a forced so called ‘National Medical Insurance Scheme’ to provide the people with a national health coverage. Who is providing to who? No, the people are legislated by law to provide themselves with a national health insurance scheme with their own money and cannot say No. And for the privilege of being a member of this compulsory scheme that would not declare its mission as Non Profit Making, you have authorized the authority to strip you naked if needed to, to prove that you deserve some mercy to be spare the jail for not paying the compulsory premium from cradle to the grave.
 
This would be a good theme to celebrate in SG50, The Naked Man. What used to belong to a Sinkie, his body and money, are no longer private and personal, accessible to the authority, to see and to touch and to take, perfectly legal when the bill is passed.
 
1984, George Orwell anyone?

William Engdahl - Obama lying to the world about ISIS

Read the following by William Engdahl for a little uncomfortable and unpleasant truth. Highly recommended for suckers like Matilah and the unthinking bananas to cleanse their brains of the rubbish being programmed in them.

http://rt.com/op-edge/224791-obama-isis-speech-syria/

‘Obama lying to the world about ISIS’
 
William Engdahl is an award-winning geopolitical analyst and strategic risk consultant whose internationally best-selling books have been translated into thirteen foreign languages.
published time: January 22, 2015 15:07


If President Obama was serious in his intention to destroy ISIS, he would cut the US funding for the terrorist group and get John McCain behind bars for his ugly role in the whole Middle East business, geopolitical analyst F. William Engdahl told RT.
 
RT: US President Obama's speech made no mention of the fact that US weapons have in the past ended up in the hands of Islamic State. If there's further support for so-called moderate rebels in Syria, how can he be sure it won't happen again?

William Engdahl: Well, he can’t because ISIS was actually trained in Iraq initially, the al-Qaeda in Iraq, when Petraeus was down there. And if he was really serious, John McCain has played a very ugly role in this whole Middle East business in Syria and also in Ukraine for that matter. If President Obama was serious about that he’d file charges against John McCain for criminal activity, get him behind bars, cut off the US funding for ISIS - the weapons, the training, this is a sophisticated operation. You don’t get a bunch of people, bunch of Bedouins running around the desert on camels who are doing some of these sophisticated things that ISIS has been credited with. So Obama is lying, excuse me for being blunt about it, but the President is lying to the world about ISIS.
 
RT: What measures is he trying to take to prevent this from happening again?
 
WE: Well I have yet to find any. I think as I wrote in a book, it’s about to be published soon, on the relation between US intelligence or Western intelligence, but especially the CIA and radical jihad around the world, whether it be the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, or organizations like al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in Chechnya and elsewhere. The US intelligence is up to their eye-balls in dirty business using radical jihad as a cover for regime change or destabilization.
 
RT: Obama showed support for what he called Ukrainian democracy. But Kiev has broken an international agreement by re-starting a military offensive on Donetsk. Why wasn't this mentioned?
 
WE: Well, because Obama and the US State Department has a one-sided agenda: they put a group of criminals of all regards, billionaires, thugs, neo-Nazis whatever name you want to give them, in a coup d’état, undemocratic, unconstitutional, illegal by norms of international law in February 2014 in order to provoke Putin’s Russia to make a mistake and militarily intervene and start a new Cold War. The military industry behind Washington is desperate to hold their grip on power worldwide. The elites that elect or finance presidential elections I should say in America are getting increasingly desperate. They see the world slipping out of their fingers.
 
“The new world order,” David Rockefeller used to talk about is becoming a new world disorder for them. I think this is the real agenda in Ukraine. Although, one thing I must say Obama said that Putin and Russia are isolated. I was in Russia at the beginning of the year and I didn’t see people look at all isolated and I haven’t seen any indication. Russia has made strategic agreements on energy with China since the US sanctions kicked in. They made strategic agreements with India, with Brazil. They are all over the globe building architecture of what I think could be a very positive new development to replace a collapsing dollar system that really needs to be brought under control for the good of Americans and for the good of the world.
 
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.