Hard choices on healthcare?

We are so rich today, probably with trillions in our reserves. No one outside the govt really knows how much is there. Only a very privilege few would have this access. President Ong asked for it but did not get the answer. And after so many years have passed, the answer is still not forthcoming. And the Govt is so proud to declare that only 1.6% of our GDP was spent on healthcare.
 
When the country was poor, barely anything in the reserves, we were able to provide free healthcare to our citizens, rich or poor did not matter. I have weekly dental treatments at the Institute of Health all for free in the late 50s and early 60s. My God how did they do it? They even sent a big and comfortable coach to fetch the students for medical treatments, extraction, fillings and fixing dentures. All free! The Govt was poor but caring, with priorities in the health of the citizens. Who would not vote for such a Govt? The Govt had good solid support from the people for at least 30 years. Today some fools were chastising the pioneers for voting the PAP then.
 
Today we have a better healthcare system that is more like Frankenstein. You don’t want to be treated. You can’t afford to be treated and be given a deadly bill that may kill you instantly. It is right for Hsien Loong to remind the people, ‘But every dollar spent on healthcare is a dollar “taken from taxpayers, and one dollar less to be spent somewhere else, whether it’s on education , on healthcare, on housing, on defence or on the personal needs of our people.’
 
Fully agree. A very wise and prudent statement. I would like to add, every dollar spent on foreign students, or $2 billion dollars on last count, is money taken from our taxpayers that should rightly be spent on the children of taxpayers. Tiok boh? And if $2b and still going up, if this could be cut off from funding foreign students, maybe the choice for healthcare need not be so hard. And if we stop spending on the extravagance, parties, education trips, ego trips, helping countries that don’t need our help, I think our health choices could even be easy, or at least easier. No one is asking for a return to the good old days and the good old PAP days when health care is practically free. 

If we save a few dollars here and there instead of wasting on monuments, vanity projects and building monuments for other countries, I think things would be very different. We need wise leaders to spend our taxpayers’ money wisely. Knowing prudence and to talk about prudence is the beginning to wisdom. Get the priorities right! Stop spending OPM like a rich man's son.
 
What do you think?

‘Fabrication from political conspiracy to end my career’

The judiciary is independent. The victim said no. The victim is accusing the judiciary for conspiracy to end his political career. ‘I maintain my innocence…This, to me, is a political conspiracy to stop my political career. I will walk again for the third time into prison, but rest assured that I will walk in with my head held high.’ This was what Anwar said after the Malaysian High Court upheld his conviction.
 
Many of his followers and many Malaysians watching the saga could not help but to nod in agreement with Anwar. The Govt and the judiciary were out to get him. Are they wronged to form this conclusion? They may be wrong, but they will be right when they vote out the Govt that used the judiciary to fix its political opponents.
 
Anwar’s daughter Nurul Izzah said this would not be the end. The Malaysian politicians are made of harder stuff and would fight political injustice that blatantly flout the judiciary system to spite the people. They would take down the Govt and the judiciary along with it in the next GE. That is something to watch.
 
Silencing the political opponents will not be taken lightly. The Malaysian public is not daft. UMNO would pay a heavy price for it. It is cutting the Malay votes right in the middle and kicking the non Malay votes to the opposition in the process. It would have to face the moment of truth in the next GE. A ruling party is on its way out by committing abuses against the country and people. Too long in power that they cannot see what they are doing is unacceptable to the voters.

Temasek rated as high risk by S&P

Temasek is now at war with S&P rating agency for grouping it together with countries like Greece and Jamaica. These two names, Greece and Jamaica, send shivers down the spine of any organisation or country when they are seen as like them. How can Temasek be like Greece and Jamaica? Sure Temasek cannot tahan and must respond, to get out of this bad neighbourhood. If only our govt could get out of the 3rd world neighbourhood and stop stuff more 3rd worlds into this island. You cannot be 1st world filled with 3rd world bodies, like you cannot be AAA when in the company of Greece and Jamaica.

Why would S&P make such a drastic move, is it motivated by some sinister agenda? Even a layman would be wondering how come Temasek is down there right at the bottom of the pile of shit. The reason is logical. It is the criteria used in the assessment, or selective use of data. Some people used data selectively to search their agenda. I will write about this latter. In this case it is unlikely that S&P is targeting Temasek or Hongkong by this move though highly possible given the western agenda.

According to our Singaporean foreign talent, Chris K, an executive director in the finance industry but not wanted here, probably not good enough in the local context but good enough to be in London and Toyko, the rating is based on Standalone Rating and Asset Liquidity. His full article on this subject is posted in TRE.

Standalone Rating means rating the agency as a separate entity, divorced from its association with its mother organisation, like assessing the son on his own merit and not be affected by the halo of his father, or in Temasek’s case, not to be affected the Singapore as a country. With Singapore as a backing, like the trumpet they were blowing, there is no risk. What is losing a few hundred billions? We can sell power stations, hotels, banks, airlines, and even the whole island if needed be. See how safe Temasek is?

The second point is Asset Liquidity. Temasek is big, very big, and owners of very big assets. This can be a plus or negative depending on the situation. Big assets are not readily and easily disposable at short notice unless selling at a discount. Big assets are not easily bought as the buyer needs big and deep pockets. So buying big assets should be cheaper right, like bulk purchasing. Only fools will buy big assets and pay a premium for it when there are no other buyers with the same deep pockets. There is a story that some big banks and funds have been aggregating assets to make them big, like a monster, to dupe the fools with deep pockets to pay for them with OPM. Anyway that is just a story.

Chris K also added that some organisations with AAA rating are tempted to take unnecessary risk, as they think they are too big to fall. With their huge financial bankings, they act and behave like a monster, stomping around and grabbing anything they could lay their hands on, with OPM in their pockets. Such risky behaviour is implicit, like a philandering son out on a rampage to show how much money he has.

So, does Temasek has a case against S&P for being shafted into the wrong hole with the wrong company? Or should Temasek’s rating be AAA as it is owned by the Singapore Govt and has the whole island and the Govt assets, and the CPF also, a source of cheap fund, to fall back on? A prodigal son is AAA because his father is a tycoon.

More Singaporean bashing and more foreigner ass kissing

The recent spate of Singaporean bashing by the political leaders is becoming a trend that the ST Editorial also wrote a piece on 6 Feb saying foreigners were at fault is rubbish. There were also Singaporeans in the Laneway Musical Festival, so cannot blame the foreigners, Singaporeans were also at fault.
 
The same kind of logic should apply to Hong Lim. Hong Lim was always clean after a Singaporean event. And there were also some foreigners present. So the foreigners were the ones that kept Hong Lim clean too.
 
I was hoping that someone has some statistics on the number of Singaporeans at the Laneway musical and the number of foreign filth there. I deliberately used foreign filth since they were glorified as the clean and responsible darlings of the elite by the elite. Even if there were some Singaporeans there so what? Would everyone with a moustache be your father? I can’t believe that our elite were so defensive of the foreign filth and felt so free to kick, admonish and rebuke the Singaporeans and assuming that the Singaporeans were the guilty ones and the ones that needed to be scolded. Did anyone of them say anything about the foreign filth that left all the filth behind?
 
Have the elite turned against the Singaporeans? What is the agenda? Where are they going?

The end of Anwar 安华

The attack on Chinese businesses by UMNO’s Agriculture Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob was like a premonition of the end of Anwar安华. The long and dragging saga of Anwar’s sodomy charge came to a close this morning. The Court of Appeal upheld the earlier conviction and Anwar is going to jail for another 5 years. This will mark the end of his political career for sure. I don’t see how Anwar could get out of this fix short of a violent outbreak of public demonstration by his supporters on a national scale.
 
In his final parting shot, this is what Anwar said, "You could have carved your names but in bowing to the dictates of your political masters, you have become partners in the murder of the judiciary. You chose to remain on the dark side," ….
 
The judges walked out of the court before Anwar could finish what he wanted to say. It was a sad ending for Anwar and his supporters. The opposition camp will be thrown into disarray. Would there be hope of a return or release of Anwar? Not under this govt.
 
Selamat jalan, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, DSAI. His supporters would be shouting hidup Anwar, hidup DSAI. Nothing is going to change, nothing is ever going to change anymore. What a sad ending to this true son of Malaysia. He is a real fighter but the odds were too big against him. Malaysia has lost a brilliant son!