Early signs of rebellion

Less than one week after the state burial of the founding Prime Minister of Singapore, two incidents hogged the headlines. One is the abusive tirades of a 16 year old boy in the YouTube against the man himself. And this was taken very seriously, top priority and urgency. One day after it hit the news the boy was charged in court for 3 offences. How could it be when more than a million people paid their respect to the man, queuing for more than 8 hours just to walk pass his body lying in state over a whole week? And immediately there was this big hooha by a boy that took a diagonally opposing view that frayed raw nerves exposed by a week of mourning and public weeping.

To raise the temperature higher, some pro establishment grassroot leaders made threatening remarks like cutting the cock of the boy and shaft it in his mouth, and another insinuating that the comments by the boy could get himself killed, … in this first world city! My God, we are not far from the mentality of the medieval age or the tribes in the jungles.

Yesterday, the angry residents of an upper class public housing estate found it necessary to air their grievances publicly in the social media when they could not get the attention of the authority and the main media to deal with their unhappiness. A state organisation, the Residents Committee, in their zealous effort to help and bond with the residents, insisted on building more facilities in the estate. They already have a big presence but the residents are not happy with their generosity to help them. The residents did not want more RC facilities in their midst. But the RCs are adamant to build more facilities against the wishes of the residents. Strange that the state wanting to help the residents but the residents rejecting the help.

The residents have approached the social media to air their grievances in an open confrontation and to challenge the authority. They did not want the RCs, or as good as please go away. More details are available in an article in the TRE, ‘War breaks out between RC and residents in Toa Payoh’. This is a sample of the comments in the article:
‘Another resident told TRE, “We are being bullied by our RC and PA!”
“There is already an existing RC at our block and they want a 2nd RC. Seriously the residents don’t need 2 RCs within 5 blocks!” she explained.
She asked TRE to help spread the news. “We are really desperate and need your help to make this public as they are going to construct the RC soon. We have written several emails to the authorities but they are not addressing the issue,” she said. “This means a lot to the residents. We sincerely thank you loads.”’
Everyone is wishing the man to RIP and things are beginning to turn bad. How to rest in peace? You want him to jump up so fast? Leave the man in peace can?

Transport Fare Hikes – Still Necessary Now?

Are You Ready for the Ride?

As expected, the two public transport operators (PTOs) in Singapore, ComfortDelGro (CDG) and SMRT had achieved unprecedented profits due mostly to the more than 60% drop in oil prices over most of their past financial operating year.  It was reported that CDG’s FY14 revenue rose 8.1% while its PATMI (post-tax profits minus interests) grew 7.7%.  Its PATMI was attributed to broad-based revenue growth across bus, rail and taxi segments.  Similarly for SMRT, its 3QFY15 PATMI jumped 58.4% year-on-year as revenue rose 6.8% on both non-fare and fare businesses recorded huge broad-based growth due to vastly improved operating margins also in the fourth consecutive quarters.

Even without the impending transport fare increase, both CDG and SMRT enjoy continually low and lower oil prices as well as huge Singapore Government subsidies.  Their stock prices have soared through the roof and huge profitability are eagerly expected in 2015 and possibility 2016 by their private shareholders as they milk the public and docile cash-cow. 

So, are the Transport Fare Hikes for 2015 still necessary?    

The 2015 transport fare hikes which is effective from 5 April 2015 is highly controversial, for reasons unlike previous transport fare hikes which were deemed necessary to maintain the “economic viability” of the PTOs.  As evident above, the PTO are enjoying unprecedented windfall profits and very remote from becoming “un-viable”. In view of falling oil prices, the increase in public transport fares has sparked an outcry in Singapore. Many raised questions about why falling oil prices did not translate into lower commuter fares. Despite numerous responses and explanations from the PTC, the general public sentiment has been one of dissatisfaction, where for some the government broke a “social contract” in the provision of public transport services.

Watch the Debate Video by Inconvenient Questions (IQ):

In the Video, you would hear many reasons for the public frustrations towards our transport system, not least the impending fare hike in 5 April 2015. 

The IQ Team has also selected a reading list focusing on various aspects of Singapore’s public transport system, including a statement from the Public Transport Council.

GoTo:

Transport Fare Hikes 2015: Seriously, Are You Ready?

More on Singapore Transport System

 

Related Posts:

Singapore - The True Lies of Public Transport Operators

Restoring Public Trust in Singapore

Singapore - Social Contract Breached

Should Singapore Nationalise Our Public Transport Companies?

60% PMETs lacked relevant skills

‘In a statement yesterday (2 Apr), NTUC said that 60% of PMETs face difficulties in their jobs mainly due to a lack of relevant skills.
This is according to a survey NTUC conducted with 894 PMETs last year.
“We found that many face challenges pertaining to their current skill sets and knowledge,” said Mr Patrick Tay, assistant secretary-general and director of NTUC’s PME Unit.
The top 3 difficulties in their job, cited by PMETs in the survey, are:

1. IT challenges
2. Lack of relevant training or industry specific skill-set
3. Need to constantly upgrade their skills due to changes in regulations or market conditions’

The above report in TRE also quoted a 23 year old fresh graduate who was unable to get a job as well. ‘She said, “I know I have the certificate. I just finished my education, so I thought I should be okay, I should be getting a job. I did not know what was going on, I did not know what was wrong. So I decided that I needed to find somebody who can actually help me out and tell me where I was going wrong.”’

And what happened, she sought help and what did they do to help her get a permanent job? They helped to polish her resume and interview skills and that was it. What have these got to do with her skills set? And why is it that 60% of PMETs who were good enough to be employed as PMETs but got sacked and then no longer have the relevant skills. And all the jokers and fakes and dunno what from God knows where have the skills sets to be employed here, have the skills sets that our PMETs did not have?

You believe in that? You believe in the 3 reasons given above? You believe that the PMETs could only become taxi drivers and security guards and people from the 3^rd World are better trained than them, from the little villages or streets of 3^rd World countries? Excuse me, what does PMET meant? It means Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians! No skills set?

How did they become PMETs if they have no relevant skills set? The whole world, including 3^rd World countries knew what kind of skills sets needed to work in Singapore and could produce them to meet our needs but our world class education system could not produce people with the skills set needed by our employers!

How many of you believe in this kind of nonsense?

AIIB – Breaking the American stranglehold

The vice grip on the world’s economic system by the Americans has finally been breached with the birth of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank initiated by China. Despite all the threats, arm twisting and hogwash splashed all over by the Americans about transparency, fairness, accountability, environmental issues, the rest of the world broke free from the barriers erected by the Americans, like the fall of the Berlin Wall, to rush to join the AIIB as its founding members.

Britain took the lead by ignoring its former colony’s demand, the once Number One colonial power would not be bullied by the dictates of it’s ex colony. Its own national interest is paramount and no way would it be kept from being a founding member of AIIB. The run for freedom from the clutches of the Americans was quickly followed by more Europe countries and the semi colonies of America in the East. South Korea and Australia found a good excuse to join as well, leaving only the semi colony of Japan to hang on to the American bandwagon for its own fear of losing its grip on the Asian economies.

The fear mongering of the Americans and Japanese were simply fear mongering without an ounce of truth. The countries joining the AIIB are not colonies of China, led by a gun pointing at their heads, to join or be shot. They were not like the slaves of Africa being hunted and sold to slavery in the USA or like the Red Indians being led to a massacre. China would not be able to lead the AIIB if it does not play fair and accept the views and interests of all the founding members. This is the 21^st Century! The founding members have equal rights and votes to out vote China or, failing which, the AIIB will become a stillborn.

AIIB will set a new World Order on a more equitable basis where every country will have equal rights according to a set of rules and regulations decided by them, without a gun pointing at them. It would gradually and eventually replaced the flawed and unfair systems of the IMF, World Bank and ADB that were structured and designed to perpetuate American and Japanese dominance and control. The world will be a better place for small nations, and a more level playing field for all.

It is good that the Americans and the Japanese stayed out of the AIIB and allow the new organization and its members to decide the rules of the game without being spoilers and trying to lay imaginary obstacles to cripple the organization. The AIIB will set the new standard for an international organization respecting the rights of all its members fairly and equally.

Pax Americana is waning. Welcome to a new dawn to a New World Order. With 47 countries, including all the major western powers except the USA and Japan, it is a force to be reckoned with. The AIIB is an experiment. If successful, there will be two more AIIBs, one for Africa and another for Latin America, the African Infrastructure Investment Bank and the American Infrastructure Investment Bank.

Officialdom and fortune making升官发财

My learned friend reminded me of this old adage, 升官发财. This is a tradition in old dynastic China where the ambition of scholars, except the daft and idealistic ones, was to get an imperial appointment and get promoted or 升官. With promotion came the opportunity to become wealthy, ie 发财.

When the ambition of升官发财 was fulfilled, the scholar would have power and wealth, ie got 官 and also got 财, or got官财.  The two words, 官财 put together, read together, have another meaning, ie coffin.

This can be interpreted as the ability to buy and be buried in a coffin, a rare privilege of the rich and powerful. In another view, it is the end for the corrupt and powerful, they will meet their 官财 sooner, a matter of time. There is another saying, 不见官财不流泪, meaning many evil doers would not weep until they have seen their官财 or coffin, or after they have become officials and made their fortune, presumably from improper ways.

Chinese words are very meaningful in the ways they are written and combined in usage. A lot of wisdom from the ancient sages.