A time to support the politicians

Don’t laugh, I am dead serious. Politicians are the highest office holders of a country. They run a country and are responsible for the people’s well being, and the number of people can be in millions or billions. The strange thing about this job is that not many people want to be politicians. Maybe because of its bad image that politicians are rascals, crooks. Some even said politicians cannot be trusted, worse than lawyers and salesmen.
 
The thing is that good politician is a rare breed and must be celebrated, loved and worshipped if you can find one, and be supported or protected. The PAP knows this and that is why they have raised the pay for politicians to a level that some think is crazy, unacceptable. But how, when no good people wants to step up and serve and those who grudgingly stepped out may demand to be paid in the millions? There is no other option but to pay ‘out of this world’ salaries to get the good men and women to be politicians.
 
Even as we are paying unbelievable salaries, we are still not getting the best out there. Maybe it is time to raise the salaries higher to get the really good and reluctant ones. Maybe we should cast the net worldwide to find the best men and women, citizens or no citizens, no big shit. Pay them what they want and hand them a pink IC will solve all sticky problems.
 
Ask the PAP for their experience in hunting for the few rare talents and you will know. They are scrapping the bottom of the barrel and still could not get the really good stuff. Look at Hsien Loong’s futuristic team, his best talents and you will get the answer.
And politicians are not confined to only the winning parties. The politicians of alternative parties are also politicians. They are also people, with two eyes and a mouth and a good heart to want to serve the people and country. And not only have they got to face many hazards peculiar to the profession, to step forward, they still need to win the hearts and minds of the people. It is time the people open their hearts to all politicians regardless of the parties they are from, to welcome them to fill these important positions that will affect their life and their future. If the people want more and better people to be politicians, they must take positive actions to tell the potential candidates that they are needed, no matter if they are from the PAP or not from the PAP.
 
At the moment the PAP is struggling to find the best men and women to join them. Maybe if the people are kinder and more receptive, more good and able people will step forward to serve the parties they feel comfortable with, parties with the right mission and heart to serve the interest of the people. Then only the people will have more and better candidates to choose from.
 
In the case of politicians from alternative parties, they need all the encouragement and support from the people. If the people want them to represent them, the people must stand up to say so, to walk with these brave and good men and women, to defend them when they are fighting for their causes. If the people do not think it is necessary to support the men and women in politics and let them fend for themselves in this treacherous profession, why would the good men and women risk their lives and well being to step forward to receive the bashing, to have their lives ruined, the lives of their families ruined or compromise to want to serve the people? A good case is the WP, seemingly fighting for survival, alone, without the people showing any care or support for them except during the election.
 
The people deserve the govt they get. If the people do not stand up to support the good people serving them, they deserve to have the second or third best to serve them, or to exploit them. The politicians are there to serve and not the enemies of the people. Only bad politicians are the enemies of the people and the state. It is high time the people know what they want and go out to support the politicians they want and not waiting for any wannabes to call them and say they are the best to serve them. The people need more choices and this can only happen if the politicians are welcomed and celebrated and supported.
 
What happened at Hong Lim, the turnout to support the people spending time and effort to speak for them, to fight for their cause and their interest, is pathetic. If the people did not want good people to represent them, to stand up for them, to fight for them, then they must be prepared to contend with mediocrity or worse, to have charlatans and pretenders pretending to serve them but serving themselves.
 
Oh, good politicians are not those with a string of degrees and earning big monies in their professions. Good politicians are sensible people with their hearts in the right place, to put the interest of the people first and foremost, to improve the life of the people first, not their own interest first. Beware of politicians that demand millions before they are prepared to serve.
 
Let’s celebrate the politicians together by showing them that the people need them, want them and wiling to support and to stand and fight side by side with them against all odds. The people can only protect their own interest with good men and women stepping forward to serve them, selfless and righteous men and women.
 
The politicians need the people to support and to protect them as well, especially those budding politicians from the alternative parties. They are very vulnerable and no matter how good they are, they cannot live to fight another day without the support of the people, without the people standing up for them. A politically apathetic people do not deserve the services of good men and women to serve them.

Amos Yee – The boy versus the State

Amos Yee was charged for 3 counts by the public prosecutor for his rant in his youtube video. The third charge has now been stood down but not necessarily withdrawn. The first charge is for posting obscenity, an offence against the law and not necessarily that someone has been hurt. Of course there will be people who felt offended by it, but without stretching the imagination too far to say that someone may also be offended when it rains or the sun rises too early or too late. The second charge of offending a religion, very subjective, some people would claim to be offended while the church would to say it was alright and forgiven.

The third charge would be the family members of the dead person to feel offended and there is a clear relationship between the offended and the people abused or ridiculed. Can a non related person or the public claimed to be offended too and seek the court to judge against the boy? For the moment this not an issue as it has since been set aside.

The situation now is that this boy is being charged by the State and produced in court with hands handcuffed and legs shackled like a very serious criminal. And the boy is being defended by 3 lawyers on a pro bono basis. And that was it. It is now a matter between the boy and the State.

Roy Ngerng, a friend of the boy, tried to internationalise his plight by writing to the Pope in the Vatican and several bodies in the UN. Not sure if he had addressed his mail to Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary General. And not sure if he has sent any mail to Obama, the President of the USA who always climbed to the top of the mountain to yell human rights violation and claimed to be the defender of human rights in all corners of the earth. Maybe this case is not an issue of human rights, just a legal issue, not even political.

There has been silence in the western front. No Pope, no UN, no Obama. No one seems to be interested in the affair of this boy or his well being. In the domestic front, no politician, not even from the ruling party, except maybe the SDP, has stood up to say something about this case. So it is not a political issue too.

The case as it stood is a straight forward case of a boy against the State on a matter of law, a trepassing of the State. No amount of internationalisation or politicisation would turn this simple and trivial case into anything else but a simple matter for the court to decide. The case is so simple that no one would dare to use it as an excuse to flog for their cause or to cry crocodile tears. The only tears that would be shed would be the tears of the boy’s parents. No, the brave boy would stand tall, would not shed a tear, not even when he was hit by a 49 year old man outside the court.

There are some noises from the lunatic fringe but just noise and nothing more to have any impact on this case. The world and world news too have scant little interest in this case. No do gooder, bleeding heart socialist, or conscience stricken western journalist would even give it a second look.

It is the boy against the State. Or it is the boy and his parents and the 3 lawyers versus the State. No drumming in Hong Lim Park other than the little murmurs that were hardly heard in the alternative media. It is the day the world and conscience turn their backs, to look the other way, not wanting to know there is a boy called Amos Yee.

Planktons struck- fish farmers needing help

Noven Chew and a member of the Nylon String, the organiser of the Charity event

Bachata Rosa's dancers



Last Thursday the ST put up another article on the plight of fish farmers struck by killer planktons in the Straits of Johore. A few hundred tons of fish for the table were wiped out in a matter of days and the poor farmers saw their hard work went belly up. Their harvests were gone, each losing hundreds of thousands of dollars, putting their livelihood at stake. It was a big blow to the industry and to the fish farmers with limited resources. They needed all the financial assistance to replenish their fish stocks and to go about without income for months.

The AVA has stepped in to provide technical assistance and some financial help to give the fish farmers a new start, new fish stocks and fries, technology and equipment to protect against new plankton proliferations in the water and threatening the fish stocks.

Private individuals have also step forward to give a helping hand to the fish farmers. Noven Chew, a single mum, lost almost everything and her friends rounded up their friends to get her farm back to shape. A group calling themselves ‘Nylon String Men’, the organizer, worked with Victor, the owner of Hooha Pub/Café in Pasir Panjang to raise fund for Noven two weekends ago. Local singers and dancers answered the call to perform for a charity night at Hooha.

Bachata Rosa, a single mum helping another single mum, also did her part, contributing  two dance items for the night with 4 dancers from 4 different age group.

It is heartening to see fellow citizens standing to help fellow citizens in difficult times. Many thanks to the Nylon String Men, Victor and Bachata Rosa for their public spiritedness and generosities. Govt bodies can help, the people too can do their parts and lend a helping hand when fellow citizens are in need.

 

Amos Yee – What are the issues?

On the first day of the hearing that took just 20 minutes, the defence lawyers stated that the graphics in Amos Yee’s facebook were nothing offensive or obscene and many magazines or media had similar graphics or pictures in them. The case was adjourned with the court asking the counsels to define what is offensive and not offensive.

The second point in contention was Amos offending the Christians and with intent. And that it is no good as it would, in my interpretation, harmful to our social fabric and make the Christians angry. The defence pleaded it was not Amos intention to hurt the Christians. So the issue now is a matter of Amos intent with what he said and how it offended the Christians.

The defence counsel also quoted that many Christians said they were not offended. Would this be enough? Would it be enough if hypothetically the Pope or some Christian leaders were to stand up to say they are not offended, which means there was no victim?

While the two sides were saying their peace, it would be good if the defence lawyers could make a plea to the judge to remove the chains and shackles on the poor boy. He is only a kid and he has not hurt anyone. Can the court be kind enough to take pity on the boy without influencing the court’s decision the case?

Perhaps the President or Chairman of the Kindness Movement may want to say some kind words for poor Amos.

Poor child.

1MDB – modus operandi of SWF

The way the 1MDB operates and the attacks on its integrity have become a great publicity case in Malaysia and a political football between those in power and those waiting to unseat those in power. Given the fact that both sides are quite equally matched in political influence and with significant support on the ground, the contenders are not going to get away easily or be thumped down without putting up a big fight.

In the rumour mills, there have been speculations as to how a fund like this would or could make money for the people behind the fund. And it is interesting to see the different processes involved and how money is being made. The first part is the source of fund. As a sovereign fund, the funding is easy if the people behind it could use all the political influence and power to get cheap fund without having to go through the due process of qualifications as a reliable and credible borrower. It is a case of just demand and the money will appear, OPM, or from govt linked organizations where there is no individual owners to talk about.

Such funds are not only easy to come by, the terms of repayment are just as fluid if not hazy. It can be on a continuous basis with no beginning and no ending, round tripping or refinancing and refinancing with the funds remaining in the SWF forever and unaccountable to anyone. With this part secure, there is money, plenty of money, unlimited supply of money.

The next big question is how to siphon the money out from the fund. Oh, I have skipped the investment part completely. Maybe I should touch on this, as suggested by some analysts as to how the SWF will invest the good money to make good returns. The trick is NOT to make money. Profitable investments are only good on paper but not worthwhile if the money cannot be taken out from the fund. So paper profits or cooking the books to show profits would do.

The best and easiest part is to lose money, the more the better. Any bad investment would mean the money in the fund can be drawn down, or lost, spent. With this model, investment becomes so easy and needs only a little bit of ingenuity. Find junk companies, boost up their share prices, inflate them as high as possible, buy high, very high. Then let the price falls and sell at the bottom. Junk companies can be created by proxies or cronies. Some junk companies can be a shell or fictitious, never mind. The intent is to lose money in order to get the money out from the SWF.

Just imagine if each investment in a junk or fictitious company would lead to a loss of $300m, how much could be pocketed if 10 such companies would to fail? Easily $3b and setting aside a few hundred millions for the cronies and proxies would be small change and everyone very happy.

The other important trick is to keep the accounts secret to allow the fund to write whatever profit or loss it so desired. In a way the fund can keep on running in perpetuity, with new money coming in and pocketed by announcing bad deals and big losses. Then top up with more of OPMs.

This is a very simple model of how to make SWFs make money for the people behind them, no transparency, no accountability, just get a few cronies to go through the motion of investing in loss making companies over and over again. No one will bother to check it out, no one will bother to complain and ask for accountability. 1 MDB was just unfortunate that it could not keep its activities under wrapped and was exposed prematurely. If not, it could be a golden goose that would lay unlimited golden eggs.

The genuine SWFs got to sweat to make money, to justify to shareholders, to govts and auditors, and be accountable for the profit and loss. It is not easy to make good and profitable investments. Not everyone is a Warren Buffett. But making ‘sure loss’ investment is a piece of cake. The small difficulty is how to make the loss as big as possible and still look genuine.

This is great fun, oops funs, to operate. No stress, no need to work too hard and money is coming in by money going out in loss making investments. Simply ingenious!