Concept of country, defence and conquest

The British came, took over the island as theirs, set up the administration and gave all the good jobs t their people. The locals were allowed to do their own businesses but the administration and control of the country were in the hands of the British. They had taken over. And to protect themselves and their interests, they sent in their soldiers, army, navy and air force were all here.

The locals might be employed to work for the British as cooks, clerks, peons and drivers. The women could work as maids, the amahs. That was how things were when the country was taken over by foreigners. They enjoyed the plum jobs.

The Japanese too wanted the island for themselves. They sent in their soldiers. The British tried to defend their interests with their soldiers but lost and the Japanese took over everything. The Japanese were the new owners and ran the country for their Emperor and people just like the British did. All the good jobs in the govt and businesses were in the hands of the Japanese. And there was a new order of things. They owned the country and people.

The locals continued to find their own ways to make a living if they could. The good jobs went to the Japanese. The locals could become clerks, translators, drivers and peons. The women could work for the Japanese as maids and comfort women.

After the war, the locals got wiser. Why let the Japanese or British run the country and took all the good jobs for themselves? They fought to take back the country so that they could give a better life to the locals, give good jobs to the locals, to control the country and their own destiny, be in charge and distribute opportunities and wealth among the locals.

A country was born, called Singapore for Singaporeans. A military force was formed, with conscription for NS to protect and defend the country and its people from foreigners, to protect our way of life, our good life and good jobs for our people called Singaporeans.

Fast forward 50 years, more than half of the residents are in the country are foreigners. Many have very good jobs, some being paid millions. Many Singaporeans lost their jobs for a simple reason, publicized and acknowledged, they are not good enough and their jobs should rightly go to the more talented and deserving foreigners, regardless of nationalities. The Singaporeans only got themselves to blame when they allowed the policy of hiring foreigners and giving foreigners good jobs, and telling the Singaporeans you are not good enough so it is your business. The locals must compete with the foreigners on a level playing field. So what if this is their country? So what if they are the citizens and the foreigners are foreigners? So what if they served their dues as conscripts to defend the country, our way of life and the good jobs for the people?  The last point many people have chosen to forget and ignore.

And the foreigners are here, inside the country, enjoying the good life, good jobs, and protected by the conscription armed forces. The foreigners need not be like the British or Japanese, to build a defence force and pay for it to protect their good life and good jobs. The conscripted soldiers will do the protection so that they can live here, have a good life, and good jobs. Dunno to call this outrageous or idiocy? Why would the daft Sinkies allow this to happen and think this is a natural order of things?

The foreigners have no need for an invading army like the British and the Japanese to conquer the country to enjoy the good life here, to enjoy the good jobs here, and some even in positions of authority and power.  They are invited here for the good life and the good jobs. What about the locals losing their good jobs and their good life to the foreigners? Who cares?

Whose country is this? This country belongs to everyone here, including the foreigners?  We will celebrate this change of ownership or the privilege of enjoying good life and good jobs in Celebration SG50.  Come one and come all to party, citizens or no citizens, sama sama.  Is there a need to redefine the meanings of conquest and control of a country? Is there a need for an army if the country can be occupied by foreigners to enjoy the good life and good jobs while the citizens have to make way for the foreigners? Can a country be taken over by foreigners without a war?  What if 70% or 80% of the populations are foreigners or new citizens? Does it make any difference? When would we call a country being occupied, taken over by foreigners, foreigners enjoying good jobs and blatantly cheating and discriminating the locals like apartheid, a country lost?

What is happening? What do you think? Is this your country?

PS. The British and Japanese seized our country, good jobs and good life for themselves by force. Now the foreigners are invited in to do that and to cheat and kick us around under the myth that they are more talents and here to help us.

Najib versus the indestructible Mahathir

Najib is on the defensive and looking very lame. No one could resist an attack by Mahathir. Many had fallen, including Prime Ministers and every one of his heir designate deputy PMs. Could Najib be an exception and survive this final onslaught of Mahthir? At his growing age, this could be Mahathir’s last battle before calling it a day and could be his biggest battle to date. Winning this battle is looking like a cake walk. Losing it, if it ever happens, could bring an end to the Malaysian legend.

What is left in the armoury of Najib to take on Mahathir? Najib could count himself lucky that his cabinet is still with him except for a handful waiting to see his downfall. But this situation cannot last for long if he can’t pull out a jack rabbit from his hat and turn the tide. When cornered and no way out, the only thing to do is to strike back hard and die together, forcing the attacker to retreat.

I thought Rosmah could be Najib’s trumph card. The most powerful and influential woman Malaysian ever had. She is so quiet. This is very unusual knowing her reputation. What is she thinking or planning to save her husband and beat Mahathir at his own game? Mahathir has always been the aggressor, the attacker. He has never been on the defensive, being attack and on the defensive. He is looking like a flawless politician that his enemies could not find any traces of flaws to wave in public.

What is Rosmah doing about it? For sure she is not going to take things lying down. That is not Rosmah. Mahathir, watch it. This could be more than you can chew.

There is another card that Najib could possibly use. This is presently under lock and key. Would Najib unlock it and throw it at Mahathir? Yes, this card is behind bars, the Anwar factor. Anwar was heard to have many boxes of documents to prove against Mahathir when he was on the receiving end. He did not have the chance to use them when Mahathir prematurely quitted his post as PM. If these boxes of documents are there and hold interesting and damaging information against Mahathir, they are something that Najib may want to lay his hands on.

Are these boxes of documents real and still there? If not, then Anwar would be a spent force and best left forgotten. Would Najib make a deal with Anwar and join forces to take on their arch foe? Is Anwar dead and gone or would this be his last chance to get back to the centre of Malaysian politics? Would he be able to do what he wanted to do against Mahathir and now with the support of a standing PM in Najib, the job could be much easier.

Malaysian politics are full of intrigues and plots and counter plots. How would this final battle of Mahathir against another PM turn out? Great drama and Hollywood material.

China intervention in market rout

China was forced to intervene in the stock markets following the recent sell down, wiping trillions of dollars from stocks and with many late entries suffering painful losses. The first day of intervention was quickly reversed and the rout appeared to continue to run to the abyss. China went in with more restrictive measures yesterday and for the moment has temporarily halted the fall and turned around with the biggest one day gain of 5.8% in the Shanghai stock market.

The measures introduced include halting trading of 50% of the stocks and forbidding big shareholders to sell their shares. Investigations are going on to look at malicious trading that contributed to the plunge in the market. Though the measures avoided a free fall and more losses, some market analysts as usual have started to express concerns about state intervention and not allowing market forces to do the damage.

What are these market forces? There will be the natural herd instinct, the panic buying and selling of investors at any sign or news that would affect stock prices. What is more dangerous is the collusion of big players, big funds, working in tandem to drive prices up and down at their callings. These are not the innocent market forces. These are big market manipulators. They operate as a wolf pack and reap great profits from the innocent small investors.

All the western modelled stock exchanges that allowed big funds to trade in them are faced with this risk of wanton manipulations. How can this be classified as market forces? These are not your normal investors but bandits that used their muscles to muscle in and out of a market like a bull in a China shop.

The only way to counter and prevent these big players from destroying a market and the wealth of small investors is to have a counter force in the form of govt intervention. It is only fair. Only silly govts and stock exchanges would think that govt intervention against these big forces is unacceptable and contrary to the operation of market forces. How can such big players and their irresponsible modus operandi to reap huge profits at the perils of small investors be allowed to run freely and unrestrained and be regarded as fair play, as market forces?

All govts and stock exchanges must have an instrument and even war chest to counter the destructive nature of the big players. Otherwise they are just being irresponsible and unfair to the small investors, like giving a licence to the big players to go for the kill, with their approval.

The Chinese intervention in the stock market is the right thing to do to prevent a very unfair and unlevel playing field. But what is important is also for the regulators and govt to manage a bubble and not allow a market to go wild. When a huge bubble is formed recklessly, the result will be a rout when the bubble is pricked. The Chinese govt must not let irrational exuberance to repeat again and for the present, how to unwind and deflate this bubble without causing too much damages. It was stupid to allow the market to run amok in the last few months and think that it was normal.

The volatility in the Shanghai stock market is not over yet and would take quite some time for the market to stabilize at a lower level.

Don’t leave home without it (part 2) – Free Shuttle Service

Tuesday night’s epic train breakdown involving two main lines is something to ponder. 250,000 commuters stranded, frustrated, angry and got their evening messed up, late appointments, late dinner, late for everything, some missing them altogether.

In my first article on the same subject, I recommended that every commuter should lug a folding bike in case of a train breakdown. What about Free Shuttle Service? Isn’t that meant to ease the problem and congestion when a train breakdown occurs? This Free Shuttle Service sounds so pleasing and the cure all for such a situation. I have one experience of it and knew how effective it is on paper, or how ineffective it will be in a real situation. All I can say is that the effectiveness of this service is as good as not having it. Let me explain.

The logistics of this Free Shuttle Service just does not work. The meticulous planning of this service will not improve much as there are so many variables going against it. For a start, a simple play with the numbers will throw this emergency service haywire.  250,000 commuters at one go, how many buses will be needed? Would there be enough roads to allow the buses to pick up the passengers? What if there is an island wide power failure and all the lines went kaput at the same time?

The other problem is the people, the MRT staff, the bus drivers and the commuters caught in a breakdown and wanting to go home. The easy part is the station staff. They can be trained and briefed on exactly what to do, where to direct the commuters to the pick up points. This is as easy as ABC if the staff gets their regular briefings and not once in 6 months or a year.

Next the bus drivers. This is tricky. The standby drivers are not always the same and the stations they will be sent to will not always be the same station. They could be called to Woodlands or Tampines or Redhill. How are they going to familiarize with the routes to take when every incident is unlikely to be the same, and the standby driver will also not to be the same? What will happen is that you will have different driver going to different places to pick commuters using different routes. The only solution is to go robotics where everything can be programmed. Without robotic drivers, no standby drivers would be familiar with the location and the routes.

The commuters will also be a big problem. Everyone is new and would not know where to go to take the correct bus to the next destination. They will be unfamiliar with the pick up points and which bus to take. They would not know which route would the bus take and where to drop. How to brief 250,000 lost and unorganized crowd to direct and control them to the right pick up points and to take the right bus is mission impossible given the limitation of time, space and equipment.  And the space around the pickup point would not only be too small for the crowd but also for the buses to wait for them.

A one station breakdown may still be manageable. But more than that or in a situation like Tuesday or worst scenario, the Free Bus Shuttle Service is completely ineffective.

Don’t leave home without it. Have folding bike will travel. This may be a realistic solution if only the bike can be put in the pocket or backpack. Free Shuttle Service anyone?

Redbean Soup serving anytime soon

Everything is settled and the book is in the process of being printed. The printer has promised to deliver by 15 Jul or earlier, which means at the latest early next week.

There will be 54 articles as planned but not 200 pages. My intent was for 200 pages and I had to remove several articles earlier to fit to size. The printer has somehow redone the layout and squeezed the text all into 132 pages, very compact. I should have put back the articles I removed earlier but it would delay the completion date further. Inexperience makes a big difference. Will learn from this and not to repeat it in the next few books in the series, if the sales are good and I get to publish them.

For those who have ordered the book, I will autograph them and mail them to the addresses given. Anyone who need to make any changes, please email me at redbeansg@yahoo.com. For those who ordered multiple copies, please let me know how you want them to be autographed.

The book should be available by next week latest. I only print a small limited copies, for those who have not ordered, please make your orders asap as it would be on a first come first serve basis.

The book is recommended reading for politicians of all parties, colours and stripes as well as civil servants and uniformed services. University students and those taking their A and O levels will find it helpful in their  GP and English papers. And all Singaporeans who are interested in the affairs of our country, the book will set you thinking about what is going on and how things should be.

Cheers
Redbean

PS. Printer said the book will also be available at the National Library. I think this is a standard requirement.