Parables of the holy ghost

There are two kinds of people that would talk in parables, the worldly wise and the worldly not so wise.  These few days many people have been talking in parables. The new oracle has also been in the game of speaking in parables, maybe next will be speaking in tongue.

The first parable is the crowing of the rooster. Like in all parables, the real meaning of the parable is up to the individual to interpret. The rooster parable has been interpreted as an arrogant cock thinking that the sun rises because it crows every morning. Another interpretation is that the cock crows to wake up the sleepy heads to start to work.

There is also the parable of the nomads. Who are the nomads, just like who are the quitters? The parable did not explain why there are nomads and why they are quitters.

The latest parable is about cruise ship. There are cruise ships sailing with a captain and knowing where it is going. There are cruise ships cruising to nowhere. Depending on the individuals, some like to cruise to no where, some like to know where they are going, some did not know where they are going but allow the captain to take them wherever the captain thinks is good. Some have good faith in the captain taking them to the promise land and not into a sink hole.

There is a new twist to this parable. It was suggested that gamblers should take the cruise ship to nowhere where they can gamble and gamble in the cruise ship. Some gamblers said, why waste time there are two world class casinos for them to gamble till kingdom comes, so convenient, at the door step. If one wishes to cruise to no where, it is better to take a sampan.

There are many more parables in this GE, and also many riddles like the riddles of lost fund, but dunno got lost or not and still trumpeted as a loss. Just keep asking the question, dunno got lost or no lost and make the other party work day and night trying to figure out and trying to explain. This is like putting a few monkeys on a person’s shoulder and makes the monkeys do the monkey trick, making the person busy all for nothing.

There is also the riddle of why the police or CPIB are not after the lost money or anyone being caught and charge in court for the lost fund. Maybe they are waiting for the rooster to crow to start working. Maybe no money was lost and there is no need to be scurrying around like bull arse flies.

The AHPETC football

This political football has been kicking around for months and increasing momentum in the last few days. The football must be feeling the pain with all the furious bashing and kicking. No one seems to care if the football is hurt or not. The welfare of the football is not important to the combatants.

The latest, $22.5m in cash was handed to the AHPETC by the Pasir Ris TC. The sum included project funds and sinking funds. The PAP is asking the AHPETC to account for the money as if the money has disappeared into thin air. What do you think will happen if such a big sum of money, in cash, disappeared? Someone must have taken it right? The police and CPIB must be very busy chasing after the thief right? Can such a big sum of money be lost without anyone knowing where it went to? The only time we heard of such big sums of money being lost or loss was when several town councils lost $12m in investing in toxic funds. And the other time when such big sum of money was lost was when $24m of Aljunied residents’ money was used to develop a town council management system that was sold for $140k.

Let’s get back to the hazy $22.5m in cash. Didn’t the PAP said the amount was for projects and sinking fund? For the sinking fund, is it so difficult to check if it is there? As for project funds, would there be contractors doing projects and not demanding payments? Should not the money be paid to the contractors?

Low Thia Khiang showed the bottom line with a deficit of $282k. In all accounting statements, the bottom line is the net position after all payments and receipts, or expenditure and receiveables, be squared off?

Zainal Sapari came out to clarify that the bottom line was a surplus of $21k. So the difference in question cannot be a colossal sum of $22.5m missing but somewhere between a surplus of $21k and a deficit of $280k. This is not even a peanut compared to the $24m the residents lost for developing a town council management system and was sold and compelling the new management to pay for another new management system right?

The poor victim in this case is the residents. Their pockets got burnt. First losing $24m for a management system that was sold away and had to pay for it again for its used. Then their surplus which should be retained for their benefits was whooshed into the sinking fund because of a change of management. And the new management got to pay for another management system that ended up the residents paying. And the football being kicked here and there, checking and checking of accounts, to dig for errors and explain and explain, who did the checking and who have to pay for the checking?

Does anyone care for the football, that it got bashed and had to pay for all the damages and cost incurred in this politicking? And so much time and effort were taken from the management instead of them doing their normal duties and serving the residents.

Who are the clowns and why should the residents be the victims of the clowns and paying for the clowning?

PS. The more they dig, the more the residents would have to pay.

Is Singapore a failed state?

Najib has confidently said that Malaysia is not a failed state. And he quoted several international rankings to prove that Malaysia is up there among the better states that are being recognized. Using this same formula Singapore must be a super state with such a long list of firsts or top 3 rankings by international organizations.

Between Malaysia and Singapore, which is the state that is likely to fall and fold up in a crisis? The economy of Malaysia has a wide base, with abundant natural resources, oil, manufacturing, finance and banking , properties and everything that Singapore has. And the cost of living is so much lower that many would be able to get by in a financial crisis. 

The only thing that Malaysia did not have is a huge foreign population of workers. Oh, and Malaysians did not have a big stone mill hanging over their necks in the form of mortgages that would snap their necks if they lose their jobs.

When there is a major crisis, when the foreigners could not be employed and departed, what kind of vacuum would be left behind in Singapore? Would it be a complete hollowing out of the economy? Would Singapore become a failed state if there is a big outflow of foreigners? The property sectors would likely collapse and all the shopping malls and food courts, restaurants and service industries providing services to feed people, clothe people and house people would not have enough people and business to keep them going.

Singapore is country that is now so dependent on the presence of a big foreign population that getting rid of them, cutting down, is a no no option. It will become a failed state without the drug called homo sapiens.

Has Singapore structured itself to fail by being over dependent on a single factor, its population, citizens and more importantly foreigners?

Vote for honest men that don’t tell lies

One of the key agenda in this GE is about good honest men and women to be worthy to be in Parliament. We need good, decent men and women with high integrity and moral conscience to sit in the highest body of the land. And when I say honest and decent men and women, they must not be honest but keep telling lies or telling half truths or selected truths. The voters are not daft, they know who are the honest men and women that are telling lies with their eyes wide open.

 

In another few days the voters will be voting. They must vote for honest men and women that will tell us honestly the cost of building a HDB flat. They must vote for honest men and women to tell us how many Singaporeans are employed or unemployed in employment statistics. Yes, Singaporeans did not want to read statistics that said ‘locals’ meaning citizens and non citizens but PRs.  Singaporeans demand honest men and women to tell us the truth in these statistics. We do not want to read ‘locals’ and finding ourselves asking, how many in the ‘locals’ are Singaporeans and how many are not. Honest men must not lie. Do they?

 

We want to know what is happening to our reserves and our CPF money. We want to know how much is there and who is managing what and who is being paid what. Why got no honest men and women wanting to tell the truths?

 

We also want honest men and women to tell us what is the full income of a minister and appointment holders, basic plus plus and indirect income from other appointments.

 

We want to know who are the politicians receiving pensions and how much they are being paid. These are money paid legally and legitimately and there is nothing to fear and nothing to hide. There must be transparency before honesty.

 

We need honest men and women to tell the people how many CECA and similar free trade agreements that allowed foreigners freely into our country to apply for jobs have been signed.

 

We need honest men and women that would not tell lies, to tell us the negative consequences of high population in our country.

 

We need honest men and women to tell the people that the Town Council scheme is flawed and meant to serve a different objective than expressed, and the Medishield Life scheme is designed for other intentions and motives. We need honest men and women to tell us that the Medishield Life scheme is not profit making and the profits will be ploughed back to the people to lower the premiums.

 

Would there be honest men and women who are honest enough and sincere enough to tell the people the above answers? Would there be honest men and women who believe in honesty and integrity and live by them and not doing the opposite and living a life that is anything but honesty and integrity?

 

Can an honest man be dishonest? Can a man talking about integrity be lacking in integrity?  Where are the honest men and women, please kee chiu and answer the above questions.

The Singapore Syndrome

Recently the Stockholm Syndrome has been quoted as applicable to Singaporean and their relationship with the PAP, the ruling govt. They compare the development of a relationship between the hostage and their captors, developing a kind of bonding or sympathy for the captors. This is quite true in a way as Singaporeans despite being the victims of govt policies have developed a love/hate relationship with the govt, wanting to vote against them but still thinking that they are not so bad and a new govt would be worse, still wanting to keep the PAP in power but with lesser majority.

There is also another element that complicates this relationship in the form of fear. Singaporeans are troubled by a fear of being fixed, not without reasons with the frightening stories of those that opposed the PAP still vivid in their minds and with many of the victims still alive to tell their stories.

I have done a very serious study of this relationship and have come out with a slightly different theory which I called the Singapore Syndrome. This is best explained by using the example a rape victim and the rapist.

There are 5 phases to this Singapore Syndrome. In phase 1, the victim will react violently against being raped, even fighting with claws and nails, screaming and refusing to be raped. In phase 2 there will still be some struggling and resistance but in a weaker form. By phase 3, the resistance is gone, and the victim would just let the rapist do the raping like a dead person, a dead body. The victim surrenders to the rapist, gives up fighting. This phase can go on for quite some time before the next phase cuts in. In phase 4 the victim would gradually start to enjoy the rape and may cooperate with the rapist. By the time it reaches phase 5, the rapist would have taken the victim for granted and the victim would take the raping as the new normal. And if the rapist forgets or grows tired of raping the victim, the victim would even miss the raping and may be looking forward to it. The final phase 6 would see the victim begging to be raped and refusing to leave the rapist but not loving the rapist. The victim just wants to be raped.

One can apply these phases to how Singaporeans react to tough and anti Singaporean policies with the Singaporeans as the unwilling victims. They will protest initially, but only for a short while, soon the rest of the phases will take over, and the Singaporeans would ask for more. That is why Chok Tong and the PAP have the audacity to ask the Singaporeans to vote them into power with a bigger mandate to continue this relationship. The Singaporeans want more or the PAP. They know that the Singaporeans are like the victims in the Singapore Syndrome. They will get use to it and would love it and demand for it if they did not get more of it. Instead of being raped, apply the unpopular policies of the govt in its place, like PWP, CPF, COE, high ministerial pay, Medishield Life, ERP. GST, housing prices, etc etc.

There are certain conditions that must be present in order for this syndrome to be recognisable. The victim must be under the full control of the rapist or has lost all freedom, physically or mentally. In a way the victim is helpless in the hands of the rapist and under threats of harm. There is no where to run and no one to come to assist the victim. There must be fear of the rapist or the rapist wields tremendous power over the victim. And this fear has become a way of life, second nature to the victim, a part and parcel of the victim’s life. The whole relationship would normally develop over a longer period of time, more gradual than in a hostage situation. The Singapore Syndrome is in many ways far more serious, and the control over the victim more pervasive than the Stockholm Syndrome.

Now we can be famous for another thing, this one is more high sounding, a syndrome, the Singapore Syndrome.