Paul Tambyah - A PAP fall out

In 2011, out of the blue came this professor standing on the SDP stage to speak to the crowd at Raffles Place. Everyone was wondering where he came from. Today, in the same spot, in the same SDP stage, Paul Tambyah has returned, this time as a SDP candidate standing for the Holland Bukit Timah GRC with Chee Soon Juan, another come back boy.

Paul Tambyah has awed the crowd by his humility and sincerity, the professor with the common man demeanour, with no airs and talking sense. Many see this professor as the best thing to happen for this GE and have high praises and good words for him. They are calling for the voters to send this man to Parliament on 12 Sep together with his SDP team mates.

Paul Tambyah’s speech was impressive, no vitriol, no personal attacks but dealing with the policies and the good of Singaporeans. He also praised Tharman and a few of the PAP candidates for addressing issues and policies and not reverting to gutter politics of yesteryears. He also shared with the crowd a private aspiration in the opposition camp that they secretly hoped for Tharman to fall out with Hsien Loong and come out to lead a coalition like the Pakatan Rakyat of Malaysia.

Many Singaporeans have been hopeful for a split within the PAP led by Chok Tong.  But that is looking far more remote with Chok Tong’s star fading with age, though not entirely impossible. A break away Tharman is a more promising alternative given the fact that everyone perceived him to be the better man for the PM job. And Tharman himself must also agree in confidence that this is indeed the truth. And if only he has the ambition or aspiration to be the PM one day, it is a matter of time before he makes his move. If Hsien Loong fares badly in the GE, if he survives and not be voted out outright, Tharman could pose a challenge to his weaken leadership. It would then be a case of either Hsien Loong goes or Tharman leaves, to lead a coalition of the opposition camp, and be the PM in the shadow cabinet.

The big question, does Tharman has the ambition or aspiration? In an interview at the SG50 Celebration forum, Tharman was posed the same question of his intent to be the PM by Fareed Zakaria. He tried to evade the question and did not want to say No to the prospect. He was finally cornered and had to say yes if called upon.

Being the best man in all aspects, it is very difficult to hold down such a good man from his rightful place. Tharman is not the Duke of Zhou who voluntarily abdicated to give way to his sibling to be the King of Zhou Dynasty. Tharman must be bidding his time and this GE will be the opportune moment to force him to make his move, either became the PM within PAP or outside PAP in a coalition.

In a hypothetical scenario, if the opposition camp could win 30 seats, Tharman only needs to convince 20 PAP MPs to join him in a walk out to form a coalition govt and be the PM designate. If the law does not allow this to happen, a new GE would have to be called with a Singapore Pakatan Rakyat headed by Tharman leading the coalition. This scenario may look far fetch at the moment but in politics, without LKY around, the ball is round.

What do you think?

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.