A Parliament of millionaires

With the new Parliament getting ready to do business, many have taken for granted that practically every member of the Singapore Parliament is a millionaire. The PAP ministers and office holders are many times a millionaire, with some likely to be billionaires or near billionaires. The rest of the PAP MPs are also millionaires after serving several terms.

For the new MPs, many are already millionaires before joining politics. As for the first term PAP MPs, they are on their way to become millionaires when the offers of directorships to public listed and govt linked companies come their ways. And they could be millionaires after serving a year as an MP or less.

In the case of opposition MPs, they are not so lucky and would need to serve one full term before making it as millionaires unless they are already millionaires on their own. And since most of the opposition MPs are serving their second term, with Low Thia Khiang serving many terms, all of them should also be millionaires by now.

This must be another record worthy of the Guinness Book of Record, a Parliament of millionaires, one of its kind in the whole world. And this kind of record is really unbeatable.

The SDP team that could not have lost

The GE is over, the results are cast in stone. Should have let it to rest and move on. I just want to make a last comment on the SDP’s Holland Bukit Timah team that I wrote earlier that could have taken down the PAP team. Not only that they did not, they fared worst than the team in 2011 and that made the result so much more disturbing. Technically, the SDP team had all corners covered, a medical professional in Professor Paul Tambyah that was a head above Vivian, a woman candidate in Chong Wai Fung to match Sim Ann, a most feared opposition candidate in Chee Soon Juan and a Malay candidate in Sidek Mallek.

The SDP team was carefully crafted to counter the PAP team. With Vivian and his political bloops, he would not be able to stand up against Tambyah, at the very best they would both split the votes evenly. Sim Ann had an edge for being the known factor but many voters were turned off by her antics during the rallies. She too could not gain much advantage over the SDP candidate for the female votes. And Sidek Mallek would have made a clean sweep of the Malay votes as none in the PAP team could be picking them up. Chee Soon Juan’s return would be well placed to increase the anti PAP votes. The SDP could not fall lower than the 30% hard core opposition supporters. How could the team get only 33% of the votes, 6% lesser than the 2011 team?  It just did not make sense. There was no weakness in the team unlike in 2011.

With a hard core of 30% as base, just the Malay votes would take it to near 40%. All Chee Soon Juan and Tambyah needed to do was to bring 5% each and they would be neck to neck with the PAP and likely to win.

The 33% meant that practically all the Malay votes went to the PAP. It also meant that Chee Soon Juan and Tambyah could not convince the voters to give them any vote and actually lost more votes to the PAP team.

I have discussed the reasons for a 10% swing votes, 4% due to new citizens and 6% due to the goodies handed out and changes in some govt policies. The 10% swing would mean the PAP team adding on 5% to the 61% in the last GE and the SDP losing 5% from its 39%, ending with 34%, still one 1% more than the final 33%.

If the demographic distribution of Malay voters was even, there should be a 10% Malay votes in the GRC to square off the 10% swing, and the result should be more or less the same as the last GE.

The final result was just too incredible and unbelievable. This must be the biggest mystery of this GE. It was like a strange event in the Bermuda Triangle that defied all logic and reasons. How could a SDP team that was technically superior or at worst equal to the PAP team lost so badly?

Call it a miraculous win for the PAP team. The other mystery must be the near loss of the WP team in Aljunied GRC. The voters could not switch camp just like that, and without a big crisis. The AHPETC was no crisis but a red herring. The voters of Aljunied were not so daft not to see it to affect their voting decision.

Yes, the truth is stranger than fiction.

University rankings good but not the key objectives

Hsien Loong said this at the Nanyang Technology Institute’s reunion dinner, ‘The key performance indicators (KPIs) of universities in the Republic should not be about how high their rankings are, but how well they serve Singapore.’ This is like what is so good about high rankings if they did not serve the interest of Singapore and its people? And what are these interests, jobs, skill sets, building a Singaporean core in all fields and industries.

What if high rankings lead to a hollowing of the quality pool of Singaporean academics and university students? What is the point to providing so many good paying employments to foreigners at the expense of Singaporeans, of providing good university places to foreigners instead of to our children? A good comparison is the ranking of our media by foreigners. Never mind if we are ranked 146, a few notches from the bottom, if the media are serving national interests, the good of people and country.

He then reiterated the importance of university KPIs as: "Rather, the KPI should be how well the universities serve Singapore. Whether they are academically and intellectually rigorous and vibrant, yet develop an authentic Singaporean character. Whether they give Singaporeans a good education, not just academically but holistically, building skill sets relevant to the economy so that people can get good jobs and fulfil their aspirations….’

It is sad that the Prime Minister had to say this to remind our supposedly very intelligent academics in the academia not to waste money on superficial rankings, on providing good jobs to foreigners and hollowing our academic talent and resources. Isn’t this a crime against the people? Using public funds to feed foreigners and replacing our own academics in the universities? Get your priorities right!

Would Tharman stand up and say ‘Cheap, we have no local talents in the universities and we need 30 years to get it right again like not Singaporean bankers and finance talents?’ Shit, I shouldn’t use the word ‘local’. It should be ‘Singaporeans’ and not meant to include PRs. We need to grow our own timber if we are going to survive as a people who called ourselves Singaporeans and this island home. If not, yes, we would be just a hotel for foreigners and we become the prostitutes servicing them and saying thank you to them for patronising us, and we pay them for it.

Is this not what Hsien Loong meant when he said, and I quote: “(While) at the same time, imbuing in students and alumni a sense of loyalty and belonging to Singapore, a sense of purpose in their lives, so that people are rooted here - with networks, friends and family - and want to give back to Singapore." You don’t expect foreigners to sink roots here and be one of us, to give back to Singapore when they are here for the good time and waiting to make their pile to return home. A few foreigners would be good, but we can’t expect too many to stay, and it is also no good if we have to depend on foreign talents to stay. This is an easy way out to increase our talent pool but would discourage the growing of our own talents. And what is there then for our own people if this is the case?

Don’t give me that globalisation and borderless shit. Treason is the word for these naive terminologies. The quitters and nomads like to use them to rubbish the citizen’s right in their own countries. If not careful, and still blindly going down the road of bringing in more foreigners, one day the daft Sinkies would be like the refugees marching to Europe, people without a place called home, kicked out from their countries they once called home.

GE2015 – Triumph versus Despair 塞翁失马，焉知非福

The PAP and its supporters had cause for celebration with the shocking victory in the GE 2015 results. On the other side of the fence there was shock, despair and hopelessness. Not even the most optimistic supporter or analyst of the PAP camp could envisage the kind of success and margin of wins. 10% swing, many winning more than 70% of the votes, closing in to the 80%, taking one SMC back, not losing new GRC and almost taking back Aljunied, were too good to be true.

Contrary, it was a debilitating blow to the opposition camp and those expecting a further weakening of the PAP’s grip onto power and the impending loss of at least one more GRC to the opposition. The shock wave was too shocking for anyone to bear. There was an unusual quietness on the morning of 12 Sep. You could see it on the faces of many citizens. They were lifeless, something really horrible had happened the night before and no one was in the mood to talk about it.

The contrasting mood could not be missed by anyone. The GE and its results were furthest from anyone’s lips. They were in no mood for anything and talking about the GE was the last thing in their minds. All the hopes and expectations of a rubbing for the PAP camp and the resurgence of new faces from the opposition camp in parliament went up in smoke.

What should the PAP read of this unusual reception of its stunning landslide victory?  They have won 70% of the popular votes is the truth. No one can deny that. But why the gloom and doom among the electorate? No doubt the PAP would be gloating, the best result ever happened and it was the sign of a better future for the people and country. SG100 would be good, can only be good, with the majority of the people putting the cross of approval on the PAP’s box.

To many, the GE was a non event, did it happen, was there a GE? Life goes on as if nothing had happened. This must be the strangest thing to happen after the routing of the opposition camp. The absence of people on the streets in celebration and the joy of a hard fought victory were not there.

What is happening? The people in despair, the losers, must be in the minority, 30% or lesser. Why is the mood of despair and despondency so infectious, spreading across the population even into the victor’s camp?

I am still trying to figure out this phenomenon of a victory without the spirit of joy and jubilation. All those who were talking to me excitedly before the GE were wearing  a face of stony silence, still in a state of shock I supposed. Maybe I am just paranoid, seeing things that no one is seeing. Can anyone explain this? Is it real or am I imagining, that everyone is celebrating except me, and jumping in joy,  I am the odd man out? Must be another uniquely Singapore thing.

Shinzo Abe’s mischievous intent

The Japanese govt is on the verge of passing the new security Bills to allow Japan to go to war. Abe and his supporters’ reasoning, China is getting stronger and more aggressive, it is thus necessary to rescind the pacifist Constitution so that Japan can now go to war with China. Is this reasoning real, valid, logical and sound?

The pacifist Constitution does not prevent Japan from building its so called ‘Defence Force’ to the current size that is second only to China but an even match in terms of technology and weaponry. The pacifist Constitution does not prevent Japan from defending itself against any attack by China or any country. The right and ability to defend Japan against a foreign invasion are never compromised under the pacifist Constitution.  In addition, Japan is protected by the American nuclear umbrella and defence treaty that should China or any country attempts to attack Japan, the Americans would be obliged to come in to defend Japan. China or any country is no match to the Americans and would be naïve to conduct such a grave act. Japan’s national security is never threatened under the pacifist Constitution. The Americans have all the reasons to want to stop China from attacking Japan in their own interest.

What is changed with the new security Bills is that Japan can now go to war anywhere in the pretext of defending an ally. In other words, Japan wants the right to go to war again, to conduct wars like it did in the past, not the quoted threat from China. The new security Bills will put Japan on the same war path as Imperial Japan, to be another aggressive country that would resort to war as another form of diplomacy.

The pacifist Constitution forbids Japan to send it soldiers to fight outside Japa when it is none of Japan’s busines. This is the intent and the motive of Abe’s new security Bills, that Japan will be like the Americans, free to go to war with any country under whatever excuses and pretexts. The blood of a warlike and aggressive people is showing itself in Abe and his supporters.  Japan wants to go to war, wants to conduct and engage in wars of aggression.