PSI and employment data

Has this country degenerated into a 3^rd World country that information for public consumption has to be massaged to send a feel good message instead of letting the people know what they really wanted to know and to act on for their own good? The employment data of lumping citizens and PRs together has been a bugbear for a long time and people reading the data are getting very frustrated and suspicious of the intent and purpose of such data and the need to hide citizens together with PRs. The people are not that daft to know what is happening. You can cheat some people all the time but not all the people all the time, so they said. When would the govt think it is time to clear this misinformation or muddy information about employment statistics? Or is it another case of it is better that the people do not know?

Now the most important data in the mind of the people must be the PSI. Why is the govt so stubborn to stick to 24 hr average and 3 hr average when what the people need is the latest PSI reading? What the people want to know is the latest to plan their activities, to go out or stay home, for those organizations that have to conduct outdoor activities like field training, sports, etc, to continue or to cancel the event? What good are 24 hr and 3 hr average but just for the record and for the academics and statisticians to use for record purposes? The averaging of the data over 24 hr and 3 hr would deceive the people that it is safe to go out when the condition could be adverse and hazardous. Is this a responsible thing to do, telling history to the people when it is dangerous to go out?

What is the purpose of providing PSI data if the people cannot make full use of them as a guide for their safety? And why is the govt so adamant not to provide the current level of pollution to the people? The data are available and with computerization there is no great effort and stress to make the data public to the people.

Or it is another case of better that the people not know the truth?

Jamal released, an ugly crisis avoided

While many Singaporeans spent their weekends complaining about the irritating haze and the missed opportunities to go out there to have their fun, the minorities in Malaysia heaved a sigh of relief. The harrowing experience of May 13 almost descended on them and many feared that they would end up as carnage on the streets bathed with blood, and their homes and shops razed to the ground like before. It was fear everywhere that prompted the MCA chief to call on Najib to put a stop to the Saturday’s second Red Shirt Rally in Chinatown. And in desperation, the Chinese Ambassador was invited to visit Chinatown to make a statement that what the Red Shirts were planning was unacceptable.

The Police acted and arrested Jamal, the UMNO NGO head who was associated with the Sep 16 rally and the planned Saturday rally into Chinatown. With Jamal out of the picture, and with increasing pressure and international spotlight on the grave acts waiting to happen, reasons and wisdom took over and the rally was called off. It was unimaginable should the Red Shirts be let lose to do what they intended to do in Chinatown and to the ethnic Chinese community. How the situation could escalate to such a level in modern and supposedly moderate Malaysia only showed that beneath the façade of calm, all is not well. A little provocation and instigation and the primordial instinct of mob behaviour would surface. In the 21^st Century, the thought of political leaders tapping on racial hostility and to exploit it to create mob violence for personal interests is scary and unforgiveable.

The Malaysian Chinese from now on would appreciate better the presence of a powerful China to fall back on to avoid being massacred freely like in the past. Those were the days when China was hapless and could only watch in vain, too weak to do anything, and many ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia were easy meat to be slaughtered with impunity by the natives. Hopefully those days would never happen again because of a powerful China that could intervene to prevent further bloodshed, but more as a result of enlightenment, civilisation and progress among the people in the region, to move away from the old tribal ways when life was short and brutal.

Countries and societies should be governed by the rule of law, not raw naked primitive power. Malaysia is still in transformation, from bad to good and some from good to bad. The power brokers in Malaysia are changing sides. The forces of progress have degenerated while the forces of extremism have turned moderates. In the midst of trouble times, a beckon of light appears from a forgotten royalty that was ostracized by the politicians for the very same reasons the politicians are guilty of today. And the royalties have returned to be a force of moderation, modernization and wisdom, to put the politicians in their rightful place, not to abuse the power bestowed on them by the rakyat. A badly behaved political fiefdom would now have to reckon with the royalties to stand up for the rakyat, to assume their rightful place as rulers and protectors of the rakyat, and to put the usurpers back to where they are.

An unusual calm has returned to Malaysia, but life is still far from normal. There could still be fireworks when Najib returns from the UN. Or would he be retained by the Americans for his vices and remove the source of all the problems during this critical time?

Transboundary Haze Pollution Act in action

According to Vivian the govt is invoking the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act to take the companies suspected of being the cause of the haze to task. According to Channel News Asia, Singapore is taking legal action. However the paper also said, and I quote, ‘APP was asked by Singapore's National Environment Agency to supply information on its subsidiaries operating in Singapore and Indonesia, as well as measures taken by its suppliers in Indonesia to put out fires in their concessions.’ So, is this part of the legal action or just asking to provide information?

By the way, I just took a peep at the window and the sky is clear, no haze. Would the legal action be stopped now that the haze is no longer in the air?  At the way the haze came and gone, would it affect the legal actions or would the legal actions go on until the culprit is found guilty and the court imposes a sentence? The whole process could take some time and by the next haze season, the case could still be in court. And there are provisions for appeals which would drag on further. How long would the whole legal process take before a final judgement is conclusive?

One thing good about the legal process is that it would keep the companies busy in the court and keep paying legal fees even if they are found not guilty. The effort to bring them to court and the publicity plus the legal fees hopefully would be painful enough to make these companies, or just one company, to think twice about being a party to the haze problem.

APP would be the first to face the music for being a registered company here. What about Indonesian companies that have no office here?  Would they be sued here or in Indonesia? Or nothing really can be done to them? Channel News Asia reported that four Indonesian companies, ‘Rimba Hutani Mas, Sebangun Bumi Andalas Wood Industries, Bumi Sriwijaya Sentosa and Wachyuni Mandira -- have been told to take measures to extinguish fires on their land, refrain from starting new ones, and submit action plans to prevent future fires.’ These companies must be working hard at it after receiving the demands from Singapore govt. Just hope they did not throw the letters into the fire to add to the haze.

Oh, Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said Singapore should be grateful for the whole year of oxygen provided by Indonesia and should not complain about the haze. Vivian could tell him that Singapore is a green country with plenty of oxygen of our own. And Indonesia can switch off the oxygen from their jungles or build a wall to prevent the oxygen from crossing the Straits of Malacca. They can keep all the oxygen to themselves, thank you very much.

The only thing perhaps Singapore can learn from the Indonesians is how to create smokes for military operations without spending on expensive smoke grenades. To throw smoke or haze in such a scale to blanket a few countries must be a very costly affair involving millions of smoke grenades. Tactically the SAF must start to think of countermeasures against the haze being used as a smoke screen for a military attack. Though this is remote as our relations with the Indonesians are very good, in times of animosity, what comes through many not be just haze and could be quite toxic or infectious. All our expensive military weaponry will be no match to a haze attack that can be done so cheaply, no need for soldiers, just a few farmers and a few match sticks and we can be defeated.

Come to think of it the haze problem could be an annual military war game the Indonesians are conducting to test its effectiveness on Singapore and Malaysia. And we really have no answers to it. Legal actions and the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act would be meaningless in times of war.

Now this is something that should deserve some detailed studies by the military strategists in Mindef.  Shall this be called biological warfare, chemical warfare or asymmetrical warfare?  Maybe the F35s would be the ultimate aircraft to deal with haze as a weapon of choice by an enemy. It is not funny that the most expensive and highly sophisticated military force in SE Asia could be rendered useless by haze. Mind you, the intensity of the haze is very light but if it is an all out hostile act, the whole island could be covered in darkness and visibility could be less than 10 metres. All human activities could be grounded to a halt, including commercial aircraft and shipping.

The Indonesians have stumbled into a very powerful weapon, cheap and effective, to deal with us or Malaysia if needed be. Singapore and Malaysia better be nicer to the Indonesians. They must be laughing their guts out everything we boast about buying more sophisticated and ultra expensive machine of war.

Xi Jin Ping in the USA

Xi Jin Ping is in the US and meeting the CEOs of America’s top corporations to discuss cooperation in trade and joint ventures. This is the top agenda for his visit. His dinner chat with Obama is secondary, just a courtesy call to appease the American President and to whet his ego of power and being the top dog in the world. Xi Jin Ping probably does not care what Obama is going to raise but would pay some lip service to his show of anger and concern over matters that the Chinese President did not see as problems.

China has no problems with the US and has more important things to do, to engage in mutually beneficial trade and exchanges of commercial activities, cooperation and investments in both countries.  What cyber securities or cyber attacks? The Americans are the experts in these areas and are indulging it at a scale second to none. Remember what was disclosed by Edward Snowden? The Americans are attacking every country, commercially, militarily and politically, to extract as much intelligence as they could for American interests. What Obama is claiming about breaches by Chinese hackers is children play.  Is Obama saying that the Americans could not do what the Chinese were doing, did not have extracted as much confidential data from China but not disclosed, and that the Chinese are more advanced and superior to the Americans? The answer is obviously no. The Americans are doing far more and far more sophisticated cyber attacks against the Chinese and the Chinese are taking it in their strikes without making an issue out of it like many other areas of American infringement, violations and bullying.

What about the spy plane incident in the Yellow Sea? The Americans could not see anything wrong with flying spy planes daily along the coast of China. China is just playing along but would do the same one day when there is parity in military forces. China would then fly their spy planes along the American coasts. What would the Americans say or do when it happens? Cry father and cry mother and declare war with China? There is no point for China to make it a big issue against the Americans today when militarily they are much weaker and raising it would be in vain. They would raise it with the Americans when they are able to tell the Americans that they would knock down the spy planes should they persist in spying along the Chinese coast. That day has not come but will be, sooner or later.

What about the Chinese reclamation of islands in the South China Sea? Now what has that to do with the Americans? Oh, the Americans have a strategic interest in them and so it is American’s right to interfere with China reclaiming islands that are part of Chinese territories. Again, China would take note of the American’s posturing about the island issues and even toast to it. But China would continue to reclaim as many islands as they want within its national boundaries and territorial sovereignty and build what it wants. What is Obama going to do about it other than making a big show of it? There are many things the Americans are doing that are offensive to China and affecting China’s strategic interests. China is not harping about them or making an issue of every one of them. It is pointless. Likewise the American President and Administration can keep harping at China on these issues or any issue, human rights, climate change, North Korea, Iran etc etc, but they would just remain as American rhetoric to be ignored after the dinner party.

Xi Jin Ping has more strategic and tangible matters to deal with corporate America than to waste his time parrying with Obama in futile and unproductive discussions. China seeks to grow economically, scientifically and in technology exchanges and needs the assistance and cooperation of corporate America to work hand in hand for mutual benefits, for the good of Americans and Chinese.

Obama and his soldier boys can play their game of one upmanship, to show who is mightier with the gun and who is boss. Xi Jin Ping would smile and have a good laugh after he wrapped up his commercial agreements, his sales and marketing bags would be full with satisfied customers from both sides and with many jobs to go with for the American and Chinese workers.

Many Obamas will come and go, and many will come after him, to tell the Chinese Presidents that they have problems with China.  China will say thank you very much, let’s trade more, let’s have more exchanges and cooperation in other areas of mutual interests that we can cooperate and to benefit from them.

Yes we can have more dinner discussions about America’s China problem and drink to that. Xi Jin Ping would not sleep on them, would not have sleepless night because of them. There are more important and fruitful things to occupy his time to build China into a more prosperous and developed country. China has no problems with the USA, only the USA has problems with China. They created and fabricated their own problems and got consumed by them in their own fantasies for the grandeur of the Empire. The American govt can continue to spend their money on military weapons and soldiers, China will spend its money and time on economic development and the pursuit of scientific and technological advancements. China only needs to spend enough on military to keep the Americans from any military adventure in China and that would be good enough.

They would not be inviting Obama to Beijing after this visit. They will be inviting the next President in waiting for more dinner talks and food tasting.

Racism hitting a new high in Malaysia

In my last article I thought by telling the ethnic minorities to steer clear of the current political tussle and fallouts they would be safe. By the look of things, they cannot walk away from trouble and trouble is going after them. And they know the situation is dire and MCA President Liow Tiong Lai made a call to Najib to express his concern for the safety of the Chinese.

After the Red Shirt rally many thought it was over and peace would return. There is a Jamal Md Yunos bent on holding another rally tomorrow to march into Petaling Street to protest against the shops mostly owned by the ethnic Chinese. Jamal has been alleged to have threatened the Chinese community during the 16 Sep rally.  His agenda is quite obvious and this time sparks will fly as they are more prepared to do what they failed to do in the last rally.

Najib on the other hand has been very supportive of the Red Shirt rally and likely to support this rally tomorrow. Fear is every where.  Liow Tiong Lai, the Transport Minister, has been quoted in an Agencies report to say, ‘It is obvious that the rally goers intended to stoke fear and create racial tension. BN must take stock and put a stop to this unhealthy problem immediately.’

The big question is whether Najib would do anything and it is looking very unlikely while he is fighting for his own survival. A rioting on the streets would be a great reprieve to take the heat off him and redirect the attention away. The ethnic minorities in Malaysia, particularly the Chinese, would bear the brunt of any break down of law and order tomorrow. Their are well being and safety are hanging on tender hooks.

What is going to happen tomorrow is harrowing.