The 3 Ks of Singapore’s political tapestry

The kiasu, kiasi and kia chenghu mentality of Singaporeans is most pronounced in the political landscape for many decades. Opposition parties tended to play it safe, avoid controversies for fear of having a date with Sue. Many of the pioneering generations of politicians have learnt it the hard way and paid for it dearly, bankrupted and spending time in jail. So one cannot simply blame the opposition parties for wanting to play it safe, see nothing, hear nothing and say nothing.

The most successful of the opposition parties, the Workers Party, thought they had the successful formula to take on the ruling party, by the tortoise and hare race, slow and steady and they will get there at the end of the day. They avoided controversies and concentrated on building grassroot support, devoted to solving municipal affairs, to show the residents that they are indeed a very hard working party working for the people. It failed badly in the last GE, but not just because they did not work hard and adopted a wrong policy. Of course there were many other factors that led to a farcical result that no seasoned political observer thought was real.

Opposition parties cannot just work quietly on the ground, to clean and sweep the roads, make sure that the drains are cleared and the amenities are working. They are national parties and should be involved in national issues affecting the people. Not saying anything, not doing anything would not do. They must speak up and stand up to be noticed, to mean business.

After the debacle of the last GE, it was like a death bell to the opposition parties. If they cannot reinvent themselves and discard the 3Ks, they can forget about standing for election in the next GE and think the people will give them their votes. As political parties, political leaders, Kiasu, Kiasi and Kia chenghu, how are they going to represent the people, to speak up for the people? There are risk, big risk, but this is politics. If one is afraid of risk taking, then one should not be in politics.

Some changes are starting to happen albeit very carefully and in a very small way. We are hearing the opposition parties starting to talk about current issues. The MRT breakdowns and the Hepatitis C outbreak are receiving attention from the opposition parties. Chee Soon Juan has been vocal and so is Goh Meng Seng. And it is a welcoming change that the WP is also coming out from the caves in Hougang and Aljunied to speak up on the same issues. The new and second generation leaders in WP like Leon Perera, Dennis Tan, Gerald Giam are breaking away from the old mould of Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim and are speaking out.

Yes, opposition leaders that want to be leaders must speak out. How can political leaders aspiring to be national leaders have on opinion or views on issues that are affecting the people? Ridiculous! If political leaders are afraid of Sue, better to find safety in a 8 to 5 job as an employee. There is still time, 4 years to the next GE, for the opposition leaders to make themselves known and heard by the people, to speak up for the people and to tell the govt that wrong is wrong, mistake is mistake, and take the govt to task if they fumbled, just like the PAP took them to task in the AHPETC affair. Take the bull by the horns and face the music, challenge the conventional thoughts, challenge the ruling govt, but without being reckless.

The opposition parties must work hard from now, not during the few days before the GE. There is a need for a dynamic change and a new paradigm in the way they want to politic and to win the hearts and minds of the people. Running away and hiding in the caves are not an option. Stand up, speak out to be counted. You need to make yourself a familiar face with the people, to be easily recognizable, to be assessed and to prove yourself that you are able to form the next govt. You have 4 years to establish a credential of credibility.

Amos Yee arrested again

In the news yesterday a teenager was arrested for making derogatory remarks against a religion. Though no name was mentioned, there were hints that it was Amos. Amos has confirmed that it is him.

So, everyone is speculating how many years will Amos be spending behind bars this time. For the police to arrest him, they must have serious evidence, and Amos is as good as guilty. And if he has posted in his Facebook, it will all be in black and white, hard evidence.

How many years? I think it should not be more than 8 years. Kong Hee only got 8 years for an offence involving $50m of round trippings.  Unless what Amos posted is more serious than the $50m, at most this looks like the maximum sentence he is going to get.  His first application to be in Changi somehow was short spent. This time his will become a PR, or a few years at least, flirting on religious issues.

I would advise people like Veritas and Matilah Singapura to take note of the seriousness of religious matters and avoid making uncontrollable and inflammatory remarks on religion in this blog.

War of Words

This phrase use to be an expression of harmless bickering between two parties, yelling and screaming at each other, or using the media to attack another party but limited to just that, words. There is no intention to carry the matter any further but just to show displeasure or to show who is the bigger bully or for the purpose of propaganda, to sink the ideas into the unthinking minds.

The war of words has taken a very different meaning, very serious and very damaging without any open conflict, and very, very effective and costly today.  The Americans have been spending billions and trillions in building up a military force that would turn any country into dust if they wanted to. That is how formidable and destructive is the American war machine. No country today is able to match the Americans in any specific area of contest with a clear advantage and a war with America is as good as courting self destruction. Of course the Americans also know that a few countries out there could bring America along to the Stone Age should the Americans are mad enough to want to go to war with them.

The Americans at best could play the game of chicken with other nuclear powers, to threaten and hoping that the other party would back out. But if both stay on course, ultimately both would have to back out. Crashing head on will end up in pieces for both chickens. The use of military power against another super power is a no option, rendering the superiority in military hardware relatively futile. The Americans overwhelming military superiority could stlll be used effectively against weaker enemies. However this again has been proven to be quite ineffective in the Middle East and a big drain on the American resources.

The most effective warfare today has turned out to be the War of Words. ISIS have just warned the Americans to withdraw its troops and involvement in the Middle East or else  they will hit at every 7 eleven stores around the world, or at any MacDonald or Kentucky fastfood outlets, or every Apple stores, Coffee beans, Starbucks or any American brand establishments worldwide.  Such threats may or may not take place, just like threats of bombs inside an aircraft. What happens is that the authority will have to act, securities beefed up, more checks, more delays and inconvenience and more cancellations. When an airline or establishment is on the hit list of a terrorist group, you can bet business will be affected. The customers will stay away when there are other alternatives available. Why would customers patronize an establishment on the hit list? Parents would keep their young away for sure.

As an example, an open threat to say Starbucks or MacDonald, what would happen to their business? It is a War of Words, but very effective and very easy and cheap to conduct. Any attempt to defend such soft targets is going to be exceptionally costly in manpower and resources. Even then, it is going to be in vain. All the billion dollar high tech leading edge military equipment and weapons are utterly hapless and useless in this kind of warfare. ISIS can be expected to increase its effort in this form of warfare. Yes, it is like calling wolf. One time, two times, three times, nothing happens. Seven times, eight times, twenty times, nothing happens, then kaboom, one store got hit. Confidence collapse and business goes down. No innocent customers would want to frequent the store, just in case.

This War of Words would be the new normal and all the security forces would be running around all for nothing but cannot afford not to run around. It is now so easy to make the Americans dance. Just issue a threat. F35s, B52s, nuclear missiles, nuclear submarines, aircraft carriers, Poseidon, drones, got any use?

Welcome to the Third World War of Words where the Americans did not have any advantage but all the disadvantages. It is all a new ball game that has no form of effective defence. Just waiting for a threat to be made good, with no time and space dimension. The Talibans could not do it, the Al Qaeda could not do it. ISIS can. It could call on the nearly one hundred countries it is drawing its recruits from, the self radicalized individuals, a one man war machine, with a knife or a handgun. The affected countries and their people, their businesses and lifestyle, will all go crazy.

ISIS is now calling the shot. ISIS has the initiative. ISIS decides the time and place. ISIS is in control, not the Americans anymore. The Americans are on the defensive. The next stage, the Americans will be on the run, back home to protect homeland security, when the streets are on fire, under attack.

Have guns will travel

The Americans are stitching up a military alliance in the region and this time with eager beaver Singapore as the darling to project American military power in the region. Following closely on the heels are the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia, all very happy to put on the gun belt and become gunslingers.  Singapore has just raised its level of cooperation with the Americans to offer Singapore as a launching pad for American spy planes to conduct surveillance in the region. The concept of peace and neutrality for Asean is being diluted and forgotten. The 30 years of peace and prosperity have been taken for granted and maybe too peaceful for the liking and a bit more tension and perhaps war in the region would be interesting.

China has taken this news in a muted response but hinting that Singapore is trying to play with fire and may get burnt if not careful. The only export that the Americans are pushing to the world and its allies, other than the Apple mobile phone is the gun. The Americans are stoking the fires of war and furiously signing military alliances and offering to sell their military hardware as tension grows.

China has just offered $60b of economic aid to Africa and signing up with Indonesia and Thailand to build hi speed train and competing in India and Malaysia for a similar project. China is going around the world selling equipments and infrastructure development while the Americans are going around the world selling arms and signing up gangsters to control the world militarily. The Americans know that they have nothing else to offer to the world other than weapons of war. They are no longer competitive in the manufacturing and production processes for consumer goods for the good of the people.

Selling arms and stoking tension are the new businesses of the Americans. And to make sure there are buyers, they must make sure there are enemies and the need for their weapons. They must sign more military alliances and conduct more military exercises so that countries in the region will have to spend more on their military and buy more weapons. They need to be prepared for wars and need to buy better and better weapons.

Securities agencies need to clear China’s investment in India

I got this quote from an article in the Today paper on 11 Dec about India awarding a bullet train project to Japan.  Here it is, ‘In September, China was given the right to assess the feasibility of a high speed train link between New Delhi and Chennai, in the south, after getting clearance from India’s security agencies wary of Chinese involvement in infrastructure areas such as telecoms and railways.’

The above statement emphasized the important role played by the security agencies of India in guarding national interests and external threats. Foreign investors cannot simply get into India and do any business they like, building infrastructure, communications, strategic industries like power plants and water resources, IT and control of the banking and finance industry.

The big question is how involved are our security agencies in the trading of national assets, in the recruitment of so many foreigners here, in foreigners being employed in sensitive industries like national securities, IT, banking and finance?  Do we face the same external threats like India or other countries that our security agencies should be involved in approving strategic investments and industries and also the employment of foreigners to senior positions in govt and govt linked organizations? There is a standard practice in all countries for the security agencies to vet and clear even their own citizens for appointments in the uniformed services and other security sensitive services.

How are our security agencies involved in the commercial sectors like banking and finance, IT, communications and even the medical industries? Do these industries, and the employment of foreigners in senior appointments require a robust regime of vetting and clearance from the security agencies here? Are the security agencies too busy watching out for terrorists and anti national elements but employment in govt and the private sector, foreign investments etc are out of their purview? Should the security agencies be more closely involved in the influx of foreigners into the country?

Maybe they already are. Maybe we need not be so sensitive with such matters as they posed lesser security concerns. No countries will be interested in taking over this little red dot.  Just wondering aloud.