We are progressing, tomorrow will be better

Let me repeat the familiar story of the islander in an island far, far away. When the rich tourist on vacation in the island saw him wasting his time under the coconut tree having his siesta, he offered him his advice on how to grow rich and to retire happily with a lot of money and not having to work again. The islander asked the tourist for his age. The tourist was 65. The islanders told him at best he had 15 years to enjoy his life while the islander who was 30 and had 50 years to enjoy life under the clear blue sky, turquoise water and without a worry.

Why are Singaporeans working so hard for, to be rich, to have a good life, to enjoy life?  Our parents relatively were rich in their own ways, earning a couple of thousand dollars a month and living in semi Ds that cost maybe two years of income and a car to drive the family around to eat air. The children could happily hop on the family car and go dating with their friends. They had so much free space and free time then.

Today, a semi D would probably cost more than 30 years of a $100k annual income and a car would cost a hand or a leg. But the people are rich and happy and are told to aspire for better things in life. A 800 sq ft pigeon hole in the sky is very good living, quality living. And they should aspire to take public transport, to cycle or to walk, to adopt a healthy lifestyle while the multimillionaire would drive their limousines around expressways and the average Singaporeans should get use to taking public transport and get squeezed.

The govt is also helping and making life without cars easier with no car days in the city and building more bicycle lanes for the new and rich lifestyle of future Singaporeans.

Is this what is called progress? Are these the aspirations of our young? What would be the next phase of progress after acquiring all the good degrees when all the jobs are either taken over by foreigners or by robots and machine? A life of leisure in a tropical island without stress and wants, no job, no home and no income and no car? How to survive then? Got govt subsidies I think.

Let's celebrate car free day. And better get used to the idea that owning a car is at best a wet dream in the future for the average Singaporeans.

Sustainable growth is in dire need for China

By Chua Chin Leng (chinadaily.com.cn)Updated: 2015-12-24 15:33

After three decades of double-digit growth, China has embarked on new development track with moderate growth rate around 7 percent annually. Even at this conservative growth rate, the Chinese economy could double itself in seven years to a US$20 trillion economy. It could be regarded as miraculous growth for a huge economy.

China has arrived at a point where rapid economic growth becomes a big challenge and risk overheating. In fact it was the fear of overheating that prompted the Chinese government to rein in the high growth rate.

China has little to fear of external factors dragging down its economy that is built on a very broad base of economic activities, from agriculture to manufacturing, tourism and finance etc. China has a lot of rooms to grow, and to continue growing at the new normal of a mature or maturing economy at 5 percent to 7 percent is not an issue.

The big question is whether China wants to push so hard to continue with its past growth rate of more than 10% or to take a breather and grow at a more leisure pace of 7 percent?

The last three to four decades of heady growth naturally led to many inequalities and inefficiencies in the Chinese economy like unequal distribution of wealth, unequal rate of growth across region, unequal growth in different industries and priorities. The inequalities itself would present great challenges but also opportunities for the Chinese economy to continue to grow as it seeks to level up these inequalities, diversify its industrial and manufacturing base, bringing growth and development to less developed regions and industries.

The obvious and often touted strategy to sustain a high growth rate is to steer the export oriented economy to raising internal consumption of consumer goods and services. The sheer size of 1.3 billion consumers, far more than the combined market of the US and Europe, would keep the Chinese manufacturers and producers very busy for a long time to come. China can be a self sufficient and domestic driven economy with the advantage of size.

There are also many industries that are still growing, such as the defense industries, pharmaceuticals and the redevelopment of the central and western regions of China. There are also many new industries such as renewable energies that could become the new engines of growth to keep the economy happily rumbling, albeit at a more sustainable and respectable growth rate.

And the banking and finance industry is just opening up and with great potential to contribute a bigger share to the economy.

The issue of the Chinese economy is not about growth but about sustainable growth, about managing growth for the good of its people, better distribution of wealth to uplift the well being of the population, to spread growth to all corners of the country.

The break-neck speed of the past decades of double digit growth should be tempered with more control in the direction of growth, in being selective of the industries to grow, in capitalizing on the green revolution, to turn green and the use of green technology.

China should take this opportunity to transform the economy and country into a country of the new century with measured and manageable growth, with a clear purpose and direction.

The author is a political observer from Singapore.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and don't represent views of China Daily website.

Sultan of Johore – So much to learn from Singapore

An Agencies’ report on an interview with Sultan Ibrahim of Johore appeared on 28 Dec and the Sultan’s frank view on Najib and Singapore. After years of silence, out of the spotlight following Mahathir’s clipping of the wings of the royalties, the Royal House of Johore is stirring once again. The current Sultan and his son the Crown Prince have exuded a new sense of mission and confidence in what they think is good for Johore and Malaysia. There is a kind of balance and rationality in the things they said, free from the encumbrance of the past, of race and religion. Behind what they said is the focus on peace and stability and on development of the state and country and the good of the people regardless of race, language and religion. This is a common trait in the thinking and policies of Singapore leaders.

In the report, other than taking a position of being above politics and taking a non committal position in the power struggle in KL, the Sultan did not want to be seen to be taking sides. And in a major shift in thinking, the Sultan said he found it ‘hard to understand the rationale or irrationality of my Malaysian leader who wants Malaysia to quarrel with Singapore. There is so much we can learn from Singapore. They have done well, let’s be honest here…We don’t have to go on expensive study trips to Europe or the United States – just go across the causeway to Singapore; they have done so many things that are correct and efficient.’

This change of tone is unprecedented coming from the Malaysian leaders and coming from the Royal House of Johore.  The new leaders are starting to chart a course very different from the days of Mahathir when everything is about politics and muddled with a history of political baggages. Even Najib, though still playing with the politics of race and religion has departed from the policy of no need to learn English. He is talking about learning English as the international language of commerce.

The profound change is in the thinking of the Sultan of Johore that is very pragmatic and development biased. With his development priority in place, Johore is going to develop rapidly and runaway from the other Malaysian states unless his legs are tripped by the Federal govt in KL.

For a start the Johore state govt may want to engage some Singaporean state planners to assist in the redevelopment of Johore Bahru. We have plenty of experienced civil servants available to offer our expertise. And not to worry about the expensive trips Singapore is sending to the West to learn from them. I can bet they learn nothing much as we are much better organized and developed than the West in city planning and management other than one or two obvious areas that we are still scrambling for cover. Learn only the good stuff.

Actually Singapore is very worried that all the Malaysian states would put aside their obsession with politics and start to think progressively and objectively. Singapore would be in real trouble with a competitive and development minded Malaysian govt. We would not be able to compete with a new Malaysia withthe low productivity of today due to the foreigners here.

It is a frightening thought and a frightening reality. All the million dollar pay will be gone with the wind.

The things that silly Asians and American cronies would not want to know

Below is a quote I copied from John Harding’s blog on what Putin said.

‘Putin also took aim at the United States and the West for the wars in Iraq, Libya and Syria, saying they destabilized regions “that looked quite good until recently but are now areas of anarchy.”

“We know who decided to change regimes in those countries and impose their own rules,” Putin said. “They destroyed those states and then they washed their hands of it, opening the road to radicals, extremists and terrorists.”’

 

The American’s game plan of destabilizing countries and allowed them to fall into ruins and anarchy is the way to keep these countries and their people forever in poverty and unrest, and to allow the Americans and the West to keep them under control and to be exploited.  The sad thing is that many countries and pro American jokers would not want to know about this. They only want to believe in a good and compassionate and caring white God that could do no evil and whatever evil He did is for a good reason.

 

And these countries supporting this American policy of regime change and destabilising functional economies could not see themselves ending up as the next target of American regime change. There are many countries in SE Asia, Africa and the Middle East that have very good potential for regime change by virtue of the fact that they are either ruled by corrupt leaders, undemocratic or dictatorship or the most important factor, Muslim countries and of course with oil reserves.

 

When these countries became victims of American invasion and regime change, it would be just dessert, just retribution for supporting such an Evil Empire and committing crimes of destroying functioning countries, killing their people, and also their leaders.

 

Those that live by the sword will die by the sword.

Why Singapore has no talents?

Life is a learning process. People get smarter and wiser after making many mistakes in life and learn from them. They worked on their problems, overcame the problems and gained experience and wisdom. The funny thing in life is that the more challenges one faced in life, the more one learns and the tougher one becomes though not always the case. A person that did not have to face too many difficulties and challenges invariably learns less, not necessarily that he is less clever. So, where can you find experienced and well trained people in Singapore when everything works so well, no problems?

In Singapore, everything works. So the people working in the industries, in the ministries, etc etc would naturally learn less as there are lesser breakdowns and problems for them to overcome and to learn from. Ok, I know you people will be shouting SMRT! Ok, there are exceptions. After the breakdowns are taken care of, our SMRT staff would be very experienced and they can market their skills to the world, for having gone through all the problems and knowing how to deal with them. I think this is the only industry and profession where we can tell the world we have the most experienced and trained people.

The industries like water and sewerage system, power and electrical system, all working so smoothly, sure got no talent. Just like in the business, banking and finance, our banks were rock solid, no problem for so many decades. Where got talent?  They got no opportunity to learn anything, so now we have to start all over again, go overseas to find the talents we need. Maybe when there is a financial crisis and out banks are at the brink of collapse we will have new talents after they survived the crisis.

The moral of the story, when you want people with talents in flood control and drainage, go to countries that are flood prone. They sure have very experienced people who would know everything about flooding and drainage. If you want experienced train operators, go to countries where trains always breakdown and you will find all the seasoned engineers and managers who have gone through all the problems. Very well trained and experience.

And if Singapore wants to go nuclear, better go and recruit the engineers and scientists from Fukushima when they are still alive. Not many would be left around for long. They have the experienced on how to deal with a breakdown. And if you want banking and finance experts, go to countries where there are many banking frauds and problems, you will find all the experienced people to hire.

Did someone say when a system is working fine, with no problems, it means you have very able people running it, proactively planning and preventing problems from happening?  These people would not have the experience of solving all the massive breakdown problems but they are so efficient to prevent problems from happening, seeing to it that everything works at the push of the button. Unfortunately if they have to apply for jobs, they would not have a string of problem solving skills to boot and some may think they have no talent, or no experience at solving problems.

What do you think? Who is the better person to employ? Those that ensure systems work with no or little failures, or those who cannot manage a proper system that runs smoothly and every day fighting fires but with a lot of experience to tell? Do you want people to work diligently until everything works so fine that people may think they are useless, nothing to do, or people who run around everywhere trying to solve problems when problems is the norm, and looking like very hardworking, very involved, because they could not ensure that the system works smoothly?

If no one was there to screw up the housing policy and programmes, Boon Wan would not have the chance to solve the problems and now can put it in his resume as the hero that solved the housing problem. Some may say the problem is still there. That is another opinion.