The number of Singaporean Ah Qs growing

For those who are unfamiliar with this Ah Q character in Lu Xun’s political satire, Ah Q is the epitome of poverty but in a state of denial and trying to justify every failure and misfortune in his life as something good, to comfort himself and to minimize the pain. What is happening today in Sin City is that more and more Ah Qs are appearing and trying to make the best out of a bad situation by comforting themselves that it is good, or it will be good in the long run.

The media have been making many complementary statements about how good life is and how good cycling is. ‘Bold moves for car lite Singapore in the offing’ wow great stuff!  ‘Cycling as a viable commuting choice lauded’, another great stuff as if the people really love cycling and are throwing the burden of their cursed cars away.  Everyone is so happy about having more cycling lanes to make cycling more convenient and to throw away their dreams of car ownership. Car lite cities make for a better quality of life. Boon Wan was quoted saying, ‘There is a growing consensus among developed cities that few cars mean less traffic, congestion, less air and noise pollution and more land for public spaces and amenities.’ Or more land to build more flats to bring in more migrants?

Let me recall a statement by a Chinese missile scientist, Qian Xueshen when he tried to convince his good friend, a nuclear scientist, to help to detonate the first nuclear bomb in China. The latter did not want to as nuclear bombs are weapons of mass destruction. Qian told him that having the bomb and not using it was different from not having the bomb altogether. This, in the current context, is like having a car and not wanting to use against not able to own a car and has no choice but to cycle. For the cycling enthusiasts, cycling is a choice and their bicycles can cost several thousands. They cycle for fun, not because they must, not because they could not afford a car. Many would be having a big car in their garages.

While the rich car owners are trying their best to con the daft to abandon their cars, the daft are behaving like Ah Qs, swallowing the lie totally. And now the Ah Qs are even convincing themselves that cycling is a better quality of life. In Lu Xun’s Ah Q, he was a victim of circumstances, and had no choice. Poverty was his life and he had to try to live his dastardly poor life the best he could. He had to convince himself that life was not so miserable to carry on living.

The Singapore Ah Qs could not think and allowed the rich to con them that no car is good. And stupidly they believe so, giving up the dreams and aspirations to want a better life with the comfort of car ownership and cycling for fun on weekends. They could not see the difference between having a car and not using it and not able to own a car and have to cycle everywhere.

Which Ah Q is dafter? In the 60s and 70s, the poor commie country called China was filled with bicycles on the roads.  We used to sneer at their poverty, car less society due to being poor. Today they are all craving to own cars, for a better quality of life. The Singaporean Ah Qs will soon be shouting cars are bad, bicycles are good. Rich commies are bad, poor capitalists are good. Or cars are good, bicycles are betterer.

What about those who need a car for the old, the sick, the young and for the barang barang they must bring along in the course of doing their little businesses? How are they to get by without a car or a car that cost more than a hundred thousand of big Singapore dollars?

Francis Seow – The good, bad and ugly, they all shall pass away

These few years, and the next few years, we are likely to see the last few remnants of the pioneer generations kissing the dust. No one can escape this force of nature. Everyone shall decay and turn to dust. Whether they be rich or poor, acquired mountains of fortune or lived their last days as paltry recluses, good riddance.

Francis Seow had a meteoric rise to the cream of our history, to be there, but not there. His flash of success was clipped by his detention and humiliation in the cells of Mount Pleasant. He had gave the Singaporeans a glimpse of what actually happened behind those walls in the tranquil setting of a verdant forest in the most prestigious and expensive ground in this most expensive city state.

Francis Seow’s exile and eclipse from the corridors of power would be what Singaporeans remember him most, a victim of the politics of an era, hopefully never to be repeated again. The two camps would have different ways to commemorate his passing away and that is expected.  You would not hear good words from one camp or negative words from the other.

Our history, or modern history under the PAP, written and approved by the PAP, is only 60 years. What would our history be in another generation when memories of all the key players and their direct beneficiaries and victims have gone cold?  For the moment, the good, bad and ugly are well documented by official memoirs and the media. Would their places be switched when the powers change hands in the future? Would our history be told differently and the villains and heroes be named differently?

Now, who is next to join the list of has beens, came and left and turned to dust.?

Ip Man 3 – A nation building perspective

Ip Man 3 the movie is going to set records all over the world as a very watchable movie. Movie making has taken a paradigm shift, from the funny slapstick cartoon like fighting sequences of the past to more stylish and gravity defying stunt done at great speed, and appearing very realistic. The choreography of fighting scenes is like watching fighting men moving with the grace of dancers. This generation of movie making has made the movies of the past looked so amaturish. They are really very enjoyable to watch.

The themes and plots are fairly standard and familiar. But fans of kungfu movies did not pay just for the plots, though they made the movies more watchable. They went for the actions. Many also went to see Ip Man and his brand of fighting skills against his opponents, seeing the triumph of a skilled kungfu exponent taking on fearsome opponents and won. Good for the adrenaline and comforting for the soul.

There is another important aspect that many missed, the big picture. Ip Man’s movies were scripted in a period when China was the Sick Man of Asia and Hongkong 1959 was a British colony. The island was ruled by foreigners and the local elites were shameless, powerless, greedy and selfish individuals that only cared for their own good. They did not mind the foreigners taking over the govt, taking over the businesses and industries, bullying the helpless and poor country men, kicking them around, as long as they, the elite, could lead a good life.

The foreigners were everywhere and calling the shot.  Jobs were few for the locals and getting a job from the foreigners was a big thing, even being discriminated, being bullied and underpaid, and having to please the foreigners and enduring their abuses.  The masses were poor, hungry and angry, but could not do a thing. They could not depend on the local elites that were in cahoot with the foreigners to exploit them.  They could only hope for an Ip Man to stand up and fight for them. And they screamed for their hero. But the victory was empty. The system, with the foreigners in charge and calling the shot, and the locals as the disenfranchised people, with little rights, with no help coming from the elites, was the order of the day.

They did not know the island was lost. They were conquered and ruled by foreigners and depending on the mercy and charity of the foreigners. The parasitic local elites were more interested in enriching themselves, country or no country never mind. Life was good for them and their families. The masses could be left to be bullied by the foreigners, beaten by the foreigners, the elites would turn a blind eye. The elites were also fearful of the foreigners as the foreigners were in control, in charge of the country.

The historical context of the Ip Man movies was a lost people,  lost country, a people with no dignity, no will to fight for themselves, no pride, no money, no jobs, but waiting helplessly for things to happen, waiting for more Ip Mans to stand up to fight for them.

When a country turned into a Sick Man of Asia, that would be the fate of the people. They lost everything, their country, their jobs, their self respect, their dignity, their right to live as normal citizens of a country. They did not know how to fight back, to regain their rights in their country, to retake their country from the foreigners and the corrupt elites. The elites were were the real enemies of the people, not the leaders of the country.

Ip Man was just a flash of hope but would not change anything. The people need to rise together, to throw out the corrupt elites and the foreigners.  It took several revolutions, millions of death, and a lot of pain and suffering, to retake China from the corrupt regimes and the foreigners and later the return of Hongkong.

Look beyond Ip Man in the movie. There is a very important lesson in nation building to be learnt. It is not the fighting skills of Ip Man. It is not one man to change the world. It is the helplessness of a people that had lost their country to foreigners.

Singapore is an exceptional place on earth

When the whole world is threatened by terrorist attacks, Singaporeans can sleep in peace, partly due to the exceptional govt and the exceptional men in blue. 27 terrorists were arrested and deported to Bangladesh without doing any harm to Singapore.

What was remarkable is the discovery of this terrorist cell in the island. What is more remarkable is that the terrorists were not planning to hit Singapore. They were planning to hit Bangladesh. Now you see why Singapore is so safe? The terrorists would not dare to hit Singapore or would not want to hit Singapore. Isn’t that remarkable? This is uniquely Singapore. International terrorists were here, at least 27 of them, excluding whatever local terrorists known and unknown, and we are safe.

The other remarkable thing is that Singapore is an open country and people come in freely. The govt is very happy to have more migrants coming to work in the island. And many of the migrants, more than 2m are here, are from terrorist prone regions and countries. And up to the last arrest, only 27 out of more than 2m foreigners are terrorists. This must be some kind of record.

Singapore is safe because the terrorists want to make it safe. They are here but would not attack Singapore. So nice. We can open our immigration door wider for more foreigners to come in. Oh, maybe our integration programme is very successful to integrate the foreigners that they have become one of us, like our law abiding Singaporeans, helping to make Singapore safer. Many foreigners are also grass root leaders and helping in patrolling their neighbourhoods.

What a nice feeling to be Singaporeans. The bigger problem here is actually Islamophobia, Singaporeans over reacting to the threats from radicalized terrorists.

Appointed president to elected president to appointed president

The issue of whether the current elected president system should be retained or changed is becoming a hot topic for discussion in Parliament and in the net. Why is this an issue now given that this was the best system introduced only a few years back, thought through by the super talents? Now it seems that this is no longer the best system, a stupid system, and there is an urgent need to tweak it. Before tweaking this, maybe we should go back one step further to know why there was a need to tweak the appointed president system to an elected president system.

I remembered that there was a fear that the appointed president was purely ceremonial and cannot check a rogue govt that may spend away the nation’s reserves.  They forgot that there was no need for a president to check on a rogue govt when it is appointed by the rogue govt. They should all be together in the rogue camp. So the idea of an elected president holding a second key can say no to a rogue govt, can refuse to open the reserves was born. Wasn’t this clever? Wasn’t this a well thought out scheme? Now who is saying that this is a hare brain scheme and needs to be tweaked because they forgot that the president could be a rogue president that would give trouble and pain to a good govt that needs to open the reserve but the rogue president says no? Don’t ask me why they did not think of this. Maybe the only assumption then was a rogue govt that needed a good president to cheque on them and not the possibility of having a rogue president that needed to be chequed.

Not the dire situation is a rogue president making life difficult for a good govt is going to happen. So how, go back to the old system of an appointed ceremonial president that is nice to the incumbent govt and they will all work happily together chequing each other. Like that sure no problem…unless both the appointed president and the incumbent govt are rogues. Then finish leow. But this is unlikely, to have a rogue govt appointing a rogue president. Our political system has been carefully designed and fine tuned to ensure that rogues will not be elected to govern this island, only righteous, honourable and selfless men and women will be selected and elected. The citizens cannot be so daft to elect rogues to form the govt right?  A 70% majority must be right. Can we trust our highly educated citizens to be daft and to elect rogues to form the govt?

Come to think of it this may be possible if the assumption that Singaporeans are daft is true. Singaporeans are famed for being daft, for allowing foreigners to come in and steal their jobs and never complain, accepting that this is the right thing, the good thing, because they cannot see anything further than the tip of their nose. They did not know what is going on around them.

Maybe before tweaking the elected president, I have a better idea. Create a third key. The third key can be held by an elected senior president or an elected COI, Committee of Inquisition, to cheque on the elected president and his second key. When two keys cannot work, not enough security, have a third key. Like that sure can work. And if the third key still cannot work, set up a senate of senior citizens. This one, the senior citizens must all be ex senior civil servants or ex ministers. Like that sure powerful enough to cheque on the elected president and senior elected president.

My idea can jalan or not?