The trend of development in GRCs

The statisticians and social scientists that read trends to predict the future and who are looking at the trend of GRC development would point to one conclusion. I show you the conclusion later.

We started with single seat constituencies. Every MP stood for one constituency to represent one constituency of people. Then the conventional wisdom and realities changed. There was a need to ensure minority candidates are present in Parliament. The wisdom of the day said the people would be voting on ethnic grounds and minority candidates would not be elected in the future. No one was up to it to question this hard truth. So that was it. There shall be light, oops, there shall be GRCs. Each GRC should have 3 or 4 candidates with one from the minorities.

After a few elections, different needs appeared. Now the reason was not to ensure minority representation but other convenient or practical reasons like economy of scale, efficiency, expediency, ministers very busy so need other MPs to cover for them, or when one dies, others can cover the dead MP’s duties and so on and on. See the shifting goal posts and reasons?

Then we have bigger and bigger GRCs, the unsinkable battleship, the bigger the battle. Weak oppositions were struggling to catch up to field even a GRC with decent candidate and with the cash. But that was their problem. Big GRCs were good and the intent and purpose were good. It was good for the politics of the country, like Elected President was better than Appointed President.

Then again things changed. Big GRCs not so good leh. So must have lesser big GRCs. Reasons I am still blur. And now I heard there is a need to have more smaller GRCs and SMCs. Reasons I also dunno but must be good for the political system and for the country and people.

See the trend and reasoning? So the next change, what would be the next change, what is the trend leading to? Yes, GRCs are bad and we must go back to SMCs.  Why, because the people are not really racist, they are Singaporeans and colour blind. The Singaporeans would vote for good candidates regardless of race, language and religion. This is in the national pledge, idiot. There is no need for GRCs. And some may be wondering, which smart alec came up with this GRC thing? What crap! But this is the future. I am bringing this up as a social scientist would do, to study the social trend and make a prediction of the future political system as the trend will take. As they say, things will come around in circles.

All back to square one. In the process everyone was taken for a ride without a say and without knowing why.  And who knows, there will be no more Elected President in the future and the President sitting in the Istana will be just a ceremonial president and no multi million dollar salaries in the future, just a presidential stipends of $500k a year.

Hillary Clinton to be indicted!

John Harding seems to be very well informed of such exciting news. He is working on a leak that Hillary is going to be indicted by the FBI while I am working on a story on how to get Hillary to run in the next GE as a candidate for the opposition parties.

John Harding is still working on his story but I will just quote this from his blog.

‘Obama does not want to be linked to Hillary Clinton as the Benghazi attack was staged by a State Department hired jihadist security outfit in connection with and as a cover-up for the transfer of Libya’s vast arms cache to al-Qaeda and ISIS mercenaries in Syria and Iraq.’

This is bizarre news. If true, Hillary’s ambition to be the first female President of the Empire will go up in smokes.

Wow John.

PS. This is the strength of the American democratic system when there is real separation of power, where a rogue executive, even the President, can be indicted, not only a Secretary of State. And they don’t suka suka change their constitution because someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed, or someone had a nightmare.

Revisionism of the Constitution and Political System

While many changes are being proposed in Parliament, I think it is important at this point to note that Singapore is a democracy and the citizens have certain rights enshrined in the Constitution. In a democracy, the citizens are the owners of the country and have the right to elect who they want to represent them in Parliament and who should be the President of the country. The citizens also have the right to stand for election as the people’s representative in Parliament as well as to be the President of the State. Any legislation that removed these rights of the people must be unconstitutional. What would the legal minds say of these assertions? I bet none would dare to open his or her mouth on these issues. So the citizens will be just as blind and as dumb with regard to their rights as citizens on these issues. The big question, can a ruling party legislate away the rights of the people to stand for election as the President of the country? The so called restrictive and limiting criteria to be eligible as a presidential candidate are like the natural aristocrats carving out a niche for themselves, excluding the masses, depriving the masses of a basic right as a citizen of the country.

I hope all of you can share your views here and in other forum or public discussions whether the proposals to the changes to the Elected President system violate the Constitution, undermine the rights of the citizens to be president and to elect the President of the State.

I am not going to suggest an easier method to satisfy the conventional mantra of the day, that the candidate for the Presidency must have blue or purple blood. If that be the case a simpler solution would be to legislate that only the scions of ex Presidents and Prime Ministers are eligible to stand for election as the next President. This would also solve the minority representation issue.

Having said that, the people must not be misled by the shifting goal posts. The citizens must not forget the first principles, that is, they are the owners of this country. Every citizen has the right to stand for election as the President of the State and that it is their right to elect whoever they want to be the President of the State, blue blood, purple blood or red blood is not an issue or limiting factor. In a democracy, the people can even elect a beggar or a blind man to be the president of the state. It is democracy and it is their democratic right. No one can take this right from the people. No one can legislate this right away from the people. Do not treat the people as daft and unthinking and would anyhow suka suka elect any rogue to be the President. Please do not insult the intellect of the electorate.

Tiok boh?

They said everything begins with a good intention. The devil is in the details. Watch the details carefully.

Careful tweaking of political system is Spore’s way backward

Oops, oops, I am a bit dyslexic today. I read something in the paper and, ok, ok, now I remember, the title of the article is ‘Careful evolution of political system is Spore’s way forward’.  Apologies, apologies.  How can the evolution of the political system in the hands of righteous, flawless, honourable, selfless, incorruptible and well meaning people whose only concern is the well being of Singapore and the Singaporeans be going backward? Cannot be mah. Singapore is really so bless to have so many generations of good men and women in charge.

Now the good men and women in charge are suddenly charged with a body full of adrenalin and great inspirations and ideas to carefully tweak our political system for the future, to last ten thousand years. There are so many good changes coming up, NCMP lah, elected president lah, minority interests lah, smaller GRCs and more SMCs and many more that it would fill a library if I would put them down in words. I have so many things to say, so many ways of saying them. Maybe over the weekend I shall spend some time talking about them in more details.

Now why are the people, oops, some people, especially those from the opposition camps, sounding so unhappy? Why are they objecting? Just cannot understand them. All the proposals are good things, for the good of the country and people. I think the opposition camps should just shut up and listen quietly, like all good boys in schools will do, like children at home will do when papa speaks.

Seriously, I cannot find any single thread of fault in the proposals printed in the main media. They all sounded so good, so encouraging, so progressive, full of good intentions. I also read and heard so many praises that we are moving forward. Sorry Cheng Bock, sorry Jee Say, I didn’t hear your objections.

It is good that the Singapore political system should evolve around the goodness of natural aristocrats and not around peasants. The natural aristocrats have many in born qualities, or greatness by birth that peasants can never hope to possess. One of the most important things is that their blood is purple in colour.

Ok, when a person has purple blood, he must be exceptional. It would be good if our political system is run by people with purple blood. All those with blood of the commoners, red, please step aside and be good.  Remember your station in life and do the part you are born to do, to listen and obey, be the doers, not thinkers or leaders. Stop objecting, resistance is futile.

Sing dollar very big or very small?

Singaporeans are so happy that Sing dollar is appreciating against the ringgit, S$1 to MR$3. This is very good news for those spending money across the causeway, those who frequent the shops and restaurants and recreation facilities in the north, enduring the long jams and hours wasted in the queue, going in and out of Singapore. To some it is worth it, so some, the little savings does not justify the time wasted in the jams. And there are others buying properties in Malaysia. The properties are getting cheaper with the stronger Sing dollar. But what is the bottom line, did they make money from their property investments or end up losing more despite the advantageous of a stronger Sing dollar?

Strong Sing dollar mainly benefits those who work here and remit their money back home, convert to their home currencies and spend on things that are cheaper due to their lower cost of living, buying properties, cars, and whatever. The Malaysians working here are the biggest beneficiaries to the strong exchange rate. So are the Indians, Chinese, Myanmese, Pinoys, Bangladeshis and others.

How many Singaporeans really benefit from the strong Singapore dollar? If they spend their money here, actually their money is getting smaller and smaller, not bigger. When citizens of other countries could buy a car for $10K or $20k equivalent, Singaporeans need to pay more than $100k to buy a car, a few hundred thousands to buy a bigger car. This is how small the Sing dollar has become to the Singaporeans. And this same principle applies to all other purchases. A $500k ringgit is good enough to buy a landed property of more than 2000 sq ft in Malaysia. A $500k Sing dollar could only purchase a 4 or 5rm HDB flat at most, for 99 years. That is the purchasing power of the Sing dollar. Don’t be conned, the Sing dollar is losing its value at home. A Sing dollar today is worth very much lesser than yesterday in purchasing power.  A $1 bowl of noodle is now $3.50.  Public transport used to be less than a dollar, now $2 or more daily.  Taxi fare used to be less than $10, now can be $50 or more.

This is how big the Sing dollar has become. So, are Singaporeans benefitting from the strong Sing dollar? Only if they spend it outside Singapore. The majority of the average Singaporeans are not benefitting from a stronger Sing dollar but a Sing dollar that is losing its purchasing value.

So, should Singaporeans be happier with the higher income they are getting today? It used to be pretty comfortable living with a $1000 household income. Today, a twin income of $4,000 is struggling to get by. Definitely cannot afford a car, maybe a bicycle for the new quality lifestyle.

While the paper income is more, but the purchasing power is so much lower today than yesterday. Imagine a $3,000 pm income and how much luxury the family could afford to buy then and how a $3,000 income today is making ends meet?

Is the Sing dollar bigger or smaller today?

Now the Malaysians would be laughing and saying, my $500k ringgit can get me a landed property, what can your $500k Sing dollar get you? My $30k ringgit can buy a car, what can your $30k Sing buy, a motor bike? Can’t even buy a piece of paper called COE.

Singaporeans who can afford it, would enjoy a few trips overseas to spend their strong dollars but will return home to spend their shrinking dollar at home for the rest of the year.