More photos of old Chinatown

The last pic is Chinatown MRT Station.

Happy Chinese New Year to everyone

Below are some photos I took on Friday of people visiting Chinatown for some shopping and to enjoy the festive mood in this last post of old Singapore. It was just after an evening rain and the lighting was not too good for photography.

New hope for opposition parties

The performance of the opposition parties was anything but pathetic in the last GE. And the sad thing, they are running out of ideas. So I am here to give them a piece of good advice to win the next GE. They must be innovative, creative and think out of the box, what else can I add to make it sound even more ludicrous?

Ok, the plan is very simple. Prepare to bring in the foreign talents. Go West, go to the land that we admire most, the USA. Speak to Obama, Hillary Clinton, George Bush and a few more of the prominent American leaders. Tell them don’t waste time running for Presidency there. Invite them to Singapore, help them to apply for citizenship. This part sure no problem, sure pass one.

The next step, when they have become citizens, make them join the political parties, WP, SDP, or whatever Ps.  Promise them that at least they will become ministers, and promise them you will double, triple or quadruple their pay. And tell them, no need to work so hard. Singapore is not even a fraction of their smallest state, so the work is not that big. And if they still don’t bite, tell them they will be assisted by ministers of states and if not happy, appoint more ministers for the same ministry. I am sure they will find it attractive to become ministers here.

With such a line up of foreign talents making up of presidents, secretaries of states, can add some from the UK also, the opposition parties will be in the game. They will have the talents and experience to take on the formidable PAP political machine and stand a chance to win and to form the next govt.

There is still plenty of time before the next GE. Go for it. Don’t sleep. Bring in the best from the world to contest in the next GE before they tweaked the system to stop foreign talents to stand for election and become ministers.

Quick, quick, go West to go East. Just imagine a GRC with Obama anchoring it or Hillary Clinton as the anchor woman. No need to be frighten by PAP chut pattern anymore. But don’t bother with Donald Trump. He has too much money and money would not attract him here. And you even have Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, a husband and wife team anchoring a GRC. Sure makan one.

Be creative man! Ma Ing-Jeou is also available. Oh, not to forget Modi also. The opposition camp can be very strong with the strongest candidates from the whole world coming here to represent the Ang Mo Kia, Punggolites, Queenstownians, Woodlanders, Pasirians….It would be so exhilarating to field Obama against Hsien Loong in Ang Mo Kio.

What do you think?

Lee Li Lian made the right choice

She was elected in a by election by the people of Punggol East to serve them. She served them well, with all her heart and soul. She was devoted to the people and wanted to do everything she could for them.

In the GE the people chose to vote for a PAP candidate instead of her. The people decided that they wanted Charles Chong and not Lee Li Lian. She got the message. She was not wanted. Without the people voting for her, what credibility has she to go to parliament? This is democracy, the people’s choice. What credibility does a defeated candidate rejected by the people has to represent them, to put on a show that he/she is the people’s candidate by choice? The people had spoken and it is best for the loser to step aside and let the elected representative to speak for them in Parliament, to represent them in the constituency.

Lee Li Lian is not going to pretend that she is elected by the people and go strutting around as the people’s elected representative. A reject is a reject. A NCMP is a reject by the people. The loser of an election is the reject of the people.

There is still some dignity and self respect in Lee Li Lian to say no to the offer. This does not imply that the other NCMPs do not have dignity or self respect for accepting the NCMP offer. It is part of an inordinary system to tell the rejects that they can still be in Parliament to show that there are opposition voices in Parliament. It is an acceptance of reluctance, to live with a contrived system of democracy when the rejects of the people can still speak in Parliament, like representing them but not representing anyone, cannot go cut ribbons, give scholarships to students using public funds, not invited to grace govt organized functions, no proper place to meet the people, no everything except to be in Parliament to give a semblance of opposition presence. They are just trying to make the best out of a bad situation.

This neither here nor there NCMP system must be abolished when the right time comes. It is an anomaly. It should not be there in the first place. It is not democracy, it is not elected by the people, of the people and for the people.

Lee Li Lian said something so loud that many people missed totally.

Strange things will happen to our property owners

The 99 year lease, be it for private properties or HDB flats, would morph into a snow man when the time comes. When the lease expires or about to expire, someone who owns a 2 rm or 3rm flat with a balance of 50 year or 70 year lease would be richer than one owning a 5 rm flat or executive flat or even a private property with a 5 year lease or lesser. For at the end of the lease, the value of the no life lease property technically becomes 0. The land plus the property would go back to the owner of the land.

What this means is that 99 year leasehold owners are sitting on a time bomb, a vanishing asset. SG100 will see many properties go up in smokes and the rich owners, if their sole asset is the 99 year leasehold property that is slipping from their grips, be it $3m or $1m, will go pooh pooh.

Maybe this is a good thing, when wealth of one generation will not be passed down to the third generation to continue to be wealthy without having to work, just living on the value of a piece of appreciating property. The diminishing lease and value of 99 year leasehold properties will be like a reset every 2 or 3 generation. And that will be a time when 2 or 3 roomers still with a substantial lease remaining, will become richer than those whose lease expired. They would be looking at the new poor neighbours whose private properties or big HDB flats just become no more, homeless.

SG100 will be a time of reckoning, when the poor becomes rich and rich becomes poor. Things will turn upside down.

Good system for the average Singaporeans. Only those with freehold properties and not subject to estate duties will be rich forever and live happily ever after. The rich have it all thought out, the system will protect them and their wealth for generations to come.