Singapore is our country

Together we have sent a message that will echo from Wall Street to Washington, From Maine to California. And that is that the government of our great country belongs to all of the people, and not just a handful of wealthy campaign contributors and their super PACs’.  Bernie Sanders, Democrat Presidential candidate

Does the above quote sounds eerily familiar? This was something that the people of Singapore should be shouting in the last GE but somehow it faded away. It changed tune with 69% of the voters shouting from Raffles Place to the Istana and from Tanjong Pagar to Woodlands that Singapore belongs to them.

When would all the people of Singapore be shouting that our great island city state belongs to all the people of Singapore and not just a handful of wealthy politicians or to foreigners? Would this message be heard in the next GE? Or would this message be heard in the next GE that the position of the President of Singapore belongs to all the people of Singapore and not a few special people with purple blood?

The victory of an ordinary man, without the richest and glory, not a natural aristocrat, came as a surprise, that common people can become the president of the USA, (but not in Singapore).  Bernie Sanders won convincingly in New Hampshire. The Democrats were banking on Hillary Clinton’s political experience to carry the votes. But the voters voted a man that had lesser experience, no experience in running a town council to prove that he can fun a country as big as the USA to be their presidential candidate.

Republican candidate Trump also had a big win. According to NYT, both men ‘won significant support from voters who felt betrayed by their parties and were dissatisfied or angry with the federal government’. This would not happen in Singapore when the voters were satisfied and happy with the ruling govt. Sanders or Trump would not stand a chance with their lack of experience in political office if they were to run for the office of the Elected President. They may not even be qualified in the first place, to be eligible as a candidate.

What do you think?

The Singapore formula of the highest science

Now what is that? I also don’t understand what is the title all about. What is the highest science? Got such a thing meh? I briefly remembered Einstein calling political science the master science, because he could not find a theory or formula that is exact and unchanging, and predictable. All the variables are changing all the time. Now what is the highest science? I can’t give you a definition, but from what I am going to write below maybe you will get an idea of this out of the world kind of science.

Singapore has just appointed a very high level Constitutional Commission to recommend a formula to elect a president that will not be a rogue. It is like a system that will not fail in what it is set up to do, to produce an infallible man to be the Elected President of Singapore. Get the idea?

And to do this task, the PM has picked out a team comprising the most talented talents in the island, the top judges, top civil servant, top political scientist, top businessmen, top minority talent, top banker, top top of everything, the eminent men and woman of the island. Their combined talent and intelligent are likely to exceed any living genius on earth. You will need such a pool of intelligence to come out with a system that will not produce a rogue Elected President.

To understand the complex nature of this extraordinary task, you must understand a few things. One, it is a democratic election system where the people, the unthinking masses, are supposed to make the decision as a herd. Then there is the selection committee of equally fallible men and women, I can’t expect to say they are flawless unless they are godlike. And this team will, with their imperfect human nature, pick a man they think will not be a rogue.  And the person that is being picked is going to be truly godlike or may not be godlike but can pretend to be godlike during the selection process. And also presumably he will not fall to temptation and his life is so blessed, that his aspiration or appetite for more money or anything will be neutered. See, human nature is such that human beans are prone to temptation and their heads tend to grow bigger and bigger when they are put into position of power. So for such an infallible man to exist, to be the Elected President, is a daunting task, all temptations and desires must be castrated to prevent him from becoming a rogue.

Now our eminent team of men and woman is going to design a formula that would not fail, would not produce a rogue Elected President. Now you see, given the flawed nature of human beans, isn’t this the highest science?

Would it be more important to design a system that would not produce rogue MPs , Ministers and Prime Ministers? These elected representatives actually wield more power and carry more responsibilities than an Elected President. Should not this be the top priority? Never mind, let’s wait for this mission impossible, a system or formula to produce an infallible man in the Elected President that would not become a rogue. I will not add another condition, that it would not violate the rights of the citizens provided in the Constitution to be eligible to become an Elected President.

I wonder if there is a prize in this world good enough to award to this team if they could ever produce a scheme, system or formula to pick a flawless and infallible man. I know God failed in this task when he thought Noah was the perfect man and spared his life to be allowed to breed a flawless specie of human beans. But Noah proved just as fallible as any human bean, flawed.

What do you think? Can this team do it when God had failed? Can there be a perfect system that would not produce a rogue president?

PS. This is my piece for the weekend. I am taking a short break with my friends.

China hegemony, North Korea threat, rogue president

What have these phrases have in common? China hegemony? When was there a China hegemony? Anyone lived through it? What was it like or how was it like? We are living through 70 years of American hegemony. 

What about North Korean nuclear threat? They did not have the weapons yet. They cannot deliver the warheads yet. They have not threatened any country other than South Korea, Japan and the USA. These are the enemies of the North Koreans, threatening and provoking the North Koreans. The North Koreans are no threat to anyone else. Stop being silly to think the North Koreans will wake up one day in the future and fire their missiles all over the world, to Singapore, to Malaysia, to the Philippines, to Indonesia, to Myanmar, to India….. Stupidity knows no bounds. What is the fuzz all about? Why the ruckoos?

Then there is this great fear of a rogue president? Anyone seen one yet? What is a rogue president? What is the definition of a rogue president? Would anyone notice or recognize one when the rogue president is standing in front of him?

What is the common feature of these three devils? They are just someone’s hype, someone’s imaginations to create fear. These are the ghosts that are threatening everyone and must be exorcised. Let’s hide from them, let’s fight them. In reality they may not even exist. A China hegemony? What is that? Is it bad or can it be good, better than the American hegemony?

Why should it be bad? Because the Americans said so, because the western media have been saying so? The dumb just believed blindly. They don’t call them daft for nothing.

Who is the world’s Number One Menace?

The Americans have voted North Korea as the most serious nuclear threat with testimonies from their respectable intelligence services that provided the evidence that Saddam Hussein possessed WMD. These agencies are now giving strong evidence to support their assertion that North Korea is the most dangerous country.

In a NYT report this is what the director of National Intelligence Agency, James Clapper, said to put North Korea at the top of his list of nuclear proliferation related threats…North Korea has expanded its uranium enrichment facility at its main nuclear complex in Yongbyon and restarted a plutonium production reactor and could begin to recover plutonium from the reactor’s spent fuel within a matter of weeks or months.

Isn’t this the same as what Japan has done, in restarting the Fukushima plant? The possession of plutonium is ground to justify proliferation threat? How much plutonium have the Americans had in their possession?

The other result is trust. Clapper said, "we in the intelligence community are very much in the ‘distrust, and verify’ mode". Ah, the same agency that lied to the world about WMD is saying the North Koreans cannot be trusted but they can be trusted. Excuse me, what did you say about the evidence of WMD in Iraq? Can you be trusted? Did you verify your insidious condemnation report of Iraq that was used as an excuse to invade that country and to murder President Saddam Hussein whom you accused of possessing WMD and now proven to be a white lie?

Who is less trustworthy? Who is more menacing? Who is more dangerous, the liar or the once accused by the liar?

Why are the Americans patrolling the South China Sea? Why is it that the littoral states now must leave the islands alone, no construction, no military bases, because the Americans said so? The countries with construction and military bases in the South China Sea islands are China, Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines and Malaysia. Are the Americans taking over the South China Sea as part of the Empire? In the guise of getting other countries, the Philippines and now the Japs and Indians to conduct joint patrols, the Americans are the real mccoy patrolling the South China Sea for the Empire and all the countries in the region better back off. The Empire is here and taking over.

 

The Americans said they are in the South China Sea to lower tension. There was no tension after they were defeated in Vietnam and left until they returned with their pivot to Asia policy.

Animals left imprints on the hearts

10 Feb, the Mypaper devoted one full page to the animals that made the news last year with the heading, ‘Stories that left paw prints on hearts’. They were heart wrenching articles for people who felt deeply on the plight of cats and dogs that fell victims to the cruelties of human beans. These were yesteryear news.

Would the paper be writing about Benjamin Lim next year, the boy that made the news and breaking many people’s hearts? Would people remember Benjamin’s haunting last words, ‘They said I am guilty, so I am guilty lor’ to his mother? Would anyone remember Benjamin’s last meal, a cold bun he took for breakfast and no lunch?

Benjamin left with an empty stomach, no lunch, no water, devastated, did not know what was going to happen to him, a lonely boy left to fend for himself, without his papa and mama or an adult beside him to lend him some psychological support unlike the students of Tanjong Katong Primary. The last moments of Benjamin’s life were a terribly sad one. If only someone was there to hold his hand, put an arm around his shoulder and tell him, it’s ok, not to worry.

No words can give meaning to the torment going through this poor boy’s head. He faced the cruel world of adults all by himself. He cried in silence, waiting for help that was not there and ending it was the only choice he could think of.

RIP Benjamin. Your last words would be remembered deeply in the heats of many. Many would live in regret with the thought of the last cold bun you had in the last day of your life.

It is unlikely that anyone or any media will remember you like they remember the cats and dogs. You are also not in the news today, except in the social media. Would there be a One Cold Bun Day to remember you?

Benjamin Lim is a taboo name and not to be spoken for now.