Quoting and misquoting LKY’s legacy

On his first year anniversary, it is like LKY returning to life on the TV sets and appearing in every home. You see him, you hear him and you can feel him. He is shouting down into everyone his wisdoms and wise quotes. ‘Go chase the rainbow’, or ‘Do not mortgage the future of your children’.

It is so easy to parrot what LKY was saying like quoting verses from the bible, ‘Whoever believes in me shall have ever lasting life’. Many people are mouthing about living his legacies, and living his wisdoms. But in reality do these people really understand what LKY was saying, what were his intentions?  Or they took his legacy and wisdom and turned them upside down, turning his wise words into mockery, instead of doing good for the people, actually doing more harm than good?

When LKY talked about chasing the rainbow, he was talking to Singaporeans, the young and not so young. He was not talking to the foreigners. He wanted Singaporeans to be successful, to step on what he had built and get a lift to better things in life. It was never about foreigners. It was never about giving our rainbows to the foreigners, allowing foreigners to pluck the low hanging fruits that we grew by our sweat and tears. Did I get this part wrong, that LKY was telling the foreigners to go chase after the rainbow? Did LKY say take the rainbow and give it to foreigners?  I did not read it that way? Anyone thinks LKY is telling them to snatch the rainbow away from Singaporeans to give it to foreigners?

The other part is about not mortgaging the future of our children away. Has anyone done that, mortgaging the future of our children away? No, no one is silly enough to mortgage the future of our children away. But has anyone give Singapore away, to foreigners? How much of Singapore has been given away to foreigners? No, we are only sharing our Singapore and our wealth and assets with foreigners. No one is giving them away. Please take this, it is a Singapore passport to prosperity, to a share of Singapore. It is complimentary.

Did I read LKY rightly or wrongly, in mortgaging the future of our children away? Quoting LKY is very easy. Primary school children also can do that. But understanding him, his intent, and the meaning of his wise words are a totally different thing altogether. One thing that people should not do is to turn LKY on his head, destroy his legacy and abuse his wise quotes or misquoting him.

What have we done to his legacy and his wise quotes?

Bukit Batok – Straight fight?

Several opposition parties have made their stand clear in not contesting the Bukit Batok by election and in supporting  Chee Soon Juan in a straight fight with the PAP.  Would there be a straight fight after all? Would there be any clowns or rogues stepping forward lo force a 3 corner or 4 corner fight?

How many opposition parties have yet to make their stand on this? Why are they not making their stand yet? Still counting the odds and thinking that they stand a chance, or waiting for oders to split the votes? Common sense will tell everyone that Bukit Batok is a tough call even for the SDP. The PAP won more than 70% in the GE and to turn around 30% of the votes for one party is an uphill task. Would another party improve its chance and to win the by election for entering into the fray?

The chances for another opposition party to come in and win is as good as zero, may even lose their deposit. But that is not important, it tells a lot about the agenda of the party that die die wants to come in to spoil the votes for the SDP. It also upsets an unwritten agreement among the opposition camp, to respect the right of another opposition party to fight in their designated constituency and not to break faith, to close rank to support each other in the opposition camp.

Let’s wait for the revelation of the spoiler or what some said, ‘mole party’ to show themselves. In a critical situation, the hands may be forced to open cards and the mole to be sacrificed for the bigger good.

Would this come to passé?

Brussels attacks – Where are the Americans?

After stirring the hornet’s nest and set the hornets scattering all over Europe, the Americans quietly fled the scene. Not their business anymore. Who created ISIS, dunno. Why are the Arabs fleeing Syria and the Middle East?  Dunno. But Europe is now going to pay the price for this heinous crime against humanity. Europe will burn because of the crime of the Americans.

Not only Europe will have to bear the brunt of ISIS attack. Our ministers already gave the warnings, that it is a matter of when it will hit us. The threat from ISIS and suicide bombing is real and present. Stop wasting time and money dreaming of buying F35s. Use the money and resources wisely for this imminent threat to our lives and properties. I must emphasize on properties so that those people with a lot of properties will wake up, that if we are hit by ISIS, their property prices will collapse.

What happened in Brussels, in Paris, in Istanbul, were very expensive lessons for us to learn and to take steps to deal with them. Our intelligence sources, our monitoring and surveillance teams, our checkpoints, our researchers, our field soldiers, are they doing the right things, do we have enough of them, or are they stretched thin and become the weak links in the chain?

We are fortunate to be privy to the sequence of events happening in Brussels and other places. We may not be able to stop some of the attacks, but these live scenarios would be very useful to help us prepare for them, the command and control, the Home Teams, the SCDF, the soldiers, how many are needed, how to deploy them, I am very sure our experts would be working on them in great details and in earnest. How to react, who to react, what to react, and how to deploy the resources?

The ISIS threat is very real and requires all the resources available to deal with them.  The number of soft targets here is unimaginable. Would all the valuable resources deployed for less important duties or spurious activities be recalled and regrouped to deal with this immediate threat?  There is no privilege for politicking and shadow fighting with one’s own shadow instead of preparing for this very real threat?

When similar attacks like the ones in Brussels or other cities hit us, would we be ready to roll out the forces like clockwork precision, or would we be in the same situation like the Little India riot, not enough manpower, caught in traffic jams, running for cover instead of rushing to the scene to take control of the situation?

We have the advantages of hindsight from these incidents to prepare for such eventualities. Let’s not waste time and get to work immediately and take this threat very seriously. We need more manpower and resources to tackle this imminent threat.

Do not depend on the Americans. They are busy preparing another war zone for Asians in the Korean Peninsula and the South China Sea. And the Koreans are smart enough not to take the bait and go on to kill each other. Not sure about the silly Asean countries and their bravado in the South China Sea.

Bukit Batok – The opposition politicians are so decent

The Bukit Batok Incident is all about decency. If only one can remember the Yaw Shing Long affair, we can see how decent or indecent politicians were then. In an issue like this, the real asses will appear to show themselves.

It is a pleasant surprise that the opposition party politicians are not making a mountain out of this mole hill and respect the privacy of the parties involved. The conduct of the opposition party politicians is exemplary and something to be emulated. 

Some of you may disagree that this is not a mole hill. I can accept that, as some people have higher moral standards and would want to condemn those that have erred for being human. And that was probably the reason why in the Yaw case the highly moral human beans demanded more transparency and wanting to flog the flawed beans.

Or maybe some may even conclude that the opposition party politicians are not beans of high moral standards so did not see anything wrong with this indiscretion. Actually, in this case it appears that all those with high moral standard either died or suffered from a dumb disease and so were unable to speak to demand for more clarity and transparency. Whatever, it is a good thing that they could not open their filthy mouths.

Let’s hope everyone can learn a little about decency from the opposition camp. And for those religious people, remember what Jesus said, ‘Let the one who have not sinned to cast the first stone’. Any taker, is there anyone that is so unblemished to want to cast the first stone?

Would the discreteness of this indiscretion be the unwritten rule henceforth and no one will climb up the altar of high moral grounds to smear anyone in the future for such indiscretion again? Would the plea for privacy and to protect the innocent children be the new unwritten code of conduct for decency?

I can only say this like any ordinary bean. Not sure if the super beans, high moral beans, sinless beans or pure beans would agree to such a low standard of moral righteousness, not to demand for the whole truth and nothing but the truth?

Thank you opposition politicians, for setting a good example for being so decent and so kind, not to politicize this issue, not to appear as bad asses.

Remember, karma is a bitch. Do not do unto others what you do not want others to do to you.

Chee Soon Juan – 10 reasons for and against his chances in Bukit Batok

Gilbert Goh wrote an article stating 10 reasons why Chee Soon Juan would stand a good chance to be elected in Bukit Batok. In The Independent blog, there was a reply with 10 reasons why Chee would not be elected in the by election.

The reasons given by both parties were nothing new nor exciting but some can be comical. Let me amuse you guys with one favourite reason that is the mantra of the day, and I quote from The Independent.

8. No Experience Running a Town Council
The SDP has zero experience running a town council. They may claim that they managed town councils when the Party had Members in Parliament. But their MPs, Ling How Doong and Cheo Chai Chen, who were elected in the GE 91 did so badly managing their town councils that the voters decided to give them the boot at the next election. The fact is, besides Mr Chiam See Tong, who subsequently left SDP to form his own party, no one has effectively managed a town council. From rats to mosquito breeding, Bukit Batok has a number of municipal issues which only an effective town council can resolve.

I am not going to belabour the point why MPs should not be managers of town councils. Leave it to the professionals to do the job, 7/24, not part timers who have no experience in managing town councils or should be managing town councils. The MPs are the people’s representative to the highest body in the country, to be law makers, to talk about national interest and the people’s interests. Do not downgrade this vital role of an MP to become estate managers.

Ok, let me come to the point. How many people have experienced in marriage before they get married? How many people have experience in managing a family before they get married? How many of the PAP MPs have experienced managing a town council or running a govt, or have experience as a minister?

No experience cannot meh? Ok, make sure all those people wanting to get married get some experience in getting married first or else cannot get married. It applies to being MPs and ministers, go and get the experience first.

How many people got experience becoming a PM or the President?