F35 - The $114m wonder pill

The Americans are producing the so called state of the art warplane that can do everything except eating and shitting and is pushing it around to their allies to pay for it at $144m a piece, basic, minus the weapons systems that could be another $100m if the aircraft is not just to fly to show off but to do all the things it is supposed to do.  I hope the Americans are not dangling this piece of toy as a Christmas for the children to say ‘I want, I want’, but actually twisting the arms of the allied countries to pay up or else?

Singapore was rumoured to be interested in 10 or 12 pieces of this wonder pill and in many occasions was rumoured to have made the order or closed to signing on the dotted line. In the ST on 11 Aug, it was reported that Singapore is still considering this deal and delaying it till a later date.  One strange smell emits from this F35 episode. The Americans are never easy to sell their top end, state of the art, air superiority warplanes to anyone except themselves and a few extremely die hard allies. The fact that they are pushing so hard to sell this piece of toy to so many countries is something to ponder over with. Is it just a commercial piece of crap that they want to make the most money from, another bottle of snake oil? The Americans would always keep their best weapons system to themselves, not to anyone. Even the sale of the THAAD system to South Korea is for strategic reasons in favour of the Americans and would be fully under the control of the Americans. Why would the Americans be so generous to sell this wonder pill to all and sundry begs questioning. A can of problems? When a snake oil salesman says buy, run as far as you can from him.

Anyway, what are the reasons for a small little country to want to cough out billions to purchase 10 or 12 pieces of this aircraft and what can a few pieces do to improve the odds? Does Singapore really need such an expensive and sophisticated toy that should rightly be flown by a super intelligent robot, not an ordinary no talent Singapore boy? Or should Singapore than go all over the world to recruit foreign talents to fly these toys if it could not find enough Singaporeans to fly it?

Some of the considerations for Singapore to want to flatter itself with such a hyped piece of machine must be what Singapore is up against, the potential enemies and what they have that we don’t have and we need to be better than what the enemies have. Are our F15s good enough against the Russian toys of our potential enemies? If our potential enemies are buying inferior stuff and flown by not so able pilots, do we need to have these wonder drugs to be superior over them? Aren’t our F15s and our well trained pilots more than good enough to be on top of the situation? Do we also need to pay for the billion dollar system called THAAD?

Please take note, we are not the USA and our enemies are not the super powers and we need not be like the Americans to want to have the best of every military hardware to be the Empire. We only need enough to be an effective deterrence against little countries. We don’t stand a chance against the super powers even if we lelong the whole island to pay for all the F35s that we think we need to take on a super power.

Heard of prudence when spending public money? Let’s not behave like those boys and girls gambling with OPM, buy everything, everything is a goodbye, oops, I mean good buy, and hoping for the best. Lose money never mind, got more OPM to play with? Singapore has a lot of money to spend, money is not an issue?

Do we really need this wonder pill called F35?

The objective thinkers in red dot

The absence of Kishore Mahbubani in political debates has exposed a glaring big gap in the number of objective thinkers in the little red dot. Many are passing their subjective and one sided political narrative as intellectual thinking when they appeared nothing more than little brats trying to appease their masters in the West. There seems to be no one else out there to challenge political thinking from objective and intellectual thinking for quite a while.

Fortunately this gap is increasingly being filled by Simon Tay who started to present a more neutral view in the intellectual debate and on what is good for Singapore without becoming a little USA while calling other states as Trojan Horses. Do they know what is a Trojan Horse when they see one, or is one themselves without knowing it?

In his latest article in the Today paper titled ‘How will S China Sea dispute affect business in Asean, Simon discussed the mutually interdependent relationship between Asean and China and how China is taking the initiative in the AIIB and OBOR to improve connectivity and infrastructural development in Asia that would benefit Asean as a whole compare to the military buildup and dangerous provocations by the Americans and Japan that would lead the region to war. Which is the better option going forward, to promote more trade or more wars?

China needs peace and Asean as much as Asean needs peace and China for the good of everyone. Why would Asean take an increasingly hostile stance against China? Why would Asean increasingly align itself to the Americans to promote American military domination in the region?  There are great economic and strategic benefits both for Asean and China with more cooperation than antagonism.  According to Simon Tay, Asean does not need to be anyone’s puppet but be a worthy partner to key players in the region.

Asean benefits most by being neutral, taking advantage of big power rivalry to improve Asean’s bargaining power and interests. Asean would be doomed if it takes side in the big power conflict. Asean’s recent position, to throw itself into the American camp against China could be a short sighted gambit. By going against China and sucked into the American embrace, what would happen should Donald Trump become the next President and closes its door to Asean in an inward looking policy? Where or who would Asean turn to then? China would be happy watching the fallouts without offering a helping hand.

This is the first time that Asean is taking a non neutral position in big power rivalry against the wisdom of its forefathers. And the champions of taking sides, to be little Americas, are gaining grounds, unchallenged. Is Asean digging its own grave, led by American Trojan Horses strutting around as little USAs?

Simon Tay said these in his concluding paragraphs: ‘Asean can only remain central by pairing its political centrality with economic dynamism and moving ahead with integration. This is the way to better manage bumps and controversies, even sensitive concerns such as the South China Sea, and move ahead on an agenda for integration and reform that all – governments, businesses and ultimately Asean citizens – may partake and benefit.’

More laws to protect who or against who?

I am sure no one would miss who the new sub judice law is protecting. The learned judges of course. Don’t be rude or scandalize the judges, that is contempt of court. But you are allowed to speak up as NMP Kuik said, ‘Whatever you want to speak up on, keep speaking up on it without fear. If you see an injustice, speak. If you see a cruelty, speak.’ But, ‘However, she warned that comments that could be construed as influencing a witness in a pending case or slandering a judge would qualify to contempt of court.’ What she is saying is as good as you know what you should say and what you should not say. Speak up, speak up, but be warned. Just do not be too clever in case your comments are so good that the learned judges are influenced by them, then it would be bad.  But to do that you must be an exceptional talent, more talented than the judges, that the judges could be influenced by yew. Sorry typo error. Should be you not yew.

So the judges are now protected from being insulted or attacked by slanders. The judges are also protected from being influenced by the public and ended up making stupid decisions.

Who else are protected by our laws? I remember that you cannot follow, shadow or stalk a minister. Not sure if this applies to MPs. There is a law that would criminalise people following the ministers as they move around the island. I think this law is good given the threats of terrorists and disgruntled citizens that could set them on fire.

And there are also laws to protect military officers from acts that caused the death of Dominique Lee, an NSman.  Dunno if got laws to protect teachers or police officers when they handle mischievous children like Benjamin Lim.

This island is looking a bit dangerous for people in public office and more laws are likely to be introduced in the future to protect them. Would there be a lese majeste law to be introduced sometime in the future? Ok, this is a red herring, not possible unless the island is turned into a kingdom. If not lese majeste what about lese immortals?  Looks like the judges have been elevated to the realm of immortals.

What is more important is the likely victim. Who do you think would be the victim or victims of this law? Who do you think the laws are targeting at?

And there could be a new law coming into effect following the Presidential Commission that will protect the elite to be the President of the island.  This mostly ceremonial position will now be out of reach of the ordinary peasants and workers. Only rich and powerful people will be eligible to stand for election to be the President. All men are equal, but some are more equal than others? What happen to justice and equality in our national pledge?

Would there be new laws to protect the ordinary citizens and their rights to stand for election as the President of Singapore among other things, like their jobs, like their CPF money, like not being bullied or beaten by foreigners?

When the majority do not represent the majority

How can this be? The majority must always represent the majority or else they can’t be the majority. This is not really true in a democratic system like Singapore.  How many really believe the majority, or the politicians elected by the majority of the voters really, represent their interests?

Take the recent sub judice bill passed in Parliament. The media was trying its best to tell its readers that 72 voted for the bill and only 9 from the WP voted against it. So we have the majority 72 saying yes to the bill. The 72 MPs voted are representatives of their constituencies and technically represent them. But are the majority of the voters of these constituencies in favour of the sub judice law? In a worse case scenario, other than  all the good reasons Shanmugam said about how necessary is this law and how important is sub judice , and the 72 votes, the law could be used to silence the voice of the people as the WP has said in Parliament. And Lee Wei Ling also urged the people to speak up against this bill, now law, that it is not in the interest of the people, that it’s aim is to ‘muzzle public opinion’. This may be just her opinion, but could also be the opinion of the majority, not the 72 that voted for it.

If the majority of the people are against this bill, would not the 72 MPs, a big majority in the Parliament, not be representing the majority of the people when they voted for the bill?

What do you think? Did the 72 MPs represent the interests of the majority of the people? They could, if the people are so daft and so happy to have their mouths zipped.

Singapore ready for rocket attacks

I read this from David Boey’s blog. David Boey is a military expert and a spokesman for Mindef and should know what he is saying as he is accessible to information Mindef would want the public to know and information that the public did not know. Here is what David Boey wrote:

Response to plot by Batam terrorist cell to fire rockets at Marina Bay

Thanks to steady investments in defence capabilities - some of which have yet to be unveiled - the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) can detect and destroy artillery projectiles such as rockets in mid-flight.

The SAF has amassed several decades of experience operating radars designed to locate enemy artillery positions by tracking shells or rockets to their point of origin. Five types of counter battery radars have been fielded over the years by the Singapore Artillery and, in recent years, by the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF).

The RSAF counter rocket artillery and mortar (C-RAM) radars are operated alongside guided munitions that can be launched in quick succession, in all-weather conditions and at very short notice to intercept aerial threats like rockets. This new capability underlines Singapore's ability to anticipate and respond to a wide spectrum of security threats.

We are heartened by MINDEF/SAF's proactive and resolute stance in defending Singapore.

Posted by David Boey

I remember reading an article about the how the Palestinians attacked the Israelis with their hundreds of $30 homemade rockets that rained into Israeli territories. These were very cheap DIY rockets made from makeshift metal pipes and explosive material plus whatever shrapnel they embedded to penetrate the Iron Dome. Even if the radars could detect them, the Israelis just did not have enough anti rocket missiles to match the incoming rockets.

The Israelis defended these rocket rains with their expensive anti missile missiles that cost a million or more a piece. Fortunately or unfortunately many of the makeshift rockets broke through the defensive shield, or mosquito net, of the Iron Dome, there were just too many of them to take down. 

Fortunately or unfortunately, the ISIS cells in Batam or nearby would not have the critical mass to rain rockets into Marina Bay or into other parts of Singapore. It would be a real test of our radar detection system and how many missiles we have and could launch to take them down, and how many would sneak through and give us a nightmare.

It is always comforting to know that our defence is intact and in good hands. Would someone be asking for THAAD? Just a couple of billion dollars only, to protect Singapore from ICBMs from God knows where?