Which mess do you want? Hillary or Donald Trump

This is what the Americans are going to choose in the coming Presidential Election for the most powerful job in the world, a real executive president, the leader of an Empire. It is so pathetic that the Americans have come to a stage when they have to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea. What kind of choice is that? America got no talent? These two are the best there is to choose from? They should adopt the Singapore’s stringent criteria for an Elected President if they want someone good and able to run America and the Empire.

Please don’t laugh. We are moving forward towards the same dilemma, to choose from a slate of people that you may rather not want to choose from. The current presidential election regulations are already so restrictive that only a few individuals could qualify. When the immortals raised the bar, how many more would be left standing to be counted as good enough for the elected president post?

Then there is gonna be a reserved election for the minorities after a lapse of time. And the people are expected to choose from an even smaller plate, the best in a tiny cup, without comprising on the quality, based on meritocracy of a small pond.

When that day comes, the people may also be choosing which mess they want. The stringent criteria got nothing to do with the goodness of the person but with his ability to rise to the top of the heap in a big organization, to be able to count money. Many otherwise better candidates, better men and women with better moral values, better philosophies, better understanding of what life is all about, would be ruled out as unfit, misfit to be the Elected President. Even Jesus Christ would not be good enough. Only a very select few would qualify under these stated criteria and get through. What about unstated criteria? Are there undisclosed criteria that the potential candidate must satisfy to be eventually confirmed as safe and good?

With all the written and unwritten rules and criteria, it is quite possible that the people would be put to elect the lesser evil, like the Americans, which mess do they want. The Americans have more than 250 million people to choose from and they ended up with just Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Singaporeans did not have 3.5 million people to choose from, only a handful of the so called ‘clever’ people. And in a reserved election for a minority, the pool of ‘clever’ people would be less than the fingers in a hand. What kind of choice is that?

What kind of mess do you want?

Made in Singapore?

Modi wants to turn India into another manufacturing hub and came out with his Make in India slogan. His vision is simple and clear, products and services made in India, ideas originated in India, and made by the Indians and sold at Indian prices.
China, the factory of the world, has Made in China products and services. The products and services are made in China, by the Chinese and at Chinese prices. There is a slight difference. Many of the products and services originated from the West, the ideas from the West, but copied and modified and produced at much lower cost to sell at much lower prices.
What is Made in Singapore? It used to be made by Singaporeans and to some extent Malaysians working here. The ideas were western and some from Singaporeans. Today, Made in Singapore is no longer what it used to be. Many have ideas originated not from Singaporeans, and the products and services are made and provided by Third World citizens. The only thing that is still Made in Singapore is the price. Oh, the system and infrastructure could still be Singaporeans. The delivery and execution are hardly or barely Singaporeans. Walk into any hospitals and you may think you are in some Third World countries served by Third World citizens.
The universities have been taken over by foreigners and literally run by foreigners. The banking and finance industry, the IT industry, some manufacturing products and services, the medical industry, the human resource industry and what else, God knows, are all made and provided by foreigners.
We used to laugh at the Proton car that the local content is very little. Now Made in Singapore brand, how many percent is Singaporean? Can we still call it Made in Singapore, Singapore quality, served and provided by Singaporeans and charging Singaporean prices?
What is Made in Singapore? What is Singapore?

Elected President - My last post on this issue?

 

I thought I have written enough on this thing with my last post yesterday but someone prompted me to look at it from another angle. And this view is an answer to what Shanmugam said about our EP becoming a laughing stock. Shanmugam was quoted in the media to have said, ‘The scenario of an individual who steps forward to run for the position but does not get a majority vote could make Singapore a "laughing stock"…’

What would this statement make of the 35% votes for Tony Tan? Did he get a majority vote or the best among the candidates with less than the 51% majority? Would the proposed changes to the EP ensure that a minority candidate gets a majority vote when put on the vote?

This is the catch. Remember the official mantra that the Chinese majority are ‘racist’ and would vote for Chinese candidate? How true is this? If this is true, a few scenarios could happen during the reserved election for a minority president. One, because they are ‘racist’, they would boycott the election since they did not want to vote for a minority candidate. Two, they may cast blank votes since there is no Chinese candidate for them to vote. Three, they would cast spoilt votes to register their protest or they simply did not want to vote for a minority candidate.

So, guess how many percent of the popular votes would a minority candidate get in a reserved election? With the Chinese population at 70-75%, the max for a minority president to get is 30%. Or say 20% of the Chinese are not racists, he would get another 15% to make up a total of 45%, still less than 50%. He does not have a majority vote, and he will become a laughing stock.

See how this potential is being created by the false assumptions and the contrived logic to make this minority president a reality? What is worse is that the minority will deem this as an insult, a racist thing, and it will become a racial issue. With this new brew of minority representation, is it a recipe for disaster, for more racial tension and unhappiness instead of the professed aim of building a more cohesive multi racial society? Would it end up dividing the races rather than bringing them together as one people regardless of race? Are the wise men and women up to it to foresee what they are cooking for the future?

If this is a good solution, the wise men and women of the past would have thought of it. The Oracle would have thought of it. When the Oracle feared to tread, who dares to defy the past wisdom of not having this in the Constitution?

Elected President - You got to believe it

I have said enough of this EP thing and there is really nothing much more to add. Hsien Loong had said it many times, that this is something he has to do, he will do it and there is nothing to stop him from doing it. You can kpkb, but it will not matter. He has decided that this is the best thing for Singapore. And no bets for how your representatives will vote in Parliament when this bill is up for MPs to ask questions. But there is one niggering point that I just want to clarify before race is enshrined into our race neutral Constitution, before race compromised meritocracy is justified as the new normal, that meritocracy is not compromised, that’s what they said. I am the law, whatever I said must be right, logical and unquestionable. It is good for Singapore, and definitely not against any individual. How not to believe a govt of honourable, sincere, selfless and flawless men and women sacrificing to serve the people and nation? If the people cannot believe in them, then who else can they believe?

Now what is this thing that needs to be spoken? The assumption in this thing is that the majority Chinese is racist and eventually minority race, or some minority race, would not have a chance to be the EP of this island. The Chinese would have this special advantage and would choose to elect only Chinese to be the EP. How many sensible people would believe in this racist line of logic? Proven? Has this been proven?

Never mind. The Constitution will be race neutral, really? It is at the moment. The founding fathers, including Lee Kuan Yew made sure it is. After this bill, when it is crafted to ensure that all minority race would have a chance to be the EP once in a while, would the Constitution still be race neutral? So would it be written in such a way that if any minority race is not represented after a number of years, that a reserved election would be held just for that race? This sounds fair for the minority races.

What if the assumption is false? What if the Chinese are not racist and would choose to vote for the best candidate and continuously vote for non Chinese candidates over a long period of time or over several terms? Would there be a reserved election for the majority Chinese to have a chance to be elected as the EP? See the point?

If the wording of this racial EP election is about protecting minority race and the word minority is added, then the majority will be excluded and not protected based on the assumption that the majority Chinese are racist and would always vote for a Chinese EP.

Don’t say it would not happen. Though there are definitely some Chinese that are racist, chauvinist, I believe the majority are not. Many are colour blind if one is to look at their voting pattern in the past and how they voted overwhelmingly in favour of minority candidates. Put Tharman up for election as the PM today, he would have won hands down.

What is the point of this post? Should the majority race also be protected in the Constitution in case the racist assumption is proven false? Maybe the Constitutional Commission has already thought through this and the wordings in the Constitution would be race neutral and the safe guard would be for all races that did not have a chance to be the EP for a certain time frame, not just the minority.

Oh, I also assume that all races meant CIMO and not Pinoys, Myanmese, Thais, Vietnamese, Europeans etc etc. In this rush to make sure the new rules would apply in the next GE, the definition of minority is conveniently not spoken. Our minorities are not just the Indians, Malays and Others, there are new minorities that are quite substantial in numbers and they would want to be represented as a race in the EP in the future. And if the Constitution is to pretect minority races, this issue or definition of race cannot be callously ignored. It is a time bomb that will go off if allowed to slip into the Constitution undefined.

The new minorities would be asking for their own representation in times to come. It would not just be the Eurasians in the Others category. The Pinoys, Myanmese, Vietnamese, Thais and Europeans, not Eurasians, would want to be counted. They would want their turns to be EPs. How to tell them that they are not minorities like the Indians, Malays and Eurasians?

What do you think?

Zika – Invite the mosquitoes for tea

Masagos is complaining that it is very difficult to find mosquito breeding grounds. Many are actually inside people’s homes or inaccessible little corners. Since January to July 748.000 inspections have been conducted by NEA with 44,000 done in construction sites. Look at the numbers again, in 7 months, it works out to more than 100,000 inspections a month or 3,333 inspections a day. How many manhours involved to conduct these inspections?

Has Masagos ever thought of an easier way to get to the mosquito breeding grounds? How about inviting them for tea? This idea is not new. It is so simple, so effective, so easy on manpower, so easy to reach the mosquitoes and round them out. Why so difficult and so troublesome running around to look for mosquito breeding grounds?

If NEA is to provide conducive environment and convenience, the mosquitoes will come marching, queueing to deposit their eggs in simple contraptions laid out for them. Why is this method not done? Have them in the construction sites, on the ground floor of housing estates near the gardens or shrubs and just collect the eggs/larvae regularly for disposal. If half of the mosquitoes are attracted to lay their eggs in these convenient stores, there will be half less to find.

Why always think of difficult and expensive methods? Why waste so many man hours  hunting for mosquito breeding grounds when you can send out invitations to them to come calling, to breed at  your chosen contraptions provided for them, at your convenience?

So difficult meh? Or this method is too simple, too cheap, too easy, so cannot do?