Singaporeans have the chance to elect their president

Some Singaporeans still did not know that they did not elect their Prime Minister. The Prime Minister was elected by a special group of elites within the party. Maybe now more Singaporeans know that the electoral system is such that they only elect the MPs and the rest of the ministers, including the PM, are elected by themselves, not the choice of the Singaporean electorate.
 
But come September Singaporeans could enjoy the benefit of electing their president by casting their votes to the candidate they like. Yes, they are going to elect the president directly. But who would this candidate be? By the way, who would be selecting the candidate for the Singaporeans to elect? How many candidates would be selected for the Singaporeans to elect? Some think there will be one candidate selected, some say maybe two.
 
What is important in this election of president process is that the Singaporeans would have the chance to go to the poll, which is compulsory, to cast their vote for the elected president. This is a privilege rarely bestowed to the electorates in many democratic countries. Singaporeans are so lucky. They can choose their president and elect the person of their choice. This is democracy at its best. A president from the people, by the people and will be for the people.
 
What more do you want? Just be grateful. By the look of things evolving, it looks like the Singaporeans would have the chance to elect Halimah as their next president. And Halimah, when elected, would have the mandate to check on the govt. This is called checks and balance to prevent a rogue govt from running away with the country's reserves.

Kim Jong Nam assassinated at KLIA

The South Korean media were swift and detail in their reporting of the assassination of Kim Jong Un’s half brother at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. They reported that two women attacked him with poison needles and fled by taxi.

The Malaysia authority only managed to say that Kim Jong Nam was found sick after someone splashed water on him at the airport and he was killed and an autopsy was being conducted. These info were splashed on every media on the next day after the incident.

How did the South Koreans know so many details so fast about an incident in Kuala Lumpur when they were so far away but the Malaysians knew so little? Were the South Koreans monitoring and following Kim Jong Nam everywhere? And they knew that it was an assassination by poison needles! Who could have known or seen the two women injecting poison onto Kim Jong Nam at the KLIA? Interesting story. The South Koreans did not have accessed to the recordings of KLIA’s cctv.

Why would Kim Jong Un want to kill his half brother and do it in public in an airport for all to see and for a foreign authority to do an autopsy to prove and confirm that his half brother died of poison? This is like a murder done in public for all to witness, to broadcast to the world that he did it. Kim Jong Un must be the most stupid leader in the world to do such a thing, to be condemned and to add to his bad reputation painted by the West.

What is the truth? Yes, Kim Jong Nam was killed. By who? He had the same bloodline as Kim Jong Un and could be a threat to his leadership, so must be killed. Ok, a reasonable theory if you believe so. Now more stories to support this theory. The North Koreans have records of trying to assassinate Park Chung Hee. But who eventually assassinated him? Did the agency that assassinated Park also has such records of committing assassinations, more assassinations, in fact assassination is like having breakfast daily in this agency? Could the same agency or agencies did this in a false flag incident?

The South Koreans even know that Kim Jong Nam wrote a personal letter to Kim Jong Un asking the latter to spare him and his family’s lives. How did the South Koreans know? Kim Jong Nam must have sent them a copy for record purposes so that they can publicise it now that he is dead.

The suspect arrested could even be a North Korean, a turnaround defector forced to do the killing. What is the truth? Who knows? But the media already know, it is the work of Kim Jong Un, so obvious. Anyone wants to question the credibility of the media or the intelligence services that provided all the evidence?

I wrote the above two days ago. Now more interesting details are available. An woman, looking quite like a Korean, holding a Vietnamese passport was arrested as the first suspect. This is quite expected. The plot thickened when an Indonesian woman was also arrested as a second suspect. How an Indonesian got involved in this assassination is going to raise the level of intrigue. She looked Indonesian alright, at least does not look like a Korean. She could not be a member of the Korean assassination team, could she?

But the obvious, it is a North Korean job. Kim Jong Un ordered it. Hehehehhe, how simple is the story you can get. Yes, so simple. No need to think. The media are saying so. The South Koreans are also saying so. But two very high profile countries that have just as much interest to want to put all the blame on Kim Jong Un are keeping their lips very tight, like the missing MH 370 case. Definitely got nothing to do with them, so they kept very quiet. Credit must go to them not to interfere with other people’s business when it got nothing to do with them.

Would Singapore be renamed Syonan To?

Below are a few paragraph from Tan Wah Piow in London on the naming of a new Singapore War Museum.

‘I was about to release a photo essay on my visit to the London Imperial War Museum on Sunday when I saw the  news about a Singapore museum to be launched on Wednesday.  I was shocked.

Who in his or her right mind would name a museum in Singapore, Syonan? Syonan-To is the name given to Singapore by the Japanese invaders during the War World II.

It is even more bizarre to time the opening of the Syonan Gallery on the day Japan conquered Singapore. To complete the joke, the Singapore government might as well invite the lunatic fringe of the Japanese ultra-right to officiate the opening of the museum.

The decision with the name, and the timing is an affront to the memory of the 50,000 Singaporeans who were executed by the Japanese, the majority of whom were from the 600,000 Chinese communities....’

The insensitivity in using Syonan with ‘affection’ for this war museum is totally unacceptable. I am equally dumbfounded. OK Yaacob Ibrahim in reply to public outcry said this was not the intention. How on earth could a name like Syonan, Syonan To that is a reminder of the massacres of 50,000 Chinese during the Japanese Occupation be resurrected in bold letters in Singapore soil as the name of a War Museum? Maybe this is the second best name. Did they ever consider naming it Yasukuni Museum or Kempeitai Museum to get better impact of the atrocities of the Japanese Occupation?

No one objected to this naming? Sure they did but why continued with it despite the controversial nature of this name? Is there no other option? How about doing the favourite like calling the Singaporeans to give it a name? Or try the second favourite, pay half a million to a foreign consultancy to come out with a better name like Marina Bay? Would a simple name like the Singapore War Museum or WW2 War Museum do?

 The painful memories of the barbaric Japanese crimes committed on our soil are etched deeply in the heads of a disappearing ageing population? Some of the oldies are generous and would forgive the cruel Japanese for their war crimes against out forefathers. But it is something that cannot be forgotten. Some would not want to forget knowing that the barbaric Japanese are unrepentant and trying to whitewash their evil deeds committed during the invasion and claiming they were doing good or did not happen at all. How to forgive and forget when the evil perpetrators did not want to admit their guilt?

Tan Wah Piow has a good suggestion, invite Abe to officiate the Opening of the museum and the Japanese community here and in Japan would be most happy to participate.  We would get a lot of Japanese tourists and Japanese money. Abe would book the first flight here and cancel all his other official appointments just to witness the resurrection of Syonan To, the jewel of Imperial Japan’s invasion of South East Asia. They would love to see what their Syonan To would look like if they have won the war, their prized war loot.

Seriously, is this a name that Singaporeans should be proud of, to be associated with a national monument? Syonan To is the darkest chapter of Singapore’s history. This name should not be glorified in any form but stayed in ignominy. There is nothing glorious or cute in this name. It must be spoken with contempt and not be on the lips of tourist guides and advertising material to be spoken as if it is just another tourist attraction.

Running out of ideas even in choosing a decent name for a national monument? How about getting a foreign talent for a better suggestion?

UN Security Council Meeting on North Korean missile test

The US led a charge to hold an urgent UN Security Council meeting ‘seen as a challenge to President Donald Trump’. What hogwash, a missile test to build a country’s defence capability is a challenge to a newly elected American president? Can you believe this American shit? Tomorrow if Kim Jung Un celebrated his birthday and drink cognac it would be an insult to the Americans for not drinking whisky and a reason to call for a UN Security Council Meeting?

How dangerous are the North Koreans versus the Americans? The North Koreans still have no capability to strike the US, no second strike capability and could be decimated should they dare to press the button first. North Korea would be blown up in smoke if they dare to launch a nuclear attack on anyone. Are the North Koreans really mad, to want to attack anyone, for what reason, and to bring about their own destruction?

Look at what the Americans have, more than 7,000 nuclear warheads that can be launched by land, air, sea and space. They could strike any country with impunity or absolute superiority and could guarantee the complete destruction of even China and Russia. It is this overwhelming superiority that allows the Americans to threaten everyone with nuclear strike. It is this overwhelming superiority that makes the arrogant American to refuse to commit to no first strike, meaning it is willing to strike first, knowing that no one would or could strike back and get a way with it. It is the Americans that had used Atomic bombs on Japan, used all kinds of chemical warfare on their enemies. The Americans have a scintillating track record of bellicosity, to strike and have shown the intention to want to use nuclear weapons many times.

Who is the more dangerous one, the Americans or North Koreans? Why is the UN being made to impose all kinds of sanctions against a small country that did not have much capability and nuclear weapons and has a greater fear of being attacked by the Americans? Why is the UN not imposing sanctions on the Americans for building the biggest arsenal of Weapons of Mass Destruction and refusing to commit to a no first to use principle?

The biggest bad wolf is the USA and it is pointing its fingers at everyone and pulling the UN by the nose to do its dirty job of demonizing every country except themselves, the one that is conducting incessant warfare and killing millions of Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East. And this is not enough, the US is going to spend more trillions of dollars to build mor e destructive weapons of mass destruction that would put what the North Koreans have to shame.

What a silly world. This is what Donald Trump said of the USA. ‘“Lot of killers. We’ve got a lot of killers. Boy, you think our country’s so innocent? You think our country’s so innocent?” We have carnage and we have irony.’

This is the big bad wolf in the classroom and no one wants to see or say that it is there. Point the finger at North Korea, at Iran, at Iraq, at China, at Russia…! And the stupid around the world believe in these lies, and the UN being made to look silly over and over again. Some clowns even said USA is a benign super power, invited to be the policeman of South China Sea, to maintain peace!

Committee for Future Economy – CFE

It is very easy to make comments about the CFE reports. Just sit down and put a comb over it to pick put the white hair and the fleas and dust. It is also just as easy to make 7 or 10 motherhood statements about what should be done in the future. Just gather a few heads and within a day or two you could get all the motherhood statements you want. The big question, how real and how useful are these motherhood statements?

To gaze at a crystal ball, to foresee the trends, developments and challenges, is not the normal cup of tea for anyone not armed with the width and depth of intellect to look into the future. You need very serious thinkers and dreamers to make out something from nothing or from what we have today. Who would be up to it to make such great insights into the future and come out with workable recommendations to benefit from the changes? If only you can find someone who could make the right intellectual and educated guesses, this guy would be as good as God.

As a small little country with limited resources and limited aspirations, we need to be real and practical about what we want to do and what we can do. No doubt having big and wild dreams and wet dreams are ok, as these are just dreams. It is better to look at more realistic and practical targets and solutions like capitalising on our strength and how to fit into the changing world, and make the best of it. We have several good starts but due to the lack of foresight, the lack of dreamers, the lack of support, we let them passe. Sim Wong Hoo's sound card was at the fore front of the computer industry. Hyflux's water purification system too was well ahead of its time. Now they are just ordinary, one among many and fading away. If only the govt had invested and supported them in bigger ways, they could be the Samsung or the Xiaomi today. Samsung and Xiaomi did not have any proprietory products to start with. They simply copied and improved on what others have done and make it big time. We were the leading transportation hub for many decades but now going to be eclipsed too.

A more down to earth and more mundane model to understand how we have gone wrong and missed the opportunities, and missed the boat is public transportation, the train. When we laid the ground work for the first MRT, China was still an impoverished country. Transportation in China was Second WW train system, running like tortoises on coal. Today China is the front runner in high speed train system, an authority and a big mover in building international train network and infrastructure. They have developed many in house expertise and patents in every aspect of the train system, from design to manufacturing, turnkey projects to operations. They are building the train infrastructure for the future and for the world.

What have we achieved in managing our train network? What have we achieved for having a head start in mass rapid transport? Nothing. We are still struggling to make sure the train runs without fault daily. We did not have any expertise in anything concerning mass rapid transport. When a fault occurs, we start looking out for outside expertise for help, even stupid enough to pay for expertise from third world dysfunctional train systems calling themselves experts in modern train technology. We have not acquired any expertise in mass rapid transportation to turn it into a business except as an operator. After 50 years in the business, no experts in the business.

This example applies to practically every industry. Should not Singapore be exporting our expertise with our own experts in areas of air and sea port management and development? No, we are dependent on foreigners to run our ports, to manage our ports, to find new directions for our ports. We have zero expertise to talk about when we have been big operators for decades ahead of other countries. We are top air and sea ports but have no expert in these fields.

Look at the banking and finance industry. This is another joke. We are the financial centre of Southeast Asia and competing with Tokyo and Hongkong to be the top financial centre of Asia. Ask what kind of expertise we have, what kind of local experts and professionals we have that are sought after by other financial centres? It is a joke that we have to import all our top financial talents from abroad, even from the third world countries with rudimentary financial system and village banks. Soon there will be no local bankers left in the finance industry and all the top bankers would be foreigners. And I remember someone saying we are starting to develop our top bankers that would come on stream in 50 years time. No need to talk about the IT industry.

What is this CFE all about? Should we be bothered with gazing at the crystal ball of the future? How could such an exercise benefit the country and people when there are very serious challenges facing the country that no one could see or want to talk about? We may not have a thriving Singapore in another 30 years if we don't address the serious fundamental problems of the country and the shallow mindset that is supposed to be driving the country forward. We have happily awarded the contract to build the HSR terminal to foreign contractors when we should be building it ourselves and bidding for such contracts overseas like the Korean companies. Maybe we should start to bid in a big way for contracts in other countries to build hawker centres. This is about the last area of expertise we still have, but not for long. Is there anything that we are good at today to compete with the rest of the world?