Elected President – Another constitutional challenge

M Ravi has lodged his challenge to the High Court on the EP issue on the ground that it is unconstitutional. His premise is that the reservation of the EP for a candidate based on race is unconstitutional. Holy shit, how come no one knows that this is racist and is unconstitutional, that our constitution is happy and open to have race imbedded and enshrined in it as a holy part of the constitution? And no one could see anything wrong with this and only M Ravi could! Or is it that M Ravi is not normal thus can see the not normal thing or the rest of the people who did not see anything unconstitutional about it are abnormal or simply daft? Even the whole legal fraternity could not see anything wrong with this amendment to the constitution! Is this normal or abnormal?

Ravi said that the changes to the constitution are racial discrimination, positive or negative racial discrimination is discrimination. Period.

Cheng Bock’s challenge is more technical in nature, about how to count correctly. This is another uniquely Singapore thing. Unable to count despite our great teaching methodology in arithmetics for the school children is no laughing matter. It is a national trait. Perhaps the govt should consult the primary school kids on how to count and the proper and correct way to count. Oops, it is the AGC office that did the counting. I don’t have much confidence in the ability of lawyers in counting. They can talk a dead person to life but counting 1,2 and 3 seems to be a big challenge to them.

Ok, is there anything else that is unconstitutional and would there be another mad lawyer, oops, I mean abnormal lawyer to stand up and say it is unconstitutional and must be challenged?

How about the unequal rights given to some people that are supposed to be more equal because they are richer, run big companies and all the craps that have no real relevance or relationship to the dignity and integrity of the office of the Presidency? Should not everyone be equal under the constitution and no one should be allowed to claim himself to be more equal than others just because he got a few dollars more than others?

The regulation to exclude 99% or more of the population because of some ridiculous criteria based on money and position in society is foul, smelly like shit. How can the constitution allow this to be included and no one cries foul? The criteria are saying that the citizens are not equal under the constitution. How can?

No legal mad man thinks this is mad? Maybe this is the reason. All the legal men and women are not mad to think this is mad and unconstitutional. So it must be constitutional. All men are equal but some are more equal than others. And this is a core principle in the Constitution of Singapore. Four legs are good, two legs are better, or is it my aristocratic background makes me different and of better breed than the hoi polloi, so I can be a President and the cheap masses cannot?

 

 

Fake news or real news?

We have often heard of Singaporeans being beaten by foreigners and with the foreigners often walking away with a light tap on the wrists. Singaporean cyclists and motorists and the infamous taxi drivers, used to be PMETs bore the brunt of physical attacks by these foreign beasts, aka foreign talents. Singaporeans seem to take such bollocking by foreigners as part and parcel of being Singaporeans.
 
Now this bashing of Singaporeans has gone one notch higher, the bashing of Singaporean police officers, or was it fake news? I read this posted in the statestimes review and dunno want to laugh or want to cry for the police officers that were beaten, that is, if the news is real.
 
‘Singapore Police is now under intense public criticisms for incompetence over letting off an Australian public menace 4 times with no detention, including multiple assaults and insults against enforcement officers.
 
At the Departure Hall in Changi Airport Terminal 2 on 12.15am of April 20, Jason Peter Darragh, 44, assaulted police officers – hitting one in the face and pushing another to the ground – and hurled abuses loudly at the enforcement officers. The ruckus was captured by a video and went viral on Facebook. Jason Darragh was later seen in the video being put down and arrested.
 
Interestingly, Jason Darragh was released from detention less than a day later – presumably to have posted bail and less than 24 hours later, at around 4.50am the next day (April 21), Jason Darragh caused a public annoyance in front of McGettigan’s CQ bar in Clarke Quay. The police let the public menace walked free again.
 
Five days later on the 12.20am of April 26, Jason Darragh was found drunk in the toilet at Orchard Towers shopping mall, a local mall known for sleazy bars. He was sent to Tan Tock Seng Hospital for unknown reasons and at the hospital, he hurled abuses at a police officer. The police, knowing his previous 3 records, let him walked free again.
 
Another five days later on May 1, Jason Darragh was again drunk and harassed a woman at a taxi stand at Tan Tye Place near Clark Quay. Jason Darragh is now walking free in the Singapore streets on a S$20,000 bail and will only face his first court trial next Friday (May 19).’
 
Assuming the above is real news, if fake I will take it down immediately and the statestimesreview is gonna get whacked for it, is it tolerable or acceptable for our law enforcing officers to be bashed by foreigners at will and taken so lightly? Do we need such foreigners here in the first place even if they are real talents? 

Anyone heard of pride and dignity and self respect?
 
What is going on?

Sabah Masters Athletics 2017 and building bridges

Some pictures taken at the Sabah Masters Athletics Open Competition. The Singapore Masters Association and Singapore Masters Track and Field Association sent a combined contingent of athletics to this friendly annual meet. Top pic, some athletics before departure from Changi. Bottom pic, prize presentation for 100m 65-69 Age Group.

Our team enjoyed participating in this Meet for several years and has made and developed many friends along the way. The athletes from Indonesia, Brunei and India and several others were also there. The hospitality and easy camaraderie between the athletes and also the harmonious racial relationship in Sabah permeate the whole Likas Stadium as well as the Streets of Kota Kinabalu. The prize presentation picture tells a lot about the good people relation in Sabah if you look carefully. This is reminicence of the golden days of colonial era and pre Malaysia days when the various people just live together as one people despite their differences without any trace of enmity. The way the people blend and mix together, play together, are something that is quite different from the superficiality of West Malaysia when harmonious relations is skin deep and artificial, contrived and uncomfortable at best.

Sabah has retained the kind of genuine and unadulterated inter racial harmony that Malaysia and Singapore used to share before politics and the politicising of everything under the sky become the norm and painful thing to bear with today.

Sabah is a good example of living in peaceful coexistence without politics and religion being played up at the whims and fancy of politicians and forcing the people to live under a cloud of fear and suspicion. May the Sabahans continue to live happily together forever.

GIC cuts losses of nearly $10 billion!

Hsien Loong has announced that GIC had cut its long term investment in UBS by 2.4% and taking a hit of $6-$7 billion according to some estimate. Some put this sum to be $8b! GIC is still holding on to 2.7% of its shares in UBS which means a paper loss of more than $7 billion giving a total staggering loss of about $14b!

When such numbers are rolled out, many could not imagine or feel the impact of such losses. They are just numbers. In fact many big fund managers playing with OPM are too immune and desensitized to losing such big money. It is other people’s money after all, no sweat, no responsibility, own pocket not hurt.

How much is $14 billion? The cost of paying our political office holders is reported to be about $53m a year.  Let’s put these numbers into persperctive. $ 14b is $14,000,000,000, 10 zeros behind the 14. $53m is $53,000,000, with 6 zeros behind the 53. The sum of $14b literally can pay the political office holders for 300 years or till 2317!

This is how much we have lost, just on one bank alone. This is not a plate of char kway teow or even several peanuts. This is big money being lost. How much did WP’s town council lost? Or did they actually lose any money at all? Or how much the other town councils lost during the lemon bond crisis?

Take a deep breath and get a feel of the scale of this loss.  We spent $32.b for 4 submarines, or one sub costs less than $1b. We could have 14 subs for free by not investing in UBS.

B&R – Was Hsien Loong invited to attend?

This matter seems to trouble many Singaporeans as such an important international event when many leaders were attending and Hsien Loong was not when Singapore is hoping to hitch a ride on this massive project to pick up a few contracts along the way. And Cynical Investor has said it is confirmed that Hsien Loong was not invited, a slap that would not go unnoticed.

Here is what Cynical Investor posted in his blog.

One Belt One Rd: PM “not invited”
In China on 17/05/2017 at 4:24 am

I was wrong. PM wasn’t invited to the summit meeting on the above, it seems, going by what Lawrence Wong is quoted as saying. He wasn’t aping Western leaders by declining the invitation and sending ka kiah instead.

When asked why Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong did not attend the Belt and Road Forum, which was attended by 29 heads of state and government, including many from South-east Asia, Mr Wong said the invitation was decided by the Chinese.
ST

So reasonable to assume that the Chinese did not invite Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong.
This non invite may appear to be a diplomatic snub but taken seriously it could fore tell far more serious implications to Singapore. It is not just a continuation of the Terrex fiasco bundled together with the trumpeting of the TPP and the demand that China abide by the kangaroo court judgement on the South China Sea. There are more to it. Well some jokers still openly denied that Singapore did all these things, that Singapore was innocent, an honest broker. Stupidity has no cure but to make such denials in public only proved how stupid these people can be.

Singapore has officially been saying that it supports the B&R project and wanted to participate actively in its development. Why was Hsien Loong left out, ok this is just a view by Cynical Investor, if Singapore is an important player to the maritime Silk Road?

The message is clear, if Singapore is an important part of the maritime Silk Road, there is more reason to invite Hsien Loong to the forum. And if invited, there is no reason for Hsien Loong not to attend, an event that is definitely more important than having dinner at the White House. The probability that Cynical Investor is right is very high and the negative implications that Singapore is no longer in the good books of China could be a forgone conclusion or at least not a major part in the maritime Silk Road plan. By the way the South China Morning Post even said that China left out Hsien Loong deliberately, so no more guessing.

Malaysia appears to be the main actor in China’s B&R project and quietly accepting its role without any gloating. The amount of investments pouring into Malaysia in infrastructure development says it all.

The non invite is not so important than not being part of the big scheme of things. This does not bode well for Singapore’s ambition to be the regional transportation hub in the future. What would happen if Malaysia were to replace Singapore as the regional hub? What would happen to Tuas’ big expansion plan as the biggest container port in the region when no container ship is arriving?
What do you think?

PS. On second thought, there is really nothing to worry about. Even if Singapore is being left out, with our super talents in charge, Singapore would definitely find a better way out, maybe create its own Singapore Silk Road.  China forgot that Singapore was the master and China the student.

And there is the great USA to rely on. Then there is always the next big thing in Asia, India, the next growth story. Singapore has the first mover advantage and would definitely do very well clinging onto the Indian growth engine. Quick, quick upgrade the CECA so that all the Singaporean firms and Singaporeans can fly to India to work and to do business. But make sure they recognize our degrees and diplomas first.