Trump has backed out from the Iran denuclearization pact. Trumps had
backed out from the Paris Climate Pact and also from the TTP. In a short
span of a year, Trump tore away three major international agreements
and is planning to back out from many more international agreements and
treaties.
What does all this say of the trustworthiness of the Americans and
American Presidents? It says no one can trust the Americans or American
Presidents. They would back away from any agreements as and when they
like.
Trump is going to meet Kim to sign an agreement for the denuclearization
of North Korea. Kim’s base position is that the Americans/Trump must
guarantee that North Korea would not be invaded or attacked, and many
other terms like no more sanctions, no more war games and other military
threats for giving up his nuclear weapons. Kim is giving up the
security of his country from an invasion, give up his nuclear weapons,
just for an American guarantee. Is that sensible? What have the
Americans given up? Nothing.
Can the Americans be trusted, can Trump be trusted? This is a no brainer
question by how callously the Americans broke away from international
agreements, breaking their own words and trust.
So, where would Kim go from here, the Americans have proven themselves to be untrustworthy?
Would a China guarantee be good enough, ie for China to be part of the
signatories, taking a position that an attack on North Korea would be an
attack on China and China would retaliate? Would China want to take
such a responsibility, risking a nuclear war with the USA? What kind of
guarantee is Kim hoping to get from the untrustworthy Americans?
5/13/2018
Dr Wan Azizah - Woman of the Year
Stand by your man. This is what Wan Azizah has done all these years when Anwar was down and out, and accused of all kinds of vicious crimes that not many wives could accept or tolerate. Many wives would be so demoralised and would have given up on their men. This woman stood by Anwar in good times and in bad times. Anwar is so blessed to have such a great woman on his side, as his dedicated and devoted wife.
Wan Azizah not only did that, she did everything to protect Anwar, his interests and well beings. She did everything for her man, to be freed and be Prime Minister again. In the midst of all the politikings, she kept her cool and planned her every move for her husband locked up in jail. She formed a coalition with the man that brought down her husband with the condition that her husband would be pardoned, freed and be the next PM. She swapped her safe seat in Permatang Pauh, a seat she fought and kept for Anwar, with her daughter, so that during the interim period she would still be the Deputy PM, to keep a close watch on Mahathir, in case the devil has other plans. In this she has the support of her daughters and Lim Guan Eng, to make sure Mahathir keep to his promise.
She had done it. She has made it possible for the release of Anwar, fully pardoned by the Agong, to become the next PM of Malaysia. She singlehandedly won the Premiership for Anwar. What a woman!
This is a wonderful woman, a great strategist, a great woman who stood by her man in the darkest hours of his life when everyone would have written him off, to die in prison. She kept his dream alive and turned it into reality.
Wan Azizah is the Woman of the Year not just in Malaysia, but in the World. She made everyone proud of her. How about a Nobel Peace Prize for her instead of degrading this prize by giving it to scoundrels and warmongers that committed war crimes against humanity?
PS. Southernglory emailed this to me. Dr. Wan Azizah was one of the top students of College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland. She was the MacNaughton Jones gold medal winner in 1977. She was the 1st Malaysian to get this award which started in 1916, given to the best in Obstetrics and Gynaecologists.
Wan Azizah not only did that, she did everything to protect Anwar, his interests and well beings. She did everything for her man, to be freed and be Prime Minister again. In the midst of all the politikings, she kept her cool and planned her every move for her husband locked up in jail. She formed a coalition with the man that brought down her husband with the condition that her husband would be pardoned, freed and be the next PM. She swapped her safe seat in Permatang Pauh, a seat she fought and kept for Anwar, with her daughter, so that during the interim period she would still be the Deputy PM, to keep a close watch on Mahathir, in case the devil has other plans. In this she has the support of her daughters and Lim Guan Eng, to make sure Mahathir keep to his promise.
She had done it. She has made it possible for the release of Anwar, fully pardoned by the Agong, to become the next PM of Malaysia. She singlehandedly won the Premiership for Anwar. What a woman!
This is a wonderful woman, a great strategist, a great woman who stood by her man in the darkest hours of his life when everyone would have written him off, to die in prison. She kept his dream alive and turned it into reality.
Wan Azizah is the Woman of the Year not just in Malaysia, but in the World. She made everyone proud of her. How about a Nobel Peace Prize for her instead of degrading this prize by giving it to scoundrels and warmongers that committed war crimes against humanity?
PS. Southernglory emailed this to me. Dr. Wan Azizah was one of the top students of College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland. She was the MacNaughton Jones gold medal winner in 1977. She was the 1st Malaysian to get this award which started in 1916, given to the best in Obstetrics and Gynaecologists.
For
a foreign lady student competing in a male white dominated world of
medicine in Ireland and win such a prestigious award is an outstanding
achievement.
5/12/2018
China must continue to learn from Singapore
The China miracle has lasted for 30 years with double digit growth since Deng Xiaoping visited Singapore in 1978. In the last few years China's growth rate has declined to a 'frightening 6.9%'. This is alarming, according to all the doomsayers and western anal-lysts. China must start to rethink what they had done right in the past and what they had done wrong and leading to this decline. This is why I am saying that China must continue to learn from Singapore. When it was learning from Singapore, it became a bigger Singapore miracle. When it stops to learn from Singapore it is starting to show signs of decline.
The first thing that China did then was to borrow some of the top brains from Singapore like Goh Keng Swee, to help them draft out an economic blue print. China today needs more top brains from Singapore to help them in the next phase of development that Singapore had gone through after the miracles of 1970s and 1980s. Though Singapore is short of talents in many fields, the top talents are in political leadership and govt policy making. In this area Singapore has a lot of talents. China can tap on these super super talents, and they are in luck with the recent retirement of some of the best talents in the govt, big names like Lim Hng Khiang, Yaacob Ibrahim of cleaning the Singapore River fame, and the one in a billion Lim Swee Say. Then there is Khaw Boon Wan who is likely to retire soon. China can invite these super super talents to help them out in their next phase of development, maybe another decade of double digit growth.
Among the policies that Singapore has embarked, China may want to learn from the easy one first, like importing more cheap foreign talents to have drive their economy. China committed one serious mistake in stopping at one when Singapore stops at two. So China's population decline is worse than Singapore's and would be short of talents. There are many talents in South Asia and Southeast Asia that Singapore depends on. China can follow this easy path to max their economic growth like Singapore did. No need much thinking, no need to reinvent the wheel. Just take the blue print from Singapore. And china would become a multi racial country, a really international country like Singapore and the USA with plenty of bananas to chew.
This importing of foreign talents is very good for China especially in industries and fields that China is weak in. Finance and banking talents and IT talents from India are a must if Chinese banks want to earn billions overnight. Singapore banks could not earn this kind of money until they brought in Indian banking and finance talents. Likewise, Singapore would not be able to launch all the IT products and become a smart city without the IT talents from India. India talents have another strong advantage, they can speak English which Singaporeans and Chinese can't. So they would make good PRs and CEOs of China's international companies.
The next area is academic. Singapore's universities are now tops in the world, better than Beijing, Tsinghua, Fudan, Jiaotong and other top Chinese universities. China can learn from Singapore to put their top universities as the equals of Cambridge and Harvard and be as highly ranked as NUS and NTU. It only needs a bit of tweeting to have more foreign academics and students and the results will show. Just bring in the foreign academics, provide them jobs and good pay, discard some of the local academics, and the ranking for Chinese universities would swell, to the very top. China has more money and paying/buying foreigners is not a problem.
Another great policy that is cut out for China is asset enhancement. China has recently built a lot of public housing for its people. Using the same asset enhancement formula, China can also double the assets of its people in double quick time, and the Chinese people will be rich over night and be very grateful to the Chinese govt. Every Chinese would also become millionaires, asset rich. One caveat, China's lease term is only 70 years and the properties will become zero value faster.
The growing affluence of Chinese citizens have led to many traffic problems with more cars on the roads. Singapore have solved all traffic problems with COEs, ERPs and all kinds of fees and electronic parking system. The traffic situation in Singapore is excellent compares to other big cities. And Singapore is also starting to encourage its citizens to ride bicycles. China can learn from these policies and encourage its newly rich citizens to go back to riding bicycles for a greener and clean environment, like 40 or 50 years ago. Riding bicycles is progress, owning cars is bad.
And another thing, China must not keep the pay of its political leaders so low. It affects their dignity especially when they met up with Singapore leaders that are being paid in the millions. China should seriously consider raising their leaders salary to millions so that they can have more dignity and not to be looked down by Singapore leaders.
This million dollar salary thing is not just about dignity. It is also to prevent corruption. If China were to pay their political leaders millions, then the corruption problem will go away. No more corruption in China, just like no corruption in Singapore. Xi will no longer have to spend time catching corrupt leaders. Wang Qishan would not have to fret about not catching the tigers. Everything will be fine.
There are really many many things that China can still learn from Singapore like how to manage MRT problems in big cities. China may not have such problems now, but it will when the train system gets old. So it is best to send a team to Singapore to learn how to tackle train breakdowns and delays before the problems surfaced. Singapore has plenty of experience in this area.
China also copied Singapore's CPF system but not full scale, make the Chinese workers contribute more to their CPF. They should as this is a cheap source of funds to help fund big govt projects or redirect into China's Sovereign Funds to invest overseas. It can also be assigned as China's national reserves, and if needed, the money can be used to buy insurance to benefit the people. No need to worry about paying back. This can be delayed by all sorts of schemes.
Just one more point, though there are many more that China can learn from Singapore, is the opening up of China's financial system and stock market. Just learn from Singapore and China would have a very vibrant stock market connected to the whole wide world, and can trade in everything, best in derivatives using computer tradings, super high tech and super efficient. Just a word of caution, China must make sure their main boards are filled with blue chips and not super penny stocks that are worth 1c or less. That would make China's stock market a joke.
I could go on, would continue some other time when China's economy starts to decline further. 6.9% is really bad.A 2/3% growth rate is just about right, the same as the USA and Singapore, mature economies. Then China can declare that it is first world, and the western anal-lysts would said China has arrived, and its economy is safe from a meltdown.
The first thing that China did then was to borrow some of the top brains from Singapore like Goh Keng Swee, to help them draft out an economic blue print. China today needs more top brains from Singapore to help them in the next phase of development that Singapore had gone through after the miracles of 1970s and 1980s. Though Singapore is short of talents in many fields, the top talents are in political leadership and govt policy making. In this area Singapore has a lot of talents. China can tap on these super super talents, and they are in luck with the recent retirement of some of the best talents in the govt, big names like Lim Hng Khiang, Yaacob Ibrahim of cleaning the Singapore River fame, and the one in a billion Lim Swee Say. Then there is Khaw Boon Wan who is likely to retire soon. China can invite these super super talents to help them out in their next phase of development, maybe another decade of double digit growth.
Among the policies that Singapore has embarked, China may want to learn from the easy one first, like importing more cheap foreign talents to have drive their economy. China committed one serious mistake in stopping at one when Singapore stops at two. So China's population decline is worse than Singapore's and would be short of talents. There are many talents in South Asia and Southeast Asia that Singapore depends on. China can follow this easy path to max their economic growth like Singapore did. No need much thinking, no need to reinvent the wheel. Just take the blue print from Singapore. And china would become a multi racial country, a really international country like Singapore and the USA with plenty of bananas to chew.
This importing of foreign talents is very good for China especially in industries and fields that China is weak in. Finance and banking talents and IT talents from India are a must if Chinese banks want to earn billions overnight. Singapore banks could not earn this kind of money until they brought in Indian banking and finance talents. Likewise, Singapore would not be able to launch all the IT products and become a smart city without the IT talents from India. India talents have another strong advantage, they can speak English which Singaporeans and Chinese can't. So they would make good PRs and CEOs of China's international companies.
The next area is academic. Singapore's universities are now tops in the world, better than Beijing, Tsinghua, Fudan, Jiaotong and other top Chinese universities. China can learn from Singapore to put their top universities as the equals of Cambridge and Harvard and be as highly ranked as NUS and NTU. It only needs a bit of tweeting to have more foreign academics and students and the results will show. Just bring in the foreign academics, provide them jobs and good pay, discard some of the local academics, and the ranking for Chinese universities would swell, to the very top. China has more money and paying/buying foreigners is not a problem.
Another great policy that is cut out for China is asset enhancement. China has recently built a lot of public housing for its people. Using the same asset enhancement formula, China can also double the assets of its people in double quick time, and the Chinese people will be rich over night and be very grateful to the Chinese govt. Every Chinese would also become millionaires, asset rich. One caveat, China's lease term is only 70 years and the properties will become zero value faster.
The growing affluence of Chinese citizens have led to many traffic problems with more cars on the roads. Singapore have solved all traffic problems with COEs, ERPs and all kinds of fees and electronic parking system. The traffic situation in Singapore is excellent compares to other big cities. And Singapore is also starting to encourage its citizens to ride bicycles. China can learn from these policies and encourage its newly rich citizens to go back to riding bicycles for a greener and clean environment, like 40 or 50 years ago. Riding bicycles is progress, owning cars is bad.
And another thing, China must not keep the pay of its political leaders so low. It affects their dignity especially when they met up with Singapore leaders that are being paid in the millions. China should seriously consider raising their leaders salary to millions so that they can have more dignity and not to be looked down by Singapore leaders.
This million dollar salary thing is not just about dignity. It is also to prevent corruption. If China were to pay their political leaders millions, then the corruption problem will go away. No more corruption in China, just like no corruption in Singapore. Xi will no longer have to spend time catching corrupt leaders. Wang Qishan would not have to fret about not catching the tigers. Everything will be fine.
There are really many many things that China can still learn from Singapore like how to manage MRT problems in big cities. China may not have such problems now, but it will when the train system gets old. So it is best to send a team to Singapore to learn how to tackle train breakdowns and delays before the problems surfaced. Singapore has plenty of experience in this area.
China also copied Singapore's CPF system but not full scale, make the Chinese workers contribute more to their CPF. They should as this is a cheap source of funds to help fund big govt projects or redirect into China's Sovereign Funds to invest overseas. It can also be assigned as China's national reserves, and if needed, the money can be used to buy insurance to benefit the people. No need to worry about paying back. This can be delayed by all sorts of schemes.
Just one more point, though there are many more that China can learn from Singapore, is the opening up of China's financial system and stock market. Just learn from Singapore and China would have a very vibrant stock market connected to the whole wide world, and can trade in everything, best in derivatives using computer tradings, super high tech and super efficient. Just a word of caution, China must make sure their main boards are filled with blue chips and not super penny stocks that are worth 1c or less. That would make China's stock market a joke.
I could go on, would continue some other time when China's economy starts to decline further. 6.9% is really bad.A 2/3% growth rate is just about right, the same as the USA and Singapore, mature economies. Then China can declare that it is first world, and the western anal-lysts would said China has arrived, and its economy is safe from a meltdown.
5/11/2018
Malaysians choose the devil over the deep blue sea
92 year old Mahathir won. My prediction that the Chinese votes would
swing to Najib did not come true. The economic and business biased
Chinese voters did not go for economic interest unlike their
forefathers, decided that political power is more important. The years
of abuses by UMNO and the deep seeded and entrenched powers of
extremists in UMNO would have to pay for their sins and be gotten rid
off. The years of distrust and unhappiness over UMNO leaders is probably
the main reason why they took the chance with Mahathir, the extremist
they knew, and hopefully to live with him for a brief moment before
Anwar assumed the post of PM. Any change is better than to continue with
the same pact of extremists in UMNO. In Anwar’s case this is classic
phoenix rising from the ashes, being beaten and locked up in prison for
good only to reemerge as the PM of the day, at least this is the game
plan. Many visitors are taking Q numbers to visit Anwar, the de facto PM
working behind bars. They would probably have to refurnish his prison
cell to look more respectable as the office of a PM.
Many BN minority leaders were bundled out of Parliament with the MCA and MIC losing their key leaders to DAP. MCA is history after decades of being hapless poodle of UMNO, totally incapacitated and ineffective in protecting minority Chinese interest. DAP is emerging as the force to be reckoned with not just in Penang but the whole of West Malaysia. With its 28 seats, DAP is going to be the deciding factor in the fate of Mahathir and Pakatan Coalition. The Chinese voters have thrown their weight behind DAP. DAP would not be bullied and pushed around by the new coalition govt.
In Malaysian politics, it is politics and anything can happen. Najib’s day may not be over yet given the possibility that DAP could defect en bloc to Najib’s camp should Mahathir play his anti Chinese card again. DAP has enough seats to make the difference and be the check on the ultra ultras and extreme extremists in Mahathir’s camp.
Putting this scenario aside, knowing that behind the scene dealings are taking place now, what would this lesson be for Singapore? Would our school boys and school girls learn anything and put aside their egos and differences and do a Mahathir in the next GE here? Though we may not have someone with the drawing power and experience of Mahathir, the political scene is ripe for a change with all the unpopular and unpleasant policies still in play and being assumed as the new normal that the daft Singaporeans have no choice but to live by.
Malaysia boleh, would the Singaporeans be shouting Singapore oso can do?
Hsien Loong’s relation with Mahathir would not be as cosy as with Najib. No more durian lunches together. But not to worry, Singapore has a trump card in the Indian Malay President. She can invite the Indian Malay PM to the Istana for curry fish head in banana leaf and rebuild a new rapport with Mahathir to compensate for the lack of chemistry between the latter and Hsien Loong. Everything will be fine.
Many BN minority leaders were bundled out of Parliament with the MCA and MIC losing their key leaders to DAP. MCA is history after decades of being hapless poodle of UMNO, totally incapacitated and ineffective in protecting minority Chinese interest. DAP is emerging as the force to be reckoned with not just in Penang but the whole of West Malaysia. With its 28 seats, DAP is going to be the deciding factor in the fate of Mahathir and Pakatan Coalition. The Chinese voters have thrown their weight behind DAP. DAP would not be bullied and pushed around by the new coalition govt.
In Malaysian politics, it is politics and anything can happen. Najib’s day may not be over yet given the possibility that DAP could defect en bloc to Najib’s camp should Mahathir play his anti Chinese card again. DAP has enough seats to make the difference and be the check on the ultra ultras and extreme extremists in Mahathir’s camp.
Putting this scenario aside, knowing that behind the scene dealings are taking place now, what would this lesson be for Singapore? Would our school boys and school girls learn anything and put aside their egos and differences and do a Mahathir in the next GE here? Though we may not have someone with the drawing power and experience of Mahathir, the political scene is ripe for a change with all the unpopular and unpleasant policies still in play and being assumed as the new normal that the daft Singaporeans have no choice but to live by.
Malaysia boleh, would the Singaporeans be shouting Singapore oso can do?
Hsien Loong’s relation with Mahathir would not be as cosy as with Najib. No more durian lunches together. But not to worry, Singapore has a trump card in the Indian Malay President. She can invite the Indian Malay PM to the Istana for curry fish head in banana leaf and rebuild a new rapport with Mahathir to compensate for the lack of chemistry between the latter and Hsien Loong. Everything will be fine.
5/10/2018
Is National Service and the defence of Singapore still relevant?
Gone are the days when we feel pride for our country and are prepared
to defend our nation so our families can enjoy liberty. What liberty is
there today? You cannot even voice your disagreement without this
government trying to character assassinate you (Thum PJ), bankrupt you
(Roy Ngerng) or criminalising you (Amos).
What nation is there to defend when the government opens the doors to foreigners to take good jobs, and then tell you you are lazy, unskilled, or incapable?
What country do we have where our hard earned retirement savings are not ours, and can be locked up for longer and longer periods, and worse, get sucked away by all kinds of schemes and rocket high social housing prices?
And the writer is correct, why do MPs and Ministers get to be paid millions to “serve” the nation while our young sons are given peanuts for allowance to be subject to abuse by immature officers, are expected to risk their lives with “realistic training”, and even have their welfare or dignity robbed by this inept conscription system?
The above comment is in response to an article by Benny Chen in a post in the TRE titled National Service has lost its meaning. Benny ended his article with this remark, ''Our local boys are exposed to life threatening risks, low pay and poor compensation while foreigners have it all? Since the country no longer values local is very much pro foreigners, NS should either be paid market rate or be scrapped. We don’t want to risk our lives to protect ministers, elites, foreigners, PRs and new citizens for nothing!!!
Do you agree?''
I was thinking something alone the same line, that with the country being invaded by foreigners brought in by the govt, by now more than 60% of the locals are foreigners or new citizens, what is there to defend? An army is first and foremost to protect the country from being taken over by foreigners, to protect the citizens and their way of life, their jobs, their safety and security.
With more than 60% of the locals being foreigners, the foreigners have successfully taken over the country. They are everywhere, taking over the good jobs from the citizens, even given free scholarships while the citizens have to beg their parents to pay for their education by using their life savings in the CPF or selling their homes. Some have to take loans or do part time jobs to support themselves.
And the safety and security of the citizens are violated and put to risk with so many strangers and foreigners living in their midst in the heartland, with unknown background and character and soundness of mind.
What is there to defend when the country is already taken over, or given to the foreigners? What is NS and citizenship when the word 'citizen' is taboo, not to be mentioned, like a 4 letter word. The new word of pride is 'local', given more rights and privileges than citizens, no need to do NS.
The army and NS is totally irrelevant when a country is no longer a country, when there is no citizen but only locals, a term that includes foreigners that are easily converted to citizens and PRs.
What do you think? I share all the points raised by Benny Chen and the commentators of his post in the TRE. Singaporeans have lost their country without firing a bullet. What is there to defend, ''to protect ministers, elites, foreigners, PRs and new citizens for nothing!!!''
What nation is there to defend when the government opens the doors to foreigners to take good jobs, and then tell you you are lazy, unskilled, or incapable?
What country do we have where our hard earned retirement savings are not ours, and can be locked up for longer and longer periods, and worse, get sucked away by all kinds of schemes and rocket high social housing prices?
And the writer is correct, why do MPs and Ministers get to be paid millions to “serve” the nation while our young sons are given peanuts for allowance to be subject to abuse by immature officers, are expected to risk their lives with “realistic training”, and even have their welfare or dignity robbed by this inept conscription system?
The above comment is in response to an article by Benny Chen in a post in the TRE titled National Service has lost its meaning. Benny ended his article with this remark, ''Our local boys are exposed to life threatening risks, low pay and poor compensation while foreigners have it all? Since the country no longer values local is very much pro foreigners, NS should either be paid market rate or be scrapped. We don’t want to risk our lives to protect ministers, elites, foreigners, PRs and new citizens for nothing!!!
Do you agree?''
I was thinking something alone the same line, that with the country being invaded by foreigners brought in by the govt, by now more than 60% of the locals are foreigners or new citizens, what is there to defend? An army is first and foremost to protect the country from being taken over by foreigners, to protect the citizens and their way of life, their jobs, their safety and security.
With more than 60% of the locals being foreigners, the foreigners have successfully taken over the country. They are everywhere, taking over the good jobs from the citizens, even given free scholarships while the citizens have to beg their parents to pay for their education by using their life savings in the CPF or selling their homes. Some have to take loans or do part time jobs to support themselves.
And the safety and security of the citizens are violated and put to risk with so many strangers and foreigners living in their midst in the heartland, with unknown background and character and soundness of mind.
What is there to defend when the country is already taken over, or given to the foreigners? What is NS and citizenship when the word 'citizen' is taboo, not to be mentioned, like a 4 letter word. The new word of pride is 'local', given more rights and privileges than citizens, no need to do NS.
The army and NS is totally irrelevant when a country is no longer a country, when there is no citizen but only locals, a term that includes foreigners that are easily converted to citizens and PRs.
What do you think? I share all the points raised by Benny Chen and the commentators of his post in the TRE. Singaporeans have lost their country without firing a bullet. What is there to defend, ''to protect ministers, elites, foreigners, PRs and new citizens for nothing!!!''
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