Opposition MP Meet The People Session - Showcase of a third world country

 

Above photo of WP MP Raeesah Khan meeting residents at the void deck of HDB flats in their Meet The People Session. Picture credit to theindependent.sg/

This is the most pathetic and shameful sight in Singapore politics. What would the world be saying looking at our opposition MPs in such a ridiculous position while trying to do their jobs to help their residents.

All MPs, whether they are opposition party MPs or ruling party MPs, are the people's elected representatives and must be treated with equal respect and decorum. And they must be provided with decent facilities to conduct their meetings with the people, to solve the people's problems in proper office space, not haphazard void decks or some street corners.

The govt should set aside funds for such purposes so that all MPs should be accorded due respect as the people's elected representatives and can perform their roles as MPs in proper offices. This is not just about respecting the MPs, opposition or ruling, but also the people, the residents. 

When I look at the above picture, it reminds me of third world countries in Africa or some corners of Asia, not in super rich Singapore.

This unsightly policy must be stopped and changed for the better. Every govt officer and the lowest level officers are provided with decent office space to perform their work, why not an MP. An opposition MP is not an enemy, not an outcast, not a beggar. An opposition MP is also part of the govt, sits in the Parliament to discuss national issues and participate in law making. Why can't they be given a little respect and provide with decent office space to serve the people? These are important works of every MP. The British treated David Marshall in the same way in the past, a table in the corridor of Parliament House.

So much money have been spent on dogs and cats, on foreigners and their children, why not provide a decent office for the opposition MPs and ruling party MPs as well? Unless meeting the people to help solving their problems is not important, unnecessary work, not worth doing, not an MP's job? What is the priority?  To me this is unacceptable practice. A total disrespect to the office of a Member of Parliament.

21st Century, 55 years post independence, can opposition MPs be treated more decently?

Trump's stupidity continues to bankrupt Americans

 

The NYSE on Thursday said it would delist China Mobile Ltd, China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd and China Telecom Corp Ltd following President Donald Trump's move in November to bar U.S. investment in 31 firms that Washington says are owned or controlled by the Chinese military. Yahoo News

Trump thought he was very smart to delist Chinese companies in NYSE. He does not know what he is doing, only cares about image, that he is tough with his anti China antics to show the daft Americans that America can kick China at will. America is more powerful than China! America can bully China!

Trump does not care about the monies, the dollars the ordinary American investors and funds paid for these shares. The 3 Chinese companies have already collected the money from the American investors. They would be most happy to let these shares become worthless to the American investors. They could now walk away with money in their pockets and tell the Americans that lost money from the delisting to go ask Trump for it.  They can ask Trump, 'Where's My Money?'

Singapore also had many bad experience like this when Mahathir practically delisted Malaysia stocks from CLOB. The result was that the shares became worthless in many cases and Singapore investors lost their pants. Similarly when red chips got delisted, many investors again lost their pants. But in Singapore's case, the cause was external if we do not take into consideration the decision to let foreign stocks listed here and scooted.

In America's case, they allowed the Chinese stocks to be listed, allowed Americans to pour in their savings into them, then delist the stocks and throw the water and baby out.

This is simply 'genius' Trump. Making Americans Grieve Again! the Americans do not need any enemies with Trump as president.

Well done Trump.

PS.

The New York Stock Exchange said it no longer plans to delist three Chinese telecommunications giants. (4 Jan 21)

In a late Monday statement, the NYSE said it dropped the plans after “further consultation with relevant regulatory authorities in connection with Office of Foreign Assets Control.”

Political Struggles (Groupings) In Singapore At Present

 SSO said... Political Struggles (Groupings) In Singapore At Present


There are four races (ethnic groups) vying for control of Singapore at the present moment. They are:

1. The Pro-Western Group - that controls Singapore with dwindling power, and being challenged by the Pro-India Group.

2. The Pro-India Group - with very strong leadership and closing-in the grip on power tighter and tighter.

3. The Pro-Malaysia Group - with weak leadersheep now in hibernation and easily put into cold storage. However, when the time is ripe, this group can be a force to be reckoned with.

4. The Chinese Group - devoid of a true central leadership, very loosely linked. This is the biggest gtouping, yet pathetically disintegrated and disinterested in the struggle for power in a more coordinated and serious way. They are busy making money and do not have the time nor the appetite for political power.

Suffice for me to stop here. Going further may step on somebody's toes and things may become unpredictable and dangerous for me.

SSO

PS. I may add that the Pro India Group is leading and will likely take over control of Singapore's future. Without Hsien Loong, the Pro Western Group is like a bunch of boy scouts and girl guides, waiting to be brushed aside. 

The Pro Malaysia Group is becoming inconsequential.

The Chinese Group will end up like the Chinese in Malaysia.

These are my observations.

Redbean

Ponding management in this piece of rock, an unsolvable problem?

Photo credit to theindependent

More than 36 hours of non stop rain to start the new year 2021. In a way this is blessing in disguise, to stop people from merry making and congregating in large numbers when the Covid19 virus is in the air. Staying at home is the safest place, warm and cosy, when temperature in certain parts of the island fell to 21.1C. And we have the infamous ponding in many parts of the island.

Despite the advancement in town and estate planning, with new knowledge and technology, these predictable occurrence of rainfall is still a pain in the ass in this so called smart island, infested with super talents, home grown and the best from the third world countries. All the monies spent to buy all the talents, many being paid in the millions, could not put the island together again in terms of ponding. 

Why is there hardly any improvements in the way rain water is being managed, distributed and discharged into the canals, reservoirs and the sea? Cannot be planned, too difficult to plan, or 'misplanned'?

The island is so small, finite, the drains and canals and their capacity, and the capacity of rainfall, are all calculable numbers, not rocket science. Why is it so difficult to manage the rainfall and water flow?

What kinds of talents are we using to plan our drainage and flood control or ponding? Local talents or funny third world talents? Do these foreign funny talents really have flood management experience or came with funny degrees and funny resumes but no real knowledge or experience in flood management?

Our local talents have done a superb job in building enough reservoirs for our need. This project of building more reservoirs were executed before the flood of 'foreign talents', so I am presuming that the main idea was local in origin. What about the ideas in flood management, with clever 'foreign talents' rope rising in the air tricks or native talents that could not tame the ponding in this small piece of rock? The scale of the problem is in no way near the scale of the Ganges or Huang He or Chang Jiang.

So, will Singapore find the real talents to solve this ponding problem once and for all? Cannot, no way?

Depends on who is in charge?

Singapore Malaysia HSR is off - This is the final fate of this project

'SINGAPORE: The Kuala Lumpur-Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project will be discontinued after the HSR agreement lapsed on Dec 31, 2020, the Prime Ministers of both countries said in a joint statement on Friday morning (Jan 1).

Both Singapore and Malaysia will now proceed with the "necessary actions".

In the statement, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said: "The Government of Malaysia and the Government of Singapore wish to provide an update on the Kuala Lumpur-Singapore HSR Project in view of the expiry of the suspension period of the HSR Project on Dec 31, 2020. ...

"Malaysia has since allowed the HSR Bilateral Agreement to be terminated, and has to compensate Singapore for costs already incurred by Singapore in fulfilling its obligations under the HSR BA in accordance with the Parties’ agreement," MOT said.' CNA

Why is Malaysia so happy to call this off and willing to pay compensation to the tune of $50m or more? Johore UMNO is not happy as it would affect business in the state. To reconnect Johore to Singapore through other means when the HSR would do the job more effectively raise queries as to the logic behind this move.

HSR could be the link to BRI, meaning goods from Singapore could tack along and benefit from the rail connection to Asia, China and Europe. Without this link, Singapore is left out in the cold. Singapore's key advantage as a transportation hub is connectivity. The cancelling of HSR to Singapore is basically to disconnect Singapore. This is a strategic move by Malaysia to cut off Singapore from the land bridge of BRI and Singapore has no answer to it.

If China and Malaysia were to jointly develop the ports in Klang or Malacca, the strategic role played by Singapore in sea transportation would be greatly undermined. With Gwadar and ports in Myanmar and Sri Lanka growing in importance, the bits and pieces in this maritime chess board are going to take away a lot of business from Singapore. 

Singapore's strategic thinking or outdated strategic plans to plug on to the American power play is turning precarious and likely to turn bad as China continue to rise in economic power. The Americans also have no answer to this Chinese challenge as their only card left to play is military might, not economic. While the Americans continue with their destabilising the world strategy of creating wars everywhere to make nation states becoming dysfunctional, they totally neglected in developing their economic power and allowed China to rule in this area. 

As long as the Americans are unable to start a military war with China or Russia, American military might and hardware are going to be very expensive and costly waste products in this competition for world dominance. China is going to call the shot with its manufacturing power and huge consumer market and its control of marine and land transportation in Asia, Europe, Africa and SE Asia. The Americans have no chips left to play and can only hope to create wars to upset the Chinese economic bandwagon. 

Singapore has very little time to change its economic strategy, maybe it is already too late.  The die has been cast and Singapore has been fixed for good.