This is what Chok Tong elegantly put it, a fig leaf covering the deep
cracks within the Lee family. Actually the cracks go must deeper and far
wider than one would notice. The main show is the fight between the
siblings, to fulfill LKY’s last wish or not to grant him his last wish.
In Parliament, all the PAP ministers and MPs have taken the side of
Hsien Loong, not to demolish the house at Oxley Road. Some when further
to cast aspersions on LKY’s state of mind when he signed the will. The
main battle is being fought with Hsien Yang and Wei Ling on one side
against the PAP govt on the other side led by Hsien Loong.
There is another sub plot going on between the Lee Kuan Yew camp aka
known as the PAP old guards versus the Hsien Loong camp aka the young
turks. This battle blew up when the ST published an article by Kishore,
Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, criticizing the loud
hailer diplomacy coming from the Rajaratnam School of International
Studies on the South China Sea dispute. Kishore’s stand was that small
states must be more circumspect and know where it stands unlike the days
of LKY. Coming soon after the bollocking from China for spouting too
much, talking too loud on an issue that affected every country, not just
Singapore that has no stake in it, then the after effects of the Terrex
Incident and the non invite to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the
proponents of loud hailer diplomacy felt like Kishore was rubbing salt
into the wound. They responded vigorously and violently calling
Kishore’s comments as ‘muddle, mendacious and indeed dangerous’. This
was quickly supported by Shanmugam as a brilliant response to slam the
professor. Let me quote the Today paper, ‘Home Affairs and Law Minister
K Shanmugam on Sunday said Mr Kausikan’s response was brilliant as he
slammed the professor’s piece as “intellectually questionable”, adding
that Singapore did not get to where it is by thinking small.’
This was not all. Kishore was accused by Kausikan and I quote the same
paper, ‘I disagree, it is a thinly disguised attack on PM’. The
immediate thought was that it was a way to divert the target to the PM
and Kishore would not look very good or would not be in Hsien Loong’s
good book for long. Kishore quickly replied that he wrote the piece a
few weeks back and the timing to run it to coincide with Hsien Loong
having to defend his position in Parliament was coincidental. ‘Hence, it
is obviously not an attack on PM. By floating this canard, the
officials are distracting attention from their own contributions to our
problems.’ Kishore added. Kausikan responded by saying, ‘I accept that
he may not have intended it as an attack on PM, but many read it that
way…I am glad he has clarified that was not his intention.’
Many would have let this episode come to passé as a bickering between
the ex govt officials. But wait a minute. Why was the call by Kishore
seen as an attack on Hsien Loong? Why was Hsien Loong in the picture? A
Freudian slip has let out a jigsaw piece to explain what all the
shouting at China to follow the ruling of the so called ‘UN backed’
Hague Tribunal was all about and also the subsequent events related to
Singapore’s relations with China and the USA. This slip makes the
picture complete to the observant and why two DPMs have had to make
trips to Beijing lately to mend fences.
The battle of the PAP old guards versus the young turks has just
started. Fortunately or unfortunately, not many PAP old guards, or LKY
camp are still around. The days of the old guards are numbered and
fading away. The young turks shall rule the day and more loud hailer
diplomacy can be expected. They have been bestowed the imperial edict to
do so.
Kishore must be feeling very lonely. His good advice is like casting
pearls to the swine. Where are the old guards? Have they pledged new
loyalty given that the LKY era is over?
A new era has begun.
7/08/2017
7/07/2017
The world’s number one Outlaw threatening war in Korea
One war after another, one regime change after another, the warmongering
nation of the USA is planning to start another war in the Korean
Peninsula. What is the reason for it? North Korea has tested ICBM that
could possibly reach Alaska? Why is this a threat to the USA when
thousands of American ICBMs could flatten North Korea that is thousands
of miles away from continental USA? Who is threatening who? Who is
threatening to use military force on the other? It is the big bully of
course, the world’s number one Outlaw!
It is not that the North Koreans are capable of starting a war of invasion against the Americans or stupid enough to want to do a mission impossible. The growing capability of the North Koreans as a threat is only as far as to negate or limit the Americans from threatening them. With the growing military might, the North Koreans could inflict a small dent on the American defence shield at most. They could not do much damage to the Americans and would invite total annihilation of their country if they dare to make a single wrong move.
The threat is that the Americans now cannot anyhow threaten them with military options, can no longer threaten a pre emptive strike and get away scot free. The Americans cannot bully the North Koreans at will anymore. The North Koreans can now give the Americans a black eye should it dare to.
The real threat is the Americans everyday threatening to invade the North Koreans and wanting to conduct a preemptive nuclear strike. Read the article from 4th Media below on what the Americans are doing and planning to do to the North Koreans. Yes, the real devil is the Americans. And the Americans are at the North Korean doorstep conducting wargames simulating an invasion while North Korea is tens of thousands of miles from the American shore. This is the kind of hypocrisy the Americans are making the silly Asians and the rest of the world to believe in. The North Koreans are a threat to the Americans when the truth is that the Americans are the real threat to the North Koreans, clear and present danger.
War can start at any moment and the two Koreans would be made to kill and destroy each other at the command of the Americans. What is the UN going to do to stop this monster from starting another war in Asia? What is the world community going to do about it, blame the North Koreans and gang up with the evil Americans to start a war against the North Koreans?
Everything the North Koreans is doing is exactly to prevent the Americans from attacking them. The weaker the North Koreans are militarily, the more tempting would they become for an American attack. The stronger they are militarily, the more nuclear weapons and ICBMs they have, the safer they are from the evil Americans, and the less likelihood that they would suffer the same fate as Iraq and Libya.
The mad Americans are bent on starting a war in Korea and in Asia. Their war economy depends on war to survive. Their world hegemony depends on suppressing and threatening the rest of the world with wars. And war is what the Americans want, away from the American continent. And many silly Asian leaders love wars and are easily manipulated to go to war. Pray the Koreans are not so stupid to kill each other at the behest of the evil Americans.
The American outlaws are the real threat to world peace.
Extracts from an article in the 4th Media
… James R. Lilley puts it succinctly when he says: “At the end of the Cold War, if North Korea didn’t exist we would have to create it as an excuse to keep the Seventh Fleet in the region.” …
IN its latest move early June 2017, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted a resolution drafted by the United States to expand the scope of sanctions against Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) over its latest missile tests.
Prior to this the UNSC slapped the North Korea with six rounds of sanctions, but Washington and its allies have been pushing for more powerful and crippling sanctions in an attempt to halt the increasing wave of missile tests by Pyongyang.
Meanwhile, President Trump said “all options are on the table” (implying military solution), while his Vice President Pence declared the “end of strategic patience.”
Pence added:
“The patience of the United States in this region has run out …………The world has witnessed the strength and resolve of the US in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan.”
Pence was alluding to the 59 cruise missiles the US launched at a Syrian military airfield, and the 22,000-pound “mother of all bombs,” the largest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat by the United States, dropped in Afghanistan.
US War Games
Right after striking Syria, President Trump dispatched a giant armada led by an aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson, to the Korean peninsula as a show of force. The US also dispatched a nuclear-powered guided missile submarine, the USS Michigan, to the region, capable of launching up to 150 Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of about 1,000 miles. The 6,900-tonne USS Cheyenne arrived in the South Korea port of Busan.
The US also has nearly 80,000 US military personnel in South Korea and Japan, as well as military aircraft and other hardware on a high state of alert in South Korea. The USS Ronald Reagan and its carrier strike group are based at the Japanese port of Yokosuka, while the US 7th Fleet, armed with tactical nuclear weapons, patrols the region.
The US nukes are also based in South Korea and Guam, while US heavy B-1 and B-52 bombers can fly from North America to Korea. In the event of war with North Korea, the US military take over the South Korean military with some 625,000 personnel as well as naval, air and anti-missile systems.
To top it all, U.S. performs, twice annually, the largest war games in the world with South Korea, in which it practises an assassination of the North Korea’s top leadership, the invasion and occupation of North Korea, and a nuclear first strike against North Korea with imitation armaments.
The Foal Eagle war games include 300,000 South Korean soldiers and 15,000 US troops. This year, the exercises also feature Navy SEAL Team Six, which is best known for assassinating Osama bin Laden on Obama’s orders.
Moreover, an American plan was made public last September proclaiming that “the North’s capital city will be reduced to ashes and removed from the map if it shows any signs of using a nuclear weapon”.
It is not that the North Koreans are capable of starting a war of invasion against the Americans or stupid enough to want to do a mission impossible. The growing capability of the North Koreans as a threat is only as far as to negate or limit the Americans from threatening them. With the growing military might, the North Koreans could inflict a small dent on the American defence shield at most. They could not do much damage to the Americans and would invite total annihilation of their country if they dare to make a single wrong move.
The threat is that the Americans now cannot anyhow threaten them with military options, can no longer threaten a pre emptive strike and get away scot free. The Americans cannot bully the North Koreans at will anymore. The North Koreans can now give the Americans a black eye should it dare to.
The real threat is the Americans everyday threatening to invade the North Koreans and wanting to conduct a preemptive nuclear strike. Read the article from 4th Media below on what the Americans are doing and planning to do to the North Koreans. Yes, the real devil is the Americans. And the Americans are at the North Korean doorstep conducting wargames simulating an invasion while North Korea is tens of thousands of miles from the American shore. This is the kind of hypocrisy the Americans are making the silly Asians and the rest of the world to believe in. The North Koreans are a threat to the Americans when the truth is that the Americans are the real threat to the North Koreans, clear and present danger.
War can start at any moment and the two Koreans would be made to kill and destroy each other at the command of the Americans. What is the UN going to do to stop this monster from starting another war in Asia? What is the world community going to do about it, blame the North Koreans and gang up with the evil Americans to start a war against the North Koreans?
Everything the North Koreans is doing is exactly to prevent the Americans from attacking them. The weaker the North Koreans are militarily, the more tempting would they become for an American attack. The stronger they are militarily, the more nuclear weapons and ICBMs they have, the safer they are from the evil Americans, and the less likelihood that they would suffer the same fate as Iraq and Libya.
The mad Americans are bent on starting a war in Korea and in Asia. Their war economy depends on war to survive. Their world hegemony depends on suppressing and threatening the rest of the world with wars. And war is what the Americans want, away from the American continent. And many silly Asian leaders love wars and are easily manipulated to go to war. Pray the Koreans are not so stupid to kill each other at the behest of the evil Americans.
The American outlaws are the real threat to world peace.
Extracts from an article in the 4th Media
… James R. Lilley puts it succinctly when he says: “At the end of the Cold War, if North Korea didn’t exist we would have to create it as an excuse to keep the Seventh Fleet in the region.” …
IN its latest move early June 2017, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted a resolution drafted by the United States to expand the scope of sanctions against Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) over its latest missile tests.
Prior to this the UNSC slapped the North Korea with six rounds of sanctions, but Washington and its allies have been pushing for more powerful and crippling sanctions in an attempt to halt the increasing wave of missile tests by Pyongyang.
Meanwhile, President Trump said “all options are on the table” (implying military solution), while his Vice President Pence declared the “end of strategic patience.”
Pence added:
“The patience of the United States in this region has run out …………The world has witnessed the strength and resolve of the US in actions taken in Syria and Afghanistan.”
Pence was alluding to the 59 cruise missiles the US launched at a Syrian military airfield, and the 22,000-pound “mother of all bombs,” the largest non-nuclear bomb ever used in combat by the United States, dropped in Afghanistan.
US War Games
Right after striking Syria, President Trump dispatched a giant armada led by an aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson, to the Korean peninsula as a show of force. The US also dispatched a nuclear-powered guided missile submarine, the USS Michigan, to the region, capable of launching up to 150 Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of about 1,000 miles. The 6,900-tonne USS Cheyenne arrived in the South Korea port of Busan.
The US also has nearly 80,000 US military personnel in South Korea and Japan, as well as military aircraft and other hardware on a high state of alert in South Korea. The USS Ronald Reagan and its carrier strike group are based at the Japanese port of Yokosuka, while the US 7th Fleet, armed with tactical nuclear weapons, patrols the region.
The US nukes are also based in South Korea and Guam, while US heavy B-1 and B-52 bombers can fly from North America to Korea. In the event of war with North Korea, the US military take over the South Korean military with some 625,000 personnel as well as naval, air and anti-missile systems.
To top it all, U.S. performs, twice annually, the largest war games in the world with South Korea, in which it practises an assassination of the North Korea’s top leadership, the invasion and occupation of North Korea, and a nuclear first strike against North Korea with imitation armaments.
The Foal Eagle war games include 300,000 South Korean soldiers and 15,000 US troops. This year, the exercises also feature Navy SEAL Team Six, which is best known for assassinating Osama bin Laden on Obama’s orders.
Moreover, an American plan was made public last September proclaiming that “the North’s capital city will be reduced to ashes and removed from the map if it shows any signs of using a nuclear weapon”.
7/06/2017
China, making sense of massive projects
Ghost towns, endless highways, super high speed trains traversing the
whole of Asia and Europe, hanging bridges straddling across mountains,
pipelines crisscrossing countries, you name it, China has done it. Many
blur westerners are pouring scorns over what the Chinese are doing. They
don’t make sense, money wasting projects at huge cost that have little
or no value. China is in big and deep financial trouble due to debt from
these projects. Economy will collapse or collapsing, from double digit
growth to 6.6% growth. What’s new?
Launching the Belt and Road Initiative cost China hundreds of billions and still promising to pour more money into the projects. China is also building massive infrastructures in countries all over Asia, Africa and SE Asia, with its own money. What western fools are complaining about? These are genuine money, printed papers unlike the greenbacks. If China is about to collapse, where is China to find so much money to give away? AIIB, China contributed hundreds of billions, the biggest contributor. China got no money?
This article is not about how much money China has or how much more they in the reserves. It is about the thinking and policies behind the huge infrastructure projects. Do they make sense? Or are the Chinese foolish as the western pundits alleged, throwing good money away?
Think about it, which country is going to give China massive infrastructure projects if China cannot prove that it has the capability, the knowhow and technology, the experienced engineers and technicians to do the job? And where did all these capabilities, knowhow, technologies and experienced engineers and workforce going to get their experience and skills if they have no projects to work on to add them into their testimonials? Get the picture?
China has a very short history of industrialization and infrastructure building and in many things like building factories, towns, ports etc etc. They must develop these capabilities and skilled and experienced workforce quickly. And only in China can they be given the chance to do so when they did not have any experience to do them. No country will give China a chance to gain these technologies and to train its people. They are learning and testing new technologies in China, to master and perfect them for export. Now the picture is clearer. China is spending a lot of money to build and acquire experience and capabilities, and armed with these achievements and track records, they are going to the world to build the world with their own technology, knowhow and with their skilled and experienced workforce. They have all the records to show what they have done and the people to do it.
This is something that China has done right and everything wrong in Singapore. Singapore is buying skills, buying experience and neglecting to develop its own skills and workforce. Singapore has nothing except some money and when money runs out, there is nothing left for Singapore to offer to the world. No skills, no knowhow, no technology and no experienced workforce except foreigners that come and go. When Singapore was building its MRT with foreign expertise, China was still an agriculture country running on Second World War trains. Today, China is building the fastest train system around the world. Singapore cannot even run its train system without a day free of stoppages, unable to even produce a train cabin.
Compare what China is doing, to develop intrinsic and organic skills and technology using its very own people while Singapore is using, hiring and buying foreigners to replace Singaporeans. How long can Singapore go on destroying its own skill and technology base? Where is China heading and where is Singapore heading?
The Chinese are not stupid and that is why they are now the Number Two super power in everything in such a short span of time and going to be Number One in everything soon. Singapore is heading from the First World to Third World with a snap of the finger. Singapore is bidding for the right to build the HSR from KL, with foreign expertise again, like when it started some 40 years ago when it built the present train system. Where are the skilled engineers and technicians and the industrial base to build them? In China of course.
Are we teaching China? China learning from Singapore? Who is teaching who and learning from who?
Launching the Belt and Road Initiative cost China hundreds of billions and still promising to pour more money into the projects. China is also building massive infrastructures in countries all over Asia, Africa and SE Asia, with its own money. What western fools are complaining about? These are genuine money, printed papers unlike the greenbacks. If China is about to collapse, where is China to find so much money to give away? AIIB, China contributed hundreds of billions, the biggest contributor. China got no money?
This article is not about how much money China has or how much more they in the reserves. It is about the thinking and policies behind the huge infrastructure projects. Do they make sense? Or are the Chinese foolish as the western pundits alleged, throwing good money away?
Think about it, which country is going to give China massive infrastructure projects if China cannot prove that it has the capability, the knowhow and technology, the experienced engineers and technicians to do the job? And where did all these capabilities, knowhow, technologies and experienced engineers and workforce going to get their experience and skills if they have no projects to work on to add them into their testimonials? Get the picture?
China has a very short history of industrialization and infrastructure building and in many things like building factories, towns, ports etc etc. They must develop these capabilities and skilled and experienced workforce quickly. And only in China can they be given the chance to do so when they did not have any experience to do them. No country will give China a chance to gain these technologies and to train its people. They are learning and testing new technologies in China, to master and perfect them for export. Now the picture is clearer. China is spending a lot of money to build and acquire experience and capabilities, and armed with these achievements and track records, they are going to the world to build the world with their own technology, knowhow and with their skilled and experienced workforce. They have all the records to show what they have done and the people to do it.
This is something that China has done right and everything wrong in Singapore. Singapore is buying skills, buying experience and neglecting to develop its own skills and workforce. Singapore has nothing except some money and when money runs out, there is nothing left for Singapore to offer to the world. No skills, no knowhow, no technology and no experienced workforce except foreigners that come and go. When Singapore was building its MRT with foreign expertise, China was still an agriculture country running on Second World War trains. Today, China is building the fastest train system around the world. Singapore cannot even run its train system without a day free of stoppages, unable to even produce a train cabin.
Compare what China is doing, to develop intrinsic and organic skills and technology using its very own people while Singapore is using, hiring and buying foreigners to replace Singaporeans. How long can Singapore go on destroying its own skill and technology base? Where is China heading and where is Singapore heading?
The Chinese are not stupid and that is why they are now the Number Two super power in everything in such a short span of time and going to be Number One in everything soon. Singapore is heading from the First World to Third World with a snap of the finger. Singapore is bidding for the right to build the HSR from KL, with foreign expertise again, like when it started some 40 years ago when it built the present train system. Where are the skilled engineers and technicians and the industrial base to build them? In China of course.
Are we teaching China? China learning from Singapore? Who is teaching who and learning from who?
7/05/2017
Red line over Hong Kong
On the eve of the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China,
President Xi Jinping gave a keynote speech to the elites of Hong Kong
society reminding them of the enduring and uninterrupted Chinese
Civilisation and the confidence of building a new and prosperous China
for its people, including the Hong Kong people. In this journey, Hong
Kong could walk with China towards a glorious future of great
opportunities and possibilities.
On the inaugural ceremony on the handover and the installation of Carrie Lam as the next Hong Kong Chief Executive, President Xi got down to more serious business to warn of a divisive and disruptive Hong Kong society that could undermine the story of a new China. No one, no country, not the dissidents of Hong Kong, would be allowed to challenge the national sovereignty and security of China that the continuing growth and prosperity of Hong Kong depended on. Anyone attempting to disrupt the social order of Hong Kong would not be tolerated. President Xi drew the 'red line' for handling relations between the mainland and Hong Kong, and warned, "Any attempt to endanger national sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government and the authority of the Basic Law of the HKSAR or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line, and is absolutely impermissible,".
This message came down hard and clear, a warning to the protesters harping on more autonomy and democracy. This is the biggest paradox of Hong Kong today. The louder the voice of protest and street disturbance for more democracy, the greater would Beijing want to exert fuller control over Hong Kong. On the contrary, the lesser the protesters politicised issues in Hong Kong and took to the streets, the more Beijing would be confident to let Hong Kong to have more leeways to govern itself.
There is a bigger picture that the protesters are not seeing and struggling to understand, the story of the growth of China into a big economic and military power. China's peaceful rise is founded on a stable and peaceful international environment, internal stability and a united China. But there are many external forces that would want to use Hong Kong to destabilise China and cripple the Chinese growth machine. Hong Kong would not be allowed to be that poison pawn to be exploited by external forces to cause a breakup of China and to trip China in its path for economic growth and prosperity.
To the protesters and the many young people of Hong Kong, they would need to learn and understand the history of China and the difficult period China had gone through under foreign invasion and humiliation. Some Hongkongers have forgotten what it was like when they were the subjects of the British Empire. China would not allow history to repeat itself and the young people of Hong Kong would be best to understand this bigger picture to know when not to cross the red line.
China would assist and support Hong Kong to be a rich and prosperous city under the one country, two system policy. Hong Kong and its people could choose a path of economic prosperity with the full backing of China or could destroy it with their own hands by indulging in divisive and disruptive politics that undermine China's security and sovereignty. They could choose between a win win formula for both China and Hong Kong or it could mark the end of Hong Kong and the political agenda of the dissidents and protestors. The Hong Kong people have been warned of the 'red line' and cross at their own risk. The common good of 1.4b Chinese people cannot be compromised by a few demonstrators in the streets of Hong Kong.
On the inaugural ceremony on the handover and the installation of Carrie Lam as the next Hong Kong Chief Executive, President Xi got down to more serious business to warn of a divisive and disruptive Hong Kong society that could undermine the story of a new China. No one, no country, not the dissidents of Hong Kong, would be allowed to challenge the national sovereignty and security of China that the continuing growth and prosperity of Hong Kong depended on. Anyone attempting to disrupt the social order of Hong Kong would not be tolerated. President Xi drew the 'red line' for handling relations between the mainland and Hong Kong, and warned, "Any attempt to endanger national sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government and the authority of the Basic Law of the HKSAR or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line, and is absolutely impermissible,".
This message came down hard and clear, a warning to the protesters harping on more autonomy and democracy. This is the biggest paradox of Hong Kong today. The louder the voice of protest and street disturbance for more democracy, the greater would Beijing want to exert fuller control over Hong Kong. On the contrary, the lesser the protesters politicised issues in Hong Kong and took to the streets, the more Beijing would be confident to let Hong Kong to have more leeways to govern itself.
There is a bigger picture that the protesters are not seeing and struggling to understand, the story of the growth of China into a big economic and military power. China's peaceful rise is founded on a stable and peaceful international environment, internal stability and a united China. But there are many external forces that would want to use Hong Kong to destabilise China and cripple the Chinese growth machine. Hong Kong would not be allowed to be that poison pawn to be exploited by external forces to cause a breakup of China and to trip China in its path for economic growth and prosperity.
To the protesters and the many young people of Hong Kong, they would need to learn and understand the history of China and the difficult period China had gone through under foreign invasion and humiliation. Some Hongkongers have forgotten what it was like when they were the subjects of the British Empire. China would not allow history to repeat itself and the young people of Hong Kong would be best to understand this bigger picture to know when not to cross the red line.
China would assist and support Hong Kong to be a rich and prosperous city under the one country, two system policy. Hong Kong and its people could choose a path of economic prosperity with the full backing of China or could destroy it with their own hands by indulging in divisive and disruptive politics that undermine China's security and sovereignty. They could choose between a win win formula for both China and Hong Kong or it could mark the end of Hong Kong and the political agenda of the dissidents and protestors. The Hong Kong people have been warned of the 'red line' and cross at their own risk. The common good of 1.4b Chinese people cannot be compromised by a few demonstrators in the streets of Hong Kong.
7/04/2017
Lee Kuan Yew’s will – A better way…
I desist from using the word wayang. What about a better way to handle
the issue with a win win for everyone, especially for Hsien Loong? It
can be easily done. For the moment, other then all the allegations from
Hsien Yang and Wei Ling about abuses of power and govt organs, Hsien
Loong is also being accused of being unfilial. All these could have
been avoided with the govt gazetting the property and Hsien Loong still
coming out looking good and very filial, and his siblings could not to
anything about it or to accuse him of all the allegations.
Here is what I thought would be an easier and nicer way for Hsien Loong to have his cake and eat it, ie keep the property from being demolished and do whatever he wants with it and looking very, very filial and honourable and maintaining Singapore as a rule of law country. There is no need for the Ministerial Committee to go asking Hsien Yang and Wei Ling funny questions. Just get the National Heritage Board to put up a case to gazette the house as a historical and national monument.
Hsien Loong can then go to Parliament and make a plea for the demolishment of the property, telling the House that as a filial son, it is his duty to fulfill his parents’ last wish. He could even shed a few tears to make it even more emotional, to tug at the heart strings of people when the session is aired on TV plus a few photos on the front page Straits Times and other local media. Then he can let Parliament to put it to a vote and knowing that all the ministers and MPs would want to keep the house and would vote for it, he could then say his father is not above the law and he would respect the law no matter how filial he wanted to be. He would then reluctantly agree to let his father’s last wish past as the decision of Parliament is about the rule of law, above a private citizen, and he cannot go against it for personal interest. He could even make a last plea for Parliament to reconsider its decision, maybe a second voting after 3 months or 6 months of cooling off period to think it over and over again. This is what a filial son could do to try to fulfill a father’s last wish, die standing for it.
By then, whatever the decision of Parliament to keep the house, he would be seen as a filial son, honouring his father, and also respecting the law of the country. No abuse of state organs or power, just following the normal process of Parliament. Wouldn’t that be nice? And his siblings cannot accuse him of any abuse of law or being unfilial. Swee swee.
What is so difficult about this, why mess around with a Ministerial Committee and having so many ministers voluntarily standing up to run down the will of his father and at the same time running down LKY in the process? All this is so unnecessary.
It could have been done better surely, and quite easily done too.
PS. An after thought. How nice it would be if the will was put to a vote and Hsien Loong, after declaring that he has a vested in it to grant his father's last wish voted to demolish it while all his ministers and MPs voted to keep it. It could then be used to tell the world that democracy works in Singapore when the ministers and MPs dare to vote against the PM. Damn good PR for Singapore.
Here is what I thought would be an easier and nicer way for Hsien Loong to have his cake and eat it, ie keep the property from being demolished and do whatever he wants with it and looking very, very filial and honourable and maintaining Singapore as a rule of law country. There is no need for the Ministerial Committee to go asking Hsien Yang and Wei Ling funny questions. Just get the National Heritage Board to put up a case to gazette the house as a historical and national monument.
Hsien Loong can then go to Parliament and make a plea for the demolishment of the property, telling the House that as a filial son, it is his duty to fulfill his parents’ last wish. He could even shed a few tears to make it even more emotional, to tug at the heart strings of people when the session is aired on TV plus a few photos on the front page Straits Times and other local media. Then he can let Parliament to put it to a vote and knowing that all the ministers and MPs would want to keep the house and would vote for it, he could then say his father is not above the law and he would respect the law no matter how filial he wanted to be. He would then reluctantly agree to let his father’s last wish past as the decision of Parliament is about the rule of law, above a private citizen, and he cannot go against it for personal interest. He could even make a last plea for Parliament to reconsider its decision, maybe a second voting after 3 months or 6 months of cooling off period to think it over and over again. This is what a filial son could do to try to fulfill a father’s last wish, die standing for it.
By then, whatever the decision of Parliament to keep the house, he would be seen as a filial son, honouring his father, and also respecting the law of the country. No abuse of state organs or power, just following the normal process of Parliament. Wouldn’t that be nice? And his siblings cannot accuse him of any abuse of law or being unfilial. Swee swee.
What is so difficult about this, why mess around with a Ministerial Committee and having so many ministers voluntarily standing up to run down the will of his father and at the same time running down LKY in the process? All this is so unnecessary.
It could have been done better surely, and quite easily done too.
PS. An after thought. How nice it would be if the will was put to a vote and Hsien Loong, after declaring that he has a vested in it to grant his father's last wish voted to demolish it while all his ministers and MPs voted to keep it. It could then be used to tell the world that democracy works in Singapore when the ministers and MPs dare to vote against the PM. Damn good PR for Singapore.
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