shall i support abolishing capital punishment

the last few weeks there have been many letters and voices in support of abolishing capital punishment. the singapore govt has been labelled as cruel, barbaric, inhuman, and all things bad and unkind because of the death penalty. we cannot be so cruel and barbaric to a criminal. this brings back memories of the hours when the two saf scholars were bashed to death in australia. during the last few minutes of their tragic lives, i could only hear the sound of a baseball bat whacking on their bodies, wham, wham, bonk, bonk... the latter sounds were from metal bats hitting the skull. and you could hear the cries and plea to stop, the fear and anguish in the two helpless young men, fear, shock and crying for mercy. did the killer show them any mercy? was the killer any less cruel or barbaric? should we show mercy to the killer if he did not show mercy to his two victims? and there were many badly beaten up victims, children, women and old folks, being bashed and banged till their bodies limp....and died a painful and frightful death. can anyone feel the pain of the parents and wives of these two young men, knowing how helpless they were at the mercy of a cruel killer? wham, wham, thud, thud...pleeeeese no, no, help...........pl who shall we show our mercy to? the reasoning put forth in several of the arguments is that the death penalty will not deter those who are bent to kill. but itsn't that the point? it is exactly meant for this group of incorrigible killers, that nothing can stop them from killing that they should be put away before they go on to kill more people. and for the fearful group that would have been deterred from killing because of the death penalty, and avoided killing, then the death penalty has helped to save some lives and prevented some from taking lives. at times i think it is more evil and wicked to let an incorrigible or senseless killer on the lose again, all because the law spared his life. and he went out to kill again, to inflict more pain to the innocent. those who supported the abolishing of the death penalty must share the sin and guilt of these criminals and be answerable to the victims and their love ones. there are times when one has to be hard to be kind. and let not trying to be kind and ended up perpetuating cruelties, pain and suffering on the innocents. who is more evil?

where greed will take man to

During the hours of creation..... He said to the cow: "Ah Gu (cow), today I have created you! Your job is to go to the field with the farmer all day long. You will provide the energy to pull things! You will also provide milk for people to drink! You are to work all day under the sun! In return, you will only eat grass. For that, you will have a life span of 50 years." Ah Gu objected. "What.. I work all day in the sun and I get only to eat grass! On top of that, I have to give my milk away! This is tough and you want me to live 50 years! I'll take 20 and you can have the remaining 30 years back!" God agreed. On the next day, God created the dog. He said to the dog. "Ah Kow (dog), I have created you for a purpose. You are to sit all day by the door of your master's house! Should anyone come in, you are to bark at them! In return, you will eat your master's leftovers. I'll give you a life span of 20 years." Ah Kow objected. " What! I have to sit by the door all day and will need to bark at people, and what do I get...LEFTOVERS... This isn't right, I'll take 10 and you can have the remaining 10 years back!" God agreed again. On the third day, God created the monkey. He said to the monkey. "Lao Kao (monkey), your job is to entertain people. You will make them laugh, act stupid and make faces! You will also do somersaults and swing on trees to amaze them. In return, you will get to eat bananas and peanuts. For that, I'll give you 20 years to live." Naturally the monkey objected. "This is ridiculous, I gotta make faces and make people laugh? Let's not even come to the part about the trees and somersaults. Tell you what, I'll give 10 years of my life to thank you for my existence and I'll take 10. What do you think?" God agreed again. On the forth day, God created humans. God said to the man. "You are my best piece of work, for that, you will only need to sleep, eat, sleep, play, eat, sleep again and do nothing else.You will get to eat all the best things and play with the best toys. All you need to do is enjoy all your life. For this kinda of life, I'll give you 20 years." Just like the rest, the man objected. "What, all I need to do is relax and enjoy myself and I have only 20 years to live? Tell you what, you've 30 years back from Ah Gu, 10 years from Ah Kow and another 10 from Lao Kao and you probably don't know what to do with all those lifes. Why not I take them all and I'll have 70 years to live?" God being such good natured, agreed with a smile..... AND THAT IS WHY..... We eat, sleep, play and enjoy for the first 20 years of our lives when we are growing up. Work like a cow for the next 30 to raise our family. Sit outside the door and bark at people for the next 10 when we are retired. And finally, we make faces and perform monkey tricks to entertain our grandchildren for the final 10 years. GET IT ?????

moderation on the road to privatisation

as we embarked on this unending road to privatisation, let us take a step back and ponder, and ask, are we all going money crazy? are we going bonkers that money is the solution to everything? the privatisation of hospitals, public transports, education, independent schools etc all boils down to one thing, money. can this be moderated, say keep the fees of a few top notched schools down as normal schools while govt provide them with a bigger subsidy? this way, not every bright child or their parents needs to grimace every month when school fee is due. similarly, the 3 classes of hospital wards be priced in such a way that c class is really subsidised for those who don't need the frills, b class with some frills, and a class mainly to generate profits like private hospitals. we cannot go on down the slippery path of no return like the prices of hdb. no way to unwind unless we are prepared to upset a lot of people, hurt a lot of people and the banks and economy. or like the relentless push for high salary for workers. now it is payback time. our high cost of living will continue to go up but not the salary. and the problems the people are facing are aggravated by the diverging forces of higher cost but dwindling income. it is time to hold the brakes and return to some sense. otherwise we will be hearing the sound..'snap' very soon.

singapore the yuppy

singapore is just like a yuppy, young and upward mobile, vibrant, rich, and craving for all the trappings of being affluent. the 5 Cs, theatres, latest mobile phones, palm tops, laptops, holidays, fine cuisines, pubbing, fine wines and women.... singapore have almost attained all the trappings of what a rich country should or must have. country clubs, marinas, durians, theme parks, revolving viewing towers, bungee jumping, ferris wheels, formula one speedboat races, turf clubs, and now crazy horses, and casinoes in the line up. what else that we want but have not attained as trappings of a rich and successful nation? we have climbed mount everest, swam across the english channel, walked the antartic, collected as many golds as we could in sports, in the guinness book of record, have maids in tow....oh, still one more to go, the world cup. sure we will get the world cup. then we can tell the world we are number one. we have arrived.

the unwanted 5 Cs

ask any prs why they did not want to take up citizenship here. you will get a very telling grin on his face. without uttering a word, you will get the message on how stupid your question is. who would want to get a citizenship that comes with so many hindrances, obligations and disadvantages. who would want their sons to be conscripted at the prime of their lives? 2 1/2 years of youth, the most wonderful part of a young man's life, and another 20 years of reservist liabilities. conscription is never a choice thing to do. who would want to be a citizen and got to get their cpf money lockup practically for life? who would want to be a citizen and have their lives and lifestyle practically controlled by the state or system? as a pr, when the time is ripe, they could pack up, collect all their savings, and move back home or some where that is cheap to live their twilight years. why would they want to stay here to feed the high cost of living when there are cheaper alternatives. the prs are very happy as they are, minus the 5 Cs.

the causeway - a forgotten landmark

the whole world is boasting about how beautiful is their bridge, the san francisco bridge, sydney bridge, crooked bridge, and all kinds of bridge. if i am not mistaken, there is one and only one causeway. and this causeway is so unique that it joins the furthest southern tip of the great asian continent to another great piece of land, an island called the red dot. this vital fact that man can walk all over asia and will end up here, after crossing the causeway, could be turned into a great tourist attraction, a unique piece of information that often people take for granted. the causeway is our link to asia. stepping across the causeway into asia.

ministers should play god

yes, minister should play god, be separated from the normal functioning of the organisations they are overseeing. minister of communications should be detached from lta or transport companies, health minister be detached from hospitals, etc so that they need not be identified with these organisations and need not have to protect and defend their positions, and can then be objective and even object or disagree with these organisations. that is why they need to be god, to stay above the fray. what we have now is that ministers become part of the organisations in their portfolios and any unfavourable policies or decisions, the ministers would have to come out and defend them. for any criticisms on these policies and decisions will be regarded as a criticism of the minister. as politicians, they should be politicians and not administrators or ceos. they should balance the interests of the organisations and the people affected by these organisations. let the ceos or heads of ministries, stats boards and organisations do the explanations.