Singapore is no longer a Spring chicken

After 45 years of independence, Singapore is not a spring chicken anymore but more like a ‘lau kway bu’ or middle age mother hen. It is naïve to think that should there be a change in political leadership the country would go into a tailspin.
 
The civil service would be there intact, so would the ministries, the police and the armed forces. The industries would be there grinding and humming as before. There could be a few exceptions that may want to relocate somewhere, we can say good riddance. But in reality you cannot unplug a business, pack it into a container and wave good bye. Anyway a change of govt is not going to shoot everyone on sight.
 
Our polity has reached a certain level of maturity, or at least the politicians in the opposition parties are also decent and matured professionals. If not then we are not deserving to be called 1st World developed country The politicians are not like corporal Amin or corporal Hitler that would go around shooting at anyone that disagreed when they came to power. There could be some changes in policies, in priorities, in directions, but nothing really drastic would be done to undermine the viability of the country and its economy.
 
The only thing that may see some major changes would be the excesses that the people are obviously unhappy with eg high ministerial pay, high inflation and cost of living, high prices of housing/cars, high population growth and influx of foreigners, high expenses that should benefit the citizens rather than foreigners, like the funding of foreign scholarships, and things of the same nature.
 
A new govt is likely to fine tune govt policies, reemphasise on citizen’s interest and showing more care and concern for the good of the citizenry. And whatever changes, they are going to be done or executed with much thoughts and consultations with the civil servants in the respective ministries.
 
Hey, we are not a 3rd World country with 3rd World mentality and personalities. The new govt, should they be elected, are going to inherit a much more stable system than the old inherited by the PAP govt in 1965. There is no need to reinvent the wheel or to blow up anything. It will be more like massaging and moderating and refining policies to meet the expectations of the people.
 
So, what is the crap about tumultuous changes and the irrational fear of things going bad instead of getting better? It would be system go, everything as normal with incremental changes for the good of the citizens by another team of qualified and experienced individuals, not firebrands or illiterate workers and labourers or the ah peks and ah sohs in the market.
 
The whole island is flooded with highly qualified tertiary educated professionals. There is no need to cry wolf as if the only decent and able people are in the ruling party and the rest of the people are sick, retards and duds. This is a lie the people are made to believe in. The ruling party also has a fair share of the same. The opposition politicians may not be immortals, but they are not demons either.
 
Singaporeans must have confidence in themselves, in fellow citizens to run the country for the good of the citizens and not for the good of foreigners or worse, be run by foreigners.
 
The Spring chicken is not a Spring chicken anymore. The new govt will be inheriting an ongoing system and infrastructure, an economy and all the ministries and the staff running them, and will continue to run them.

Kopi Level - Green. Thanks.

MH370 - The Mangosteen Puzzle

There were 4 tonnes of mangosteens on board the aircraft MH370. This has raised some controversies and conspiracy theories on the part played by the mangosteens in the disappearance of the aircraft. The IGP Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar had to come out to kill the rumour surrounding the mnagosteens.
 
The IGP clarified that he only said there were 4 tonnes of mangosteens and under more questioning that Johore did not have mangosteen plantations, he denied saying the mangosteens were from Johore but being packed in Muar. This clear a part of the puzzle.
 
The second part is that this is not mangosteen season. So where did the mangosteens came from? Malaysia or America, or China? According to the IGP, the mangosteens were sent to Muar for packing and then sent to KL to be loaded in MH370. He still did not say where the mangosteens came from. This mystery is still not clarified.
 
If the mangosteens did not come from anywhere, or if the cargoes were not mangosteens but stated as mangosteens, we could have a bigger puzzle at hand. Remember my earlier post on the mangosteens when I referred to them as a Freudian slip? Could the mangosteens hold a clue to the missing aircraft? Did the IGP know something more about the mangosteens than meets the eyes?
 
Got mangosteens or no mangosteens?

We have no natural resources but people

We used to tell the world that we may not have the natural resources like other big countries, but we have a highly trained and skilled workforce. Our strength is in our quality human resources, highly disciplined and highly educated.
 
This kind of statements is turning out to be a joke, obsolete. We have become a nation with no talents. We need foreigners to create jobs for our people. We need foreigners to help our economy to grow. We need foreigners to replace our daft Sinkies. And the 3rd World recruiting agencies said so and no one in the govt would stand up to refute such degrading comments. But it is not only a comment but they are turning it into reality by recruiting more 3rd World questionable talents to replace our real talents, tested and proven.
 
Tommy Koh commented that we should allow foreigners in to supplement our manpower needs, not to displace our own talents. The proclaimed ‘truth’ is that we no longer have any talents. Our strength, of having a highly trained, skilled and discipline workforce is a thing of the past. Anything got to do with our world class education system for this dire affair?
 
We are a dying breed. Without the foreigners to help us we are dead meat. We are like the Eygptians that built the great pyramids, the Romans that built an empire, the British that once ruled the world. What happened to the great educational system and top ranking universities here? Are they producing duds? Or are they producing foreign graduates to go back to their countries on graduation? If our talent pool is no longer our strength, who else or what else can we fall back on? On foreign talents, our saviours?

Gilbert Goh has his work cut out for him

Gilbert and his Transitioning.org blog has been the rallying point for many Singaporeans who have lost their jobs prematurely due directly or indirectly to the influx of so called foreign talents here. Many even accused their employers for deliberately and discriminately replacing them with foreigners. And Gilbert has been taking up their cases with their employers and also raising them with the MOM. So far results are less than satisfactory and with many turning a deaf ear to him and the plight of the victimized and unemployed PMETs. The loser Sinkies have no where and no one to turn to except Gilbert.
 
What Gilbert could do is to turn his blog into a notice board or bouncing board to highlight all the bad cases and to publicise the names of CEOs and their organisations for discrimination against Singaporeans. And for every case highlighted, make sure the MOM is also notified and keep a log on the actions and/or reply from MOM and the CEOs concerned until the case is satisfactorily settled.
 
Gilbert must do this seriously with a column dedicated to this cause. It Is a citizen’s initiative to protect their own interests when the politicians are too busy with their own agenda. Make this blog as the blog for employee grievances, as the place for victimized Singaporeans to pour out their sad stories until the MOM and the CEOs concerned take action or be shamed for not taking any action. This will definitely be a positive act to make sure that something is done for the victims, and the violators would not think they could get away scot free or as if their victims are hapless and have no one to turn to.
 
Make Transitioning.org the place for PMETs to address their pains and problems. Make it known to the whole world what is happening to the daft Sinkies in their home country.
 
Gilbert, you listening?

The American gangster’s double talk

The native Americans used to say that White men spoke with fork tongue. They thought it was words only and was wiped out from the American continent, their native home land. The world is not taking heed at what the Americans are saying and doing. Chuck Hagel was in Beijing last week and told the Chinese ‘no country should resort to intimidation, coercion or aggression to advance its claims.’ And the Americans warned China that it would defend Japan and the Philippines under their defence treaties. So, is this not intimidation, not coercion?

What were the Americans doing in the Middle East and Africa, in Iraq, in Libya, in Syria, in Afghanistan, and threatening Iran and North Korea with sanctions and wargames at their doorsteps, and now intimidating the Russians over Syria and Crimea?

What are the Americans doing with their pivot to Asia, amassing military hardwares and soldiers in the region and signing defence treaties everywhere they go? And they are trying to sign a military treaty with the Mongolians wedged between Russia and China.  Russia and China must put a stop to this treaty like the Americans putting a stop to Kruschev wanting to put missiles in Cuba, or they will both be in serious trouble with the American gangsters.

The USA has been using threats, intimidation and coercion against practically every country in the world, allies or enemies, to push its agenda and to protect its interests. And it is telling the world, in this case China, that they should not use threats and intimidation?

What horse shit do the Americans think they are serving? This is a clear case of the devil calling everyone else devil. And Hagel went to Beijing to threaten the Chinese of US military actions!

Kopi level - Red

The things I would like the PAP MPs to raise in Parliament

There are many national issues that the people are unhappy about.  And these are not play play things like no water festivals or no tickets to watch the National Day Parade. They are very serious matters that affect their lives and livelihood. But these matters are somehow only raised by the opposition MPs. PAP MPs may disagree and want to tell me they have raised them too. I choose to disagree.

Perhaps the PAP MPs may want to prove me wrong by raising more issues that the people are unhappy about like 6.9m population, jobs for the unemployed or underemployed PMEs, discrimination by foreigners, including CEOs for recruiting their own kind and sacking Singaporeans in the process, scholarships/university places for foreigners, CPF withdrawal age, high COEs and unaffordable car ownership, housing for Sinkies that are banned from buying public flats, foreigners taking control of banking and finance industry, our universities being dominated and controlled by foreigners, etc etc.

There is only one reason why PAP MPs would not raise such questions. They do not see them as problems and are fully in support of govt policies in these matters. They believe the govt policies are right, on the right track. True?

If that be the case, let’s hope that when they left office, they would not stand up to say, actually they don’t agree. It would not reflect very well on them if they do so. It would by hypocritical. Now is the time for them to stand up for the people if they think the policies are not good for the people. It is now when they can do something, to say something, and not after they have left office and no longer consequential.

Funny, didn’t the people elected them to say things for them? Didn’t they say that if elected they would speak out for the people? There are many questions going to be raised in Parliament next week. Just watch what were being raised and are there anything that really mattered to the core interests of the people.

Kopi level Red yesterday.

Tommy Koh wants China to go ICJ to settle territorial disputes

Tommy wants China to place itself under the jurisdiction of modern day international laws when China’s claim to the South China Sea Islands was based on historical precedents during a time when it was finder’s keepers. China is claiming these islands that were uninhabited and they were the first to arrive on the islands to claim it.

Compares this to the Americans’ claim to North America and the Australian’s claims to Australia, the British’s claims to New Zealand, and other colonised countries, would the Americans, Australians, British New Zealanders be willing to go under the jurisdiction of the international courts if the native Red Indians, the aborigines and the Maoris make a claim to their land? Would the Americans go to courts with the Pacific Islanders wanting to reclaim their islands in the Pacific Ocean?

In the case of China and the South China Sea islands, once China agrees to go to the ICJ, it will open the Pandora box to every littoral states of the South China Seas to make their claims. And if the ICJ once decided that the new international laws supercede historical claims, China would stand to lose practically every island it claimed and under its sovereignty.

Why would China want to go to court and risk losing anything to anyone that can just make a claim to the ICJ when it is already exercising sovereignty over these islands? Are the Chinese leaders idiots?

There is a big difference in the thinking of the Chinese leaders versus the Singaporean mindset. The Chinese leaders would not give up their territories to anyone. They had lost a lot of land during the era of colonialism and conquest by the western powers and Japan. Today they are able to defend their territories and they will not yield an inch without a fight. The Singaporeans would give their country away willingly on the ground of ‘meritocrazy’, the fittest shall inherit their country, regardless of nationality. It is going and soon will be gone.