Who is the first elected President of Singapore?

WP raised this question in Parliament and if I am not mistaken the question was turned into an attack on Hsien Loong’s integrity for using Wee Kim Wee as the first elected President to compute when a minority president should take his place in the Istana. Correct me if I am wrong.  I think the formula used to calculate the time qualification for a minority president is quite interesting for discussion. I must say the govt is right and I am not questioning anyone’s integrity, not Hsien Loong’s for sure.

Let me just put down some facts here, copied from the Istana website and wikipedia.

Mr C V Devan Nair was elected President of the Republic of Singapore by Parliament on 23 October 1981.

Dr Wee Kim Wee was elected the President of the Republic of Singapore by Parliament on 30 August 1985.

Mr Ong Teng Cheong became the fifth President of the Republic of Singapore and the first President to be popularly elected by the people on 1 September 1993.

Below paragraphs are from wikipedia.

The Singaporean presidential election of 1993 was the first presidential election held in Singapore. Polling day was 28 August 1993. Former Deputy Prime Minister Ong Teng Cheong became Singapore's first directly elected President.

In January 1991, the Constitution of Singapore^[1] was amended to provide for the popular election of the President. The creation of the elected presidency was a major constitutional and political change in Singapore's history as, under the revision, the President is empowered to veto the use of government reserves and appointments to key civil service appointments. He or she can also examine the administration's enforcement of the Internal Security Act^[2] and Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act,^[3] and look into investigations of corruption.

By virtue of transitional provisions in the Singapore Constitution,^[4] Ong's predecessor Wee Kim Wee exercised, performed and discharged all the functions, powers and duties of an elected president as if he had been elected to the office of President by the citizens of Singapore, until Ong took office.

The govt is taking the position that Wee Kim Wee is the first elected president, ah, yes and no if you understand the above facts. Wee Kim Wee exercised, performed and discharged the duties of an elected president once the Act was passed though he was not an elected president elected by the people but elected by parliament in 1985. This is a legal point only the court can make an authoritative interpretation. He did exercise and perform the duties of an elected president but not an elected president elected by the people, only as if he was elected by the people. This could be a point of contention even if he is legally and constitutionally accorded the status of being the first elected president.

The other point is that when did he exercise and perform the duties of an elected president? I think it should be sometime in 1991 or 1992 after the Act was passed in parliament. It must be as the constitution does not have a people’s elected president before this date. Before this date he was not an elected president elected by the people but elected by parliament.

The amendments for a minority president election have a qualification time of 30 years for a minority president election to be called. This 30 year time frame should start from when, 1985 when Wee Kim Wee became president or when he exercised and performed the duties of an elected president in 1991 or 1992? Or should it start from the year the Elected President Act came into force in 1991?  If 1985 is the commencement date, then by 2015 a minority president election is due. If the commencement date is 1991/2, then the next minority president election should be due in 2021/2.  Correct or not, this is simple arithmetic.

So the big question is which year should be used to compute when the next minority president is due, 2015 or 2021? I think this merits some discussion and clarification. Would WP take this up to the court for a legal interpretation? If there is any doubt or ambiguity, the High Court should be the authority to make the clarification and interpretation. Seeking a court interpretation on this matter cannot be an attack or questioning anyone’s integrity, I think.

97 marks out of 100 not good enough

A student scoring 97/100 for Chinese is considered not good enough, not qualified to take Higher Chinese? This was what happened in St Hilda Primary School.  Remember the media report, 99% passed O level with 1 pass?

Let me quote a few paragraphs posted in an article in the statestimesreview.

Speaking in Parliament today (Feb 6) representing the Ministry of Education, PAP MP Low Yen Ling defended a primary school that deemed students scoring 97/100 for Chinese language not qualified enough for Higher Chinese.

“We acknowledge St. Hilda’s good intentions in making sure students who want to take Higher Chinese are well-suited and also ready to take on the subject because it also entails extra curricular time and a heavier study load for the child.”

...Some of the students scored a near-perfect score of 97 out of 100 marks for the Chinese language but were still rejected nonetheless.

However, the primary school succumbed to public criticisms and opened an additional class to accommodate students who wish to take up Higher Chinese. PAP MP Low Yen Ling confirmed the knee-jerk reaction in Parliament:”

Why 97 marks not good enough? Then what is good enough? 100 marks? If 97 marks are not good enough, I think anyone getting 97 marks will get a A*,  what are the implications on the marking system? Are they saying that A* are not really good enough when everyone has the impression that A* is like distinction? How are the teachers going to tell parents that their children with 97 marks are NOT GOOD enough? How are the children going to face their parents and how are parents going to receive this ‘bad’ news, that their children scoring 97 marks, good enough for a celebration to most parents but really not good enough?

If all the students scoring 97 marks in their subjects are not good enough, what about those scoring 70 marks, 50 marks? Is this a way to tell the parents and children that the 97 marks are a farce, that the grading system is a farce? How on earth could anyone tell a child that 97 marks are not good enough?

What is going on? Is this an indication of something not very right in our education system or in the grading system? Is this the reason why our Singaporean graduates with their straight As are not wanted, not really good, not good enough because.....?

Is there something seriously wrong being revealed unintentionally by this case? What is the truth? Is this the reason why third world students and their funny grades are preferred to be better than the grades obtained in our supposedly world class schools and education system? Is this the reason why third world degrees are better than our degrees? The implications are very serious.   

   

The Mad men and women in Washington

They are going to install the THAAD anti missile system on the pretext that the North Koreans are mad and waiting eagerly to pull the trigger to shoot its missiles all over the world. And there are equally mad believing this is the truth and it is going to happen, especially those in the little red dot. They are cowering in fear that Kim Jong Un is aiming his missiles with nuclear warheads at Singapore to kill them. For what reasons I dunno but these mad cocks are so convinced by the mad men and women in Washington that Kim Jong Un has a grudge against them and wanting to destroy them.

Who are the really mad men? Who is talking peace and arming themselves with 7000 nuclear warheads, 10 carrier groups filled with offensive aircraft and weapons, including nuclear warheads and screaming that the North Koreans are the bad ones trying to build one nuclear bomb or trying to test fly one ICBM?

Why would these mad men and women want to spend trillions of dollars and say not enough, must upgrade the weapons further and spend more billions or trillions when no one country, definitely not North Korea would dare to pull the trigger to fire a shot at them or at their allies? North Koreans really mad, or the really mad ones are in the White House, in Washington?

The North Koreans are dangerous but not the mad men and women conducting wars all over the world? Why would a sane people want to possess 7000 nuclear warheads, to sleep in peace, for peace?

In the Year of the Cock, many cocks, mad cocks will be in the spot light for being cocks, mad cocks and silly cocks.

Die ah, the North Koreans are coming, hide, hide, hide! Or should it be the Americans are coming? The South China Sea is now very calm and peaceful. Just wait for the Americans to come and stir shit in the region and little USAs will be jumping and shouting again, happily calling out, papa is here again.

Doesn’t the world get unnerved by this huge destructive arsenal that could turn the earth back to the Stone Age? Doesn’t the world get nervous with the assertiveness of the Americans flouting their military might, threatening and bullying every country that could not see eye to eye with them? And now with so many mad men and mad women in Washington and the White House, war is over the horizon and the cocks are still saying the Americans are peace loving people? Who is going to start World War 3? Definitely not the North Koreans. Who has soldiers and military bases all over the world and fighting wars non stop every where?

The Americans are calling everyone as villains but the real and one and only villain is the Americans, the biggest villain of the 21st Century, the belligerent war maker.

The world must act to counter Trump's ultra racism

Trump is a white ultra racist and white supremacist. His grandfather was a leader of the extreme radical Ku Klux Klan organisation a die hard white supremacist creed bent on eradicating African Americans and Mexican Americans from US.

During his election campaign he promised to clear the swamp. As he indulged in double speak people mistook him that he was going to get rid of all the robber barons, rogues and scoundrels in high places in the government, in the financial centres in the banks and stock markets and in the military industrial complex. Actually he did just that. People could never have been more wrong and they were grossly deceived. What he actually meant of clearing the swamp was that he wanted to get rid of all the non-white population in the country be they African Americans, Mexican Americans and other non-whites. He equates non-whites as useless swamps, a very disparaging and disrespectful remark. He wants to preserve America purely for white people and just like his forebears he will quote the bible to justify his wicked actions. He will promulgate policies and rules and institute actions to make sure all non-whites will be forced to leave America and return to their countries of origin. He conveniently ignores the fact that he and all the anglo-saxons, the Europeans were callous brutal invaders of the American continent in which native people were almost completely genocided by them.

Trump and his hordes of fellow white supremacists are too drunk with racial hatred and wanton power to realise that there will definitely be an equally violent and unstoppable backdash against him and his likes for the world will never allow him only one way to kill and destroy other people. Moreover Trump should return all the stolen lands from Mexico to Mexico forthwith. If he says non-whites must leave America then he and all the whites too must go back to Europe and leave America to the rightful original owners the Native Red Indians and the Mexicans.

Trump is the epitome of all things evil and a torch bearer of the satanic KU KLUX KLAN and should be destroyed sooner than later.

Southernglory1

Singapore does not need FDI

It was reported that Singapore attracted $9b of foreign direct investment in the year 2016, or was it 2015? This is about the lowest FDI ever attracted to invest here. Duterte paid a short trip to China and went home with $24b and more to come. Najib did likewise and was rewarded with $40b not taking into account the hundreds of billions poured into Malaysia in the last few years. Forest city alone accounted for something like $30b or $40b.

Is this pittance of $9b going to be meaningful to our economic growth? There is this obsession for FDI as if it is the steroid that all countries must have to register growth and a sign of growth. Even China is talking about attracting FDIs while investing trillions of its own resources overseas. In reality, the sum of FDIs attracted into China or Singapore are really insignificant to the sum they invested overseas.

There are definitely benefits to have FDIs coming into a country as these are new money. But when little FDIs are coming in, it is not the end. Just retain a small sum of local capital going abroad would be a handsome sum to replace the FDIs. How much is China investing overseas, trillions. How much is China receiving as FDIs, a couple of hundred bilions? How much is Singapore investing overseas? Hundreds of billlions! What is $9b? Just invest less of our capital overseas and plough them back into the local economy, $20b, $50b could be had to self inject and pump up the local economy.

What Singapore has is money, though not in trillions like China, but in hundreds of billions and relatively a considerable sum. Bring the money home, just like bringing the Singaporeans home instead of hoping for FDIs or foreign talents when we have our own stuff. FDI is something good to have but not critical except for countries that did not have much of their own capital to start with. There is no need to throw our money crazily all over the world and begging for a little FDIs to come ashore.
Singapore has hundreds of billions in the reserves but investing in funny stocks and ventures overseas, dunno making money or losing money. Why not invest in our own people and industries and no need to fear for the lack of FDI when it is so little to be meaningful? We can provide our very own steroid to boost the economy. What is there for foreigners to dump their billions here when there is really nothing to invest except properties, shopping centres and food courts?

Singapore doing all the wrong things

Singapore is still thinking it is doing all the right things and there will still be a prosperous Singapore to celebrate SG100. The writings on the wall are saying everything is failing but some jokers are claiming everything is number 1, we are the best. Has anyone really looked at the things we claim to be the best and know what they are, best in what, best in the wrong things?

Look at education, just a few days ago the ST gloated that Singapore is in the top four ranks for universities by Times Higher Education. Superficially it looked like a big achievement, like the headline 99% passed GCE with at least one pass. What is this fourth ranking about? It is about how many foreign academic staff and how many foreign students in the universities. These are things that can be bought by money. Just keep throwing tax payers money to these foreigners, the more we throw to them, the higher will be the ranking. We can even be number 1, just like throwing money to buy table tennis players and the silly dream of winning the World Cup by buying foreign talents.

And almost daily we have heard gloating about how good our education system is, how great our universities are, only to find that employers did not want their graduates and prefer graduates from third world countries, from dilapidated schools that have poorly qualified and poorly trained teachers that could not boast of having to paying thousands of dollars to get a place in kindergarten or the university.

And the sickest thing of all, everyday harping about training our retrenched workers, many with good degrees and experience and are displaced by third world half baked degrees or degrees from degree mills. The big question, why are these third world country products so super and no need further training, but the best workers from a first world country, spending more than 20 years in formal education to get a degree, supposedly the finest if not the most expensive, and all inept, misfit, mismatch and unworthy to be employed, and need more training, life time training? And third world products are perfect matches and no need any training? Heard of anyone demanding or recommending training for third world products?

Are we doing all the right things or doing all the wrong things but pretending that we are doing all the right things? Stop this silly shit about retraining and retraining when lousy half baked third world pariah education graduates, many not even graduates but fakes, could be happily employed here without the need for retraining.

Stupidity has no cure. Just listen and follow blindly.

NTUC FairPrice gives priority to Pioneers

I happened to have a chat with a few pioneers and up came the topic of priority queue for pioneers in FairPrice. There is a priority queue but not sure if pioneers are given first pass. And then I was inside a FairPrice outlet and there were queues everywhere. Then I looked up and saw two big circular signs hanging over one cashier counter. One read ‘Pioneers Priority’ and another ‘Give Way’. But there was a queue. So I thought I test the system and went forward to ask the cashier whether got priority for pioneers. She answered promptly, pioneers also must queue.

Oh, brilliant idea. Two big signs that said priority for pioneers and give way to pioneers, and actually did not mean it. Pioneers also must join the queue. My recommendations to NTUC FairPrice are like these: either remove the two big signs as they are meaningless, or to add two more signs, one reads ‘Pioneers must also Q’ and another ‘No need to give way to pioneers’. If not the signs either make the pioneers look silly queuing in a priority queue for them or NTUC FairPrice looking stupid having such signs that meant nothing. Did they think through what they are going to do before they hung those big signs up in the first place? Maybe it is too difficult for them to think how best to deal with such priority queues.

The cashiers must have taken instructions from their supervisors, and the supervisors must have taken instructions from their superiors, and up the pecking order. So who is the top idiot that passed down such a stupid idea to give pioneers priority queue but instructions to the cashiers to do the contrary?  Oops, the cashiers knew exactly what to do. Pioneers must also queue. The signs are for wayang only, tak pakai lah.

I had another encounter of such stupidity in FairPrice a few years back. I saw this senior uncle, more senior than me, in front of me in a check out queue. And there was this smiling and grinning cashier happily demanding to see the senior citizen cards before giving the 2% discount. It was a Tuesday and there was a 2% discount for senior citizens. Monday is for Pioneer Generation with a 3% discount.  The senior uncle showed the cashier his pioneer card but she said no pakai.  'Úncle, today for seniors only and seniors must show senior card. Pioneer card not recognized on Tuesday. Want pioneer discount, come on Monday.'

I wrote to NTUC the next day explaining to them that pioneers are older than seniors. Apparently they did not know, I supposed. At that time the youngest pioneers were already 65 years old while those qualified for senior cards were only 60 or 62 years. So why pioneer cards not recognized when the card was proof that the holder was older than the seniors? NTUC replied to apologise and said cashiers would be told that pioneer card holders would henceforth also be recognized as seniors and would be entitled to the 2% discount on Tuesday. If I have not been a busybody, the happy cashier/cashiers would be happily demanding for senior citizen cards on Tuesday and rejecting the pioneer cards.

This is how daft and stupid Singaporeans have become. They just follow rules or instructions without thinking. Like they said, cheng hu got say then do. Cheng hu no say, don’t do. No need to think. Cheng hu is doing all the thinking. Daft sinkies just listen and obey instructions. Life cannot be more simple and blissful than this.

I hope NTUC read this or someone got the link to NTUC tell them about my recommendations on priority queues for pioneers as mentioned above. The cashiers need to get specific instructions before they can do anything right. Instructions from the top very powderful, cannot disobey. It is not that the cashiers are stupid. They could exercise their initiative and can be very helpful when they wanted to.

Stupidity has no cure.