Disclaimer:
In no way this is to be treated as an academic historical paper or the absolute truth. It's just an opinion piece I penned one last time for my own leisure and of course, for our leader Lee Kuan Yew. There will some good and nasty things I will write about him so extreme LKY's worshipers (those who ignored his past deeds and want to whitewash him) and haters, please go away. We are not on the same channel. And for the rest, I believe you already have your own opinions on the old man but I hope you can read on. Click on some of the links I shared and form your own new opinions on the man. This posts will have some video links and also some historical facts that I know. Most of them are pulled from the Internet so it might not be correct as I need something to reference upon on, If readers do spot a mistake, please just drop me a comment and I will correct them.
History is important to me. It's a form of way to identify myself as a Singaporean Chinese. I enjoy reading Ancient Chinese history to lean more about my roots but I especially love reading Singapore's history as I am a true born 3rd generation Singaporean. I also love his-story as I am fascinated with people. People with powers that shape future generations to come.
Lee Kuan Yew is one such character.
I actually started to write about him again while he was critically ill in bed but I decided to stop when I saw the euphoria of some of his haters online. And indeed, those who adore him started to condemn those who are happy about his inevitable demise. People then started taking sides and posting irrational thoughts, provoking each others. Some called for unity. Some called for respect. Some ask others to go fuck themselves I'm of course, indifferent about the whole death issue as all men will die some day. But all these hate and love on one single person? Then followed by the mourning and the long queue to pay a last visit to an empty shell. Don't you want to know why leh? I want to know and I think I know. :P
People likes to simplify things. I tends to complicate them. So for this piece. I will just list out the good and bad things that people say about him that I agree with.
The good
1) He's charismatic, good looking and definitely an intellectual who posses some wisdom to guide our country. Just look around us now. Singapore as a country is successful and rich. There's no denying it that he helped to shape it into this. Of course he had help from others like Goh Keng Swee and Dr Albert Winsemius. But at least for those haters who say he's a dictator, he did listened to their suggestion and implemented them. And for those worshipers who are still reading or clueless. No. Singapore is not a "fishing" village when he took over.
2) He's a tough and strong willed leader who can bring the best out of people. "People, especially the ministers and senior government officials working under him literally fears him" one of his critics and ex ISD detainee Francis Seow said. Such fears normally will push oneself to excel. It's not the best way but I agree it's one of the ways to do it.
3) He's not corrupt. He's frugal in his expenses. I had heard rumours that he enjoyed expensive whiskey or wine but I think that's fine. All man have some sins. Same old shirt and briefcase for years..... I sincerely love the windbreaker he always wears to parliament sittings. This frugality also extended to his family members. I think Tin Pei Ling will faint if she is part of the family. Also not to forget he's not in this for the money. The CIA bribe scandal is also another good indication.
4) He's a loving, devoting father and husband. Although last time no instagram but there are enough pictures in his memoir and on the Internet to proof that :P I especially feel the love in this and this video on youtube.
5) He's hardworking and put Singapore 1st. Countless accounts of civil servants says he work hard everyday and when he speaks, is mostly about Singapore. There's no denying that.
6) He's a master orator. Period. ND rally and election speeches was so much more interesting during his era.
7) He's gentle, kind and approachable. Some of you might go HAR!!??? But sad to say this is genuine. I once had a very brief encounter with him. My friend and I went to Marina Barrage to shoot but we got ourselves right in the middle of a PAP convention . So we retreated and took a long walk towards the Marina Bay MRT station. Along the road, we saw the whole road empty with traffic. A limo stopped just beside the road and there he is, the old man was in the car heading towards the convention. I made eye contact with him, he smiled at me 1st and I smiled and waved back. He actually waved back and the car drove off. No high horse or attitude or a fake smile. A very genuine and sincere one I would say. There are, of course other countless people who have the chance to talk to him and find him the same way. I will explain why this is such a big contrast to what others says of him. This love of the people is like a Lord or a King loving his subjects. He is concern with our livelihood as he felt responsible for our well beings. Not exactly bad but I would not say it's exactly good too as his world view is that people are born with a difference. Some are more "elite" then others.
The bad
1) He's a bully, a gangster and power crazy. Especially to his political opponents or those with influences and opposes him. I think I can list a very long list of names. But some notables are during Operation Coldstore in 63 and 66. People like Chia Thye Poh (32) , Said Zahari (17), Lim Hock Siew(17), Dr Poh Soo Kai (19) and others. I named the 1st four because they were imprisoned without trial for the longest period of time. The brackets beside the name is not the age but the years spent in detention. The links are video interviews that was made but please don't treat them as the absolute truth. But it serves a good understanding on who LKY targets and how his opponents felt about him. Then in 1987. Operation Spectrum sees another wave of arrests. This could be the main gist of his flaw. He also stayed too long in power. From Senior Minister to Minister Mentor! What a title! The rest of the founding fathers have already retire from politics or not involved in cabinet meetings. But he stayed on till 2011!
2) He's ruthless and authoritative. Even Mr Dhanabalan who said it that he was ruthless to all who would undermine his authority. It's not easy to work for such a boss.
3) He's cunning,calculative and not trustworthy. In the declassified British documents The late Tunku Abdul Rahman and Lord Selkirk does not have good words for him.
4) He practices nepotism. Giving various high senior government position to his own people. This is not surprising as he needs to consolidate his power and control.
5) He's greedy and a hoarder of money. This seems to be contradictory to point that he's not corrupt. But being frugal and not accepting bribes does not mean he's not greedy. There are people who likes to see money in their bank grows indefinitely for no apparent reason. He may not spend it but he just loves to hoard it. How he acquires the money will be another room to debate for but the fact is that he acknowledges that ministers needs to be paid according to the highest income group shows he enjoys being wealthy.
6) He's egocentric, living in his own grandiose. I think the books, the state funeral of his wife and allowing all those ass lickers surrounding him is a good indication that he likes to hear people say great things about him.
7) He's a coward. Yup. He's scared. Scared of all the bad things that might happen if he loses power and all. His public persona is always a strong and fearless man but I believe underneath he is damn scared of those whom he finds are his equals. This is quite easy to spot as when faced with challenges to his authority. He uses backstabbing and underhanded methods to solve them rather than with the rule of law. Eg. like the ISA. and lawsuits . J. B. Jeyaretnam, Dr Chee and Mr Tang Liang Hong. He's also highly suspicious on people who would undermine his rule.
7 good points and 7 bad.
There are more like he's a racist towards our Malay brothers and sisters but I think he had no choice in that. He needs the Chinese voter base to consolidate his power. I sincerely don't think he is racist but I do apologise to my fellow Malay Singaporeans for the biased treatment under his rule. Those who knows me well knows I hate hypocrites and he's seems not. He did said in his books that he don't believe in western style democracy and so he didn't deny its all just a cover up. I'm still struggling with these 2 points so I left them out.
I believe majority of my fellow Singaporeans on both end of the spectrum agrees with my assessment and some of them in the middle ground like me still find it sad to see him go and have an unknown urge to pay him a last respect. It's perfectly normal and make sense because he did indeed became a part of our heritage. Majority of the Singaporeans did not even know our own Singapore history well. Which is to me quite sad and why I wrote this post. Most of our heritage are torn down for the sake of "progress". The only person we knew well together and closely tied to our history is Lee Kuan Yew himself. One of the founding father of modern Singapore. Whenever we go overseas, we'll be surprised to hear our foreign friends knew about a person called LKY. From young, we're educated sub-consciously that he is the embodiment of Singapore. Just look at the euphoria and joy every time when the old man shows up for NDP! So whenever one of our heritage or national identity are destroyed, we felt something is lost. And for the supporters and haters, we did lost something today.
So would I pay my last respect to him in person and mourn. Not really. I find that a lot of the current problems we face in Singapore is actually the legacy of the old man himself. Due to his authoritarian style of rule. Majority of the Singaporeans became too dependent on the government and thus, lost the ability to think critically and paints everything in just plain black or white/ true or false argument.
I also don't believe in wearing black or mourning together is a way to send him off. It creeps me off actually. I don't think he will like it either as he clearly stated he did not want to be worshiped after he's dead. He don't want to be embalmed and put in a display case like Chairman Mao. Instead, I'm actually glad he's finally out of the picture so we can reorganise ourselves as fellow Singaporeans and move on. This is so pragmatic Lee Kuan Yew style isn't it? :)
RIP LKY.
Showing posts with label Social. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social. Show all posts
Public Transport in Singapore?
Decided to write a post after all the media hoo haa on this incident in ST.
Rugby: ACS(I) to charter five MRT trains for C Division rugby final at National Stadium
They are people out for blood for this incident. Their arguments are mainly the MRT rail is actually a public transport and why should public utilities be allowed to charter private events. Some silly defenders will say they are chartered buses what. How come got difference meh? Big difference. How so? If we charter a bus, the road that the bus is driving on still belongs to the public and other cars and buses could still drive on the same road. Rails? Not possible in Singapore right? This is because we only have single-way tracks and not multi tracks like other countries. So in short, this incident kinds of like ACS "chopp" a dedicated public road to National Stadium and not allowing other vehicles to use it at the same time. So that's why LTA have the right to be pissed.
But this opens to another observations I see on social media. Singaporeans still sincerely believes we have "public" transport. Sorry to say its all incorporated and privatised during Goh Chok Tong era. SMRT in 2000, SBS in 1997. So is our Electricity, Water and postal service.
So please don't be naive and think that these companies will serve in the best interest of the public. Their bottom line is to make more profits for the shareholders.
Rugby: ACS(I) to charter five MRT trains for C Division rugby final at National Stadium
They are people out for blood for this incident. Their arguments are mainly the MRT rail is actually a public transport and why should public utilities be allowed to charter private events. Some silly defenders will say they are chartered buses what. How come got difference meh? Big difference. How so? If we charter a bus, the road that the bus is driving on still belongs to the public and other cars and buses could still drive on the same road. Rails? Not possible in Singapore right? This is because we only have single-way tracks and not multi tracks like other countries. So in short, this incident kinds of like ACS "chopp" a dedicated public road to National Stadium and not allowing other vehicles to use it at the same time. So that's why LTA have the right to be pissed.
But this opens to another observations I see on social media. Singaporeans still sincerely believes we have "public" transport. Sorry to say its all incorporated and privatised during Goh Chok Tong era. SMRT in 2000, SBS in 1997. So is our Electricity, Water and postal service.
So please don't be naive and think that these companies will serve in the best interest of the public. Their bottom line is to make more profits for the shareholders.
It speaks volumes
when our gahment encourages its people to sell off their homes or houses so that they can downgrade and get some extra cash to survive in their twilight days. This post is about the 76 year old granny begging for her CPF to be returned to her. Instead of just providing a listening ear for her and STFU, the PAP IB or those cynical bastards starts hounding on where she is currently staying now. Why she never sell that house? She rich what.
I asked my wife that day after I read the news. "Dear, if one day we did become poor, should we sell our house and rent/buy a smaller house instead?" She says I'm mad and she would rather die then sell our current house. I asked why? She replied, "It's our 1st house together. I like the location and neigbourhood and moreover our children were born and raised in this house, it has sentimental values that cannot be matched by wealth. Nope, I would die and leave the house to my children rather than selling it!"
I smiled and nodded.
We were not buying a house. We bought a home.
There is no price for home. Period. And I sincerely think the old lady has great sentimental values on that house she currently resides in. If there is money in my CPF, I would rather use that then to sell my home.
I shall repeat again. It speaks volumes of our gahment if they want or encourage its people to sell their homes to stay alive. It speaks volumes.
I asked my wife that day after I read the news. "Dear, if one day we did become poor, should we sell our house and rent/buy a smaller house instead?" She says I'm mad and she would rather die then sell our current house. I asked why? She replied, "It's our 1st house together. I like the location and neigbourhood and moreover our children were born and raised in this house, it has sentimental values that cannot be matched by wealth. Nope, I would die and leave the house to my children rather than selling it!"
I smiled and nodded.
We were not buying a house. We bought a home.
There is no price for home. Period. And I sincerely think the old lady has great sentimental values on that house she currently resides in. If there is money in my CPF, I would rather use that then to sell my home.
I shall repeat again. It speaks volumes of our gahment if they want or encourage its people to sell their homes to stay alive. It speaks volumes.
May 2014. What an interesting month!
WARNING. Long post ahead with lotsa grammatical errors. :P
A brief summary. Besides being the month of my girl's birthday, there was a coup in Thailand that ended the political unrest. A blogger got sued by our PM Lee in Singapore and a big debate about constructive politics between our PM Lee and opposition chief Mr Low.
1st off. Thailand military staged it's 12th coup on the 22th May. Bringing the 6th month of madness in control (somehow forcefully). Although I don't really endorse the idea of such actions by the military but at least so far they have been quite fair in dealing with both parties. The only thing I want to complain is that there are too much censorship on the media. I guess they are worried that the anti-coup camp will stage more protests so they have these draconian laws of anti-coup messages deleted and court martials but I'm afraid this will most probably makes things worst. I'm not going to comment too much on this whole situation as the Thai always says "Please don't comment on Thai politics if you're a foreigner. It's complicated." I still want to stay in LOS so the better of me to STFU :)
Then at the Singapore end. We have a blogger Roy Ngerng being sued by our PM Lee. I was following this thread quite closely as it was damn entertaining. I have to say sincerely I didn't know about Roy (even though I am SO "political"and critical of our MIW gahment) before this whole incident. I did however, remembered that I read one of his articles that was shared by my friend in FB. I didn't dwell too much into it as it was a link from The Real Singapore. :P But at that time, my conclusion was it's just a rant. I do have some knowledge on how our CPF works and there are some good questions on certain aspects but most of them are just bit extreme on trying to get himself into trouble. And lo and behold. He got sued!
So the online mass kind of broke into 3 camps.
Pro MIW camp starts mocking him - this is usual and I forgive them.
Anti-gahment camp supports him totally - a usual response from them too as anything anti gahment must support mah!
Then the 3rd camp - so called pro liberals who always said that they don't take sides (but in fact they do but just do not have the guts to admit it) starts mocking him too - this is to me, a very disgusting attitude and the worst of all. Why? Because these are hypocrites and those who reads my blogs know I hated hypocrites.
Roy may not be factual I agree, he may not be smart or an intellect like you and I. He maybe did it for glory and fame. But at least he dares to speak up. Maybe he is insidious and out for blood against the FAMILEE. But ask this question. Besides getting sued by our most powerful person in the country. What other benefits will he get? He will be punished, condemned and maybe even lose his job and get bankrupt so do we really need to mock him any further? Real pro liberals should instead mock the other 2 camps, the pro MIW and anti-gahment ones. They should not be proclaiming to be pro-liberal and make fun of Roy like "He deserves it." "He's stupid!" "He just want to be famous!" but instead gives sound advice to Roy like "He should be more careful on how he writes. " " One can make his points across without name callings or getting emotional"
My take on the whole lawsuit is that this is one of the worst PR disaster for our PM Lee as if he had been gracious and dropped the case, Roy will not be made as a Martyr in the anti-gahment camp. It's sad actually as this whole debacle, all of us are losers. Our PM becomes a bully, Roy with get sued and punished for something he believes in. And if he is the bad guy like what other people says, he gets his limelight anyway. We, the commoners will not get a full disclosure on what's going on in our CPF.
The last incident was the constructive politics debate in Parliament between PM Lee and WP's chief Mr Low. I read the some of the comments in FB before watching it and people were laughing at Mr Low's Engrish... That's a bit low. For a Mandarin educated Mr Low, what he managed to pull off was formidable. It might be interesting to see how PM Lee debates in Mandarin or Tamil/Hindi. We should do that in parliament as I believe one day with our current intake of FTs, Singapore might really belongs to China/India. :P
A brief summary. Besides being the month of my girl's birthday, there was a coup in Thailand that ended the political unrest. A blogger got sued by our PM Lee in Singapore and a big debate about constructive politics between our PM Lee and opposition chief Mr Low.
1st off. Thailand military staged it's 12th coup on the 22th May. Bringing the 6th month of madness in control (somehow forcefully). Although I don't really endorse the idea of such actions by the military but at least so far they have been quite fair in dealing with both parties. The only thing I want to complain is that there are too much censorship on the media. I guess they are worried that the anti-coup camp will stage more protests so they have these draconian laws of anti-coup messages deleted and court martials but I'm afraid this will most probably makes things worst. I'm not going to comment too much on this whole situation as the Thai always says "Please don't comment on Thai politics if you're a foreigner. It's complicated." I still want to stay in LOS so the better of me to STFU :)
Then at the Singapore end. We have a blogger Roy Ngerng being sued by our PM Lee. I was following this thread quite closely as it was damn entertaining. I have to say sincerely I didn't know about Roy (even though I am SO "political"and critical of our MIW gahment) before this whole incident. I did however, remembered that I read one of his articles that was shared by my friend in FB. I didn't dwell too much into it as it was a link from The Real Singapore. :P But at that time, my conclusion was it's just a rant. I do have some knowledge on how our CPF works and there are some good questions on certain aspects but most of them are just bit extreme on trying to get himself into trouble. And lo and behold. He got sued!
So the online mass kind of broke into 3 camps.
Pro MIW camp starts mocking him - this is usual and I forgive them.
Anti-gahment camp supports him totally - a usual response from them too as anything anti gahment must support mah!
Then the 3rd camp - so called pro liberals who always said that they don't take sides (but in fact they do but just do not have the guts to admit it) starts mocking him too - this is to me, a very disgusting attitude and the worst of all. Why? Because these are hypocrites and those who reads my blogs know I hated hypocrites.
Roy may not be factual I agree, he may not be smart or an intellect like you and I. He maybe did it for glory and fame. But at least he dares to speak up. Maybe he is insidious and out for blood against the FAMILEE. But ask this question. Besides getting sued by our most powerful person in the country. What other benefits will he get? He will be punished, condemned and maybe even lose his job and get bankrupt so do we really need to mock him any further? Real pro liberals should instead mock the other 2 camps, the pro MIW and anti-gahment ones. They should not be proclaiming to be pro-liberal and make fun of Roy like "He deserves it." "He's stupid!" "He just want to be famous!" but instead gives sound advice to Roy like "He should be more careful on how he writes. " " One can make his points across without name callings or getting emotional"
My take on the whole lawsuit is that this is one of the worst PR disaster for our PM Lee as if he had been gracious and dropped the case, Roy will not be made as a Martyr in the anti-gahment camp. It's sad actually as this whole debacle, all of us are losers. Our PM becomes a bully, Roy with get sued and punished for something he believes in. And if he is the bad guy like what other people says, he gets his limelight anyway. We, the commoners will not get a full disclosure on what's going on in our CPF.
The last incident was the constructive politics debate in Parliament between PM Lee and WP's chief Mr Low. I read the some of the comments in FB before watching it and people were laughing at Mr Low's Engrish... That's a bit low. For a Mandarin educated Mr Low, what he managed to pull off was formidable. It might be interesting to see how PM Lee debates in Mandarin or Tamil/Hindi. We should do that in parliament as I believe one day with our current intake of FTs, Singapore might really belongs to China/India. :P
I saw this coming almost 8 years ago.
I woke up this morning and was reading the news online when I saw this on BBC.
Singapore has topped 131 cities globally to become the world's most expensive city to live in 2014, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26412821
I'm not surprised at this announcement at all but I just recalled the time when my girl was just born in 2006. I was thinking about the option I can provide for my girl and my wife if I was to choose to bring them back to Singapore. I guess I made the correct decision then. Again, I'm not dissing Singapore being expensive or whatsoever. To certain people (those rich ones :P), it's still a fantastic city to be in. And I would easily choose Singapore over Bangkok if it's the only choices I can make.
Frankly if I was to bring them back to Singapore then, Boy boy won't be around as I sincerely don't think I can afford to have another kid as a sole bread winner. Missus can't speak English and it will be tough for her to get a job which means our income will be limited.
In short, wages have been stagnant since 2000 while the city moved on at a ridiculous pace without allowing us, the majority middle income group to catch up. And this to me, is not growth of a country but a perversion of growth and wealth among the top earners/leaders in the country. What's even worst then this is the majority of Singaporeans still have not waken up from their dream that it's not the fault of gahment policies. Sad.
Singapore has topped 131 cities globally to become the world's most expensive city to live in 2014, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-26412821
I'm not surprised at this announcement at all but I just recalled the time when my girl was just born in 2006. I was thinking about the option I can provide for my girl and my wife if I was to choose to bring them back to Singapore. I guess I made the correct decision then. Again, I'm not dissing Singapore being expensive or whatsoever. To certain people (those rich ones :P), it's still a fantastic city to be in. And I would easily choose Singapore over Bangkok if it's the only choices I can make.
Frankly if I was to bring them back to Singapore then, Boy boy won't be around as I sincerely don't think I can afford to have another kid as a sole bread winner. Missus can't speak English and it will be tough for her to get a job which means our income will be limited.
In short, wages have been stagnant since 2000 while the city moved on at a ridiculous pace without allowing us, the majority middle income group to catch up. And this to me, is not growth of a country but a perversion of growth and wealth among the top earners/leaders in the country. What's even worst then this is the majority of Singaporeans still have not waken up from their dream that it's not the fault of gahment policies. Sad.
Some thoughts on the recent riot in Singapore.
The recent violence at Little India sparked another wave of stupid, idiotic comments on social media. Both on our foriegn workers (FW) and our HOME team (Police, Ambulance and Fireman). It's just disgusting to see how my fellow Singaporeans labeled our FWs names like "Little Indians" and etc. Demeaning and not respectful of their hard work. Similarly to our HOME team, calling them cowards and why never use their firearms. Yes, effciency can be better but they are professionals at all time. Just think! Not ONE single firearm was shot during the entire incident and they managed to quell it. This really explains how out of touch my fellow Singaporeans are in terms of mobs and riots because we have not experienced it for quite some time. This is simply impressive to me and kudos to our police for seeing the rational and didn't use more violence to stop it. If they had, they will only create more riots or acts of violence and revenge next time round.
I think YB's analysis on the riot, the spark and the fuel of the whole think is what I have similar in mind. Do read it up as I can't write as elegant as he does. (I don't have time oso :P)
Hopefully, this whole incident will change the mentality of Singaporeans (I doubt it) Violence will come again if we continue to think we are an "upper class" while they are just to serve. And yes, we learnt all of that from our PAP masters. The elites. Since they trampled us and we have no balls to fight back, we go online and post silly comments and poke fun at the poor and weak.
Minimum Wage. A simple explanation why we should have it here in SG.
A lot of my peers and Singaporeans do not understand the idea of a minimum wage scheme and they sing the same tunes as what our PAP gahment in Singapore. That this idea is just another dirty welfare scheme. Really WTF response.
First of all, understand what a minimum wage is by reading here. It's a more balanced explanation of this scheme and my emphasis is that schemes and policies can be tweaked.
From my perspective. It's good for Singapore as most of our low paying workers are actually underpaid and there are no growth in their income since the last 2 decades. The main reason is that all the major corporations and companies are taking up the profit (being monopolistic) instead of correctly distributing the profit to their employees. Most of these low skilled workers are in the construction business, service line such as restaraunts and retail shops. These people need a mechanism to protect them. As shown in the link above on the Card and Kreuger's investigation on increasing the minimum wage in New Jersey in 1992
Our gahment can actually set aside certain industries to have such a scheme. Please don't tell me they can't do it. If they can so effectively stream kids in their Primary or Secondary schools. Then it can be done easily. The main issue here is they kept arguing that its difficult to set the amount of a minimum wage. Because as market forces convenes and price might go up and down. The wage should follow market rate and such constant changes means that today I set $5.00. 1 or 2 months later it will be not enough or it will be too much. So it's meaningless to do it.
Utter bullshit. The main reason to set a minimum price is just to set a baseline to protect these low wage and low skilled workers. You need work to survive in SG. You will work even if its underpaid like what we have now. These corporations just squeeze these poor people out by setting their own "market rate" Company A will say we will pay $2 an hour and ask B and C to follow. The rest of these companies will follow suit as I get to earn more and keep my labour cost low.
Think about it in this way. If you start a business, you need to consider the minimum profit you want to earn right? Why? The labour and effort that you put into it lor. So what's so different is this from the minimum wage? So stop saying its useless or will not work. It's bullshit and our gahment will never implement this as the one that will hurt the most if it's being implemented will actually be our bloody Gahment related Stat board corporation and even our own bloody gahment.
First of all, understand what a minimum wage is by reading here. It's a more balanced explanation of this scheme and my emphasis is that schemes and policies can be tweaked.
From my perspective. It's good for Singapore as most of our low paying workers are actually underpaid and there are no growth in their income since the last 2 decades. The main reason is that all the major corporations and companies are taking up the profit (being monopolistic) instead of correctly distributing the profit to their employees. Most of these low skilled workers are in the construction business, service line such as restaraunts and retail shops. These people need a mechanism to protect them. As shown in the link above on the Card and Kreuger's investigation on increasing the minimum wage in New Jersey in 1992
Our gahment can actually set aside certain industries to have such a scheme. Please don't tell me they can't do it. If they can so effectively stream kids in their Primary or Secondary schools. Then it can be done easily. The main issue here is they kept arguing that its difficult to set the amount of a minimum wage. Because as market forces convenes and price might go up and down. The wage should follow market rate and such constant changes means that today I set $5.00. 1 or 2 months later it will be not enough or it will be too much. So it's meaningless to do it.
Utter bullshit. The main reason to set a minimum price is just to set a baseline to protect these low wage and low skilled workers. You need work to survive in SG. You will work even if its underpaid like what we have now. These corporations just squeeze these poor people out by setting their own "market rate" Company A will say we will pay $2 an hour and ask B and C to follow. The rest of these companies will follow suit as I get to earn more and keep my labour cost low.
Think about it in this way. If you start a business, you need to consider the minimum profit you want to earn right? Why? The labour and effort that you put into it lor. So what's so different is this from the minimum wage? So stop saying its useless or will not work. It's bullshit and our gahment will never implement this as the one that will hurt the most if it's being implemented will actually be our bloody Gahment related Stat board corporation and even our own bloody gahment.
The fallacy of idolisation
This post is written on the recent 90th big birthday of our so called "founding father" Mr LKY himself. Pages and pages of people congratulating him and denouncing him on the Internet and social medias. Most of them are just ball-licking idolisation of a "man". My emphasis on that later.
I had an interesting discussion with a friend and he was raving about how great that old man is and whatsover. "No matter what he did, bad or good. He did sucessfully managed our country!" my friend argued. "And look at your Switzerland, Norway of those Denmark countries that are sucessful! Name me a great leader from that country! None right?"
Now here's the fallacy. Do they have great leaders? I would say so but I can't name them because these great leaders chose not to be named and remembered. They work from within and never took credits all to themselves. And these leaders actually help shaped the future generations within the country to be responsible for their very actions they are going to take. Be it politically or socially. I think they do know that idolisation of someone will only leads to a very concerning issues. Instead of "telling" people what to do. These good leaders will lead and convinced people to why and what should be done. And in the end, all will be responsible for their actions and consequences.
Now back to idolisation of a "man". Human beings are not perfect. None and period. There's nothing wrong in looking up to someone that you like but overdoing it and we get to see something very similar. Look at Hitler, Mussolini. Look at Mao Ze Dong, Deng Xiao Ping. Even look at our old man LKY now. Their intentions are always initially good but once success gets into their head and ball-lickers assholes starts surrounding them. Some of these assholes jokers will use the status of this new idolisation for their own personal agenda and purposes.
So herein lies a great question and my answer to it all; Is our LKY a great leader? No, he's not. He is to me, a successful one but can never be great. Simply becuase when he's in power and he never exercised his choice to educate and give credits due.
And the sad fact is that all great leaders are normally unkown to most. As these people never take credits at all. We will only remembered them via their actions and the nations they were in . Great nations like Switzerland, Denmark and etc.
I had an interesting discussion with a friend and he was raving about how great that old man is and whatsover. "No matter what he did, bad or good. He did sucessfully managed our country!" my friend argued. "And look at your Switzerland, Norway of those Denmark countries that are sucessful! Name me a great leader from that country! None right?"
Now here's the fallacy. Do they have great leaders? I would say so but I can't name them because these great leaders chose not to be named and remembered. They work from within and never took credits all to themselves. And these leaders actually help shaped the future generations within the country to be responsible for their very actions they are going to take. Be it politically or socially. I think they do know that idolisation of someone will only leads to a very concerning issues. Instead of "telling" people what to do. These good leaders will lead and convinced people to why and what should be done. And in the end, all will be responsible for their actions and consequences.
Now back to idolisation of a "man". Human beings are not perfect. None and period. There's nothing wrong in looking up to someone that you like but overdoing it and we get to see something very similar. Look at Hitler, Mussolini. Look at Mao Ze Dong, Deng Xiao Ping. Even look at our old man LKY now. Their intentions are always initially good but once success gets into their head and ball-lickers assholes starts surrounding them. Some of these assholes jokers will use the status of this new idolisation for their own personal agenda and purposes.
So herein lies a great question and my answer to it all; Is our LKY a great leader? No, he's not. He is to me, a successful one but can never be great. Simply becuase when he's in power and he never exercised his choice to educate and give credits due.
And the sad fact is that all great leaders are normally unkown to most. As these people never take credits at all. We will only remembered them via their actions and the nations they were in . Great nations like Switzerland, Denmark and etc.
Some people really needs to be shouted at.
Here's a little secret. I actually made a resolution last year in 2012 to post less negative things in my blog. Therefore, I actually wrote very little.. hahahaha.. So actually I guess I have a lot of negative posts in my blog. I think most of those negative things I wrote was about our Singapore ghament or some people I met or etc. I remember I read something about being negative constantly (talk or write) about bad things is pretty unhealthy for the mind and body so I tried my best to keep my cool and stop writing about bad things for a year. I did ranted on my facebook once in a while, if not I will go Ki Xiao (crazy in Hokkien). And to my shock, there isn't much good things to write last year. There are, of course, some very good magical moments with my wife and kids while I was back at home in Thailand but most of them are pretty personal and I prefer to keep it to myself. But it's not working well for me blog :P. So this year I throw away that silly thought and will start writing more complain letters and post.
First one is a recent incident on the plane back. We boarded the plane early and my mum was sitting in the middle of a 3 column seat while I was next to her at the aisle. Sometime later, some Chinaman (I'm sorry but it's true, I have lots of negative Chinaman stories) folks boarded the plane and started to shout here and there, looking for their bloody seats. One China woman was at our window seat but she was reluctant to sit at her designated spot. Apparently its because her dear hubby is 2 rows at the front and they wished to seat together. The husband was being pushy, standing up in his seat the front asking here and there and giving ideas on their little seating arrangement while the whole queue were blocked by these inconsiderate jokers. The stewardess tried to direct them to their seats but you know Thai people, they never shout or give assertion. So these jokers continued their little party while the poor stewardesses were hapless. My mum lost here cool and shouted at them to give way to the rest of the people. hehe. Old lady with all white hair dun play play. The Chinaman stopped and the lady finally moved into our seats after we stood up and let her in. The Q finally starts moving and just when I thought the worst is over when all the passengers had boarded. The idiotic husband stood up again and say the lady next to him (think is their relative) is ok to swap with his wife and screamed for the lady seating beside us to come over. I shouted back at the joker in perfect Chinese, saying no way you are going to let my 70 year old mum stand up again and let your wife go out. He was a bit shocked when I boomed. And I added that this is not your father's plane and please be considerate. My mum, at the same time, scolded the the woman next to us, asking her why they never sort these things out before they board the plane. The joker sat down and both kept mum afterwards.
After the little incident, I did noticed a little smile on the stewardess and I smiled back at her, shaking my head. She acknowledged back with a bigger grin and a slight nod.
Some people really needs to be shouted at.
The good thing about Singapore.
I need to get this off my chest actually because quite often, I get branded by some people or friends that I hate Singapore. (Countless time actually) I think the main reasons is that I complaint too much about our gahment's policies or other little aspect of our country. Moreover, I realise most(actually all of them I guess) of the articles I have written are actually something bad about my mother land.
So let me be frank, I do love my country and I do enjoy certain perks of being a Singaporean. So this post is actually what I do love and really appreciate when I am back in Singapore.
1) The diversity of food. Period. It may not be the best, but being a cosmopolitan and multi-racial country, we get to have different varieties of food available at our convenience. The choices we have are really quite astounding. From Middle Eastern food all the way till South Korean cuisine, you name it, we have it. Not authentic you might say but at least there is a choice.
2)Our Internet. Fast and considered reliable. If you have been staying in Thailand you wouldn't have complain much. Price point is also consider affordable for that speed. And most important of all, it's not blocked or filtered like in Thailand. (maybe some porn sites but at least not a 100% block)
3)Our passport. Practically can go any other countries without applying a VISA.
4)Efficient gahment services (applying new accounts for utilities, getting married, certified and etc). Surprising to see I praise this, well... its actually quite efficient when we go by the book. That means no oddities or special requests. You can consider it to be way more efficient than the Thais or even Malaysia (try applying for a lost passport in Thailand or Malaysia... tons of hurdles) But of course when if you are applying something not under the SOP (Standard Operating System) then prepare yourself for high blood pressure replies and services...
5)Public utilities (electricity,gas and water). Very very little screw ups. Way better then Thailand of course and I appreciate that.
6)Clean streets. Some like it, some don't but I do appreciate the clean environment. All thanks and kudos to our foreign friends who took the task to keep our place clean. It's a tough job to keep such a dense city clean and surprisingly we are doing that quite well....
7)Our police and efficient SCDF. (This is actually a mixture of good and bad....) but I'm leaning to the like side (even though they really screw up big time on certain things) at least the low ranking cops don't take bribes or abuse their power like they do in Thailand. Overall, my impression on them are still quite professional. But they are some silly incidents like CSJ and the Mas Selamat incident. But overall, I still trust them (so far)if I need help and that is quite essential.
8)Our taxis. Another surprising entry but actually our taxis are one of the better public transport I would say. Yes, it's difficult to look and book for one during peak hours but at least if the service is not up to standard you have a means to complain. And moreover, you get to hear some very interesting and entertaining conspiracies/rumours from the uncle or auntie.... :P
9)Our CPF. (another big surprise!) To be frank, it's actually a good system for us to save money for retirements and for purchasing a house. But I kind of think it's being abused by our current gahment right now. I still think it's a good vehicle to save our money. The idea is good, but the implementation wise is a bit errrrr....
10) Our people. (Older generations in their 60s or older) These are the pioneers who made SG today and most of them are being left out of our gahment's so called progress. Most of them are kind hearted, down to earth, hardworking people and I really really enjoy talking to them. Just talk to one of them and you would know how come PAP still wins every election. It's because they are just so nice.....
and lastly a bonus... hehehe
11)Our exchange rate! Singapore money more expensive, the merrier I am. I can buy more things cheaper from the states and I could change more money to spend in Thailand :P
Ok.. I can think of some more but this are the 1st 11 things that came into my mind. So don't ever say I never say good things about SG hor!
:P
It's bloody scary that they don't see the link.
Nowadays, I tried not to write too much about politics or social issues in SG but the recent major COCKUP of SMRT in our country's rail system really shows how a lot of Singaporeans missed the point. I have this conclusion when I read the comments and posts online and it pisses me off.
Which major point they missed?? They cliamed that this issue has NOTHING to do with our gahment and we are barking at the wrong tree. We should be blame it on SMRT instead. The gahment has nothing to do with this recent fiasco!
HELLLOOOO!!!! First of all, isn't the rail system a "PUBLIC" transport?? What do we meant by "PUBLIC"? It means it belongs to the gahment right? Even now its under a private corporation, our gahment should enforce checks and collect feedback from the common groung and enforce certain maintenance rules on SMRT or whoever is running the business. It seems that they just throw the ball to SMRT after building the infrastructure and wait to collect money. AND why is our public transport managed by a private Corp in the first place???!!!.This is absurd!
So of course we need to blame our gahment. Who appointed SMRT CEO?? Temasek board right? Who is in the Temasek board? Independent and private my big fat ASS! Grow up silly Singaporeans. Go on! Live in your little wells and believe in whatever the gahment tells you. You are screwed!! :P
*PS That picture of me is my expression when I see those comments..... :P really WTF!
The dotted line of death.
I can't sleep. I think its because quite a certain amount of friends ask me why I am so against Tan Cheng Bock (Yes, he's a nice grandfatherly figure and to a certain extent, trustworthy) after I thrashed him in my last post and decided not to vote him. Why I am so against the Mandatory Death Penalty(MDP)? Well first thing first we need to understand what is MDP in Singapore. It's the capital punishment where someone would received if he breaks certain laws in Singapore. And yes, its mandatory. Why? According to their thinking, its because once they know there is such a harsh penalty, you won't even dare to try it in the first place. Sounds good hor?? Use scare tatic leh.
But this world is not as black and white! Certain people did not convict these crimes because they wanted to. Or even worst, they are not even aware they were commiting the crimes! Examples are these 3 recent cases tajken from an article by 2nd Chance. Full article is here
Yong Vui Kong is 23 years old this year. He had been arrested at the age of 19 in possession of 42.27g of heroin. Unlike Ahmad Zahir Ismail, a gang member who was spared from jail and caning earlier this month, Vui Kong was sentenced to death under the Mandatory Death Penalty. Vui Kong is now repentant, and has spent the past 4 years studying, meditating (he is now a devout Buddhist) and trying his best to atone for his mistakes within prison walls. He is not asking for acquittal and release. He is only asking to be allowed to live, so that he may continue in his self-improvement and meditation.
Cheong Chun Yin was charged with trafficking in over 2kg of heroin. However, he maintains to his day that he had been under the impression that he was only smuggling gold bars for a friend from the pasar malam where he worked. He also cooperated fully with the investigating officers, giving them details and even the phone numbers of the man who had arranged the whole job for him. However, the investigating officers made no attempt to trace this man. The trial judge also ruled that it was “immaterial” that the officers did not make “adequate efforts” to do so.
Like Chun Yin, Roslan bin Bakar also continues to insist upon his innocence even though he is at the last stage of the process. Besides the testimonies of others, there was no concrete evidence proving that Roslan had been at the scene. Roslan also provided an alibi. His mother and step-brother testified in support, but the judge did not believe them.
Ok, So what does this have to do with the President of Singapore? Well if you have read the book by Alan Shadrake, Once a Jolly Hangman. The Death Warrant, which is the last piece of document thats need to be signed and endorsed needs a signature. Whose signature? None other than the highest office holder, our President of Singapore! Thats why TKL asked for a review in this matter as he do not wish to sign that peice of paper!!
Because its a joke. The canbinet decides but the last piece of paper is signed by our President! With no power to grant clemency or ask for a retrial!
So now you see why its relevancy in choosing one who blantanly believes in Mandatory Death Penalty? Again I am not asking you to change allegiance and vote for TKL or TJS. Its YOUR CHOICE and I have MINE :) Maybe if you try to believe TCB would think about it later and change his mind when he is President but I can't take that risk. He has givein his views and his views are clear. Just follow the consitution and sign the dotted line of death.
And that's sad. I wonder Nathan has he ever went down personally to the gallows to talk to the convicts before their demise? $4mil a year to sign death warrants. What a job!
2 down. Just left 2 to choose.....
This post is about politics in Singapore so again, if you are not interested, please redirect to somwhere else :)
I loved political forums and I am so happy TOC managed to rope in all the 4 Tans for a good face to face debate. If you, as a voting Singaporean have not watch the videos, I implore you to take some time to watch these 2 parts of the forum to have a better understanding of our 4 candidates.
Part 1
Part 2
In my previous post, I mentioned that all 3 candidates besides Tony Tan are credible and are much much better options as an elected, independant President. This was a pre-conceived idea from the information I have gathered from online readings of their blogs and other writings by their respective supporters.
But there are some very fundamental answers to certain particular principles and beliefs I have that I wished the other 3 candidates would answer before I could make a sound decision. And all thanks to the TOC forum, I have more or less reduce the 3 Tans to become 2 Tans (actually more or less have decided on mine but I still want to know more of the 2 left. :)
As I have known all along, Dr TT was the usual PAP puppet, he beats around the bush on certain tricky questions and his views are the exact same copy of our ruling gahment.
The one that surprises me most in this forum was Dr Tan Cheng Bock. I actually like that guy (so was my sister). I do have some reserves at first as he was still a bit tad too close to the ruling party but hey, so is the later Mr Ong Teng Cheong.
He did an amazing job in the 1st part of the video. Such as seperation of PMO from Istana, removing the election department to be under the PMO and directly under the President and etc. It was really good stuff and his composure and the way he carrys himself was flawless. I was truly impressed!
Then part 2 came yesterday and I found myself totally in shock. This joker just shot himself with a handgun (and a bazooka later :P ) and that's it, he's out of my list.
He made 2 points that gave me the decision not to choose him.
Firstly, the death penalty. He beats around the bush a bit but finally gave his final thought that he accepts it as a form of punishment and he would not even consider it to table a change in our harsh mandatory death penalty law in Singapore. This is totally against my belief so I was a bit dissapointed. If he did mentioned that he plans to bring it up to the PMO on looking into tweaking this issue or like TKL's smarter answer (totally forgoing the President's role in who is going to the gallows) then I might still give him some chance. But the way he answers tells me he is just not going to rock the boat on this issue. As I have once said, no human being has the morale judgement to end another person's life.
The 2nd one is the killer. At 1:00 hr where a lady asked about women involving in politics (especially in higher decision making roles) Even Tony Tan did a wonderful job in handling this question. But Dr Tan Cheng Bock has to shoot himself with a bloody Bazooka! What did he say?
He said:"Well, I think its a difficult area for women in Singapore, it's because the commitment is really heavy, so you need to get your permission from your husband."
Then the crowd goes... Whoooaaaaaaaa.. I had to rewind the tape a few times to confirm what I heard. This old joker is a classic male chauvanist in the new age! Which independant and strong modern woman would vote for such a person??? My sister defintely won't after she heard this and she express shock and disbelief.
What's even more funny is that he knew he screwed up big time and while Dr Tony Tan quickly added a point (to save him from total embarresment I guess) that he's confident that one day there will definitely be a women PM or President in Singapore. Dr Tan CB quickly agreed to this. This is uber sad. This is so low.. This is so PAP like...
Then it dawned on me, he's just another President who will not rock the boat enough. He will try to persuade and inform but once he gets shot down. He would either keep quiet or quit (as in he mentioned he will quit if has a great disagreement with the gahment) . In short, my feeling is that he will not try hard enough to do something about it. This is my reading and understanding of this man from the results of this forum.
Again, these are all my personal views and judgment call. Although Dr TCB is out of my list but I still think he is still much better then choosing Dr TT. So vote wisely my fellow Singaporeans. Choose a President that could represent your beliefs and principles rather than who can really win Dr TT.
The Four Tans.
Politics again!!! Do quickly close this tab or browser if you heck care about the upcoming Singapore Presidential Election. If you are really interested in my opinion, go ahead. :)
I'm writing this piece because a lot of my friends are asking for my opinion and again, I hate repeating myself so I post here and ask you all to read my blog instead :P. Its a big event this time as there will be four contestants, not just 2. If 2, it will be easy lah. You guys/gals will know I anti-establishment (especially PAP gahment) so generally I would vote for the "other" one that is not endorsed by PAP.
Well, it really depends. As the President is supposes to be independant. And the late Mr Ong Teng Cheong has proven to us that although he was a former PAP and strongly endorsed by the PAP ghament, he still stood up for us and had a good brief "encounter" with the PAP gahment last time. So to be fair, I don't just brush off Dr Tony Tan yet :). I need to research a bit first ,and thats what I think all of us as a responsible citizen of Singapore should do.
If the candidate is truly independant. Then its a non-issue at all if he has been a PAP member. And actually, out of the 4 of them, only Tan Jee Say (TJS) is not a former PAP member. But TJS also joined SDP during our latest election leh... so oso not that independant. The major concern here is partisan politics should not be brought into the PE. Its a different thing totally. So if you start off from this point by understanding the underlying concept that PE is supposed to be non partisan, then it will be easier for you to choose.
From recent reports from TOC, TR, FB postings and even the main stream media. We could already see that although PE is a non-partisan election, it has turned out to be Anti-PAP versus the Pro PAP camp again. Not that healthy and smart actually and this is quite bad for our political awakening as an apathetic Singaporean.
So here's my breakdown of the current situations and see if you guys could guess who I am voting for :P
Dr Tony Tan
From what I gathered, he's a bit too close to the PAP and has the most number of "Unions" supporting him. One of my friend and I chuckled when he mentioned that its the first time he realised we have so many "Unions" in Singapore. From his past acheivements, I would say frankly that while he was the Minister of Defence, he did brought in a lot of good changes to the military and NS benefits. But that was just the past, we need to look at his future post and frankly, I would say he's suitable for the job (for his stylo milo hairstyle and looks) rather than substance. If our President is a figurehead with no absolute power, I actually dun mind him being our President. But that is not the case actually, our President do have some limited powers ands o definitely, I won't be voting for him :P
So one out, 3 more to go and this is the tricky part. All 3 of them to me are credible and much more independant then the former. So I would vote any of the 3. But I am not going to tell you which one I picked :P hehehe
A lot of people say because of so many choices, the opposition votes are diluted and the above mentioned DR TT would win. Maybe so but I sincerely believe we should choose on our own beliefs rather than being irrational and think that we have to have anyone beside Dr TT as our President. That means asking around and see who people might vote and ask them to change allegiance. Or worst still, asking 2 of the candidates to withdraw from the race. (Luckily no one did!) This is in my view, a bit shallow and not that good for politics to flourish in Singapore. This is partisan politics and we should avoid it at all cost.
People have their own minds and we need to repect their choices. That is true democracy. Althought sometimes I bad mouth those 60% who voted for the PAP in the last election in my blog of FB. I sincerely don't blame them as it's their vote and choice. I just do that for my own amusements and fun (rather unlike Thailand where they march the streets and stage military coups). I also take my benefit of doubt that they had made their decisions through rational and informed choice rather fear and plain ignorance. I sincerely hope the next 5 years will be better and there are some positive changes I see in recent events. Maybe we just give them more time?
So 3 Tans for me to choose. Maybe I should take out my D&D dice to do some rolling.. :P
I enjoy teaching.
I simply do. :) Ever since I started conducting photography courses way back in 2007 for SLCC, I know its a job that I would enjoy and I am a bit regretting why I never went for an education diploma. Currently, while I'm waiting for my "office" cum shophouse to be completed. I am giving tuition lessons to some secondary kids in my neighbour and I am enjoying every moment of it.
I like working with teens rather than kids as they are more keen to learn and the kids here in Thailand are definitely more disciplined then those found in Singapore. Those who took up tuitions are normally those who are really hunger for knowledge. Do you believe that its actually the kids themselves who asked for tuition instead of their parents?
Sometimes I do worry about our next generation of Singaporean kids. Over here, these kids drive themselves not only for knowledge but understand the importance of education is not only in Science and Maths but in Languages, Litreatures/Arts and Humanities. Its all about the joy of acquiring knowledge in different forms. In Singapore, we overemphasises on just getting good grades. We keep training our kids to be efficient in exams while taking away the real joy of learning. Don't believe me, just ask the Singaporean kids why they study and what they are studying and compare the answers with the Thai kids here :)
Yes, both will say that its for a better "future". But do they really understand what is a better future? It's because their parents says so or is it they really understand the situation if they did not do well in their grades?
GE 2011 - Afterthoughts
Just one more post on politics before going back to reality. So the score card is 81 - 6. So how did I feel? Dissapointed. Why? I was actually hoping that more oppositions would be voted in. My personal score card that I think is a passing mark is 15 to 20 seats in the parliament. This, although could not form 1/3 of the parliament to block constitutional changes but at least it cuts a deep deep wound in PAP's ranks. If we are able to cut that deep, the PAP would listen. (Less than 55% mandate) I was actually hoping SDP would win the Holland BT seats (4), SPP Mr Chiam to ttake the Bishan-TP (5), WP in Ajunied (5),East Coast (5), Hougang (1), Joochiat (1) and NSP in Mountbatten (1). But I guess reality wasn't the case. :)
We need to cut deep as 61% to PAP is still a clear "strong" mandate. They won't listen and precisely just after the elections, the PAP still insist GRC is a good system, increasing GDP policy is here to stay as a benchmark for progress and Ms Kate Spate is a correct judgment call for fielding her. Where's all the humble apologies and promises to listen to the people our Prime Minister has spoken of?( I think its thrown all the way back into the rubbish chute liao.)
Some friends consoled me that I can't be too greedy and expect a sudden change in the politcal landscape. Some also argued that such changes and rocking of the boat is not good. We need gradual change they say.
I'm sorry but I disagree on this as there is an old Chinese saying "If we are sick, we need to solve the root of the problem instead of just scraping the surface." That's what I think we should have in 2011 GE. ROCK the boat :). And there's a few reasons why.
1) Economy is sound at the moment. Osama was shot dead too so we are technically in a very stable situation for a change.
2) PAP made lots of blunder in the past 5 years. Its a good platform to battle and the oppositions have enough ammo to argue why we need oppositions in the camp.
3) Poor selection of new candidates. *enough said
4) A lot of 1st time (virgin) voters who are politically apathetic and willing to vote to try something new.
5) Better selection of new opposition candidates *enough said oso
In short, we have the 天时，地利，人和。(Time, Resources and the people) to give the current Government a good wake up call. But I guess Singaporeans just love to play safe and I have no choice but to respect their decision.
I am also dissapointed as I am 35 this year. Which means I am over my prime (physical) and its going downhill from here onwards. I might not have the chance to see radical changes to the electoral of Singapore. Please don't kid yourself that PAP will scrap the GRC system. They will retain it as its still the most powerful tool in winning elections as it has proven again on 7th May. Almost 40% people voted against the PAP but only 6 seats are won by the opposition. This proofs that the system is still workable and will be here to stay. They would only consider changing it if they lost more than 2 or 3 GRCs. Which means by that time, the people are already not afraid of losing a minister in the team. So that's why I was very particular of winning more seats rather than the actual voting %.
I wrote on my facebook that this is one of the good excuse for me to be a real "quitter" and return back to Thailand. Some friends question my loyalty and love for Singapore. Well, I sincerely do love Singapore. I was born here, I grew up here, I studied here, I served my NS here and I worked here. All my relatives and friends are here too. But sincerely, I am not a saint or a great person to induce change in my country. Majority Singaporeans have spoken through their votes and they want Singapore to continue to be such a country I do not want to be part of, so what can I do? I don't want to hurt it so my only choice is just to leave it as it is :) For those who want to ask me what I want in Singapore, I think my friend's blog entry is exactly what I wanted. Feel free to read it and be inspired :)
Of course I am not going to renounce my citizenship. Its also near immposible for me to get a citizenship in Thailand. I will most probably return once and a while to look here and there (and cast my vote every 5 yrs of course!). But finding work and staying long term in Singapore is not an option for me anymore. I did my part this GE and I pledge that I will continue to do so until my vision of Singapore could be fullfilled in my lifetime, so this is not really farewell but a new beginning for me. Thanks again for all the concerns and encouragement. See you in Thailand! :)
A post dedicated to His Excellency, The late Mr Ong Teng Cheong
Wife's BFF and her daughter is leaving for Bangkok (they came back here for Songkran) tomorrow so the missus and the 2 kids are staying overnight at her house. Which means I have the whole night to myself to pen this "little" entry on politics in Singapore. I was wondering should I write political stuff on my blog as this is more of a family and photography blog. In the end, I think I still need to write some entries down as I thought it does affect my family and future.
First of all, let me declare that although I am anti-establishment since Day 1. :P I am not those that oppose for the sake of opposing. The reasons of being anti-establishment is because of my parents (who says education does not play a part :P), especially my father hated the PAP party because of the anti Chinese educated policies in the 60s. My late father, who although hated the PAP but still respect them as they did managed to get Singapore to the world stage. I rarely spoke to my father about politics (as per normal with Singaporean families) but during the 1997 elections. I remember I curiously asked my parents who would they be voting for. Mum says oppositions at the first go. My father kept quiet and later after I kept pressing him more, he said voting is secret so I never really know the answer till this day.
But its interesting as I also vaguely remember my father said this casually to me too during the 97 or 2001 election (can't exactly remember when but he did). "If only Ong Teng Cheong took over as the PM instead of this Goh Chok Tong!"
I never realised or think about it what he meant till recently the election fever came again. I started to ponder and look at the old cabinet lineups of the PAP. So interested with our cabinet ministers and their acheivements, I started searching for pass cabinet ministers that served our country. Then I realised something. Mr Ong Teng Cheong held the same position as Deputy Prime Minister together with Mr Goh Chock Tong in the same year! see Wiki link here
I fondly remember H.E Mr Ong Teng Cheong as our first elected President and his contribution to Singapore. Especially the fallout with PAP gahment part on our national reserves. I guess it was because I was in my prime so I took interest in politics. But I never really knew what he had did during his term as a PAP minister. So again, I googled it and I was surprised to find this excerpt from wiki
In January 1986, Ong sanctioned a strike in the shipping industry, the first for about a decade in Singapore, without telling the cabinet. He said that he did not inform the cabinet or the government because they would probably stop him from going ahead with the strike. There was a major corporate and cabinet backlash against his decision; however, the strike lasted only two days, and a deal was struck.
During his tenure as the Minister of National Development, Ong was a proponent and advocate of the Mass Rapid Transit system. He later became the 2nd Deputy Prime Minister in 1985.
What balls he have that he dares to ignore the PAP's party whip by sanctioning a strike! This is true leadership and character! Can you find such PAP candidates in the current lineup?? No way man! Now I really understand why my father said that he would have made a better PM of Singapore then Mr Goh Chok Tong. It's because he cares about us, the common people, the working class and put himself before any (PAP) party interest.
I really regretted that I did not attend his funeral (no state funeral because he humbly did not want it as stated in the media and I believe it) and pay my last respect to this great man. Here's a video made by someone as a rememberance of him. Do turn off the music.. its a bit too cheesy for my taste but the message is there.
And my favourite quote from him as the President of Singapore
"My loyalty is first and foremost, to the people of Singapore. It has always been so, and will always remain so". - President, H.E Mr Ong Teng Cheong
Videos of the Quake in Myanmar(Burma)
I got hold of a VCD from my neighbour whom bought the disc at Tachilek. Its actually filled with video footages of the aftermath of the quake. They are selling the disc for 25Baht each. Hope they are using that money to donate to the needys.
Anyway, I ripped 3 of the more interesting footages from the VCD and uploaded to youtube. Here's the playlist (http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=36F394D0AF345E54) in case you can't see the embedded video below.
Stuck for another day....
I have been in Bangkok since Monday morning and I actually planned to have all my things sorted out on Wednesday. Day 1 is to have my document translated while Day 2 is to have my translated documents certified by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (that is today) Day 3 supposingly to have my certified documents endorsed by the Singapore Embassy.
But due to the amount of documents need to be certified. I was denied the express service (double charges for each document submitted) so it will take the usual of 3 working days (inclusive of the day you submit). That means I could only get my document back from them on Thurday. Which makes me totally free today and tomorrow.
As I mentioned countless time before. I don't really like Bangkok. And the extra time here makes me suffocate more. Thai people elsewhere are extremely kind and helpful but over here, most of them are just plain rude and dishonest.
For egs. The Taxi I took to MFA just kept the tollway money to himself (just 10B but he just assume I would give it to him) So no tips when I reached my destination. The motorcycle taxi young chap who drives like a lunatic and trying to squeuze through the traffic. I actually nearly fell off the bike while he just chided me in Thai " What you afraid of, if you are afriad we would just hit something". I just ignored him. Another Taxi driver drives like a lunatic, cutting lanes after lanes and have near misses at almost every min. Not sure how he pass his test.. And really wonder if he is skillful or like what I said before. The invisible force field of the blessing surroudning the Taxi definitely is in full force.
Not to mention another joker at the MFA. I was writing at the counter with the pen and put the pen beside me as I was sorting out the documents. This joker just grabbed it from me without even asking if I have finished. Naturally I just stared at him and he just ignored me. He finished and I took back the pen and continued. I would easily pass it to him if he had asked.. but Noooo... he just has to snatched it.
I'm really not sure why people in Bangkok are like this. Feeling superior as they are in the city? As they say dog eat dog world in Bangkok.
Of course, I'm not saying all the people in Bangkok are such state but sincerely, ,majority it is.
So now I'm stuck in Bangkok and typing this in a small Internet Cafe charging 40B an hour. Hopefully I get to meet some better people in the coming days to offset my negative feeling to this city.
Tiger Airways sucks...
This was in my draft for quite sometime. Its actually written before the previous post but I took sometime to refine it a bit before publishing this. I want to write this down as take it as a record and reminder to never fly this airline again.
To get a better picture of what happened. Do see these links and understand that I was one of the affected traveller in this saga.
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1084591/1/.html
http://www.razor.tv/site/servlet/segment/main/90/55056.html
I was much "luckier" as I received an SMS informing my flight was cancelled 12 hrs before my departure time! A joker also called me to inform me that the flight was cancelled. I tried to asked for more details and he just rudely said I called to inform. You have 7 days to amend your flight. I asked to speak to his supervisor or manager and he said there is no supervisor or manager.. (duh.. I work in a call centre too and this is a lame excuse man!!) Asked for this rude joker name and he just cut me off...
Fuming, I tried to call their hotline and guess what?? Kept me on hold for bloody 2 hours until it cut off at 10pm automatically... WTF..
So I booked another flight with Airasia and tried to call their toll free hotline in Thailand for 7 consecutive days before I got through. Refunded my flight but need to wait 4 to 6 weeks to process... Duh...
Anyway, the person on the line who took my call was at least courteous and polite... But the whole situation could be handled much much much better.
For example. The person who called to inform should gave options. Like do you want a refund or maybe a reschedule of the flight. Not just ask the customer to call back the service hotline?? You're already speaking to a frustrated customer and this would only just aggravate him or her furthur.
Provide information and be truthful about it. I strongly suspect 2 grounded planes would affect more than 40 flights being cancelled. There must be more to it and I suspect their pilots or crew were leeched by other carriers. Since there was recently news about Pilot shortages in Asia.
And finally, please! If there is a crisis like this. The hotline should be 24hrs instead. Get proactive and call the customer. Yes, it may cut your profits even furthur and maybe incur more losses but at least you save your bloody IMAGE!! Now you have a bunch of disappointed customer (including me of course) who would be throwing all the negative points of your service to other potential customer!
Yes there will be customers and you will still earn money because you are cheap, but you won't have loyal customers like Airasia (and they are really improving!) You would forever be stuck serving the worst customers (those cheapo ones and complaint the most!) Good luck Tiger... I think you really need the teeth to continue after this fiasco..
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