Friday, November 7, 2014

A Judgement Call

Would you buy a used car from this guy?
Lee Kuan Yew once admitted that being a politician made him wary of people, especially those who might use their relationship with him for their own gain (LKY, "The Man And His Ideas", Han Fook Kwang et al, page 237). He singled out Lim Kim San as one who is better than him at assessing "who's on the level and who's wanting to get something out of me." Goh Keng Swee, in his eyes, doesn't see through people. The person has got to work with him, then after he's thoroughly disappointed, he gets rid of the man.

How did he learn to judge people, Lim was asked,
"I think that comes from experience. To me, it is instinctive. You listen to the chap talk and you think, “This chap is quite alright, or " This chap, you can’t trust him.” I think all successful businessmen have that kind of instinct. You meet a chap, you make a deal. You feel you can rely on this man. He’s on the level. You can trust him. For me, it’s quite instinctive.

Sometimes I shake the guy by the hand and I feel revolted. I feel like throwing off the hand. And you look into his record, you find that, sure enough, this man has done something wrong. Have you heard of Slater Walker? I told the Cabinet to stop them from coming into Singapore. They said to me, “You have a suspicious mind!" Businessmen must have such an instinct."

Unfortunately Lim has long passed from the scene, he is unable to shake hands with the "Son of Punggol" and give us the benefit of his impression. Lee tells of how Lim shook hands with a Khaw Khai Boh, a former head of Special Branch who went on to become a minister in the Malaysian government, and felt an urgent need to wash hands.  You know, Lee wrote, the oiliness of the man and the viciousness of the man - he just sensed it. "It's a gift," Lee said admiringly.

It looks like we'll be seeing more of the snake oil man, his stories of a sorry bank account and chopstick variant of a toothpick tale. He may even upgrade his car ownership spin, “Well, everybody has a car, we have two three – my wife drives one, I drive one, my maid drives the SUV. We are both all professionals, we need to travel.”

Don't look for him at Punggol to shake his hand, he has been parachuted into Ang Mo Kio GRC. Do look out for the rewrite: “Punggol AMK has always occupied a very special place in my heart and with special memories. Coming back to Punggol East AMK is a bit like coming home to me.”

22 comments:

  1. He can be son of anybody,
    even a gun, a whore or You,
    whoever he can benefit from.

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    1. yep, he went from "son of punggol" to "son of ang mo". It's a sacrifice, you know, to serve the people.

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    2. Just look at that snooty sneering face.........

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    3. Never like the first sight of his face (very 奸 as in cunning). It is my intinct. Not sure what others think.

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  2. Yes, and we will start seeing him picking up rubbish from a choked drain in the rain at AMK neighbourhood in full view of sycophantic SPH reporters. And the press will be lapping it up telling tales about this doctor who is in fact a director owning his private practise at Mt. E, treating the uber rich who got their ass stuck.

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  3. He's the perfect son to clear shit after all that publicity on that wayang stunt.

    Maybe there are a lot of hoarders in AMK? Or maybe Punggol East will soon be part of AMK GRC? Either way, he won't need sympathy from us.

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  4. Then who will step down in AMK? Will it be Inderjit Singh, because he may have ruffled his Emperor's new clothes once too often? I recall he took a toilet break during the vote on the PWP, which presumably the good doctor will not do, because his ass is always clean. Or he may have just run out his use by date. Another possibility is MP Intan, after the brouhaha in the Yang Yin affair. In any case, the Emperor has a lot of old clothes he has to discard to clean up his closet, so that he has his new clothes to wear.

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    1. There are 2 other possibilites:

      1. MP Yeo Guat Kwang, he with a closet full of Directorships.

      2. MP Seng Han Thong, he who was torched by a 70 year-old disgruntled constituent, and who was accused of racism when he criticised the English spoken by Malay and SMRT staff.

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    2. Yes, he can only replace another Chinese. PAP is short of other races in the GRC so Intan and Singh could be spared. Unfortunately, one of them may be replaced by another minority as rightly pointed out. Singh for being overly vocal and Intan for being dumb.

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  5. Your last para is a damn good one. Revert to single ward to ensure those elected dont enter via miss piggy's back or nato. Applies to all parties.

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  6. Lim Kim San would probably rolled over in his grave if he saw the obscene prices of today's HDB flats. He would never have envisioned HDB being unaffordable. If only he had met Mah Bow Tan.

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  7. PAP nowadays is so fake. How often do we see a Minister or MP going to poor people's houses to clean up for them ? Isn' t that for show only or wayang as we called it?

    And remember the special needs children show, suddenly PAP is so full of sympathy for them when all these while they had to pretend to be dump in not giving them concessions for travel on our public transport.

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    Replies
    1. Nowsaday the people get dumped on a lot. It's not called Pooped and Pooped for nothing. Shit eh?

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  8. Would you want a MP who can't win election on his own? Is MP an entitlement now? Seriously, he should just quit if he can't be his own man.

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    1. The UGLY face of Sin politics. It's always been the same.

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    2. It's the ordinary people that get Pooped And Pooped on once more.

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  9. To be honest it is not just the "son of punggol" but that the entire PAP is one big patronage system. You get a ticket as long as you echo his master's voice. These MPs if you wish to call them as such are not there to serve the people but to entrench the PAP's politics even further.

    Actually Mah Bon Tan is a better example. There was an article on TRS that claimed he is a bad MP. The reason was that he cancelled on the MPS. While I agree he is a bad MP it is not for that reason.

    As MND minister Mah built 3000+ hdb flats in 2008 while the govt let in 145000 foreigners knowing the prices will escalate. Rather than serve the people he was serving the property elites who made big fat margins on his policies.

    Today the self serving Mah has hooked up with a billionaire who has decided to switch from IT retail to property and it a top 5 shareholder with the firm. Mah was given the preferred shares as . He brings political access to the table as a former MND minister himself.

    In essence Mah was looking after his own interest and that of his property chums while knowingly saddling singaporeans with debt he knows they have no way of servicing in the long term.

    Essentially the entire PAP is made up of these self serving individuals whose only qualification is to do the unquestioning bidding of the Lee clan.

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  10. He'll send his grandmother for 50 cents

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  11. Whatever you may think or say of the backside doctor, he is a valuable asset or talent badly needed by PAP for the next GE.
    He would not have to work very hard to get into the next parliament. Just have to hang on tight to PM's anus.

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    1. .... While the local ah beng has his lips wrapped tight around the PM phallus. You forgot to mention that bit.

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    2. At the next GE he will work very hard to get into you, so don't relax your sphincter too much, that's my advice.

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