Sight For Sore Eyes

This has to be sorriest picture to see print history.

For years President John Fitzgerald Kennedy suffered from severe back pain. He took pills and received shots regularly to numb the pain, according to a biography by Robert Dallek, who reviewed the president's medical records. The pain was so severe, Dallek notes, that Kennedy couldn't put a sock or shoe on his left foot without help.

If he had not been wearing it during the motorcade at Dallas on November 22, 1963, he might have lived. Dr Kenneth Salyer, then a 27-year-old resident and doctor on duty at Dallas' Parkland Hospital, said: "He's still upright as a target because he has the brace on, which makes it possible for Lee Harvey Oswald to hit him with a second shot."

The lifelong health problems of Kennedy constitute one of the best-kept secrets of recent U.S. history — no surprise, because if the extent of his health problems had been revealed while he was alive, his presidential ambitions would likely have been dashed.

There's no need to disguise the ill health of the nonagenarian. Kennedy sometimes used crutches or a stick – never in public though - but he did not stoop to depraving a human being as a inanimate walking stick. During his interview of the old man, Tom Plate noted that there were two attendants installed at the Istana just to ensure the supply of hot towels for his aching joints. All this just to prop up a system long past its expiry date?

Out Of Country

Japan has seen more changes in political leadership than most decent folk change their underwear. Yes, the yen has been trending down, giving tourists more bang for their buck, but that doesn't seem to stop the Apple Store at the Ginza from doing a roaring trade with the local crowd. Ichiban!

They don't have a "talented" family dominating the political scene. Yet, that has not done any harm to the country despite having natural calamities visited upon it like tsunamis, earthquakes, live volcanoes or nuclear meltdowns. Forget what the media paints, the country is doing very well going by the fashionably attired happy folk you run into - in the city and at the country side - and you can still set your watch by their train arrivals. Without having to pay the transport chief executive a million dollars  for 6 months of on-the-job training.

Do we need only one political leader who is hell bent on self perpetuity?  Can a country survive a "freak election"?  It's the luxury of thought that goes through one's mind whilst soaking in the mineral waters of an outdoor onsen, eyes taking in the myriad colours of autumn leaves, and sipping cold o-sake. It's so good to be away from the madhouse of Sin City.

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.”

Expensive English Tuition

Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen's explanation for spending $25,900 on a language challenged People’s Liberation Army (PLA) officer makes you wonder if he was dropped on his head when he was a child. Or born stupid. Answering a question from Non-Constituency Member of Parliament (NCMP), he said the personalised, one-on-one, 360-hour course, was needed to get the officer to the level of proficiency conducted by a qualified English instructor.

The PLA is a big army, why did they have to select one that can't understand basic English? What's so special about this officer who can't find the way to the men's room without subtitles? Is he a PRC version of a White Horse, the type that makes general in 10 years, 7 years of which was spent in classrooms, scion of some powerful political family, destined to be the El Supremo of the whole damn country? That's $25,900 for English tuition, on top of free board and lodging, and probably several more thousands to acquire parade ground language proficiency in Malay. Oh, we forgot, this type won't be addressed in mono-syllabic expletives by some drill sergeant, or pass a basic marksmanship course. They'll probably assign a Pinoy domestic to carry his pencil box.

This waste of public funds reminds one of the hundreds of of "scholars" from PRC now learning English in Hwa Chung and the like preparatory courses before they proceed to 4 years of university and another 6 years of guaranteed employment. That's 11 years on taxpayers' money - another reason why they are holding on to our CPF? The outrage here is that our own teens can be denied a place in the same local universities if they fail to get a good grade for the General Paper. And those who do pass, will have to compete for jobs from these favoured foreigners.

With his pro-alien sentimentality, Ng should really be Foreign Minister. That way Singaporeans may not have to sent to harm's way in Syria or Iraq. When he expanded, “When our SAF officers go to other countries, they do the same in terms of spending some months to gain language proficiency,” he was alluding to the sweetener in language training courses. So that our men will understand what's happening to them when captured and interrogated by some foreign speaking jihadist.

The Riot That Wasn't

The oft quoted racial riots cited as excuse for being booted out of Malaysia took place in 1969. In that sense, the Little India uprising of 2013 was a 1-in-50-year event. Close enough anyway, since 2019 is still a few years away. But stranger things have happened. Lee Siew Choh was arrested for being in a riot he didn't take part in, and didn't take place. In April 1963, he was detained for “attempting to overawe, by means of criminal force, the Prime Minister at City Hall.”

"He (Fong Sip Chee) said things which are untrue. He says that I was marching in front of the demonstration. I was never there! I was not there at all!

I tell you this so-called City Hall Riot was also a big humbug. Not only a misnomer. A terrible humbug. There was no such thing! You see, it all depends on who controls the radio and who controls the press.

What happened was this. Many of our party leaders and union leaders were arrested in February 1963 under Operation Cold Store, and they were put into prison and treated badly. They were put into solitary confinement. And in hot, suffocating cells. They were complaining! And the parents were not allowed to see them. The parents were complaining and asking that better treatment be given to the detainees. But the PAP government ignored our complaints.

And in order to let people know about it, some of our Assemblymen and the families of the detainees held a peaceful demonstration. It started from the party headquarters in Victoria Street, going around to North Bridge Road, to South Bridge Road, and then to City Hall.

Of course, they wanted to see Lee Kuan Yew. They wanted to ask him, why don’t you release them? Or give them better conditions of treatment? Don’t ill-treat them! So, holding their placards, they walked up the steps to his office in City Hall. The police said that he was not in his office. But everybody knew that he was in. So the families of the detainees refused to believe the policeman.

Thev continued up the steps. And when they went up the steps, the policemen who were under the charge of an inspector who I believe is the Police Chief today, pushed back the group of detainee's families, including old women and young girls. Some of them fell! And what do you expect when people push you? Of course you push back!

That was the so-called City Hall Riot ! "

("Leaders of Singapore", Melanie Chew, page 126)

Lots of things untrue have been said about what happened at Hong Lim Park. Fortunately Speaker of Parliament Halimah Yacob has recognized that comments on the event will fall foul of sub judice laws and should not be allowed in the House. When Khaw Boon Wan refrained from Parliamentary discussion of the subject - specifically, addressing questions tabled by MPs Denise Phua and Zainal Sapari concerning Speakers Corner’s rules and the incident on 27 September 2014 - he simply said, "It is not appropriate". To admit that it is plain illegal was apparently too much a bitter pill for him to swallow.