Silent Night In Bethlehem

The Arabs in the Bethlehem Manger Square were appreciative of the traditional carol belted out in their native language. The super fit Palestinian soldiers providing security for the VIPs (including Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) dropping by for the Xmas eve gathering smiled ear to ear at the recognition of the familiar tune. Peace on earth and goodwill for all mankind.

Li-lathon! Thick-ru-ha!
Khalidon, wa-atheem,
Ith taja-lat lil-wara,
Nematu-rabbil karim,
Fee wajil massih-ih,
Muf-taddil atheem.

P.S. It rained, but there were no flash floods (or "ponding") like at Orchard Road on Friday.

Marry Christmas

The spelling mistake was pretty obvious, since most of the other text on the hotel display were in Hebrew. Aha, jolly good opportunity to chat up the chiobu Jewish receptionist, pointing out to her the management's mistake. No, she insisted, the word is spelled with an "a", not a "e". Google it, we suggested, not wanting to ruin the spirit of goodwill in the air.

Later in the day, after covering the day's activities, we noted that the spelling mistake was corrected.
If only it have been so easy to convince the SMRT apologists of their foibles.

There's a good book out there with a title that asks why intelligent people make the most stupid mistakes. One of the examples quoted was about how animal activists burned down a mink farm to protest the use of animal fur for fashion apparel. The collateral damage of the minks' lives was somehow missed by the animal lovers.

Seng Hand Thong may have thought he was protecting the mirage of superiority that his political party uses to justify their "mandate to rule". In doing so, he ended up exposing the rot within. It would have been so much simpler if he had humbly apologised, repented, and promised to sin no more. The snowballing negative PR is far worse than the SMRT taxi message, broadcasted notably in English, not Malay or Indian.

But we won't let them ruin our Christmas, will we?

Racists Within The Ranks

It looks like Seng Han Thong (MP, Ang Mo Kio GRC) is under fire again (figuratively! figuratively!). And he deserves to be flamed (figuratively! figuratively!) for upsetting the poor lady Halimah Jacob by insinuating that her minority ethnic group is linguistically challenged - "they're Malay, they are Indian, they can't converse in English ... well enough". Han must be either deaf or sleeping in parliament whenever Lim Swee Say murders the English language in public.

Maybe SMRT, in all their high and mighty-ness, also perceives Singaporeans as incapable of reading into the racist smear. SMRT had said in defence: "At no point did Mr Goh highlight any particular race in his remarks." Have the Malay and Indian races of Singapore been eradicted as ethnic components of our society to be replaced by the favoured Foreigners? Will the Chinese racial group be next to go?

Minister of State (Community Development, Youth and Sports) Halimah Jacob was spot on when she fingered the malaise in the elite upper ruling class: "I am reminded of how employers in the past sometimes try to pin the blame on the lowest level workers as a way of deflecting responsibility from the management whenever a major problem occurs." Instead of derailing the SMRT top executives, a bunch of clowns that has yet to come up with a solution for the third rail power supply problem, the lower echelons are prepared to as sacrificial lambs - just like in the Mas Selamat case. If there is an iota of integrity in their veins, their CEO Saw should be fired (literally! literally!) instead.

A World Of Difference

Jerusalem has a Light Rail system, the first of several rapid transit lines planned for the city. The clean smooth 6.5 km ride from Mount Herzel through the heart of downtown to Pisgat Ze'ev in Northern Jerusalem was built by the CityPass consortium. It was inaugurated in August 2011, but full operations began only on 1 December 2011.

The $1.4 billion project was budgeted for dramatically lower costs and an earlier debut, but delays were caused by the discovery of archaeological sites and glitches in the signalling system. During the debugging period between August and December, Jews and Arabs were provided free transportation as a token of goodwill, and in part to make up for the inconvenience, traffic jams and economic hardship created by the construction. This is Israel, not Singapore.

Think of the headaches of the Maplewood residents, and businesses affected at sites like the Beauty World area. Was any affected party compensated for inconvenience or economic disruption? The unresolved problem with the third rail, which provides power to the SMRT trains, is still not addressed. Commuters have been made to pay full fare for a system not thoroughly debugged. Gerard Ee 's PTC even approved the recent fare hike.

Yaacob Ibrahim could provide no (credible) answers for the Orchard Road floods, neither can one expect much from the likes of Lui Tuck Yew. These expensive overheads are just muddling through on-the-job-training at the cost of taxpayers. And if that's not enough, they add to their team keechiu generals and Kate Spade junkies who have contributed zilch since collecting their enhanced paychecks after the May elections.

Two Souls

The Arab manning the hotel souvenir shop in Egypt invited us to come in out of the cold, no purchase necessary. After learning we were from Singapore, he said his name was the equivalent of Peter, as in St Peter. Not exactly something one would shout from the top of the roof in a 99.9 percent Muslim country.

Peter said business throughout Egypt was in the doldrums, following the departure of Mubarak. Would he consider Mubarak a good guy? Yes, said Peter, he was a strongman, but he was getting old (in the head). The new set of leaders are wimps by comparison, and have yet to earn the confidence of the people. Uh uh, we know the feeling, but discretion kept our opinions to ourselves.

Raul the bellhop at Dubai was from Mumbai. He heard from friends Sentosa World Resort (sic) was hiring. Where are the Dubai nationals, we asked him. From the waiters in the coffee shop to the guy in charge of the internet kiosk, everyone was from the Philippines. Only the drivers for the shuttle buses to the city shopping center were not speaking in Tagalog. And practically all the sales staff at the shops were filipinas. One of them said she recognised our "Singapore accent" - maybe she was a former domestic who relocated for the higher pay in Dubai. One up for our distinctive "national identity".

Raul said the drivers were likely from Pakistan or similar. There was the odd bearded guy with a burkha draped missus (or two) in tow. Maybe our hotel was not in the same class as the ones Thaksin hangs out at. Maybe there are more local born and bred there. Maybe.

Out Of Town Perspective

The world looks different from Mt Sinai, Egypt, some 2,000+ metres above sea level. Definitely more peaceful and tranquil, far away from the maddening crowds of Singapore. And the rumble of the problems with the public transportation system.

The wifi router in the tour bus provided net access on the move, and an update of the SMRT woes at home. So CEO Saw is still in self denial mode, refusing to vacate her tenacious claim on the shaky throne, with the atrocious claim that only she can make things right. Will anybody be brave enough to tell her she's the one responsible for the mess in the first place? Lee Hsien Loong made the mistake of not asking Wong Kan Seng to step down after the Mas Selamat debacle, and it cost him dearly at the polls in May. By turning a blind eye, this shirking of his own accountability to the people will surely come back to haunt him in the near future. Lame duck Lui Tuck Yew doesn't have the cojones to take on the patron saint, madame Ho. No wonder the technically challenged Saw, who probably thinks a collector shoe is the latest footwear from Gucci, is acting all cocky and smug.

We had a sampling of the Dubai trains during the transit stopover, a glimpse of what a smoothly run transportation system should be like. Come to think of it, even Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur never had to put up with the SMRT snafus in the past week. Surely it's not too difficult to source a more capable transportation executive than the Duty-Free-Sales girl? With that character in charge, even the camels that we rode on to ascend Mt Sinai were more dependable.

SMRT SNAFU - Situation Normal All Fouled Up

Those who read their news at channelnewsasia.com were probably wondering why everybody was fussing about PM Lee's election speech in May 2006. CNA online had reported it as "counter the opposition" instead of using the more unpalatable verbatim quote of "what's the right way to fix them". Couple of days ago, CNA tried to make a molehill out of a mountain again.

"The disruption began at 6am, and lasted just 40 minutes.
But trains were delayed for more than five hours as a result of the disruption. While engineers managed to partially-restore the services along the affected stretch, peak hour trains could not be deployed to meet the morning peak frequency.
Train services resumed normal operations around 11.45am."

Note picturesque MRT station with no crowds, no rush 

Why were the commuters on the Circle Line all red in the face? The disruption, in the world according to CNA, lasted only a mere 40 minutes. The level of train service between 6.40am and 11.45am was just as before, i.e. late as usual.

Commuters who still feel their work day was disrupted should read the advisory put out by SMRT carefully:
"Passengers who were unable to complete their journeys due to the disruption can file a claim for refund at the Passenger Service Centre in any of the 68 SMRT stations."

Before you rush out to claim your refund, pay heed to how "unable to complete their journeys" can be interpreted:
You could have boarded one of the shuttle bus services;
You could have waited for the train, however long it takes to show up;
You could have switched to a cab and paid the new enhanced charges;
You could have started walking since one is not allowed to be in the network for longer than 2 hours.

You could have done any of the above, or even charter a chopper if really desperate, and still be "able to complete your journey".

And if you feel skepticism is out of order during this yuletide season of goodwill, see the way SMRT quickly responded to last night's total chaos on the North-South Line. Let's hope they aren't as prompt in making a police report about the train cabin windows that were smashed to let in fresh air for the suffocating passengers.

The Exam System Is Broke

Allison Pearson, commenting on the Daily Telegraph's expose of GCE history chief examiner Paul Evans' shocking action of revealing contents of future papers to teachers, was no more surprised by her own daughter's attitude. "Relax, Mum, it was a paper from 4 years ago... Plus, if the paper's hard, the examiners will adjust the grade boundaries so I'll probably get an A* anyway."

One schoolgirl who sat for this year's A Level biology paper at a Dover Road premier school said something similar. The questions were difficult, but she was confident that the T-score will be tweaked if everybody else stumbles. Last year one chemistry paper question was out of syllabus, but since a particular JC had supplied its students with the material for the answer, everybody had a free boost in their grades.

Pearson reflected that, during her days, one "swotted up as hard as you were inclined", and the exam results will pretty much reflect one's strengths and weaknesses in the subjects studied. Those were the days when 10As were unheard of, Bs and Cs were respectable grades. There was no such thing as "being good at exams". Or as Evans explained the game in play, "We're cheating, we're telling you the cycle." His illogic for focusing on key topics instead of covering the entire syllabus, "Yes, if we are proper educationists, our gut instinct is to teach the lot... (but) if you are under pressure to get results and you are hammering exam technique, you may go at a slower rate."

Our teachers will recognise the technique: if you teach the whole syllabus, you will have less time for drill practices. All the holistic spiel about skipping the O Level in the IP system so kids will have more time for enrichment activities is plain baloney. The extra time is more likely spent in extra tuition classes. They even have tutors for students sitting for the IB. One lecturer claims that even undergrads are attending tuition classes.

Quick to distance themselves from the British exam system under fire, principals like Chan maintain that other than briefings on changes in syllabuses, teachers here have limited contact with Cambridge examiners. Specifically, "...questions that will be used for exams in the future are not discussed." Tell that to the kids, and especially their parents, who sign up with ex-teachers who make a bundle selling tuition services on the premise of their uncanny skills at spotting questions.

A Matter Of Perspective

"COES mainly for the rich? That's life," wrote the director of Mag-E to the Forum page, to justify one car on the road and another in the garage. Not any car of course, he was referring to a Ferrari for "forging deals" and "paying the salaries of his average-income employees." That's sickening.

Once upon a time, cabinet ministers made a point of driving (and being seen in) cheaper Japanese makes. Slowly, they have moved on to more expensive and swankier European marques. Goh Keng Swee would be rolling in his grave. His favorite story was about his son asking to be dropped off a distance from his Alma Mater - the kid didn't want to be embarrassed by his dad's humble set of wheels.

Delivered as a Babara Weinstock lecture in January 1979 at the University of California in Berkely, Goh Keng Swee's perspective about good business ethics and sustained economic growth comes across in this excerpt:

"When businessmen earn money the hard way, i.e. the honest way, they do not engage in meaningless extravagance. Profits are not spent in conspicuous consumption but are ploughed back into the business.
Where, however, business profits are the results of favours granted through bribery, the effects are different. The businessman himself may or may not re-invest profits earned. This depends on whether he can secure more favours to start new monopolies. In that event, he would be imprudent not to stash a good portion of his profits in an unnumbered Swiss Bank Account.
Patrons behave differently. Since they have acquired vast fortunes by virtue of the positions they hold and not because of work put in, the temptation to spend freely becomes irresistible. Almost invariably, there is competition among patrons to impress one another and the general populace. This is why we so often witness gross extravagance among the wealthy in third world countries."
(page 193, "In Lieu of Ideology, An intellectual biography of Goh Keng Swee", Ooi Kee Beng)

It makes you wonder if present day Singapore is still lingering at Third World status.

Power To The Consumer

One thing's for sure, ComfortDelgro directors won't be on Santa's list this year. The biggest cheer this season is that Singaporeans have awakened from their "daft" mode, and the boycott is on, with a vengeance.

Still in denial mode, the rapacious taxi company is assuring itself that demand will return to normal once commuters "get used to the new fares". There's no new normal for these villains, even as the cabbies have to bear with the consequences of their greed:
"When I drove past, they flagged for a cab from another company."
"I've earned  about 50 percent less today than I normally do."
"It's a very slow day for me and I hope business picks up soon."

A friend suggested checking with the retirees in the neighborhood who drive, if a ride to the airport is needed during this holiday season - let the senior citizens pocket the cab fare instead. Totally wicked!

The Public Transport Council reported that none of the other cab companies have yet to notify it about revising their fare structure. None except SMRT, the other government linked operator, that is. Come next Tuesday, SMRT will be following the ComfortDelgro template to a T. Now if that's not a clear case of price collusion, the Competition Commission of Singapore needs to take a second look at the law books.

We don't have a Ralph Nader to champion our cause, so the John Lennon lyrics will have to do:
Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on

Where In The World Is Liechtenstein

The additional 10 percent stamp duty for foreign buyers and property speculators seemed to have ruffled a few feathers. The Real Estate Developers' Association (Redas) cried foul, whined about "the lack of consultation" on the government measures. In the past they may have had cosy links with the bureaucrats in charge, at the cost of home owners, but the new normal demands everything to be under the scrutiny of anti-competition watchdogs.

Overseas consultants have joined in the protestations, with some delighting to highlight how Hongkong's non-intervention policy makes investment more attractive - whose non-intervention government also recently announced it may reverse property cooling curbs if so required. And in Britain, non-residents pay no seller's or capital gains tax for playing in the property market. If Singapore is giving all these foreign countries the wrong end of the stick, why is Liechtenstein so favoured?

Liechtenstein National Museum

Liechtenstein is a tiny country with a land area of 160 sq km (compared to Singapore's small 704 sq km) wedged between Switzerland (west) and Austria (east). It has a population of about 35,000, of whom one third are foreigners, a similar ratio as in Singapore. It turns out it is also a member of the Singapore-European Free Trade Association FTA (EFTA), which comprises Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. But the EFTA is just one of a long list of trade agreements signed to reduce or eliminate obstacles to trade and enable cross border movement of goods and services between the signatory countries, e.g.

• ASEAN (AFTA)
• ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA (AANZFTA)
• China (CSFTA)
• The Gulf Cooperation Council (GSFTA)
• Japan (JSEPA)
• Korea (KSFTA)
• Trans-Pacific SEP (TPFTA)
• United States (USSFTA)

Someone else must have also wondered about the preferential treatment for the EFTA countries, and the United States(USSFTA), which are as foreign as China and Australia. The press now tells us these exceptional countries have certain exempt clauses in their free trade deals with Singapore. Clauses which do not exist in the other FTAs. Strange, huh?

The only other bit we know about the Liechtenstein connection is that George Yeo signed the FTA in 2002 when he was in the MTI. According to his blog, Liechtenstein's foreign minister then was Ernst Walch, with whom he had a nice lunch and a nice visit to the modern art museum in Vaduz. Walch's daughter studied law at NUS.

More Slut Than Stud

SlutWalk SG has come and gone, with minimalist impact, thanks to our sisters who made sure exposed epidermis on display did not detract from the main message.

When a female bares her midriff, you're spoiled for choice when it comes to adjectives: tart, slapper, slag and slut ... all of them nasty and all of them suggesting that women should really stick to sex for their procreative role only. And try not to enjoy it too much. Due to a quirky bias in history (there's no such word as "herstory"), coming up with a pejorative for someone male who likes to flash his nude torso in public is really challenging.

In our unfair world, men are esteemed for their conquests, women are cherished for fighting them off. So is there even a male equivalent for the word "slut"? What exactly do you call a guy who delights in brandishing his naked bod as a badge of pride?

UrbanDictionary defines "manwhore" as:
"A male who's unleashed himself from the bonds of society; thinking for himself and following his own mental dictates and biological drives."

That sounds more stud than slut. Dominique Strauss-Kahn may prefer "womaniser" or "libertine", and even that smacks of a boast rather than a scarlet letter. None of these labels seem to convey a sense of moral depravity, instead they are tinged with admiration and (male) jealousy. No wonder DSK was widely expected to seek the Socialist nomination for President of France in 2012, until he was derailed by the Sofitel tryst in New York.

Even so, it's hard to imagine DSK standing in front of the Abercrombie & Fitch store in Orchard Road. If it's abs they want to show off, Arnold Schwarzenegger would been more appropriate. But these in the line-up look more like boy toys. Fairies also come to mind, but Enid Blyton will be upset by the imagery.

In 2009, the American Family Association disapproved of the influence of the A & F "sex-as-recreation" lifestyle fashion apparel, and asked the brand to remove its "sexualized shirts" from display. The government will probably wait for outraged citizens to protest first before they figure out if the store's message is consistent with the recent roll out of moral education in schools.

Does this picture make you see red?

Black And White Proof

If anyone wants proof that paying civil servants high salaries is no guarantee of warding off corruption, he need look no further than the morality tale of of ex-PAP MP Choo Wee Khiang. The astonishing revelation is that he allegedly took a bribe of US$200 for approving the use of two training venues in China by the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA). Is there no limit to stooping down for greed?

Choo was head of the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) for nearly 20 years, an appointment which probably came about by way of his political affiliation. Credited with Singapore's silver medal success at the 2008 Olympics, he also held other appointments like general manager of the Marina Bay Golf Club. The official endorsements enabled him to con a secondary school principal into engaging STTA for training services which were never delivered.

The question on everyone's lips is how such a shady character was admitted into parliament. Well, he was the MP for Marine Parade and Jalan Besar GRCs from 1988 to 1999, another shining proof of the failings of the GRC system.

Choo made headlines for other dubious reasons while holding political office. In an odious speech made in Mandarin during a parliament session in 1992, he actually mouthed this, "One evening, I drove to Little India and it was pitch dark but not because there was no light, but because there were too many Indians around." The Singapore Government then, for reasons undisclosed, chose not to act against him for breach of parliamentary privilege, even though the utterance was hideously racist.

Choo lost his MP position in 1999 only after pleading guilty to a charge of abetting his brother-in-law to cheat a finance company by issuing false invoices worth $1,000,000 in 1990. Which means from 1990 to 1999, while he was wearing white and white, his heart was as dark as the night he drove into Little India. Under false colours, he was re-elected to office in 1991 and 1997, bearing the imprimatur of the PAP. In spite of being jailed and fined in 1999, this ex-convict and unrepentant racist was publicly honoured with the International Olympic Committee President's Trophy in 2009.

Malaysia's Public Service director-general Tan Sri Abu Bakar Abdullah just announced a performance-based remuneration scheme which gives government employees a pay rise of 7% to 13%. If he thinks that will help fight corruption in the civil service ranks, he should pay attention to the Singapore example.

Of Course It's Price-Fixing!

In one of its rare successes in persecution, the Competition Commission of Singapore (“CCS”) issued an Infringement Decision on 23 Nov 2011 against 11 modelling agencies in Singapore for breaching the Competition Act (“the Act”). It stated for public record, "Trade or industry associations should not become the vehicle to facilitate price collusion or price-fixing."

When CCS ruled against the Singapore Medical Association (“SMA”) Guidelines on Fees in August 2010, it made clear, " In general, price recommendations by trade or professional associations are harmful to competition because they create focal points for prices to converge, restrict independent pricing decisions and signal to market players what their competitors are likely to charge."

Now put into context the action plan of the National Taxi Association (NTA), a trade union body representing some 12,000 taxi drivers, which has said it "is already in talks with other taxi companies and urges them to adjust their taxi fares as soon as possible."

You don't need to be a qualified civil lawyer like Mr Sng Kheng Huat to concur that the NTA statement "smacks of an attempt at price-fixing."

So why did the CCS declined to "comment "on individual cases or whether it is investigation a case"? Could it be because ComfortDelGro's major shareholder (12.1%) is Singapore Labour Foundation? We know the part about fixing the opposition, are they planning to fix the commuters too?

CCS is a statutory board established under the Act on 1 January 2005 to administer and enforce the Competition Act. The Act empowers CCS to investigate alleged anti-competitive activities, determine if such activities infringe the Act and impose suitable remedies, directions and financial penalties. Now go investigate and earn your year end bonuses.

Does this look like they need the money?

Too Good For Miracles

A miracle is a rare event often attributable to divine intervention. For agnostics or atheists at large, a miracle can also be thought of as a perceptible interruption of the laws of nature.

The Train Miracle
The new fancy MRT signalling system has not been installed. The new trains on order won't be delivered until umpteen years down the road. Yet, inspite of these supposedly insurmountable encumberances, train waiting times managed to be shaved to an average 3 minutes. By simply tweaking the train schedule! The SMRT is adding more than 260 extra trips ahead of the December festive period, reducing the North-South Line wait at Yishun to 3 minutes, and the East-West Line wait from 6 to 4 minutes. Now why didn't they think of that before?

The Hospital Miracle
The project completion date was advanced not by 2 weeks, or 2 months. We are told, via Minister for Health Gan Kim Yong's blog, the new hospital at Sengkang will be on stream 2 whole years ahead of schedule - from 2020 to 2018! The last time a construction schedule was abbreviated so significantly was when the Marina Bay Sands Casino Resort was rushed into service to expedite collection of the $100 entry levy.

Two miracles in a row, it's almost enough to turn anyone into a religious convert. But just before you start believing again, they hit you with a property tax whammy. Just when inflation is about to knock your breath out following world wide forecasts of a gloomy future.

With home prices expected to fall 30 to 40 per cent over the next three years, Singapore's developers are already bracing for a moribund market and expect to take a hit in first-quarter earnings. The rebound they hoped for is turning out to be the stuff of dreams.

The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) has decreed that 4- to 5-room HDB flat owners will have to pay $5 to $29 more property tax from 2012 onwards. Their justification is that property prices have been on the increase in the past years, without paying heed to what the doomsday sayers portend about the imminent future. Perhaps that's why they want to stiff you now, before the bubble bursts, and make them look silly for asking more money then. Adding insult to injury, they once again offer a one-off token rebate of $55, good for limited time only, while the hike will be in place for perpetuity. You expecting the IRAS will ever reduce the Annual Values (AV)? That would be a real miracle indeed.

No Comfort For Commuters

The headline says it all - Singapore's largest taxi operator ComfortDelGro has its eye on the profit line. When it cites "strong population growth and an increase in tourist arrivals have resulted in a significant spike in demand for taxi", it was not trying to address a shortage in supply. There was no equivalent sound bite of "they can always take the next cab".

ComfortDelGro is no run of the mill transport company. It knows its action is implicit direction for other taxi operators to follow. The National Taxi Association (NTA) actually urged the other operators, Trans-Cab, SMRT, Premier, Smart and Prime, to join in the feeding frenzy. This selfish act is a move that will push up inflation which is currently running around two-year highs. In October the transport component, which makes up 16 percent of Singapore's consumer price index, went up by 10.5 percent year-on-year, faster than the 5.4 percent rise in the overall index.

NTA president Wee Boon Kim had the audacity to admit that Comfort Delgro had been in discussion with leaders from two of its branches over the fare issue in the past few months. They probably plotted in secret, and sounded out the official blessing for their greed before making the move. The "win some, lose some" strategy - token 20 cent discount for call booking - is as good as lifted from the government line when the distance-based fare structure was implemented.

You can bet your increased flagdown fare that the head of the Government Parliamentary Committee and Transport, Cedric Foo, won't be making strenuous objection on your behalf. As a matter of fact, he is already making pathetic excuses for the other side, arguing that the taxi industry is deregulated and therefore a free market. The committee he  heads is just for show, another wayang to justify the MP allowance.

Let's hope the other cab companies will not sell their soul to the devil. Commuters can rally around and support them, and boycott the government linked entity. For once, let them have a taste of discomfit.

No Sluts Please, We're Singaporeans

Superman dresses like this

The good news is that SlutWalk Singapore had a better turnout than the Occupy Wall Street "protest" at Raffles Place. Still the reported 650 was a pale shade of the 10,000 that showed up for a Pink Dot celebration on 18 June 2011.

The bad news was that the ladies that were at Hong Lim Park on 4th Dec were all "staidly" dressed. Maybe it had to do with the dress code stipulated by the organisers - come as you are, whether in t-shirt and jeans, in fishnets, in a sari, in a jacket, or in a tudung. All the eager photographers who converged at the event venue had to contend with, nay, hope for a sighting of a wet t-shirt at least since the skies did sprinkle some showers of blessing intermittently.

Constable Michael Sanguinetti, who started it all when he dispensed grandmotherly advice at a York University safety forum by preaching that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order to not be victimised,” would be a welcome male guest in most Asian homes. Especially those with female members yet to tie the wedding knot. Organizer Vanessa Ho even hid her active role in putting together SlutWalkSG from her from her parents "because of their conservative values". Just like some young women's choice of clothing are also kept secret from mom and dad, if they value the free board and lodging provide by same doting parents.

Women may or may not admit that they dress the way they do to attract men's attention. The difference comes about when the attention is welcomed, as in a eligible suitor of significant financial means, or unwelcome, as in the gawking stare of a casual road sweeper. Even Jimmy Carter confessed that he had an eye for the ladies as well as the White House, " I've looked on a lot of women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times." Bill Clinton's weakness was a visible thong.

You don't need grandma to remind you to be streetwise, forewarned is forearmed. Even alpha males avoid walking into a dark cul-de-sac at Geylang since those fake Rolex Oyster Perpetual watches are so damn realistic even in broad daylight. You don't want to lose an arm, or worse, just because of the right or freedom to wear whatever you want.

Consolation Prize For Corruption

It was not the report card they expected. Singapore is now placed fifth according to the latest ranking by non-governmental corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI). Significantly, the countries perceived by experts or their residents to be less corrupt - New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Sweden - all have heads of government drawing smaller salaries from the tax payers.

Mr Liau Ran, who oversees TI's rankings for East Asia, has this notion about corruption-free countries: "In many countries, you have to pay (and pay) to get things done." TI's ranking has a more stringent definition of corruption: abuse of entrusted power for private gain. What Liau missed out is that what we have is a pre-paid reward system for sanctioned corruption of morals.

Responding to Han Fook Kwang's concern about the ministerial pay policy remaining deeply popular, Lee Kuan Yew said this, "It is people's expectations - office is for honour. It is not."

He expands:
"We are in this part of the world where "money politics" is the culture, we're not in Europe, nor Australasia, or some region where different political cultures prevail, different standards of living and different population ratio. Are we able to maintain this system? You see your counterparts, their wives are bedecked with jewels. And yours?" (HT, page 123)

In case you miss the drift:
"Some Singaporeans believe ministers ought to do it for honour and glory. But how many will do it for more than one term? My generation did it because we had prepared ourselves to give up everything.
Can a successor generation do that? No." (HT, pages 125-126)

It would appear that the vaunted aspiration for attaining the Swiss standard of living was never about striving for the European benchmark of moral society, just the monetary hallmark. Hence the consoling pat on the back: Singapore remains the least corrupt in Asia, ahead of Hong Kong and Japan. The attempt at sophistry reminds one of an old communist joke:
"Following months of negotiations, the long awaited hundred-metre sprint race between American President John Kennedy and Russian Premier Nikita Khruschev finally took place. The Soviet First Secretary came in a respectable silver medallist, while the American President was unfortunately second from last."

Life Outside The Cabinet

John Swire & Sons (South-east Asia) has appointed former Transport Minister Raymond Lim as a senior adviser to "provide both focus and expertise to efforts to develop and broaden the range of investments in the region." Little is known of the charter of the Swire Group entity which was incorporated only in August.

Swire Pacific Offshore (SPO) is the more well known local unit in the London based Swire Group, owner and operator of an extensive fleet of 75 offshore supply vessels (PSVs, AHTS) to support the oil and gas industry, including drilling, production, exploration, pipe-lay, subsea construction and FPSO operations. Lim was in finance before politics, one of the managing directors of Temasek Holdings and chief executive of DBS Vickers Securities. In a statement Lim said "I look forward to helping it grow in the region," presumably not in the land-based transportation industry.

The big question in everybody's mind is whether he is getting anything close to his former ministerial million dollar paycheck. In "Lee Kuan Yew, The Man And His Ideas" (Straits Times Press,1998), Lee himself said, "There's no way a prime minister can argue that any any minister can walk out of his cabinet and get this kind of salary." Not unless Swire pays its advisers big bucks. Fraser and Neave did. Lee Hsien Yang received $1 million as a business consultant after departing from Singtel, never mind if he had zero experience in food and beverage or property development.

It's interesting to note that nearly all the ministers who lost their appointments after May 7 have yet to get a "real job". After landing a Senior Advisor appointment with Malaysian conglomerate Kuok Brothers, George Yeo curiously labelled it as ""an informal arrangement." He added, " I'll join (the) private sector next year, " which makes one wonder what an adviser does for a living. Lim Hwee Hua seems more prolific in collecting "informal arrangements" (whatever Yeo means by that term), as senior advisor to global investment firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) in addition to being appointed as a non-executive director at Jardine Cycle & Carriage. A recent update to her resume is an appointment as an independent non-executive director on Ernst & Young's Global Advisory Council (GAC). At least she's collecting all these stuff while she's out of the cabinet. Recall former PAP MP Dr Wang Kai Yuen, with 11 directorships under his belt, who used to lament that "some of the companies pay me as little as $10,000".

How Much Is $10 Million?

The big news is that Lee Kuan Yew has pledged a personal donation of S$10 million to set up a Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism to promote the learning of the mother tongue and English for preschoolers. This comes on the heels of Goh Chok Tong's speech at the Credit Suisse Philantropists Forum on 7 April 2011, when Goh made mention of the US$100 million from the family of the late Ng Teng Fong for setting up a fund for needy patients at a new hospital in Singapore. The Singapore government has an incentive for 2.5 times tax deduction for donations to Institutions of a Public Character.

It piques one's curiosity to ponder how generous is the gesture. Clues come from the contributions of his three children. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the highest compensated politician in the whole wide world, is donating $100,000. Second son Lee Hsien Yang, who used to pick up $4 million in a good year at Singtel, which he left mysteriously for a $1 million a year appointment as business consultant at Fraser and Neave (he is now chairman), is donating $50,000. Daughter Lee Wei Lin, who took over after the then-Director of the Singapore National Neuroscience Institute Dr Simon Shorvon was booted out (the British General Medical Council and British High Courts sided with Shorvon in his dispute with the Singapore Medical Council), is also donating $50,000. Except for Dr Lee, the paltry sum is probably only a fraction of their 13th month bonus. She had once said of her father's psyche: "The word charity did not sit well with him".  At a time when Singaporeans gained a reputation both at home and abroad for their eagerness to open their wallets to anyone in need (Nepalese twins, Yishun siblings, Huang Na kidnapping), daughter Lee blamed the press for its "propensity" to sensationalise stories that helped bring out "the gullibility of Singaporeans".

With the aforesaid in mind, so how much is the $10 million pledge worth? If he had intended to put Scrooge to shame, that could be 25 percent of his liquid assets. If he was a real skinflint, it could be 1 percent, which means he has at least $1,000 million in loose change. Even if the out-of-character largess was only 10 percent of his bank balance, it would imply that all those years of public service have earned him at least $100 million. Something must be wrong with the mathematics here.

BTW, don't buy the book "My Lifelong Challenge: Singapore's Bilingual Journey" thinking it will solve all your problems in acquiring a second language. This is what the author writes: "My big mistake... in the midst of our messy, massive exercise to revamp the education system, I realised I had been wrong in my premise (that anyone intelligent will be able to master languages)". Not everyone gets paid handsomely for making mistakes.

The Long Voyage Home

23 Oct 1947-20 Nov 2011

In 1977, lawyer Francis Khoo fled Singapore to avoid being detained by the notorious Internal Security Department (ISD). The Ministry of Home Affairs claims he was wanted for questioning because a number of people arrested in February of that year "for activities to rebuild the Communist United Front in Singapore" had "implicated Francis Khoo for involvement in the group."

In 1977, the twin spacecraft Voyager 1 and 2 blasted off to take advantage of a planetary alignment that occurs once every 176 years. Travelling a billion miles every 3 years, they flew past Jupiter (1979), Saturn (1980), Uranus (1986), Neptune (1989), and onward to infinity and beyond. After 34 years in space, Voyager 1 is 18 billion km away; Voyager 2 is 14.5 km away. That's close to the theoretical 19 billion km distance where the solar system ends. The spacecraft carries messages from earth, music and greetings, etched in old styled phonographs. In 1977, nobody heard of a CD.

Francis Khoo Kah Siang spent those 34 years in exile.

In an obituary notice on Friday 25 Nov, Mrs Khoo said that her husband was involved in the legalities of forming a Citizens' Co-op to save the doomed Singapore Herald.

"On May 27, 1971 - after the Wee Cho Yaw fiasco - a pro-tem committee of "five concerned citizens," namely University of Singapore's economics lecturer Dr Lee Soo Ann, lawyers Francis Khoo Kah Siang, political scientist Patrick Low, bank officer Mok Kwong Yue, and architect Tay Kheng Soon, stepped forward and issued a statement calling upon the people and government to "support our efforts to set up a co-operative to purchase the Singapore Herald and turn it into a Citizens' Paper."
(The Media Enthralled: Singapore Revisited, Francis Seow, page 95)

Although Lee Kuan Yew had reluctantly absolved the CIA of "direct involvement" in the operation of the Singapore Herald, he had persisted in his stubborn belief that other U.S. propaganda agencies were likely financiers, such as the U.S. Information Service and the Voice of America. The Singapore Herald was accused of creating unwelcomed "pressure points on the government" and had to be stopped at all costs.

The international reaction was scathing:

"Singapore is a one-party State and bears the injuries that all one-party States do to themselves.
Those who see the power of the Singapore government and the lengths to which Lee Kuan Yew is prepared to go to hang on to it are frightened by what is likely to be the result of it. In Singapore the question is being asked more often these days: what is the point of being the best fed, best administered, best education nations in Asia if that nation is also one of the least free."
(The Australian, 21 May 1971)

 
Francis Khoo is free at last. At 64, he takes his place among the heavenly stars.

Lack Of Political Judgment

Just like Lily Neo has endeared herself to her constituents by speaking up, and actually shouted out on one occasion in parliament, for the less fortunate, veteran MP Inderjit Singh has always vocalised the unpleasant truths. That's why both have never been promoted to a higher pay grade. For Inderjit Singh, there's also the discrimination factor, "Singapore was not ready for an Indian prime minister."

Like the voice of the prophet preaching to the wilderness, Singh recited the litany of serial abuses inflicted on a hapless nation: housing, transport, immigration, etc. He nailed it when he termed "a state of denial" when the government, by obfuscation and selective use of statistics, condemned future generations to a life time of servitude by insisting that public housing is affordable. That state of denial is still in place, the supply may have been ratcheted up, but the 30 year repayment onus has not been relieved. On the "growth-at-all-costs" fetish of the master planners, Inderjit Singh revealed that "the Government expected that if the economy grew, then all Singaporeans would also benefit indirectly a over a period of time." The same premise for the subprime crisis.

First-term MP Intan Azura Mokhtar said, "Respect is necessary in treading through diverse views and beliefs, while empathy is required to show care and understanding of different backgrounds and circumstances." It would appear Inderjit Singh will never be accorded a modicum of that respect. Why else did his political master not understand the ground sentiment regarding housing and foreign talent policy and called for an election at a timing it misjudged as "sweet"? Maybe he should quit while he's still ahead - public lamentation that housing and economic growth were mishandled is not a smart career move - John the Baptist was beheaded because King Herod's wife was less forgiving.

Ugh! Not a reprise of the "Upturn The Downturn" routine!

Political Jokes

"A political joke is often the only weapon available to those who live under a totalitarian regime," the author was quoting from the first ever book of Communist jokes by emigre Yevgeny Andreevich. To test his hypothesis that jokes brought down the Communist system, Ben Lewis went beyond literature survey and ventured into countries like Romania for proof. That's where a spelling mistake with the name of Nicolae Ceauşescu - a minor alteration to "Nicolai", and the word means small penis in Romania - could send you to jail. And that's no joke.

The problem with grim jokes is that the laughter is time limited, and then you realise it's suddenly not so funny after all. That's when the Bee Gees lyrics go, "Oh, if I'd only seen that the joke was on me." Some of the anekdoty (Russian for jokes) could have been written in our context.

Take the current scheme of things when motoring will get so expensive that only millionaires can afford to drive down the NSE which wipes Rochor Center off the map of Singapore:

"Have you noticed that at every petrol station there is now a doctor and a policeman on duty? The doctor gives first aid to those who faint when they see the price, and the policeman interrogates the ones who fill up about where they got the money from." (page 169)

It's no help when clowns can still get into parliament through the outrage of the GRC system. Even the phony Tan who promised to speak for the people won't tell the truth about the national reserves because he swears by the OSA:

"A factory worker is sentenced to 15 years in prison for calling the secretary of the local party an idiot. After the sentence is read out, the lawyer protests that the penal code calls for only a maximum of 5 years for insults of this kind.
The judge corrects him: 'We didn't sentence the defendant for offending the secretary, but for divulging a state secret.' " (page 73)

But laughter grinds to a halt when each time the thin-skinned screams 'sedition' and files a police report when he could have simply turned the other cheek:

"A dissident arrives at a remote village, to which he has been exiled.
Everywhere seems deserted, but as he gets towards the centre of town he notices an overpowering horrible smell. In the main square he comes across a big crowd of people standing quietly in a lake of sewage coming up to their chins. Suddenly he falls in. He starts flailing his arms and shouting in disgust. 'Yuk! I cannot stand this! How can you people just stand here not doing anything?'
They reply, 'Shut up and keep still, you are making waves.' "(page 240)

And yet they wonder why people are still complaining:

"A dissident walks out of his house, It's starting to rain. He looks up and says in indignation: 'They always do just what they want'.
The next day when the dissident walks out the sun is shining brightly. He looks up and says in indignation, 'Of course. For this they find the money.' " (page 234)

In the penultimate of his 312 page volume, the author concludes that through joke telling, people inside the Communist regimes, including the leadership, admitted that Communism was "laughably" wrong. The jokes brought down Communism, in that the sense that they were intrinsic to the critique of Communism, shared eventually by the leadership and citizens, which led to its fall. But what has this got to do with us, excepting the fact the MIW still call each other "comrades"? Ah, that's where the definitive anekdot comes in:

"What is the definition of Capitalism?
The exploitation of man by man.
And what is the definition of Communism?
The exact opposite" (page 60)

All That Glitters Is Not Gold

Olympus fans are worried what the financial shenanigans will do to the 92-year-old optical company which gave us the endoscope (also referred to as a fiberscope) and more recently, the micro four thirds technology for the camera buffs. Michael Woodford, ex-CEO and whistle blower, is calling for a shakeup of the corporate (mis)governance which wiped out 80 percent of the company's market capitalization. Can one gai-jin undo the harm that creative book keeping unleashed? And if that doesn't get your knickers in a knickers in a twist, the accountants seem to be busy here too.

Property experts are asking why K-REIT paid Keppel Land $1.57 billion for a 99-year lease of the OFC Building which has 999-year tenure. In a market that has lost most of its sizzle, and a economy that is buffeted by bad news, domestic and international. Keppel won't be asking awkward questions, it will book a net gain of $492.7 million from the transaction. REITs depend on rental income from properties held in its portfolio. When businesses go broke, as they do in a looming recession, the rent will not be paid. You don't have to be a sophisticated investor to appreciate that. You definitely do not want to just "trust the management to do the right thing." Just ask the long serving workers at Olympus. There's only one clue for the K-REIT mystery: "the payoff is better with acquisitions than getting the existing assets to perform."

Which reminds me of the time a property agent, and a blood relative at that, tried to sell us a piece of pricey real estate. On paper, we could make the down payment, and the rent, presumably from expatriates sponsored by Fortune 500 type companies, will "take care of the loan servicing." For 30+ years, we get to see someone enjoy the premises we possess only on paper. The agent gets his fat commission upfront, and won't be around to make sure there is a tenant to make the numbers match. The relative is no longer on talking terms. Which could explain why, no bank officer tried to sell me a Lehman linked investment instrument.

Recession Proof Jobs

In July this year, civil servants were paid a mid-year Annual Variable Component (AVC) of half-a-month's salary (0.5-month) plus a S$250 quantum. Sources said the government is considering an additional 0.75-month bonus plus a dollar quantum for the year end bonanza.

On Monday it was reported Singapore faces a sharply lower economic growth of 1.0-3.0 percent in 2012 amid an export slowdown, and more bad news about the debt woes in Europe's that could trigger a global crisis.

The projection is worse than the previous estimate of 2.5-3.5 percent and well down from the 5 percent predicted for 2011 earlier as demand in Europe and the United States was drying up. Even China manufacturers are not immune to the imminent meltdown, as they suffered the weakest month of activity in 32 months.

Growth, the lack of, is not the only ill wind around town. "This does not factor in downside risks to growth, such as a worsening debt situation or a full-blown financial crisis in the advanced economies," the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) said in a statement. "Should these risks materialise, growth in the Singapore economy in 2012 could come in lower than expected."

So what if the world falls into the abyss of recession? The Singapore civil servants still get to collect. Tell that to the AMD staff who were laid off with Christmas just round the corner. Industry experts say the American chip maker was simply taking austerity measures in the face of the countdown to Armageddon. For them, bonus would mean surviving the forthcoming downturn to stay in business.

Analysts from Nomura financial services group are hoping the government may step in with a stimulus package when the next budget is unveiled in February 2012. Doesn't matter. Whether the stimulus package works or not, they'll still be rewarding themselves for a job well done. One thing's for certain, the salary review Gerard Ee is (still) working on won't be implemented until after the Christmas presents are opened.

Hot Button Issues

The LTA may have missed the humor - tuck yew! why can't you recognise Singapore genius when you see it? - but the message of the sticker has universal application: "Press Once Can Already".

Within one week, the hot button of religious sensitivity was pushed importunately one time too many. Unless you played truant during physics class, you would have recalled Newton's third law of motion in his "Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis": To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction. If you wanna push, be prepared to be pushed back. Even experts don't profess to have all the answers.

Lesley Hazleton (born 1945) is an award-winning British-American writer who specialises on the history, religion and politics of the Middle East. She has described herself as “a Jew who once seriously considered becoming a rabbi, a former convent schoolgirl who daydreamed about being a nun." She is an agnostic with a deep sense of religious mystery, agnostic because she does not claim to know that a deity does not exist. Her recent book, "After the Prophet: the Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split", was a finalist for the 2010 PEN-USA nonfiction award.

Lesley Hazleton: “The fact that so few people do actually read the Quran is that is so easy to quote, that is to misquote. Phrases and snippets taken out of context what I call the highlighter version which is the one favored both by the Muslim fundamentalists and anti-Muslim islamphobes…”
Listen to her first before you push another button.

More Time To Repent

Once upon a time we were told the MRT congestion could not be relieved owing to constraints in the existing signalling system. Yesterday, Minister of State (Transport) Josephine Teo said there are simply not enough trains to run two-minute intervals throughout the morning and evening peak periods.

It was announced that a total of 35 trains will be added to the present fleet in the next 4 years. 5 arrived in May, but we are not told if they have been put in service. "We are fully committed to expanding the train fleet in order to improve frequencies in order of train arrivals," she chirped to a skeptical public. "You can always take the next train," was no longer politically acceptable.

Teo blamed the manufacturers for the tardy progress in the production line. The world has only a handful of train makers she claimed, naming Siemens (German), Alstom (French) and Bombardier (Canadian). Obviously she hasn't heard of other players like Hyundai-Rotem and the Chinese builders for the Chinese Ministry of Railways (MOR). Incidentally Bombardier's Derby plant is cutting jobs after losing the big Thameslink contract to Siemens - they should be hungry for a Singapore order. Building rolling stock is not exactly rocket science. Has anybody considered our local shipyards who construct engineering behemoths like state of the art floating rigs for deep sea exploration offshore Brazil? In the heydays of the containerisation buildup, many of the trailers and prime-movers for the container port were assembled from components sourced from Fruehauf and other brand names; the formula could be repeated.

Teo gave another excuse for the wait. The bigger fleet will take advantage of the new signaling system which reduces the spacing between trains, scheduled to be ready only by 2016. There will be no shortcut, the period for repentance will not be abbreviated.

To Gerald Giam's question if there was "no forward planning done", Teo answered, "there is advance planning but projecting demand and ridership is tricky business and hard to get 100-percent right". The same excuse could have been made for the housing shortage, hospital shortage, flood controls shortage. And have you seen the graph for economic growth? Even a drunk driver can steer a straighter line. Definitely lots of slapping required.

Tempering With The Law

The police is investigating an offensive Facebook posting. On Saturday, YPAP's chairman and vice-chairman, Teo Ser Luck and Zaqy Mohamad, visited Huda Kindergarten to apologise in person. Is that an admission of guilt, being accessory to a criminal act, and willingness to accept the punishment according to the laws of the land? If not, why the orchestrated photo op in the mainstream media?

Zaqy Mohamad should know better than to interfere when a police investigation is in progress. The officers of the law should be allowed to proceed with their work without undue influence. Zaqy alludes to same arms-length approach in his own Facebook posting - "leave it to the relevant authorities and let the law to (sic) run its course" - but is pictured arm-twisting the Huda principal, presumably to to withdraw the police report he lodged:

This has to be Teo Ser Luck' attempt to "balance the usage of traditional media like newspapers" since "the Government is now learning to use new media effectively" (his own words, no less).

Unfortunately there was more than one police report made about the rhetorical question concerning a bus load of young Muslims. Maybe that's why a fall guy was needed. Someone who could have cut and pasted any of the graphics from google images available online. Someone who expressed a personal outrage like Wafa Sultan, the first Arab Muslim woman who dared to challenge Islam. Wafa Sultan could be wrong, but she provides ample evidence for her own persuasion. Evidence that invites reasoned debate to change her mindset. She's one gutsy Muslim sister. Only the asinine would charge her with sedition.

Religion was never a recommended topic for polite dinner conversation, in Singapore or any other part of the world. That doesn't mean intellectual deliberation should be held hostage to the madness of McCarthyism. During the McCarthy era, reckless, unsubstantiated accusations and demagogic attacks were made on ordinary citizens to serve the politics of the day. When common sense finally prevailed, contrived punishments which came about were later overturned, mischievous laws would be declared unconstitutional, dismissals from employment declared illegal or actionable, convoluted extra-legal procedures challenged in open court. That was in a country which embraces democracy.

The best we can hope for is that the law will be fairly administered, and seen to be fair.

Priority For The Greater Good

Who would imagine this scene, Singapore rolling out the red carpet literally for a couple joined in gay wedlock. They even named an orchid after him - the "Doritaenopsis Sir Elton John". Elton and his partner David Furnish were similarly attired in track suits, so it was difficult to tell who actually wears the pants in their household. And who changes the baby diapers.

That could be one reason for the big welcome. The message that gays can help boost the population growth statistic without worrying about the bothersome TFR. A colleague had a quick put down for the alternate lifestyle: homosexuals are unnatural because they can't reproduce. Well, it looks like she could be wrong. Baby Zachary makes three.

And if Elton John signs up for a red passport, little Zachary will grow up to play golf at Orchid Country Club in the north and then zip down the spanking new North-South Expressway to Marina Bay Sands for a session at the baccarat tables. He probably will have to choose between a Porsche, Ferrari or Lotus Esprit, that's 3 COEs less for the lesser mortals. That's also one way to double the GDP by 2025.

Too bad the Rochor Centre folks have to be evicted to make way for the grandiose plans. "I hope they understand that their sacrifice is for the greater good, " said their MP Denise Phua. Latter claims to understand that there are residents who are angry with the move, adding, "It's difficult but we have to accept the Government's decision". Way up north, Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew could not assure the Nanyang Pho Heng association whether their request to move back to their original site after all the dust has settled would be entertained.

Major road works for the NSE project will begin from 2015. Both Lui and Ms Phua should take note that the next election is due in 2016.

Managing The New Media

Speaking at the Project Reach discussion on strategic engagement of new media, Teo Ser Luck lamented that a Facebook post by someone from an opposition party gathered " a lot of likes and hero worshipping", but a similar message posted by a PAP member resulted in criticism. That was before he was alerted to the posting by a PAP youth wing member of a photo of a Huda Kindergarten school bus, labelled "Bus filled with young terrorist trainees?"

Tampines resident Firdaus emailed YP vice-chairman Zaqy Mohamad, and latter's comments are illuminating:
"The YP has throughout the years, brought in its members through the branches. They would have demonstrated a certain level of interest and commitment towards the Party before they would be referred by a trusted comrade for membership. The reference would largely be experiential; with the referrer’s knowledge based on his practical and personal encounters with the potential member."

Zaqy's initial response ("My Holdingt Reply Last Night') to the email stated this:
"However, I am informed that the photo posted was made earlier in the year some time in Feb. XXX had joined YP much later in June."

Note the lifeline extended to the racist: the offending post was made before the party membership card was issued. It would appear "a certain level of interest and commitment towards the Party" is all that is required of membership, moral inaptitude and innate prejudices are presumably secondary considerations. The Ku Klux Klan probably shared similar recruiting philosophies.

Initially YP leaders contemplated an internal investigation before taking action, a protracted process that calls for a vote by the central executive committee. Teo Ser Luck, who expressed disagreement at the Project Reach meeting with the IPS survey finding that the recent GE was not a "Internet election", knew he had to cut his losses, and arranged for the black sheep to resign, and the Facebook account deactivated.

But three police reports have already been lodged, including one from the principal of the Islamic kindergarten maligned. It remains to be seen if the final outcome will be a repeat of the "investigation" involving a certain Marine Parade GRC MP. After all, Teo did say the Government is now learning to use new media effectively, but it is still essential to "balance with the usage of traditional media like newspapers to tap into different communities".

A Glimpse Of Things To Come

Click to see what was planned all along

McKinsey&Company is obviously privy to information that is not available to the average Singaporean. Put in another way, foreigners are trusted with future plans while citizens are treated like mushrooms - kept in the dark and fed with sh_t.

What the planners have in mind:

Year	2007	2025
Population, thousands	4,589	5,487
Total GDP, $ billion	172	415
Per capital GDP, $'000	51	91

Thanks for the heads up, "Kindness"@ November 16, 2011 5:08 PM

Meanwhile lawyer Hri Kumar Nair, MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, is saying the southern stretch of the NSE has a much smaller impact on building owners than the northern stretch. The occupants of 567 units in the affected HDB blocks at Rochor Centre will have a hard time swallowing this bitter truth - that they were never really proud owners of their residential flats, at least not in the eyes of the Government promoting home ownership.

Another One Bites The Dust

By now it is quite clear Bukit Brown is not just about making way for a new expressway, the plot of land is too lucrative an opportunity for real estate gains to miss. Could Rochor Centre, slated to be bulldozed for the North-South Expressway, be the latest sacrifice for another property development goldmine?

Residents like retiree Wong, 72, who has stayed there since 1978, will miss seeing the National Day fireworks from his 17th floor flat. Others lament the loss of convenience of the nearby supermarket, banks, eating houses and 3 communal facilities - kindergarten, community centre and a home for the aged. It remains to be seen if the advantages of the site will be enjoyed by the new occupiers of fancy high rise condominiums which foreigners are permitted to purchase.

The route for the new expressway is close to 4 MRT stations, namely Caldecott, Novena, Little India and Bugis. If accessibility is available by rail, why build roads to service the same locations? The LTA has made plain their intent cut the number of cars on the road, yet they embark on the exercise to shave driving time from the north to the city by 5 minutes. With COEs currently in the stratospheric region, only the filthy rich will benefit from the time saver. Anyway, what's 5 minutes caught in traffic for a guy whose other car is a Lamborghini?

On paper, relocation benefits are generous. A resident living in a 3-room 67 sq m HDB flat will be compensated $434,400 to $485,300 for their apartment. We are told a 3-room 67 sq m new flat in Kallang is estimated at $348,000 to $401,000.
 
Officially the average size of HDB flats has shrunk by 5 to 10 per cent over the last 20 to 30 years, the reality is far worse. Surely a 3-room Rochor flat built in the 1978 era can't have the same 67 m floor area as a new 3-room flat in Kallang. Recently HDB chief executive Cheong Koon Hean received lots of flak for asserting that "Smaller flats doesn't mean lower quality of living", her line of defence for "Hey honey, I shrunk the flat." Looks like somebody at LTA is about to be lambasted for another con job foisted on the people.

Big Boys Preferred

Years ago, an engineer visiting Panasonic Japan was waiting in the lobby when he noted a vendor delivering machined parts in a small plastic bag. His host later told him it was one of their many subcontractors who supply precision components by operating a small lathe from their homes. Back home, he told an EDB officer Singapore should have similar supporting industries. The officer said he had mooted a similar idea, but was shot down.

Lim's former employee said, "There is the sense that the Government prefers to work with established companies, not start-ups." He was referring to a Lim Kian Wee who funded his own greenfield operation to develop a electric vehicle (EV) with a range of 900 km per charge. Another entrepreneur, Clarence Tan invested $250,000 to realise his own dream of manufacturing a 2-seater air-conditioned EV. Tan also felt that the Government could have done more to support them.

The official initiative Electric Vehicle Taskforce - led by the Energy Market Authority and Land Transport Authority - launched an EV test bed for related technologies in June. The big boys invited include Daimler, Mitsubishi, Bosch, Renault and Nissan.

Tan had sought assistance from the National Research Foundation (NRF) in 2009 to test bed his battery system, but did not even receive an acknowledgement of their request. NRF denies the claim. Their spokesman says proposals are evaluated by expert panels and a successful proof of concept (POC) grant must demonstrate not just technical viability but also a high degree of commercial readiness.

One man must be familiar with the hurdles experienced by innovators like Tan. If Sim Wong Hoo did not pack his bag and headed for the US of A, the world would not have heard of Soundblaster. He, too, was rejected by EDB. Sim coined and made famous the term "No U-turn syndrome" to describe the social behaviour of the Singaporean mindset of conformity to higher authorities before taking any action. The strait jacket has to be cast off if creativity is to bloom.

Mind the speed bumps ahead

The Right Answers

Students sitting for the A levels must be having sleepness nights, tossing and turning in bed, wondering if their answers submitted will satisfy the examiners' expectations.

Compared with the transcript of a CNBC interview with Lee Hsien Loong in 2009, it was obvious the answers fell short of the latest queries directed to him. Maybe it's the new normal in action, maybe things haven't changed a wee bit.

Asked whether cancer had "humbled" him, Lee said, "I think I try to be myself and that's the best way and people will accept us as we are." Notice the use of the royal "we" and not "me", since the life threatening event had affected him personally and not, touch wood, the nation at large. And he can tell segue on to tell the questioner, "It's not our role to be lords and masters and I think that's quite fundamental, which every elected politician must remember in a democracy." The corollary of that statement must be, since full democracy is not yet in place, lords and masters will continue to reign.

And the world knows too well what goes on in our city state, best illustrated by the mainstream media blackout about the prestigious LI Freedom Award 2011. Surely the old man will rather be accorded with that prize instead of the Ford Theater thingy. Sharing honours with the likes of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma's democracy leader) and Vaclav Havel (former president of the Czech Republic) is just not the same as standing on the same stage as Julie Andrews.

Asked if there was an unfair image of Singapore portrayed in the West, Lee's response was puzzling, "It's like looking at the tail of the elephant and thinking 'that's the animal'." Now, what does that mean, coming from a guy who also said, "You have to depend on people who will be productive, be skilled, be imaginative"? Just focus on the tail and ignore the elephant in the room? Theres' a Chinese saying to the effect that if one draws a cartoon, it's not necessary to sketch in the intestines. One doesn't need a wild imagination to see through the fog of deception.

Elderly Institutional Care Review

The teacher was both exasperated and embarrassed. She was leading her troop of primary school tiny tots to visit single room flats, an exercise in altruism intended to inculcate empathy for the less fortunate. But the little brat refused to step through the doorway, saying the room smells funny. Fortunately the septuagenarian occupant was hard of hearing, and was spared the hurtful remark.

But the kid was still a kid, with all his needs attended to by his doting parents. At the other end of the age spectrum, the senior citizen was supposed to be taken care of by the younger generation, her own children if she had any. Even a brief social visit was welcome palliative for her lonely existence.

Most of the nursing homes in Singapore are staffed by foreign workers, with filipinas in dominance because of their literacy in English. These are also relatively younger than their elderly charges. While they go about their assigned duties professionally, distributing medication or disposing of soiled adult pampers, not all of them have the empathy to dispense. The video footage of an old woman being abused by the staff of Nightingale Nursing Home at Braddell Road may have shocked some Singaporeans, but the harsh reality is that it is probably a more common occurrence than anyone would care to admit. The young foreign nurses have their own set of growing up pains, be it boyfriend problems or just scrounging enough money to send home. The ideal caregiver would be a Singaporean nurse in her retirement years. She has the skills and the mindset to care for someone who could be a contemporary of her own mother, or grandmother. Apparently these are not in short supply, but they have a niche market in being highly paid private nurses, caring for the well-off in their luxurious private residences.

Speaking at the conference organised by the Centre of Enable Living (CEL), Chan Chun Sing said "We know in the Asian context and culturally, we frown upon moving into institutional care. We think that it is against our values of filial piety to put your parents in the institutional home." Hence the government initiatives to build "Senior Service Centres" where the elderly are supposed to provide emotional support for their own kind, presumably for those who can feed, wash and clean up after themselves. The old looking after the old. It makes sense. Then he suggests something more in character with his unfathomable logic: use the new media and create one-minute YouTube videos on care giving to improve home care for the elderly. Honestly, I don't know what to say.

Moral Education

If there was a contradiction of terms, Education Minister Heng Swee Keat must have missed it. At the unveiling of a "character development" toolkit, Heng said that character-building is a long-term process. MOE introduced an ethics syllabus in 1959, civics and moral education in 1992 and 1994, and national education in 2007 (recommendations on NE made by Committee of Supply per Mr Lui Tuck Yew, Minister of State (Education)), just 4 years ago. Note the intervals are getting shorter and shorter. Maybe the latest guidelines for Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) will have an even shorter shelf-life.

One principal at a SAP school in the West made a lasting impression on parents and guardians some time back during an occasion of the announcement of the PSLE results. She asked the pupils assembled in the school hall to stand up, to turn around, and face the moms and dads seated at the back. Take a bow, she told the kids, for without their patient love and nurturing, that day in school would not have been possible.

On the wall of that hall, the school had painted in large characters the values it aimed to impart to the young minds:
礼 (li) - courtesy
义 (yi) - righteousness
廉 (lian) - integrity
耻 (chi) - sense of shame
忠 (zhong) - loyalty
孝 (xiao) - filial piety
仁 (ren) - humanity
爱 (ai) - love

A committee member of the St Joseph's Institution Old Boys' Association commenting on the new MOE initiative said that teachers must be prepared to venture out of their comfort zone. Really? Is it hazardous duty to teach, amongst others, righteousness, integrity or a sense of shame?

Shame - 耻 (chi) - is not just about exposing the navel line, as in the Abercrombie & Fitch ad. It's about the shame of setting a bad example, of lying to the people you pledged to serve, of hiding behind manipulated data, while enriching oneself by ripping off taxpayers. It's moral hazard pure and simple, and teachers should not be afraid to call a spade a spade.

Even The Dead Are Not Spared

Mahathir once caused a major upset when he said some of his people were pampered from the womb to the tomb. Lucky them. As for us, it's more like being made to pay and pay for progress from the cradle to the grave. Even those souls resting in peace at Bukit Brown are not spared.

Detractors allege that the deluge of MSM coverage about the grave development was intended to mask the more news worthy item about the Liberal International (LI) Prize for Freedom 2011 Award accorded to a Singaporean, given to an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the promotion of freedom and human rights. Past laureates of the Prize include Daw Aung San Suu Kyi (Burma's democracy leader), Vaclav Havel (former president of the Czech Republic), and Mary Robinson (former president of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights).

Between the living and the dead

In addition to a wordy post in his Facebook account of 5 Nov, BG Tan Chuan-Jin was given a two page spread in the Sunday Times. Despite the copious deluge of verbosity, the general would not, or could not, provide a positive answer when confronted with the request for an re-alignment of the road, more time for historians to document the graves, relocation of certain tombstones, or simply keeping some clusters as "cemetery-parks". Not exactly very difficult demands for a high ranking officer and gentleman.

His prevarication defeats the prose in his post, "Our history and heritage is precious. They are anchors to our past even as we look forward to our future". He repeats the charade of having "discussed with some members of Heritage Society, met a few personalities passionate about the place and importantly, to talk to the Hokkien Huay Kuan." But when it comes to decision time, it is obvious where he stands: "I have taken a look at our 2025 plans and beyond till the middle of this century. The Bukit Brown area would be required for future developments." How's that for killing off a discourse?

Tan's pseudo remorse, "We could have done better", sounds remarkably like a page taken out of PM Lee's last ditch apology at the eve of elections, "And if we didn’t quite get it right, I’m sorry, but we will try and do better the next time." So this is the new approach the incumbents are embarking on to engage the citizens. Smoke 'em and fool 'em. Maybe this ex-soldier may not be as "in-your-face" as the kee-chiu character, but his graveside manner has room for improvement in the sincerity department.

Hot Air About Electricity

The managing director of Singapore Power says of the need to look for cheaper fuel, "I am already worried about next year's electricity prices." Obviously that concern was not about the financial impact on Singapore house holds. You see, electricity here is not subsidised because the Government claims it wants to encourage people to conserve energy and cut wastage. Meanwhile one old geezer is allowed to keep the room temperature of his office at 22 degrees Celsius, and that of his bedroom at 19 degrees Celsius. At taxpayers' expense.

If that gets you hot under the collar, note that last year, oil accounted for 17 percent of fuel for electricity production, natural gas for 77 percent, and waste and other sources for 6 percent. Yet that secret formula for calculating the household electricity tariff rate is still indexed against the price of oil.

During 2001-2003, the electricity market was "liberalised" to permit the privatised power stations to compete in providing power to about 10,000 non-residential consumers. The fruit of privatisation is delivered to the industrial giants, not to lesser mortals in their HDB cubicles. Oh yes, we know, the Gahment wants to encourage people to conserve energy.

All the hot air about alternative sources of fuel sources is of no practical value to the average Singaporean if they are simply alternate excuses to hike the electrical bills. The HDB began a $31 million 5-year trial in 2009 to supply solar power for common areas like corridors and stairwells. Meanwhile the residents living and studying inside their flats continue to pay exorbitant prices. And praying that the Town Council charges won't be raised to cover the expensive solar panels.

The really dumb idea has to be buying electricity from remote overseas foreign facilities, considering the pitfalls of grid security and the power source's political sustainability. Indonesia is building coal firing plants at Batam, with intent to sell electricity to Singapore and diverting the cleaner gas fuel to serve it's own Java instead. Are the recent lessons of being held hostage for drinking water from Johore so easily forgotten? Remember how the Japs turned off the pipeline at the Causeway and made the the British soldiers cry uncle? Asian Development Bank energy specialist Zhou Aiming is only scratching the surface of a potentially volatile situation when he pointed out that "countries trading electricity need to iron out interconnection standards and terms of the trade countries", conveniently choosing to skip the political realities.

The Energy Market Authority estimates Singapore currently uses at most one third of it's licensed 9,890 MW power generation capacity. Scrap all the fancy talk, how about giving some of the excess capacity to the citizens? Or is that reserved for the next pre-election hand-out?