Friday, November 29, 2013

Getting Creative With Words

Gerald De Cruz was a real firebrand communist, and he blamed his allegiance to the comrades as the "solution to all the psychological problems arising from my rebellion against my father." He did not share his pa's colonial mentality, but a trip to Moscow brought about a dramatic ideological U-turn. From commie lover, he became a commie hater, and signed on to spread the propaganda for his new political master by visiting schools.

At the original Raffles Institution site in Bras Basah Road, De Cruz was regaling the kids with war stories of British follies during WWII. When the Japanese were marching relentlessly down the Malayan Peninsula, the Brits had constructed wooden airplanes. Seen from the air, the Japs just might be fooled into thinking twice about a quick invasion. The valiant defenders were desperately buying time for reinforcements to arrive. De Cruz was beside himself with rollicking laughter, though it wasn't clear if he was taking a jibe at the British Army or his own father. A secondary four student submitted his question slip, "But Sir, isn't national service our equivalent of wooden airplanes?"

Up to the 1980s, Singapore's initial defence posture was predicated on the "poisonous shrimp" analogy, where the armed forces sought to defend the island at the water's edge first, to be followed by a "Stalingrad style of close combat" in urban areas. The deterrent value lay in the promise of great pain for the aggressor, but defeat was virtually guaranteed. (Chew and Kwa, "Goh Keng Swee: A Legacy of Public Service", page137)

Without any parliamentary opposition until 1981, the government was free to sustain a high level of military expenditure year after year. The hand-me-down Hawker Hunters left behind by the British have been replaced by F-15SGs, complete with Tom Cruise aviator glasses. Singapore increased its military expenditure 114 percent over the period 1969-78. The armed forces had morphed into a "porcupine". The evolution continues, from "poisonous shrimp" to "porcupine" to today's "dolphin", with the last prompting you to wonder what the fish is it all about.

Whatever you call it, able bodied males conscripted year after year continue to ask what the two years in uniform are for. Especially when one in three on the island is already a foreigner. But names do matter, that's how they justify splurging on the more expensive F35. And when they used up all the words - think "routine maintenance", "technical glitch", "compromise", "intrusion" - they come up with the more creative "unauthorised modification of computer material". The enemies of the people have to be from within.

22 comments:

  1. How much of the Defence Budget are used to pay the Senior Rank Military Officers.
    Do they(commanders) the Pays, with no sign of war in the foreseeable future?

    patriot

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  2. My apology;

    Do they(commanders) deserves the Pays, with no sign of war in the foreseeable future?

    patriot

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  3. LHL :- So we need a policy which says: ‘If you come I’ll whack you, and I’ll survive.’ This is a workable strategy. I may not completely destroy you, but you will have to pay a high price for trying to subdue me, and you may still not succeed."

    The true application happens against ordinary politicians on opposing fence, dissenters, civilians and civic bloggers on the internet. Unfolding everyday as we speak.

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  4. Not surprising that they change their allegiances at the drop of a hat. The example has been set by The One and his political expediency.

    Our security has been "compromised" by the "intrusion" of all the foreigners, and this is not "routine maintenance" or "technical glitch" but a deliberate policy.

    Whatever military strategy is adopted, however much we spend on defence, everything still hinges on the solders and especially the commanders. With overpaid scholar-paper generals whose next ambition is a more lucrative appointment in politics or a GLC, we already have a lost cause.

    http://rsismilitarystudies.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/zoological-analogies-and-military-strategy/

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    1. http://news.yahoo.com/thai-protesters-storm-army-headquarters-060652650.html

      Thaksin and Yingluck playing with fire when he tries to push the amnesty bill through the highly frustrating and angry Thai middle class.

      What happens in Thailand anyway will never happen in SG.
      PAP has started co-opting the SAFs into the GLCs and state-owned bodies are clear signs where the army will stand if there is ever a freak election. All these under the eyes and broad day lights of the people.

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    2. //With overpaid scholar-paper generals whose next ambition is a more lucrative appointment in politics or a GLC, we already have a lost cause.//
      Well, Gaddafi is gone. So is Saddam Hussein. The question is whether the PAP has the stomach for the fight.

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    3. // The example has been set by The One and his political expediency.//

      If you need another zoological analogy, you can liken it to a "chameleon".

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  5. You mean the party against people?

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  6. Moving from poisonous shrimp to porcupine is to help cement the idea among our NS soldiers that red dot is a defendable place, not a suicide scenario. Clever marketing, one would say, of course congruent with the strong spending over the past decades.

    Then GCT era's we were also likened to be an agile scorpion.

    Calling it dolphin is probably because friendly dolphin is known to be intelligent and (tech) savvy that can save man and yet has the ability to even attack sharks ( think Malaysia & Indo)?

    Looks like that acquisition of F35 must have bolden their balls, so much they are part of the 5 eye spy network for US. Why not rename ourselves as Opabinia or Starfish instead?

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    1. If the PAP leadership seem to grow bigger balls , it is actually inflated with hot air and I believe Ah Loong and his stooges in serving the US spy network are looking at political sanctuary for themselves in the event they are booted out......

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  7. Commanders in other countries either come from military families or they grew up dreaming of being soldiers, pilots or sailors.
    Our army is lead by guys who grew up dreaming of being scholars. Predict the outcome of two forces led by these two different types of commanders. One will be led from the front. The other will be pushed from the back.

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  8. Catch and charge these messiahs?
    So how come MOM website still got duplicated this time?
    They should call themselves monkey lah..it would be an insult to dolphin.

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  9. Pentagon also touted that the two B52 bombers despatched to fly past the self-proclaimed ADIZ by China as "routine" long planned military exercise dubbed "Coral Lightning".

    Since China can suka suka draw up an ADIZ and claim sovereignty, the best way is to fly past it lah. The Japanese commercial planes also passed through with a snub. So Obama's chinese checkers so far worked.

    The back story to that is learning from the Scarborough Shoal incident. When Manila sent naval vessels to challenge China's vessels there, USA declined to join battle to defend Philippine. So China was emboldened to escalate its assaults, and threatened to cut off commercial ties. Manila eventually gave up, and China now controls the area. See the bully tactics?

    Now PAP uses the same tactics. Just draw the line and declared all the internet laws /zones like China did. Then escalates its assaults and eventually you will claim all the space. From media licenses, to harrassment act to trolling prevention to gambling (!! but not casino) and all kinds of simisai laws on the internet. Slowly and surely, they will conquer and eat into the territorial space that belongs to everyone and free but eventually belong to them. When you suddenly do not compliant to their "zones/laws" you are not "legitimate". In the first place, are they even the legitimate owners and policeman of the free internet?!! Singaporeans are so law by law, in the end, they end up like Philippines! Kena screwed and stripped off their rights . History repeating itself, just like seeing how the labor laws and unions laws and civic laws are slowly being peeled away by PAP from the people...just another #325 ways to skin the cats in their playbook.

    Open your bloody eyes and sleeping brains and get creative lah!


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    Replies
    1. A predatory business organ dressed up as a worker's union?

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  10. There is another two cliche : calibrated responses and targeted . Must be from the Artillery Training Manuals , no ?

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  11. /// The enemies of the people have to be from within. ///

    Indeed. How to guard against the enemies if they are already within the gates. Fifth column, and even sixth column (if there is such a term) are lying in wait.

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  12. Enemy from within is no more secret.
    Some NS Soldiers declared that they know who to aim at whence the call for it arrives.
    Enemies from within or outside are all enemies.

    patriot

    ReplyDelete
  13. Read it, and reflect it!

    http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/2694

    //.....It would be difficult to expect anything from a capital city middle class of this type. It timidly supported the demonstrations of October 73, but turned its back on the students in 1976. It timidly supported the early Thaksin social policies, but very soon turned against him, and now expresses itself through noisy support for the monarchy and the Yellows. I should say that in this way the Bangkok bourgeoisie isn’t far from that of Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore and Jakarta: timid, selfish, uncultured, consumerist, and without any decent vision of the future of the country.//

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  14. With the increasing purchase of more expensive military toys each year, someone with the right connections must be earning those secret commissions from those foreign defence companies ? As nobody will probably ever find out who will be entitled to those secret commissions under the cloak of secrecy of those military equipment contracts, I'll suspect it probably be another of those S$2 company just like AIM ?

    It has been reported that in countries like Malaysia & Taiwan, the commissions are happily given out without even the need to ask for them in the first place as long as the contract is awarded to that particular defence company. So in the case of PAP, do you think that any of our defence people are stupid enough to turn them off ?

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