Category: Rants

Random Discourse – Cancellation of the Halloween Horrors event

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On online forums such as HardwareZone, some have insinuated that Ms Loh, who took over only in July, cancelled the event because she was Christian.

Yesterday, the 51-year-old CEO clarified that she is Buddhist and gave her side of the story.

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She said that some members of the team, including those who were directly involved in the planning of the spook fest event, asked her why the activity did not fit into the family theme.

It is here that the reference to ‘devil worship’ was made.

“I explained in an e-mail that that’s a lot of money spent on an infrastructure (Haunted House) of devil worship. That was the context of my remarks,” she said.

It must have really disappointed a lot of “Christianophobes” that Isabelle Loh isn’t Christian and the Christian community can now breathe a sigh of relief. It certainly won’t do the community much good if another over zealous believer bring the faith into the limelight again. After that round of attacks in May 2009, I am pretty sure Christians wouldn’t want anymore of such attention.

It was also good that we now get a better picture about that remark on “devil worship”. Otherwise, the following would have become fact when nary any attempt at verification was made by the person who reported it in his blog post: “that someone in the senior management said, in response to why the event was canceled, ‘We should not worship the devil. We can be creative and turn the bad for good.”

A lot of readers has re-posted and share the blog post carrying that comment and I shudder to imagine how many who read it were misled into believing all of the hearsay as the facts. Thank you for scoring one for the government, dude. Thank you very much for giving the government yet another example to say just how non-credible blog posts are. Some of us here struggling with about 150 to 200 hits a day still do like people to read what we write and consider us a credible source (even though we can only dream of being respectable or a celebrity like you), you know?

Anyway, when I first read this news, I didn’t even bother to read more on it. My initial stand was that I don’t give a shit about Halloween since it is not a Singaporean holiday or festival or whatever not you want to call it. I am surprised that we actually celebrated this though I probably also wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow had this been a lunar seventh month (“ghost month”) related event. It was until a colleague told me during lunch today that there are students involved, and their participation in this event would be graded that I took notice and catch up with this particular piece of news.

I really don’t buy Isabelle Loh’s story that she didn’t know the students involved would be graded for this event. Even though I read that the cancellation of this project wouldn’t have affected their grades, this is a utter public relations fiasco. The only consolation was that an MP of Tampines GRC had allowed the event to take place there so the students can complete their work.

Regardless of my personal preference, a thousand over tickets were sold meant some people are actually looking forward to the event. That’s not mentioning the million over dollars that was already spent. Frankly, if Isabelle Loh has too much money (and good will) to throw away, she should at just throw the money this way. I could have used that million to make a lot of people happy.

Just what the hell was she thinking? Whatever her reasons were for terminating the event, can’t she wait until it is over and announce that it wouldn’t be done anymore in the future? At least a lot less people would be upset about it. This clearly looked like an abuse of power, if not an attempt to show off “who is boss”. On top of which, her attempt to justify her decision by quoting the new Elected President was just plain lame. It was all the more annoying when some had cited this as yet another “Christian Conspiracy” because the President is a Christian. Her subsequent apology for this was of no comfort to me even though I had chuckled briefly at the thought of this as a classic example of an attempt at currying favor gone bad.

I don’t even want to waste more time talk about her idea for a replacement event. From now on the name Isabelle Loh will be synonymous with FAIL, along with the likes of Saw Phaik Hwa and Lim Hwee Hua. Just where the hell did they dig up all these “jewels”

*sigh*

Random Discourse – The People’s Association

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The PA has also sent two letters to the media, stating that “it is not possible” to appoint opposition MPs as advisers, because it cannot ask opposition MPs to help the government connect better with the people, or be able to help explain, implement and improve its policies.

I have not commented on this because I was too tired working on the 7am ~ 4pm cover last week. I have to say this is utter bollocks because I am certain that even if the opposition MP wouldn’t care to explain or implement government policies, he / she would still want to connect better with the people who elected them. Furthermore, even if they are opposing certain policies, they might not necessary want to stop them but because they want to see them improved (or given some re-think). That’s not mentioning that if the government wants to connect better with the people to obtain feedback, there’s no better and honest feedback compared to those given earnestly and passionately by an opposition MP. (Really, all that other stuff from PAP back-benchers really means zilch when in the end they voted for whatever they seem to passionately opposed earlier anyway. I am not aware any of them had dared to vote “NO” in spite of the whip since Tan Cheng Bock did so when the Nominated Member of Parliament bill was passed.)

Now, back to the part about connecting with the people. There have been several events in the past few months this year at the void deck of my block. I am quite sure those were done by the Resident Committee [RC]. If I am not wrong, the RC is a part of the People’s Association [PA]. Basically, I have never been informed by anyone from the RC when such events take place. (That’s not mentioning that in all my 14 years in Jurong West, I have never seen my MP do door-to-door vists – not even during the elections. So much for connecting with the people.)

I happened to walk past one of the events one Saturday evening several weeks ago, and I didn’t even bother to take a look at what the event was. To be frank, I don’t give a damn. But as I approached, I could see that the attendance is pretty bad, because there’s probably just about 100 odd people. Now, there are 5 HDB blocks in my area, and each block has approximately 120 units. That makes 600 families and if each family has 3 people, there would be 1800 people within just that few blocks. Now, if there’s only just a 100 odd people, it means the attendance rate is not even 10%. How is that connecting the people? Frankly, I see more of the Muslim community attending the Ramadan prayers at the same area in the void deck because there are easily 300 faithful Muslims turning up to pray every night!

I wonder, whether these RC events are really meant to connect the residents or just for lackeys RC or PAP members only. If they are for residents, then I must say the RC (and in extension, the PA) has done a very bad job because I have no idea what those events were, nor were any invitations ever extended to us! I must point out that even if the events may not have been relevant to any members of my family (since I only have 2 old folks at home and no kids), it wouldn’t harm to tell us what activities is slated for the residents, right? No wonder my parents didn’t know where to get free food and be ferried to attend PAP rallies.

I also noticed that there is an RC notice board at the ground floor lift lobby so any event notifications could be there. Unfortunately, I have never seen anyone stopping to read them – because if they were I would have been curious what caught my neighbours’ attention and do the same. Though I do get some publications from the Town Council every now and then, I rarely bother to read them either. Simply put, I would consider the attempt to connect with the people to be absolutely feeble. If all of these were the PA’s means to connect with us, I must say that if there was a notice that my block would be demolished tomorrow, I probably wouldn’t know until too late just like that poor soul in Douglas Adam’s “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”.

RC activities aside, I personally do not even know what else the PA really is doing. It seems to serve no useful purpose at all. I asked a whole bunch of people in my age group (between 35 ~ 45) and none (including myself) could ever remember participating in any PA or RC related activities. If connecting the people to the government and strengthening the bond between citizens are part of the Key Performance Indicators [KPI] for the PA, then it has failed spectacularly in both of them. After all, I do not even know just who the hell the RC members are, and I wondered who selected / elected them in the first place. To be frank, I don’t even know the faces of my neighbours further than 2 units on either side of my unit, and sadly I may actually know my Malay neighbours’ white cat a lot better than its owners since it often perched on the common corridor. (Or the other neighbour’s edgy dog which seem to panic and bark at everything and anything, including neighbours it sees everyday.)

A friend mentioned to me that the PA is a statuary board under a ministry (like the HDB) and thus it must be headed by a minister. That reminds me that the PA is thus funded by public monies. Since that is the case, I have to agree with the Workers’ Party [WP] that we should abolish the PA entirely because clearly it has utterly failed in doing what it was supposed to do (as far as I am concerned). Abolishing it would make no difference to the apparent disconnect between the government and the people. Abolishing it would end the spat between it and the elected MPs of Aljunied GRC and Hougang SMC. Abolishing it would release the funding this inept statuary board is doing and free them up for other more useful purposes or better means to reconnect the government to the people.

Had it been abolished earlier, it would even have saved the Prime Minister the trouble of explaining why the PA can only appoint members of his party to grassroot advisor positions. A lot of trees would be saved as well since there will be less to report on the papers. It is perhaps time for the government to do away with the PA dinosaur and endeavour in some political innovation to more effectively connect with the people it claimed it wanted to serve.

Random Discourse – Remembering Sep 11, 2001

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When the attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York happened, I was out having dinner with some some friends. I only realised it has happened, when another friend sent me an SMS informing me that the twin towers have collapsed. I thought he was joking because the WTC has been attacked before. He simply replied that I should just watch the news on television.

I was only 5 minutes away from home when I received the message so when I turned on the TV, a shocking sight that greeted me. One tower has collapsed and the other was still burning. It wasn’t long before the remaining tower came crashing down before my eyes.

I wrote an email to a friend in New York (the only Singaporean I know who works there) because I couldn’t get him on the phone. It was several long hours before he replied to my mail and I only read it the next morning. His brother was also unscathed, though he was close enough to Ground Zero when it happened.

I was outraged. I was outrage not because I am pro-American. I was outraged because I have a friend whose life was threatened. The terrorists may try and justify what they do, but it has nothing to do with my friend and his brother. Neither has it got much to do with the 2600 over souls which perished in the twin towers that day. Whatever good reasons there might be for these attacks, the very actions of these terrorists invalidated them.

I can still remember the look in the eyes of one of the traders in my office the next day. He was an American. He came into the office and placed a small American flag on one of his screens. I also recalled the Cantor Fitzgerald screens that went blank, and it was very much later that I realised that a total of 658 employees died in the Cantor Fitzgerald office located in the South Tower.

Regardless of my disagreement with certain American foreign policies and some military action taken in other parts of the world, what Osama bin Laden and his henchmen did was unforgivable. It was a pity that he died a quick death only a few months ago at the hands of a Navy SEAL team. I would have preferred that he stand trial for his crimes against humanity, and then hung on the Brooklyn bridge by his scrotum with two fishing hooks which pierced his testicles and tied to a small silk handkerchief like Saddam Hussein. It would be nice if we can all see the hanging of this devil in a live telecast. I would have considered getting shot dead by the SEAL team in Abbottabad as mercy for him.

Sadly, Osama Bin Laden and the ideologies of Al Qaeda has spawned numerous other outfits in the regionn. Whatever political reasons I had to oppose the Internal Security Act [ISA] is set aside because of the threat of Jemaah Islamiah [JI], though I still believe that we should still charge them in court and sentence them formally instead of detaining them indefinitely without trial.

There should be no compromise with these extremists. If they do not treat the lives of the rest of the human race and their property with respect, then they should be treated like wise. These self-righteous, criminal hypocrites claiming to be Muslims and hijacking the religion have no place in human society. Everyone of them should be hunted down like a rabid animal and eliminated with extreme prejudice.

Random Discourse – Young NTUC Coffeeshop Talk (Aug 25, 2011)

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I attended my second “Coffeeshop Talk” of the year two days before the Presidential Elections. I probably wouldn’t have signed up since it was on the evening of a weekday. But when I realised that BG (NS) Tan Chuan Jin would be the guest of honor, I decided to go to take a look. I had really wanted to hear this man speak, because someone who called me a PAP-hater was hysterical when he was introduced as a candidate. It was as if he hit a gold vein. The fact that he is also Minister of State for the Ministry of National Development [MND] and the Ministry of Manpower [MOM], and the topic will revolve around his portfolio also compelled me to go.

On top of which, another friend who is an SDP supporter said she has been following his Facebook page and the comments from his supporters are usually respectful (and not the usual sychopantic responses from the ‘lunatic fringe’ on the PAP side of the political divide). Furthermore, BG Tan maybe our future Prime Minister one day and I’ll like to hear the man speak and hopefully he wouldn’t turn out to be another Chan Chun Sing. (Sorry, MG (NS) Chan. the Internet really did you in with your ‘Lanfang’ and ‘kee chiew’ video. It’s going to be hard for general impression on you to improve, though I suspect you can find solace in your million dollar paycheck and knowing that Lim Swee Say is a even bigger clown.)

Well, I arrived around 6:30pm (the stated time of the event) but BG Tan did not arrive until around 7:15pm. I had an overdose of Hokkien songs, and coffee with Ya-kun style bread while waiting but then I sort of expected that since evening traffic in the CBD area is utter madness. It was a little disappointing since I thought one of the things the PAP wanted to fix was arriving late. BG Tan didn’t apologise for being late either, though I suspect he might have been told the event is 7:30pm. (If that is the case, it is clear that even though the NTUC is nominally a non-government organisation, they have not taken the Prime Minister’s advice to heart.)

He give an introduction of himself on his feet (perhaps used to doing so when he was in the military) which is something I didn’t see from the previous guests. For a high ranking officer he didn’t seem to talk down to his audience. I couldn’t really remember much from what he said, but from his tone I felt he was sincere, and was very much attempting to appeal to our logical selves to think about the issues facing our country and how we should participate and shape it for the future. I find that promising from one who would one day be part of the future leadership of our nation and sincerely I hope he wouldn’t fall from grace and go the way of Vivian Balakrishnan, who used to look promising at the beginning.

I really didn’t catch much from the question and answer section, because I was feeling rather sleepy (in spite of the coffee). However, I did manage to note down that BG Tan mentioned the the MOM does not intend to take an extreme approach in restricting the flow of foreign workers. The MOM is reviewing the employment guidelines and it would be studying the approach taken by other countries to determine a more middle approach. MOM will also be more proactive to remind foreign companies operating in Singapore the need to employ Singaporeans. I’m not really sure whether this is just paying lip service but I find consolation that the MOM is aware of malpraticises in which certain heads of departments in certain companies are hiring (in my words) ‘their entire village’ and not Singaporeans.

He also mentioned that at times we might need to bring to the attention of the MOM when employers manipulate loopholes or resort to unfair practices. On that matter, the MOM will be find ways to catch and punish these employers. BG Tan reminded us that the low birthrate in our country has left very little choices for the government, as it will have to augment the population through immigration to mitigate the possibility of a higher burden on our young (in terms of the taxes). After all, the government will be hard pressed to pay for the subsidies as the current population ages while the working young population diminishes.

This reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend who works in MAS, who once mentioned that the government at times cannot talk about certain specifics in their policies due to the repurcussions. Throughout this session, there was very little mention of the matter of how ‘talented’ these foreign immigrants might be. It was simply a logical explanation of the difficulties facing our nation. Though I had thought of the fact that our low birth rate is further driven lower due to the higher competition we face from the immigrants, I had decided not to point out the obvious without anything add on. Call it an attempt by the minister to sell the party position if you like, but at least it was a revelation on what drove their decisions.

If there’s anything I took away from this session, I think I would say that attending these sessions prevents me from being driven to the extreme like those who read Temasek Review Emeritus primarily as their source of information. Even though I would prefer such sessions to be more of a “we talk, they listen” kind of feedback session, it does help a little in helping me moderate my already extremist views and bias against the PAP government.

It’s been abount just 100 over days since the General Election and I am willing to give the new government time to formulate and excute new policies even though it remains to be seen whether these policies are just skin deep, “quick fixes” to placate us. I am however, not a very patient man. So I expect to see some results in the form of action taken against some employers soon.

Random Discourse – Post Presidential Election

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The Presidential Election is over and Sunday is a rather disappointing day for me because Dr Tan Cheng Bock didn’t win. 83.44% of 2.27 million eligible voters cast their votes and Tan Cheng Bock was beaten by a hair thin margin of just 0.33%. Tony Tan’s supporters can ungraciously say that even if Tan Cheng Bock had won, he would also be another 35% president. But the difference is that a Tan Cheng Bock win would be a lot less abrasive and a lot more acceptable to some of those who voted for Tan Jee Say. That is a fact because when Tan Jee Say has fallen behind, the hashtag #AnyonebutTonyTan starts making its rounds on Twitter. In other words, Tony Tan is a 35% President both in name and in fact while Tan Cheng Bock will only be one in name.

Personally, I had expected Tan Cheng Bock to win. It was not by detailed analysis. It was simply gut feel. I went to a customer site with a colleague and on the cab, the colleague said he would vote for Tan Cheng Bock. I was drinking myself silly in a pub and one of the usual patrons came up and asked me who I would vote for and toasted me for saying Tan Cheng Bock. Among my two drinking partners, one has already decided to vote for Tan Cheng Bock while the other said he would go with that as long as that is the popular choice. I asked someone who I haven’t spoken to in a long while and she said Tan Cheng Bock. Tan Cheng Bock was so overwhelming a choice among the majority of my friends and that was in spite of the online propaganda by the likes of Temasek Review Emeritus. To me, “Doc” (as his team on Facebook affectionately calls him) is simply the people’s choice outside the online community and it was something spontaneous and not orchestrated. If there was a movement online canvassing for votes for Tan Cheng Bock, all of that effort appeared to be individual and uncoordinated. In my case, I had simply forwarded what I liked to my Facebook wall, and to those friends who have not decided on who they would vote for. To me, Tan Cheng Bock is the black horse which would come from behind and surprise everyone. In fact I had generally refrain from criticising the other candidates publicly and when I had to post anything critical of them I had make it clear I regarded them as ‘political smear’, so that anyone who wants to read them would read with a pinch (or a bucket) of salt.

A day before the polling day when I met an ex-colleague for lunch, he spoke of tactical voting and has advised that the votes for Tan Cheng Bock and Tan Jee Say be consolidated to deny Tony Tan the presidency. He mentioned that if we failed to do so then Tony Tan would definitely win. In fact, it was a foregone conclusion even then that Tan Kin Lian is finished and we were hoping for a last minute miracle in which he would pull out of the race to avoid humiliation and to throw his support behind either Tan Cheng Bock or Tan Jee Say.

I understand the concept of tactical voting, but I find it difficult to abandon Tan Cheng Bock for Tan Jee Say. The reason is rather simple. I knew very little about Tan Jee Say. All I have is just what he had said during the campaign period and I would be a fool to take all that at face value and give him my vote. On top of which, a Tan Jee Say win would be as bad as a Tony Tan win since they stood on the opposite end of the political divide. While it maybe said that Tan Jee Say is being true to himself by aligning solidly with the opposition camp, it simply reinforces the impression that neither a Tony Tan nor Tan Jee Say win will do anything to bridge the politcal divide. So even though it was a risky (if not painful) decision, I stayed my course and voted for Tan Cheng Bock. My ex-colleague said we might as well have voted for Tony Tan. I had told him to stand firm and vote for the candidate he believed in all the way to the end. To vote against one’s own preferred candidate simply because one thinks the candidate is unlikely to win is just making one’s vote meaningless.

On hindsight, perhaps I should have convinced him to vote for Tan Cheng Bock instead. I should have told him that it is rather impossible for Tan Jee Say to win. After all, while the national average for the opposition vote is 40% in the recent General Election [GE], that average is generally boosted by the overall good showing of the Workers’ Party [WP], and the good showing of the Singapore Peoples’ Party [SPP] at Bishan-Toa Payoh and Potong Pasir. That means the die-hard opposition base is actually much lower, and I estimate it to be around 35% due to the resentment over public transport, housing and the surge in foreign labor.

It may have been logical for Tan Jee Say aligned himself primarily with the opposition. Unfortunately, that almost certainly sank his bid more so than his confrontational stance in the debates. His deliberate, pointed barbs against Tony Tan did nothing to endear him to the PAP camp at all. While that may present his supporters an impression of self-confidence (i.e. the impression he is already running neck and neck with Tony Tan), it also made him looked arrogant. It may play very well to the rabidly anti-PAP camp, but it does nothing to endear him to the middle voters (a part of those who has chosen to vote for any opposition only in the recent GE) because he had treated the other two candidates as just also-runs and insignificant. By failing to engage the other candidates, it really leave very little room for voters to engage in tactical voting because there is very little common ground (if not none at all). It also means he wouldn’t be able to win all of that 35% of the opposition votes. In my case, that arrogance and disrespect was simply offensive. It was as offensive as Tony Tan interrupting Tan Jee Say when he was speaking on the ISA. I am dismayed that someone of Tony Tan’s stature had rudely interrupted before Tan Jee Say finished speaking.

I hadn’t bother to write anything of these things down on my blog or any social media platform, nor speak to any of my friends or colleagues about these because I didn’t want to influence how people decide on their choice BEFORE the Presidential Election. Above which, I really don’t relish the idea of being flamed by the rabidly anti-PAP camp even though I could delete all such comments at my discretion. Furthermore, offending the supporters of the other candidates would leave very little room to convince anyone to change their decisions or to convince those who are undecided. That’s not mentioning that since I want to vote for a President who would unify the people, and I don’t think criticising the other candidates will help Tan Cheng Bock win at all. It was rather unfortunate that the supporters of the other candidates are not so restraint.

Dr Tan Cheng Bock, you have fought the good fight. You have inspired some of us and given us hope. You are right that even though we lost, we have also won.

Then again… I still preferred it to be your photo hanging on the offices of all government department and civil services in Singapore. On Sunday morning, I finally understand the anguish of SPP supporters in Potong Pasir. It is definitely a loss that is really, really hard to swallow.

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