Category: Rants

Afterthoughts – The SMRT Bus Driver Strike

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The SMRT bus driver strike that went on from Monday to Tuesday was hardly a surprise to me even though the last strike by transport workers at the Hock Lee Bus Depot was in 1955. Furthermore, it’s really not the first time foreign workers stood up to fight for their rights in the past few years. If I am not wrong, some Gurkhas were reported to have been injured over a in 2008, about 100 mainland Chinese [PRC] construction workers also crowded the main entrance of the Ministry of Manpower [MOM] building in Havelock Road in Jan 2009, and a group of Bangladeshi workers staged a sit in earlier this year – all over wage disputes. The only thing that surprised me was that I first read about this strike on Facebook instead of my usual news feeds, and that it involved a Temasek-Linked Company (or TLC) – SMRT.

Regardless how some of us felt about PRC workers in general, they clearly have more courage than any Singaporean. In spite of my protectionists views as far as employment is concerned, I actually welcomed these workers because they do share some similarities with some of our ancestors who left their homeland to seek a living in Singapore. Thus, I would give a Bangladeshi construction worker more respect than that so-called “foreign talent” taking up a managerial position, or even taking up a job which I believe even a properly trained local ITE graduate can do better, and with more dedication.

I have always been in the opinion that Singapore’s continual exploitation of low wage foreign workers cannot continue, and it is inevitable that this matter would come to a head. Companies running essential services must come to realise and accept lower profits in the future, and in fact, its shareholders should stop expecting annual dividends through a two-way exploitation of commuters, and low wage foreign transport workers. I am not asking that we pay more to entice locals to take up these jobs because that would be unrealistic. I am simply saying the nonsense that commuters either accept paying more or accept lower wage drivers (who at times can’t even do the job equally well) must stop when transport operators are already making obscene profits. If we are to continue down this path, then this strike by the PRC drivers will not be the last, but instead be a harbinger of future industrial action to come regardless of what harsh actions the law will take against the ringleaders of this particular incident.

It took two days before the matter “boils over”. It gives me the impression that SMRT didn’t seem to expect it, or at the very least, the government seem to believe that SMRT could keep it contained. Above which, I was certainly floored by the statement from the National Transport Workers’ Union [NTWU], and the wayang of the local main stream media [MSM]. So, let me talk about them one at a time.

First of all, SMRT certainly did a bad job in containing the situation. I doubt the PRC drivers woke up one morning on the wrong side of the bed and suddenly decided collectively to go on strike without having first approach the management in the past to address their grievances, both real or imagined. My opinion is that they must have endured it for some time before they took action. They must have felt their feedback was not taken seriously before deciding on this drastic course of action. In short, the time to contain it was already over when the PRC drivers refused to report for work. If that wasn’t the case, why would the National Trade Union Congress [NTUC] say, “Management must maintain an open line of communication with their workers especially those who are not union members, and workers must recognise that there is a right and proper way to air their grievances”?

The way SMRT handled public relations [PR] in this incident remained atrocious in spite of the experience they gained from the train breakdowns last year. There was no statement coming from the company to inform the public why their drivers are on strike or what actions they were taking to resolve the situation. There was also nothing to inform commuters whether things are under control, which lines are most affected, or what measures are being taken to cushion any possible impact. SMRT seems to be day-dreaming throughout the duration of the strike. It wasn’t until Tan Chuan Jin, the Minister of Manpower, start calling it an illegal strike in a conference that SMRT released a statement about ‘a police report being file over “possible breaches of the law”, and internal investigations conducted to determine whether or not employment terms had been breached.’. By then, speculation is rife on social media and I no longer have any illusion that the new CEO would have been any better than his predecessor, the accursed Saw “Phiak Phiak”.

In any case, shareholders should give the new CEO his baptism of fire and a good grilling at the next Annual General Meeting [AGM]. They should find out what was the estimated loss of revenue and the cost of down time. A friend was saying that it shouldn’t be too difficult to do that because any guy who has barely passed his accounting will be able to extrapolate and work out some numbers on an excel spreadsheet using last year’s annual report. Let us not forget also the cost in terms of man hours needed to contain this PR fiasco, plus the loss of good will as well.

Next, the NTWU is an utter joke. This sham of a union said that it does not have the legal mandate to represent the PRC drivers as they are not union members. How nice! I didn’t know that a union works like an exclusive club these days. But the most funny part has got to be – “we urge these workers to return to work immediately as public transport is an essential service for the members of the public. They should approach the Ministry of Manpower or Migrant Workers Centre for assistance.” I am not surprised if the PRC drivers respond with a loud “Doh!” to that! Even though those drivers are not their members, my opinion is that the least the NTWU could do was to express concern and if not, just shut the f@#k up. It might even have been the NTWU’s finest hour had they stepped in and help negotiate a mutually beneficial outcome. That would have shown the PRC drivers why a NTWU membership is valuable and it would have enticed them to join. I find it even more amusing when Gerald Tan, a former Industrial Relations Officer with the NTUC, wrote an article to The Online Citizen saying that PRC drivers won’t bother joining because the $9 per month membership would be “too costly” for them and they would prefer to save that money to remit home. But well, while it was merely an opinion that all the trade unions in Singapore are utterly useless and an utter sham in the past, the actions of the NTWU merely affirmed it as a fact. After all, workers that won’t fall in line and dance to the tune of the government controlled unions can always be dealt with the Internal Security Act [ISA]. There is however one thing that Gerald Tan is right about. A union membership these days is only good for getting discounts or points at the NTUC supermarkets, and booking chalets at Downtown East.

The media response is another laughing stock. When it was first reported, the word ‘strike’ was used to describe the incident. Over the next few hours, it morphed into many different things – such as ‘refused to work’, ‘sit in’ etc. In Chinese, it went from 罢工 (strike) on the evening tabloid Shin Ming Daily (新明日报) to 旷工 (absent from work without reason, or failing to inform the employer of absence) on Mediacorp’s Channel 8 evening news at 10pm. After going through all the pains pussyfooting around the matter, it was finally called a ‘strike’ again in less than a day. And that only happened after the official press conference held jointly by the Minister of State for Manpower and the Minister of State for Transport. Clearly, the MSM was more interested in being political correct than keeping the people up to date and informed. As if that isn’t bad enough, I actually saw a picture circulating on Facebook which showed the MSM staking out at the dormitory. I would have expected it to get out at least to Yishun or perhaps even Choa Chu Kang Interchange – where the bulk of SMRT buses operates out of – to find out what the impact was like to the commuters. There was also scant information on about the drivers’ actual grievances, which only went on to fuel the flames of anti-PRC sentiments which certain sites are happy to fan. While an article about what other bus drivers have to say about their PRC colleagues maybe useful, what was really annoying was some clown threatening us with more fare increments so that we can “pay the drivers more fairly”. Oh, really? Was it to pay them more fairly, or just to maintain the profits? Seriously, it would be a joke to even consider this as journalism!

Lastly, the government response. I wouldn’t fault them on the response time, since I grudgingly accept the fact that they need to ascertain the facts before making a decision on what to do about it. However, I still can’t help but feel that had the drivers been Singaporeans, they would probably be enjoying some coffee in the Internal Security Department [ISD] faster than you can spell the name in full. The government can’t however do the same to a bunch of foreigners because it might turn into a diplomatic and foreign affairs fiasco if handled badly. Anyway, that joint press conference gave us very little details other than labeling the strike an illegal one, which thus allow the government to bring the full force of the law on the PRC drivers. That’s of little comfort to me because I still have no idea what was the impact of the strike on commuters. Mrs Josephine Teo told the press that SMRT was able to maintain services at 90% on the first day and then 95% on the next. Since bus ridership is 28,784,000 in the month of October according to SMRT, that means approximately 928500 riders a day. A simplistic view would be that 46,400 ~ 92,850 commuter trips were affected, even though different routes have different traffic profiles and thus the figures cannot be so easily determined. There was no word on the increase in waiting and traveling time as well, and I felt sorry for the chap who ends up being late for work and losing his monthly punctuality bonus as a result. The worst part of it all is that the poor chap has nothing to back him up if he wants to appeal against that.

Thus, even though this look like a really small strike, the media has failed to look deeper and give us a clearer picture on the impact of this. With only about two-thirds of our population being Singaporeans, the impact of a even larger scale strike would be staggering. A friend jokingly said over dinner that because certain trades are now dominated by certain foreign nationals, any of those groups could now easily paralyze entire departments of a company. If their fellow countrymen in one sector goes on strike and those in another sector decided to do the same in support, it might even paralyze our country. And what can we do about that? We simply don’t have the manpower in our police force to deal with this. Even if we mobilise the entire force of our Operationally Ready National Service force, we would be hard pressed to return things to normality. That’s not forgetting that mobilising a large part of the male population away from work would further hurt our economy. It is laughable that political leaders of the ruling party and our pathetic lapdog media would have us believe that Singapore can’t do without foreign workers when they have now become the Sword of Damocles poised over our heads! Of course it would sound a little paranoid or xenophobic for me to say this:

While threats from the enemy without maybe really low, it is now the threat of the “enemy within” that we should be really worried about.

Random Discourse – $7000 Cabby

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That was my first impression when I read on the news a cabby’s claims that he makes $7000 a month.

A town’s gate can be shut, a fool’s mouth never.

I had thought it was rather foolish for him to declare this because of the following reasons:

  • the rage commuters felt during the previous hefty fare hike will be rekindled;

  • it would earn the enmity of other cabbies, as all of them fear it would lead to another increase in rentals;

  • the IRAS will be watching him closely (After all someone boasted about selling 1 million curry puffs and ended up in jail for tax evasion…);

  • many wives will now suspect their cabby husbands of hiding their money or keeping a mistress;

  • robbers will now consider all cabbies ripe pickings; and

  • poor relatives may show up to borrow money.

However, I also suspected that the cabby may have been misquoted. Some of my friends have shared with me their experiences after being interviewed by reporters from one of Singapore Press Holdings [SPH] newspapers. In one case, a friend’s name was misspelled when the article as published. In two other cases, what was said was being taken out of the context and sensationalised. Those affected did not press the matter because they didn’t want to sour their relationship with the press. But one of them mentioned that it is best to keep a transcript (or even a recording) of the interview in case what was printed differs greatly from the true meaning of what was said in the first place.

Anyway, I was just too lazy to find out whether the cabbie meant $7000 nett earnings per month, or $7000 take home earnings. There’s a great difference between nett earnings and take home earnings. In my opinion it is similar to the difference between revenue and profit. Thus, I decided to keep my mouth shut on the matter and waited for the story to develop further.

For the next few days, the poor cabby became Public Enemy Number 1. The “cybersleuths” went so far to even expose that he had a debt of $4000 which he hasn’t paid off. Under intense pressure, the cabbie subsequently came forward to explain that he did not earn $7000 every month and that he had mentioned that was his “best performance”. He further explained it was a rather unpleasant experience. He worked for 18 hours everyday and even had to sleep in his taxi. It was yet another SPH cock-up just as I suspected. Strangely, the other chap who claimed to have made $6000 a month wasn’t attacked at all. Or perhaps he simply wasn’t attacked as viciously.

Anyway, most cabbies claimed that they only manage to make $2000 to $2500 a month. Based on their assertion, I think a single cabby making $6000 nett a month (driving 18 hours a day) is actually normal. Here’s a breakdown.

The daily rental for a taxi is about $100 a day. That means it’s roughly $3000 a month. I estimate that fuel probably cost them about $80 a day which is about $2400 a month. That adds up to $5400 in operating cost. If the cabby can take home about $2000 to $2500 a month, that means his nett income would have been around $7400 to $7900. It is of no wonder that I read on another friend’s Facebook status where he mentioned that a cabby told him that taking home $7000 is possible – as long as the driver doesn’t pay his rentals.

However, regardless whether the papers were sensationalising the matter for whatever agenda (which backfired), or whether the cabby was being too boastful, it cannot change the fact that more than 50% of a cabby’s hard earned money went to paying his rentals based on my estimates. It goes to say that whatever fare increases we are paying has not really gone into improving the income of taxi drivers at large (as we are often led to believe), but has gone into covering their overheads and primarily into the pockets of operators like Comfort Delgro and SMRT in particular. The so-called “$7000 cabby” is not our enemy or someone we should be grilling. Even though I am often critical of Singapore’s recalcitrant cabbies, it remains part of my opinion that their well being has constantly being hijacked by transport operators and the powers-that-be to justify the fare hikes and rental increases. The SPH not only should get the rap for their bad reporting, but also for their failure to point out just how much taxi companies are earning out of the cabbies.

It is laughable that the government wants us to believe that the media is not biased. How are we to believe that when it is sub-standard in the first place?

Current Affairs – The “Amy Cheong Saga”

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What the hell was Amy Cheong thinking when she posted this? This is not some young teenager who didn’t know better, she’s an assistant director and in any case, a person holding a position of some importance. Is it so hard to understand, free speech does not include the freedom to offend? And when one has the intention to offend, then one must expect and bear the consequences.

As a matter of fact, I have moved into my area for 15 years and there have been countless Malay weddings at the void deck. They are often noisy affairs complete with drums, loud music and often illegal parking as well. Then again, even Chinese weddings are noisy with all the cheers of “Yum Seng!” except that they were often done in restaurants. In my opinion, all wedding celebrations should be noisy. Rightly so because they are happy occasion which bear witness to the unification of 2 lives into a family unit, and also by extension, the bonding of two different families. How else do we expect such an occasion to be held?

Even so, the Malay weddings held at the void decks were not any noisier than those events organised by the Residents’ Committee. To be exact, nothing is noisier than the air force jets on landing approach to Tengah Airbase that flew over the top of my block every few hours. The quickest solution to deal with the noise coming from the void deck is simply to shut the windows tight. But that’s a bad idea as it makes the entire flat stuffy, and so the easier method would simply be to add to the noise by turning on the volume of my radio or TV, and wait for the events to end at their appointed time. After a while, it just becomes background noise and it is barely even noticeable. The only time that I ever shouted a stream of invectives without thinking (mostly directly at the privates of someone’s mother) and also wished the wedding couple the most unimaginable and unspeakable bad luck was when a wedding possession procession of Harley Davidson motorcycles honked continuously when they drove by at 6:50am on a Saturday morning. It went on for as long as the possession procession was stopped because of the traffic light. It doesn’t matter what wedding that was, because it was irrelevant. I had only begin to fall asleep because I was out partying the night before, and thanks to these chaps I had a headache after that. They were simply being a bunch of inconsiderate douchebags and if I had a brick by the side of my bed I would have ‘lobbest’ it out of the window onto the possession procession below like the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

Anyway, most Malay weddings usually last a day, even though there was one particular one which actually went on over the entire weekend. It didn’t really matter because for 2 nights I could smell the fragrance of bryani rice being cooked, even though I was “reasonably angry” (and hungry) as I ended up craving for some mutton bryani the next few days. But if Amy Cheong think that’s bad, consider Chinese funeral wakes that goes on for 3 ~ 5 days, complete with chanting / prayers, screaming kids, mahjong games into the dead of the night, and as usual the illegal parking. It takes a while to get used to the sudden disruption to the tranquility of the neighbourhood. But after the first night, I usually just knock out at the appointed time, because after failing to sleep well the night before, the body simply just give out under me. That’s not forgetting I managed to steal some sleep at the training shed even though an entire platoon of tanks were firing away during my NS days so mahjong was really a small matter. Regardless, the brain seems to adjust to the new condition because when the mahjong games stop, that’s also when it’s about time to wake up.

Back to the matter of funeral wakes… the noise pollution is not all to it. It often comes with incense burning as well, which can bring the smoke into the house. When the air is still, the smell can stay in the room for hours even though the smoke has cleared. My clothes will smell like the barbecue if I forgot to quickly put them into the cabinet. And on the matter of incense burning, this can happen every 14 or 15 days in the Lunar Calendar for particularly religious Chinese families. It is most conspicuous during the 9th Day of the Lunar New Year (when the Hokkien people worships Tian-gong [天公] or Heaven), and the Lunar Seventh Month during the Yulan [盂蘭] Festival (more traditionally known as the “Ghost Month”). Have I ever thought about complaining about it? Yes. But the reason why I didn’t do so was simply because it usually last no more than a few hours, which is definitely less annoying than my neighbour’s cowardly dog which barks at the slightest sound and probably even the shifting shadows.

The point I am trying to make here is that other races can have a lot more reasons to be upset with us Chinese. Let’s not throw the fruits of our nation building away with our thoughtless actions. We have come a long way to learn how to live with one another. We must learn not only to be tolerant (because there’s only so much we can tolerate) but learn to accommodate. This goes both ways, and it goes not just to our fellow Indians and Malays, but also to new migrants.

Nevertheless, I am glad this matter has come to a quick conclusion with NTUC terminating the employment of Amy Cheong. Even if it isn’t a politically-correct decision, it is a sound business one. After all, there were people threatening to terminate their memberships, and almost 4000 likes within a few hours on the “Fire Amy Cheong” page before the news break that NTUC had decided to fire her. If just 2000 of those made good their threat to terminate their membership, that would be an annualised loss of $216,000 (2000 x $9/mth x 12) simply because of a staff’s stupid comment. On top of which, as my friend Roger Tan mentioned: “They fired her because her little episode of immaturity and ill-discipline cost them a lot of bad publicity, and in turn showed them that she was unsuited for that position.” It was a no brainer, even though I personally felt that an organisation should never be held responsible for a remark made by a staff in her personal capacity. Unfortunately, no organisation would risk its neck over such dumb comments anyway.

However, I do not think her termination will do anything to change Amy Cheong’s opinion of Malays. Her remark, and her subsequent responses before she eventually decide to apologise profusely clearly showed that it wasn’t a generic one done out of impulse. It was probably just the tip of the iceberg – an outward expression of years of resentment bottled up inside. For someone to take her remarks to the police and have her investigated under the Sedition Act would not have made it any better for her (or for Singapore). Amy Cheong should now realise that this will probably haunt her for the rest of her life, and that her apologies don’t mean sh*t at all. Even if she’s gonna dig her heart out to prove it, no one’s gonna to believe her anyway. A better way for her to do it prove it would be to volunteer to a Malay welfare organisation to serve the Malay community for a period of time. It would have been a better way to demonstrate her remorse, and also for the Malay community to demonstrate forgiveness. In fact, it may even serve as a great lesson in national education.

In my opinion, she is now about as good as a toxic asset. Good luck to her in seeking future employment, though I couldn’t see who will dare to employ her without fear of repercussions. That should serve as a warning to the next idiot who make racist remarks or you be the sequel to the Singapore’s first:

A moment of stupidity, a lifetime of regret. Brought to you by Facebook.

Recommended Reads:
Growing your tree of prosperity: Some very disturbing aspects of how NTUC treated the Amy Cheong case
Darryl Kang: Amy Cheong: An interesting precedent by NTUC

Short Takes

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On the visit of Prince William and Duchess Catherine of Cambridge


3:45pm 12-Sep-2012
A very “typical” afternoon in Queenstown

WAYANG – a Javanese word for particular kinds of theatre (Wikipedia).

During my National Service days, wayang simply means putting up a good show. A wayang is often initiated by the pending visit of a very high ranking officer (usually of rank Colonel and above), or someone of high office (e.g. a minister). I am not sure whether it still happens these days in the Singapore Armed Forces [SAF] but when i was in an overseas base for a year between 1993 and 1994, there were several visits involving the formation chief, the Chief of Medics, and the brother of our Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Yang (who was then Brigadier-General, if I recalled correctly). The typical SAF wayang usually involves what I called “environmental engineering” – whereby every bit of trash is cleared from the dumps, clogs in the drains are cleared, floors are washed thoroughly, fluorescent lights along common corridors, bunk fans etc that has long broken down are hastily repaired, vehicles and car-park lots are repainted, and rusty metallic equipment scrubbed, oiled and greased to create the impression that they are all well maintained and serviced. Even the grass is cut, often with shears. In some cases, weeds are plucked with bare hands since life is often harsher and better equipment not available to us in the pre-3G SAF back then. Most of us felt utterly stupid and ridiculous doing all that crap, but everyone just do because no one wants extra duty, or to be charged summarily for insubordination.

With the exception of the Chief of Medics, who made the effort to highlight the issues of hygiene and areas where camp cleanliness fell short, the other visitors spent no more than a few minutes (or even seconds) at a particular location. According to the camp grapevine, BG Lee himself actually walked past an ad-hoc dumping area that was somehow overlooked. Well, we treated it as nothing more but a camp myth, since no one was punished for that boo-boo as the state of the dump was horrendous, not to mention God-knows how many SAF regulations was violated considered the stuff that was disposed there. But the wayang at Queenstown on September 12 is definitely unprecedented.

Kids playing at 3:45pm in the afternoon? Senior citizens using the facilities and practising Taiji or Qigong? Come on, it is so fake that it retches my guts. Had it not been near dinner when I saw the photograph, I would have puked my lunch out. Not only has what was done made me felt personally utterly stupid, I felt quite shameful about it because it puts us right there beside countries like North Korea. While we Chinese have a saying – 禮多人不怪 (literally: the abundance of politeness causes no offense) – I am sure Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge probably knows about it by now (from Facebook) that everything at Queenstown was nothing but a charade and an utter farce. I wondered how the royal couple would have felt.

However, I am not surprised that this stupidity was actually carried out when I consider who is at the helm of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs right now. It almost made me miss George Yeo. Just almost… *wipes a tear from the corner of an eye*

~ * ~

On the iPhone 5

One of the biggest mistake of Research-In-Motion (RIM) was simply this: trying to be somebody else. It tried very hard to be cool and funky, to move away from the image of being square and only for the business type. To do so, it made a whole bunch of uninspiring devices (the Blackberry Storm for e.g.) which irked many existing users and charms no one else. In spite of the criticisms, I actually liked the Storm very much until its screen died on me. Unfortunately, RIM also reminded me of Lucy Pevensie in the movie Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Lucy doubted her self worth, and in a dream she completely disappeared because she wanted so bad to be like her sister Susan. Lucy’s fate in the dream may well turn out to that of RIM’s, unless its bet on BB10 (its latest OS) pays off. I won’t place too much hope on that considering how Palm’s bet on WebOS turned out.

More than a year ago, I read an article which defended the form factor of previous versions of iPhones. The writer argues that the width of the iPhone is such because it allows people to hold and operate in one hand, as the thumb can easily reach all across the screen. The writer went on to boast about how that demonstrates the effort Apple put into designing its stuff, and dissed Samsung’s “haphazardly designed” and generic array of products. That probably explains why Apple designed a longer phone and not a wider one, because it is too stubborn to concede to its competitors that the iPhone’s form factor has become a shortcoming (if not a liability). With the iPhone 5, Apple is right now about where RIM was when it released the Blackberry Storm. Steve Job’s “Reality Distortion Field” is apparently failing after his demise, and now Apple has to try and catch up to with the rest because the market has irrevocably spoken in favor of larger screens. Even the stylus has made a come back in the Galaxy Note!

Anyway, the iPhone 5 is still inspiring and awesome. It was inspiringly boring and awesomely unexceptional. After all, Samsung, LG and HTC have phones with larger screens and LTE for at least a few months already. That would have been the iPhone 4S, if not for Siri. Even so, Siri was nothing more than an idea copied from Star Trek and a rather meaningless gimmick that probably few people even use these days. Alfred Siew put it very well in this article on Techgoondu:

Apple is the laggard when it comes to technology and is banking on users who only know the iPhone as the one smartphone they’d own. It is using its dominance to sell underwhelming products to users who don’t know better. Ironically, rather like Windows and the boring PC in this post-PC era.

To put it bluntly, it is not just like Windows and the boring PC in this post-PC era. What Apple is doing here is much like what Microsoft did with… *gasps* Windows Vista! Fortunately for Apple, its large base of fanbois will keep the iPhone 5 from suffering Vista’s fate.

Apple fanbois would be screaming about how the new iPhone 5 has a more powerful processor and whatever technology gizmos. But the fact remains, just how much of that translate into real perceivable improvements for the user? These days computers have quad-core processors too, and really, even if you have 32GB of RAM in that box you can’t tell the difference when you use it to surf the Internet or do your word processing. Perhaps everyone would notice how great the new iPhone 5 is when they tied them together and do supercomputer calculations to design the next nuclear bomb like India. Apple iFreaks will no doubt be exceptionally upset and indignant that others are dissing something which they have never, and possibly never will use. In fact, they How ironical that they hate getting served the shitty dishes they’ve been cooking and serving others all along. Apple is now into uncharted water where there are no longer the wrecks of Palm, Nokia and RIM to serve as an example on what to avoid and it has to figure out the perils on its own. I won’t go so far to say that the copycat company who pretends to be an innovator will do better than those which have fallen, but if will bring me joy to see it fall and never get up again.

Before I end, let me explain why I hate Apple so intensely. While I would not deny that many companies (and patent trolls) resort to patents for “rent seeking”, Apple took it way too far. There is no company more hypocritical than Apple. It claims to be protecting innovation – by killing innovation. It calls others a copycat when it has been a copycat in the past! Had Apple’s methods been used in the automobile industry, it would mean that the steering wheel, the placement of headlights on the vehicle, the placement of instruments on the dashboard, and the use of proximity sensor (not the sensor itself) for warning when reversing the vehicle will be patented. Apple will even also apply to the courts to ban its competitors from selling anything that had 4 wheels because it would look like one of theirs.

I can hardly tolerate something so utterly ludicrous.

Random Discourse – Journey of the West and Real Life

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Typical portrayal of
Journey to the West

In my previous post, I mentioned that it is of no surprise why more people seems unable to act, or simply refused to do the right thing. After all, if doing something comes with the risks of taking the rap when it goes wrong, then it is best to just do nothing. It reminds me of Pigsy (or Bajie [猪八戒]) in the Journey to the West story, which often did nothing and is the fastest to take credit. Meanwhile, Wukong [悟空] often gets the rap and punishment from the monk Tripitaka (or Xuanzang [玄奘]) for doing what is right and necessary, and in the best interest of the party.

That comment was inspired by an article in Chinese which I read sometime ago, which made comparison to the Chinese classical fiction Journey to the West [西游记] to the present political plight of Singaporeans. Unlike the original article, I find that it describes pretty well what generally goes on in life at the present right here. One of my drinking buddies even pointed out that it is actually a parody good for all time.

There are five main characters in that story – the monk Tripitaka, his three disciples namely: Wukong the Monkey god, Pigsy, Sha Wujing [沙悟净] (or the ‘Sand Monk’ [沙僧]), and the often forgotten White Dragon Horse [白龙马].

The central figure would be Xuanzang. Though of humble birth, Xuanzang became the sworn brother of the Tang Emperor in the story. He is also the central authority of the party, as all the disciples defer to him for decision. Yet he is also the most helpless in defending himself, even though the reader is often convince about the importance of his objectives, so they are led to believe in the sacrifice he is making for the good of everyone and the generations that comes after. Even so, he would have been long dead – eaten by demons craving for his flesh which supposedly will grant them immortality – if not for his three powerful and capable disciples. Because Wukong is rash and often disregard Xuanzang’s authority in the beginning, the bodhisattva Guanyin [观音] (or Avalokitasvara) gave the monk a magical headband whereby Wukong was tricked into putting on. The monk would activate it by chanting which will cause Wukong an excruciating headache and thus forced Wukong to obey and submit. In the real world, Xuanzang maybe a government scholar who got parachuted into a position of authority, or some so-called foreign talent who got employed by merit of his qualifications with none of the experience or the capabilities he boasted about. At times they have powerful backers which sort of act like the magical headband which forces even the more capable subordinates into submission. In a certain sense, the monk would also describe some ministers perfectly, since propaganda would often refer to their… *erhem* humble beginnings.


A not so typical portrayal of
Wukong as a great ape

Wukong is the most powerful character in the whole story. This is the monkey god that run amok in the Chinese heavens without any regard of the Jade Emperor’s authority nor any fear of the heavenly soldiers. In spite of his quick temper and often rash and unthoughtful actions, Wukong only overriding priority in the entire adventure is to see the monk (or teacher) Xuanzang complete his mission – i.e reach his destination safely to obtain the Buddhist scriptures, and then return to China. As it is often said, with great powers comes great responsibilities. Wukong does most of the unpleasant tasks – fighting demons, or running about to get help when the tasks are too much for him to handle alone. He is also the best equipped to do so, since he also has a pair of eyes which can spot a demon in disguise. Yet, he often gets the most blame and punishment simply for his manner of executing his tasks. However, no matter how many times he has been wronged and cast out, the immensely loyal Wukong never hesitates to return and save his teacher once he hears that Xuanzang is in danger. This is a character we often do not see in a company, or in government agencies or departments. Such a character ceased to exist in real life because there is no appreciation and compliments when things goes well, but the axe would be quick to fall when things go wrong.


Pigsy womanising

Pigsy has great powers too. In spite of the traditional Chinese image of pigs being stupid, Pigsy is in fact the smartest. In general, Pigsy’s order of the day would be that of “No pain! No pain!”, since as long as he does nothing there will be no blame and no punishments when things goes wrong. Furthermore, there is always the more capable Wukong to put things right. Above that, Pigsy often rushes to curry favor with his teacher and take credit for things he didn’t do. At times, he even carry tales to his teacher causing Wukong to be punished. That is typically what we often see in government agencies and departments as shown in the movie Just Follow Law. I am sure we will all find some of those possessed by the Pigsy spirit hiding at a cubicle in a dark corner of our own office too. Unfortunately, many Pigsys are also in position of authority. So they are able to made someone take the fall when they screwed up. Worst of it all, Pigsy is also easily swayed by physical beauty which are often demons in disguise. I can’t help but to draw comparison with the recent sex scandals surrounding the SCDF and CNB chiefs.


Sha Wujing acting
as a human pack horse

Sha Wujing, is a character difficult to write about. He is a sharp contrast to both Wukong and Pigsy. With Wukong being the superhero, and Pigsy the idle bum, Sha is often overlooked and treated as a character the story can possibly do without. It doesn’t help that Sha is portrayed as carrying the luggage in drama series or movies based on the story, which further reinforces the impression that he is simply a character created to perform the mundane tasks that are beneath the notice of his fellow disciples. In a certain way, Sha Wujing is just like any other employee working quietly to do their part in a company. While there are generally considered dispensable and easily replaceable, everyone often felt a sudden sense of loss and helplessness without this person around. Basically, Sha Wujing is like many of those who just do their job without excelling in what they do. He keeps a low profile, but not so low where he would shirk from his own responsibilities while expecting someone more capable to take up the slack. Fortunately for him, at least no one tries make him the scapegoat when things go bad in the story. The same cannot be said of the modern day Sha Wujings in the corporate world.

The most pitiful of the whole lot would be the ‘White Dragon Horse’. People often talked about the monk and his three disciples but forgot about the origins of the horse and an important role it played in the entire story – as a ride for the delicate monk. Originally a dragon princeling who was cast out of heaven as punishment for arson, it also ate the monk’s original horse by mistake. Ultimately it chose to turn into a replacement horse to atone for its earlier misdeeds and lost its ability to speak throughout the journey. Its job is hardly enviable, since the monk rides on it most of the time. When not serving as a ride, it is the pack horse which carries the luggage. The fact that the dragon princeling chose to turn into a horse is that it believes it is serving a higher purpose. It fulfills its role without much fuss, while everyone completely overlooked its contribution. Typically, the white dragon horse which suffers in silence but has no voice is most alike to the Singaporean worker, because the trade union which presumably should be its voice no longer speaks up for it and sings a completely different tune to remind it why sacrifices are necessary.

Sadly, in most situation at the work place, there are probably no Wukongs but a small lot of Xuanzangs and Pigsys. The rest of the workforce of Sha Wujings basically slog on like the White Dragon Horse without a voice. When this blog post was originally conceived and posted as a status update on my Facebook wall, a friend asked me what I consider the heavenly soldiers and the Jade Emperor. In my opinion, they would fall under the same category of the PTB (powers that be) which tries to enforce their authority upon us. In extrapolation, the Buddha and Guanyin would be the equivalent of “foreign talent” in the Singaporean context – used by the PTB to beat down any monkey god among us with its abilities and news ideas which proved too challenging for them.

It is my considered opinion that the PTB would prefer no Wukongs at all, and would replace us with all the arhats or bodhisattva aka “foreign talents”. Unfortunately, in singing the praises of the “foreign talents”, it failed to see how that also demonstrated their own inadequacies and inspired an awakening among the people. The irony that all the traditional Taoist deities are incompetent, clueless and completely inept in the dealing with the challenges Wukong presented at the beginning of the story is not lost on me. That said, while I was doing a bit of researching on the Journey to the West story, I noticed that even the character Wukong is borrowed from the concept of the Hindu deity Hanuman. Again, the irony is not lost on me that the PTB often tells us that our ancestors were immigrants too.

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