Random Discourse – It’s time to ‘Goh’!

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Senior Senile Mini$ter Goh Chok Tong chided Singaporeans for making a meal out of Singapore’s ‘sporadic’ floods. He suggested that Singaporeans should follow Japan’s example in dealing with nationwide catastrophes. I quote:

How many of you followed the latest tragic events in Japan with the tsunami… and then put into context our floods in Singapore against that kind of disaster. I am not saying we shouldn’t do anything about the flood. But the amount of noise you made with just sporadic flood compared to the Japanese. I saw them on TV. Very stoic looking. You don’t see them crying. This has happened, just get on, that’s the kind of spirit you want to have and you call it nation building.

I don’t recall anyone of us was crying when Orchard Road, parts of Thomson or even Jalan Besar flooded. We were as stoic as we can get, because we don’t even complain when an old man who refused to retire talked about ‘wanting spurs to be stuck into our hide’ and called us ‘daft’. Did the Senile Mini$ter encounter one too many whiners in his rich man’s ward? Or perhaps he read some mindlessly rabid pro-opposition local forums one time too many?

To be exact, some of us wrote to the papers to talk about the old days where Bukit Timah Road was almost always flooded whenever it rains and even talk about how we can improve the situation at Orchard Road. Are we not allowed to talk about what may have caused some of the floods and what conditions may have changed on the ground that needed a review? On one hand the Senile Mini$ter says that opinion from Singaporeans mattered, has opinion only got to come in the channels approved by the Tali-PAP, and only in a manner favorable – preferably extolling its virtues and achievements? Is this the way to encourage the development of a civic society, where the people take part in deciding what is best for their home, their country?


News Article Here.

Seriously, if the Senile Mini$ter expects us to behave like the Japanese, then our mini$ter$ should do as Japanese ministers do – resign when they fail, and not find excuses for themselves. For e.g. Seiji Maehara recently resigned for accepting a donation (not a bribe) from a foreign national. That’s not mentioning that several years ago, Toshikatsu Matsuoka committed suicide for unexplained expenses (see screenshot on left) – the first one to do so since the end of World War II.

However, did we see the same coming from our mini$ter$? The matter of the so-called ‘sporadic’ floods aside, who took responsibility for Mas Selamat’s escape? Did anyone took responsibility for the budget overruns of the Youth Olympic Games? What about a $388 million sum given to Singtel that was simply discounted as an ‘honest and unfortunate’ mistake?

When the Tali-PAP gahmen don’t even have the courage to take the rap for minor fiascos such as the Orchard floods, I shudder to imagine what will happen in the future if the nuclear reactor which feasibility this gahmen is studying right now suffers a meltdown!

Personally speaking, I will be proud of our mini$ter$ if they would die with honor rather than to live with their failure. Caesars will be able to provide a variety of nicely crafted blades for them to slit their little yellow bellies – samurai style. In fact, I would be most happy to see them use the Padang for such a public display of personal atonement. I will certainly turn up to cheer the courageous mini$ter on. That’s not forgetting the Singapore government gahmen should revise mini$terial pay downwards to match that of the Japanese too.

Let us consider what would happen had the Japanese gahmen been like ours. It would be telling the people that ‘no amount of engineering’ will deal with the natural calamities that beset their nation when skyscrapers in Tokyo not only swayed, but collapsed. It would probably conduct an investigation for the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear plant, and a report will obfuscate the problem and some manager at the plant they wouldn’t otherwise have heard of will take the rap for the failure. On top of which, its Prime Minster will only address the nation days after the disaster, just like what happened after Mas Selamat has escaped.

Mr Goh, it’s probably high time for the residents of Marine Parade to decide for you it’s time to go. Maybe you can join your daughter…

Random Discourse – Budget 2011

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Been wanting to write this post during the budget debate, but I just couldn’t find time. Anyway, I went with some friends to a ‘Coffeeshop Talk’ on the Budget organised by the Young NTUC on 26 February. This is the third time I attend such a talk, and my basic idea is to get a general idea on the basis of the government’s gahmen’s decision, regardless of whether I agree with them or not. For one of my friends, he mentioned that at the very least, we need to at least get a better understanding of what we are opposing.

The Minister of State invited to the event was Mr Lee Yi Shyan and before the Q&A session began, he explained that we should look at the Budget from 3 perspectives, namely – ‘Inside Out’ (not outside in), ‘Back to the Future’, and the International Environment.

I’ll try and explain what he meant as best as I understood it. (If there are any mistakes, that maybe because I have misunderstood what he meant.) By ‘Inside Out’, he meant that we should look at it from the planner’s (i.e. the Minister of Finance) perspective and not the man-on-the-street one. By ‘Back to the Future’, he meant that we should be mindful of the percussions of a decision made today and how it would damage the future. And lastly, by ‘International Environment’, he meant we need to be aware of what goes on around the world so we learn the lesson, and know how that will affect us.

After this, the members of the floor was asked to raise their questions. I felt that unlike the previous two session I attended, the questions this time round was more hard hitting. I didn’t take notice of all the questions, because I generally have a short attention span and I’ll let my mind drift off when the person who asks the question doesn’t get to the point after 20secs.

However, I did catch the first question, which comes in several parts (and also contain some of the things I probably would have asked). First of all, the minister was asked why the 0.5% CPF increment goes into the Special Account [SA] and not the Ordinary Account [OA] which would allow Singaporeans to use it on servicing their housing loans. He was also asked about the foreign workers levy which doesn’t do much to limit S-Pass and Employment Pass category, and thus is doing nothing to secure the jobs of PMETs (Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians).

From what I understand from the minister’s answer, the 0.5% was meant to increase the workers’ savings for his old age, since the SA earns higher interest. The main objective is to build the workers’ independence so they would not rely on the gahmen. (In my personal opinion, I would consider it a monetary tightening measure, since it would take money out of the circulation. 0.5% isn’t a lot of money for each worker, since it is just $15 for someone earning $3000 a month. But on a conservative estimate of a 1.7 million workforce in Singapore and $10 a person, that would roughly be S$ 204 million a year. While I maybe wrong, that would do something to curb inflation. But I would applaud the gahmen on the way they packaged it to be something primarily for the benefit of the people.)

As for the matter of the levy with regard to S-Pass and Employer Pass holders, the minister said the Ministry of Manpower will take that into consideration in the future. Personally I doubt it would ever happen since the minister reminded everyone present that the objective of raising the levy is not to force companies to substitute foreign workers with locals, nor to give our workers an easier time. The gahmen is concerned that any form of ’employment protectionism’ would create is a workforce that would become complacent and subsequently too expensive to be employed, or lacking the skills relevant to the ever changing economy. Thus, it hopes that companies would raise productivity and the workers would improve on skill (which is in line with the S$3.4 billion spent on the second part of the budget.)

One of the hosts from the NTUC raised the point that from what he has gathered while speaking to some people, they are concerned that if the gahmen raises the levy, bosses may be forced to maintain their costs by firing the Singaporean. The minister then reminded us that there is a dependency ration which will prevent Singaporeans from being retrenched. (My personal opinion is that all of this sounds reasonable, yet I have so far failed to find articles telling us in what specific industries are we lacking in manpower that foreigners need to be employed as far as PMETs are concerned. The matter is, as long as we continue to hear of friends who remained unemployed while jobs they are qualified for are taken up by foreigners, it will be difficult to erase the perception that there are too many foreigners and not enough is done to curb them.)

The other question raised was that the ‘goodies’ given out is not enough to fight inflation and price increments. The minister mentioned that inflation is not as bad and cited examples of some items in supermarkets in which prices has not gone up but has become cheaper. I would say I strongly disagree with that, since prices at the supermarket would mean we are expected to buy these items and cook and eat at home to keep costs low. It definitely does not align with the fact that prices can go up 50cents to a dollar in hawker centers which would translate into 10% ~ 25% price increments! Case in point, my favorite pork rib prawn noodle stall at Amoy Street Hawker Centre has raised the base price from $3 to $4 a bowl.

Of course, there were another matter also touched on, something about raising the fertility rate which I lost interest on completely because of the way the questioner raised his question. Come on, just keep it simple, silly alright? I clearly don’t like people to rant on and on about something I already know before the question is asked.

Either way I did catch part of the answer in which it seems like the gahmen is in the opinion that the cost of living is not what that is the main obstacle to couples having children (or even getting married). But rather, they are more interested in their material pursuits over their love of children. It was mentioned (I can’t remember who said it) that though some Scandinavian countries have a high TFR (Total Fertility Rate), the taxation level of those countries are high to allow free education etc for a child. The gahmen believes we would object to that kind of tax burden to solve the TFR issue, not to mention that Singapore’s unique position makes it difficult for such policies. Something which I don’t necessary disagree with, since I don’t want to be caught in situation where taxes needs to be increased further because the gahmen needs more money.

At this point I believed Josephine Teo mentioned that perhaps we should take our eyes off our material pursuits and look at the other things, such as appreciation of arts etc because the museums have remained empty in spite of the low entry costs. In my opinion, that would like ‘quenching one’s thirst by looking at plums’ (望梅止渴) because clearly we need to ensure our material needs are satisfied before we can move to the other levels of Maslow Hierarchy of Needs. It would be absurd for anyone who is struggling to keep their own personal budget balanced to contemplate what she suggested.

My overall impression of this entire talk is that the gahmen seems to be more concerned with the future consequences of their actions today. That is perhaps what sets them apart from the opposition which is focused on the here and now.

Aside from the talk, I object to the gahmen’s argument that reducing GST would be more beneficial to the rich than to the poor even when I can agree that the GST collected as a rich man’s single purchase of some items would at times be more than what a poor person would pay in an entire year. If I had gotten my facts right, the gahmen tells us that 16% of total GST comes from the rich. But what about the other 84%? How much of that 84% is made up of other commercial activities, or more ominously… from the poor? Was there a breakdown of that 84% which I missed out?

It is ludicrous that the gahmen argues against removal of GST on necessities. One of the example cited is that while clothing is a necessity, a rich man buying a branded piece of garment would thus be spared from GST. I find it ridiculous that our million dollar mini$ter$ would not be able to come up with a list of items classified as luxuries. Meantime, I read on the papers that someone suggested that if the gahmen finds that it is difficult to reduce GST because it would be difficult to isolate luxury items from necessities, then it should consider a rebate of GST for those people whose earning are below a certain level. I personally think that is a great idea and it’s high time the gahmen stop giving excuses and do something about the infernal GST.

Current Affairs – Electoral Boundaries Redrawn

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Now that the new electoral boundaries have been finalised, it is certain that the General Election won’t be very far away. Some are putting their bets on a lightning election in late March, while many on some time in May.

With the boundaries redrawn, part of the West Coast Group Representative Constituency (GRC) – which I used to be a part of – has been carved out to form a new Single-Member Constituency (SMC) called Pioneer – whereby I am now a ‘member’. My best guess (since I do not have the actual maps marking the boundaries and I hadn’t bothered reading the local papers) is that the junction of Jurong West Central 1 and Jalan Boon Lay forms the north eastern corner of Pioneer SMC. The ‘thumb’ of West Coast GRC, hemmed in between Hong Kah North SMC and Pioneer SMC will be the area bordered by Jurong West Street 61 to the West and Jalan Boon Lay to the East with Jurong West Ave 2 and 4 forming the northern border while Jurong West Central 1 and Street 62 forming its southern counterpart. If my ‘guess-timate’ is right, even Pioneer Mall itself would be within the boundaries of the West Coast GRC! I personally think that the new boundaries are insane and you just have to take a look at the simple map attached here to see just how ridiculous West Coast GRC is. Anyway, I am happy that I am in an SMC in spite of the insane boundaries. After all, it is almost certain that it will be contested and it will be the first time in my life that I will be voting.

The image on the right shows which constituency I am in when I checked using my Singpass on the Elections Deparment Website. It also tells me that my polling district is ‘PI-WE-40’, and I believe that will decide my polling station as well. There is really not much importance in this information to most individuals, but it would be of some great importance to the political parties which intend to contest the area, especially if it was contested in the last election.

The reason being, even though the candidates will not know who you or your neighbours voted for, they will have a general idea of their support in a particular area. It basically allows any ruling party to ‘gerrymander’ as they can ‘move’ polling districts between neighbouring constituencies – i.e. merging polling districts where the opposition is having a strong showing into a constituency where support for the ruling party is strong, or offer goodies targeted at that specific polling district to attract votes. Polling district absorptions work especially well in favor of the ruling party in Singapore because the local opposition parties are not strong enough to contest all the constituencies, and many do not constantly work the ground as some observers have rightly criticised.

That information is probably why Sylvia Lim mentioned that the Workers’ Party [WP] has ‘significant support’ in the districts next to Hougang. She definitely isn’t farting out of her mouth because any political party worth its salt should keep a record of these information so they can work the ground and entrench their support – something the WP seems to be doing. ‘The Hammer Party’ (and for all odd reasons I was reminded of the Axe gang in Stephen Chow’s ‘Kung Fu Hustle’ even when there is no relationship) has maintained a presence in areas where it has on more than one occasion almost won – the defunct Eunos and Cheng San GRCs – in between elections. In fact, while some had considered Yaw Shin Leong’s team which contested Ang Mo Kio GRC in 2006 to be a kamikaze squad, I believed they did it for good reason. That attempt would have given them information on how much residue support remained in the polling districts of Cheng San absorbed by Ang Mo Kio, and to make a decision whether to maintain a presence in those areas considering that WP do not have as much resources as the People’s Action Party [PAP] Tali-PAP. Had the votes polled been around 20 ~ 25%, it would have been as good as nothing since it would indicate that the middle voters has either abandoned the WP, or simply ‘abstained’ (if there is a high number of spoilt votes).

Based on this, it is my considered opinion that the By-Election Effect Strategy (BEES) should be abandoned. For the uninitiated, the By-Election Effect Strategy is a strategy adopted by the Singapore Democrat Party [SDP] of the Chiam-era (before it was taken over by the current group of charlatans) in which it allows the ruling party to be returned to power on nomination day itself. It is ‘designed’ in such a way that the the electorate in the contested constituencies can vote without the fearing the so-called ‘freak result’ in which the capable ruling party is voted out of power. After all, the BEES simply invites the middle voters who would otherwise not vote for the opposition to throw caution to the wind. The strategy does have some effect, since in areas contested by the Singapore Democratic Alliance [SDA] (Chiam’s ‘new outfit’ after he left the SDP), I noticed that they do get another about 5 ~ 10% of votes on top of the usual 20 ~ 25% of anti-PAP votes.

Even so, I do not think very highly of the SDA’s effectiveness. After all, the SDA’s main objective appears to coordinate the actions of the opposition part to avoid 3-cornered fights in SMCs, and also to put together teams to contest in GRCs. However, the SDA never seem to stick to one place for long (with the exception of Sin Kek Tong who stick with Braddell Heights until it was absorbed by Marine Parade GRC). That gives everyone the impression of their member parties being nothing more than just ‘election parties’. The issue here is simply that even though they maybe able to put together a team to contest (and avoid a 3-corner fight while they are at it), they will be contesting in a place where there is no firm support for the opposition beyond the traditional 20 ~ 25% of Tali-PAP haters.

That said, I still expect a lower margin for the Tali-PAP in the coming election, though I don’t think there will be much significant changes in the make up in Parliament. The so-called ‘social media’ (e.g. Facebook and microblogs like Twitter and Plurk) probably will play a significant part in the coming elections, but I doubt even with them we would attain the kind of election fever like that of Taiwan. The opposition parties here can dream about riding high on the Internet much like President Emperor Obama, but I doubt it is likely to happen (even though I don’t mind being proven wrong).

It can be said that the ground sentiment favors the opposition this time round – since many Singaporeans are concerned (if not pissed off) with the immigration policies, foreign workers, housing and the increasing cost of living. However, Singaporeans simply do not possess the kind of political fervor. The opposition also seems to be in disarray, as I constantly read about the bickering between Madam Chiam (I almost typed Madam Chiang) and Desmond Lim, and the Reform Party is beset by mass resignation among its members. At times, I am not sure whether some opposition parties make any sense at all. For e.g. even if the recent budget in terms of monetary hand outs to the people is disappointing, then how much do they think is a better figure? On top of which, if the hand outs are indeed disappointing, they should silently thank the Tali-PAP for doing them a favor. After all, if the ‘goodies’ in the budget is not enough, the people now have a ‘good reason’ to vote against them.

That said, I would hope the opposition capture some of the SMCs. Even though we have all the necessary components of a democracy – such as the rule of law, plans for nation building and a sizable middle class, our democracy in terms of social participation is weak, if not non existent. I would like to see this particular pillar of democracy strengthen. It is high time that we bring more live into our parliamentary debates instead of looking at some Tali-PAP MPs falling asleep in Parliament sessions or a large part of it being empty. Of course, I expect our elected members not to resort to their fists and legs to bring their point across.

Random Discourse – Singapore’s Low Fertility Rate

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I saw these comments on Twitter. I do not know what to make of them. As far as I am concerned, she basically just aped the government gahmen line without giving a much serious thought of the issue. Such pro-gahmen comments in general shows a lack of deeper understanding of the matter and lack of empathy towards the plight of fellow Singaporeans. I even detect a faint trace of selfishness there.

Let me explain the reason for my strong reaction… and just like my favourite character Lai Wuji [賴戊己] used to say in the Taiwanese drama series ‘Love’ [愛], “You listen to me carefully.” (你給我聽清楚了。)

First of all, the Aussie comment that was mentioned. I was told several years ago that if you are a plumber, it is not difficult for you to migrate to Australia because you are the kind of skilled labour that it lacked. However, while the Singapore gahmen tells us that we need more foreign fallen talents, I for one am ignorant of what in specific are the skilled labour that our education system has failed to provide either in part or completely. Even though the rational middle voters and most understanding Singaporeans know for a fact that investors will pass us by if we can’t provide enough workers to fill the jobs (as the gahmen claims), there are often murmurs on the ground that certain foreigners are taken in because they accept a lower pay. Yet, in spite of all these, our lapdog main stream media took matters even further by suggesting that we Singaporeans would probably all starve if we don’t hire foreign workers! (see screen shot attached below).


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It wasn’t long before some of us believe that certain companies deliberately discriminate against locals by hiring foreigners, and not even a younger and better educated Singaporean who are generally offered a lower starting pay. If wages for Singaporeans are too high and making us uncompetitive, to what are we making that comparison? Now, this is not arguing that we Singaporeans ‘deserved’ a job, but one of the roles of the gahmen is to create jobs and what is the purpose of creating jobs for foreigners when it is the job of the gahmen of their native countries to do so? What evidence is there that hiring foreign workers lower cost of operation or even our cost of living when prices go up all the same? Perhaps we should all just fool ourselves saying that the cost isn’t going up faster than it already is.

This perception is made worse if we know of a friend who remained unemployed for long periods while a foreigner took the job he is capable of doing. Very little is done to help the Singaporean. Instead he is admonished for being demanding or being complacent and lazy. Thus, this self defeating foreign worker policy continued to run its course while wages continue to be depressed for local workers allowing the cost of living out paced it. It is no surprise that the cries for minimum wages are getting acceptance in some quarters, even when I don’t believe a minimum wage is necessary across every sector or for all jobs.

That brings me to address the next point – declining birth rate. It maybe true that we require immigrants to keep up with our population decline. However, the real issue behind our population decline – i.e. the high cost of living – has never been addressed. While wages are depressed and the pricing of our so-called ‘affordable public housing’ pegged to that of private property, how the Tali-PAP gahmen continue to call it affordable is unimaginable. For e.g. A 3-room in Tanglin Halt costs $9,000 in 1971 (the year I was born) and a worker who earns $500 a month could pay it off in 10 years. The cost to wages ratio is 18:1. Today, a brand new HDB cost $300,000. Assuming that a graduates starting pay in $2,500, the cost to wages ratio is *gasp* a staggering 120:1!! (Even if they get $4000, it is 75:1 and many of them have study loans to pay off.) For many of us, to pay off my housing loan in 10 years is almost next to impossible. We can however console ourselves that the cost of a home in Beijing or Shanghai is no better, and is perhaps worse when we consider the wages there.

The gahmen may argue that quality of the flats is now better, but in most cases they are also smaller. It now requires a couple to both work for almost the entirety of their useful life to just pay for the roof over their heads. I don’t even want to talk about how the gahmen hoodwinked us into believing that their discount is a subsidy. Is it a surprise that couples don’t intend to have kids because it probably costs at least another quarter of a million dollars to raise a child from infancy to university graduate? Or that kids end up wielding parangs and chopping up people because their parents are never around to mentor and discipline them?

Let’s not forget, even though the gahmen insists that there the skyrocketing property prices aren’t caused by foreigners, we had to question **who** is offering obscene amount of Cash Over Value [COV] to obtain local properties. It almost sound contradicting that Singaporeans accused foreigners of depressing wages while we also accused them of pushing our property sky-high. But remember that it only require one high-flying foreigner to complete a deal to bring up the prices, even though he isn’t a part of the horde of FTTFs [Foreign True Talent False] which are pushing wages down. Some might say we should be smart and walk away from sellers demanding high COV, but where to? Into the blue sea around us? When there is scant evidence that foreigners are doing us any good, it is a no brainer why Singaporeans reject foreign immigrants! After all, the general perception is that they played a big part in screwing up our lives!

Even if property prices and depressed wages are not the most compelling reason for Singaporeans not to have babies, don’t forget that commercial property prices will also go up in tandem with that of residential ones. Certainly there won’t be one price for land sold for residential properties and another for commercial ones, right? As a result, rentals increase for shops and hawkers, and that translates into higher costs for daily necessities and food. It is not uncommon that a simple meal can cost $6.50 or even $10 at certain food courts while the poor hawker at the hawker center would lose business when he raised prices by a mere 50cents, or when he cut the portion of his servings. It is no wonder why I noticed an increasing number of empty stalls in hawker centers of ageing estates, and the traditional provision shop is almost extinct replaced by mini-mart chain stores? No wonder even McDonald’s restaurants are packed during lunch! After all, McDonald’s value meals at discounted prices during lunch is at times even cheaper than food sold in the food court!

The writer who wrote the comment asked, “If we don’t want an influx of foreigners, are we going to pay for higher taxes for our ageing population as a result of our declining birthrate?” The fact is, I am already paying more here and now to just survive with an influx of foreigners. So just what the #@%$& are you talking about? And last I checked Singapore is not a welfare state so is there even an allocation in the budget for the aged? *sigh*

That brings me to the remaining comment – “without immigrants we are a piece of wasteland”. Perhaps that would be true in 1819. But by the time we were expelled from Malaysia in 1965, few of us could claim to be immigrants. Many of our parents are either born here or in Malaya, which is hardly consider ‘foreign’ back then. In fact, Lao Lee himself admitted that he was convinced that Singapore only had a future within the Federation before Dr. Goh Keng Swee negotiated the separation. Not to mention that 4 years after the separation, racial tensions in the Federation spilled over to Singapore after May 13, 1969.

I must ask, in the first 20 years of our nations existence, did our fair country ‘spread her legs’ freely to foreigners? Why haven’t we perished and turned into a waste land then?

I would be surprised if the high cost of living and property prices that enslaved us all hasn’t act like some kind of anti-Viagra / anti-Cialis that kept the Singaporean male (except the mini$ter$ and the high paying civil serpents servants) from getting an erection and making babies. It is certainly cheaper to just get a pack of condoms. ‘Phiak phiak raw and shoot inside’ is a no-no not just with prostitutes.

In short, the best way to raise the fertility rate is to give us real affordable housing and bring down the cost of living. All of this will require some hard work and far reaching policies that will take time to be effective. Unfortunately for us, this gahmen has so far taken the easy way out with our population issues by simply accepting more foreigners (just like how it has resorted to cheap foreign labour to attract investments instead of raising productivity). So much for these so-called top talents paid millions a year! If this policy is allowed to continue, the problem will only worsen with no end in sight.

Fortunately, other than the old man still being ‘tee kee’ [Hokkien for ‘iron teeth’, which means ‘stubborn in words’], it would appear to me that even the ruling party has realised that the current immigration policy is a untenable position in the upcoming election. I would love the old man to just repeat the famous ‘If native Singaporeans are falling behind because “the spurs are not stuck into the hide”, that is their problem” statement. The middle voters definitely need a little shove to cross the line.

Anyway, I do hope that the current property cooling measures and the reduction in number of permanent residency [PR] issued to foreigners are going to be long term policies and not just an election gimmick. Or else there will be no light at the end of the tunnel for the true-blue Singaporean.

Before I end, it was no surprise to me that a recent poll showed that our youths have no sense of belonging and would prefer to leave and work elsewhere if conditions permit. Food for thought?

Recommended Reads:
Amy Chua: Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior
Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld: Why I love my strict Chinese mom

Current Affairs – TOC Gazetted as Political Association

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On Jan 11, the Prime Ministers Office [PMO] issued a letter informing the ‘blog’ known as ‘The Online Citizen’ [TOC] that “The Prime Minister intends to declare the owners, editorial team, and administrators of The Online Citizen (TOC), by order in the Gazette, to be a political association for the purposes of the Political Donations Act”.

I started reading TOC around late 2008, some time after the financial crisis. I liked the way the TOC provided the poor ‘ah pek ah soh investors’ who have ‘lost their pants’ in Lehman-linked products an avenue to seek redress, even though I do not necessarily have a good opinion of Tan Kin Lian. I felt what was done was meaningful and good, even though I have no self interest in the matter. After all, I had no investment in Lehman-linked products, nor had my parents lost anything in these products.

I then continued to read the TOC on and off – since my friends or acquaintances would post links to TOC articles on Twitter, Plurk or even their own Facebook wall from time to time. From March 2009 onwards all the way until the AWARE EGM in May, I was disillusioned with the seemingly liberal and pro-HBT [Homosexual, Bisexual, Transgendered / Transvestite] agenda. In fact, there was very little difference reading TOC or the Peoples Daily Straits Stooge Times.

It made me question TOC’s agenda. In fact, I removed the link to TOC soon after. When Wayang Party gave itself the new atas name of Terbalik Revue Temasek Review, my experience with TOC put me off the idea of linking it. I had no clue Wayang Party has merely changed its name, and I thought it has simply disappeared. It was fortunately I didn’t, because I would have regretted my decision as I have a very low opinion of the content on Wayang Party all these while.

Even though I have stopped linking TOC, I have not written it off completely. But I am further disillusioned when TOC made a fuss over the death sentence of Yong Vui Kong and championed for the abolition of the death sentence. Every drug trafficker has his own sad story to tell. In fact, some violent criminals maybe a doting father, a loving husband or a filial son. But does that justify the pardoning of their crimes? The entire premise behind the objection to the death sentence seems to be that someone innocent may be sentenced to death, and then it would be too late when proven otherwise. But this implied that our police officers have failed in their due diligence in their investigations. It suggests that our police officers are sloppy in their work. It suggest that our courts simply go through the motion of sentencing people to their deaths and are nothing more than a rubber stamp before people are put to death. (The perhaps sort of explain why Alan Shadrake got into trouble.)

I have since then almost stopped reading TOC. I only read it when I am compelled to by the title of the articles linked. That’s the complete opposite from the Terbalik Revue, which I had ceased reading completely (Their exaggeration of the bad food served during the YOG sealed their fate). Thus, I wasn’t aware TOC held a F2F (Face to Face) where all the local political parties (including the Tali-PAP) was invited until it was too late.

I didn’t really follow the event but it appears that the Tali-PAP declined to attend, and the Workers’ Party was accused by certain quarters for being disrespectful for sending someone else other than their own secretary general or even their chairman. I thought that times have really changed, because I was expecting the government gahmen to find some obscure law to stop the event from happening. I was under the impression something like this would never be allowed to be held in the past, and I was expecting some kind of response from the gahmen, if not the ruling party itself.

So it didn’t really come as a surprise that TOC was subsequently gazetted. A few opposition parties erupted in indignant fury, and the Workers’ Party remained quiet. It wasn’t really unexpected, since I am in the opinion that the Workers’ Party has departed from the way of lofty and meaningless ideology a long time ago. What is the point of endlessly talking about democracy in the first place? It serves no purpose other than to expose some of these opposition parties superficial understanding of democracy being nothing more that ‘participation’ while ignoring the fact that most Singaporeans are generally indifferent, if not uninterested. It never cease to amaze me that some of these political parties attempt to have the electorate align with their agenda, while failing to align themselves to that of the electorate. The bad showing of the Singapore Democratic Party [SDP] in the last few elections is a clear testimony of their lack of understanding of their voters.

Above which, these political parties failed to talk more about the other pillars of democracy. I am not talking about the tripartite institutions of democracy such as the executive, the judiciary and the legislative, but the rule of law, the middle class and nation building. Few could argue there is no rule of law in Singapore, as even a mini$ter had been hauled up by the Corruption Practices Investigation Board [CPIB] and he killed himself while in custody. Opposition members like Chiam See Tong has sued the ruling party and won his case. If I am not wrong, there was even a case in which a Tali-PAP MP who was investigated for breach of trust was asked to resign. Very few Singaporeans would argue our courts were ‘opened by the Tali-PAP’ (法院是行動黨開的) like the Taiwanese used to say about their courts being ‘opened by the Kuomingtang [KMT]’ (法院是國民黨開的).

The middle class is Singapore is more concerned with job security and law and order. Cases of a resurgent triad or secret society, or the fear of losing their jobs and slowly slipping into struggling to make ends meet is of greater concern to them. The dissolution of the true-blue Singaporean middle class, replaced with one that is filled with foreign migrants with different aspirations and indifferent to our values and traditions while true-blue Singaporeans are left with the scraps would be something that would be of greater concern than anything else. As far as I am concerned, the usual few opposition parties who makes the most noise about democracy have been utterly lacking in addressing this. Do I really care about ‘participation’ when I am staring at my bowl of rice that is rapidly getting smaller, and even worrying that it would disappear? I am really more concerned with the cost of living and job security. Only after I can feed myself and feel secure can I start looking at the other levels on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, yes?

As to nation building, no one can say that the Tali-PAP has no policies for nation building. Municipal wise, one can look at the plans in place for improving our transport system, plans to rejuvenate certain city centers or to move parts of gahmen departments and services out of the CBD. The two Integrated Resorts [IRs], the industries in Tuas or the many industrial parks stand as a testimony to the plans for nation building. Our only complaints about this may simply be that the Tali-PAP gahmen is more interested in building the hardware or the economics more than the software – the people. If there’s anything lacking it would be fostering a sense of belonging to our nation, or to encourage the people to participate and take ownership of the decision and policy making process. This is where TOC could have served as a platform.

It is interesting that in TOC’s response to the Prime Minister’s Office [PMO] and Media Development Authority [MDA] on the PM’s decision to gazette the TOC, it mentioned that ‘our nation-building efforts will be set back by years’. Yet it is short on details on why and how. I dare to hazard a guess that in the end the TOC will have no choice but to register itself as a political association, since few would have cared to take a harder look into the potential of TOC other than a whiners’ platform – even though they could have been ‘whiners’ that make good points at times.

Fortunately, while I am a even worse whiner at times, I have a low readership and too insignificant to gazette… 😛

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