Random Discourse – Vote the PAP Out?

3 comments

Found this group on Facebook called: “Vote The PAP Out”. While I am no fan of the Tali-PAP (aka the People’s Action Party [PAP], which I called the political mullahs of Singapore Politics), I am not joining this group either.

I’ll admit there used to be times when I would be gnashing my teeth and showing a irrational hatred of the Tali-PAP. But getting older caused me to mellow down on political issues which I am certainly not an adept nor do I have a full grasp. Furthermore, as time goes by I slowly learn to look at things from a wider perspective and gather more opinions which in turn has caused me to ‘drift’ more towards the ‘political middle’ rather than towards the opposition. Rest assured however, that ageing ‘the process of dying’ won’t make me a pro-government pro-gahmen or a Tali-PAP lackey / apologist yet.

While I may object to how certain things are done by the Tali-PAP, I will not be party with elements of so-called non-partisan self-proclaimed ‘pro-Singapore’ opposition movement that will put in power another political faction which I perceived will work against my personal beliefs one way or another. I will have nothing to do with the so-called liberal and pro-opposition elements within this movement which I perceived to have an anti-Christian agenda. That’s not mentioning any group that is unified by their common hatred of the Tali-PAP, is nothing more than an ‘alliance of convenience’ which failed to recognise the often self-conflicting agendas and self-interests among its members. Assuming that they were to take the Tali-PAP down, internal squabbling among them will pull the nation in many different directions and rip it apart. I would rather be party with a group which not only has the goal of overthrowing the Tali-PAP, but also a plan on what the do when the Tali-PAP is gone (and not just because of their common hatred).

Some might want to ask what has my Christian beliefs got anything to do with politics since the matter of Church and State should always been separated. The truth of the matter is, Christians have always been in the forefront of politics. The martyrdom of many early Christians ultimately turned Christianity into the state religion of the Roman Empire. When the Western Roman Empire collapsed, Christians found that kings of successor states have too much power and then sought to curtail it through the religious leadership – i.e. the Pope and Bishops. When there was too much corruption from within the clergy of the Roman Church, Christians step forth to call for reform from within. When that failed, they did so from without as Protestants. Subsequently, when Christians felt that the English Monarchy has corrupted Protestant Christianity, the Puritans left for America in ships. Simply put, separating Church from State doesn’t cut just one way. While the State tells Christians not to enforce their morality on State matters, the State should not decide for Christians what they should or should not believe in.

It is the moral obligation of any Christian to at least ensure their religious freedom is not taken away under such a pretense. Thus, if a group of people want to put in a gahmen with the intention of curtailing the Christian belief so that certain forms of immorality and warped view of religious tolerance will be considered as liberal, progressive and acceptable, then I will have nothing to do with this movement as much as possible. After all, I would hate the irony of finding out at the end of the day I prepared the very rope to hang myself on. It doesn’t matter that I might actually agree with some of the points put forth by the group.

Personally speaking, some of the points raised in the description of the group I do agree with. I will address them individually.

  • Over-influx of foreigners – There are 2 parts in this problem.

    First, employment. This would breakdown into the employment of cheap foreign labour for jobs that Singaporeans won’t do, and employment of foreign labour to fill positions which Singapore does not have enough manpower to provide. I have mentioned previously that I understand the need to take it foreign labour to bring investments to Singapore, and I have also mentioned that jobs that Singaporeans won’t take up has something to do with the cost of living. I must ask this, if we are to throw all the foreigners out, or at the very least put in some kind of limits to their numbers, how do we realistically achieve that without serious impact to our economy and society? Some of us have one parent who is a PR.

    Next, foreign students. 2nd generation PRs or children of expatriates who will compete with us for positions in primary schools to universities. As a matter of fact, the Tali-PAP has begun to give more priorities to citizens with regard to education. If this isn’t enough, what else is needed here?

  • NS disadvantages – I will admit that the Singaporean male is disadvantaged by National Service [NS]. We spent 2 years in the army while some of us lose employment opportunities (and even girlfriends) to foreigners. Furthermore, 2 years away from what we learn makes everything ‘rusty’. I have known some cases in which some of us can’t even put to good use what we have learn in school, because the rapid shift in the focus of the economy has made those skills obsolete. The only upside of NS is nothing gives you a bigger network than a stint as a reservist soldier. I would also agree that women should do NS, in non-combat roles such as nursing, or even logistical positions in the SAF to address the imbalance that is current aggravated by the Women’s Charter. There is no real equal rights without equal responsibilities. But I doubt any gahmen, not even a non Tali-PAP one would want to venture anywhere near this.

  • Skyrocket property prices – I have called this a form or modern slavery. I don’t really give a damn about private housing if it’s out of my reach. But why should we slog through 30 years of our useful life for a so-called ‘affordable’ HDB pigeon hole which prices are derived by some arcane formula that none of us understand? Above which, I had also previously raised the point that we don’t really have subsidies to our housing but rather just discounts.

  • High Medical Costs – Yes. Getting old and getting sick is a fearful prospect for Singaporeans. We’ll rather be dead than sick or old here. While the basic Medishield cover may indeed ‘cover no shit’, we can get better coverage from private insurers at a higher cost. That being said, I would prefer that I can use my Medisave to cover any amount for my medical insurance (and also that of my parents), and not be capped at a certain amount like $800 or so and then have to pay the rest by cash.

  • Low dispensable income – A yes for the low income earners. Anyone earning less than $2000 a month will have only a take home pay of $1600 after CPF deduction. If he wants to get medical insurance cover and pay his bills he would be working hand to mouth. It will be a life of all work and no play. Not to mention that according to some statistics, Singaporeans probably have one of the lowest wages in developed countries even for those who earn more that $2000 a month.

  • Low CPF Interest rate – This is something you shouldn’t be complaining about if you are still servicing your HDB mortgage loan. This is also something you shouldn’t be complaining about if you have used your CPF to pay for your property. Remember, when you sell your house, the money from the sale will first be return to the CPF and that includes accrued interest. Higher CPF interest rate means less profits when you sell your house. But you won’t be complaining about what’s next if you can sell your house.

  • CPF unable to provide retirement – Can’t have my cake and eat it. On top of which, this whole thing including skyrocketing property prices, low CPF interest rates and CPF being unable to provide for retirement are all part of a ‘Gordian Knot’. I’ll leave it to a wise guy to provide a ‘Alexander the Great solution’ to this.

  • Inflation due to GST 7% – I have heard this argument often, and in fact have used it myself. For e.g. hawkers raising the price of a plate of Char Siew Rice from $3 to $3.50. That would have been way more than the operation overheads hawkers have to bear as a result of the increase in GST. However it would be hard to argue directly that GST is the real cause behind all the inflation. Coffee shops have raised the price of coffee by 10cents when the price of sugar goes up, and it will never come down after that.

  • Singaporeans unemployment rate not declared – Well, I do think it is higher regardless whether PRs are included in that figure or not. After all, if you leave employment for further studies (or take up further studies when you are unemployed), you wouldn’t be part of the unemployment figures anymore. Neither are homemakers. Furthermore, I have always considered some ‘self-employed’ taxi drivers to be a part of the unemployment figures as some of these drivers have no other skills to make them employable.

  • GIC and Temasek Losses – Yes. Definitely some heads should roll for this. They can use a Wakazishi and the Padang for cutting their bellies as part of their final atonement. And while we are at this, even those who approved ridiculous large bonus packages for town council staff, and those who lost millions in town council sinking funds should be made accountable.

  • Heavy shortage of subsidized university places for qualified Singapore students – Ok, define qualified. If the ‘shortage’ has something to do with those who just didn’t quite make the mark to qualify, don’t try and blame foreigners for taking up those positions at all! Even if this is true, I really don’t expect much of a solution to this anyway. The danger of setting a quota for foreign students would make us like Malaysia – where there are places in the universities but they can’t be given out because of the quota. The next best thing the gahmen can do would be to raise the fees of foreign students. But the fees cannot be make so prohibitive that foreign students stop coming. And seriously, while I would prefer some of these foreign ingrates to be thrown out of our universities (and our country, along with certain foreigners working here) for their not so flattering view of our country, I wasn’t aware that we have run out of subsidised university places because foreigners have taken them.

All in all, what I want to say is this: While I agree that all of the above are problems that need to be addressed, are they reasons enough to actually vote the Tali-PAP out of power entirely? Deny them a 2/3 majority to wake them up so they take us more seriously, definitely! To vote them out when there isn’t yet a political power ready to take up the reins? Please, spare this old man here the drastic changes and the chaos that will follow there after. Unlike some of the young punks who think they have nothing to lose other than their PSP or iPhones, or even a few nights of clubbing at St. James or Zouk, there’s really much more at stake for me here.

Anyway, while none of us are paid millions like our mini$ter$ to come up with solutions, and there is certainly no obligations for anyone to do so, I would really like someone to talk about hypothetical solutions to all of the problems above. Getting rid of the Tali-PAP is not the solution to it all. Thank you very much.

Recommended Reads:
Growing your tree of prosperity: Why foreign talent will trounce your asses.

后感: 哥本哈根气候会谈

One comment

简单来说，这是一个大家都在电梯里放屁，然后觉得臭了就认为大家再放屁就会死人的一场讨论。 不但如此，在规定大家只能放多少屁的时候，之前放屁最多的口头上虽然承认大家都有责任控制放屁，但却不对自己的过去的行为负责。除此以外，虽然不完全禁止放屁，但却限制别人不可像自己那样般放屁。为了实现不可乱放屁的目标，他们认为那些未来可能吃和他们一样的多的人，要让他们来检查屁眼。而且只能几时才能放和允许放多少的屁才为负责任都要以他们的标准来衡量和约束。在这样苛刻的条件下，竟然还厚颜无耻的说如果要花钱检查是别人自家的事。但在集体抗议后，才反过来说如果要他们出钱的话就必须接受他们的条件，要不然门都没有！而那些还没放屁，或者放屁最少的，就嚷着说之前放过屁的那些人的屁是最臭的，已经放了很多屁的人应该担当更大的责任。

试想，有哪个笨蛋会接受如此的狗屁道理喔？！难怪谈了他妈的整整半个月，都谈不拢啦！

Random Discourse – The Singapore Dream

4 comments

Excerpt from blog post: Some “difficult” personal ideas[19-Dec-2009]

The Singapore Dream is dead… You get married, then have children to get some discount to buy ownership in a HDB for 99 years is a lie to keep you a slave for the system. After a while you get sick and die surrounded by consumer goods that you don’t really need. Consumption now generates most of government taxes.

Consumption not only generate most of the government’s gahmen’s taxes. Consumption is the very dynamo of the economy of the Free World. In fact, this might even be the way of life that China aspires to have for her citizens. George ‘Warmonger’ Bush said this after the 9-11 attacks:

I encourage you all to go shopping more.

Call it an encouragement from the American President to the people to show they are not cowering in fear by living their lives as it is. The truth is, there is more at stake here than not showing an outward sign of weakness and defeat to the terrorists. A failure to throng the malls and spend money would have serious consequences for the American economy (and the world economy in general). People need to spend to keep economic activities going, which in turn keeps people employed and provide the money for them to continue spending.

The same goes for Singapore. That is why malls after malls are erected to satisfy our material cravings. Vivocity, Jurong Point extension, Illuma, Orchard Central, ION Orchard, 313 Orchard are such fine examples of monuments to consumerism.

Meantime, the media floods our senses through advertisements with all that dazzling consumer goods. Trade fair after trade fair, especially those for so-called state-of-the-art and ultra high-tech gadgets that would become obsolete in 6 ~ 12 months draw in the crowds and rake in an astonishing amount of revenue which make a mockery of the recession. Very often I see on micro-blogging sites like Twitter and Plurk or the status in Facebook, someone announcing the acquisition of a new purchase for a DSLR, iPods, game console or mobile phones. At times, the same person would announce the acquisition of several items within a week and sometimes within the day itself! The items are not just a cheap sub-$50 thumb drive but an expensive mobile phone or a DSLR camera. Whether they completely utilise the features available don’t matter at all since they can pay for it.

This is the Singapore Dream. Always chasing after the next best electronic gadget or the next better car or better located condominium. An endless cycle of spending… and debt. The dream is never dead, it is just one the gahmen wants to keep everyone from waking up from. It wants us all to keep dreaming for a better outcome.

That way, one remains a slave of the system. Indeed, Singapore is like a warm bath where one sinks in, slits his wrists and watch his lifeblood drains away and he wouldn’t even bother he is dying because it’s warm. Slowly, as life drains away one drift into a sleep he would never wake up from and dream wonderful things while he dies. It would be almost painless, and one probably can find no better manner to waste his life away. Thus, Singapore taps us all of our labor just like how the Matrix would tap humans of their energy as a battery until they die. Just don’t scream and cause everyone else to wake up in panic when one realise his dream is nothing more than a nightmare.

Shhhh… Be quiet!! I am trying to sleep and dream my sweet Singapore dream.

Welcome to Singapore.

Recommended Read:
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Commentary – Not filling but yet not starving

8 comments

This is an excerpt from my friend Christopher’s blog [Post: So this is what people call a “dangerous idea” dated 9-12-2009]:

This means that if one can sustain himself indefinitely, he may be able to demand better treatment from his employers or even buy time to take a political stand. $2,000 a month is a small figure but consider how difficult it would be to get the government to give you $2,000 in this country.

I once told a friend that it is ‘optimal’ for a government gahmen to keep a nation’s people in a borderline state called: 吃不饱，饿不死 [Translation: Not filling but yet not starving].

Consider the two extremes. If the people are starving and dying then they will rise in revolt because they are likely to have nothing to lose but their lives anyway. If they are well fed, then they will start having all sorts of funny ideas on how to make things better and start meddling in how things are run. The in-between condition means that people will be kept in a situation in which they fear losing more if they rise up in revolt, but are saddled with enough burdens to keep them from being too meddlesome.

In Singapore, this condition is achieved through so-called “affordable public housing”. It is interesting to note that in Chinese it is written as: 负担的起的公共房屋. The reason being the words 负担 (in noun form) simply means burden. It would not be ironical, if one were to say that housing is now synonymous with burden – even for public housing built by the HDB. In China, there is a term for this: 蜗居 – which literally translates as the dwelling of a snail. Quite aptly put, since like snails we are all carrying our housing loans like a snail carries its shell.

Thus, it is almost comical when the Minister Mentor Monkey Mentos reassured Singaporeans that HDB will continue to build “affordable”flats when he also said, “‘Well, they have got to decide if the country is going to go up or go down. If the country is going to go down, then the economy will go down and their incomes will be down – unemployment will go up and property values will come down.”

It is interesting to note how the gahmen uses the economy to argue things their way all the time. On one hand they argue that we should bite the bullet and take pay cuts, not to expect huge bonus and good pay increments because of the current status of the economy. On the other they now justify the ridiculously high prices of our so-called public housing as a reflection of the economy. It is almost as if the Singapore economy has a split personality. That’s not forgetting, while the MM tells us to decide ‘if the country is going to go up or go down’, the gahmen said it was due to external factors and it got nothing to do with them when the economy headed south not very long ago. To me they might as well just say, “Tough. But there’s nothing much we do about it!’

In other words, what we decide about our economy has no effect on our economy at all. Even if what we decide has any effect, can we actually expect our pay to go up in tandem in terms of percentage just like our property prices if we decide the economy is to go up?

If I am not wrong, a minister (can’t remember who) once said that the gahmen considered our housing as ‘affordable’ as long as the monthly installments is not more than 20% of our income. Right, that means for every dollar you earn, you give 20cents away to the gahmen to pay for a house which you technically just lease from the gahmen… for the next decade if you are lucky (and for a couple of decades or so if you are not). Frankly, I wonder just how many Singaporeans are saddled with a housing loan that would require them at least 15 – 25 years to pay it off. Would the HDB be so kind to provide us the figure? Is that what is meant by affordable – i.e. being burdened with a debt that would take one almost one generation to pay off?

Is it a wonder why in the end, the Singaporean worker is the most meek and they continually suffer in silence as some of the worst paid workers in the developed world (without even considering what a lapdog our so called gahmen-controlled union)? Is it a wonder why many low level Singaporean workers just swallow their pride and keep quiet in the face of some of the most incompetent middle level managers in the world even when they could have been right?

So, I felt what Christopher has written makes a lot of sense because if we Singaporeans aren’t in the current predicament we are in, we would gladly tell some of these pathetic managers off, and even ask for better remuneration at work. If we Singaporeans aren’t saddled with all these burdens and worries, we would have no reservations making our decisions at the ballot box because the sum of our fears (for many Singaporeans) is simply the fear of losing our financial stability. The Tali-PAP has certainly done well in equating political stability with economic stability and thus indirectly our personal financial stability.

Even though I do not believe that Tali-PAP deliberately ‘created’ this system of modern serfdom or slavery through housing, I am convinced that they realised that it would be the most prefect method to keep majority of Singaporeans in a 吃不饱，饿不死 condition which will keep them in power for a long time to come.

The day when Singaporeans wake up from the fact that the ‘Singapore Dream’ of owning a property of his own is nothing but a nightmare, will perhaps be the day Singapore turn out en mass to vote the Tali-PAP out of power. Perhaps, that day is now though I suspect there’s not much a new gahmen will do to change this if they come to power.

I forgot to mention… the best and most tangible baby bonus, is to build real affordable housing.

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Commentary – Michael Arrington

2 comments

This following statement is made by Michael Arrington, after he felt he got the short end in his cooperation with a Singaporean company called Fusion Garage on the CruchPad (now called Joo Joo).

The founder of Fusion Garage, Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan, isn’t a good guy. He has been caught plagiarizing articles. His previous company Radixs disintegrated in shareholder disputes and angry employees. We didn’t learn about this until last Summer because Singapore media, including blogs, are largely controlled by the government. Embarrassing stuff just isn’t reported. – Michael Arrington

Sweeping statements is a clear sign of a person’s desperation and that he is short on arguments. Here’s some facts for Michael Arrington: Do something offensive against bloggers and / or their friends in Singapore, and see just how quickly the bloggers react and how the offender gets a cyber-drubbing he’ll never forget. The offender will also be the butt of all jokes for a long time and it won’t be long before the incident becomes the thing most talked about in Singapore’s blogosphere and major forums, and in no time even the local evening tabloids would have picked up the news and reported it. In short, bloggers in Singapore are generally spontaneous when they are slighted, or when they read about something unjust, outrageous and offensive – such as a group of foreigners bullying an old trishaw rider. One can find no more passionate argument and solidarity in Singapore than Singapore’s blogosphere, even though at times there are several opinion camps on the same matter. In fact, at times I am concerned with the viciousness of some fellow bloggers when they expressed their opinion.

If Michael Arrington is trying to provoke some response or support from the local blogosphere for his plight, sweeping statements isn’t going to get him any. In fact, while I may even have agreed with Arrington if he thinks Singapore’s blogosphere is full of shallow and mundane postings such as mine, but accusing that all of us are controlled by the government gahmen is one bullshit that really takes the cake. Just what the fxxk were you thinking, Arrington?

For the record, I have never heard of Fusion Garage, Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan or even Radixs until recently. What Fusion Garage or Radixs do, and just who the fxxk is Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan wouldn’t have mattered to me unless they are going to put together something that is revolutionary. Try pull someone off the streets and ask him about Radixs or Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan and most of them would have given you the ‘what the fxxk’ look. Simply put, Singapore’s bloggers such as I won’t and can’t report on how allegedly shitty Fusion Garage, Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan or even Radixs is when they have never even heard about them!

Even if I have heard about those people, it probably was reported by a geek or tech blogger – being rare and few in Singapore – and it wouldn’t have attracted more interest beyond the article the names were written on. After all, these companies and people aren’t as famous as Dell or Warren Buffet. Frankly, I don’t even know who are the chief scientists and engineers behind the Large Hadron Collider, even though I have heard and read about that more often than TechCrunch. Personally, the reason I have heard about TechCrunch is simply because of the Techcrunch vs Nuffnang saga 2 years ago. In short, I wouldn’t give a sh*t about TechCrunch otherwise even as a blogger, much less about a Michael Arrington in his little petty squabble with a company situated here in Singapore. For the record, the only person with a name close to that is a Michael Carrington Tan, a classmate of mine back while I was in Polytechnic.

As to Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan and Fusion Garage’s dispute with Arrington, Arrington has taken everything online, presented all the evidence from his side while Fusion Garage hasn’t presented their side of the argument at all. While I personally have some bigoted opinion and reservations about people from the Indian sub-continent, I detest what I called ‘trial by the Internet’ where someone presented a one sided argument and pronounced the other party guilty when they simply haven’t even given their side of the story yet. In my opinion, no one could really make a comment or take sides in the matter when everything is so one sided and unclear regardless of our personal sentiments or sympathies. Either way, even if the courts of law ultimately ruled in favor of Arrington, I would still have kept my bigoted opinion of Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan (whom I do not even know) to myself.

I’ll give Michael Arrington some credit for being a tech writer. But on socio-political matters, he’s definitely out of his league. He should get out more often from his geeky existence, and perhaps even look at all the Singaporean sites like The Temasek Revew, The Online Citizen and even some of the so-called ‘social activists’ sites which I considered cesspools to see just how one sided Internet opinion is against the ruling party and the gahmen before he labelled the whole blogosphere as being gahmen-controlled. After all, reading some of these articles makes us think a revolution is about to break out tomorrow and the Tali-PAP will be thrown out of power right way.

All these being said, I personally wouldn’t mind being a blogger ‘controlled’ by the gahmen. In fact, if it would throw in a unit at the Duxton Pinnacle, write off my housing loan, and put whatever I have paid from my CPF back into my CPF account complete with accrued interest, and pay me another 120% of my salary monthly while I keep my current job, I would gladly write glaring reports on the gahmen’s policies and directives unabashedly. Who gives a damn on what names people are calling me while I enjoyed ‘the Singapore Dream’ in the land of my birth?

Alas, I can only dream about that while I remained a serf laden with debts in Singapore, endlessly complaining and whining about ‘a system of modern slavery’ perpetuated Singapore’s ‘caring and responsible’ gahmen. Then again, maybe Singapore’s bloggers can sue Arrington in a Class Action Suit for libel in the U.S., since Arrington probably couldn’t produce any evidence to show any blogs of persons not affiliated with the ruling party as being controlled by our gahmen.

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