Singapore Notes

There is a "live" forum program that lives up to its name, and it's called "Talking Point." The pathetic facsimile organized by Channel NewsAsia (CNA) last night turned out to be a cosy fireside chat with moderators Sharon Tong and Walter Fernandez.

Lobbing softballs at the Prime Minister, both were obviously trying very hard to protect him from the "tough" queries emanating from the public. What was shown on the television screen were saccharine sweet tweets from obsequious sycophants, the grassroots type worshippers who would have sent mangoes to Michael Palmer.

The CNA website did have some real hard questions meant for Lee, but they took them down quickly - probably for fear of losing their jobs. Three such samples that survived the deletion:

Sir, do you know how stressful it is for us singaporean kids now? We no longer compete with our own people but foreigners as well. #askpmlee
How to have work life balance when we are all slogging so hard to meet the high end living demands in Singapore? #askpmlee
What can we do to promote racial harmony? Because, let's face it, racism is still common. #askpmlee

None of those above was aired, but of course that was expected. Still, one clever fellow managed to embed a paraphrased quote from Aung San Suu Kyi ("the visitor") to make it sound milder. What Daw Suu actually said was, "You can't expect everyone to agree with you, that is simply not possible... if you believe that what you are doing is good for the country, then you must be prepared to lose the next elections."

Lee nearly jumped out of his seat when the words sank in, and exposed the ugly self when he said he disagreed with the part about losing an election. In that priceless moment, we saw the emperor without his clothes.

The game was up, and the charade was painfully played out for the rest of the program. So much for wanting to forge a new way forward with all Singaporeans by answering questions “live”. Perhaps junior needs to take up private tuition lessons from the Burmese democracy icon who also said: “But transparency is linked to confidence. We need a leadership that has enough confidence in themselves to be transparent and enough honesty to accept criticisms and to meet it in the best way possible which is to say by redressing what needs to be redressed."

Liddat, how to rebuild trust between electorate and govt?

She was one of the odd hires made by SMRT CEO Desmond Kuek after the latter took over from Saw Phaik Hwa, an oddity in that she was not an ex-army buddy.

But Ms Kalai Natarajan had solid credentials, previously a director at Oglivy Public Relations Worldwide, and had been in the marketing communications and public relations business for no less than 18 years. Prior to Oglivy PR, she was Assistant Vice-President of Sales & Marketing for MediaCorp's TV12 and Head of Global Media Relations for Banyan Tree Hotels and Resorts. At SMRT, she was overseeing three departments with a staff of 50: corporate communications, marketing and media and passenger service.

So when she resigned after only 5 months on the job, without having to serve the obligatory 3 months notice period for senior management, and without another appointment lined up, tongues were wagging like the hanging power cables of a SMRT train mishap.

An HR expert speculated that there may have been a “cultural misfit” if senior management staff were “not on the same wavelength”. Or same battle dress uniform, since quite a few of the senior management new hires were former SAF personnel, mostly retired or close to retirement age, imported by Lieutenant General (NS) Desmond Kuek. Forced to choose between a little black dress or green army fatigues, the smart lady decided to fall out.

Her replacement has practically zero PR experience. Patrick Nathan, 51, had joined SMRT in 2011 as director for Security Operations and Readiness. Prior to that, he was at the National Security Coordination Centre (NSCC) shuffling papers on esoteric topics like policy, risk assessment and corporate communication. He has the one important qualification that matters to Kuek though. Nathan is a former career army officer who was with the Ministry of Defence for 24 years and 9 months. Officially he joined the SAF in 1979, promoted to colonel in 2004 and seconded to the NSC as deputy director until he "retired" in 2006. Old soldiers don't just fade away in Singapore, they are put out to pasture at SMRT.

You know what they say about Mussolini, at least Il Duce ("the leader") made the trains run on time. Unfortunately for us, the general in charge of Singapore just excused himself, "the trains will take a bit longer (new signalling, new lines, more rolling stock, etc)... that will take a few more years, 2015, 2016, but we are making a lot, as much haste as we possibly can." Sigh, there are generals and there are generals.

Birth rates have gone up, evidenced by the total fertility rate (TFR) growing by a 1.29 rate, compared to 1.20 in 2011. That's a healthy improvement of 7.5 percent. Before you start grinning like the jackass you saw on the live TV forum, the news is not all good.

The non-residential population in Singapore continues to rise unabated. It reached 1.55 million in June, up from 1.49 million a year ago, swelling up the total population figure by 1.6 percent, higher than the 1.3 climb in 2004. Since this relentless pace of growth falls neatly within the 1.3 to 1.6 percentage range used by the notorious White Paper for a target population of 6.9 million by 2030, the horror is confirmed.

The prime minister's assurance in parliament that the 6.9 million number was not a target, but a projection, ostensibly a "planning parameter", has just been shot full of holes by the National Population and Talent Division (NTPFD) report. Member of Parliament Liang Eng Hwa had to rub it in with his Freudian slip, "at this pace, the grow is more sustainable".

6.9 million is not sustainable. Even with the present population figure of 5.4 million, they are unable to cope with the housing demand. The PM himself said the additional buses and trains "will take a few more years, 2015, 2016." And Education Minister Heng Swee Kiat still thinks it's perfectly alright to spend $36 million to import foreign students, to feed, educate and guarantee them a job, so they can take away our own youngsters' lunches. How did we come to this?

Oh, we remember.

"You know, the cure for all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government. You get that alternative and you'll never put Singapore together again: Humpty Dumpty cannot be put together again... my asset values will disappear, my apartments will be worth a fraction of what they were, my ministers' jobs will be in peril, their security will be at risk and their women will become maids in other people's countries, foreign workers."
(Speech justifying million-dollar pay hike for Singapore ministers, Straits Times, 5 April 2007)

A simple "I stand corrected" obviously would not suffice. Still, it is sad to see someone of his senior citizen status to stoop and grovel, and eat his own words. For someone who once had the chutzpah and panache to declare, "I have always been outspoken," the taste must be as disagreeable as canine excrement.

In an unsolicited "Clarification Statement" dated 10 October, former top civil servant Ngiam Tong Dow, 60(?), retracted his earlier remarks documented in the Singapore Medical Association newsletter.

He is recanting the charge that today's ministers are afraid of speaking up in Cabinet because of their high salaries, saying it was "illogical" and unfair. Original quote from SMA interview:

"When you raise ministers’ salaries to the point that they’re earning millions of dollar, every minister – no matter how much he wants to turn up and tell Hsien Loong off or whatever – will hesitate when he thinks of his million-dollar salary. Even if he wants to do it, his wife will stop him."

He also recanted labelling the ministers as elitist, claiming that he had spoken without realising many in fact come from humble backgrounds. Original quote from SMA interview:

"The first generation of PAP was purely grassroots, but the problem today is that PAP is a bit too elitist. I think that they don’t feel for the people; overall, there is a lack of empathy."

The other things he had to say sounded awfully like the scripted 1988 televised confessions of the "Marxist conspirators":

"...I have not attended any cabinet meetings, and have never seen one chaired by PM Lee Hsien Loong. Thus my statement that ministers will not speak their minds before PM Lee is unfair as it was made without knowing what actually happens at cabinet meetings today."
"I have been told by civil servant colleagues that cabinet discussions are robust - as robust as they were when I attended cabinet meetings as PS (PMO), when Mr Goh Chok Tong was PM, and Mr Lee Hsien Loong DPM."
"They have no reason not to speak their minds when they are convinced that they are doing right by Singaporeans."

Ngiam nuked the last semblance of his credibility when he segued into saying he knows "some ministers have given up successful and well-paying careers in the private sector to join politics at lower pay, while others could have chosen to join the private sector to make more money but did not". Age 60 is too early for senility to set in and, ruling out lobotomy - the operation would be expensive even with his life time civil service free medical entitlement - one has to conclude that a Faustian pact with the devil must have been contemplated to stave off an unpleasant trip to the woodshed.

Is the glass half empty or half full? Should you break out the bottle of champagne to celebrate? The lame stream media boasts of "strong showing" due to recovery in manufacturing and expansion in services that resulted in better-than-expected third quarter growth of 5.1%. Just the thing to kick in a GDP related bonus.

Look at the table carefully. The bottle half has more negative numbers.

Vishnu Varathan, senior economist at Mizuho Bank told CNBC on Monday, pouring cold water on the jubilation, "I expect growth to be rather volatile. Singapore is vulnerable through trade and financial channels, I think it's going to be a bumpy recovery." He was pointing to the advance estimate showing the city-state's economy shrinking 1.0 percent on quarter in the July-September period, instead of a gloomier expected 3.6 percent contraction, and a significant deceleration from 16.9 percent growth in the previous three months. Hang on to those bonus cheques. Unlike Ngiam Tong Dow's astute observations, once issued, these cannot be retracted.

Somebody gets the credit, and somebody gets shafted when the economy tanks. Singapore’s Minister of Finance, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, was just named "Finance Minister of the Year 2013" and is slated to receive the award during a private presentation at the World Bank/IMF annual meetings in Washington this week.

In conferring the award, Euromoney painted Tharman as having played “an over-arching role in enabling Singapore to shift its growth model from population-driven to productivity-driven expansion”. Euromoney must have missed out on the Population White Paper report. As for productivity, they should check up on the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) website to get a better picture of the struggle to stay above water. Business Times ("Need to tweak policies on productivity and workforce") summarised it quite succinctly:

"It is indeed vital for Singapore to reduce reliance on cheap foreign labour and raise productivity. This mantra needs to be taken more seriously and more effort needs to be put in place, especially if we want to reduce the widening gap between top and low earners here."

IMF must have good reasons for the vote of confidence. It was in September 2009 when Singapore first announced it will "significantly expand" its contribution to the resources of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the tune of 2 billion U.S. dollars under its New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB). This represented an increase of US$1.5 billion from the then existing contribution under the NAB. Singapore had been a contributor to the NAB since its inception in 1998.

Questions were raised in Parliament in July 2012 about the US$4 billion generosity pledged to the IMF. The Prime Minister's explanation was not convincing: “In the event that Singapore’s commitment is tapped upon, the money will not come from the Government Budget." As long as the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has unfettered access to the cookie jar via all sorts of inventive accounting entries, there is nothing to stop the Singapore government from making bad investment decisions and squandering our hard earned reserves. Once again, is the glass half empty or half full?

Member of parliament in charge of the area, Teo Ser Luck, torpedoed the nascent formation of a Filipino sub-committee to cater exclusively for the Tagalog speaking community of Punggol Central. Teo “counselled the RC members” behind the idea and told them that creating such nationality-based sub-committees was not the right approach to integrate the spectrum of foreigners welcomed into the crowded city. Pity, the group could be useful for spearheading disaster relief for victims of the 7.2-magnitude earthquake in the Philippines.

Meanwhile down under, organisers of a "Singaporean only" event face charges of breaching anti-discrimination laws for turning away Caucasians at the door. The Royal Botanic Gardens acting executive director, Brett Summerell, told The Daily Telegraph the organisers booked the premises for the entire day and had originally promised to only turn people away if they were at full capacity.

Accusations of racism were let fly after two white men, father and son, were allegedly barred from entering Sydney's Botanic Gardens because they were not Singaporeans. Irate people phoned 2GB radio talkback host Ben Fordham to complain that "white people" had been "turned away in droves" from the Singapore Day event.

The Singapore Day website stated in no uncertain terms that the event is "an exclusive event for Singaporeans and their families". Proud attendee Anthony Sim took to his blog to applaud the organisers, "It is quite heart-warming to know we are not alone. Everyone of us were on the same page," Sim penned. "There were no PRCs, India Indians, Bangla or Pinoys to annoy us." It would appear fair dinkum Australians were included in the persona non grata mix.

Boy, is Sim in for a surprise when he returns to Singapore. There's an ongoing $10 million welcoming party for the pesky foreigners, spearheaded by some National Integration Council. If he wants to hang out with core Singaporeans only, he may have to be more sensitive to the denizens of his host country.

Buggered by the unpleasant whiff of xenophobia, Mr Summerell huffed, "Obviously it has created a bit of community concern and that is enough for me to review it and see if it's appropriate for the Botanic Gardens to be involved with them in the future."

"We've had a lot of participation from our Singaporeans here."

When Chief District Judge Tan Siong Thye passed sentence on National University of Singapore (NUS) law professor Tey Tsun Hang in June 2013, it was reported that his supporters - about 10 former students, former colleagues and friends who had been religiously showing up in court - cried and hugged him after the horny professor was found guilty of corruption. Even his $150,000 bail was posted in part by colleague and associate professor Chan Wing Cheong.

Tey's affiliation with the legal circles was not limited to NUS. He was previously Law Clerk to the former Chief Justice of Singapore, District Judge of the Subordinate Courts, and State Counsel at the Legislation Division of the Attorney-General’s Chambers of Singapore. He was a member of the editorial committees of the Singapore Journal of Legal Studies and the Singapore Journal of International and Comparative Law, and the Executive Committee of the Centre for Commercial Law Studies. Until 2008, he was the Deputy Chief Editor of Singapore Year Book of International Law. He was the Director of Centre for Commercial Law Studies and the Editor of the Asian Journal of Comparative Law.

Someone with such impeccable credentials should know about the law, or so we thought.

At the least, Tey should know the ramification for not showing up for his appeal - which was strangely launched after he had already served his sentence - the Criminal Procedure Code allows judges to throw out cases where appellants are absent. His own lawyer was informed of his planned absence 5 minutes before the court proceedings started, which reflects the kind of respect the don has for him, and other like professionals, in the legal system.

Why then, one might ask, bother to produce a new law school ("SIM University to host third law school") to focus on training prospective lawyers if law teachers don't know, or respect, the law? Professor Simon Chesterman and Dean of NUS Law Faculty said the new programme will increase options for Singaporean students with a passion for law - not nubile law students - and help ensure access to justice for all. Chesterman is rumoured to sympathise with Tey's predicament, supposedly holding view that the punishment was too harsh for philandering predilections. What is not rumour is that Chesterman is related to The President by marriage.

Don't even get started about "access to justice for all". High Court Justice Tay Yong Kwang has just dismissed an application for judicial review over the inquiry into Dinesh Ramesh's death. Apparently the Coroner’s Notes reveal that the Coroner asked one and only question, “What should he (prison officer) have done?” Pontius Pilate is reputed to have asked, "Truth? What is truth?" (Latin Quid est veritas?) and would not stay for an answer. Tharman Shanmugaratnam is not a lawyer, but his answer (for Charles Goodyear’s abrupt resignation from Temasek Holdings) could well be taken as law:

"People do want to know, there is curiosity, it is a matter of public interest. That is not sufficient reason to disclose information. It is not sufficient that there be curiosity and interest that you want to disclose information.”

Minister for Law K Shanmugam was first to cheer the announcement that SIM University (UniSIM) was chosen to host Singapore's third law school. Earlier in May this year, he had welcomed the recommendations of the 4th Committee on the Supply of Lawyers to establish a new law school. On his Facebook pages, Shanmugam expressed delight that "we have today reached another milestone".

Education Minister Heng Swee Keat was just as effusive, "Many new university sector learning opportunities are in the making, to better cater to the diverse aspirations of our young." During Our Singapore Conversation (OSC) sessions, Heng had asked students what they want to be when they grow up, and was confounded with answers "involving terms which I am completely unfamiliar with." He concluded, "Unless we are able to create opportunities, many of our young people are going to be disappointed."

Parents are just relieved that their kids with qualifying grades can have a better chance of studying in a local university, instead of being displaced by foreigners admitted with shady academic records. And having to downgrade their accommodation to finance the expense of an overseas university education.

So what was Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong thinking of when he said tertiary education should not only be about increasing university places? He even put a damper on the success of the National University of Singapore (NUS) being ranked as the top university in Asia according to the latest global rankings from higher education information provider Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), by saying "universities here should not be measured solely by their international rankings." A wet blanket is defined as a dull or depressing person who spoils other people's enjoyment.

He quoted South Korea where, we are told, 70 percent of each cohort attend university but unemployment among university graduates is higher than that among graduates of vocational schools. And in Denmark, over a quarter are unable to find a job a year after graduation. He is worried about delivering what a good government promises - jobs for its own people.

So when the future generation ends up being crane operators and domestic helps, the people have themselves to be blamed. Unless you subscribe to the spin that these are skills that are relevant to the future (of Singapore). Or are able to put up with the logic of Khaw Boon Wan:

"You own a degree, but so what? You can't eat it. If that cannot give you a good life, a good job, it is meaningless."

Acting Minister Tan Chuan-Jin was talking about the ire stirred up by discriminatory job advertisements, in blatant breach of the Tripartite Guidelines on Fair Employment Practices, when he counselled, "It is important to not stoke up hate and ill-will as some are doing.” One can understand that the PRCs, India Indians, Bangla and Pinoys, flown in to take away jobs and swamp the limited spaces of housing and transportation, will bear the blunt of the negative sentiments, but the real targets are shirking the blame.

That is about the only way to comprehend the raw hatred expressed by the Sunday Times feature writer.

Dinki di Aussies are nice people, especially the country folk at places like the wheat bins of Ejanding, Minnivale, Western Australia. Not only do they throw an extra shrimp and chook on the barbie for the guest, they even let you try their mean version of a home brew.

James is not able to defend himself, but it was unlikely he blew his gaskets if he was enlightened nicely about the Singaporeans only party. The one organised in a public garden by the Overseas Singapore Unit (OSU) of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Their apologists are even attempting to lay blame on the park management for allowing external organisations to book a public space for exclusive events. Ergo, the OSU, proxy of the PMO, can do no wrong.

One could speculate that the author ("Guard against the tyranny of the minority") did not have a pleasant experience during her last visit Down Under. Maybe they mistook her for a bloke, instead of a sheila, But the picture used for her byline is not exactly the mugshot of a face only a mother could love, the hate can't originate from her personal self.

The big picture has to do with identifying the real culprits. The guys who make the mistakes but refuse to concede their failures of falling on the job. Sigmund Freud believed that sublimation was a sign of maturity, allowing people to function normally in culturally acceptable ways. In a sense, the true negative thoughts have been merely sublimated into angry voices. It is unlikely the wimps in white can handle the uglier alternative of being physically tarred and feathered.

The quote is from the 29 July 2013 Defence Writers Group interview of General Herbert J. "Hawk" Carlisle, Commander, Pacific Air Forces. "Hawk" was expounding on the Theater Security Plan of the United States Air Force, balancing of their "rotational presence" through the Pacific, increasingly moving south to Darwin, Tindal, Changi East in Singapore, CARAT in Thailand, Trivandrum in India.

If anyone missed the reference, Hawk also talked about the speed of response of the Navy, "And again, going into Singapore, for example, for the USS Freedom that's there now. Our ability to land at [Pilbara], Changi East and unload and reload right away with [assembling] LCSes in the — that’s one of our ConOps."

We may not have achieved the Swiss standard of promised - except maybe for the elites and their cronies - but it must make better sense to aim for the Swiss standard of neutrality. The Swiss Confederation has not been in a state of war internationally since 1815, and its non-alignment with warlike factions must have contributed to its suitability as the birthplace of the Red Cross and home to a large number of international organizations, including the second largest UN office. That stance has not prevented it from pursuing an active foreign policy and being involved in peace-building processes around the world.

Welcoming the American military hardware to Changi to "rebalance to the Pacific" when China is getting antsy about Diaoyu Islands doesn't sound very prudent a strategic move. Especially when we already have so many PRCs in-country. When push comes to shove, identity crisis may clash with nationalistic loyalties. Dogs are known to bite those who feed them, we have seen one ugly episode when our own senior citizens have been castigated as canine equivalents.

The most troubling bit about Hawk's statement is about "where they're are putting it in their budget". If Uncle Sam does not have the answer to that, you can bet Uncle Tony Tan will not be volunteering the information any time soon. Unlike the US, which has committees to oversee defence procurement, Singaporeans are treated like mushrooms in this purchase - keep them in the dark, and feed them shit. Even with the price of the F-35B having fallen to US$104 million per aircraft (sans engines, which have to be bought separately), that's an awful lot of money that could be expended on making housing affordable and transportation reliable.

Not only is his EQ level suspect, the keechiu general may need to have his IQ reassessed. Minister for Social and Family Development Chan Chun Sing said that "Singapore is not considering having an official poverty line, as it would not fully reflect the severity and complexity of issues faced by the poor, and may also lead to those above the line missing out on assistance."

The real catastrophe the Mad-dog General is trying to sweep under the carpet is the Pandora's Box that will be opened. Hong Kong's government-appointed Commission on Poverty has set its first poverty line at half of the median monthly household income. By doing so, it is boldly confronting the problems of wealth gap, labour disquiet, housing affordability and myriad problems that come about when the rich have too much, while the poor are ignored. Politicians may tell you different, money is a zero sum game. The MG does not have the cajones to face facts like the top 1% in Singapore has an annual salary that is more than 58 times that of the bottom 3.4%.

In economics, cliff effect is the disproportionately positive or negative result of an action. In telecommunications, the (digital) cliff effect or brickwall effect describes the sudden loss of digital signal reception, where the digital signal "falls off a cliff" instead of having a gradual rolloff. Chan's version is that by using a single poverty line to assess the family status, those below the poverty line will receive all forms of assistance, while other genuinely needy citizens outside the poverty line will be excluded. Well, the means test - which Khaw Boon Wan promised not to implement, then went ahead after the elections - has already afflicted that kind of damage several times over.

The "cliff effect" we have seen is the 60.1 percent of the 2011 electorate marching like lemmings into the dark void. And if they continue to swallow the bit about being able to receive "all forms of assistance", more will be tipped into the abyss of lies in 2016.

The truth is that you have to grovel before a member of parliament being getting a $10 food voucher at the weekly meet-the-people session (MPS). If you happen to be starving to death in the interim between MPS days, don't bother to call. There's no help centre giving out food stamps within walking distance. Vouchers to help pay for utilities are harder to come by, last we heard, those are not available at opposition wards.

Someone hiring a maid for the time learnt that the maid levy for a caregiver is halved if her aging mother is above 65. Her maid agency was ignorant of the fact. The social worker who told her about the "discount" disclosed the useful input like divulging a state secret. The government does dole out financial assistance, they are just too damn stingy about it.

At the dinner table was a friend holding a USA passport, trying to explain the 401K system. He also compared Social Security with our CPF system, the key difference being that CPF is our own individual money. Social Security is a pool, from which the needy has access to contributions from the well off. If your CPF account can't even meet with Minimum Sum requirements, even Bill Gates can't help you. With CPF, you die, your problem.

The Economist really nailed it when they wrote about "The Stingy Nanny", providing the best quote about the (lack of) welfare in Singapore:

"The state's attitude can be simply put: being poor here is your own fault. Citizens are obliged to save for the future, rely on their families and not expect any handouts from the government unless they hit rock bottom. The emphasis on family extends into old age: retired parents can sue children who fail to support them. In government circles “welfare” remains a dirty word, cousin to sloth and waste. Singapore may be a nanny state, but it is by no means an indulgent nanny."

The author has obviously done his/her research well, with insights accessible only from the ground level:

"Even among the social workers who work in hard-hit communities there is surprisingly little frustration at the meagreness of the handouts on offer or at the lengthy application process. One explains that Singapore needs to weed out undeserving claimants and shakes his head at the potential cost of a comprehensive welfare service. Yet in his next breath he mentions a number of local families who have been forced to sleep rough since mortgage lenders foreclosed on their flats."

As expected, the government would not allow such views to go unopposed. In challenging so, Michael Eng Cheng Teo, High Commissioner for Singapore in London, added salt to the wound by confirming the cold-hearted approach: "Each generation must earn and save enough for its entire life cycle." Never mind if the individual happened to be born physically or mentally challenged. Or sudden disease has struck down a once healthy bread winner. You die, your problem.

There are exceptions of course, the most glaring example being the nonagenarian who is drawing full MP allowance without performing the minimal of MP duties, piled on top on multiple counts of pension draw downs.

High Commissioner Eng's Parthian shot is typical official response: "The burden of proof is on its critics to demonstrate that their proposals will in fact work". While paying themselves handsomely, they expect others to come up with solutions to problems created by themselves in the first place. The form for welfare that exists in Singapore is spelt differently. It's "Wealth-fare", the buffet spread laid out for high networth individuals welcomed with attractive income tax rates, waiver of estate duty and other goodies like trading in gold without worrying about additional tariffs.

Hours after being convicted for 6 charges of corruption and sentenced to 5 months in prison, law associate professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Tey Tsun Hang was dismissed by his employer. Tey claims that Dean of NUS Law Faculty Simon Chesterman had telephoned to apologise a few days later, saying that he had merely been the executor of orders from upstairs.

It would have been nice to have Lieutenant-General Desmond Kuek apologise for the sacking of blogging trainman "Gintai", citing similar lame excuse of merely being the executor of orders from upstairs. It would fit nicely into the template of rule by law, not of law. Really langgar.

SMRT Director for Media and Marketing Communications Ms Boey said that his "misconduct" would have compromised the public as well as his own safety, giving impression that Gintai was a recalcitrant repeat offender. Boey would not divulge further how many times he was counselled and how many warning letters he had ignored. Apparently entering the train via the rear cab instead of the front one was deemed an act of "compromising safety and security breaches." By those draconian standards, the CEO who stinged on maintenance to maximise bonuses should have been sent to the firing squad.

Gintai may have dedicated 18 years of his working life making sure the trains were launched on time, but he compromised his own safety and security when he blogged from 20 Oct 2011 to 20 Oct 2012. Unbeknownst to this innocent soul, his career was already derailed when some Benedict Arnold of a grassroots volunteer delivered him to the den of K. Shanmugan over a post on affordability of HDB flats. Be aware of smiling tigers. The Bard had warned:

Where we are,
There's daggers in men's smiles: the near in blood,
The nearer bloody.

Gintai was also accused of passing an underground station without stopping, but the experienced train officer knew it was on auto mode. What he is learning the hard way is that the executing hands are always in control, always on the look out to fix the opposition. Whether the SMRT CEO was another pawn, like Simon the law faculty dean, or the one with finger on the firing button is another addition to the skeletons in the cupboard. On the day of reckoning, those with stained hands will have a hard time hiding:

"Here's the smell of the blood still. All the
perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this
little hand. O, O, O! "

The big "W" behind is for Wanker

Parliamentary Secretary for Transport and Health Dr Faishal's Facebook post about a road bully of Australian origin rings a bell: "Instead of assigning blame, it is important for us to remember that we must be gracious and respect one another on the roads."

It has to be a paraphrase of Member of Parliament (Tampines GRC) Baey Yam Keng's ringing endorsement of PRC scholar Sun Xu's diatribe (“There are more dogs than people in Singapore”) directed at our senior citizens: "We need to reflect upon ourselves, are we the way they described?"

It all looks so familiar: Foreigner Talents 1, Singaporeans 0.

Faishal's expressed rapport is for a serial cyclist offender, striking terror into motorists unfortunate to share the same roads. The housewife was driving home to her condominium at Keppel Bay when she had a brush with the monster on wheels: “He was violent, aggressive and used vulgarities. He even threatened at one point that he’d make sure I got my licence revoked.” The guy who is giving Aussies a bad name banged his fist on her car window, and reached in to open the door. The New Paper quoted Kenneth's version of the run in, “She tried to run me over.” He claims to have started cycling at age 3, dating his terrorist days all the way to the kindergarten sand pit.

Just last week, my female colleague was flabbergasted when a Caucasian jogger ran straight into the side of her stationary SUV, and then hurled invectives at her for being in his way. Unlike Kenneth's milder victim, she gave him a tongue lashing and threatened to call the cops if he persisted with the nonsense. The best way to treat such abominations is to face them down, not take the contemplative route advocated by Faisal and Baey.

Although a police report has been made, it remains to be seen if the road bully will get away with a slap on the wrist. For all we know, the parliamentarians may use the incident to initiate a "Be Kind To Foreign Talents" campaign, tapping the $10 million fund made available to the National Integration Council for the welcoming party for foreigners. Channel NewsAsia (CNA) quoted the police as saying "appropriate actions will be taken against the parties involved if they are found to have flouted any rules", implying that the motorist could be taken to task for not being sympathetic to road users who cannot afford a $100K COE.

Established in 1999, the annual Transport Gold Awards were intended to encourage higher standards of service quality in the public transport domain. This year the joint National Kindness Award – Transport Gold is a collaboration with the Land Transport Authority, Traffic Police, 13 public transport companies and two transport associations.

This year, 425 service stars were awarded to front line staff and drivers from the public transport companies and associations to honour their exemplary service for offering commuters a more pleasant travelling experience.

See no evil, hear no evil....

Too bad none of the nominees were around when the poor lady received a face wash from the deranged spitting man at the Woodlands Bus Interchange. The official statement from SMRT said the police was contacted, and their intervention was awaited. Meanwhile uniformed staff stood by, a safe distance away, while the stoic victim of the physical abuse put up with the indignities.

At another public place, security guard Mak exercised his initiative to shoo away a man peddling key chains at The Cathay's Open Plaza. When the peddler turned aggressive and attacked the guard, the latter's black belt in taekwondo came in handy. Unfortunately, in the eyes of officialdom, it was the wrong call. His employer said what he should have done instead was to contact the control room. The police apparently subscribes to similar protocol, encouraging "anyone with information to lodge a report so that they can look at the facts and circumstances of the case before taking any appropriate actions." In other words, follow the example of the long suffering lady, just take the torrential rain of saliva in good stride until the boys in blue finally show up. If they bother to show up at all.

The law intervened more weightily in the case of the dog who was put down because it turned aggressive and bit his owner. The law minister himself, no less, called for interested parties to lawyer up. Sun Xu, if you are reading this, we owe you an apology. Indeed, there may be more dogs than people in Singapore.

You gotta see it to believe it. Located at Jurong Street 21, and winner of the BCA Green Mark Award 2013 (Platinum), is a brand new building with the name emblazoned in big bold letters:
Devan Nair Institute for Employment and Employability.

It is the site of two new centres set up by the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) to support low-wage workers and professionals, managers and executives (PME). NTUC Secretary-General Lim Swee Say himself was the one who announced the "one-stop centres" during a dialogue session with union leaders at the institute on Tuesday, 3 September 2013. Will miracles never cease.

Devan Nair is the ex-president who resigned under contentious circumstances in 1985. Prime Minister of the day Lee Kuan Yew aired the dirty linen in Parliament about alcohol fueled fondling of nubile lasses in Borneo longhouses during a state visit, attributable to alcoholism which Nair vehemently denied. For a while, his blackened name was acronym for No Alcohol IResign.

In 1999, the Canadian newspaper Globe and Mail was sued by Lee over an article about the acrimonious parting of friends. Lee's press secretary Yeong Yoon Yiong challenged the New York Times for reporting the suit was dropped because of a countersuit filed by Nair:

"In fact, the suit also took issue with defamatory allegations that Nair made against Lee, and Lee agreed to discontinue it only when two of Nair's sons issued a statement, reported in the Globe and Mail on July 1, 2004, maintaining that Nair was no longer mentally competent to give evidence in court."

The sons' statement acknowledged that "the article quoted Nair as saying that Lee had Singapore government doctors slip hallucinatory drugs to Nair to make him appear befuddled." And the statement concluded that "having reviewed the records, and on the basis of the family's knowledge of the circumstances leading to Mr. Nair's resignation as president of Singapore in March, 1985, we can declare that there is no basis for this allegation." It was a biggy when Lee turned on his comrade-in-arms who spent serious time in prison to fight the colonial Brits. That his own flesh and blood would turn against him must be worse torment than a dank British cell..

One of his sons is none other than Janadas Devan, Chief of Government Communications at the Ministry of Communication and Information (CGC). More famously, he gained notoriety as the ghost writer of Teo Ho Pin's long winded exposition about the Action Information Management (A.I.M.) dealings. Janada's pensmanship may come in useful again if Lim Swee Say needs a fairy tale accounting of the naming of the building at Jurong Street 21.

Koh Buck Song's choice of a metaphor was pretty neat. The cruise ship is just a floating version of Hotel Singapura, where foreigners are perennially welcomed to enjoy themselves on short stays while the locals struggle to maintain the vessel ship shape for the long haul. Heck, young men are mandated to sacrifice two best years of their lives to bear arms and defend the premises so the high rollers can live it up at the casinos, F-1 races and what not.

One reason Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong got his knickers in a twist over the commentary ("Sink the old sampan, S'pore now a cruise ship", ST 28 Oct 2013) could be the reference to the inequality of life that has come about. You can book a table for fine dining, or join the buffet line - we're talking hawker center, food court or restaurant here. The elites have $10 XO sauce chye tow kuay, the minions have $3 two meat and one vegetable fare. Moreover, like the voyage aboard the Titanic, when survival is at stake, first class passengers have priority over the cattle class. The analogy of limited life-boats brings to mind there's no shortage of Sentosa Cove type developments, while public housing is always in short supply.

Then there's the rude reminder that "cruising is a well-oiled business with precise planning and untiring hard work behind the scene." The fact that trains break down with embarrassing frequency, roofs collapse at shopping malls and floods continue to disrupt daily living confirm that the people who are supposed to keep the system well-oiled are not as hard working, or as bright, as the first generation political leaders. It all makes sense only if they pay themselves sampan wages.

If the country is not yet a cruise ship, it must be more like a Roman galley. With the citizens chained to the oars, while the party is going on at upper decks. Each time some big shot drops in to make an inspirational speech to spur the rowers on, one is reminded of the joke:

"I have some good news and some bad news," the galley master told the rowing slaves, toiling at the oars. "The good news is that today's gruel ration will be doubled. The bad news is that the captain wants to go water skiing."

Author and Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School Leila Ahmed was raised in Cairo in the 1940s, a time when veils and headscarves seemed irrelevant to both modern life and Islamic piety, a time when it was assumed the veil was backward, a restriction of female autonomy. In the late 1990s she was walking back to her hotel with a friend when they ran into a crowd on the Cambridge Common, an arresting sight of a gathering of women in hijab. Why, Ahmed asks, did this change take root so swiftly, and what does this shift mean for women, Islam, and the West?

You have to keep your emotions in check as you follow her scholarly explorations through nationalism, socialism, Islam and anti-imperialism. Along the way, be surprised by nuggets like the 102-storey Empire State Building is lit up in green every year to honour the month of Ramadan. In a nutshell, she surmises that it is impossible to understand the underlying dynamics of the veiling movement of the last four decades without reviewing the history of the Islamic movement and the political crises and conditions that give rise to it.

In chapter 9, "Backlash: The Veil, the Burka, and the Clamor of War", she wrote:

Among the responses noted earlier were those indicating the veil's intended meanings of challenge to the sexism of the rules of dress in the dominant society and the meaning of the affirmation of the rights to equality of minorities in society. Clearly these are meanings that the hijab can come to have only in societies that declare themselves committed to gender equality and equality for minorities. They are not meanings that the hijab could possibly have in Cairo or Karachi or Riyadh or Teheran. ("A Quiet Revolution: The Veil's Resurgence, from the Middle East to America", page 213)

Yaacob Ibrahim served only to muddy the waters by pointing out that Muslims cannot wear the hijab while on duty because "servicemen are not allowed to wear or display religious symbols on their uniforms or faces". While Sikhs are permitted their turbans. And the speaker of the house dons a veil in parliament in full glare of national television. All men are brothers, some are big brothers.

Mufti Shaikh Syed Isa Semait should have phrased his comments more carefully when he proposed (to the guys behind the online petition) a question asking if all the Muslim women working at the front line as nurses want to wear a hijab. Better still, ask the people if we want such political appointees to represent us if they have no clue what the real issues on the ground are.

A dog did this - scene from "The Green Mile"

Anybody wondering about what Briton Alison McElwee has to say, or bother to hear her out? The dog was alleged to have bit her four-year-old daughter. Yet she went through the trouble of procuring professional services to put the animal down humanely. Most mothers would have freaked out and done a Lady Macbeth:

I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums,
And dash'd the brains out

In a scene from the Tom Hanks movie "The Green Mile", about John Coffey, a giant black man convicted of raping and killing two young white girls, there's an insight about how something gentle is capable of inexplicable violence:

We had a dog.
Just the sweet mongrel.
You know the kind.
Often, you get to love it.
It is of no particular use...
...but you keep it around because you think it loves you.
Caleb, come here for a second. (calling son over)
He still has the one good eye.
That dog attacked my boy for no reason.
My dog never bit before.
But I didn't concern myself with that.
I went out with my rifle, grabbed his collar and blew his brains out.

There are lots of animals in the Tammy horror sorry. One would assume that volunteer groups like Action for Singapore Dogs exist to spread goodwill among men, not turn ordinary folk into warring factions. Throw in a minister of law, a member of parliament and a heavy weight litigious law firm, and you have a cauldron of ill will, boiling over with virulent vindictiveness. What makes this shameful episode so despicable is that the same minister involved has not uttered a single word in support of the accounting for Dinesh Raman, an incarcerated young man who was put down more violently than the canine.

The contract used by animal welfare volunteers includes a clause preventing adopters from carrying out euthanasia "without prior consent of the rescuer". Commenting, SMU law professor Eugene Tan said future prospective adopters may not welcome the rescuer still having residual rights, resulting in fewer dogs being adopted. Maybe, just maybe, that will result in fewer foreign talents who consider setting up home in an over crowded kennel. Freeing up dog-houses in the sky will reduce demand, and reduce housing to affordable levels. There's always a silver lining in every cloud.

When Lim Chong Yah bemoaned that something should be done for the low wage workers at the bottom of the feeding chain, he proposed a two prong attack:
1) freeze the country’s highest salaries for three years;
2) raise salaries of workers earning less than $1,500 by 50 per cent over three years

While silence has been maintained on the call for wage freeze for the fat cats, a $200 pay rise for full-time cleaners has been announced. Ignoring for a moment the politicisation of the recommended hike - applicable only to cleaners at all 15 People's Action Party run town councils - the low wage earners are finally getting a respite. Half a loaf is better than no bread, so goes the saying.

Then Teo Ho Pin, coordinating chairman for PAP's town councils, had to blow the whistle on their "generosity": "At some point , we need to revise service and conservancy (S&C) charges." The wage hike was not a consequence of enhanced productivity, residents have to pay first before expecting to see any improvement in the maintenance of their wards.

The modus operandi is also obvious in the proposed overhaul of the of the bus industry, which is basically a duopoly of SMRT and SBS Transit. SMRT chief Lt Col Desmond Kuek described the new contracts model as "more sustainable" than the current structure, in which operators have to meet service stands and "face a cap on fares". If Kuek had ridden the trains or buses anywhere as long as us commuters, he would have remembered that "cap" has been raised countless times. Buried in the blurb about the workings of the new model is this line: "Public transport fares have not been adjusted in the last two years." Nowhere is it mentioned, nor do we recall, that public transport service has improved over the last two years. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, hike first, work on improvement later.

The exposé on the real intention of the overhaul? SBS Transit's ringing endorsement of the proposed exercise: "As an operator, you are generally assured of a certain rate of return instead of being exposed to revenue risk." That assurance of profitability will surely come from ripping off the hapless commuters. Always have been, always will be.

The Emperor's New Clothes

A Rare Find

Edging Towards The Abyss

Silencing Of The Lamb

Half Empty Or Half Full

Exclusivity For Elites Only

Training For Prospective Lawyers

Wet Blanket

Going After James

HIdden In The Budget

No Poverty Line Please, We Are Singaporeans

Being Poor Is Your Own Fault

Properly Fixed

Monster On Two Wheels

Lawless In Singapore

A Sight For Sore Eyes

From Cruise Ship To Sampan

The Quiet Revolution

Of Dogs And Men

The Profit Motive