Singapore Notes

Even Archie is not spared

They disallowed the satellite dish for private installations because ownership will mean access to unfettered broadcasts from the skies. The advent of the internet made nonsense of their control of the air waves. Still they are doing their darnedest best make sure we read, hear and see the right stuff.

Theatre educator T Sasitharan, former journalist Romen Bose and Yale-NUS College Professor Robin Hemley are upset with the the National Library Board (NLB) and said that they “cannot in good conscience” continue to be judges for the non-fiction category of the Singapore Literature Prize. Other prominent literary figures are boycotting NLB-related events such as the Singapore Writers’ Festival and talks organised by the NLB.

In a letter, the trio lamented that NLB’s move is “censorship that has no place in any free and democratic society”. The mainstream media preferred to pitch a battle between fundamental conservatives and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) crowd. It's the old Brit tactic of divide and rule, so that attention is diverted from the important abuses of our life savings. Gay or straight, all are affected by the mismanagement in housing, transportation, health care and employment issues. Add the continuing influx of foreign elements, and you can see the cauldron boiling over with a toxic mix. Even Isetan now has a religious card in play.

Don't be seduced by Hri Kumar's contrarian position of poo-pooing NLB's pulping exercise. He is simply being realistic about the 26,000 votes that could come in handy during the next election. Censorship was always top priority for a political party hell bent on perpetuating their rule ad infinitum.

It is starting to look like the Brompton bikes saga was just the tip of the iceberg.

The Auditor-General's Office (AGO) has reported that certain documents relating to the National Parks Board's development of the Gardens by the Bay may have been created and backdated to give the impression that they existed when the transactions took place, and deemed a "serious irregularity".

An internal inquiry by the Ministry of National Development (MND) confirmed that an NParks officer had indeed created and backdated 16 letters, purportedly issued by NParks to its suppliers, to satisfy AGO queries. The same officer also arranged for the suppliers to issue a further 11 backdated letters - 5 of which were created by the officer on their behalf. In plain English, someone also fibbed to another civil service officer.

And, as in the early stage of the Brompton bike fiasco, MND is quick to claim that the integrity of the system of contract variations and payments has not been compromised. An eery similitude of Khaw Boon Wan's premature judgment that the purchase of the $2,600 foldable bikes was above board.

However, the AGO is skeptical about MND's trite explanation that their officer had fooled the system "so to regularise gaps in the documentation of communications with the suppliers for completeness of record". Apparently in the MND scheme of things, lying to an investigating officer is part of the company culture. Or it's just how the minister in charge downplays any evidence of shenanigans.

Following Yaacob Ibrahim’s once-in-50-years' rescinding of a decision to pulp 3 children books, National Library Board (NLB) CEO Elaine Ng held a media briefing (18 Jul) to further “clarify” NLB’s position on the sacrilegious issue of destroying literature.

“Many objected to the idea that books will be pulped. As book lovers ourselves, we understand the reaction. We do not want to be viewed as destroying books.” However, NLB will still be remembered in history for doing so - one of the books, "Who’s In My Family?", has been eradicated. Last we heard, a replacement copy has not been purchased to be shelved in the adult section.

The minister wrote that "Who’s in My Family" had already been disposed of as the title had been reviewed earlier. Guess what, the MDA has also reviewed the Archie comic and deemed it definitely non pro-family material, whatever that means. Ng explained, "We bought it before the MDA guideline came into place. But that rule only applies to booksellers." One government, two sets of rules, sounds remarkably like a plagiarisation of the comic's tagline, "Two worlds, two loves, two destinies". Sweet.

The only clear message that seems to transcend the tangled mess is that two individuals, one minister and one chief executive officer, are trembling at the very thought of their high paying jobs being pulped.

Even if you were not caught in the total chaos on the North-South Line of December 2011, you cannot escape being riled by the Singapore Mass Rapid Transit (SMRT)'s crude commercial capitalisation on the commuters' misery.

The same penchant for profit over empathy reared its ugly head again with the Singapore Airlines (SIA) social media broadcast posted shortly after MH17 was shot down over Ukraine.

The outrage is not just about their heartless attitude towards the loss of 298 innocent lives. It has also to do with their crass attempt to lie about using the same flight path over a war zone.

Even the state sponsored mouth piece confirmed that, in the last 7 days before the tragedy of 17 July, SIA flew over Donetsky 75 times, more than Malaysia Airlines (48 times), topped only by Aeroflot (86 times).

Flightradar24.com records show that SQ 351 was 25km away from MH17 at the time of the incident. The Buk-M1 surface-to-air missile that brought down MH17 is guided by its TELAR vehicle's monopulse type radar which can track aircraft flying between 15 m and 22 km (50 to 72,000 ft) altitudes.

The real tragedy is that the same breed of government appointed elites are installed at upper echelons of SMRT and SIA. The same get-out-of-my-elite-uncaring-face types behind the Population White Paper and Medishield Life. Don't be surprised that these cads will be first to pop the champagne bottle if a SIA plane was hit instead, and provide useful distraction from the many instances of misgovernance. The SIA spokesman said, "We recognise that the information could have been better communicated," a line that has been used once too often.

One year ago we helped a relative with the paperwork to pay for his monthly consultation bills via Medisave. There were "packages" to choose from, which determined how much could be drawn down within one year; the bigger the sum, the higher the cash co-payment attached to each application. First frustration encountered was the administration fee - he had to pay to access his own money. Obviously enough brickbats were received to make them cancel that charge months later. Recently, the scheme has been cancelled altogether. Now it's a cash co-payment upfront if Medisave is to be used for payment at each visit. No cash, no medical attention, even if money is sitting pretty at the Medisave account.

World Bank President Jim-Yong Kim would be less effusive in singing the praises of the Singapore’s healthcare system if he had a better grasp of the chicanery in the system that makes sure Singaporeans pay for their own bills. There's nothing to be proud about when he crowed, “I don’t think there’s a single system in the world that spends as little as Singapore does in terms of percentage of GDP (in healthcare) and gets the outcomes that it gets." Especially when the outcome is that an elderly woman would rather take her own life rather than burden her family with huge medical bills.

According to World Health Organisation statistics, the total health expenditure (the sum of public and private health expenditure) for Singapore as a percentage of Gross domestic product (GDP) is only 4.7 percent, compared to Australia's 9.1. Singapore's GDP (nominal) per capita is US$78,744 (2013), Australia's is US$43,550. Either Singaporeans are super healthy, or the Singapore government is super stingy.

Shanghai TV's expose of another China food scare is about a supplier of McDonald's and Yum Group's KFC using expired meat and unhygienic practices. "The rules are dead, and people are alive, that's simple," a worker told the undercover reporter. "Dead rules and alive people" is commonly used in China to indicate corners have been cut. The variant in Singapore is that rules are malleable, and the people continue to be fooled.

When news broke last night that the Government is reviewing the CPF interest rates, the initial reaction was that voices from people like NMP Laurence Lien were finally being heard. Lien thinks that the Singapore Government should share more with Singaporeans if it is able to make more in its investments using CPF members’ monies. ("Joint responsibility for old age income security", ST 21 July).

Instead, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam is thinking of providing options for CPF members to undertake higher risks to earn higher returns than that afforded by the CPF Investment Scheme system. Maybe a free pass to the casinos is in the works. He said, "The Government is not a commercial entity that needs to be profitable and obtain compensation in return for taking risks," without referencing the double digit returns claimed by its investment arms and where those juicy commercial returns are parked.

One blogger pointed out that the GIC website FAQ clearly states that they (before June) do not know if they invest our CPF because it is not made explicit to them. Now (after June) Tharman is saying GIC knows it is managing Government assets, including sources from the Singapore Government Securities (SGS) mechanism which is the official conduit to the CPF cookie jar. The similarity to SIA's honesty about flying over Donetsk, before and after 17 July, is unmistakable.

"We can't let McDonald's or Yum China know that we add (chicken skin)," the same China worker said about their unsavoury practices. "They won't let us do that. Otherwise, we would lose the contracts. Who wants to do business with you if you break your promise?" It remains to be seen if the people will continue to do business with the ruling clique after all the broken promises.

The sophistry of words can get you only so far. Clinton got himself into a real mess trying to explain what he was doing with a cigar and an intern called Lewinsky.

One definition of "spend" is to give (money) to pay for goods, services, or so as to benefit someone or something. The only way not to spend money is to hide it in a biscuit tin like grandma used to do. Even asking a bank to keep it for you (a service) can be a risky business, if one of their employees happen to be Nick Leeson.

Tharman has made it crystal clear that in the early days, before they amended the constitution in 1992, CPF monies were expended on Special Singapore Government Securities (SSGS), then used by the Government to finance infrastructure, which probably included the assets that were transferred by the Government to Temasek at time of inception.

We also know now that GIC knows is managing Government assets, a hodgepodge of commingled sources of funds which includes CPF monies. The same GIC which, over the last 5 years, it earned a pathetic 0.5 per cent in Singapore dollar terms. Your friendly neighborhood bank probably gives you a better deal in fixed deposits.

Do we still need to dwell further into the semantics of spending like Clinton did for the definition of sex?

Ma always says she keeps our angpows to save for our future needs, like university education or the big wedding expense. Maybe that's what we should do with the CPF - lock it away untouched in a special vault, where even the Colonel Sanders look-alike has no access to. The Government has plenty of other sources of funds - taxes, tariffs, fines, etcetera, etcetera - to generate the pathetic 2.5% interest rate paid out to CPF account holders, and still have lots of leftover monopoly money for the fund managers in GIC to play with. We trust our mother, can we say similar for the Government?

After Raymond's kids moved out to set up their own homes, he decided to downgrade from his landed property and move into a small condominium unit with his wife. Maintaining his own house was getting to be quite a chore for his creaking bones. The extra money would make retirement a bit more pleasant, as it was tiresome being asset-rich and cash poor. Although he had no fixed income, the Annual Value (AV) of his property probably resulted in his receipt of $100 per annum for the 5-year Medisave Top-Up a.k.a. "Benefits from Budget 2014". That's less than $10 per month.

Lim was retrenched at age 58, and never managed to secure steady employment since. He decided to sell his 3-room flat and move in with his daughter as she has only one child, and there was an extra room. The proceeds from the sale should take care of the evening years for him and his homemaker wife. The son-in-law was never excited about Lim's retirement plans, and would express his unhappiness every so often. Since he is now asset-less, Lim was entitled to $200 for his 5-year Medisave Top-Up, plus his $250 (GST Voucher-Cash) and $250 (GST Voucher-Cash: Seniors' Bonus).

The irony is that Raymond had been a life-long supporter of the current regime, and had always been voting for the "correct" political party. A civil servant from first job to retirement, he felt short-changed. Lim was one of those embittered uncles who would rant to anyone within hearing range of his "kopi-tiam kakis". You would too, if your private sector career was ruined by a cheaper foreign talent import. Besides going on about the evils of GST, he is equally vocal about CPF Life and the Minimum Sum.

The Permanent Secretary (Finance)(Performance) who signed off the GST Voucher letter wrote:
"We hope that this letter has been written in a way that is clear to you. If not, please let us have suggestions on how to improve this letter at gstvoucher@cpf.gov.sg."

What is clear is that GST is still regressive, with or without the "permanent" GST rebates. One suggestion is to bring the letter to the smallest room in the house. First it is in front of you, then it is behind you, then flushed away with a copious amount of water.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong called on Singaporeans to keep victims of the ongoing conflict in Gaza in their "thoughts and prayers" and to continue supporting fund-raising initiatives for humanitarian assistance. Before you could shoot up your hand ("keechiu!) to point out that according to Human Rights Watch's World Report 2014, despite controlling an overwhelming majority in Parliament, the Singapore government continues to impose wide-ranging restrictions on core civil and political rights. Singapore is also among the only 10 countries in the United Nations like South Sudan, Tonga, Myanmar and Brunei, which received a “red card” for ratifying 4 or less out of the 18 International Human Rights Treaties. Even countries like Afghanistan, China, Iran, Syria, North Korea and many African countries ratified and signed more International Human Rights Treaties than Singapore did. Still, the sheeple gathered at Hong Lim Green to protest on cue.

For the sake of a unbiased perspective - not easily available from the lowly ranked local paper - this is gleaned from the Economist's summary of the development at the Gaza strip:
The current violence was triggered by the murder of 3 Israeli teenagers, snatched on their way back from study at a yeshiva in an Israeli settlement in the West bank. That led to the the arrest of hundreds of Palestinians, including some prisoners recently released under an American sponsored scheme to boost peace talks with Abbas. In retaliation, and outraged at the murder of a young Palestinian, militants fired rockets into the heart of Israel. The Israel Defence Force responded with lethal force. A military spokeswoman told AFP that since the July 8 start of the military operation, over 2,000 rockets and mortar shells fired from Gaza hit Israel, with another 492 intercepted. A scenario that could have played out at the Little India enclave if the disgruntled foreign workers there had more effective projectiles at hand than trash cans and beer bottles.

In his facebook post, Lee said that while the Middle East is far away, Singaporeans still empathise with the pain and suffering of the Palestinian people, because of our common humanity. As if it's inhuman to empathise with the long suffering of our very own local born and bred.

So who fired the first salvo? While it's not exactly raining missiles like in the Middle East, the trade of tit for tat has to cease. If the paper generals are trying to justify the purchase of the flawed F-35, they had better come up with a better excuse.

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) slapped a hefty increase in Vehicle Entry Permit (VEP) fees for foreign-registered cars, from $20 to $35 with effect from August ("Higher entry permit fees for foreign vehicles"; ST, July 2). True to character, the money grabbing behemoth tried to downplay the revenue generation exercise by claiming that 9 in 10 of the 13,000 foreign-registered cars will not be affected by the fee increase as they enter and stay in Singapore during VEP-free periods. VEP period runs Mondays – Fridays, 5pm – 2am. Simultaneously, the Goods Vehicle Permit fee for foreign-registered goods vehicles will be raised from S$10 to S$40 per calendar month. Singaporeans will just have to brace themselves for a price hike in vegetables and other foodstuff trucked across.

Naturally, our neighbor in the north did not take things lying down. As expected, Prime Minister Najib Razak soon announced that his government would go ahead with the introduction of a levy on non-Malaysian vehicles entering the country via Johor, selfie or no selfie. The Malaysian Highway Authority made it clear it will start collecting tolls from cars entering and exiting at the Sultan Iskandar checkpoint from next month (this Friday). Cars will be taxed S$6.50 (RM16.50) for a return day trip to Singapore, compared to the current one-way charge of about S$1.10 (RM 2.90). Buses will pay S$5.20 (RM13.30), while taxis will be charged S$3.20 (RM8.20) per two-way trip. Malaysian politicians from both sides of the bench lament that the hike will impose a heavy blow to their countrymen who commute daily to Singapore for work.

Determined to have the last word on the subject, LTA countered that if there is a new, or an increase, in toll charges by Malaysia at the Causeway, Singapore will match them in due course. It has always been Singapore's practice to peg its tolls to match those set by Malaysia at the Causeway and the Second Link, so they say. Notice that when the politicians settle scores, it is the ordinary citizen, Malaysian or Singaporean, who suffer the consequences. The Swahili saying goes like this: “When two elephants fight, the grass suffers; and, when the same two elephants make love, the grass also suffers.”

You would have thought they heard the strident voices of a people by now, resonating with similar demands on the discredited Central Provident Fund (CPF) system:

We want our money back at age 55 (as contractually promised);
We want the returns due us, not the conjured pathetic rate;
We want transparency so that future generations will not be hoodwinked (like the present lot).

Instead, they are commissioning a new study to find out what the people want, for retirement, and for health needs. Latter must refer to the hated Medisave component of the CPF scam. The market research firm appointed, at taxpayers' expense of course, "The Nielsen Company" may not be a $2 company - unlike Action Information Management (AIM), they actually have qualified staff onboard - will be conducting face-to-face interviews. Anyone familiar with survey work will recognise that data gathering is only the icing for the final report and recommendations. A clever accountant, especially the hired gun type, when asked what is one plus one, will be quick to respond with "What do you want it to be?"

But they are not taking chances with this exercise. The respondents for the interview have been pre-selected, just like the first batch of compliant participants for the National Conversation. As incentive to give the "right" answers, this anointed lot will be receiving supermarket vouchers worth $50 cash (not Medisave top up or utility bill subsidy). To seal the deal, even their spouses can get vouchers worth $25. Was it George Yeo who said pork barrel politics was invented by the Americans?

When they have a working formula, you betcha they won't tweak it. Even though the public uproar is all about tweaking the CPF ponzi scheme.

Referring specifically to Astonishing X-Men Issue No. 51, the Media Development Authority statutory board spokesman said: “The MDA takes a holistic view in assessing content and considers all factors, including the context, presentation and language.” The presentation on the cover of the comic is a graphic illustration of two full grown men, not penguins, about to suck face. MDA had had actually assessed the particular X-Men issue way back in 2012, two whole years before raising hell about “And Tango Makes Three”, “The White Swan Express” and “Who is in my Family?”

The Kinokuniya Singapore main store at Ngee Ann City had the presence of mind to have it wrapped in plastic and labelled “Unsuitable for the young”. After all, we hardly want young impressionable minds to be misled into thinking that it is perfectly a-okay to smooch passionately in full view of a conservative public. Even when Jack Neo was carrying on with his couch casting extra curricular activities, he had curtains installed in his vehicle. Whatever happened to "Go get a room"?

What boys and girls, boys and boys, and girls and girls do in private is their personal affair. Even the cops have promised not to barge into bedrooms to enforce section 377A of the law. But you really have to draw a line when amorous couples embrace so openly and explicitly that your kid will start to doubt the stock-brings-babies version of procreation.

The spokesman added that there was no breach of content guidelines, “which allow for the balanced depictions of same-sex relationships if they do not encourage or promote alternative lifestyles”. The new normal seems to be promoting promiscuity, so long as it's pro-family. Tell that to Lawrence Khong, whose daughter was played out by the cad who got her into trouble, who never contemplated to start a family in the first place.

This confirms they don't have a single honest bone in their body. First they tell us that GIC's annualised 20-year REAL rate of return is 4.1 percent. Then, probably realising that the number is none too impressive, group chief investment officer Lim Chow Kiat added that their portfolio also generated a 12.4 percent annualised NOMINAL rate of return for the past 5 years. It's bad enough the chow-kuan Lim chose to compare apples with oranges, the sad fact is that the whole bushel of rotten fruit is just performing to script.

It was only recently that the Republic's sovereign wealth fund manager, with well over S$125 billion under its control, reluctantly admitted that its funds are sourced from current account surpluses, government surpluses AND CPF inflows. What they are still not willing to reveal is exactly how much CPF monies have been stashed in the hush-hush pool. While on the subject of secretive money, do note that those surpluses are the result of the present government being thrifty (planners' view) or plain mean (people's view). Money which should have been allocated for social needs, be it healthcare, public transport or affordable housing for the masses.

Does it help if they add Suppiah Dhanabalan to the board? When he was in charge of DBS, and officers were jumping ship because they were the lowest paid, Dhanabalan gave the lame excuse that DBS was the training school for Singapore's future bankers. The stampede continued unabated, and he had to quietly revise the pay scale to match. And when he killed off POSB, he claimed that the effect of disgruntled customers moving off to other banks was minimal. The reality was that the migration of funds was huge, and he had to quietly bring the POSB name back. To date he is still keeping mum about Ross Worthington's documented account of being slapped in the cabinet meeting room, continuing to "subscribe to the tenet of all secrets staying within the PAP family" (chapter on "The Civil Service and Core Executive Dynamics", page 150,151). The tragedy here is that Dhanabalan is a bible carrying church goer, and he will be carrying secrets to his grave, all for the sake of a seat on the board.

The following excerpt is from the Charlie Rose interview of 28 March 2011:
LKY: “I said in that book (“Hard Truths”) that I think that Malays, that Muslims should be relaxed and eat together with the others.”
CR: “And it created a firestorm and your son said, the Prime Minister, differed with you.”
LKY: “That’s right.”
CR: “So, were you right or your son?”
LKY: *laughs*; “He has to be right because he is the Prime Minister.”
CR: “But … but?”
LKY: “But you ask the average person in the street whether what I’ve said is true.”
CR: “And they would say?”
LKY: “You ask them.”

Charlie Rose would not be able to follow up on that challenge because no details about "the average person in the street" were provided by Lee Kuan Yew. The kind of contact details that Ken Kwek would not divulge when demanded of Lee in the televised dialogue session of 12 April 2006 ("Why My Vote Matters") with a selected panel of young mass communication practitioners below the age of 30.

The kind of contact details demanded of Minister of State (National Development) Maliki Osman and Speaker of the House Halimah Yacob when Faisal Abdul Manap narrated the unpalatable encounter of a couple with a Housing Development Board executive. The crux of Faisal's narrative was that a divorce was recommended by the civil ~~serpent~~ servant so that the wife could be eligible to buy a flat under the Singles Scheme. Faisal was accused of making an allegation against HDB ("These are very serious statements that are being made against our civil servants" - Maliki).

Although protected by parliamentary privilege, Faisal chose to apologise as it was not his intention to cast negative aspersions. Faisal explained that, as he was no longer a counsellor, he would not have the contact details of the couple in distress. Part of us suspects he was doing a Ken Kwek. “But you ask the average person in the street whether what I’ve said is true.”

Eight times Australian National Champion and Commonwealth Games Men’s Singles silver medalist (2006), William Henzell, lambasted Singapore for sending a “professional team” - the politically correct descriptive for "mercenary" - to Glasgow that was largely made up of PRC-born players. “I don’t think what Singapore does is in the spirit of the Games,” Henzell whinged. “It’s disappointing to see.”

Henzell touched a raw nerve. You see, what Singapore does is not exactly in the spirit of nation building either. Bringing in hordes of foreign players into the workforce, some with doctored and dubious paper qualifications, and calling them talents. Gong Li and Eduardo Saverin may have signed on, but they only add to the rarefied list of multi-millionaires, not the types doing the grunt work like having to bear arms to defend a country. At time of jumping ship, the Brazilian-born resident of Singapore was reputedly joining a growing number of people giving up U.S. citizenship ahead of a possible increase in tax rates for top earners.

Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong celebrated the "achievements of Singapore" on his Facebook page, "especially our table tennis team which continued to dominate". Fortunately he did mention by name the ones who rightfully deserve our congratulations: Joseph Schooling (swimming), Hoe Wah Toon (gymnastics), Danny Chrisnanta and Chayut Triyachart (men's badminton doubles), Derek Wong (singles), Teo Shun Xie (gold medalist, 10m air pistol) and Jasmine Ser, who brought home a gold for women’s 50m rifle, 3-positions. That's the politically correct thing to do.

SingTel chief executive Chua Sock Koong nearly caused an online firestorm on the first morning of the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona. She was quoted by The Sydney Morning Herald as saying that telcos should be allowed to charge over-the-top (OTT) players for using their networks, "The main problem we have as an industry is we have been unable to monetise this increased demand...and (average revenue per user) has fallen over time." The fury unleashed resulted in Singtel quickly clarifying that it will not charge consumers separately for using services like WhatsApp and Skype.

Their revenue model will surely take another hit if Singapore startup Gentay Communications succeeds with their VoIP-based Nanu service, funded by an unnamed Japanese corporate investor and our very own Sim Wong Hoo, CEO of Singapore-based Creative Technology. Father-and-son team, Martin and Daniel Nygate, expanded on what is fundamentally a VoIP technology originally developed to support low bandwidth ship-to-shore voice communications for the maritime industry. With an Android smartphone and access to wifi you can now make free calls to landlines in 41 countries, including the US and the UK, while free calls to mobile phones will work for Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Singapore, Spain, Thailand, and the US. The price you pay is a voiceover advertisement over the ringtone while waiting for a response from the receiving end.

Not bad for an alternative to the automated "operator is busy" message whenever you dial Singtel for assistance. Nanu believes that everyone around the world has the right to make free phone calls and is on a mission to end phone bills once and for all. That must sound Greek to a telcom that charges for telling you the time of the day. Notice that while innovative folks in the private sector contribute to reduce the cost of living, the Very Evil People in the government linked entities connive to make everything more expensive, being it toll charges for using the Causeway or healthcare. Who do you think ends up paying for the special bonus and 10 percent salary increment lined up for the 23,000 ~~voters~~ nurses?

You know Minister for Education Heng Swee Keat makes a lousy teacher when he chose to speak on the value of honour for his speech at the launch of a new non-profit organisation, Honour (Singapore), on 5 August 2014. That word is currently a rude reminder that the present government has failed to honour the promise to return the citizens' life savings at age 55. As the late Toh Chin Chye put it, "Mr Speaker, I think fundamental principles are being breached."

Heng should read the Oxford Dictionary example of how to use the word, "I must as a matter of honour avoid any taint of dishonesty". The new organisation he was honouring hardly fits the third aspect he prescribed, "to honour one another by appreciating one another, understanding one another, and respecting differences in views as we build a common future". True, the website of Honour Singapore may profess that it “is a multi-racial, multi-religious, national initiative that seeks to promote a culture of honour and honouring in Singapore in the belief that this is an essential attribute for the continuing peace, progress, and prosperity of Singapore". But what they don't tell you honourably is that its Board of Directors is stacked with leaders from Full Gospel Business (FGB) Singapore.

The mission statements of FGB Singapore aim to, amongst other goals, “multiply disciples and enlarge our reach and spheres of influence” and "establish and advance the Kingdom of God in the marketplace, cities and nation". Something you might easily imagine as being penned by the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). The Executive Director of Honour Singapore, Jason Wong, is also the Chairman of Focus On The Family, a Christian group well-known for adopting an uncompromising stance toward the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community under the guise of advocating “family values”.

The same Focus On The Family people who were rooting for another group that attempted the surreptitious takeover of the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE). In 2009, a clique of conservative bluenoses under the leadership of Josie Lau briefly took over the AWARE executive council on grounds of it allegedly promoting a pro-gay agenda, and was subsequently booted out of office unceremoniously.

The honourable thing to do here is for Jason Wong, Richard Magnus, Georgie Lee, and Khoo Oon Theam to openly declare that they are also leaders of FGB Singapore and Focus On The Family. And explain "enlarge our reach and spheres of influence". To be fair, Zaqy Mohamad (Chua Chu Kang GRC) also tested the tenuous line between state and religious affiliation when he was quoted saying, "Both politically and materially and philosophically, we have been supportive of the Palestine cause and have made that very public." Was that why a Palestinian flag was displayed from a housing board flat instead of our national colours?

Thanks to a partisan mainstream media, we were more than enlightened with the inglorious details of how surgeon Susan Lim overcharged her royal patient from Brunei. The Business Times online report (2 July 2014) was first to break the story of how lawyers for the Singapore Medical Council (SMC) - Senior Counsel Alvin Yeo and Melanie Ho of WongPartnership (WongP) - overcharged for their work against Dr Lim. Unfortunately we missed it it because of travel to wifi challenged locations; this is note for self.

Lim's husband Deepak Sharma - ex-Citi Private Bank global chairman - had disputed WongP's bills. In particular, in one of the bills, WongP was charging what amounted to $77,102 for each day they were in court. In another, it was $46,729 for each day in court. And for the third bill, the lawyers' charges worked out to be $100,000 per hour of hearing.

The total bill from the WongP lawyers - which amounted to $1.007 million - was brought before a taxation hearing, and the assistant registrar reduced WongP's tally of costs to $340,000 - about a third of the original demanded. When Mr Yeo and Ms Ho applied to have this decision reviewed, High Court judge Woo Bih Li eventually allowed a total sum of $370,000.

Sharma subsequently lodged a complaint to the Law Society of Singapore (Lawsoc), alleging, "I believe that the actions by the lawyers in grossly overcharging my wife by $637,009 (the difference between the original bill amount of $1.007 million and the $370,000 allowed by Justice Woo) are dishonourable and constitute grossly improper conduct."

Lawsoc's review committee (RC) looking into the complaint dismissed the charges against Yeo, on grounds that Yeo was not involved in the preparation of the bills, and therefore there was no misconduct on his part. Something akin to saying Hitler is not responsible in the extermination of 6 million Jews, since he did not operate the gas chambers.

Last we heard, Sharma was applying for a judicial review of this decision by the RC, first time ever someone in Singapore has applied for a judicial review of a review committee's decision - definitely a shoo-in entry for the Guinness Book of Records. He also had to apply for the admission of a Queen's Counsel, Michael Fordham, to represent him for the forbidding battle ahead as all of the over 20 Singapore Senior Counsels he approached declined to engage in legal combat. The heavy artillery is understandable since Yeo is also a People’s Action Party MP (Chua Chu Kang GRC). That plus the big bucks involved.

the list is long but distinguished....

Payback can be a bitch. Eugene Tan had made it well known - online, offline and maybe kopi-tiam circuit - that he was seeking another term as Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP). He was not chosen. Chairman of the Special Select Committee of Parliament Halimah Yacob explained: "We looked for eligible candidates who had distinguished themselves through their contributions to society or to their respective field, and who could bring their specialised knowledge to add to the depth and breadth of debates in Parliament."

Tan fits the descriptive to a T, as he is an Associate Professor of Law at Singapore Management University (SMU), and teaches Constitutional & Administrative Law as well as Law and Policy of Ethnic Relations in Singapore. He has participated in many televised discussions, so many that detractors awarded him the unsolicited sobriquet of media whore. Problem is, he takes his job too diligently and seriously, so seriously that he dared point out to the Speaker in the nick of time that quorum was not met when two bills were about to be passed in parliament. Leader of the House Ng Eng Hen saved the day by asking for an adjournment instead of summoning the MPs back into the Chamber. Ng is also one of the eight select committee members.

The first rule of the wayang fight club is, don't make them lose face. In the immortal words of Robin Williams in "Good Morning Vietnam", who sadly passed away today, "This will not look good on my resume."

Former NMP Siew Kum Hong nailed it when he observed of the nine fresh faces selected: "they do seem safe." Notable newcomer is President of the Society for the Physically Disabled Chia Yong Yong, a dedicated professional and wheelchair bound for more than 20 years due to muscular atrophy. What they were looking for ideally is someone blind, deaf and dumb - in line with Yaacob's dictates of see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. Chia is too nice a person to do it, but someone else may just still reach out from his wheelchair to deliver a few tight slaps if and when they pull another Population White Paper stunt.

The Straits Times article kicked off by saying that Lee Hsien Loong's first decade as prime minister can be summed up in one word: Challenging. If someone else had written that piece, one could infer it was another way of saying the prime minister is politically challenged. There was quite a laundry list of what went wrong since Singapore's third round of musical chairs began on 12 August 2004 to support the thesis.

For starters, the bruising battles of the by-elections in Hougang (May 2012) and Punggol East (January 2013). Latter was triggered by a taste for mangoes, a very senior foreign affairs official would later be felled by pineapple tarts.

The sharpest recession since independence in 2008 when economic growth bottomed to 1.8 percent, and further shrunk another 0.6 percent in 2009. And that's not even accounting for the millions lost by Town Council mayors in flaky investment schemes.

Despite nation wide concerns about the detrimental social impact of gambling - and even disgruntled mutterings from cabinet members within - the go-ahead was given for Marina Bay Sands (May 2006) and Resorts World Sentosa (Dec 2006) casinos.

With the richer getting richer, Gini coefficient careened from 0.464 in 2004 to 0.489 in 2007. Here's why: "In fact , if I can get another 10 billionaires to move to Singapore and set up their base here, my Gini coefficient will get worse but I think Singaporeans will be better off".

Then the mother of mayhem with the population bloat of 4,166,700 (2004) to 5,399,200 (2013), giving rise to a myriad of shortages relating to transport, housing, healthcare, jobs and education. Topped off by the the Population White Paper target of 6.9m population by 2030.

The fireworks that rounded off the sorry decade were train breakdowns, riot at Little India, bus strikes and sex and corruption scandals involving "incorruptible" elites. Lest we forget, there's also this lawsuit against a health worker that opened up the Pandora's Box of the Central Provident Fund which turns out to have severely debilitating and far-reaching effects.

In retrospect, those with hindsight (which the guy obviously lacks) would have predicted the inevitable. Here's why: "Suppose you had 10, 15, 20 opposition members in Parliament. Instead of spending my time thinking what is the right policy for Singapore, I'm going to spend all my time thinking what's the right way to fix them, to buy supporters votes."

It's All About Censorship

Lying Through The Nose

Clear As Mud

On Better Communications

Stingy On Health

Malleable Rules

Define Spending

Entitlement Notification

The Mother Of All Distraction

Tit For Tat

Hard Of Hearing

No Sex Please, We're Singaporeans

So Much For Transparency

You Ask Them

Cheering On Singaporeans

Over The Top Solutions

Shades Of Honour

Somebody Definitely Overcharged

Payback Time

How To Spend 10 Years