Singapore's paddlers are Champions, are you proud of it?

An exhilarating psychological state of pride and optimism is all around the Singapore table tennis camp. And they have good reason to be so; the women's team representing Singapore has just clinched the much coveted LIEBHERR 2010 World Team Table Tennis Championships in Moscow. One most interesting thing to note is that the players in the final are all Chinese, past and present.

Feng Tianwei scored the opening point as well as sealing the title with her hard-fought final point for the Singapore team. We can read about the detailed score in mainstream media tomorrow so I am not going to touch on that here. Singapore's victory effectively ended the China Women's team dream of holding the title for the 8th consecutive time.

I am sure many true born and bred Singaporeans have this lingering thought in their mind; should we or should we not feel proud about this achievement? Personally I am not, not a single bit. However, I am happy for the individual players for seeing their effort turned into fruition. I am certain all of them put in their 100% to participate in tournaments like this one. And I congratulate them for their performance.

Ex-PM and the current SM Goh Chok Tong boasted in one of the NDP Rally that Singapore will play in the final of football World Cup 2010. Well, he punted on the wrong horse. The Singapore football team cannot even smell the air in the second round, let alone playing in the finals. Of course, his prophecy for the football team is a tremendous task. Let's be fair, it is not easy to BUY a full football team, coaches and players. Therefore very little people will place the blame on him for giving the Football Association of Singapore this Mount Everest task.

The smart people took the idea and implemented in the STTA. Unlike football, it is so much easier to BUY a small team, in table tennis. Well, it pays. And we got ourselves a Silver medal in Beijing 2008 and now this 'superb' achievement in Moscow.

I guess we also have to congratulate the president of STTA, Miss Lee Bee Wah, for having the wisdom of not appearing in the picture above. It would have marred the celebration of Singaporeans who felt a sense of pride in this happy moment.

I wish to borrow the famous line of Shakespeare's Hamlet, "To feel or not to feel, that is the question".

The arrogance of an SAF Officer and the taboo of apology

The Public Affairs Director of Mindef today wrote the following reply to the ST Forum page :

 

May 28, 2010
Shooting incident: Mindef admits it should have issued statement
WE REFER to Mr Matthias Chew's letter yesterday ('Shooting incident: Mindef should have told public').

 

The Singapore Armed Forces' (SAF) immediate priority following any incident is to attend to the needs of the affected servicemen and to keep their families informed.

 

In the case of the training incident in Thailand, the servicemen were given immediate medical attention and arrangements were made for their safe return to Singapore on the same day for further medical treatment.

 

The families of the servicemen were immediately notified and provided regular updates. Whatever information that is available is thus provided to the servicemen and their families as soon as possible.

 

The Ministry of Defence (Mindef) informs the public whenever there is a serious incident, or where the incident is likely to be of public interest.

 

Given the nature of this incident, Mindef should have issued a media statement when it occurred.

 

Colonel Darius Lim,
Director, Public Affairs,
Ministry of Defence (Mindef)

 

Mindef had done the right thing to inform the families of the injured servicemen, full time NS, NSmen or regulars, as in any other previous incidents that happened in the SAF. I am sure they will continue to do the same thing should future mishaps occur again.

 

However I take contention to his cold reply to the public considering the fact that he is the person helming the important department of Public Affairs. It demonstrates the underlying arrogance in an organisation where parents entrusted their sons to the State, where any little news of safety breach are of utmost importance to them. There is not a single strand of 'remorse' in his frigid statement. "We are sorry, we should have issued a media statement when it occurred" is extrememly difficult to deliver to those concerned.

 

How does one classify an "incident is likely to be of public interest"? In the name of transparency, Mindef should know that every incident is of public interest. Lives are at stake. Families are directly affected these accidents. Children may lose their fathers. Spouses become widowed as single parent. The reply seems to imply that people are just too nosey and that it-is-none-of-your-concern thingy.

 

The attitude of Colonel Darius Lim in handling (or mishandling) this incident is loathsomely disturbing, greatly undermining the trust placed on them by the same people this organisation professes to protect. Gone are the days where injuries and deaths are classified information. Public accountability must be compulsory, as is national service for all male citizens.

 

It is hoped that Mindef appoint more discerning officers to oversee important departments related to Public Affairs. The public is the big family to all servicemen in the SAF, any incident is of utmost concern! And injuries of this nature, particularly when they are not sustained in Singapore soil, must be made know publicly and immediately after they have informed the next-of-kins.

 

Goodbye Dr Goh, Goodbye Sir.

The State funeral accorded to Dr Goh Keng Swee has just ended its live telecast by CNA. Singaporeans bid farewell to the "Greatest Enterpreneur Singapore has seen is Dr Goh".

It is a shame young Singaporeans only get to know great men of Singapore in their passing when we should have been 'educated' in the difficulties these men encountered during the first days of nation building of the country we feel proud to belong. Many of the younger Singaporeans are deprived of recognising the founding fathers of the State.

There were five eulogies being delivered during the service, by the PM, the MM, the Chariman of Temasek, Dr Goh's grandson then grand-niece, in that order. To me, the earlier three were of less significance as compared to the last two by his own family members. The simple things in life that they both went through with Dr Goh were described with so much love and passion that resonates with many people sharing their respect and love for this great man.

There are no lack of praises and tributes to be added to the accolades of Dr Goh during this period of mourning. Lets us just bid him a simple farewell and give thanks for the great things he had done for Singapore and for touching the lives of so many ordinary people that seek his help, which he had given unreservingly.

Goodbye Dr Goh, Goodbye Sir.

EU's palpable embarassment, will ASEAN reacted the same way?

Foreign Minister George Yeo informed the House that at a cocktail, he could sense palpably the embarassment and awkwardness felt by the EU Diplomats over the case of the Romanian bastard Silviu Ionescu.

 

He went further to say "So even though this is strictly speaking a bilateral matter, there is no doubt that the EU diplomats and the EU governments feel that they have an interest in seeing this case satisfactorily resolved and justice properly served."

 

Singaporeans were outraged by the behaviour of this Romanian pig and his subsequent allegation that this has all been a set up to frame him. We have heard enough of how our security officers were "helpless" in letting him go scot free 3 days after the accident occurred.

 

What GY said is very interesting. If the EU diplomat is truly embarassed as expressed by GY, it goes to show that there is an common identity amongst the EU members which binds them as one. It is akin to a brother feeling very awkward for some unwarranted crimes committed by his other sibling. Say if any diplomats from countries in ASEAN were to commit the same offence, will diplomats from the regional grouping feel the same way as what this EU diplomat (of Spanish origin) had reportedly felt?

 

I wonder..... and I am more inclined to believe we somehow will not. The basis of how countries from ASEAN operate is one of you-mind-your-own-biz, we don't interfere with each others affair.

Holding Singapore to Ransom?

So this young chap from Taiwan is a talent, in pool. And the habit of Singapore sports officials is back on it act again.

(see ST Report)

Somebody somewhere has proven to be good at something, pool in this case, and we rush in to entice with all sorts of goodies to bring them in as a citizen to don the Singapore colour for international fame. And in the process, had forgotten that there is an innate responsibility to train our very own sons and daughters. Shame on you, Singapore!

No wonder the population at large are so fed up with the people in high office. Look at these shameless thing they are doing. Why deprive our own youngsters the chance to excel, why not commit resources to train our younger generation instead of taking the easy way to world fame? Can we seriously say we are proud should we achieve some awards?

Goh Chok Tong, the ex-Prime Minister justified this cause when he said this in the 1998 NDP Rally,

"Look at the French World Cup football team. In the final against Brazil, I picked Zidane as the most outstanding French player. He is of Algerian descent. Of the 22-players, more than half did not look "French". They looked Argentinian, Armenian, Basque, Caribbean, Ghanaian, New Caledonian. Some were born in France, but of immigrant parents. Others are first generation French citizens. When they went up to receive their medals, President Chirac embraced all of them as Frenchmen. He sent a strong political signal for multi-racialism and against xenophobia: that in France, so long as you contribute to the French cause, it does not matter what colour your skin is or where you were born."

And Mah Bow Tan, then with FAS, supported this view. Also taking the easy way out is Education minister Ng Eng Hen attempted, though he failed, to reduce weightage of mother tongue for the sake of good results for children of rich and elites. Should we not be worried that our ministers are all of this caliber? Many people did not enjoy the victory fully when the female paddlers brought the silver medal home during the Olympic in Beijing 2008. However, when Tao Li and Quah Ting Wen came back with glory for the nation, we were all elated, truly in the Singapore spirit, even though they are not Olympic medals.

The sports fraternity in Singapore should wake up from their dreams of shopping and buying winners. Concentrate on developing our own sons and daughters. And to this Taiwanese pool player, I say "To hell with you, stay in Taiwan. Do not come here, Singaporeans at large do not welcome you!"

That said, all is not gone. We take consolation with Subhas Anandan, President of Cuesports Singapore where he advocates that we should focus on local born players instead. 'We would rather concentrate on raising the standards of our local-born players. Pool is a game where we can be as good as powerhouses like Taiwan and the Philippines.'

UK Cameron's Cabinet Pay Cut and our highly qualified cheng-hu-lang

One of the first things that the British Prime Minister David Cameron did was to announce a pay cut of 5% for his cabinet. Given that his is a coalition government, he should be highly commended for this feat. As the Chancellor aptly put it, the deficit overshadowed everything on the new government's agenda. On top of the pay cut, the pay for the members of the cabinet is also to freeze for the remainder of the current parliament.

 

This bold move comes after a time when members of parliament had in the past made claims for petty items as well as items that support their lavish lifestyle. Investigations were conducted and remedial action had been taken to prevent such extravagance habits from happening again.

 

Governmental salary has been a very sore point for Singaporeans ever since the ruling party argues that in order to attract high quality candidates to serve the people, we have to pay then as well as the private sector, otherwise the good people will only remain in private practice and not optimised their capability to contribute to the society.

 

After years of delighting themselves to an excessively fat salary, what candidates are we getting from this premium that the people have to pay?

 

We have the cheng-hu people coming out opening to blame their people of complacency when the notorious Mas Selamat escaped from high-security detention in Whitely Road.

 

We have highly qualified people in charge of home security and yet allowed two detainees to escape from the Subordinate Court while in transit to answer charges.

 

Then we even have minister in charge of public housing let the price of HDB flats escalate incessantly to a point our younger generation has had to delay their plans to form a family. Some of them even though married legally are forced under such circumstances to live separately before they can afford a decent customary marriage. The same minister even has the audacity to defend his housing policy despite being shown numbers and facts that these policies need to be reversed and improved upon.

 

What about the minister who promises this; "If you were a poor person, anywhere on this planet, Singapore is the one place where you will have a roof over your head, where you will have food on the table. Even if you can't afford it, we will have meals delivered to you. You will get healthcare.  Do not lose sight of the fundamentals. And I am confident that we have done our duty for the people who need our help." Apparently, this minister has a problem differentiating his lie from his ability.

 

Better still, we have a widely-known 'good-hearted' minister who spoke so passionately for the well being of the people but open up the use of CPF funds to pay for medical treatment in approved hospitals in Malaysia, a place where he hailed from, where he was borned. He made himself very famous after suggesting that Singaporeans should send their aged parents to old folk's home in JB because Singapore is too expensive a place to remain as a senior citizen.

 

Then a minister wanted to take the easy way out, for children from rich families to get into better school because of a lack of mother tongue skill, by wanting to lower the weightage for assessment in PSLE. His plans backfired when sufficient people petitioned against his silly plan and needed the minister-of-all-ministers to conduct a press conference

 

The mother of all ministers is the singing minister. His magical chant of "Upturn the Downturn" at the orchid Country Club golf driving range and his ultimate self-proclaimed axiom of "Cheaper, Better and Faster" were meant to get Singapore out of the effects of the global credit crunch. So well paid was he that he announced with a wry smile that "each time I look at my CPF statement, I feel so rich".

 

So, these are the ministers that we have and mind you, they are the highest paid government ministers in the world....no shit!

 

Tyger Tyger burning bright

Tiger Airway today announced it had earned S$28.2 million at the end of March 2010. The listed company reported a loss of S$50.8 million in the last financial year. CEO Tony Davis was all gleam when he said that the airline has clearly succeeded with its pure low cost model and are well positioned to to take advantage of growth opportunities in the region.

 

Lets rewind back to last year where innumerous passengers were stranded by the airline's irresponsible customer service, something that everyone, especially those directly affected, does not want any memory of. Tiger's hotlines, manned mainly by non-existent ghosts, are never answered. Though passengers are elated for having got into such good deal in the low-cost (say cheap) tickets, many more suffered as a consequence of the company's devil-may-care attitude towards those stranded in foreign lands. Worst still when they are very young people with little or no travel experience to help them get by.

 

So, who should they be thankful for with such spectacular returns in the their financial book? Yes, all the suckers passengers. On one hand they want cheap cheap tickets and on the other, demand standards equivalent to those of non-budget airlines. Then there are those who will argue that Tiger is  their messiah for without this cheap tickets, they would not have a chance to travel at all. To this I have no answers, it is a case of willing buyer willing seller.

 

I am sure complaints against Tiger's infamous customer service will not cease here. I do not feel for these people but to say, you ask for it and you deserve it.

 

I have never taken a tiger flight before and until the company demostrate their humane side to act responsibly to the people they serve, I don't think I ever will.

(共勉) 你给别人的不一定是他真正想要的

亨特先生是一位富有同情心的绅士，与许多高傲的富翁不同，每次穷人向他乞讨时，他总是乐于施舍，如果时间允许，他还时不时地请那些饥渴难耐的可怜人吃顿便饭。附近的穷人都很尊敬他，那些穷苦的孩子..... (继续)

The problem about solving the Mother Tongue problem

Our beloved Minister of Education. Mr Ng Eng Hen, has come up with a canny way of assisting many students go around the problem of dealing with learning this very 'difficult' Chinese language. And he felt it so apt to find the easy way out by merely reducing the weightage on the assessment criteria for this particular subject. He is such a genius! Instant answer to the dwindling support for learning this language from a culture with more than 5000 years.

During the Speak Mandarin Campaign 30th Anniversary launch in March 2009 at the NTUC Centre, our very own Minister Mentor, Mr Lee Kuan Yew, had this to say, "I understand the strong emotional ties to one's mother tongue. However, the trend is clear. In two generations, Mandarin will become our mother tongue". MM Lee further added that he has received 'innumerable' e-mails from China-based Singaporeans thanking him for making Mandarin compulsory for them.

Perhaps the main gist of the problem here is about root, and the acceptance of it. Singapore comprises slightly more than 74% Singaporean Chinese (of various linguistic groups). Since 1979, the government has stopped all radio and TV in Singapore from broadcasting programs in dialect.

The Speak Mandarin Campaign was launched slightly more than 30 years ago and the emphasis of educating our children to be bilingual cannot be overly-emphaised. This measure seems to be very successful so much so that our kids today hardly understand their own dialect, let alone speak them. Minister Mentor has ferociously uphold this policy over the years but of late lamented that apart from his only granddaughter, his six grandsons all dislike speaking Mandarin.

This incident has sparked off very lively responses from those who are entrenched in the root of their 'mother tongue' against those who felt that their children's chances of progressing into better schools are compromised. Then there is also a school of thought who just simply bo-chap about the whole issue.

Personally, I feel that the minister has taken a wrong decision if the weightage were to indeed be reduced. The rationale behind his reasoning is flawed, totally wrong. I opine this as a betrayal of his root. How can one learn the rich culture legacied by noble ancestors. How can we really understand Confucius' Lunyu, Da Xue and Dao Te Jing etc etc.

Yes, we are Singaporeans per se (and not Chinese) but we cannot deny the fact that our forefathers come from the land where our very government is courting to take a piece of the economic pie from.

It now leaves us to wait for the outcome of the review by the ministry.

借此诗愿天下的母亲平安快乐,身体健康!

游子吟

孟郊

慈母手中线，

游子身上衣。

临行密密缝，

意恐迟迟归。

谁言寸草心，

报得三春晖。

World Cup - You want, I give you. Just pay up.

Finally, the headlines in our local papers and online news portal found reason to scream to the highest pitch, world cup matches are coming live to die-die-must-watch fans in Singapore. Finally. Eventually. And expectedly.

The 'successful' bidding by abang-adek Singtel and Starhub surely call for champagne to be popped. Big party event, don't we all think so? Sure, but I am not at all interested, am no football fan. Not anymore that is. Interest died off after our national heroes like Mat Noh, Kim Song, Samad, Eric Paine, Dollar Kassim and other footballers of their time no longer donned the national colour playing for Singapore. After their time, football is all about money, not national pride, no more for me.

Now that Singaporeans get to see their full 64 matches all 'Live', why then do they continue to air so much grouses? By comparison, Singaporeans are suckered by the high cost of the package put forth by the 2 service providers. Somebody made a comparison on the cost of viewing with other countries of the region and sure enough, the usurious rates are not to be easily swallowed. But fans asked for it isn't it?

I do not think the service providers are going to make any adjustment to the price, I don't really care. When there is a product that consumers are even willing to deprive themselves of sleep to get it, it will make no sense for singtel or starhub to give it away cheaper. It is a case of 'You-want-I-Give-You-so-you-pay' kind of thingie.

Still on sports, is Singapore proceeding with the YOG? So little is heard of this event I thought the minister in charge of sports has lost his interest in the YOG. Maybe the YOG is like a secondary school sports day event that is why we don't get so much pom-pom and ra-ra going on. The remaining 2010 will be a busy period for some people, having to balance their lives with the world cup tight match schedules, the upcoming national day parade, the YOG (if it is still on) and the much anticipated election (ranked 2nd after the world cup..lol)

HDB Leasehold - still a myth to public

The Straits Times published a reply by HDB to a letter by a Mr Wong on the much talkabout but little known topic of the 99-year lease. This appears on the printed edition of the Forum page:

May 7, 2010
HDB clears the air on lease expiry

I REFER to Mr Wong Pang Yee's letter, 'Allay uncertainty over HDB leasehold' (April 13).

HDB flats are 99-year leasehold properties. Like all leasehold properties, the land will revert to the Government when the lease on the land expires. The overwhelming majority of HDB flats today are far from expiry of their leases.

However, some flats in older estates may be selected for redevelopment under the Selective En Bloc Redevelopment Scheme, if it is economically viable. To maintain the value of older flats, the Government has also introduced various upgrading programmes such as the Home Improvement Programme and Lift Upgrading Programme.

Chan-Wong Jee Choo Lily (Mrs)
Deputy Director, Policy and Property
Housing & Development Board

Contrary to what the header insinuated, the reply is far far from clearing the air, at least it has not given us a clear enough picture what is to happen upon expiry of the lease. Let us not forget, about 80% of the population will be affected when the time for the lease to expire come.

"The overwhelming majority of HDB flats today are far from expiry of their leases" - Mrs Chan-Wong Jee Choo, Lily

This is an outright irresponsible statement to make! The Deputy Director attempt to shove this problem outside her tenure with HDB, hoping that someone else after her will reveal the truth to the public; one can imagine the truth will be extremely uncomfortable.

After all these years of existence, HDB should have evolved into a more professional body serving the general public. The procedure must be clearly made known to the public at large, and not let every stake holder of the lease to second guess what is to come next.

The leasehold period will not be extended with upgrading programs which is an instrument used to maintain the value of older flats. But no matter how valueable the flat is, it will become worthless when the time come for the land to revert to the Government.

So, unless and until the Deputy Director give a crystal clear reply, the uncertainty over the HDB leasehold will continue to cloud over HDB flats-owning public.

Red vs Yellow - And the Loser is.....

It all started with a bloodless military coup back in 2006 and the prime ministership of Thaksin Shinawatra has since become history. Bloodless as it may be, the coup marked the beginning of a string of changes in the head of the Thai government.

Samak Sundaravej lost his post after the court ruled that he violated the charter by hosting cooking shows on TV,

The come Somchai Wongsawat, Thaksin's brother-in-law where the Constitution Court announced dissolution of the PPP and two other parties in the coalition government, a ruling which disqualified Somchai as prime minister and banned him from politics for five years.

On Dec 15, 2008, Abhisit Vejjajiva, leader of the largest opposition party the Democratic Party, became prime minister. He was educated in Oxford and is the leader of Thailand's Democrat Party.

In recent years, Thailand political arena is dominated by rivalry between two factions, distinguished by the coloured shirts; mainly Yellow and Red. The Yellow shirts are well known internationally as the people who literally shut down the International Airport creating havoc and mayhems to tourists. What mystify people is that till date, no action were taken against any of them for causing this widely reported disturbances, which left a very unpleasant aftertaste for many travellers. The recent actions by the Red shirts in many areas resembled what the Yellow shirts had done two years ago.

Whether it is yellow or red, one thing is certain; the life of people in Bangkok is never the same again. Her international reputation has taken a toll, economic losses is huge. Both sides are fighting for a better Thailand that is for sure, but what good can be derived when both are fighting for their own agenda? Can there not be a common ground for the bigger good of the country? I guess only the Thai people have a say for themselves.

From a by-stander's perspective, we can only hope that things will go back to normalcy fast and there will not be anymore unnecessary loss of lives as a result of their rivalry. The likely losers will be themselves if the this is allowed to continue.

I cannot imagine if the same were to happen in Singapore, or rather, will such huge demonstration ever be allowed to happen here.

Actuarial Science - CPF Version

So much talk about this monster known to senior folks as CPF Life. What exactly is this monster all about? An attempt was made to go through the materials provided by our Citizens' Coffer. It was not easy to understand though. Simple as it may sound, or written, it contains explanation only the person preparing them can understand.

My first impression on this scheme is one of skepticism. There exist much obscurity in the way the premium is being presented. End of the day, it is as lucid as a pool of muddy water in the middle of a mud track.

In simple term, can we classed this CPF Life as an insurance policy under what many a financial advisor will call Annuity Insurance? Pretty much so except it is an annuity scheme that carry a different name.

The Singapore insurance industry is rather well regulated, all financial advisors, whether they are selling life insurance or general insurance must strict adhere to MAS rules and regulations. This includes ongoing training throughout the year, to clock specific hours of training, never mind the training sessions use the same material repeated over and over.

Thus far, more than 30,000 members have signed up for CPF LIFE and committed about $1.5 billion to the scheme. If this is an insurance scheme, does it not make the staff of the Board qualified insurance advisors? And if so, have they been properly trained in accordance with the standards set by MAS, or for that matter, LUA Singapore?

How this scheme turns out eventually, only time will be the real witness. I have not come across anyone, yet, to vouch that this is a scheme specifically designed for the true benefits of our senior folks. There seems to be no lack of contentious views, you can read about one of them here - Beware of CPF Life Scam.

Our own CPF Board had now become our Bankers, Insurers, Investment agents and who knows what in the future.

Is it very complicated to let reputable insurance companies underwrite this scheme and present it to the public in a simple and straight forward annuity scheme?

Till date, how much is the premium for this 'popular and wonderful' product is not clearly spelt out, there is a provision for variables, which add to the uncertainty of this scheme. Indeed, one really wonders if the 30,000 or so that signed up really understand what they are in for.

Can some professional financial advisors advise?