Will $9000 make NSmen STFU and vote PAP?

I've been there, I've done that. Having watched my father (same age as MM Lee) deteriorating and finally dying from a terminal illness, I do not wish upon anyone to witness the agony and the suffering of a loved one going through a long debilitating terminal disease. However, we live some, we die some. To every life a little rain must fall.

On a day when the sister was lamenting publicly in the Sunday Times [Link] of the pain of a sick mum, the same evening the brother was on TV, radio and internet selling snake oil according to Insane Polygon [Link]. The Snake Oil Salesman must have pissed off some TV addicts who had to miss their favourite Taiwanese serial, 爱. They must have asked Heaven why Media Corp has to dedicate all TV channels to one man's 'fixing and buying' "我问天, 我问天. . . Thank Heavens, 谢天谢地, there was no repeat of 'mee siam mai hum'!

He spoke for almost 4 hours and here are some of the highlights:

1. With all the bad press in alternative media, he had to justify the YOG and make a song and dance of how successful it was. I'm surprised that he said he was congratulated for a job well done!
2. He had to defend the FT policy with silly examples like adorable lady bus driver missed by Singaporean passengers in Pasir Ris. What I don't understand is: What has Microsoft losing talents in USA got to do with imported bus drivers, cleaners, casino workers, construction workers, sales personnel and prostitutes in Singapore?
3. He spoke about honouring founding fathers which everybody knows his daddy is the 'foundingest' (as in Lim Swee Say's 'betterest') of them all.
4. He spoke of how he feels for Singaporeans and why Singaporeans (new citizens?) should come first before PR, before foreigners.
5. He spoke about 'fixing' the Education System which I'm glad.
   
6. He spoke about 'buying' NSmen at $9000 per male which I'm sad. Very sad.

As a prime minister, he made a mockery of nation building by paying himself millions, almost five (or is it four) times Obama's salary. Now he is demeaning NSmen by moneytising their contribution to national service. I did my crime (of being a male Singapore citizen) and I did my time. I didn't like to be treated like brainless draftee ('daftee' in MMspeak) in the army in the late 60's with crazy 'change parades' and 'point drills' but I'm proud that I wasn't bought! I had to forgo a $200 technician job for a $90 'sai kang' pay to serve my aspiring city? state? country?.

• Is this $9000 going to make NSmen more willing to do 'sai kang' like building tents and setting up chairs for National Day Parade and YOG?
• Is this $9000 going to make Reservists more forgiving to PAP for upsetting their careers by importing male immigrant to compete against them?
• Is this $9000 (I guess not cash but paid to CPF) going to buy PAP some votes?
  OR
• Is this $9000 going to make the NSMen shut the fuck up, stop bitching about their misery and say, "Thank you very much Mr Prime Minister, Sir"
  
  OR
  
• Is this $9000 going to make many people like Insane Polygon say, "FUCK THAT. FUCK HIM. The PM and his entire fucking cabinet and especially Raymond Lim the transport minister, they should try taking public transport to work and home during rush hour for a year and see how it feels." [Link]

With $9000 or no $9000, we must know that:

There is more to life than money.
There is more to life than power.

As much as they try, money & power cannot buy health!
As much as they try, money & power cannot buy integrity!
As much as they try, money & power cannot buy respect!
And thanks to the Beatles, money can't buy you love!

Admittedly, it may buy you some votes . . . but not all!

Thanks to Insane Polygon [link] for the above pic.

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Yes, Mr Prime Mini$ter

Dear Mr Prime Mini$ter, are you for real?

"Our goal is for all Singaporeans to enjoy the fruits of growth. When Singapore prospers, you will benefit from many government programmes: better designed HDB estates, higher quality schools and hospitals, more MRT lines and new places for recreation. But each one of us has to make the effort."

Yes, Mr Prime Mini$ter, every average Singaporean like Ali, Ah Seng, Arul and Alex will have to make the effort to pay more for hospital services and crazy HDB flats that make a mockery of the word 'subsidy'. They also have to pay for more expensive taxi, MRT and bus rides! The truth is when Singapore prospers, elites and those in PAP prosper. The men in the street . . . they suffer. The ever-increasing cost of living for the common people has far exceeded the pay they received!

"I hope all Singaporeans will work together to put up a good show, and make the games memorable for all our visitors."

Yes, Mr Prime Mini$ter, another wayang not unlike the 4,000,000 smiles that was badly needed for the hot shots from IMF in 2006. Thank God, unlike 2006, we do not need cages for YOG!

"I understand Singaporeans' concerns about taking in so many foreign workers and immigrants. Some of us wonder: Will it change the ethos of our society? Will it mean more competition for us at work, or for our children in schools? Will the new arrivals strike roots here? Can they adjust to us, and we to them. These are valid concerns which we must address. We will control the inflow, to ensure that it is not too fast, and not too large. We will only bring in people who can contribute to Singapore, and work harder to integrate them into our society. And we will make clear that citizens come first. After all, we are doing this for the sake of Singaporeans."

No, Mr Prime Mini$ter, you have been in your ivory tower far too long that you do not know what's happening on the ground. Recently, you mentioned that you'll be bringing in another 100,00 guest workers this year. Apart from helping employers lower the cost of labour and helping agents scalp these guest workers, I do not see how bringing another 100,000 foreign workers can make average Sinkapoorean like Ali, Ah Seng, Arul or Alex's life better.

My real bros like Ali, Ah Seng, Arul and Alex have to wake up earlier to ensure a standing space in the MRT to get to work. They have to be 'cheaperest, betterest and fasterest' in whatever they do to survive. With your high falutin' decision to bring in the magic 100,000 this year, my bros have become more vulnerable and replaceable by these guest workers. No, Mr Prime Mini$ter, us 'small-minded' and 'lesser mortals' think that you are bringing in your so-called FT just to boost the GDP to justify more obscene salary and bonuses for your bros and sis in white and your goodself!

With your devil-may-care song and dance of our fantastic Y-Y GDP growth of 17.9% (what a magic figure compared to other countries), I suggest that you be careful in not busting the bubble that your more junior civil servants are expecting. With your feel-good-look-good figures, they are expecting a big fat bonus this year end. And they are currently splurging like crazy even before they got the bonuses. Well, with your track record, I'm sure you are still pretty good at 'fixing and buying'. Not to worry, with General Election round the corner, I'm sure all civil servants, regardless of rank, will receive generous bonuses.

Mr Prime Minister, on this National Day of 2010, I wish you 'Enough'.

• Enough of the crazy policies that maim the common people (namely, 'subsidised' HDB flat that costs an arm and a leg for 30 years; increased bus and MRT fares; can-die-but-cannot-be sick hospital fees; forcing the poor to pay utilities fees in advance with cashcard, etc)
• Enough of insensitive-high-from-the-ivory-tower remarks from your cabinet members and White MPs. It is just not nice to hear from your father that we are 'complacent champion grumblers who needs spurs on our hind'. Nor is it nice to be called 'lesser mortals' living the 'Singapore Gripe droning like vuvuzelas"
  
• Enough of silly remarks like 'Once in 50 years'; 'Act of God' and 'Do not expect flood free Singapore'. Sorry, if you demand to be paid the best, you jolly well work your ass off to justify your more-expensive-than-Obama salary
  
• And from the bottom of my broken heart, Enough of the pain of health challenges that's been inflicted upon you and your familee members.

Having survived heart attack, ventricular fibrillation, hernia, shingles and ran over by a car, I know the agony and ecstasy of dealing with health challenges.

Having been there and done that, I wish you enough to know that that not every mother's son is as lucky as you are. Not every father's daughter is as fortunate as your wife or your sister.

My dream is for Singapore to have a Prime Mini$ter who is carefull. A PM who does not chui kong lumpar song (talk-cock-sing-song) but sincerely has the heart to really care for the less endowed and not insult the intelligence of those he rules over.

Happy National Day but please do not hog the limelight with all white when celebration is on at the Padang. If only your lapdog media show some footage of opposition members celebrating at NDP, your credibility will have rise a few notches :) Instead of fixing them all the time, try giving them a break. Give Singaporeans a break! It'll do good for your reputation!

While I'm at it, can you please do your bit to save the life of Yong Vui Kong? With you and your dad's connection, I'm sure you can do some in the Cabinet to get the President to pardon Yong. Please let him do time instead of sending him to the Jolly Hangman. I know it's tough but can tell lawyer colleague Sham not to make it more difficult for the boy who's young enough to be your son.

Thank you in advance.

Note: Speech in italics extracted from asiaone.com [Link]

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From Grumblers to Gripers with additional 5Cs

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew told Mark Jacobson of National Geographic that "Singaporeans are champion grumblers". [Link]

On National Day 2010's celebration at Marine Parade, we are told by none other than Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong to 'Look at the bright side of things and live your dreams. This is far healthier than to live the Singapore Gripe and drone on like vuvuzelas,' [Link]

I did not know that telling it like it is is living the Singapore Gripe. According to my doctor, if I just STFU and not release the crap that's thrown at me, my physical, mental and emotional health may just crack up, leading to another heart attack that may just be the death of me. Fortunately, the fish is kind enough to give me a few 'more good years' before feeding on me :)

If not for the griping of frustrated, bullied and concerned citizens in blogs, coffee shops and elsewhere, MM, SM and MIW would have thought that they were perfectly chosen to be God's gifts to Sinkapooreans. Or do they only want Sheepapooreans in SinCity? [Link]. Oh, how they wish we obediently and quietly accept all the crap they dish out without a whimper. Maybe even kiss the ground they walk on?

"If I have to reinvent the 5Cs, my dream is to help create the conditions for a generation of Singaporeans to have a good Career, live in Comfort, surrounded by Children, and be Considerate and Charitable." [Link] Having achieved and exceeded the original "5 Cs - Cash, Credit cards, Car, Condominium, and Country club membership" many times over with a secured 'Career' of million$ per year with pension to boot, I'm sure people like MM, SM, their 'Children' and their MIW must be in a very 'Comfort' zone! 8 out of 10 Cs ain't bad.

Alas, why can't they have the last 2 qualities of being 'Considerate' and 'Charitable' by treating people with respect? Why describe citizens as 'complacent champion grumblers droning like vuvuzelas' just because truths prevail and occasionally hurt the ego of the men in power?

If we still complacently vote them in and pay them millions to gripe us without letting them know that their haughtiness and disregard for the common people is a pain, then we deserve the insults and disrespect they so arrogantly throw at us.

So who's griping who?

Perhaps I'm guilty of being inconsiderate and uncharitable to MM, SM and MIW for writing what I write and griping what I gripe.

But if not me, who?

To come up with honest rather than toadyish feedback is the honest mother of all feedbacks :)

And on the subject of being considerate and charitable, why not give Dead-Man-Walking Yong Vui Kong a break? I feel for him because at his age (18 plus) when he was caught I, like him in the 1960's, was experimenting with drugs without the knowledge of what harm it might bring. During those days, they did not hang you or lock you up for messing around with drugs. Heck, it wasn't even criminal!

As much as the law has changed, it is a little unkind and unfair to kill a young man just because he's not an elite or protected by elites [Link]. Let him do time to atone for his crime and instead of passing him to the Jolly Hangman.

Happy National Day!

And hello, National Day is not PAP Day!

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YOG - Youth Olympics Gone (before the trail got blazed)

We are cheaper, better and faster in getting YOG in Singapore.

Having overrun the the budget from $104m to $400m, I thought we would have b(r)ought superstars to grace this costly event. Unfortunately, appointed Games' ambassadors, Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps, are giving YOG a miss as they have more important things to do. Or is the MCYS YOG Committee too cheap to ensure their presence?

"Even though I can't make it in person, because I'll be competing at the US Nationals and (hopefully) Pan-Pacific (Championships), I will definitely be there in spirit," wrote Phelps, who won a record eight golds at the 2008 Olympics. [Link]

Well, who can blame him for not turning up?

Like Phelps, we Sinkapooreans can't be there because we have to be cheaper, faster and better at cleaning toilets, clearing bowls and plates at hawkers centres, hard at work in office or slogging in the field from selling properties, keropok, otah, french caps to tissue papers just to make ends meet the perpetual rising cost of living in Sinkapoor.

But we will definitely be there in YOG . . . in spirit!

Except for those who directly benefit from YOG like supplying food and french caps [Link], whoTF would want to get involve in some silly rah-rah self-image building exercise by 'elite whites' at the expense of tax payers' hard-earned money!

I hope Dr Vivian Balakrishnan won't be annoyed by my heartfelt concern and start calling me names like “small-minded”, “unfair” and “very, very selfish” [Link] just because the YOG has become an anti-climax instead of an orgasmic high!

Is YOG - Youth Olympic's Gone before the games even started?

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