Recently, there has been some controversy over a posting by a young member of the ruling party on their official blog. I quote him here:

One cannot claim that he is a taxpayer and should benefit from the likes of those in a PAP constituency when he voted for the opposition.

In a nutshell, this statement shows ignorance of the concept of taxation and governance. This is not unlike a little child telling his friends “If you become friends with Person A, I will not share my sweets with you, even if you share yours with me!”. It is childish and immatured.

The 18th century philosopher Adam Smith once wrote about taxation:

The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state . . . .

The principle behind this is that the amount of taxes an individual pays should be proportionate to the amount of benefits that he receives from government activities.

The question here is: If the government doesn’t take care of all taxpayers equally, then what are those disadvantaged taxpayers paying the same amount of taxes for? To fund higher civil servant salaries? Aren’t taxes meant for developing the nation and benefitting all citizens? Are we not a democracy? If so, then why are people being “punished” for exercising their freedom to vote?

I cite our National Pledge:

To build a democratic society
Based on justice and equality
So as to achieve happiness, prosperity & progress for our nation

The forfeiture of the fundamental rights of citizens who vote for the opposition to have their estates upgraded with taxpayers’ money, is effectively a violation of the principles of justice and equality stated in our National Pledge. And we are talking about taxpayers’ money. Taxpayers’ money belong to the country, and not to any particular political party. There is no logical justification in withholding the funds. It is logically, fundamentally and ethically wrong.

At this point, I like to digress a bit to share this funny quote, also from the same blog (but different blogger):

A platoon with the acumen of Bill Gates, risk appetite of George Soros and the heart of Mother Theresa

The above statement was used by a supposedly junior member of the party to describe her senior comrades. My hair stood on ends when I read this sentence. I don’t know why… it’s not exactly mushy, nor is it frightening. I think it sounds pretty corny. It almost sounds religious. How far can flattery go? This is just a little short of beginning to use terms like “Dear Leader”.

That reminds me of a funny blog I read some time ago. Here’s another quote:

Dear Leader Comrade Generalissimo Kim Jong Il the brilliant statesman, political genius, prolific author, prodigious humanist, musical virtuoso, intellectual giant of our times, invincible military commander, and Lodestar of the 21st century worshipped by all Koreans and world progressives as the leader of Peace and Justice in the world.

If these guys want to be taken seriously, they should stop being yes-men and start posting more fair views, rather than using their articles to repeat whatever’s been said by their senior comrades. Showing support is nothing wrong, but mindless conformity is.

If all youth members of the party have such attitudes and shallow thinking, I shudder to think what our next generation of leaders will be like.

Latest news is that Singapore ministers’ salaries will go up to around $2.2mil or even more. It’s strange that details of this comes only some time after the budget was released. Policy makers sure know something about having a good sense of timing. Releasing the good news (on economic growth, workfare packages, etc) beforehand to cushion the negative impacts of humongous pay rises for senior civil servants. But really, come to think of it that’s just textbook stuff about communication skills we learn in school.

How many people can earn this amount in their entire working life?

Sad, very sad. 5% GST rises to 7%, increase in traffic fines, increases here and there… extra revenue to pay ministers more. So what if the country is doing well (is it really doing so well anyway?). That’s isn’t a good justification for nearly 100% higher salaries.

How much is the bill going to go up by? I don’t know exactly how many of them there is, but say for 10 of them it’ll cost $10 million more. $10 million. How many mouths can this feed? How many poor people can be saved with this money? And that’s not including other senior civil servants’ pay increments.

Sometimes, I wonder what is the motivation for becoming ministers. Is it for the good salary, or for our country? Is it always about money?

Why are the rest of us (guys) serving NS for peanuts in allowances, while ministers are getting millions for serving the country too? I am sure there are dozens of high caliber people out there who love Singapore and are willing to run the country for much less than $2 million.

If anyone is not satisfied with the money, they can simply walk away and join the private sector. Singapore has lots of talents, there won’t be much loss from those who leave because they prefer the financial rewards offered by the private sector. In my opinion, being a minister is a form of serving the country. It should be more about patriotism rather than hard, cold cash.

In contrast, the President of the United States of America, arguably one of the most powerful men in the world today, earned a measly US$400,000 in 2001. Adjusted for inflation, it is just slightly over US$441,000 in today’s money.

Are our ministers really worth that much more than the President of the United States? Of course, I am not saying that he’s done a good job, but based on the importance of his role in the world. I’m really baffled.

When I go overseas, I’d often pretend to be Malaysian, or Taiwanese. Somehow, I don’t feel comfortable telling others I hail from Singapore.

Singapore’s official media often reports that “relations are normal” between us and our neighbours. However, that isn’t really the case. Singapore/Singaporeans have rather bad reputation in the region and beyond.

A look at a couple of Thai media websites’ forums showed plenty of offensive remarks directed at Singapore. Of course, it isn’t news anymore that it’s about Singapore’s infamous investments in Thailand. However, when Singaporeans actually go to Thailand to shop, the Thais still give us their smiles.

Official reports say that the Thais don’t think there is any problem with Singaporeans and that it is just a problem between the governments. I suspect it is because they are just interested in our money, and are not smiling at us sincerely. To them, we are just walking ATMs who can’t wait to spend all our money.

Judging from the nasty comments on the Thai websites, we are pretty well loathed. The most common term used to describe us is “capitalists”, and there are plenty of claims that Temasek is on a shopping spree for other countries’ infrastructure-related companies.

Actually, I suspect most other Asian countries’ people see us in the same light. The only reason they love us is because we are still thick-skinned enough to go holidaying and shopping in their countries despite less than ideal bilateral relations.

When I went to Vietnam last year, I had lunch at a local restaurant. There were some Vietnamese people seated at the adjacent table. They were making fun at how Singaporeans go “lah” at the end of every sentence. It felt horrible. In government press releases, Singapore is always praised for its “good” economic decisions and governance. However, at a lower level we are often just seen as a bunch of rich but stupid fools waiting to be ripped off.

Oh, and I read in an International Herald Tribune report that while other countries hold emergency reserves of rice or wheat, we have emergency supplies of SAND. Wow. So we are expected to eat sand in times of emergencies? Now that it’s been mentioned, I’m interested to know whether Singapore has any reserves of real, edible food… given that we have no natural resources, I think it’s quite dangerous not to have any/enough! Goes to show how capitalistic our country’s leaders are… emergency sand supplies… another joke for the rest of the world to laugh at Singapore.

Another thing I cannot stand is our government officials’ habits of going to other countries and teaching them how they should run their countries. Ever so frequently when I read in the newspapers about whatever minister making a speech in another country, the minister would go “XXX (country) should blah blah blah”. Hey, we are but a small dot on the map. Who are we to teach big nations like China, Vietnam or Indonesia how to run their countries?

We do not have the problems faced by those countries due to their size. Our economy is relatively easy to manage because we are just a tiny island of about 700 sq kms in area. Not forgetting that we also have an advantage from our unique geographical location that allows us to be a major shipping port. I seriously doubt that our government officials will be able to do a better job if they are placed in their foreign counterparts’ positions.

I remember the first overseas trip I had with my GF was to southern Thailand. That was nearly 6 years ago. We had to endure a gruelling 14 hours coach ride there. Oops. Not exactly a good idea for a romantic getaway, but, what to do, we were both poor students back then. No budget for flights and at that time there weren’t any budget airlines.
 

Thinking back, it was a rather memorable trip…. not just because it was our first together, but also because it was rather funny. Somehow we managed to spend all our money between us, and by the time we got on the return coach, we were quite broke. Only had debit cards that couldn’t be used at the Malaysian rest stops’ coffee shops, plus a few ringgits - enough for a bowl of noodles.
 

So the story went that my GF, being the darling who always wants to leave the best for me… bluffed me that she wasn’t hungry. So happily I had my bowl of noodles. Unfortunately, it was only a couple hours later when she puked due to sitting in a shaky coach on an empty stomach then I realised that she lied that she wasn’t hungry so that I could have my dinner. Argh.
 

To this day, I still feel very guilty whenever I think of that incident.
 

Moral of the story #1: Never spend all the cash in your wallet thinking that you won’t need it on the return leg.

Moral of the story #2: Always have a modest meal before boarding a long-haul coach ride.

Moral of the story #3: I’d fly there on Tiger Airways the next time.

My father earned a living as a taxi driver after he quit his hawker business many years ago. Back then when I was in my lower secondary school days, for some reason I was embarrassed of the fact that my dad was a taxi driver.

Now, thinking back, it was rather foolish and silly. Perhaps it was because at that age, our peers tended to compare family backgrounds and there were school bullies who would taunt their classmates whose parents had unglamorous jobs. I remember there was this guy who was taunted just because his father worked a a security guard in a neighbouring shopping mall.

As I grew up, I realised that it does not matter what my parents do for a living, as long as they are legal and decent jobs. In fact, we should respect and be proud of our parents for working so hard to bring us up… otherwise we will not be where we are today.

I am particularly proud of my father who managed to send all three of his children through tertiary education (although I only entered Uni after he left us) by working hard and strict upbringing. Compared to well-off folks who won´t even need to bat an eyelid at sending their children to overseas colleges, I feel it is no mean feat.

He was thrifty, to the extent of not wanting to see a doctor whenever he was unwell. Consequently, it was too late when he finally went to the doctor´s.

That´s why now I tell my mom not to bother about working for a living anymore. Life is only so short, it´s about time she should start enjoying herself… since her children are now able to support themselves and give her allowance. We shouldn´t let history repeat itself and only start to regret when it´s too late.

Who knows, when it´s our turn to become parents… one day we might have to work in ¨unglamorous¨ jobs to provide for our children too. Maybe we will also get disrespect from them then (although I hope I will be able to teach my kids well). Only then will we fully appreciate the pains of being parents.

UPDATE: As I was updating my blog here, the photo at Wikipedia has already been replaced with a authentic one of MM Lee. They sure work fast! 

Today, out of boredom I dropped by Wikipedia to see what is being written about Singapore’s history. To my surprise, in MM Lee’s Wikipedia entry, his photograph was replaced by that of Adolf Hitler’s.

It’s a rather mean joke I guess. I wonder what the authorities would do about it.

I hope they won’t ban Wikipedia!

Personally, I don’t think that was a very smart thing to do. All Wikipedia edits are logged along with the users’ IP addresses. So nobody can get away with defacing well-known persons’ biographies if legal actions are taken.

On the other hand, this shows us that Wikipedia, at the end of the day, can be a very unreliable source of information. The information provided may seem legitimate sometimes. However, we must bear in mind that just about anybody - whether an expert or novice, can make changes to any article.

Too much mugging plus some flu symptoms = headache.

Luckily I’ve got LSD, I feel so much better now.

Hehe, don’t get me wrong, not LSD as in Lysergic acid diethylamide. I mean LSD as in Love spirals downwards. Incredible what one can do with a guitar and vocals.

I highly recommend all those who are stressed out to try out their music and get your dose of psychedelic trip. Wonderful stuff.

One of Singapore’s top imported athelete Zhang Xueling has decided to pack up and return to China.

Consistent with Singapore’s foreign talent policies, we have been importing our top athletes from all over the world (OK, mainly from China anyway) for many years. Our government lures them with promises of good money, rewards for scoring medals as well as the coverted Singapore citizenship/PR status.

However, like what I said in my earlier article when I pointed out that foreign talents can leave anytime, taking our money with them… this has come true. This brings us to the issue on whether foreign athletes/talents are the long-term solution - when they can pack up and leave anytime with hundreds of thousands of Singapore taxpayers’ money.

Why do we need foreign athletes to spruce up our capabilities in sports? Why do we need to be #1 in everything? Our leaders want Singapore to be #1 in everything, so much so that they can field foreign imported players at international games and claim them to be Singaporeans… even though they had mostly trained and became good at their sports while in their home countries. What an irony!

Sometimes I wonder, what do athletes and spectators from other countries think about Singapore? I like to believe that many of them must be laughing their way through the matches at “Singapore’s top players” who are not of Singaporean descent. And our officials are probably ignoring such taunts. Afterall, what matters most to them is that Singapore earns the medals, and not who earns them.

Why can’t we be proud of ourselves, be proud of our own homegrown achievements? If our athletes are not good enough, then so be it! We can be good at other things. Or, if it really matters that much, we have all the money to spare to get top coaches for our homegrown athletes. Why resort to such tactics to win? I’m not proud of Singapore’s achievements in sports. In fact, I find it embarassing.

Imagine when I go on overseas exchange and if somebody asks me about Singapore’s achievements. Should I mention our achievements in sports? Those people who follow sports news will know that Singapore’s top athletes are all imported. When they look at the player, they will probably think, “Hey, that Singaporean player was from China!”. They’ll probably laugh at me. So is it actually Singapore’s achievement or China’s?

Then, let’s think about all the money being thrown in to lure these foreigners to play for us. We pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for each medal they bring home from international games. Can this money be better utilised elsewhere, rather than for the purpose of bragging (ineffectively) to the world about our sporting achievements?

Think of all the millions of dollars that could have gone into upgrading HDB flats, subsidising healthcare costs or improving the lives of Singaporeans. Are a few measly medals worth that much?

Many times I´ve asked myself - what is it that I want out of life? What can I do to truly satisfy myself, so that at my deathbed I will not regret that I´d lived my life in vain?

For a very long time I´ve been searching for answers. What I´d always wanted to do, is to get out of Singapore one day and move to a place where I can just start a small business (like a B&B or something) and live a laid back life for my remaining years. However, as time passes, the possibility of that happening is getting smaller, and reality hits

I really feel that I am not suited for the pace of life in Singapore, although this is the country I´d grown up in. Everything is just so fast, so competitive and everyone´s rushing around. I hate it. My friends tell me that I´m always trying to compete and compare myself with others. I actually hate doing it.

But unfortunately, in Singapore if one wants to earn a good living and enjoy a better quality of life, that´s the way to go. Unless your parents are rich, you got to work hard for everything. And working hard to succeed in Singapore means you got to stick out above the rest. And that´s what we call unhealthy competition.

I feel very tired. I am 24 this year already, not getting any younger. I´ve succeeded in business a few years ago, but since I moved on from there I haven´t been able to score any breakthrough with my subsequent endeavors.

Having multiple experiences of being an employee before starting out on my own, I really don´t like the idea of working for others anymore. At least, maybe not in Singapore. The working culture here is terrible. Everywhere I go, bosses are mostly unreasonable, people are not smiling genuinely at work and the office politics can be worse than country politics.

Alas, having run out of good business ideas to try my hands at, and partly because of the fear of failure… I´ve sort of run out of options now. To the extent that I have been thinking that, maybe I should work harder in school to get even better grades than what I am having now… so that when I graduate I´ll be able to get a good civil service job and be happy with a comfortable pay. Or perhaps I should try to aim for a PhD and get resigned to the fate of an academic life. But the idea of working under others in Singapore´s public sector dread me, especially since I already had a taste of what office politics was like in the military.

Having said all these, I still hope that one day I can fulfill my dreams. I really don´t think it is a lot to ask for, right? I´m not intending to become a multi millionaire or something. Of course, like most other people, I will try to work towards that, but whatever the case, I just hope to be able to do what I like to do… and I hope I will not have to eventually settle for something I don´t like, just for the sake of earning a living for a better life in Singapore and force myself to accept fate… like what most other Singaporeans do.