Othman Wok: an alternative view

We know what the constructive, nation-building media said about him: he was a pillar of the multi-racial S’pore that the PAP built. Here’s another view: he put Harry and the PAP before the Malay community.

In the u/m and the thread on FB that followed there was nothing about S’pore. It was all about his “failure” to look after the interests of the Malay community.

Maybe the PAP and Harry have a point about the shallow roots of our multi-racial, cultural society: Scratch a S’porean and there’s a sectarian underneath. Hence the need for illiberal laws?

What do you think of the post below?

Khan Osman Sulaiman

Othman Wok has passed away. In my community, many believe that we cannot talk about the dead. I disagree. Strongly.

The belief that we cannot talk about a dead man past has its roots from Islamic teachings that forbid anyone to air out a dead man’s shameful/disgraceful past. This, I agree.

But what many would do the moment we tried to discuss about a man’s past, his beliefs, his stand, his deeds, his contributions, his ideology and his political leaning, we are swiftly reminded not to talk about it even if it has nothing to do with exposing of the dead man past.

As with Othman Wok, many would know about the infamous words he uttered on the burning of the corpses. Many also would know of his loyalty to LKY.

When speaking about this, I dont think this is shaming the man for bringing back what he said before because Othman Wok still stands by it and has never apologized nor is he ever contrite for his words.

Othman Wok was the de facto leader of the Malay community by virtue of being appointed a minister in the 60s and 70s. As a leader back then, we should be allowed to study and discuss his actions and contributions as it has bearings on how our community socio-cultural environment developed.

We can see the mainstream media pouring praises on Othman Wok. Are we then not allowed to counter with facts on his actions? If we take on the line not to discuss a dead man past, we would never have known how evil Hitler and Saddam was.

No, we are not shaming or airing out his personal details and discretion, but rather to visit history and discuss the impact he, Othman Wok has contributed based on his actions and words.

Othman Wok was never a leader to me. In fact, it was during his time as a minister, policies that were detrimental to my community went unchallenged, passed without much fun fare that ultimately, led to a whole generation of my community to be weakened economically.

It shaped the political environment my community faced today. Because whatever we fight today, we fight for our future generation. He, Othman Wok never fought for us. He acquiesced and was complicit with the gov questionable act.

As a Muslim, I pray for his well-being in the afterlife. May god bless his soul.

But In this life, I cannot put him on a pedestal.

Advertisement

Amos: 139 days in US jail and still counting

This is a riposte to the autistic cybernut who posted on TRE

 Yet Amos humiliate L*L and PAP:

April 29, 2017 at 3:37 pm  (Quote)

Singaporeans can also learn from Amos. Fight PAP outside Singapore and win big. He humiliated L*L and PAP and destroyed their credbility and legitimacy so effectively they have no valid response / counter-argument. Bravo Amos.

Win big? Huh?

By the end of today (US time), he’ll have spent 139 days in a US jail. Only another 590 days and he’ll be longer in a US jail than in NS if he had done the right thing. Actually if u throw in the 50 days detention here, he’ll only have 541 days to serve if he were doing NS.

As it is he’ll like be in jail for at least several more months given that he or the US can appeal whatever the decision of the appeal.

Wow what a born loser, being detained in the land of the free, where the buffalo roam. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person. Maybe Harry’s really the 9th Immortal.

Bill’s Game Changers trying to avoid 41 – 3 thrashing

(Update at 1.00pm: Game Changers lost. “We know nothing, nothing” won by 30- 13 with one spoilt vote.  http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/football-lim-kia-tong-elected-as-new-fas-president-8805466)

On Friday, ST carried photos of Bill attending a Game Changers’ function for the voters in today’s election.

“Game Changers’ spokesman Steven Tan said the dialogue had re-affirmed the affiliates’ belief in Mr Ng and his team despite the police probe.” – See more at: http://news.asiaone.com/news/singapore/fas-saga-emotional-bill-ng-back-win-affiliates-support#sthash.MenzOmDx.dpuf

We shall see if this is true today, given that more than 20 voting clubs were represented at the dinner.

Actually I hear the Game Changers are worried that the election will be a 41 – 3 victory to the other side (the “We know nothing, nothing” slade), which will be embarassing for all of them personally at the very least. At present Bill’s side only has three assured votes  (Tiong Bahru, Hougang and Tampines). Another four “assured” voters are wavering.

Whatever, I understand the the other side has the 30 votes to win.

Btw, here’s a good piece on the lineups: http://iandecotta.com/2017/04/28/fas-elections-change-versus-the-establishment/

Btw2, I keep hearing (but can’t confirm) from usually reliable sources that Zainudin, the ex-PAP MP that got arrested and released on police bail (together with Bill, Bill’s wife and Winston Lee) is the mastermind behind the Game Changers.

So he’s non-establishment now after running S’pore footie into the ground?

Do the TRE cybernuts cheering on Bill know about the allegation that the ex-PAP MP is the mastermind behind the Game Changers?

Extra time call 

Update at 10.35am: I’ve been contacted by people friendly to some Game Changers. Seems some of the Game Changers have gotten real and are now lobbying for voters to avoid giving the “We know nothing, nothing” slate the thumbs up. If neither side gets a two-thirds majority, then there’s a vote for each post.

That way, the more popilar Game Changers can get in.

Elected President: Oh, what a tangled web we weave cont’d

Further to this on “Ownself veto ownself” procedures on vetoing the president’s decision, if he refuses to make the “right” decision, I reflected further on

Oh, what a tangled web we weave

when via the u/m I double confirmed that the presumptive Malay president’s father was an Indian Muslim.

(Btw, pls read my analysis of this FB post which follows the post)

Facebook post by We want Minister Grace Fu to resign.

In 2013, when Halimah Yacob was selected to be the new Speaker of Parliament after the former one, Michael Palmer, resigned from politics due to his marital affair with a PA woman, ST wrote an article to feature Halimah (‘A strong advocate for workers, women and minorities‘, Jan 2013):

Mdm Halimah Yacob

In the article, it was revealed that her father is an Indian of Muslim faith. He passed away when Halimah was 8 years old. She studied hard and later graduated with a law degree from NUS. Her first job was as a legal officer with NTUC.

PAP invited her to join politics in 2001. Ten years later, she was promoted to become a Minister of State.

When Palmer’s affair surfaced and he was forced to resign, PM Lee nominated Halimah to become the new Speaker on 8 Jan 2013. Six days later, she became the first woman Speaker of Parliament of Singapore.

In fact, news of Halimah becoming Singapore’s first woman speaker also made its way to India. The Hindu described her as an “Indian-origin politician” (‘Indian-origin politician to be Singapore’s first woman speaker‘):

Next President to be a Malay

Last Nov, PM Lee announced to Singaporeans that the next Presidential Election will be reserved for Malay candidates:

This is based on the “hiatus-triggered model”, the PM said.

He also said that the first President who exercised the powers of the Elected Presidency was Wee Kim Wee when everyone thinks it should be Ong Teng Cheong.

“This would be our first after more than 46 years, since our first (Malay) President Encik Yusof Ishak,” PM Lee said. “I look forward to this.”

In any case, since Halimah’s father is an Indian Muslim, it follows that she would also be an Indian Muslim too. That means she would not be able to participate in this year’s Presidential Election, assuming if she wants to or was asked to.

Actually the last para while logically correct is wrong because article 19B (5) of the Con says:

“person belonging to the Malay community” means any person, whether of the Malay race or otherwise, who considers himself to be a member of the Malay community and who is generally accepted as a member of the Malay community by that community;

And to be fair to the Indian Muslim and Malay communities, the lines between the two communities are legal lines, not community lines. I’ll go into this one of these days.

But as a taster, this is what a very senior MFA official (Indian Muslim) said to me (and others) in the early 80s: “How do I answer my young daughter when she asks me why she’s Indian but her cousin’s Malay?”. He was always grousing that being classified as Indian hurt his career (he could have been a minister) because of the “quota” system for Indians and Malays. He had to compete with clever Hindus and not Malays.

Trumpets pls: I said in early 2016 Halimah would be president.

Elected President: Oh, what a tangled web we weave.

I tot of the above when I read about changes in parliamentary procedures which will take effect if the President goes against the advice of the majority of the Council of Presidential Advisers and exercises his veto power.

Parliament can override such a veto with a two-thirds majority.

So now as a FB pal says:

Elected President – Yes Man
Council of Elderly Men in Suits – Yes Men
2/3 of Parliament – Yes Men

So much checks and balances against anyone who may suddenly stop being a Yes Man.

Election for what, waste time and money, may as well revert previous system.

And

Who watches the watchmen who watches the watchmen who watches the watchmen ad nauseum.

to which the reply was

THE MOB SHALL WATCH EVERYONE

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/…/048/burn_house._beat_mother..png

Btw, the above line from Marmiom continues:

When first we practise to deceive!

Bill Ng’s favourite song?

I started a joke which started the whole world crying
But I didn’t see that the joke was on me oh no
I started to cry which started the whole world laughing
Oh If I’d only seen that the joke was on me

Sounds like Billy started a joke that had him wife, ex-PAP MP, Zainuddin, and Winston Lee crying. It had to be a joke because how could Bill not know where the money went? He admitted this when he admitted signing the letter Winston Lee produced to rebut him. He no read isit?

Billy the Kid threw a stone at Winston Lee saying he didn’t know where his donation went to,

FAS produces letters, cheques to show that Bill Ng knew he was donating S$500k to AFF

http://m.todayonline.com/sports/football/fas-produces-letters-cheques-show-bill-ng-knew-he-was-donating-s500k-aff

Bill the jackpot machine that had kept paying and paying at the behest of some tua kee FAS officials replied that he was misled and “directed” to sign the letter that is evidence that he was lying.

More

then

resulting publicity that  his wife was collecting above market rents from his footie club

and

culminating in the arrest of himself, wife, ex-PAP MP and Winston Lee.

 

 

Zainudin Nordin never was PAP MP isit?

(Happy to attribute above I saw on FB, if I know who to attribute it to.)

The four individuals connected to the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) investigation into Singapore football are out on police bail. Bill Ng, his wife Bonnie Wong, Zainudin Nordin and Winston Lee are assisting the police in their probe into the suspected misuse of club funds at Tiong Bahru Football Club and an attempt to obstruct audits into clubs.

ST

Bill Ng, wife, ex-FAS president and FAS gen sec arrested

Cynical Investor

Don’t know waz excuse of constructive, nation-building media but my excuse is I wanted to focus to the FAS connection. And anyway, my previous story (about Zainudin Nordin) was headlined:

What weed is ex-PAP MP smoking?

As a FB pal put it:

It was the same MSM “privilege” with Choo Wee Kiang, Chng Hee Kok, Phey Yew Kok and probably others that I don’t recall. I don’t think such an omission would have made any difference but the estab wouldn’t want to take any risk, even if it’s a nationwide loss of 100 votes. It’s also up to S’poreans to keep themselves informed – politically and nationally interested S’poreans would be able to tell it’s a PAP MP.

SDP, Terry, TRE: Learn from the French

True the u/m guys are fascists but still they got an effective way of combating the French MSM’s narrative: they helped Le Pen get 21% of the votes. (Emphasis mine).

France’s cyber-patriots are a diverse lot. Some call themselves the “réinfosphère”, signalling their determination to counter what they see as media bias. Rather than preach, such sites put up links to news stories culled from mainstream sources – typically about violence in immigrant suburbs – and let the facts speak for themselves.

Their underlying assumption is that news organisations may be blind to reality but they are occasionally forced to face it. The message of housing estates descending into chaos or Islamism is relayed to those who know where to look, and then shared by those who care.

The pioneer of this approach is Fdesouche – short for “Français de souche”, French people of old stock. Although the site’s author does not voice an opinion, the comments section gives free rein to a stream of xenophobia.

Fdesouche and like-minded sites are run on a shoestring, but they wield real influence. An outcry last summer over the burkini on French beaches was amplified by the réinfosphère and several mayors decided to ban the Islamic swimwear.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39475635

 

Bill Ng, wife, ex-FAS president and FAS gen sec arrested

And then granted police bail.

ST just reported:

The four individuals connected to the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) investigation into Singapore football are out on police bail. Bill Ng, his wife Bonnie Wong, Zainudin Nordin and Winston Lee are assisting the police in their probe into the suspected misuse of club funds at Tiong Bahru Football Club and an attempt to obstruct audits into clubs.

http://www.straitstimes.com/sport/football/ng-wife-zainudin-and-lee-all-out-on-police-bail

What this means is that all four were arrested and then granted bail by the police.

An accused may be offered police bail after his arrest and before he is charged in Court. Once the accused is formally charged in Court and until the case is concluded, the police bail granted may be extended or fresh bail may be offered at the first mention by the Court.

https://www.statecourts.gov.sg/CriminalCase/Pages/Bail-matters.aspx

What weed is ex-PAP MP smoking?

Ex-FAS president Zainudin: I have no business dealings with Bill Ng

screamed the headline.

But he then says he advises a company connected with Billy the Kid. He has no “biz dealings”? What am I missing? Or should the police be asking him what weed is he smoking?

In other documents seen by TODAY, Mr Zainudin was also listed as a director on the website of private equity firm ESW Manage, which is a sponsor of Hougang United. ESW also described Zainudin as “the current president of the Football Association of Singapore”.

ESW was also previously listed as a company under the portfolio of Financial Frontiers, a private equity firm founded by Mr Ng.

ESW has since removed Zainudin from its list of directors on its website. It is also no longer listed as part of Financial Frontiers’ portfolio on the latter’s website.

In his reply to TODAY, Zainudin, a deputy principal (development) at the Institute of Technical Education College East, said: “I was appointed as advisor to ESW Manage in January 2017.

“My role is to advise ESW on their CSR work. This appointment was after my stepping down as President of FAS (in November 2016).

http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/ex-fas-president-zainudin-i-have-no-business-dealings-bill-ng

 

 

Smart Nation: It’s all about Big Brudder watching us

True the BBC in  http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-39641262 can come across as constructive and nation-building as ST but three cheers to the BBC for pointing that the way the PAP administration does things is a major problem for the Smart Nation initiative:

Harminder Singh, a senior lecturer in business information systems at the Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, says the main issue with Smart Nation is that there may be too much government control over it right now for real innovation to take place.

“Singapore’s way of doing things is that the government leads, then others follow,” he told me. “This might be a problem – it is too centralised and so it may take too long for plans to trickle down.

“And ideas from the ground may be neither visible to those on top nor acceptable to them, especially if they are related to the delivery of services that are traditionally handled by the government.”

But he’s very cock in saying

it is not clear why Singapore’s leaders are so keen to move full steam ahead with this plan.

Ah ya no need to explain. It’s all about making sure Big Brother can keep on watching S’poreans. But he’s right to say that we don’t know “how the Smart Nation project will improve salaries and jobs”

“Smart Nation is about building national technology infrastructure so that the government can offer new services, or do what they do now differently. The government may need to explain more clearly how the Smart Nation project will improve salaries and jobs in Singapore to get the project moving faster.”

 

“Ownself praise ownself: What Billy the Kid says about himself

So after

FAS produces letters, cheques to show that Bill Ng knew he was donating S$500k to AFF

http://m.todayonline.com/sports/football/fas-produces-letters-cheques-show-bill-ng-knew-he-was-donating-s500k-aff

Bill the jackpot machine that had kept paying and paying at the behest of some tua kee FAS officials replied that he was misled and “directed” to sign the letter that is evidence that he was lying.

Read the u/m from his co’s webside and wonder how can such a good deal-maker and bizman (albeit it’s “Ownself describe Ownself”) be “directed” to do something. Does this mean that he can also be “directed” again?

Wonder also why if he’s so smart as he says he is, why he started a rockslide by throwing a stone? The stone was the baseless allegation that he didn’t know where his donation was going to. The rockslide is the police raid, investigation and interview of Bill, his wife, an ex-PAP MP and ex-FAS president and the FAS’s secretary-general; and the stream of adverse media and new media revelations about FAS, Bill’s gaming operations and the ex-MP.

And then wonder why he left out working in “Ong & Co”, the stockbroking firm founded by his grandfather. He spent most of his stockbroking career there, though the parting there was not amicable.

Finally wonder why the other members of the Game Changers didn’t do their homework on Billy the Kid.

Corporate Profile

Financial Frontiers Pte Ltd is a Singapore-based private equity focused family office. We seek to create incremental tangible value for our investee companies by working alongside with them as partners and not just funders. We do so by building strong relationships with our investors, our portfolio companies as well as strategic partners to create a synergy to grow the business of our portfolio companies.

Over the past decade, together with a strong network of strategic partners, we developed investment strategies that have successfully identified and invested in companies with high growth potential in diverse industries. This enabled us to achieve superior risk-adjusted returns.

Financial Frontiers does not only invest in companies, we also provide robust investment management solutions, with a strong client focus to meet investment objectives.

We take into consideration of the knowledge and experience related to investing, risk profiles, financial situations and the constraints of each institutional and private client to provide tailor-made solutions.

Investment Team
Our investment team comprises investment analysts from diverse backgrounds with different expertise in multiple industries. The team is led by veteran investment professionals with years of investment experience.

Principal of Financial Frontiers

Bill Ng is a driven, open-minded and poised individual with a successful career spanning 32 years. He is able to balance and combine different skill-sets which allows him to work very well under pressure while maintaining a positive and professional demeanour.

Bill prioritizes and manages multiple tasks in order to ensure strict adherence to deadlines and objectives. He is a team player with excellent team-building and counselling skills which yields highly effective results in any endeavour.

This is particularly evident in his strong professional track record where he carved out a successful corporate career in venerable securities firms UOB Kay Hian and RHB-Cathay Securities. He has accumulated a vast client-portfolio, managing up to 120 dealers and remisiers.

At present, Bill demonstrates his strengths in management and teamwork as well as his expertise in investments. One memorable deal he pulled off was the listing of Cambodian-based gaming and entertainment company, Naga Corp, at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE) main board. Raising HK$546 million, the public listing occurred on 19th October 2006 and is widely considered as a watershed event in HKSE history in terms of its industry complexities and governance issues.

Another company that Bill brought public in Singapore (2011) is CNMC Goldmine Holdings. It took six years for the gold exploration company to develop gold production capabilities, during which Bill continually brought in private equity funds to expand the business. It currently has a market capitalization of S$240 million.

In addition, Bill currently holds chairmanship of two clubs: Hougang United Football Club and Tiong Bahru Football Club. Chosen by the FAS to turn the clubs around, he has succeeded in doing so and in the process, created many employment opportunities. Both Clubs now boast good standings in their respective Leagues and are financially sound.

PRESENT PORTFOLIO
CNMC Goldmine Holdings Ltd.
Hougang United Football Club
ISR Capital
Mobile Credit Payment
Windsor Place
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.frontiersgroup.com.sg/about-us

---

 

 

 

 

Tiong Bahru FC: Gambling not haram meh?

It’s clear that Tiong Bahru FC (TBFC) is a gambling club (29 one-armed bandits generating $36m ++ in revenue) with a football team (expenses of $0.2m –) attached.

One of the most profitable clubhouses among local football clubs, Tiong Bahru, which plays in the first division of the amateur National Football League (NFL), generated a total revenue of S$36,736,775 from its fruit machines in the last financial year.

The clubhouse currently has 29 functioning fruit machines. That is more than triple the eight machines that S.League club Balestier Khalsa has at the Toa Payoh Stadium, and almost double the 15 machines that Albirex Niigata (S) has at its clubhouse, also in Toa Payoh. It paid out around S$23 million in winnings in 2016 …

The club paid its 15 employees S$2.073 million in salaries in 2016, and also forked out an additional S$528,000 for staff training, uniforms and staff welfare. But spending on its football team was a more modest S$169,000.

After accounting for its various expenditures — which includes employee compensation, paid out claims, tax on takings, rental fees and expenses for accessories for its football team — the club earned a profit of S$604,542 in 2016.

http://www.todayonline.com/sports/modest-clubhouse-pays-almost-s1m-rent-and-s207m-salaries

The chairman of TBFC’s general committee is listed as former FAS president Zainudin Nordin, an ex-PAP MP. Readers will know that PAP Malay MPs are Malay community leaders. So it seems suprising that  Zainudin Nordin is happy to be associated gambling, even if he’s no longer a PAP MP.

And it seems in 2016 (he stepped down as MP before 2015 GE) he was slated to become chairman of TBFC (a separate, and more senior and powerful post) but then declined.

He’s also helping the police in its investigations over alleged irregularities at TBFC and FAS.

And there’s more: http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/ex-fas-president-zainudin-i-have-no-business-dealings-bill-ng

One cannot help but wonder if there were QC problems in the PAP? After all the PAP prides itself in choosing “whiter than white” people as MPs.

 

 

 

Blackrock votes for robots

From NYT Dealbook By Amie Tsang

Laurence D. Fink, the founder and chief executive of BlackRock, has cast his lot with the machines.

BlackRock, the largest fund company in the world, plans to consolidate a large number of actively managed mutual funds with those that rely more on algorithms and models to pick stocks.

The move is the most explicit action by a major fund management firm to try to take advantage of the increasing opportunities in lower-cost computer driven funds.

About $30 billion in assets, or 11 percent of the firm’s active equity funds, will be included. The funds will focus on strategies that adopt a more rules-based approach to investing. Seven of BlackRock’s 53 stock pickers are expected to step down, but some will stay on as advisers. At least 36 employees connected to the funds will leave the firm.

“The democratization of information has made it much harder for active management,” Mr. Fink said.

Could this be the end of the cult of the brainy mutual fund manager?

FAS elections: Do the other Game Changers know the name of Bill Ng’s wife?

Update on 22 April at 4.35am: Double confirmed, Bonny Wong is still married to Bill Ng. They’ve been called up for questioning by the police http://www.todayonline.com/sports/bill-ng-questioned-police-after-raid-three-football-clubhouses-and-fas

(In case anyone doesn’t know, Game Changers is the name of the Bill Ng led team that is contesting the FAS elections. And he has been alleging irregularities in a donation made to FAS*.)

When I knew Bill Ng in the 1990s (it wasn’t a pleasant experience), I met his wife Bonnie Wong, a Hongkie lady. Good looking, sassy lady.

So I was laughing when I read that Tiong Bahru FC was paying rent to a company owned by Bonnie Wong

TODAY found that Tiong Bahru also paid around S$960,000 in total rent in 2016 to the unit’s landlord, Polygon Ventures, which is listed on the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) as a company dealing in general wholesale trade. That works out to be about $80,000 per month.

The listed owner of Polygon Ventures is Bonnie Wong Yuk Ying, who TODAY understands shares the same residential address as Ng.

With the clubhouse measuring 2,583sqf, it means that the rental amounts to S$31 per square foot.

In contrast, a check showed that other basement units in People’s Park Centre are charging between S$2.92 and S$11.23 per square feet in rent. The only unit charging S$31.50 per square feet in rent is located at street level, and measures only 200sqf.

While Ng is understood to be running the club, the chairman of TBFC’s general committee is listed as former FAS president Zainudin Nordin.

Btw, I owe him an apology because I got one thing wrong about him: I tot he wouldn’t organise a slate to contest the FAS election. Here I wrote:

Those of us who had dealings with Bill Ng in his stockbroking days can testify that he is a talk cock sing song artiste, No Action, Talk Only. He’s carried this over to footie mgt: witness his so-called bid for the storied Rangers FC, and the absence of his slate to run FAS at the AGM. He’s a used car salesman.

I predict that his slate will not materialise.

I’m still wondering why Bill Ng threw stones when he was was living in a bungalow made of glass even though I’m sure that if he’s still married to Bonnie Wong, all the legal niceties were followed in the agreement to pay rent to a biz owned by her.

My other posts on him

Billy the Kid in the 90s

Billy and his fighting footie team 

---

*FAS produces letters, cheques to show that Bill Ng knew he was donating S$500k to AFF

http://m.todayonline.com/sports/football/fas-produces-letters-cheques-show-bill-ng-knew-he-was-donating-s500k-aff

Bill the ex one-armed bandit that had kept paying and paying at the behest of some tua kee FAS officials replied that he was misled and “directed” to sign the letter that showed he was lying.

We got so many robots meh?

Second after Souh Korea per 10,000 manufacturing workers.  Btw, the International Federation of Robotics defines industrial robots as machines that are automatically controlled and re-programmable; single-purpose equipment does not count.

What this seems to indicate is that the manufacturing of pharma and electronic products, the leading exports, here is highly automated.

So where do the FTs fit in other than in the manual labour sector (which S’poreans shun)?

Why u think why so many PMETs are unhappy?

Why wages don’t grow in line with property prices:

Real wage growth in many rich economies has been disappointing for much of the past two decades. Low wages are enabling some reallocation of workers. An overwhelming share of the growth in employment in rich economies over the past few decades has been in services, nearly half in low-paying fields like retailing and hospitality. Employment in such areas has been able to grow, in part, because of an abundance of cheap labour.

http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21719761-probably-not-humans-have-lot-learn-equine-experience-will-robots

Property: TRE nuts will be getting more frus

Recently chief cybernut Oxygen was pontificating again on the property crash that will happen. And he and his pals were hloating that honest-hard working S;poreans were going to get burnt badly. (These losers hate S’poreans who better themselves.)

Well

The number of new private homes sold by developers continued to surge in March, increasing 81.8 per cent from 979 units in February to 1,780 last month, according to figures by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) on Monday (Apr 17).

The 1,780 units sold in March also more than doubled the 843 sold in the same month last year.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/new-private-home-sales-up-81-8-in-march-with-more-launches/3683682.html

Go bang yr balls.

And bang them harder after reading this from Morgan Stanley: property prices to double by 2030

http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/13/singapores-property-prices-to-double-by-2030-morgan-stanley.html

It’s the People, stupid

There’s been a lot of BS and angst about the death of Orchard Road as an “in place”.

A lady Viv Won got it right when ashe posted this comment on Facebook

Orchard used to be the IT place for urban displays of modernity and pop culture until the suburban centers and other hubs sprang up. I think it’s the G overrating form over function, Orchard has lost its function: MBS took over high end retail; people can meet their Everyday social, biological and service needs at regional centres; good hotels are spreading out of the Orchard sphere so short term tourists aren’t trapped there; there’s much local flavour and life elsewhere, in different pockets of the city like Ann Siang Hill, Boat Quay or MBFC, Robertson Quay, etc. Orchard Rd malls are like upmarket clones of things you can find everywhere else (except Far East Shopping Centre). People can’t exert their identity in a place that imposes its own overarching identity upon everything else.

It’s the People that make a place hip, not the decor or the planned festivities or whatnot. If they had to learn something from what was Mohd Sultan Rd in the late 90s, it should be that a place gets its culture from the people who gather there, for whatever reason (refurbished go-downs make great clubs). So there’s really not much reason to go to Orchard when there are so many more interesting and authentic places to hang out with people you consider to be cool🙂 then there’s always Hong Kong.

Same too like other creative industries like finance and technology.

The PAP just doesn’t get it. Remember its attempt to make S’pore a leading stem cell research centre?

HSBC: Two unfashionable strengths

that keeps on printing money: commercial banking and UK operations.

Even JP Morgan is trying to do more trade financing globally, a sector of commercial banking that is dominated in East Asia by HSBC, StanChart and Citi.

From Bloomberg:

The commercial bank reported a 12 percent increase in adjusted pretax profit to $6.1 billion last year, which was the most among HSBC’s four divisions and accounted for about a third of group’s total earnings, according to company filings. The U.K. contributed $1.8 billion of its pretax profit compared with $2.9 billion in the Asia region.

 

 

Trumpets pls

Earlier this morning, I visited TRE’s site. And wow out of the 18 articles under Opinion, I own eight of them. Taz’s a record. Usual I own 4-5 of them.

Too bad there’s no $, and TRE isn’t exactly a semi- respectable publication like Terry’s Online Channel. But still it’s not TMG (run by a retired Imperial Stormtrooper general, media arm; and once wannabe Sith Lord), The Indians Idiots S’pore (as TISG prefers to be known) or Mothership.

I usually like TRE’s use of pixs to accompany my pieces. I usually don’t bother including pixs because of the hassle of making sure I can use them without infringing IP.

  OPINION

Black Saturday: a great day to laugh at Amos’ stupidity

Today is Black Saturday or Holy Saturday, a really sad day in the Church calender because Jesus died…

Riposte to Calvin Cheng’s defence of UA

Calvin Cheng the wannabe killer of the babies of IS terrorists has defended UA’s actions because he…

$0.5m donation to AFF thru FAS, not to local football?

I refer to the articles “Football: Dispute between Bill Ng and Winston Lee over $850,000 donation to…

Corruption in Singapore: 32-year low, but many high…

I refer to the article “Corruption cases hit 32-year low in 2016” (Straits Times, Apr 13). It…

Slow train from UK to China: See who’s running it

I’m surprised the cybernuts are not saying that this shows S’pore is doomed, doomed. They most probably…

CHC Members, A Reflection Of 70% Voters’ Mentality

With massive outbursts on the sentence of the CHC’s management, damage control is being launched. We…

Make Koranic studies compulsory for Muslims?

Because going by what I’m going to describe there are many Muslims who don’t know what’s in their…

Fake news: MRT operator confirms Pubic Transport Council…

For immediate release: Pubic Transport Council (PTC) fake reasons for impending fare hike From: CEO,…

Elderly Sungei Road vendors left to fend for themselves?

The recent uproar about the close of the Sungei Road Market and the fact that many of the sellers there…

Kong Hee shows RI boys are smart

A cybernut called RI, “Raffles Idiots” when referring to Kong Hee. Must be a frusco that couldn’t…

Largest taxi operator ComfortDelGro ‘innovates’…

Temasek-linked ComfortDelGro and SMRT Taxi have thrown in the towel, forced to become Grab/Uber copycats. Any…

Goh’s folly

IT IS SAID that a politician thinks of the next elections but it takes a real leader to think of…

Surrealism and religious harmony: The PAP way

PAP Minister Masagos Zulkifli’s criticism of WP MP Faisal Manap for repeatedly raising the tudung…

How many PMETs from India came since 2005 under CECA…

Review of India-S’pore economic pact not on hold I refer to the article “Review of India-S’pore…

Singapore sabos Malaysia

This yr’s Malaysian Grand Prix will be the country’s last after 19 years on the Formula 1 calendar. Malaysia…

We Must Persist

I recently attended the Youth Political Academy in Hong Kong organised by the Council of Asian Liberals…

Tudong is important but so is Singapore’s unity

I disagree with Faisal Manap on the way he always raise religiously sensitive issues in Parliament. Despite…

Rubbish: PAP claim that draconian laws and authoritarian…

Just ask the residents of Moscow. Russia shows the lie that draconian laws and authoritarian govt…

More from this category

The truth about fake news

It’s now coming from the fans of Hilary because she lost  and because confirmation bias makes her fans feel good, they help spread fake news about Trump and the other side.

Claire Wardle, who is a research director at First Draft – a non-profit organisation which is looking for solutions around trust and truth in the digital age says

“People like to share information that makes them feel good, ” …

“Many people on the left right now are feeling overwhelmed and fearful and unsure of what’s going to happen next. While they’re scrolling through their information feeds at speed on small mobile phones their critical functions are not kicking in, and they’re seeing information that makes them feel immediately connected with other people who think similarly to them. And without doing the usual checks that they would do, they’re sharing and very quickly passing on similarly false and problematic content that we were seeing before the election.”

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-39592010

Hmm guess we know know why the cybernuts of TRELand behave the way they do.

Here’s some constructive advice:

Brooke Binkowski, who is managing editor at Snopes website, warns newsreaders to stay aware of the emotions they feel when consuming content.

“If you are a newsreader or someone who likes reading news but you don’t know immediately what may or may not be fake, ask yourself by reading the headline, what emotions do I feel? Am I really angry, scared, frustrated, do I want to share this to tell everybody what’s going on? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then check your sources.”

Snopes is a respected fact-checking US site.

Shake down PAPpy ministers, Edwin Tong?

Some anti-PAP games developer should develop something like this here?

Supporters of the far-left French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon have created a video game where players bash the rich.

In Fiscal Kombat the player roams the streets pretending to be Mr Melenchon as he battles against oligarchs and rival politicians.

The aim is to shake money from the rich to pay for Melenchon’s policies.

The player’s challenge is to get as much money as possible while avoiding the attempts of the rich to maul him to death.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39569301

CHC: The Other Side of the Hill

In analysing or making judjments, it’s good to see the perspective of those going against the flow of conventional wisdom..

Below is a purported piece from a member of the CHC conregation. Do read it.

I agree that “Only the CHC family is hurt in the CHC Saga”. Going by the comments on social media and the internet, the so-called hurt many S’poreans feel is nothing more than envy that Sun Ho got others to fund her Holywood lifestyle, and envy that her bubbie is a good entrepreneur with a business model that is hard to replicate.

Yes there is reason to be concerned ( I hope to explore it soon) but most of the comments don’t reflect this concern.

I agree with the following except I would exclude Sun Ho’s husband

If anyone has suffered loss, it would be the 6 of them who have suffered financially, in their reputation, in their careers and even up to this point, when their families are dealing the pain of separation in 2 weeks’ time, fellow Singaporeans are hoping to prolong this pain of separation.

Kong Hee benefited because he didn’t have to fund Sun Ho’s Hollywood dreams and ambitions and lifestyle.

I dispute “this whole project was internally agreed upon and funds was internally and voluntarily raised.”

This assrtion is very misleading. There was no full and proper dislosure of what was happening for a long time. Matters were hidden from the auditors and church members. It was the failure to disclose what was happening was the reason why why the six were found guilty of CBT.

If they had disclosed what they were up to, there would have been no CBT. But the leaders didn’t trust their church members. They should have with hindsight. God’s a prankster like Loki?

Finally, if you want to know wht I come down so hard on tthe anti-PAP cybernuts go to http://www.tremeritus.com/2017/04/12/only-the-chc-family-is-hurt-in-the-chc-saga/  and read the reaction from the cybernuts to Pauline Kong’s letter.

With people like them, the majority of swing voters will always prefer the PAP.

The piece

Only the CHC family is hurt in the CHC Saga

Since there were so many ones who could not understand how the case was concluded and sentence was reduced, could we ask the High Courts to engage the public and make the findings clearer in layman terms to us?

I am a member of CHC since 2002 and though we are not perfect, we aim to be a church that blesses and give. Our community service arm gives to the less privileged regardless of race and religion. All our works are a reflection of the positive values in our leaders. Quite contrary to most charitable organizations, church funds are raised internally and voluntarily. The givers have a clear idea what they are giving to and the leaders are accountable to the givers.

I am afraid the public has been misled by the media to think that our leaders have perhaps taken money from the public to spend on their personal lives. If that is truly the case, I am sure our honorable legal system would have already captured that. But coming from someone who followed the case from the first trial to the last, I have not heard of any such findings.

I am saddened that because of all the demeaning images and words on the media, Singaporeans have been so misled to the point that they don’t think they can even trust the judicial system anymore. Perhaps the way to clear the air is to present the facts and erase all the misleading information that has nothing to do with the case. Once again, this whole project was internally agreed upon and funds was internally and voluntarily raised. If anyone has suffered loss, it would be the 6 of them who have suffered financially, in their reputation, in their careers and even up to this point, when their families are dealing the pain of separation in 2 weeks’ time, fellow Singaporeans are hoping to prolong this pain of separation. If anyone is a parent like me, the thought of leaving your children or family behind for weeks or months is already so unbearable, these people have to leave their families for years…

So, please consider the fact that they really didn’t hurt anyone. If there is anyone they can hurt, it would be the church because they are responsible to the church, but the church is NOT hurt, we love them. Did they hurt the public in any way? With all honesty, none as well. There was no public soliciting of funds. Perhaps charity and church needs to be separately governed so that the public does not feel so threatened by the outcome of the case, thinking it will affect governance towards other Charitable organizations that gets public donations?

Lastly, I believe we all can play a part to build a society that is honorable towards our national leaders, empathetic towards fellowmen and united as one people.

Pauline Kong

 

Black Saturday: a great day to laugh at Amos’ stupidity

Today is Black Saturday or Holy Saturday, a really sad day in the Church calender because Jesus died on Good Friday and was entombed on Saturday and his followers at the time didn’t know that he would be resurrected tomorrow, Easter.

So it’s a great day to sneer and laugh at Amos becauseby the end of today US time, Amos would have spent 124 days in jail in the land of the free, where the buffalo roam.

Add that to his jail time of 50 days here, he would have spent 174 days in custody.

What a born loser.

Most asylum seekers get thru US immigration and then when in legally apply for asylum. But Amos said he told immigration that he wanted asylum. So they locked him up until the hearing. He’s been inside since then.

Haha.

 

Muslim drivers endanger the public

Recently, I made a half-serious comment that Muslims should be banneded from driving because Jihadist terrorists have been killing in the West by “marauding”.  It involves using a vehicle to mow people down in a crowded area.

Here’s more evidence that allowing Muslims drive is as dangeous as allowing the “wrong” Muslim to lead a machine-gun unit* or fly SAF planes.

A lorry was driven into a Stockholm department store last Friday, killing four and injuring more. The Swedish police are holding a 39-year-old from Uzbekistan who had lived in the country for some time.

And even more evidence courtesy of the BBC when it carried a story on the Swedish attack:

Timeline: Vehicle ramming attacks in Europe and the US

• 14 July 2016, Nice, France: A man drove a lorry for 2km (1.2 miles) through a large crowd gathered to watch Bastille Day fireworks in Nice. Eighty-six people were killed, and more than 300 injured.
• 28 November 2016, Ohio, United States: An 18-year-old student rammed his car into a group of pedestrians at Ohio State University and stabbed others. Eleven people were injured before he was shot and killed.
• 19 December 2016, Berlin, Germany: The attack in Berlin killed 12 people and injured 49, when a man drove a lorry through the crowded Breitscheidplatz Christmas market. So-called Islamic State said one of its “soldiers” carried out the attack.
• 22 March 2017, London, United Kingdom: Five people died and at least 50 were injured when a car mounted the pavement on London’s Westminster bridge and drove at high speed through pedestrians. The attacker then entered the parliament complex on foot and fatally stabbed a police officer, before being shot.
• 23 March 2017, Antwerp, Belgium: A man was caught by soldiers after he drove at a crowd. Knives, a non-lethal gun and a dangerous substance were found in his car – but no-one was injured. Terror charges were later dropped.

Still think Muslims should be allowed to drive in countries where non-Muslims are the majority?

---

*1999 Sep 18, Tanjong Pagar: “If, for instance, you put in a Malay officer who’s very religious and who has family ties in Malaysia in charge of a machine-gun unit, that’s a very tricky business. We’ve got to know his background. I’m saying these things because they are real, and if I don’t think that, and I think even if today the Prime Minister doesn’t think carefully about this, we could have a tragedy. So, these are problems which, as poly students, you’re colour-blind to, but when you face life in reality, it’s a different proposition.” Guess who said this? No prizes though.

Jerusalem circa 30 AD, S’pore today

One thing never changes: the mob will always be with us.

More than 2000 years ago, in Jerusalem, according to the four gospels, the nuts among the citizens of the city shouted “Crucify Jesus”after only praising him the week before.

The High Court’s reduction of the the sentences of all six former City Harvest Church (CHC) leaders, got the cybernuts shouting “Crucify the Judges and the PAP”.

————————-

The Great S’pore Sale came early this yr for some people

The 3-judge panel changed the sentences

1. Kong Hee: From 8 years to 3 years and 6 months.
2. Tan Ye Peng: From 5½ years’ to 3 years and 2 months.
3. Chew Eng Han: From 6 years to 3 years and 4 months.
4. Serina Wee Gek Yin : From 5 years to 2½ years.
5. John Lam Leng Hung: From 3 years to 1½ years.
6. Sharon Tan Shao Yuen: From 21 months to 7 months

——————————————–

According to the nuts in TreLand Kong Hee’s lawyer Edwin Tong (a PAP member and MP) had real clout to influence the judges; or that the judges were paid off with Kong Hee’s millions. Whatever, the PAP was to blame, somehow.

TOC (to its discredit) did a round-up of netizens’ views that were only slighly less anti-PAP and anti the judiciary

Even constructive, nation-building ST allowed ST readers to join in the fun:

(Martyn See’s FB image of ST FB’s postings by readers)

Even Jack Sim (aka the Toilet Man: a really decent, hair-minded guy) made remarks on Facebook that can fall within the contempt of court rules that parly recently approved (no I’m not going to quote him but in spirit they are close to the ST comments).

Incidentally the minister for pets and the police should be KPKBing at the so-called, constructive nation-building ST for publishing the comments. He’s got to be fair: after all he has aiming his Colt Magnum and Alsatians at Terry’s Online Channel for pointing out bad policing decisions.

Now there are good reasons to be concerned with the High Court decision that overturned a precedent that stood for 40 years. I go into that in a seperate post

But by making personal attacks on them and the PAP MP lawyer representing Kong, and the PAP and the judiciary generally the cybernuts are behaving like the Jews who wanted to crucify Jesus.

But I doubt the cybernuts would have the balls to say,

His blood be on us, and on our children.

They too are sheep, a term they use to describe the 70%ers.

 

 

 

Riposte to Calvin Cheng’s defence of UA

Calvin Cheng the wannabe killer of the babies of IS terrorists has defended UA’s actions because he says it’s in contract between the airline and passenger that the passenger can be ejected by force.

Well for starters the CEO of UA now disagrees that the passenger should have been ejected by force.

When asked on tv if the passenger, Dr Dao, was in any way to blame, Mr Munoz said“No. He can’t be. He was a paying passenger sitting on our seat in our aircraft and no one should be treated that way. Period.”

And the following is what an FT reader says:

The policy for these situations if simply wrong. The plane wasn’t overbooked, United just decided to put four of their employees on the flight. The excuse that they needed to get to Louisville to avoid having to cancel a flight from there.

They could have raised their offer until someone took it. This was their business decision and they should pay for it. They could have put their employees on a flight with another airline for less than the cost of paying the bumping mandatory compensation. The could have put their employees in a limo and driven Chicago to Louisville, airport to airport, driving on all interstates in less than 4 hours without driving over 65MPH, and this incident overall apparently took over 3 hours to unfold.. They had any number of viable alternatives but chose to manhandle and drag a 69 year old doctor off the plane. Someone who had patients whose health may have depended on their seeing him.

I hope the cybernuts rethink their view that any other airline is better than SIA. I hear Goh Meng Seng doesn’t fly SIA or any of its subsidaries for this reason. But most probably, he says this, because he can’t afford the fares.

HDB flats: 35 is a dangerous age

It’s all about financing.

Here’s a great graphic from ST on how the value of a HDB flat will fall over a cliff after the first 35 years. Extracted from http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/will-you-still-love-your-hdb-flat-when-its-over-64.

 

Why Budget surpluses are bad: No not Chris K but a US president

Albeit one from the 19th century. He thought it unfair for the US to tax the people while keeping the surplus.

“it is indefensible extortion and a culpable betrayal of American fairness and justice” for the government to run a budget surplus, and “multiplies a brood of evil consequences.”

The Treasury was “a hoarding place for money needlessly withdrawn from trade and the people’s use thus crippling our national energies, suspending our country’s development, preventing investment in productive enterprise, threatening financial disturbance, and inviting schemes of public plunder.”

Cleveland, the first Democrat to become president since before the Civil War, was incensed that the federal government was taking in more than it spent.

It bears pausing on that notion. A Democrat in the executive mansion (it wasn’t called the White House until Teddy Roosevelt came along) considered it unfair that Uncle Sam was taxing its people and squirreling away the excess.

In fact, Cleveland felt even more strongly than that. He told the assembled representatives from the then 38 states of the Union that “it is indefensible extortion and a culpable betrayal of American fairness and justice” for the government to run a budget surplus, and “multiplies a brood of evil consequences.”

The Treasury has become “a hoarding place for money needlessly withdrawn from trade and the people’s use,” Cleveland thundered, “thus crippling our national energies, suspending our country’s development, preventing investment in productive enterprise, threatening financial disturbance, and inviting schemes of public plunder.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-breakingviews-idUSKBN17D1SU

Slow train from UK to China: See who’s running it

I’m surprised the cybernuts are not saying that this shows S’pore is doomed, doomed. They most probably don’t read anything other than “The Idiots — S’pore” and TRE and ST. Even Terry’s Online Channel is too cheem even if it advocates “pak police” (OL OK “Diss police”)

The first rail freight service from the UK to China has departed on its 17-day, 7,500-mile journey.

British goods including soft drinks, vitamins and baby products are in the 30 containers carried by the train, which will be a regular service.

The DP World locomotive left its terminal in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, for Zhejiang province, eastern China.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-39549077

Seriously waz interesting is that the train is run by a port co that is a global rival of PSA: DP World or Dubai World.

Kong Hee shows RI boys are smart

A cybernut called RI, “Raffles Idiots” when referring to Kong Hee. Must be a frusco that couldn’t get in, though one has to accept that Tan Kin Lian and Tan Jee Say fit the term “Raffles Idiots”. As does Kee Chiu Chan, though to be fair to RI, he was only there for JC: like the gals.

Seriously RI boys are sneered by lesser breeds as being only book worms, not street smarts.

Kong Hee showed RI boys are street smart too.  For starters, his in-laws are footing his legal expenses.

He was a good entrepreneur: he harvested souls for money.

He also got five stupid people to help him use other people’s money to help his wife live the Hollywood lifestyle. And he only got punished with only a slightly longer sentence.

---

The Great S’pore Sale came early this yr for some people

The 3-judge panel changed the sentences

1. Kong Hee: From 8 years to 3 years and 6 months.
2. Tan Ye Peng: From 5½ years’ to 3 years and 2 months.
3. Chew Eng Han: From 6 years to 3 years and 4 months.
4. Serina Wee Gek Yin : From 5 years to 2½ years.
5. John Lam Leng Hung: From 3 years to 1½ years.
6. Sharon Tan Shao Yuen: From 21 months to 7 months.

---

Many others have spent longer time in prison for less money than him.

OK, OK, he still may kanna takan hard.

But whatever, those from whom he misppropriated money, have already forgiven him. Now taz genius at work.

So maybe God’s also an RI boy? We’ll know this for a fact when the CA upholds the decision of the High Court. The traditional understanding of the section in question is highly convoluted. And seems premised that it’s only right that a director of a company cannot receive a lesser punishment than a clerk.

---

The offence of Criminal Breach of Trust (‘CBT’) exists in various forms. There are different maximum sentences for:

•    Simple CBT (Maximum imprisonment term of 7 years);
•    CBT by a carrier (Maximum jail term of 15 years);
•    CBT by a clerk or servant (Maximum jail term of 15 years);
•    CBT by a public servant, banker, merchant or agent (Maximum jail term of life imprisonment or 20 years).

http://irblaw.com.sg/2017/04/10/making-sense-city-harvest-ruling/

————————————————————–

But doubters will still be doublers because if God is really from RI why doesn’t he engineer a boom in Sentosa property prices so that Kong Hee doesn’t lose money?

 

 

Muslim terrorists are useless

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39540371

They don’t kill as many ang mohs in Europe as ang moh terrorists did the 70s, 80s, 90s and noughties.

 

CPF Life: Increasing the pot the PAP way

Maybe the PAP administration might want to do what the Brits did in increasing the m0rtality rate so lightening the burden on the state to provide pensions.

As CPF Life “beneficiaries” are pooled into either the standard or basic schemes, the more people die earlier than expected in each pool, better for the others in the pool and no need for the state to step in: fund no money, yr problem not PAP administration’s problem.

Seriously, I’m surprised the cybernuts from TRELand or Mad Dog Chee have not accused the PAP administration of using SingHealth to kill off S’poreans

A flu jab blunder that contributed to the largest increase in deaths in a generation may have brought unexpected benefits for Britain’s pensions black hole, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The Institute and Faculty of Actuaries says the increase in the mortality rate in 2016 – when the flu jab was mismatched for the main strain of influenza – has slightly reduced overall life expectancy for the over-65s.

Experts say the shift has removed about £28bn of pension liabilities from the balance sheets of leading companies.AP

 

 

Make Koranic studies compulsory for Muslims?

Because going by what I’m going to describe there are many Muslims who don’t know what’s in their Koran, Islam’s sacred text.

What I’m going to describe follows is not fake news or satire or parody or black comedy. It’s the truth and there could have been riots  mayhem and deaths, if it weren’t for the fact that S’porean Muslims, like their non-Muslim brothers and sisters, are peace-loving, contented sheep people; unlike Indians and Pakistans.

Imam Nalla Mohamed Abdul Jamee, was under police investigation for allegedly making remarks against Christians and Jews during his Friday sermon at a mosque, when he apologised, saying he was “filled with great remorse” and stressed that the supplication was not an extract from the Koran.

His apology showed he’s a FT where the “T” stands for “Trash”, not a true blue S’porean Muslim.

The apology didn’t work because

An imam who made controversial remarks against Christians and Jews during his Friday sermon at a mosque was on Monday (Apr 3) handed a fine of S$4,000, after pleading guilty to a charge of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion or race.

The really big joke is on all those (not few) Muslims who went onto social media shouting that the remarks were taken from the Koran and that it had very deep meanings in which “pak Jews and Christians” was only a tiny part and “pak …” had to be seen in the context of the other points made. Here’s  a friend’s social media encounter with these learned Muslims. They even dissed a lady because she had “only” 10 years of stidy in a madrasah.

Now we are told by the imam himself that the quote was not from the Koran. LOL.  Black comedy the state of Koranic education here. So a bit rich for Muslims to claim that most jihadists have little knowledge of Islam. I mean juz look at this mullah’s and his Muslim defenders’ knowledge of the Koran. A case of “Misled by misled”. Or “Blind leading the blind”.

Worse the FT mullah was working here because a statutory board allowed him to: The Majlis Ugama Islam Singapura (MUIS), is also known as the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore, Its role is to look after the interests of Singapore’s Muslim community.

I had thought that FT mullahs had to pass a test before being allowed to preach and teach here. Based on this case, evidently not.

 

 

 

 

Digital ads: A big con?

From NYT Dealbook

Chase Had Ads on 400,000 Sites. Then on Just 5,000. Same Results.

By SAPNA MAHESHWARI

The bank found that limiting its advertising to preapproved hosts, to avoid proximity to fake news or offensive videos, did not hurt its visibility.

S’pore sabos M’sia

This yr’s Malaysian Grand Prix will be the country’s last after 19 years on the Formula 1 calendar.

Malaysia had struggled in recent years to attract a significant crowd, its appeal damaged by the more glamorous night-time event on a street track in Singapore, which made its debut in 2008.

It was confirmed in November that the race would end after the 2018 staging, but that decision has now been brought forward.

The country’s prime minister, Najib Razak, said: “The Cabinet has agreed to end the contract after considering lowering returns to the country compared to the cost of hosting the championships.”

BBC

One Tun M must really be unhappy. He made M’sia Great by bring F1 racing to the region. Now when he’s trying to make a comeback, F1 in M’sia comes to an ignominious end because of dwindling crowds and revenue because of S’pore.

CHC: CBT is a very technical offence

The High Court’s reduction of the sentences of all six former City Harvest Church (CHC) leaders has upset a lot of people especially the anti-PAP cybernuts. (I’ll talk about their antics in a separate post).

Here I want to explain why two High Court judges decided the way they did. (The decision was a split one: 2 to 1.

Criminal breach of trust (CBT) is a very technical crime and the judgment was a very technical one.

I know one head of crime section in the AGC who became a district judge, and as a district judge had his verdict on a CBT case overturned on appeal. He had acquitted someone accused of CBT only for the guy to be found guilty on appeal by the AGC. Incidentally his career in the legal service was not affected.

Now to the judgement.

Justice Chao said in his oral judgement on Friday that a majority decision was made to reduce the respective CBT charges against the six, from an “aggravated” form of CBT – which they were initially convicted of – to a “simple” form of CBT because the law states that a person convicted of an aggravated form charge. must be” a public servant, banker, merchant, factor, broker, attorney or an agent when committing the crime”.

Justice Chao said he and Justice Woo agreed

with the Prosecution that directors, who occupy positions of great power, trust and responsibility, are more culpable than employees when they commit CBT offences against their companies or organisations. To that extent, we agree that it is intuitively unsatisfactory that a director would only be liable for CBT simpliciter under s 406 of the Penal Code while a clerk, servant, carrier or warehouse keeper would be liable for an aggravated offence under either ss 407 or 408 of the Penal Code. This does not, however, mean that we can ignore the wording of the section. Like the Malaysian Court of Appeal in Periasamy, we are of the view that adopting the interpretation put forward by the Prosecution may be “tantamount to rewriting the section by means of an unauthori[s]ed legislative act” (at 575A). Such a task should be more properly left to Parliament. For instance, we note that the relevant expression of the equivalent provision in the Malaysian Penal Code was amended in 1993 to read “in his capacity of a public servant or an agent” …”

Because the “simple” form carried a lesser sentence, the sentences were reduced.

So why did the AGC think that what the six did was “aggravated CBT” and not “simple CBT”.

The answer according to a lawyer is that  the Court in this case did not follow the earlier High Court decision in Tay Choo Wah, which had been applied for some 40 years in Singapore and which held that Penal Code Section 409 applied to directors.

The Court could do this but the judge in the lower court was bound by the decision in Tay Choo Wah.

Will the AGC seek to persuade the Court in a future case that the Court in this case got the interpretation of Section 409 wrong, or pursue a criminal reference under Section 397 of the Criminal Procedure Code?

Or will the law be amended?

I suspect the latter. Because if there’s an appeal under s397 and AGC wins, there’ll be another cyberstorm, The convicted will not have their sentences reinstated*.

---

 

*I stand corrected. The CA can reinstate the sentences but is not forced to. The sentences cannot be increased. My mistake. 10 April

The other Nair that was a PAP founder member

Wonder if she ever rubbed it in, her brother’s slavish devotion to Harry the 9th Immortal, after LKY threw him into the abyss.

… Karthy Nair, who has died aged 90, was one of the founder members in 1954 of the People’s Action party of Singapore, which after independence from British rule became and remains the governing party.

Karthy was fiercely critical of the party leader and future prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, whom she regarded as a British placeman, and she left Singapore in 1956 to settle in the UK. Karthy’s brother, Devan Nair, became a union leader and eventually president of Singapore, later falling from favour and suffering exile in Canada.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/04/karthy-nair-obituary

 

Surrealism and religious harmony: The PAP way

PAP Minister Masagos Zulkifli’s criticism of WP MP Faisal Manap for repeatedly raising the tudung issue in Parliament and causing division in S’pore, had me in stitches about the surrealism of the scene in Parly when he said it. I mean criticising  Faisal Manap for repeatedly raising the tudung issue in Parliament and causing division in S’pore in front of a tudung wearing Speaker (and assumptive president come September)

sounds so Alice-in-Wonderland

It also reminded me that I had written this sometime back

Religious harmony: PAP’s, Putin’s way

Mr Putin said Russia had been far ahead of its European rivals in establishing a model for co-existence between faiths. In a way, that is true. But co-existence under a common, imperial regime – one that punishes “blasphemers” of all kinds, including those who challenge the regime itself, and colludes with religious authorities to maintain social control – is different from the liberal model of co-existence, where no religion is protected and each must argue its case in an open market-place of ideas.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2015/01/empire-islam-and-russia

Now doesn’t the Russian way sound very much like the S’porean way? Interestingly both are the products of 19th century European imperialism. In the case of Russia, the imperialism of the tsars. In the case of S’pore, British colonalism.

The British and the Russian tsars ruled multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural empires and needed to keep the natives from killing one another or their masters.

So when Harry the axe man became PM, the laws he (and we) inherited from the British suited him to the T: in response to this on the murder of cartoonists in Paris, a reader pointed out rightly in my view,

During LKY’s time he will come out on TV to gloat that this is why we have sedition act and ISD and why he will string you up by the balls anyone who breaks his hard truths and make you wish you had been just simply killed by terrorists.

…

I’ll end with Chen Jiaxi Bernard‘s FB tots. (He’s a WP member will balls and brains. The “Worthless” or “Wanker” cape doesn’t fit him.)

Quite clear (if it was not already clear enough) who will be our next President. A woman Malay-Muslim president who dons a tudang will indeed show how progressive we are as an inclusive nation. The progress we have made to support the aspirations of women in this country, symbolises by the highest office in the land.

And so we have her, the appointment (the electoral walkover) of Mdm Halimah Yaccob. In an open election, Mdm Halimah will be able to hold her own against any potential candidate*. Wait, it’s reserved for members of her community. Come on, she can stand on her own and win comfortably. I am confident that she will receive more votes (across all ethnic groups) than President Tan in 2011.

Either the PAP has no confidence in their own Speaker or they really have zilch trust that Singaporeans value merit over a person’s race.

The election of Mdm Halimah come September 2017 will be a sad day for Singapore. 50 years of nation building and the ideals taught to students in school surrendered to the narrow and tribal politics of the ruling party. Hypocrisy at the highest level. Sad.

On the day when the ruling party will hail progress, they have blatantly plunged a mortal stab into the social contract that defined Singapore as a nation, regardless of race, language and religion

The biggest loser even in the context of a walkover: Singapore.

One day when our children stopped believing in the “Majulah” in Majulah Singapore and our national pledge, point them to this government and this Prime Minister, the son of our founding Prime Minister. The irony, the utter hypocrisy.

---

*Trumpets pls. I said this early last yr.  A later post.

 

Forest City submerged/ Singkies in Johor drowning

Yesterday, the South China Morning Post reported that the Country Garden, the Hong Kong-listed developer behind Forest City, would refund payments on its Johor Forest City project to mainland Chinese buyers hit by a crackdown on capital controls.

Zhu Jianmin, vice-president of the Chinese developer told that investors who had made down payments but were now unable to make further payments could cancel their transactions without paying a forfeit fee. The Hong Kong-listed developer stopped sales of the Malaysian project in China amid tightening capital controls, imposed as Beijing seeks to curb outflows and limit downward pressure on the renminbi.

This 2016 article https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-11-21/-100-billion-chinese-made-city-near-singapore-scares-the-hell-out-of-everybody tells how hard Forest City was being sold to the PRCs.

For those Singkies investing in Johor and M’sia good luck:

“I am very concerned because the market is joined at the hip, if Johor goes down, the rest of Malaysia would follow,” said Shanker, at Axis-REIT Managers, who estimates that about half the units in Iskandar may remain empty. “If the developers stop building today, I think it would take 10 years for the condos to fill up the current supply. But they won’t stop.”

Rubbish: PAP claim that draconian laws and authoritarian govt provide security

Just ask the residents of Moscow.

Russia shows the lie that draconian laws and authoritarian govt provides security. It suppresses dissidents, has draconian laws and has an authoritarian govt. Yet

Russians are no strangers to terrorism. During Mr Putin’s rule, Moscow’s metro system has been hit three times by Islamist groups from the North Caucasus. Two explosions six months apart in 2004 killed a combined 51 people and a pair of suicide-bombers killed another 40 in 2010. A suicide-bomber also attacked Moscow’s Domodedovo airport in 2011, though there have been few attacks outside the North Caucasus since then.

Economist

Four attacks on Moscow alone since 2004, killing 90 over people. Contrast that with liberal London, two “major” attacks in the same period, and a lot less deaths. Likewise Paris.

And since 9/11, New York City hasn’t had a terrorist attack.

All three cities are in countries that are liberal democracies, where the “rule of law” (not the “rule by law“: term coined by the ex-wife of the Minister of Pets) prevails.

There’s even an algo to tell if u are offended

Taz why Google is Great. From NYT Dealbook Google Is Training Ad Placement Computers to Be Offended By DAISUKE WAKABAYASHI It’s about context. The internet giant’s engineers are trying to teach machines to recognize what can be objectionable depending on the situation.

See Goh Chok Tong no ak isit?

Will PAP allow HSBC to introduce Mx here?

If HSBC introduces Mx here, it’ll be the bank of choice for LGBTs. The Guardian reports from the UK, where HSBC, like in HK, is a tua kee retail bank 56that also owns First Direct, an internet only bank with 1.35m customers.

HSBC is to offer its transgender community a choice of 10 new gender-neutral titles as part of its plan to improve the banking experience for customers.

The banks says its account holders will no longer have to use conventional titles such as Mr, Mrs and Ms, but instead be able to choose from a long list that includes Mx, Ind, M, Mre, and Misc. HSBC said titles chosen would be applied across customers’ accounts, including on their bank cards and all correspondence.

HSBC’s new honorifics are:

Ind (abbreviation of individual)
M
Mx (pronounced “mix” or “mux”)
Misc (for miscellaneous)
Mre (for mystery)
Msr (a mix of miss/sir)
Myr
Pr (prounced “per”, for person)
Sai (pronounced “sigh”)
Ser (pronounced “sair”).

Will the PAP ever have the balls to say this?

Low-ability youngsters from wealthy families go on to earn more money than their more gifted, poorer counterparts, says the Education Secretary Justine Greening.

Fairer outcomes remained an “entrenched” problem, she said, at an event promoting social mobility.

http://www.bbc.com/news/education-39444993

S’poreans already instictively know this. Witness the unhappiness that resulted in MoE revising the criteria for direct entry into “good” schools. There had been a lot of unhappiness that “Money talks, BS walks” with rich parents being able to “buy” their way in; what with them having money to lavish on getting their kids “developed” in various sports and activities..

And in the arms race that is part of the tuition wars, money again talks. Rich parents can pay for better and more tuition.

Coming back to my question, somehow I doubt any PAP education minister or any other PAPpy would have the balls to admit that “Low-ability youngsters from wealthy families go on to earn more money than their more gifted, poorer counterparts.” Sad.

The Old Guard for all their bullying, thuggish ways would agree, saying “Life is unfair”, but adding, “We’ll try to improve things for the smart but poor kids.”

From the Middle Guard (PM, Tharman etc) and the Young Guard, we get remarks like, “Every school is a good school”.

Naming and shaming a very stupid PAP MP

After a PAP MP said that the higher motor-bike taxes introduced in the Budget would help bring down bike COEs

Certificate of Entitlement (COE) premiums ended mostly higher in the latest bidding exercise on Wednesday (Mar 29).

Motorcycle premiums closed at S$8,081, a record high compared to the S$7,483 in the last exercise.

The Govt Parliamentary Chairman for Transport, Mr Sitoh Yih Pin had said, “The revised ARF, therefore, serves this further purpose ‒ to reduce the demand for expensive motorcycles and, consequently, to lower motorcycle COE prices and lower cost for purchasers of smaller motorcycles.” (My thanks to TNG’s Daniel Yap for drawing my attention to these remarks.)

What cock. What weed was this MP smoking when he said that? Same brand as that of the FT MP who said that the 30% hike in water prices is to make us more aware of the need to appreciate water more.

 

 

 

What Trump and our Harry have in common

To celebrate the fact that the second anniversary of Harry’death passed without his daughter publicly showing her grief (something I was afraid of because it would dishonour him, not honour him), I reptoduce this piecewhich I did when no-one thought Trump would become POTUS.

They have so much in common that I’m surprised so many known PAPpies are dissing Trump while adoring LKY on social media.

What Trump and our Harry have in common

LKY didn’t want anything to be named after him, while Trump wants his name on anything  “big” like Trump Tower (see pix). The Republican foreign policy establishment said nice things about Harry, while they cry at Trump’s comments.

LKY had life-long marriage, Trump is into his third marriage.

You’d think that there would nothing that LKY and the Donald have in common or would agree on. But you’d be wrong.

Children

They have two sons and one daughter, though Trump’s daughter is married and by all accounts is a normal person even though she admires (not worships) her father. His children work for the family business.

Attended elite universities

LKY was a graduate of Cambridge. The Donald graduated from the Wharton Business School.

Super Salesmen

Trump talks about “truthful hyperbole”. Before Harry became lord and master of all he surveyed from his Oxley Road house (built on a hill), he had to persuade the British and the voters to trust him and the PAP.

Recovered from knockdowns

Some of Trump’s businesses went bankrupt and he lost serious money. But he reinvented himself as a reality tv star. Our Harry failed to persuade the Malayan Malay and Chinese elites of a “Malaysian Malaysia” with him in charge.

The result was independence for S’pore, something he had argued was bad for S’pore’s prosperity.

Well he had a good cry on tv, then did his best to ensure that he and S’pore could prosper.

Use or the threat of  litigation 

No need to say much about our Harry’s love of litigation. But did you know Trump also is litigious?

Five years ago, I was part of a discussion panel on the popular Morning Joe talk show in the US when the issue of Donald Trump came up. A rowdy debate erupted and I cheerfully joked that Trump was a great businessman “barring a few bankruptcies” — and blessed with charisma even “with that hairpiece”. A few minutes later, Trump telephoned the show and demanded an on-air apology. Apparently, he was not just upset about the bankruptcy quip (he wanted to clarify that he has never personally gone bankrupt but “only” seen some of his companies go bust); he was also angry about the hair joke.

So, as we sat around the table on the TV set, one of the show’s hosts read a straight-faced legal apology to camera. “He might sue,” a reporter later explained to me, as I squirmed with embarrassment and wondered whether to laugh or cry.

(Gillian Tett in an FT magazine article)

Finally,

Views about Muslims

The most neutral thing that can be said about their views on Muslims is that they seem suspicious of people who happen to be Muslims ie people who profess Islam.

Trump had said Muslims should be barred from the US. He later dropped the idea when it was pointed out that this was unconstitutional. He changed it to ban anyone from a country where terrorism was rampant. He calls for the profiling of Muslims in the US.

LKY’s views on Muslims are on record. But if anyone forgot what they were please read on.

LKY’s views on Muslims as documented

Wikileaks released a cable by the US Embassy in Singapore reporting on the visit of Senator Hillary Clinton to Singapore in Jul 2005. The cable claimed that in my meeting with Senator Clinton, I had “characterized Islam as a ‘venomous religion’”.

This is false. I looked up MFA’s filenote of the meeting. Nowhere does it record me describing Islam as “venomous”, nor did I say anything which could have given that impression.

I did talk about extremist terrorists like the Jemaah Islamiyah group, and the jihadist preachers who brainwashed them. They are implacable in wanting to put down all who do not agree with them. So their Islam is a perverted version, which the overwhelming majority of Muslims in Singapore do not subscribe to.

I also pointed out that our Muslim leaders are rational, and that the ultimate solution to extremist terrorism was to give moderate Muslims the courage to stand up and speak out against radicals who have hijacked Islam to recruit volunteers for their violent ends.

(TOC)

And

Singapore’s presiding genius, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, on the failure of Muslim integration:

In the book, Mr Lee, when asked to assess the progress of multiracialism in Singapore, said: “I have to speak candidly to be of value, but I do not wish to offend the Muslim community.“I think we were progressing very nicely until the surge of Islam came, and if you asked me for my observations, the other communities have easier integration – friends, intermarriages and so on, Indians with Chinese, Chinese with Indians – than Muslims. That’s the result of the surge from the Arab states.”He added: ”I would say today, we can integrate all religions and races except Islam.”He also said: “I think the Muslims socially do not cause any trouble, but they are distinct and separate.”(Can’t remember the source of this quote)

But to be fair he then

issued a statement last night and said he stands corrected on how well-integrated Malay-Muslims are in Singapore, according to a Straits Times report.

He referred to the comments he made in the new book, Lee Kuan Yew: Hard Truths to Keep Singapore Going.

He said: “Hard Truths was a book based on 32 hours of interviews over a period of two years.

“I made this one comment on the Muslims integrating with other communities probably two or three years ago. Ministers and MPs, both Malay and non-Malay, have since told me that Singapore Malays have indeed made special efforts to integrate with the other communities, especially since 9/11, and that my call is out of date.

“I stand corrected. I hope that this trend will continue in the future.”

Since the book was published, reactions from some Muslim groups were negative. Some said his remarks were unfounded while others called for him to apologise.

But Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that his perspective differed from MM Lee’s, which were the latter’s personal opinions.

During a breakfast session at the Yio Chu Kang Community Club on Jan 30, PM Lee said: “Muslims are a valued and respected community, who have done a good deal to strengthen our harmony and social cohesion.”

PM Lee added that his own views were that of the Government’s.

http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20110308-267055.html

Btw saw this http://singapore.coconuts.co/2015/03/27/outrage-ensues-muslim-community-over-praise-lee-kuan-yew-during-friday-sermons.

(https://atans1.wordpress.com/2016/09/29/what-trump-and-our-harry-have-in-common/)