M Ravi’s right to be upset with AGC

Even though he’s a really sick superhero and needs medical treatment, he’s right to get agitated and angry with AGC. AGC looks like it’s gunning for him i.e. out to make sure he goes to jail, and then throw the key away.

He posted on FB on at 3.00am on Saturday, after a meeting with the AGC on Friday:

At first they preferred 3 charges of criminal trespass on us. Then they dropped 2 charges. Today at the PTC they withdrew the remaining criminal trespass charge and guess what? They proceeded to serve 3 charges of HOUSEBREAKING!!!

Can you see the persecution? If convicted i would face mandatory jail which can extend to 2 years per charge. Mandatory means there’s no option for a fine. They want to jail me!

I need your support and help. Can you continue to donate for my legal fees and especially George’s?

Details are:

Posb savings 188-6776-22

All contributions no matter big or small is welcome. This is now very serious and I will need to spend for lot of resources to basically trying to get into my own office! They even tried to apply to remand me in IMH so they could prevent me from using Facebook, that was their argument. They are trying to silence me.

So please contribute as we need to prepare properly, make applications and pay for experts if necessary. It’s no longer a small simple case.

Wonder if the person who lodged the police report that led to the present charges, reputed to be a really good friend who had helped him but who Ravi then whose hand Ravi bit, is repenting his action? As are those who encouraged him to lodge report? They have good motives, I understand. They wanted (and still want) him to get mandatory medical treatment. He refuses to take his pills making his mental condition extremely unstable.

So maybe serious jail time for Ravi is the only way he can get the treatment he desperately needs.

It’s a dilemma worthy of a graphic novel.

Does he need to go to jail to regain his superpowers? Or are the cybernuts applauding his FB videos and verbal farts right that in his present state of mind (Conventional wisdom, as opposed to cybernut stupidity, believes M Ravi is in the manic extreme of bi-polarism*), he has even greater superpowers?

What do u think?

---

*The manic phase is characterised by:

• Delusions (false beliefs) or hallucinations (false perceptions)
• Hyperactivity
• Irritable mood
• Decreased need for sleep
• Exaggerated, puffed-up self esteem
• Rapid or “pressured” speech
• Rapid thoughts
• Poor attention span
• Recklessness

https://www.healthhub.sg/a-z/diseases-and-conditions/49/topics_bipolar_disorder?gclid=EAIaIQobChMInJuhzfSx1QIVxgQqCh3atwV0EAAYASAAEgLC_PD_BwE

Advertisement

Another photo of president Hali

Further to this

Halimah standing in presidential jeep

No not a fake photo but a photo taken at the lastest NDP parade rehersal  (from TRE). If u think it’s a coincidence she’s standing in for Tony Tan, then u’ll believe she’s making up her mind. And I got a investment juz for u.

Can u blame Germans for being anti-Muslim?

If these happened here, S’poreans (Muslims and non Muslims) would really be concerned.

Just

The man who killed one person and injured six in a supermarket knife attack in Hamburg was a “known Islamist”, officials say.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40763369

And earlier this year

in the German city of Cologne, there was a “not in our name” rally against terrorism, which was backed by some of the country’s leading Muslim organizations, and by politicians from across the political spectrum. It was hoped that at least 10,000 people from all over the country would take part, and that it would inspire similar actions in other cities. But the event proved to be a damp squib. At most 3,500 turned up.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2017/06/not-our-99-names

And last year

Security was heightened after a man ploughed a lorry into a busy Christmas market in the heart of Berlin in December 2016.

In July 2016, a German teenager of Iranian heritage shot dead nine people in Munich before shooting himself dead.

The same month, a teenage Afghan refugee armed with an axe and a knife injured four people on a train in the southern German city of Wuerzburg before being shot dead by police.

From above BBC link

Tan Kin Lian is absolutely right

This blog is anti-TKL because in 2011 he was clowning around (albeit on the advice and instigation of one Goh Meng Seng) and doing the PAP’s work in depriving Dr Tan Cheng Bock of the presidency. Though they never got the thirty pieces of silver.

Transport minister Khaw BW held a media briefing to announce the rail reliability target for 2020. The journalists asked him some questions about the current train breakdown in Singapore.

The minister chided the journalists. He said that it is not easy to fix the engineering problems. He challenged them to try to solve the problem if they are so smart.
I find the minister’s remarks to be deplorable. The journalists are required to do their job as journalists. They are not supposed to be experts in engineering.

The transport ministry, the Land Transport Authority and the train operators are supposed to employ the engineering experts. They are supposed to identify the problems and to find the solutions.

The correct benchmark is the breakdown frequency in other train systems around the world. Do these train systems break down as often as has happened in Singapore. Some of these systems are older than our train system.
If our engineers are not up to mark, the transport minister should look for other engineers to fix the problem. He should not rely on journalists to give him the solution.

It is absurb for the minister to speak in this manner.

Sad to say, this is the quality of the ministers and the top officials that are appointed by PM Lee HL to run Singapore. It seemed that paying top salaries, in the millions of dollars, does not provide the answer.

We do need a change of government.

Sad there is viable alternative in sight.

How Pay & Pay can ensure we complain less

You know the PAP administration is rattled when a PAP minister castigates the constructive, nation-building media for reporting the problems that MRT breakdowns are causing commuters. He wants the media to report how Great SMRT is.

ST’s editor responded, “If press coverage doesn’t match everyday experience, then the press loses credibility.”

He only said that because we have the internet and social media to keep honest his paper and other media. I’m old enough to remember when local media coverage at times didn’t match everyday experience.

Now to some constructive advice to the minister and his minions on how to make sure S’poreans KPKB less when the trains don’t run on time.

Behavioural economists tell us we are wired to care more about things we pay than things we get for free. This tendency is called the “endowment effect”. Paying for something represents a loss of money, so we care more and get more upset over things we pay for than over things (identical or otherwise) we can get for free*.

So when an MRT delay occurs, shut the KPKBing down by making the trip free.

It has the additional benefit of showing Khaw, LTA, SMRT and Temask how much revenue is lost when trains don’t run on time.

---

*Take “WordPress”. Because I use the free version, I don’t grumble about things that suck.

Three cheers for FairPrice

Because of Oxleygate, I forgot to post this:

The milk powder is available in two ranges, each with three formulations for the different stages of a child’s development.

NTUC FairPrice CEO Seah Kian Peng said the supermarket worked with the authorities following the announcement to review import requirements.

“FairPrice has been in discussions with the authorities on bringing in better-value formula milk from additional sources,” said Mr Seah.

Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/ntuc-fairprice-launches-australian-formula-milk-range-for-under-8948634

Nice to see FairPrice doing what the PAP Old Guard wanted it to do.

But to be fair, it’s been keeping Cold Storage on its toes. I enjoy “Greek” yogurt and for years I had to pay what Cold Storage charged. Then FairPrice decided to go “upmarket” and I enjoyed cheaper “Greek” yogurt.

Coming back to milk powder, bet u the cybernuts from TRELand will say that the product is “fake milk” or “Made in China”.

AHTC: Auntie’s wish granted/ PAP doesn’t need friends, it has Meng Seng as enemy

But first, the cybernuts are raving and ranting that Low, Auntie her Singh and the other defendants are being fixed by the other s/o JBJ (not the autistic one) but the really smart one. And no I’m not being sarcastic.

They are wrong according to the three WP MPs.

The Workers’ Party (WP) MPs at the centre of a lawsuit over allegedly improper payments made by the Aljunied-Hougang Town Council (AHTC) on Wednesday (Jul 26) said that they saw the court case as an opportunity to explain to the court and the public why they made the decisions they did.*

Nice to see the usual wanking worthless MPs not playing to the gallery but telling the truth. But if truth be told, they had no choice. Many years ago, Auntie said “Not happy isit? Feel free to sue . Go ahead, make my day”. Well she’s being sued.

——————————-

OK, OK I lied. Actually she said 2013

If the Minister, Dr Teo or the Ministry believe there was any wrongdoing in WP’s management of the Town Council, we invite them to make a report to the CPIB or other relevant agencies to investigate the matter, rather than to make these suggestions and insinuations.

Still that sounds like “Not happy isit? Feel free to sue. Go ahead, make my day”

—————————————————–

Wonder if Quah Kim Song will be holding her hand in court? At the last GE when the WP were waiting for the Aljunied results anxiously, he was alleged to be grinning from ear to ear.

It was also alleged that Auntie noticed and snapped at him, “Want WP to lose isit?”

Then the penny dropped, and she smiled at him.

She realised he tot they would then have more time together if the WP lost.

---

As usual Goh Meng Seng, based in HK, helps the PAP (Remember PE 2011? He encouraged TKL to run and was his adviser. TKL lost his deposit.). Always saying nasty things about WP and other oppo figures. With an enemy like him, PAP doesn’t need friends.

 

————————-

*The suit was filed last Friday by an independent panel appointed by AHTC, over alleged improper payments amounting to millions of dollars.

It alleges that Aljunied GRC MPs Low Thia Khiang, Sylvia Lim and Pritam Singh had acted in breach of their fiduciary duties.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines of a meet-the-people session at Bedok Reservoir Road, the three MPs reiterated that they had acted in good faith and were confident of their defence. “My conscience is clear,” said Mr Low.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/ahtc-lawsuit-an-opportunity-for-wp-mps-to-explain-their-side-of-9066484

AHTC: Ownself sue ownself cont’d

(Or “Waz having to account really mean?”)

Reacting to the headline figure of $33m, the cybernuts are saying that it’s political persecution of the defendants.

Only Low and Auntie are being asked to account for the $33m spent, not Priam Singh or the other defendants.

Mr Chua Zhi Hon, a former member of the WP Youth Wing executive committee; Mr Kenneth Foo, deputy organising secretary of the WP and WP candidate in Nee Soon GRC in the 2015 General Election; Ms How Weng Fan, owner of the town council’s former managing agent firm FM Solutions and Services (FMSS); and FMSS.

---

Account of profits

An equitable remedy often used where the parties are in a fiduciary relationship. The purpose of this remedy is to require one party to surrender the profits made. It may also be available as an alternative action for money had and received where one person has profited from a wrong at the expense of another (and the claimant has suffered no actual loss) or in exceptional cases where other normal remedies provide inadequate. For further details, see Practice note, Remedies: restitution.

https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/1-107-5824?transitionType=Default&contextData=(sc.Default)&firstPage=true&bhcp=1

————————–

If Auntie and Low are able to account for the S$33m paid to FMSS or FMSI because of estate works done by FMSS or FMSI such as the maintenance of housing blocks and sweeping the streets, no further action may be taken. Even if they are unable to account fully, they’ll only be liable personally not for the full amount paid but the “excess” or “cream” over and above what should have been paid.

Related post

Regime change: Yesterday Korea, TOM S’pore?

The young in Korea, like many other Koreans, came onto to the streets to protest at their unhappiness with the existing system as personified by the previous president. She was impeached and a new president elected.

Will young S’poreans starting thinking and behaving like S Korean youth?

After all this sounds like S’pore

University was once seen as a source of social mobility in South Korea. But so important is the right degree to a student’s prospects in life that rich families began spending heavily on coaching to improve their children’s chances, leaving poorer families behind. By 2007 over three-quarters of students were receiving some form of private tuition, spawning a maxim about the three necessities to win a place at a good university: “father’s wealth, mother’s information, child’s stamina”. A report by the ministry of education found that in 2016 households with monthly incomes of 7m won ($6230) or more were spending 443,000 won a month on private education, nine times as much as families bringing in 1m won or less.

https://www.economist.com/news/asia/21725267-courts-and-president-sympathise-south-koreans-are-losing-faith-elitist-education

So will ordinary young S’poreans (not juz the cybernuts and really sane but rabid anti-PAP activists) start thinking that the system is rigged against them?

Many South Koreans believe that the rich and influential do not just spend more on education, they also manipulate the system, as Ms Jung’s mother, a close friend of the previous president, did so spectacularly. According to the Pew Research Centre, a think-tank, only a fifth of those aged 18-33 believe working hard brings success. An ever-growing dictionary of slang attests to the perception: people speak of using “back” (backing, or connections) to get jobs; when Ms Jung refused to return to South Korea to face charges related to her university admission, the local press dubbed it a “gold-spoon escape”. And 34% of young people say they feel “isolation due to academic cliques” at work.

…

The unfairness is all the more galling because of the fierce competition for jobs. This year there were 36 applicants for every job, up from 32 two years ago. Youth unemployment reached a record 12% earlier this year.

(Err remember that we have a problem that the Koreans don’t have: competition from FTs with sub standard or fake degrees: think MDA’s Nisha)

Will we then have this kind of leader?

Moon Jae-in, the president since May, has pledged that under his administration “the thickness of a parent’s purse” will not determine their children’s prospects. This week an MP from his party introduced legislation to extend the “blind hiring” process used in the civil service, whereby applicants are judged only on standardised exams, not on their academic record, to state-owned firms as well.

What do u think?

 

Worth of analyst report? Worthless?

Can’t stop laughing.

The EU is introducing some very complex fund mgt regulations in Jan 2018 that among other things affects reseach reports because they are considered to be “an inducement” and fund mgrs must account and quantify them as such to clients.

In the UK (still in EU) the authorities “will treat research paid for by the company raising capital as a “minor non-monetary benefit”, presumably in the same category as sandwiches at the AGM” reports the FT.

AHTC: Ownself sue ownself

A few weeks ago I told an ex-WP member (unhappy with Low and Auntie for messing up) that I expected the independent panel (my take on the panel when it was set up) to take legal action against the town council members to recover the alleged improper payments. I said I didn’t expect any request to the CPIB or the police to investigate.

I was almost right. (Ownself praise ownself)

ST reports that Low, Auntie and her Singh are being sued. As are

Mr Chua Zhi Hon, a former member of the WP Youth Wing executive committee; Mr Kenneth Foo, deputy organising secretary of the WP and WP candidate in Nee Soon GRC in the 2015 General Election; Ms How Weng Fan, owner of the town council’s former managing agent firm FM Solutions and Services (FMSS); and FMSS.

The other two WP MPs* are not being sued, presumably because they knew nothing, nothing about improprieties. And one of them is Chen Show Mao, a partner in a leading Wall St firm, and a leading corporate lawyer.

The amount claimed is $5m.
(The above sentence was deleted and the u/m quote from CNA added on 27 July at 5.00am)

The independent panel is asking to rescind the contracts with FMSS and FMSI, and is seeking compensation of more than S$33 million which it said was wrongfully paid out to the companies – subject to Ms Lim, Mr Low, FMSS, FMSI or Ms How showing which payments were lawful.
Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/ahtc-appointed-independent-panel-files-lawsuit-against-workers-9064544

AHTC is claiming $622,593.78 in liquidated claims from multiple parties, as well as $4,167,501.71 in unliquidated claims. Additional sums may be involved.

 

---

Yes I left out Png Eng Huat as he didn’t join town council until after Hougang by-election in 2012. Update at 10am.

China got point that Temask model “undesirable”?

FT reports that China has tot about and now rejects the S’pore model for state-owned enterprise reform. FT says, China “turns away from Temasek-style effort to insulate state companies from politics.”

Seems the State Assets Supervision and Administration Commission thinks that

promoting the Temasek model would reinforce an undesirable trend in China’s economy towards “fake” investment that generates profits by shifting money between existing assets without generating new economic activity, Caixin reported.

What can I say?

— Given that according to the Bocconi University, Sovereign Investment Lab, our  GIC and Temasek together carried out last year 62 deals globally worth US$17.9bn, accounting for 39% of total deals and 45% of investment value.

— But as Chris K points out GIC’s and Temasek’s risk adjusted returns are in line with other SWFs.

So does the hyperactivity benefit anyone except the counterparties anf our SWFs’ advisers?

What do u think?

 

 

 

Mendaki, Sinda refuse to help

muslim when he was young. But both happy to deduct money from salary of Muslim

Aleem Bhai wrote, “… When I asked for Mendaki Scholarship during my school days, I was denied cos my dad is Pakistani and thus I was considered Indian. I then went to Sinda and was denied because my mom was Malay and thus considered Malay. When I grew up years later and was employed, both Mendaki and Sinda did monthly deductions from my salary. I don’t mind the mosque building fund, it’s my obligation as a Muslim but these 2 shameless bodies also did deductions. I have 3 words to say to u. “Kepala Butoh Lah”

https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2017/07/24/definition-of-a-malay-person-opens-up-a-can-of-worms-about-mendaki-and-apparent-double-standards/

“Bullshit is the glue that binds us as a nation”

“Bullshit is the glue that binds us as a nation” was said by George Carlin. He was an American stand-up black comedy comedian, actor, author, and social critic.

When Sonny Liew became the first S’porean to win an Eisner Award (In fact he won three*: the Eisner Awards are the comic industry’s Oscars.), I realised that “Bullshit is the glue that binds us as a nation” applies here too because of the hostility to alternative narratives to the “The S’pore Story: The PAP Version”.

“The S’pore Story: The PAP Version”

goes something like this: Newly independent from its bigger neighbor Malaysia, small and vulnerable in the middle of the Cold War, beset by Communist infiltrators and surrounded by domino nations, Singapore finally found stability and a road to prosperity when its founding father, Lee Kuan Yew, defeated dangerous left-wing opponents, regrettably by having many tossed in jail.

“The S’pore Story: The PAP Version”

has been hammered home in textbooks, the mass media and television shows. To oppose it meant risking detention without trial, costly libel suits or extreme marginalization in a country where the state controls most purse strings and levers of power.

The above extracts are from

After the above book was published, Singapore’s National Arts Council (NAC) withdrew a publishing grant, and an official wrote in a letter to the constructive, nation-building ST that the book “potentially undermines the authority and legitimacy of the Government and its public institutions.”

(The author talks about his present relationship with the NAC: http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-40606324/singapore-artist-tops-comic-book-oscars-nominations)

Then there’s “State of Emergency”, another novel. The author sent the first draft of book to NAC and his subsidy was stopped.

Synopsis:
Siew Li leaves her husband and children in Tiong Bahru to fight for freedom in the jungles of Malaya. Decades later, a Malaysian journalist returns to her homeland to uncover the truth of a massacre committed during the Emergency. And in Singapore, Siew Li’s niece Stella finds herself accused of being a Marxist conspirator.

Jeremy Tiang’s debut novel dives into the tumultuous days of leftist movements and political detentions in Singapore and Malaysia. It follows an extended family from the 1940s to the present day as they navigate the choppy political currents of the region. What happens when the things that divide us also bind us together?

Praise:
“A well-written novel, and it has a wide historical perspective.”—Philip Holden, author of Heaven Has Eyes and NUS Professor of English

“A superbly structured piece of work. The sweep of the dramatic narrative is impressive, with just the right dose of intrigue and mystery.”—Haresh Sharma, Resident Playwright, The Necessary Stage

https://shop.epigrambooks.sg/products/state-of-emergency

(Btw, both books are published by Epigram Books, owned by Edmund Wee. He wants to make S’pore Literature Great.)

Then there’s Mr. Thum Ping Tjin, better known as PJ Thum, a Research Associate at the Centre for Global History and co-ordinator of Project Southeast Asia, University of Oxford. He’s got local academics foaming with rage over his analysis of Operation Coldstore. He used declassified British archives to challenge the PAP narrative that S’pore faced a credible Communist threat. Really there’s nothing really very new about his analysis. Some Western historians had been disagreeing with the PAP’s narrative even before the British declassified their records, basing their analysis on information available from US and Australian archives.

(Here’s his analysis of the 1964 “racial riots”: https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2016/07/26/why-history-matters-to-singapore/. It’s not the official narrative.)

Btw, he has his own alternative history podcast on S’pore. Again this often goes against the PAP narrative but in the main it follows what Western historians have talked about. S’poreans are generally not aware of what Western historians write about S’pore because their books and articles are about the region, and the S’pore material is just a “little red dot”.

I’m no fan of his because I think in his analysis of S’pore in the 50s and 60s, he leaves out the bigger picture of Western fears and concerns, not unreasonable, about the danger of Communism to their regional and global interests. For example, in any analysis of S’pore in the late 50s and early 60s, account must be taken of  the PKI,  the Indonesian Communist Party. By 1965, the PKI was the strongest communist party outside the USSR and China. It had influence over Sukarno.

———————————–

*Nominated in six categories for graphic novel “The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye”, Liew won three:

Best Writer/Artist,

Best US Edition of International Material – Asia, and

Best Publication Design and categories

 

 

 

Wasteful medical practice?

Discard if unused by expiry date or after 12 months

This is the label on SingHealth medicine plastic packets. This is a global practice.

Many years ago I read a AWSJ story that the US Air Force tested 30-yr old aspirin tablets and found they were just as effective as newly made ones.

So here’s a recent update on the USAF’s attempt to save $ to buy more F-35s.

In 1986, the Air Force, hoping to save on replacement costs, asked the FDA if certain drugs’ expiration dates could be extended. In response, the FDA and Defense Department created the Shelf Life Extension Program.

Each year, drugs from the stockpiles are selected based on their value and pending expiration and analyzed in batches to determine whether their end dates could be safely extended. For several decades, the program has found that the actual shelf life of many drugs is well beyond the original expiration dates.

A 2006 study of 122 drugs tested by the program showed that two-thirds of the expired medications were stable every time a lot was tested. Each of them had their expiration dates extended, on average, by more than four years, according to research published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/07/18/537257884/that-drug-expiration-date-may-be-more-myth-than-fact

 

M Ravi: Money talks BS walks

Update: $6,011 has been received (as of 2.23 p.m. 22 July) to help M Ravi to set aside the foreclosure of his HDB flat

Here I reported that Uncle Leong had asked for donations to help Ravi pay off the arrears on his HDB mortgage

Please help M Ravi as he may become homeless, when he comes out of the hospital.

I would like to appeal to 7,452 Singaporeans to give $1 to POSB Savings Account 032-00582-9 (account of 73 year old L. F. Violet Netto who is the joint owner of the HDB flat).

Glad to know that his supporters are not the same people who refuse to help TRE and a publisher who wants to “Make S’pore Literature Great”. But I wonder about those who were egging him on on FB? Were they among the donors?

Here’s what Amos Yee (Remember him?) thinks of those who talk cock, sing song but who are unwilling to help with cold hard cash:

Interesting that Amos has denounced his activist “supporters”; denouncing them for talking the talk but not walking the talk: the activist friends would have happily let him rot in remand, while pontificating to society on the harm that being in remand would do him.

It’s nice to know that not all S’poreans are as cheapskates as the TRE cybernuts and the ang moh tua kees.

Let’s salute the real S’poreans. They realise that in S’pore, superheroes need to pay their bills.

But will Ravi thank the donors? He was planning to challenge the legality of the mortgage, arguing that the constitution allowed him to default on his mortgage. His grandfather wrote the constitution  isit? Juz like parly belongs to his grandfather?

 

Lim Tean: Activist who talks sense

Don’t hold it against him that he was for a while Sec-Gen of the No Substance Party, and stood for GE for the NSP.

He’s now a free lance activist who wants S’pore to be a more open society where the state is more accountable to the people.

He’s no talk cock, sing song artiste like Goh Meng Seng or Mad Dog Chee. He’s more like the SDP’s Dr Paul: an achiever. He was one of the senior partners in Rajah & Tann, a law firm where the the CJ and several judges and AGs came from.

He until recently was based overseas.

Trials and tribulations of an anti-PAP super hero

In the comic books and movies, Batman sends the villians to Arkham, Gotham City’s Woodbridge.

In S’pore, M Ravi, the super hero of the anti-PAP brigade (sane and nutty) gets sent, for his own good, to Woodbridge for his bi-polar disorder. Really, it’s not an invention of the PAP administration that he has this problem even if one s/o JBJ had once upon a time implied that it was all a PAP plot.

It’s really good for him because in Woodbridge, he’ll be forced to take his medicine. He can’t throw his medicine away as he usually does.

Just as he’s getting treatment (finally) in Woodbridge for his bi-polarism, M Ravi is faced with losing his HDB flat over outstanding mortgage arreras of more than $7,000.

Human rights lawyer M Ravi has been hospitalised since 17 July (he is still in hospital).

On the day that he was hospitalised – he was supposed to appear in court as the bank mortgagee had sued to foreclose on his 3-room HDB flat, for the arrears of $7,452.

… “In the morning of 17 July 2017, Summons 2375 of 2017 was dismissed and judgement was granted to the Plaintiff”.

https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2017/07/21/m-ravis-hdb-flat-to-be-foreclosed-help-required/

Uncle Leong is asking for donations to clear the debt.

But TOC readers have already pointed out Ravi will need more money because he’s unemployed.

In S’pore, fighting for Truth and Justice is not as easy as in America. There are the mortgage and medical bills to pay.

Wow! China rules OK

USA Rice said China consumes the equivalent of the entire US annual output every two weeks.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40678191

China has agreed to allow imports of rice from the US for the first time.

The agreement gives US farmers access to the world’s biggest rice consumer, with China importing about 5 million tonnes last year.

 

 

 

Halimah not BSing that she got to consult further

But first

(Happy to attribute if I know whom to attribute this to)

Back to Halimah

Speaking to reporters after a community event at her Marsiling ward, Mdm Yacob said she has been asked this question many times and felt honored and humbled by the support, but she needed more time to consult with her family and colleagues further.

Heard an interesting story from the usually unreliable sources. Though I hear while he’s happy for wife to be president (Who wouldn’t like to will the Toto top prize?), he’s not happy about  becoming the first First Man doing the traditional First Lady duties like being patron of women’s charities and hosting tea parties for women social workers. He’s no male chauvinist but I’m told he doesn’t fancy doing the things Mrs Tan does and Mrs Nathan did.

Hence the delay in his wife declaring that she wants to be president. His role has yet to be defined to his satisfaction.

Doubtless a fair and reasonable solution will be worked out for him a real gentleman, as his friends and ex-collegues describe him. I’m told he’s retired.

Btw, he’s Malay-Arab.

Can a true blue Malay (no cross breeds pls) from the Malaya Archiplego pls stand up.

The term Malaya Archiplego

was derived from the European concept of a Malay race,^[4]which referred to the people who inhabited what is now Brunei,Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia (excluding Western New Guinea), the Philippinesand East Timor. The racial concept was proposed by European explorers based on their observations of the influence of the ethnic Malay empire, Srivijaya, which was based on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia.^[7]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malay_Archipelago

Tot of the Lees cont’d

Precisely because it’s inescapable, insecure and irresistibly convenient, email provides an almost uncomfortably intimate view into the historical record. It preserves time, location and state of mind, the what-when-where-and-who of every story we might want to dig up. The last two decades, email’s high-water era, have thus been a bounty for anyone wishing to understand exactly what was happening in the inner circles of powerful organizations — for journalists, historians and prosecutors of white-collar crime, among others.

AGO and the importance of paperwork

It’s that time of the year when the cybernuts especially those from TRELand get their yearly free (They are cheapskates, juz like the ang moh tua kees) high from the Auditor-General’s report detailing cock-ups in the process and procedures of ministries and state agencies. For the rest of us, it shows “Efficiency? What efficiency?”: the PAP administration, like all management systems or bureaucracies, has flaws that need to be fixed. Monitoring and fixing things are eternal, non-ending unglamarous work. Those criticised often grumble (sometimes rightly) that they live in the real world, not in a world where box-ticking is more important that delivering the “goods”. Not in the case of the WP though. Whatever, this NYT Dealbook story tells us why getting the paperwork right is important. Private Student Loan Debts May Be Wiped Away

Tens of thousands of people who took out private loans to pay for college but have not been able to keep up payments may have their debts wiped away. The reason? Missing paperwork.

At least $5 billion in troubled loans are at the center of a legal dispute that has echoes of problems that arose from the subprime mortgage crisis a decade ago.

Private student loans, which come with higher interest rates and fewer consumer protections than federal loans, are often targeted at the most vulnerable borrowers, but judges have already dismissed dozens of lawsuits against former students because of insufficient documentation.

Court records reviewed by The New York Times show that many other collection cases have been brought without complete ownership records.

Like those who took on subprime mortgages, many people who took private student loans may never earn enough to repay the debt.

Investing in Asian Innovators

Basically this means businesses that can scale up in China.

Matthews Asia Innovators

Michael J. Oh, lead manager of the Matthews Asia Innovators Fund … grew up in Seoul, South Korea, and moved to the United States as a teenager, scours Asia for companies developing new technologies or creating innovative products and services. About a third of the fund’s assets are invested in China and Hong Kong and about a fifth in South Korea. India accounts for 8 percent.

… He said his goal is to invest in companies benefiting from a growing middle class throughout Asia and rising disposable incomes there. “The question we’re asking is, ‘What will consumers with incremental income spend on?’”

Lately, an answer has been beauty products. One of the fund’s larger holdings has been Hugel, a South Korean cosmetics and pharmaceuticals company whose offerings include botulinum toxin (or Botox) wrinkle treatments. Korean cosmetics makers have been innovators for more than a decade, Mr. Oh said, but their market was largely limited to South Korea and Japan.

Now a surging middle class in China has created a big new pool of potential buyers, he said. In April, Bain Capital agreed to pay about $800 million for a controlling stake in Hugel.

Mr. Oh invested in the TAL Education Group, a Beijing tutoring company, for similar reasons. Education is highly valued there, he said, and as parents see their discretionary income rise, they’ll often spend some of the surfeit on their children’s educations. His fund, with an expense ratio of 1.24 percent, returned 13.57 percent in the second quarter.

From https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/14/business/mutfund/ways-of-winning-in-a-bull-market.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_dk_20170714&nl=dealbook&nl_art=16&nlid=25359808&ref=headline&te=1&_r=0

Are our “Khans” “Pakistanis” or “Indians”?

Here I said that the Pakistani wannabe president’s i/c states he is “Indian”. I was wrong. It does say “Pakistani”. But I do know other “Khans”, some really hard-drinking ones, whose i/cs say “Indian” much to their unhappiness. Worse these “Indians” belong to Sinda automatically: cannot opt out. They are not impressed having to belong to what they consider a Hindoo controlled body.

Why liddat?

Well it all seems to depend on whether the Khan in question or his ancestor came here before British India split into Pakistan and India in 1947. If said Khan came before the split, say in the 19th century or the early 2oth century or in 1946, when the Khan or his descendent became a S’pore citizen, he’d he classified as Indian as would his children.

If the Khan came here from Pakistan he’d be “Pakistani”.

Sounds logical.

Btw it’s no fun being classified as Pakistani if you need help: Neither Sinda or Mendaki would help you. https://sg.news.yahoo.com/comment-malay-enough-next-president-093246327.html

Call Pakistan embassy leh? Btw, reading the Yahoo article one gets the impression that there are those who think that Muslim= Malay, something that the PAP administration rejects because it has refused to change the constitution despite requests that S’pore follows the M’sian definition of “Malay”. This requires, among other things, being Muslim.

 

 

 

 

The S’poreans who are cheapskates

Chris K used a piece of mine (where I asked if S’poreans are willing to pay more for gds and services if there’s a S’poreans First jobs’ policy) to talk about the trade-offs between higher local wages when FTs cannot come in by the cattle truck load, and the govt’s FT policy (which is good for me personally) on his FB wall. An interesting discussion ensured not like the name calling and ranting when TRE used the piece.(Btw his posts are public, so visit his wall. Better still ask to be a friend and follow him.)

When I was writing the piece, I wasn’t so much thinking  about trade-offs between economic policies but more about the mental attitude of S’poreans.

It’s a fact that the cybernuts in TRELand are cheapskates who scrounge off the efforts of Andrew and the rest of TramTRE. They are always pleading poverty for failing to support TRE. TeamTRE finally recently got the message

TRE, unlike other alternative media, depends solely on advertising for income. In the past, we used to seek donations, but we have refrained from doing so due to poor responses.

Another bunch of cheapskates are S’poreans who consider themselves well-off and open-minded progressives. They are bleeding heart liberals who think ang moh are tua kees.

Recently the person who owns Epigram (the leading designer cum book publisher who published “The Art of Charlie Chan” a really classy subversive graphic novel that’s up for a top US award after winning int’l acclaim) got plenty of birthday greetings via Facebook from the progressives.

He used the opportunity to try to raise money for a book prize that his company is sponsoring. He wants to make Singapore Literature Great. To his well wishers, he wrote

Please consider supporting our crowdfunding for the 2017 Epigram Books Fiction Prize. There are three options: $100, $200 and $500. The Prize supports four novelists each year with prize money of $40,000. We’re starting this year’s search for the Great Singaporean Novel by offering 3 very special bundles so you can lend your support to the Prize, too. The upcoming novels are available for pre-purchase, to be delivered to you as soon as each title is released in 2018. The proceeds will go into administering the Prize, and help boost Singapore literature.

https://shop.epigrambooks.sg/colle…/ebfp-2017-crowdfunding

As I know him personally, my FB avatar asked via FB if there was a response from his well wishers. He said “got a few hundred dollars in orders”.

Money Talks BS Walks. No wonder S’pore is a de facto one-party state what with the cheapskates from TRELand and Progressive Land.

For the record my avatar in June donated a few hundred dollars.

 

Temasek: Only Indians in private equity isit?

Looks like Indians have a grip on Temasek’s private equity operations juz like they have a grip on the presidency where Indian blood seems to be a must.

Read http://www.reuters.com/article/us-asia-sovereignwealth-idUSKBN1A22CU?il=0 and count the number of Indians it quotes who work for Temasek. Juz wondering? Locals or FTs?

Academic talking cock/ Got such thing as “Malay” race meh?

A really moronic statement from someone who makes moronic statements when he’s trying to justify that the “PAP is always right”

… felt that voters should not be overly-fixated with a candidate’s ethnicity – albeit being an election reserved for a particular race – as it would “detract from the raison d’être of the elected presidency and of the elected president as a symbol of our multiracialism”, as Singapore Management University law don Eugene Tan put it …

Assoc Prof Tan said the reserved election “inevitably puts race up front and centre”. However, it is “imperative that we do not get too hung up over the race” of a presidential hopeful, he said.

http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/reserved-presidential-election-casts-spotlight-malayness

WTF. How not to think a lot about racial identity when the election is reserved for a “Malay” president especially given that it seems that being a “Malay” is a cultural issue, not an ethnic (ie racial) issue.

The constructive, nation-building press quotes two experts on “Malayness” who seem to imply that there really isn’t such a thing as a Malay race:

Malay-Muslim self-help group Yayasan Mendaki has a set of criteria for its financial assistance schemes for students administered on behalf of the Government. Among other things, the recipients “must be of Malay descent” as stated in their identity cards. It spells out a list of what it considers to be “Malay descent”, and this includes 22 ethnicities including Acehnese, Javanese, Boyanese, Sumatran, Sundanese and Bugis. Students with “double-barrelled” race are eligible if the first race is listed on the identity cards as Malay, said a Mendaki spokesman. For example, a student who is Malay-Arab would qualify for the schemes but an Arab-Malay student would not, he added.

However, for the Presidential Election, Association of Muslim Professionals chairman Abdul Hamid Abdullah stressed the need for a “wider definition of a Malay” in Singapore’s context. A narrow definition would be restrictive and could disqualify potential candidates who have been “accepted” as a member of the Malay community, he added. “It is better to be inclusive. Otherwise, (it) may lead to divisiveness in the Malay community,” he said.

http://www.todayonline.com/singapore/reserved-presidential-election-casts-spotlight-malayness

So my take that Chinese can be Malay is a real possibility isit based on the second expert? Heck, let’s juz say that Indian blood is necessary to be president. Or better still, that from now on, the president must be the result of a mixed marriage. Halimah can set the precedent of the president as a symbol of our multiracialism.

 

Apple 8 will cost US$1,000 to US$1,500

OK at least the highest-priced model in Apple’s new iPhone 8 line-up, reports FT.

Apple plans to differeniate its iPhone 8 range the way it differentiates its Macs. Want more and better features? Pay and pay.

Olam: On a cocoa high

Olam is the third largest cocoa provcessor and based on the results of the largest, Barry Callebaut, Olam and other cocoa processors should be minting money from cocoa production.

The “combined cocoa ratio” — which measures the combined sales price for cocoa butter and cocoa powder — is now 3.5 reports the FT.  The “combined cocoa ratio” needs to be between 3.0 to 3.2 times higher relative to the bthe price of the bean to be profitable, it also reports.

The problem is that we don’t know the revenue contribution of cocoa production to Olam’s revenue. It’s part of “Confectionery & beverage ingredients” which contributes 36% to revenues.

Click to access Olam-InvestorPresentation-Nov2016.pdf

Sad.

Whatever, Tenasek is laughing all the way to the bank, while Philip Ang, TJS and other cybernuts are banging their balls in frustration.

Yikes! Cynical Investor part of PAP IB?

Going by the u/m Chris K will have to unfriend me if he wants to remain friends with Tay Kheng Soon (Future of S’pore), the other unhappy anti-PAP activists (real life or cyber), and the cybernuts. I’m sure Jedi like Terry Xu, Tan Tee Seng and Eric Tan will not respond to my emails.

After all I use repeatedly: “talking cock” and “one party state“. And I regularly rubbish the opposition (here and here ) sowing “dissention, cynicism and suspicion”.

I don’t get credit for dissing PAP meh?

And by implication, TRE is also part of the PAP IB as it regularly uses my pieces and other pieces using “talking cock”, “sham democracy” and “one party state”.

Seriously Tay Kheng Soon is talking cock. He’s almost like Talk Cock, Sing Song King Lee Hsien Yang (Examples below)

Tay Kheng Soon

For the sake of healthy civilised discussion on FB it is necessary to reveal the tactics of the IB. They have names but they may not be real people. How we can tell is the same language they use repeatedly. “talking cock,” “sham democracy,” “one party state.” What is their aim? It is to disrupt civilised discussion to prevent public education. Their aim in this is ultimately to justify dictatorship by muting public voice. They are false democrats themselves. Thus they rubbish the opposition. They sow dissention, cynicism and suspicion. They hunt as a pack of predators. This way they instill fear, fear to respond to their attacks. If we fear them, they think they win. Dont let them!

---

Lee Hsien Yang talking cock 

 — Not attacking govt meh?— Reading Lee Hsien Yang’s repeated “clarifications” on FB to his earlier FB “clarifications” (example on whether his wife’s law firm was used in the final will: he said “No” emphatically, but then went to explain what they did*), I can understand why the committee wants a statutory declaration and I can understand why he hasn’t given one.

— Talking cock about the will

— Didn’t do his job as executor

The Hard Question about putting S’poreans First

This is something TOC, TRE and other anti-PAP new media outlets will never dare say.

Are we happy to pay more for goods and services if we try to only employ S’poreans? Because taz the Hard Truth consequence of paying S’poreans to do work that FTs do. Luckily for bleeding heart “progressives” who benefit from the lower prices that come from FT labour, this Hard Choice is made by the PAP administration who love FTs. The ang moh tua kees can feel good about calling for “S’poreans First” happily knowing that they won’t be given the choice of having it.

Here’s something from America from NYT. The employer’s tots are the tots of S’pore employers.

If you can’t get workers at $17 an hour, why don’t you offer higher pay?

In response to …, I got an email that said if we were to offer $35 an hour with health care benefits, we would definitely get people to apply; it said people who were highly qualified applicants with years of experience would probably line up at our door.

My response is: We would love to be able to offer $35 an hour as starting pay, but are you in turn willing to pay premium prices for your next roof replacement? A lot of customers we get through online lead services likeThumbtack are people looking for the best deal. They want to collect proposals from four to five businesses and most of the time choose the cheapest one.

We want to compensate our employees fairly for the work they do and the risk they take, but we wouldn’t be able to stay in business if we doubled the hourly rate. It’s not just their hourly wage that becomes a factor. Insurance in the roofing industry is extremely expensive. Not only are we required to carry expensive general liability insurance, we also have to have workers’ compensation insurance for employees on the roof. That comes to 40 percent of their wage. And on top of that, there’s payroll tax.

What Liu Xiaobo can teach S’poreans

Later today Gilbert Goh and the other usual suspects will be protesting at the failure of PM to sue his siblings. I hope that at least one of the speakers will also talk about what to me is the real scandal of Oxleygate: other ministers not suing the PM’s siblings. Unlike PM, they don’t have the excuse of blood ties.

S’pore and China are both one-party states (one de jure, the other de facto), but different in that in S’pore one a referendum is allowed every five yrs and where the ruling party wins by a majority of at least 60% of the popular vote, or as is bar once, a lot more. Hence 60% of the popular vote is the passing mark of the PAP’s popularity. To the PAP and S’poreans, a 60% win is really bad and it throws out bribes (using S’poreans’ money) to get a better score next time.

So the following remarks in an FT article about the life and death of Liu Xiaobo, are relevant to S’poreans especially to those who will later today protest at the PAP’s hegemony:

Liu imagined a country where Beijing residents might, for example, one day wear black T-shirts on the June 4 anniversary of Tiananmen. Who would the police arrest if thousands of people did that, let alone tens of thousands?

“Tyranny is not terrifying,” Liu wrote. “What is really scary is submission, silence, and even praise for tyranny. As soon as people decide to oppose it to the bitter end, even the most vicious tyranny will be shortlived.”

The PAP is not as formidable as it appears, something I’ll talk about soon, I hope. Meanwhile, here’s one reason why: the trains don’t run on time, and here’s why*.

---

*Do read this. V V gd analysis.

Oxleygate: “the curious incident”/ What S’poreans are not focusing on

“The dog did nothing in the night-time.”

“That was the curious incident.”

The real “scandal” is that DPM Teo and Lawrence Wong did not protect their reputations the PAP way, when the younger Lees defamed them by accusing them of doing their brother’s bidding, not PM not threatening to take legal action against his siblings, but doing a wayang in parly.

ESM Goh said in parly:

[I]t is clear that their goal is to bring Lee Hsien Loong down as PM, regardless of the huge collateral damage suffered by the Government and Singaporeans. It is now no more a cynical parlour game. If the Lee siblings choose to squander the good name and legacy of Lee Kuan Yew, and tear their relationship apart, it is tragic but a family affair. But if in the process of their self destruction, they destroy Singapore too, that is a public affair.

Now isn’t the attempt to destroy S’pore by making allegations against other ministers, not just their brother the PM, a good enough reason for said ministers to have demanded an apology and sued the younger Lees for defamation, if no grovelling apology was made? And what about their personal reputations? Why liddat?

After ESM’s Goh’s speech, Lee Hsien Yang posted

“We are not making a criticism of the Government of Singapore, as we made clear from the beginning. What we have said is that we are disturbed by the character, conduct, motives and leadership of our brother, Lee Hsien Loong.”
Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/we-are-not-making-a-criticism-of-the-government-lee-hsien-yang-9006620

————————————————

Talk Cock Sing Song King Lee Hsien Yang talking cock again above. Other examples

— Reading Lee Hsien Yang’s repeated “clarifications” on FB to his earlier FB “clarifications” (example on whether his wife’s law firm was used in the final will: he said “No” emphatically, but then went to explain what they did*), I can understand why the committee wants a statutory declaration and I can understand why he hasn’t given one.

— Talking cock about the will

— Didn’t do his job as executor

—————————————

Huh? I tot the younger Lees were making allegations that the ministerial committee set up to consider the fate of LKY’s house was doing their brother’s bidding, not making independent judgements and findings? That not attacking govt meh?

DPM Teo rightly responded:

“With regard to Dr Lee Wei Ling and Mr Lee Hsien Yang’s allegations against the Ministerial Committee, public agencies and public officers, the Government has already responded comprehensively to all of them in Parliament,”
Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/38-oxley-road-govt-still-has-to-carry-out-responsibilities-for-9009684

This shows that, while the PM may have felt that he could not sue his siblings, DPM Teo or Lawrence Wong should have had no such qualms about suing PM’s siblings for the good of S’pore and their good name. They should have asked the younger Lees to withdraw their allegations against them, and apologise. Failing which, they’d sue the Lees.

While I’ve argued that that the cabinet full of Oxbridge men royally screwed up

Yesterday’s wayang and the preceding Lee family row could have been avoided if PM (from Cambridge) had not have gone to the cabinet about his doubts about the circumstances around the execution of the will and the cabinet committee headed by another Cambridge man had not decided to act on PM’s doubts.

DPM Teo, Lawrence Wong, and, possibly, other ministers should have been prepared to take legal action to protect the reputation of the cabinet and themselves. They didn’t and that me is the real scandal. It now seems that this White Horse and White Mare have privileges not extended to people like Roy Ngerng. Who else does do these privileges extend to?

Even now, the Princess of Oxley Road is attacking Shanmugam, raking over the ashes of her allegation of his conflicts of interest. Shouldn’t he be telling her to “apologise or else”, instead of sitting down and keeping quiet? She that special isit?

Gregory (Scotland Yard detective): “Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”

Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”

Gregory: “The dog did nothing in the night-time.”

Holmes: “That was the curious incident.”

Silver Blaze by  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

 

 

Oxleygate would have been avoided

If only LKY could have had his will done by email.

In the UK the BBC reports,

You could soon be able to write your will in a text or record it on a voicemail, the Daily Telegraph says.

It reports on a new consultation from the Law Commission for England and Wales, which says it wants to bring legislation on wills into the digital age.

The existing law on wills being written, signed and witnessed dates back to 1839.

The commission admits that the proposals could add to family disputes if people who are seriously ill make last-minute changes to their will on a smartphone or tablet.

Indian blood required to be Prez isit?

I didn’t know that it’s a constitutional requirement that being Indian or having Indian blood is a must to be the president. Did you? When was this change made? Wah really trying to make sure that Dr Tan Cheng Bock can’t be president.

Seriously, so another Indian (He says he’s “Pakistani but his i/c says “Mama” “Indian”, my sources tell me ) wants to be president:

Mr Farid Khan bin Kaim Khan, 62, has officially announced his intention to stand as a candidate in the upcoming Presidential election reserved for Malay candidates.

… who describes himself as a caring person is of Pakistani descent and his wife is of Arabic descent. He regards his family as part of a larger Malay community as his family speak Malay and practice the Malay culture. He has two children, a 24-year-old daughter, and an 18-year-old son.

TOC

Then there’s guy from Second Chance. Yes, I know his i/c says “Malay” but I know many Malays consider him to be “Indian”. These same Malays say “Yaacob’s ‘Arab'”.

---

Lines very blurred

Actually lines between the Malay community and some Muslim Indian communities are very blurred. As I explained once, in the 80s there was a really good senior MFA official who was always complaining that he was wrongly classified as Indian, not Malay.  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.

——————————–

And juz wondering? What does Halimah Yacob’s i/c say given that dad was Indian Muslim? To be fair to her and the PAP, the Malays community does consider her “Malay”, no matter what her i/c may say. When she was in NJUS Law School (mid 70s), her cohort knew her as a “tudung” wearing Malay.

Whatever, Indians rule OK. There’s Devan Nair, Nathan (two terms) and then the next one too (even if it’s a “reserved” one for Malays). No wonder the Indians are uppity about their place in S’pore’s caste system.

Whatever, again, Khan’s case seems to show that Muslims are beginning to think that being Muslim makes them Malay.

What next? A Muslim Chinese can be a Malay? When the day comes when a Chinese Muslim is considered by the Malay community to be a Malay, then the PAP will have to rethink its Hard Truth that all politics are race-based, with a tinge of sectarianism.

Tot of the Lees

No more emails pls. Use chat apps as ang moh elites and our anti-PAP nuts like TJS, Goh Meng Seng and TKL do. Ok Ok, sane oppononents of the PAP also use chat apps.

From NYT Dealbook

THE SHIFT

As Elites Switch to Texting, Watchdogs Fear Loss of Transparency

By KEVIN ROOSE

Lawmakers, executives and other leaders are turning to encrypted chat apps to keep their communications under wraps, causing problems in industries where careful record-keeping is standard procedure.

What China did to Korea, it can do to us

Our PM should be careful of upsetting the Chinese. They’ll stop sending tourists to our casinos and S’pore generally. This year

China is on track to becoming Singapore’s top tourist market, latest figures from the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) show.

Arrivals from China jumped 36 per cent to some 2.64 million visitors from January to November last year, compared with the same period in 2015.

ST in January

If the numbers keep up 18% of tourists will be from PRC.

But Korea shows what happen when China is angry

The Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO) predicted there could be 4.7 million fewer foreign tourists this year than in 2016 – a drop of about 27%.

China has banned travel agencies from selling package tours to Korea in protest at Seoul allowing a US missile defence system.

Visitors from China made up 46.8% of tourists in South Korea last year.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-40565119

Truth about cars from car maker

FT reports GM as saying when city dwellers buy a car, it depreciates “fairly rapidly, you use it 3 per cent of the time, and you pay a vast amount of money to park it for the other 97 per cent of the time”.

Related post

Did SMRT CEO Trains say “Disruptions are planned”?

But first what SMRT really means when it says “no choice”.

SMRT Trains’ CEO Lee Ling Wee said on Monday (Jul 10) “no choice leh”

SMRT had to test the new system throughout the day because it was being added to an already operational MRT line and would take “years” if it were only tested at times of the day which were less busy.

“If we were to restrict the performance checks to only weekends, or engineering hours (i.e. 1.30AM – 4.30AM), it would take Singapore years to implement the new signalling system on the NSEWL,” he said.

Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/no-choice-but-to-test-mrt-signalling-system-throughout-the-day-9019020

What I think he’s mealy-mouthing is that SMRT’s staff don’t really know how the new signaling system will operate with the existing system in peak and normal hours, so they got to put it in when traffic conditions are normal, pray hard and debug when things go wrong..

This is the giveaway me thinks:

“The system hardware and software we have are customised for the unique local environment,” he said. “While the system supplier had experience working with other operators in the world, they are unable to simply replicate the well-oiled systems of Taipei, Hong Kong and London, and import those here.”

I think he says the disruptions* are planned going because

Unlike with the Circle Line incident last year – when SMRT had to conduct extensive tests to find out what was causing intermittent signalling issues in September and November – Mr Lee said that a “planned” approach was being used this time.

“This is unlike the Circle Line incident in 2016 when we dealt with unknown unknowns,” he said. “We are adopting a planned, systematic approach …

Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/no-choice-but-to-test-mrt-signalling-system-throughout-the-day-9019020

Hey Desmond, get off yr ass and stop looking at yr bank statement, because in the 1990s

The renowned American military strategist, Edward Luttwak said that the only good thing about Singapore was that “the trains run on time”. (From the standpoint of 2017, that now seems like a funny remark, given the relative regular incidence of train delays on the MRT.)

Derek da Cunha on FB recently

I mean military men are supposed to make sure that the trains run on time. Taz why in the 19th century many US generals ended up running railway companies. Even a tin-pot dictator, Mussolini, is reputed to have made Italian trains run on time.

But u seem to be different. Because u scholar and SAF general isit? Everything is “paper” only?

—————————————————–

*The NSEWL has experienced multiple disruptions over the signalling system test period, with commuters taking to social media to voice their frustration. At the end of June, train services on the North-South Line were halted for nearly two hours due to a signalling fault. Part of the East-West Line was also disrupted.

 

Arabs making Noble a Noble Hse again?

Finally some good news for the shareholders of a once Noble House.

Noble Group said on Monday that Abu Dhabi’s Goldilocks Investment Company has raised its stake in the firm. Goldilocks’ direct interest in the group has risen from 5.03% to 8.19% after it purchased 41.6 million shares through a market transaction for S$23.2 million on July 6.

Goldilocks is a fund managed by ADCM Altus Investment Management, an indirect subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Financial Group. It now holds 107.6 million shares in Noble.

Noble has been looking for a strategic investor with cash to burn. Could Goldilocks make Noble great again ie a Noble House?

Oxley, AG & DAG-gates: Anti-PAP 30% got a lot to answer for

They shouldn’t blame the PAP or the 70% who voted for the PAP. It’s all their fault that the PAP can suka suka do what it likes.

Recent developments have shown that a president Tan Cheng Bock could have made sure things were done differently, things that the usual suspects like Mad Dog Chee, Jeannette Chong (In two GEs, she was a candidate for two different parties. juz like Tan Jee Say) and Goh Meng Seng (three different parties in three GEs: Parachutist Extraordinaire), and cybernut friends and allies are upset about, and KPKBing about.

Jedi, Terry Xu, updated this https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2016/10/10/amendments-to-the-elected-presidency-how-pap-stop-at-nothing-to-avoid-checks-and-balance-on-itself/  he wrote last yr to reflect recent developments.

He wrote

A president with Dr Tan Cheng Bock’s character would mean that many questionable requests — not to give clemency to death row inmates, withdrawal of reserves for “welfare policies” and etc — will be made public and having the president to be vocal about controversial policies and appointment of positions by the PAP administration.

One such example of controversial appointments that a person like Dr Tan will find issues with, would be the appointment of Mr Lucien Wong as Attorney-General in November 2016 to succeed Mr V K Rajah S.C for a 3-year term with effect from 14 January 2017. Mr Wong at the age of 63, was succeeding Mr Rajah who is retiring at the age of 60.

On 14 June 2017 in the joint statement of Dr Lee Weiling and Mr Lee Hsien Yang, it is made known that Mr Wong has acted as PM Lee’s personal lawyer on matters concerning 38 Oxley Road from 2015, and unknown when his commercial interest with PM Lee ended, or ended at all. No one knew Mr Wong was PM Lee’s personal lawyer when he was appointed, even when the Minister of Law and Home Affairs addressed concerns over Mr Wong’s appointment in Parliament, he made no mention of the matter to the Members of Parliament.

While PM Lee has stated that he had cleared Mr Wong’s appointment with the cabinet, CPA and the President during his closing statement on 4 July 2017, but this does not make the appointment of Mr Wong anymore justified. Any layman would ask if there is no better lawyer in Singapore who is younger and free of conflict of interest in order to carry out his or her duties as an independent individual to advise the government on legal matters. Despite PM Lee and Ms Indranee Rajah’s praise for Mr Wong’s exemplary performance as a lawyer, many would believe there are quite a number of lawyers who can also be up to the task.

The appointment of PAP’s former MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC, Mr Hri Kumar Nair as Deputy Attorney General, is also no more different when it comes to conflict of interest or the lack of public appearance of impartiality.

Plenty of anti-PAP cybernuts KPKB on TOC FB’s wall after “reading” the piece.

My FB avatar commented

How many of those commenting voted for Tan Jee Say or Tan Kin Lian? The 30% who voted for these two should juz sit down and shut up. They had the chance to give the PAP a bloody nose. What did they do? Voted to ensure PAP controlled the presidency.

There was silence.

Seriously, there should be a new exhibit at Haw Par Villa:

 

A 11th court in Hell for Tan Jee Say, Tan Kin Lian, Goh Meng Seng (he prodded TKL into running and was his election adviser); people like Mad Dog, Jeannette Chong and Nicole Seah (remember her?) who openly* supported TJS; and the cybernuts. What were all these people thinking when they were effectively voting for the PAP’s preferred candidate.

With enemies like these, the PAP doesn’t need friends. Roll on, PAP hegemony. The PAP doesn’t need that house.

---

*Mad Dog did not publicly endorse him (unlike the other two) but he had plenty of help from SDP activists, help that could come if Mad Dog had approved of TJS.

Noble: Troubles never cease

HSBC triggered a probe into the palm oil subsidiary of commodity trader Noble Group, which is facing allegations of preparing to clear pristine rainforest in Papua New Guinea.

FT

Time to call in the bomohs, sharmans or fung shui geomancers. HSBC is a lead bank to Noble.

Same show but ang moh stars paid a lot more than Asian stars

The producer of US TV show Hawaii Five-0 has spoken out about the departure of two cast members following reports the pair asked to be paid the same as their white co-stars.

Peter Lenkov said Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park were offered “unprecedented raises” but “chose to move on”.

…

Kim and Park have appeared in the show since its inception in 2010.

According to Variety, the pair had been seeking the same salaries as stars Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan but were being offered between 10 and 15 percent less.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40529720

Book them: for demanding equal pay for equal work.

Samsung beats ang mohs hollow

But ang moh tech cos have better valuations. Ang moh tua kee isit?

FT’s Lex thinks Samsung is undervalued given its competitive strengths in the semiconductor arena.

It points out Samsung’s quarterly operating profit of US$12.1bn surpassed that of its rival Apple, which is on track for an estimated operating profit of US$10.5bn for the same period.

This US $12.1b would be bigger than the combined operating profits of the four major US tech companies — Facebook, Amazon, Netflix and Google — estimated at US $11.15bn.

But there are good reasons why Samsung is worth less in terms of valuation multiples. There’s — Korean factors (S Korea can be attacked by the North, internal political instability and corporate governance is really lousy)

— conglomerate discount (old- fashioned industrial conglomerate, not high tech one like the American ones)

— semi conductors are cyclical in nature.

 

Chinese emperor that cared more for country than siblings

Anyone really familiar with Chinese history or legend? I need a story about a Chinese emperor or tua kee ruler, official or general punishing his siblings or other relatives for hurting the state or breaking the law? A person that put the country or rule of law above family ties. I can’t think of anything from the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” or “All Men are Brothers”, my reference books on Chinese history and legend.

Will be interesting if in Chinese history or legend no-one powerful put the rule of law or country before family.

Otherwise I will have to relate story from Roman “history” to make the point about putting rule of law or country before family. But I’m no ang moh tua kee.

If anyone got a Indian or Malay story on the issue, I’m also interested. Can make multi-racial and cultural the point about putting country or rule of law before family.

 

 

Shumethings never change in M’sia:

Malays are “hewers of wood and drawers of water”

In Xiamen University Malaysia

The students study in English and mostly converse in Chinese languages. For now, Malay – the language of around 60% of the population – is confined mostly to campus staff working in convenience stories and serving student meals in cavernous dining halls, but officials hope to attract more Malay students as time goes on.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/07/going-global-china-exports-soft-power-with-first-large-scale-university-in-malaysia

Higher rollers bring more bang for the buck

FT reports about a HK listco IPI

In 2016, IPI posted $32bn in betting volumes from VIP players, according to the group’s annual report, despite having not fully opened its Saipan casino. According to the company’s 2016 financial report, that volume was generated by just 16 VIP tables at its temporary premises.  In comparison, in the same year, the Venetian Macao, one of the world’s biggest casinos, generated gross betting volumes from VIPs of $29bn, according to its annual report.

But the downside is that it’s now being investigated for money laundering and, there’s the problem of bad debts if the high rollers or their junket sponsors have problems paying.

NS: Discrimination against Malays? What discrimination?

In the 50th year of NS, there’s a serious attempt to rewrite history about NS on social media and the internet generally, by saying Malays were discriminated by being exempted from NS. They were from 1967 to 1977, though there are allegations that even today many are exempted from NS.(sorry “discimated against”.)

I was one of those who did NS (Dec 73 to June 76) while my Malay contemporaries went to university. I’m sure that many S’poreans had the same experience. Discrimination against Malays? What discrimination? In my time, that policy was tot by people like me to be discrimination against S’poreans of other races to give Malays a leg up. Plenty of grumbles but we trusted Harry and gang to do the right thing by S’pore.

Note I’m not saying the PAP administration did not discrimate against Malays who served or wanted to serve in the SAF. They were and possibly still are. But that’s a different issue. I’ll go into this some other day.

 

I’m saying that when it came to NS, it was us Chinese, Indians and “Others” who had to do NS to defend S’porean Chinese, Malays, Indians and “Others”. Just like today, S’poreans do NS to protect S’poreans and FTs.

Feel free to whack PAP but don’t anyhow hantam.

Sounds like Aljunied town council at work

In Mosul, the initial relief at liberation from IS’s reign of terror is already turning to grumbling. IS ran services and rubbish collection better, they say. They repaired the potholes in the road faster and kept electricity going.

Seriously if the wankers in the Worthless Party don’t step up their game in providing the basic servives, Aljunied GRC will be PAP once again. And 2011, will prove another false dawn, like 1991. And this time can’t put the blame on Mad Dog Chee.

Free prescriptions for chronic illness

The PAP has sewn up the Pioneer Generation vote by using our money to pay the medical bills of the PG.

For the next GE, the PAP should give free prescriptions for those aged 45 and above for those suffering from diabetes or high blood pressure. That will make another group of elderly S’poreans prone to support the PAP.

And if the PAP is feeling the need for more votes, here’s a more comprehensive list courtesy of the NHS in England:

Which conditions qualify for free prescriptions?

• diabetes mellitus, except where treatment is by diet alone
• hypothyroidism that needs thyroid hormone replacement
• epilepsy that needs continuous anticonvulsive therapy
• a continuing physical disability that means you cannot go out without the help of another person
• cancer, the effects of cancer and the effects of cancer treatment
• disorders such as Addison’s disease, a rare hormone disorder of the adrenal glands, for which specific therapy is essential
• diabetes insipidus and other disorders where the pituitary gland is not functioning well
• hypoparathyroidism, where the parathyroid glands are not making enough hormones
• myasthenia gravis, a disease that affects the nervous system and leads to muscle weakness
• a permanent fistula (for example colostomy) that needs continuous surgical dressing for example

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-40431800

“Strong push back”? What “strong push back”?

PM said on Monday there was “strong push back from the public” on the demolition of the house.

Huh? A poll then showed over 70% of Singaporeans supported demolition of the house. Even a very recent poll showed a lot of support for demolition https://sg.news.yahoo.com/live-blog-pm-lee-deliver-ministerial-statement-38-oxley-road-011158139.html

And there’s this I highlighted on Monday.

So where did LHL get his statistics from? Can we assume a secret poll that ignores us plebs i?

But then that would be par for the course for him and his cabinet, 36% of which are from Oxbridge, and 32% from Cambridge. 

Seriously it is the atas anti-PAP people like Tay Kheng Soon and friends (unlike their cybernut pleb allies like Teo Soh Lung) who want the house preserved presumably to give the finger to our dearly beloved Harry: “Ha, ha ha, yr house is being preserved against the wishes of u and Mrs Lee,” they can say quietly. But to be fair to them, they talk about preserving history and heritage, not about giving the finger to LKY. But that’s their intention.

Looks like PM and his cabinet prefer to listen to their subversive views on the house rather than the opinion of the masses who vote for the PAP. They, like me, want the cabinet of the day to accede to his (and his wife’s) wishes on the house when their daughter no longer defiles the sacred ground.

It’s not that surprising that the views of subversives and “enemies of the people” are seemingly preferred to those of the PAP masses because as Chris K points out Cambridge in the 1930s was notorious for upper class traitors who wanted to subvert the British way of life. I mean even one Harry Lee wanted an end to rule to British rule of S’pore: a radical tot then. But it’s very strange that our LGBTs have been bullied and harassed recently, unsuccessfully as it turns out, because as Chris also points out Cambridge was notorious for its gays.

Riposte to “Blood is thicker than water” and other BS reasons not to sue

A pleb posted this:

This is seriously a joke when a young guy makes a mistake we don’t say he is a little boy let’s forgive him we punish him and put him to shame! Now it’s because the PM ‘a issue they can talk about sensitivity and how we should think about their parents thoughts and principals!!! What in the Hell is happening? Is this a government that we could trust? Parliament has become their family playground and people and countries issues can take rest for now! So this is what LKY has given us! A problem not just for the family but to the entire Nation. Thank you!

“principals”: must have meant “principles”

Oxleygate: S’porean BBC reporter gets it right

Sorry to have to return to abalone and suckling pig, but Tessa Wong our very own BBC reporter got it right

At first Singaporeans were mesmerised but now the saga is tiring them out. Many are confused about the case, and wondering why Mr Lee and his siblings have not resolved the matter through legal action or otherwise.

Singapore is used to swift resolution of public conflicts, and if this does not end soon, questions may be raised about Mr Lee’s handling of the feud.” http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-40477724

I was at a dinner on Sunday and while the diners (people who would vote for Dr Tan Cheng Bock in a PE and PAP in a GE) were looking forward to Monday’s wayang, they also wanted the show to end soon.

 

Amos: 7 months in US jail, 4 more to go at least

I tot readers might want to take a break from Oxleygate and sneer, ridicule or laugh at Amos Yee.

OK, there’s a big difference between sneering, ridiculing or laughing at very privileged spoiled brats and PAP ministers, and one of their pleb “victims”. But one can grow tired of abalone and suckling pig, and go for cold porridge and kiam chye for a change.

Amos Yee’s poatings are not by him but by people sympathetic to him. Ah well there are loonies born every day. Juz look at M Ravi.

Amos Yee

April 27 ·

Although Amos has won his case for political asylum in the US, the prosecutor [Chief Consul: Karen E. Lundgren, Assistant Chief Consul: Elizabeth Crites] appealed the case. Meaning, even though Amos has already been in American jail for 5 months, he has to stay in jail for another 6 more months until the judge makes a decision on the appeal. Amos was on suicide watch in the jail hole for the past 2 weeks.

So by the end of the process, he’ll have spent 11 months in an US jail and about a month in detention here. Still a good idea to dodge NS the Amos Way, Mother Mary? Especially as his asylum application could still be rejected.

Did he get the book he wanted?

Amos Yee

May 27 ·

Amos is still needlessly in prison because the government continues to challenge the court ruling that granted his political asylum. The government’s decision to continue to incarcerate him weighs heavily on his spirits as he continues to fight against the enduring stress of his imprisonment in the US and the trauma from his imprisonment in Singapore. Amos has found comfort reading books that his supporters have sent him over the weeks. Amos has requested Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam‘s book “Make it right for Singapore: Speeches in Parliament, 1997-1999” in solidarity with those who have been unjustly persecuted by their governments. Amos extends his solidarity to those around the world who fight against authoritarian regimes. From Raif Badawi in Saudi Arabia, to Wikileaks‘ Julian Assange in the UK, to Liu Xiaobo in China, to Edward Snowden in Russia, I stand with you.

–

The prison only allows paperback books purchased from large retailers such as Amazon. The Amazon link has been provided below.

https://www.amazon.com/Make-right-Singapore-Parliament-1…/…/

Books can be shipped to:

Amos Yee – Inmate #300802
Dodge Detention Facility
216 W Center St.
Juneau, WI 53039
USA

All Singapore Stuff , The Independent Singapore , Mothership.sg , The Online Citizen SG , The Straits TimesYahoo Singapore , 黃之鋒 Joshua Wong , Singapore Embassy in Washington DC

Make it right for Singapore: Speeches in Parliament, 1997-1999

Make it right for Singapore: Speeches in Parliament, 1997-1999

AMAZON.COM

Wayang king at work. But is anyone watching?

Amos Yee

May 20 ·

The US government still hasn’t released Amos Yee despite Amos’s asylum being approved by Judge Samuel B Cole. We suspect that the Singaporean government might have a role in interfering in a US court’s ruling that the Singaporean government acted against Amos in bad faith and that Amos should be granted political asylum. As a result of Amos’s numerous prolonged stays in detention his psychological health is suffering. In the US, Amos has been placed twice in solitary confinement.

On the first occasion he was in solitary confinement for 2 weeks. According to Amos, he decided to attend a religious lecture with a visiting Imam. During that lecture Amos challenged the Imam claiming that Muhammad had left many violent statements in the Quran. The Imam challenged him to prove it, Amos asked the Imam for the Quran so that he could show him the verses, the Imam called security on Amos where he was immediately placed into solitary confinement for 2 weeks.

On the second occasion that Amos was placed into solitary confinement it was after he was visited by a reporter. The reporter believed Amos to be suicidal, the proper authorities were notified of Amos’s situation, and he was then immediately placed on suicide watch for two weeks. During suicide watch Amos was placed in a small cell, he wasn’t allowed any cell mates, he wasn’t allowed access to the common areas, he wasn’t allowed to shower, and had numerous other privileges limited during that time.

Amos is currently out of suicide watch but his prolonged stay in jail is only making his situation even worse. Amos is suffering under great psychological stress. We are disappointed that immigration authorities under the Trump administration would not uphold our Western values of taking in persecuted political dissidents; our country was founded on these principles. We can only suspect interference by the Singaporean government as there would be no other legitimate reason for Amos to be detained for so long after being granted asylum by the court. All updates on Amos’s page are being made on his behalf by people working on Amos’s case.

Remember Mother Mary telling us that he was faking it when he looked “lost” when he got out of detention here and that his claims of feeling suicidal when inside were lies? Funny her post on this was removed.

8 ministers from Oxbridge but still can cock-up?/ One-term Malay MP?

I tot the above when I read

At the peak of Japan’s 1980s bubble [Nomura] … recruited more Oxford and Cambridge graduates than any institution outside the British government.

FT

Nomura has since been struggling to be great again. It’s now ranked 17th among investment banks. In the 80s, it was ranked alongside Goldie, Morgan Stanley, First Boston (disappeared into Credit Suisse) and Merrills (part of BoA today)

Given that there are seven Cambridge graduates and one Oxford graduate (Desmond Lee) in our cabinet of 22 ministers, no wonder we are no longer great. Sad.

(The seven from Cambridge are PM, DPM Teo, Hng Kiang, Zorro, Gan, Heng and Kee Chui.)

Yesterday’s wayang and the preceding Lee family row could have been avoided if PM (from Cambridge) had not have gone to the cabinet about his doubts about the circumstances around the execution of the will and the cabinet committee headed by another Cambridge man had not decided to act on PM’s doubts.

As a PAP Malay MP (Likely the central committee is already looking for her replacement for the next GE) pointed out

PM Lee’s comments in statutory declaration may appear to be a “backdoor approach” in challenging validity of his father’s will.

MP Rahayu Mahzam

Err maybe she reads me or the FB postings of a really, really smart lawyer? No not M Ravi or Jeannette Chong. The guy votes PAP but his legal brain is as sharp as a razor.

Whatever, she has balls of steel or is a real sotong to believe “vigorous debate” means “vigorous debate”. Her Chinese and Indian colleagues know better.

Survey shows S’poreans don’t believe PM’s siblings

But want house demolished.

Really sitting on the fence. But when White Horses fight, that’s the best place from which to view the spectacle.

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/lladro-horses-group-horses-fighting-515424428

Harry’s Hard Choice for “filial” daughter that she’s avoiding

But first, double confirm, Lee family feud is all about younger siblings’ unhappiness with tai kor.

Don’t believe me? Just read the last para of one of Lee Hsien Yang’s latest FB posts:

We are simply very sad that it is in fact Hsien Loong using powers and instruments … for his personal agenda, whilst pretending to be an honourable son.

Forget all the BS about the abuse of power, the absence of “checks and balances to prevent the abuse of government”: his siblings are upset that he’s a hypocrite and want to expose him as such.

Now I sympathise with their anger: PM should not have gone to the cabinet about his doubts about the circumstances around the execution of the will and PM did attack his brother and wife’s integrity.

Whatever, the govt has no problem with Lee Wei Ling living in the house (as per LKY’s and wife’s wishes) because it pushes the problem of what to do with the house into the future (30 yrs at least; when S’poreans may want it preserved as a shrine to the genius of the PAP, unlike now.

It’s the PM’s siblings who want a decision now.

A decision by the govt today (say tear that house down), cannot bind the govt of the day when she moves out to say turn house into shrine for Harry. So are the siblings really calling for a constitutional change to enshrine Pa’s wishes in the house? If so they should say so.

If Lee Wei Ling wants her cake (stay in the house), she cannot eat it (get it torn down when she leaves) short of a change in the constitution. She should also remember that in S’pore, changing the constitution is as easy as changing one’s underwear.

If she wants to force a decision on the house now, when a majority of S’poreans want Harry’s wish to be honoured, she has to leave it now. 

And trust S’poreans to get the PAP administration to acede to Pa’s wish to demolish the house after she leaves. As things stand, the PAP administration is aceding to his wish that she lives in the house.

Anything less than moving her ass out (or saying she’ll move said ass out) will double confirm she’s a spoiled brat. Pa in his wisdom left her with a Hard Choice, a choice that she refuses to acknowledge.

Btw, LKY must be  laughing at his eldest son and daughter. He willed the house to him but gave her the right to live in it, when I’m sure he knew they were not on the best of terms. Pay back time for both of them? Remember when she rowed with Pa, she lived with PM and Ho Ching and their family. This shows that she’s an ingrate like TRE cybernuts. No wonder she’s their new heroine.

Opposing FB views on M Ravi’s condition

To my surprise the other Ravi posted on FB

More at https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10155007948268277&id=633378276&hc_location=ufi

I was surprised because he seems to imply that there is nothing wrong with M Ravi (My FB avatar had suggested that looking at M Ravi’s videos and posts, a medical examination was warranted) and he dissed someone who had helped M Ravi who then found himself being slimed by M Ravi. 

(Btw, P Ravi is wrong about M Ravi never having had a criminal conviction. It became public knowledge that he had a bi-polar problem in 2006 when he was charged and found guilty of causing a disturbance at a mosque. Someone on FB alleges that he was found guilty of rowing with a bouncer but I can’t find evidence of this conviction.)

To my greater surprise, after I posted this on the shameful conspiracy of silence around M Ravi’s mental health, Ariffin Sha, a Padawan (Jedi in training) took exception to what P Ravi posted

Ravi Philemon is doing M Ravi no favours at all by egging him on. M Ravi may have a mental illness to blame but I don’t know what those who cheer and defend him can pin their blame on – Cheap thrills? Or the desire to siphon some fans off M Ravi’s fan base?

It is unfortunate that some people have so little political capital that they to go to such lengths to seek the endorsement of a person who needs medical attention (by his own admission) and his followers.

What M Ravi urgently needs now is professional help. As Alan Shadrakeputs it, “Ravi appears to have gone off the rails again but I hope he is given proper medical and psychiatric treatment instead of jailing him. That would be outrageous. When he takes his medications he’s in complete control – and brilliant. He did an excellent job representing me and it grieves me to see the problems he has again brought on himself. I  I hope the authorities treat him kindly and help his recovery.”

Now, I don’t think that P Ravi is trying “to siphon some fans off M Ravi’s fan bas”; but it’s nice to know that an anti-PAP activist (albeit a youngster) is willing to break ranks and speak out on the need for M Ravi to get medical help, rather than remain silent to try to protect his status as an anti-PAP icon.

Pink Dot photo describes to a T the S’pore Harry designed and constructed

This was posted on FB by Jolovan Wham, a Jedi who fights for the rights and dignity of migrant workers.

I mock Harry’s younger children’s rants about the abuse of power, the absence of “checks and balances to prevent the abuse of government”, and the lack of media freedom as BS because what they are ranting about is the natural consequence of the defacto one-party state that their Pa built with the overwhelming support of S’poreans. Remember that once upon a time, the PAP won 86.7% of the popular vote in the 1968 general election, and they have never had less than 60% of the popular vote in a general election. They often had 70% and more.

The only time the PAP could have “lost” was in presidential election 2011 (their preferred candidate won by about 3000 votes), but dadly the anti-PAP voters voted for two RI opportunists and deprived an honourable, decent RI boy of a famous victory. The 30% and the two RI opportunists betrayed S’poreans, and the PAP dudn’t even have to pay them. They betrayed S’pore for free.

As for the two spoiled kids, they only screamed when they were ignored by the governing system their Pa installed.

Shameful silence as M Ravi’s cows come home

Non-practising lawyer M Ravi was charged on Friday (Jun 30) with one count of criminal trespass “with intent to annoy”, for allegedly trespassing into the offices of law firm Eugene Thuraisingam LLP at People’s Park Complex.
Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/lawyer-m-ravi-charged-with-criminal-trespass-8990976

And this isn’t all. A lawyer reported on FB that the police are investigating his complaint that M Ravi beat him up badly. (Finally, someone stood up to complain that he was beaten up by M Ravi. Over the yrs, there’ve been allegations of such beatings, followed up by allegations of his “friends” settling matters so that Ravi’s public image is not hurt.)

He’s in for a rough time.

Whatever, his FB videos and comments seem at the very least to indicate that there should be a medical examination to determine if he’s ill again.

There seems to be a conspiracy of silence or denial by a group of anti-PAP activists (They are really, really very quiet) that usually cheer his every move, egging him on. Maybe they don’t want to him to get compulsorily* treated because of the stigma of him, an icon of the anti-PAP activists, going into Woodbridge.

I mean I never lived down voting for an ex-Woodbridge patient who was bi-polar too. The PAP dubbed him “mad” and “looney”, but I gritted my teeth and voted for him, a WP candidate,because of the “big picture”: the need for an Oppo. Not that it made a difference when the WP finally won a GRC: their MPs juz sat down, looked at their bank statements, grinned and kept quiet most of the time.

But as M Ravi has been charged with a criminal offence, there’s always the Mandatory Treatment Order that the court in its discretion can order. As in his autobiography written in 2014 or 2015, he said he didn’t take his prescribed medicine, he meditated instead, the court could, among other things, order that he be subjected to forced medication.

But if the court orders treatment of any sort, I’m sure these anti-PAP “friends” will scream that the state is abusing its power and that there’s nothing wrong with him.

Can the PAP voters that voted for Dr Tan Cheng Bock (25- 30% of the voters) ever support the causes that such people espouse? I doubt it.

—————————-

*I was wrong here to think his friends could apply for a  Mandatory Treatment Order. It’s only available in criminal cases. But there’s a separate civil procedure for compulsory treatment.

Give Harry the finger! Preseve that house!/ PAP see parly no ak isit?

I’ve always tot it strange that the anti-PAP mob, sane and nutty (Think Goh Meng Seng and Mad Dog Chee), want that house to be demolished as per LKY’s wish. I mean what would be a better way to insult his memory and show that HE cannot get his way (“The Lee way or the highway”) than by preseving his house against his (and his wife’s) wishes*.

S’poreans would be showing that for all their fine words for Harry, and support for the PAP, they don’t respect him enough to grant his final wish*.

As to the real elephant in the room, on the surface it looks equally strange that the PAP wants to go against his wish while pretending to honour him*. But that the subject of another post.

---

*Incidentally this is why the PAP tried to pull a fast one, and argue, unsuccessfully, that it was also his wish in his will to preserve the house. Thankfully S’poreans know this is BS and quoted what the PM, LKY’s eldest son, told parliament in 2015.

The PAP sat down and shut up.

Seriously it was so amateurish of the PAP not to check what it’s sec-gen said in parly. See parly no ak isit? So why is the High Lord of Everything Else (PM, PAP sec-gen and eldest son of Harry) making a statement in parly about his siblings allegations, since the PAP does not respect parliament enough to check what its leader said in it?