Ungrateful Platoon Commander, Insensitive Leeder

I saw this pic at BigTalk [Link]

I'm shocked that these words can come from a former Brigadier-General of the Singapore Armed Forces, the current Prime Minister of Singapore!

“If we make it (NS and Reservist for PR) a requirement, we would not get the people we wanted. Secondly, if they did serve NS at 30, 40 and 50 years old. I would not like to be their platoon commander.”

If I have not learned to be cool, calm and collected from my guru, Wisdom, the first words that should come from my mouth would be: "KNNMCCB" or, "Fcuk you, man!"


So why am I so bloody mad?

I was released from the bondage of NS and reservists' in-camp training almost 20 years ago at age 40! It hurts me to know that having been considered over the hill as a NSman at 30, I was still asked to waste my time to serve certain platoon commanders who did not appreciate my service.

I do not know the context at which such stupid statement came from a statesman but to belittle the contributions and sacrifices of thousands of NSmen who serves till 40 is appallingly sick! It is so sad to know that Singapore citizens who recite the Singapore Aspiration (Pledge?) are lesser mortals in Singapore than PRs who spice up the lives of elite Singaporeans!

Why such callous deed tears my guts out?

At this moment, my 18 month-old grand-daughter is yearning for her father. She is fatherless for 3 weeks because her 35 year-old dad (who is my son) is out of Singapore in some godforsaken jungle somewhere doing reservist training which his Platoon Commander (if he were PM Lee) does not appreciate because he's too old to be in NS.

It's all well and good when careless politician speaks of buying votes and fixing oppositions [Link] but to callously deride the sacrifices of so many true blue Singaporean NSmen is really asking for trouble.

NSmen and reservists are already disillusioned by ministers who make a mockery of nation serving by paying themselves millions; the 'white horse' classification of NSmen and the disadvantage they face in equal employment opportunity [Link].

Mr Prime Minister, why rock the boat further with such insensitivity?

Under the current economic and social condition in Singapore,

A grateful heart
A touch of kindness
A sense of solidarity
A caring demeanour

is what we expect from a leader.

A high falutin ingrate is furthest from our minds!

God bless Singapore.

feedmetothefish

F1 and Men in the Street of Singapore

If it did not come from the horse's mouth, you'd thought that a out-of-touch-high-faluting soul said it.

Extracted from Straits Times [Link]: Pointing out that F1 was far from being an elite race, Mr Goh said that those who cannot afford the $8,500 Paddock Club seats have access as well via the general walkabout tickets, which went for as low as $28. 'So that way, the organisers have made a special provision for the man in the street,' he noted.

The walkabout tickets let a person stand at designated areas to watch the race and this year, for the first time, about 7,500 were sold at the discounted early-bird price of $28.

It's a bloody shame that the discounted early-bird price of $28 entitles one to watch nothing but merely hear engines roar. Pity the poor guy who wrote to ST Forum to complain that he's been conned.

No, F1 is not an elite race. Neither is football a gentlemen's game played by ruffians and rugby a ruffians' game played by gentlemen. Or is it? I'm of the opinion that there are gentlemen and ruffians in almost every sports and hypocrites in many politicians.


Living within my means and not having the luxury of SM Goh's connection and salary, I'm lucky to catch some of the F1 action at a coffeeshop TV by just buying a 90 cents kopi-c-siew-tai (black coffee with evaporated milk and not much sugar).

Yes, the man in the street did get a chance to watch the elites' sports but to use the $28 example was kinda dumb. To me, the live telecast would have been a better example.

I enjoyed the race. However, I find it odd that the PM of Singapore had the pathetic role of presenting the trophy to the winner. He looked as uncomfortable as he he did delivering the National Day Speech (with weird gesticulation). Wouldn't it be more appropriate if Vivian Balakrishnan or Teo Ser Luk did the job instead. At least they are sports related and look the part. Or like many others, has the PM's Office (highest office in the land?) sold out to commercialism too? F1 now. What next? Gambling dens? IRs?

Singapore's men in the street are getting confused with lots of things lately. They are trying hard to understand:

• Why income has stood still? Reduced with pay cut?
  
• Why cost of living is shooting through the roof? From food to HDB flat to transportation . . .
• Why lately, the embarrassing self-congratulatory news in msm of Temasek & GIC caliming to recover Singapore's lost treasures ( as in Citigroup, Barclays, ShinCorp, ABC, etc.)?
• Why foreign talents are no longer talents but victims of greedy employers and despots who refuse to let go?
• Why we can hardly breathe with a 4.9 million population that we did not have the pleasure to screw for?
  
• Why we continue to get skewed responses from MP where salary increase is highlighted without comparison to cost of living [UBS Survey Link]
  

  Not quite, says MP Seah Kian Peng, who also chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee for Community Development, Youth and Sports.
  'The figures may be right, but the conclusion could be wrong,' he notes.
  Rather than look at prices and wages in isolation, he says the key considerations should be: Do Singaporeans lead a better life than they did in the past, and are the poor taken care of?
  'If the answer to both is yes, then moving up or down two notches becomes mere semantics,' he says.
  He cites a recent government report which found that the salaries of the bottom 20 per cent of wage earners have risen. Their monthly wages increased from $1,200 in 2006 to $1,310 last year.

So why are men in the street so disillusioned?

Or is it just me?

feedmetothefish

Whiter Than White

I'm amazed that Sonny Yap of Straits Times took a half page on Saturday's Page 2 to do his thing in promoting sales. "Criticise, but please get your facts right." [Link]

Has sales been so bad that ST has to dedicate half a page of whining to boost the sales of Men in White? [Link]. I love the part where Sonny asks us to read the book first before any comment. More sales? So clever!

Please visit Mr See Tong Min, Martyn at Singapore Rebel [link] and judge for yourself if the whining and 'crying father, crying mother' of the injustice done to the writers of the book (commissioned by SM, endorsed and forwarded by MM?) is valid. Or as I feel, an awesome way to sucker more innocents to buy into "Men in White".

I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of the arrogance and the "father knows best" attitude of the MIW. The decision of MIW to pay themselves millions while men-in-the-street, especially the middle class, are at wits end to make ends meet takes the cake! To add insult to injury, the shameless boot licking of some msm is so damned pukingly ad nauseam.

Talking about taking the cake, this is the first book launch I know that the authors do not put their beautiful signatures on the book to add value. Instead it is the subject's signature that makes it orgasmic enough to bring in the money to the tune of $10,000 a copy! For charity if I may add to add rubber to the wheel. Uniquely Singaporean!

Facts of the book? Truths? We will never know until we know.

For untold story to be fair, may I recommend:

The video on Mr Said Zahari by Mr Martyn See (banned) [Link]
The exchange between Sonny Yap and Martyn See [Link]
The Dr Lim Hock Siew Press Statement [Link]
The British Archive of the Men in White and Lim Chin Siong [Link]

Facts and truths? For many years my impression, through the main stream media, of Mr Chee Soon Juan was that he's a nut case. It was at a NUS political discussion (where I met him, Denise Phua, Perry Tong and Catherine Lim amongst others) years ago that I saw CSJ in person and come to realised the poison that's been fed to my brain by the msm. It was then that I realised the reasons of why a man with a beautiful wife and 3 young kids would spend time in and out of jail taking on the mightiest of the mighty in Singapore to do what most Singaporeans consider stupid and hopeless.

And as the 1st anniversary of Mr JB Jeyaratnam's passing is nigh, I'd like to share what I've just seen on youtube with you. [link].

Is this a nut case? A madman, a near psychopath so called by MM and Chua Mui Hoong of Straits Times [Link]

Is he?

Times, they are changing . . .

For the better.

feedmetothefish

Do Singaporeans deserve to be treated like Freaks?

Singapore's famous Catherine Lim posed MM Lee this question: ‘Sir, in the event of a serious threat of a freak election, would you do the unthinkable, that is, send in the army?’ [Link]

Just what on earth is a 'freak election'?

I know the men in white will freak out when they lose the election but are we so bloody brainwashed that an election not won by PAP becomes a freak election?

Would anyone consider Barack Obama a freak for having won the USA Presidential Election?

It's frigging freaky for Singaporeans to think that an election not won by PAP is a freak.

For what they have done, I think PAP deserves to lose an election every now and then. It is neither an aberration nor an anomaly. It'll wake them up from their hubris to become more earth-bound and human. Yes, it's about time to bring people down to earth from their high faluting arrogance . . . . .

On a more serious note, I'm still confused from the answer Catherine received on whether the army will ensure the longevity and perpetual power of PAP? It's either I'm too thick or the answer is meant to confound.

Maybe the Army will. That's why our Pledge of 'building a democratic society based on justice and equality' has become an Aspiration.

To think that an election not won by PAP is a freak election is so UNTHINKABLE!

feedmetothefish