Singapore’s Human Right And Left.

In Singapore, whenever people talk about Human Rights nowadays, it is almost certainly going to drag in the SDP (Singapore Democratic Party) folks. Recently, we have another opposition wannabe involved with this thing called Human Rights, and who else would it be but our law hero Ti Lik.

It is rather interesting when Gleechoo suggested that maybe I should write something about it. Alright, no problem. Actually, Human Rights is a pretty deep subject unknown to the laymen, and those politician-wannabes; how not to be convoluted is just about the same as how to be convincing… Which is actually the essence of Human Rights.

Perhaps allow Professor Elfred to tell Singaporeans one story:

Long long ago, in a far far away land, two big big men met at a small small place… The one with the big big guns pointed to the man with the big big brain and loud loud he yelled, “This is a robbery, you may not say anything, but whatever you said will be taken like farting…”

The big brain did dump alot of reasons why he should not be robbed and so on and so forth, but the big gun took his stinking underwear nonetheless. Just before the big gun got to run away, a lady with big big boobs appeared and bounced the big gun back to the crime scene. The lady said she was the goddess sent to stop the crime. So the big brain was saved.

The above story is about Human Rights. Like it or not, it is.

If we go by dictionary, this crap called Human Rights is defined as the rights of individuals to liberty, justice, etc. If we go by political version, it is the Rights to which people are entitled by virtue of being Human; universal and fundamental Rights. If we go by MM Lee, it would have to be a very very long and probably really convoluted session with me; but we can sum this up in his roar of the 60s: Singaporean Singapore.

But we have to stick this in our minds because Mr Lee is aging, and… our discussion is based on when he is still around with us. Human Rights in Singapore is like the perception of the same old man by Dr Chee and by Sudjono Hoemardani, the latter found Mr Lee friendly, outspoken and kind. Dr Chee may be going to protest on this… Anyway, with this we go into Human Rights.

Human Rights is like United Nation, there is this by right and there is that by left. Of course, Professor Elfred will go into more practical aspects of this thing called Human Rights as well.

Human Rights By Right You Are Right.

(Hang on… Got a show, man. Politics is important… Yeah yeah, but the show is more important!!! Hahahahahaha…)

Chinese Education And Singapore.

[将进酒] 李白曰： 古来圣贤皆寂寞， 惟有饮者留其名。I know this line for a pretty long time. That was around primary school time. It is very obvious that schools nowadays, especially the one I had briefly taught for around 3 months, cannot be more bothered than the A grade their students got for Chinese as a subject. And the standard is like so easy!

So there is no guessing that few kids will know this, and fewer will even understand what the line is saying.

When I told some parents that their kids were losing out on Chinese standards, they told me something: Why are you making life so hard for my kid by setting the standards so high?  I scored A for chinese as well when I was in school!

Yeah yeah, that’s the kinda A that makes you happy… And when I encouraged them to read Romance of Three Kingdoms, this was met with: My kids were bright, of course they have read the Three Kingdoms!

Yeah yeah, she let her kids read the thin thin easy version of the story which was like sounding so absurd to me. The effect of reading Romance of Three Kingdoms the original version will effectively push someone’s Chinese standard all the way to JC level and even beyond. In a way, Singaporeans like to compete, but they love resorting to tricks or shabby alternatives.

The next effect of really completing that book will make one either maturely good, or terribly evil. So usually I encourage the children to read when they are more innocent when most kids wanna be the heroes and not the villains, but nowadays, Romance of Three Kingdoms are Dynasty Warriors to them; so what’s the difference since villains fight as cool as the heroes? The school can’t be that bothered anyway, the HOD was even resentful when I expressed my concern about that kinda standard.

Singaporeans… After all, this is a cultural desert, and artificially maintained to be. And I always wondered back then why MM Lee was pointing a finger at Singaporeans’ Chinese education; because Singaporeans basically have a thinking problem and it’s not really a Chinese issue. Many people know that, especially the mainlanders and the Taiwanese folks.

‘The screw-loose Singaporeans’ as they called it is about as hopeless as some ATMs. Li Ao simply summed it up as Stupid Singaporeans. And when Mr Gopinath Pillai said something like ‘when they say yes doesn’t mean yes’ and such to point out the communication in India to us, actually it is the same as in China to Singapore.

This is obviously not just an issue about subject standards. The thinking process, hence maturity, of Singaporeans at large from civil servants down to the public is the critical issue. So just as the lesser than 4m Singaporeans are finding the mainlanders ridiculous at times, the problem is… China and India are not going to change just to make this tiny portion of world population happy. Some say Singaporeans are spoilt.

Yes, they are.

Singaporeans think they are the center of the world, and they kinda have not realised that the world is increasingly placing better products in China then they consider the conceited Singaporeans’ need. This is happening slowly, but steadily. And the mainland-made products are starting to dominate the markets while India is becoming the IT hub. Just as fragile Singaporeans break when MM Lee suggests they are complacent, Singapore is getting the colder shoulders by the days.

You can’t literally point anything out to Singaporeans because they now have this Great Wall of Singapore; they will throw stones at you if you show them the mirror mirroring their true selves. So MM just passed a general comment, and Singaporeans quickly retailiated.

Oops~ Mr Lee Kuan Yew, you have offended the center of the world!

Who Built The Great Wall Of Singapore?

Maybe Mr Lee should log onto TOC and apologise for his no respect to Singaporean guys and gals for his remarks; or maybe he should listen to Blue Bamboo’s at YPforum stating ’MM should shut up‘; or he should just grant the wish of those at SGforum for this concern: Lee Kuan Yew, when are you going to die?!

What is happening to Singapore? If Mr Lee Kuan Yew is not the minister mentor but another Elfred online, maybe he’d ask a Mr Ong Teng Cheong, a forum moderator at one Old NTUC forum: Why art thou giving me the ban? Then Mr Ong might just tell him…

‘Stop bitching~ You have offended Singaporeans!’

Hahahahaha… Ok, that’s a joke. But the point is straight enough, this is just about the current state of maturity of Singaporeans, and it is not just online. A great wall of Singapore is fully in effect, and Mr Wong Kan Seng who is in charge of internal affairs and security should be amused… Singaporeans are asking him to kinda ’get lost‘ outright.

This is no discussion. It’s more of a demand by powerful mature Singaporeans online; powerful because this concerns the most powerful man in Singapore, and a deputy on the other side. Of course, the Prime Minister is not spared. He was described as the coward who hid behind his father by the mature Singaporeans!

And not only that, mature Singaporeans want to know the cards Singapore is holding in this card game: Reserves. Elfred can’t reason with mature Singaporeans online, because by all maturity the reason to counter Elfred’s reasoning is this: He is a pro-PAP, he is counter insurgency…

Yeah yeah~

And I thought theonlinecitizen is neutral? This is not a discussion! This is just encountering a bunch of populist babies whereby some of them come even with veto power!

Actually, I very much hope to add this in that thread at SGforum: Mr Lee, if you die, can you at least evacuate Elfred and his likes before the forums start celebrating?

This is the Singapore after many years of social engineering and wasting so much time and money in education.  And MM Lee expects Singapore to click with China, and probably India? Has Professor Elfred heard wrongly? If I can find a door in this great wall of Singapore, I would gladly open it and flee.

Singaporeans are not mature! You can’t tell them they are immature, because the next thing that’d happen is you-know-what, ‘MM should shut up‘. The way that they even fend for themselves is hardly amusing…

But the behavior, the attitude and the mentality plus the methods must come from somewhere. Last time in Parliament, an opposition raised an issue, and the rumored response was kinda: You should shut up, we are the majority, we can vote you out anytime! This might be a clue.

If you still don’t get it, which school are you from…?

Luckily the Father of Singapore never hammers the local girls for their lust after the 5Cs… You can imagine Singaporeans justifying themselves with the living costs and such and so on, as if Mdm Lee ever heard of credit cards in Singapore when she married MM Lee.

This is the Great Wall Of Singapore, where everything is possible. Like how?

Chinese Education Is The Strategy Ahead.

It is doubtless that from very little I have this idea that Mr Lee has been creating his very own nemesis, and I have been very puzzled about it especially after the Barisan Sosialis event. While the internal structure has since been modified, there seems very little if any at all through the more peaceful years to consolidate the population; a population where the PAP shalt get its candidates and members from, and a population that can infest a party and even overflood a regime.

As social creatures, mankind will always be political regardless of fulfillment or non-fulfillment of economic goods. There is either politically pathetic or politically acceptable in standards of a society in the Chinese way of thinking; there is no such thing as economics can dilute mankind’s basic instinct in this social aspect. It is hence either you have people rioting  with professional concerns or people rioting at will and fancy.

Today, Singaporeans will bombard MM Lee for passing a general message, tomorrow they will march against the PM for possibly any policy they can find some inference to possibly anything. And that’s the real land of possibility. But such state of a state will take some time to mature. And on the gahmen’s side, since the mouth of the most powerful man on this island can’t do the trick, how about resorting to knuckles to do the talking?

But an elected gahmen is basically based on popular votes, and basically the local netizens close ranks on a target and all reasonings that don’t seeminlyly appeal to their direction are condemned upon. In this, you can summarise as such:
Step out of the line, and we’d shoot you.

Hey! Isn’t this the general concept of governance, or control philosophy, that was the idea well-known to be the gahmen’s?

The issue about China, hence its political history, is that it has yielded a number of schools in the field of governance and politics by thinkers. If it is so simple to handle governance and politics just by Singaporean way of control management or economic development, there won’t be any need for emperors to have sought high and low for slaves, villagers, jobless wanderers and such to be their ministers. One can say that Elfred has been watching this Singaporean show for decades while doing his own things.

China has a huge cache of political treasures as a gift for the world.

What is China? It is a true multi-racial, multi-religious and even multi-territorial entity even before Emperor Kang Xi’s era… which was like several hundreds of years earlier before Singapore’s People Action Party even existed. But sadly, not every emperor was wise plus with the intruding periods of western powers and during Mao’s cultural revolution, a lot of past works were wiped up, cultural progress was stalled, but the historical events shall be the basis of thinking, nonetheless.

Well, Panter just left these comments in my blog :
‘You had better stop insulting the people and the country like that Elfred. You are embarrassing everyone including yourself.‘ (1)
and…
‘Hahahahahahahaha…
This is really a joke. Genesis, are you really that good? Or should I direct this question to Elfred as well?
My age? What’s my age? 16? or 61?
Am I young? Well, perhaps I’m young and definitely younger than all of you. But being young has more advantages than being old.
We’re more resilient as compared to people like Elfred and our dear genesis here.‘ (2)

Maybe we should just call off this discussion to make Panter a happier boy. I am sure if Panter has his wish comes true and he indeed becomes a fine civil servant to work for the people, the world will call Singaporeans smart, and will never have any more ‘insults’ to Singaporeans and myself, Elfred and the likes will have no voices but we’d have the resilient Panters’, and of course…

By the time this generation grows up to take over the center of the world, Jason’s SGforum won’t need this thread ‘Lee Kuan Yew, when are you going to die?’, because Mr Lee might have departed from politics by then. The gahmen says that the younger generations want more say and involvement in the running of Singapore. I beg the gahmen’s pardon…

The impressionate younger generations of Singaporeans, even the primary school kids I had come across during my brief teaching experience, have never the proper exposure of solid political education or happenings. But the society or their parents have more or less influences over them that we have generally kids who have shown a stink of office political smarts and mentality. This is worrying. What will they grow up into in Singapore, well-known to be a cultural desert?

They will likely grow up and take office, become rich and snobbish or in power, and become reckless. The schools nowadays have little control over this crucial part of their development. In a way, the society is replicating themselves, but in a more modified and intense manner. I smell troubles ahead.

This is far more than Complacency that the MM has spoken of, but I seriously doubt Mr Lee would have any notion about the seriousness beyond the convenient rude reaction to his remarks dumped on him and the attitude and mentality in civic activities. Honestly, other than my termination from MOE, what else have the gahmen really done?

In a way, MM himself has received a ‘ban’ online. The gahmen has wisely created its own nemesis over the years. Not that Elfred would not have warned earlier, but as the same it is with the online participants… the great wall of Singapore is not only applicable to online Singaporeans, because the one who has built it is… pardon my frankness, the gahmen itself. 

If I have voiced this earlier, the one who would have been shot dead would be me. And Mr Lee Hsien Loong will have no chance to sign my membership card.

In Chinese: 半部论语治天下。If you take the exact meaning by words, it is actually nosense in my view because 一整部论语亦不治天下也; however, that Chinese line does stress the importance of the need of thinking, hence culture, for political stability and to effect proper governance. If Panter must receive the right exposure so that ambitious civil servant wannabes can really work for the people in the future, then we have no choice but to inject a strong dose of Chinese culture into our education right from the most elementary level.

This is no Chinese chauvinistic thought, it applies to all and not necessarily only Chinese. Confucianism itself has travelled to western communities nowadays, and such influence is not a stranger in Singapore’s politics. The way of the political thinkers and its era have crept in. Elfred is not talking about having Confucianism in the syllabus, it is the direction of what Singapore must head forward to. Confucianism itself is pretty flawed, and the modern understanding of Confucius’ has been quite hilarious in Singapore, as we have discussed in this blog.

It is no wonder that many races and religions have come to China only to be absorbed by the Chinese culture, which is what China is now. Seemingly, Singapore could have also one of its greatest political thinker of all time, because political thinkers had really no racial or territorial differences.

In Chinese: 英雄所见略同.

古来圣贤皆寂寞， 惟有饮者留其名…

Making people happy is obviously not my style. Too many people in this world, everyone is different. If I write to the MM because somebody has robbed me, I do not expect him to help me recover my money because he is doing me a favor; he’d go after the robber because he knows he has an interest in it instead of grooming a robber by leaving him/her unchecked.

Politics: The Business Of Making People Happy.

The MM has been very sensitive to foreign intervention for decades. Actually, if Mahathir and his cronies were to intervene in Singapore’s business, they can. Why can’t Daim, for instance?

Singapore’s political structure has been designed to critically solder with economics. The oppositions have been most stupid wasting time cursing GRCs and such and such when the big backdoor into this heavily guarded fortress is wide opened all the time. It is a short cut direct into the nerve system of this setup. It is so powerful that the staunch laws against casinos can be removed; piece of cake.

If there is any virus to infect the system, this is the perfect lobang.

Why don’t Elfred join the opposition? The opposition is really too louya. They have no strategists, no understanding of politics, no urge or motivation to succeed, and how are they going to govern Singapore as the state enters a new global scenario now out of the cold war era? By going taking to the streets?

What takes 10 years for the oppositions to accomplish ends up taking seemingly forever. And the best many opposition elements and laymen could do is:
Elfred is pro-PAP, Elfred is counter-insurgency, Elfred is arrogant bla bla bla…

Yeah yeah~ Go ahead. Of course you don’t need Elfred… Even if you need, I’d gladly decline.

Singapore is actually a vulnerable state. MM is telling Singaporeans ‘we are not infallible’, and that’s to fellow PAP folks as well. But I suppose that’d probably fall on deaf ears, anyway. Elfred and Mr Lee Kuan Yew are apparently the super minority in this kampong called Singapore. At 35yo, MM took over Singapore… and he was unsure. And 32yo, Elfred is quite sure that he needs to make a run.

I am not embarassing myself to say this, I am confronting issues at hand. If I were really complacent and only to start my explorations beyond Singapore now… I’d be a confirmed dead papaya ready to be smashed by our MRT trains; instead I have done what I could, this is to be responsible to myself.

There is nothing that Elfred can do for Singapore. Meritocracy is great, but the scholars are obviously having their own issues and none shall interfere. Rich poor gap is acceptable, only that the underdogs are having troubles with the snobs. We have many fantastic policies, stigmas, plus an whole army of mature Singaporeans out there and what can Elfred do?

Get real.

By 35yo, Elfred can try help Singapore by reducing 1 casualty, hopefully by moving himself out so that mature and educated Singaporeans can do what they want and what they feel is right.

The thing about this Pro-PAP halo swung to me is this… For many years, the system has been strengthening not really the anti-PAP, but the horde of elements not meant for politics and rather ill in moral values, the appreciation of culture and understanding of ethics, I am rendered too weak by MM’s system itself to even fix the system and how do I ‘Pro-PAP’? I am not produced for office politics either. It is extremely unfair that after so many years of fine learning that I am being accused of being a radical.

There is totally no basis that I am Pro-PAP or Anti-PAP saved for the membership. I am a neutral party, and this is possible in politics. So the only reason for this nosense is precisely because Singaporeans are politically pathetic. Those ministers or MPs or PAP folks who know Elfred know.

The what counter-insurgency label on Elfred is the most ridiculous joke in the 21st century. If this joke reaches the PM, he’d probably laugh until his stomach pains. Nosensical~ I doubt even Mr Low Thia Khiang will believe I am what counter-insurgency if he reads Elfred’s regularly. And just because Mr Low Thia Khiang told Meng Seng and Ti Lik off doesn’t make him the traitor of opposition.

There is totally no basis at all that I am counter-insurgency. Again, this political joke is possible only because Singaporeans are quite politically pathetic.

On the PAP side, Elfred is not a mole and not under opposition influence. I am not really that worried about such ‘badmouthing’ efforts because PMO has my records, MM isn’t so stupid to believe in this shit, I know not about the PM, but SM Goh most probably won’t believe either. And most importantly, I am not lusting after a Member of Parliament position, at least for now. This is already well-known. I am a blunt moderate, just that.

Just because I am very vocal on certain issues doesn’t mean anything. And I have been a vocal chap since very young. This sort of misunderstanding is so unnecessary.

Throughout this, experience confirms one thing… the attitude of many in politics is not healthy. MM Lee might be shocked that he has been… nurturing his own nightmare. How is PM going to handle the future? Beats me.

I am supposed to assist Mr Ong Teng Cheong, pity he just died like that when I was about to graduate. Mr Ong was an active man, and he was rather motivated and righteous, but Mr Ong needed someone who could show him things and logic to divert the energy in proper ways, and to avoid an unnecessary clash with Mr Lee. After all, MM has been a darling research subject of mine since I was a boy. To me, Mr Ong and Mr Tony Tan were a pair of great hands to Mr Lee in the management of Singapore.

Don’t get me wrong. Not that I don’t wanna assist this current PM. But his situation is seemingly not conducive. There is a high risk that I will get wasted, and it is not as if Singapore has been producing such elements on regular basis. My situational analysis is proven right, that while some assumed MOE’s termination was to disgrace Elfred, did it really matter? It is the loss of the government, not me.

For Elfred, when the right leader comes, he still can return to MOE or anywhere and do what is supposed to be done. There is no hurry. Yes I know, this PM is in a very difficult position… fact is, compared to Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Mr Goh Chok Tong, PM Lee’s situation is the most difficult. If anyone would agree with me in the current cabinet, I suspect that has to be Mr Jayakumar.

And whenever people said MM should retire… I laughed. This is not the time Mr Lee should retire, this is the time he should be active instead! You can’t blame Singaporeans for making that wish, because that is the kinda politics they embrace. Do I sound bootlicking?

If I am a bootlicker, I might have reached the top in this cultural desert… This kinda label has no basis at all.

The local politics is too tied up with commercial interests. For any great political thinkers of even the ancient days, they would probably frown. There was a good reason why the business class was taken as the lowest (or one of the lowest) by the wise emperors; that was, however, too extremist. But there was a good rationale in that.

In the past, China had many many castles, there were no such things as handphones or satelites or the internet, but a castle needed supplies and that was one way spies could enter a castle, or… since merchants were profit hungry, merchants could be bought to work for either sides. And the rich bullied the poor, corrupted the officials and became a constant headache for the regime.

One can hence understand why business class was the lowest of all, and wise emperors usually kept business class at bay and in check, and kept them away from politics. That was because the strongest fortress could be intervened through business activities.

And greedy and immoral man not only prayed to the heavens, they also prayed to the rich and equally immoral business class.

That was precisely how strong Qing Dynasty was brought down to shambles. The western powers literally corrupted the officials via the native merchants and eventually paralyzing the emperor’s admin prowess, and the government became actually a huge, but hollow shell.

During Li Deng Hui’s time, the same thing happened to KMT. The economy was thriving, but the people were suffering, and MJT got their breakthrough.

There are many celebrating the success of Singapore. Singapore is a success because it has created an economical miracle. But all these were on the back of a great political setup because of the brilliant first batch politicians. One can say it is because of the wild support of PAP in the past that the government could have concentrated on economic building. However, in these days, there seems to be a reverse in thinking…
If we have high economic figures, we’d have political stability.

If that has been the case, our notorious Mahathir would have been a national hero in Malaysia; and his black gold politics would have become the model for the world!

How many equally notorious billionaires and powerful people have Mahathir created and favored? Why ain’t the Malaysians grateful to him? Hadn’t Mahathir created an economic wonder as Suharto had done for Indonesia?

If politics is just about making people happy, some people’s dreams are just pure nightmares for mankind. If money can buy political stability, Mahathir would not have stepped down, and Mao would have already been kicked.

Economy is only meaningful when we have done the right things and gain political strength; and that requires justice and social consolidation, which also means relevant education as some social maintenace. What needs to be done is already up written on the wall.

In Conclusion.

There are just so much things we have to do, but currently can’t do in Singapore. Well, there are always things to do in politics and governance since the world is never stagnant.

For the blogger, the correct thing to do… is to remain an anonymous and to stay out of the mess. There is a big fight coming. Trust me, big times are coming and why should I get involved when I can enjoy the show from somewhere else.

In Chinese: 江山自有人才在，如何逍遥自在还自在。

YP Pretender wanna know why I am in YP, and Panter thought YP has what advantage… Hmm… Gleechoo wants me to write something on Human Rights… Fine. We’d lump everything in the coming slot. So stay tune in~

The Online Party Badawi Claimed Missed.

Adding to the rummage online are Elfred’s lines loaded often with typos, so plenty of common sense is required if you come across Elfred’s cock talked online. At the irk of our infamous Ms Wee perhaps, talking cock requires no presidential award in English, however.

Thanks to various online participants’ concerns, Elfred’s ban at YPforum ends up actually an ISP ban which is, as explained by our beloved all time joker buddy Noelofac or Mosh or Moi or whatever, I still hope to classify it as a ban.  Grunt got it, Panter got it, even Patgoh and the rest got such ISP ban experience with Singnet and Starhub in or outside YPforum.

Is that a bug? Is that a buck? A bug for a buck… Bug or buck, it’s just a ban, and this bug must be something if it can wiggle into some ISPs.

About online community… it’s a truly wild safari in pitch black.

Gosh, I left a historical typo mark at Redbean’s again and he even wants me to email him. Hahahaha… Sorry, old man… I don’t wanna get too involved beyond the fun of talking cock and end up emailing cock.

Cyber Warfare.

Let’s just be honest. No matter how powerful a party feels or how disadvantaged a party may be, a party’s reality is still decided by why voters would elect it during elections. Of course, if elections consistently cannot reflect what people want, then we’d have another reality…

Premier Badawi is not really defeated; the Malaysians are annoyed by the policies after they celebrated the kicking of Mahathir out of the arena. And this is due to simply the heavy pressence of Mahathir’s remnants in the UMNO, and of course… given that Malaysians are fed up after so long under louya governance and that political reality, bad policies and scandals literally pulled down UMNO, leaving Badawi relatively unscathed.

People want Badawi, people don’t want Mahathir’s team. And as Elfred always said you’d need leadership in opposition for a good show, in Malaysia’s case, the opposition has a major strong leadership in Anwar Ibrahim. Of course, all these are not possible without the internet.

And what is the internet? It’s the sum of minds. And minds belong to people. And people are the voters.

While Badawi admits his slack in the attention to internet community, but Elfred doubts that Pak Lah is really not bothered about cyberspace at all. If MM Lee reads online articles, so would good old Badawi. So Badawi is apologising on behalf of UMNO.

Actually, UMNO is slacking in not just the internet, it’s just a big slacking white elephant leaving broken stumps in Malaysia over its decades of bully tactics under Mahathir; who in UMNO has really been concerned about the commoners back then other than their own projects, own positions, own justice…

Anyone who dares say UMNO leaders were not economically driven will earn my laughter. They were! Mahathir had successfully created an ‘economic miracle’ where billionaires or just cronies were created, Twin Petronas were built and they even have this super multimedia corridor. Given the super multimedia corridor, UMNO seemingly bochaps cyberspace, so ironical.

Just as the disposed and now belated Soharto who had ‘stablised Indonesia and built Indonesia an economic wonder‘ gaining the marvel of IMF back then, these Northern Asian elites obviously took politics for granted and took their people for a ride for too long.

We cannot blame Pak Lah, he himself is struggling to free himself to do good, I presume. At least he knew that before this recent election, and had wanted to replace as many as 8 ministers. If UMNO politics allows, I suppose he’d want to remove even Syed Hamid. 

So… Is Badawi really a loser to cyberspace? Not really. But Anwar is indeed a winner in the cyberspace warfare. The biggest mistake of Pak Lah in this cyberspace affair was UMNO’s terrorising of bloggers by legal actions, and subsequently with their hilarious attitude on internet shown in the international court over Pedra Branca.

Who in the right mind will use a simple blogger’s contents in court?

UMNO.

But of course, Badawi had to answer for that joke as well.

Spillover Effects In Our Global Village.

There are two kinds of spillover effects. And we begin by acknowledging that the world which is pulled together by the internet is also beginning to share motivations in politics. 

It’s actually quite simple but almost always omitted by leaders who are only interested in hoping that their political spheres remain that simply exclusively theirs.

Now when you fix somebody up at the other half of the globe, the internet ensures that everybody has the chance to be nosy about it. If you expect only those who have acess to computers to know, but mouths had been and have been always the effective media, via gossips, via debates, via boasts, via arguments…

In Chinese: 好事儿不出门，坏事儿传千里。

And of course, you have the professional busybodies all over the world you call them the Media.

So the internet now also performs as some sort of Hall Of Justice. For instance, Mahathir can claim that no evidence is found against him in the recent exposed legal fraud. But since he was the Prime Minister for that fraud, and Anwar was the Deputy, he has to be responsible to the fraud and to his deputy in the opinion of the people; ie as Badawi has to be responsible to the team’s performance left behind by Mahathir as well. Hence, Mahathir got penalized.

Now we obviously can see how the internet works, hence how the people shall vote in time, we’d go now into local internet scene. Before that, I am not sure whether to thank Redbean for the publicity since I may be a PAP member, but I am no shock absorber for others’ gains and motives.

Reddie, I know you are rather fed up with the establishment’s ‘representatives’… but why drag Mr Nice Guy Elfred into your personal war with the establishment?  

Redbean has a blog, he coins it as a model of journalism for the… aspiring journalists. Dangerous. Yeah yeah, it’s proud to have some values generated, but if you take internet that seriously, the gahmen will probably take you seriously as well.

Why? Am I to take my own cock talked so seriously? I can’t.

Forums are just pure entertainment to Elfred who ain’t lusting after whores, who ain’t so addicted to gambling, and who is too proper for night clubs. And Elfred is an anonymous by default.

What is in an official anonymous being honest about his affiliations? Shadow-boxing lah~ Hahahahahahaha… as if winds are singing.

In this online party Badawi claimed missed… it is happening in Singapore. Welcome welcome~ It’s dark there, it’s dark here as well.

Singapore Politics In The Internet Era.

There is a reason why Elfred brings in Redbean into this discussion. Singaporeans are never the type I’d trust basically, and not that I don’t trust our old Reddie, but online, we are all but nicks and it’s just pitch black; we are all aliens to one another.

When has Elfred said PMO is reading his blog?

We have to understand about the community online under our gahmen. Firstly, the actual portion of those primarily involved in political talks is not really that huge. There is another portion of young people including primary school kids blogging about their hated teachers, and who will grow up blogging about their much hated peers, and who will grow up blogging their XXX attitude towards the gahmen and their hated lives.

After all, internet is mostly a vent.

So we generalize online activities into two portions, but strictly speaking they do overlap. This can be seen as such… when gahmen hits at one engineer’s blog, the rest of the political portion plus the kpo portion are activated. And when this blog is banned, the kids will be affected, because the civil servants in schools will go hysterical on the innocent kiddy bloggers and the parents will be affected… and the whole Singapore resonates about how this and that is PAP and so on and so forth.

It happened before in Singapore and the attitude towards the party was kinda aggravated in a way. When it happened in Malaysia, Premier Badawi was just killing his own image to the entire online community by letting arrogant UMNO banging on two bloggers. It just shows how small the world become, and how similar will events and results become in this global village.

But in Singapore, unlike the North, the online community has been left mostly undisturbed except by some gahmen related entities who could be too used to arrogance and the almighty mentality. Behind those disturbances are usually the out of reality political mindsets or just… non-updated political reality.

Put it this way, TOC or Mr Brown’s site or YPforum are just like community centre or Meet The People Session where the general public gather and talk cock, and some indian chiefs rise among them as grassroot leaders. But of course, they are not necessarily angels or conventionally recognised as constructive elements worth the merits.

So whenever people ask Elfred… ‘Why do you mix in forums online?’

Why? As if you won’t mix with strangers in CCs, or in MPS? Besides, I am no Member of Parliament but just a card holding ikan bilis, or a resident. As an experienced MPS interviewer, I am pretty open-minded, and kinda aware of the ‘games’ involved by some smartalecs.

Just play along lah~

The only highlight in the internet is that unless you are seasoned, it’s very stupid to be open about your association with PAP. Because by doing that, you’re inviting troubles. TOC’s Choo is a good example. For Elfred… Aiyah~ Can’t be bothered.

I have been in society too long handling even lunatics and various assholes. People expect to find troubles with pompous PAP people, the only trouble is when you are a PAP member and you don’t even know how to explain, or debate. Mine… Anti-PAP netizens… Not as if I have not come across the likes of Emptycage, Goh MS and Ti Lik.

Well, Elfred is Elfred. And is still Elfred. Not a problem.

So that shows about how Singapore politics in the internet is. There are just too many nosenses, and if you are fed up with every single nosense, your lungs would have exploded many many times in a year. Basically, one would have to note this when you come online:

Singaporeans are not good in politics and governance. Period.

And you’d have them talking all the tall craps which they don’t understand, making lotsa loopholes to play in day in day out; and many will be pissed as barbarians who can’t win no matter how their smarts have brought them supposedly fanciful arguments.

When it comes to politics and governance, do you expect Elfred to take Singaporeans seriously? Come on.

Singaporeans can’t think. Generally speaking, if they are educated enough, it’s probably money money and more money in their world hidden within their iron-rich skulls.

How insulting…

Then think lah~!

Instead of thinking, many would end up resorting to petty smartalec approaches to win… while they are unpleased with the party’s smarts. How ironical. This is typically Singaporean politics online.

Pot calling the kettle black.

Will Singapore Have UMNO-style Debacle?

Let’s just dismiss the formalities and go straight into the G-spot; and G stands for Gahmen. What else?

So far, the gahmen has been very smart. Instead of terrorising cyberspace outright, they even promote blogging in the various communities reaching out to including the small kids in schools. Yeah yeah, there have been some small ‘actions’ like they kicked Mr Brown, but generally speaking, PAP is at least trying to appear as a friendly party without directly terrorising the paranoid Singaporeans.

Now which MP would want to be the terrorist at his/her own community centre and be the moron?

But Singapore does have certain issues here which the gahmen may have known but bound to have trouble handling. First of all, the youths are bound to be rebellious; and double so if the governance cannot catch up with development.

PAP is not stupid. It has been eagerly trying to appeal to the younger generations by having the MPs shaking on the streets, by bringing the party sec-gen into the nightclub, and we even have the P65 blog… it’s making YP guys like Elfred quite demoralised. Why?

Is that the image of PAP?

Is that the purpose of PAP? 

We are here as White paladins to serve the people in earnest… strictly so, isn’t it?

Sound policies will be better than thousands of cheers in the Ministry of Sound. Good people becoming MPs will be times better than the loud cheers from cheerleaders. PAP is branded because of its competency and political credibility. At least, that’s what I see of what PAP should be. I for one never took part in those hot YP events. We shouldn’t be in YP to dance, when there are so many people’s lives we need to tend to.

Instead of organising so many entertaining events, pumping so much time and money in… Elfred supposes that there must be better things to do with the power.

There is no off-track here, because we are not just limited in natural resources… we are limited in time. With all those time we spent in discos trying to get young havocs onboard, what we should be doing is to work through the sums and kick the problems setting an example for the youths who shall be proud to come forward to identify themselves as PAP members.

I am gonna get sacked for this… …

So what if we do successfully draw in the youths who enjoy smoking, drinking, having their havocs in butt-shaking discos, and making plenty of money? Are we encouraging this as the political way forward?

Beats me.

The reason why UMNO has that kinda bashings is not exactly because of the internet, but because they have all the crappy policies and louya leaders plus corrupted national traditions left unchecked all those dog years and actually promoted by Mahathir… that there are so much on the internet for dissidents to fuel on.

The real issue is still political and governance soundness.

Nothing else big deal.

If you are sound, if your political conducts are clean, if your political leaders are great, there can be a whole mighty wave of arrowings on you, people will love you still. The problem is, if you are lazy, if you are complacent, and you think smartalec moves can help you, all the internet needs to do is to promote your great deeds, and you’re out, and the disco party is dispersed as quickly as they had conveniently come together.

In this online party, Singapore is actually not of much difference as compared to the North. Voters come to this mega coffeeshop to pick up gossips, they assess the situation, they make decisions, they vote.

Where got difference?

Singapore is a cosmopolitan state, external influence is granted upon us. It is not only UMNO’s election that have Singaporeans’ attention, even Taiwan’s election has Singaporeans excited. Why?

Because with the advance information technology for a cosmopolitan… such elections are just like happening next door. In a global village, what voters want will begin to coincide; hence the political climate and atmosphere shall change.

It’s the same as fashion. The younger generations have minds of their own. Only strong leadership will hold them on, otherwise oppositions will come in as the fashion and claim power.

We can let them choose PAP because we have the leaders they will follow, or we can let them choose PAP because we can go into discos and dance. It is just a choice the party will decide on.

The party online is actually dependent on how the party offline is doing. Badawi or any leaders worldwide won’t have missed anything online. They are always online, whether committed or commended.

Of course, what do you think about Singapore? Do you think Singapore is really immune or that different?

So Mark Ma Wants To Develop Taiwan!

When the Taiwanese eventually toppled the sick lawyer Chen Shui Bian, there came the roars of cheers and… on the spur of hope that Mark Ma (马英九） would do something, the world is watching as the better of two rotten apples were supposedly chosen and not all are that optimistic.

For instance, Elfred.

Alright, yeah~ Chen Shui Bian is spurned, and so we have Mark on the assumption that he is indeed sincere in moving Taiwan upward… or in Elfred’s words, ‘trying to pull up a sinking boat‘; But so?

Actually, when Premier Badawi of Malaysia first became the prime minister, the cheers were even more magnificent. ‘Finally, that fucked-up Mahathir is ousted for good’, and Malaysians online were like finally seeing dawn, celebrating for a bright future ahead. Badawi is a good guy, he’d stop the nosense in Mahathir’s time. Even Elfred was and is in favor of Badawi.

Mahathir had done one good thing for Malaysia, and that’s in picking Badawi as his successor. Another ‘M’ had done good picking a right successor in history would be Mao. Not as though Mahathir and Mao were impotent without kids… But one chose Badawi, another chose Deng Xiao Ping.

The similarity between Badawi and Deng is this… Mahathir hates Badawi after he stepped down; Mao was planning to kick Deng out before he stepped down. Hahaha…

About Badawi’s recent status after the shake up, if you ask Elfred… The Premier’d have to convince UMNO that toppling him with such margin UMNO has will only risk the whole ship sinking into opposition status in the future round. Basically in politics, in Badawi’s position, he is the head perceived by the people. In this election, his voting rate is barely moving while being held responsible for the team’s incompetent performance… or simply, corruption.

In politics, corruption is not merely taking money. Abuses of powers,  manipulating justice, favoritism, extremistic indulgence in party politics plus naked scandals are all forms of corruptions comparable to black gold politics.

Just a few years back, Badawi was cheered like no tomorrow by Malaysians. Just a few years later since, Mark Ma won in the cheers of expecting Taiwanese…

Well… Did Badawi so idiotic not to have wanted a better economic situation? Did Badawi so crazy as not to smoothen the Malaysian social ills caused by racist bumiputra politics…? Did Badawi so stupid not to want grassroot support fostered?

Just as Mark Ma… Mark has become president. He had made a promise of delivering economic soundness back into Taiwan, and to regain the people’s trust. His election competitor Mr Xie Chang Ting now wanted MJT to like start focusing on absorbing younger generation voters… The similarity exists in that those are the ways of PAP in Singapore.

Now you know why Elfred pulls in Badawi to this discussion.

Taiwan’s Economic Muscles In The Eyes of China.

I was recently chatting with a grassroot auntie… She was elated that Mark Ma is elected since Mark is like learning from Singapore. I looked at her and laughed.

Chen Shui Bian also had wanna learn how to control Taiwan and became the second Lee Kuan Yew in Asia. Xie Chang Ting also now intends to learn PAP’s direction in basic election strategy. Mark Ma is the only one who is more… gung-ho in this learning process. But Mark Ma has no brain lah…

Singapore is not Taiwan.

Basically speaking, Mark has a basic issue and learning from Singapore may backfire. Taiwan has been a subject of dispute to China vs the global community, and PM Lee had tasted China’s… deep anxiety and concerns masked thus far while appearing gentlemanly as a great rising nation.

China understands Taiwan. You can’t have Taiwan always a pro-China president since it is a democratic world. And what Mark Ma intends to do is to grow Taiwan’s economic muscles right in the face of China by smiling at China… And in this, Mark Ma has two choices basically…

Taiwan can sign FTA with other states… as a state. Or Taiwan can sign FTA, as a state of China.

In the first case, Taiwan will behave as an independent state and the FTA will become diplomatic relations with the other states hence with legally binding power. Just imagine this to previous presidents’ insults, that those presidents have to fork out so much of GNP to satisfy some ulu states just to maintain diplomatic connections with the world… Now if China can allow Taiwan to sign FTA with, say, PM Lee… Will our PM dare to sign the FTA with Mark?

Well, but Mark can ’sell out’ the Taiwanese to China, and declare 一国两制 as Hong Kong and Macau have become. In this case, an FTA will be possible with China happily accepting. Why? With one freaky FTA, you got Taiwan back peacefully… Why not?

So that’s why some academic brains have said that Mark’s FTA talk is intending to betray Taiwan. But maybe there is a third… way to sign FTA with China happily hugging Mark. Who knows? Elfred is also interested to find out more.

With or without the FTA, Mark’s intention is to bring economic goodies to Taiwanese. It’s a very honorable intention. But we have an issue here… As Taiwan’s economic muscles strengthen, so will Taiwanese’s nationalism be fuelled. So will also Taiwan’s global status be strengthened with its stronger commercial ties and importance, bringing it military boosting as well as cooperation.

In this, to politically apathetic Singaporeans… You can just imagine PAP or MM Lee smiling at Dr Chee saying ‘No no no, you go ahead, get bigger and become more competitive, we’d even support you…’. Yeah, dream on for a thousand years~

After isolating Taiwan for so long, incurring so much global tensions and expenses and efforts… Mark is dreaming of a better Taiwan with blessings from China…?

China will probably give you two pandas so that you can fork out money importing bamboos from China. But you want to sign FTA with the world… Will you sign FTA being a state of China, or being a state of your own? Will China want to have Tibet in the west, and a stronger Tibet in its east?

Mark Ma’s Political Struggle… To Be Good.

No one leader will wanna be bad, or at least be seen bad. But history just simply has alot of bad leaders in everywhere. And you also cannot talk bad about them. Why huh?

If I talk bad about PM Lee, maybe he’d come after me with a parang… Hahahaha… Ok, that’s a joke.

Now joke aside. Assuming Mark is r-e-a-l-l-y sincere, really as brilliant as Elfred (Hahahahahaha~), but being a good guy is hell-o-a difficult even in Singapore. This I can confirm. The definition of Good in politics is of course not as that innocent in dictionaries. But 为国为民 must always depend on this: Situation.

Mark’s ‘entry’ into politics to become President at this most difficult situation in Taiwan is both excellent and rotten a choice… if he even has a choice to speak of. It’d be politically incorrect to use 为国 since we know China is there staring at the tiny little mole, so we discuss now about 为民.

This we have to briefly understand KMT. Unlike PAP in Singapore, KMT in Taiwan is loaded with a widely known shitty track record, and Taiwanese are afterall Chinese, and Chinese are political animals with deeply embedded culture as a civilisation.

KMT was started by the visionary Sun Yat Sen… And boyz does Elfred admire Sun. Yeah yeah, Sun’s ‘vision’ was kinda copying from the west when he was studying there. But you still call him a visionary because it was crazy to have one person against the might of Feudal Qing Dynasty and its…  people, plus the many interest groups at that time: The respective merchant armed groups of the west plus Japan, the rebels, the warlords and fanatics. And Sun Yat Sen was a saint, really devoted to the people, and he was respected by the communists… who drove KMT into Taiwan.

KMT has a very honorable start. But even that, it is just a party of human beings. And human corrupts easily. When Jiang Jie Shi took over, KMT was already corrupted beyond repair even with a common enemy: The murderous Japanese invaders.

That was KMT. Jiang Jie Shi was actually controlled more than he controlling the powerful KMT. KMT was the only force in China then with an air force to resist the Japanese aggression, thanks to his wife’s close association with the USA and the British. Powerful start, no doubt.

Complacent? No doubt.

Now KMT’s corrupted party tradition or culture or whatever is not a one decade two decades thing. If KMT had not been that corrupted, given its legacy, it could not have lost to MJT… a small younger upstart some years back, to have a smartalec lawyer fooling around alongside with his wife for so long.

How can such a good guy, with smarts somemore, as Badawi be encountering such risks now in Malaysia? Badawi is not Mahathir, he even tried to stop some nosensical projects of Mahathir and gang. He held back on using Singapore as a scapegoat or attack point to rally Malaysia. In Malaysia, after so many years of messed up in politics, Badawi is obviously a good PM. Otherwise, his votes would have tumbled at least to that level as Rafidah’s.

How could UMNO have lost so many states with such a brilliant Premier in place. I myself respect Badawi for his courage of being as good as he could as a politician in Malaysia’s messed-up politics. But obviously as I have mentioned, being good is not enough in politics…

If that has been so simple, Elfred would have already entered politics.

Mark got 58% this time round. It shows very simply this… Taiwanese have generally no faith in him to pull up a sinking ship, but he is given the chance to prove himself.

And fortunately, Mark acknowledged Taiwan’s sinking…

Whether Mark is a good guy or not, his clock is ticking right now to regain the faith of the people; or just, to revive zombies into heart-beating fresh and blood again.

Time is not his friend. Because miseries have every limited tolerance before disappointment falls into a void making the possibility of legacy becoming a dreadful tug-o-war to stay in power. Everyday that the people wait for a better life out of this misery, every moment is cooking an anti-Ma wave as faith drops among the people.

Mark Ma must obviously know, and know what to do even before he stands for presidential election since he has no leisure of time in accomplishing his promises which will decide between a legacy or otherwise.

It is doubtless that if Taiwan can open up a channel for Mainland flights into Taiwan, that will probably boost economy. But Mark Ma must not be naive… And I am not refering to the job competition of mainland influx into China against native Taiwanese… I am refering to KMT itself.

The problem about trying to solve people or a nation’s woes by simply pumping energy into economics is usually wasting time eventually. The bigger the cake, the larger the appetite for corruption. The bigger the cake, the more addicted to economics for remedy, and the easier to lose balance, and control.

There is no end to how tall you can build a skyscraper… when you almost think you are almost reaching heavens, a hell might be (usually) already there right below the building to suck you in.

Lords Of The Ring: Band Of Rascals.

That Frodo is supposedly to be carrying Salmon’s wedding ring to Mount bla bla bla and melt it so that juicy Salmon can’t fuck around no more.

Then Frodo himself got mesmerised… The Precioussss is so preciou$$$$…

Assuming Mark obviously wants to do good in Taiwan, or simply to save Taiwan. But Mark’s got the ring! Now what is he going to do with the ring he sliced off from Chen Shui Bian’s finger? Can he control himself is one thing…

Can he control his corrupted KMT is another issue.

Yes, KMT wanna win and become incumbent again. So they need a nice looking Frodo to accomplish the impossible. Lords Of The Ring movie ended with Frodo finished off the ring and that Aragon became the king of men, then men corrupted, and they built nukes and melted Hiroshima and Nagasaki… Hahahahaha…

Off track… But the point is, Badawi can only survive by trying to govern well resisting all temptations into politicking… with the remnants left by Mahathir. This is his first mission. Then Badawi has to melt the ring… and forge himself a new ring. So Badawi is in the process now reorganizing cabinet, and the people has not really discarded him yet. But he must confront UMNO, as Frodo had confronted with his other self.

For Mark, his situation is not any better than Badawi. He has to shake off KMT’s heavy weighs now locked on him which has been reinforced since the time KMT landed up in Taiwan.

The difference between Badawi and Mark is that Mark has the advantage that Malaysia and Singapore don’t have… There are bound to be many more Elfreds in Taiwan.

Chinese politics is not really about corruption. Chinese thinking is on the contrary be on honor of sharing and organising. Western philosophy is about individual, and wrestling control, forming elitist class and… cooking up divides and eventually landing oneself in a struggle.

Whether Mark can succeed or not, is as all good emperors across time to be recruiting the best political elements. Without political stability in KMT, no amount of economic growth will pull Taiwanese from hell. In this ‘political stability’, Mark needs a core group of elements to stablise the corrupted culture of KMT (cleansing KMT). Basically, he needs sages in all major ministries. Tough demand.

But to sum it up in easier fashion, Mark’s priority in becoming a PM is to locate all the good political elements to position them around him to guard him, and his regime. 

Which actually means… Mark’s gonna have heavy internal fights with the greedy expectations of KMT members for supporting him… especially those powerful ones. This fight is unlike Badawi’s because UMNO has its own version of political traditions, and the Malays are not the same as Northern Chinese in thinking.

The only way Mark can even have a possibility to grow Taiwan under the nose of China is to first focus on its party’s revitalisation, then proceed to build the economy the big way. You cannot just have money pouring into Taiwan, and the entire KMT reforms back into beasts fighting with commoners for interests…

Taiwan has the basic cultural layout, in so saying, Taiwan has to focus on building society alongside with its economy, a job much more clear-cut than Singapore. Singapore has to build a nation, culture and society alongside with economy.

Having said this, Mark can’t afford to be any lesser as if he cannot fight KMT, he’d be quickly engulfed into KMT politics, stucked there… and office politics will kill him, rendering him ineffective. His priority is to reform the justice system where even the lowest of commoners can use to fend themselves against KMT claws, hereby making the commoners fighting alongside with him to produce a brand new KMT.

A ‘misallocation of resources’ will happen almost immediately when the figures pull up. Rich scoundels will resort to anything to get a share of the pie. Mark’s priority is to use them to set good examples that his regime is different, and hence build his own credibility as what Mr Khaw is doing now in Singapore by pounding on immoral health care operators. If he loses control, he’d fall into the control of rich scoundels, and he is finished.

Badawi has made a critical mistake of bringing in his son-in-law too early into politics before Badawi has even set the tone and direction of politics in Malaysia where even his son-in-law can observe and move along. Mark must hence be very careful with his family as compared to Ah Bian and Premier Badawi. It is always tempting to spring in defence if one’s son or wife or what is corrupted, and while a defence should be… temptation will make a defence no less corrupted in itself as the logic presented to the people.

So whether Frodo can indeed accomplish his mission is all for us to see in due time.

President Mark’s success will have to be built upon the ancient wisdom inherited as a Chinese. Taiwan is a very tricky political maze. The right steps in western states could end up drawing China’s wrong attention. There are just too many factions to watch out for one by one… So it’s still the basis of Chinese-type governance that Mark should fall back on.

Democratising The Lee Kuan Yew Model Of Governance?

Picked this up from Catherine Lim’s blog:

http://catherinelim.sg/2008/02/23/a-challenge-for-the-future-democratising-the-lee-kuan-yew-model-of-governance/#comment-281

She was talking about PAP’s or MM Lee’s knuckleduster approach, and about economic thingys. Interesting read, but it is still too generalised.

Governance is a big word after all; and that is basically what good leaders are bothered with in their stepping into politics.

Elfred can’t write better than Catherine does, but in this… She needs to understand what is PAP, or generally what is a political party. As I have said many times, it’s just humans behind the name.

Actually, governance is not easy to the laymen on streets, but ‘knuckleduster’ is pretty simple for anyone in politics even if it belongs to some barbarians. It’s simply that the bigger kid can bully the smaller one regardless of who is right just because of selfish greed over the entire jug of candies. What a happy family it’d be…

Of course, if this is so simple, then China over thousands of years across various regimes will just take up a knuckleduster, and problem solved. Of course, if China does do so internally, China’s knuckle could be aiming at Singapore anytime soon.

As many mainlanders’d see Singapore, Singapore is only that meagre. When Singapore loves this knuckleduster approach, China should love it more, and apply it on Singapore ever more legitimately as Singapore’s love for knuckleduster on itself…

This is the kind of boomerang thing that China is infamous for in its culture. In Chinese: 以牙还牙;君子报仇十年不晚。

So when Catherine touched on China in relation to Singapore’s governance style in that article, I laughed. When I was visiting the Chinese recently, it was shared to me that China can’t just follow Singapore’s style of governance by some prominent Chinese. Which is understandable.

That shows that they understand the risks behind Singapore-style governance. China has been ‘enjoying’ its own doses of domestic revolts, or just public disturbances or riots. While many cases were covered up, China cannot afford to be politically any less sensitive, or heartless, to its people.

Imagine Premier Wen were to declare that he’d rather be feared than be liked (In Chinese: 本主席不要人民的爱戴，只要人民对我的恐惧。）as MM Lee was quoted by Lim… It’s unimaginable. Because he’d be inviting large scale revolts, making an entire China a Tibetan war zone.

Obviously, China is not Singapore, Singapore is not China. But since we are talking about the future, China and Singapore do share a same prospect: Globalisation.

And globalisation shalt re-shape Singapore’s political landscape drastically.

PAP: The Way Forward. (I)

Strangly, in Catherine’s article, she doesn’t explore PAP in depth. While MM Lee is indeed the most powerful element in Singapore, but MM Lee is surrounded as well in a fresh political situation by the time as PM Lee is. The party called PAP is now not just a membership list as in the past when it first started, and there is no longer British colonial masters to handle with, nor do we have ideological enemies as the communists.

PAP has indeed changed over the years, and in fact, Goh Keng Swee has ‘retired’ leaving behind a well-known piece at his departure from public office. It goes something like this…

When the world don’t listen to you anymore, it’s time to go.

It’s a summary from a couple of Goh Keng Swee’s quoted lines. It shows very well that around that time, also about when Toh Chin Chye and the old veterans left, PAP was at the crossroad of change indeed. And since, batch after batch of technocrats flood into the parliament, regularly caught absent or dreaming away in the half-emptied hall.

If people tell me that PAP has not changed, I’d laugh. That’s a reason why many people, especially Elfred’s generation and earlier ones so miss the first few batches of PAP political leadership.

MM was there, is there, all the time. The situation has been changing nonetheless. And since MM’s legacy, it has been many decades ago. If he is still a fighter, he’d not be fighting the communists now, but fighting the nosenses in private education sector plus the Charity, plus the compounding transport situations, plus the unsettling cost problems which has been a more than 20years problem, plus many more others.

In my view of the MM, he is wise, but to speak of ’democratise Lee Kuan Yew Model of Governance’ is not really that fair. That is because MM Lee now is facing a situation not really entirely because of his model of governance.

Remember MM’s expressing of concerns over the overblown property and stock markets back then? He knew. He spoke. What had happened? It’s a big ‘caveat emptor’ but in the political sense, and people screamed at the gahmen, including for its impossible target of how many millions of future population which target MM has recently spoke out against as well.

Use your common sense, if this is MM’s model of governance, I’d be laughing all the way to Oxley drive…

In Chinese, there is a saying: 三个臭皮匠，一个诸葛亮。

Assuming Mr Lee Kuan Yew is the 诸葛亮 (Zhuge Liang) who is so influencial, but as technocrats flood in and the civil sectors expand and younger generation of officers (who could be as pompous as the British) having their own aspirations: 三个臭皮匠足以抗衡一个诸葛亮。

It simply implies that situation may not really be the issue with MM’s knuckleduster. Or if anyone will assume all the forum moderators, ministers, MPs or civil servants will share MM’s ideology?

Naturally unlikely.

Knuckleduster approach is the basic problem that civilised political thinking in China has been around for. The knuckleduster is such simple tactics, or just natural instinct, that if the knuckle is still there, it might not necessarily have to be MM Lee’s.

You don’t need too much wisdom in governance to learn from beasts. But the first batch of leaders under MM were still very much missed by the people, and there must have been something more than knuckleduster.

PAP: The Way Forward. (II)

In the old Chinese thinking including even Confucius, the real thinking of Confucius over social class is often misintepreted as general public read Confucius word by word.

Who is Confucius? He was best known to be a jobless wanderer, getting his followers to starve along with him in his many years of idling. What is Confucianism? It’s hence the thinking and story of an ambitious loser who was jobless for many years; a philosophist’s work as a result of being an idling wanderer for many years.

Now Catherine Lim should know this if she thinks Singapore goes by Confucianism.

Loads of rubbish, ie.

With Singaporeans’ general standard, what do Singaporeans know about Confucianism?

Confucius’ main ideology was basically a challenge to authorities in his time, refusing to yield to knuckledusters. If Dr Chee have walked that much distance in protest to Parliament House, Confucius had travelled to and fro central China in protest to the then messed up authorities in search for a better gahmen.

That is Confucianism. He was an idler, a jobless, he wanted to be a political leader. He made it… into history, revered by idiots who don’t understand him at all. He happened to be the prominent advocate of what description that SM Goh had invented to describe Singaporeans who migrate: Quitter.

Confucius himself saw no prospect in his kingdom, or motherland… which was obviously why he had left his infamous 周游列国 in history, a feat of many many years he spent on.

Whenever Singaporeans linked PAP gahmen to Confucianism… I’d hence laugh. I mean, do Singaporeans actually know of what they actually venerate??? Hahahahaha… Pretenders have always been an issue in a joke, actually that also makes Elfred’s thinking on the future of Singapore…

Can we leave Singapore in the hands of pretenders?

But Confucius did provide a considerable option: Migrate.

I once read Redbean’s quote of Confucius. I laughed. He should have quoted Zhuang Tsu. But this kinda joke has been around Singapore far too long, and I sorta got used to it.

Politics… a really clean and good government must be based on solid quality. We can’t just pretend we know politics, because even if you have an A in political science, don’t know means don’t know.

Here reveals the truth of Singaporean politics in this era. Since hollowness is so ok, which political elements need to be real solid? That is a very good question. From this historical base, now we can barely just touch on the future of Singapore, and PAP.

Interested to know more? Read on then.

PAP：The Way Forward. (III)

Let’s not fantasize about democratising any form of governance. Governing a nation requires real solid political thinking, and that requires a level of cultural doses. Any tizzy attempt to tinker a form of governance will come at an expense of huge political casualties.

When I mean political casualities, that is not only refering to oppositions being fixed, it also includes the people on the streets.

PAP started basically as an hyper idealistic entity in Singapore. We all should know that. One can say, PAP leaders were the super minority among the massively uneducated, rogues, communists and sympathizers, richer and more influencial British by-right choices and bla bla bla… and when Singapore joined the Ferderation, Singapore was the obvious minority as well.

Minority, minority, minority. PAP started out as an opposition as well.

While many current PAP members see PAP as invinsible, there is why a cause for MM’s alarm because “we’re not infallible”, and PAP should never be complacent. The party is indeed not infallible. Catherine would have to understand this if she needs to apply her thoughts on the current version of governance, especially if she tried to add MM in as a factor for discussion.

The way forward for PAP will hence have to be on a very thin line. While Mr Lee Kuan Yew is still in the cabinet, Mr Lee Hsien Loong is actually the Prime Minister. The chemistry in the governance now is highly interesting. Until now, Elfred is still observing where this governance will be heading to.

The major problem of Singapore governance is still this: Critical lack of apt thinkers.

Which also means we are a society stucked in mud of some sort. Within a family, speaking with knuckles is only barbaric. What else? If there shall be any political fight, it shalt be among Singaporeans in this homeland. Or simply, it’s family violence.

If anyone think that we can build a tower upon a weak sheet of carbon paper, then we can dream about building a nation upon a thin and disorganised social fabric, of promoted hype in competition. Why not?

But can we?

PAP: The Way Forward.(IV)

Lee Kuan Yew’s model? I rather Catherine focuses on Lee Kuan Yew’s era. MM’s governance was a result of his lieutenants who had come from the great political reality of that era, and were greatly attached to the people and the reality of the grounds.

MM himself has his own characters, traits, personality and belief. But his ‘governance’ was obviously a result of capable ministers while MM provided the leadership to organise the efforts.

What has been happening since Mr Lee Kuan Yew stepped down as PM is not an accurate way to gauge current affairs. What been happening before and after technocrats replaced the parliament as the major influence is the current issue.

MM’s initial direction for Singapore was to hope for a merger with Malaysia, where Malaysia shall become a permanent economical power house to power Singapore, as China is to Hong Kong. But this is currently impossible so politically to speak. So Singapore’s strategy has to be its reliance on national reserves.

If PAP were to harbour the hope of an eventual merger with the North, a racially sensitive politics will be in concern within local politics, albeit subtly. But there is an issue as well since Singaporeans, hence new party members, since the 80s have grown to believe the infallibility of Singapore, regards over Singapore’s realistic constrains were seemingly dilluted into oblivion. Where in the past, we were constantly reminding ourselves of our limitations and stressed upon the well-being of our workforce or human resource, this has become rather ‘easy’ nowadays by a surge of focus to entertain the rich, and snobbish. But Singapore’s constrains remain largely unchanged.

With globalisation, our constrains become even more critical, but seemingly less bothered with by the current generations. We are still a pile of barren rocks compact with millions of mouths to be fed, and of a population whose fathers had effected riots, joined the communists, and marched the streets under poor governance and conditions. Why can’t chaos return if governance fails again?

But you cannot tell anyone not to be complacent… because in their minds, Singapore is infallible, people will always readily vote only for PAP no matter what and how many unpopular policies and scandals are produced, and how you fixed dissidents you thought are disgruntled.

Democracy is not some elixir handed down by divine hands that could solve all headaches. Democracy only works when there are political talents indeed for good choices, and you will need politically apt population to make democracy works for a nation. As such, if MM Lee is politically apt himself, naturally he would pick or elect political talents for enhancing his governance.

Who would want to pick assholes to destroy his own creation?

The issue about democratising is hence a question thrown back at the population at large… If you don’t let the knuckleduster do the trick, can the whining people choose properly in the first place?

As this discussion comes to this point… can anyone so tell me, what is the way ahead for PAP? Are you qualified to do so in the first place?

Cute little question.

Always remember, PAP or any party is just a name. Politics is never something stagnant, nor a straight line. Democracy is far from perfect for this highly imperfect world. The real knuckleduster almost likely is due to your very self.

We have a 100% educated population. How many would tell me you are talking something better than your knuckles…?

In Future: No Defamation Lawsuits?

It’s no secret that Elfred is no fan of Defamation lawsuits. The future holds much promise against the over-convenient uses of defamation lawsuits as a political weapon.

Frankly put, your fame gets a penalty just by filing for defamation against another, why commit political suicide on such lawsuits?

If you cannot convince the public that you are anything better, you probably won’t convince anyone with such lawsuits.

Finally, IP Kena-ed Banned @ YPforum.

Given the current local level of political appreciation, it is a ban I see long overdued. Kinda excited~

Just like the termination of MOE teaching when I was in the midst of busily rescuing a bunch of primany students (during Exam period), termination comes irregardless of anything else. Who’d care even if it would affect the students?

No no no, I am not really bothered about the forum’s move. As a member myself, some usages of ‘Fuck’ and singlish slangs can simply officiate this ban. Besides, the gahmen is now not only peeping at YP Forum, but many others including SGforums, Hardwarezone Forum, and of cos MM Lee seems to be reading Malaysiakini.com. So YP forum is no monopoly for attention when you need one for the evils now roaming large in Singapore.

This incident basically shows one thing: People shouldn’t just curse anyone or anything bearing the sign YP or PAP.

Totally bullshits, cos by right, PAP comprises a whole lot of elements as with any party in this known world. There are the good and vocal, and there are the evil and office-political; they are the uncorrupted, and they are those after your last penny.

Of cos, Prof Tommy Koh kinda ever said something about speaking up. Speak here also speak, so no problem.

About This Blog.

I welcome interactions. Though Elfred is not designed to be a public character, and shalt stay anonymous unless otherwise.  But there are basic things that visitors should note:

1. Elfred may be currently a PAP cum YP member, but there’s nothing to be paranoid about in communicating with me. Elfred is basically a good guy, and he is not going to ‘win’ by banning, threatening or legal actions. To me, this is politically silly. You can trust me in this.

2. Just because Elfred is a PAP member doesn’t mean Elfred agrees with every single thing that every single PAP leader said, since it is obvious even leaders themselves would have their own views on various issues. And of cos, I am NOT a lapdog or lackey or yes-man. So don’t give me that kinda label.

3. I do not believe in banning anyone here, hence I don’t expect myself to delete even complaints and nosenses thrown at me in this online diary of mine. But spams will be usually ‘recycled’ into somethings more useful…

4. This blog is started just for personal use, personal views, personal interactions, and there is no professionalism whatsoever intented to start with. Views or cocks are talked just for talk sake as in YP Forum. Unlike YP forum where they have to clean things up as and when some mess happen or someone complains, there is no need for this platform.

5. Unlike Redbean, I have no intention on what journalism blog. Actually a trashy blog or what’d be nice, since blogging should be personal, hence enjoyable. So I have little intention on what legal things as results from activities of this blog and the visitors.

6. Singaporeans who are concerned with Singapore are really welcomed. But smart-alec troublemakers should make yourselves scarce. This’d be a good reason why I’d take sides and play with the scissors if (eg) you are fighting among yourselves, and I sense evil.

7. I don’t trust people usually, with my 30 over years of Singaporean experience. So if you expect me to trust you, you must be joking.

8. You can call me anything you want, but I am only something called anonymous. What is Elfred? It’s just a freaky name.

9. I am not the typical Singaporean mind, so don’t expect another mould. Besides, I don’t expect you to love me or hate me. It doesn’t matter to Elfred. If you don’t like Elfred, why not just stay out of this sacred site? And don’t expect Elfred to reply to all. I very the busy yo~

Hmmm… banning my IP is useless. There are just so many other computers in Singapore, in China, in Hong Kong, in Macau, in Johore, in Batam… YP Forum is a loss since Elfred has been one of the hardcore regulars, but not really that big an issue.

Nowadays, Elfred’s interest has moved from local to foreign in conjunction with his dreams.

Send me your best-wishes that my dreams will come true.