Of Country or Party?

Been reading alot of an article by someone who is from Young PAP and claims to be a activist in PAP grassroots(hougang) since 2002..

what he wrote triggered quite a number of responses, and it worries me what the "new" generation of potential leaders can be thinking.

Firstly, the article he wrote
*do play attention to the many comments posted thereafter, i believe they are good representation of the "groundtalk"

A reply from a counterpart from Workers' Party
*i agree with many points, this guy is starting to impress me

My $0.02 worth:

Singapore, is a country that has been dominated by PAP since the beginning of my time. How this is infused into the minds of some members within the party is rather clear. PAP is the government, the government is PAP.

This is true, but only as long as the people vote PAP into power. (we can still have walkovers and get our govt in place)

What is the difference then? PAP is a political party while the government is formed by any political party that is able to secure enough votes to form the governement..

the main thrust of the current arguement is the upgrading in opposition-held wards in Singapore. To quote: "One cannot claim that he is a taxpayer and should benefit from the likes of those in a PAP constituency when he voted for the opposition. -Joel Leong

If the thoughts of this Joel holds true, anyone who votes for the opposition, including the 30%++ those in ang mo kio, aljunied etc, would not be able to say that they paid taxes and enjoy the benefits in the constituency..

what rubbish right?

what irritates me is the mindset of this Joel in PAP.. country above party pls, you mean the old folks, working class and their kids in Hougang are not singaporeans and deserves less because they voted for Low Thia Khiang?

pls, don't draw line between singaporeans, there shouldn't be a PAP-singaporean and non-PAP singaporean differentiation, its not fair

i despise such bias policy that will only disunite singaporeans even more and causes more resentment and unhappiness among the already stressful population

We are ONE, not white, not blue

Of Lessons and Disappointment

What do you do when you get disappointed? Make things better? Or just let it go?

Someone once commented that it is easy to guide the smart. The challenge? making someone slow or less talented see the light, that can be so much more fulfilling.

I had allowed myself more time following the incdent so many days ago to decide. I had waited to ponder before letting go, i had waited to see a shimmer of light emerge from the broken soul

There is a thin line between not knowing and not wanting to know, the former can bring along qualities such as willingness to learn, hard work and determination. The latter, brings along laziness, lack of determination, lack of confidence, a "bochup" attitude, a slacker way of life.

I think i have come to a conclusion, that some people are just not worth the trouble. It is not a question of ability, it is an issue of not trying hard enough and breaking down when the pressure builds.

We all live in a world of expectations and perception, and it has become apparent after 2 weeks of observation that "lacking in ability" is in fact a mask for laziness and low confidence, more of the former, less of the latter

i shall not elaborate, for to each's opinion, we can derive many answers and point of view, but i am sick of complying, i trust my judgement that "he, who is not worth the effort, will be allowed to rot"

To the kid i scoff, "Lessons are learnt the hard way boy, pity, i won't bother to share no more"






I choose to let go

Of What you would never see

What you would never see in the local papers.. well, maybe you will hear one side of the story and that's the award..

i still have respect for this man, but somethings just seem not right..

SOURCE: Emma MacDonaldo, Canberra Times, 22 March:

Anger at ANU honour for Lee
Emma Macdonald

Australian National University academics are outraged at a decision by university management to bestow an honorary Doctorate of Laws on former prime minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew in Canberra next Wednesday.

Mr Lee and his wife are due in Australia on Monday as part of a tour of the region where they will meet with Australian political and business leaders. But the decision to honour Mr Lee has incensed university staff, students and human rights advocates who accuse him of running an authoritarian regime in Singapore over the past four decades in which he has quashed any political opposition.

ANU chancellor Allan Hawke alerted staff to Mr Lee's visit when he invited them to the ceremony due to take place in the Great Hall of University House at 11am next Wednesday via an internal email.

He said "the ceremony is a special occasion to honour Mr Lee's achievements and further the university's relationship with Singapore".A number of academics contacted by The Canberra Times expressed their shock at the move, which they say was taken without any wider consultation and would embarrass the university.

Director of the ANU's Centre for International Governance and Justice Hilary Charlesworth said her concern had been so strong that she and senior staff had written to vice-chancellor Ian Chubb in protest, while several other academics chose to air their anger at university management on their personal blogs.

"Any human rights lawyer would be really concerned by this. Frankly, I am baffled, I do not understand why they have done it," Professor Charlesworth said.

Another senior academic, who asked not to be named, said, "Since when does an institution which prides itself on openness and speaking truth to power give honorary degrees to those who have overseen authoritarian regimes which restrict democratic expression and academic freedom and implement the death penalty?"

Dr Hawke said the academics were entitled to their views and he would always be happy to hear their opinions. While he was aware of Mr Lee's controversial reputation, he believed "the good outweighs the bad" in terms of Mr Lee's contribution to Asia, support of Australia in the region and strong involvement in APEC.

Australia's relationship with Singapore was severely strained throughout last year when the Singaporean Government now headed by Mr Lee's son Lee Hsien Loong carried out the execution in December of 25-year-old Melbourne man Van Tuong Nguyen after finding him guilty of drug trafficking.This was despite the personal appeals of both Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

Mr Lee still maintains a strong political presence as "Minister Mentor" at age 83.
High-profile QC Stuart Littlemore said the ANU's decision was "seriously inappropriate".
"You have to wonder what their motives are and whether they are to strengthen revenue prospects for the ANU which could only be described as a terrible sellout."

Mr Littlemore is a staunch critic of Singapore's legal system, having attended a number of defamation trials as an observer for the International Commission of Jurists.

He has also recently been banned from entering the country to represent Secretary-General of the Singapore Democratic Party, Chee Soon Juan, against defamation claims made by Mr Lee.
Mr Littlemore has written to Professor Chubb this week, saying "I can't understand why the ANU should wish to ingratiate itself with the anti-democratic Lee regime ... The university's decision brings shame upon it."

Mr Chee has also condemned the decision in a letter to Professor Chubb, saying "do you not think that the award of this honorary degree to Lee Kuan Yew mocks the memory of Nguyen and the others who were hanged by the Singapore Government?"

"The irony, nay, hypocrisy of conferring this award, and of the Doctor of Laws to boot, boggles the mind and rankles the soul."

Professor Chubb defended the decision yesterday, saying it merely reflected the close ties the ANU had with Singapore and the National University of Singapore in particular. "We have staff exchanges, split degrees, secondments, student exchanges, and significant interaction at a number of levels.

The ANU and NUS are both represented in the Association of Pacific Rim Universities and in the International Alliance of Research Universities." Mr Lee's visit coincides with a presidents' meeting of the alliance in Canberra next week.

Professor Chubb said the ANU catered for about 200 undergraduate and postgraduate Singaporean students each year.

In 1994, the University of Melbourne bestowed an honorary Doctorate of Laws upon Mr Lee. The university was also forced to defend the decision at the time.








How does the other side look to you?

Of Up and Up?

*changes after note by Skyprine(thanks!)
Civil Service pay will be reviewed and the information announced in parliament on 9th april..

well well, the motive behind the move is simply,to retain staff. However, all that has been said now seems to suggest that the top to middle management are lagging behind and therefore they will get their increment..

are our political leaders geared up for a pay rise to keep them in office? are they not earning enough from the singapore economic machine? the last time i checked, our PM earns more than the US President, now that's something for a small singapore

what i really wonder now is how the folks at the bottom of the food chain will get affected.. you see, the civil service is not about simple structures and direct chain of commands.. lets say you work in a particular division, you report to a direct supervisor, who in turn reports to a division head, the division head would probably report to a department head, the department head reports to the bigger head, who in turns reports to a deputy secretary(DS) and the DS reports to a PS(Permanent Secretary) who then reports to the Minister.. the minster reports to the Prime Minister's Office(PMO).
Note: Ministers of States, Blah blah excluded.. u already got the idea how bloody long chain this is..
so when pay has to rise.. from the top man down to the auntie that does data entry on a daily basis, who gets more? who is this "talent" that we must pay more to retain and encourage loyalty?

already using such scales.. a high level (read: overseas scholar)head's monthly pay can probably cover the cost of employing a small unit of aunties and diploma holders in that same month, from a management point of value, the head provides higher value and thus has more "retention value"

just like the GST package, the "middle-class", diploma holders, pass-2nd lower honours degree holders are sandwiched between the auntie and the scholar

but without the aunties to keep the data, without the coordinators to do procurement, without the young chaps who does the photocopying, phonecall and other "sai gang".. what good would this high level leader be?







9 April, i await

Of Thy Neighbours

Been reading with concerns about how political developments in the region is starting to snare at Sillypore, my homeland.. while it is always good to prepare for the unexpected, its amazing and at the same time assuring to know that we have a system in place that stores backup sand for construction in case there were any disruption, now that's planning(kiasu-ness) in action, we rock(or sand for that matter)

perharps the next big news is that some scholar from A*Star invented a new substance to create sand, people all over the whole will start to buy this Newsand from us.. sounds like its part of the Newater series yeah?

The thais are not so happy with us for buying their satellites and communications company, the malaysians argue less about the causeway and water but claims that our reclaimation works causes flooding and the indonesians decided to ban sand and granite due to "environment concerns" and boundary issues, are people just unhappy or what?

It can be worrying how our neighbours are starting to show more discontent over our actions, it is no longer a question of right or wrong, but of perception. In this sense, perception is reality to them, and hell there's nothing we can do about it..

there's comparison about how Sg is so similar to Israel.. well, in that part of the world, we have countries coming forward to state that they do not recognise Israel's right to exist and so on.. lets hope things would never escalate to such an extent








Love thy neighbours, love thy self

Of Busy and Nice Song

Busy, with work, with studies, with wedding preparations

So only nice song i have to share

= Till the end =

All these precious moments
With you by my side
Must be a gift from heaven
That 's holding me all night

I don 't know how I found you
I 'm thankful that I have
Now that I have a love so true
To hold ,to keep ,to share

In my heart ,I can no longer hold inside
All of the love I used to hide
I 'll always be
with you until the very end

In this world
there is no place I 'd rather be
You are my life ,my soul ,my girl
And through it all
I knowthat you 've come to see that
You 're the one
till the end

All my friend around me
Say you 'd be gone too soon
Baby ,I 'm gonna make them see
We 've found our way back home

In my heart ,I can no longerhold inside
All of the loveI used to hide
I 'll always be
with you until the very end
In this world ,there is no place
I 'd rather be
You are my life ,my soul ,my girl
And through it all
I know that you 've come to see that
You 're the one
till the end

We 'll always be
till the end

Nice? Find the song yourself k

Of A first day at school

Like any primary school kid preparing for their first day of school, there was unrest the night before. Was it anxiety for school the next day or was it the post-trauma of not being able to get my printer and laptop(immediately) from the IT Show?

As i made my way to school after work, it became an instinct for me to conduct a visual search.. my target? (no, not chiobu k).. i was looking at potential groupmates. A tingle of kiasu-ness has engulfed me, am i "elistist" now as i begin ruling people out of the potenial projectmates group?

Perharps a little too soon for projectmates, but i had made my first friend on the first day of school.

It was hard to sit once more within a confined space to listen to someone speak for about 3hours (i had enjoyed the luxury of (office) space since i completed my cadet training).. it didn't help that he wasn't very fluent nor eloquent.. but still, he earned his spurs and that's way he's standing there lecturing and me, paying to listen..

got to start absorbing the information into my skull and be able to keep it there well








I survived

Updated right panel

I was never one that was willing to toy with the untouchable zone of HTML.. well, some things got to change and here we have, an updated right panel for my blog..

a mini hit counter for me to know that there could be people reading what i write.. and a new section "Blogs I read"









Couldn't have done it without you though, thank you

Of A New Start

From the 12day of the 3rd month of the 2007th year since you-know-who was born.. i'm going to embark on my new journey, a new start, a new beginning..

ever wondered why i'm so long winded when i blog? i love to use long sentences, it gives my mind more space to think as my fingers do their work...

I'll be starting my degree program from monday and its going to be hectic thereon.. i have always believed that it will be tough handling both work and studies together, on top of that, there's a family factor now..

been focusing my mind to think in "marketing mindset" for quite a few days now, have to rediscover that killer instinct when it comes to ideas and copy writing, a skill that's in cobwebs since i graduated with my Diploma way back in 2003..

since then, it has been 3 months of army green brain-washing, character bashing and confidence smashing.. all these followed by the small rise in status to an officer cadet and then a few up and downs before i entered into my current job

spending more time talking to myself and maybe neglecting some/a few people along the way

would i be able to deliver the goods once again and make my $20k+ investment for a paper worthwhile? i would say that i could have done even better for my poly had it not been for finance-related modules.. and it'll all marketing and marketing this round..

let me hit some quick KOs and before i know it? i'll be wearing the mortar board on my big head and smiling for the cameras








D is for Distinction

Of A Bitting Dog

Someone got jailed and fined for whacking a dog.. the incident? his girlfriend was bitten by her house dog, the bite was bad enough to cause bleeding, and so the guy whacked the dog, apparently who the pole/pole of fishing net and the dog broke a leg.. the brother called the cops and now the guy is fined and going(or gone) to jail..

now now..

if a dog, anyone's dog, were to bite my wife, i'll be very tempted to whack it hard, if it were to have caused my wife to bleed from the bite, i'm quite sure i would have killed the dog.. would that amount to cruelty to animals? i don't think there'll be much suffering before i deliver the killing blow..







Dogs, stay away

Of A'levels and beyond

For one that has never taken A levels and did quite badly for his O's, i might not be the best person to comment on this..

but somehow, A-level students are getting upset over getting 4As,A1 for General Pape, 2 Distinctions and 1 Merit for her 3 S papers.. the problem? that ONE merit for an S Paper.. (*S paper is a "special" higher level paper that top students take)

Another was unhappy at scoring 4As and A3 for GP and an ungraded for one of his S papers..
Now tell me, is something wrong here?

Well examinations such as the A levels are used as a good gauge of a pupil's understanding to a subject, has the obsession with getting "prefect" results overshadowed the virtue of learning? 18-19year olds being upset at not being perfect..

I wonder, if these very same students are being thrown into a polytechnic, they would be gunning for a perfect score too.. all distinctions in 3years of poly studies, but can that be real? Would they then be able to score with average project mates?

The real world is such, that there is no perfection, we can only try.. its scary how our top students from RJC are soaked into this mindset that nothing less than perfect is acceptable.. what then happens when this same crop of students enter into society and become "leaders"? many will be, for scholarship awaits these perfect scorers..

for those who do not make the cut into the perfect scorers, they too have a bright future ahead and many would be plugged into the middle/top management of many companies and government agencies alike..

wonder how these "near-perfect" people would view the folks who are of lesser performance than them, those from "lower" JCs, polys and others..









Happiness is a choice

Of How Happy I am

Just took a test to see how many i am with my job.. how unhappy would have been a better way to put it..

I am 48% Happy with my job
35% of other users(people who took the test) like their job more than i do

Take the test




Related Posts:

Dash of Satisfaction
One plus One
Service or Slavery
Expectations and Happiness






How happy are you?