TR EMERITUS

I would like to share my humble suggestions on what can be done about inconsiderate parking in Singapore. Inconsiderate and indiscriminate parking are very, very old issues that pose inconveniences and even danger to others and to almost all motorists, it is an experience that they must encounter one time or another if they have been driving long enough. Many of them are guilty of inconsiderate and indiscriminate parking themselves too. So, why has this bugbear remains so unsatisfactory for ages under the pap government? The answer is actually very, very simple. Inconsiderate parking can take many forms. Parking of cars at motorcycle and handicap lots, indiscriminate parking, parking of cars without a season pass at season parking lots, parking of motorcycles at HDB void decks etc are just some of the many examples of indiscriminate and inconsiderate parking. In short, official enforcement efforts are not serious, not frequent enough and not strict enough despite the thousands of summons being issued annually. Semblance of enforcement is not meaningful enforcement and people mustn't be confused about it. If the relevant authorities are truly serious, thousands more summons with much higher quantum would have been issued. Next, I suspect that the relevant authorities are quietly tolerant of such behaviours and the penalties are too soft, so, it is worthwhile for motorists and motorcyclists to perpetuate their inconsiderate behaviours, try their luck or simply being outright indifferent! Period. The government has the legislated powers and the responsibility to act and address the situations effectively but powers in the hands of weak or incompetent people is power wasted and that is why inconsiderate parking has never been effectively solved under the pap government. I propose citizen vigilante to supplement official enforcement efforts. Encourage members of the public to take pictures of indiscriminate and inconsiderate parked vehicles and send them to a Central Command (CC) and very importantly, this CC must have the power, the seriousness and the will to act and not a wayang wayang CC. I further propose rewarding whistle blowers whose information were punitively dealt with a $30 grocery voucher. Hopefully such incentives will encourage more public spiritedness. I further suggest that our relevant laws be further tighten so that even for first time offenders, a mandatory fine of $300 is imposed and for repeat offenders who commit another indiscriminate parking offence within 3 months of the 1st offence, a mandatory fine of $800. Third time offenders will have to attend court. For those who try to game the system, a jail sentence is mandatory. In our zest to come down hard on our age long inconsiderate and indiscriminate parking challenges, I want to also suggest that more leeway, flexibility and understanding be extended to delivery drivers who work hard, long hours and honestly to earn a living. It is wrong to have a big head, a big cane but a small heart. To effectively tackle inconsiderate parking, we don't need the pap to bull us with their generals or scholars. What we need are serious minded people helming enforcement units and efforts which the pap has shown to be quite inadequate and impotent thus far. Think.   Simon Lim      Read More →

I remember striking up a conversation with an Englishman who mentioned that “I have very little going for me in life except my pink and blotchy skin and I guess you have to use what you have been given.” I remember this conversation because this man had summed up a major truism about post-colonial societies, they can’t get over the “superiority” of the “white colonial” master. Russel Peters famously joked that “Every Indian has a home land – it’s called the United Kingdom.” The same joke could be repeated of any post-colonial society. The homeland of every Vietnamese for example is France (I’ve met quite a few Mr. Nguyen’s who are more responsive to “bonjour” than “Xin Cao.”) In a way that’s very understandable. Leaving aside Japan and the original NICS (Newly Industrialised Countries, namely South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore) Asia is predominantly “emerging.” While countries in Asia (including China and India) have been the main drivers of global growth in the past few years, life for the majority of Asians is for the most part not as good as in the West. If you look at migration flows, the Westerners (defined primarily as the US and EU) coming to Asia are predominantly well to do executives being sent by the company to run an outpost or backpackers (who usually end up becoming executives). If you look at the Asians moving West, it’s either manual labour or average middle class hopping to settle for a better quality of life. We should also not forget that while Asia has been growing and prospering, the West remains a world leader in most things. Asia, has for the most part built its prosperity on building or doing things cheaper. The “world-dominating” parts of America are in “ideas” industries like software and movies (the type of industries that require you to be open to diversity). French and Italian fashion still set the tone for what we want to wear. The world’s most solid cars are still built in Germany. While these countries are becoming increasingly diverse in their ethnic mix, they are predominantly inhabited by Pink and Blotchy people. So, I do get the continuing reverence for all things pink and blotchy. The “world standards” or the places where the world’s best want to be are predominantly “pink and blotchy” lands. Asia and the rest of the “emerging” world would be much better off if we had many of the elements of Western society like the culture that encourages people to be different – we’d have far more innovation and creativity. However, thanks to Donald Trump, there is a twist to this. Just as America and the West is a world leader most of the things that make modern life the wonderful and convenient thing that it is, the Western world also has highly effective nut-jobs who are effective and being nut jobs. While no ethnicity or religion has a monopoly on nut jobs, the ones in the West have something that the others don’t have – a voice. Nobody cares about the other jobs as long as they stick to screwing up their own people. Sure, we get upset about the Mad Mullah’s who were behind the Taliban in Afghanistan and all the horrible things they were doing. However, nobody cared enough about them until September 11 2001 when Osama Bin Ladin, who was their ally, claimed responsibility for the attack on the Twin Towers. We all knew that Idi Amin in Uganda was a nut job but nobody cared as long as he stuck to brutalizing black Ugandans. Western ones are a different matter. Not only do they have a voice, they usually have the ability to spread the virus of insanity and to encourage otherwise normal and intelligent people to take on the virus of stupidity. This was exposed by Covid and the mismanagement of the Trump Administration. While every other leader around the globe was imposing lockdowns, mask mandates and social distancing, the Trump administration decided to do the opposite. Then there was the infamous recommendation of the then President prescribing the injection of bleach. Now, this on its own would not be so bad if it was limited to the Trump and his team. However, you had ordinary citizens doing the same and dying. Now, I don’t know about you but the guys who took it because a politician whose previous career was in reality TV told them to take it despite the doctors telling them otherwise is asking for it. One nut job had spread the virus of insanity. Even without the Trump in the White House, the insanity virus persist and continues to encourage stupidity. You have an opinion host who sees that wearing mask, a proven protective measure against Covid as being a sign of a mental disorder. Mr. Carlson thought he was promoting sanity and freedom. The sane world understood that he had the virus and was busy spreading it. [LINK] I’m not saying that the Asian leaders were all great in their handling of Covid-19. In Singapore, ours planned things well for the main elements of society but somehow forgot that there was a large population of workers housed on overcrowded dormitories. China tried to cover up the initial outbreak and “silenced” a couple of scientists who tried to speak out. However, the difference here is that we know that China is a nasty totalitarian state and so we expect this sort of thing. We know that Singapore doesn’t give a s** about construction workers as long as they remain cheap. You could call the Asian ones “intentionally nasty.” The Western ones are different. They seem to be nicer and more well-meaning. Apparently being told to wear a mask is a violation of freedom and having your kids vaccinated from a host of horrible diseases is also against personal liberty. Somehow that’s worse than letting the kid die of the disease. For the record, vaccines had a role in eradicating small pox and keeping tuberculosis under control – no rational being should doubt that certain diseases kill and vaccines that have gone through clinical trials work. Yet the Western world is filled with nut jobs who think otherwise and somehow the virus of insanity spreads. As long as someone with pink and blotchy skin says something, you’ll have an army of Asians, Arabs and Africans who will buy it. I think of the taxi driver who announced “What’s the big deal – I agree with Donald Trump, it’s no big deal.” He forgot the minor fact that while the Trump was announcing that it was no big deal, he was busy telling Bob Woodward that this was airborne, very bad and worse than the flue. The worst thing about the people who spread the virus of insanity is that they are against factual observations and believe that everything that doesn’t go their way is either a left- or right-wing conspiracy. Just take a look at the following Linkedin post by Mr. Devadas K, CEO of Future-Moves Group. I looked up Mr. Alan Fairnington and found out that he was J. Walter Thomson Asia Pacific for 25-years. As with the case with a lot of expats, one is left dumbfounded by the level of happy stupidity. Here is someone smart enough to get a prominent job in a credible company buying into and peddling stuff that encourages dangerous behavior in a pandemic. The insanity virus coming out of the Western world encourages people to do stupid things and it seems that it has a particular effect on people who should be otherwise clever people. What makes this virus especially dangerous is that other people start following the example of the people who have this insanity virus. So, while everyone is understandably worried about the outbreak of the virus in India and thus restricting travel to and from India, surely, we should also be looking at doing the same with the Pink and Blotchy people from the Western World who are spreading the virus of insanity and getting us to not take a dangerous pandemic seriously.   Tang Li *Although I’ve been based mainly in Singapore for nearly two decades, I’ve had the privilege of being able meet people who have crossed borders and cultures. I’ve befriended ministers and ambassadors and worked on projects involving a former head of state. Yet, at the same time, I’ve had the privilege of befriending migrant labourers and former convicts. All of them have a story to tell. All of them add to the fabric of life. I hope to express the stories that inspire us to create life as it should be.      Read More →

This pandemic has revealed clearly the priorities as well as behavior of the PAP government. Their first priority is the prosperity of big business. The welfare of the people is a very distant second, and only because it supports the first priority. When the pandemic first began, the government took a long time to lockdown the country, as it was worried about the impact it would have on the economy, rather than the health of the people. Eventually, when it became clear that the country would be overwhelmed without locking down and closing the borders, they came out with the CB. Even then, they had to make a last minute dash for about a hundred thousand Malaysian workers so that businesses, including many big businesses they are invested in, can continue, running the risk that some of the workers may infect the public given that Johor was a hotbed of infection. And, when businesses were suffering, HSK announced, not one, but four budgets to bail them out. Yes, Singaporeans and PRs, did get relief, but the bulk of the money went to businesses. Then when infections subsided, the first thing HSK did was to increase petrol duty and announced that GST would increase “sooner rather than later”. Even before vaccines were approved, the government reportedly threw in more than $1B to get the vaccines, so that we can open the economy faster. Achieving herd immunity is the afterthought. And seeing that infections here have remained low, even though it was still raging elsewhere, they opened the borders unitarily with several countries and negotiated travel bubbles, so that SIA, Changi Airport Group, hotels, convention centres and other related businesses, could move on to better times. In the meanwhile, they began to admit more and more foreign workers to support businesses even though members of the public were imploring the government to stop the inflow as the variant virus was running rampant. Clearly, looking after big business, including its businesses, is the government’s first priority. When it came to baling them out, taxpayers have to pay. When the government makes a wrong bet to continue bringing in infected foreigners, the people have to pay, as we have now found out with the TTSH and ICA cluster. In fact, the infected patients at TTSH are very old and some may well pay with their lives. This trend will continue because big business is relentless in maximizing profits and the 4G ministers will not stop them because they are their stooge. The country will become more crowded, cost of living will go up, real wages of workers will be stagnant and work-life-balance will be a pipe dream, unless citizens wake up and speak up against the government’s misplaced priorities and vote wisely at the elections.   Foong Swee Fong      Read More →