What is this election about?

To me this election is not about the who is a better MP, or who gets upgrading or can run the town council better. This election is about changing course. Jamming the brakes and moving in another direction.

I agree with the PAP that they have done much to promote and bring in investments. Most of their policies are pro business and helped develope Singapore into what we are now. However, we cannot use old formula in a new environment. The PAP to me is choosing investment over the lives of the Singaporean. They strongly believe that without the investments Singapore is doomed. I partly agree with them. However, if they are paid millions to come out with the obvious solution, I think they are not worth what they are paid. Yes it is a difficult problem and there is no easy solution. No one said it is easy but if you pay youself so much then you better be able to come with the solutions.

I am voting for the WP Aljuinied this time to slow down the PAP in the wrong direction.

I hope WP would not disappoint me and move the government in the right direction. I am a forgiving person and is willing to give WP many chances.

I will not be threaten by a slum like aljunied. If necessary I hope WP could raise funds for the constituency . If Aljuinied choses WP, then Aljunied will have to stand together to build a better future with or without government's funding. Let them know WP is serious in their contest and show them that WP can do better than the PAP. Show them the strenght of Singapore community when they stand together! WP it is up to your leadship. Good luck and all the best. You have my vote.

Disempowerment

Don't we often hear that yes we might vote for the opposition but ultimately the PAP will still win. Now that is a disempowering thought. No don't look at what you cannot control and beat yourselves up. Look at what you can do and do your best for the nation according to what you believe in. Look at the people around you, talk to them and convince them of your stand. If you are rooting for the opposition, you only need to convince 1 person from the other side to stand with you you would have helped the cause. Using the 66.6% out of 3 voters 1 chooses the opposition. For every opposition voter who can convince their peers/relative to change sides, the opposition would have a high chance of winning. Even if they do not win every increase in percentage sends a message to PAP that their days are numbered if they do not change. The voters should stick the spurs into the hide of PAP to get them to work cheaper better and faster or else they would soon not get a chance to serve us.

Where can you find Pro PAP blog Post

I can hardly find any? Can you find some please direct me to those site! One of the reasons I think we can't find any is because they pay themselves millions without producing the results. They say look at the GDP figure they speak for themselves. The normal peasants use a different measure. Their lives are not better so how to justify the minister's pay. When they pay themselve millions without the stamp of approval from the citizens, people will find fault every corner they turn, because they got to get their money's worth. They get flak for every little mistakes. For eg the floods might really not be preventable but they get flak because they told the people they are the best and nothing will go wrong if we vote for them. The PAP leadership has lost it ability to lead the people because people respect and believe them. The PAP is now trying to rule with an iron fist, with fear and threats. This kind of leadership will be replaced sooner or later. They better think clearly and if they do lose a few GRC. It is not a freak result. It is only freak to them because they are sitting in the towers discussing how great and good they are and grumbling how the peasant have been ungrateful for what they have done. If they do lose it is a sign to them that they are disconnected. Don't try coming out with clever arguments to deny the disconnectedness. What the individual Minister thinks does not have any impact because ultimately it is the policies and the result of the polices that people judge the Ministers by.

Raiding reserves

I am probably quite late to comment about the raiding reserve. Anyway here is my 2 cents. First of all to understand who is raiding the reserve I guess we got to know, who is the rightful owner of the reserves? Who really owns the land of Singapore? To me the land belongs to the Singaporeans and the reserves are for the Singaporeans. The government is put in place to manage the land to the best interest of Singaporeans. PAP sounds likethye are the land lord exacting high rentals from peasant, enslaving them for years to come, so that they can slave on for the rest of their lives. This to keep the economy growing and GDP rising, not forgetting bonuses soaring. How is that servant hood to the nation?

Blame it on the 66.6

No it is not the Anti Christ I am talking about. It is the cursed 66.6% who voted for PAP. I am sick and tired of people blaming the 66.6% for voting PAP. I am not even sure how the 66.6% came about because there are so many walk overs. Techinically 66.6% only applies to the voters not 66.6% of Singaporeans.

People who blame the 66.6% ought to wake up. They are putting their fate in the hands of other Singaporeans. They emasculate themselves and make themselves powerless. Think about it again. If every believer can preach the Hammer Gospel or the Bible according to Chee and just convert 1 non believer. You would have your 66.6% flip the other way around. Do you part and stop whinning. Preach your gospels according to way of the hammer or Chee's glad tidings. Discuss and talk about it. Think of ways to change their minds and address their fears. You don't have to be a disciple to talk about it. If you are seduced by the dark side and is won over by them, then you deserve their rule. And if you too ashamed of the gospel to even talk about it, then I guess we would just have to accept our fate.

The Anti-Christ is coming. Whose nemesis is it going to be? You Singaporeans hold salvation in your hands. Don't complain when judgment day arrives. Paradise or Hell is ours to build.

Minibonds short term gain long term pain

If there is mis-selling then the bank ought to do the right thing. By doing the right thing what I mean is to buy back all the toxic assets at the original value and compensate consumers.

There should be no compromise and the banks should take responsibility if mis-selling is systemic. It should not be a case by case basis because it has nothing to do with the risk appetite of the consumer but the misrepresentation of risk profile of the product. Those guys with high risk appetite wouldn't go for a 5% PA returns. Even town council is dubbed. You think the town council has high risk appetite? Are they going to pay the TC back? Will they also be the vunerable investors? The statement is they are not significantly affected? Maybe they are vunerable investors to DBS?

I believe that the banks should be taken to task and made to pay. This is to ensure that they look before they leap the next time. They know that the regulators will be breathing down their neck, and if they decide to let consumers take extra risk without justified returns, they will have to eat the fruits of their schemes.

Why not train the consumer to be more savvy? It is good lesson for them. Caveat emptor? Don't buy if you don't understand the product. What this means is a lot of people will not want to invest in structured products because the trust isn't there anymore. Besides you can't train everyone to be more savvy but you can definitely controls the banks and make sure they look into consumer's interest before they think of their profits.

Besides, putting sole responsibility on the consumer is not the solution . The whole problem arises from bad product and the marketing of the product. Punishing the FIs would lead to them being more responsible in their selection of structured products and the way they market it, because they know they will be made to pay if they did something wrong. If MAS let them get away with mis-selling just to protect them from losses then we can guarantee somewhere along the line we are going to have this problem of mis-selling appearing in another form. They will also sell some toxic product with high revenue and let the consumers take the risk. I am not saying we won't see these happening if MAS acted to make the banks pay back. However, I think the FI will think twice before attemping some stunts.

If we protect consumer's interest, people would want to put their money with us and use our fund managers.

Will banks become too conservative and more banks would pull out of SG as a result of tighter regulations? Maybe but that is for the regulators to make sure that the balance is correct.

I am not an investor in any of the minibombs but I am all for payback to the consumers if mis-selling is proven. I think MAS should step in and do something about, cos sitting on the fence is rather painful. Sooner you act the less damage to repair.

So if DBS were to pay out whose money are we using? Probably tax payer's money, since our government has invested a huge chunk in it. Along with it maybe our CPF money used to buy bonds in GIC. Do I think it is fair? I would rather the bank be principled and act in good faith. We are all in the same boat and if it means delayed CPF withdrawal I am willing to sacrifice for my fellow singaporeans.

From silence to confusion

He replied on the 8 May after my post on the 6th

Below is his reply.

Dear Palmist,

The concrete ledge you have queried is under the window where M.S. escaped through. He would have likely stepped on this ledge to reach the window.

I am unable to paste the photos here but you can see them in the following website:jean'site

He seemed confused. Either he didn't read my post properly or he didn't read the COI report. Is is easy to understand why he was mistaken and confused because there was no concrete ledge above the toilet door after all. My only conclusion is that the COI report is not accurate. Looking confused doesn't help to dispell the fact that the COI is inaccurate.

Dr Lam Pin Min's silence

A while ago, I asked in the p65 blog about certain discrepancy in the Mas Selamat escape. His reply was "Thanks for the comments. I agree more details will help clarify the perceived “irregularities”."

So I decided to asked him, since the details will clarify irregularities why not ask the gov to publish those details so that it they can put to rest the speculation. I also disagreed with him that those are perceived irregularities because I cannot see and concrete ledge in the famous toilet picture. I then asked him to point it out to me and correct my perception if I am wrong. However I did not receive any reply. In fact my reply was 'censored' It is obvious then he cannot show me the concrete ledge and his silence and censoring, points to discrepancies in the COI report. I think I have done my part as a citizen to point out the discrepancy. The parliament has decided to turn a blind eye to obvious errors in the report. If anyone is complacent it would the the ministers not the citizens.

I am however a bit suprised that Dr Lam Pin Min decides to take on the challenge to blog about the Mas Selamat case. I wonder if he was arrowed to do it or he volunteered himself to defend the indefensible in order to score some political points. When I first read the blog I thought he was pretty brave to engage people on this. I guess they have the right to censor, so no biggy if things go out of hand. However they are dealing with the internet. You can't really put a muzzle on me.

I sincerely wish Dr Lam a good career, but I think he made an error trying to blog about this topic, when he is not prepared to take it on with sincerity. I would have respected him if he dare ask those questions I posted in parliament.

A skeptic's view on Mas Selalmat COI(we can't be complacent)

There are so many inconsistency in the COI report compared to the pictures published.

Firstly the greenish grey pants was hung over the CONCRETE ledge above the urinal cubicle door.

There is no concrete ledge in the picture shown in the straits times. It is a plastic folding door. Are they talking about the same place?

There is also no water tap in sight so why did the COI report that Mas turned on the tap INSIDE the cubicle.

It is actually not a norm to have door for urinals much less for a security facility where you want to monitor the movement of rehabilitating prisoners.

If you look at the escape window it is located just below the celling. The door does not cover right to the top where there is no view of what's going on inside the cubicle. In fact if you look at the rear of Family Visitation Block where toilet was situated you can see right into the toilet. It means if Mas trys to escape from the window he can actually be seen from where the guard is standing. The view of the ventilation window is only partially blocked by the door. So how did he escaped without the guard noticing him.


The ledge below the ventilation window is also not normal. Nowadays the cistern for the urinals are usually hidden behind the walls or they are on the same side of the urinals. I makes no sense to have a ledge in the toilet because that is not space efficient.

As you can see from the picture above there is a white pipe going from the middle of the toilet to the left side where the urinals are. It is interesting that the point of the pipe's entry is not blue but cement. It probably means that a hole was created and patched up after the building was completed. A new addition the was not originally part of the toilet. There is also the middle portion with a blue pipe that is slightly darker with a new cement block.

We definitely cannot be complacent this time and allow the COI to report things that are not accurate.

Streetdirectory down???? Yellow pages to the rescue

Check out yellow pages. They have all the maps of streetdirectory.com complete with VM 2008 'copyright'!!!! : )