The Moley Prophet

When it comes to collecting money, the LTA could never be better. However, when compensation comes into play, they never fail to push the blame around to keep people confused. Not realizing how hefty it would cost to take the CTE from Ang Mo Kio to town, I followed my GPS and drove through it. For that short distance of less than 3 kilometers (not sure exactly how long it was), it cost me $7. 7 freaking bucks, and of top of that, the road wasn’t clear either - which proves one thing, the ERP is useless in preventing traffic slowdown, because the road is what we call in Chinese “bi jing zhi lu”, loosely translated as “the only way to the capital”. While in the states, I had to take highway which charges tolls occasionally. These highways definitely allows smooth traffic. I have never seen a traffic slowdown on it. On top of that, the speed limits are upped by 10 miles an hour. Guess how much it costs? 75 cents - I heard it has been upped to a dollar though. That small toll fee would save quite a bit of time, and I don’t mind paying, because there are no additional toll charges like there are ERPs everywhere. What’s more, there is no road tax to pay in America.

Recently, I wrote in to LTA to request for some road signs to be put up to a prominent humanitarian organization. The reply was, advertisements would endanger the safety of road users. I was like “WTF?” while reading the reply. What do you mean by advertisements? I’m asking for a freaking directional sign you idiots. People are getting lost on the roads because of the secluded location coupled with a one-way traffic along that road. My reply was: Yea right. Advertisements endanger the lives of motorists, like those hanging on the lamp post along Orchard Road, Penang Road, Stamford Road, and many other areas. And if they do not put up the directional signs, it would really cause a road safety issue when motorists start getting confused. I believe that there is a reason for them to say no - perhaps, they want to charge a fee? I’m only guessing =)

Since they are so eager to earn money, they should carry the liability of compensating drivers who get frustrated by their useless money sucking device. It is only right that LTA compensate drivers who had to be frustrated with a fine, a trip down to LTA to complain, and a trip to a certified inspection center for the IUs checked. You think gas is free? You think time is cheap? I’m sorry, these are currently the most precious resources in the world. To not compensate, LTA is proving to the entire world of how they use their unfairness as an authority to protect themselves from all charges, and placing a huge question mark on the integrity of our legal system.

I just found out something, my ideas don’t come to me unless I am out of my home, so I’ve taken to blogging while on the bus, train, cab, walking on the streets.

So why do I say Singaporeans are selfless? In general, Singaporeans always think for others before themselves. Singaporeans may be known for being the 2 “kias” (kiasu - afraid to lose/kiasee - afraid to die), but they are afraid of something else, they are afraid that others lack help.

2 weeks ago, I was at a toastmaster chapter of another club. One of the topics discussed was, should we restrict what our maids wear? And the general consensus was, no. But has anyone given a thought to our people? The waiters at McDonald’s, the door man at our hotel lobby, the insurance agents selling policies on the streets. They were all given specific instructions or specific clothing to wear. Has anyone sympathized them? They are all employees under paying employers, what’s the difference?

Singaporeans may be known to be best at picking the right bargain, in fact sometimes things may turn ugly, ruining the image of Singaporeans as a whole. But when it comes to giving, the sense of saving is lost. Singaporeans, no matter how poor they, how distraught they could be, don’t resist giving. Besides the all fanfare charity shows, the kindness of Singaporeans could be seen when disaster strikes at a neighboring country. Support from all levels would come pouring in. Take Myanmar’s Cyclone Nargis disaster for example. People from all levels pour in donations of all sorts. Even with the inflation affecting everyone now, people continue donate whatever they could. A certain local company, whose financials aren’t as strong as before, continued to show support for this cause with a huge donation of money. Renhao says that this is just flaunting of corporate social responsibility. But I say not. Many of the companies which called in for donations are only willing to donate in kind, donating their old stocks, and these are foreign MNCs with huge capital. What they are doing is of course very nice of them, but given the comparing financial positions of the companies, what the former did is unbelievably generous. They have also shown immense concern for the efforts. I’m not sure whether the news has been out yet so, I’m not gonna say its name here. But I’m sure those who are receiving this donation would have utmost gratitude for them.

Riding on the very old and worn train along the East-West line, you could see the faces of probably ignorant Singaporeans on what the fierce inflation might mean to them. Yes, they probably felt the pinch of the price hikes, probably had restrained their spending power, but the real impact of the latest inflation is still looming. This inflation only further widens the gap between the rich, and the middle income along with the poor. In fact, the middle income might just dilute into the lowest category.

You could see how the rich pursues their winning advantage. Look at SMRT, despite of the numerous incidents which lie on their faulty systems, causing them to receive the ‘big ticket’ fines, their profits continue to increase. And what were they saying earlier? There is a need to increase ticket fares to combat rising costs, if they were able to boost profits despite making numerous mistakes, where did their rising costs go? They had probably taken them from the pockets of their employees.

Recently, during the review by National Wage Council, Singaporeans were told to hold their hunger for higher salaries which they hope to counter rising costs. And yet, Grace Fu could say that we should be increasing the pay packets of foreign expats. These are the people who would be taking the money out of Singapore. Do we not have enough talent pool to support our economy? Or perhaps they have all left for countries which recognizes their talents?

The money that is leaving our shores could only be hurting our economy further. Most Small and Medium sized Enterprises depend on the money coming in from the middle income to survive. With the rising costs and the refusal to adjust the normal income of Singaporeans to match real income, the spending power of the middle class dropped by a huge margin. As their spending power dropped, they buy lesser, and SMEs income dip further. See the chain effect here? If this government does not rectify the situation but continues to make unforgiveable mistakes like the Mas Selamat incident which resulted in loss of millions worth in cross border trades, the situation could ultimately be disastrous.

Was just talking to Ben today and another fellow Singaporean yesterday about the incident of Mas Selemat. Lee Jr. gave his speech about how making heads roll when an incident sprouts would only deter people from taking up the job and doing it well. I beg to differ.

If this were the case, why are corporations still getting good Chief Executive Officers when their heads roll if they screw things up? Why do the CEOs still initiate plans to further innovate operations in their company? It is because of the salary involved. Being in the employee quadrant of the four quadrants set out by Robert Kiyosaki, CEOs or Ministers all make their lump sum of money from salaries. As long as the salary is there, they will take up the job.

Lee Jr. is making a ridiculously contradictory statement when he announced that Wong Kan Seng would stay because he does not want to see heads roll when a mistake is made. Yup, we shouldn’t be seeing that if it was a small mistake. CEOs do not lose their jobs just because the companies make a loss. CEOs lose their jobs in situations when their Research and Development division allowed a competitor to patent a product which they innovated before they could. The Mas Selamat case was a complete fluke. Why wasn’t a top terror suspect like him injected with GPS? Don’t give me the bull shit about human rights. I don’t think planting a tiny GPS chip is that much of human rights issue when MINDEF could have Officers who do not follow the law training recruits in Pulau Tekong. Don’t say it doesn’t exist because recruits have already died.

If Lee Jr. could say that a raise in Minister’s salary is to match that of the corporate sector, I believe that a Minister has the same liability to that of a CEO.

P.S. Adding on to what I said earlier, I wonder why is it that Wong Kan Seng is presenting a report in parliament of what went wrong? Shouldn’t he be the one being fired with the report like when a fraud is going on in a company, an external auditor would be required to audit accounts and fire questionable points at the executives? Isn’t this a conflict of interests on his part? And why is Wong Kan Seng punishing others when he himself should be punished? Is he saying that procedures for the detention of the number 1 wanted terrorist suspect in Singapore has not been discussed with him? And if it wasn’t why didn’t he show more concern for the detention of Mas Selamat being the Chief of the Ministry?