Give women opportunities to contribute to Singapore

National Service (NS) unfairly penalizes men for two years of their lives and requires them to return for two to four weeks every year for ten years but with good reason: national security. Sadly, it robs men of economic and social security, opportunities and mindshare during their most productive and innovative years. Because of NS, the Singapore man is viewed as "uncompetitive" when compared to foreigners and local women. It is time we did something about the problem, without compromising national security, while creating greater value for all Singaporeans.

Firstly, I must applaud the women who suggest that childbearing is a national sacrifice and that men should not complain about NS. Mothers help us maintain a Singaporean Singapore and care for the young and no amount of writing can do justice to the wonderful job they do. I salute the mothers of Singapore: Thank you for keeping our country going, your sacrifice is clear for all to see.

However, as shown by Singapore's plummeting replacement rate, there are far too few Singaporean mothers. Instead, there is a growing number of free-loaders who do nothing for the country, while hiding behind the guise of potential motherhood. Their deceit forces Singapore to depend on so many foreigners for essential services . These free-loaders use their gender to take advantage of the opportunities denied to Singapore men by NS. I believe it is time to give everyone, regardless of race, religion or gender, the opportunity to earn their rights by delivering on their responsibilities as citizens.

I suggest that at age 18, every citizen, male or female should be invited to serve. For men service will be compulsory, but women would have a choice:

1. NS track
Two years of full-time service before the age of 21, but no need to perform reservist duty. The female NS trainee would be trained and deployed to care for the sick and aged, solving the labor supply problems we face in the aged and health care sectors. This kind of service will inculcate the values of empathy and build a more caring society.

2. Birth track
Assuming her reproductive system is healthy, the woman pledges to bear a child by age 30.

However, should the woman on the Birth track fail to bear a child by age 30 for any reason, she will be put on the NS track immediately to help care for the sick and aged. Two years of full-time service, followed by ten years of reservist duty.

This should solve some of our problems with NS inequality, aged and health care. As the old Total Defense chestnut goes: There's a part for everyone.

Abundance is not an excuse for incompetence

The standard Singapore government/GLC response to any problem: Blame high volume

• No 3G service? 
• Too many subscribers
• MIO TV disruption? 
• Too many channels
• Euro/World Cup TV subscription expensive? 
• Too much competition
• Train disrupted? 
• Too many passengers
• Toxic/contaminated food? 
• Too much food to check
• Traffic jam? 
• Too many cars
• Housing expensive? 
• Too many couples
• Education quality sucks? 
• Too many demanding students
• Not enough babies? 
• Too many distractions
• Dead bodies in reservoir? 
• Too many copycats
• Dead Bangla and Indonesia maid found in water tank?
• Too many contractors
• Lack of focus in Parliament? 
• Too much Opposition
• Flood? 
• Too much rain

With one exception:

• Ministerial pay too high? Too little talent

If you can think of any others, just add it into the comments and I'll update the post. 

Remembering Dr Goh Keng Swee

"He who has ambition will do his better in order to satisfy himself. He will stick to his work and see that he is the best man that ever has done that work. Our ambition must be to make ourselves useful to our country, our people and ourselves." - Dr Goh Keng Swee (6 October 1918 – 14 May 2010), the architect of Singapore.

I believe we have a bankruptcy of character. Great minds often come with great character, something unusual and not universally accepted. Singapore's attempt to sterilize character, removing anything remotely like an outlier has resulted in a bland and unimaginative country, incapable of solving the simplest problems. We must learn to embrace the odd ones, the diversity, and have faith in the ingenuity of those we shunned in the past. People should not be made to fit a system. A system should be made to fit the needs of the people.

The Minimum Wage is a Terrible Idea

Singapore needs people with skills warranting a higher wage, not politicians legislating a minimum wage. Our national education system is the problem. It has produced an entire generation of people who copy and replicate, instead of creating and innovating. If our people are highly skilled or creative, they will naturally command a good wage, or even own flourishing businesses. Value creation must come before the rewards. Legislating a minimum wage won't solve the problem because inflation and illegal activity will negate the well-intended minimum wage. 

Businesses will do three things when faced with a minimum wage law: 

1. Stop hiring any position below the minimum wage

If there is little value in the position, and it is expensive to maintain, a business will simply cut its losses and terminate the position. Worse still, the business may decide to relocate those functions completely to other cheaper countries.

2. Make those paid above the minimum wage do more work

Businesses would prefer to give an employee a raise and add more tasks to the employees job scope than pay a minimum wage and be faced with arbitrary pay increases each time the government changes the law.

3. Pass the cost increase on to the consumers, which includes low income workers

Inflation is the worst tax of all. It erodes the power of savers to break the chains of poverty and rewards the rich who have the power to take huge risks to beat inflation. The poor will suffer the most when businesses pass on increases costs to the consumer. This is how income disparity begins: the government causes inflation, the poor are unable to save, and the rich keep investing to stay ahead of inflation.

Net effect:

1. Higher cost of existing goods and services

Businesses will transfer the increased costs to the consumers. Employees higher up the food chain will demand pay increments to ensure parity and use the minimum wage as a benchmark. All these translate to inflation.

2. Higher unemployment

The ones with low wages tend to be school leavers, vacation workers, and the elderly. They will be the first to be fired. Next will be the staff in low value positions. Businesses would not take as many chances on new people because a minimum wage would be involved, so a minimum standard of experience would be demanded too.

3. More foreign talent imports that meet the minimum wage

By making local labor as expensive as foreign imports (talents, not low wage workers since the minimum wage would eliminate low wage), businesses would look further away from Singapore when hiring and it would be tougher to get a job here for local school leavers.

4. More illegal foreign workers to circumvent the minimum wage

Some businesses would look at hiring illegal foreign workers to keep wages low. It will become a big problem in the construction industry, and you will soon see more locals displaced by illegal foreign labor.

Please think carefully before asking for a minimum wage. It looks very good and noble on paper, but the real world is a very dynamic (or corrupt) place and it is not going to work out the way you think.

How to punish errant taxi drivers

Did you know that taxi drivers are not allowed to pick their customers?
Or that they must use the most direct way to take you to your destination?
A little research on the LTA website revealed the following offenses and penalties in a PDF document:

* Soliciting for passengers:
12 demerit points, Fine : $500

* Overcharging (by less than $20):
12 demerit points, Fine : $500

* Refusing, without reasonable excuse, to hire out taxi or to convey passenger:
6 demerit points, Fine: $300

* Terminating hiring of taxi or requiring passenger to leave taxi, without reasonable excuse, before passenger is conveyed to destination:
5 demerit points, Fine: $200

* Verbally insulting, intimidating or harassing a passenger in a sexual manner:
5 demerit points, Fine: $200

* Failing, without reasonable cause, to proceed to destination named by a passenger by shortest and most direct route:
3 demerit points, Fine: $100

* Verbally insulting, intimidating or harassing a passenger (other than in a sexual manner):
3 demerit points, Fine: $100

Turns out that consumers have rights too. I suggest everyone with a smartphone sends the LTA pictures of the offending cabs which like to pick and choose among customers and destinations. It is about time they learnt their lesson.

How To Lodge A Complaint Against A Taxi Driver?

1) By Phone :
Call to LTA Hotline – 1800-Call LTA or 1800-225 5582

2) By Email :
Access to LTA Internet Website – http://www.lta.gov.sg

3) By Letter or Fax :
Bus & Taxi Regulation Dept
Land Transport Authority
10 Sin Ming Drive
Singapore 575701
Fax No.: 6553 5329

Information You Need To Provide When Lodging A Complaint

1) Vehicle registration number of the taxi (with prefix and suffix)
e.g. SHA1234Z
2) Date and time of the incident
3) Venue and/or origin-destination of the incident
4) A brief account of the incident
Additional information that will help in the investigation include:
1) Type and colour of taxi
2) Fare paid
3) Sign displayed
4) Brief description of the driver

Commuters may have to appear in court to support their complaint.

Claim your land Singaporeans, or someone else will

We were born free men and women of Singapore. We were educated, in a largely civilized society, and built a great land for ourselves and our children. Now the very things we have invested in are being taken away from us, cut into pieces and sold to the highest bidder, very often from foreign lands.

I firmly believe in the right to private property, but not when the acquisition of that property was made using state subsidies and statutes based on eminent domain. This is our land, our birth right, and we must send a clear message, that while we want to play ball with the world, we will not let our team be kicked around, bent over and spanked.

This is our land and we must fight for it, against all attackers, both foreign and domestic.

Singaporeans need to understand that while we need to be a part of a global economy, the foreigners must also learn how to be a part of us, especially when they are on our soil. A partnership is a two-way relationship. The proper name for a one-way relationship is slavery.

I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.

Securing our future together after many good years

We must not develop a crutch mentality. Remember our track record. This is a footloose generation who need a good dose of bad government. Then your mother, sister and daughters will become maids in a third world country, and you will repent. Vote carefully. Securing our future together. Many more good years!

1. The crutch mentality

$130 a month vs $3,000,000 a year (250,000 a month)?

• Who is using the crutch?
• Who is really eating in the hotel, restaurant or food court?

2. Remember our track record. This is a footloose generation who need a good dose of bad government:

• Mas Selamat - it has happened, what to do?
• Flooding - twice in 50 years (adjusting for daylight savings, we arrive at two in one week in real time)
• Youth Olympic Games - three times over budget, but unable to cater proper food for volunteers
• Lehman Mini-Bonds - these are investor grade
• Overcrowded trains - we have sufficient resources to accommodate new arrivals
• Sovereign fund losses of 40 billion - a long term dis-investment
• Medical costs skyrocket - give us a strong mandate and we will keep medical costs low
• Public Housing skyrocket - housing is affordable
• More jobs for Singaporeans - 36% of population is now foreign

3. Then your mother, sister and daughters will become maids in a third world country, and you will repent:

• Shall we wait till we get to this point?

4. Vote carefully. Securing our future together. Many more good years!

We are here to make a choice

On May 7th, we will choose our representatives in Parliament. All the parties have asked us to choose carefully. We are surrounded by many choices; some clear whilst others confusing. At every rally, in the coffee shops, restaurants, on the streets, on Facebook, you see people gathered with one thing on their minds: the choice, or more precisely, the consequences of the choice.

How did we get here, in this place, considering this choice?

We are not gathered here because of the transgressions and pain of the past. We are not here because of the insufferable conditions of the present. Many are upset at the massive influx of foreign workers, the high price of public housing, inflation, the distance between the government and the people, among other reasons. But that is not why we are here.

Some may say we are here because we are afraid; afraid of the future; the uncertainty of it all. We fear for our children, our loved ones, the affordability of education and healthcare. We fear we may not be able to carry on. But that is not why we are here.

We are not here because we are afraid; we are here because we are not afraid. We are too angry to be afraid. We are not hungry; we are full from being fed lies. We are here because we know we do not need to be paid $3 million dollars a year to care about our country. We are here because we want leaders who want to share and prosper; not divide and conquer.

We have been warned that we will regret our decision. It is better to regret something we have done than regret something we haven’t done. Five years ago, most of Singapore did not vote, and now we regret what we could not do. You have convinced us that was a mistake; one we won’t repeat.

You ask for forgiveness. You shed your tears on TV. You ask us to give you a chance to listen to us, to work with us, to share in the prosperity of our great nation; you want five more years to make it right.

You HAD five years to listen to us. You HAD five years to do the right thing. You did not cry for us when you made your choices in Parliament; we will not shed a tear for you. You have shown us that you can make mistakes but refuse to face the consequences. We need idealism, not fatalism in our leaders; you have shown us that we do not need you in our future.

On May 7^th, we will do what we should have done five years ago. We will choose our future as a nation; all of us. We will choose leaders who want to serve, instead of demanding to be served. We will reject those who demand entitlement, and welcome those who deliver empowerment. This time we will choose wisely, because we actually have a choice, and our choice matters.