BN-MDA spat: Better let MDA win

Read it in Today first and then saw BN's response. Yeah, go back to bed was exactly right. Waste of time and only serve to confirm many of our guesses what MDA is: clueless and earning the status of stupid in a hurry.

But to be shrewd you have to let MDA win or they will find a way to make it really costly for BN and especially Bertha Henson. They can beat MDA in a classic David vs Goliath match (Malcolm Gladwell latest book tell the story better than any Bible teacher) but this is Singapore, and government power is mostly unlimited. We are not quarreling over having 6.9 million people here. Better concede. MDA and its upstairs face is more precious than survival. They are not as large as Dr. Goh forgiving Dr. Tan for making him look bad in Parliament once.

Anyway the bigger the win MDA scores, the greater its loss with the smartest and most influential segments of our society and the international media. And they have to meet these global organizations pretty often too. It is now a no fun job for them. Imagine sitting across the conference table and wondering if these ang mohs must be thinking I am out of touch. It would be far worse if you imagine them silently thinking you are stupid. And if you meet the Chinese instead they would think you are weak and they would propose why not use their methods. Of course you can't talk to them about Zhou Yongkang who is now in the dog house. Teo Chee Hean once met him so publicly to discuss such matters.

Simply put this government do not know how to govern if they open Singapore further and yet remaining as closed as before is untenable. So how?

Update: 1:55 pm

LOL. Good one Mr. Brown.

Little India Riot: Why only burn govt vehicles?

And the top responses

• 

  Jean'ie Peac'ie Just fyi. Free ice-cream is not a campaign, it started wayyy before the riot... many students are aware. It was reported on ST before, just that not many notice since people think distributing ice-cream to workers do not make much sense? But please understand that was a little gesture in showing our appreciation to workers whom have been helping us alot! 

  Like · Reply · 45 · 9 hours ago via mobile
• 

  Suriya Narayanan that's y i love Singapore !!!! u r always gr8.. lucky to be here !!

  Like · Reply · 35 · 9 hours ago
• 

  Ravi Sanker If dont appreciate...shut up...dont be scarstic with ur comment...

  Like · Reply · 25 · 9 hours ago via mobile
• 

  Francis Fromhell Overall they are nice n peaceful people. Ask them for help or talk to them, u will find them friendly.

  Like · Reply · 25 · 9 hours ago via mobile
• 

  Mohsien Hanafi So many people saying negative things about this act. Ask yourself, when's the last time you actually genuinely volunteer for something good? Or because of all these money chase your heart has turn cold, always thinking "me myself I" all the time? Seriously how can we create a compassionate society if we ourselves are being cold towards another human being.

  Like · Reply · 20 · 6 hours ago
• 

  Dorothy Ang I dun understand all those ppl who post negative remarks when ppl do good things...! Why???? Do you realized that this migrates are very poor thing , they leave their families and work really hard here, they are human too..I always feel for them cos many are exploited. Some work n get not enough rest.. Whether which country there are from, respect them please...!

  Like · Reply · 17 · 8 hours ago via mobile · Edited
• 

  Jas Ne thank's

  Like · 8 hours ago

And that is why, and I can only guess given the dearth of information plus I am not a regular at Little India why only Police and SCDF vehicles were targeted by not private vehicles and businesses.

Come on, as far as I can tell all my neighbors treat the foreign workers working as cleaners and gardeners here well. I treat the guy who wash my car exceptionally well. I pay him early and I give him bonuses too. Many years ago when I lived in Pine Grove, the Indian fellow who washed my car would tell me he would be keeping an eye on my vehicle whenever he learned that I was outstation. I had an Indian guy who also washed my car in Dubai and he was very expensive and a lazy fellow. I had to threaten to fire him a few times.

We are fortunate that the xenophobes among us never go beyond talking. I am reminded that among the FWs there are many quite literate and IT savvy too. They can read and understand what we write on Facebook. I also recall years back they came to install the optic fiber cable at my place. Those Indian workers who look like any Indian laborers were actually knowledge workers when I saw them take out their equipment, punch buttons etc., I was happy when Han Fook Kwang also discovered the same and wrote about this fact in Sunday Times yesterday.

I don't know, but the Home Team should ask themselves how they treat these foreign workers. I have seen many  times how them questioned them from a distance before. I can't hear what they say but I could see the Indians looked somewhat scared and the body language of the Policeman displayed dominance especially with their arms akimbo. Policemen do not talk to citizens like that. In fact I think our police officers are even trained to cope with scoldings by us!

What the COI report may not be as interesting as what it chooses not to. Parts of their work had been preempted by ministerial statements and you know the culture of this place, which is you do not embarrass the ministers. It is bloggers like us who do not care. We continuously seek the truth despite the many mistakes we can't avoid.

Little India Riot: PM just rejected the least worst reason

COIs are too slow. We live in real time and want answers immediately. For leaders to tell us to stop speculating is just plain oxymoron. Even they can't help themselves with their speculation but couched in skeptical language and qualifications.

Did our leaders not realize the the least worst hypothesis for the riots are unhappy foreign workers? If that is the reason, it is the easiest problem to solve. Yes, even the easiest is very hard here but some are near impossible. No leader is honest and courageous enough to admit they made a mistake allowing too many of them to come here. Only the old man had the guts to publicly state his reservations long ago.

Oh, they riot because they had one bottle too many and because they are not trained as Singaporeans from young. They riot like any people would the rest of the world. I learned that Indian society is stricter with public boozing. We failed to notice and impose the same here. So we were careless as we were many times in recent years beginning with the escape of Mas Selamat....

Now I wonder how long it will take for the culture and quality of thinking at MDA to spread to the rest of government - in reality more like they help each other become like each other eh? No more a Dr. Goh who once went into MAS and clean shop. Lim Kim San did the same when he went to SPH. Confidence and standards at SPH is falling after they lost him. These men did such an outstanding job it takes a long time for the after glow to fade, a golden opportunity for lesser people to claim genius they did not possess because they occupy the late boss chair now, and also time for me to sell my SPH shares.

To me the ministers and the PM were quick on the draw that it wasn't workers' unhappiness (they have learned to be less emphatic by using 'no evidence') because they were traumatized by the bus drivers' strike. We must learn not to lose our nerve so easily because it clouds our thinking and impair our judgement.

Politically it would be cleverer to tentatively agree to reasons which you can immediately act on even as away from the public gaze you look for the real reasons for the riot. Also none of our leaders had the savvy to order the security forces to protect the emergency vehicles. See how terrible we come across when the major media organizations show them to the world. Readers and viewers will forget the details of the stories but never those photos and videos of burning and overturned vehicles.

We should be kind and generous to those who were not involved but severely punish those who took part in the rioting.


Update: 10:35 am

Post riot, excellent articles in the Sunday Times Think pages today.

Jamie Oliver exposed McDonalds unedible food

I do not know how McDonalds here sourced their raw materials to make the foods they sell us but over in America the famous chef Jamie Oliver had done America and the world over a favor exposing them.


Unfair and also likely unreliable, my palate protested that their stuff tasted like reconstituted nutritional chemicals. For these two burgers the big firm hasn't gotten the taste test right yet. With their more mature products they are doing lots better but it is all deceptive. We had McDonalds two or three times when we were there on holiday in 2011, except for the Angus burger everything especially the chicken nuggets tasted better and more wholesome than what you could buy in Singapore.

You can't be 100% about food and many things else. Fortunately we don't eat there very often.

I think their fries are alright but watch the more complex offerings.

MDA like North Korea and what's life like

MDA has been on my mind and so has what had happened recently in North Korea. The two are very different but for us outside observers they are as good as the same. Both are irrational. You try to use your brain on these two, it is a waste of time. You don't get anywhere except with speculation, which is also unfruitful. Nevertheless the NYT has produced an excellent article on the execution of the ruler's uncle. If we could do the same with MDA, that would be very good. A huge embarrassment is in store for the MDA when reputable foreign publications start writing up on their latest measures. Only the reputation for intelligence of the broader government protects them from drawing the conclusion that they a hopelessly confused regulator. They are as unpredictable and arbitrary as Kim Jong Un. Everyone is watching them for some evidence of rationality and they are not going to wait forever.  One publication mumbrella had decided to go ahead because these guys loses the opportunity when the big names pick this up.

Now I want to speculate on North Korea. I think the young Kim is in deep trouble. His late uncle was probably a very capable man which he failed to appreciate. Kim inherited a country in worse shape than his father had to rule. He also didn't have long years of apprenticeship like his father had. They cannot reach out to the west without trading away the nuclear option. As a result they are stuck with China. Killing his mentor so publicly is tantamount to dictating terms to China. He basically just want to be fed and fed well when the Chinese also want to manage the cost of supporting North Korea. To safeguard his interest he will play brinkmanship games. Most countries are no good at such games but the North Koreans excelled at it ignoring that this is fraught with risk and it is only a matter of time it ends badly.

I think the North Korea regime is finished but who knows when. This is the same challenge we regularly have with the markets. If you know what you could not know when. When you grasp the when, you have no precision on what is going to happen.

Similarly the riot in Little India. Small fights are common occurrence there suggesting that a big fight or a riot would happen some day but who knows when. Ditto the small hurricanes that regularly visit the Philippines before they get hit with Haiyan. You can think up countless examples. That's how life on earth operates in nature and society.

The Singapore Way is to have a sensitive radar and anticipate low probability but high impact events. Our security systems performed abysmally anticipating the riot in Little India. What happened to those sophisticated horizon scanning systems the former civil service head Peter Ho was so proud of? Must be like the British, whose guns were pointing south but the invaders came from the north. There is nothing wrong with the systems. The problem as usual is the people. Fortunately the Home Team were much better than the strategy and intelligence team but watching pictures of overturned and burning emergency vehicles in the foreign media, how I wished they could also have protected those assets. They made us looked really bad.

Bertha Henson: Safe to blog?

Her instincts served her well to ask if it is safe to blog. All due to the many years in as an editor and writer at SPH.

I just blogged about the MDA being stupid, of course they aren't. Its top managers would have been booted out before they could climb the ladder if they were that incompetent. MDA had simply just provided enough examples for us to call them that but remember we don't get to see everything needed to come to a firm and correct conclusion.

TOC, TRS, The Real Singapore, Yawning Bread etc., have their large and stable following. They are a bunch the PAP had given up of ever trying to win over. Neither can these sites win many adherents unless the government screws up especially over bread and butter issues. Diary of a Singaporean Mind was smart to stop blogging.

Of course it is safe at least for now for Ms Henson to blog. I am not so sure if it will always stay this way.

If you believe content was never the issue with MDA, you are naive. Ms Henson must avoid making the MSM look inadequate, incompetent, stupid or bad. SPH should have tried harder to keep her on their payroll.

Unless she did something stupid like Ngiam Tong Dow had and lost his credibility, otherwise the G will be watchful of her.

It is a pity to corral her this way. She was so innovative. I would have paid to subscribe to BN, but even if you try very hard to persuade me to read TOC, TRS, Yawning Bread regularly for free, I still wouldn't.

MDA evolved from Clusmy to Clueless and now Stupid

The MDA has been in the public space for the last year or so. We first noticed them from the brouhaha over EPL rights and lately how they have brought an axe to kill an ant with Breakfast Network. Prior to that they put on an embarrassing show on TV when Tan Chuan Jin had to front them instead of their CEO or Minister over a mysterious and inexplicable update of  Internet regulation in which they claimed nothing had changed.

Initially I thought MDA was just a clumsy organization which failed to get its act together and needed to be better organized and managed. But when clumsiness persist you were forced to conclude that they don't know what they were doing. In other words, they were clueless. Unfortunately the remained clueless and so like a disease it must go somewhere, you were forced to conclude that they were stupid. Nobody knows what they are doing or are up to. More and more of us are calling out their stupidity.

What comes after stupid? If MDA can answer this question correctly it will live or they fail to the decay will spread further inside this government. Stupidity are like bad apples, if tolerated the whole barrel eventually turns bad.