It’s that time of the year again. In 2023, the rising cost of living, sliding incomes, anti-intellectual trend and declining attention span continue. Wokeness and forgetfulness continue to erase the lessons we learned from history and the traffic on this site continues to fade as our people young and old not only indulge in one frivolous nano video after another on TikTok but also get all their “information” from there.
For those whose attention span is measured in nanoseconds, I shall sum 2023 in one word – challenging.
Following tradition, I shall now look back and wonder how we got through a very challenging and mind boggling 2023. Sit tight.
Singapore icon Sim Wong Hoo passed away on 4 January 2023. It ought to be a sad day for Singapore, but we live in an age of short memories. There was a time when we were talking about creativity and entrepreneurship, but we soon realised that it’s far easier to make money through “creative” copying and slogging. The tried and tested, supposedly bao jiak investment in real estate still beats the uncertainty of creativity, originality and new ideas. These days, nothing beats the security of the iron rice bowl and we have the government to thank for that.
Then, there’s the SPH scandal which was not treated like a scandal as nobody seemed too ashamed of it. Painful but necessary to support them with taxpayers money. Painful for us, necessary for them. We have effectively signed a blank cheque and there is no way out of it as long as our folks dare not rock the boat. As more columbariums need to be constructed, they could be used as a “stick” in the next election. I wonder why they haven’t announced that they are thinking of of placing the columbarium complex in Hougang (if they lose) just before the elections. See you still dare to oppose me or not.
In February, I went on a very meaningful trip to Laos. It was a medical mission and it opened my eyes to the lack of services in the impoverished countryside of this beautiful, landlocked country. I also saw the immense opportunities open to trailblazing Malaysian businessmen who dared to venture.
In sharp contrast with the lack of medical services in Laos, medical services have reached a saturation point in Singapore with signboards of clinics becoming an eyesore. Competition is so tough that we are seeing price wars – which would be nice if they won’t lead to fraudulent and unethical practices. I can only say three words 冇眼睇。
24 February 2023 also marked the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Back in 1991 when Iraq invaded Kuwait, almost nobody I knew supported Saddam Hussein. We knew that demonised by the press or not, Saddam was definitely no angel. Everybody I knew cheered when Kuwait was liberated and Iraq was defeated. Saddam had his timing all wrong. If he were still alive and had done the same thing today, he might have gotten quite a bit of support on social media – just like Putin. As Piers Morgan said, the world has gone nuts. The Crusaders’ nemesis, the previously obscure Saladin has been “discovered” and people (including those in the West) are glorifying him instead of the Knights Templar. More on Saladin, Sultan of Egypt in 2024.
Recently, sharing a video on my Facebook group Red Dot Rants on our well-known marathoner Soh Rui Yong generated a bit of discussion on the importance of “humility” and Mr Soh’s “yayaness”. As the saying goes, 人怕出名猪怕壮。Singaporeans hate flamboyance and outspokenness. They can’t wait to see an influencer’s downfall. Luckily, I’m not a particularly successful one. Somehow, they tend to see being opinionated as a character flaw. I don’t. If a person is outspoken about things he obviously knows better, then it’s a sign of courage and independent thinking. He may not be doing society a favour by keeping quiet. Unfortunately for Soh Rui Yong, he doesn’t have a pretty face. In spite of all the drama and positive reviews, our all-encompassing political apparatus sees him as a thorn in the side.
The same goes for Mr Leong Mun Wai. He asked many good questions in Parliament, but his delivery has been somewhat unpolished. No pretty face either. To me, he’s a hero nonetheless but unfortunately, we have too many shallow people eager to see the maladroitly outspoken folks get silenced. To be liked for your “yayaness”, you need to have something called 霸气, an attribute abundantly manifested in Chinese athlete 吴艳妮. She has many times more fans than her humble and sedate compatriots simply because of her pretty face and her 霸气. Young people have a very different idea of what “role models” ought to be like. Yes, China is decidedly more lenient in terms of common rules and laws. 吴艳妮 is allowed to flout them because she is also manifestly “patriotic”.
Looking back at Mr Soh, I’m reminded of Joseph Schooling and how we have forced an Olympic champion into early retirement because of our “zero tolerance” for people who use drugs. The moralists tend not to look at people holistically. Just one mistake and they call for the most severe and complete punishment. How far can we go as a gracious society if we think that graciousness is just about giving up seats on public transport and constantly talking about slippery slopes? Graciousness is also about being open-minded and not being judgemental. Marijuana users and pornstars are not necessarily bad people. Schooling has the looks, but obviously lacks the 霸气. Even if he had it, he would have been thumbed down to oblivion. This is Singapore.
Then, AI became a hot topic. Many people are worried about AI taking away their jobs, but 35 years ago, I was already imagining AI and random animal behaviour being harnessed to produce chart-topping music. While I soon started dabbling in it, illustrating my articles and books with AI generated images, there is still no way AI can write for me. The problem writers face is not so much about AI being able to replace writers, but the tragic fact that we don’t have readers anymore.
2023 was also a year that saw the most parliamentary drama. As Mr Soh mentioned in the video above, there was a hot mic incident involving former speaker Mr Tan Chuan Jin, followed by the uncovering of extramarital affairs leading to the resignation of 2 ruling party MPs and Mr Leon Perera from the WP. The WP also lost a star member Nicole Seah. Many of my female friends were very disappointed with her taste. With her looks, they could have hooked up guys far more charming than Leon Perera.
But seriously, we shouldn’t be so concerned about such juicy affairs. They distract from Mr Iswaran who is apparently still being investigated. Some people believe that this incident will cast doubt on the ruling party and cause it to lose some support. I’ve never thought it would.
Another challenge faced by all of us in 2023 is the cost of plastic bags. We all know what’s actually happening behind the smokescreen of environmental protection. We still need those plastic bags to dispose of our rubbish. We used to use free plastic bags provided by the supermarkets and grocery shops. With these establishments charging for plastic bags, the use of these carrier bags will definitely be reduced, only to be replaced by the increase in sales of trash bags. Save on carrier bags, sell more trash bags. Win.
Then, came the Ridout Road saga. I won’t repeat everything, you can read it here. A whole bunch of critics jumped on the bandwagon. POFMA became unofficially trending and Mr Lee Hsien Yang even got sued. Our two ministers humbly tried to explain their positions only to be greeted by jeers and virtual rotten eggs on social media. One more straw on the camel’s back. Once again, there was much anticipation for the loss of support for the government. With the PAP dripping with scandals, many NOS (naive opposition supporters) expected a tough win for them in the ong lai elections. Nope, as I expected, there is no chance of that happening. Mr Tharman is now our president and he won by a wide margin. Who did those loudmouths who kept poking at the government, saying that they have lost trust in the PAP vote for?
Many of my PLP friends were pleasantly surprised, but why? I offered my explanation here. Yes, people don’t like all the scandals and there’s even CPIB involved, but if they sense that the boat might have been rocked a little too hard, they panic and steer the boat back to its original course. The moralists can drop the pretense. We know who they voted for. It’s all about the stability and profitability of their properties.
As I came down from the summit of Gunung Kerinci on 9 August 2023, I decided to put an end to my NDP – not that it matters to that many people, but I no longer find it meaningful to celebrate National Day by climbing mountains. What’s the point when our people don’t even dare to submit a protest vote and elect a practically powerless president to tame the beast of rising costs that is going to bite real deep and hard come 2024? Tell them we don’t want POFMA. Tell them we don’t want fellow citizens to keep getting sued for defamation. But the pragmatists are afraid that having a “noncompliant” president could spark a chain reaction that finally topples the ruling party.
Crowdfunding to save activists from bankruptcy doesn’t threaten the party’s hold on power. That symbolic “highest office”, once lost, however, could pave the way for a change of government. That is what scares the shit out of the pragmatists. So what if the party is soaked in scandals? Most folks only care about whether their money grows uninterrupted. There is no genuine conviction to change the course of this ship that is overloaded and going in circles. Is it even right to call these self serving folks fellow citizens and celebrate National Day with them?
We hear them rant. We hear them whine. We hear them cheer for the opposition. And we know there’s no true conviction. From now on, I’ll just climb on any day convenient to me. No more flag. I may hold some product I’m selling or promote my books instead. My 9 August 2023 summit of Gunung Kerinci will be my last NDP. There won’t be anymore until Singaporeans learn to stand up for what is right and yield to the temptation of a juicy ong lai. What comes next, even before 2024, ought to be totally predictable. It’s time to juice the ong lai of course. The price of everything goes up, our incomes go down and the iron rice bowl becomes a coveted holy grail.
October 2023 brought some comic relief in the form of hospital drama queen Han Fei Zi. It was a somewhat trivial event. How did it generate so much interest? I guess it had to do with the woman’s haughty attitude and her colourful background. Like Wu Yan Ni, Han Fei Zi tried to show off her 霸气 before the police. This is Singapore and obviously nobody was impressed. This incident coincided with the time I decided to get serious with making YouTube videos as my traditional blogging platform and e-books seemed to be fading into oblivion. Hence, the “tributes” to this woman.
Then, two wars broke out, one in Myanmar and one in the Middle East. On 7 October 2023, the paramilitary wings of Hamas, the Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine, the PFLP, and the DFLP launched a series of coordinated armed incursions into the Gaza envelope of neighbouring Israeli territory, the first invasion of Israel since the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. This war distracted everyone’s attention from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Israel’s response was an “overkill” as expected but what really surprised me was the anti-Israel and anti-US rhetoric out there. How times have changed. If this had happened 20 years ago soon after 9/11, Israel’s response would not have been deemed excessive. There’s even a boycott of McDonald’s and other US-related brands on the other side of the Causeway.
I’ve come across Israelis on my backpacking trips and it was rare indeed to come across a pleasant one. An Israeli woman educated in the US once admitted to me that her people are generally stingy, suspicious, pushy and unfriendly. An officer during her NS days, she explained that it’s the environment that necessitated such behaviour. She pointed out that if they didn’t behave that way, they would have been crushed by Syria, Jordan and Lebanon like an empty can a long time ago. I won’t go into detail on this subject but I suggest that before anyone comments on the situation, he/she should have some knowledge of the Book of Genesis and the biblical origins of this conflict, the British occupation of former Ottoman territory, the Partition Resolution, 6-day War, Hamas seizure of power, Palestinian Authority in exile etc. But the profusion of obviously uninformed comments on social media is staggering. These folks have a right to their opinions, but I hope that if their actions were as good as their words, they won’t affect the “innocent” parties who disagree with them.
People have such short memories these days. I suggest they watch Rambo 3 again. You would cringe if you see how wrong Stallone and the American public were about the Mujahideen they were supporting against the Soviets. The Soviets were beaten. The Taliban and Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda emerged.
20 years ago, it would have been unimaginable for anyone to sympathise with terrorists. Today, thanks to wokeness, the lines have shifted. The world order that had guided civil society and socioeconomic progress after WW2 is now being questioned. People are baselessly imagining that the world might be a better place today if the USSR had won the Cold War, if communism were allowed to spread throughout Southeast Asia and the Korean peninsula, if Iraq ruled Kuwait and if Russia now rules Ukraine. 两害取其轻。There could be no good guys in the whole equation, but always choose the lesser of two evils. Western countries are not spared this revolution. Critical Race Theory has been sweeping through the old history books and monuments, demanding rewrites, demolition and reconstruction. George Washington and Winston Churchill’s statues have been vandalised as their faults are placed under the microscope. Would these folks have preferred Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler? Kim Il Sung maybe?
Then, there’s the civil war in Myanmar on 27 October 2023 which apparently flushed out the scam syndicates and pushed out central government control. This region and the topic are of great interest to me. I’ve made a video in an attempt to explain things to people who don’t read. Suffice to say that my understanding of the situation is quite different from most of the opinions out there.
Then, my postings on this blog in the last two months of 2023 became less and less focussed on words. I’ve been spending a lot of time making videos. The feedback I received is that some people still want to read my stuff. YouTube is one thing. Dewdrop Notes still works modestly well for people who still want to read. I’ve underestimated their numbers. Frankly, I really enjoyed writing this long piece.
Going forward, 2024 is going to be a busy time for me. It’s not easy to make videos while at the same time write blogs, but then with poor business and less money to travel these days, things may work out after all. Keeping my fingers crossed for 2024.