So what’s new? Former minister Iswaran has been sentenced to 12 months in prison – more than what the prosecution recommended. We won’t hear from him for a while. That’s not necessarily a good piece of news as opposition leader Pritam Singh has also been charged.
Meanwhile, the recent surge in the Chinese stock market had some folks really excited; Mr Tan Kin Lian, no less. Many hungry folks were in a frenzy, fighting to buy in for a chance to catch this massive wave of recovery. Those of us who know better saw it as a trap. To say that publicly in China may get you arrested.
After the Chinese government announced stimulus packages, opportunistic Chinese investment gurus and influencers pushed Chinese stocks harder than they pushed their live streaming products. Slogans shouted all over Chinese social media included:
“Up with the East, down with the West! Get Rich With the Country!”
“Trust In The Motherland! Be Brave and Stock Up!”
“I’m Not Buying Stocks. I’m Buying The Country’s Future!”
A few even made guarantees that investors would make money. The algorithm liked their position and many were able to earn from social media posts alone. The Chinese stock market surged before the “golden week” celebrating communist takeover in China on 5 October 1949. What would happen after the holidays? We have not only the “Western media” but the Chinese influencers outside the purview of the CCP predicting a crash. I shared a video of former “patriotic investment guru” (a term that only makes sense in China) 翟山鹰. A few years ago, he was predicting doom for the American economy and eagerly promoting Chinese investment products. After he earned a fortune selling these products, he bought USD and migrated to the US. His fans and followers who believed him held on to worthless assets. Once out of China, Mr Zhai started giving his heartfelt opinions about the Chinese economy, political system and stock market. He was dead certain that the market would collapse after “golden week”. Interestingly, I got comments from a Singaporean who is forever optimistic about China. I’ve always challenged these folks to put their money where their mouths are. Few can do it and that’s why I have have great respect for Mr Tan Kin Lian. But without their skin in the game, these “optimists” can spew a ocean of empty talk. There are folks who have put their life savings into the stock market, believing that their country would triumph over the “evil West”. Certainly, they want some assurance that the indices would continue to soar after “golden week”. The former Mr Zhai, lying through his teeth extolling China’s economy would have been loved by all these optimists while the present Mr Zhai, speaking his mind, would be hated.
As the “unpatriotic” folks predicted, the indices took a dip and many who had borrowed money to invest lost their shirts. To rub salt into the would, Mr Yao Zhen Shan justified these losses as legitimate. The investor’s duty is to benefit the “country”. Many investors learned a painful lesson but those who never held a stake would quietly fade into the background and wait for the next opportunity to cheer for the country they idolise. I wonder if Mr Yao was speaking his mind here. Would he say something very different if he had safely settled down in a country with freedom of speech?
One Sinophile started preaching about retribution and Buddhist compassion. But isn’t it meritorious to try to wake the fools? It’s not wrong to ridicule them as the best medicine for these chest-thumping folks is getting burned after putting their money where their mouths are.
Dr Lee Wei Ling passed away on 9th October 2024. She was 69. Before her untimely death she made it very clear that she was not trying to kick up a fuss or trying to be difficult on the issue of 38 Oxley Road. The main reason she fell out with her elder brother was because he would not respect their parents’ wishes. She also wrote fondly about Shanmugam but was disappointed by how he had changed. Mr Lee Hsien Yang posted a moving eulogy on his sister, describing her as a Don Quixote who always tried to do the impossible.
Exiled dissident Mr Tan Wah Piow pointed out that calling the late Dr Lee a Don Quixote may not be appropriate. She had a privileged life compared to the rest of us and make no mistake, so did the younger Mr Lee. The only reason that they were suddenly “with the people” is due entirely to their family feud. The system that he is now fighting against and which gives the ruling party so much power was put in place by none other than his late father Mr Lee Kuan Yew. The irony! And not once did they speak out for the oppressed against the system before this family feud. Sorry, I see you guys as victims and not heroes.
Finally, a video by Dr Chee Soon Juan.
Before I go on, I need to state categorically that I support Dr Chee and hope that he could challenge government policies in Parliament. I also agree with the 6 points he raised and why we shouldn’t have 8-10 million people on our tiny island. Smaller populations are not necessarily a bad thing. Having said that, the culture here is very different from that in Taiwan and the Nordic and Scandinavian countries. I disagree that it’s entirely the government’s fault that we don’t have Nobel laureates. It’s the people and their pragmatism that led to this economically vibrant yet intellectually stagnant society. Everyone wants a fast track to “success” i.e. wealth.
While travelling in Bali, I met a German anthropologist who was writing his masters thesis. To do that, he spent a couple of years doing a course in Bahasa Indonesia in Holland and after that, he planned to live in a Balinese village for 3 years before he would finally write his thesis on Balinese culture and society. I was struck by the amount of passion and dedication this German put into his thesis. In contrast, I know more than a few Singaporeans who wrote their masters thesis after a few trips to the library and a couple of phone interviews. I won’t be surprised if Germans are going to end up producing far more ground-breaking literature that will put a dent in the universe as the late Steve Jobs put it. I won’t be surprised if they up end leading and innovating while we will be left hanging high and dry when the economy runs out of steam.
China’s leaders also believe that innovation is the key to China’s economic future. They spend a huge amount of money on talent, infrastructure and research on other countries’ technology. China poured in $376B in R&D 2nd only to US which put in $462B in 2015. Sectors supported included clean energy, big data, Arctic observatory, cyberspace security, deep space exploration, brain research and quantum communications. Surprise, surprise, China became a top filer of patents. The usual definition for innovation is science-based research that delivers a new product to the world and might even create a whole new industry. Chinese innovation on the other hand, is characterised by making something work faster, better and more cheaply. China innovates based on profit and consumer wants. Intellectual property protection and appetite for risk are absent. Despite the huge number of patents, there are hardly any ground-breaking innovations that we see in Silicon Valley.
What is Silicon Valley’s philosophy? Do first, apologise later. Richard Branson had the same approach. He once wrote that it’s easier to seek forgiveness than to ask for permission. He had been jailed and he risked being jailed again performing his numerous antics. The Singapore government watches over everything not because it wants to. It’s because the people here want a safe and sheltered environment where nobody needs to take any risks. Folks like Richard Branson would have been chased out of Singapore at the bequest of our moronic moralists. To have an innovative society, we must be prepared to tolerate the mavericks and even some degree of chaos.
I don’t agree that we need to have 8 or 10 million people (from immigration) on our tiny little island. I also don’t think that the majority of people want this grotesque monkey off their backs. They want this little country to be a paradise for the obedient salaryman. Once they see the mavericks in action and what it means to have freedom, they’ll start crying for their nanny.