Originally posted by kenhor:
This is a reply to Watchdog.
hmm....this is quite an old post.
never realise it. but i hope it is not too late for me to give it a spin.
Very intersting writing. Good to see so many points. I will try to answer/refute as many of them as possible. I lived 5 years in Singapore, 7 years in Australia, 18 years in Malaysia so I have some idea of what I am talking about. I agree with some, disagree with many. But in the end, please continue to be civil. I am writing based on my conscience as I have done some acts against Malaysian interests during the crisis as part of my job.
**care to tell us what job is that?
Jealousy against Singapore by Malaysia. You feel that Malaysia is jealous of Singaporean success in building solid economic status. You feel that Singapore was implicated by Malaysia over CLOB issue. Let me put another spin to it. How about the Ringgit based fd accounts? During the height of the crisis, lots of Malaysians were "attracted" to singapore to park their ringgit in fixed deposit account by Singapore banks offering higher than normal interest rates. The banks then could use the ringgit to short sell it. What then? Jealousy? Friendship? Private business deal? You have to plug the hole. Lucky the Malaysian government did not label the people who sent the ringgit to Singapore as traitors and profiteers.
**i can say with full confidence that u knows nose-shit about economics. in fact, i think u never even studied economics, bankings and finance. but....its ok, we know alot of malaysian kenna blinded by the malaysian govt on this topic. afterall, to the malaysian govt......malaysians are dumb and deserve to be lead by the nose.. why else lie until like that??
Agree that instead of healthy competition that it turned out to detest. Reason, higher level people talk about healthy competiton. Lower ranks and worker bees see it as "breaking their rice bowl"
**ehh......actually it is the lower rankers that works towards mutual benefits, but the higher rankers tend to say one thing and do another thing.
In terms of politics, BOTH countries are not a model of human rights etc. Singapore has not helped its opposition in any way. Lots of Singaporeans have NO CHOICE but to vote for PAP as the opposition is not credible. Not only that, PAP has made it their decision to reward estates that are pro-PAP while neglecting those which are not. I live in Marine Parade so I know what it is like to be blessed!
**ehh.....singaporeans have a choice, we all do....the problem is that the alternative choice is so undesirable....singaporeans decided that it is best or wiser to drop it. It is not as if that PAP will still win even if no one voted for PAP, that is not the case. And u cant blame PAP from trying to outdo its opponents, else why not simply close down, pack up and go home??
Agree that Malaysian politicians have lots more to do to improve their act. However, politicians are responsible to the voters who voted them. In Malaysia, not all the voters live in the city. So the city folk are often unable to get the best benefits of policy as some have to help the rural and less educated folk. Price you have to pay if you live in a REAL COUNTRY and not a city.
**Actually, that is not true....the problem is with the system of governing rather than the voting process or demographic distribution. In singapore, we are small, so we have one national election. In big countries, they have local elections, state elections, provincial elections and national elections. This enables and ensures that the people's voice gets heard by at least a certain official levels.
**The problem with malaysia is that, Its trying to fit a single voting system into a big country with 13 states. the good part about this system is that, all the authority and power becomes centralised in the hand of those in KL. the bad part of this system is ineffective and inefficiency in satisfying the needs of the people. Afterall, how many decision can a single person make in a day??
In Singapore, there is already lots of friction between HEARTLANDERS and the COSMOPOLITIAN sides. Both are right. But from what I see, the HEARTLANDERS are not getting an equal voice in their needs.
**Friction?? not really, its more of a learning process. all singaporeans knew that going global is inevitable, the difference is the speed and rate of globalisation is too fast for some and too slow for others. in time this problem will be solved.
As for riches, please note that Singapore is rich ONLY because of its neighbours and NOT THE OTHER WAY ROUND. Its purpose is to exist to service the multinational's goods into the region. If the region goes down, so does Singapore. They have food and water. We don't. A lot of Singapore's policies are predetory. We steal business from Malaysia and Indonesia. What? How about the port? Their telecommunications? The airlines?
**U think in the confined little box. from your above statement, i can be very sure....u will score a big ZERO for economics. To be fair, do you think that malaysians and indonesians are so stupid, so weak and so incompetent to such an unbelievable level that both nation have to allow themselves to be cheated by singapore??? are those officials in the malaysian govt so stupid?? how do they shit?? using their mouth?? surely they are not blind nor mute. why didnt they did something about it all along for decades????? and even if they did it now, do u see any difficulty in singapore??
Port .. no surprise that when Malaysia built a port in Johor, singapore expects growth in its shipping business to not grow so much in the coming year? Why? The Malaysian manufacturers now can use the port in Johor instead of Singapore. So expect to lose the malaysian cargo back to Malaysia.
**this is buissness. I am not the slightless worried. in fact, throughout the entire shipping lane of SEA, there are several ports all along the way. Isnt port klang also happens to be along the way to singapore PSA?? wasnt port klang the de facto national port??? did not malaysia cried out to malaysians to use port klang??? why then did malaysians and foreigners continue to use PSA rather then port klang??? obviously the problem does not lies in having the port or having a port near singapore.
**and how do u define 'malaysian' cargo?? u mean when an american came to invest and buy the materials, labour, land, capital and finally make a product, that product belongs to malaysia?? or to malaysians?? or does it belongs to the owner of the product, in this case the american?? If the products or watever cargo now belongs to the americans, then obviously he can choose whether to send it oversea through port klang or PSA.
**in fact, 50 percent of malaysian GDP belongs to foreigners, this means that malaysians dont own them and thus have no rights or control over these products. singaporeans are big investors in malaysia, in fact one of the largest investor in malaysia, so legally speaking, either under international law or malaysian law, a substantial portion of malaysian GDP belongs to singapore and likewise a substantial portion of those cargoes going through the causeway to PSA.
**so seriously speaking, from an economic and logical point of view, malaysians wild allegations simply cuts no ice. in fact, alot of my economist friends laugh at the naivety of the malaysian politicians.
Airlines? SIA offers cheaper flights for KL-Sin-SF than for Sin-SF. What is this? Stealing. We started it, they followed.
**nothing wrong either. u are not an economist, so u dont understand. let me give u an example, when i sell an apple in japan,
i sell it for 10 dollars each, but when i sell the same apple in malaysia, i sell it at 2 dollars. why?? because no malaysian is willing to pay 10 dollars for an apple due to their low income as compared to the japanese. so in view of the fact that singaporeans GNP per capital is almost 5 to 7 times higher then malaysians, as a sound buissnessman, i would definitely charge malaysian cheaper then singaporeans. in economics, this strategy is call market segmentation.
Telco? Do you know we offer cheaper IDD rates than Telecom Malaysia? SO we sell our ICC cards and prepaid cards QUIETLY in Malaysia EVEN when we do not have a licence to do so and it is ILLEGAL to do so.
**I doubt we 'sell it secretly' in malaysia, either we sell it with authorization OR malaysian govt must be damn dumb to allow such 'illegal' bootlegging to run wild right under their nose.
What about raw materials? If Malaysia and Indonesia stop selling food and water to Singapore, there will be no growth here as well as IMPORTED food will cost more (compare Aussie Port to Malaysian pork) and reduce economic growth by at least 2-3%
** I think u should go and study economics if u really dont want to be branded an....idiotic moron in economics. ;> i am sorry to say, ur lackings in this area is making me turning this post into an economic lecture. sorry, i dont have time for that, just wanna say, malaysian food aint the cheapest and singapore do import food from all over the world, yes, they are more expensive, but we can afford it. but poor malaysian farmers would end up worst if they cant sell it to singaporeans.
Water? If Malaysia bottles the water and sells it to INDIA, it can make more profit, so do you think that we are paying a "fair" price for the water? As for treating the water, they will stop buying treated water by 2003. See. Fed up with us keep on saying that we are fair and they are mistreating us.
**Malaysia still have alot of water even after selling to singapore, so if selling bottled water to india is such a good buissness, why dont u start one?? this world seems to be full of idiots to u right?? afterall, the indonesians got water to boot but they didnt sell it to india but lets it run into the sea. maybe the govt of both nation should employ u as their adviser since u 'can see where others cannot see' ;>
**And so malaysian dont buy treated water from singapore from 2003, big deal. then we can stop an unneccessary subsidy towards malaysians, rightfully, such subsidies should be born by the malaysian govt.
As for Malaysian politics? Donno much so no comment. You are right about all those.
As for economy, I have to refute all your arguments. In business, there is no friend. That is true. BUT when national interests are at stake, you do things differently. For the sake of friendship. What happens if the country goes bankrupt and people are rioting on the street when your economy collapese? You sit still and still let your neighbouring country short sell your money? No. You should stop providing food to them. Let them starve. Did Malaysia stop all the trucks from bringing food into Singapore? Did Malaysia stop water? Did Singapore help Malaysia during the crisis or did it adopt a business as usual stance EVEN THOUGH BUSINESS WAS NOT USUAL? Some friend we are.
** .... go and study economics IF u really wanna know the truth. else u can drown in your follies.
In terms of military, we may be the best in the region. But how can that help us in a siege? If the population (not government) of Malaysia and Indonesia hates us, we had it. they stop selling food and water. The chinese in Malaysia have as much influence in India, China, HK and Taiwan as us here in Singapore. Anyway, what use to have the best if they do not plan to invade but just make enough trouble in their home country that ships do not dare pass through the region? Flights are canceled? What can we do? Singapore exists if there is peace in the region. If there is trouble, defending Singapore is not enough as the population will still have need for power (fuel imported) food (imported) water (imported)Money (no business no money) so it will collapse.
**just try all those things u listed above, i can guarantee u one thing. IT IS NOT GOING TO WORK AGAINST SINGAPORE. u are too naive. i should say, u dont know what u are blabbering about. if it is really so simple, then malaysia would be lording over us like kings and emperors.
**ships dare not pass through singapore?? hahaa....... OK lor, then maybe they can fly across thailand. hahahahaaaaa. The geographical settings of SEA gave ships no choice but to go through singapore. IF the regional nations intend to disrupt the free shippings of the SLOC. i can guarantee u that the navy of USA, PLA, JSDF, KDF, ROCN and a dozen other navy from EU and the international community would be arriving and kicked those goondoos butts. The reason is simple, many if not all the developed nations have are dependent on SLOC for their wealth, economics and security needs. RSN can just sit back and watch how the international communities take the RMN and the indonesian navy apart, piece by piece, nuts by nuts, screws by screws.
**how about planes from airlines...u think malaysia or indonesia would have the guts to shoot them down?? sure, if they dont mind the international community from turning their 'air force' into scrap metals by withholding spare parts.
**the rest below simply reflects your lack of knowledge in economics, i pity u, but i cant help u and i dont wanna waste time explaining to u, about how wrong u are.that is all for this post.
As for facts and figures? Please do not kid yourself. I have manipulated lots of statistics to suit our needs. Being open? The Singapore business is not as transparent as we like to think. Its just that we have lots of patriots who love to spew forth facts and figures without bothering to find out who is the source.
Singapore should be grateful to the PAP. Without it, Singapore will be a very depressing place to live in. No car (can't afford COE) no garden (flat only) No public political voice (that's why we have a forum) etc.
Just hope that you can think a little about our utopia before you slam Malaysia. In Malaysia, a 25 year old guy can own a HOUSE and a car. By 30, he has fully paid for the car. By 40, the house. He can travel all over his own country.
For us, to stretch our meagre funds, we go to JB for food. We travel all over the world for holidays (why?) We have to get a COE for a car, we have to buy a HDB flat. Do you know how much pressure working in Singapore compared to Malaysia or Australia?
For what? Just so that our GDP growth is 10% (Malaysia is 7%) I think that we should enjoy what we have, be less proud and make friends. The average Malaysian Chinese will welcome us if we are more humble. Start with them. Once we can feel that there is no fear, the malays will then be ok with us.