Ian On The Red Dot

Sicarii has commented on an article about religion in Singapore. I didn’t read the article but that’s not going to stop me from taking issue with what he wrote about the article.

He wrote this:

Make them relevant and practical for 21st-century living. Why does that sound oddly familiar to me? That’s “modern church-speak” for little or no Gospel, no preaching of sin, no true repentance, only health, wealth and prosperity in addition to motivational speeches on how to be the “head and not the tail” to “influence the marketplace”.

Total nonsense. At least from my own personal experience as a relatively devoted member of City Harvest Church for two years of my life.

I concede that City Harvest Church talks about health, wealth and prosperity a lot. Arguably too much.

However, to say there is little or no coverage of Gospel, sin and true repentance is total hogwash.

An individual’s Christian life is not just made up of the church service although for most people that’s the main one, if not the only one. However, Christian life is also built on Bible study classes (which CHC conducts), daily individual Bible studies (i.e. quiet time), fasting, praying, cell groups, fellowship with other members and counseling sessions with the cell group leader.

I’m not sure if Sicarii has been a member of CHC long enough to comment on it. Also, like I’ve always said, for a big church, it is not possible for the experience of its members to be uniform. Just like how if you attend many of these traditional churches, you will notice they are also all different from each other.

For me at least, bible study classes, daily individual Bible studies, fasting, praying and the counseling sessions with my cell group leader had a great deal of coverage of Gospel, sin and true repentance.

And in terms of time, those above activities took up more than any church service.

Don’t always be so quick to shoot something down just because it tastes/looks/seems different.

For example, I’ve already a certain perspective on the world. It could probably be right. It is most probably wrong. But I recognize that it is this perspective that makes me see Li Jiawei as a FT and not a citizen. If we could quantify and measure (good) citizenship and Singaporean-ness, Jiawei could probably smack me hands down. Who knows?

I hope people recognize that all these CHC bashers do it from a certain perspective. They already have an idea how Christianity should work. Sure, they like to back it up with the BIBLE and TRADITION and all that jazz, but don’t be fooled. Recognize they do it already carrying a certain perspective about the world based on their own experiences. All these BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES they throw out are just there to substantiate a case they already made in their mind.

Sure, they may be right about some stuff. Even right about everything. But as a reader, be mindful from where they are coming from.

Back to the Gospel, sin and repentance. I’ve always believed that a man should have at least one vice. I’m an overachiever on that regards - I have many vices. During my time in CHC, I’ll say that’s the only time I became master over those vices, or at least, I wasn’t a slave to them for a sustained period.

And I know I didn’t do it cos of my own inner strength. Of course some inner strength had to be there, but it was augmented by the teachings and counseling I was getting from the church leaders, more specifically my cell group leader and her husband. She was doing it all with firm grounding based on biblical principles and by living a life that walked with Christ as an example.

So, I call bullshit on people who judge without actually tasting the pudding.

Talking about false converts, just because the traditional churches don’t evangelize with the ‘flash and bang’ way like CHC and even though they stick to the ‘traditional’ ‘better’ ‘more-old-school-way-of-preaching-grounded-in-biblical-principles’, it doesn’t mean CHC has a monopoly on creating false converts.

I’ll even say they aren’t the ones creating the most false converts. Hell, they aren’t even the ones creating the most damaging false converts.

And believe me, I would know.

Update: Oh…and about social benefits, stay tune for another post about that.

Update 2: I realized that I should mention I last went to any sort of church service about 3 years ago so things in CHC could have changed although I highly doubt it. Anyway, these criticisms against CHC aren’t new - they have been around since I was a member.

This is a great article about Michael Phelps from the New York Times which really hit home as the world watches enthralled by this god that walks swims among us.

One of the criticisms about the Singapore education system is the streaming process as well as the cookie-cutter pigeonholing process.

I wonder if someone like Michael Phelps would have succeeded in Singapore, a place where we so quickly push people who don’t do well in academics into a lower stream, implicitly stigmatizing them as failures based on only one marker.

But that’s only one part of the story. I think one of Singapore’s current failings is our lack of a way to help more of our youth maximize their potential beyond the standard academic fare.

Anyway, the article ends nicely.

More to the point, I think, is the moral of her story, which offers hope for parents of any child with a challenge like A.D.H.D.: Too many adults looked at Ms. Phelps’s boy and saw what he couldn’t do. This week, the world will be tuned to the Beijing Olympics to see what he can do.

Not too long ago, I can’t remember if i was serving in National Service then, or had just ORDed, I heard a story about a case of (?two) officer cadets who were dismissed from OCS just before their commissioning parade.

The reason?

They were caught playing with their ceremonial swords during a break.

So, the official reason they were dismissed was because they had disrespected a symbol.

It didn’t matter they had spent a good number of months going through a tough course to become officers.

Nope. One mistake. Just one mistake and everything they had worked for was gone.

Why?

Maybe because there really isn’t anything to be gained from keeping on that few more officers. After all, what medals will they bring us?

Or maybe it was indeed an unforgivable offense to disrespect a symbol.

Anyway, I can’t really verify the story because I don’t know the people involved. It could just be unsubstantiated gossip. But let’s just use the above story as a convenient marker.

While I find it hard to stomach that a person who is, to me, more foreign talent than Singapore citizen carry the flag, I recognize that I do not know where Li Jiawei’s heart lies and it would be highly presumptuous for me to hold anything against her just because I do not see her as a Singapore citizen. Maybe it is me who must change my lenses.

I saw the video of the flag touching the ground.

She definitely could have taken more care with the carrying of the flag. But she didn’t. And actually, to me that’s forgivable. A bit mah-loo but I think we should go easy on her. There are many reasons this cock-up occurred and the blame really isn’t just her own.

The question that really interests me is do the powers that be actually think she has disrespected the flag, probably the most important symbol of any nation.

If they don’t, then fine. But we should let that standard of what constitutes disrespect for a flag apply to everyone.

If they do think the flag was disrespected but that the offense is mitigated because she is a potential medal winner for us then I think it is sad.

But hey, what’s new.

Everything in Singapore has a price. And in this case, the get-out-of-jail card for arguably disrespecting the flag, albeit accidentally, is a (potential) medal.

At least now we know.

Since National Day is coming up, the stuff on this site might be worth our time to read and know.

The problem with analogies to explain anything is that it rarely is a one-to-one mapping. Sometimes we extend the analogy beyond its usefulness to explain just one concept. I’m guilty of that as are many bloggers. But that’s so besides the point.

Nocturne wrote this. It was a seductive argument.

But there’s one problem. It assumes that the PAP will always want the best for all Singaporeans, the average Singaporean, the Singaporeans in the lower segments of society….

Basically, it assumes the PAP will always be this paragon of virtue.

Assumptions they say, makes an ass out of you and me.

We could just say let’s keep the status quo until the shit really hits the fan. But then what? Shouldn’t we try to be more prepared for the day the shit hits the fan. Shouldn’t we work towards a system that can handle the shit hitting the fan when the PAP is currently a paragon of virtue as opposed to something much much worse (cue Zimbabwe).

This comment sums up the problem:

Interesting. Anyway I was just thinking… I might like all my employees to aspire to be the next CEO, but at the meantime if I only need a Junior Mgr, then I’ll just hire one without the need to hear about his aspirations. Of course, there are those who even expects his truck driver to aspire to be a CEO and have a plan for it.

We as citizens seem to demand so much from the PAP. But we don’t hold our opposition to higher standards. We make excuses for them. Oh, the PAP has done this. The PAP has done that. How can the opposition compete. Let’s allow the opposition to take one step at a time.

Whatever.

We make excuses for them. We apologize for them.

That’s why they will never be more than mediocre.

Update: This really should be the last post on these sort of matters for some time.

Update 2:

This post was written by xizor2000. I’ll just assume the first part on City Harvest Church (I think it would be a fair assumption that’s the church in question) was just a convenient coincidence. Nothing having to do with xizor2000 trying to be snide and doing a cheap left-jab-right-hook. He’s got to be better than that.

On to the second part.

What I am trying is this: be realistic and not idealistic. Many people who achieve greatness or their objectives in the end normally do not let his opponents or any other people determine how it should be done or what the rules of the game is. They look at the reality at that time to make the best of it, or redefine what the rules should be and work towards their ideals one step at a time.

In short, to ask for certain plans to be revealed before the person is given a task is an absurd proposition which only the Tali-PAP Men-In-White can devise to fxxk up the opposition. I don’t even know what to think about the people who would accept that!

Why, oh why, do we always present such false dichotomies? Be Realistic And Not Idealistic? Why not be both realistic and idealistic. They are not mutually exclusive. In fact, if there is any advice, it should be ‘Be Idealistic, but temper it with Realism’.

Now, I don’t disagree with xizor2000’s point about redefining the rules and working towards ideals one step at a time. That sounds like a plan. A damn good plan if you ask me.

The question of course is whether the opposition is doing that. It is of my opinion they aren’t. They are still very much playing by the rules of the PAP. They exist and carry out their actions very much in the context of the PAP. Just look at how they always complain PAP do this, PAP do that so we can’t do this, we can’t do that. Of course, there seems to be an inevitability about their situation. PAP is after all the proverbial immovable object. Sadly, our opposition is far from an unstoppable force.

Like xizor2000 said,

Many people who achieve greatness or their objectives in the end normally do not let his opponents or any other people determine how it should be done or what the rules of the game is.

Sadly, our opposition is letting that (i.e. letting others determine how they should be and what the rules of this political game in Singapore is) happen to them. I call bullshit if you say it isn’t happening. I think xizor2000 is right in saying that’s one way to achieve greatness and objectives - a necessary but not sufficient condition - which really begs the question, where do our opposition stand when measured against this condition.

The last part about,

In short, to ask for certain plans to be revealed before the person is given a task is an absurd proposition which only the Tali-PAP Men-In-White can devise to fxxk up the opposition. I don’t even know what to think about the people who would accept that!

You do realize that it is perfectly normal for one person (e.g. Individual A) to expect another person (e.g. Individual B) to have plans for a task before the task has been given to Individual B. What is crazy is to ask Individual B if he or she has any plans if they don’t even know what the task is. That is hardly the case when it comes to the opposition and the tasks needed to be done for Singapore to make it a better country for its citizens and people who choose to setup shop here.

If you really want an analogy, a company has a desire to construct a new office. The task is to build a sprawling campus the size of 10 football fields. They ask for tenders. What happens then is other people find out the task, come out with a plan and pitch the plan to the company. The guy with the best plan to fulfill the task gets the job.

Happens all the time. And if you are wondering what to think of such people, well, don’t worry your brain cells about that, I’ll just give you the answer here - normal.

There are some places you never go to buy electronic stuff. One of them is Lucky Plaza. There are some other places which I can’t remember the name. Oh, yeah. Orchard Towers is another. When I was in National Service, I finally managed to get a video camera. One day, during a class outing, I ran out of tape. I haven’t bought any until that day because I had been surviving on using the tapes that came with the camera. Anyway, I rushed to the nearest electronic store and bought a bunch of tapes. I didn’t know the price of tapes at that time and only later realized I had overpaid by three times the usual prices.

Moral of the story - don’t go where tourists usually hang out. Orchard Towers is one of those places. So is Lucky Plaza. Actually, moral of the story is do some research before you go and purchase anything but if you don’t want to do that, don’t go where the wolves are. And wolves love to hunt tourists.

HER 12-year-old daughter wanted to buy a Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) to share with her friends.
Click to see larger image
Nicole said that she was overcharged for a Sony PSP that she had bought at a Lucky Plaza shop. — Picture: ADELINE ONG

On 12 July, a 41-year-old sales assistant, who wanted to be known only as Nicole, went with her daughter to shop for one at Lucky Plaza.

After checking with several shops, she found out that the price ranged between $300 and $600.

She told The New Paper that she went to a shop owned by Yeow Tat Trading Enterprises. She said that the sales assistant there was polite and helpful, and helped her daughter to choose a black-tinted PSP.

He advised Nicole to upgrade the software on the PSP, explaining that this would allow her daughter to play more games as well as surf the Internet, among other things.

When Nicole asked him how much the games cost, he told her that they were free of charge.

He added that she only needed to pay for the PSP and licence for software upgrading.

He then took the PSP away to download the games and upgrade the software, she said.

He returned 15 minutes later with the PSP and the bill - a whopping $3,550.

Said Nicole: ‘I was shocked. I thought he had written an extra zero by mistake.

‘I told him that if the upgraded PSP was going to cost as much as a laptop, I might as well get my daughter a laptop.’

Nicole said that her daughter agreed that the PSP was too expensive, and said she didn’t want it anymore.

But the sales assistant told her that it was too late as he had already downloaded original software onto the PSP and the licences were costly.

AGREED TO REDUCE PRICE

He agreed to reduce the price to $3,100, but Nicole said it was still too expensive.

He then offered reduce it further to $2,610, saying that he wouldn’t include anti-virus software.

When Nicole insisted that she didn’t want it, he said she still had to pay for the licences of the downloaded games, which would cost $2,000.

Said Nicole: ‘Although it was crazy that I had to pay $2,000 for nothing, I thought that I could not expect the shop to pay for the licences.

‘I couldn’t walk away as it would be irresponsible of me.’

She asked him why other shops sold PSPs for between $300 to $600.

‘He claimed that the PSPs they were selling were different because the licences for the software were not original.’

Convinced by the shop assistant, she paid $2,600.

But her brother told her that night that she had paid too much.

They went back to the shop the next day and asked to see the licences for the software, but were told it was confidential.

The shop insisted it did not overcharge Nicole, but agreed to waive the service charge.

After lengthy negotiations, the price came down to $1,400. But Nicole insisted the maximum she would pay was $1,000.

She got her way and received a $1,600 refund.

‘It was still very expensive but I did not want to waste time,’ she said.

She later went to the Consumers’ Association of Singapore but was told that because she had agreed to pay $1,000, it could not pursue the matter further.

‘All the while, the sales assistant had an innocent face, and was helpful and appeared sincere,’ she said.

She added that she was not intimidated into paying.

When contacted, Yeow Tat Trading Enterprises declined to comment.

‘My friends all say I’m so stupid,’ Nicole said.

I was reading a newsletter about a speech that was recently given at an investing conference. Anyway, the speaker said this,

Power does not corrupt. It attracts the corrupt.

Not everyone who is powerful is corrupted. Not everyone who eventually gains power will become corrupted. But we can be sure of this, power will always attract the corrupt.

Power is useful. Without power, the good cannot do anything.

But, like the speaker said, power attracts the corrupt.

Sadly, no one lives forever. Power will eventually need to be passed on.

Wolves know how to be like sheep until the time is right.

Not every man is worthy with a pure heart.

Not everyone can pierce into the heart of a man and see the darkness that lies within.

One day, someone will slip through the cracks.

Someone will eventually deceive his way pass the gatekeepers into the halls of power.

Then what?

Reading this post, I see xizor2000’s point. This is the analogy that was used:

But in the case of our opposition parties now, it is more like that of a fresh graduate looking for a job and with nothing much to show except for his FYP (Final Year Projects) or internships. For one to argue that the opposition has nothing to show and thus shouldn’t be allowed into parliament would be equal to the argument that no fresh graduate should ever be given a job for his lack of experience, or having no clue on how he should be doing his job! The fact that both Potong Pasir and Hougang have taken that step to vote in Chiam See Tong and Low Thia Khiang respectively, would say a lot about what they think a people - gahmen relationship should be.

I appreciate his point that just because an individual doesn’t have prior experience in a job (or any job for that matter) doesn’t mean he or she shouldn’t be given a chance to do a job. Like I said in my earlier post, there are a lot of markers to see if a person might be suitable for the job. In this case, to use the analogy that xizor2000 offered, the potential employer can look at the fresh grad’s FYP, internships, resume and grades as an indicator of suitability for a job.

The key thing to note of course is that the fresh grad would most probably be offered an entry level position within the organization. In this case, being a member of Parliament would be the entry level position as opposed to the more senior positions of running a government and being a minister.

Why is the above important?

Because when a party and its members contest an election, they are not only contesting to win seats in the Parliament, but enough seats to form a government.

Well, at least that’s how I think it works in most countries.

In Singapore, the opposition has made it a strategy to NOT to try to win enough seats to form the government.

There are valid reasons for this. One of them is that the voters in Singapore might not be prepared for an opposition led government and thus not vote for any opposition candidate because of the psychological barrier erected by the fear that a freak result might occur and the opposition wins a majority of votes such that the end result is the opposition gets no votes.

So, the opposition thinks some opposition in Parliament is better than no opposition thus they don’t try to win the majority of seats.

Basically, they play to lose the war.

To extend xizor2000’s analogy, the fresh grad goes for an interview where two positions are offered, one more senior than the other. Afraid that he might appear too cocky and then lose out on the more junior position or for whatever reason I cannot think of now, the fresh grad during the interview disqualifies himself from the more senior position by saying,

“Look, I don’t think I’m ready to be in the senior position. It is not that I’m not good. I am. But I want to be fair to you. I want to give you a chance to assess me then if I am really really qualified, you can promote me from the junior position to that more senior position some time in the future.”

The fresh grad aims low. He just wants to get into the company. He sees himself no up. Or rather he assumes that the future employer sees him no up and is afraid to overextend himself in case the future employer indeed sees him no up and holds the desire for the more senior position against him and he gets nothing at all.

So back to the opposition. What I want to see is an opposition prepared to go in not just to win the little skirmishes, or the battles but the whole freaking war. No one should ever play a game already prepared to lose the bigger prize.

I know, I know. The opposition just wants to get one foot in and build from there. Frankly, I think that strategy hasn’t quite worked out.

No?

They should work on their resume before going for the interview, prepared to get the highest position possible. They should be prepared to form the government if they win and should work on more things outside of just being members of Parliament and running constituencies to show us that they can be the government. If they don’t win, they could possibly be more effective watchdogs.

Effectively, they should be telling the potential employers,

“I’m fit for the top job. Hell, I could be the CEO from day one. But if you put me in the entry level position, I’ll be the god damn best entry level worker you ever have.”

But, frankly, that’s not the message they are sending. At least to me. And if they aren’t playing to win the biggest prize or at least sure they can win it, how can I be confident they can be good at anything.

Self-confidence backed by preparation for bigger things, if you must remember, is something employers look for.

How can you tell if a girl can be a good wife? Well, see how she performs when she is married to another guy, if she is good, then steal her from him. Or date her long enough until you feel comfortable she can be a good wife. But then that doesn’t really work. Right? Because when you are dating her, she is only acting in the capacity of a gf. So, what she has proven is that she can be a good gf, and possibly a good wife, but you can never really tell for sure. Right? But a close approximation is really better than nothing.

Ok.

Let’s flip it around. How do you let a gal you really like know that you can be a good bf or a wonderful husband?

One way is to woo her. But what if she rejects your efforts in courtship. Then what? Do you repeatedly keep trying to woo her?

Think about it. The objective is to be the bf because you want her as a gf as well as you think you can be a wonderful bf, possibly the best. Note, both motivations can be mutually exclusive.

The thing is, you don’t need to be a bf before you can show you can be a good bf.

Courtship is really about getting the status to then have a chance to prove that you can be good in that status.

Yet, there are many ways a guy can prove to a gal he can be a great bf without having to be the bf.

He can do well in school. Pursue a career with dedication. Be a loving son. Help out in the community. Have a vision greater than just earning buckets of money. There are many many things an individual can do outside of a relationship to actually show his potential as a good bf.

Which now brings me to this post made by xizor2000.

None of the opposition parties are in any position to take over. In other words, stop asking the baby to come up with a plan to fly like Superman, when the baby isn’t even given the chance to walk. And by that I mean, if you don’t even vote - or trust - the opposition parties in to let them manage your own constituency and town council, why the hell are you even asking them for a plan when they are in no condition to, anyway? Is trust not built bit by bit?

I agree with xizor2000. Trust is built bit by bit. However, this trust doesn’t need to be built only once the opposition enters the government. They got to build it now. And frankly, they aren’t doing it. They are saying, let us in. We show you what we can do. I’m saying, you can show us what you can do even before you get into Parliament. But they aren’t doing that. In my opinion, their only goal is to get more opposition into Parliament. They think they can only show us what they are capable of once they enter Parliament. Which is nonsense. There are so many things an individual or a group can do to make Singapore better without being in Parliament. The opposition should take the lead on that count.

For example, Indignation 2008. The people behind this are trying to make a difference for a segment of Singapore’s society. Actually, scratch that. They are trying to make a difference for Singapore’s society - we all benefit if we can learn to treat these individuals with more respect, value their rights and include them as equal members in our society (although, frankly, they would be lowering their standards to be at our level).

The opposition can take a lead in more of such stuff. But wait! Didn’t they try to protest over rising prices. Those are just side shows. Nothing lasting was created. That’s just protesting instead of working towards a solution independent of government’s efforts.

I made this statement:

‘No use talking about it. You want to fix things then come out with a concrete plan to fix it’

And here is what I meant by it. Plurk isn’t really a good place to convey the idea.

Say you live in an estate. You pay for cleaning but it never happens. You can keep complaining to management why the estate isn’t cleaned. You can talk about all the problems that can happen if the estate isn’t cleaned.

Or you can take a broom and do the sweeping.

Look. I know technically it isn’t your job. You aren’t the one being paid to solve the cleanliness problem. And I’m not asking you to do the management’s job or the cleaner’s job.

I’m just saying when the shit is going to hit the fan, and no one else can take care of you and family, then maybe it is time to come up with a plan to fix things on your own.

Now, when it comes to our government, I’m not saying we should come up with plans for our government to fix things. Xizor2000 is right. They are paid enough to do it and do it well. But if they don’t. Then what?

The citizens should make our own contingency plans. I’m not talking about migrating. I’m talking about us organizing ourselves to fix things on our own.

Small example: I hate traveling back during peak hour. No matter how much noise I make, the transport companies aren’t going to fix things in the short term. So I make my own plans to ensure that my own commuting experience is a pleasant one.

Which brings me to the last point. I truly believe the way things are going, if we vote the PAP out just to get them out, our country has a high chance of dying. Sure, things arguably may not be too awesome at its current state, but if the PAP is out, things will get much worse.

When I say the above, it is not because I think the opposition is truly incompetent that they will lead us to hell. It is because I think they haven’t figured out how to secure the other power bases in Singapore once they get control of Parliament. Those other power bases will still be secured by the PAP and the government would be operating in a hostile environment.

Of course all this is just talking strategy on paper. It is of no use.

But I’m just going to say, if we truly want a better watchdog or a new government or push the PAP to be better than they currently are, we need an opposition to think bigger than their issues with the PAP.

DIGNITY OF EMPLOYMENT!

sigh … if we want to fix this country at a social level, we need to do it ourselves.