On Election Deposits

It was once argued to me that having an Election Deposit in Singapore was justified, as they had the same practice in the United Kingdom.

Reading a story on the Looney Party alerted me to the fact that in the UK, the election deposit is a paltry £500 - which you only lose with <5% of the vote.

In comparison, in Singapore the deposit is S$13,500, forfeited if you get <12.5% of the vote.

I'm so glad we take our politics seriously here.

E-POLL ON BUDGET 2008 (INDIVIDUALS)

"Two of the key thrusts of Budget 2008 are to continue to build a resilient community through strengthening financial security for retirement and helping the less well-off members in our society, and to provide a full range of education and training opportunities for Singaporeans.

Which of the following measures announced by the Finance Minister are you most satisfied with? * (Respondent can choose more than 1 from each category)

Tax Changes
- One-off 20 per cent personal income tax rebate capped at $2,000
- Removal of estate duty with effect from 16 February 2008
- Reduction in duty rates for liquor and wine"


Yes, I'm sure the less well-off members in our society appreciate cheaper alcohol to numb the pain of their lives.

Also, I always thought that the raison d'etre of estate duties was to stop the rich inheriting their wealth. (For objections, see: THE ESTATE TAX: MYTHS AND REALITIES)


I was told (albeit by the PSC microchip) that only 30% (?) of Singaporeans pay income tax due to a high income threshold and exemptions, but looking at the How to calculate your tax spreadsheet, I'm not sure if that is the case.

Your first $20,000 of annual income is tax free, which works out to $1,667 a month; the average monthly household income in employed households in 2007 was $6,830, which works out to $3,415 for 2 earners and $2,277 for 3. Furthermore, you have to add in Net Annual Value of property (though there's a $150,000 exemption). Unfortunately I'm not familiar with the wild and wonderful world of property in Singapore, but given that a 4 room flat in Tampines is valued at $278,000, and smaller flats are in older and more centrally-located locales (since they only just started making 3-rooms again), maybe only new 3-rooms are that cheap (Caveat: the market now is hot, so this analysis may not apply every year).

[Addendum: I got this bit wrong.

The site says: "NAV is the annual value (as shown in your property tax bill) less allowable expenses. Annual value is the gross amount at which the property can be expected to be rented from year to year."

So actually most people don't pay tax on the NAV of their property.]

There are some forms of relief, but even those which apply to many people, like NSman (self/wife/parent) relief ($1,500-$3,000), Earned income relief ($1,000) and Qualifying/handicapped child relief ($2,000) would seem to make a difference only if you have more than one child.

I am thus extremely skeptical of the claim that only 30% (?) of Singaporeans pay income tax (and am slightly skeptical of the lesser claim that less than half do). Unfortunately, those who would be able to conclusively answer this question are unable to do so.

[Addendum: Given how complicated the tax code is, I wouldn't be surprised if most people made a mistake here and there. We could all be guilty of tax evasion - it's just whether they choose to chase us for it. Gee.

The PSC microchip sent me this URL:

Channelnewsasia.com | SINGAPORE BUDGET 2001

"ROUND UP SPEECH DELIVERED BY MINISTER FOR FINANCE FOR THE DEBATE ON THE
FINANCIAL YEAR 2001 BUDGET
7 MARCH 2001

Mr Low... also conveniently forgets that nearly 70 percent of economically active persons in Singapore no longer pay any personal income tax"

Perhaps this no longer holds true 7 years later.]


Other interesting nuggets about tax relief:

- Grandparent caregiver relief is to "help working mothers take care of their children. Single or male taxpayers are not eligible for this relief." (emphases in original)
- Parent/handicapped parent relief "is a relief to promote filial piety".
- "'Wife relief' is a relief to support family formation, and to provide recognition to male taxpayers supporting their wives." (though on the upside, handicapped husbands qualify you for relief)

"Apart from hard statistics, greater transparency in the conduct of judicial business, coupled with a judge’s interest in her reputation and desire for prestige, improves judicial efficiency. This has been documented in several industrial countries. When judges have open trials, lawyers, litigants, the media, and the general public observe their conduct. A review of the impact of televising judicial proceedings in New York state found that such scrutiny raises the efficiency of judges by one-third while at the same time increasing the quality of their judgments...

The Makati Business Club established the CourtWatch project in 1992. They sent two observers, usually law students, to courtrooms over an extended period of time. The observers rated judges after each visit, based on direct observation and surveys of lawyers and prosecutors involved in the case. The ratings included the judge’s familiarity with the law, as well as the conduct of the proceedings, on such measures as promptness, efficiency, and courtesy. Soon after the program began, the media noticed that judges’ behavior had changed and that the efficiency of the court had risen significantly.

Overall resource levels are often uncorrelated with judicial efficiency, but in cases of extreme underfunding, an infusion of resources can be effective. In Uganda, for example, backlogs were caused by shortages of stationery and were solved when another court donated paper...

Duration of appointment. When judges have lifelong tenure, they are both less susceptible to direct political pressure and less likely to have been appointed by the politicians currently in office. Independence is particularly important when judges are adjudicating disputes between citizens and the state (for example, freedom of speech issues and contract disputes). Therefore, the study focuses on the tenure of two different sets of judges: those in the highest ordinary courts (the supreme courts), and those in administrative courts, which have jurisdiction over cases where the state or a government agency is a party to litigation. Countries in which judges are independent from the influence of the state also tend to be countries where the judiciary is free from interference by private parties. The tenure of judges matters in both cases. Peru is frequently rated as the country with the least judicial independence. Former President Fujimori kept more than half of judges on temporary appointments from 1992 to 2000. [Ed: One can contrast this with what the PSC Microchip claims, that the Supreme Court of the USA is not independent because they're appointed by Presidents]...

While wage increases would not eliminate high-level corruption in the judiciary, they may eradicate small-scale bribery [Ed: Emphasis mine]. Judges will have less need to supplement their income. To date, however, there has been little systematic evidence on this issue."

--- World Bank World Development Report 2001, The Judicial System

"If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score?" - Vince Lombardi

***

One of the bullshit arguments the PSC microchip comes up with is that those on whom scrutiny would naturally fall due to their being in a position to profit from improper influence should be subject to the same standards as normal people. Of course, this holds no salt elsewhere, ergo corporate disclosure; lucky draws and contests not being open to employees of the companies involved and their family members; campaign finance issues and scandals involving the peddling of political influence.

Hell, even in the SAF, the White Horse system, officially at least, discriminated against those who were judged to be in a position to benefit from undue influence.

At this point, the PSC microchip, since it has defended the White Horse system in the past, would probably short circuit, or come up with an even more ridiculous fudge to justify the double standards of double standards. But then, this has always been the land of queer logic, in certain spheres at least.

I'd like to see the PSC microchip justify Yukos expropriation and other Russian shenanigans. Given what it has accomplished so far (eg suggesting that the Chairman of the Fed is not independent and that using the machinery of the state to imprison your political opponents is not wrong), it would not be difficult.

My brother in law claimed that my occasional picking up or hair accessories from LT floors was of a level of cheapskateness (actually it's more inanity) equivalent to crashing in friends' dorm rooms for a whole month. His faux theory of moral/political equivalence was at work again (see previous entries).

I was saying that in dominant party states, it is unjustifiable for the dominant state to use the apparatus of the state to attack its political opponents. He claimed that this was what living in a "free society" meant (or some rubbish to that effect). I then postulated that under his warped system of logic, what Robert Mugabe is doing to Morgan Tsvangirai and the Movement for Democratic Change in Zimbabwe now is legitimate, since it is a "free society". He then got upset and started poking me, which is a sure indication that he's realised what a moron he is.

Next time, I will suggest to him that he would probably declare that since the Chairman of the Fed is appointed by the President of the USA, he is not independent. To hell with what the financial markets and political analysts think - we can throw them all out by applying his faux theory of moral/political equivalence.


I saw this girl with a pencilbox that had 6 zips on either side. Gah.

I don't know why people like Flickr so much. Their photo pages always take the longest times to load. It must be one of the slowest sites on the Internet.

I asked my driving instructor why the bulk of the learner drivers I saw were female, and all the instructors were male, and he said that the girls take longer to learn, and more of them fail the practical tests. Tym: "Sadly, I took 3 tries to pass - and ironically the time I passed, I hit the kerb, immediate failure."

I got another man in Buddhist monk robes offering me a Buddha talisman. Gah. This one had a PRC accent.

I saw someone with a very weird desktop wallpaper: it was a collage with a picture of him and some girl, a picture of a male bodybuilder and a picture some Jap girl (probably an AV star).

Two bloggers charged under Sedition Act for racist remarks

"For the first time in Singapore, two bloggers have been charged under the Sedition Act for making racist remarks.

They are 25-year-old Nicholas Lim Yew and 27-year-old Benjamin Koh Song Huat.

A subordinate court was told that both their blogs had content that cast aspersions on the Malay community."


Die liao. This does not augur well. The Sword of Damocles has fallen, and though it has only struck the twain, it might as well have struck us all.

I suspect that these were the people who did the Second and Third Holocaust blogs, which were extreme even by Singaporean online standards (even on the Sammyboy forums, the most people call for is for racial discrimination, not for them to be racially cleansed).

Even so, this is not going to do anything to calm the nerves of our (justifiably?) paranoid populace. If these 2 could be (and were) tracked down despite their almost-certain attempts to conceal their identities, no one is going to harbour any more illusions.

No climate of fear in Singapore? The jury has just come closer to reaching a conclusion, and it is not the same as the one which we have been told to accept.

The consequences of saying something that is challenged may not be to be locked up in jail, disappearing in the middle of the night and not coming back, but to risk-averse Singaporeans substantial jailtime and a hefty fine isn't much better. Nobody wants to be a chicken, so everyone becomes a monkey ("杀鸡警猴").

Of course, the majority of responsible Singaporean bloggers have nothing to fear, being righteous Party-fearing people, but then as Tym points out: "A seditious tendency is defined under the Act as one to raise discontent or disaffection among the citizens or residents and to promote feelings of ill-will and hostility between different races or classes of the population of Singapore.”

Am I the only one who still doesn’t really get what a “seditious tendency” is? If it’s anything that raises discontent or disaffection, or promotes feelings of ill-will and hostility, how does that differ from any number of casual remarks made by a person—- whether it’s Joe HDB or an esteemed Minister—- in the course of a given day?" Indeed, Malay children not having to pay primary school fees and not being allowed to wear tudungs to school would qualify under this definition, as would the raising of the prices of HDB flats (since the upper classes don't live in them). Or any discussion of said issues, even in Parliament.

But then, we supposedly need flexibility to be able to deal with all kinds of situations, so I guess it's good that the law be so vaguely phrased in the first place. Might as well just abolish the law and institute rule by fiat - then they'd have ultimate discretionary power, and wouldn't be prevented from doing what was best by such pesky things as a Constitution.

Better by far to stick to infantility, I say.

"Anything not worth doing is worth not doing well. Think about it." - Elias Schwartz

Random Playlist Song: Cambridge Singers - Poulenc - Chansons francaises - 1. Margoton va t'a l'iau

Margoton va t’a l’iau avecque son cruchon.
La fontaine était creuse, elle est tombée au fond,
Aïe, Aïe, Aïe, Aïe,
Se dit Margoton.

Par là passèrent trois jeunes garçons
Que don’rez vous la belle qu’on vous tir’ du fond
Tirez d’abord dit elle après ça nous verrons
Quand la belle fut tirée commence une chanson
Ce n’est pas ça la bell’ que nous vous demandons
C’est votre petit coeur savoir si nous l’aurons
Mon petit coeur messir’s n’est point pour greluchons

Aïe, Aïe, Aïe, Aïe,
Se dit Margoton

No, I don't have any idea what that means either. But using French is a great way to project an appearance of sophistication.

***

This beats the recent puerile insults that have been flying:

A: At a recent poetry reading I had the opportunity to meet up with someone who recently joined a state agency, or as I like to put it, the dark side. When I said something like 'you're so selling out like in that DC talk song from five years ago' I was told that they were changing the system from within. I'm sure they honestly believe it too. And a few years down the road your interests align with the system, like any bureaucrat you don't want to make your job obsolete, you internalize the propaganda you manufacture, the doublespeak becomes truth and you live a comfortable stable banality-of-evil lifestyle, until the revolution comes (haha) and you are tried for complicity, and your excuse will be something like I'm sorry I was part of something that made it harder for people like me to do the right thing, or I was waiting for the right time and it never came, and neither will fly, so why not just keep backpacking from place to place until you find paradise? Anyway I hope they get that cryo thing figured out so I can wake up when everything's been figured out. SENS and all.

B: As they said about Mussolini:

'He was out of touch with the reality on the ground, despite -- or more probably as a result of -- reading the newspapers everyday.' - random A level history book.

Me:
>I'm sure they honestly believe it too. And a few years down the road
>your interests align with the system, like any bureaucrat you don't
>want to make your job obsolete, you internalize the propaganda you
>manufacture, the doublespeak becomes truth and you live a comfortable
>stable banality-of-evil lifestyle,

Actually it's amazing how they justify it to themselves and other people. They tend to use one or more of the following arguments:

1) You are horribly naive and don't know how the world works.
2) You are cossetted and spoilt and have no right to make such remarks.
3) Faux moral/political equivalence
4) The Argument from Bravado

For example, I was recently told mockingly that the US Supreme Court is not independent since the 9 posts are political appointments. No matter that they are not beholden to the current political system, being in the post for life: they are still beholden to the apparatus that appointed them.

I was also told that, since US congressional districts are gerry-mandered, their elections are as undemocratic as in places where candidates are prohibited or impeded from standing by other means.

With this sort of moral/political equivalence, what does it matter if I smuggle in 0.0001 gram of pot or 10 kg? I deserve to hang anyway.

Ooh, look. China sells the unclaimed bodies of executed prisoners to Gunther von Hagens. Therefore we are justified in doing the same thing.

For that matter, since wage costs are rising worldwide, it doesn't matter if ours rise too, so there's no point trying to keep them down to maintain our national competitiveness. Why strive to have the best airport in the world? In the end it's all the same anyway, especially since being in the top 50% is the same as being the top. Subjective perceptions, it only matters if we're among the best and all that jazz.

Ah, what is truth?


Addendum: B:

For example, I was recently told mockingly that the US Supreme Court is not independent since the 9 posts are political appointments. No matter that they are not beholden to the current political system, being in the post for life: they are still beholden to the apparatus that appointed them.

Er this point is particularly risible: the system was intentionally designed in this way so that all three branches will check each other. So, the Supreme Court can check the legislature by declaring laws unconstitutional, while the executive can check the Supreme Court by appointing its members (who remain independent because they have security of tenure and because politicians are not allowed to comment on cases which are being heard) and so on.

I was also told that, since US congressional districts are gerry-mandered, their elections are as undemocratic as in places where candidates are prohibited or impeded from standing by other means.

And in any case, the gerrymandering which occurs in the US (which is actually quite serious I think it makes a significant proportion of House of Rep seats uncompetitive) is a reason to believe that more, not less, checks on the govt should be established to ensure that this does not occur. To say 'oh it happens in the US too' is just childish. It's like how in primary school we used to say 'It wasn't me; and anyway, he did it too!'

Edward Abbey quotes / Conversations - 22nd September 2004 / a*star and an achilies heel of its scholarship system / PRCs in Singapore

Quote of the Post: "From the point of view of a tapeworm, man was created by God to serve the appetite of the tapeworm." - Edward Abbey

More fun Edward Abbey quotes:

"Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others."

"Every man has two vocations: his own and philosophy."

"Proverbs save us the trouble of thinking. What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity."

"The gurus come from the sickliest nation on earth to tell us how to live. And we pay them for it."

***

Soundbites

"voila. gabriel u are amazing. i've been walking around wondering what's been bugging me for a long time, could not give explanations to anyone, and now talking cock to u i have found the root of all my sorrow
i have a proposal for u
will u be my shrink?"
Yay. I can set up shop now.

Someone on why she never kept long hair: NANYANG
Me: is short hair a virtuous chinese girl trait? no right
Her: no in fact long hair
but communist era all the girls cut their hair short what
So now we have solid proof that Nanyang really was Communist!

u were talking about how readings are leading students astray hahahahhahaa i tell u, it's probably intentional
we've got lots of deviant lecturers in arts. its one of the reason i love arts modules much more than computing. stupid boring nerdy computing lecturers


the political science students apparently are still monitored for the rest of their lives

Minrui on why he joined Kendo: "wanted to whack pple with a stick"

Ban Xiong on me: "you are the textbook example of a bad hair day, everyday"

***

Jiahao's rage against the a*star machine post was apparently quite popular, and it seems there is a substantial vein of discontent against a*star.

"The obvious trend in response [to a*star's denying of the chance to scholars who get a GPA of less than 3.8 to immediately proceed to do their PhDs], therefore, will be that scholars are be going all-out to preserve their precious 4.0s. if this means dropping a hard course that may be useful, so be it. if this means skimping on rigorous classes and taking filler classes such as geology 101, a.k.a. 'rocks for jocks', so be it. let's take two imaginary scholars with gpas of 3.8 v. 3.3 ceteris paribus. maybe the 3.8-er took a whole bunch of filler classes for easy a's, like chinese 101 or southeast asian studies and breezed through, whereas the 3.3-er took a whole bunch of extra graduate-level classes for interest's sake; who, really, is the better student then? btw, i am not kidding about taking southeast asian studies for an easy a. more than one uiuc alum is guilty of that."

As he concludes: "a*star, watch out: you will get what you pay for. you are curdling the attitudes of an entire generation of researchers. by putting in a huge grade penalty for straying beyond the confines of the tried-and-tested boundaries of their knowledge, you will never get the true risk-taking let's-dive-into-the-unknown people who will be true blue scientists. you will forever get scholars who are academically inclined, but never academics... remember your poor ex-scholars(s) whom you have driven to madness by your asinine insistence on perfect grades. i mean it literally. people have gone mad by pushing themselves too hard. and most of the time their scholarship agencies egged them on because they fell below the holy 3.8 standard."

To no one's surprise, my brother in law supports a*star's policy, since we have to justify the use of taxpayers' money. And he claims that if people go for the easier classes, they will be called up to account for their actions. As if it is possible, from thousands of miles away, to know if PHYS3541 is radically easier and less challenging than PHYS3591.

Apparently he hasn't learnt from all his management books that you cannot reduce people (especially those you value) to mere numbers, which after all are inadequate as measures of a person's worth. The answer to life, the universe and everything may be 42, but to measure the future worth of a PhD student to Singapore with his GPA smacks of folly. I guess he's been a bureaucrat for so long, he's totally adopted their way of thinking.


Meanwhile, closer to home, we have rumblings of discontent as well: "it sucks. s/u a module because u think u can't get an A. its like everything boils down to grades grades grades. and it does. why bother to study. lets all just get 1st class honours. never mind whether u actually learn anything."

"Even NUS is going that route. So, you have fourth year honours students taking first year modules so that they can pull up their GPA above the cut-off for their 1st class."

The law of unintended consequences strikes again. Or maybe they aren't so unintended - there's a reason why I call NUS the premier institution of social engineering.

***

I've received a request from a friend who wants to share her mortification with the world. A prepared message follows:

"i was at the toilet at clementi macs when this PRC (CONFIRMEd from the way she talked) went into the toilet.. guess what? she happily did her business WITHOUT CLOSING THE CUBICLE door.. and i know for sure she did her business coz on her way out she was still zipping up..... ....

seriously PRCs give chinese a damn bad name

even in other countries.. wah lau. like ppl tend to think singaporeans are PRC... bad bad bad."

Meanwhile Screwed Up Girl was in a tiny fitting room at Takashimaya when a PRC woman under the age of 30 barged in, asking if she could share the fitting room, since there was only one fitting room there.

***

I love these spammers:

"Hi . My name is Augustin . I am a boy withoute family , and of course no money .
I am not a rich person , i growed up in an orfenish house . Now i am living with another two buys in a small apartament , and we are trying to finish the school , so we can have a good job sometime .
We had many problems in the past , but harde or no , they were resolved.
Now i have a verry big problem.
I had an accident , and i losed my left eye .
i can`t see with only one eye , because it is geting bad efect from the left one .
I would like to you help me with even one dollar , so i can take my eye back in a day .
i will accept your donations happy , and hope will not be a so big disturbing for you .
I would like also to help you with something for helping me .
I know so many about computers .
If you need something i can help you happy .
Thank you verry much for your attention .
here i have some informations from a bank acount i created to you can help me easyer .
NAME : OLARIAN, AUGUSTIN MARADONA
BANK ACOUNT : RO23 BTRL 03602201619679XX
I hope those infos are enought for you to help me . and honestly , please tell me how can i help you .
I would like to help you somehow for this help , coz i know you wouldn`t like to share your money with unknow persons .
I know web design , i know some linux , i know some secure tricks for your acounts , your credit card .. and p.s i know some tricks to you protect your money .
I hope it deserve to give one or more dollars if you want , and get my help .
Please don`t be like my guvern , they don`t give 2 cents on me couse i have no family . i hope you are more helpfull then my guvern , who wanted to arrest me , when i told them what i know , and that they can stop the internet fraud if they listen me .
Anyway i will wait for your reply , and thank you in advance .
Good day .


--- Sent by UNREGISTERED VERSION of Atomic Mail Sender"