Are we having problems in relations with Indonesia and China?

Dear Mr. Tan,
Here are two recent events that get me worried about our future. The two countries that are very important to Singapore are Indonesia and China.
For Indonesia, there was the recent issue of the naming of their warship as Harun Usman. There was also a ban on export of granite to Singapore.
For China, their President XJP, decided by bypass Singapore on his recent tour of South East Asia.
Are these two countries, that are important to Singapore, unhappy with us? What did we do wrong?

REPLY
I don't know. Perhaps we appear to be too arrogant for a small country?

A new approach towards national defense for Singapore

Singapore now has 70,000 active military personnel, comprising 30,000 regulars and 40,000 conscripts serving national service for two years and 13 years of active reservists duty. The reservists are expected to be operationally ready and are called up once a year to spend two weeks in training. They are also required to pass the physical proficiency test, failing which, they have to attend remedial training. This requirement can be taxing for most reservists who have to do a full time job and to look after a family.

I wish to propose a new approach - that will reduce the demand on the conscripts and reservists. The conscripts will be required to serve full time for 12 months only. This is sufficient for the military training for non-officers. The conscripts can be discharged after 12 months and be placed on  active reservist duty for 5 years and passive reservist duty for 8 years. 

To maintain our active personnel at 70,000, we need to recruit another 20,000 regulars, to make a total of 50,000. It is better to rely on a larger professional army than on conscripts.

I estimate that the additional cost of replacing 20,000 full time conscripts with professional soldiers to be $600 million, taking into account the difference in salary between professionals and conscripts. 

The reservists are expected to be fit and operationally ready for 5 years. After 5 years, they are placed on passive duty and will not be called up for reservists training or to pass the physical test. By that time, they are likely to settle down to start a family. If they are relieved of active reservist duty, they can carry on their work and family life without being interrupted by call ups.

This will provide a pool of 100,000 active reservists that are operationally ready at all times. This number, together with 70,000 active personnel, should be sufficient for our defense capability. During times of war or hostility, the other reservists can be called up and put under refresher courses and remedial training. As they have gone through military training. 

If the reservists are placed on another 8 years of passive reservist duty, it will provide another 160,000 personnel that can be called up for refresher and remedial training. 

By releasing 160,000 personnel from active reservist training, the savings in the defense budget is estimated to be $500 million, assuming that it cost $3,000 to train a reservist for two weeks in a year. This will nearly offset the $600 million required to replace 20,000 conscripts (during their second year) by professional soldiers.  The total defense budget works out to be almost the same.

Here is the score card.

Current system - 30,000 professionals, 40,000 conscripts, 260,000 operationally ready reserves

New system - 50,000 professionals, 20,000 conscripts, 100,000 operationally ready reserves, 160,000 passive reserves.

Defense budget - about the same for both systems. The new system is likely to produce a more effective defense force, and to require less sacrifice from male citizens - as they serve 12 months of full time military service and have to be operationally ready for 5 years (instead of 13 years). 

Tan Kin Lian 

High medical bills for terminal illness

David Soh said.
A close friend of mine recently passed away, Lung Cancer - was almost cured but after going to another x private hospital which gave conflicting views and treatment', the bill cost @ $120,000 over a month. Another case, the daughter was treated in a private hospital cost almost $1m and subsequently passed away. 
Actually what we need is competent good doctors in our Government Hospital, which to date I have seen only 1 out of 10 doctors which has patient's care and concern rather than treating them as production plan, due to the long queue. Most of them have gone private. It is the result of this that forced patients to seek private hospitals which I have came across cases where the doctor will ask if you are covered by insurance your bill is higher than cash.
It is no point having a good Medical Insurance eg Medishield Life when the profession lacks professionalism which causes patients bills to escalate which will cause insurance premiums to increase.
We are govern by too many SOP etc, like my friend case I wanted the Medical Council to use her case as CASE STUDY to see where go wrong to use as a teaching case study, their reply need the family to file a COMPLAINT and they will investigate as they are govern by the ACT.
This explains why a lot of cases not reported as the demise families normally will not persue the matter. What we need besides better Medical Insurance Plans like Medishield Life, is competent medical services

Medishield Life - risk of escalating cost

Many people are worried that Medishield Life will be very expensive. Their concerns are valid.

Let me use this example to demonstrate how bad things can become. An Englishman, who had lived in Singapore for more than ten years, recently went back to the UK to visit his uncle, who was terminally ill with cancer. The uncle was in the late 50s.

The doctors of the National Health Service of the UK had concluded that the cancer had reached a stage beyond cure and this was accepted by the patient and the family. They had trust that the NHS would have done whatever could be done.

Imagine a similar case in Singapore, and the patient was insured under Medishield Life and it was outsourced to a private, for-profit insurer.

If the insurer had concluded that the patient was beyond cure, the patient and the family might not accept this conclusion, and might suspect that the insurer was trying to cap their liability. The patient might have gone for expensive and futile treatment. The cost would be borne by the insurance scheme, and everybody would have to pay higher premium.

I am worried that the Medishield Life would not have the management structure and the co-operation of the patient in controlling the cost of treatment, and the cost would escalate rapidly. This was the experience in America. Our model appears to be following the American model.

I hope that the Review Committee is aware of this risk and will be able to find a solution to deal with it.

Tan Kin Lian

Should National Service be shortened?

Over 95% of Singaporeans wish to reduce National Service by half, compared to those who prefer to keep the status quo. What are your views? Make your voice heard by signing one of the petitions here. Act now. It is for the future of your children and grand children.
https://www.facebook.com/reduceNS/photos/a.1454660811419874.1073741828.1450910421794913/1463681497184472/?type=1&stream_ref=10

Go beyond Pioneer Generation

The Government should not restrict financial assistance to the "pioneer generation" only. 

This burden of paying for higher health care cost will be faced by every elderly person, regardless of whether they belong to the pioneer or non-pioneer generation. 

It is better to give the financial assistance to everyone above age 65, including those reaching this age in all future years as well.

Budget surplus for Singapore - the IMP figure

In the budget statement last year, the government reported the budget surplus for 2012 at $3.9 billion. According to IMF standards, this is grossly under-reported. The actual budget surplus is $36 billion. If this is the case, there is no need for the government to increase taxes to fund social benefits. They can even remove GST, which adds to the high cost of living .

http://leongszehian.com/?p=3821

How to stop increases in medical cost

he Prime Minister has announced that Medishield will be extended to cover health care for a lifetime, will cover pre-existing conditions and cover people who were excluded previously.

The public is worried that the premium for the new scheme, called Medishield Life, will increase significantly. There are discussions on who should bear the higher cost, and if pre-funding can be a way to make the scheme more affordable to older people (by getting them to pay more when they are young).

I have submitted my views on the key elements that have to be dealt with. There is a need for Medishield Life management to negotiate the fees for medical treatment, and to have advice on what are appropriate treatment to be given to patients. If there is no control over these matters, consumers will have to pay higher premiums as medical costs can escalate.

The outsourcing of Medishield to private insurers does not help to improve the situation. It leads to higher cost, due to marketing and private sector profits.

Read the PDF for more details.
http://c-onyx.com/page/1745

Petition to reduce National Service

For the sake of our future generation, we must have a united voice in asking the Government to reduce full time and reservist National Service, so that our male citizens have a chance to compete fairly for a good job and lead a decent life. 

I urge all parents and all Singaporeans to support this petition, and to spread the message to their relatives, friends and colleagues to support the Petition. 

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/petition-to-reduce-national-service
Tan Kin Lian

Pre Budget 2014 - TKL views

Here is my presentation at the Pre Budget Forumhttps://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/1443dc4cf6e6fe32?projector=1

Here are the charts presented at the forum
http://c-onyx.com/pdf/1744

National Service and Reservist Training

Read the views of our NS men and reservists in this Facebook Page and understand how it affects them badly.
https://www.facebook.com/reduceNS

Are our Police competent?

I had high regard for Police but that regard has diminished in recent years. 

I helped several people to lodge two complaints to the Commercial Affairs Division on cheating cases, which had been going on for more than ten years. I had observed how the CAD carried out its investigation on both occasions, and my description is "irresponsible, incompetent and shameful". Even complaints to the Minister and the Prime Minister did not not make any difference.

We have now seen the response of the Police in the Little India riots on Dec 8.

My regard for several government agencies had also diminised considerably. I strongly dislike the attitude of passing the buck from one agency to another. We all know about the case of different types of birds being handled by different agencies - pushing the public from one agency to another or the question of which agency should deal with racing of cars on our roads in the early morning.

We also know about the rampant inflation of motor repairs which has been going on for more than two decades. No government agency wants to deal with this issue.

As a Singaporean, I am ashamed to make this statement, but it does not help if we turn a blind eye and pretend that this state of affairs is satisfactory.

Rate of traffic accident in Singapore

There are 6,500 road accidents each year involving fatalities and injuries. This is a rate of 1.2 per 1,000 people in a year. About 5% of these cases are fatal (i.e death) while the 95% involve major and minor injuries.

Incidence of breast cancer among women

Women are worried about breast cancer. These statistics may be helpful to put the risk into perspective. They can set aside some money to buy insurance against cancer (or other critical illness) but they should not spend too much money. 
http://c-onyx.com/page/1673

Loss of jobs due to retrenchment

In good times, about 10,000 workers are retrenched each year in Singapore, representing 0.6% of the workforce. During economic crises, the number can jump up to 20,000 or 1.2% of the workforce.

Over a working career of 40 years, about 40% of workers will be retrenched, on average. The real redundancy rate is likely to be higher, as some workers leave for another stated reason, but the real cause is likely to be retrenchment.

Report here:
http://stats.mom.gov.sg/Pages/Redundancy-Summary-Table.aspx

Avoid abbreviation that are not commonly understood

I received a call from SingTel. "Sir, your online trial for QBO has expired. We call to ask if you wish to extend it".
QBO ?????I asked, "what is QBO". She replied, "Quick Book Online".

Why does this telemarketer not use the full name? I had no clue what she was referring to !!!

One response to PM Lee's message for 2014

Here is a response to PM Lee's message for 2014
http://www.tremeritus.com/2014/01/01/pm-lees-2014-new-year-message-we-still-need-fts/

From Cass
1. So after all that discourse on the Population White Paper, what is the government’s stand on this issue? Are you going ahead with your plan?
2. Is Ilo Ilo the government’s effort? Don’t take credit for something that took no effort on your part.
3. Has being ranked in top 3 in PISA helped closed the gap between the high achieves and low achieving students? If not, PISA can only be put down to a regimented education successfully fuelled by expensive tuition to achieve high scores in regurgitation.
Also, many Singaporean graduates are either losing their jobs or cannot find jobs. Is our high PISA ranking translating into employable skills for our children?
5.What are your specific actions and what are the measurable outcomes to your promises? Words are cheap.
The Singapore spirit burns bright not because of the anything the government has done rather, it’s because of Singaporeans who are passionate for their own people and country who step forward to help another worse off Singaporeans. Did the government help the family that had to sell their HDB flat to pay for a father’s kidney dialysis? Did the government cover the medical costs of the young girl needs urgent surgery so she won’t go blind? Did the government help the single mother get into her own HDB flat so she and her children don’t have to sleep in the streets? Did they government give a scholarship to the orphaned teenage boy so he can continue his studies instead of dropping our of school to support his younger school-going siblings?
6. Did the government step in to stop runaway cost of living? Did it come down hard on companies that discriminate against Singaporeans in their hiring practice? Did it give a job to the many jobless PMETs instead of putting foreigners in civil services? Did it stop depressing wages for Singaporeans?
Instead of seeing Swiss standard of living, we are going back to theirs world status with unreliable transport system, unaffordable healthcare and overcrowdedness. All these are thanks to PAP’s continuing failed policies!

World's funniest joke

This has been voted as the world's funniest joke:

Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other guy whips out his phone and calls the emergency services. He gasps, "My friend is dead! What can I do?" 
The operator says "Calm down. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead." There is a silence, then a gun shot is heard. Back on the phone, the guy says "OK, now what?"

Opt-in to receive the advertisements that you are interested in

Do you like to receive advertising flyers in your mailbox? It is a nuisance, right?

If you find it a nuisance, here is an alternative. You can register in the Opt-in Register and select the types of advertisements that you like to receive by e-mail. It allows you to receive only those advertisements that you are really interested in, and will also help to save the environment.

The registration is simple. On successful registration, you will receive a free book entitled "Financial Planning For Young People" (usual price $6). You can change your preferences at any time, or even to unsubscribe altogether.

Tan Kin Lian
Register at www.opt-in.sg

Reduce National Service to One Year

I like to create a Facebook Page to allow Singaporeans to support a move to get the Government to reduce full time national service to one year and to reduce the call up for reservist training. The message is shown here.
http://c-onyx.com/page/1660

Do you support this move? Are you able to help to promote this Page?

If you can help, please give your reply below. I need many volunteers before launching the Page. 

http://c-onyx.com/page/1660