Why want to have no more F1?

After just 5 years, our government seems to want to put the brakes of F1 in Singapore. They say it is because, Singapore is losing money because of the F1.

F1 in some sense, creates some problems for the citizens.For a couple of weeks, so many roads are closed. This causes the "town" area of Singapore to be clogged up even more than it normally is. Sometimes, you go round and round trying to get out of that area.

However, it is a pride of Singapore. F1 commentators often say that this is the jewel of the F1 crown. It is only the second street race in the circuit and the only one that circuit that runs at night. Sure, some driver will complain that the Singapore roads are bumpy, let them. It adds to the difficulity ratings right!!!

The party that follows F1 too is awesome!!! When esle can we have people like Shakira, Black Eyed Peas and Nicole Scherzinger come down and perform on one rocking night? You think the countdown party at Sentosa can draw that many stars?

Most importantly, it adds excitement and the tinge of sports that our country severly lacks. When else do Singaporean glue themselves to the screen for world class action that is not football nor the Olympics? When can we have Singaporean drivers amongst the elite in F1? If Malaysia can, so can Singapore!

I just hope that they do not take the F1 down!!!

Sehajdhari Sikhs, SGPC elections and criticisms.

In today's blog, it would be about the Sikh element of the blog.


Every Sikh should aspire to be an Amritdhari Khalsa. That is something that I agree with. Before I die, I would like to take Amrit. That being said, I have not Amrit Shak yet.

By some definition or another, I am not an Amrit Dhari Khalsa. An Amrit Dhari Khalsa is someone that has taken the Amrit and has become Khalsa. They have kept their 5 ks amongst other things.


Now for some reasons or another, there are many people including myself, have not taken Amrit yet. People like us are called Sehajdhari Sikhs, people who have yet to take Amrit, but may want to do so one day and would also want to be identified as a Sikh of Guru Nanak Dev Ji.

That by itself I feel is already a mistake. The full form of the word Sikh is GurSikh, the Guru (teacher)'s student, the Guru's Seeker. Who in the world is one to say, this person is a Sikh or that person is not a Sikh other than the Guru? Only a teacher should dictate who his/her students are. Why should other students dictate if this person is a Sikh or not one?


Going back to the topic, currently Sikhs have a "supreme court" or our "legislative arm of Sikhism" at the Akal Takht. There is a committee that decides on the biggest matter of Sikhism. This body has elections every now and them.

Recently, the have announced that only Amrit Dhari Sikhs should be allowed to vote; after years and years of allowing Sehajdhari Sikhs to vote. This, as one can expect, has angered many Sehajdhari Sikhs.

On this ground, I dn not agree. Here is my reason why : Because I feel that a person that is following the crux of the religion should be the one that is allowed to hold the highest "office" in Sikhism. Just like only a Singaporean citizen can vote for a Singaporean MP, only an Amrit Dhari should vote on matters that concerns the Khalsa Panth.

I also fear that there would be an over-riding effect if Sehajdhari Sikhs come in and start having their own way when it comes to things like keeping of hair, allowing consumption of liquor and tobbaco and so on and so forth.

That being said, there are many issues that are not being ironed out but the Akal Takht. For example, we still are not sure if Raags are important in Sikhi. We still do not know if a Sikh should be a vegetarian or should be able to eat meat that is not Kosher, Halal or made for other religious reasons.

There are also other social evils that are being done by Gurudwara boards all around the world. There are still people that go around calling themselves Jatt or Chamar and believe in this ridiculous caste system. Caste system is not allowed by any measure in Sikhism. We still have the problem of the dowry, which leads to female infanticide. This should not be allowed at all, but are still carried out infront of Gurudwaras today. Fetuses are being aborted just because they would become girls if they are born.

Worst is that we are also closing an eye to even the biggest matters in Sikhism. When Sikhs get kidnapped in Pakistan and were told to convert or die, the Akal Takht did nothing. It just sat there and did nothing. Organisations like United Sikhs had to intervene. What more do we want? We do not need the SGPC coming out to tell Bollywood directors on how long Akshay Kumar's beard should be. Nor do we need them kicking people out of the Sikh religion for saying what the person think. We need them to wake the hell up or Sikhi would be going down the drain...

Please accept my apologies if my views offend you. Please air yours if you have to, but be civil about it. Thank you...

Why are problems not solved there and then?

A few days ago, Singapore got robbed in the World Cup Qualifiers against China. 2 soft penalties were given and one clear penalty was not given to Singapore. There will be the same calls again for reforms to the sport and calls for video referral that has been applied to sports like field hockey and American football.

But as the readers can guess, nothing is going to be done at the end of the day. This has been going on for so long that it is really making me wonder if there is anybody out there that is really willing to solve the problem? Or are the press just going about sensationalizing everything so that they report it again and again and again?

This issue is not only about the football field. It is about so many things in life where we are just accepting problems as it is and not doing anything about it. The environment is one of them. We know that global warming is real. We can feel it in Singapore. We can see Orchard Road getting flooded. But what do we do? Nothing. The whole world does nothing.


Of course there are issues that we cannot control. E.g. If the government raises transport fares again, what can we do? Go and riot like England? We cannot do anything but "suck thumb". But not everything is like that.


But the fact is that we are not doing anything about things that we can control. We are "just closing our eyes" on things that do not seem to affect us or do not affect us too much. We have the attitude of if can tahan, tahan lah. Why are we not wanting to change things that are not right?


Is there anyone out there that can answer my question? Is this something ingrained in our DNA as human beings? Or is it that we just do not care anymore?

Is creating more MRT lines just a short term process

SBS just won the contract for the DownTown Line. Ask anybody anywhere in Singapore and they share my pessimism that this line would not do anything to ease the morning congestion in the MRT. Then again, I only man on the street with common sense, not an intelligentsia with influence.
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The Downtown line is part of a massive expansion of the rail network in Singapore. From the simple East-West and the North-South Line in the past, it has truly become a very confusing web of lines. Well at the very least, they are not going to make the distance between the different trains as bad as the NEL to East West line distance at Ourtram Park.

That being said, would having so much lines really ease the burden? In simple common sense, yes. Because more tracks for people to use. But in reality, ask yourselves, is that really the case? Has the NEL really eased congestion? Or has it increased it?  My points exactly. In my opinion, the only thing that the NEL has really contributed to is to the easy access to Punggol and Sengkang from anywhere in Singapore without a car or Taxi.

So what can be the other solution? Double decker MRT? But that can only work for the train lines that are not underground. Very soon, most of the line would be underground. More and faster trains? How fast can it be? Additionally, during non peak hours, there would be idle trains, which would mean even higher costs, see bei chia lat liao. Would this be the solutions that Singaporeans want?

How about the 2 opposition ideas? One to nationalize the train lines. Really? Where got Singapore nationalize anything? What if a screwed up fellow is running the trainlines? Or the other option is to have competition. What line can they operate? Where are they going to acquire the land from?

So many headaches... What to do... Or my fellow Singaporeans what to do.... Please advise....

A proposal to empower the President

[caption id="attachment_69" align="aligncenter" width="150" caption="President Elections 2011"]The Presidential elections are just hours away. Yet, I think most can agree with me that we are not feeling the excitement of this campaign that was here a few months ago during the General election campaign. Ask most Singaporeans on the street and most would not be able to name the 4 candidates for the election?
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Why is this so? This is the man that is going to hold the highest office in Singapore. He is supposedly even more respected that the Prime Minister. He is the Yang Pertuan di Negara, the Head of State. Yet, all the President seems to do is to be the guardian of the CPF and the Reserves and to attend ceremonial functions such as see football games, attend military parades and the NDP. Please, if there is anyone out there that thinks that I am wrong, please correct me.

Here is my suggestion. One of the charges of our President is to oversee the appointment of civil servants in Singapore. Currently, this is just a rubber-stamping authority. Whatever the Parliament chooses, President accepts. Before I give my idea, I would like to think of our Ministers, DPMs and Prime Minister as civil servants too.

So my idea is that since the President is elected, he should choose from a list of people who is to be allowed to be the portfolio of ministers. For exampe, many Singaporeans are unhappy about the transport situation in Singapore. If there was a President who is empowered by the vote off the people, the President can choose the appropriate party in charge of transport in Singapore. In fact, I think that the President should also have the right to fire an individual should he deem fit, with the minister then becoming an MP; but this power to terminate a Minister should be vetoed by a 2/3 majority in parliament.


People often find it wierd that though I may not agree with the People Action Party policies, I am a loyal voter for the PAP. Why? Because at the local level, the MP in my GRC, Mr Muhammad Zaqy, does a really good job. We told him once that the carpark was dirty, he ensured that it got cleaned and we never have any problem since then. I do not see why he has not earned my vote.

I think that this would really make Singapore a fully Democratic society were the people choose all branches of office. With this, the President would surely be the head of state. With this system, the President really deserves and earned the millions of tax dollars that he is currently earning.

Lastly, I wish to stress that I agree 100%, that the President and the Cabinet should not be warring with each other. I think that we should have the two branches of office working together and discussing on the right path of our magnificent country.