"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State." - Joseph Goebbels, propaganda minister of Nazi Germany
"Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play." - Joseph Goebbels
"Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it" - Adolf Hitler
"In politics stupidity is not a handicap." - Napoleon Bonaparte
"Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber." - Plato
"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives." - John Stuart Mill
"Open manly discussions would be of more service to the German people than, for instance, the present state of the German press. The government [must be] mindful of the old maxim, ”Only weaklings suffer no criticism”. . .
"Great men are not created by propaganda"
"If one desires close contact and unity with the people, one must not underestimate their understanding. One must not everlastingly keep them on leading strings."
"No organization, no propaganda, however excellent, can alone maintain confidence in the long run."
"It is not by incitement...and not by threats against the helpless part of the nation but only by talking things over with people that confidence and devotion can be maintained. People treated as morons, however, have no confidence to give away."
"You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you cant fool all of the people all the time."
According to the Parliamentary Elections Act, the deposit per candidate is 8% of the total allowances payable to an MP in the preceding year and rounded to the nearest $500.00. The deposit for a candidate shall, therefore, be $16,000.
The deposit this year is $16,000, up from $13,500 from the previous election. Since the deposit is pegged to 8% of the total allowance payed to an MP in the previous year, it follows that the average MPs pay has risen 18.5% in five years since the last election.
5/7 Singapore election - Lee Hsien Loong expected to be reelected Prime Minister2011-04-20 China Times 【Liang Dong Ping / Bangkok】 The Singapore Government announced on the 19th at 15:00, President Nathan, on the recommendation of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, has dissolved parliament, and announced that election day will be held on May 7, and nomination day on April 27 . It is believed that it will still be a landslide victory for the long-governing incumbent People's Action Party, with Lee Hsien Loong expected to continue as Prime Minister.
The last Singapore general election was held in 2006, and the upcoming 12th parliamentary election will have three additional seats for a total of eighty-seven member seats. Significant changes have been made in the election constituencies, with single-seat constituencies increased from nine to twelve, and GRCs increased by one to fifteen, for a total of twenty-seven constituencies.
With the exception the Potong Pasir and Hougang constituencies, the ruling PAP still controls eighty-two seats, forming the majority in parliament.
As in previous elections, it is generally expected that the PAP will have a landslide victory. This is because under the leadership of the PAP, Singapore's performance has been brilliant in recent years. Although Singapore was also affected in the global financial crisis, the government took effective measures which resulted in an early recovery followed by a strong rebound, which was the envy of the world. Singapore reported an economic growth rate of 14.5% in 2009, and is expected to grow from four to six percent this year.
In the face of various crises, the People's Action Party, is often also able to hit the nail on the head and propose and implement effective programs, the controlling of property prices is one example. Singapore's leadership is also not monolithic, and several years ago went out on a limb and approved the construction of casinos.
Since the beginning of last year, casino operations has proven to be a major contributor to reverse the economic contraction. But Singapore government also implemented restrictive measures to prevent their own people from getting addicted to gambling, and these acts have gotten the support and recognition of their people.
However, The Wall Street Journal also pointed out that the ruling party is likely to face the its biggest challenge so far (in the coming elections), due to too many foreign workers, wage stagnation, rising prices, the wealth gap and discontent over inflation. Opposition parties said it would field candidates in all constituencies, hence the opposition's seats are likely to increase.
Just finished Alain de Botton's splendid book "How Proust can change your life", an incisive and witty commentary into Marcel Proust's insights into the workings of love, society, art and the meaning of existence. Though published almost 10 years ago, the book touches on universal themes that apply across time.Q: How long can the average human expect to be appreciated?In all, a thoroughly engaging read and highly recommended.
A: Fully appreciated? Often, as little as a quarter of an hour …
Q: Did Proust have any relevant thoughts on dating? What should one talk about on a first date? And is it good to wear black?
A: Advice is scant. A more fundamental doubt is whether one should accept dinner in the first place.
There is no doubt that a person’s charms are less frequently a cause of love than a remark such as: ‘No, this evening I shan’t be free.’
Fund will avoid touchy deals as it pursues big returns
Jane Macartney in Beijing
China’s $200 billion (£102 billion) state investment fund will avoid politically sensitive acquisitions in its search for higher returns on its vast foreign currency reserves.
The fledgeling state investment company revealed that it had agreed to pay $3 billion for a 9.9 per cent stake in Blackstone Group, the private equity fund, when it makes an initial public offering next month.
The deal brings together a communist government sitting atop the world’s largest stash of currency reserves – $1.2 trillion – and a New York-based fund that is synonymous with capitalism.
China is eager to avoid the political backlash that forced CNOOC, the state-owned oil
exploration firm, to scrap a takeover bid for Unocal, a Californian rival, in
2005.
Jessie Wang, a senior government investment official who signed
the agreement with Blackstone, said that the new company would steer clear of
sensitive deals. He said: “My personal understanding is that the investments
basically will be portfolio investments and will be purely financial
investments, not a kind of M&A control-type of thing.”
Steve Schwarzman, a co-founder of Blackstone, said yesterday that he expected the
Chinese fund to repeat its move into private equity. He said: “It should be, or
will be, part of a trend. Blackstone is the first, but, over time, I would suspect there would be others.”
However, under the terms of the agreement with Blackstone, the Chinese fund is barred from giving money to any other private equity firm for one year. China, which parks most of its reserves in safe, low-yielding dollar bonds, is desperate to increase its returns. The Chinese have given up any rights to vote as part of the Blackstone deal and this could be a feature of future investments.
Another clue to the fund’s investment philosophy is that China has declared Temasek, the state-owned Singaporean asset manager, to be a role model. Temasek controls Singapore Airlines, but it also has a broad Asian portfolio that encompasses Chinese banks and Thai telecommunications companies.
The trick for China as it hunts for deals will be to be as stealthy and decisive as it was in hooking up with Blackstone. The consensus-based politics of Beijing is not a recipe for success as a fund manager, yet Mr Schwarzman said that he had been impressed. It was Beijing, not Blackstone, that had suggested taking an IPO stake and, after the
initial proposal was made, a deal was clinched within three weeks.
Mr Schwarzman said: “I doubt that there is any government in the world that could have done it more efficiently or more professionally.”
The crash of the Taiwanese F-5F Tiger fighter jet that killed 2 SAF "Starlight" personnel last Saturday, was an unfortunate metaphor for the strained relationship between Singapore and Taiwan in recent years, and also the issue of the Starlight presence in Taiwan.How long more can the Starlight still shine brightly?by Sheena Chang (China Times)
The Taiwanese military fighter accident that killed two Singapore servicemen who were training in Taiwan, has forced Singapore to officially acknowledge for the first time the existence of the "Starlight program". This accident may not necessarily affect the continued existence of the "Starlight program", but Taiwan-Singapore relations, which has gone increasingly downhill these past few years, is really the question worth noting.
Due to Singapore's limited geographical size, there is no space large enough for military exercises, hence the need for co-operation with allied countries for training agreements. Thanks to the close friendship between former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and the late Taiwan President Chiang Ching-kuo, both countries signed the agreement for the Starlight program in 1975, after which Singapore began to dispatch servicemen to Taiwan for training.
Military training agreements are different from normal bilateral cooperation, because national defense is the lifeline of a country's survival, and troop equipment, engagement plans and operational capability are of the utmost national security and obviously cannot be leaked. Allowing foreign troops to train with local forces exposes much of the internal workings to them, and this cannot be achieved without a certain degree of mutual trust. As a result, the Starlight program remains the best testimony of the relationship between Taiwan and Singapore.
Bilateral ties were really quite good in the past, as Lee Kuan Yew enjoyed the scenery of the Sun Moon Lake and A-Li Shan, and visited Taiwan on vacation every year, often in the company of Chiang Ching-kuo. After observing Lee Kuan Yew chatting with the locals in Hokkien, Chiang lamented his own inability to talk to converse with the locals, with Lee even exclaiming "I'm also a Taiwanese".
After Lee Teng-hui succeeded as president, he originally continued friendly relations with Lee Kuan Yew, making his first official foreign visit to Singapore. But due to Lee Teng-hui's criticism of Lee Kuan Yew's "Asian-style democracy" , leaving Lee Kuan Yew frothing at the mouth, the rift between the two Lees being to widen from that point on, with Lee Kuan Yew not returning to Taiwan on vacation for several years. But from a wider perspective, the two Lees represented two different models of Confucian cultural development. Lee Teng-hui professed to have founded democratic reform Taiwan, and Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore is the successful example of the patriarchal model. Lee Teng-hui felt that the significance of his democratic achievements surpassed that of Lee Kuan Yew, but of course Lee Kuan Yew begged to differ.
Once the seeds of discord were sown, ties were difficult to mend, especially when the "two Lees" were known for their temperament and pride. Afterwards to make matters worse, Lee Teng-hui's visit to the US ignited cross-strait tensions with China, which Lee Kuan Yew criticized repeatedly on Taiwan's actions. Of course, Lee Teng-hui was not known for accepting such face-on criticism, and this led to a further deterioration of ties.
The foreign media eloquently described Lee Kuan Yew as "a fish too big for its pond". Indeed, to a big fish like Lee Kuan Yew, a small pond like Singapore was not big enough to contain his political aspirations. Hence he hoped to play a bigger role in the international arena, including cross-strait relations and China's development.
He focused on the practical side, and felt that China's rise cannot be taken lightly, and cross-straits peace must be maintained. As a result, he disagreed with Taiwan taking a radical stance and standing for independence in defiance of the Chinese Communist Party, which obviously fell on deaf ears with the Taiwanese government.
The national interests of Taiwan and Singapore are certainly different, and it is difficult for the outsider to understand the long-term suppression of pride, the indignity and fear of security constantly being threatened. But Taiwan's reading and handling of the international situation is still at odds with international society, causing the country to distance itself with the rest of the world.
But Taiwan is still a very suitable military training location, and therefore although Singapore continues to sign training agreements with other countries, Taiwan-Singapore ties continue to turn cold, but the Starlight program still manages to hang on. The thing is, it may be quite impossible for the time being for Taiwan and Singapore to recover their former close relationship.
