A Singapore Malay speaks...

The Straits Times today quoted a statement made by ex-PM Mahathir: "The position of the Malays (in Malaysia) is in deep crisis and precarious. If they do not think deeply and act wisely, one day, we could become like Malay Singaporeans, a group without power who have to terbongkok-bongkok (kowtow) before others. We do not want others to kowtow before us, but we want a fair distribution of power and wealth."

The statement was made in his keynote address at a Malay rights rally "Melayu Bangkit" in Kuala Trengganu on 13 June.

The ex-PM has frequently used Singapore Malays as a warning to Malaysian Malays that if the latter were not careful, they too would become a 'weak minority" controlled by others.

He also said pure meritocracy would not work for the Malays in Malaysia, as many still do not have the same educational opportunities to catch up. "...if we use meritocracy to distribute wealth for our country, based on who has better ability, the Malays will be left behind. ...they will have no political power, they can't help others from their own race."

The Straits Times recently published an interview on June 4 with former Singapore Senior Minister of State, Mr Sidek Saniff. Here are some extracts.

On meritocracy

25 years ago when Mr Saniff and 9 other Malay MPs were asked whether there should be some special dispensation to admit Malay students to the faculties of medicine and law in university as their numbers were small, he said:

"Bad idea. Such a move would have lowered standards for Malays. I did not want our kids to go to university and be doctors and lawyers, but be stigmatised because they were Malay and got in through the back door. Worse, we would have condoned second-rate doctors or lawyers.

Fair competition on the basis of merit was the only way for a place or a post to be filled by the best candidate - Malay or otherwise. Anything else would be short-changing not just society, but also the community. It would chip away at the community's dignity and sense of self-worth, and do more harm than good...And meritocracy is a safeguard against corruption."

On Malay genes

"There is nothing inherent or genetic about Malays that makes them academically weak. While having to compete with others on an equal footing is an uphill struggle for the community, successive generations would be the better for it...Singapore Malays do not need a crutch on which to compete."

Mr Saniff's book "The Singapore Malay Paradigm" will be out later this year. It is a compilation of his speeches made during his 25-year political career, and covers a wide range of issues touching on the Malay community, the Malay language, religion, progress, and role in a developing Singapore.

Our ex-PM should get hold of a copy. Perhaps then he would refrain from making Singapore Malays a scapegoat whenever he wants to instil fear in Malaysia Malays.

BEFORE YOU VISIT THE SHANGHAI EXPO, READ THIS FIRST...

Thinking of visiting the Shanghai Expo? Read this first before you finalize your travel plans. TY Pok shares his expo experience with Seniorsaloud. He writes:

This has been a physically and mentally taxing journey. The splendor and scale of the exhibition is staggering. The sea of people visiting the Expo is endless.


Between 450,000 and 520,000 visited the Expo daily during the period, June 6 to 8th, when we were there. The Kobe Expo attracted 60 million visitors. The Chinese want to beat this attendance record. They will succeed for sure.

This is my troupe getting ready to queue for entry into the Expo with our survival kit - stools, umbrellas, water bottles and dried food. 

We waited in queue 45 minutes just to enter the Expo entrance gate! The security screening at Expo entrance was as strict as that at Shanghai airport! The queue was 8 hours to enter Saudi Arabia Pavilion, 7 hours to China Pavilion, 6 hours to Japan Pavilion!The temperature of 30C was unforgiving. Squabbling, fighting and fainting was common.

That's me outside the China Pavilion. 

We managed to visit the China Pavillion by good fortune and spent three hours there. Each province put up an exhibition to highlight their uniqueness. The show was impressive.

  

Top: Yunnan Pavilion, Above: Malaysia Pavilion

We managed also to visit Singapore (60 min waiting), Malaysia (30 min), Indonesia (30 min), Philippines, Brunei, India, Vietnam, etc. We avoided the popular ones like Japan, Saudi Arabia, UK, Germany, Denmark, etc as the queue was too long.

As the temp was high and the crowd large, we scrapped the 3rd day visit to the Expo out of exhaustion. Instead we explored Shanghai city.

We visited the Jade Buddha temple, took a boat cruise along Huang Po River, went shopping in Nanjing Road, and spent the evening at Paramount Nightclub.


It was old Shanghai life style re-lived.

Impression :


The Expo 2010 is impressive and worth a good look. But only if you are physically fit, mentally strong to endure the hot weather and large crowd. We gave up after only two days.

From left: Loh Choon Sen, Tai Lip Tee, Mrs Tai, Mrs Loh, Judy

Three things you must take with you when you visit the Expo:
1. Umbrella - foldable one preferred
2. Foldable stool - to sit while you wait in queue
3. Empty bottle to collect drinking water provided FOC inside the Expo ground. No liquids allowed to be taken into the Expo premises.
4. You may want to bring a hat or cap, sun screen lotion, dry food or fresh fruit. Expo F&B prices are more than double the prices outside the Expo.
"Nasi lemak" at the Malaysia pavillion costs RMB50. That's RM24!


The sea of people consisted of over 95% yellow faces (Chinese, HK, Taiwan, Chinese Malaysians, Singaporeans), while Japanese, Indonesians, and Arabs made up the remaining 5%. White and brown faces were barely seen.


Is the financial crisis holding back the USA and Europeans?

If you are planning to visit the Expo, and need more travel advice and tips, send your queries to Seniorsaloud, and we shall forward them to TY Pok. 

A COLLEGE FOR SENIORS

If you have always wanted to go back to school to acquire new skills and knowledge, but don't fancy taking exams or being the oldest among your coursemates, Golden Age College is your answer. 

Officially opened by Mr Lim Boon Heng, Singapore's Minister in the Prime Minister's Office on May 8, 2010, and funded by Council for Third Age, the college offers a 5-month Active Agers Certificate course covering Family Life Education, Intergenerational Programme Development, Latest IT Skills and Technologies, as well as Cultivating Healthy Hobbies.

The college's mission statement: "We believe that Golden Age College can equip seniors with meaningful knowledge and skills to enable them to play a more active role in their family and community."

The course is held every Friday evening at Bukit Batok, Singapore. For more details, visit the college website. Course commences: 18 June 2010.

SAVING FOR THE RETIREMENT YEARS

A pertinent question that we should all ask ourselves and our spouse.

My camera died on me yesterday while I was recording the seminar on "Retire Happy" jointly organized by Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Financial Planning Association of Malaysia (FPAM). Since EPF is on a nationwide roadshow to raise public awareness of retirement planning, I shall share the first talk on "EPF - Towards a Sustainable Retirement" given by Mr Vijaya Kumar, EPF General Manager, Strategic Operations Department. Here are some of his slides.

Did you know our EPF is the 18th largest pension fund in the world and also the world's oldest? It was established in Oct 1951. Our retirement age of 55 for the private sector is among the lowest. For civil servants, it has been raised to 58.

Some interesting numbers here. 

The majority of contributors prefer to withdraw their savings in one lump sum upon reaching retirement at 55. Unfortunately, as the percentages above show, they will have depleted their savings when they reach 65. How will they live for the next 10-20 years?


 

Many pension funds in developed countries like France, Germany and the US, are facing problems in meeting retirement payments. According to the figures above, EPF is in robust financial health.

Some of the recent changes introduced by EPF.

12 tips to ensure you have enough saved for your retirement. The earlier you start, the larger your nest egg when you retire. Good advice for our adult children. Perhaps a little late for seniors who have yet to plan for their retirement.

To retire comfortably till 75+, we must have at least RM1m in savings. Also allow for inflation of 5%.

A FIRST-HAND LOOK AT ORGANIC FARMING

Early Saturday morning a small group of us, all seniors, headed some 40 minutes north of the city to DQ Farm. Later I realized that day was also World Environment Day. What a coincidence, and how appropriate that we should spend the day out in the countryside getting acquainted with organic food production and learning about the huge impact conventional farming has on our environment.

Our host and farm owner, HS Wong, is a walking encyclopedia on all things pertaining to sustainable farming. I am awed by this man's unstoppable energy and passion to educate farmers and lay folks like us about sustainable farming and living.

Here's a pictorial account of our visit:

Sitting down to a welcome tea brewed with mulberry leaves. Notice the table cloth of banana leaves.

First, a brief introduction on the operational model of a sustainable micro-farm. Click on image to enlarge.

DQ Farm's model of how to maximize yield per acre.

Anti-bacterial spraying before we begin our walkabout.

Learning about composting. All waste is recycled, including chicken carcasses. The end result is quality humus that is used as fertilizer.

The farm rears fish too. DQ farm produces its own fish feed.

Grass-fed, hormone-free chickens. DQ farm takes pride in rearing chickens that have a high DHA of Omega 6: Omega 3 ratio of 4:1.

Tonic for the chickens. We had a sip of it too. A potent concoction!

I swear the dragon fruits and the mangoes on the farm are the sweetest and juiciest I've ever eaten. DQ farm is the first to grow organic watermelon. Pity they were all harvested when we were there.

Bananas are a good example of permaculture. They practically thrive on their own. On DQ farm they grow in clumps together with ginger.

Admiring a pumpkin bed. Vegetables like sawi, pegaga and banyam flourish in the chemical-free, nutrient-rich soil.

Some plants (top) are used as natural insect repellants. Vines like the 'patah wali' above have anti-inflammatory properties. I licked a cutting. It left a bitter taste on my tongue that stayed for hours.

Whether it's ants, crickets or worms, all creatures big and small have a role to play in the farm's rich biodiversity. The ants, for example, get rid of termites that attack the fruit trees.

Over 50 species of birds have been spotted on the farm. They build nests anywhere and everywhere undisturbed. Kim, an avid bird-watcher, alerted me to this nest barely a foot away from us.

Great care is taken to ensure that water for the vegetables is free from contamination. Pipes bring the rainwater collected directly to the vegetables.

The farm's initial experiment with Italian bees failed, so now local bees are kept for their honey.

Time for a break. Enjoying the farm fruits all freshly plucked. The 'straw' for the coconut drink is the stem of some plant whose name escapes me now.

Some of the 150 goats. They feed on organically-grown grass. They are moved to fresh fields every week to reduce the risk of diseases and intestinal problems.

Wild jackfruit (top) and durian trees. None ripe enough for us to sample!

Getting ready to leave with our goody bags of fresh vegetables and bananas. Note: the bags are biodegradable, and made partly of tapioca

Wong insisted on hosting lunch for us at Bentong. Here we are, waiting to tuck into the first two dishes.

Dinner at home last night included a plate of vegetables from DQ farm. This is one plate of veggies whose story I am personally familiar with!

At the end of the 5-hour outing, everyone in our group agreed that it was truly time well-spent. We learned so much that we could immediately apply on our next shopping trip to the supermarket.

Organic food may not necessarily be nutritionally superior to non-organic food. But conventional farming with its heavy reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides is detrimental to our environment. Ultimately it is up to us to decide whether to opt for non-organic food or the pricier organic alternative.

My choice? Well, I don't have a garden to grow my own organic food. So the next best thing ? I've just signed up with an organic food retail chain that offers good discounts on purchases. That should be an acceptable compromise.

One of HS Wong's favourite quotes and probably DQ's raison d'etre.

OUT OF THE MOUTH OF ABE

If only our leaders and policy-makers paid heed to these words of wisdom...

GOLDEN YEARS LOSING THE GLITTER

For many pensioners and retirees, the golden years have certainly lost much of the glitter. The latest buzz about the government's proposal to remove the subsidies for petrol, sugar, cooking oil and other essentials adds more gloom to the already bleak retirement picture.

Even if you don't drive, you still end up spending more on public transport as taxi and bus fares are bound to increase. And even if you are diabetic, you will still end up paying more for food as food retailers and outlets will use the removal of sugar subsidy as an excuse to raise prices.

Whichever way we look at it, our retirement savings are depleting at an alarming rate. Just total up your monthly expenses and see the amount rise steadily each month.

If the people have to make sacrifices, it is only right and just that the government should also tighten its belt. No more wasteful spending of public funds, especially on projects that do not benefit the rakyat, like spending RM20m to build the Malaysian Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo.

The RM20m Malaysia Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo 2010

Or paying USD1 billion for the purchase of two Scorpene class submarines and the lease of a retired French Navy Agosta class boat. And the joke is, the first submarine that was delivered failed to submerge! Money gone down the drain? It would be interesting to know the full amount spent on boosting the defense system under Najib's term as Defense Minister. Are we facing a serious threat of external attack?

We should not only watch how we spend our retirement savings, but also keep our eyes open for any misuse and abuse of public funds. That's our money too, and we have a right to see it spent prudently and for the benefit of the people.

Footnote: Last year alone, the government spent a staggering RM78b on subsidies. This works out to about RM12,900 per household. Government debt stood at RM362b last year or 54% of the GDP. (Figures from the Star.)