About Sovereignty

Brunei and Singapore celebrated 40 years of currency interchangeability by releasing new $20 notes with a same back - scenes from Singapore and Brunei, but with different fronts - Brunei $20 with their sultan, and Singapore $20 with Yusof Ishak.

At the press conference, Brunei described the notes as signifying that the countries were two sovereign nations on one side, and the close cooperation we had on the other. One comment left on the ST online was that this currency interchangeability meant that Singapore was vulnerable to the manipulations of Brunei. For example. North Korea is believed to be counterfeiting US currency. Our arrangement with Brunei would open us to the same risks.

However, that is only a possibility and not a probability, and the comment was alarmist at best and I don't think anyone took it seriously. However, what is interesting was mention of sovereignty by the Brunei leader, and the confidence that this 40 year cooperation should continue. Actually, if either country should be worried, it should be Brunei, as they have the natural resources to back their currency, but Singapore's backing is based on years of building up the reserves. In the early years, they probably had a greater risk that Singapore would just print money, and flood Brunei with "cheap" Singapore dollars. Even now, Brunei with less than 1/10th of Singapore's population probably have more reason to feel threatened but does not.

Both countries deal with each other with mutual respect as sovereign nations. There is no question that this arrangement would threaten the sovereignty of either.

In contrast, Malaysia feels their sovereignty is threatened all the time, whether it's the water issue, the causeway/bridge issue, our land reclamation programme, or our investment (or consultation) in the Iskandar Development Region.

Indonesia also feels necessary to raise the issue of their sovereignty over the Defence Cooperation Agreement which was tied to the Extradition pact. Now they want to amend the DCA because they feel their sovereignty is being threatened.

Thailand also felt necessary to raise the "Singapore boogeyman" with their concerns over the security of their mobile phone communications because of the Singapore ownership of one of their telco. The coup general has since admitted that it was a strategy to rally support of the the Thai people.

I thought it interesting that Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, all vastly bigger countries with larger population than Singapore would worry that a small island state of 4m people could threatened their sovereignty, while Brunei, one of the smaller countries in the world (tho still larger than Singapore) with a population less than 1/10th of Singapore is not.

Of course, it's arguable whether a currency interchangeability agreement is more threatening than any of the other issues. Probably not.

M'sian PM weds again
ST 9 June

Congrats Pak Lah!















The Judgement of Paris.
ST online 9 June
Judge overrules Sheriff electronic monitoring and orders Paris back behind bars. It's a simple life.

Wild Ride in a Wheelchair
ST, 9 June 2007

And here we were wasting our time getting bus fitted with wheelchair ramps! :-)

In the News

Pirate Haven Singapore (ST Mar 28). The 3rd part of the Pirates of the Carribean movie has a scarred Chow Yun Fat in a Singapore from an indeterminate past. It was a more interesting Singapore with stilt houses, back alleys, and I gather, an overall seedy atmosphere that makes it perfect as a pirates stomping ground. Most Singaporeans took the depiction of Singapore in their stride, and Chow's depiction of a Chinese pirate as a role.

Chinese (as in from China) response however, has been more... emotional, calling the role demeaning and insulting.

Excuse me. He's playing a pirate. So even Chinese pirates must be shown to be virtuous, upright, and honourable men in touch with the grand and glorious history of the greatest civilisation in the world?

Me thinks, perhaps the protesters doth protests too much.

Fearful Mahathir (29 & 30 Mar, ST). Over the last two days, the press have been reporting Mahathir's speech on Thursday where he criticised the plans for the Iskandar Development Region in South Johor. The plans include opening up investment to foreigners and lifting ownership quotas for businesses in the region. Dr M claimed that this would lead once again the the Malays being enslaved by foreigners.

"Enslaved Again?" Didn't know they were ever enslaved. British colonial rule? Oh that enslavement. Right. A bit of hyperbole there. Good for public speeches.

Well, Dr M, there was that New Economic Plan that was in place since 1969 to level up Malay's ability and share of the economic pie. That was 35 years ago, and 22 of those years were under under your leadership. And you still say that you believe in Malay ability, but that as of now they are not able to compete internationally? Perhaps the problem is that protection, means never needing to compete on equal footing?

If you want to improve your tennis game, you got to play with better players. Perhaps Mr Abdullah understands that a little better than you.

F1
So while we have been dreaming about Ferraris zipping past the Esplanade, M'sia has been worried about what it would mean for their F1 spot. Okay, it was only their Youth and Sports Minister who said she was worried. She even said that Singapore shouldn't compete with Malaysia. One Malaysian said it was strange that Malaysia would feel this way given the previous challenge from the Johor ports to try to wrest business away from Singapore ports. Oh wait, the Youth and Sports Minister is only 44. That means for most of her formative years, she has experienced the New Economic Policy that has protect Malays from competition. Too bad it doesn't extend to Singapore, eh?

Not to worry, Malaysia has come back with an answer. They can also host a night race to boost TV audiences! Nice one Sepang! :-) (Hmmm "see pang" in Hokkien means square right?)

Bullet Train To Singapore.
As predicted, Singapore went, "Huh?". But it was the Malaysia Minister who shot down the story. (Mar 28) New Straits Times, your bad.

Here's the news...

Singapore, Malaysia approves bullet train. (26 Mar) The New Straits Times citing unnamed sources from a Malaysian conglomerate said that the governments of Malaysia and Singapore had approved plans for a bullet train from KL to Singapore.

Based on past experience, the Singapore Foreign Affairs Ministry should be issuing a "huh?" the next day. If it is confirmed by the Singapore Government, I'll... stop blogging for a few days.

DVD Pirates put bounty on dogs. (23 Mar) Malaysian movie and music pirates put a contract out on the sniffer dogs that busted their million dollar cache of DVDs. They are now trying to confuse the dogs by spraying chemicals on their DVDs. So next time you go to your friend's place and he plays you the latest Ghostrider DVD, take a sniff. If it smells like curry, it could be fake.

At least the DVD pirates aren't thinking too smart. One suggestion for drug dealers is to pretend to be blind, get a guide dog and hide the drugs up the dog's anus. Then when he passes the narco dogs, it is only natural for dogs to sniff each others arse and the narco officers will never get suspicious.

So now you know why there are so few guide dogs in Singapore.

Probably won't work with DVDs tho... (ouch!)

Granite quarry blast could be deliberate - Indon police. (26 Mar) Gee. You think? It's all well and good bashing Singapore for the sake of (Indonesian) Nation building. But when people start believing your stupid rhetoric and start engaging in terrorist activities, then the demogogic politicians are no better than radical fundamental Islamists militants...

Minister's Pay. What can I say that has not been said? $2.2m a year? That's about $183k a month. Or $6,100 per day. Or $254 per hour. If he sleeps 8 hours each night, that's $2000 gone! If we don't count sleeping hours, that's still $382 per hour for every waking hour. If he's constipated and spent 30 minutes in the loo, that's $190 down the toilet!