Collin Ng's Blog

Note from me: Dr M finally agreed that the water agreement favours Malaysia when pointed out by someone but this latest posting of his gave another different take to bolster his argument.  This water agreement will see no end for as long as he lives, sigh. Quote     1. I would like to thank the visitor to my blog who pointed out that the terms of the agreement to supply raw water and receive treated water to and from Singapore actually favours Malaysia.  I agree.  But I am talking about revision in the price of raw water since 3 sen per 1000 gallons is ridiculous today.  It would be even more ridiculous in the decades to come.  Hence, the need to renegotiate.  According to the present agreement, if Malaysia sells 1,000,000 of raw water it should be paid 3,000 sen or RM30.00. 2.  Malaysia can buy 12% of the raw water treated by Singapore at 50 sen per 1000 gallons i.e for 120,000 gallons, Malaysia has to pay RM6...

Author's note:  This is taken from the blog post of Dr M ( http://chedet.cc/?p=1020 ).  Despite having retired some one decade ago, he has never failed to continue 'attacking' SIN on the water issue, the railway and the 'crooked' bridge, among others which were never resolved during his rule.  Had he continued premiership to present, I think relationship with our neighbour would be very rocky...no thanks to the 4th PM. To know more of his most recent thought, read on...        Quote Written by Dr M An edited version of this article appeared in the New Straits Times of July 12, 2013 1. The secretary to the Ministry of Trade and Industry avers that trade negations must be done in secret, I suppose by the officers concerned. There should apparently be no public debate or even within the Government. 2. I don’t think it is such a good practice, if indeed that is the practice. Let us see the record of trade and other agreements negotiated ...

In preparing my team members for the coming Mt Kinabalu climb on 2 Aug this year, I planned a training hike at Gunung Pulai on 14 July, Sunday.  At first it was meant for the team of 14 of us but not all can make it, I therefore posted on meet up site inviting other keen members to join us too.  Finally, I had 25 confirmed but two withdrew at last hour due to sickness.  Some of my regular outdoor kakis did join me too and they were Dora, CK, Long Chua, Catherine and Kevin Soh. Gunung Pulai stands at about 800 metres high is located in Pontian, Johor and it takes slightly more than an hour drive after clearing immigration on both sides.  The route from the base of the mountain to the furthest point is 5 km.  It is a popular exercise site for the locals too.  The plan was to trek up twice, and total distance covered is 20 km but some can choose to do one round instead.  There is no hard and fuss rule. We left Marsiling MRT Station at about 0730 ...

I have had few funny encounters when I was working as a passenger handling officer with KLM at the airport and after so many years, I still vividly remember this particular one. In the 80s right up to the 90s, video recorder which was first introduced to the consumer market by the Japanese I believe was the 'in-thing' then and one particular model stood up, the Panasonic brand.  The demand for Panasonic video recorders from the India market was phenomenal, every flight that was bounded for India sectors could see an Indian passenger checking in the video recorders and stretching their 20 kgs baggage allowance to the limit or beyond.  Fuelled by such insatiable demands in vast India market, enterprising traders wasted no time sending out the video recorders via the fastest means by tapping on the passenger baggage allowance instead of sending via cargo means.  Indian passengers were offered commission for carrying the video recorders on behalf of these traders.  T...

When I started working at Changi Airport after completing my NS stint, still 20 years of age then as an operations assistant and that year was 1982.  My job was in the passenger handling area; counter check-in, processing of passenger documents, departure & arrival duty, among others.  I was a greenhorn and like any greenhorn, everything was a learning process and I was always eager to learn. One evening, I was tasked by my supervisor to take over the duty of the full time attendant at our CIP lounge who had to leave early for one hour to attend to personal urgent matter and then called it a day.  The last flight at Changi Airport departed at 0100 hrs to Dhahran in Saudi Arabia by China Airlines then.  Our lounge that served first and business class passengers was located at quite a deep end within the airport restricted zone and during that late hour, the place was very quiet as other airline lounges had already closed for the day. I remember that particula...