I thought that Mr Ooi's cheekiness in sending a cheque for one-cent was a cool act. Now I am not so sure... IRAS, in its reply (ST Forum, 27 April) said:
"The property tax bill sent to Mr Ooi was to request payment of $36.01, comprising two components of which $36 was a late payment penalty.
"The one-cent component arose from an objection lodged by Mr Ooi last November against the annual value of his property which was revised in March last year.
"This triggered the system to recompute his property tax, resulting in the additional one cent due to rounding of to the nearest cent.
"A very small number of property tax payers are similarly affected. We will tweak the system to prevent such cases in future.
"Following Mr Ooi's appeal, we agreed to waive the penalty of $36 and informed him it was not necessary to pay the one cent.
"Despite this advice, he proceeded to send us the cheque."
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I thought IRAS' reply was refreshngly bereft of bureaucratic spin, and it graciously chose not to score points, even though it had acceded to Mr Ooi's waiver request and also informed him that he need not pay that one cent. So, Mr Ooi, I take back my praise of you: No, you do not rock!
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Actually, in most countries, the taxman is not a figure of affection. But, let's admit it, IRAS has made e-filing of tax returns a breeze these days. Let's give praise where it is due. And I wonder if we are the only country where the taxman even holds a lucky draw if you pay your tax by GIRO!...
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Another interesting letter in todays' ST Forum is Dr David Tan Hsien Yung's call for an "honour system" of calling in sick when one just needs a day of rest to recover from a mild ailment at home ("Replace MCs with honour system").
insing.com followed up on this issue with its own story:
http://news.insing.com/tabloid/-instead-of-getting-an-mc-can-workers-be-relied-to-honour-an-honour-system/id-da443f00
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TODAY (27 April) too has interesting letters. This one, under the paper's "I Say" column, is poignant and reminds me of my own late eldest sister, How Lui, who was just a young girl with even younger siblings when the Japanese invaded Singapore:
Family is strength
by Santi Yeo Her Chuen
I was filled with a sense of awe and empowerment from my family tree when I attended the wake of my First Aunt earlier this month.
She was a World War II survivor. My father told me that when the Japanese war planes were dropping bombs in Singapore, she would yell to him at the top of her voice to "kah mei zhao", which means "run quickly" in Hokkien.
Dad remembers vividly the kindness and aid of his elder sister during those dangerous and fearful childhood days.
She led a full life. She was adopted by my paternal grandparents to help look after their children.
Her name, Ah Kan, means that she will bring many good, auspicious things to the family.
She had seven children who started their own families and pooled their resources to start a business enterprise. She was free to live in any of their homes as and when she chose, and so her children shared the responsibility to look after her.
On the eve of Qing Ming, the 13th day of the third month of the lunar calendar, she had a heart attack. There were some 20 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren to send her off when she died.
Meeting my cousins during the wake was an eye-opener. I never met them after they grew up. Some are married and in their early 30s. They were tiny tots in my school days when I visited First Aunt at her own apartment during the Chinese New Year.
How time flies. They had no idea who I was and I did not know their names.
Mum says the earlier generation of Singaporeans do not measure their wealth by the 5Cs (cash, condominium, car, career and country club membership) but by the number of descendants at their wake. How times have changed.
First Aunt belonged to an era when there were too many mouths to feed and not too many jobs to go around. In Singapore today, there are jobs nobody wants to do and a dearth of babies.
First Aunt was illiterate, and she braved it all. Her children and grandchildren's success stories are also stories of a prosperous and abundant Singapore.
The Chinese have ancestral tablets at home and pay worship to their ancestors, who fended for their young during stormy times and taught them to do the same. The forefathers' stories are not to be forgotten.
The effect of my family tree was still with me after the funeral. Family is strength.
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Finally, this letter in TODAY, commenting on the article on the South China Sea issue (which I blogged about yesterday), is very well argued:
US, China in search of mutual trust
Letter from Jonathan Tan Ghee Tiong
I refer to the commentary on "China's testing the waters, nothing more" (April 26). The maritime stand-off in the South China Sea suggests that much needs to be done to build mutual trust between China and the rest of Asia.
While China has become the largest trading partner for virtually all major Asia- Pacific economies, the shared economic prosperity has not transformed into a compact of trust on both sides.
At the heart of this trust deficit is the fear of China's rising hard power and what it plans to do with this acquired power.
As the writer pointed out, China's claims to the disputed islands in the South China Sea can hardly be construed as expansionist and, which I would add, are borne out of strategic interests.
In spite of this, China must seek to reconcile the issue amicably with other claimant countries.
It is dangerous for China and the rest of Asia to become myopic with strategic calculations of the other's intent. Any brinkmanship in the South China Sea could resonate with incalculable consequences globally.
As a fillip for building mutual trust, regular strategic dialogues and cooperation in joint projects must form the backbone of regional relations. Better coordination and cooperation to support joint underwater exploration in the South China Sea could serve to build greater confidence.
If "mutual trust is the highest good in any partnership", to quote former United States National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, then it is also paramount that the US plays its part in reaching out to China to build this trust.
The US fear that China could consolidate countries into exclusionary blocs aligned with Chinese interests is overplayed. Most states in the world are electoral democracies. The Arab Spring has contributed to more Arab nations possibly joining the ranks.
In the Asia-Pacific, pragmatic politicians see the wisdom of US presence in the region. For these countries to form a deep strategic alliance with China seems a bit far-fetched.
Beijing University Professor Wang Jisi warned recently that the level of strategic distrust between the US and China has become "corrosive" and, if not corrected, the countries risk becoming "open antagonists".
The US should appreciate that global governance is a relatively new vocabulary in the Chinese discourse. It was only at the turn of this century that the policy and academic circles in China warmed up to the issue of global governance.
The US must learn to exercise a degree of strategic patience in dealing with an emerging superpower. On the other hand, the Chinese should understand that its aspirations for global recognition can be fulfilled only by being a responsible stakeholder in the international system.
While there may be no enduring friendships in global politics, a greater meeting of minds between the US and China would bode well for regional stability.
The writer works for a German foundation that co-organises high-level, roundtable discussions on developments in China with the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
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So, given the sound logic of the above letter, what was the headline writer thinking when penning this TODAY headline (for an unrelated news story)?
Did that person think there is a possibility, under certain circumstances, that China-bashing can be good?
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