Yushui Village in Lijiang, Yunnan, with snow mountain backdrop and cascading waterfalls.
3/19/2008
A bad PR exercise
The Home Team has received a lot of bashing recently and Kan Seng may think it is time to do some morale boosting to keep their spirit high. There was a long news clip last night on Kan Seng's speech to the Home Team and another front page news in the msm.
Many may have mocked the Home Team in cyberspace and it is natural for the Home Team to feel that the comments were unfair and unhelpful. But to think that it is time to air their grouses now may be a bit too premature if only they know what were said and not printed anywhere.
The mistake was not only unacceptable, but approaches incredulity. It is hard for the people to accept it as a complacency or a lapse. It is also natural for the people to want to air their disappointment. No doubt some of the ridiculing may have gone overboard, but it is best that the Home Team accept the blame, continue with their good work and move on.
The last thing the Home Team should do now is to take on public opinion or even to tell the public how sophisticated they are, how able are they to find a few hundred empty houses etc etc. What for when Mas Selamat is still on the loose?
The morale boosting pep talk is best done in house as many officers have sweated and sacrificed their time that they could well spend with their loved ones. I think the majority of the people still have high regards for the Home Team and they should take the criticisms and praises as and when deserved.
It is a 'hard ask', and may even be 'wishful thinking' for a govt to take responsibility.
ReplyDeleteIn the private sector if you cower just because the 'feedback' was a little harsh, or you got your feelings hurt because someone called you 'nasty names', then you had better get out of private enterprise. When the shouting starts and the 'feedback' becomes hot, you take responsibility and find out what it wrong, and FIX IT IMMEDIATELY, without excuses.
This is why the motherfucking government can NEVER BE like the PRIVATE SECTOR. The cry-babies in the govt (who can't survive any other way) will ALWAYS (you can bet on it) look for someone else, or something else to blame when things go wrong.
When it comes to raising their own salaries, same deal - they will cite some reason, and then proceed to baffle the citizens with bullshit, and then before you can even counter, they've got their pay rise. How fast is that?
Ibn the private sector when things go wrong, people move fast or money (or opportunity) is lost.
In govt, things move alot more slowly when things go wrong. Why not? They've already taken our money, and whether or not the problem is 'solved', they'll still get paid.
Fuck the govt. Fuck those hopeless motherfucker.
The funny thing is that the entire Home Team (HT) is pulled down by one highly secretive department (ISD) that most (95%?) of the HT have no contact with at all.
ReplyDeleteThis small department is tasked to guard a few ISA detainees and gather internal "intelligence". On a side note here, what kind of intelligence do they gather from "political detainees"?
Only recently that ISD becomes active on terrorism after surveillance video tapes of Singapore were discovered in Afghanistan, courtesy of her ally - USA. So before this, were they busy on "political" or terrorism activities?
Another thing is that this small highly sensitive department can investigate anyone if it wishes to, and that includes any member of the Home Team.
They could have a network of spies gathering intelligence among the population of Singapore. Yes, it could be the next guy sitting next to you, hearing you cursing at the old man. Imagine that some people are living double lives. The father of two children could be an ISD spy and you drink coffee with him over the weekends.
Read about ISD here.
Read about the ISA. The President (section 8) is involved too and another thing is that under ISA, ISD officers have the power to seize rice and other food (section 57).
hi utano,
ReplyDeletewelcome to the blog. and thanks for the interesting piece of information.
isd is just a tool, an organisation. use it wisely to benefit the country, we will be very grateful for it. use it unwisely, we are in trouble.
the evil of a country is man. a good and honourable man in charge, everything will be good and honourable. and evil man in charge, everything will become evil.
Only recently that ISD becomes active on terrorism after surveillance video tapes of Singapore were discovered in Afghanistan, courtesy of her ally - USA. So before this, were they busy on
ReplyDelete"political" or terrorism activities?
utano has made an interesting observation, before the US discovered those surveillance tapes in Afghanistan, we were totally unaware of the plot, according to the news. they missed the impt going-ons, one then wonder WHAT exactly were our intelligence focussing on?
In order to gather real in-depth intelligence in any subversive organisation, you have to be right inside this organisation.
ReplyDeleteLooking at the JI cell in Singapore, now think about ISD's ability of recruiting the right type of spies to infiltrate the JI cell. They may not have the opportunity to know about the JI cell when their intelligence officers or spies stand out like a sore thumb in their crowd.
Clue: the army and the air force.
You can go from here.
frankly i have no doubt they can do a good job, if they are focussed on the right things.
ReplyDeleteThey could have a network of spies gathering intelligence among the population of Singapore. Yes, it could be the next guy sitting next to you, hearing you cursing at the old man. Imagine that some people are living double lives.
ReplyDeleteThe Grassroots Committees (RC/CCC/CCMC) are the eyes and ears of the PAP (not the Govt). Ask anyone who went for NAYTI (now NACLI) courses in the early 60s and 70s. The legend continues.
AS Donald Rumsfeld puts it:
ReplyDelete".... We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."
Grassroots groups - known unknowns.
ISD spies - unknown unknowns.
Mr Rumsfeld has a way with presentation of information. I believe that Mr Wong could learn much from him.
just on pay as a measure of talent, rumsfeld needs to learn from kan seng.
ReplyDelete