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5/12/2014
Cherian George joining HK university
I just have to write about Cherian George. You know how difficult it is and how much resources are needed to produce a professor in this city? Do you know how much more difficult it is to produce a good professor that is worth his title? Cherian George is one of the rarity, an ex journalist who has earned his stripes and good enough to be ‘promoted to associate professor in 2009, the same year he won a teaching excellence award from the university (NTU)’. And he received his doctorate not from some funny university but from Stanford University. Stanford, my friend, is no funny university but among the best in the USA and in the world.
NTU did not seem to be flattered by his qualifications and his teaching excellence. Maybe it is a kind of policy to send our talents overseas and replace them with foreign talents from overseas to create the right kind of buzz and the right kind of vibrancy that local talents cannot offer. Maybe George will have a better chance if he takes up a foreign citizenship and return as a FT.
Cherian George is going to Hong Kong’s Baptist University’s School of Communication. I am wondering if this exchange is good for the grooming and nurturing of local talents. Or is it that instant trees are still the way to go, instant foreign talents are the best.
Best wishes to Cherian George. Hong Kong has gained a talent that we rejected. We should send more recruitment teams overseas to recruit Sinkie talents to come back home. Cherian, just wait, in a few years time there may be a Sinkie team going to Hong Kong to beg you to come back and tell you how good this city state is and how valuable you are and how much they missed you.
Kopi Level - Yellow
And so he goes from one Airconditioned Nation to another ;-)
ReplyDeleteHK will definitely benefit from his presence. HKers dun like Beijing trying to run their lives. Arse-kicking, freedom loving, money making Cantonese of HK love their constitutionally GUARANTEED autonomy and liberty under their SAR status of "one cuntry, two systems".
Can you criticise the govt of Singapore -- backing up your opinion with FACTS -- and expect a job?
Apparently not.
Thankfully Singapore still has Catherine Lim. She's in her 70's and she's still vivacious, and still eminently capable of taking on the govt if necessary.
Hahaha.......
ReplyDeleteNo great loss or shall I say one less of that man makes no difference.
Today, even if LKY, Lee Hsien Loong and a few Top Men retire together, there will no dent on Sin. Maybe there will be less sin in our land.
patriot
George will be happier working in HK. Twice a year he can come back to Singapore as a tourist. George now has all the freedom to write nasty stuff about the pappies.
ReplyDelete"Hahaha.......
ReplyDeleteNo great loss or shall I say one less of that man makes no difference."
It makes a lot of difference, my good man. This incident will make all the other academics shut their mouths and not rock the boat. This is the rule of fear. The government is sending a strong message to the other academics in the universities here: "Of course you can give your views but... if you love your job more, you don't want your rice bowl to break, you know what to do, eh?" Funny kind of patriot you are.
Me a patriot to no regime, funny or not is no issue to me.
DeleteAs for the Ex-journalist, he could be a patriot different from me.
patriot.
George;
ReplyDeletePlease come back as an Opposition politician. We will vote for you.
I wonder what has happened to civil servants who voted the opposition party in the past? Lost their jobs? Or denied any promotion opportunity?
ReplyDeleteI guess if the government shuts down this blog and gag RB from ever blogging, it makes no difference to the parrot, sorry the patriot. You still don't get it, do you? The issue is not about the ex-journalist. It is about freedom of speech.
ReplyDeleteI like to state a fact here based on commonsense. And that is; THERE MUST BE PLENTY OF CIVIL SERVANTS OF VARIOUS LEVELS AND APPOINTMENTS IN ALL OPPOSITION WARDS.
ReplyDeleteWILL THEY BE TERMINATED OR VICTIMIZED BECAUSE THE CONSTITUENCIES VOTED FOR ALTERNATIVE POLITICAL PARTIES?
The Answer id NO. Firstly your vote was(is) secret and secondly, it is dangerous for any regime to alienate any voter further. It is not even wise to be seen or found to doing it as more will be disenchanted.
Civil Servants who voted the Regime out of fear are afraid of their own shadows.
patriot
@1159;
ReplyDeleteToo right. In fact, Cherian George crafted a phrase; the calibrated use of coercion (search yourself with google) in an article in the Straight Times which of course upset the govt. no end. Basically, he correctly identified the careful application of "push-pull" -- a bit of 'light touch' and then a WHACK to keep would-be dissents in line. This was around the time of the 'white elephants' affair -- an innocuous piece of creative civil disobedience which which prompted a disproportionate response from an irate government.
The Singapore Government is like a spolit child. You try to scold the kid and draw attention to the error of his ways, and the kid loses his shit -- breaking toys, destroying furniture and throwing his food all over the place.
Any good manager will tell you: "Listen to what your critics have to say. Listen ACTIVELY and OBJECTIVELY". Criticism can be a great 'signal' to highlight that something IMPORTANT needs to be addressed. But oh no, the govt becomes childishly defensive as if they are some sort of perfect super-human incapable of committing error.
Even the guy with a minimal amount of scientific understanding will tell you that such a proposition is BULLSHIT of the highest order.
Patriot, I don't think the issue here is whether the votes are secret - they are. The issue is whether academicians or ordinary citizens should be punished for voicing alternative views or views not to the liking of the ruling party.
ReplyDeleteDoes not surpirse me since we are undeniably going from first world to third after all!
ReplyDeleteThank You The.
ReplyDeletePoint noted though I will stay with my comments above.
On hindsight, me should have avoided discussions on Cherian George, James Gomez and maybe a few others.
Will not go further from here.
patriot
He is not the first and will not be the last that the rulers prosecuted/bullied/oppressed. We do not live in a just and fair world. Must learn how to watch the tide and steer the ship. Going against the tide will amount to shipwreck. Since he is from a top university, he should be able to understand such simple logic. Freedom of speech is a political tool mainly used by western rulers to attack poorer countries to get to their resources. Freedom is a myth.
ReplyDeleteThe government allows websites like Temasek Review Emeritus and friends to carry on their complaining, exposes, etc. But they will not allow academics to have freedom of speech. It's because the government is aware that the people know that academics are intelligent people who won't speak without thinking first, without studying the evidence. Bad governments are afraid of smart people. They are not afraid of the rabble rousers. I remember the first Catherine Lim incident. Woody Goh at that time was trying to be cool and relax (orchard road street parties) and when Dr Lim popped her head up, Woody took out a great big mallet and hit her down hard, LKY style.
ReplyDeleteBad governments are afraid of smart people is an understatement, especially in red dot.
ReplyDeleteBad governments need to destoy all opposition to rise up. By fair means the will falter. Use opponents to consolidate power first, and then find reasons to get rid of them, by hook or by crook. As Devan Nair said, give a dog a bad name and then hang it.
Lim Chin Siong, Francis Seow, Tang Liang Hong to name a few, have been destroyed for what reason? They are smart and are a threat to some people who believe in the argument that in order to rise, you have to put others more capable than you down.
In the end, the conqueror still cannot get past the final hurdle - death itself. Ironic, isn't it?
The best defence for freedom of speech is to USE IT EVERYDAY.
ReplyDeleteIndranee Rajah said:
>> “If you have a viewpoint that you wish to express, there are ways and means of expressing it. You do not have to damage property to do that.” <<
Someone must ask her that BURNING QUESTION: Will the govt secure the right to free speech and freedom of peaceful assembly (without permit. If you have permit then it is not "free") -- as DETAILED in The Constitution which ALL TOP OFFICE BEARERS of the state are expected to abide by, uphold and defend? (sorry, I can't find the exact wording)
and the follow up question, "What are Ms Rajah's views on free speech? Does she herself believe that is A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT?
It'll be interesting to listen to her responses.
Spore does have free speech and this blog is one of them.
ReplyDeleteAnd we can all have our fun, vent our spleen, make a lot of noise and relax.
But those in academic and industry do not have this luxury. They have to be constructive...can give advice but not publish.
Publish and be condemned if you are someone who is well-known.
For the rest of us, we can enjoy this satay type of blogging, roast a bit here and here...it is good for the Govt as an unofficial feedback but 99% of the population does not read TRE or My Spore News anyway.
Hahaha
ReplyDeleteMaybe 99% do not read TRE or My Singapore News, but the effect of what is written on such blogs is much more widespread than you give them credit for.
Those who are less educated do not surf the net without a doubt, but I am sure they also do not read the MSM either or bother with the news on TV. Rather their information comes from their children, neighbours or friends at the void decks, coffee shops or hawker centres.
I am sure the news at such places are not all favourble towards the PAP. If I may say so, PAP supporters are largely made up of middle income people who have much to gain by keeping the PAP in power. So, the lower income folks (pardon me if I am assuming wrongly) at coffee shops and hawker centres are excellent conduit for transmitting unsanitised news which will travel very fast.
So, the effect of what only a few read on TRE could turn into a widespread broadcast to many, many others, even without the aid of the MSM.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why you guys like to complicate matters with all sorts of unproven and largely UNTESTABLE assertions.
ReplyDeleteThe vast majority of the population get their "news" from SPH's vast media empire (plenty of data and sales figures to back that up). Why do you think the govt keeps such tight reins on the commercial media? For control lah. Shanmugam has made NO apologies for this. He's actually "justified" this -- as a matter of "national interest" -- to the Americans in a visit to Washington.
Remember: Ockam's Razor.