ST Asian of the Year Award – I am very disappointed

This Award is getting quite mysterious. I read that Thein Sein also received the Award, or did he not? I quote Kishore in Straits Times online 8 Dec, "Foreign Policy magazine has named Thein Sein No.1 in its list of Top 100 Global Thinkers for 2012. The International Crisis Group will present Thein Sein with its top honour, the In Pursuit of Peace Award. Thein Sein truly deserves all these awards, especially the Asian of the Year Award by The Straits Times. There could not be a more deserving recipient." Barry Desker also commented on Thein Sein being given the Award

And on the 7 Dec the Sunday Times reported that Modi of India was the Asian of the Year. Now how many people received this Award, or who actually received this Award? With so many congratulatory messages and a repeat in the Today paper on 8 Dec. I believe it is Modi who was the recipient. And I am still very disappointed, not because Modi was given the Award. The citations on Modi and how deserving he was and all his achievements pale in comparison with someone I know who have outshone Modi in everything.

Modi greatest achievement, I am still puzzled why they called it achievements, was to meet some of the world leaders. The person I have in mind have met the same world leaders many times and have probably met all the leaders in the whole world. If this is the criteria of a great man, the person I have in mind is hundreds of times greater. He has met hundreds of leaders many times over.

And while Modi is planning to build more toilets, my candidate is building smart cities. See the difference? And not only that he is building smart cities in his own country, he is offering to build smart cities for Modi. And his achievements are so numerous that you can fill a library with his works. Just to name a few great structures under his watch, the most expensive undersea highways in the world, the most expensive artificial garden, two famous and most profitable casinos. And there is a Jewel coming up in Changi that is probably one of the new wonders in Asia.

But these are nothing when you consider the millions of jobs created for the jobless around the world in Singapore. Hundreds of thousands of 3^rd world professionals have benefited from his policy to hire foreign talents in the City. The happier ones were given citizenship to this great modern city. And of course the citizens also greatly benefited from the contributions of the foreign talent policies. Many became millionaires and multi millionaires. And over the years, a few tens of thousands of university scholarships worth hundreds of millions, just my guesstimates, were given to 3^rd world students to study in Singapore. MOM and MOE would be able to provide the data as concrete proof of the achievements, not just someone shouting in the hills but got nothing to show.

What did Modi really do in his 6 months on the job compared to what Lee Hsien Loong has done and the hundreds of thousands of workers and students who have benefited from his enlightened policies, and the filtering down effect on lucky Singaporeans?

Now my big unhappy question is why did the Straits Times overlook the enormous contributions of Hsien Loong to Singaporeans and 3^rd world citizens? What are the criteria that made Modi more deserving than Hsien Loong? These were not mentioned in the Straits Times. Maybe the paper can be more transparent and publish the criteria for the Award for Asian of the Year. It did not even tell the readers who are the eminent selection committee members that decided on the deserving recipient.

I really not happy that Hsien Loong was overlooked for this Award. His achievements could even put him on the list for Nobel Peace Prize for helping the under privileged lots of 3^rd world citizens and making many millionaires as a result.

The Award would have come in so useful in the General Election if given to Hsien Loong. Maybe still in time if the GE is held in 2016/7. Straits Times still got time to make amends to give the Award to the most deserving PM of Asia in 2015 or 2016.

Kopi Level - Blue, thank you.