12/28/2019

MOE 'long standing practice' must be good, sacred, cannot anyhow change

When this issues was first surfaced by Gilbert Goh, MOE held on to its “long standing practice” reasoning. To any layman, such an action by MOE was unkind and indefensible with no sense of empathy for the poor PSLE girl whose original result slip was withheld because her parents owed a fee of $156.

Why didn’t Minister Ong Ye Kung immediately step in to save his ministry the embarrassment?
Instead, MOE issued a strong statement later, saying that “MOE’s consideration stems from the underlying principle that notwithstanding the fact that the cost of education is almost entirely publicly funded, we should still play our part in paying a small fee, and it is not right to ignore that obligation, however small it is.”

 Now that Minister Ong is going to review this issue, can we conclude that the “long standing practice” is wrong in principle in the first place?

Similarly, when Minister defended the granting of $238 million for scholarships and tuition grants to foreign students, I have argued that such decade-old practice of providing taxpayers’ money to educate foreign students is wrong in principle and should be terminated immediately. It seems clear that he didn’t agree when he ordered the issue of a POFMA Correction Directive to Lim Tean to correct his posting to reflect that MOE is spending more than the $167m for grants and bursaries to Singapore students....

Kok Ming Cheang

The above article of Kok Ming Cheang posted in TRE takes the position that things that are not right or good must be changed. And the outdated victimising of 12 year olds is now being exposed and aired very negatively and no one I know so far has anything good to say about it. But from the officialdom, the first reaction was not to do the thinking but to defend fiercely this policy like any unthinking civil servant would do. How can they accept the criticism in the first place? All govt policies are carefully thought out by the most brilliant civil servants and must be good, especially when it has been in practice for decades. So defend they did and got to look more silly and evil by the days.

Ong Ye Kung must have many earfuls and finds it unbearable and unreasonable under any circumstances to explain this away.  So decades old policies can be bad and should be reviewed and then scrapped. Sorry for the unthinking civil servants that stood up to defend the undefendable and now would have to swallow their arrogance and non thinking mindset, defend first at all cost.

Actually I have a different take. Decades long policies, long standing practices, must be good, cannot be bad and must be defended or else look silly.  The punishment of a 12 year old child was not meant to be. It was meant to punish the parents. The little glitch is that this is not explain to the little child who, if he/she has a little intellect and a bit sensitive, would have felt it quite badly.

It is so easy to remedy this. Get all the school principals to explain this in the morning assembly, tell the children, affected or not affected, that this policy is only to punish the irresponsible parents, not the innocent children of the irresponsible parents. And also produce more media material for the press, TV and social media that this is the real reason. No one should look unkindly at the affected children of irresponsible parents. See QED. And the long standing policy can stay. No fake news.

The same applies to the annual $238m tuition fees and grants for foreigners. This is also decades long standing policy and must be good. To stop this generosity would be a slap on the face of silly civil servants that approved this policy and also an admission that so many billions of public money have been wrongly spent. This case has better merits to defend like mad, and quoting that it is decades long policy would make good sense in every sense.

In conclusion, good policies that have been implemented for decades must be kept, die die must not change. If not, some people will look very silly for the unkind policy to 12 years old, and in the case of using OPM to give to foreigners would, yes, look damn stupid and irresponsible.

So, what do you think? Civil servants always make good policies and such policies should be defended at all cost if they are long standing, or, civil servants can be very silly and stupid and unkind in making stupid policies?

PS. Just think of all the good long standing policies that would have to be scrapped, eg high HDB prices, high water prices, high school and tuition fees equal good quality education, CPF money retention and shifting goal posts, more foreigners as new citizens, CECA already more than 10 years, must be damn bloody good, millionaire ministers, millionaire civil servants and CEOs of GLCs .....

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

《Why didn’t Minister Ong Ye Kung immediately step in to save his ministry the embarrassment?》
- redbean

Ong Ye Kung is an overpaid robot.
And robots don't deserve million dollar salaries.

Why are we paying this PAP robot a million dollar salary just to follow existing rules & regulations?

Anonymous said...

Bullying young children from poor families.
Bullying the elderly and poor rubbish cardboard collectors.

This is what we get when we vote PAP.

jjgg said...

MOE so stupid la... they POFMA the entire thing at the beginning..nip it in the bud..stop the public from discussing their stupidity..police report on a few people for criminal libel n all will be peaceful in bo chap Singapore.. instead they POFMA Lim Tean who essentially extracted figures from MOE. What is the point of the minister saying that billions were spent on Singaporean students when heck of a lot of money was spent on infrastructure etc.. the foreign students didn't use any of the facilities n infrastructures? Minister n MOE need to be reeducated la!!! How many Singapore students actually benefit from overseas scholarship..did we get $230 million worth? Was it $5 million or $50 million or $100million or more.
Education teaches us to consider n reason n think...methinks MOE can do with a little of what their mission is.

Anonymous said...

Let's c how Minionster Ong gonna review it's long standing practice of withholding certs for school fees come next yr. Perhaps his new yr resolution or kpi is to reduce the withholding issue set by his Long or Heng Ah boss. What the use of SSO or social service or msf here in dealing this issue here? Bet u, the new SOP gonna be a 'debt collecting' dept of certain minionstry gonna set up to handle this issue & for ah ong that will be like 'kiss' & case close lio.

Anonymous said...

All govt policies are carefully thought out by the most brilliant civil servants and must be good, especially when it has been in practice for decades. So defend they did and got to look more silly and evil by the days.
RB

Doesn't matter good govt policies or not,

brilliant civil servants or not,

silly and evil or not,

but to PAP,

what really matters is that

as long as the Sinkie opposition is not ready to take over as govt from PAP,

the Sinkie opposition will continue to lose big in elections.

Don't believe?

You wait and see lah.

Anonymous said...

To any layman, such an action by MOE was unkind and indefensible with no sense of empathy for the poor PSLE girl whose original result slip was withheld because her parents owed a fee of $156.
posted in TRE

Please lah, the parents of the poor PSLE girl are a minority lah, maybe 30% or less of all parents.

Majority of parents can afford to pay the fee of $156, and this is where the votes for PAP will come from.

And this is why the Sinkie opposition always lose elections, despite the case of the poor PSLE girl whose parents cannot afford to pay $156.

Anonymous said...

In any country there will always be poor people.

And for a country that has elections, what is most important for the ruling party govt is that the poor people are a minority.

The ruling party govt can also reduce the percentage of poor people by making more foreigners who are rich to become citizens so that they can vote.

And it doesn't even matter if most the poor and jobless are true blue citizens.

What matters is that majority of citizens (including new citizens of course) are not poor.



Anonymous said...

Sinkies need to be smart in order to have money and good life under PAP govt.

They do not wait long long for the Sinkie opposition to fight for them to have the good life.

And I think majority of Sinkies are smart and don't need the Sinkie opposition to fight for them the good life.

Hence only not so smart Sinkies join the Sinkie opposition only to fight a losing battle against PAP every time.

Or maybe these Sinkie opposition are PAP moles for PAP to tell the world that Sinkieland is a democracy with elections and it's solely the fault of the Sinkie opposition that they cannot win? LOL

Anonymous said...

Hi

No use lah! No point kpkbssssssssssss lah!

In Sg as I had said many many times before, the masses are very very very very very very very very good in TCSSssssssss and kpkbssssssssss whenever they are not happy BUT when come to voting, don't know why, they WILL die die die die die die die die vote for pap!

You know this wah!

Some still predicted a fall for pap at the next GE....

You think so?

Hahaha..������haha Hahahaha....!

Anonymous said...

Or maybe these Sinkie opposition are PAP moles for PAP to tell the world that Sinkieland is a democracy with elections and it's solely the fault of the Sinkie opposition that they cannot win?
10:41 am

R u also insulting TCB that he is a PAP mole?

Or is it PAP want TCB to be a opposition successor to LTK in Parliament?

If I were LHL, LTK habis already lah, no more use for PAP, can sue and throw him out like CSJ.

Anonymous said...

This megaster was one of the parti against people team in Aljunied grc in 2011 and lost to the WP team. At that time, he was a greenhorn and a new papaya recruit. I think he is NOT a fighter as after the lost Alj grc. He should have stayed put and contested in Alj again. Instead, in 2015 ge he quietly moved to a safer Sembawang grc & won. This is a reflection of a man who is kiasu type. Otherwise, he would not have been a $$$millionaire megaster. Y? Because WP won Alj grc again in 2015.

Anonymous said...

Social Engineering must continue.
Matilah 10:49 am

Sure of course.

That's the way to continue to make the Sinkie opposition lose big and PAP to win big in elections.

Anonymous said...

He should have stayed put and contested in Alj again. Instead, in 2015 ge he quietly moved to a safer Sembawang grc & won. ...Because WP won Alj grc again in 2015.
10:53 am

I heard LTK will move out of Alj grc to contest elsewhere in coming election. Or maybe even retire or kena disqualified due to the $33M lawsuit by his own AHTC.

Because to lose elsewhere will be less malu for LTK than to lose in Alj. LOL

Anonymous said...

How much die die must defend idea was given to the decades old policy of not having casinos in Sinkieland, to the extent that someone even said that casinos can only be built over his dead body?

However smart or intelligent they are from prestigious universities, drinking too much 'new water' or 'gong cha' also dumbs the mind. Everything goes by the book. Yet they talk about thinking out of the box! Little wonder we have now been overtaken by the mainland Chinese. They know what to change, when to change and change they did!

imho said...

MOE should be renamed BBSEM bloody blood sucking education ministry.

Anonymous said...

"we have now been overtaken by the mainland Chinese. They know what to change, when to change and change they did."

Before Singaporeans can change anything.
We must first vote out the PAP.

The PAP will never change.
Why would PAP want to chanfe a system that pays them million dollar salaries for doing absolutely nothing.

Anonymous said...

PAP will never change.
So MOE will never change.

If PAP can bully the elderly poor into collecting cardboard boxes to survive.

If PAP can bully young children by witholding their exam results.

Tell me.
What redeeming qualities do such PAP people have?

There is nothing left to talk.
We cannot negotiate with such heartless bastards who are no better than Nazis.

Just vote them out.

Anonymous said...

The only good PAP person is a dead PAP person.

Anonymous said...

@ 1.26pm

I think Lee Kuan Yew is the greatest person ever.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

PAP's most successful social engineering product is people that think like Matilah, cold and calculative in the inhuman sense. The results, higher economic numbers. People and humanity, forget it, no use, no value.

Oh yes, China has definitely overtaken Singapore in its latest and most powerful rocket to the moon and Mars. Singapore's nearest product to space or the higher atmosphere is hot air balloon. Not to worry, Singapore will get there.

Anonymous said...

One day in the future a poor fellow whose cert was being withheld by the govt shall rise to become a force to b reckon with to wage a political war with the white ruling party ( probably like Star Wars Rebel ~ Rise of Skywalker or like the first of Ming Emperor even though was born beggar then monk then warlord then emperor).

Anonymous said...


Hi

You seriously think that there be a Sg Harapan at next GE?

Anonymous said...

Who cares?
It does not matter if there is a Sg Harapan or not.

Just vote Opposition can already liao.

Anonymous said...

@rb

///cold and calculative in the inhuman sense. The results, higher economic numbers. People and humanity, forget it, no use, no value///

U think S'pore social engineering cold & inhuman??? China is even worse --- go & ask what happens there if u don't pay ur bills.

Anonymous said...


Yes, sir!!!

Anonymous said...

Is it realistic for folks to compare Sin with China, a more than five thousand year civilization, in anything?
A population of six millions can produce talents to out-shine 1.45 billions?
Joke by all means, but do not over do it ridiculously lah.
lolx.



Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@ OBVIOUSLY LAH, KOTEK

Most people are average, ie. they fall on the middle of a standard distribution (Bell curve)

Average, means "mediocre", hence your politics and results of any democratic process will be MEDIOCRE at best. In Singapore we know this as a fact therefore we have a govt who will GUIDE the democratic process such that mediocrity is reduced and the main progress forward is "designed" by a soft dictatorship...top-down social engineering. (china learnt from us so they're doing it. They've developed the idea further so their social engineering has now surpassed us).

The PAP and MoE will remain as such and change at the rate the CULTURE changes because POLITICS IS A RESULT OF CULTURE.

Most Singaporeans have attained a decent degree of wealth so they are personally responsible. Therefore they understand that they can look after themselves and the govt should concentrate on NATION BUILDING to produce the most awesome cuntry they can so that self reliant people can PROSPER.

Those who can't make it need to wake the fuck up or fade away into irrelevance.

Too bad if you Don't like it---IT'S THE CULTURE 🤓💲💲

Anonymous said...

Please tell us what happened to those who did not pay their bills in China.

We beg You to enlighten us and thank You very much, in advance.

Anonymous said...

Any society and the World as a whole are naturally existing by and in the Law of the Jungle. lt is wild and the Most Ferocious and Stronger Beasts such as MS survive better and prevail, unless he is overwhelmed by natural disaster.
This is the Reality.

Anonymous said...

PAP's 'long standing practice' of never helping Singaporeans.

Anonymous said...

Is it realistic for folks to compare Sin with China, a more than five thousand year civilization, in anything?
5:11 pm

Aiyo, relax lah, why u so serious?

TCSS where got realistic one, u tell me lah?

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

@ 527

First of all, forget about natural disasters. They occur rarely and one's survival is mostly a matter of good or bad luck.

You might think of existence as "jungle survival", I think of it as A GAME. BTW, I am neither a strong or ferocious "beast". I consider myself a very average fella. Since we tend to "overestimate" ourselves, that would mean I am probably "below average".

If all this is a game, then how you play and the luck (good and bad) which visits you determines how you will win or lose...or mostly win sometimes, lose sometimes. No one wins or loses ALL the time, although the human mind is very biased toward "negative" things, which is why losses are felt twice as powerfully than winnings, emotionally speaking.

Playing a game to win or to lose LESS, means you have to pay attention to facts---not opinion, or "parables" or "wise sayings" or any other shit that is DISCONNECTED from what you are facing in the PRESENT moment---and derive or formulate your tactics and strategies from there.

The more "present" you can be, the less mistakes you will make, and the less insane you will be. This is not an "original" idea. Our species is aware of this idea and has been for thousands of years, and yet the great majority of people cannot stay PRESENT. 😁 In a way, it is good because their antics and fuck ups are an endless source of ENTERTAINMENT! 🤓

Anonymous said...

OYK was rejected by the voters twice.

Then he sneaked in via the piggy-back of someone, shamelessly, to become millionaire minister .... Basically, selling-out his father's principle of upholding one's integrity, without giving in to the intimidation bullying and coercion of the soul-less schemer.

That clearly shows PAP is scrapping the bottom. When ine scrapes something from the bottom, it stinks or burnt-out. Chinese sau, Bo Liao (no quality, no substance, no taste).