myth 128

Is there a value to a job? The traditional method of evaluation the worth of a job and how much it should be paid is no longer relevant in the modern context, or at least in the Singapore context. In the past, a job is carefully evaluated with relevant factors to determine how much it is worth. It is quite a tedious and complicated process. Today, the determination of the value of a job is so much easier. Just peg it to somebody's income. In fact the value of all the jobs in Singapore can be done that way. And whether the value of the job increases or decreases will be determined by the income of the top eight lawyers, accountants, bankers, CEOs of MNCs and local enterprises, and engineers. And workers can likewise peg their pay to them. And when these people earn a lot of money, their pay can likewise be adjusted accordingly. The process is clean, transparent, objective and clinical. No need to argue about how much is a job worth anymore. No need to go for collective negotiation with management. Afterall the value of a job is only relative, relative to whoever one chooses to peg it with.

The irony of it all

The irony of it all The people who are struggling to make ends meet and slogging away are all silent while the fat cows are screaming for more. In a society like ours, those who are earning less than $3k a month, not to mention those earning less than $1k, are just living from hand to mouth. Anyone who earns $20k a month are very comfortable. Anything more than that will either go to their savings or for more luxury. And it is this latter group that keeps saying 'I want more and more and more.' It is so distasteful. Oops, I am wrong. I have lost touch with reality, with the people's aspiration, and the brutal truth.

great opportunity to start anew

The IDR is the greatest opportunity for Malaysia and Singapore to start on a new phase of cooperation. The Malaysian High Commissioner did not miss this out and is calling for more effort towards a hassle free transit in and out of JB. He is pushing for a new Causeway card that will make transiting a breeze. But there are many other things that need to be ironed out, especially the controversial and ambiguous rulings which the police, immigration and customs are famous for. Tinted glasses for cars, red plated off peak cars, no chopping of passports, checks and harassments for no rhymes or reasons, spot checks, stopping by traffic police etc etc. These are the irritants that make live very miserable and uncertain for visitors to JB and Malaysia. Maybe the High Commissioner could come out with a list to clarify all these things in a booklet form for Singaporeans to carry along to show to the law enforcing officers that they have crossed the line. If it will help. It may not as they could throw whatever booklet away and insist that one follows them to the police station and spend another few days in Malaysian against one's will.

best quote from swee say

The most convincing quote from Swee Say. Payrise for Ministers will benefit the people.

mindboggling pension scheme

The pension scheme is an accepted practice in the govt service introduced by the British. Now this scheme is also extended to politicians, people who are elected by the people on a 5 year term basis. And it is not even an employment. Then all one needs to be entitled to the lifelong pension is to be in office for two terms or a max of 10 years. Invariably it is lesser, between 8 to 9 years. Compare this to the original concept of pension when a person has to work practically all his life, 25 to 35 years before he is entitled to it and may lose it along the way if he fumbles. And the number is mindboggling. A person can be in office for 10 years and will be paid around $.5 to $1 million for the rest of his life. If he lives for another 25 years, the state could have to pay him $12.5 mil to $25 mil. Not sure if he is still entitled to all the medical perks. I am not saying that the scheme is right or wrong, good or bad. It is just mindboggling.

to inform or to expose?

Loh Chee Kong was thinking aloud on the role of journalists after Vivian said that one of the media's role is to expose Govt's wrongdoings. This is a major shift, if for real, in the role of the media. But Chee Kong was sensible enough to ask whether it is just a red herring. And everyone in the media too did not think it wise or worth more reading into it. It was spoken and forgotten. Silence follows on this issue. The role of the media is simply to inform, educate and entertain. I will just stick to this sacred formula to be safe.

what is enough?

What is enough? $290 a month is enough. $1 million a year is not enough. Depending on who you are and how one tries to justify one's position, it is all relative. $5 million or $10 million is also not enough given the present formula. What if the top eight performers of each group worked exceptionally hard, did exceptionally well, and luck was all on their side, and they made $10 or $20 million each, the formula would say $2 mil is not enough and not because of the effort or the spectacular performance of the people expecting the windfall. Performance is not really in the formula. One gets, all gets, big portfolio, no portfolio, great performance or mediocre performance, no difference. As the ministers are going around persuading the people to accept their payrise, and as Swee Say said, 'Progressively, more and more union leaders and workers will come to accept and realise that it's actually in (their) interest to ensure that the Govt will do whatever is necessary to attract a fair share of the talent.' Since it is in the interest of the people, there is no reason why they should not be a payrise. An easier approach would be to name how much is enough and get it over with. Trying to apply a formula that many do not agree only make things more incomprehensible. Perhaps during a GE the party shall let the electorate know that for the elected term the ministers shall be paid so much and no one need to be apologetic about it later. 'What we need are political leaders and civil servants who really care a lot about the ground, who understand their anxiety, who understand their aspirations, to take the necessary measure to help them realise their aspirations.' Swee Say said. I believe the people all have a simple aspiration and share the same anxiety. While the ministers are going to have their big big payrise, the people will be very happy, and their anxiety removed, and their aspirations taken care of, if everyone is given a $10k handout. This is the simple aspirations of the people, or at least what I think it is.

big bucks!

Big Bucks That is the headline in the Sunday Times in an article asking who are the people in Singapore earning top dollar. 'Last year's income tax assessments showed that, in 2005, $4.29 million was the median pay for the eight top earning lawyers, $3.72 million for accountants, $3.33 million for bankers, $2.7 million for MNC executives, $2.3 million for local manufacturing head honchos and $0.62 million for engineers.' What would be interesting would be the median pay for the top eight civil servants and the top eight politicians. They are somewhere there, probably better than the engineers but how far from the rest is not known. The only figure that I am uncomfortable is the median pay of bankers. There are only 3 local banks and published figures showed that the top 6 got paid more than $5 million. And this did not include the top earners of foreign banks here. The $3.3 million definitely appeared pretty low from my guess. I am just guessing. From the figures given, it seems that the top five lucrative jobs that are paying big bucks are lawyers, accountants, bankers, heads of MNCs or local manufacturing and not forgetting civil servants or politicians. Engineering is out and should be forgotten. A little about comparison. Why lawyers and accountants? These are professionals like doctors and architects or professional gamblers. Their jobs are not in the management of a huge corporation like running a bank or a MNC. The latter two are more similar in nature to running a ministry. Is there any flaw in comparing individual skills or flairs against management skills, the management of large number of people and making decisions that affect a large number of people? I cannot see the rationale from a job evaluation perspective. Logically speaking, all the head honchos should be paid more than the lawyers and accountants as the skills of these professionals only affect a very limited number of people and have lesser widespread consequences. The head honchos should be demanding for higher pay.

It is cultural differences!

It is cultural differences! Why Singaporean employers feed their maids with a bowl of plain porridge or a piece of bread a day? Don't blame them. It is cultural differences. The Singaporeans believe that Indonesians needed only that to live. Another reason, which is more compelling, is that the Singaporean employers do not understand what the maid needs or what is a proper meal for a maid. Poor thing, all these first world people! These are the reasons given by maid agencies to justify why maids were fed with a piece of bread or a bowl of porridge a day and expected to work for 24 hours. I strongly recommend that we should introduce public lynching in Singapore. At least it will teach the world class Singaporeans a little about human decency or what a human being needs to eat to be kept alive.

Myth 127

Myth 127 Sacrifice family for the Nation Our politicians are the most self sacrificing people in the country and deserve to be paid well. They wear so many hats, spent 18 hours working and 6 hours sleeping and dreaming about how to run the country, and totally have no time for the family. Where on earth can you find such honourable people who are willing to give up so much to serve the people? And when it is time to retire, and continue to receive a well rewarding 2/3 of their last drawn salary, to spend time with the family that they have neglected, they choose to stay on to work for the people and nation. They will work till they die on the job. The success of Singapore is a result of their sacrifice and commitment to the nation.

The choice of where to peg

The choice of where to peg Would it be nice if the top govt official's salary is pegged to a middle civil servant's salary? I can immediately see the advantage of such a pegging. It is likely to benefit the salary of all civil servants, at all levels. As with the present formula, pegging to the top earners, almost to the top, would only mean that the income gap will get wider and it becomes a case of 'cannot be helped' even if everyone knows that it is undesirable. But if we pegged it at the middle civil servant level then the income gap may not widen that fast. But it still could, and the final amount could still be very large, depending on how many times is seen as decent and acceptable, and that it will not lead to them running to join the private sector or to prevent corruption from taking place. Then again, the reality is that no amount is enough. Long long ago, $5000 pm for minister is enough. Then $50,000 is considered very good. But if time permits, the number can keep going up, $100k pm or maybe eventually $1 million pm. It is all relative and depends on human greed. No one is humble enough to ask how many bowls of super grade rice he can eat a day, or how many bungalows he can sleep in a night, or how many limousines he can drive at one time, or how many pretty lasses he can sleep with in one night. Hey, that reminds me of what Einstein said about limits. The difference between a genius and an idiot is that a genius knows his limits.

The Evil corner

The Evil corner While we crow about how first world we are, how many millionaires and billionaires we have, how many millions should our top officials be rewarded, and all the good lives, let's not ignore the little evil corners that live among us. As we gain material wealth and comfort, and a better quality of life, as we upgrade ourselves to a position where all the menial tasks are done by maids, we should not forget that maids are human lives, just like everyone of us. The incidents of maids being ironed or becoming a punching bag have not appeared on our papers for a while. Maybe our evil corners have behaved a little better. Maybe not and the ironing and punching have continued but not reported. But the ill treatment of the maids is still going on going by the number of distress calls that the help agencies are receiving. The Indonesian Family Network group alone received 45 calls for help. And 25 of the calls were for food deprivation where employers deprived their maids of food or feeding them with leftovers or nothing at all. These inhuman acts within our society is a shame and make us no better than animals. First world? And for these things to happen regularly, daily, only speak on the mentality of a people, all the way from top down, that they could live with such human cruelties. By not doing anything about them is as good as being an accomplice to the crime against humanities. The perpetuators of such acts must be dealt with seriously, instantly and shame, yes shame publicly. Let such crimes be wiped out completely from this so called first world island, and completely from their mentality that this can be tolerated. There are laws provided to deal with the culprits. But for so many incidents to repeat itself daily means that it is not enough. It has to be stopped immediately if we are to be seen as a civilised people. When the evil corners are still thriving and lurking among us, let's stop crowing about how great we are as a people and as a nation. Ok, after airing a little conscience, let's start to justify about how many millions shall one get.

why is life expectancy higher for singaporeans?

Very simple. Singaporeans are very rich. All of them will retire will hundreds of thousands in their CPF, and also some properties. So when they reach a point in life when they can no longer see, can't hear, can't walk, can't move, can't think,can't eat, can't desire, can't do anything, they still can't die. Singaporeans can't die! For they can still afford to be hooked up to a machine and live for as long as there is money to pay the medical bill to keep them alive. What a beautiful life.

rethink on cpf

With the concept of retirement at 55 being thrown into the rubbish bin, the cpf and the huge minimum sum that has to be retained is no longer relevant. I have written about this issue but not getting any response from any one. Is there anyone thinking and agree that CPF policies need to be changed in view of all the changes in the lifestyle and working life of the people? If someone is working and earning a decent income to keep himself alive till 70 or 80, is there still a need to have 100k or 200k in his CPF when he dies? Or have we to live with this straight jacket policy under someone important enough say something?

set the talents free

I find it very unfair to keep the best talents in the govt and pay them a miserable salary that is below what they should earned. We should free these talents and their enterprises and encourage them to join the private sector and join the list of billionaires. That is their destiny, as they are gifted people and must not be restrained by being cooped up in public service. Let them serve their terms in public service and then release them to prosper. By doing so, not only we have many rich and happy individuals, we will also have many talents with bright ideas to help revitalise the private sector, and the nation will benefit too. And with so many young talents waiting in the wings, it will allow them to get promoted faster, and be happier as well. And the younger and eager talents will be out there to push themselves to serve the people and nation better. It is all for the good of the nation to spread out our talents. Just look at the brighter side, if all the ministers and top civil servants above 50 were to join the private sector, we will definitely have a more vibrant and creative climate and more companies and corporations will surge to the forefront internationally. No need foreign imports. The approach of keeping these talents and limiting their pay and having to justify to a people that do not believe in public services being overpaid is bad for the country. We must think creatively and find a solution that will benefit the poor talents that are kept in the public services from becoming billionaires in their own right and abilities. Set them free.

myth 126

6.5 million people is a big squeeze Far from it. If we plan properly, build upwards and downwards and using the best technology, Singapore can easily take in 30 million. Just build the whole island like the Tower of Babel. Use steel and glass. Yes a lot of glass, like a glass tower towards the heaven. We will be the most futuristic city, fully airconditioned, and several layers over layers. Bukit Timah will become a mole hill when all the surrounding buildings are 3 or 5 times taller. And we can connect everywhere, at different levels, with travellators. No need cars and no need petrol. With the whole Tower of Babel adapted to become a solar cell, we can maximise the use of clean solar energy. That will be the future of Singapore. A glass city of the future, built by the best minds money can buy.

our vessels still in indon hands

Britain is putting all diplomatic pressures to secure the release of the 15 marines arrested by Iran. And if these fail, the next phase could be war. We have our vessels arrested by the Indonesians, which is supposed to be our friend, and a neighbour with close relations with us. It is appropriate that we try all diplomatic means to secure their release. So far nothing works. Next could be to table it at ASEAN meetings or later at the UN. If all else fails, what cards are there left for us to play? Should we let the Indonesians arrest our vessels illegally or under false pretence and let it be, be compliant? The Indonesians claimed that investigation is still going on. What kind of bull is that? If it is smuggling, it is smuggling. If there are sand there are sand. It does not take more than two days to find out these facts. Or are they trying to cook up something to justify their illegal acts? With the vessels in their control, and with so much time, they can do anything they want to them and present whatever evidence they want. Who is there to stop them from fabricating evidence?

minister's pay debate

Finally we are seeing a real debate going on. The issue of minister's pay is being discussed everywhere and by everyone. And the points raised are serious and relevant, not polemics or hogwash. Many valid points have been put forth by the public, mostly to oppose the linking of minister's pay to the private sector, or the current formula. Some even question the multiple hats that senior servants are wearing, which to me, is not an effective utilisation of a man's ability no matter how supertalent the person can be. Everyone is limited by the 24 hours we have per day and minus all the rest hours and time for food, bed and R & R, there are just a few hours left. And expecting a super talent to take on 5 or 6 important appointments with the same limited hours is just asking too much and expecting too much. Dilution will be the consequence of such a hectic demand, or skimming through the details will be another. One point that I would like to add is that civil servants and minister's are getting double or almost double what they are getting today. I am not referring to the perks and other benefits that they could derived from their appointments but pension. They are entitled to pension which is 2/3 of their last drawn salary for life. This is a very significant portion of their pay that have not been included into the current formula. Many have raised the issue of public service and private sector employment as two different kinds of fish and rightly cannot be compared the way it is being done. We need people with passion to serve the nation and be paid reasonably well and not exorbitantly well, like the private sector whose main interest is profit to pay themselves. If money is what they want and their main motivation, then let them join the private sector. There are always brighter and more eager young talents to take over their places. No one is indispensable. As it is, the top echelon of civil servants are very well paid, including ministers. This is the view of the masses. It is the junior officers that were doing the donkey work and being paid like national servicemen. The recent survey of new graduate salary is a glaring example of how underpaid are the young officers. They will simply leave. For those at the senior levels, resignation is not a problem and should be encouraged to share their expertise and talents with the private sector. Let the debate continues. It will be good if the MPs and senior civil servants will also share their views on this.

myth 125

The Asian Corrupt Culture Asians are born with a hereditary condition called corruption. Corruption is in their psyche and the earlier we know and accept this condition the better. The good thing about this is that the outbreak of this sickness can be delayed by money and more money. The bad thing about this is that how much money will be enough is relative. So the disease will soon rear its ugly head and need more money to suppress it and keep it benign. As long as there is periodic increase in money, be it $1 million or $10 million or $100 million, the sickness will be contained but will not go away. It is like syphillis.

payrise need more convincing?

The other day I saw Lim Swee Say in the news trying his very best to explain why pay rise for ministers is important and necessary. Somehow it just did not come through as convincing. You can see the doubt in the faces of the listeners. Is it because he did not explain it well enough or the issue is simply too difficult for the people to accept? Or is it that the people just cannot accept it? Whatever, the increase will be a reality comes 9 April. The govt has explained and that is what it is going to do. And it is done for the good of the people and country. Can't imagine the consequences if all the ministers quits to join the private sector for more pay. Things can be worst if the payrise is not implemented.