Singapore's Hall of Fame

With so many super talents gathering in this little piece of rock, it is timely that we shall have our own Hall of Fame. To start with we can instal the honour to a few founding members like the Super Gambler, Super Fundraiser, Super Monk, and so on.

The Peanut Monk

From the view of the practitioners, paying a monk peanuts is the most appropriate means of compensation. Peanut is also vegetarian. Having more peanuts is good for a monk. From a professional and business point of view, a monk that can command $600k must be a super talent. To be able to raise that kind of fund to pay himself requires exceptional talent. An entrepreneur comes to my mind. Perhaps they can nominate him for the Entrepreneur of the Year Award. For the prices he charged, or the temple charged to the consumers, it must be quality service and quality stuff. Value for money. The more you pay, the better you get. You want good stuff, you must pay for it. Soon someone will write to the media to extol his greatness and that he is deserving of the pay he is getting. Now what more justifications can I add in to support this kind of philosophy? The Hokien has a phrase for it, something like 'bird talk.'

Mahathir resigned from UMNO

What is he up to? Is he saying that if he is out and down, everyone, including UMNO must also be dragged down? I think it is a very irresponsible act for Mahathir to do. With this move, UMNO if finished. Just 20 or 30 candidates to follow him and Mahathir would have deliver UMNO to Anwar on a silver platter. But that is beside the point. UMNO will henceforth become a small and inconsequential race party, and soon be forgotten to history. It will be a has been, for the oldies to recollect their memorie of its former glorious days. But might as well. He has paved the way for UMNO's destruction for 22 years. Might as well take the honour to hammer the nails into the coffin.

Sichuan Earthquake Donation

The tragedy and death toll of the massive Sichuan earthquake have touched the hearts of many people both in China and elsewhere, including Singaporeans. Many people are donating very generously to help the victims. Hawkers voluntarily put up signs that they will donate their day's earnings to the victims. People queued up at the Chinese Embassy to donate in thousands or tens of thousands of dollars, in cash or by cheques. While many people spontaneously gave to help, there is always the question whether the money will get to the victims. The fund raising is voluntary and haphazard and depends on the goodwill and honesty of the people collecting the fund. Under such circumstances, scams or cheats will appear to take advantage of the people's generosities. The Charities Acts require anyone raising funds to submit an audited account. But in this case, it is not necessary at the request of the Chinese govt. In the case of small individual efforts like the hawkers, it may be cumbersome to manage the fund raising and a bit of give and take may be acceptable. But when the amount is big, proper accounting and auditing must be in place. I find it very unsatisfactory at the way the Chinese Embassy handles the fund collection. The procedure is totally unacceptable. People going there and handing over cash in the thousands and all they received was a piece of photocopy paper with a chop from the Embassy saying they have donated such a sum of money. That is the only piece of paper given to the donor. On the part of the Embassy, they did not keep any copy nor did they record it anywhere that the sum is received. Money were just shafted into a box. Presumably they will count it themselves and aggregate the sum collected. But such a procedure gives rise to uncertainties and possibilities of misconduct. The Embassy must do something quickly to assure the public/donors that the money is properly accounted for with a proper accounting procedure. Even the collection of money in a funeral wake is more credible with the donor signed a book against the amount he contributed. In this case, the Embassy will not know who donated and how much were donated.

MRT adds 700 more trips weekly

MRT has added more trains to alleviate the congestion in trains and lessen the waiting time. Commuters interviewed hardly noticed any difference though some said the trains were slightly less crowded. With 700 trips a week added and the impact was hardly felt. It can only mean that the trains were still travelling in full capacity. What is interesting is that some(two spoken to by the media) commuters expected a price hike for the additional trips and welcomed higher fares. MRT has commented the additional trips would cost another $5 mil annually. Would this be a reason to raise fare given the $150 mil profit it earned last year, and could be more with increasing ridership? The additional $5 mil cost could turn in more profit rather than lost as more people switched to take public transport. My view is that a price hike is good. It will force those who cannot afford the fare to give up taking public transport. They can walk to work. This will help to relieve the jam in the trains. For those who can afford to pay more, it will be a blessing in disguise as they will be able to travel in more comfort with lesser passengers to squeeze with, more free space and fresh air. Geeze, I am getting wicked, talking like an elite. My comfort comes first and I will pay for my comfort. Those who cannot afford to pay is their problem. They are not fit to be around. They should work harder and find the money to take public transport. And it is so cheap. How can they said they cannot afford to pay? And cheat some more! TParadise has no place for the unfit, lazy and untalented.

Crisis in Leadership?

'Leaders need to have an intrinsic sense of right and wrong. These qualities don’t seem to be apparent in our society. This is worrying. The difference between what is expected of a political leader and a senior civil servant is that the latter helps to formulate policies, while the former assesses the soundness of the proposed policies, their long-term implications, and then goes out to convince people to believe in them. While we have good people with credibility and integrity in cabinet, not enough of them appear to have the acumen to explain them clearly and simply, and persuade the ground. This is a key quality of leadership, which in turn is a tacit balance of IQ, and EQ – an intrinsic capacity to listen.' Viswa Sadasivan I have extracted the above comments of Viswa's recent speech on the crisis of leadership in Singapore. Nothing new, but surprising and unbelievable to know that this is the perception of Singaporeans from all walks of life. I also share the same conclusion. Why surprising? How can this be when we are paying so much for the best, and the best, so well paid, give people this kind of negative impression? What is wrong? Paying not enough or the best is simply not good enough? With the money we are paying, and the honing of interviewing and selection skills, and scrapping the bottom of every barrel, we should be having very outstanding leaders whom the people can easily accept and associate with, and say, yes, these are the best leaders we are paying for. What we have are doubts and a feeling of unease, that they are not what they are expected to be. How many of you share this impression? Or is this just isolated cases of a small group of people having such views? The quality of leadership is not what they think they are, but unfortunately, what the people think they are.

Revisiting our wasteful ways

With petrol prices going up, many cars will become collectors items. Bought and kept in the car park. Many will be driven only occasionally. Then there are the weekend cars that are used sparingly because of the usage restriction and owners' lifestyle. Now why must cars that are in excellent condition be made to pay additional road tax just because it is more than 10 years old? The mileage clocked in many of these cars are less than those clocked by normal cars. Should I ask the supertalents to take a look into this anomaly of unthinking past policies? Oops, sorry, better don't say policies are unthinking. They were designed to collect more revenues for any justifications. But please, please, think again and modify the formula for cars that are obviously under used despite the 10 year age.

The ugly and obnoxious poor

We have the ugly elite and the ugly Singaporeans everywhere. How about the ugly and obnoxious poor? Michael Palmer met a resident who demanded that he gave him $20k as a loan and he promised to repay him in 3 years with interest. Now, who in his right mind would hand over $20k to an asshole he does not know? And where is the MP going to find the money to give to one and many assholes who come to demand for that kind of money? While we discuss the plight of the poor in general and wanted them to have a less diffficult time, but on the individual level, many of these assholes do not deserve any kind of kindness. Do not be deceived by their pathetic and helpless sight. You do not know what they talked about the givers or what they scolded the givers for giving less. Heard of the beggar sneering at the $2 he got and demanded more with an insulting tone? In Today paper there was a complaint against this aggressive taxi drivers who tailgated a hogger. From the way he described the incident, the driver was definitely road hogging. But the threatening way the taxi driver drove and challenging him was uncalled for. Not only taxi drivers, bus drivers, sales staff, waiters and waitresses, hawkers etc, if only you hear what they say or curse at you. Even cleaners in foodcourts can be very nasty and abusive. Sometimes the Way or Tao is still worthy of retrospection. Let them be. It is their karma. They have to lead their lives the way they were, an experience that they need. The problem is that many don't seem to learn to be a better person. And if karma is real, they will repeat their sorrowful stories over and over again.

Pay up TV licence fee or else...

While the transport companies are going after the small time cheats, MDA is going after those who refused to pay the TV licences for their own reasons. Many just find it ridiculous to pay for things that they do not want. There are many channels, yes, but how many want all those channels that are programmed for them? Many will be contend to live by one or two channels and some may not want a single channel at all. Haven't technology caught up and be able to monitor which channel people tune in to and charge for usage, and not because the provider wants to provide and the viewers have NO CHOICE but to pay? It reminds me of the Medisave, Life CPF, Minimum Sum retention scheme etc etc, when the people have NO CHOICE. Who cares if MDA provides for 10 or 100 channels free if those are not what the viewers want? Who cares if MDA thinks it is important or good to provide 'TV and radio programmes that "inform, educate and entertain our multicultural and multiracial society"?' Why are the masses made to pay or subsidise for the effort of MDA to want to cater to everyone? Personally I only watch one channel. Not even listen to radio and all the craps the rowdy and at times silly DJs are gabbing about. So why should one pay for services and programmes that one does not want? Compulsory woah. If MDA thinks that they are the one to decide what the people should hear or see, then they should pay for it themselves and not demand that the viewers and listeners pay for them when the people did not want to hear or see.

Time to catch the bus/train cheats

Public transport companies are going all out to catch these petty thieves for cheating the transport giants for a few cents or a few dollars per trip. These are big monies to lose and it is estimated that the total amount lost is $9 mil annually. At $1 a trip cheated, that is 9 mil trips or roughly 25,000 trips daily. Either we have so many cheapskate buggers or cheats, it is still no good. Cheating is cheating, even for a few cents. It is now like a war against these petty thieves, and manpower and all resources, including satellite technology will be harnessed to save the $9 mil and to teach these useless buggers to be honest. People who have to cheat for a few dollars are not worth living. And worst still, there is a higher justification for the huge amount of money going to be spent to tackle this cheating problem. If not because of the cheating, transport companies need not keep on raising transport fares. So the cheating hurts the majority of the honest fare paying commuters. All fare paying commuters must be grateful and should lend a helping hand to catch all these cheats. And when the problem is solved, they can expect fares to be lowered. Or at least there will be lesser fare hikes. The moral of the story is that if these people want to cheat, they must cheat big and in style. And they would not even be called cheats if they are smart enough to do it. They will even be respected for being able to collect hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars without anyone knowing what is happening. The real and big cheats always get away and it is the small petty thieves that are caught and embarrassed.

We don't need subsidies

Just like we don't need help from the govt, we also do not need subsidies if the real cost of inflation is arrested. Many of the high costs can be attributed to inflation and 'market value.' Both need not be the case and need not add to the high cost of living. One angry example is the high price of HDB flats, priced at a subsidy to market value or market price instead of the actual cost of building the flat. And the govt feel damn good, and expect the people to feel damn grateful because it is giving the people a subsidy. When has this mindset of really serving the people's interests been changed to one where, 'the people would be worst off without the govt subsidies and have to pay real market prices' while allowing market prices to runaway? HDB pricing is not the only area that the people are made to pay much more than the cost of goods. Medical services is another sore point. Why must HDB insists that medical practitioners pay market rate rentals of space that were built donkey years ago at a fraction of current day prices? Essential services should be charged or cost at as low a price as possible to keep the price of such goods and services down. Why can't the govt identify specific essential services and charge them at minimum profits so that the service providers need not pass the cost to the consumers? It is time to shut those who keep trumpeting about how much subsidies are given to help the needy. They are not subsidies. The people are charged with inflated market prices with a little discount called subsidies. The high cost of living must be tackled at its root. Many services and goods must not be treated simply as a business to make profits. In certain areas, making obscene profits from the users is criminal or morally unacceptable, disgraceful. As costs keep going up, cost of public transport and many essential services must be brought down to help the poor communities. The high transport cost is going to take its toll on the tertiary students and their parents. These are the country's assets, young people being educated to come into the workforce and having to pay like hell to go through their years as students/undergraduates without any income. Do away with subsidies like clamping down on those who are scheming to help the people with their obscene schemes when the people become worst off and may not even benefit from their schemes.

Classic material

Leadership lessons from a sub-contractor

Lim Chih Yang It is not often that one can learn leadership lessons from The New Paper. While our local tabloid is a surprisingly good resource on how to manage one’s finances, enjoy fine dining, get the latest gossip, and contains the most comprehensive coverage of football news, it rarely comes up with soul-inspiring stuff...(until this comes along).

Mr Lam Teck Foo, a sub-contractor, was fined a total of $150,000 for “failing to take reasonable and adequate fall protection measures, under the Workplace Safety and Health Act”. He was fined as a fatal accident had occurred to one of his workers, who fell to his death while working on the rooftop on September 2006. While his workers had been wearing safety helmets, safety goggles, gloves, safety harnesses and belts, they had no lifelines to secure their harnesses to.

The fine of $150,000 is huge when we look at Lam’s income tax return of a little over $43,000. He had not contested the charge and had in fact acknowledged his responsibility for the worker:

…I was not around the work site, but my foreman said that the worker was feeling dizzy. He was walking backwards when he fell off the roof. But, he admitted, that as the boss of the company, he is responsible for the safety of his workers….

While we are in no position to gauge Lam’s financial means, I am nevertheless touched by his gesture and sincere apology to the family. Feelings aside, though, a few questions are still in my mind.

While Lam is the boss, he was not physically present at the worksite to personally supervise the workers, and ensure that his workers had their life-lines secured. So why, then, is he being held responsible for the accident?

Perhaps Lam should have taken a leaf out of our Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng’s example. Here is how the scenario would have played out had Lam been an attentive student in Wong’s leadership class.

1) Upon knowing that the accident had happened, Lam would have made a gesture of apology by telling the deceased family, “This should not have happened. I am sorry that it has.”

2) Then, he would have convened a Commission of Inquiry (COI), including one of his own safety officers as part of the committee.

3) Thirdly, he would then have released the COI’s findings and absolved himself of all blame, since he is the boss and he is reasonably not expected to be on site to check all lifelines.

4) Fourthly, he would have gotten his colleagues to be both cheerleader and defence attorney, and exhort everyone to “move on”.

5) Lastly, he would have lain low and waited for it to blow over.

Hey if Lam had learned his lesson, he would have saved his company a whopping $150,000 in fines, plus all the other costs he incurred in compensating the deceased’s family.

But no, Lam did not evade responsibility. In fact, he did just the opposite. He stood up, accepted his part of the blame, apologised to the family of the deceased, paid the $150,000 fine, paid for the funeral and even pledged to give the family $3,000 for the next three years at Hari Raya.

Now that, dear readers, is true leadership – from a sub-contractor.

Mr Lam has, according to The New Paper report, five children aged 3, 11, 12, 14 and 15. His request to pay the $150,000 fine over ten months was rejected by the authorities.

[The above should be copied, bounded and included as a module in management studies in our universities. It can be used as an SOP by top executives in both public and private companies as an efficient and effective way of crisis management, and keep the job.]

Celebrating the Civil Service

The Civil Service as an entity deserves special mention as the backbone that holds Singapore together as a nation. Not only that the Civil Service is the storehouse of talents, not many in Parliament can match the academic and intellectual talents of the civil servants, it is also the longest, continuous surviving organisation in the history of Singapore. Political masters and politicians come and go, the Civil Service will stay and continue to serve the people, through the politicians. Without the Civil Service, the politicians will be more like a bunch of magicians pulling white rabbits from a hat. It will simply be magic for a show. It is the civil servants that turn magic into reality. What is important and vital for Singapore is for a Civil Service to remain politically neutral, not beholden to anyone or political party, to do what it should do, as the non political govt organisation, looking after and managing the country's affair. An independent Civil Service shall be there to provide the continuity of govt as govt will change overtime. And it is this independence of people and mind and purpose that will ensure its legitimacy and continued existence, traversing different govts. A Civil Service that has compromised its independence and neutrality will only see to its own demise whenever there is a change of govt. Singapore should count itself lucky to have maintained the Civil Service as an independent institution of govt, uncorrupted by politicians and the swing of political powers. The sanctity and independence of the Civil Service must be protected and the tradition preserved for the long term viability not only of the Civil Service/Servants but also of the nation.

Breaking the religious armour

Lian He Zao Bao reported that the abbot of Leong Hua Monastry, Sek Meow Ee earns $660,000 a year, owns a condo and 4 companies. And he is a monk! What is a monk? A monk is one who has taken a vow to detach himself from the attachment to worldly material things. A $660k salary, a condo and 4 companies are material things that monks are not supposed to crave or own. Any monks want to dispute this fact? What looks wrong, usually becomes wrong. The services at the monastry, from my experience, is anything but cheap. It is a monastry to relieve the pains and sufferings of ordinary beans. The last thing is to relieve them of their money for services at commercial market prices. We are seeing more and more of money grabbing religious organisations among us. It is time that the govt takes a tough stand on such money grabbing organisations and tear away the religious armour of protection. No one shall be allowed to hide behind a belief to fleece money from the unthinking believers and worshippers. Religions are innocent. It is the human beans who are exploiting religions and the blind believers to line themselves with money and more money. As these are public organisations, feeding from the generosities of simple and sincere beans, accountability and transparency must be absolute. They are not private organisations established to make some people rich and earning money legitimately as a business organisations. In such religious organisations, the money were given in most cases, to the religion to do good for the sufferring transient beans.

Cyberspace one up

The news of Hsien Loong's mother in ICU came out first in cyberspace. Timely news of important or relevant events reported in cyberspace ahead of the msm. Now isn't this one up over msm in timeliness of reporting? Cyberspace has literally millions of reporters. Everyone can be a reporter and report on anything that is of public interests. The msm with their limited number of paid reporters will find this difficult to beat.

More bus rules

Some bus lanes are full day, some are only for certain times. Fantastics. I think all cars must be fitted with a bus lane detector device to tell the driver which is which. With so many traffic rules, where got ERP gantries and when they are operational and how much to pay, it is going to be very troubling. Then got to remember where got traffic cameras just in case you go a bit faster. Now buses are fitted with cameras to capture errant drivers and each fine is $130. Wondering how much is each camera costing the bus company and how much it costs to maintain the system. And who is paying for the increase in cost? Obviously not the bus companies. Next cameras to catch littering in HDB estates? Cameras in foodcourts to catch smokers. Please include the lifts also.

Time to do a little national service

Or maybe put it another way, time to reciprocate and return some profits to the commuters. This is what SMRT and Singapore Bus should think of doing. The govt is working so hard erecting ERP gantries and raising ERP charges to pressurise motorists to take public transport instead of driving. And the results can be seen by the packed trains and buses at all hours. All these through no effort of the public transport companies but the govt. Public transport companies' profits are going to soar with such heavy usage and instead of trumpeting their huge profits, why not help their loyal commuters a bit huh?

In the mood for Celebration

Reading the msm on home news, I just got this feeling to celebrate. The National Day is around the corner and a lot of exciting programmes have been lined up. Then the Nature Walk from Mount Faber to West Coast. This has been reported over and over again over several days. I too got into the mood for the walk. But thinking about logistics, parking the car and finding the way back to the car is going to be a big hussle. And don't forget about the parking fees. Singaporeans are truly lucky. Cyclone in Myanmar, tornadoes in US, bombing in India and earthquakes in China with tragedies unfolding. Here we are safe and sound and looking towards celebrating and enjoying our parks.

Electing masters or representatives?

Since everything is so peaceful and blissful, let me indulge in this issue a bit more. The older generations elected their representatives to look after them, to give them a better life. Actually during those days, they don't care if the people elected would assume a greater role as their masters. When living conditions were bad, they were only concerned about basic needs. A good material life was all they want. And they got it. And their elected representatives gave them what they want and still remained as elected representatives. Now the newer generations have everything and wanted more. They want their elected representatives to be elected representatives and not their masters. They are beginning to question the formula or the relationship between their elected representatives and how it resembles a master/serf pattern. One thinks he is there to be the master and the other accepts that but not very happy that it should be this way. And they are getting quite edgy. When a relationship is unnatural, not what it should be, it is unbalanced. It needs to return to what it should be or else more screws will be needed to tighten and hold the unnatural balance in place. The problem is when it is too tight, it might break. The people and elected representatives must be made aware, told and retold, that the relationship is a temporary one, one built on the consent and trust of the people, that the elected representatives will be there to look after the interests of the people as the people think fit. Not one where the elected representatives think that they have become the masters and decide what is fit for the people. Master/serf relationship has no place in modern democracy.

India students prefer Singapore

[Singapore: An emerging destination for Indian students Kaustubh Kulkarni / Pune May 14, 2008, 0:05 IST reporting in Business Standard The Indian student's dream foreign university is usually either from the UK or US. Other countries find it difficult to attract Indian students. Singapore, however, is trying to position itself as the destination of choice for Indian students. The country wants Indian students to enrol in its institutes, from the higher secondary or the junior college level onwards. Singapore is basing its pitch on its geographical proximity to India, professional education that provides excellent job opportunities, the business and trade environment of Singapore and its cosmopolitan culture.] Why would Indian students want to pursue their education in Singapore when India is producing better and more talented students that are replacing Singaporeans in the local job market? Indian talents are more sought after than Singaporean talents and this can be seen in their strong and growing presence here. So what is the attraction? The quality of Singapore education or job opportunities vis a vis the less talented Singaporeans?