Notable quotes - Koh Kian Beng

The last thing we want is for a woman to be made the PM by riding on the coat tails of her husband or father, and not on her own merit. Koh Kian Beng While reporting on a public forum discussing the possibility of a woman PM, Koh Kian Beng, a SPH journalist or reporter, inserted the above quote into his article in the ST today. I find this an amusing and interesting quote. Why should such an idea of a woman becoming a PM because of her husband or father be a concern in the first place? Are we expecting such a woman PM in the foreseeable future? Or why must a woman become a PM only through her connection and not her ability? A bit of sexist chauvinism and quite patronising to the women. The other point to amuse ourselves is that it is ok if a man becomes a PM because of his father or wife. So it is acceptable for a man but not acceptable for a woman to ride on his connection. This will be a good cocktail party gossiping topic. Hentail parties can dispute this judgemental view as well.

Myth 176 - Sorry wrong call

We have heard that many top CEOs in the west are being paid in hundreds of millions as wages. And they justified their grand pay schemes by strutting their great talents and ability to make more money for the organisations. At first glance it looks very fair. How to reject someone who makes a billion by not paying a hundred million to him? The argument holds well only when this turkey is making his billions. What happens when he loses in billions? Sack him or give him a pay cut? When the turkey turns donkey and bankrupt the organisation, at best he will say, oops, sorry, wrong call. But when he is making billions he will trumpet as how clever he is. How equitable is such a compensation formula? Many are bought by it, especially the supertalents. For they know that they are the one that cannot lose. They gamble on other people's money and reward themselves handsomely when they made the right decision or guess it right. If they lose or make a huge mistake, they only lose other people's money. And they could get another equally well paying job by selling their experience somewhere else.

Clamping down on aesthetic medicine and practices

The MOH is putting a stop to all the questionable procedures being marketed by medical and non medical professionals to make every living bean who wants to look more beautiful happy. It claims that many of the procedures are not even approved by advanced western countries and some are probably still under clinical tests. I can't blame the medical professionals for switching from saving lives and helping the sick to this more lucrative trade and objective. At the end of it, what is important is money. Greed is good. Greed is our culture. And people are getting realistic and think first of lining their pockets with money than silly idealism about helping the people. Long live greed and money.

Myth 175 - New Welfarism

Chua Mui Hoong wrote an article about a new disease which she called New Welfarism in town. Essentially she is talking about the subsidies and handouts which the govt is giving to the poor and expectations of handouts is now creeping up to the middle class. Singaporeans are taking these handouts as an annual giveaways from the govt. And she said that 'The PAP has been right in fearing a "crutch mentality" among the low income.' So while giving, there is this constant fear and reminder not to turn the country into a welfare state and erode the work ethics of the people. My observation is that she is barking up the wrong tree. Welfarism starts at the highest level where giveaways are disguised as just rewards. In the name of talent and high positions, people are demanding to be paid in gold and getting it. And no one is calling this welfarism but paying for according to market worth. And it is this bunch of leeches that are sneering at the few dollars thrown to the low income earners and claiming that these low down scums of society are developing a crutch mentality. The biggest recipients of the biggest handouts are all laughing to the bank and are blind to the handouts they are getting. They are even blind to the fact that they are victims of the crutch mentality and are demanding for more without knowing it. This is the New Welfarism that people are blind to it. Remove the handouts and you will immediately see the withdrawal symptoms. They may get delirious. And what kind of work ethics are we encouraging when people are being paid exorbitant sums not commensurate with the petty works they are doing?

Learning from India's Civil Service

Singapore wants to learn lessons from India’s ‘growth story’ March 20th, 2008 By Prashant K. Nanda New Delhi, March 20 (IANS) National University of Singapore (NUS) is inviting Indian civil servants to teach the ‘growth story’ to other Asian counterparts and in turn learn the best practices in public administration from global experts, all for free. “Many countries in the world want to know about India’s growth and we wish Indian civil servants to teach the developing countries. We are inviting them to do a course in our institute for free,” said Kenneth Paul Tan, assistant dean of NUS’ Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP). When I read the above I thought it was a joke. No it is serious. And nothing personal against the Indian Civil Service, I thought we should be teaching the world our brand of world class civil service? Without being prejudicial, I still believe we have the best civil service among all the ex British colonies. Some may argue that Hongkong's is the best now, but it is a touch and go and you would need a set of criteria to compare them objectively.