AG office unhappy with govt depts

Lax procedures and inefficiency have resulted in money not collected or contracts awarded not at lowest cost or for convenience. This is intriguing given the quality and number of supertalents hired and paid so well. It is basic to buy services or products at the lowest cost unless the provider or product is substandard. The AG Report highlighted that the MOE could save between $1m to $15m if the cleaning services were awarded to contractors who quoted lower than market rate. Fair comment. But why are the words HDB, market pricing and water conservation tax keep popping up in my mind? The govt should be run as efficiently and profitably as possible. The business principles of buying cheap, below market prices, and selling high, at market prices or better, must be adopted by all ministries. Run it as a profitable business. Make as much money as the market can pay from the consumers. Who are the consumers?

Victims of Savages

Throughout history, the worst savages of racial discrimination, brutality and ethnic cleansing were the Americans and Europeans. They left their marks from North and South America, Africa and across Asia. Hardly any race was spared. The savage killings of the Red Indians, the slavery of the Africans, apartheid in South Africa were historical facts that western journalists and academics chose to shut up and to conveniently forget. In turn, they painted the Americans and Europeans as the beacons of human right champions, the hope to extinguish racial discrimination and the saviour of the world. And a straw man was used to replace the American/Europeans as the number one racist hoard, China and the Chinese. And all the silly Africans and Asians, including Southeast Asians, swallow this line of thinking conveniently. In reality, the Chinese were also the victims of savagery when the West invaded and controlled China, turned it into a semi colony. Then the minority Chinese in Southeast Asia themselves were victims of savages in their adopted countries. The Indonesians were the worst culprits followed by the Malays in Malaysia. Ethnic cleansing were quite a frequent affair, cultural and social oppression were written into laws and govt policies. The only place where the Chinese were not persecuted is Singapore. The only place that the minorities were not persecuted is Singapore. The only country where the minorities were treated fairly and enjoy as equal a right as the majority is Singapore. The Malay minority here is still angry with appointments in the military. But to be fair to the govt, the condition then was such that it was a matter of national security and survival. It was not racial to begin with. They may want to understand the situation then and ask themselves whether the govt could have done otherwise to keep the country peaceful and stable when our neighbours were out to do us in with possible military intervention.

Malaysia backtracking on teaching in English

Muhyiddin announced that Malaysia is scrapping the teaching of Science and Maths in English and the reason given is that it will undermine the students ability to learn Bahasa Melayu. The teaching of these subjects in English is also tough on the students as their grasp of the language is poor. I think the real reason is that there are not many competent teachers who are able to teach in English. The 40 years of abandoning the teaching of English has taken its toll. Many of the teachers educated under the new policy would not have much knowledge of English and will be incompetent to use the language as a medium of instruction. If the teachers are struggling, how could the students learn anything? Education policies or many national policies cannot be scrapped simply at someone's fancy as the consequences and impact are long term and long lasting. To unwind and start again is going to be very painful. The easy way is not to do it and continue with their current policy of using Malay as the medium of instruction. It is not easy to transform a nation of Malay speakers into an English speaking community overnight.

Crowds in property launches

Crowds are thronging new property launches and grabbing up properties like hot cakes. And property developers are cashing in on the affluence of Singaporeans and launching more projects for sale. The Singaporeans are really rich, buying properties costing at least a million like buying durians off the streets. Where is the recession? Where are the poor? It is all a myth. All the talks about poor Singaporeans living from hands to mouth or waiting for handouts are mere exaggerations. Singaporeans are rich like hell.

Myth 207 - Monkeys scattered when the big tree falls

Many have quoted this phrase as a truism, that all the monkeys in a big tree will scamper and scatter once the tree has fallen. No more branches to hang on to. Better to look for another big tree. Better still, be their own big tree. In such a scenario there will be many big trees contending for more monkeys to hang on to their branches. Will this be the case all the time? I think it will be, without exceptions. Big tree falls, means big tree no more. A replacement tree growing beneath may become another big tree, but will take some time to grow in stature. Another possibility is instant Angsana tree being used to replace the old tree. But instant trees have short roots and may not stand the gust of strong winds or a heavy downpour. And Angsanas are never know to be strong, like the old oak tree or the tembusu. Would this saying be as true as it was or would it just be a myth?