Myth 212 - Free competition is good

Over the years we have been creating a few fictional warlords to compete with each other for monopolistic businesses and we claimed that they are good. Competition means better quality, efficiency and competitive pricing. Then some quietly merged again, probably realising that it was all a hoax. Now we have two out of three media/entertainment providers competing with each other to see who can pay more to acquire rights to entertain the consumers. And all must be doing it for the good of their consumers. The consumers can expect better quality programmes at lower or more competitive cost. Now, would the programmes be better now that Singtel had almost double the bid price to acquire the rights for EPL etc? Would the consumers be paying more or lesser after this great and free competition? Someone was shouting 'Singapore Premium ah!' behind my back. It is so easy to make money from Singapore. No problem actually when we have so much money to spend, OPM.

No lawsuit is the way to go

Two letters by Dr Chong Yeh Woei, President, 50th Council, Singapore Medical Association and Associate Professor Goh Lee Gan, President and Council, College of Family Physicians Singapore, were in the ST forum to defend the medical profession after Salma Khalik's article 'Tame doctor's greed and protect patients'. The medical profession must feel aggrieved by the statement that doctors are greedy and needed to be tamed. In some profession or businesses, such an allegation may bring about a series of charges and impending lawsuits to sue the party to bankruptcy. It is most pleasing to read the counter arguments by the two doctors to defend their profession and not to go for litigation. This is a sign that our society has progressed, matured and people are wise and reasonable enough to engage in fair discussion. Oh, I heard of the several suggestions in the recent Miss World contest that some of the contestants may be sued. I hope not and rationality and good sense will settle whatever issues that are in the heat. We don't need more litigations to settle disputes. Leave litigations to those with a lot of money to spend or to bully those who cannot pay the huge legal fees.

Responsible role of media

Dawn Tay, 'the media's role is to ensure accountability. Between pageant organisers and beauty queens, and the country they represent. Between newspapers and readers, to whom the press has responsibility to uncover the truth for.' The above is quoted from an article by Dawn Tay in My Paper today. She went on to justify 'the steady stream of reports by various media, which shed more light on the saga and eventually forced pageant organiser ERM World Marketing to break its silence last Monday.' With such a high standard set by our media, we must feel confident that any dubious activity or less than righteous happenings will be fully reported with the same zeal and conviction as the indiscretion of a 19 year old kid who cheated a few thousand dollars. We should soon be able to read more reports about cases involving millions. Actually no. Singaporeans don't cheat, except kids. Singaporeans should thank the media for their strong commitment to uncover and report the truth.

Salary cap for head honchos of State Owned Enterprises

China has initiated a cap on the salaries of the CEOs of their SOEs. At the moment the highest paid CEO from China National Offshore Oil Corporation, CNOOC, earns $2.5m. The next highest earns half of this amount. And the third is only paid less than $300k a year. Other perks not included. Given the scale of their operations and revenues, the salaries earned were peanuts. The head honchos should submit an appeal to compare their salaries with those CEOs of similar industries to get a fair salary. They are obviously very underpaid for the responsibilities they are shouldering. Or at least they can compare their salaries with our CEOs to give a picture of how lowly paid they are. They can quote Singapore as a role model of transparency and good corporate govt and we are paying should be fair and good. And they have been copying Singapore in many things and copying the way we pay our CEOs is only natural. And after the comparison, the CEO of CNOOC could easily be in the region of $10m or more. How could they justify to curb their CEO's salaries when they are so indecently underpaid? If they do that, they must be prepared for more corruption in high places.

A storm in paradise

Typhoon Ketsana is sweeping through the Philippines and threatening the lives of millions of Filipinos. 7.5 richter scale earthquake hit Padang and Bengkulu in Indonesia, burying villages and villagers and flattening towns and destroying lives and properties. No amount of international aids can minimise the pain and suffering of these affected people. In paradise, our media were flooded with news of a storm in the form of boomz and rats. Some had a good laugh but some were dead serious. On reflection, we are very blessed as a little country. We are spared from the ferocity and rages of nature. We are blessed with an able govt that is working so hard to make this a better paradise everyday. Are we lucky? We have our little irritations and irritants in our midst but more like the itches of mosquito bites. Nothing earth shattering or crisis like except for the little recklessness in the financial flirtation with making easy money and with no regards to responsibilities. From the big picture we are indeed very fortunate and a paradise. We have good govt and public administrators working their guts out for the people. But there are still some little people with small hearts that are making decisions that will affect adversely the lives of our people. The earlier we get rid of them the better. We cannot have small people with small hearts to make public policies and decisions for the people. In govt and public services, we need people with a different mindset, people with ideals and with a big heart to serve the people, to want the best for the people. A good example is the expectation in public housing and the way it is heading. There are little people who think that the losers in life should be happy if they have a roof over their heads, even a dog kennel will do. And it is ok to pay a life time, spending a big chunk of their income just to have a roof and 4 walls around them. Whatever, a flat is just that. You do not need to pay a lifetime for it. The govt needs to relook at the housing policy, how small it shall go and no further, and how much it shall cost and no more. And it is bad to have people waiting for 3 years just to get a roof over their head. The HDB was very successful in their early days to provide a roof to anyone who needs it. It only took a few months from application to moving in. This is a good and excellent policy for the people. But some jokers think that this was bad. People must made to wait. Waiting for 3 years is good, or normal. I want to use the four letter word here. A little oversupply of public housing is good. A 80 sq m 3 rm flat or a 90 sq m 4 rm flat must be the bottom that we should go in building homes for our average citizens. Going smaller is bad. The small 1 or 2 rm rental flats must be temporary shelters for those who have lost their ways or their luck ran out on them. Those must not be considered as the standard for a decent living for our people. We are using state land and public money and we must use them wisely and with a little generosity for the good of the people. To have good public policies favouring the people, we need good govt. And good govt must not be contaminated with little people with small hearts.