The Devil’s Advocate

I am trying to put myself into the shoe of the devil and to understand his logic and motivation as the master planner of our transport system.

Let me start with cars for motorists. Being the devil, he would want to make as much money from the motorists as possible. These can come from road tax, PARF, ARF, petrol tax, car parking and even motor insurance. But the two schemes for easy money must be COEs and ERPs. For COEs, make sure that the supply is always limited. And this must be the easiest thing to do and all the right justifications given the space constraint. The pumping in of more foreigners is a god sent backup that would ensure that the number of cars on the road would always be critical. Then play on the rich who are able to afford to pay more and more to have the roads for themselves. At the same time tell those who cannot afford to take public transport. At $50k per piece of paper, without production cost, negligible manpower and material cost, what a sure win formula.

As for ERPs, just keep shifting the gantry points. Another easy scheme to make money. Put up one and shift the jam to the next bottle neck. That would be good justification for a new ERP. And when the jam builds up at the peripheral roads, more good reasons to erect more ERPs. It is kind of a never ending opportunity to make more money by simply putting up money collecting points.

What about public transport system? Just make it look good but never allow it to undermine the price of COEs and people wanting to drive their own cars. What does it mean? Don’t make it too comfortable or cheap enough as a substitute. It must look like a substitute, but weighing all the costs and inconvenience, the motorists will still want to pay the $50k COEs and the multiple ERPs to get around.

Also, it will increase the profits if the buses or trains are packed like sardines. It will be maximization of every inch of available space, for the same number of drivers and trains or buses.

The public transport system and the availability or convenience of private transport must be carefully managed to give the best yield in terms of profits. The ability for both systems to lay the golden eggs must not be undermined.

The above scenario is only valid in the minds of the devil. Luckily we have a good govt constantly trying to improve public transportation and to minimize the cost for the good of the people. And a minister had to pay the price for the people’s unhappiness in public transport. Actually it is very unfair. Why remove a minister who have made our transport system world class? The same logic should apply to our world class healthcare system that made Boon Wan an icon.

We now have a new minister who even tried to feel how it is to travel in public transport, off peak and during peak hours. More improvements will be on the way.

Myth 229 - The myth of objectivity

It is a taken, a belief, that in order for a person to perform the role of checks and balance, that person has to be neutral to be able to act objectively. It is also a practical consideration. The last thing you want is a person in such a position to have kinship relations or be beholden to the parties that the person is supposed to check on. Thus a person coming in from the cold, with no attachment, is the ideal candidate, provided the person has all the qualifications needed. Between one that is completely unrelated versus one that is related or connected, it is clear that the former is best suited for the job.

For many years, an independent director of a listed company, someone who is called such, and must be independent, often are picked and appointed by the management, paid by the management who could fire him at will. Often the independent director could be a family member or a good friend or a close associate. And he is expected to watch over the management and blow the whistle if they did wrong. It looked very untidy.

This was the happy arrangement for many years and nothing or very few things went wrong. Only recently that someone thought it should not be the case and an independent director must be truly independent to act as checks and balance over the management. If past experience over all the years gone by is a good indicator, such a concern for neutrality is superfluous. All or most of the independent directors, despite being handpicked by the management, despite being ‘pally pally’ with the management, seemed to have done their jobs well within the law.

With the new regulations, family members, relations, friends, golfing kakis, would most probably be ruled out from being independent directors. If such a reasoning is extended to the management of an organization, you could not have a CEO being the husband and the spouse being the Chairman or vice versa. Or in a worst case, the Finance Director is the wife, the CEO is the hubby and the Chairman is the father or father in law. Such a situation will undermine all the concerns of independence and transparency and give grounds for suspicion. Then again, given the lack of talented individuals in paradise, if such arrangement is not allowed, most organizations will have problems filling up senior positions. And the alternative will have to be foreign talents.

Our historical and empirical evidences have proven that as long as the person in charge is an honest and upright person, incorruptible, there is no problem even if one is father and the other is son, or between husband and wife. The key is the uprightedness of the person. The rest of the conditions and precautionary measures are hogwash. Just pick a person with good upbringings, all the right values, integrity, all the problems will go away.

The current issue of an Elected President may come under the same scrutiny for neutrality and free from attachments from the ruling govt. The Elected President has a check and balance role over the nation’s reserves that he is supposed to guard against an errant govt. We have 3 candidates that have one time or another been part of the ruling govt. So will they be suitable to place the custodian role to guard their former comrades in action?

The answer is not to worry. It has been proven that an ex PAP member, even cadre member/minister, could execute his presidential duties independently without being corrupted by past relationship. The honourable President Ong Teng Cheong had proven that it could be done. The only condition is the right person, with high personal integrity and a commitment to carry out his duty honestly, righteously, free from any encumbrance or association. It is the person that will determine whether the Elected President will do his job well and as expected of him.

So, all the three ex PAP candidates should have no problem acting the role of an independent Elected President. Their past association is not material. The criteria of neutrality is not applicable, just a myth. They will act independently, like independent directors, watching over the govt, and protecting the nation’s reserves for the good of the people.

With this doubt being removed, the people can go on and vote any of the candidates standing. Go for the one that looks good, look presidential, looks like a president. And we will have a good looking President that can fill our family albums and the pages of the newspaper across the world. Looking presidential is a great quality.

The people’s prayer answered

With the three ex PAP Tan’s in the race, it was kind of who was the lesser evil, or who was the least PAP. It was like a GE where the opposition could not come out with good calibre candidates and the people were left with a half past six choice. They wanted to vote opposition but not what were offered on the slate. Some reluctantly threw their votes behind a less than acceptable opposition candidate. Some were forced to give it to a PAP candidate against their will.

Voting for any of the three Tans is something like that. It is like voting PAP when the people wanted something else, someone totally untainted by the culture, values, policies and records of the PAP. Some may say what’s wrong with that? Just listen to the ground and feel the scorn and anger and you will understand the feeling. But one can choose to ignore the ground and bury the head in the sand and called them nonsense, that PAP still represents what is best and good for the people.

While the people were caught in another dilemma, the invisible hand acted, just like throwing in Chen Show Mao and a few gallant and worthy candidates during the last GE into the opposition camp. Out of the blue came Tan Jee Say. He might have been with the civil service, but he was not with the ruling party. Now there is a clear and unambiguous choice for the people.

The angst of the people was heard and their prayers answered. The people have a choice to vote for someone not from the PAP, a virgin of sort. Would the people squander away the chance like they did in the last GE? Or would they have learnt their lessons and take this god sent opportunity seriously?

The fear of uncertainty, of a new and untested govt is not there. The govt is in place. The voting in of a neutral President that can check the ruling govt must be the top priority in the minds of every thinking individual. The blind believers can continue to vote according to their belief and teachings. The rest of the people must now vote wisely. When you can choose between black and white, there is no need to compromise by choosing another shade of grey. When a situation is murky, when awkward explanations and justifications are needed, it is best to go for one that is clear and free from adulterated reasonings.

There is now a non PAP candidate versus three ex PAP candidates. What would the people be thinking, and who would they vote to be the next Elected Presidential that could objectively check on the ruling govt when the nation’s reserves are concerned? Yes, Tony is a nice man, looks very presidential. So is Cheng Bock and Kin Lian, all very nice and will make very good looking Presidents. What is the crux of the matter? What matters most in this election? Is it just personality or the purpose and function of the Elected President?

3 Tans and one more Tan

Tan Jee Say just announced his candidacy for the Presidential Election. With 4 Tans in the contest, this presidential race is going to be exceptionally heavy. By his personal disclosure, he looks like one that should have no problem with the Certificate of Eligibility.

Now the picture changes. 3 ex PAPs against an ex SDP. How would this change the odds and the choices of the people? If they are all anti PAP, Jee Say will be there collecting all their votes. The pro PAP camp will be splitted by the ardent believers for Tony, the old guards for Cheng Bock and the rebels for Kin Lian.

At first I thought it will further dilute the chances of ‘opposition’ biased candidates. But it may look good for Jee Say as the only non PAP associated candidate. But then there is Andrew Kuan. But he will likely be disqualified on precedence. His last application was unsuccessful.

So we have Tan, Tan, Tan against another Tan.

Expensive yo yos

I was at a toy shop looking for some toys to amuse myself. And I must say that adult toys are really getting quite expensive, and many would be just too much to pay for. Just for curiosity I asked the owner of his most expensive toys. He pointed to two yo yos.

I was amazed by the price tags. Unbelieveable! So I walked over to take a closer look. There were testimonials attached to the two yo yos. Mine, great stuff for reading. They were previously owned by top celebrities and had performed in many big events, had seen better days. Despite the price tags, they were a bit worn down and had lost some of their shines.

I asked the owner how long had they been on the shelf. He said quite a while. Some customers came to ask but were taken aback by the asking price. Some thought the asking price was a joke. Looked like they would be left on the shelf for a long while, I thought.

I asked the owner about the chances for the two yo yos to be sold. He grinned. ‘Don’t worry, just wait for some suckers to come by.’ Anyway, by pricing them so high, it made the rest of his stocks looked cheap.

Brilliant sales tactics. I believe he will soon put up a big sales sign claiming 50% discount. That would make the yo yos look like a bargain.