The recommendations of the Salary Review Committee will be debated on Monday 16 Jan in Parliament. It will be PAP versus others, between those going to vote for the recommendations and those against it. It will not be a debate on conscience, not about morality or decency, but a debate on policy.
Yes, Gan Kim Yong said the whip will not be lifted. This means that the PAP MPs must toe the line, and vote for the new salary. They have no choice, they cannot vote against it. But would they stand up and speak against it? No, it is a PAP policy and they must be disciplined, cannot break rank, it is us against them. Those who believe that PAP MPs can speak to oppose PAP policies, this sitting will tell them rudely that they can forget it in important issues like this one.
The stage is set for a bi partisan debate, with PAP for and others against the recommendation. It will be 6 against 81. And the vote is final and the recommendations will be approved. The bill is passed, or as good as passed even before Parliament sits. This is democracy, the rule of the majority…in Parliament.
1/12/2012
MRT jams - Another expert recommendation
I heard that some experts are recommending that SMRT provide incentives in the form of monetary rewards to commuters to take the trains outside the peak hours. I think this is a very ingenious suggestion. How come no super talent can think of such a brilliant idea?
I am seriously considering doing that now and see how much money is SMRT going to incentivize me. Okay, my office starts work at 9 am. Now if I were to take the 7am train, I could miss the peak hours and get some money back from SMRT. If one way is 20c, two ways will be 40c daily. For 22 days, that will be a saving of $8.80 a month. Whoa, one year nearly $100! Not bad at all.
Now what am I going to do arriving at the office one hour earlier? One day two hours, one hour earlier to arrive and one hour later to leave, that is 44 hours a month or 500 over hours that I need to stay in the office.
Is it worth it for the $100 savings? Of course lah. Can spend more time doing own things or have more time to do office work. The bosses will be happy and may get higher variable bonuses some more. That means the monetary reward is more than $100 a year.
Ok, SMRT, please quickly implement this money reward schemes and reduce the jams during peak hours. It is definitely a win win win situation. I win, SMRT wins and my company also wins.
Simply brilliant.
I am seriously considering doing that now and see how much money is SMRT going to incentivize me. Okay, my office starts work at 9 am. Now if I were to take the 7am train, I could miss the peak hours and get some money back from SMRT. If one way is 20c, two ways will be 40c daily. For 22 days, that will be a saving of $8.80 a month. Whoa, one year nearly $100! Not bad at all.
Now what am I going to do arriving at the office one hour earlier? One day two hours, one hour earlier to arrive and one hour later to leave, that is 44 hours a month or 500 over hours that I need to stay in the office.
Is it worth it for the $100 savings? Of course lah. Can spend more time doing own things or have more time to do office work. The bosses will be happy and may get higher variable bonuses some more. That means the monetary reward is more than $100 a year.
Ok, SMRT, please quickly implement this money reward schemes and reduce the jams during peak hours. It is definitely a win win win situation. I win, SMRT wins and my company also wins.
Simply brilliant.
Truly an island with no talent
When they want to find a nice name for Marina Bay, they sought the expertise of foreign consultants who advised them, after collecting $400k, to call it Marina Bay.
Today we have this MRT problem, a system that we have been operating for 30 years and looking like falling into pieces. And who else to look for expert advice when there is none locally? Call for foreign experts lah. Just pay only what. I can’t believe that after 30 years we have no talent good enough to look into the problem which is not let a failure of a rocket to the moon.
And when ponding became a problem, and as usual, there are no local talent that are really good at it, call for foreign talents. After six months of studies by a panel of 12 experts, some local and some foreign, a list of ingenious solutions that our locals would never imagine have been tabled. Roof gardens, roof ponds, porous roads, collecting water by every building, delaying the flow of water, raising barriers, increasing thresholds of buildings, and some enormous infrastructure changes were proposed. Yes, foreign talents are where all the solutions coming from. 6 months of studies with 12 experts cannot be for free.
If only I have a string of engineering degrees I will recommend them to put a bubble roof over the whole of Orchard Road. Not only it would reduce the rain water over the area, the roof must cover a big enough area, it would also be useful to control the climate under the bubble. You want wind you can have wind. You want snow you can have snow. Definitely a great attraction that would improve the attractiveness of Orchard Road. And if solar cells are used, all the improvements and inventions on solar energy can be incorporated. Great stuff, really.
Maybe we can wait for another panel of foreign talents to recommend this. Put a bubble over Orchard Road.
What is the point of paying all the super talented salary for super talents when every little problem there will be a big scramble for foreign talents who were mostly paid half of what our supertalents are being paid?
There is no need for 5 specialists when one gets pile in the arse. And definitely no need to seek reassurance and a second opinion from a foreign pile specialist. Of course when one has all the money to throw, or hoping that if the recommendation is not good enough, then we can point the finger at the foreign specialist, a foreign specialist will come in useful. Or since the foreign specialist cannot solve it, no local talent can. Safe.
Today we have this MRT problem, a system that we have been operating for 30 years and looking like falling into pieces. And who else to look for expert advice when there is none locally? Call for foreign experts lah. Just pay only what. I can’t believe that after 30 years we have no talent good enough to look into the problem which is not let a failure of a rocket to the moon.
And when ponding became a problem, and as usual, there are no local talent that are really good at it, call for foreign talents. After six months of studies by a panel of 12 experts, some local and some foreign, a list of ingenious solutions that our locals would never imagine have been tabled. Roof gardens, roof ponds, porous roads, collecting water by every building, delaying the flow of water, raising barriers, increasing thresholds of buildings, and some enormous infrastructure changes were proposed. Yes, foreign talents are where all the solutions coming from. 6 months of studies with 12 experts cannot be for free.
If only I have a string of engineering degrees I will recommend them to put a bubble roof over the whole of Orchard Road. Not only it would reduce the rain water over the area, the roof must cover a big enough area, it would also be useful to control the climate under the bubble. You want wind you can have wind. You want snow you can have snow. Definitely a great attraction that would improve the attractiveness of Orchard Road. And if solar cells are used, all the improvements and inventions on solar energy can be incorporated. Great stuff, really.
Maybe we can wait for another panel of foreign talents to recommend this. Put a bubble over Orchard Road.
What is the point of paying all the super talented salary for super talents when every little problem there will be a big scramble for foreign talents who were mostly paid half of what our supertalents are being paid?
There is no need for 5 specialists when one gets pile in the arse. And definitely no need to seek reassurance and a second opinion from a foreign pile specialist. Of course when one has all the money to throw, or hoping that if the recommendation is not good enough, then we can point the finger at the foreign specialist, a foreign specialist will come in useful. Or since the foreign specialist cannot solve it, no local talent can. Safe.
1/11/2012
Putting money in the wrong place
China has woken up to its folly of investing its money in American stocks. The last decade had seen China losing billions in pouring money into American stocks while neglecting its own stock market. Instead of making money, it burnt a big hole for its blind belief and adolation of Wall Street and the great American financial con game. While doing it, it also in a way allowed the hollowing of its own stock market and the value of Chinese stocks in Shanghai and Hongkong.
Now that it has learnt its lesson well, that Wall Street is another rotten apple and a bottomless pit, China is turning its interest back home. It is going to invest in its own market and stocks. China is also encouraging its pension funds and other financial institutions to boost its own stock markets.
The stupidity of Asians and their blind infatuation of everything American are turning full circle. The Chinese have learnt well and no longer behaving like little boys and girls pouring money into American stocks and assets. They rather put money to support their own markets and not look so stupid to the Americans.
The Chinese are now taking the lead to return to Asian. They used to believe and were misled by dumb American believers.
The Chinese stock markets can look forward to more Chinese funds supporting their own stocks.
Would Temasek and GIC now learn from China and cut their losses in America and Europe and bring back their foreign invested funds to support the local market and local stocks? Or would they continue in their blind belief that the American and European markets are the safest and most promising place to invest while hollowing out the local markets and abandoning local stocks?
Now that it has learnt its lesson well, that Wall Street is another rotten apple and a bottomless pit, China is turning its interest back home. It is going to invest in its own market and stocks. China is also encouraging its pension funds and other financial institutions to boost its own stock markets.
The stupidity of Asians and their blind infatuation of everything American are turning full circle. The Chinese have learnt well and no longer behaving like little boys and girls pouring money into American stocks and assets. They rather put money to support their own markets and not look so stupid to the Americans.
The Chinese are now taking the lead to return to Asian. They used to believe and were misled by dumb American believers.
The Chinese stock markets can look forward to more Chinese funds supporting their own stocks.
Would Temasek and GIC now learn from China and cut their losses in America and Europe and bring back their foreign invested funds to support the local market and local stocks? Or would they continue in their blind belief that the American and European markets are the safest and most promising place to invest while hollowing out the local markets and abandoning local stocks?
Dump the KPIs/bonuses for ministers
You cannot run a country on greed or money. If what is good for the country is all about greed and money, then you will have to face policies that are greed or money driven.
A country is about the well being of its people, not about the well being of a few rich men or women, not about the superb infrastructure, not about GDP growth, if they don’t benefit the people.
To connect the performance of political leaders to KPIs is controversial. To link them to GDP is dangerous. We have seen an economic wonder in year 2010 when our GDP out performed China and India. It must be another world record for Guinness, 15% GDP growth! No bluff. If there is no linkage of GDP with minister’s performance, we may not be near that number by a mile. It was a miracle that is like once in 50 years event. Make that 100 years.
And nothing can be more terrible than to link minister’s pay with GDP as KPIs. We know how numbers can work wonders with a little jigging by the statisticians. No need to explain. Even Ali, Ah Eng and Amir can do it to look good, and betterer if their pays are tied to it.
How could dumbass experts tie the performance of a country to just economic numbers? The well being of the people, cost of living, happiness, general health, quality of life, freedom of expression, a good life, to live and enjoy life instead of working to death, living in bigger and better housing, no need to fear a runaway property price and unable to buy decent roofs over their heads, good jobs, to be able to spend their hard earned money, etc etc are all important factors that must be taken together as a whole. Running a country is not just about how much more profit. It is everything, about a good or better life.
Dump the KPIs. And never link minister performance with profits. The National Development Minister must have gotten 24 or 27.5 months of bonus for increasing the revenue of HDB and its profits if his KPIs were about revenue and profits. But what about the consequences and the well being of the people, the pain, the angst and the money being emptied from their savings, forced to buy ever higher property prices in the public and private sector. And force to wait 4 or 5 years to get their flats? Are they really good for the people?
National leadership is not just about making money and raising GDP numbers. It is about people, and no, not just people, it is about the citizens, the interests and welfare of the citizens. Once these objectives are being distorted by money and greed, the people will only be aroused, I mean anger and discontent of the people.
Spare the effort and wasteful time and resources to measure performances of ministers by themselves. The simple and more important and relevant way is to evaluate them by the people through the ballot box. The citizens may be daft but not dumb and know what is a good govt and what is a bad govt. They have exercised their little intelligence for the past 4 decades for their own good by voting for good govt. How can anyone dismiss the people as stupid and do not know how to judge if the govt is good or bad?
Let the people decide whether a govt deserves to be reelected. Period. Dump the KPIs. Running a country is a long term enterprise, not short term results measurable annually.
A country is about the well being of its people, not about the well being of a few rich men or women, not about the superb infrastructure, not about GDP growth, if they don’t benefit the people.
To connect the performance of political leaders to KPIs is controversial. To link them to GDP is dangerous. We have seen an economic wonder in year 2010 when our GDP out performed China and India. It must be another world record for Guinness, 15% GDP growth! No bluff. If there is no linkage of GDP with minister’s performance, we may not be near that number by a mile. It was a miracle that is like once in 50 years event. Make that 100 years.
And nothing can be more terrible than to link minister’s pay with GDP as KPIs. We know how numbers can work wonders with a little jigging by the statisticians. No need to explain. Even Ali, Ah Eng and Amir can do it to look good, and betterer if their pays are tied to it.
How could dumbass experts tie the performance of a country to just economic numbers? The well being of the people, cost of living, happiness, general health, quality of life, freedom of expression, a good life, to live and enjoy life instead of working to death, living in bigger and better housing, no need to fear a runaway property price and unable to buy decent roofs over their heads, good jobs, to be able to spend their hard earned money, etc etc are all important factors that must be taken together as a whole. Running a country is not just about how much more profit. It is everything, about a good or better life.
Dump the KPIs. And never link minister performance with profits. The National Development Minister must have gotten 24 or 27.5 months of bonus for increasing the revenue of HDB and its profits if his KPIs were about revenue and profits. But what about the consequences and the well being of the people, the pain, the angst and the money being emptied from their savings, forced to buy ever higher property prices in the public and private sector. And force to wait 4 or 5 years to get their flats? Are they really good for the people?
National leadership is not just about making money and raising GDP numbers. It is about people, and no, not just people, it is about the citizens, the interests and welfare of the citizens. Once these objectives are being distorted by money and greed, the people will only be aroused, I mean anger and discontent of the people.
Spare the effort and wasteful time and resources to measure performances of ministers by themselves. The simple and more important and relevant way is to evaluate them by the people through the ballot box. The citizens may be daft but not dumb and know what is a good govt and what is a bad govt. They have exercised their little intelligence for the past 4 decades for their own good by voting for good govt. How can anyone dismiss the people as stupid and do not know how to judge if the govt is good or bad?
Let the people decide whether a govt deserves to be reelected. Period. Dump the KPIs. Running a country is a long term enterprise, not short term results measurable annually.
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