Jeremy Chen – Nation Wide Town Council Management System

Jeremy Chen has proposed a NWTCMS for a cost of $1.2m, (700k for software development and $500k for hardware). Or is it $700k as he claimed? Nevermind, the number is just too good to believe in a way when the latest tender was $16.8m.

I was thinking of walking into Sim Lim or Funan to buy the software off the shelf. I don’t think those places have software that costs more than $20k each. But I am no software specialists and maybe they have things like $100k or $200k. Still quite cheap really. Anyway, disregard this comment as I don’t think it can be done this way.

Jeremy Chen’s proposal is more serious and looks like he did some thinking to come out with the numbers. But I still think it is too cheap. I double or triple his price if he can come up with a workable one as he has proposed. I am sure MND would be most happy to have such a cheap system.

Talking about cheap, when I read $700k, I already give up. How can any system be good that is so cheap? Not likely. The bench mark already set, from $23.8m to $16.8m to be reasonable for such a system, and not for the whole island, just a few TCs or a smaller grouping of one TC plus one two single ward constituencies. Jeremy’s number is just too troubling and too unbelieveable.

Even if it works, Jeremy should not put it up as he is saboing the businesses of other vendors and making the buyers looked silly. CBF has no place in this episode. I wonder if MND would throw out a challenge to Jeremy to produce the proposed system and buy it from him at Jeremy’s price with a special bonus of $2m to top it up for doing the impossible?

I am salivating already. Any thinking businessman wants to approach Jeremy, throw him his asking price, get the system working and sell it to MND for $5m? It is still a steal at $5m when the cheapest is $16.8m. Make it $6.8m, sounds better.

Jeremy must be given credit to come out with this outrageous price. You see, everyone is now accustomed or conditioned to think that a TCMS must cost tens of millions. No one would think of anything cheaper. And $16.8m from $23.8m, wow, great savings, good buy. But what is the real cost of such a system, aka, what is the real cost of a HDB flat? Jeremy has said that it could be as low as $1.2m or $700k. This must have woken up many people who have been sleeping or in stupor. Like Boon Wan said, a TCMS is not highly sophisticated software and could be bought over the shelf. The functions are ordinary at best with some addition or customisation to accommodate some local features. What is so complicated about it that it must cost tens of millions?

Many small entrepreneurs or computer science students could develop such a software with no big issue and in double quick time.

Shane Todd case – A test of competence

The Tribunal to reinvestigate the investigation of the Shane Todd death is taking a different dimension. While the objective of all parties concerned is the truth, it has become a test of professionalism of our police force and the justice system. But that is not all. It is also a competition between our very best professionals and their skills in investigating a suicide/murder case against the expertise of the ‘best’ in the US.

Through the process of reviewing what had been done by the police previously, the side representing the complainant has all the information on the table for them to put under the microscope to dissect, and to bring in the very ‘best’ experts they could find that think they have a case to prove and that the earlier findings were wrong or done unprofessionally.

The team that handled the investigation is now the investigated and the defending party, not the merits of the case.  They have to prove their worth, that they are professional and competent, and now, to prove to the ‘best’ from the US that the local team is really professional, competent and pushovers.

The outcome of this case is challenging and a lot is at stake. Can our local talents hold their ground against the ‘best’ foreign talents and indirectly prove the fallacy that foreign talents are better than our local talents? So far our local talents are doing quite well to defend point by point thrown at them, and any inadequacy or inability to fend off the attack will create a big dent in their credibility and professionalism.

Competency is in question and at stake. The credibility of the men in blue is put to a severe test in public. This is like war and they rightly deserve a medal if they could pull through and defend their ground against the attackers. I can only say, do not be cowed by the foreign ‘best’ which look very ordinary so far.

Obsolescence of citizenship

I have written quite a number of articles calling for more jobs and recognition for being Singaporeans and being citizens of this island we called home. This, to me, is a place that our forefathers have turned around, from a British colony and a not so well developed country of the Third World to the Jewel of Southeast Asia. Thought we should be proud of what have been done by our forefathers and should claim credit for it.

Looks like I am just a voice in the wilderness and not many people care two hoots what was done in the past. The honour and the people that needed to be rewarded are the new foreign talents, the foreign workers and nothing to do with Singaporeans, the daft and lazy and untalented and undeserving citizens should just shift out and be replaced.

Many are getting sick of the message that I thought Singaporeans should be thinking and talking about for their own well being and the well being of their future generations. The pathetic turnout at Hong Lim is a point to ponder. And the many annoying views against the protection of Singaporeans and their jobs have appeared more and more frequently in my blog and also elsewhere in the social media and the main media.

Singapore is a place for the talented regardless of nationalities. All the good and top jobs must go to the most talented and deserving. I spent one whole night meditating over this call and have been enlightened by the power of the logic and reasoning. Yes, Singapore and the citizens would be nothing if we are narrow minded, trapped by our little pride and nationalistic fervour, to want to reserve the good and top jobs for not so talented Singaporeans. For the survival of Singapore, we should allow the talents of the world to come in and take over the top jobs in the island to drive the economic growth for the good of the future of the island.

I have finally come around with my rustic, naive and archaic thinking that we should be thinking for the good of Singaporeans. No, that is a bad idea, a regressive idea. The lesser talented and daft have no place for the future, citizens or no citizens. The future is for the best talented.

Singapore is the city of the future for the talents of the world. Imagine the kind of city Singapore will be if all the top talents are here and all the dafts are departed for their own good. It will truly live up to the expectation of what a futuristic and fantasy utopia of the rich and most well endowed human beans the world ever produced.

To move into this direction, let’s do away with citizenship. The new term to replace citizenship can be locals or residents. These are people specially qualified by their talents to live here. The rest will be temporary workers, the no talents. The first exercise will be to select the Singapore citizens and PRs and sort them out, and divide them along this line. The non locals or non residents, ex Singaporeans included, can still be rewarded to become locals or residents, if they can prove themselves over the years, that they are deserving talents.

No job in the country is reserved for citizens, as there will be no such category left. Taxi drivers will also lose their reserve occupation to drive taxis. At the top, all govt posts, including President, PM and Ministers will also be open to all locals and residents. In this way only the very best in the world can take over these positions. No half baked citizens can aspire or conspire to keep these jobs to themselves. And there will be free mobility of talents in and out of the island, based on nothing but their talents or no talents.

Singapore will be the best place to live in, for the best talented. The lesser talented and not so talented, please shift out.

Are you talented enough to be a local or resident? Good luck to you.

Sun Tzu’s Art of War in practice

The continuing episode of the tussle over the AIM saga has taken a new twist with the WP’s award of the TCMS contract to FM Solutions and Services(FMSS) taking the spotlight. The AIM saga saw the PAP on the defensive, warding blows all over.

The picture has changed with the FMSS involvement and the WP is now on the defensive. Teo Ho Pin has suggested something amiss amounting to impropriety. The WP, represented by Sylvia Lim, has stood its ground and challenged Teo Ho Pin to report the case to CPIB if they think it is necessary. The ball is now in the court of the PAP, to go to the CPIB or not got go. Going to the CPIB is a serious thing and WP will be very busy invited for tea and its award of the contract to FMSS be put under the microscope. Not going to the CPIB is an admission that what he said has no basis. Very likely it will go to CPIB I think.

Would WP then counter the move with a report to CPIB on the AIM saga, if they can find any ground to do so, and open another front? This is political warfare with attacks and counteroffensive, evasions, misleading the enemies, diversions, all lumped into the battle field.

How would this war go forward and how long will it take to end the war? Will there be a victor or will both parties end up as collateral damages? This is going to be a massive exercise involving a lot of manhours and resources and the skills of military strategists and snoops to dig out more information as cannon fodder. The beneficiary of this contest will be truth, transparency and accountability, hopefully.

Politicians will be made more aware of the spotlight that could fall on them on what they are doing and the explanations they have to provide to appease public scrutiny. This is something like washing dirty linen in the open. This is a new expectation, a new political reality.

Myth 1 and Myth2 Polls

The two polls on the top right have expired and the numbers shown are not amusing. In fact the numbers are jumping up and down daily. My earlier polls received about 600 votes. These two could barely get 20 votes each. Yesterday I saw one showing 50 votes. Of course the real numbers were much higher. The first poll reached about 60 but crashed down to below 20 a few days latter and had been at that level since then. The second poll suffered the same fate.

I do not believe that Blogger offered a poll facility that is flawed or unreliable. But the fact is that the Poll facility is not showing the real data and it is quite pointless to use it any more.

Blogger.com/, if you are reading this, you need to rectify this as it reflects badly on Blogger itself. Until this error is corrected I shall refrain from using the Poll again.

The issue raised as to whether Singapore is providing more good and high value jobs to foreigners or the other way round is quite obvious to some. Look at the few hundred PMETs here is enough to tell a picture. These foreigners must be getting a good deal here, some may not even get a job if not of Singapore, or else they would not be here, they would have scooted. And there are many CEO jobs given to foreigners and paying millions, several millions that could have gone to able Singaporeans. How many such jobs were created by the foreigners here for Singaporeans? Or how many thousand PMET jobs, paying good salaries, have the foreigners created for Singaporeans?

This is a piece of statistics that is not available yet. This issue should be discussed to confirm that bringing in the foreigners and foreign companies really contributed to more and better jobs for Singaporeans and not the other way. And those foreign companies that are not contributing anything of good value to Singaporeans is best to tell them to find their cheap source of labour elsewhere. There is no value for their presence here. And the Govt should consider keep all the top jobs for Singaporeans wherever possible unless it is a case of no choice, where the business will turn turtle without the foreign talent. In most cases the difference made is marginable and not earth shaking and Singaporeans should be the preferred candidates especially in Govt institutions and GLCs. We don’t owe the foreigners to give them high paying jobs.

As Hsien Loong pointed out, there is a dearth of Singaporeans in the banking and finance industry at the senior leader, the specialists and leaders. This is not good for the country.