Shane M the civic minded model citizen

Shane M is a young man. But he is standing tall, taller than many above his age, taller than many above his position as a student intern. He saw injustice, another intern being bullied and beaten in the office by his supervisor. He stood up against injustice. He video taped the incident, but being young and inexperienced, sought advice from Hardwarezone forum.

He was advised to make a police report. And he did. The Police and MOM have received reports of this case and are investigating. And the poor intern is saved from further physical assault and beating. The psychological wound on this young man can be serious and he would have to bear with it throughout his life.

Thanks to this young man Shane M, he is saved from the clutches of hell. Shane M deserves a commendation from the Police for his act of bravery and chivalry. I salute this young man. Our society needs more such fine young man that would not look the other way when something grossly wrong happened before him.

Tan Chuan Jin acted against discrimination in job opportunities

Tan Chuan Jin at a TAFEP organized conference on fair employment practices spoke out against employers discriminating against Singaporeans in SINGAPORE! Can you believe it? It is unbelieveable but it has happened for many years, and is still happening, with many Singaporean PMETs being forced out of their jobs while employers, ‘such as foreign managers hiring(hired) from their own home country’. How could this happen and go on for so long is really sickening. No? Many daft Sinkies will say it is ok. Let the best man take the job.

It is good that Chuan Jin has taken some actions and promising more actions to come, including legislation, to stop this outrageous practice against Singaporeans. The practice must be put to a stop immediately. It is not about enlightening employers and make them think more progressively, change their mindset. Such acts border on being criminal. It is regressive thinking of third world mentality bullying their adoptive first world citizens.

A few things Chuan Jin can do immediate. Send a directive to all ministries, stats boards and GLCs to stop such practices. Submit monthly reports on their PMET recruitment of foreigners. Make it mandatory that all the HR directors and managers are Singaporeans, and they are to report to MOM should the CEO instruct them to recruit foreigners in preference of Singaporeans. And there should be some quotas on foreigners at PMET levels. Jobs that do not need foreigners should go to Singaporeans first.

And the granting of employment agency licences to foreigners has to be reviewed and be limited. These are job and business opportunities for Singaporeans and do not need foreign expertise. The foreigners can tie up with Singaporean employment agencies and operate and service their clients in their home countries. The pie can thus be shared between Singaporeans and foreigners.

There should be regulations to restrict foreign companies to employ not more than 50 percent of their staff from foreigners, especially at PMET level. Critical GLCs like GIC, Temasek and banks should have succession plans in place to ensure that the reliance on foreigners is not for perpetuity. Singaporeans must be groomed to take over these institutions to look after Singapore’s national assets.

These are only for starters. The Govt has to put Singaporeans first in this high cost city when not having a good job and income is impossible to survive. Being underemployed and unemployed as Singaporeans living here is a harsh life sentence of indignity.

Social media is a dangerous place

There was an article in mypaper yesterday by a Joy Fang on the need for caution when treading in the social media. It is so easy to attract unnecessary and hostile reactions from strangers posting under anonymity, and their comments can be harsh and vulgar. Think Matilah Singapura.

Actually it is very true. But not all bloggers are crude, products of bad upbringings, or sick because of Tourette Syndrome or suffering from bi polar disorder or whatever disorder. For everyone such mentally ill blogger, there must be thousands or millions of decent and serious bloggers out there to make social media an important tool in information sharing and news dissemination.

The latest video of a supervisor beating, slapping and abusing his staff has gone viral. The circulation of such offensive acts, with the culprit on video, is a very powerful statement and will bring justice swiftly to the culprit. There is no way to deny the event, and there is no where to hide for the violator. And there is no way for the authority not to do anything about it. Social media facilitates social justice.

Even if everyone chooses to turn a blind eye, the exposure of the act and the culprit are enough as a punishment. The culprit cannot go incognito. He is exposed. He is demasked and everyone who knows him, has seen him, his family members, will know of his disgusting behavior.

This is the power of social media, to expose wrongs, to do rights, to defend the weak and the abused, if done correctly. Crimes or misbehavior or misconduct caught on camera is going to go viral. Of course this new tool can also be abused in the wrong hands. Innocent people can be attacked or wronged for the wrong reason. Some could be malicious, faked and fabricated. Misinformation can also be spread through social media.

Social media is just a tool and its goodness or ugliness, its usefulness, depends on how the users wield it and their agenda of using the social media. And yes, the MOM has acted. Police report has been made against the supervisor in the video. Thanks to the video and the media.

WP’s Art of War

The debate on the AIM saga in Parliament is intriguing. The revelation of the appointment of a husband and wife team to develop the TCMS for Aljunied, their appointment as managing agent (did I get this part right), the no tender award to one bidder, the development of another expensive TCMS, the management agent fee and the appointment and award of contract to party related people, all seems so blatantly in defiance of public scrutiny and exposing the WP to obvious attack by the PAP. The question begs to be answered is why is the WP doing these? They must know that they will become easy target and plenty of uncomfortable questions would be asked.

What is the strategy of the WP to voluntarily expose so many obvious gaps and seemingly not too appropriate things that they have done? Now the PAP side is so happy with this salivating opportunity to blow the WP apart for the very same faults that WP is questioning the PAP. Practically everything the WP pointed out as flaws of the PAP is being repeated, reenacted in the AHTC. Strange, very strange indeed.

And Sylvia is so confident to defy Teo Ho Pin to make a complaint to the CPIB for any wrongdoings on the WP’s part, or else shut up. She must have known something that we don’t. She must have known that any complaint and subsequent investigation are likely to make WP look better and maybe make PAP looks badder. Can this be the case?

The first hint of a successful coup de tat is the surprising revelation of readily available TCMS packages. By not going for it, by sticking to the same process of developing a new package at enormous cost, the WP is also looking a bit silly, when the truth is that a much cheaper generic package is readily available. The question thus is why the WP did not go to the market for a cheap and workable package and chose to follow the same process, to develop another expensive animal? They did not know?

The bigger question, why was this not done in the first place by the PAP when the latter knew that such a package is available? Maybe when the tender was called for the development of the $23.8m package, Boon Wan was not in the MND and could not advise them of this cheap alternative.

Everyone is now watching whether Teo Ho Pin would bring the case to the CPIB. And if he does, what else would be revealed that are applicable or similar to both camps and screwing one side would screw the other side harder? So far, the WP seems to be doing exactly what the PAP has done and religiously following them like saying, what you can do, I can do also. And if it is alright for you, it must be alright for me. Is this the strategy of the WP?

Doesn’t matter if Town Councils are politicised or not politicised

This seems to be the views of Warren Fernandez and Han Fook Kwang in their articles posted in the Sunday Times. Warren Fernandez wrote, ‘Most people, I believe, are not overly bothered whether town councils are political entities or not. Whatever the set up, they just want to be assured that the place will be well run.’ And this was Han Fook Kwang’s contribution, ‘As a Straits Times poll published last Wed reported, most residents said they were not interested in the politics of estate management; they just wanted their neighbourhood cleaned.’

I agree that the findings are normal. It is just like the citizens do not really care who won the GE and form the govt as long as the country is well run and the people’s interests are taken care of. Generally the majority are apolitical, apathetic to politics, disinterested, and want to be left alone to live their lives while the govt or town councils take care of the environment.

The people do not care if the town councils or govt are politicised. Should they care? Why do politicians want to politicise town councils? The answer is obvious. The politicisation of town councils or any institutions is to serve the interest of the politicians. Period.

Han Fook Kwang asked a pertinent question. When town councils are politicised, is there a conflict of interest? A non politicised town council or institution will work for a stated mission without the entanglements of politicians and political interest. Politicians exist for their own vested interest and political interest. The non political interest of govt or govt link institutions may be compromised by the very politicisation of the institutions. And when there is a conflict of interest, the political interest often takes precedent. And often, the political interest will cloud the interests of the institution and the people it is duty bound to serve. Tiok boh?

Would it happen, has it happen, that politicisation of town councils or institutions has compromised their reason of existence and the good of the people they are taking care of?

Though the people may not be interested in the politicisation or non politicisation of town councils and institutions, they cannot ignore and be not interested in such a development as their interest is at stake and often compromised. It is thus not a matter of the people not being interested. The people must be educated and be informed that it is in their interest to ensure that town councils and govt institutions are not politicised. Failing to educate the people on this important point and allowing the people to be misled into a state of dullness, thinking that it doesn’t matter is irresponsible.



It is in the people’s interest, like it or not, to prevent town councils and govt institutions from being politicised even if in practice it is easier said than done. It is like the sacrosanct aspirations of freedom of speech, protection of the rights of citizens in the Constitution, they must be in the Constitution to protect the people. They cannot be rewritten out of the Constitution just because the people are not interested, do not mind. It matters!