Tertiary education and PME jobs

This issue of jobs for Singaporeans and tertiary education has brought out a lot of controversies and a lot of angry cynicism in social media. The ministers have lately been down playing the importance of a piece of paper from the universities and even the redundancy of tertiary education. And the calls for Singaporeans to become hawkers, to become crane drivers and what not, have made the issue appears to be a deliberate policy in the making.

Contrast this with the hundreds of foreigners here with tertiary degrees and claiming to be better than the locals with their degrees and taking over the plum jobs of PMEs, the situation looks very negative and depressing for the local Singaporeans. But it is just another hard truth that the daft Sinkies must accept. It is the real world of money making.

And if one is to operate under the doctrine of pragmatism, economic expediency, bottom lines, the whole theory and possible policy make perfect sense. Why should anyone, govt or company, would want to waste money and time in training and education, a long and tedious process, when qualified, trained and experienced workers are available from the world, without having to spend a single cent? And when the door is open to the world, the availability and supply are in abundance with no holding cost. Employ on a need basis, hire and fire, it is simply so efficient and productive.

Then why the contradictory effort to have more universities? This could be used as a money spinning machine, with education as a business. It is used to train foreigners who can afford to pay the high fees. And to do so, the reputation of these universities must be world class. Go for the rankings, bring in the best academics. Once the reputation and quality have been established, the whole intake can be foreigners. The current intake of foreigners provided with scholarships is just a loss leader. Get them in, make the foreigners comfortable and they could go home to spread the words. Think this could be the business strategy and business model. I am just speculating, just looking at the business angle and the possibilities.

Singaporeans who are paying cheaper rates in universities should be discouraged. Further, why waste money on them when the employers would want the best from the world at no cost. The country too need not have to carry this education cost that is a vain effort.

The more I think about it, the more it makes sense, business cents. What do you think?

Singapore govt offers to help develop Indian cities

‘Singapore is ready to help Maharashtra develop its infrastructure in major cities like Mumbai and Pune, an official said Friday.
This was indicated by visiting Singapore Deputy Prime Minister T. Shanmugaratnam in talks with Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan here.
"Singapore is a very small country compared to India. We focussed on providing the best urban infrastructure and developing cities to progress," Shanmugaratnam said.’…. Dajiworld.com, 25 May 2013

I think this is a good thing as Singapore has all the experienced and expertise in infrastructure development, and also the talents to do the job.

What is likely to happen is that Singapore will manage the projects and send an army of new citizens and PRs who were ex Indians, to India complete the job. These super talents will have the advantage of former home ground knowledge, know the language and culture, and given the chance to help redevelop India after having helped to develop what Singapore is today. They came to Singapore as foreign talents and now can return as foreign talents from Singapore.



India would benefit from these talented Indians, or new Singaporeans to build more modern cities that it has failed to do so far. Some of you may be puzzled who is helping who, talents from India helping India or talents from Singapore helping India.

Pinoys stunned by the strong reaction of the emotional Taiwanese

The Pinoys in Manila, the politicians and academics, are all stunned by the strong reaction of the Taiwanese Govt on the killing of a fisherman by the Filipino coast guard. They said the Taiwanese are emotional. The Govt of this ‘non nation’ is over reacting and trying to bully the Philippines.

How ridiculous can it be? Killing and robbing Taiwanese fishermen did not happen yesterday and there was no Taiwanese Govt standing up to say anything in the past. Why is the Ma Ying Jiu Govt behaving so outrageously? The only reason the Pinoys could think of is that this is a weak Govt and trying to bolster its popularity by making a show of force to protect its fisherman.

The disdain for Taiwan, a non nation, comes out quite clearly. And the Pinoys must be more shock to think that a non nation could threaten a nation like the Philippines. And they are hoping for the Taiwanese to cool down, to be less emotional before they talk to them. The Pinoys have been trying to tell the Taiwanese not to over react. Cool down, what is so big deal about killing a Taiwanese fisherman when they have been doing this for so many years.

And Taiwan better cool down, be polite and not make unnecessary demands for compensation and apologies. Ninoy has just approved several billion pesos or US$ to upgrade the Filipino Navy to take on China. What is Taiwan? If the Taiwanese still stupidly conduct war games near Pinoy seas, the Pinoys may send in a mightier flotilla to show who is bigger.

End Game around the corner

Lim Chow Kiat, the chief investment officer of GIC is talking about ‘end game’ in the financial market. He said GIC is now getting more cautious about seeking higher returns or yields. 5 or 10 years is about the time left before this end game scenario is going to rear its ugly head. What is he referring to?  He did mention about the good run over the last 30 year cycle and hinting that this is coming to and end.

The flood of liquidity, low interest rates and the flawed and fraudulent financial instruments that are being sold throughout the world are all pointing to something dreadful over the horizon. All the ominous signs are out there but no govt has the will to want to stop this mess that is waiting to blow up. It is like everyone is trying to have his last fling and seeing how many more flings before the curtain comes down.

The end game is coming, must come and will come. It is self conceived by the big boys in the US and Europe, playing a game of fire that will burn down everything in one go. Make merry while one can. Banana currencies will be flying everywhere.

Eroding Trust in Public Institutions

This is the main topic for discussion in today’s ST with several big names being mentioned. Kishore Mahbubani was quoted to be concerned that ‘online discourse might be eroding trust in public institutions’. There are real and imaginary perceptions of things, of trust or distrust in public institutions. The very fact that this issue of trust is being discussed at that level is a manifestation that trust is eroding and has become a serious issue in governance. It is just like the COE system and HDB policies when there have been repeated outcries that they are inequitable and the system and policies could be made fairer and more equitable short of telling the two institutions off directly that they are not trustworthy.

No institution can lose the trust of the people if they are upright, correct and fair in their dealings with the people and on issues affecting people and policies. A little bit of criticism and cynicism by the social media, no need to worry about the main media, will not harm them or the trust of the people. Only the institution can create distrust by the people by their own policies and wrongdoings.

The situation today is that the people are much better educated, informed and conversant with what they see and hear and are current with the happenings and policies. And the availability of social media on top of the main media, I like this expression, means that the people have a more balanced view of things. Unlike the past when the people are only fed by the official media that was sitting on everyone, feeding them what they wanted the people to see or hear, social media has given awareness a new dimension, and positive in many senses. Can’t imagine how long the people will remain ignorant and blinkered without access to social media. Social media is a tool of enlightenment, and much to the dismay of those who want to control information and the thinking of a people that could be made daft by biased, limited or misinformation.

We used to take pride in our public institutions, and had very little bad things to say about them. There was almost complete trust in them. And rightly so as anyone who crossed the line of legitimacy will be harshly dealt with by the system. Just read this comment by Professor Neo Boon Siong of Nanyang Business School, ‘We are all in a flux, and this gives people the feeling of uneasiness and uncertainty, that this competent Govt we are used to…is not so ready to come up with solutions immediately, or cannot deliver results as fast as we want.’ He was talking about a competent Govt we are used to. Is this a reasonable perception of the Govt today and the past?

There is a major contributor to the distrust in public institutions due to a philosophical change in political thinking and corporate governance. In the past, the govt demanded and coerced public officials to be clean, honest and incorrupt. And many instruments of the system were there to maintain a clean and honest govt. The whole paradigm shifted when the govt came out with the complacent assumption that people are corrupt by nature and to keep them from being corrupt, just pay them well, or 'corrupt' them legitimately and hoping that they will not be 'corrupt' illegitimately. (I want to qualify here that this term 'corrupt legitimately' is just a common expression used figuratively in informal discussion and is not corruption per se). This policy shift says that it is alright to have 'corrupt' people in the system as long as their pockets are well lined with big fat salary and they will behave themselves. Thus, instead of ridding the system of corrupt individuals, it is acceptable to live with the devils as long as they keep their masks on, and try to be clean or looked clean. In a way the system works as there have been no big cases of corruption or very few and in between.

The other big factor that led to the erosion of public institutions is the cavalier attitude that politicising public institutions to serve the interest of political parties is normal, nothing wrong, and legitimate. Institutionalising them is the way to go. When public institutions are politicised, when appointment holders are politicised, appointed for political reasons and to serve political interest, how much trust will be eroded in the process? Take the Town Council, a political creation, would the management of Town Councils handle a party supporter differently from an opposition supporter? And if it does, how is trust going to be affected?

When public institutions are designed with imbedded flawed assumptions and worst, being politicised, the institutions and office holders will no longer function impartially and objectively for the common good, regardless of affiliation. How would this affect trust in the institutions?