Bo Xilai, the man who could be President

Seeing this man in handcuffs is creepy. He was the forerunner to be the President of China. He was charismatic and had a string of records in public administration, taking on tough appointments and the triads in his last appointment. A bright rising star eclipsed at the peak of his power.
 
China has just brought down one of the most power man in the Communist Party, stripped off his post and sentenced to life imprisonment for corruption and abused of power. His wife is serving a suspended death sentence for the murder of a British, Neil Heywood, whom they trusted and entrusted with the well being of their son and their overseas investments. This story is a repeated of the colonial days when the decadent rich sucked up to the foreigners to guard their ill gotten wealth and eventually got ripped off by them. History is repeating with the pathetic Chinese rich not learning the lessons of the past.
 
This is perhaps the biggest story of modern China, to take down one of their close comrades at such a high level, put him on trial and ended with a life sentence. The evidence was so overwhelming that justice was served in accordance with the rule of law and the rumour of a revolt by the supporters of Bo fizzled out quietly.
 
There were fears of a coup of sort or instability. They were fears that justice would not be served. The trials of Bo Xilai and Gu Kailai were a showcase of modern Chinese legal system and transparency. It was also a statement that corruption would be dealt with even at the highest place of power. This is not seen in many countries, including Asean.
 
The verdict on Bo Xilai is a signal the Xi Jinping leadership is sending to the Chinese bureaucracy that corruption and abuse of power will not be tolerated. Would this lead to more heads being rolled? Given the prevalence of corruption at high places, this is only the beginning, an unnecessary evil that has to be done and seen to be done to keep China on an even keel and prevent it from collapsing prematurely.
 
Xi Jinping needs to run a tight ship to keep the Chinese govt in a healthy state for the future. Allowing corruption to sink roots and corrupt officials to run the country would see the growth of China going down quickly as predicted by many doomsayers in the West. The taking down of Bo Xilai is a gingerly step forward and more needs to be done to prevent China going back to its decadent past.

India should not worry about university rankings

While Sinkies are all over trying to grasp the value and place for tuition, heard in the news that India is worried that none of its universities is among the top 200 universities in the world. And maybe they are going to game the system by bringing in more foreign students and lecturers to boost their rankings. I think this whole ranking thing is a farce and a paper victory and did not reflect the reality and quality of the products of the universities. In a way the good grades of students only tell one side of the story of the student’s ability with many things left untold.
 
The facts are contradictory and disappointing as far as university rankings are concerned. The inputs are variables, the factors are subjective and everything else are but a constrained effort to think they matter. Take the case of Singapore universities versus Indian universities. Oh, we are so proud of the top rankings of NUS and NTU while India has none. Then look at the employment opportunities of Indian graduates and our graduates and their employability in top management positions in MNCs and the govt and govt linked companies. The products of Indian universities put us to shame. Pandit used to be the top man in Citibank Group. And there are many like him in America and Europe. Can we find a Singapore graduate in such rarefied position? None!
 
Indian graduates are in demand and highly regarded in America and Europe and definitely in Singapore. Singapore even signed a free trade agreement that includes opening the door to practically all Indian graduates. As such they are gradually easing out the local graduates in top management positions in our home ground. Indian graduates are highly sought after here. Where do the graduates of our world class universities stand?
 
I will advise India not to waste time, money and resources to game a system that is hardly of value except on paper. Look at the reality here if not in Europe and the USA. Indian graduates beat Singapore graduates hands down. Still thinking of wasting money on some rubbish rankings?
 
Indian graduates are among the best in the world of banking and finance and IT. So, why this urge to want to look good in some make belief rankings that are worth only on papers and ended paying obscenely for the presence of foreigners in the universities? A farce is a farce. A good university or a good graduate is a good one regardless of whether the university is rank at the top or at the bottom. Maybe if the ranking is done by God it may mean something.

Raising the quality of private tutors

 

Someone saw this coming. Since private tuition is so prevalent and necessary, let’s make sure that the standards are high and private tutors are qualified. For a start, all private tutors must be registered with a professional body and have their qualifications and experience certified. So we need a professional body or something like that to certify them.

Private tuition must be conducted in a proper and conducive environment, not below the staircase or in the void deck. Not in the homes also, to give an image of professionalism and respectability.

There must be some regulations or self regulating bodies to maintain a certain standard for the tuition giver. Not everyone can give tuition without the approval of these bodies or organisations. They may have to sit for a test to be issued with a certificate to tutor students.

Tutors are not allowed to anyhow paste little slips of papers on letter boxes or walls for their services like unauthorised agents. Not good for public image and professionalism.

See, we have a new industry in the making. And tutors, please declare your income and pay your taxes, and rentals and fees to your professional bodies, and the media for advertisements. Tutors will henceforth be known as professional tutors and can print name cards with PT added to their names.

This is a multi million dollar industry and deserves some recognition as many tutors are paid much better than school teachers, a choice profession that is highly regarded for the best in the industry. How about a specialist Tuition Centre like Mount Elizabeth equivalent for medical services?

Sinkies, aren’t you lucky?

With the latest govt proposal to provide health insurance for Sinkies till they die, even if they live up to 120 years, what more do the Sinkies want? Aren’t they lucky? I don’t think any govt in the world can do such a thing, to provide healthcare to all it citizens regardless of their age. Got meh? You mean in Australia and other First World countries their govt provide free healthcare to their senior citizens? Don’t bluff can? There is no free lunch. We Sinkies know that this life time Medishield health insurance we must pay ourselves.

And not only the govt is helping the people, the foreigners are all here to help them. The best talents from the Third World are here to help the Sinkies who are obviously sinking. Many could not even find jobs with their high qualifications and experience. They are so lucky as more would be jobless without the foreigners here.

And not only they came to help Sinkies with the economy and provided them with jobs, many foreign celebrities are here to help raise funds to help the old and the sick Sinkies as well. At the rate it is going, soon God too will descend from heaven to help the Sinkies. Why not when the middle class are all in debt and needing help? Soon our middle class will go the Detroit Way. But God will send the immortals down first to do the helping. Just hope the immortals are not helping themselves first.

There was a little thought by Chua Mui Hoong in the Sunday Times today. Though she was talking about the hot issue of tuition, her main point actually was a revelation of the kind of group think within the party/govt. For once she was saying something quite enlightening, about the way the group think among themselves and closed up to put on a united false front to the public. And many real issues were swept under the cloud of unity, a common position. She listed all the grouses of the people, from housing, healthcare, education, PMETs and populations, all disgustingly buried liked an ostrich just because some gods have taken a position and all must close ranks and complied.

The interesting point she made about Medishield Life for all, sick and unsick, tells the thinking behind the half baked solution. It is not fully cooked yet and still a WIP. Yes, the high medical cost to the oldies and sick has been raised much too often like all other issues but disregarded quietly, not heard, not seen, thus dunno.

Now there is a change. They are going to tackle it. But you pay, not the govt. They are going to rope in everybody to pay for the oldies and the sick. The healthy and those who don’t mind dying would not be given a choice to opt out of the scheme. The govt is going to dip into the pockets of everyone to fish out whatever it can get hold of to help the oldies and the sick. What a generous gesture! Daylight robbery for a good cause, like Robin Hood.

What is the problem? The problem is high medical cost. The problem is that not everyone wants to live forever and has the money to pay for it. The problem is that the govt could have cough up the money for the sick and oldies, with some conditions and limitations to prevent a bottomless healthcare scheme from emptying the reserves. The problem is that the govt is collecting too many taxes but not using it in the right place. A few monuments built less could be more than enough to pay for this Medishield Life. Just the annual running cost of that Avatar Garden that is losing its novelty would be enough to pay for the premiums of the oldies and sick with spare to change. And the land could be put to better use.

But the change is really no change. The problem comes from the people and the people will pay for it, not the govt when the govt could well afford it without being extravagant on the ‘good to have’ and the wasteful.

Sinkies could be much luckier if the govt spend its money in betterer ways, for the good of the people. To be specific, for the good of Sinkies.

JEM ceiling collapsed - must be the tightening of foreign worker policy

I quoted below statement from an editorial article posted in TRE. ‘Chairman of the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for National Development Lee Bee Wah said that sometimes developers and contractors compromise on the quality of construction materials in order to lower costs.

The tightening of foreign workers policy may also be a factor.

Ms Lee said, “Every time a contractor renews work permit for their workers, they face some difficulties and therefore keep changing staff. That could mean we don’t have experienced engineers or inspectors. The government should really look into this.”’

I think this is a good way of looking at the newly built shopping complex. It must have been built during the time when the govt was curtailing the import of foreign workers and thus the quality of the building is affected. Either shortchanged in material or quality of workers could be a factor. It is very likely the later as the only thing changed was foreign worker policy. Now, is this true? When was the building built and was it really affected by the foreign worker policy? Another question, is the foreign worker policy to curb bringing in of construction worker or white collar foreigners that the people were angry about, esp the PMET? I thought there was no problem with construction workers and everyone agreed that in this sector it is very difficult to get Sinkies to work? And another question, how could construction worker be such a big factor when there are engineers, supervisors and QCs overseeing the jobs?

Nevermind, got some small fries to take the blame. And good reason to bring in more construction workers, which was never an issue. Hope this would not translate into bringing in more foreign PMETs.
Another way of solving this problem is to borrow the logic of preventing corruption. You know what I mean. Then the work quality will improve and contractors would not take short cuts. And nothing will collapse. QED.