May Day Protest at Hong Lim Park – 1 May Friday, 4pm

Below are a few words from Gilbert Goh, the protest organiser.
 
‘During this labour day protest, we will be focusing on the fake degree saga and the unlevelled playing field for our local PMETs.
 
Our theme for the event is Workers' rights are human rights.
 
We are also glad to have Kenneth Jeyeratnam and Dr Ang Yong Guan from Reform Party and Singaporean First Party respectively gracing our event on that day.
 
William Lim from SDA will be the party rep for the event.
 
Leong Sze Hian will also be speaking on that day.
 
Five other ordinary Singaporeans will be speaking on that day.’

HR Director warning to all CEOs and HR staff

A HR Director took a personal interest to want to right the wrongs in the hiring process of foreigners here. He wrote an appeal to all CEOs and HR staff and a copy is being posted in the TRE. I copied the first few paragraphs here.
 
‘I am a HR Director who joined the company a few months ago.
 
After the incident of Foreign Talents with qualifications from degree mills was exposed, I took the initiative to look through each and every one of my employee’s qualifications, what was stated in their resume, application form, cover letter, as well as the copies of academic scrolls and transcripts kept by HR department.
 
I was shocked to find that many foreign employees have falsely declared their qualifications, many stated a masters in their resume, cover letter and application form. Upon request for the original transcripts and scrolls, the staff was unable to produce any and came up with various explanations, eg. that he/she in fact did not complete the masters due to moving to Singapore, did not collect the certificate, left the certificate in her home country, did not complete dissertation, and other excuses etc….’
 
Anyone who wants to know what is wrong with the hiring of foreigners and how many fakes and cheats are here need not look any further. It is happening right under their noses. This HR Director is doing national service by blowing the issues into the open. Many are still in a state of denial, for many unforgiveable reasons, and allowing this scam to go on, affecting the lives of many Singapore, the jobs of many PMETs, the integrity and efficient of industry and the fate of this country. It is serious. But when the monkeys chose not to see, not to hear, not to know, and not to do anything, it is a vain call by this HR Director. The fish rots from the head and only the tail is left waiting to fall off.
 
Though the appeal of this HR Director may touch a few responsible people, CEOs and HRs to dig out the trash, it would be too little and too late. The most disgusting thing is that many people, CEOs and HRs are part of the scam, to screw Singaporeans and you cannot do anything about it without getting rid of them. It has to go down to the bottom of the problem to pull out the roots and all.
 
Can you see where and what are the causes of this massive crime against Singaporeans? Can you see who is watering and fertilising the roots? To get rid of this problem it needs a national effort short of a ‘revolution’ in the recruitment process and industry. It is a sick and wicked game that is allowed to blossomed.
 
What can be done about it? What are you going to do about it? Simple, just accept that you are daft and the foreign cheats are the talents that deserved the jobs they are taking from you, and do nothing. And be happy. Your future is in good hands. You and your family are very well taken care of. You have been taken care of.
 
Do you dare to fight the system for your own survival and the future of your children?

Instant Tree formula seeing the rot

Instant Tree was a quick fix formula and a very easy and effective way to solve national problems of not enough talents. It is a short cut to everything. No need to go through the long and grueling process of growing up, wasting precious time and money to educate generations of students and not knowing if they will turn out useful. With so much money available, the world is our oyster. We can buy all the talents we need from the 6b people out there. It is a very practical and pragmatic solution. It is very cost effective and very efficient.
 
The above mantra when put to practice means there is no need for many things. There is no need for schools and universities. There is no need for babies and children. Just buy them, bring them in.
 
The assumption, the people who bring them in know what they are doing, and have a little brain to know the difference between a nut and a coconut, a good talent and a poor talent, a real talent and a fake talent. At least they can tell, even without real academic qualifications, whether the person sitting in front of them and waiting to be hired has some brain in between his ears.
 
But there is a more fundamental question. If all the people and talent are to be bought, what is it for? Is it for the good of a small group of people to enjoy life and being paid millions and millions doing nothing? Who owns this country? Is the instant tree formula going to benefit the whole population or a small elite who think they own this country and the rest of the population are dispensable, use and throw?
 
What is this country for? Who is growth for? For the people or for the elite who hijacked the country as their own grandfather’s country and everything in the country exists for the elite? When there is no need to nurture and educate the people, when there is no responsibility to take care of the interest of the people, the population can be culled or sent away. The country then belongs to the elite who can buy all the talents they want to feed them.
 
The Instant Tree formula means there no need for citizens, no need to nurture our own talent, no need to take care of our very own citizens. When there is no country, there is no need for citizens. There is no need to know that citizens have families to take care of and need jobs and homes. There is no need to know about children that need parents to provide for them, needs the comfort of homes. When the state can get all its manpower needs and talents, there is also no need for children.
 
Is it meant to be like that? All the talents can be bought. No sweat.

A man’s will versus the law

There is an article in the ST on 24 Fri discussing the issue of LKY’s will to demolish his house and not allow the state to acquire it as a national heritage. Here is a case of whether the will of an individual should take precedent over the law? Which is more important or carries more weight? Can any individual write a will and expect it to be honoured by the State, in this case the State should not take over the house no matter how valuable it is according to the law on the acquisition of private properties?
 
On face value it is a groundless case for any individual to make such a will and demanded it to be accepted by the state regardless of what value the state sees in the property. A grandfather wants to will his attap hut in Bukit Timah to his son, can or not? Sure can, but the State would decide whether the attap hut got any historical or architectural value or other values. If got, sorry, tell the grandfather it would not do. The interest of the state supercedes an individual’s will.
 
But LKY, the founding father of Singapore is not any individual and his will is best respected. And his son, Hsien Loong, the incumbent Prime Minister, has taken the case to Parliament, asking Parliament to honour his father’s will. Not sure if a decision has already been made. I never follow Parliament meetings so closely. Maybe they have put it to a vote. That is the fairest thing to do in a democracy.
 
This article in the ST would raise a lot of questions. If LKY’s will is granted by Parliament, the author of the article said it could be quoted in the courts as a precedent. So the grandfather’s will on his attap hut still got chance to be saved if he dies after this thing has been approved by Parliament.
 
But Parliament may approve the request by the PM and put a special clause to it that this is an exception as LKY is the founding father of the nation. And this case cannot be quoted as a precedent. So the grandfather can forget about willing his 100 year attap hut to his son. Anyway, never mind, the law is the law. And the attap hut got not much value. What is an attap hut?

When would the govt recognise our universities as world class?

Our universities, at least two of them, are ranked among the best in the world. After spending so much money gaming the system to be among the top, has any of our ministers even said it officially that our universities are world class, among the best of the best? And has the govt make this into a reality by telling the ministries and stats boards, GLCs and the MNCs here that our students are the best and they should hunt them down for employment and senior management positions? Have any of them even commented that our universities are reputable universities? Maybe that is too much to ask when everyone is so overawed by the reputable foreign universities and their high rankings, like in the 551. Some believed the bigger the number the betterer the university. Thus NUS and NTU are no match.

For once, we are hearing from IDA that an unranked university called University of Mumbai, is a reputable university. Oops, it is ranked a creditable high of 551, better than NUS and NTU. No wonder they are scrambling to hire its graduates and falling all over, grabbing at anything and would not let go. Funny, this reputable universities graduates cannot tell a degree mill or think a degree mill degree is just as reputable and worth pursuing.

But more funny, our stats boards, maybe even ministries and GLCs are by passing our local ‘out of this world’ university graduates and opted to hire graduates from reputable universities like Mumbai. What is the secret? Why is Mumbai, with no disrespect, better than NTU or NUS? Or is it that our ‘out of this world’ universities are producing graduates with skills set that are ‘out of this world’ and so much ahead of its time, or behind time that the skills set are not suitable for the present job market?

When would one of these immortals say something good about how good our ‘out of this world’ graduates are and telling the ministries to employ them as preferred graduates? Or it is not true and ‘out of this world’ means fictional, not relevant or irrelevant, only good for show, but not employable?

If our govt is non committal in the value of our graduates, why should foreigner MNCs be interested in employing them? If our ministries and stats boards and GLCs think so highly of universities like Mumbai and nothing of NUS and NTU, and the Ivy League universities they are linked to, might as well close down these two universities or linked them with reputable universities like Mumbai. At least the employers like the ministries and stats boards and GLCs would find them employable.

Seriously, why is the govt so unwilling to commit to saying our graduates are the best, at least should be better than those of Mumbai and should be preferred employees? Are the graduates from our world ranked universities fakes or hoaxes? Don’t forget, more than half of our lecturers and professors are world class, from foreign countries, real foreign talents. They are paid handsomely to produce good quality graduates here. Did they or didn’t they?

The only people that find it necessary to crow about the quality of their graduates are those from SMU. They are proud of their graduates and their worthiness. With the current trend of hiring from reputable universities from the 3rd world, not sure if SMU graduates are also relegated to the fringe.