AHPETC a big case of incompetence?

Everyone reading the media would come to one conclusion, ie, the biggest case of public service incompetence must be the AHPETC. You hear the ministers talking about it practically everyday. You read in the media just as often until ‘jer lat’.

Are there other cases of public service that are more serious than the AHPETC?  Just think about it. I say just think about it, not to talk about it. Think of anything? Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. I left this article at this point yesterday not very sure how to proceed from here.

This morning, 16 Jul, I was greeted by two articles from the Auditor General’s Office on lapses in the NLB and the Admiralty CCC. In the above paragraph I said I chose not to know, but with these cases in the front pages of the media, even I closed my eyes, I cannot refuse not to see them. It is now common and public knowledge.

Now my problem is how to comment on these lapses? Shall I put them side by side with the AHPETC case and show the similarities? Better not. With the GE around the corner, it is better to change tack and read it from the right perspective. Issues like these would become election issues and the opposition parties would definitely compare them and their severity with the AHPETC case. Comments already flooded a thread on the topic in TRE.

What were the cases about? The facts first. In the NLB’s case it was the procurement of a $7.3 million e-resource system from a vendor and apparently without looking at other alternatives or no tendering or something like that. The exact words,  “ ‘without any evidence’ of having considered other alternative materials that were similar”.  In the case of the Admiralty CCC it was about the Chairman approving seven of his own claims amounting to $114,767 and the approving and award of two contracts amounting to $32,000 when he held a senior position in the company. No one can miss the similarities in these instances to those of AHPETC. Conflict of interest anyone? How serious compares to husband approving wife’s application for payment?

I will look at these cases as lapses in procedures and how to rectify them. They happened, let’s move on. Oh, based on the AGO’s recommendation the Ministry of Communications and Information had made a police report on this case. Before anyone started to use strong words, it is important to understand that some of these agencies and people are new to these things and have to start from scratch. With their inexperience, they are likely to be lapses in procedures but with no intention to cheat or foul play. They would not understand the meaning of conflict of interest. How to expect people from the villages of a 3^rd World to understand such concepts of impropriety?  Being too harsh on newbies is not very kind and a bit unfair.

In the case of the NLB and Admiralty CCC, are these new institutions? Would they have precedents and existing practices and procedures to work on?  Would they have paid expertise like govt officials and procedures to guide them? These are important factors to determine whether their actions are mischievous or innocent and due to ignorance. I think NLB is a new organization. The old NLB is history, so they have to start things all over, to reinvent the wheel on operating procedures.

Another angle to look at is that being a 3^rd World country and without foreign talent, such lapses are bound to occur. We just don’t have the expertise and the experience about such things. It may be good to hire 3^rd World experts with the experience to show our ‘going to be’ 3^rd World no skill and no talent people how to run public organizations and how to develop proper procedures on checks and controls. This thing about approving own claims or approving jobs or contracts with connected parties are things that are new to a new 3^rd World country like ours, only 50 years in existence. We should learn from older countries and govts that have all these procedures worked out and in place. They are very experienced in such matters when such things are part of their culture.

I would suggest we hire more 3^rd World talents to help us iron out all the administrative loose ends and lapses. Alternatively we can send our people to 3^rd World countries to learn from their best practices. I think these should work. Are we a young country? Oops, we are not even a country, a city, going from first World to 3^rd World and these lapses should be considered normal, our new normal.

We should thus be more forgiving and not to act as if the sky has fallen down and go for the kill. It is so embarrassing and so unbecoming to jump up and down like little brats accusing inexperienced people for such lapses.

What do you think?

Sino Indian relations – A breakthrough

Heard over the news last evening that there is a major breakthrough in Sino Indian relations, at least in the economic front. The pro business and pro development PM Modi has given the green light for China’s largest mobile phone maker to open a factory in India. This has never been allowed before, not even to western countries. It sure spells good news for more cooperation between the two Asian giants.

The only catch that is holding back this development is the condition that all the top management staff must be Indians. This sounds very reasonable to a very nationalistic Indian govt. What it entails is that the whole manufacturing company would be operated and run by the Indians with the Chinese footing the bills and providing the technology and know how. Would the Chinese agree to it? Putting money in India and losing all control over their money and investment? Would there be stupid countries to allow such an arrangement to take place?

As a Singaporean, I find this strange. We have no problems with MNCs setting up business and employing whoever they want. We do not insist that they must employ Singaporeans, at least not a condition for them to be here, at top management level. We only hope that they will employ more Singaporeans and in some professions, they may be a certain quota to ensure that some Singaporeans are employed. But we definitely did not demand that the top management of foreign companies must be Singaporeans. How can we do that when we don’t have the talent to offer them, when our top talents are misfits?

In fact many foreign companies are free to hire as many foreigners as they want at top management level. Even local companies are doing the same. Even govt ministries and GLCs are doing so. But we got no choice, we got no talents. We need the foreign talents or else we will end up in the 3^rd World, no growth, no progress and our people will suffer.

How nice if we are like India, with so many talents to offer and can insist that foreign companies operating here must employ Singaporeans in top management. But that is too much to expect. We don’t even have enough Singaporeans to fill the top management positions in GLCs and the ministries. We need more, we need to sign more free trade agreements to ensure that more foreign talents are here to replace the no talent Singaporeans.

When will we have the local talents for our own needs in top management? Oh, the govt has started to plan for this eventuality. Maybe we will be there when our population hits 10m.

Je suis Elfy

The Police will not pursue the matter with the train bully according to Shanmugam. And if one is to read the penal code on assault and criminal intimidation, it is quite clear that there is a prima facie case to haul the bully to court to charge him for both offences.  Shanmugam was also quoted as saying that he hoped the employer would deal with him. Is this the right thing to do? No action from the Police, not a Police matter?

What is the message? Would more bullies be encouraged to bully the locals in public places as and when they like, knowing that the Police would not act against them? What does it tell the Singaporeans, that they can be bullied, threatened and abused by anyone in public places and they cannot depend on the law and the Police for protection? Does it mean that the public must be able to defend themselves if confronted and attacked by bullies, to take the law into their own hands, or to let the bullies bash them up first before the law would step forward to deal with the bullies? Or are the Singaporeans supposed to accept this as the new normal?

All the above options are bad as many locals are just too small physically and meek to take on a big bully. Looks like the only hope they can depend on is for more Singaporeans to stand up like Elfy to protect the weak and the meek.  Would there be more Elfys to stand up to be recognised as the protector of Singaporeans?

In this incident it was lucky that the bully chickened out. What would happen to our hero Elfy if a fight broke up and both got injured, or the bully got injured? Would the law go after Elfy for standing up to defend the victim, or would he be charged for not minding his own business and got involved in a fight?

Is the govt expecting the people to take the law into their own hands or expecting the weak and meek to stand there and be abused, insulted, threatened and even beaten?

What kind of rule of law country is this? Is the safety of the public the responsibility of the govt? Who is there to protect the people when abused and threatened with harm in the public?

Elfy?

Let me take this opportunity to say thank you to Elfy once more and wish all our Malay brothers and sisters a Happy Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

Muhammad Hanafie aka Elfy, our hero

This young man of medium built, only 25, stood up to a bully more than double his heft, to defend another smaller young man who was being bullied and threatened with violence. The sin of the younger man was to wear a loud T shirt with the words, ‘I’m F—king Special’.  I did not see anything wrong about that except for the prudes and the priests. This is nothing to a westerner, and that bully is a westerner. For westerners, saying fuck in every sentence even in the corporate office is normal. Now what is so fucking unacceptable about the young man’s T shirt that gave this big bully the right to threaten to beat him and to throw him out of the train? The one that needs to be thrown out of the train is the big animal! And he was shouting and cursing at the young man all the while until our hero stood up to stop him.

When I read that both were let away by the Police, I shared the concern of many netizens that our hero might suffer the injustice of being rude to a foreigner instead.  Thankfully it is reported in today’s ST that Elfy was invited by Shanmugam at a ceremony for his bravery. I can now breathe a sigh of relief knowing that it ends well for Efly.  Thank you Elfy, proud of you!

Now what about the bully? Is anything going to happen to him for intimidating another person and threatening him bodily harm? Was it not criminal intimidation or threatening the peace? Who is he, what is his name, what does he look like? We want to know. The public has a right to know that there is such a bully in their midst and to avoid him at all cost for those who could not stand up to him.

Would the media or the Police publish information on this bully? Why is there a need to protect his confidentiality like an underage boy of 16? If he dared to behave like a bully in public, to threaten to beat up people in public, there is no need to hide his face and identity.

Would the Police be taking action against this bully now that Shanmugam has acknowledged that - ‘The bullying was unacceptable, and what Elfy did made me feel proud – standing up to a bully’.  The bully must be taught a lesson to send a message to all the bullies that they will be dealt with by the law, harshly, for threatening to harm another person and for disturbing our peace.

We are waiting to see what the Police would do to protect the citizens from such bullies. PNG him if necessary and sent him home. We don’t need such rogue here!

China’s intervention in the stock market doomed to fail

There is another standard doomsayer’s article in the Today paper on 13 Jul 15 with a title, ‘Is China’s use of state control, money to stem stocks rout doomed to fail?’ When I look at the author, Tom Mitchell, Gabriel Wildau and Josh Noble, I can guess the answer. This kind of China bashing literature has been flooding the western media and our local media for decades.  China is doomed to fail in everything it does. There is nothing clever or sustainable in what the nerds and backward and unintelligent leaders in Beijing could do right. China is full of flaws and the economy is waiting to collapse. And the intervention in the stock market is another unthinkable thing to do. Bound to fail.

In the meantime, for the last 40 years, China quietly plod along, growing from strength to strength and is now the biggest economy in the world in real purchasing power terms, overtaking the USA. How could these foolish Chinamen do this? Unbelievable, cannot be true. China must be doctoring their numbers to bluff the whole. They are all fools. Just wait for the collapse to come.

Unfortunately in the case of this monetary intervention by the Chinese govt in the stock market, I must agree it is a silly thing to do. They cannot hope of artificially propping up a market by throwing money at it and think it will work. It is unsustainable if the fundamentals are wrong. Any PE of above 40 or 50 times is questionable. If there are a few exceptions, it is understandable. But for the whole market, for all the stocks to have such high PEs, in the hundreds, how can it be sustainable?

The Chinese may be banking on their huge surplus and a huge population turning investors against a small number of stocks. Even these factors may be abnormal relative to the rest of the world, but still the enormous PE cannot hold. The general PE in the market may tolerate a few more points higher than international norms, but when it is at a ridiculous level, it must come down.

State intervention is not a flaw per se. State intervention is necessary under the present market condition when there are big boys manipulating the market. The manipulations by the big boys are not different from state intervention. The criticism by the analysts against state intervention is as flawed as allowing the big boys to do what they want in the market with their huge war chests. The big boys are also intervening in the normal functioning of the market. They are not the real market forces by an oligarchy out to manipulate the market to their favours in the guise of free market forces.

Without state intervention, the small investors would be at the mercy of the big boys and their intervention to reap them off. The big boys could push up the market or whack the market down to the abyss.  They are demanding that govt and stock exchange regulators stand aside and let them do as they pleased. And state intervention is unacceptable but their intervention is acceptable, normal and good for the market.

State intervention is now a necessity in a market dominated by the big boys. Without state intervention, the small investors would be at the mercy of the big boys and turned into gun fodder. States and govts must be strong enough to intervene in the stock market to balance against the big boys rigging the market in their favour.

What is wrong in the China intervention is to prop up a market that is already too high with very high PEs. China better think twice and change their strategies to something more down to earth and more real, if they want their markets to function normally in the long run. This short term intervention must be unworn in a matter of time. Yes, this intervention is doomed to fail and will cost the Chinese govt heavily in financial terms.