Singapore paying the price for decades of failed education policies

This verdict is controversial of course, depending on how one  measures success and failure of our education policy. If one measures it in our uniquely Singapore ways, like dignity is measured by how much one’s income, and education is measured by how many straight As, then we are very successful. We produced probably the most straight as in the world on a per capita basis. Even the new International Baccalaurette programme that was introduced recently, our students are acing the exams every year since it started. Students that used to score average grades would now get full scores possible.

Producing straight As and more straight As is a matter of moderation, a process that allows the examiner to move the scores of the students left or right of the median grade for whatever they set out to do. It is scientific or mathematical in a way, but whether the students deserves the As is subjective.

What is apparent today, after a few decades of producing straight As students is that the flaws are showing. We are getting a bunch of very brilliant parrot that could regurgitate everything perfectly. But when ask to think, they began scratching their heads, what is that? And in the industries, the lack of thinking talents, people who walked around on two legs and can think, is simply not there. And that is why so many foreigners from God knows where are here and touted as talents because, despite their dubious academic records, they could talk and think and run circus around our duds, the unthinking parrots.

Sure we have many very brilliant Singaporeans here and abroad. The really good and bright people would not be subdued and made stupid by a stupid education system. They would shine under any system or no system. But for the rest, the elite parrots and the masses, the inability to think, and the unique ability to receive and to be taught to repeat what they were told is getting to a very frightening stage, to a point when you tell them eating shit is good, drinking shit water is good, and they will eat and drink with gusto.

The daft Sinkies, not invented by me, I just regurgitate this phrase, like unthinking parrots do, oh, unthinking parrots never used this phrase in their vocabulary, will accept everything they are told to be good. I have recently wrote an article about the things the daft Sinkies were made to believe in. Some of the daft things that Singaporeans would swear to be good are: we are too small, not enough political talents, so cannot afford to have two political parties, when one opposition candidate is voted to become an MP the country will collapse, they dismissed the wisdom of not putting all their eggs in one basket, that power corrupts, and instead believe in one party is best for a democracy and nothing is better than ownself checks ownself.

The idiocy of the unthinking reaches a climax when I read this comment in the TRE.

‘Mr Lee Kuan Yew is not only founder father of spore, he also a war hero. Country everywhere always celebrate and remember war hero and their found father.’

This is a comment posted by someone calling himself True Blue Singaporean. The only consolation is that he is a fake, or at best a new citizen. And everyone reading his comment will know he is not even writing in Singlish. This guy even advised Singaporeans to read our history to verify his claim. With no due disrespect to LKY, I don’t think anyone in govt would dare to glorify him with this war hero title, not even in a state of drunken stupor.

The stupidity of Singaporeans is now legendary. Go ask those PMETs that are now driving taxis and working as temp workers, who replaced them and made them redundant and they would not have any clue. They would not want to know why someone from the 3^rd world with dubious academic qualifications and experience is more suitable and qualified to do his job. He simply accepts the fact and his fate, that he is no good even if he is the product of a world best education system. He is just not taught to think, to be smart, to be smarter than fakes and cheats, so getting cheated is only something deserving in his case.

Not to worry, daft would not make a scene and will disappear into the wilderness, quietly. Oh, he is trainable and very willing to be trained, to become a low skilled worker despite his experience and qualifications as PMETs. This must be a special asset of these daft Sinkies. In Singapore you can literary trained old dogs with new tricks. Just tell them to go for training, for what they don’t care, to be better or worse, they don’t mind. Tell them training is good, like put all the eggs in one basket is good, and they will nod their heads in agreement.

And they can’t even fall back on their life long savings in the CPF when they lost their job or when they retired. The money is kept by the govt for them, for their future well being. And they accept this fate as well.

I like Yaacob Ibrahim

Long long time ago, there was a city in SE Asia brimming with banks and financing institutions. Local brand names like Chung Khiaw Bank, Tat Lee Bank, Keppel Bank, OUB, Far Eastern Bank, Malayan Banking, Industrial and Commercial Banks, International Bank of Singapore, POSB, OCBC, UOB and DBS were common features of the banking landscape. Now only UOB, OCBC and DBS are left standing. The rest of the smaller banks were merged or absorbed by the three big banks.  Many foreign banks also started business here in a crowded financial industry.

In the past there were many big local names, heading the local banks, Ng Kee Choe, Elizabeth Sam, Theresa Foo, Wee Cho Yaw, the late Lien Ying Chow, late Lee Seng Wee,  Lee Hee Seng, Peter Seah, etc etc.  Today there is only one Singaporean left helming a local bank, and he is lucky that he is not replaced by foreigners. What happened to all our banking talents? No more, cannot find, all got no skill sets?

Who is responsible for this mess? This thing did not happen overnight. Someone is sleeping or deliberately let it happened. This is not only a national shame, it is undermining our talent pool in banking and finance. No one responsible for it? Cannot name anyone or else no one would want the multi million dollar job?

Now you know why I said I like Yaacob? He is rolling out a programme to train 1,200 IT professionals from 160 that they are producing. (Correct me if I get the numbers wrong). Yaacob wants to build a Singaporean core in IT. Never mind, don’t ask him why we were not training IT professionals and why he is cramping this training programme.  It is not his fault. No one knows whose fault, cannot mention one.

Good job Yaacob. Please train more Singaporeans quickly before the whole industry landed in foreigners’ hand and all our infocomm security put at risk, in the hands of foreigners. Quick, quick, not much time left. And no need to go to Parliament to kpkb why got no IT talents in Singapore, no banking and finance talents, not enough doctors, no Singaporean talents to be politicians, and not enough of local academics.

Just do it. Get the butts off the chair and start working.

White men speak with fork tongue in a straight face

John Kerry visited Hiroshima to place a wreath at the commemorative site where the atomic bomb landed 65 years ago. The two atomic bombs brought an end to the savages’ imperialistic dream of conquering the world and colonizing Asia. The Americans and the victims of Japanese invasion and savagery were and are still thinking that the bombing was justified. It is not easy to let an army of savages running wild, bombing, killing, looting, raping murdering the peoples of Asia. The Japanese deserved every bit of the two atomic bombs and the 200,000 death which was a small fraction of the millions they slaughtered during their invasion of Asia.

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a just dessert for the Japanese for their cruelty and barbarity to their victims and brought an end to it abruptly for the good of Asia. What was mischievous about this Kerry visit to Hiroshima was the things that he uttered with a straight face. In an Agencies article in the Today paper on 12 Apr, it has this headline, ‘Kerry reaffirms US anti nuclear stance during Hiroshima visit’. And the article quoted him saying, the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ‘was a reminder of the need to pursue a world free of nuclear weapons’. 

To the innocence, such a statement appears so noble. But when one knows that the Americans possessed the most nuclear warheads among all nations, more than 7000 of them, more ten times the nuclear warheads possessed by all the nuclear countries, what John Kerry said was either crap, white lie or pure stupidity. The USA was the first country that used a nuclear bomb on another country.  The USA was the only country that had on several occasions toying with the idea of nuking other countries. And the USA is the country that possessed enough nuclear weapons to wipe the human civilization off the face of the earth. And it is saying that it is anti nuclear weapons! But not to worry, many silly Asian countries will believe the Americans really meant what they said.

And the Americans are pushing very hard against Asian countries possessing nuclear weapons but not their allies and not themselves possessing more than 7000 warheads.  The American anti nuclear policy means that all countries that the Americans considered as their enemies cannot possess nuclear weapons. Only America and its allies can have nuclear weapons. Period.

White men speak with fork tongue? No? Why must the Americans built so many nuclear warheads and carry them around the world in bombers and nuclear submarines and in bases across the whole world if they are anti nuclear weapons?  Which country possessed the first nuclear weapon and refused to commit a no first use of nuclear weapon policy?

Oh, they are blaming the North Koreans for wanting to go nuclear! It is the fault of the North Koreans that the Americans must have more than 7000 nuclear warheads. It is confirmed, double confirmed. The Americans need 7000 nuclear warheads for peace. The Americans need to sign military alliances everywhere and build military bases all over the world for peace. What more does one need to believe the Americans to be stupid?

Be wary of nincompoops and sycophants

I remember this story of a turkey that was fed with bull shit and flew to the top of the tree. At that height and visibility, it became an easy target for the farmer who promptly shot it down.  The moral of the story is that those that climbed too high by bull shitting would be exposed to danger and would fall as quickly as they got up there.

In corporations or in politics, there will be a lot of nincompoops or sycophants who are very slippery in flattery to fan the ego of their bosses to get themselves into the good books. The intention could be just that, but sometimes the intention could be more serious, drugging the bosses to commit hara kiri without knowing it. Some bosses are just like the turkey and would be happy being fed with shit to be unnecessarily exposed, standing high on the tree top naked.

In a way the same story can be used to understand what Lee Wei Ling was trying to say and do. She is apprehensive that too much publicity given to LKY, already respected by many by the turn out at his funeral, could turn negative and ultimately make a mockery of LKY when sarcasm and doubts started to build up among the skeptics. LKY departed with great honours and the feeling was good in the minds of many. This goodwill should be left to stay in the minds of the people for as long as it could hold. To exaggerate it could end up being overdosed and trigger a bout of rejection.

Hsien Loong must be wary of the nincompoops and sycophants trying to curry favours by feeding him with the wrong message, that the people wanted more celebration of LKY, wanted to build more and bigger monuments, wanted to build temples, to elevate LKY to a deity to be worshipped.  Singapore is a first world country, not like those in the 3^rd world when hero worship and megalomania are acceptable, when political leaders could assume a god like image for the people to bow and pray and worship. Trying such behavioural tactics on a first world educated and sophisticated people would likely lead to unexpected and negative reception. We have gone pass the 3^rd world mentality. Or haven’t we?

Hsien Loong should appreciate the contrarian view of his sister, and kick the butts of the nincompoops and sycophants telling him the wrong things. What was fed to him could be expected, as they were the messengers of good news, telling the master what he wanted to hear.  What was not fed to him could be something exactly opposite. How is Hsien Loong going to hear the bad stuff if he is surrounded by people telling him only the good stuff?

It is good that the big celebration was preempted before it gone too far. In this case, my view is that Wei Ling had a better feel of the ground. The ground swell, the spontaneous  groundup adoration seen during the funeral were not there this time. Hope no one is telling Hsien Loong that people are crying and fainting at the anniversary commemoration.  In the developed world there is such a thing called quiet dignity.

Beware of the hidden agenda of those ‘friends’ that are waiting for the Ides of March. Beware of nincompoops and sycophants.

The appeals of Chee Soon Juan and the SDP

There are still many comments from the unthinking that Chee Soon Juan is a rash and mad politician. This message has been repeated and rammed into the heads of many innocent readers for the last twenty years and many are unable to shake this piece of shit off their minds. This fortunately is only true when the unthinking masses are concerned. It is a different matter to those who think, who question how a man could be so wronged, so badly tarnished for a small and questionable act when many had got away with murders and still walking around like angels.

The introduction of the new SDP town council team designated to run the Bukit Batok Town Council is a good case to watch. The people name are professionals and respected individuals and with lawyer like Peter Low, formerly the Law Society President, in the list, speak very well of the SDP and Chee Soon Juan. The professionals are not easily dragged to believe the taints thrown all over Chee Soon Juan. They are rallying to his side, to join his party and his cause, a statement of trust and faith.

These professionals are not only showing way, they are telling the people that they believe Chee Soon Juan is a good man, a man worthy of their support. They want him to be in Parliament. They are saying, do not believe the craps thrown at Chee Soon Juan. They are telling the people, the masses, to think and to believe in Chee Soon Juan and the SDP.

It is an endorsement of the man and his works. Would the people of Bukit Batok listen to the good voices of these good men, to shrug off the craps that they were made to believe in, that Chee Soon Juan is an unworthy man? How many people out there among the politicians are more worthy than Chee Soon Juan?

The Bukit Batok by election is a test of the maturity of the people of Bukit Batok, to think for themselves on what is good for the constituency and for the country. Do not let other people think for you or make you think what they want you to think or how to think. Think for yourself for goodness’ sake, and decide what is best for yourself and for Bukit Batok and for Singapore.