Surbana Jurong – Termination, Dismissal or Retrenchment?

The terminating of 54 staff, I presume are Singaporeans, just one week before the Chinese New Year is very badly executed. Some are calling this act as callous, lack of compassion, inconsiderate, heartless and right down insensitive. The 54 staff, assuming many will be celebrating Chinese New Year, will not be celebrating and their families as well. What a cruel timing!

The social media is angry. Many are questioning if this is actually a retrenchment in disguise to avoid paying retrenchment benefits. The case is now being handled by the MOM.

From a HR perspective, the first question arising is the termination, a management right to terminate employees without reason, just like an employee’s right to resign without the need for any reason, or is this something else? The media reported that Surbana Jurong said the employees were terminated for poor performance. This immediately raises a red flag in HR practices.

Before an employee is terminated for bad performance, it is only fair that the employee would be put on notice that his performance is unsatisfactory. The management is duty bound to inform an employee that his performance is not acceptable and given a chance to explain and to improve. This is not only proper but also ethically and morally a right thing to do. Employers cannot sack an employee overnight, like springing a surprise, without letting the employee know that his performance is a problem and a sacking is on the card if he does not improve.

Has Surbana Jurong management done the due diligence and process to talk to the employees, counsel the employees, telling them of their shortfalls, how to improve to meet management’s expectation and to buck up? In all good HR practices, the employees must be given a chance to know what is coming, to know that they must improve and sacking is ultimately done if the employees still did not improve after counseling and warnings by the management.

Another point to clarify, what were the performance records of the sacked employees? Were they good, satisfactory or consistently bad? If the sacked employees had been consistently bad, then management would have a better case of sacking them, but still must go through the due process of trying to get the employees to improve prior to their sacking. Were the employees given any warning letters earlier?

I did not have full details of the employees’ performance and unable to comment on whether the sacking is properly conducted. One thing for sure, once the management confirmed that the employees were terminated due to performance, it is dismissal or termination due to bad performance. There is thus a requirement to go through the whole process of counseling and warning letters etc before the firing. This is not only good HR practice, it is also a requirement by MOM and ethical and humanly to do so.

As a govt linked company, Surbana Jurong and all GLCs have a responsibility to set a good example, to follow good HR practices for others to follow.

Good and bad economies

Singapore's economy is doing well. I think the official stats is that Singapore will grow by 2.5%. Well after all we are a mature economy and 2.5% is good, really good.

The American economy is doing better at 1.5% growth. It is a more mature economy than Singapore, so 1.5% is as good as excellent. Some of the Asean economies are having 5% to 7% growth and are considered so so as they are developing economies.

The more horrifying economy in Asia is China. It is fumbling with only 6.8% growth. At the rate it is going China's economy will crash or go into recession in the view of all the western analysts and anti China reporters. That is how bad the Chinese economy is growing, only 6.8%. If only China is growing at 1.5% or 2.5% maybe the western analsyts would then conclude that the Chinese economy is sound and as good as the American’s and better than no growth Europe, and sustainable.

China is a third world country so it is natural to have high growth rate. But falling from two digit growth to 6.8% is really bad. Never mind if it is the second largest economy in the world. Never mind if the IMF or World Bank has elevated the Chinese economy to the top spot in terms of purchasing power. China is a developing economy, a third world country. Nevermind that this third world country is sending out more than 100 million tourists travelling around the world and reputed to be big spenders picking up expensive branded goods like toys. How could a third world country send out 100m rich tourists annually to travel around the world is really puzzling.

What does a 6.8% growth mean to a US$13 trillion economy? A 10% growth would mean a growth of US$1.3 trillion annually. A 6.8% growth would mean the economy grows by US$900 billion annually. Just to compare for size, Singapore's economy is around $400 billion. This means the Chinese economy is growing two Singapore's economy every year. And that is bad, terribly bad. Got it?

There are countries that are in the third world but kept bragging about being in the first world or coming soon. There are countries that are already in the first world but refused to be so labelled and insisted to be developing countries. Is China a fumbling third world developing country and heading towards destruction and oblivion with a 6.8% growth? Even at 6% growth, China will be growing like US$700 billion annually. Is that bad, really bad, really in trouble? Don’t try to think if you can’t.

 

In the world of delusion, you can believe in whatever made beliefs you choose to believe in. China is predicted to overtake the American economy by year 2025. Those who want to believe in a China heading towards destruction need not have to believe in this prediction by the World Bank or was it the IMF? Just take it as a fallacy.

6.8% bad, 2.5% good, 1.5% excellent!

Stupidity has no cure. Ignorance is no blessing.

The Chinese economy is crashing, crashing, is crashing….The world is coming to an end, the end is near, believe me.

Ong Ye Kung – Multi party system not for us

This is the headline in The New Paper. The Today paper has this at the front page, ‘Multi party political system could ruin Singapore, Ong Ye Kung.’ I am a greenhorn in politics, coz I have never been a politician, so I am not sure what the ‘us’ meant. Who is this ‘us’? Multi party system not for us?

I disagree with the one party system is good for ‘us’ as I have a better system for Singapore, better than a one party ‘democratic’ system. I have Plato the Greek philosopher to back me up. It is a kingdom, a state ruled by a philosopher king. A king ruling a state, even not a philosopher, is half way there. A single party ‘democratic’ system does not have a king so not good according to Plato.

Ok, I can write a hundred books on the weaknesses and demerits of a kingship. But I am selling the kingship idea so I must ignore these bad things about the kingship and tell you only the good stuff. Please don’t say I am biased. If I am selling the one party idea I will say the same thing and don’t say the bad things.  I am just trying to be honest, by telling things that I want you to know, the good stuff and not the bad stuff.

Why is a kingship or kingdom good for Singapore? I won’t use the word ‘us’ as ‘us’ can mean only a small group of elites. The problem of most political systems is the politicians. Politicians tend to fight for their own interests. In a democracy, one party or multi parties, they would still face the problems of infighting, fearing that they would be voted out or be ousted by a conspiracy. They would always be on guard, or trying to fix other politicians so that they would not be fixed in the end. By so doing they would be spending more time politicking than trying to work for the good of the people.

In a kingship, the king will be very secured, life time hereditary position, so no fear of be ousted by voting, maybe a coup. The king, being secure, would then appoint the best jesters to work for him. King needs jesters to humour him. But he would also have many good ministers appointed by him and no one can accuse a king for nepotism or cronyism. That is what kingship is all about.

A king would write the pay check for the politicians and would not allow the politicians to write their own paychecks. The king would also check on the politicians and would not allow the politicians to check themselves.

See, so many good points in a kingship that could prevent the problems of a single party ‘democracy’ already.  Basically the king rules over the politicians and would behead any politician that is corrupt, so no need to pay million dollar salaries. I could go on and on about the goodness of a kingship especially for a small country like Singapore.

And Singapore is ideal for a kingdom. We have already developed an aristocratic class here, the natural aristocrats can assume their roles as lords, dukes, counts and of course as kings, princes and princesses. No need to hunt for such noble men and women. To turn this island into a kingdom is a piece of cake.

Yes my Lord, I am your humble subject. God bless the king. For those who love the English can look no further when we have our own king or queen and can sing God Save the king/queen with gusto.

And the children in schools can read all about the handsome princes and their white horses, not the kind in NS, and the beautiful princesses every day. So beautiful, full of enchanted stories for bed side stories too.

The crumbling credibility of western media

Many English educated Singaporeans and Asians used to swear that western media are authoritative, objective, credible and unbiased in their news reporting. Names like the New York Times, Washington Post, BBC, CNN, etc etc were held in high regards and must read to get to the truth. They say, no lies no print. The rise of Donald Trump, the revelations by Wikileaks and Snowden, must have broken this myth that western media are worth reading and trusting.

The credibility of western media is crumbling to bits except in the heads of the stupid Asians that refused to believe that they have been fed a lift time of lies and western propaganda. Now the most powerful man in the world, Trump, is rubbishing all the western media and all his intelligence agencies as liars, telling untruth, biased reports and fake news. Still refuse to accept this hard truth?

Trump only believes in his twitting as they came out direct from his mouth, no editing or misquoting. This is about the only truth he could get. Look at his barrage at the media for reporting that only a small crowd turned out at his inauguration.  Trump claimed that there were millions out there but the media was mis reporting. Who is telling the truth?

In the Today paper on 23 Jan 17, the front page photograph of the turnout at the White House was big. But the inside pages printed two photographs trying to prove that Trump was lying and the media was telling the truth. Yes, the picture of the turnout for Trump was not even a tenth that of Obama’s. And the media said the photos did not lie. Photographic evidence! This reminds me of the reported numbers of the Hong Lim crowd during the Population White Paper protest. Who got the numbers right, who was reporting the truth?

Coming back to the two photographs, first impression said the media was right, Trump was wrong. How many agree to this conclusion? I agree that the photographs were telling the truth, but a selective truth. Ask, when was the photographs taken? Could it be that the Trump photograph was taken early in the day before the full crowd was there, thus the picture looked less than half empty? When were the photographs taken is crucial to tell the truth. The media is using photographs taken at different time to disparage Trump. A cheap trick, like they used age old photographs to show famine and poverty in North Korea.

I took many photographs at the Hong Lim Population White Paper protest. And I could show you an empty field, half empty field and a fully occupied field, depending on what time I took the pictures.

Get the message? What is the truth, who is telling the truth? How reliable is the media and their reporting? You decide for yourself. Still stubbornly or stupidly want to believe that western media are telling the truth, authoritative and credible?

Trump is attacking them for spreading misinformation and lies. New York Times reported this, ‘I have a running war with the media, Mr. Trump said. They are among the most dishonest human beings on earth…’ It is your choice to believe in them.

Would the WOGs adoration for anything western continue unabated, untarnished and continue to go down on their knees to worship the western media as their God that could do no wrong and unblemished by the recent revelations?

Singapore’s competitive edge

PM Lee: “We are already competing with Malaysia in terms of ports and it boils down to who can run a port better and more efficiently.”

This has been our strength, the key factor that propelled Singapore to the First World and became the jewel of South East Asia. It is the quality of our work force, their training and education, their work attitude and efficiency, the best workers in the region. These are the factors that made the difference over our competitors.

Can Singapore remain as competitive among our neighbours? Can Singapore be more efficient in the running of our ports and airports and other industries? Yes, we can, if we continue to produce the best Singaporeans that our system has been producing, our schools and universities producing the graduates needed by the industries. Is this happening, or we are producing mismatched graduates, duds that are not even good enough compared to Third World graduates?

Are you asking me? Who has been lamenting that our system is not producing the right type of work force with the right skills for the right jobs? You got the cheek to say this?

Can we compete with the Malaysians and Indonesians, with the Pinoys or the Indians, if we hire these same people to run our ports and airports and systems? Would we still have the advantage over them when we are using the same kind of workers, with the same DNAs, and worst, employing the workers that are the unemployed, unemployable and underemployed in their own countries? How can we be more competitive when we are replacing our highly regarded and efficient Singaporeans with the rejects, the unwanted from our neighbouring countries to run our organizations and systems? We want to compete with our neighbours with their Third World quality workers?

Can anyone miss the joke? The joke is on us, Singaporeans. We have forgotten what made us great and better than our neighbours. It was our workforce.  Now we are dying to bring in their half baked workers and claimed that they are better than our Singaporeans and want to be more competitive. Is this the reason why things are starting to break down?

It is unbelieveable! Stupidity cannot be cured.