Hsien Loong hearing voices

Hsien Loong said he often heard voices of LKY, words of wisdom that he could rely upon to make political decisions. Could not remember what he heard but he quoted something, was it about the Elected President? Anyway, LKY said a lot of things and many are still relevant and applicable but many are obsolete or irrelevant in today's context. For instance his advice on taking up a govt scholarship to pursue a degree and subsequently join the civil service or PAP, I mean politics as a career. I can't disagree with him on this then as this was and still is the shortest and quickest and most assured road to instant multi millionaire for a young man without much working experience in the commercial world, without having to work to produce something of value.

I said I disagree on this is as many ministers have openly spoken out against having a degree while some even said a degree is really useless. It is skills that are more important. Fake degrees also never mind as long as people think you have the skills. Degrees cannot be eaten. So if degree is not important, what is the point of being a scholar? However some would say a scholar with a degree is different from a non scholar without a degree. Ok, I can accept that. The instant millionaire route is still relevant but for how long?

Now where was I? Oops, I was talking about Hsien Loong hearing voices. I think he did not hear this from LKY, and I quote, “Everything works, whether its water, electricity, gas, telephone, telexes, it just has to work. If it doesn’t work, I want to know why, and if I am not satisfied, and I often was not, the chief goes, and I have to find another chief. Firing the chief is very simple.“

LKY also used to say this proudly, ‘in Singapore, when you push a button, it works’. That was his Singapore. Can't say this about the SMRT today. In the latter it is more like every time a button is pushed, nothing works. The faults plaguing the SMRT are like a daily affair and if there is no fault in one day, it is a pleasant exception. This is Hsien Loong's Singapore, not LKY's Singapore.

Why did I bring this up? It is in everyone's lip, the amnesty offered by Desmond Kuek to his staff to own up for non compliance, non performance or even dereliction of duty. This is the first time such an idea is being used in Singapore, pardon first for non performance or violation of standard operating procedure, deceit, and talk later. You can imagine the kind of aghast and the shock waves spreading across the island.

There is a disbelief that Singapore's work ethics has degenerated to this level. Hsien Loong probably did not hear this in his head. LKY must be fuming if he is alive. This is not the Singapore he created or at least at one time during his watch.

LKY better makes his voice heard to make things better. How many CEOs would have lost their jobs in SMRT if he was in charge? Nowadays quite senang. Fingers point here point there and point everywhere. Definitely not my problem, OPP is other people's problem. Not bad for collecting millions every year with no accountability
Latest heard that Desmond Kuek’s amnesty bore immediate result. Several staff had owned up and they were duly sacked despite the condition that no punishment would be meted out. This part a bit grey and people could interpret it either way. Yes, no punishment, just leave. Some would argue that sacking is a punishment. The union would have ‘one head two big’, scratching on how to tackle this new development.

The faces of Rugao 国强民安

The faces of Rugao 国强民安 
I spent a week in Rugao, Jiangsu, a 3rd or 4th tier city about 200 km northwest of Shanghai participating in the 20th Asian Masters Athletics Championship. I went there with a simple expectation, other than trying to get into the finals of the 100m event for the 65-69 age group, to take some good photos of historical architecture, of a China before development wipes away all that was there in the past. I lugged along my SLR, which I normally don’t especially when I was there to run and not sightseeing. It was a piece of baggage that I would have to bear with for the whole trip.
 
I did not get to see what I would want to see in Rugao, a city famous for having the most centenarians alive in China. We arrived at Rugao nearly midnight and the first sight of Rugao was in the morning, from the window of Wenfeng City Hotel. There, right in front of me were rows and rows of neatly built and good quality low rise homes of pretty recent origin. And there were many high rise condomium rising in the distance. The streets were landscaped and manicured and not much different from Singapore.
 
The infrastructure of Rugao was everything a modern city could look for, not a small, tired, rundown 3rd tier city away from the futuristic coastal cities. I managed to sneak away into the villages and along the way the sight was of newly built farmers' homes, built just behind the small living quarters of the past. The few remnants of the past that were still standing have been rebuilt and served the owners in their bigger homes as storerooms or garages.
 
The only pieces of the past left in Rugao were the mansion of Mo Biqiang and Dong Xiaowan and a well preserved patched of low ancient houses right in the heart of the city. These houses still served as living quarters to some residents and small commercial enterprises. The mansion and the houses were some 400 years old and stood there to remind the people of the way of life of their forebears.
 
What really impressed me was the sight of the people of Rugao. The people were pretty well off, well heeled, living in good quality homes and looking very contented with their lives. The children, the youth and the young were a pleasant surprise. They were all at the stadium during the Opening Ceremony for the Asian Masters. Some were there to perform, some were there as spectators to this international events. And the unpredictable happened, the sky opened up, and everyone was wet. But the youth and children came well prepared, with a thin transparent raincoat over their costumes and their latest trendy wear.
 
The rain did not dampen their free spirit. They ran, but to the stadium, not away. They were there to celebrate a big international event, to welcome the visitors to their home town. What was written all over their faces was a future of hope, confidence and well being. Their innocence, their free spirit, their laughter, there was not a hint of fear or uncertainties in them, as they celebrated life. For over 200 years, the children of China had never slept well or eaten well. (两百多年,中国儿女,没有一天睡的好,吃的饱). The youth then never knew what was growing up like as children. They did not have that luxury. Those days are history, not to happen again. The faces of the Rugao children today are the faces of joy, of a happy young people living for now and for a better tomorrow as young people should.
 
China today has reached a point where the people could live life, enjoy peace and be themselves without a worry. Such a privilege only comes about when the country is strong and prosperous and well managed. It is like the saying, 国强民安. The children and youth of Rugao are a manifestation of the children and youth of China today, living in a time when security and prosperity are a new normal. To live a happy and cheerful life of plenty, being young and enjoying growing up as children and young adults (无忧无愁) shielded from the vagaries of life, with a bright and secure future that a strong and prosperous China has bestowed upon them. The children and youth of Rugao and all over China are the new China, a people blessed to live a life never the same as the parents and grand parents of old China. This is the new China and the China Dream.

Below are some pictures of the children of Rugao.

Singaporeans should venture abroad, Singapore too small 猛龙过江 or 小虫过江

This seems to be a favourite mantra to the elite. Singapore business must go overseas, NTUC training our retrenched PMETs to go overseas to work. Superficially this sounds logical. Singapore is indeed too small for our growing companies and they need to spread their wings abroad to grow.
 
What these talkers did not say or ask is that many third world companies are flooding into Singapore to do roaring businesses. And all the unemployed third world workers are rushing here to take up jobs, steal jobs from Singaporeans and with many queuing to come in.
 
While the elites are calling Singaporeans and Singapore companies to go overseas, they did not mind the foreigners to come in and replace the Singaporeans and Singapore companies here. Is there anything wrong with this situation?
 
Why are Singaporeans encouraged/forced to go overseas and their places at home being taken over by hungry foreigners? What is the long term effect and damages to this country and people?
Yes, we are going to be replaced by foreigners, our country and homes, jobs, our govt and commercial institutions, schools, universities etc etc and even the ministries and govt.
 
Unfortunately our schools do not teach the meanings of nationhood and what it will be like if we lose our country and become boat people, being kicked out of our own country by inviting too many foreigners here and they have a different agenda of their own, to take over everything we have built.
This is the consequence of not knowing that we are a nation, a country and this is our country, not a piece of land belonging to everyone.
 
Still thinking of leaving your homes and leaving your country to the foreigners? Should not we be securing our home base first with Singaporeans and then go overseas?

PS. If Singaporeans unable to find jobs here, would they be able to compete overseas? Maybe for low paying jobs.

Exposé (Part 1): Culture of Fraud in Singapore Universities

Flexible Standards of Honesty, Ethics and Fraud Exist.

Fraud Encourages Fraud.  Fraud begets fraud; and then some.

It is just a matter of time.  The erosion of integrity and authenticity must eventually destroy the moral basis for ethical management and burst the bubble of dishonesty.

   

The latest revelations that Singapore’s premier Nanyang Technological University (NTU) has revoked the 2013 PhD degree of a former Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) scientist, one Ms Sabeera Bonala, after she admitted that she had falsified data in her research and doctoral thesis.

This is the latest fallout in one of the biggest cases of scientific fraud in Singapore, which first came to light in July 2016.  Six research papers were retracted then, including three that had listed Ms Bonala as the first author. Two other researchers have left their posts and another one had his PhD revoked in the earlier episode.

The trio involved in the 2016 scandal are Professor Ravi Kambadur, who was with NTU; Dr Mridula Sharma, who was associate professor at the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine; and former NTU researcher Sudarsanareddy Lokireddy, who had his PhD from NTU.

Dr Sharma is no longer at NUS and Dr Lokireddy’s PhD from NTU has also been revoked. NTU investigations in December 2015 led to 3 papers on Myostatin, a muscular growth protein, published in 2011 and 2012 being retracted. Another paper was withdrawn before publication and the other 2 papers were corrected. Three more papers published from 2012 to 2014, based on research funded by A*Star and the National Research Foundation (NRF), were also retracted from the prestigious Molecular Endocrinology and Biological Chemistry journals.

NTU has earlier in June 2016, following an unrelated investigation into allegations of research malpractice, retracted 11 academic papers authored by researchers from the National Institute of Education (NIE). Dr Noel Chia who joined NTU in 2006, promoted to Associate Professor in 2014, is the lead author of 8 papers and co-author of the other 3 papers. He was a well-known local expert in the area of special-education needs such as autism, dyslexia and dyscalculia. Of the 11 papers that came under investigation, 9 were published in the prestigious Journal of the American Academy of Special Education Professionals (JAASEP).

I am sadden by these revelations but not surprised. I have expected these research frauds to surface much earlier.  As an NTU Associate Professor, I have been told some of most unbelievable research malpractice, and often similar things from more than one person! Here are just a few, albeit unverified:

1) The known record is nearly 40+ research papers claimed by a single staff (with various co-authors) in a single year. One Professor actually claims to have more than 1,000 publications over 15+ years, but whose expertise has remained relatively unknown!

 

2) It is “common” to have more than 10+ research papers per year claimed by a single staff (with various co-authors).

3) Many research papers claimed by a single staff (listed among first 3 authors) are in technical areas not within the staff’s known expertise, training or technical competence.

4) A paper where authorship claimed was 15th among a longer list of authors.

5) Cases of papers submitted under different titles, but with similar contents.

6) Cases of papers submitted under the same title to different journals.

7) Papers translated from their original non-English, foreign language, and claimed as one’s paper and submitted to a English-medium refereed journal.

8) …. And then some.

A Google Scholar search for the publications of senior Professors will return a lisiting of their publications and citations.

The prevalent NTU research practice of questionable ethics involves situations of "gratuitous" or "gift" authorship, where co-authors are added either by themselves or by their subordinates and where they were not involved in the research in any significant manner.  Supervisors generally expect junior Professors to include them as “co-authors” as a matter of normative practice. The latter sees evidence that those who did so would often get compensated and promotions for their generosity in gratitude.  

The Fraud Culture IS the New Normal

Especially noteworthy is the fact that the above affected Professors and staff joined the NTU and NUS at a time when the Universities have fully embraced the bogus and fraudulent World University Rankings standards.  The timing is not coincidental.

By 2010, any seriousness in research vigorousness has been abandoned.  Research integrity suffers as NUS and NTU blindly embraced THE [Times Higher Education] and QS Rankers, without demanding to examine the scientific basis of their “methodology”; especially the criterion factors selected as measures of “best” Universities, nor the population and samples of the respondents who participated in surveys purportedly conducted and whose “data” were used to compile the final annual league table rankings. 

Finally by 2014, NTU was ranked as the Top Youngest University in the World by QS Ranker, from 77^th in 2008, and ranking just 39th Worldwide.   

The new guiding principle for integrity is "the end justifies the mean”.  Authenticity has become immaterial and irrelevant as they buy into what the United Nations, UK and European Governments, as well as eminent Professors of Higher Education have already condemned as a bogus standard of questionable excellence.

Given the dodgy nature of World University Rankings and their questionable deliberate fabrication of unreliably unscientific methodologies, NTU victories to their top ranks are in essence as pyrrhic as winning a beauty contest; the mere appearance of uncertain meaningless quality.  

By flaunting the bogus World University Rankings as its fake brand of questionable quality, both NTU and NUS have flouted its blatant disregard for research integrity and ethical authenticity.  

Whither the basis of their moral authority to discipline their Professors and staff for their disdain and defiance of academic honesty and research integrity and ethics?  

Where is NUS/NTU “zero tolerance” towards the research malpractice of the World University Rankings standards?  By embracing and adopting it?

And indeed, whither NRF’s claim to “high expectations” with regard to research funding as it disburses millions of public funds to Universities who embrace and support fraudulent and bogus quality brands that have no integrity and authenticity?  

End the Culture of Fraud in Singapore Universities, now!

Integrity lights our Path to Excellence.

Do it Right and Do it Best!

  .

Emperor Trump and his tributary states

Finally an Emperor has arrived to take his rightful place at the throne of the American Empire. His antics and behavior are exactly a replica of the last emperors of China in their dying decadent days. Trump is telling the world that the American Empire is The Empire and is self sufficient, does not need to trade with the rest of the world. His first edict was isolation. His second edict was to build the Great Wall of America. This is going to cost the Empire billions, to keep the barbarians out. Trump would be remembered in history as the Emperor who built the Great Wall of America, a man made feature that can be seen from the moon. Not bad for an Emperor.
 
Trump is also in a way replicating the Chinese tributary system and vassal states. America’s vassal states must pay tributes to the Emperor and visit the White House with gifts. And the Emperor will say ‘Good boys, good boys’ and then shower them with gifts, like an audience with the Emperor himself.
 
Vassal states of America please take note and start queuing up with largesse for the Emperor. Some have already been there to kow tow to Emperor Trump and brought gifts to please the Emperor. For those vassal states that are not going to bring tributes, or pay to the Emperor for the protection, they could expect pressure to come down on them hard.
 
Long live the Emperor, Long live Emperor Trump.