SMRT CEO needs more supervision

Whether he needs more supervision or more help it doesn’t matter. When an organization hires a CEO and pays him millions, top dollars, the least expected is that he must be able to do the job, if not, to even bring it to a higher level. What Cynical Investor wrote in the below article has his points. The article is reposted in the TRE with the title, ‘Wah lan SMRT CEO so cock is it?’
 

‘Scholar and ex-SAF commander is so useless that Khaw, Temasek and SMRT thinks he needs more supervision, a lot more….
If he’s so in need of supervision, why not fire him? Or cut his salary by half? Meritocracy? What meritocracy?...
Here’s how MediaCorp reported the story. ST’s report is along similar lines so maybe there was a dictator dictating the narrative?
‘Temasek-backed Pavilion Energy’s CEO Seah Moon Ming will step down to focus on his role as chairman of train operator SMRT.’ CNA
That shows that Temasek thinks he needs more supervision.’

The rot has gone down so deep that no one can see anything wrong with the appointment of Seah Moon Ming as full time chairman of SMRT when so many new hires, all being paid in the millions or a few hundred thousands each and still no improvement. Why pay so much for so little or non performance, and keeps on paying, and bringing bigger guns to be millions more? Is this Seah better than super fixer Khaw Boon Wan?
 
This is how bad things are now. No accountability, no responsibility, just keep throwing money at the problem like throwing money into a bottomless pit as if it is normal. This is the new normal of collecting million dollar salaries and enjoying life without a care of how things work or did not work.
 
What if Seah Moon Ming cannot produce any result, hire a few more millionaires?
 
This is unbelieveable.
 
The other unbelieveable thing is that no one cares how Desmond Kuek feels. Hey, he was the Chief of Defence Forces, commanding the Air Force, Navy, Army and all the supporting arms. He is no little spring chicken. He is someone proven to be able and capable. The fact that Boon Wan has to tackle the problems of SMRT is a smack on Desmond Kuek’s ability to handle the problems. The fact that after being on the job for 5 years and now they threw in another aged chicken as the full time chairman to solve the perennial unstoppable problems is another way to say Desmond Kuek needs help. 

KNN, being paid in the millions, ex Chief of Defence Forces needs help from two without any experience in running a mass rapid transport system. What do all these things say about the handling of this saga? I can’t fault Desmond Kuek for it as he was not really in charge. There are bigger cooks in the kitchen.
 
Appointing a top brass, presuming the best guy for the job, paid him millions and not allowing him to do the job, unbelieveable.

PS. Before I am accused of over simplification, there are two assumptions in this episode. One, when a person is successful in his profession, he is assumed to be successful in any profession, even in things he has no training or experience in. The second assumption is that when one becomes a politician, better still a minister, one becomes a knows all, or even better, an expert in every field, with or without training or experience. These two assumptions form the basis of this fiction that is being played in real life.

Be wary of Anti-China Articles by tribal writers with roots to a South Asia country.

Last week an associate editor of a local mass media in his deliberation on an article about the Australian White Paper he couldn't hide his intense desire of reviving the previous
American, Australian and British sponsored mechanism SEATO to contain the peaceful rise of China. He strongly feels SEATO can be revived in the formation of QUAD or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue comprising US, Australia, Japan and India to contain China.

In his article he asserted  the term"Aggressive China " repeatedly nuanced to paint China in a bad light and with evil intent. And as a coward he also feared that QUAD as a medium to contain China may go the way as SEATO.

He wants US, Australia and Japan to lead the banner against China, even to have wars with China as he alluded that US should have stood its ground against China in the South China Sea episode and against Russia in Syria when he claimed Obama did not challenge Russia in the "red lines" on Syria laid down by him. As he is akin to the tribe of  South Asia I thought he should be brave and courageous enough to tell powerful India to take on China upfront and not depend on the sinews of others to take on a self-imagine or bogey enemy, China.

What is also most unacceptable are the many foreign well paid local mass media journalists, editors, writers and political analysts and commentators especially many of those with strong roots to a South Asia country who hide behind the protective state of mass media to echo the Americans and the West and the Japanese propaganda to demonise China and to constantly swipe at China and the Chinese people with slanted news, disparaging sinister remarks , innuendos, , insidious fake reports and fake news with calculative evil intent to hurt the interest of China and all Chinese people.

Hundreds of these well paid ghost writers or intellectuals are foreigners who work or teach in many of Singapore's institutes of higher learnings and international studies and their warped minds, thoughts , ideas and writings which are extremely biased and prejudiced against China and the Chinese people will have strong poisonous negative impact on the thousands of students and young minds under their influence. This does not bode well for Singapore which is a multiracial society. The government must take action to negate their evil influence on Singapore and ASEAN countries.

Southernglory1

Monday,11th December,2017

The evil Empire screwed the Arab and Muslim countries again

The Americans have been shouting rule of law, justice, fair play, peace but have been violating everything they said every time. They have been inciting wars, starting wars and fighting wars, breaking all national and international laws, interfering with the internal affairs of countries all over the world and the worse cases ended with invasion and regime change, their leaders killed. But many silly leaders of so called democratic countries chose to ignore the violations of the evil Empire and chose to sleep with the devil. After being conned, duped by the evil Empire for so long, they found it embarrassing and shameful to admit the truth, that they were deceived by the devil all this while.
 
The latest painful truth is the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in blatant violation of the resolutions in the United Nation agreed upon by countries of the world. The evil Empire has poked the middle finger into the nose of the nations of the world. Rightly many countries were incensed by this arrogant and dismissive act. Many are crying foul. But not all are demanding that the evil Empire obey the rule of law and international justice. The American cronies are hiding in shame by keeping quiet. It is heartening to know that some European powers are brave enough to stand up to this outrageous act of the evil Empire.
 
Have the Arab and Muslim countries woken up yet, that the devil they have been in bed with, praying to, and holding in high regards as the righteous nation to save them and protect them is indeed the devil that have been cheating them? No they have not. The Arab League countries might have condemned the Americans for this latest treachery. The sad thing is that they did not know that they had been betrayed all the years. This is what they said, ‘the US had withdrawn itself as a sponsor and broker of the Israeli Palestinian peace process with its controversial move’. This showed that they have all the years believing that the evil Americans were the good guys, there to help them when they Americans were selling them out at every occasion. And the daft Arabs and Muslims did not know.
 
When would the Arab and Muslim countries grow up and remove the blinkers to see the truth? The devil has stood up, naked and showing them the middle finger, that the interest of the Arab and Muslim countries is nothing compare to the interest of Israel and the evil Empire?
 
Do not be misled by the few screams of injustice. Tomorrow all the Arab and Muslim countries would be running back to the devil and begging to be whipped and prostrate in front of the devil pledging obedience. They would soon leave the Palestinians in the lurch. They fear the evil Empire and would choose to be the slaves of the evil Empire. And the Emperor will say, bow to me, you useless and mindless humanity of no pride and conscience. I shall rule you forever as before and thereafter. I am the Emperor of the evil Empire. Be good and you will be spare from my wrath. If not I will do a regime change in your country.
 
Jerusalem is as good as gone, now the capital of Israel. What can the Arab and Muslim countries and the rest of the world do now? Absolutely nothing. This is the law, the law that the evil Empire believes in. The evil Empire is above the rule of the law.

Voice of China – New meaning on freedom and human rights

I watched a few series of Voice of China where young artistes were given a chance to sing in front of a few hundred million viewers, on CCTV. There are similar programmes like Sing My Song, I Am a Singer, also offering opportunities for talented young people to showcase themselves, pitching their own talents and turning themselves into successful pop idols on their own. Three memorable individuals like Zhang Bi Chen, Su Yun Ying and Huo Jun were really impressive. Watching them performed gave rise to an unspeakable emotion within me, and my eyes welled up. It was so warmth and comforting to see young people carving out a new future of fame and fortune for themselves without having to depend on anyone else. The system allowed it, allowed freedom of expression and for a person to be his very own best, to be himself and accepted and appreciated. These rights were robbed from the Chinese people for almost 200 years, by the ex colonialists, notably the West.
 
Reflecting back, 50 years ago, 100 years ago, such things would not happen. Talented young individuals like these young men and girls would at best be begging for a few coins thrown at them on the roadside or in tea houses. And often, for a few coins, they would suffered the indignity of being embarrassed, harassed, abused or taken advantage of. They were at the mercy of corrupt officials, the rich and mighty and the bad. For nearly two centuries, the Chinese people suffered such humiliation for being weak and poor, for lacking opportunities, for living in a bankrupt political system made worst by foreign invasion, wars, bullying, looting, cheating and corruption. All the talented individuals did not have a chance to be what they could be, their talents treated with dismissive intolerance and wasted in a broken poverty stricken country. The result, the Chinese had no talent.
 
Many of our parents had no choice but to migrate to run away from such abject poverty when the simple right of survival is not even there. There was nothing, no pride, no dignity, no shame, just poverty. What human rights to talk about, what freedom of expression, what opportunity to excel in one’s pursuit in any field, in the arts and in the industries. That was what life was in a China that was not a country, insulted and branded as the Sick Man of Asia. The Chinese people were despised as a people, as a hopeless civilization where its people were like hapless flotsam in the ocean of life, weak, defenceless and taunted as useless and untalented and unskilled scum of civilization. Every country in Asia and SE Asia was even better off than China and the Chinese landing on their shores eking for a living, to do anything that their labour, blood, sweat and tear could exchange for. Being Chinese was a shame, a curse, to be less than a human bean. Where was the freedom, where was the human rights?
 
Today, China has rebuilt itself and is standing among the nations of the world as an equal among the equals. The Chinese people are now given the opportunity to be what they could be, to develop their talens and to excel in every field of pursuit, with pride and human dignity. Communism or whatever, China and the Chinese people are now able to live a normal and decent life, to live like human beans, to have a roof over their heads, to eat well and live well. They have security and a sense of well being.
 
Would democracy offer China and the Chinese people the life they are having today? Everyone one of them living in peace and security, and dreaming of making their dreams come true and with very real possibility of their dreams coming true, on their own merit, individual merit, without having to depend on anyone else. Freedom and human rights have returned to China.
 
There is a China Dream. The Chinese can dream of anything and making their dreams come true. This is the meaning of freedom and human rights, the Chinese way. The Chinese people have regained their confidence as a people, as a civilization, to have found a new pride to be Chinese. They are proud of their country and what they have achieved on their own, as individuals and as a country, a nation, on their own effort and hard work. Everything is now possible for the Chinese people. And they know it.

Welcome to the land of the Dabawallas

Aziz Kassim wrote the below article published in the TRE. He called these workers Dabawallas, a termed used in India. In colonial Singapore, a similar term is coolies, the uneducated and unskilled workers selling their labour, sweat and muscle, in exchange for a few cents or a bowl of gruel. Those were the days when Singapore was in the Third World, run by a colonial govt whose interest is in London.
 
Today, Singapore is supposedly in the First World, the most expensive modern city in the world, run by multi millionaire ministers elected by the people to look after 'their' interests, including providing 'them with decent jobs'. Today, the Dabawallas or coolies are not uneducated and unskilled. They are graduates of our highly rated ITE, trained with technical skills. What is ITE? It’s The End? Oops, it is Institute of Technical Education. The Dabawallas and coolies did not have this privilege to be educated and trained in our ITEs.
 
The big question, why are the ITE graduates doing unskilled jobs of the Dabawallas and coolies and earning a pittance to survive in this most expensive city in the world? How are they going to bring up a family when they decide to get married and have children?
 
As Aziz Kassim lamented, are their education and skills so irrelevant that they are unemployable. Some bloggers even commented that some of these Dabawallas or coolies are diploma holders. And we have near full employment, employment 2 million foreigners here, mostly in full time employment, educated and trained in dubious schools or even fake degrees while our modern day Dabawallas or coolies are either temp or contract workers. Who is doing this to our young? Who is condemning our young to be Dabawallas or coolies?
 
What is happening to Singapore and our children? What is their future going to be like? What is the multimillion dollar ministers going to do to alleviate these people to a higher station in life when they could provide millions of jobs to foreigners here? Or the multimillion dollar ministers think this is the new normal for Singaporeans?

From another angle, we are progressing. At least now you need to get educated and technically trained with a skill to be Dabawallas or coolies. And with the experience as Dabawallas or coolies they can go to neighbouring countries where their skills will be greatly appreciated. Their pay will be raised into millions, in rupiahs, rupees and pesos. Even our graduate drivers will be in high demands in these countries, to drive taxis of course.

What do you think?

Below are some parts of Aziz Kassim's article

Singapore’s Dabawallas – ... A desperate situations, last not least the Dabawalas which hold no futures for youngsters in their career ladders now a starting career for these youngsters.
 
One would never imagine this is happening in Singapore, yes it is happening in Singapore. Practically everywhere in Singapore you can find them, it is just too many. With Motorbikes, bysicles, electrical bike, young, old and handicaps carrying cooked foods.The shocking and sad part all of them are Singaporean. These show a desperate situations.
 
Dabawalla, is an old trade of India where Dabawallas earning an average of US $131, usually those of low education...
 
In Singapore, plying this trade of Dabawalla are Uber, Dolphin , Kangarooo and others. I met few of these Singapore’s Dabawallas; shocking! An average they earn$5 per hour, a miserable amount , worst without taking into consideration the petrol cost.... Are Jobs so scarce for these youth? . I found out most of these are ITE graduates.
 
Are these people their skills are so irrelevant to the local companies?. Look everywhere, aircon, wiring, starhubs technicians and building industries, all run by foreigners. What is the point of having ITE when local companies prefer to employ foreigners. No wonder the government is expanding the Prison complex....These are one of sad cases where living conditions of Singaporean are slowly deteriorating. The Ministers like an insane preacher, howlings, dont get a degree, jobs might not easy to get but even these poor ITE graduates supposed to be filling for the nation skills worforces they too cant even get a job. .... This Dabawalla thing, something of an eye opener that shows we are going downward hill....
 
In India , Dabawalla is one of the poverty striken jobs, hence PAP are bringing us to the next level, lol the third world.
 
Aziz Kassim