Sun Tzu’s Art of War in practice

The continuing episode of the tussle over the AIM saga has taken a new twist with the WP’s award of the TCMS contract to FM Solutions and Services(FMSS) taking the spotlight. The AIM saga saw the PAP on the defensive, warding blows all over.

The picture has changed with the FMSS involvement and the WP is now on the defensive. Teo Ho Pin has suggested something amiss amounting to impropriety. The WP, represented by Sylvia Lim, has stood its ground and challenged Teo Ho Pin to report the case to CPIB if they think it is necessary. The ball is now in the court of the PAP, to go to the CPIB or not got go. Going to the CPIB is a serious thing and WP will be very busy invited for tea and its award of the contract to FMSS be put under the microscope. Not going to the CPIB is an admission that what he said has no basis. Very likely it will go to CPIB I think.

Would WP then counter the move with a report to CPIB on the AIM saga, if they can find any ground to do so, and open another front? This is political warfare with attacks and counteroffensive, evasions, misleading the enemies, diversions, all lumped into the battle field.

How would this war go forward and how long will it take to end the war? Will there be a victor or will both parties end up as collateral damages? This is going to be a massive exercise involving a lot of manhours and resources and the skills of military strategists and snoops to dig out more information as cannon fodder. The beneficiary of this contest will be truth, transparency and accountability, hopefully.

Politicians will be made more aware of the spotlight that could fall on them on what they are doing and the explanations they have to provide to appease public scrutiny. This is something like washing dirty linen in the open. This is a new expectation, a new political reality.

Myth 1 and Myth2 Polls

The two polls on the top right have expired and the numbers shown are not amusing. In fact the numbers are jumping up and down daily. My earlier polls received about 600 votes. These two could barely get 20 votes each. Yesterday I saw one showing 50 votes. Of course the real numbers were much higher. The first poll reached about 60 but crashed down to below 20 a few days latter and had been at that level since then. The second poll suffered the same fate.

I do not believe that Blogger offered a poll facility that is flawed or unreliable. But the fact is that the Poll facility is not showing the real data and it is quite pointless to use it any more.

Blogger.com/, if you are reading this, you need to rectify this as it reflects badly on Blogger itself. Until this error is corrected I shall refrain from using the Poll again.

The issue raised as to whether Singapore is providing more good and high value jobs to foreigners or the other way round is quite obvious to some. Look at the few hundred PMETs here is enough to tell a picture. These foreigners must be getting a good deal here, some may not even get a job if not of Singapore, or else they would not be here, they would have scooted. And there are many CEO jobs given to foreigners and paying millions, several millions that could have gone to able Singaporeans. How many such jobs were created by the foreigners here for Singaporeans? Or how many thousand PMET jobs, paying good salaries, have the foreigners created for Singaporeans?

This is a piece of statistics that is not available yet. This issue should be discussed to confirm that bringing in the foreigners and foreign companies really contributed to more and better jobs for Singaporeans and not the other way. And those foreign companies that are not contributing anything of good value to Singaporeans is best to tell them to find their cheap source of labour elsewhere. There is no value for their presence here. And the Govt should consider keep all the top jobs for Singaporeans wherever possible unless it is a case of no choice, where the business will turn turtle without the foreign talent. In most cases the difference made is marginable and not earth shaking and Singaporeans should be the preferred candidates especially in Govt institutions and GLCs. We don’t owe the foreigners to give them high paying jobs.

As Hsien Loong pointed out, there is a dearth of Singaporeans in the banking and finance industry at the senior leader, the specialists and leaders. This is not good for the country.

Depoliticisation is the way

The issue of politics and depolitics has again taken the spotlight in Parliament. For obvious reasons, common sense, chicken sense, for the interests of the people, continuity, in the name of administrative efficiency, many govt institutions must be depoliticized. Tiok boh? Agree or not? The judiciary, uniformed groups and the civil service are depoliticized for good reasons. They are the pillars of the non political govt, the state institutions, to provide continuity and the same level or service and dedication to the country and people irrespective of whichever political party took office.

Many people would sneer at such a comment. Understandable. The level or degree of politicization of state institutions is apparent and many would not want to say too much about the realities on the ground. It is a very subjective thing. But many concerned citizens, righteous citizens, must know that the lesser these institutions are politicized the better for the people and country. Anyone thinks or believes otherwise, that the more politicized these institutions are, the better for country and people? Admittedly it is not possible to be completely neutral from the political realities of the day.

And more institutions are best depoliticized to maintain neutrality, objectivity and continuity as they are meant to continue to exist and to serve the people regardless of a change of govt. Do I feel talking about this issue?

Of course politicians will want to politicize as many public institutions as possible for the good of people and country, and not for their own vested interests. And they will speak with a hand over their hearts that they are speaking with all honesty, that they are telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And if they are God fearing, they will even swear to their God that they are saying with full convictions, and their conscience are clear. Believe me at your own risk.

What are the obvious institutions that should be depoliticized or politicized for the good of people and country? Dunno leh! I think even this simple obvious state of things would not get an honest answer from honest and righteous people. They say politics is politics. Now what does that mean?

Reposting of my articles at your own risk

Several blogs and websites have written to me for permission to repost my articles and I have generously consented to their requests. While the contents of my articles are often provocative in nature, they are never intent to be personal to attack anyone personally. I have tried to be very careful in what I write to prevent people from accusing me of any personal wrongdoings against them. Thus in general I intentionally avoid mentioning names or post photographs of people and only deal with issues and policies or a discussion on a subject matter.

Should I have offended anyone unintentionally, as  I mentioned in my disclaimer, I will willingly apologise and remove the offending post. Throughout my almost 10 years of writing this blog, my intention has been very clear and I have avoided offending anyone directly or intentionally. There was an instance though that an article I posted attracted some very strong comments. I received a legal letter to have the article removed, and I did duly. The matter was then dealt with between the offended party and the offender who made the nasty comments.

Since then most of the bloggers here have refrained themselves from personal attacks and any infringement have been minor. My blog is for discussion and for entertaining read, not to pick a fight with anyone or to defame anyone.

The tricky thing is that when my articles are reposted, some blogs or websites may add in things that are beyond my control, like changing the titles or adding pictures or photographs of people. These additions, alterations or changes could change the nature of my articles and may become offensive to some people.

I will like to remind those blogs or websites not to make these additions or changes that may lead to unnecessary complications and offending people directly. And if they do so, I will not want to be held responsible for their actions which could be totally different and contrary to the intent of my articles. I do not give permission to alter, add or make changes to my articles when reposted.

Thank you for your understanding.

Redbean

Singapore can benefit from the Taiwan Philippines squabble

After the initial soft and tenderly reaction to the killing of their fisherman by the Filipino pirates in coastguard uniforms, the Ma Ying Jiu Govt has taken a tougher stand and making demands for punitive actions on the killers instead of requesting for apologies. Thanks to the Taiwanese media for reporting on the outrage of the people after years of no govt while the fishermen were easy victims to the Filipino pirates, being arrested, robbed, killed, and having to pay extortion and ransom money for their lives and fishing boats.

The Taiwanese Govt finally stood up and behaved like a nation and not a semi colony of the Americans and took on another semi colony firmly, and rejected outright a half hearted apology from the Philippines. Ma Ying Jiu has imposed a sanction on the employment of Filipino workers in Taiwan. This act may also lead to a similar ban in Hongkong, as Taiwan and Taiwanese are part of bigger China.

With the door closed in Taiwan and Hongkong, Singapore is likely to be the next preferred country for Filipinos looking for jobs. There will be more maids coming here too. Singapore employment agencies can make a beeline to Manila and other Filipino cities to recruit all the maids and PMETs they want, probably at a cheaper price. The Filipino Govt will now hold back on their demands for higher pay for the maids. And Filipino mangoes and bananas can be exported here as well, at cheaper price.

Other than getting more Filipino workers here, Singapore’s dream of hitting the 6.9m population could be achieved much earlier and our gene pool shall improve as well. Singapore has all to gain from this conflict from a business point of view as well as for the future of a bigger Singaporean core.

Hsien Loong sees need to develop Singaporean core of finance and banking specialists

Hsien Loong said, ‘there was a need to develop a local core of specialists and leaders in finance. He said that MAS is currently facilitating this move by working with banks and other financial institutions’.

TRE commented, ‘It’s not known how MAS is going to “facilitate” the development of Singaporean specialists and leaders in the finance industry, given that in the financial services sector, banks and institutions, especially the foreign ones, are notorious for discriminating against Singaporeans. Many would prefer to hire their own kinds’.

I say, it’s elementary TRE. Just issue pink ICs to all those specialists that are deemed good and lo behold, we have a local core of specialists and leaders in finance. How did we get our top table tennis players? Our instant tree formula works every time.

See how good our universities are now? We brought in plane loads of foreign professors. Next time we may bring in plane loads of foreign students and we can really make our universities in the mould of Cambridge or Harvard. We can even rebuild, change the architecture of the buildings and their names, the names of the roads also can be changed..

See how wonderful money is, and what money can do?

AIM is looking like Boon Wan’s Waterloo

When Boon Wan bravely took on the task of solving the housing problems created by his predecessor, it was really a piece of cake. There is not much ingenuity needed to solve a housing shortage problem caused by under supply and over demand. He must have read the situation and was rightly confident to score a resounding success in the shortest time possible.

He embarked on a massive building programme. This solved the first half of the equation. He somehow did not tighten enough on the demand side and the problem was halted from sliding down further, but not improving much either. He did not count on the 800k home owners that have already been sucked into the system by overpaying for their flats and trying to undo too much will upset them and the value of their assets adversely, including the prices of private properties.

The present status, housing problem is like a stalemate, going nowhere. No one can blame Boon Wan for not trying. He did. But the problem is too complex with too many knots that could not be untied at the same time.

By being the MND he is now caught into this AIM thing that he did not bargain for. It was something he did not see coming. Is this something that wrong? It depends. Officially it is already reported as nothing wrong. But is it? Why then is this case drawing so many blanks? Why were the opposition members having a merry time taking aims and pot shots at this issue? And the replies were not so brilliant and did not help in anyway to remove the doubts and acrimonies of this case. It cannot be willed away by a review committee unless the explanations in Parliament are reasonable, logical and acceptable to the public. Are they?

Getting angry and feeling cornered would not do any good. Boon Wan’s reply that the software can be bought off the shelf took everyone by surprise and a turn for the worst. Why was so much money spent on something that can be bought outright and definitely cost a pittance relative to the customized and specially developed software? Was it in exasperation that Boon Wan blurted this out or was it a considered fact that he knew all along and wanted to tell Parliament?

Think he must be having nightmare dreaming of Teo Ho Pin and how this case is developing. Many more questions will now be raised and make defending it that much more pointless. Can Boon Wan and his team, or Teo Ho Pin, put up a sound defence going forward? First thing, he needs to keep his cool. He is losing it and opening up gaps to be attacked.

This is like a rook’s gambit in chess. Instead of losing a rogue, oops, I mean a rook, by calling in all the pieces to protect the rook, it may end up losing more pieces and the game as well.