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Friendly Reminders From the Nation-Building Press About The Dangers of Hong Lim Park

ST Sep 2, 2008
First legal demo since rule change lasts just 10 minutes
Non-profit group stages protest against maid abuse, watched by curious onlookers and activists
By Li Xueying

SINGAPORE'S first legal demonstration in two decades was held yesterday at the Speakers' Corner - and lasted for all of 10 minutes.

At 7pm, five members of a non-profit group, Hearer of Cries (HOC), gathered metres from the Clarke Quay MRT station exit at Hong Lim Park to stage a protest against employers who abuse their maids.

Against the darkening sky, they erected banners and played music, as a female member - complete with a neck brace - posed as an abused maid.

HOC founder Mike Goh, 46, gave a short message against abuse as others distributed leaflets to an audience of some 20 curious retirees, political activists and office workers on their way home.

By 7.10pm, it was over. There was no procession, shouting or burning of effigies. 'Is that it?' asked a disappointed Mr Steven Lee, 34, an engineer.

LOL, poor Mr Steven Lee. All these years, the PAP government has been telling him that demonstrations are dangerous; they mustn't be allowed; there will be riots; people will be killed etc. I guess Steven must have actually believed the PAP, at least partially.

Personally, I don't think that any demonstration at Hong Lim Park will be more dangerous than, say, the crowds at the Great Robinsons Sale.

Meanwhile (and by pure coincidence no doubt, LOL), today just happens to be the very day that the Straits Times has an article about an event that happened two years ago. And what happened two years ago?

Well, back in September 2006, a lady named Harkirat Kaur distributed some flyers & advertisements at City Hall MRT. What's so unusual about that, I hear you ask. After all, every day, people stand at MRT entrances distributing flyers, advertisements and brochures.

Oooooh, but this is different. Harkirat's flyers were VERY dangerous. She was publicising a demonstration at Hong Lim Park. And you know what the PAP government has been saying about demonstrations all these years, right? Demonstrations are dangerous; they mustn't be allowed; there will be riots; people will be killed etc.

No wonder Harkirat must be punished.

ST Sep 2, 2008
Illegal assembly: Woman fined $650
By Elena Chong

A WOMAN who took part in an illegal assembly two years ago to publicise a political rally was fined $650 yesterday.

Harkirat Kaur, 29, admitted to passing out fliers during a September 2006 gathering along North Bridge Road which allegedly involved members of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP).

Party chief Chee Soon Juan, his sister Chee Siok Chin, assistant treasurer Jeffrey George and party chairman Gandhi Ambalam have also been charged in connection with the assembly.

They had earlier claimed trial and their next court date is tomorrow.

The court heard that Harkirat, who does freelance editorial work, took part in the assembly at the entrance of City Hall MRT around mid-day on Sept 10, 2006.

She distributed fliers promoting a rally at the Speakers' Corner in Hong Lim Park scheduled for six days later.

Me, I don't think distributing flyers is dangerous. Unless you're distributing them for opposition politicians to say that they will be speaking at Hong Lim Park. Maybe that's exactly what the Straits Times wants to remind you about, LOL.

On a related note, you might recall that last year, the Workers' Party had applied for a permit to hold a cycling event at East Coast Park. The police rejected the application. When Sylvia Lim went to Parliament to ask why, the Senior Minister of State for Law and Home Affairs Prof Ho Peng Kee said that:

1. East Coast Park is a recreational park for Singaporeans and their families. It is not meant to be used by a political party to promote its cause;

2. Apart from displacing the usual recreational users, East Coast Park is an open area where there is greater potential for breach of the peace, public disorder and unruly behaviour.

3. The police requires political events to be held indoors or in stadiums where problems could be contained, and this policy applies to all political parties.

However, guess where the PAP held its carnival, just last Sunday? At the West Coast Park. And guess who made his grand entrance on a bicycle? Yes, the Man himself, together with a troop of PAP ministers and MPs, all on bicycle.

"Ehhh, Mr Wang, don't say liddat lah,
West Coast Park not the same as East Coast Park, mah."
I must say - this country is as funny as it is sad.
Gadis Bispak Imut

The Devil, Chua Lee Hoong & Harry Lee

William Golding was a Nobel Prize-winning author. His most famous work is Lord of the Flies, a novel which I studied for my GCE O-level Literature exams many years ago. The title is actually a reference to the Hebrew name Beelzebub (literally, "god of the fly", "Lord of Flies"), a name sometimes used as a synonym for Satan.

The book is really quite fascinating. It is a study of the human psyche, and it stares straight into the face of evil inside us. I cannot do justice to the book's rich complexity in one short blog post, but let me try anyway.

The plot goes like this. After a plane crash, a large group of schoolboys are stranded on a beautiful deserted island. None of them are hurt, and none of them are in danger. There is more than enough food, water and shelter on the island for them to survive indefinitely.

The boys quickly organise themselves. They appoint leaders, set rules for themselves and work together to build shelters and gather food. In effect, they become a microcosm of our larger human society. You look at the boys and you can see how human civilisation operates (and this is precisely what Golding intended, for his novel is allegorical).

What happens next? Well, the boys could have led a peaceful, harmonious existence on an island paradise. In fact, they initially do. However, things quickly break down. A power struggle breaks out between the two oldest boys - Ralph, who is strong and genuinely good-hearted, and Jack, who is just as strong, but utterly ruthless and power-hungry.

At first the boys elect Ralph as their leader. But Jack steadily gains power. Eventually, Jack takes complete control and under his leadership, the entire group of boys degenerate into barbaric savagery. Two boys are murdered and Ralph himself is hunted down like a wild pig to be slaughtered.

How did Jack do it? How did he seize power? Essentially he played on the boys' fears. He told them that somewhere on the island, there lived a fearsome "beast". According to Jack, this "beast" was ferocious, it was no ordinary animal, it was a kind of monster and it was hungry. It hated the boys and was out to hunt them down and kill them.

And the only way for the boys to escape the "beast" and survive was to accept Jack as their leader. For Jack was the strongest, the smartest, the best hunter. Jack would know what to do. If only the boys would obey Jack and pledge allegiance to him, then Jack would be able to defend them against their enemy.

Most of the boys were duped. In fact they obeyed Jack so unquestioningly that they would commit murder, upon his command. And that was how Jack gained power.

Of course, the truth was that there was no "beast". It was merely a fiction, a myth, a frightening story that Jack steadily built up over time, by playing on the boys' collective fear of the dark. In psychological terms, the "beast" was nothing more than an external projection of the boys' irrational inner fears. It was through Jack's skilful manipulations that the imaginary "beast" was magnified into huge proportions.

Why am I writing about the Lord of the Flies today? Two decades have passed since I first read that stunningly insightful book. Yet up to today, events in Singapore still periodically remind me of that novel. Most recently, we see media reports like these:

ST July 12, 2008
There is a conspiracy to do us in, says MM Lee
Minister Mentor rebuts human rights groups' criticism of Singapore
By Sue-ann Chia

MINISTER Mentor Lee Kuan Yew last night dismissed human rights organisations' criticisms of Singapore's style of governance, saying that they were trying to 'do us in'.

In a robust rebuttal of these groups' assertions that Singapore is not a liberal democracy, he said that they had never run a country and did not know what was needed to make Singapore tick.

'There is a conspiracy to do us in. Why?... They see us as a threat,' said Mr Lee at an hour-long dialogue during the Economic Society of Singapore's annual dinner ....

ST Aug 9, 2008
Why they hate Singapore
Western detractors are getting the jitters as others copy our model
By Chua Lee Hoong

SINGAPORE is small enough to be a suburb in Beijing, but it has something in common with the mammoth People's Republic. The little red dot and Red China are both countries the West loves to hate.

There are those who wish bad things to happen to the Beijing Olympics. Likewise, there are those who have had it in for the Lion City for years ....

Do "they" really hate us? Is anyone really out to "do us in"? Is there really a "conspiracy" going on?

And if so ....... whose conspiracy is it? Ask yourself that.
Gadis Bispak Imut

Wong Kan Seng's Latest Career Achievement

First, the terrorist Mas Selamat escaped from the Whitley Road Detention Centre in broad daylight.

Then two detainees at the Subordinate Courts lock-up beat up the police officer supervising them and made an escape bid, also in broad daylight.

And now, a 61-year-old retiree breaks through all the security measures at Changi Airport - without even meaning to.

ST June 24, 2008
Dad flies off using son's passport
He checks in at Changi, clears immigration and gets on Tiger Airways jet to Vietnam
By Carolyn Quek

IN HIS hurry to catch a flight at Changi Airport's Budget Terminal yesterday morning, retiree Ang Heng Soon, 61, grabbed the wrong passport and left home.

He took his 39-year-old son's passport. They had left their passports on the dining table, because the son was also flying from Changi Airport.

The father's mistake, and how he cleared all security checks at the airport and flew to Vietnam, led to a long day for both.

Even with the wrong passport, Mr Ang first checked in at the Tiger Airways counter for his flight to Ho Chi Minh City, where he was headed for a six-day holiday.

He next got past the security check by Certis Cisco officers at the entrance to the restricted passenger area.

Then he ran into problems, failing repeatedly to scan his fingerprint at the immigration Automated Clearance System.

Noticing his difficulty, an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority officer directed him to a lane for manual clearance.

There, an officer cleared him to leave Singapore, and he boarded his plane.

Mr Ang told The Straits Times he realised his mistake only during the flight.

You know what will happen next, don't you? The Little People will be punished again. You know, the Cisco guard, the lady at the airport check-in counter, and so on.

The good minister Wong Kan Seng will strut around, point his finger and say, "Tsk tsk ... you so naughty ... you so negligent ... your pay is docked ... you are sacked ..." and then he will probably look at the TV camera and say, "Lee Kuan Yew was right - you Singaporeans are too complacent."

Someone might quietly suggest that in view of all these security lapses, perhaps the Home Affairs Minister is not doing his job very well and should resign. Whereupon Wong Kan Seng's eyes will widen slightly in surprise.

And then he'll say: "Ooh, I am sorry that this has happened. But in Singapore, sacrificing the minister for political expediency is just not right. I am very highly talented, you know. I must be - otherwise why would you be paying me a world-class salary? It will be a tragic loss for Singapore if I were to quit."
Gadis Bispak Imut

Thinking About Critical Thinking

A reader, AM, writes from Melbourne University to tell me that he is a final-year law student. Recently he has had to write many legal essays. AM wonders how he can learn to think more critically. Evidently he feels that his earlier education in Singapore has disadvantaged him:

"Of course at this time, being a Singaporean, I would readily point the blame finger at the government and MOE for creating a flawed system where schools do not encourage critical thinking but hard memorization and accurate application (or maybe that was just my school only). So I was just wondering, how does one develop critical thinking if the system we are in doesn't necessarily encourage it?"

Personally I am very interested in the mind. But less interested in critical thinking. While critical thinking is no doubt a useful tool, my personal adventures into the intuitive right brain (via meditation, self-hypnosis and certain other esoteric methods) have made me a little wary of the dangers of over-reliance on the logical left brain.

I'm sure that the above statement will surprise, perhaps even upset, some people. And it is not exactly the easiest thing to explain to a general audience via a blog post. So I shall not elaborate. Not now anyway.

Back to the left brain then. Here are six questions about critical thinking:

1. What is it?
2. Who said so?
3. Why should I be interested?
4. Where can I use it?
5. When shall I use it?
6. How can I apply it?

Guess what, I am not providing the answers. I posed those six questions just to demonstrate a certain critical thinking skill. It's called asking questions. This one, specifically, is known as 5W1H.

The five W's are what, who, why, where and when, and the one H is how. 5W1H was originally conceived as a journalistic tool. Out in the field, reporters would use 5W1H as a mental checklist to generate questions and make sure they cover all the basic facts needed for their news story. Now 5W1H shows up in all sorts of other places, such as in the Six Sigma processes.

As far as AM's law school adventures are concerned, 5W1H can be applied as follows. Suppose you are reading a legal article where the good professor is expounding certain opinions. Since he writes persuasively, you feel inclined to agree. On the other hand, if you wish to consider his article more critically, you simply generate questions to consider. Such as - what is he really saying here? Who would agree with this? Who wouldn't? Why not? What is the justification for this point? Where are the examples? What are the alternative views? When would this idea fail? And so on.

You might not have expected that such a simple thing as asking questions would be so important as to merit its own special acronym "5W1H". Well, it just goes to show you that critical thinking isn't that difficult, after all. On the other hand, many of us know from our personal experiences that Singapore's teachers often implicitly discourage questions, especially if the question strays outside the confines of the school syllabus. And over the years, many Singaporeans will forget how to ask questions. So perhaps we do need to remind ourselves about 5W1H. In fact, asking good questions is probably the most important thing that an MP can do in Parliament.

Not to flog a very dead horse, but there's a useful illustration from April this year:

Mr Low Thia Khiang: "Did MHA conduct regular audits at the Whitley Road Detention Centre (WRDC) prior to the escape of Mas Selamat?"

Mr Wong Kan Seng: "The WRDC and the Gurkha Contingent guards have their respective procedures. When the detainees are in the cell block, they are watched by a significant number of guards. The ratio of guards is more than what one can see in the prison.

When they're taken to other blocks, most of those movements are in passageways that are enclosed and they're also blindfolded, to keep them from familiarising themselves with the surroundings.

The only thing that ought to have been done better is a regular system check and audit. These will now be carried out on a regular basis."

Paragraph 1 of Wong Kan Seng's answer was irrelevant to the question. Paragraph 2 of his answer was also irrelevant. Well, no, not exactly, they did serve a purpose. They distracted people.

Now, look at Low's question again. And then just focus on the only relevant part of Wong's answer:

"The only thing that ought to have been done better is a regular system check and audit. These will now be carried out on a regular basis."

What would be the most natural follow-up question you would ask?
Probably something like this:

"Did MHA ever conduct any audit at WRDC at all? If so, when?"

The question was not asked. So we will never know the answer. We do know what happened next. Various lowly MHA officers were punished for the Mas Selamat escape, while the Minister was completely unscathed. In fact, he was the one handing out punishments.

But what if the question had been asked? And what if the truthful answer was that not only was there no regular audit system, but there had been no audit at all, for many years. For example, what if the answer turned out to be something like this:

"WDRC has never been audited. Not even once, ever since I became Home Affairs Minister fourteen years ago, back in 1994. As a matter of fact, we've simply never bothered to audit any of our prisons and detention centres for security."

Under such circumstances, I think that it would be more difficult for PM Lee to assert so blithely in Parliament that it is unthinkable for Wong Kan Seng to be punished.

But then we don't know. We probably never will. The right question wasn't asked; it was never asked; Wong didn't have to answer it; and so, the political history of Singapore took a certain turn, and went on in a certain way. As I predicted quite long ago, Wong Kan Seng managed to make the Great Escape.
Gadis Bispak Imut

Thank You For Reading My Blog, Aljunied Town Council Members

A surprising reversal of events:

ST May 11, 2008
Litter index not linked to conservancy charges
By Shuli Sudderuddin

The air has been cleared over the litter index. Residents in Aljunied GRC need not worry about having to pay higher conservancy charges if their estate is deemed dirty.

Netizens were abuzz over a supposed link between the charges and the index after Aljunied Town Council chairman Cynthia Phua mentioned on May 3 that a litter index was being considered to find out which estates were the dirtiest.

It was reported that the index would be based on the cleanliness of lifts, condition of public property and how large pieces of rubbish were disposed of, and that the town council would consider raising conservancy charges for the dirtiest precincts to cover the extra work involved in maintaining them.

Clearing the air yesterday, Madam Phua told The Sunday Times: 'I mentioned that the litter index and conservancy charges can be linked in terms of dollar amount because there will be an increased cost to cleaning dirtier estates.

'However, that does not mean that the Aljunied Town Council intends to link them. I would like to make it very clear that the Aljunied Town Council never had the intention of punishing the residents with higher conservancy charges.'

She added that the town council may use the index to identify the dirtiest precincts. The staff can clean them and residents encouraged to maintain cleanliness. The index has not even been drafted.

Let's recall the earlier ST article, dated 5 May 2008. These sentences were, and are, crystal clear:

ST May 5, 2008
Aljunied trash index aims to wipe out litterbugs
Conservancy fees may be tied to index, with dirtiest precincts paying more
By Alfred Siew

TIRED of hardcore litterbugs, Aljunied GRC plans to start measuring the cleanliness of its precincts under a new litter index to be introduced in October.

Officials also said they will consider raising the conservancy charges for the dirtiest precincts to cover the extra work that goes into maintaining them.

As I see it, either the Aljunied Town Council has suddenly changed its plans about the index, or the Straits Times made a big error in reporting the story the first time around. Or perhaps there was just some breakdown in communication, when the Straits Times and the Aljunied Town Council were talking to each other. What do you think?

Anyway, all's well that ends well. Raising conservancy charges anytime in the foreseeable future is just plain silly - considering, among other things, the way that the price of oil, electricity and basic foodfoodstuff have been shooting up. Surely we don't want to risk destabilising Singapore?

Interestingly, I just went to the ST archive service to read the 5 May article in full again. Surprise, surprise. It seems to me that the original article has now been edited. A few extra paragraphs have been added, which I'm fairly certain were not in the original article I saw. Here's some of the "additional reporting":

Other town councils are not yet considering the same move.

Dr Teo Ho Pin, coordinating chairman of the 14 People's Action Party town councils, had reservations about the plan.

He said it means a few litterbugs at a block could end up causing everyone to be punished.

Well, as you can see, it is obviously untrue that Mr Wang and the PAP are always in disagreement.

In this case, I agree wholeheartedly with Dr Teo Ho Pin. As a matter of fact, Dr Teo is simply reiterating the very same view that I myself had earlier expressed here, so I cannot possibly disagree with him.

Well done, Dr Teo! In my opinion, you have just shown yourself to be a clear-thinking, clever person.
Gadis Bispak Imut

Chee Soon Juan And Other Illegal Hawkers

It seems that Geylang is getting overrun by foreigners selling illegal cigarettes.

ST May 4, 2008
Cigarette peddlers show up in Geylang
Working in teams, they do their illegal trade in back alleys, side lanes
By Aw Cheng Wei

Peddlers from China and Vietnam are hawking bootleg cigarettes openly in the Geylang area, sometimes in broad daylight, and even stopping cars to sell their stash.

The cigarettes are smuggled in on board cargo ships which dock at Jurong Port, the peddlers claimed.

One seller, who said he was Vietnamese and spoke in halting English, said his shipborne supply comes from Indonesia. His teammate added in Mandarin: 'The ships come in daily and we pay on collection.'

Judging by the figures he gave, it is a lucrative business. The peddlers buy their contraband at about $2 for a pack of 20 sticks and resell them to street buyers. A 20-stick pack of Texas 5 costs $4.50 while a pack of Marlboro Red or Marlboro Menthol costs $5 or $6, half of what a duty-paid pack of Marlboro costs here.

The appearance of the Geylang peddlers comes on the heels of Indonesian peddlers who smuggled in bootleg cigarettes in small boats and sold them to passers-by in Woodlands, Yew Tee and Changi.

Police cracked down on these Indonesian smugglers in January.

Six of the seven peddlers The Sunday Times approached in Geylang last week were Vietnamese. The seventh was a Chinese Singaporean who looked no older than 18.

There are peddlers from China as well but The Sunday Times team did not manage to speak to them.

From this article, we learn that these Chinese, Vietnamese and Indonesian foreigners are getting their illegal cigarettes via cargo ships that dock at Jurong Port.

However, I am more interested to know how these foreigners got into Singapore in the first place. Who knows, Mas Selamat may well have gotten out of Singapore in the same way that these cigarette hawkers got in.

It's quite likely that at least some of these cigarette hawkers are illegal immigrants. If they had entered Singapore legally on a work permit, they'd have a job and probably wouldn't risk it by selling contraband cigarettes in broad daylight. They'd have to be at work anyway.

Interestingly, somebody else is in the news for alleged illegal hawking - Mr Chee Soon Juan. From the Today newspaper:

Tak boleh tahan, SDP says it again
Party cadres urge passersby to sign two petitions
Friday • May 2, 2008

WEARING red T-shirts with the Malay words "tak boleh tahan" — which means "cannot take it" — members of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) once again took to the streets, as they had done on May Day in previous years.

Last year, SDP chief Chee Soon Juan and his sister Chee Siok Chin walked around the island to raise awareness about poverty. This year, the pair, joined by other SDP members and supporters, descended on Toa Payoh Central and set up a booth at a walkway near Toa Payoh Community Library.

They then began to hand out leaflets containing accusations of greed and exploitation by the Government.

The SDP members, who were selling T-shirts, buttons and books at their booth, also urged passersby to sign two petitions.

The first, addressed to the Prime Minister, contained five demands relating to ministerial salaries, the entry of foreign workers, the release of Central Provident Fund savings and transparency in the financial dealings of Temasek Holdings and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC).

The second, to Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng, urged him to resign over the escape of Jemaah Islamiyah detainee Mas Selamat Kastari from the Whitley Road Detention Centre — a suggestion that has been dismissed by the Prime Minister.

........ In response to media queries, the police said: "Police received a call from the Bishan-Toa Payoh Town Council reporting that Chee Soon Juan was distributing pamphlets, and had set up a table selling books and T-shirts at Toa Payoh Central. Police observation in response to the call confirmed it."

Chee did not stage an unlawful assembly or an illegal outdoor demonstration.

"He was however peddling his books and T-shirts without a hawker's permit."

As this may be a case of illegal hawking, the Police has referred the matter to the National Environment Agency."

Surely it's only in Singapore that such a bizarre thing could happen.

The National Environment Agency was formed in 2002 to focus on the implementation of environment policies. It serves three main functions - environmental protection; maintenance of public health; and the provision of weather information through meteorological services.

The NEA is also in charge of pest control in Singapore. The agency regularly sends its officers around Singapore to deal with pests such as mosquitoes, cockroaches and rats.

It seems that the police authorities want the NEA to take on an additional role - deal with Opposition politicians who cannot be prosecuted for unlawful assembly or illegal outdoor demonstrations.

Chee Soon Juan may soon be treated as a pest - literally. So much for his human rights.
Gadis Bispak Imut

Online Election Campaigning Leads to Corruption. Huh?

Here's PM Lee spouting mysterious words again:

ST April 14, 2008
Laws must keep up with changing new media, says PM
But any loosening up will be handled cautiously, he adds

THE new media is changing rapidly and Singapore's laws must evolve to keep up, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said.

But any loosening up will be done carefully.

Otherwise, misinformation and extremist views could proliferate.

Politics might also become tainted by graft if parties have to spend large sums to campaign online, he warned.

I wonder what that is supposed to mean.

It is very difficult to see how one can spend large sums of money campaigning online. In Malaysia's recent elections, the Internet played a huge role in influencing voters. Yet practically all the Internet activity took place via Blogger, Wordpress, Youtube and other completely free Internet platforms.

Contrast this with campaigning offline. You would have to spend money printing and distributing posters; placing advertisements in traditional newspapers; hiring lorries and drivers to ferry candidates around the country to meet the electorate; and making large-scale logistics arrangements for election rallies. That won't be cheap.

Anyway, suppose we accept PM Lee's strange logic - that politics might become tainted by corruption if parties have to spend large sums to campaign online. It must then follow that since traditional, offline campaigning costs much more money, it is even more likely to lead to corruption.

Then we wonder - how come this seems to be an issue in Singapore only? After all, election campaigning occurs in every democratic nation on this planet. In fact, campaigning is a necessary part of the democratic process. Yet no one ever seems to says that democracy breeds corruption.

No one except PM Lee, that is.

Current laws disallow the making and distributing of party political films.

During campaign season, political parties are not allowed to put audio or video-casts on their websites.

Mr Lee warned that Singapore would suffer if elections came to be fought through expensive online films and advertisements.

'If a party needs money, many people are willing to donate, but these political contributions never come with no strings attached. After you win and come into power, the donors will turn up politely to 'collect their dues',' he said.

Oooh, I see. PM Lee is worried about expensive online films and advertisements.

So, hypothetically speaking, suppose an Opposition candidate merely uses his own cheap, lousy video camera at home to film his own speech, and then he posts the video on Youtube, where it is widely viewed by Singaporeans. PM Lee shouldn't be worried about that, should he?

Heheh. Well, think what you like. And draw your own conclusions. Mr Wang is only here to encourage you to think.
Gadis Bispak Imut

The Search For Political Leaders

"Yes, you heard me right.Back in 1978, Hillary scored a C for her A-level Chemistry.Clearly she's not fit to be the President!"
That was a joke, of course. Barack Obama never said such a ridiculous thing. And no sensible American would care what grades Hillary scored in high school. Hillary herself would probably have forgotten. In the quest for the best presidential candidate, there must surely be many better things to focus on.

Tragically, this joke is not a joke in Singapore. The search is on for the next Prime Minister of Singapore. And from the sound of it, A-level grades are an important criterion:

ST April 2, 2008
PM still looking for his successor
It takes about three elections to groom a leader, so there's no time to lose, he says
By Lydia Lim

THE Prime Minister faces an urgent task: Find and field those who can take over from him before he turns 70.

Already 56, Mr Lee Hsien Loong is seeking political talent in their 30s and early 40s, one of whom he hopes will emerge as his successor.

He has no time to lose as past experience indicates that it takes about three general elections to groom a leader.

This means those who contest the next polls, due by 2011, might be ready to lead only two elections after that.

By then, Mr Lee will be 69 years old.

'That is very late. So there's no time to be lost,' he said in an interview with The Straits Times and Chinese daily Lianhe Zaobao at the Istana yesterday.

...... Of concern to him is the outflow of top talent abroad.

He looked at recent data on the 600-odd students who score four As in their A levels each year.

About two-thirds pursue university degrees here, and one-third go overseas.

Of those who go overseas, at least 100 are not on scholarships. About half of these non-scholarship holders do not return but work abroad after they graduate.

In addition, another 100 of those who get their degrees here go overseas to work. They may come back one day but there is no guarantee.

'This flow is going to continue,' Mr Lee said.

'So it's a big challenge to find successors, particularly for politics.'

We learn that PM Lee Hsien Loong wants to groom his potential successor over a 15-year period. Possible candidates should now be in their 30s or early 40s - let's say they are about 37 years old, on average. The actual successor would take office as PM around the year 2023.

Thus we may say that whether you become the Prime Minister of Singapore at the age of 51 depends on how well you scored in your A-levels, at the age of 17.

Farsightedness is a virtue. A neurotic obsession with academic grades is not.

In 2008, it would be somewhat insane to scrutinise Hillary Clinton's or Barack Obama's high school grades, as a basis for selecting the next presidential candidate.

And in my opinion, it would be just as insane to choose to groom a Prime Minister to take office in 2023, on the basis of the A-level grades he scored as a teenager, 34 years earlier, in 1989.

Now of course, PM Lee Hsien Loong will not use A-level grades as his sole selection criterion. But the fact that he uses A-level grades as a selection criterion at all is quite shocking.

In my opinion, A-level grades are just simply quite irrelevant. Even if you were the best A-level student in the whole of Singapore, this demonstrates nothing about your ability to lead a nation. And conversely, even if you flunked your Chemistry paper, this doesn't mean that you can't lead a nation.

Winston Churchill - a well-known dumbo in class.
Also one of the greatest leaders in the history of Europe.
Gadis Bispak Imut

Politics in Cyberspace

Malaysia's recent elections will provide Singapore's PAP government with much food for thought. Among other things, the PAP will think harder about the possible influence of the Internet on future elections in Singapore:

Malaysia opposition win shows power of cyberspace
By Bill Tarrant

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Malaysia's weak opposition was up against a hostile mainstream media and restrictive campaign rules, but it can chalk up much of its stunning success in Saturday's election to the power of cyberspace.

Voters exasperated with the unvarnished support of the mainstream media for the ruling National Front furiously clicked on YouTube and posted comments with popular bloggers about tales of sex, lies and videotapes in the run-up to Saturday's election.

Jeff Ooi, a 52-year-old former advertising copywriter who made his name writing a political blog, "Screenshots" (http://www.jeffooi.com/) won a seat in northern Penang state for the opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP).

Elizabeth Wong, a human rights activist and political consultant who runs a blog (http://elizabethwong.wordpress.com/), won a state assembly seat in the central state of Selangor.

YouTube, the phenomenally popular video Web site, did as much damage as any opposition figure could hope to inflict, after netizens uploaded embarrassing videos of their politicians in action on hot-button issues.

One YouTube video in January showed ruling party MP Badruddin bin Amiruldin causing a ruckus in parliament over whether Malaysia was an Islamic state. "Malaysia is an Islamic state", he declared. "You don't like it, you get out of Malaysia!"

Muslim Malays form the majority in multi-racial Malaysia, but ethnic Chinese and Indians account for a third of the population and they deserted the ruling National Front in droves, partly in outrage over the religious debate.

SEX, SLEAZE, CORRUPTION

Another YouTube video that got wide distribution shows a rambling and incoherent Information Minister Zainuddin Maidin, in a live interview with al-Jazeera, excitedly defending a police crackdown against peaceful protesters calling for changes to the electoral process in November.

Zainuddin was one of several "big guns" in the National Front that fell to the opposition's onslaught ..... (click here for the rest).

I just received an email from one of Singapore's own newspapers. The journalist wished to interview me for an article she's working on. In view of what has just happened in Malaysia, she plans to write about the kind of political influence that Singapore's bloggers might possibly have in the next elections here.

Well, it's a matter of degree. Singapore's best-known political bloggers are nowhere as loud, noisy and passionate as Malaysia's political bloggers. But at the same time, Singapore's PAP is nowhere as incompetent and ineffective as Malaysia's BN, in running the country. So in Singapore, there really aren't so many things for bloggers to be loud, noisy and passionate about.

At the same time, the PAP is definitely much more experienced than the BN in using subtle yet effective methods to suppress dissenting voices. NTU professor Cherian George has even coined a term to collectively describe such PAP strategies - he calls it "calibrated coercion".

Meanwhile, I have just read that I am "gutless and fearful of losing my well-endowed life" and therefore the PAP need not worry about me. A rather entertaining article here.
Gadis Bispak Imut

The Great Escape

By now you've heard the news. Mas Selamat is on the loose.

The terrorist had previously hatched plots to attack Changi Airport, the US Embassy, the American Club and the Singapore American School. He had been held under detention, at the Whitley Detention Centre.

On Wednesday afternoon, he escaped when the guard(s) permitted him to use the toilet.

This man walks with a limp in his left leg.
Call the police immediately if you see him.

I urge all bloggers out there to immediately post Mas Selamat's face on their blogs. So that as many people in Singapore as possible will know, and be reminded of what Mas Selamat's face looks like.

It is a very disappointing day for me, to realise how inept and useless the Singapore government has become. To think that we pay the world's highest ministerial salaries to our political leaders. Wong Kan Seng is paid two million dollars per year and he cannot even keep an arrested man under proper lock and key. A terrorist has escaped, for goodness sakes.

I think Wong Kan Seng should resign. Terrorism knows no borders, and Wong Kan Seng's mistake potentially endangers the lives of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people - not just in Singapore, but in other countries as well. All over the world, elected politicians have been pressed to resign, for much less serious matters.

Okay, that was just some wishful thinking on my part. We know how Singapore works, don't we? It's just another "honest mistake" by our beloved ministers. Lee Kuan Yew will twist and pull Wong Kan Seng's ears in private, I'm sure. But publicly, at least, Wong Kan Seng will ultimately walk away scot-free.

Don't forget - the PAP's good image is at stake. So how could it possibly turn out otherwise? Wong Kan Seng is Deputy Prime Minister, after all. Soon the national spin machine will kick into overdrive to generate a convincing story for the public ....

... as to why our ministers are really still world-class, and deserve their world-class salaries, and the Mas Selamat matter was all just a very honest mistake, and the important thing is that we learn from our mistakes, and not repeat them, (at least not until the next time we make a new honest mistake), and till then, the people of Singapore must be socially cohesive, and be strong, and support their government, as one nation.

You know, the usual crap.

Mas Selamat has managed to run away. But in the end, it will be Wong Kan Seng who makes the really Great Escape.

Gadis Bispak Imut

The Government Missed By $7,150,000,000. Just Another Honest Mistake.

The Straits Times reported a shocking piece of news yesterday. The article itself did not really highlight the point, but tucked it away somewhere near the end of the article (see bold text below).

ST Feb 26, 2008
BUDGET DEBATE
Rising costs, price hikes top concerns of MPs
They back strategies to keep inflation in check but say individuals and businesses need help to cope
By Lydia Lim

RISING costs and their impact on people's ability to make ends meet dominated the start of this year's parliamentary debate on the Government's Budget.

Many of the 19 MPs who spoke during the five-hour session praised the Budget for being forward-looking and generous, but 13 also voiced concern over a slew of recent price hikes.

MPs from the People's Action Party, Mr Inderjit Singh and Mr Michael Palmer, recited a litany of these increases in the past year alone.

Taking last December as an example, Mr Palmer said: 'The price of luncheon meat went up from $1 to $3, taxi fares went up, school bus fares went up and even the opposition's Potong Pasir Town Council added to the list with an increase in its service and conservancy charges.'

MPs said that businesses have been hard hit by steep hikes in office rents, and asked for tax reliefs to help them cope.

For individuals, Mr Palmer suggested that part of the Budget surplus of $6.45 billion be used to set up a contingency fund to help low-income families should inflation worsen.

Mr Singh, who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee for Finance and Trade and Industry, urged a review of the Government's avowed strategy to grow the economy as fast as possible in good years. This had contributed to the current situation of overheating and high prices, he said.

'The 'grow-at-all-costs' policy, with the cost increases triggered or allowed by the Government, have worsened the income divide,' he said.

At the same time, MPs threw their support behind the Government's five strategies to keep inflation in check.

These include allowing a gradual appreciation of the Singapore dollar to rein in imported inflation, and growing the economy so that wages for most workers go up by more than costs.

Nominated MP Cham Hui Fong of the National Trades Union Congress pointed out that last year had indeed been a good year for workers.

Those in the unionised sector enjoyed the highest bonuses since 1990 and the lowest retrenchment rate since 1994, she said.

But fellow NMP Eunice Olsen stressed that in tackling inflation, 'preaching' to Singaporeans to buy cheaper house brands was not a solution, as many people were already buying the lowest-priced options available.

Four MPs - Workers' Party chief Low Thia Khiang, NMPs Gautam Banerjee and Ms Olsen, and Mr Singh - took issue with the wide gap between the Government's projected $0.7 billion deficit and the actual $6.45 billion surplus.

This showed that the Government's 'Budget marksmanship' had worsened, said Ms Olsen.

The four MPs also questioned whether the Government had been hasty in raising the Goods and Services Tax (GST) from 5 per cent to 7 per cent last July, since it did not really need the revenue it generated.

Both Mr Low and Mr Banerjee asked for the GST to be restored to 5 per cent.

But Senior Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment and Water Resources Amy Khor warned against assuming that the economy would prosper and produce a surplus every year.

She said: 'The Finance Minister has been judicious in balancing competing priorities and seeking to invest in the medium- and long-term future, while dealing with the immediate concerns of citizens.'

More than 20 MPs are expected to speak when the debate resumes today.

So early last year, the Government had projected a budget deficit of $0.7 billion. This means that according to the Government's own estimates, in 2007 it would collect $0.7 billion (via taxes etc) less than what it would actually need to spend.

It turns out that the Government scored a massive miss. In 2007, instead of collecting $0.7 billion less than it needed, the Government collected $6.45 billion more than it needed. From who?

You, the people. Of course.

Among other things, it becomes quite evident that the GST need not have been raised in July last year.

In his Budget Speech 2008, the Finance Minister is very quick to try to explain away last year's massive miscalculation:

"We started the year expecting a growth rate of 4.5% to 6.5%, which was also in line with market forecasts. With actual growth at 7.7%, Corporate and Personal Income Taxes came in some $1.0 billion higher than projected. GST revenues also exceeded our projection by about $1.2 billion, mostly from higher consumption.

GST collection arising from the 2 percentage point hike in July is estimated at about $1.4 billion in total, which now just matches the size of the GST Offset Package and Workfare Income Supplement tranches that were distributed in FY2007.

However, the largest boost to revenues came from the exceptionally buoyant property market last year. Prices of private residential units rose by over 30%, much higher than industry forecasts of around 10% to 15% at the beginning of the year. The volume of property transactions went up by over 60%. Stamp duties consequently rose to an unprecedented $3.8 billion, $2.3 billion higher than expected. Other property related revenues were around $1.1 billion above projections. These were large gains, out of the ordinary, and which we cannot expect to see very often.

The overall budget surplus of $6.4 billion was therefore the result of a strong economy and property market."

What is he saying? That the three biggest reasons that the Government collected so much more extra money from the people are:

(1) the property market performed unexpectedly well, leading to a unexpectedly large increase in property-related tax collection;

(2) Singaporeans and companies made an unexpectedly large amount of money, learning to an unexpectedly large increase in income tax collection;

(3) Singaporeans spent an unexpectedly large amount of money, leading to an unexpectedly large increase in GST collection.

By this time, you will conclude that the Singapore government is unexpectedly stupid at managing its own money and making its own financial estimates.

Either that, or you are a very kind person, and always willing to give the benefit of the doubt, and you will say that indeed, the property boom and rapid economic growth in 2007 could not reasonably have been foreseen.

But wait, I have more to say.

Click here for the Government's revenue estimates. You'll see that the Government gets its money by collecting nine different classes of tax, namely:

B10. Income Tax
B20. Assets Taxes
B30. Customs and Excise Taxes
B40. Motor Vehicles Taxes
B50. GST
B60. Betting Taxes
B70. Stamp Duty
B80. Selective Consumption Taxes
B90. Other Taxes

Tharman has told you that in 2007, the Government collected much more money than projected, for B10, B50 and B70.

But there's something interesting which Tharman conveniently didn't tell you. The Government had over-collected money, not just for B10, B50 and B70. But for every single category of taxes, from B10 to B90.

Now how could the Government be so completely off the mark?

Personally, I see two possible explanations:

(1) The Singapore government is unexpectedly stupid at managing its own money and making its financial estimates.

(2) In early 2007, it was the deliberate intention of the Singapore government to make low projections for its revenue, so that it could publicly claim that there would be a budget deficit of $0.7 billion. Therefore more Singaporeans would be willing to believe that the 2% GST hike in July 2007 was necessary.

Which explanation do you prefer?
Gadis Bispak Imut

Things You’ll Never Catch Lee Kuan Yew Saying

ST Feb 19, 2008
'I have too much power,' says Aussie minister

SYDNEY - AUSTRALIA'S new immigration minister surprised a senate committee by saying he had too much power and was uncomfortable 'playing God' with people's lives.

Mr Chris Evans' statement on Tuesday came after a series of scandals over the treatment of migrants by the conservative government of former prime minister John Howard, ousted by the centre-left Labor Party in November elections.

Mr Evans said there had been a big increase in ministerial intervention in individual migration cases during the Howard government and in some cases people had no right to appeal.

'I have formed the view that I have too much power,' he told the senate's legal and constitutional affairs committee.

'The (migration) act is unlike any other act I've seen in terms of the power given to the minister to make decisions about individual cases.

'I am uncomfortable with that, not just because of concern about playing God, but also because of the lack of transparency and accountability for those decisions.'

Mr Evans' predecessor last year controversially used his powers to revoke the visa of Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef and force him to leave the country even after a terrorism charge against him was dropped.

Mr Evans said he was considering an ombudsman's report that called for reforms to ministerial powers, including his ability to revoke the visas of long-term permanent residents.

I wonder how many people in Singapore still remember ex-SIA pilot Ryan Goh. Back in 2003, SIA pilots were very unhappy about their salaries and they had some disputes with their union over how the issue was being handled. Ryan was apparently one of the SIA pilots who played an active role in the whole episode.

Up till then, Ryan had lived in Singapore for 26 years. He was married and had four children. He was a permanent resident.

Lee Kuan Yew promptly kicked him out of Singapore, more or less overnight. The Singapore authorities suddenly declared Ryan Goh an “undesirable resident”, and his PR status was revoked.

Well, I guess that’s one good thing about being a Singapore citizen. They can’t boot you out of the country just like that.

(Of course, they can always still lock you away on Sentosa. Maybe for the next 32 years or so).
Gadis Bispak Imut

Safety in the Syllabus

While we're still on the topic of education, I'll share a few thoughts on a recent interesting experience of mine.

Last week I took a day off from work, to give a talk at a secondary school. The other guest speaker was Stella Kon, one of Singapore's best-known playwrights. We spoke about creative writing, to an audience of about 60 literature students.

By the way, I don't get paid for doing things like this. However, students in Singapore do study a few of my literary works from time to time (as these works are included in the Education Ministry's official resource book for literature teachers).

So I am happy to offer my time, meet students and help to make Literature, as a subject, come alive for them. (And before anyone asks, no, my real name is not Catherine Lim).

Anyway, a few of my observations from this experience.

My session was just one of several events comprising a Literature camp for the students. Among other things, the students made field trips; took photos of various places discussed in local literature; wrote their own poems and short stories and acted them out; and came up with different ways to represent literary works (for example, through art or music).

My first impression was that such activities could be too challenging for the average Secondary 3 student. On the other hand, it really depends on how the teachers conduct the activities.

If the activities are conducted with the stern seriousness of typical Singapore education, then they would become quite stressful. On the other hand, if they are conducted with a sense of play and the freedom to go wrong, then they would be a great way for the students to experience what Literature is all about

I felt that most of the students did enjoy my session a lot. "I am your homework, " I said, "and it's not often that you get to talk to your homework, and ask questions about itself." I was promptly peppered with a wide range of questions, including "Do you have a day job?" and "How has your religion influenced your writing?".

All in all, I felt that the school deserved credit for organising a camp like this. Certainly, when I was a student and doing Literature myself, we never got to try our hand at such interesting activities. Meeting a real, live writer wasn't an option either, since we mostly studied the works of dead white men like William Shakespeare.

I also had the opportunity to chat with a few of the teachers. I learned that Literature was not a popular choice for Secondary 3 students. Most students want to do the triple sciences (Physics, Chemistry and Biology) which leaves them room for only one Humanities subject. The preferred choice then becomes History or Geography, for the reason that Literature is perceived as being more difficult to score well in.

Well, some things don't change, do they. As you may have heard, in recent years, many schools don't even offer Literature anymore, as it tends to drag down the overall pass & distinction scores.

A final observation. I was curious as to why the school had invited me to speak at this event. Yes, I am an MOE-endorsed local writer, but in my opinion Singapore has several other writers who are more interesting and more active than myself, on the literary scene.

"Like who, for instance?" the teacher asked.

"Well, like Cyril Wong," I said. Cyril Wong, by the way, has published seven books and was the 2005 Young Artist of the Year for Literature; and the winner of the 2006 Singapore Literature Prize; and a former runner-up for the NAC-SPH Golden Point Award. In my opinion, he is perhaps the most significant and talented writer, among Singaporean writers living today.

"Ummm, Cyril. Well, we visited his blog," said the teacher, "and it had a picture of a naked man. We didn't think Cyril was very appropriate for our Literature students."

Cyril is gay, you see. The gay theme emerges in some of his writings, sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly. As a matter of pure literary merit, he produces some of the best works in the history of Singapore, but this achievement cannot be fully acknowledged in our schools. We are still a homophobic society.

Along the same lines, Alfian Saat is also a "dangerous" writer. He is hugely talented, and his works are very thought-provoking. But because Alfian's works are so sharply political, so sharply critical of the government, they will have no place, or only a very limited place, in the Singapore classroom. In effect, he is censored from the minds of young Singaporeans. Thanks to Lui Tuck Yew (again), Alfian isn't even allowed to do relief teaching in our schools.

Sad, but true. In the end, the students will just have to settle for staid old Mr Wang. And even then, the Ministry of Education only picks my more-conservative works.
Gadis Bispak Imut

More on Town Councils & Their Sinking Funds

I just received an email from an SPH journalist who wished to interview me about town councils and their gigantic sinking funds.

She says that her likely angle will be about netizens expressing their unhappiness about how town councils are using the conservancy and service charges paid by Singaporeans.

I still do interviews with non-mainstream publications, academic researchers, foreign university students etc. But it has been my personal policy for quite some time now to avoid contact with the mainstream media. So I will decline this interview.

However, if any of you netizens out there feel strongly about this matter and are interested in speaking to this journalist, please email me (memek-bugilin@gmail.com) or leave your contact details in the comment section below. And I will ask the journalist if she would be interested in getting in touch with you.

A reader by the name of Coder had earlier left many detailed comments on my town council post and has obviously done some good research into the matter. Coder, it might be particularly interesting for you to speak to the SPH journalist - do consider.

And thanks for your earlier comments.
Gadis Bispak Imut

Perhaps the Minister is a Little Confused

Either that, or he is engaging in obfuscatory political doublespeak:

ST Nov 13, 2007
Inflation could hit 5% early next year, then taper off
By Li Xueying

AS CONSUMER prices continue to rise, inflation in Singapore will likely surge to 4 or 5 per cent in the first quarter of next year.

But it should taper off by the second half of the year to 'more normal conditions', said Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang yesterday.

The average rate for next year should be around 3 per cent.

Fuelled mainly by rising global oil and food prices, inflation recorded a 13-year high of 2.9 per cent in August. It is expected to dip to 2.7 per cent in the last quarter, Mr Lim told Parliament.

Citigroup economist Chua Hak Bin said that the 5 per cent rate predicted would be a 'historic high' in the 25 years since 1983. The previous high was in July 1991, when it hit 4 per cent.

Most economies, including Singapore's size up inflation by tracking the Consumer Price Index, or CPI. The CPI measures the cost of a basket of goods and services consumed by most households.

Yesterday, Mr Lim cautioned against 'interpreting a rise in the headline CPI as necessarily reflecting an increase in the cost of living'.

It depends on the individual household's spending. 'Switching to cheaper products can reduce the cost of living despite a rise in the CPI,' he added.

But of course a rise in the CPI reflects an increase in the cost of living. After all, the CPI is meant to track the cost of living. If the CPI does not track the cost of living, then what would you want it for?

As for individual households switching to cheaper products, well, in fact, they have to. That’s the effect of inflation - your dollar has less purchasing power. Therefore with the same amount of dollars, you can only buy cheaper products.

Minister Lim must be confusing “cost of living” with “standard of living”. Cost of living means the cost of maintaining a certain standard of living. In turn, standard of living refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services generally available to a certain class of people (for example, average Singaporeans).

Instead of saying that “switching to cheaper products can reduce the cost of living”, Minister Lim would have been more accurate to say, “switching to cheaper products can lower the standard of living”. For example, instead of living in a 5-room HDB flat, you can live in a 1-room HDB flat (a cheaper product). Instead of having chicken rice and vegetables for lunch, you can just eat plain porridge (a cheaper product).

Living in a 1-room HDB flat and eating plain porridge constitutes a lower standard of living. So yes, by switching to cheaper products, you can lower your standard of living. And a lower standard of living does cost less to maintain.

In summary, what is Minister Lim's advice to you? To deal with inflation, lower your standard of living.

Wow, and for telling you that, he even gets a world-class ministerial salary. I bet inflation doesn't bother him much.
Gadis Bispak Imut

Hopping As a Survival Strategy (And I Don't Just Mean Frogs)

For the past five years or so, headhunters have been calling me quite regularly.

Typically, they begin by introducing themselves and their search firm. They then ask if this is a convenient time to talk (they know that you might be in your office area with your boss or colleagues nearby).

If convenient, they say that they have an interesting job opportunity and could they please have a minute to tell you about it.

Next comes a quick rundown on the JD ("job description") - the role, the responsibilities, the required experience, the reporting line and so on.

At this stage, they won't reveal their client's name, but they will give a general description - for example, "one of the biggest UK banks" - which, coupled with the JD, is often enough for you to make a good guess.

If you say you're not interested, they'll ask you why. If your reason is not particularly compelling, they'll persuade you to reconsider.

If your reason is compelling, and furthermore conveyed in a firm, no-nonsense tone, they will say,''Okay, fine then. But do you happen to know anyone else who might be suitable for the role?".

Here you have a choice. Either you can curtly say, 'No, I do not' and hang up, or you can try to be helpful. I always opt to be helpful. If I know of people whom I think could be suitable and interested, I pass their names on to the headhunter.

It is a good idea to be nice to headhunters, because you never know when you might want or need their help in finding a new job.

Just last Friday I had lunch with a headhunter. We have lunch every few months or so.

We have known each other from uni days, so we are also old friends. However, I shall be frank - if I were not currently in the banking sector, and he were not currently a banking headhunter, we would not have bothered to keep in touch with each other.

As usual, our lunchtime conversation was mostly me telling him what I know about who works where now doing what kind of work, and him telling me which kind of banks are interested in hiring what kind of people in the foreseeable future.

It is important for me to get regular updates on such market conditions. If there are really significantly superior opportunities elsewhere, it would be foolish not to try for them.

By "superior opportunities", I don't mean just money (although that is definitely very important) but the total package of all relevant factors. For example, these factors would include the opportunity to learn new skills, join a top brand name, move up the management ladder, join a place with better working culture, and so on.

Contrary to what Minister Lim Swee Say recently said, job-hopping is neither necessarily greedy nor necessarily short-sighted. In fact, it is the far-sighted people who would regularly review their career plans, options and strategies.

Many parts of the banking industry have done very well in the past few years. However, some parts of the banking industry have been doing very badly in the past few months. That's all thanks to the US subprime crisis, and the spillover effects.

As a result, a significant number of very high-flying banking professionals overseas have suddenly lost their jobs. They include no less than Chuck Prince and Stan O'Neal, the now ex-Chief Executives of Citigroup and Merrill Lynch respectively.

And of course, many others lower down the food chain.

So the question is how long the subprime crisis will last; how bad the spillover effects will be; and how severely Asia will be affected.

And whether, say, sometime in 2008, banking professionals in Singapore specialising in certain types of banking work (CDOs; structured finance; credit derivatives; debt capital markets; perhaps even IPO work) will also start losing their jobs or suffering drastic pay cuts.

Of course I hope the answer is no, but at this point in time, well, who can say for sure. So I'm looking ahead, getting news from my headhunter friend, finding out the trends in the banks' hiring plans for 2008.

If I suddenly have to move, at least I have a few backup ideas and I have got some sense of which areas still have demand and where I can quickly try to move to. In other words, I won't be caught off-guard and wrong-footed.

Unlike 2WO Henry Minjoot.

Gadis Bispak Imut

Dr Thio Li Ann's Infamous Speech

Recently, NMP Thio Li-Ann received what she described as "hate mail". Personally I would describe it as karma.

Looking around the Internet, it appears that a great number of Singaporeans do find Thio Li-Ann's own behaviour quite hateful. Click here, here, here, here, here and here, for a few examples.

What happened? Last week Thio Li-Ann had gone to Parliament on a mission to attack the rights of gay people. I believe that she set a new national record. Her now-infamous speech has probably made her the most intensely disliked NMP in the entire history of Singapore. Among gays and straights.

I am quite serious. Which other Nominated Member of Parliament, past or present, has ever attracted such a storm of angry, negative comments from the general public of Singapore? You tell me.

Even the respectable, gentlemanly Dr Cherian George from NTU (also Stanford, Columbia and Cambridge University) could not find a single good thing to say about Thio Li-Ann's speech. Here's Cherian, in his own words:

" .... more distressing than the final result of the debate was the retrogressive speech by the high-flying legal scholar Thio Li-Ann. Her convoluted, caricatured rendering of political philosophy and comparative politics needed to be corrected by good political science, but she got away with it in Parliament. Her theories about what constitutes a minority could have been debunked by any graduate student of sociology or anthropology, but this did not stop her.

Then there was Thio’s tasteless digs at homosexual sex, which some of her comrades considered witty, but really deserved no place in the highest forum in the land. Thio has been celebrated for supposedly speaking up for the silent majority. This is an insult to the majority, most of whom have the basic decency to know the difference between what should be uttered in public and what should be confined to close friends or private blogs.

Thio also did a disservice to the majority of God-fearing Singaporeans – we who would like to believe that our faiths are ultimately about compassion, not the hateful, hurtful cheap shots that Thio felt compelled to deliver on our behalf. How I wished a theology professor or other religious scholar would have stepped into the debate at that point, to show how it might be possible to express a faith-based objection to homosexuality – minus the hate speech .

"Hate speech". Wow, wow. Isn't that a rather harsh sin for one distinguished professor to accuse another distinguished professor of? I wish I could say that Cherian was exaggerating. Unfortunately I think that Cherian was just being his usual self. That is to say - very perceptive, very accurate and very precise with his choice of words.

See for yourself what hate speech means. Note how the term is legally defined under the laws of Ireland, Canada, Iceland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway - "... publicly making statements that threaten, ridicule or hold in contempt a group due to race, skin colour, national or ethnic origin, faith or sexual orientation" etc.

Then ask yourself whether Thio Li-Ann's parliamentary speech would have constituted a criminal offence, if she had made that speech in any of those countries. Although I, as an ex-Deputy Public Prosecutor, have prosecuted crimes only in Singapore, and not in any of those other countries, I personally think that the chances would be ... high!

And so this is a rather sad moment in the history of Singapore. Hate speech has made its own way into Parliament. For so many years, Singapore has placed significant restraints on the freedom of speech, supposedly as a trade-off for ensuring the greater good of social harmony and peace. Yet hate speech has managed to make its own way into Parliament.

And according to reports, it even gained the noisy, boisterous support of some chair-thumping PAP Members of Parliament.

What happened? Where did we go wrong? What a sad moment this is, for Singapore. Prime Minister Lee, you should consider reviewing the selection process for NMPs.
Gadis Bispak Imut

SPH Editor Looking A Bit Silly Again

Are bloggers journalists? Leslie Fong, an SPH editor, had this to say:

“No! Emphatically not! Whether in writing news stories or features, properly trained journalists check and double-check their facts, set these in context, work in relevant background information, insist on objectivity and balance, organise their material so their account flows smoothly and logically, and use temperate language unless there is a powerful reason to resort to strong words. Even in offering views, they ensure that the opinions expressed are based on fact, failing which, as any libel lawyer would tell you, what they write cannot be defended as fair comment.

Bloggers, on the other hand, just sound off as they please. They are not bound by professional standards and ethics, and are responsible to no one but themselves. So you read them at your own risk, or peril. Newspaper editors who give bloggers space, or even prominence, in their pages, in the hope that this will attract younger readers, are doing damage to their calling.”

Meanwhile, hot off the international press, we have this from AFP:

Yangon bloggers outsmart Myanmar censors
Agence France-Presse
Posted date: September 25, 2007

BANGKOK -- Savvy young bloggers in Myanmar are breaking through the military junta's tight Internet controls to post photos and videos of swelling anti-government protests, experts said Tuesday.

The government blocks almost every website that carries news or information about the Southeast Asian country, and even bars access to web-based email.

But an army of young techies in Yangon works around the clock to circumvent the censors, posting pictures and videos on blogs almost as soon as the protests happen.

Many of these images have been picked up by mainstream news organizations, because bloggers have managed to capture images that no one else can get.

When Myanmar's detained democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi stepped outside her home in Yangon to greet marching monks and supporters on Saturday, the only pictures of the landmark moment were posted on blogs.

....... These bloggers are mainly young university students in Yangon who have made it their mission to post messages and pictures since the anti-junta rallies broke out there on August 19, he said.

..... No foreign journalist has obtained a visa to enter Myanmar, under military since 1962, since the start of the anti-junta rallies, rights groups said.

Sounds like the whole world is depending on Yangon bloggers for news of what's happening in Myanmar. Who has time to think about Leslie Fong? He's just one of those dinosaurs left behind by the Internet age. Leslie's cocksureness is certainly amusing though. I like this part of his quote:

"Newspaper editors who give bloggers space, or even prominence, in their pages, in the hope that this will attract younger readers, are doing damage to their calling."

It implies that bloggers in general are just very excited and over-eager and just dying to have some space & publicity in a newspaper. Actually, when the Straits Times first launched STOMP and I was invited to join them and go for a photoshoot, my immediate reaction was "Gawd, no."

Maybe one day ... when they have improved themselves. Currently, Singapore's ranking for press freedom (147th out of 167 countries) is just too embarrassingly low.
Gadis Bispak Imut

On CPF, Life, Work and Retirement

For the record, I agree with PM Lee’s views on the aging population. I agree with his proposed changes to the CPF system. When the specific details are announced, I will probably have a few quibbles and disagreements. But by and large, I agree with PM Lee’s general direction.

To be frank, there aren’t many alternatives to choose from. PM Lee’s solutions are not at all brilliant. They are quite obvious. It’s a “not-much-choice” situation.

As I poke around the blogosphere, I hear some people mumbling and grumbling. Their dissatisfaction is with the notion that they’re going to have to work to the ripe old age of 62, or 65, or 67. While I understand the sentiment, I think that these people may not be fully appreciating the issues.

The government is not forcing you to work. If you have enough money, you could choose to stop work at 60, or 58, or 55. As a matter of fact, if you have enough money, you could jolly well retire at 35. Come to think of it, I have ex-classmates who had already become tai tai’s at the grand old age of 30.

In all cases, it’s just that a certain portion of your CPF savings (known as the Minimum Sum) will not be available to you, until you reach 62, 65, or 67 years of age. And even then, you won’t get all of the Minimum Sum at one go. You’ll only get a small instalment, every month for the next 20 years (starting from age 62, 65 or 67).

Some people are peeved because they don’t want to wait till they’re 65 or 67, before they start receiving their monthly instalment. They feel that this rule compels them to keep working until they’re 65 or 67. Ideally, they would like to retire instead at, say, 55 or 60.

What do I think? Well, the monthly instalment is quite small. It was never going to make you feel wealthy. The whole idea of this monthly instalment is just to cover your basic survival needs.

For example, if you turn 55 after 1 July 2008 and before 1 July 2009 (and are able to set aside the Minimum Sum in full), then the monthly instalment you’ll get from age 62 onwards is about $416. That works out to about $14 a day. This will cover three square meals at your neighbourhood HDB coffeeshop. And leave you a few dollars for a kopi and an ice kachang.

If you turn 55 after 1 July 2008 and before 1 July 2009 (and are NOT able to set aside the Minimum Sum in full), you will get even less than $416.

Now, suppose you feel unable to retire at your ideal retirement age of 60, if you do not immediately start getting your monthly instalment. Then in my opinion, you really should not retire anyway. If with your own non-CPF savings, you cannot afford your own three square meals per day (plus kopi and ice kachang), from age 60 to age 65 or 67, then you must be quite broke.

You should probably keep working until you hit the then-prevailing official retirement age. And quite possibly, well beyond that.

Remember – the current life expectancy is around 81 years. There’s a 50% chance you’ll live beyond that. And the national life expectancy is still rising, year after year.

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Singaporeans need to start adjusting their mindset about work. They also need to start adjusting their mindset about “old” age. The good thing is that we all grow older gradually, day by day, and not all at once. That means we have plenty of time to slowly adjust our mindsets.

Life expectancies in all developed countries have been climbing steadily through the past century, with no sign of leveling off. PM Lee is peering as far as he can into his crystal ball, trying to see what the future might hold. And he’s making plans for that future.

Our error would be to judge and criticize those plans according to our notions of how human society operates today. Because PM Lee is not preparing for today – he’s preparing for quite a distant tomorrow.

Today when we see a 70-year-old woman, frail, bent over, still working hard in a coffeeshop for meager pay, we feel sorry for her. That sympathy is justified. But if today you are 35 years old and live to be 70 years old in the year 2042, it’s quite probable that you will turn out to be rather different from that 70-year-old woman.

Due to medical advances, it is entirely possible that at 70, you will still be fit, healthy and fully functional. With another 35 years of life left in you. If that is the case, you will be quite happy to still be working at the age of 70. Because 35 years is a very long time to be sitting around and waiting to die.

Inevitably, over time, our views about work, and the role it plays in our lives, will also evolve and change. Currently we think of a working life spanning 35 years as “normal”. In time, we may come to think of a working life spanning 50 or 55 years as “normal”. When that happens, how might society change? Here are some possibilities:

(1) Currently, many modern women delay or avoid marriage / having children, so that they can focus on their career. This idea may gradually become redundant, as the length of the average working life increases. When you have 55 years to build your career, and not just 35 years, the idea of putting your career on the backseat for five or six years to prioritise your family life will become much more agreeable.

(2) Constant learning and relearning will naturally become accepted as a way of life. If you are going to work 50 years, you will probably be around long enough to see everything you learned in the first 40 years of your career become completely obsolete in the last 10 years of your career.

(3) It will become quite common to see people in their 40s or 50s go back to university and study for a new degree, in a completely different field from what they had been working. If you qualify as a doctor at the age of 55 but intend to retire at 75, you still have 20 years to practise as a doctor. That’s long enough to justify the opportunity cost of quitting your engineering job to enter medical school at age 48 or 49.

(4) As industries continually emerge, grow, boom, die or reinvent themselves, more people will from time to time be retrenched, made redundant or otherwise become unemployed. Over a 55-year working lifespan, it may become unreasonable for any individual to expect continuous, unbroken employment.

(5) The older workers of the future are not going to be like the older workers of today. A much higher proportion of the older workers of the future will be well-educated, skilled, trained, trainable and retrainable. Consequently, they will be quite able to compete against younger workers. In fact a very young worker with 1 year's working experience may be at a severe disadvantage compared to a very old worker with 54 years of working experience.
(6) A new species of workers will emerge – I’ll call them the Life Explorers. These are people who earn, save and invest well, within the 1st half of their working life. They accumulate a pool of income-generating assets (with potential for capital appreciation) sufficient to provide fairly indefinite financial security.

For the next 25 or 30 years of their working lives, the Life Explorers work not so much for the money, but for the fun of working, and for the sake of pursuing their various interests in life. Typically they will turn their hobbies into their jobs, or select jobs related to their hobbies.

Professional blogging, anyone? Sign up for my meditation class? Heheh.
Gadis Bispak Imut