TR EMERITUS

I like almost everything that I have read about Job Growth Incentive (JGI) except 2 points. In particular, I like the part that requires companies to have an increase in "local workforce" from September 2020 to March 2021 compare to August 2020. The increase in workforce must be accompanied by jobs that pay at least S$1400/ monthly. This is one important point that I want to stress. I hope that MOM can, without delay, change locals to Singaporeans. At the very least, a clear distinction and apportions must be established between the two. In view of the pandemic, much uncertainities remain in our economy although some projections point to some economic recovery in the second half of this year. I would like to urge the government to go some extra miles to help companies maximise JGI. Instead of the one year of governmental wage support, I suggest a gradual tapering off approach, ie, after one year of wage support, further extend but reduce their monthly wage support for another 6 months with equal monthly reductions until zero. In all, instead of 12 months, if my suggestion is acceptable, it will be 18 months. C19 is highly contagious and despite us doing relatively well compare to many countries, it can and will come back with a vengeance if we ever slip in our guard, so, please help our companies to be more willing to hire, help them to keep their staff especially Singaporean staff for as long as possible. Think.   Simon Lim        Read More →

Six-months after the election, the topic of whether Singapore is ready for a “Non-Chinese” is back in the news, thanks to Dr. Janil Puthucheary, our senior minister of state for health, who was speaking at a panel discussion organised by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS). In that discussion, Dr. Puthucheary said that when it came to topic of whether Singapore would have a “Non-Chinese” Prime Minister that it "It will be up to the people of Singapore to decide ultimately, about this matter." The full report can be found at: [LINK] The topic on whether Singapore is ready for a non-Chinese Prime Minister is an emotive one. It is also a rather strange one to have in Singapore because Singapore is in so many ways a paragon of race relationship management. Native born Singaporeans have not had a communal riot since our modern state was established in the 1960s (I stress native born as opposed to migrant workers from China or India). Unlike our neighbours over the causeway, we do not have laws that discriminate in favour of any particular ethnic group and the government does clamp down on “hate speech.” One of the great things about Singapore is the fact that you can find a temple, church and mosque side-by-side and my favourite if seeing crowds of Chinese Devotees outside a Hindu Temple, worshiping as if it was the most natural thing in the world. However, while everything looks good on the surface, the scenario is not perfect and while the government has made tremendous progress in terms of communal tensions and keeping the peace, it’s protected us from the tensions of the 1960s rather than the social tensions that exists today. You could argue that we’ve regressed. Take the story of the presidency as an example. When we first started out in the 1960s it was understood that the President would be from a minority community in order to show that minorities could get to the top in Chinese-Majority Singapore. Then, when the constitution changed in 1991 to allow for an elected presidency. The rationale was simple – the presidency would move from showing the world that minorities could rise, to being about a custodian of our reserves. Race would no longer be a major issue. Suddenly, in 2017, we needed to reserve the presidency for a Malay. Why was that? How was it such that race would not matter in 1991 but it mattered in 2017. The Prime Minister did argue that race still matters as was reported in the following article: [LINK] If you follow the Prime Minister’s argument, the only conclusion you can have is that after 26-years, we have failed to create much of the harmony that we talk about. The Presidency is primarily symbolic and one can understand why it’s used to maintain ethnic and religious harmony, the same cannot be said of the Prime Minister, who is effectively the man running the show. The only criteria to be Prime Minister remains to be the leader of the largest political party. There has never been any public talk about a specified requirement to be Chinese in the same way that there have been legal actions to specify that the Prime Minister has to be a Chinese. To do so would run counter to the much-heralded notion that Singapore is a meritocracy where the best man gets the job regardless of race or religion. In the initial years, it was more than likely that the Prime Minister would be ethnically Chinese given that the Chinese were and still remain the dominant ethnic group. Lee Kuan Yew only became Lee Kuan Yew because the majority of voters (and revolutionaries) were Chinese speaking. Harry Lee realized that he would simply not go anywhere as a “Banana” (Yellow on the outside but white on the inside) and his Chinese name became the public one and he forced himself to learn Mandarin and Hokkien to rally the streets and get into power (where he then devoted the rest of his life to a hatred of Chinese dialects as he realized that the revolutionary fervor of dialect speakers that brought him to power could do the same to him). However, we’ve been a “multi-ethnic” nation for more than a generation, where Chinese, Indians (specifically Tamils) and Malays have lived side by side quite happily. Does this generation still have the same expectations of the generation that grew up in a more segregated world? Majority of online commentators have argued that that this is rubbish. The most popular politician in Singapore is our Senior Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Ministers like him are from a generation where having a boss of a different ethnicity was not an issue. Admittedly, there are people who do think like a “bygone” generation. A member of an opposition party, who happens to be ethnic Indian, mentioned that he simply could not communicate with potential constituents and then there is an online commentator who explained my ignorance on the matter of race: I’ve argued that PAP governments have on the whole done a reasonable job at keeping the peace and preventing tensions from becoming flammable. A certain amount of harmony between communities has evolved naturally and that’s a good sign. However, what successive governments have done has been to maintain things as they are. They have not led to “create” harmony, which is sad for a government that has been proactive in about everything else. Rather than sitting back and saying that the people will decide eventually, surely our very well-paid elected leaders should be leading the discussion on racial harmony. Surely, they should be saying that what we want to achieve is a situation where our national leaders can be of any colour and nobody would care. Ireland, which was known for being conservative Catholic has a Prime Minister who is ethnically Indian and openly gay. Mr. Varadkar’s race and sexuality are not an issue in Irish politics. Isn’t that what Singapore should aim for? I’ve argued that rather than pander to the resistance to change, the government should lead the change. The venue to do so is to create works for fiction through TV and other mediums. Show the public what can happen? The fact that the government is not actively doing so might suggest that it does find potential ethnic and religious harmony convenient.   Tang Li *Although I’ve been based mainly in Singapore for nearly two decades, I’ve had the privilege of being able meet people who have crossed borders and cultures. I’ve befriended ministers and ambassadors and worked on projects involving a former head of state. Yet, at the same time, I’ve had the privilege of befriending migrant labourers and former convicts. All of them have a story to tell. All of them add to the fabric of life. I hope to express the stories that inspire us to create life as it should be.      Read More →

I received this email to explain the process of submitting a claim for NS reservist pay. It is extremely complicated. I suggest that SAF should allow the employer to fill up a form using Corp Pass, instead of going through a complicated registration process. Email from SAF: Dear Tan Kin Lian, Thank you for your email dated 23 January 2021. 1. We have receive the attachment in your email and we understand that you are facing difficulties accessing the NS Pay eServices. We would also like to bring to your attention of the changes due to the rollout of new NS Pay e-service in mid March 2019 and suggest you to refer to the following link for the step by step user guide for CorpPass and try again: https://www.ns.sg/nsp/portal/site/news-and-media/detail/2017-q1/log-in-to-ns-portal-using-corppass-in-june-2017 2. Alternatively, kindly refer to the following claim process and try again. Step 1: In order to access "Register for NSmen Payment" eservice in NS Portal, the assigned user must be assigned with the Digital Service Role: NSP Admin in your company’s CorpPass account (www.corppass.gov.sg) under the Digital eService: MINDEF/MHA NS Portal. In order to access "Manage NSMen Payments (Employer)" eservice in NS Portal, the assigned user must be registered as the Certifying Officer (CO) in the NS portal and they must also be assigned with the Digital Service Role: NSP User in your company’s CorpPass account (www.corppass.gov.sg) under the Digital eService: MINDEF/MHA NS Portal. Your company's CorpPass Administrator need to select the Digital eService: MINDEF/MHA NS Portal and assign the transacting personnel with the appropriate role and the corresponding CPF Submission Number (CSN) that they can access to. Do note that the CSN is case sensitive; it is to be typed in capitalisation and there should not be any spaces on the front and the back of CSN. (Example: 201912345A-PTE-01) Available Roles for Selection: NSP Admin: To perform registration and update company details NSP User: To submit Make-up Pay claims, enquire on claim/payment status and update company details Note: - A single user can hold both the NSP Admin and NSP User Role. - Please ensure that all Certifying Officer (CO) / Endorsing Officer (EO) / Superior (SP) are assigned with the Digital Service Role: NSP User You may refer to the following link for the steps or contact CorpPass Helpdesk via the following modes for further clarifications and, assistance: https://www.ns.sg/nsp/portal/site/news-and-media/detail/2017-q1/log-in-to-ns-portal-using-corppass-in-june-2017 Email:[email protected] Hotline: 6643 0577 Step 2: Once the appropriate role has been assigned under CorpPass, the user assigned as the NSP Admin may refer to the following steps to register for NSmen Payments if the CSN number is previously not registered. If the CSN number is already registered in NS Portal previously, kindly refer to the next step. i. Go to the NS Portal website. The URL is https://www.ns.sg ii. Log in with your CorpPass iii. You will be directed to the Employer’s dashboard iv. Under “Register for NSmen Payments”, click on “Register” Please note that only user assigned with NSP Admin role are able to access “Register for NSmen Payments” eservice. Step 3: After registration, the assigned personnel will be able to access the NS Portal immediately. A confirmation email will be sent to all the assigned personnel as well. The assigned Certifying Officer may refer to the following steps to access the payment eservices: i. Go to the NS Portal website. The URL is https://www.ns.sg ii. Log in with your CorpPass iii. You will be directed to the Employer’s dashboard iv. Under “Manage NSmen Payments (Employer)”, click on “Access eService” Please note that only user assigned with NSP User role are able to access “Manage NSmen Payments (Employer)” eservice. Should you require further assistance, please contact us at 1800 3676767, or +(65) 6567 6767 if you are calling from overseas. Alternatively, you can email us at [email protected] or visit our website at www.ns.sg for more information. We will be pleased to assist you.     Tan Kin Lian      Read More →