TR EMERITUS

Written by Our Correspondent Only 6.1 per cent of workers attending the skill-upgrading courses sponsored by the government under the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR) receive a pay rise upon completion. SPUR was introduced in January last year to help save the jobs of Singaporeans and PRs when Singapore was mired in recession. It aims to help companies to save manpower cost and better manage their excess manpower as well as to reskill and upskill local workers including those retrenched, upgrading their skills and converting to new jobs. It provides for up to 90 per cent of funding for the courses which are applicable for both citizens and PRs. According to a survey done by the Manpower Ministry in January this year, 57 per cent of those who attended skills upgrading courses offered by SPUR felt that they have increased their skills and productivity and 34 per cent felt that they have boosted their employability. However, only 6.1 per cent received a pay rise after attending the SPUR programmes and 4.6 per cent were promoted. While SPUR may help to save the jobs of some workers, its long-term benefits remain obscure so long employers are unwilling to reward their workers with higher pay. The root cause of the problem lies in the ruling party's pro-foreigner labor policies which had allowed employers to hire foreigners easily. Though there is a quota of local workers to be filled, the numbers can be artificially increased by getting foreign workers already on their payroll to apply for PRs. With no independent trade unions to fight for their rights, Singapore workers are forever at the mercy of the big companies and businesses. No matter how much training and upgrading they go through, their pay is unlikely to increase by much due to their inherent lack of bargaining power. The report also revealed that the number of "economically inactive" workers have increased, including some 11,000 "discouraged workers" who have given up searching for a job altogether. These workers without a proper job are not included in the statistics for Singapore's unemployment rate of 3 per cent which paints a rosy picture of the real situation on the ground. The Manpower Ministry should reveal the complete statistics for the number of Singapore citizens who are technically without a job across all age groups for the public to judge for themselves if its labor policies are indeed having a detrimental impact on the livelihoods of Singaporeans. EDITORS' NOTE: Readers may encounter problems posting comments today. We are currently working on the problem and we appeal for your kind understanding and patience.  Read More →

By Ng Kok Lim I refer to the letter by Dr Yik Keng Yeong dated 9 Feb 2010. (read below)   Dr Yik points to the unequal scaling of the economic peak by countries in the region to suggest that work ethic is not the same across countries.  By extension, places that have scaled the same peak must necesssarily share the same work ethics.  This is consistent with the observation that East Asian societies like Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan have scaled the same peaks as Singapore while sharing similar cultures and work ethics.  Since the majority of Singaporeans originated from East Asia, it helps explain why Singapore is able to scale the same peaks scaled by other East Asians.  Hence, Dr Yik's ethnicity argument gives greater credence to the idea that a country's fate lies more with its people than with its government.   Dr Yik's assertion that sterling governance in Singapore has not diminished holds no water as Singapore lost billions in some recent transactions and experienced sky high inflation in property prices.   The countries Dr Yik refers to where governments have lost the trust of their electorates and which have then degenerated into inefficiency and depravity bear little semblance to Singapore in terms of social fabric and the ethical makeup of its people.  We can always find other countries like those of the Western democracies where governments change regularly without their countries falling apart.  Therefore, the countries we compare ourselves to must be appropriate in order for the comparison to make sense.  Comparing ourselves against countries with similar work ethics like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and even Thailand suggests that government change is no cause for worry for Singaporeans.   Dr Yik assets that the PAP's venal sin is steadfastly implementing unpopular policies.  But the PAP never has need to commit venal sins as it writes its own paycheck.  The idea that short term pain must necessarily bring about long term gain is too often used to justify policies that have become inappropriate and not feasible both in the short term and in the long term.   Moral probity becomes obscured when the PAP pays itself better than what Chen Shui Bian could stash away over eight years.  The description of the PAP charting through mine laden waters omits the many knee jerk reactions along the way.   Make no mistake Dr Yik, we are not changing horses midstream for the sake of changing horses.  We are changing horse because the horse has decided to call the shots and take its owner for a ride.   The antics and noise that we see in foreign parliaments such as that of Taiwan's should not detract us from the fact that their economies continue to pull ahead full steam.  We should therefore not assume that the opposition is necessarily non-constructive and pernicious to our country let alone paralysing to it.   When a nation chooses to brush aside the grievances of its people as mere rhetoric, that is when the danger of totalitarianism is at its greatest.  For when we surrender our independent judgement of what is right and what is wrong to supposedly firm and decisive leadership, that firmness and decisiveness can lead our country to total ruin and destruction.  The most famous case in point being the surrender of the collective judgments of the German people to the firmness and decisiveness of Hitler and his Nazi government.  History always repeats itself.  Let it not repeat on us.   While the competition between Starhub and Singtel is indeed unhealthy, the solution isn't no competition but perfect competition instead.  When the nation wide broadband network is in place and many more internet / television companies come on board, the competitive power of each company will diminish along with their ability to engage in destructive bidding.  If this doesn't work, we can make use of anti-trust proceedings to break Starhub and Singtel into many smaller units.   Conventional wisdom has its virtues, we just need to be able to recognise them.     Thank you     Ng Kok Lim   EDITORS' NOTE: The title of Mr Ng's article was given by Temasek Review as he did not give us a title in his email.   Mandate assured.....as long PAP remains incorruptible IN HIS letter last Saturday, 'Life after PAP', Mr Ng Kok Lim asserts that Singaporeans have the inherent and innate ability to prosper and flourish, no matter who leads the country. In support of his argument, he mentions how various changes of government in the region have not been detrimental to the countries involved. Separately, in his letter also last Saturday, 'Politically vibrant Singapore', Mr Albert Tay advocates competition in the political arena, which he says can only facilitate advancement. Ethnically, Singaporeans are no different from the countries they migrated from. If, indeed, all work ethic is equal, every country in the region would have scaled the same peaks as Singapore. That we have achieved a standing in the world beyond expectations says as much about our resourcefulness to overcome hardship as it does about the quality of our leadership in our country's formative years. Sterling governance in Singapore has not diminished over the decades. Long- serving governments of other countries lost the trust of their electorates as the dominant political parties degenerated into inefficiency, racked by moral turpitude and roiled by scandal. This is not the case with the People's Action Party (PAP), whose venal sin lies in steadfastly implementing unpopular policies with short-term pain while making long-term gains which only patience will see bear fruit. As long as the PAP maintains its moral probity while charting a clear course through the mine-laden future, it should retain a handsome mandate to rule, as changing horses in midstream simply for the sake of change is insensate. The rules of the market seemingly dictate that competition brings efficiency and advancement. Yet, a look at the filibustering in various foreign Parliaments should tell us that non-constructive opposition to government policies is pernicious to a country, paralysing it with worthless rhetoric when firm and decisive leadership is needed. One need only look at the unhealthy competition between StarHub and SingTel and the ongoing World Cup� telecast imbroglio to confirm that conventional wisdom has its limits. Dr Yik Keng Yeong Source: Straits Times Forum, 9 February 2010    Read More →

Written by Our Correspondent According to the latest Robert Walters Asia Job Index report, employer confidence has returned in Singapore with all its banks hiring again. Besides the financial industry, IT, fast moving consumer goods, healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors continue to employ "top talent" in Singapore. The Manpower Ministry claimed that the unemployment rate for locals have decreased to 3 per cent, but the exact figure for Singapore citizens remains unknown since "locals" include both citizens and PRs. Neither does the figure includes those on contract jobs or have given up looking for a job altogether and therefore can be considered as unemployed technically. A quick search on Singapore's online job portals reveals that quite a substantial number of ads are looking specifically for foreigners:                     Some job portals like gumtree resembles more like those in China than in Singapore: The above job ad is seeking for PRC or Malaysian Chinese to fill the position of bakery and kitchen supervisor. This is not a position requiring special skills nor will Singaporeans shun it and so why are foreigners preferred over Singaporeans? In the second ad above, the employer is looking for a PRC candidate to become a sales promoter and one condition is that he/she must speak English! Won’t the employer stand a higher chance of finding a Singaporean who can speak English? The company above is looking specifically for a China driver with valid Singapore driving licence. It will be easier if it recruits Singaporeans instead. Are workers from China better drivers than Singaporeans. Such discriminatory ads against Singaporeans are ubiquitous throughout Singapore's online job portals. Though MOM forbids such ads, they are still put up either overtly or covertly (in the form of euphemisms) to recruit foreign workers. While other countries like Australia are cracking down on migrant workers to protect the livelihoods of their own citizens, the ruling party of Singapore continues to welcome foreigners. Ministry of Youth Development, Community and Sports Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said lately that the government cannot "shield" Singaporeans from competition with foreigners though it will "try" to equip them with the skills to do so. Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said last year that there will be no "turnaround" in the ruling party's pro-foreigner policy and that the number of foreign workers may actually increase in the next few years. With more than one third of Singapore's populations being foreigners and an undisclosed number of the "local" workforce being PRs, it matters little to Singaporeans if the number of job ads are actually increasing or decreasing.  Read More →