TR EMERITUS

By Darkness, Guest Columnist Tell me could Temasek and GIC have done a better job in outperforming the markets? Was it such a good strategy to put so many of our chips on banks? Was the melt down foreseeable? Is it true to say, paper losses are just paper losses? What about profits then; could they just be paper profits as well?   You know what? I dunno. As these days, the MSM seems to be very evasive about the whole idea of delivering news – content is definitely king even if it resembles the idea of bottling Himalayan air - but if you want to know more, then perhaps you can check out these excellent links to gain a deeper understanding of the salient. Go on blow your mind out.   GIC’s Conversion from Preferred to Common Marks the Beginning of the End  / “2008 Was a Year to Forget” - 2009 Probably will be One to Forget, Too  / How did our SWFs manage to invest in the 3 worst performing CDO issuing banks???  / UBS Tax Fraud Makes Lee Kuan Yew Look Like a Dufus Dumbo   But that is not the point of my essay – that’s really just the garnish. My main dish is a boney fish – question: why is it so hard for elites to admit they screwed up?   Why is it so hard to come to terms with the most basic human quality: fallibility? Some people say it has something to do with the whole idea of run-away train ego – I don’t buy into that crappy logic as no one in his right mind is going to go the full nine yards just for ego sake alone – I mean no one, not even the Shah of Iran had the stamina to bear out the naked truth – at some point most people will just make peace with their mistakes and move on as best they can.   There has to be something more to the whole business of denial. From my personal experience the vast majority of ordinary folk don’t suffer from denial syndrome – if they screwed up, they just come clean, most of the time, at least. Like when I once went out with this girl who was really into organic food produce – she thought I wasn’t getting enough beta carotene into my system; so she started lacing all my food with carrot everything behind my back – one day when a colleague remarked I reminded him a bit of a jaundiced yellow AA tow truck. I just said to her, “look what you’ve done to me? I trusted you with my gut and look what I’ve turned into?” And she just came clean and that was the end of that.   My point is there is absolutely no mileage in going straight up against the unsavory truth especially when it’s coupled with irrefutable evidence – taken to its extremes – digging in and taking a not-one-step-back defensive position only exacerbates the situation; as all too often it comes across as a form of intransigence and that’s bound to create a impasse in the psyche of those who seek to understand – result: it squeezes out all prospects of forgiveness, healing and hope for reconciliation.   Again why do elites find it so difficult to come clean when they screw up?   Most of us know there’s no profit in dealing with a mistake by sweeping the facts underneath the carpet or dumbing down the facts. Neither does it pay to ignore the evidence and hope with time no one will remember and all the evidence will just disappear.   Again why is it so difficult for elites to come clean when they screw up?   I guess one reason why elites feel the need to sell the charge of light brigade as a sound enterprise is they have invested so much their raison in the myth of infallibility – never mind that most people don’t see either the exceptionality or value in the whole proposition of how if good wins over bad its simply because of the whole idea of a few good men; that’s what happens when the idea assumes the end rather than a means to an end – the show simply has to go on for better or worse, right or wrong.   One clue why most of us perceive a dissonance (real or imagined) is because we don’t have much trouble making out those gaping fault lines - where myth gives way to inconvenient truth. But once you’re in gyre – its not so simple – the line of sight gets cloudy; periphery vision narrows. Result – you only see the world the way, you want to see it.   That in a nutshell is what elitism excels in embellishment – it matters little whether it’s the idea scholars are the most reliable people or perpetuating the departmental claptrap there is an acute scarcity of talent – observation even suggest elites aren’t really elites in the true sense of the word – otherwise why aren’t they regularly making the red carpet walk to collect the Nobel prize every year? I mean if you want anecdotal gold standard proof then it doesn’t get higher than that, unless you can convince the rubber dodo bird award happens to be a higher standard for individual and organizational excellence.   Like I said, it matters little whether it’s the Samurais who once banned gunpowder just so they could perpetuate their class politics by nurturing the cult of the sword; or the Manchu’s who developed the art of loosing arrows from horseback to monopolize a valuable skill-at-arms to allow them to assert their hegemony – my point is at some stage; the whole idea elitism gets so ritualized and stylized that form eventually supplants function so completely that it ceases to be a reliable way to deliver excellence; that’s when it becomes so sclerotic and sedentary that it can only be worthless – if you are wondering why ST cannot seem to find the entrepreneurial imagination to prosper in the digital age – wonder no more, there you have it the reason in the palm of your hands – if you’re wondering why the Lehman bros, Madoff’s and Satyam’s of this world took an ignominious swan dive – there it is again.   In every single case without even a single exception; the myth i.e ONLY a select chosen few can be entrusted to be sole purveyors of goodness played out to deadly effect – and the post mortem all revealed, none of them even so much as considered looking twice at the error of ways to even consider changing course to avoid disaster - its a sad, sad tale.   Its suggestive; something akin to slow acting poison must have played out to make it all but impossible for elites to even come to terms with their own failings, limitations and need to reinvent themselves – tragic realism it seems, requires them to insist on their version of rightness even when everything goes down the chute – but what’s even sadder is not because it serves the imperative of the truth and greater good; but rather by that late stage in the game; the die is truly cast and it conceivable; they may not even control the system any longer; as much as the system owns them lock, stock and barrel to even demand of them to insist on their version of the truth, at every opportunity and turn – and with that, the last stanza can really only read like the last flight of Icarus; all that remains now is the epic fall from grace. It’s game over.     Darkness 2009 (This article has been viewed 433 times as of 5 March 2009, 11.55pm)  Read More →

By Clarissa Oon, Senior Political Correspondent Mainstream media is still the key source of news and views SINGAPORE'S socio-political blogs have grown in the quality of writing, but their reach remains limited compared to mainstream media, two Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) researchers said yesterday.Most Singaporeans still rely heavily on traditional media for news and views, IPS senior research fellow Tan Tarn How said in a presentation on developments in the local blogosphere. He was speaking at a seminar attended by about 60 bloggers, academics and media professionals at the National University of Singapore's Bukit Timah Campus. Mr Tan compared the several thousand readers who tune in to socio-political websites The Online Citizen (TOC) and The Wayang Party Club to The Straits Times' circulation of nearly 400,000 and its readership of 1.3 million. He also cited a Gallup poll conducted in 2005 and 2006 in which 69 per cent of Singaporeans said they had confidence in their mainstream media, compared to 32 per cent in the United States. Mr Tan said that until 12 to 18 months ago, bloggers who wrote on social and political issues did so mainly as commentators and armchair critics in an 'echo chamber' that had little impact offline. More recently, however, bloggers from TOC and The Wayang Party Club have done more activism and original reporting. One example was TOC speaking out last September against the public transport fare hikes and releasing a 10-page report on how to improve the transport system. Another example was during the online outcry over Permanent Secretary Tan Yong Soon's expensive culinary holiday, in which Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC MP Charles Chong was also targeted after he was quoted as using the term 'lesser mortals' to describe the Permanent Secretary's critics. The Wayang Party Club wrote to Mr Chong to get him to clarify his remarks, and ran his full reply on its website. But TOC and Wayang Party Club editors do not think the majority of Singaporeans are aware of their sites, said IPS researcher Tan, who interviewed them. He noted that while contributors to these sites do first-hand reporting on issues that they feel have not been well covered by the traditional media, they face two major constraints. The first is a lack of resources as these sites are run largely by unpaid part-time volunteers. The second is what Mr Tan called the presence of an 'offline-online firewall'. He explained it in this way: 'What appears online is not really part of a national conversation unless it has appeared in The Straits Times or Channel News Asia.' As traditional media does not often report on issues debated online, Internet discourse is more like a 'subaltern public sphere, confined to a small group of people, dispossessed critical voices outside the public sphere', he explained. The main reason more Singaporeans are not going online for political news and views is that 'the Government is seen as credible and responsive', he added. For instance, when Minister in charge of the Civil Service Teo Chee Hean reprimanded Mr Tan Yong Soon in Parliament, it 'helped to defuse some of the anger' over the issue, he said. Debating the IPS team's findings, bloggers and academics in the audience did not question the present lack of a wider readership for sociopolitical blogs, but disagreed with some of the researchers' assumptions. Nanyang Technological University journalism professor Cherian George questioned if the phenomenon of bloggers dabbling in citizen journalism and activism was really new. He cited the Think Centre website run by activist James Gomez since 2000. Mr Gomez, who was a Workers' Party candidate in the 2006 election and who was at the seminar, disagreed with Mr Tan about the need for more 'professionalism' on the Internet - an evolving medium which he felt appeals to participants precisely because it is 'rough around the edges'. But TOC editor-in-chief Choo Zheng Xi, a law undergraduate, said his writers were working to improve their reporting skills. Drawing the dialogue to a close, IPS director Ong Keng Yong observed that alternative voices had always been present in Singapore, not just in recent years. The growing sophistication of expression on the blogosphere was, however, a very important development, a challenge which the Government must rise to, he added. For bloggers, his piece of advice is: Even as blogs become more sophisticated, readers are also becoming more sophisticated. 'So bloggers should be aware that what they write may last just 24 or 48 hours,' he said. Source: Straits Times  Read More →

Translated from Sin Ming Daily The deceased might have stabbed the professor and committed suicide subsequently as he was unable to take the blow from losing his scholarship and honors. NTU student David Widjaja stabbed his professor with a knife two days ago at 10am in the morning before plunging to his death. NTU President Dr Su Guanning confirmed that Widjaja received warning letters since year 3 till February this year when his ASEAN scholarship was revoked after the fourth and final warning. Dr Su said: "Widjaja's family is quite well to do and shouldn't encounter any problems footing the tuition fees for half a year, but we do not know how big the blow is to him. From what his classmates had revealed, he had been indulging in computer games for the past two years and this may be a reason behind his deteriorating grades which eventually affected his Final Year Project". ASEAN scholars need to attain a minimal GPA of 3.5 or their scholarships will be terminated. The deceased parents picked a beige western suit, white T-shirt and golden tie for him and even placed a doll to be cremated together with him in the  hope that the deceased will have someone to accompany him on his journey to the unknown. White and yellow color jasmine flowers were also hung around his neck and waist. Widjaja's body was cremated yesterday evening. Almost 100 NTU students and staff turned up to bid farewell to him. NTU President Dr Su Guanning was also present. He gave the deceased's parents a hug to express his condolences. Before the coffin was shut, the deceased's father was stroking his beloved son's head gently while the mother was crying non-stop. As she was looking at his face, she lost control of herself and cried out loudly. The deceased father used his handphone to take the last family together. EDITOR's NOTE: This is another example of plain gutter journalism from Sin Ming Daily. There is no evidence that David committed the act out of despair. Even if this is indeed true, NTU should bear part of the blame for not giving due attention to David promptly. Was it too obsessed with David's slipping academic grades and GPA rather than his emotional and mental well-being ?  Read More →