TR EMERITUS

Leader of the House Firstly, I do not know if Indranee Rajah (IR) attended parliamentary sessions in the last 2 days but as far as I have read and know and I could be wrong here, IR didn't offer any apologies to Parliament for her slamming of her files/folders and jumping from her seat behaviours to alert the Parliamentary Speaker and to reprimand NCMP Leong Mun Wai for something that he said prior. Such a behaviour was most unfortunate and disgraceful for any worthy parliamentarian much less for someone who is the Leader of the House. I have learned a long time ago that contrary to making one looks small and stupid, it takes humility and courage for a person to say sorry when sorry is due and sorry is definitely due in this case. Now that Parliament has reconvened and if there is no apologies forthcoming from her for her behaviours, personally as a concerned citizen, I will be much disappointed. Think.   Simon Lim      Read More →

PM-still-in-waiting Lawrence Wong In a recent address to Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong stressed that economic growth remains a “non-negotiable” priority for Singapore, despite the country’s efforts to become a more inclusive society. Speaking at the debate of the President’s speech, DPM Wong argued that as the labour force and economy are expected to grow more slowly in the years ahead, competitiveness will become increasingly important. He added that Singapore will also ensure that government programs achieve better outcomes for Singaporeans, in terms of the value they achieve from every dollar spent. Since our focus is on economic growth & competitiveness – let’s look at the outcomes for Singapore and Singaporeans. In 1966, there were only 59,000 non-citizens on work permits, comprising 10.7% of the total workforce of 550,000. It is believed that the influx of foreign workers began around 1997, such that by June 2014, there were 1.3 million foreign workers and an estimated 320,000 permanent resident (PRs) workers, making a total non-citizen workforce of about 1.65 million, or about 48% of the total workforce of 3.5 million. If new citizens are accounted for, then perhaps more than half the workforce may already be non-citizens. Moving on to today, it is estimated based on data in 2022 that the non-native Singaporeans in the total workforce (excluding Migrant Domestic Workers) was 51.4%, with 31.9% foreigners, 11.6% PRs, 7.3% of those who are not born in Singapore, and 0.6% “born in Singapore not as citizens”. Moreover, Singapore has experienced one of the slowest rates of economic growth in ASEAN, even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. In 2019, the country’s growth rate was one of the lowest in the region. Despite this, the government has continued to emphasize the importance of economic growth, at times seemingly at the expense of the well-being of Singaporeans. It is important to note that the pandemic has had a significant impact on the global economy, and Singapore has not been immune to this. However, the country’s struggles with economic growth are not new. Even before the pandemic, there were concerns about the impact of Singapore’s heavy reliance on foreign workers, as well as the high cost of living and stagnating wages for many Singaporeans. In the eight years since the Singaporean government took office in 1959, annual GDP growth surged forward at a rate of 6% to 9%, according to an article in the Straits Times dated 9 August 1967. Using data from the Department of Statistics, the GDP growth rate for the first six years from 1960 to 1966 was computed to be 6.6% per annum. From 1966 to 1997, before the influx of foreign workers, GDP growth was 9% per annum. From 1997 to 2013, after the influx of foreign workers, GDP growth was 5.2% per annum. It is possible that the large influx of foreign workers may have resulted in relatively lower economic growth rates as compared to earlier periods. Therefore, it is worth considering whether the past and continuing rhetoric that Singapore needs more foreign talent to ensure economic growth still holds water or makes sense. For example, other countries like the Nordic countries may have arguably managed to derive good economic and social development without resorting to having a huge influx of foreigners. Fast forward to now, and it may arguably be even more difficult for Singapore to achieve strong economic growth going forward, given the challenges posed by the pandemic and the country’s heavy reliance on foreign workers. According to statistics, six out of eight occupational categories in Singapore have hardly seen any real increase in pay over the last 21 years. For example, Craftsmen & Related Trades workers have experienced a negative -0.2% p.a. real decrease in income, while Retail Service & Sales workers have seen a negative -0.08% p.a. real decrease in minimum income. Even for full-time employed Non-PMETs, the real income increase has only been 0.7% p.a. over the last 21 years. To address these issues, the government may need to consider more innovative and sustainable approaches to economic development, such as investing in education and training for Singaporeans, promoting entrepreneurship and innovation, and supporting small and medium-sized enterprises. At the same time, it is important for the government to ensure that Singaporeans are not left behind as the economy evolves and that they are able to benefit from the opportunities created by economic growth. This may require a more proactive approach to social welfare and income redistribution, as well as greater investment in affordable housing, healthcare, and education. Ultimately, Singapore’s economic success will depend not only on its ability to remain competitive but also on its ability to create a more inclusive and sustainable society that meets the needs of all its citizens.   Leong Sze Hian      Read More →

Chan Chun Seng I read with deep contemplation The Straits Times report, “Singapore education should move beyond focus on grades to a meritocracy of skills: Chan Chun Sing” (Mar 11). Foremost, I am glad to learn that Singapore education should move beyond focus on or shift away from grade to a meritocracy of skills and leadership qualities. Anyway, our education system is moving towards a right direction. For a few decades, It is not hard for us to notice that our education system: teachers usually impart knowledge and skills of various academic, technical subjects to the students (Besides, they also provide character nurturing, moderating or moulding and basic leadership training). However, our educators would never teach and guide their students how to apply methods, strategies, approaches or life experience skills out of the textbook to resolve dynamic interpersonal, work and life issues in a complex macro environment. Anyway, an individual success in terms of career, family and life will in great extent depend upon an individual’s capabilities in social interactions, management of emotions, career, life and health crisis. I sincerely hope all the employers inclusive of our Government should give more or fair chances for the last two groups of people to manifest their strengths and capabilities during the employment process, rather than displaying cold-shoulder on their unremarkable academic qualification. Traditionally, the administrative system and public service policies in Singapore have been placing emphasis on meritocracy of academic excellence and skewed towards its top or important appointments upon individuals with academic excellence records and good character. By right, it has nothing to bug on. But, over the years, we still can detect some flaws in its meritocracy system - over emphasis upon paper qualifications during its recruitment and selection processes. Simultaneously, it also underlines the utmost importance of pragmatic experience and qualities of leadership for the selection and appointment of top political and administrative leaders. For examples: - 1)Singapore’s Little India riot in the early hours on Dec 9, 2013. In the eyes of Singaporeans, it was the sad, disappointing and “mishandling” event. Due to our police force and its responsible commander at then lack of experience, decisiveness, nimbleness and resilience in handling this type of crisis - the sudden, big scale riot at Little India, which had resulted police cars and an ambulance be torched by the rioters. 2)NOL was badly managed by its CEO during the period of Oct 2011 to June 2016 Neptune Orient Lines Limited (NOL) was a Singaporean container shipping company. It was founded in 1968 as Singapore's national shipping line, but was later sold as a subsidiary to French shipping company CMA CGM in 2016. French company makes NOL profitable – less than 1 year after acquiring it from S’pore (of $86 million net profit compared with a $100 million loss in the same period of 2016”). 3)According to Yahoo news, Singapore Press Holdings net profit down 19.7% for FY2018 as media business revenue fell. Further, SPH net profit fell 23% in Financial Year 2019, to let go of 5% of media group staff (by The Straits Times). In addition, SPH posts first full year net loss of S$83.7m for FY20 (reported by The Business Times on 13 Oct 2020) All these misfortune were most likely due to the appointment of wrong or incapable person as its CEO and also attributed to his poor management capability, vision and skills. Therefore, it is timely for the Ministry of Education and Public Service Division heading towards the right direction and adopting the right approach to get rid of or shift away from its erroneous tendency and particular stress (lopsided emphasis) upon paper qualification as their core recruitment and selection criteria.   Teo Kueh Liang (Mr)      Read More →