TR EMERITUS

Young gig workers need educating on harsh realities of platform work, say researchers of 'in-work poverty' - Today's online, 29 March 2023. I cannot agree with the findings of the researchers more. The pap government is definitely too slow to act in protecting them. They have no sense of urgency to act on this one. Gig economy and gig workers are fancy names but the realities for gig workers are far from rosy. Many of them are young, hardworking and attracted by the flexibility, by rhetoric such as the more you work, the more you earn lalala... and many of them being young and energetic, they forget that the opposite is also true. Delivery riders are easily spotted on the roads from morning to late night but for many of them, their incomes do not commensurate with their hard work and the long hours that they put in. A research conducted by the Institute of Policy Studies Social Lab concluded that the median income for delivery riders is just $1925/. It is, in a few words, a hand to mouth job with little room for career advancement and income growth and to put it bluntly, young people seriously shouldn't waste their lives away doing it. I quote from the research, 'once you stop your hand, your livelihood is jeopardised'. I will even go as far to say that it is a waste of our limited national manpower even. I accept that the gig economy is a new trend and for the government to starve platform companies of workers deliberately through legislation is too high handed. The current work practice of gig workers left much to be desired. Time is limited, their energy level is limited, compulsory CPF contribution is zero, health, insurance, annual leave, fringe benefits and sick leave are all zero and more...It is a race to the bottom type of job. I would like to suggest that the government looks into gig work and all related matters with urgency and with a view to better protect gig workers. I further suggest that the government limits the number of Singaporeans that platform companies can employ but liberalise the employment of foreign gig delivery riders to meet their demands. Think.   Simon Lim      Read More →

Social Media was full of talk yesterday about the glaringly disparate reception given by the Chinese government to Anwar Ibrahim, Lee Hsien Loong and the Spanish PM, Sanchez when they arrived in Beijing yesterday from the Boao conference in Hainan, which all three of them had attended. Both Anwar and Sanchez were given the red carpet treatment upon arrival with honour guards and State cars on the tarmac, waiting to whisk them off,accompanied by a phalanx of outriders. Lee Hsien Loong and his 50 strong entourage were ushered onto the airport buses to be taken to the arrival lounge. There may be a reason for the disparate reception, but Zaobao and Mothership gave a most ridiculous and disingenuous explanation for the difference in treatment accorded to Lee Hsien Loong and Anwar. It was suggested that the treatment was different because Anwar arrived in Beijing onboard a Malaysian Airlines plane, whereas Lee Hsien Loong arrived on a local plane- Hainan Airlines. I was in stitches and almost fell off my chair when I read the explanation given by Mothership. I thought this can’t be serious coming from the mainstream media and an alternative media which professes to be a serious and reliable source of journalism. There are “Rules of the Game”as Lee Kuan Yew liked to put it. We are all familiar with how visiting Heads of State are often given a 21-gun salute at the official welcoming ceremony. But I am prepared to say that the parameters of these rules are not etched in stone. If a country genuinely likes a visiting Statesman, there is nothing stopping the host country from giving the guests how many guns salutes it deems fit! It could be multiples of 21. It could be a gun salute every minute! The latter sounds extravagant, but I am using it to make my point. A person does not even have to be in power to be accorded a grand reception. I am reminded of the story of how Mao Tse-Tung sent an official plane and his Chief Protocol Officer to bring Richard Nixon to China for a private visit after Nixon’s resignation as President following the Watergate scandal. This was the unprecedented treatment accorded to a former President. The two men had, of course, been part of the most sensational diplomatic breakthrough in the 1970s, which was Nixon’s opening to China. In Beijing, following their private meeting during which they toasted each other with tea, Nixon was treated to an extravagant evening of musical entertainment with a program carefully put together by Mao himself. So please, Zaobao and Mothership, such disingenuous explanations are not appreciated by intelligent Singaporeans.   Lim Tean      Read More →

I have read Lee Hsien Loong's speech at Boao Forum on both Today's online and CNA online. I give it an average grade. Just average. Let me explain. To me, today, the biggest threat to Asia's peace and stability is not China's peaceful rise, the so called China's hagemony, China's unreasonableness, China's export of communist propaganda or refugees...etc. With a China that is growing richer and more powerful by the day, there will always be bilateral issues with its Asian neighbours but as long as countries are willing to observe and behave according to international rules, laws and norms such as non-interference in each other affairs etc but continue talking with each other and making serious efforts to better understand each other's concerns and positions, many issues are manageable. The clear and present danger to Asia's peace and well-being are 2 and they are the Taiwan issues which is essentially a China domestic issues and US's attitudes and perceptions of China as an adversary and a threat and their correspondingly responses and reactions. In short, I conclude that the current Biden administration lacks strategic depth and wisdom. I am old enough to remember the late Lee Kuan Yew's rare honour and his address to the joint meeting of the US Congress in 1985. Among other things, he strongly advocated continuous US trade in the east and South East Asia despite very strong protectionist tides running in the US politics body at that time. In order to add value to a forum or bring value to the table, so to speak, one has to deliver or say things that people don't know or are not yet fully aware of. The late Minister Mentor had done that brilliantly. Think.   Simon Lim      Read More →