TR EMERITUS

Your Local Economic Rice Stall Gives You Something Tastier, Cheaper and Dare I say More Nutritious compared to the Big International Fast-Food Joints. I make no secret of the fact that I can’t stand offices. One of the best things that the circuit breaker did for me was to get me away from an office and the nonsensical power games that impotent bureaucrats need to get sexually aroused. In this day and age, I don’t see why people cannot work where they choose to work provided there is a decent enough internet connection. The only thing of value to come out of an office, from file or in a meeting is an agreement to fill more files and have more meetings. However, while I take personal delight in the demise of the office, I need to remember that lock downs do hurt businesses like retailers and food outlets. These institutions provide many of us with a livelihood and more often than not, it affects those who are less well off. As such, its heartening to see post on social media encouraging people to support small outlets and small businesses. One of the more encouraging ones came from my former agency junior who has since become an entrepreneur and a voice for the less fortunate. While I don’t have anything personal against fast food chains, its really encouraging to see people talk about the need to support small enterprises. Having been a freelancer for the better part of my working life, I can attest to the fact that despite what the government tells you, life as an entrepreneur in Singapore is hard. Lee Kuan Yew’s most successful and unforgivable acts was to find a way of imprinting into our DNA an aversion to small, local risk takers. His message was simple, Singapore is simply too small to create economies of scale and so its best that we just do what we need to do to keep multinationals and the government happy. While encouraging multinational investment did play a role in creating prosperity, the consistent message that Singapore is too small has ended up creating a dependency mentality. In the minds of many Singaporeans, you can’t do anything of quality unless you’ve been in the civil service or been “taught” by someone from elsewhere. I look back to the last year I did anything that I was really proud off – namely 2013 when I served the Indian Institutes of Management Alumni (IIM). This was a group that had the money to hire the likes of Hill & Knowlton but chose to go with me, a little nobody. After working for the IIM Alumni, I was invited to pitch for a job for a quasi-government agency. Before I even started on the presentation, the chairman started with “Don’t you see being a one-man show as a weakness.” The mentality of this very prominent sometime civil servant was very clear and the message to me was “You’re a nobody – shouldn’t you feel ashamed of not being part of a Western multinational?” One of the key reasons why I’ve never bought into the “foreigners are stealing our jobs,” mode is simple. When I, a small nobody Singaporean with a proven track record of being able to do the job, it was the people from elsewhere who gave me the jobs. My “own kind” preferred to give the jobs to foreign companies. Unfortunately, I’m not the only one-man show who had that experience. A few of my friends who started their own shop admitted that their first big break was inevitably from someone from elsewhere. So, with this background in mind, I’m really happy to see Singaporeans trying to encourage each other to support small mom and pop shops in this pandemic. The point is simple, McDonald’s and KFC can weather the storm. The small food stalls need customers. While I’m encouraged to see people giving “moral” support to our local businesses, I believe that our support should not be based on a charitable desire but on the fact that our small businesses have the capability to deliver more value for their customers than their larger competitors from elsewhere. This fact was brought home recently when I had a look at where I was choosing to eat. As a matte of full disclosure, I enjoy “fast-food.” There’s pleasure in KFC, McDonald’s and the rest of them. I also appreciate the business model that the fast-food outlets provide. As is often said, “Nobody can produce hamburgers at the same scale and consistency anywhere in the world in the same way that McDonald’s does.” You also have to appreciate the HR systems of the fast-food joints and how they train people. My local food joint offers variety that you don’t get in a fast-food joint. However, I’ve found myself spending less time in fast-food restaurants because, well, I’ve found that the hawker stalls, particularly the “economic rice” stalls offer something that has more variety, tastier, cheaper and dare I say more nutritious than what the Fast-Food joints are offering. Ever since I’ve become more home based, my meals have become fairly standard. I walk out to the economic rice stall and my standard fare is rice, two vegetables and a meat (usually chicken or pork.) They’re fairly generous with the portions and the most that I’ve ever spent is six dollars (that was when I had a fish). I spend on average three to four dollars per packet. If I want a canned drink, I can either go into the nearby supermarket or visit the drink stall and pay a further two bucks (average price is around a dollar seventy). While I do enjoy my fast-food, the economics of fast-food don’t make sense. KFC for example will charge three dollars and eighty cents $3.80) for a single piece of chicken: [LINK] Not to be outdone, McDonald’s sells a buttermilk crispy chicken at eight-dollars and forty cents ($8.40). That’s just a bit of chicken, a bun and a few bits of relish. If you go for the meal, the price goes up by another dollar for fries (a few wedges of potato) and a soft drink (sugar water). While both KFC and McDonald’s do offer something enjoyable, I don’t think they’re offering the best value to most consumers. From my perspective as a consumer, the local economic rice stall simply offers much better value. Again, I’m not against burgers or fried chicken but why should I pay so much more for that when the local guy can give me something better. Likewise, multinationals and big brands do offer good things that we can spend our money on. However, the question remains – are they offering the best deal. Who is to say that our local SMEs are not offering something that may have more value? This skinny guy lived in a diet of rice, vegetables and a bit of meat when he had the chance. He ended up leading people in combat against three big powers and won. This guy lives on a diet of fast-food. End result – overweight, scrambling for money despite proclaiming billions and based on his accusations of other people being rapist – he’s probably impotent too.   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 →

Malaysia is now facing a crisis in coping with large scale covid infection and deaths. Singapore can lend a hand to help Malaysia to cope with this crisis. How? Last year, Singapore suffered a large scale infection of the foreign workers. Large numbers were found to be infected with the virus. We set up separate facilities to deal with the infected persons. The infected people were isolated, observed and treated in these facilities. After the incubation period, most of the infected people were cleared of the virus and released from the treatment center. We have large numbers of beds, partitions and devices that are not being used now, as the infections had dropped to low levels. We can donate these equipments for use by Malaysia. We can help Malaysia to set up the special treatment centers using their sports and community centers and halls. The infected patients can be treated at these special facilities and will relieve the patient load on the general hospitals. These facilities are dedicated for the treatment of the covid disease. It is easy to manage and supervise a dedicated center. The hospital workers can be protected with special gear and their duty is confined only to provide the testing and treatment of the covid patients. It is not suitable to use a general hospital to treat the covid patients, as there is the risk of spreading the infection to the other patients and hospital workers. While Malaysia is able to buy the equipments from the market, it will take time. As these equipment are already available in Singapore, and are not being used now, they can be transferred to the special centers in Malaysia within a few days. Singapore can also provide the medical workers to help in operating these special centers and to train the Malaysians workers to take over. I believe that this help will be greatly beneficial to Malaysia and will be appreciated by their government and people. I hope that our government leaders make this offer of assistance immediately..     Tan Kin Lian      Read More →

As taxi and private hire vehicle (PHV) drivers are not allowed to take more than two passengers due to the prevailing pandemic measures, a family of three or four, despite being a family and staying together, has to either take two taxis or use public transport. This inevitably will cause a spike in the use of public transport. From a virological point of view, where is the logic in this regulation as it seems to presume that the viruses are less inclined to take buses or trains? As such, these frontline workers, already stressed up trying to put food on the tables for their families, end up being drawn into needless arguments with their passengers. Just how on earth can they explain the illogical rationale of this regulation to angry passengers? If private vehicles are allowed to carry a family of four, why wasn’t this regulation calibrated or differentiated similarly to help our frontliners and passengers? This begets the question – was this regulation designed to maintain ridership in our public transport but at the expense of our frontliners’ incomes? Who are the real beneficiaries of the Point-to-Point Support Package? Why was the monies in this package given to the operators instead of going directly to supplement the income of all the affected frontliners, or be used as a relief so that some of them can use it to look for alternative jobs? How about those who own their own vehicles and have mortgages to pay, the relief or part-time drivers, are they excluded from this package too? With so many of them struggling to cover even their rental and expenses, it is sad that many of these Singaporeans are worse off than foreign workers right in their own backyard. Is this humanely acceptable of a wealthy “First World” country like Singapore? Who is going to champion their plights and rights now that unions are so busy engaging in businesses and politics these past years? Onerous Temporary Relief Fund When some of these drivers and gig-workers did not get their S$9,000 handouts previously, l was told that a few of them went to Devan Nair Centre where NTUC has set up a help station to assist them in making an appeal. Once there, they were “encouraged” to sign up as members of NTUC and ends up paying S$9 monthly membership fee. When some of them ended up receiving notices from CPF Board that they have arrears for MediSave contributions, it confuses them. After clarifying the matter with CPF Board, they were then told that the notices for those arrears will be withdrawn as they was “erroneously” computed based on data submitted previously in their appeals. Now when many of them have to submit fresh appeals to get the S$700 or S$500 grant, they decided to forgo it as the whole grant is just too onerous and daunting for them. Here lies the irony – mayors, member of parliaments (MPs), unionists, and grassroots activists are aware of this issue but why has none of them done anything about it? Aren’t they suppose to be helping Singaporeans who are in dire needs so that “no one will be left behind”? Workers in other sectors were affected too, like contract and part-time cleaners who were left “high & dry” when F&B establishments and contractors stop paying them during the current lockdown. What is sad is that many of them were illiterates, not tech-savvy and find making an appeal for the relief grant too onerous while those who are supposed to be helping them pretend that such problems do not exist or are hiding online, expecting to receive emails from those affected. CDC Voucher Scheme Where are the S$100 CDC vouchers as announced in February by the former Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat? Wasn’t it supposed to be distributed in June to help our hawkers and businesses in our heartlands? With so much hardship facing our hawkers and heartland businesses during the current Heightened Alert, why aren’t any of the mayors showing any sense of urgency in launching this scope of support earlier so that help can reach our hawkers and heartland businesses before collapse? Surely these CDC Vouchers were not meant for use as burn-offerings to honour the demise of our hawkers and heartland-businesses right? Are our mayors so overwhelmed by this task that we need to consider spending more monies to recruit more mayors so that they can exercise more initiative and be able to respond to the needs of Singaporeans with greater urgency? Despite having spent billions to become a Smart Nation, these gaps and lack of initiative show just how “gong” our Smart Nation really is. Where are common sense and empathy these days? Exceptional time demands exceptional courage It is sad that many of those affected are starting to lament the loss of Heng as our Finance Minister as there is now a growing narrative on the ground that he had paid a high price for pushing for timely help and support for fellow citizens who were in need previously. By calling the latest lockdown as “Heightened Alert”, Lawrence Wong, who is Heng’s replacement for the Finance Minister, is not compelled to repeat what Heng has done for Singaporeans previously. This means massive savings on his watch and he also does not have to make any request to use our reserves, thus helping to spare the president of unnecessary stress. Isn’t he brilliantly heartless or was he simply clueless in being the Finance Minister? As l took a walk and see real hardship faced by fellow Singaporeans, l must admit that the current government seems to have no heart or compassion for fellow Singaporeans these days. Many families are struggling to have a decent meal while breadwinners stand helplessly as bills, expenses, and mortgages pile up against them. Stop mis-pricing Singaporean workforce A street-smart friend of mine, who is very resourceful and hardworking, told me just this week that he wanted to cry when he last check his bank balance. So, stop the excuse that Singaporeans are lazy and shun jobs that are less glamorous or tedious. If employers want to be taken seriously, they just need to stop under-paying Singaporeans, improve their job scope and stop exploiting them as if they are slaves. As the current hardship is equally pandemic in the Malay community, as it is across other communities, what exactly has our dedicated Malay President does for her community so far? How can she stay so silent while there is so much suffering and hardship within our community? Our Elected Presidential system is obviously broken, and until it is fixed, the well-being and welfare of Core Singaporeans will remain compromised and neglected. Many of these affected Singaporeans, including their families and friends, will not forget the hardships faced and how “compassion-less” our president, new Finance Minister, MPs, mayors, unionists, and grassroots activists have shown themselves to be in this pandemic. This is going to cost the People’s Action Party (PAP) severe vote loss at the next election unless they start walking their talks more consistently and start ensuring that urgent relief and support reaches affected Singaporeans in a more timely manner, and also remove bureaucratic complaints that hurt the dignity of fellow Singaporeans. As facing financial hardships does not make any Singaporean a beggar, it helps if those in power stop insulting the dignity of those affected and start making supports and grants less onerous too. Since PM Lee is on local leave and has the time to walk the ground, he should do so without his stage managers and jesters, and validate first-hand just how out of touch and “compassion-less” his 4G politicians, advisors and “whole of government” really are. Lee needs to know that during exceptional time, only exceptional leaders will have the courage to effect exceptional measures for the people as the failure to act will definitely come back to haunt his premiership and the longevity of his party. As such, how Lee is going to respond in truly alleviating the many dire hardships that Singaporeans are currently facing will define his legacy and show if he still personally believe that Singaporeans deserve better…   Joseph Nathan   * Article first appeared on the author's Facebook page.      Read More →