Today published a letter by Chia Hern Keng. I try to second guess what the editor is trying to do. Since those guys there do not dare to write in clear, I am spelling out my thoughts here (which are in italic).

Arthur

Looking at the Dubai financial debacle, one cannot help but be taken aback. How could such a mammoth economic strategy have unravelled just like that?

I believe economic pundits will have all the answers. In the meantime, let us remember that life can be unpredictable. Success is never guaranteed despite all the ingenuity.

Smart guys do fail.

I like the Chinese saying “failure is the mother of success”. Still, failure can very painful or even destructive, so let that saying be taken in another sense: “Learn from the failure of others so that our nation can succeed”.

Singapore as a nation can learn something here.

In other words, never be too sure about success, be it on the corporate or national level.

In fact, past success can breed over-confidence resulting in overlooking certain major risks that eventually may do a business or nation in.

Our government is too cock sure of itself. We will all be sorry one day.

When I hear the over-simplified sayings that “entrepreneurship is really about risk-taking” and “fortune favours the brave”, I get a little disturbed. What are all the business management courses, the enlisting of business consultants, the use of market research and so forth, for but to minimise risk-taking?

In other words, entrepreneurship is very much about “kiasuism”.

Don’t listen to rubbish about taking risk and be an entrepreneur. Look at how those kiasu kiasi government people are pushing all the risks to the small guys like us.

Looking back in history, there was a genius in China called Zhuge Liang who worked as a general for a kingdom.

It was written that “he never took risks”, which contributed to his great successes in the battlefields even when his troops were outnumbered.

Still despite all his knowledge and ingenuity, his kingdom eventually succumbed to another.

That holds a lesson for us. Nothing is sure even with all the intellect and ingenuity that a nation can muster.

Government brags about the way they have the smartest Ministers and civil servants to rule the country. Well, even if you have all the smart guys there, things can still go wrong.

And sometimes too much intellectual strategising cause planners to lose sight of the simple reality: Many people do not live by strategising for success but in fact live life as it comes, with a certain acceptance and contentment no matter what the future might bring.

Especially when you get arrogant and proud.

For this reason, society should not be designed only for the smart and those seeking for success but also to ensure that the ordinary masses which form the base of society are well taken care of.

This is why I think meritocracy should always be tempered by some human-centred values so that society’s foundation can be strong.

That is why I am tired of all those rubbish about meritocracy. The rest of us have been forgotten in the economic equation.

When economic plans and strategies fail as in Dubai, is there a rootedness or foundation to fall back on?

It looks like in the case of Dubai, those who worked and invested there have fled elsewhere – abandoning even their properties and of course their outstanding loans, adding further to the economic collapse.

It is quite clear that those people gravitated to Dubai for economic reasons only. Let us learn from that.

Watch out guys for all the so-called foreign talent. Some of them will fled the very second Singapore falls.

“You can’t design for rainfall of this level, it is just too huge. The thing we can accept is that we can only design our canal of a certain size, and at the end of the day, we have to live with some of these occurrences which occur once in 50 years or so”.
-Dr Yaacob Ibrahim, Environment and Water Resources Minister, 2006

Source: Lucky Tan

We really take our hats off to Lucky Tan. He really knows how to dig.

Our multi million dollar PAP ministers know that some of us are either lazy, or too trusting, so they can continue to happily throwing smoke at us. Either that, or they know that by giving us some rubbish just prior to election (er, look at those great new flats in far flung ponggol for citizens. You’ll get a great sea view!), we will lap those things up because we no longer have the guts nor the will to stand up for better principles in our life.

Arthur

CHARLIE ROSE: You’ve never had a moment where you thought Singapore was too authoritative did you? Not one moment?
As Lee spittled and sputtered for an acceptable answer, Rose added, “So the end justifies the means whatever it might be?”
CHARLIE ROSE: You were in control of everything.
When Lee protested “no”, Rose put the charade to rest, “Yes you were, you know that.”

Source: Today in Singapore

A truly great man does not surround himself with ass-lickers. Too bad all the likes of Charlie Rose in Singapore have left or have been sued till they are gone.

I DON’T know about other Singaporeans but it frustrates me when I look at Singapore’s property market. Less than two years ago, the property market went wild, supposedly due to the en bloc frenzy.
Now, the property market is once again in crazy mode. This time, it is due to the “victory over one of the worst global recessions”. Or so I have been led to understand.

Source: Today

Singapore government is pushing up residential property prices because they are running out of ideas on how to sell land.

How else to get money into the economy? Service industries that rely on tourism are also affected by less party goers. Just look at F1.

So we bank our hope on IR and gambling, which will of course introduce vice and crime.

This is the result of the PAP led government that does not want to support and develop local talent to encourage them to be enterprising and innovative, because this government is just so insecure about its own power base.

Arthur

Established in April, Fisca is run by a 12-man committee of volunteers headed by former NTUC Income chief Tan Kin Lian. It operates independently of any financial institution to “maintain objectivity”, said its committee member, postgraduate Michael Zhan.

Source: My Paper

I paid $36 to support Tan Kin Lian’s Fisca, who is doing something for the small guys.

I no longer want to have anything to do with some other people who are more interested in lining their own pockets, instead of working for people.

Arthur

One of India’s most prominent businessmen, Narayana Murthy, has said the accountability of India’s political system must be improved for the country to move forward.   And he said Minister Mentor Lee is his hero.   “Singapore is a real example of a country that has transformed herself from a third world country to a first world country in my own lifetime. All in, an environment of peace and harmony in a multicultural world, thanks of course to a cadre of aspirational and value-based leadership which has indeed led by example,” said Mr Murthy.

Source: CNA

Mr Murthy believes the transparency and accountability of India’s political system must be improved for the country to move forward.  And these are some of the views detailed in his book titled “A Better India: A Better World“, which was launched by Minister Mentor Lee on Monday. 

I’ve not read this book so I do not know which aspects of Singapore’s (or Lee’s) transparency and accountability are prescribed by the author for the Indian political system.  I do hope readers take the reLEEvant contents with a strong dose of realism: read about what is happening in Singapore today (from the blogs, and not the press please!) before making any conclusions about Lee’s “aspirational and value-based leadership “.

Look for our future leaders not just among our scholastically successful Singaporeans; academic excellence does not equate with effective leadership. This quality might even disqualify a person from leadership.
Look for people with a good and stout heart, undying love for Singapore and his/her fellowmen, and a burning desire to serve even at huge personal sacrifice – people with compassion, fire in their belly, grit in their gut, and steel in their back.
Look for those who possess and exhibit the many other qualities of leadership.
A yen for scholarship (at government’s expense) alone is a poor prerequisite of leadership.

Source: Little Speck

We totally agree. The money is too good for our politicians currently, so most of them are choosing to close their eyes or look the other way, rather than serving the people and offending the boss.

Written by Arthur

No matter how rough the journey ahead of us may get, it can never stop the tripartite partners from staying united and pressing forward with our efforts to tackle the downturn.

Source; The Straits Times

Lim Swee Say needs to continue to talk in order to justify to his boss that he is doing work. But seriously, the Job Credit Scheme, which is really a wage subsidy for companies, puts workers under the control of their bosses, and does not directly help the worker. Who says the company cannot keep the wage subsidy and continue to slash salaries for its staff? Who comes up with this kind of “pro-worker” ideas?

If you want to help the workers, give them the subsidy directly.

Singapore has repeatedly revised down its forecast. Yet all our political leaders continue to hold on to their fat salaries and none has the conscience to say, “Look, I’ll cut my salary by 50% and give it back to the people”. The money is too good and no one wants to give that up. What happened to the supposed link between their pay and GDP?

So don’t tell me to “press forward”. Not coming from self-serving people without moral authority. I don’t want to listen and I don’t even want to spend time writing email to people like them.

We help ourselves. Don’t expect others to help

Tom Wright painted a bleak picture of Singapore’s property sector going forward at The Wall Street Journal. His article ended with the following:
“I’m yet to see the light at the end of the tunnel [for Singapore],” says Mr. Tan, the high-end broker.
We would expect people to continue to dig the dirt and tell it to [...]



Our skin isn’t as thick as it should be

The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) organised a seminar on March 4 to discuss Singapore’s political blogosphere.  Tan Tarn How, Senior Research Fellow and Research Assistant Tan Simin presented their paper on trends observed in the blogosphere.  As reported in the TOC, the researchers identified the following limitations:

The online-offline firewall, while somewhat alleviated by offline [...]



Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew – The answer to the African problem?

Recently, I followed a thread “Democracy and Economic Growth” which started in PoliticsForum.org.   Apparently, members there often question the role of democracy in a developing nation. “During the wave of democratization in Africa during the 90s, many people had renewed hope for the continent, immediately equating newly established democracies to economic growth. Are these democracies [...]



Tell Singapore government: Ask them a question or give a suggestion

We informed people about the “Tell Singapore Government” subsite and have received some interesting reaction at some forums.
See: 3in1 Kopitiam, Sam’s Alfresco Coffee, Singapore Kopitiam, SgForums
Our responses to some of the comments are listed below. If we are not answering some other specific questions, that is because we do not know how.
 

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