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The downside to zero tolerance

The Independent

October 23, 2013

By Augustine Low

Customers pay good money for good service. Does that mean there should be zero tolerance for anything gone wrong, even through unforeseen circumstance or honest mistake?

Take the recent SingTel fire which left customers without broadband, phone and pay TV services. The reaction was all too familiar – annoyance, then frustration and anger, followed by: I Want Compensation! And after compensation is announced: I Want More!

As Singapore grows more affluent, more mature, it is ironic that we could have a tendency to become more intolerant, more opportunistic. This leaves little room to take stock, to seek to understand rather than let the instinct of confronting and condemning kick in.

It’s interesting that corporations affected by the SingTel episode have reportedly said they are not seeking compensation. Perhaps they know what it’s like to be at the receiving end of an unforgiving public.

Of course, it cuts both ways. Corporations are also guilty of adopting a zero tolerance policy and turning a blind eye to reasonable customer requests. Inflexibility becomes the rule of thumb. But that’s another story, for another time.

I recall the parent (as told by a colleague) who marched to the principal’s office to kick up a big fuss, on discovering that the teacher had erred in deducting an additional mark off her daughter’s test paper.

I fear we are teaching our kids that every wrong, every mistake – no matter how small, how honest – must be punished. We may even go so far as to encourage milking a situation for what it’s worth, of exacting maximum mileage out of someone’s mistake or misfortune.

Earlier this year, McDonald’s held a Hello Kitty promotion which went awry. There was rampant queue jumping and when stocks ran out, tempers flared. Police had to be called in.

Contrast this to a video clip I saw two years ago but which remains etched in my mind. This was the aftermath of the Fukushima earthquake and tsunami when food supplies ran out and people had to queue for basic necessities at public distribution centres.

A Japanese man, after queuing for many hours, was told that there was nothing left for him. He bowed and walked off. No questions asked, no hue and cry.

He bowed, I think, to show his acceptance and understanding that people were doing their best under very trying conditions, and that no one was to blame.

Will we ever attain such a level of graciousness?

If we get all worked up over Hello Kitty, test paper and broadband service, how would we react on an empty stomach, in times of crisis?

Augustine Low is a communications strategist.

I love Geylang… and it has nothing to do with sex

The Independent

October 23, 2013

By Tang Li
I know it’s not politically correct to admit it … but I love Geylang, Singapore’s red-light district. Geylang stands out as an example of how to contain and control the worst in human kind into a workable system. What’s more remarkable about Geylang is the fact that it exists and flourishes in a country that once banned tourists with long hair.
Geylang owes its existence to Singapore’s founding Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew. In his biography, From Third World to First, Mr Lee stated quite clearly that trying to eradicate the business would be futile and it was better to have the business out in the open where the state could manage it. This has allowed Singapore to contain the vice trade in a manner that was best described by a friend as being “keeping the unclean things clean”.
What makes Geylang work? Well, for a start, it could be the fact that everyone in the system seems to know the basic rules. As long as the basic rules are maintained, everyone is allowed to do business as usual.
There is a police presence in Geylang. Visit the area on any given night and one will inevitably find a police van parked in one corner and one will also see a couple of policemen walking or driving around. Plainclothes policemen from the anti-vice department are also known to mingle around the area once in a while.
Whenever the police are there, the operators of illegal gambling tables and DVD salesmen make themselves scarce. The girls who normally ply their trade on the streets sit by the coffee shop until the police walk away.
The basic rule in Geylang is that disputes must be resolved without violence. Violence brings in the police and that’s bad for everyone’s business.
The second rule that’s kept Geylang going is the fact that prostitution is not illegal in Singapore. As long as a woman is of an age where she can provide consent, there’s nothing to stop her from working as a prostitute. Theoretically this means that prostitutes and those who deal with prostitutes are governed by the same laws as everyone else. Unlike the situation in many American cities, prostitutes are not placed in a situation where they are fearful of going to the law if they need to.
Other than these two facts, people are allowed to do what they want to do. While sex and gambling are the main pillars, Geylang is an entrepreneurial hive. The place is filled with small shops that support the needs of the residents.
Food stalls are prominent. Connoisseurs in search of hawker food can look forward to Geylang’s beef kway teow and bean curd.
Geylang is also filled with places where one can pick up good deals on computers and phones.
Those who visit Geylang are mainly foreigners. They need to stay in touch with friends and family back home. Shops to provide them with everything from phones, tablets, phone cards to cheap phone calls have sprung up.
What I have said here is just a teaser. Many more activities go on there. It deserves a deeper study that can include entrepreneurship, survival instincts, foodie haunts and, of course, how Singapore has managed to control the area with that famous light touch.

NGOs Part 3: PAP MP responds

The Independent

October 22, 2013

By Zach Isaiah Chiah

In our series, we looked at the work of non-government organisations from different angles. PAP MP Dr Chia Shi-Lu, who is involved in My Community which was responsible for getting the government to preserve three sites in Queenstown — Alexandra Hospital, Commonwealth Avenue Wet Market and Queenstown Public Library — talks to The Independent Singapore .
The success in preserving the three sites was due to an alignment of thinking from the beginning, said Dr Chia
He said the My Community group “had been very successful in helping to rationalise and crystallise ground support to the end”.
Dr Chia did not want to be drawn into commenting on whether some NGOs were more successful than others because there were too many factors involved. However, he said, it “depends on the readiness and inclination on both sides to engage and collaborate”.

Engagement and collaboration are dependent on communication and how the other party views the communication. “In the Singapore context a slightly more considered approach tends to work better, perhaps because when the noises are too loud it may affect credibility”.
“I would imagine that in Western societies brash approaches are more acceptable and perhaps even admired.”
When asked if there were any NGOs or interest groups that stood out as having successfully convinced the government to change its views, Dr Chia replied that many instances in healthcare and housing have been cited as cases where interest groups have been deemed to have exerted “some influence”, although the veracity of the claim is difficult to determine.
“It is probable that in many cases the thinking has been aligned from the beginning.”
What if the objectives differ?
In a previous article, it was noted that political considerations were an important factor. Where political risks loom, objectives begin to differ. John Gee, immediate past president of Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), argued that politically uncomfortable issues like transient workers found it harder to obtain support from the government.
Dr Chia agreed, “Often these are sensitive matters.”
He added that, when a cause was just, the government would engage on such matters but would take, “particular care with messaging and explaining the thinking behind any such move.” Dr Chia did not elaborate on what was a just cause.
One area where a just cause is probably apparent is charity.
“VWOs though do have a strong influence in shaping social policies, and indeed the relevant Ministries in Singapore actively and frequently seek their input.”
Dr Chia said “a wise government is governed by the people for the people”. It is for this reason that, “public sentiment and sensibilities should always be a key consideration in policy making.”
In his view, much progress has been made regarding government working with NGOs and interest groups, although more can be done. To NGOs and interest groups, he has the following to say, “open all channels of communication, remain open [and stay] collaborative.”
Just as Terence Chong of the Singapore Heritage Society was positive about working with the government, Dr Chia too is optimistic about the present, “the climate is certainly encouraging”.
NGOs: Why some succeed, some don’t
NGO-government relations: The art of the possible

Smiles betray young entrepreneurs' trials and tears

The Independent

October 22, 2013

By Shaun Poon
They had an idea, got funding from government…but then there were other obstacles. They want to do something on their own but at the time have this sense of duty to their parents.
The recent highlighting of hate-reading and envy online has thrown the spotlight on the negative aspects of social networks like Facebook. Scott Ng, 26 and Eve Law, 23, are two app developers with an idea to improve social networking by instead encouraging people to look forward through desires which hopefully lead to physical meetings and fulfilment.
Eve and Scott left their jobs in UBS and EarlyBridge (a boutique consultancy) respectively to start their own company and develop FlashWants, a social networking service that they work on 15 hours a day, seven days a week. They have one other partner, a childhood friend of Eve’s. While each one is living off $400 of their savings a month, their decision to quit promising careers worries their parents.
“It’s not easy because the older generation always thinks you need to graduate, you need to find a job, and stuff like that. That kind of pressure is something is that we have learnt to face,” says Scott. “Especially for typical Asian parents,” adds Eve.
For Scott, there is a sense of duty to support his parents as the child who showed the most capability. His parents run a business in the shrinking textile trade at People’s Park. The couple’s tear ducts betray them as the conversation turns to how their parents support them.
“What’s more, as a son I feel that I need to give my parents a comfortable life,” Scott blurts through an audibly cracking voice. “There are two things to balance. On one hand, it’s a responsibility as a son. On the other hand, it’s about pursuing something that you really want to do. It’s difficult,” he says haltingly, struggling to keep his voice composed.

Scott and Eve in their office space provided by SMU's Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship — Scott and Eve in their office space provided by SMU’s Institute of Innovation & Entrepreneurship

When he’s more composed, he tells me that the takeaway prawn noodles sitting conspicuously on the otherwise spartan cubicle table are bought by his parents who often buy breakfast and dinner for them. “They do buy me breakfast every day, for which I am really grateful,” he says. “It saves a lot of money,” Eve adds.
Coming from a big family of four children, Scott lived mostly with his nanny from infancy till nursery age. “My parents wanted me to be independent… but on the other hand they are a very traditional and strict family, they are always setting parameters,” he mentions. He took public transport alone from primary three, and was the only child in the family to enter a university.
“They put a lot of hopes on me, inevitably it puts a lot of stress, I feel like I have a responsibility to help out with the family, as the one supposed to be most educated and with a proper job,” Scott says.
Eve’s parents help the venture by recommending the app to their hair salon’s customers, gathering feedback from them and arranging for Eve’s sister to help out every now and then. “On and off my mom would ask me if I had enough money, and she would try to get some funding, but I would not accept,” Eve says.
In contrast to Scott, Eve says that she has “the hip parents”, with the small age gap helping her parents to relate to her. “My parents really trust me with the choices I make. Since young my mother kept telling me ‘I will give you the freedom to make choices but you have to make the right choices, or in future you won’t have the freedom’,” she recalls.
From a young age, Eve’s parents have largely allowed her run her own life, such as organising a class chalet without parental supervision when in primary six and allowing her to stay in school late into the night for preparations and rehearsals for her stage performances for Chinese Drama. “They’ve been very supportive of whatever things I want to do,” she adds.
“A big influence on me from young was my dad. When I was a child, we would sit around the kitchen table with a drawing block and he would start teaching me step-by-step,” she explains. “That helped me love art,” she adds. Her fondness for art continued into primary school where she would enter art competitions with childhood friend Lee Xiang Rui, who is also the third collaborator in their company. She was also passionate about acting and Chinese drama in secondary school and junior college.
Eve says that her father had initially wanted her to go into the finance sector, which is why she went into her Economics programme in Singapore Management University. It was during an entrepreneurship module that she met Scott.
Pulling through the initial shock from friends and family, Scott and Eve are determined to launch their app for Apple mobile devices soon. “We decided to take a leap of faith…the next moment Google might be doing something that is in your space,” Eve explains.
For the moment, they lead lives of prudence. Their most recent extravagance: $10 set meals from Japanese restaurant Itacho, bought a week ago. The company recently received $20,000, part of a $50,000 grant from the Action Community for Entrepreneurship. “It isn’t a lot, because we have to build the prototype and we have to feed ourselves,” Eve says.
Although they are not drawing the high salary that each one had at their previous jobs, Scott brushes this off as “life (now is) even better”. “Our parents are thrifty people, who didn’t spend on luxury or branded goods, so to us, we are living fine,” Eve adds.
However, Eve and Scott have not used their grant money to reimburse themselves for the development and company incorporation expenses. Eve says: “The bank has this minimum..” and Scott finishes: “balance that you have to maintain, which is annoying.”. They need a substantial amount in the account to avoid a minimum balance fee, while still holding enough to fund future marketing plans.
The couple intend to get married, but are wary of the costs and challenges in running a startup. They say that they have put the rest of their lives on hold by about three to five years, and given up the comfortable life of a stable job. “For us we wanted to start (a family) early,” Scott relates.
Their advice to other young trailblazers: think clearly about how you want to change things or improves people’s lives, and ask yourself whether you have the tenacity to forego some of the things you have, then go ahead. “Because we are at these stages of our life where we have no commitment, this is the best time for us to try out,” Eve says.

FlashWants

FlashWants is a free app to broadcast your wants and make them happen, now available for iOS devices only, to launch late October this year. FlashWants is niche in its approach of connecting people, by being focused on wants. Every time you have a Want, you can broadcast it out to your friends through FlashWants. It allows you to choose a tempting photo from a community-curated imagebank that best describes your Wants. FlashWants helps you to learn about a hidden side of your friends and feel connected when your friends say “I want it too!”, and also sense the jealousy when you satisfy your Want. The more you talk about your Want, the more likely it is to happen.

Media watches everybody, but who watches media?

The Independent

October 22, 2013

By Abhijit Nag
These are exciting times for American journalism. Jeff Bezos the Amazon man bought the Washington Post for US$250 million in August and wrote in a letter to the staff: “The paper’s duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners. We will continue to follow the truth wherever it leads, and we’ll work hard not to make mistakes.”
Now Pierre Omidyar the eBay founder is about to launch an investigative journalism website with Glenn Greenwald, the reporter who got the scoop from former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden about American and British domestic spying.
Something big happened in the Singapore media too. Singapore Press Holdings’ net profit attributable to shareholders shot up by $209 million and then dropped by 143.8 million. Did you notice that?
The Straits Times reported on October 12 that SPH net profit for the 2013 financial year ended August 31 fell by 25 per cent to $431 million, “mainly due to the adoption of a different accounting policy”. The report added: “With the establishment of the SPH Reit, the group changed its accounting policy for investment properties from cost to a fair-value basis.
“As a result, SPH posted a fair-value gain of $111.4 million from its investment properties for the year ended August 31, down 43.9 per cent from the year before.”
Put simply, SPH restated the account for the financial year 2012 after listing its property arm, SPH Reit, on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) mainboard.
If you check the SPH annual report for 2012, you will see the net profit attributable to shareholders was $365.5 million, 5.9 per cent lower than the previous financial year.
But using the new accounting policy, SPH restated the 2012 net profit attributable to shareholders as $574.7 million, a $209 million jump from the original figure.
Since the 2013 net profit attributable to shareholders is $431 million, it’s a 25 per cent drop from the revised 2012 figure. Got it?
The news was reported by other local media like any other story, as if such $200 million account restatements happened every day.
SPH net profits attributable to shareholders have been restated before, but not on such a scale in recent years.
This correspondent is not questioning the figures. But while the media here reports the news, who is keeping an eye on the media? Apart from the government, that is?
There are no websites here like Romanesko and Mediagazer which cover British and American media. The government-owned MediaCorp is pretty much a closed book, answerable to no shareholders, and SPH is raking in a fortune, thank you. It’s more profitable than SIA. On $15 billion in revenue, SIA reported a net profit of $379 million in 2012-13.
SPH on the other hand reported a net profit of $431 million on an operating revenue of just $1.2 billion.
Cash cows seldom come fatter than this.

SPH net profits 2000-2013. Source: SPH group financial highlights. 2012 figure restated; originally $365.5 million

This is not envy speaking. No newspaper covers Singapore in greater detail than The Straits Times. And it costs just 90 cents except on Saturdays, when it may run to more than 200 pages for a dollar.
Jeff Bezos, who bought the Washington Post, said printed newspapers might become a luxury item some day.
That’s not likely to happen here any time soon, considering the profits still being made. Not that the cash cow isn’t getting leaner. The SPH press release for the financial year 2013 says: “Revenue for the Newspaper and Magazine business fell $40 million (3.9 per cent ) to $991.2 million. This was attributable to declines in advertisement revenue ($31.7 million or 4 per cent) and circulation revenue ($7.2 million or 3.6 per cent). “
MediaCorp has also seen profits fall. Today reports: “MediaCorp has posted a 42.1 per cent decline in operating profit for the year ended March, partly because of a weak advertising market and investments in new product lines. Operating profit fell to $25.7 million from $44.4 million a year earlier. Group revenue fell 1.3 per cent to S$621.3 million.Net profit before tax was $55.7 million, including a gain on disposal of investment of $28.6 million.”
The cash cows – for that’s what both are – are eyeing new pastures. SPH will be setting up a $100 million New Media Fund and has engaged a strategy consultant to find new wheezes to make money and cut costs. That’s something to look forward to as long as there are no staff cuts at such a profitable company.

One solution to HDB crunch

The Independent

October 21, 2013

By Vignesh Louis Naidu
Should people be allowed to rent out their HDB flats? They were meant to be their homes, not units to let.
The Housing and Development Board (HDB) was established in 1960 to provide low-cost housing for the masses and solve Singapore’s housing shortage. In 1964 the home ownership scheme was launched to give Singaporeans the opportunity to own an asset in their country. Today the HDB has evolved. It does not simply provide low-cost housing but also aims to cater to the aspirational desires of a more affluent population. Along the way, however, people have put their flats to other uses.
A quick search of rental HDB properties in propertyguru.com yields over 20,000 results. These results would obviously include HDB shophouses and individual rooms available for rent. However, there is a very large number of complete HDB units available for rent.
Why are there so many privately-owned units available for rent?
Allowing owners to rent out complete units transforms these apartments from homes to investment vehicles. This would certainly have an effect on sale prices. Sellers would factor in the potential rental yield into their asking price.
Preventing HDB flats from being rented out is not feasible. There needs to exist a pool of HDB flats over and above the low-cost rental units offered directly from the HDB. Rental units are needed by foreigners coming here to work, families who are in between homes and those still saving up to purchase one.
If the rental market is driven by private investors and homeowners, what is the implication on sale prices? The prices of new flat prices are not only determined by the construction cost but also affected by the prices of resale flats within the estate. Resale prices have in recent years shot up, leading to discontent and unhappiness in certain segments of society. The government has implemented various cooling measures to lower the prices of resale flats while increasing the number of new launches to meet the high demand.
When we allow a person to turn a subsidized home into an investment vehicle, we may be losing sight of our founding leaders’ noble motivation, to ensure that all Singaporeans could afford their own home.
In my opinion, only the HDB, should be allowed to rent out HDB flats. A family which no longer wishes to live in its HDB flat could try to sell it on the open market. If the flat remains unsold after a certain time, the HDB would offer to buy it back at its valuation price. The HDB could then keep the flat within its existing pool and rent it out.
The HDB should also construct more rental flats. Instead of providing only low-cost and two-room flats, it should also offer three-, four- and five-room flats for rent.
My proposal does not take into account the subletting of rooms within a flat, which would require a more nuanced approach.
Singaporeans should be able to earn an income from property investments but these investments should not be subsidized HDB flats. The HDB was created to provide affordable quality housing and this aim should not be forgotten.
Vignesh Louis is a young and passionate Singaporean who recently completed the Master of Public Policy course at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

What was PM trying to get at?

The Independent

October 21, 2013

By Abhijit Nag
The Prime Minister’s cautionary words at the official opening of UTown are worth debating. Singapore is committed to expanding the number of university places from 27 per cent of each cohort currently to 40 per cent by 2020. So far so good, but what next? As PM Lee said “Other countries have found that having large proportions of students going to university does not necessarily guarantee happy outcomes.”
He pointed out unemployment was higher among university graduates than among vocational high school graduates in South Korea, where more than 70 per cent of each cohort goes to university. Universities must impart skills that lead to good jobs, he said.
PM Lee could be echoing his father who spoke against “overcrowding” in universities. Accepting an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws at the University of Hong Kong in February 1970, Mr Lee Kuan Yew said: “Against the prevailing drift to gross overcrowding of universities in the new countries with ever lowering pass levels, I was cheered to find that the University of Hong Kong has under 3,000 students and the University of Singapore 4,500.”
Now one in four Singaporeans is going to university. What a change since then. The growing army of university graduates has not pushed up unemployment, which is still an enviably low 2.1 per cent, but will there come a time when there are more graduates than jobs? The possibility must have crossed the PM’s mind, or he would not have cautioned against that.
Singapore is better educated today but faces more problems as well. Support for the PAP plunged to a post-independence low in the May 2011 general election. That may be due to other reasons, but look at the coincidence.
Singaporeans have become more questioning, more critical of the authorities, it is said. Maybe that is because education is supposed to foster the spirit of inquiry, make you ask questions.
Knowledge is power, it is said, but it can also lead to trouble. Remember what the Bible says: God told Adam not to eat from “the tree of knowledge of good and evil”, but Eve was tempted to share the fruit with him, and they were banished from the Garden of Eden.
Not all knowledge is regarded as good. Thus we have the story of Dr Faustus, a scholar who makes a pact with the devil and learns black magic, and has to pay dearly for it when he is consigned to hell.
There are still restrictions on what we are allowed to read and learn. There are banned books, official secrets, classified information.
Not all the restrictions are misplaced. Iran and North Korea face sanctions for nuclear programmes because of the hazards they pose. WikiLeaks sparked a crisis by releasing secret US diplomatic cables after publicizing Afghan war documents that were said to endanger people’s lives.
Knowledge is not all sweetness and light. It can be both creative and destructive.
Marx may or may not have been right, but there can be no denying the upheavals he caused. Millions died under Stalin and Mao and then there were all those conflicts during the Cold War. Inspired by the Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman, Margaret Thatcher launched an economic revolution that socially devastated Britain, The Guardian commented when she died in April. The 2009 recession was blamed among other things on financial derivatives called credit default swaps (CDS), that built up the housing bubble.
Of course, there is no denying the miracles of science and technology. But isn’t it a shame that the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer? Technology can turn the world into a global village, but cannot narrow the gap between the rich and the poor?
Impossible! What’s impossible today is just waiting to be done tomorrow. That’s the best thing about science, education and technology. You can always expect something new.

Winners and losers in Umno polls

The Independent

October 20, 2013

By The Malaysian Insider
The Umno elections are over, and here are the winners and losers.
Winners

Datuk Seri Najib Razak

He wanted the status quo and he got it. He may be the butt of jokes in urban Malaysia for staying silent on all important issues in the country and for believing that all problems can be solved by tossing money around but in Umno, the man is in a strong position.
All his men – Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal and Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein – were elected as vice-presidents yesterday. Also protecting his flank are Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin and Wanita Umno leader Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil.
Even if Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad goes on a rampage against Najib, it is going to be just noise because the former prime minister will not have a power broker in a senior position in Umno to shake Najib.
Najib is in a much stronger position in his party than he was just after the May 5 general election. But will he do anything with this mandate or will he remain Mr Anonymous?

Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi

If as expected Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin does not contest the next general election, guess who is in running to become the deputy prime minister of Malaysia.
Not bad for someone who was detained under the Internal Security Act in 1998; who until a couple of years ago was staring at political oblivion, the price for being a close associate of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Not bad for someone without the gravitas or the intellectual heft of some of Malaysia’s former DPMs, heavyweights such as Tun Dr Ismail Abdul Rahman and Tun Musa Hitam.
But who are we to say anything? Umno absolutely loves his fighting talk and right-wing rhetoric.

Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein

Remember that classmate of yours who did not do much throughout the year, crammed for the last month and somehow managed to pass the SPM? Remember him following the same path for STPM and scraping through?
Now think of Hishammuddin Hussein. He did not perform well as Education Minister and only snared a slot as the vice-president in the last party polls, thanks to the last-minute intervention of his cousin, Najib.
This time around, he needed the whole cavalry to take him over the finish line. Even Shahrizat mobilised Wanita Umno to help the man who put in a poor, poor shift as the home minister.
On his own, he would have been an also-ran.

Khairy Jamaluddin

He retained his position as the Umno Youth chief so comfortably and has positioned himself as the reformer in the party (it is just branding because in Umno a reformer is someone who says he is a reformer. Walking the talk is optional).
With Datuk Mukhriz Mahathir out of the picture and Dr Mahathir’s ability to influence Umno on the wane, expect Khairy to take a higher profile in the party.
Also expect him to contest the vice-presidency at the next party polls. Not a bad few months for someone once best known as the son-in-law of Tun Abdullah Badawi.
Losers

Malaysia

Is this the best the ruling party can offer Malaysians? Yes. This is the Umno dream team: Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Shafie Apdal, Hishammuddin Hussein. One of these chaps could end up as the prime minister.
There is Zahid who till today has been unable to answer allegations of cronyism raised against him by Dr Mahathir in 1998 or still has that case of allegedly assaulting his daughter’s friend hanging over him.
And sandwiched in between is a litany of statements bordering on chauvinistic, seditious or just plain ridiculous.
Shafie is the colourless, under-performer from Sabah while Hishammuddin is best known for waving the keris during the Umno assembly in 2006 and watching crime become a serious problem on his tour of duty as the home minister.
But this is the best Umno can offer. A bit like the Malaysian football team: a pale shadow of the great teams of Arumugam, Soh Chin Aun and Mokhtar Dahari.

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad

The former prime minister still has some pull in Umno but is not nearly as influential as what his bloggers and supporters and family would like to believe. Without the Mahathir surname and intense campaigning by his father, Mukhriz would have been thrashed.
Still, few people remember losers, or the margin of defeat. In Umno, it is even more cruel. Few have time for losers. Party members only respect power and gravitate to those with the scent of power.
For Dr Mahathir, this is the second consecutive election that he has been unable to make his presence count for the candidate of his choice. In GE13, despite campaigning for Ibrahim Ali and Zulkifli Nordin both were defeated by candidates from PAS in Pasir Mas and Shah Alam respectively.

Datuk Seri Mohd Ali Rustam

The man played the race card to the hilt and painted himself as a victim of the Chinese tsunami but he performed worse than expected. He was quietly confident of even snatching the third vice-president’s slot. So why did he perform so badly?
The electoral college may have been extended but the real power brokers are the 191 division chiefs. It is they who set the voting pattern for their delegates and, truth be told, the majority of them did not want to antagonise Najib who had already indicated that he wanted the status quo retained.
(From The Malaysian Insider)

Going cross court with a ‘spirited’ tennis guru

The Independent

October 20, 2013

By P Francis
Born in Perak, Malaya, he was the son of an immigrant from Fujian Province, China, and his mother was a Peranakan from Malacca. Dr Desmond Oon has represented both Malaysia and Singapore – since he became a Singapore citizen – in tennis. He developed his game as a student in Australia. Now a permanent resident in the US, he is courting the tennis fraternity from Redondo Beach, California, with his ‘spiritual’ tennis. He has written four books on it – ‘Soft Tennis’; ‘Can Eastern Wisdom Improve Your Tennis? You Bet’; ‘Eastern Wisdom, Business Mind’; and his latest is ‘Conversation with a Zen Tennis Master’.
In 2002, Oon founded the Centre For Mind Body Tennis (CMBT) in Redondo Beach to help players reach their full potential. CMBT applies the wisdom of the East to tennis, especially zen and tao. This tennis guru is a Master Professional, tester and honorary life member of the United States Professional Tennis Association and was the first Asian tennis personality to have been given this rare honour to join the ranks of Billie Jean King, Rod Laver, Fred Perry, Stan Smith, Chuck Norris, Tony Trabert, Jack Kramer and Harry Hopman.
He become a professional in 1960 before going on to represent Malaysia and Singapore between 1963 and 1968. He was vice-president of The International Soft Tennis Federation – the controlling body of soft tennis worldwide, as well as a former Davis Cup coach, including for Singapore.
Armed with a sports science/physical education diploma from the University of Adelaide in Australia, a master’s degree from the University of Oregon in the US and a Ph.D. from the University of Queensland, also in Australia, Oon has been a motivational speaker for 20 years.
In Singapore, he held senior research, information and management positions in the National Sports Promotion Board and Singapore Sports Council (SSC) 1972-1997. Having worked with Oon at the SSC in the late 1970s (I met him again in Melbourne in 2010), I have personally seen him behind the scenes diligently working and writing speeches for politicians. Beneath his stern exterior is a man with a heart. He coached and worked for the Singapore Tennis Coaches Association (STECA) in a voluntary capacity after founding it in 1977 and serving as president for several years.
Q: When and where did you first hold a tennis racket and what were the circumstances that lead to it?
A: In 1950, several years after the end of WWII in a small town Telok Anson, in Perak. Malaya. Some British civil servants were playing on the only tennis court in town. I was one of the ball boys earning a pittance. But we were given opportunities to hit around with old rackets. That was a blessing.
Q: Who coached you and was there some sort of junior programme?
A: Coaching was non-existent. Nobody volunteered to help. There was no tennis association to get a junior programme going. I was self-taught. I had a Tony Mottram book published in the 1940s. I learnt everything from that instruction book. Mottram was British and a big name at that time. This book is still in my tennis library…believe it or not.
Q:. When did your tennis really kick off?
A: In 1959, I would say. That year I enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of Adelaide. During the summer months, I had lessons from prominent Adelaide coach, John Dicker. He was an insightful coach and I credit him for launching mytennis career. In 1962/63, I was good enough to represent North Adelaide in district competition at the Memorial Drive courts. I was the first Asian playing at that level…above A grade.
Q: What happened to your tennis after your graduation from the uni?
A: I returned to Malaysia and was good enough to be selected to represent that country in international tournaments.
Q: But you also represented Singapore in the SEAP Games and other international competitions in the 1960s. How come?
A: Politics changed all that. In 1965, Singapore became a Republic and I became a Singapore citizen, earning the right to represent my adopted country. I had to renounce my Malaysian citizenship. That was the price I had to pay.
Q: You played extensively in Australia and Asia throughout the 60s when Australia ruled the tennis world. Who were the top players you competed against?
A: Players like John Newcombe, Tony Roche, Alan Stone, Colin Stubs and Ray Ruffles. In Asia, I’d competed against the legendary Indian player Ramanathan Krishnan and most of the top Asian players. I also played against Bjorn Borg (Sweden) and Tom Okker (Holland) in exhibition matches.
Q: In the 70s and 80s, you were a prominent tennis official in Singapore, serving as vice-president, president, Davis Cup captain and national coach. What was your vision for Singapore tennis then?
A: I had wanted to achieve excellence for Singapore tennis. I launched the Excellence Initiative for developing top juniors, the Team Tennis competition, and the national tennis coaches certification programme. I founded the Singapore Tennis Coaches Association to further the cause of teachers and trainers…with the aim that all these grass-root programmes will dovetail and result in a strong tennis culture.
Q: What has happened to these programmes? Have any of them succeeded?
A: To be honest, I don’t know the state and status of Singapore tennis today, as I’ve been away from the country for close to 20 years now. I can only guess it is healthy and the on-going tennis development is in the hands of forward-looking leaders.
Q: So it seems you have no contact whatsoever with the present tennis leadership. If you get an invite to return to Singapore and help out with ideas for the further development of the game, would you accept?
A: Of course, I would be pleased to help out in any way I can. I’m foremost a loyal Singapore citizen. Working in the US has not eroded my loyalty one bit or my love for my country.
Q: Then why did you leave Singapore for California? You studied sport science in Australian universities and earned your doctorate at the University of Queensland. Why did you choose the US over Australia?
A: I would have loved to work in Australia but, 20 years ago, there were few opportunities for me to function as a performance psychologist. Opportunities abounded in the US…especially California – the hotbed of American tennis.
P. Francis is an English tutor in Melbourne, who has more than 20 years’ journalism experience with newspapers, books and magazines in Singapore and Australia.

Are native Singaporeans a dying breed?

Tang Li

October 19, 2013

A few of my friends started shaking their heads when they found out I had resumed a relationship with an old girlfriend. The reason? She is from Vietnam and her education is minimal. The most common reaction was – “Oh be careful, women from Vietnam just want your money.”

By comparison, everyone was very happy when I started the relationship before that – this girl was “acceptable” to Singapore society. She was from Raffles Girls’ School and had a degree in architecture. She played the piano and I remember my sister telling a family friend, “This one knows who Glenn Gould is.”

However, whenever I look at these two relationships, I tend to ask a different question – “Are native-born Singaporeans a dying breed?” My native -born ex-girlfriend has superb academic qualifications but lacks life skills. She can only mix with Caucasians or Singaporeans from a similar social background. Life seemed to fall apart the moment she quit her job. By contrast, the Vietnamese lady is confident with people from all social backgrounds and she’s full of ideas of how one can make a better living.

Unfortunately, the difference between these two ladies doesn’t seem to be limited to them. This personal comparison seems to be also true on the national scale.

Let’s start with surfing websites in Singapore — you’d get the impression that Singapore is a desperate backwater where subsistence farming is the economic activity of the chosen few. This is despite the fact that Singapore has consistently posted years of economic growth with low rates of unemployment. As far as many Singaporeans are concerned, the government has let in too many foreigners, thus making everything from housing to transport more expensive but increasing competition for jobs, thus lowering wages for Singaporeans, including professional, executive and middle class ones.

It’s a fact that housing in Singapore has become more expensive. In 2012, Singapore’s Business Times found that an HDB flat in Bedok cost more than a 12-acre pine island in Maine, USA. Other forms of infrastructure are also seeing similar strains.

The lost PMETs

The professional, managerial, executive and technical (PMET) group in particular seems lost. I’ve known enough retrenched professionals who seem unable to do things differently once they lose that job in either the civil service or a multi-national corporation.

While the influx of foreigners does have an impact on resources, these problems are not unique to Singapore. The global economy has been undergoing changes and given Singapore’s dependence on the rest of the world, it’s no surprise that Singapore’s economy has been affected.

What is interesting here is not the structural shifts but in the reactions to them. If you read the reactions in cyberspace, you’ll get the impression that Singaporeans are looking for a “government-led” solution.

One of the most prominent examples that comes to mind is a former Citibank sales manager whom I know. The man has a way of making people feel at ease and getting them to do things for him. When I first met him in 1999, he could pull $300,000 worth of unit trust sales in a single day. Unfortunately, he lost his job two-years later and he has remained unemployed since.

What’s striking is not the fact that he’s retrenched, but his reaction to it. His financial situation is such that not only does he need his friends to pick up the tab whenever he goes out, but he’ll need his bus card topped up. Despite this, he is unable to look for another source of income. He won’t take freelance work, including giving tuition. He won’t take a “humble job” like waiting tables, even if it would qualify him for workfare and other government assistance. He describes such activities as being “not worth it”.

Sadly, he isn’t the only one who thinks like this. Talk to enough Singaporeans about taking “low-paid” work and the common reaction is, “The pay is too low for us to survive and support our families. It’s OK for foreigners to take these jobs.” This sentiment is unfortunately illogical and worrying.

I see things differently because I’ve been a freelancer most of my professional life. However, it is worrying when you see people dependent on a single organisation for their economic and psychological well-being. It’s frightening when you see people react to a setback by doing nothing at all.

Back to my Vietnamese lady. Vietnam threw off French colonial rule and beat back both America and China after that. How did they do it? Much has been said of these wars but the point is, these people found a way of making their ‘home-ground’ advantage work for them, despite being physically pulverised by two of the biggest powers in the world. By comparison when you read the comments in cyberspace, Singaporeans have found reasons why they can’t win on their home ground.

Singaporeans do have advantages in terms of their education in English and they do have advantages when it comes to dealing with the international business community. However, the “other” Asians are catching up in this area and when all things become equal, our psychological inability to adapt to changing circumstances will ensure that we are a dying breed.