I congratulate Encik Masagos Zulkifli on his promotion. The issue of ‘one Muslim minister per cabinet’ has been brought up many times (i myself have talked to my MP about this), and credit where it is due, today there is change in this regard. I pray that he will be given strength and wisdom to discharge his responsibilities in the best of ways.
At the same time, i hope that our local newspapers will stop using phrases like ‘this marks the coming of age of Malay politicians’. Whether they realize it or not, such statements are really condescending.
For there to be true multi-racialism, formal progress (such as political appointments) must not be hampered by informal structures (such as ethnic stereotypes). Our media would do well to stop perpetuating – directly or indirectly – the myth of the lazy native and the ‘incompetent Malay’ stereotype.
Hopefully this is a start to greater things, and God-willing, one day we will even have a Minister of Defence or Finance who is Muslim.
While the Republic’s education system has cultivated students who are top performers in international exams, this could come at the expense of encouraging innovation. And teachers here must be less risk-averse, if Singapore wants an education system that creates innovators.
These were among the views expressed by various experts at an education conference yesterday, which was organised by the International Association for Scholastic Excellence. The conference was attended by about 1,000 delegates from all over the world, among them school leaders and educators.
Speaking to TODAY on the sidelines of the summit, Dr Tony Wagner, an expert-in-residence at Harvard University’s Innovation Lab, described Singapore’s education system as one rooted in a long history of “testing for meritocracy” and “testing for equality of opportunity”.
“The challenge for Singapore is to realise that the current testing and grading system is not going to develop young innovators; it’s only going to develop good test-takers,” said Dr Wagner, who was one of the summit’s featured speakers. It also encourages “bad behaviour”, where parents spend large sums of money on sending tuition classes for their children, while teachers have to prepare students for major examinations at a young age, he added.
Singapore could delay major tests for admission to institutions of higher education as well as change assessment methods to one that adopts essay-based exams, simulation and interviews, he suggested. For instance, Dr Wagner shared during his speech that he uses only three grades in his classes: A, B or incomplete. If students do not meet standards, they were graded incomplete, rather than given a fail grade.
Singaporean students have fared well in international assessments, most recently in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test in 2012, in which the 15-year-olds who sat for the test emerged tops when it came to problem-solving skills. Students here have also been ranked among the best performers in the areas of mathematics, science and reading literacy skills.
When an audience member pointed out that high-stakes tests are often used to gain admission to schools such as Harvard and Cambridge University, Dr Wagner suggested that parents forgo these options and consider schools such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which started inviting admission candidates to submit portfolios in place of taking tests.
Experts today also suggested that local teachers be trained differently. While educators here are among the most informed on the evidence of effective teaching and learning, they have also developed an aversion to risk-taking, said Mr Simon Breakspear, founder and chief executive officer of LearnLabs, an education consultancy.
“But the challenge in education…is to know how to make it work in our context, and this is where risk-taking is going to be required. There is a tendency here to do what’s worked before and not do anything that would be seen to be stepping out of the norm,” he said.
If educators are not regularly taking risks in designing teaching and learning, it will be difficult for Singapore to evolve into a system that creates innovators, he added.
Dr Stephen Murgatroyd, president of Murgatroyd Communications and Consulting, who also spoke at the conference, said the testing regime in Singapore has left some children behind.
“Unless you can afford the high cost of tutoring in addition to classroom work, you’re not going to make it to the university, college route… In the pursuit of meritocracy,…you’re actually losing a lot of talent,” he said.
Asked about Singapore’s SkillsFuture initiative, he also said he could not understand Singapore’s preoccupation with skills, and that the education system should focus on developing talent instead.
“Kids who start primary school this year will apply for jobs that don’t yet exist, so what skills do we need for these jobs that we don’t know anything about, we haven’t a clue. What are skills and competencies for all these unknown jobs? We have no idea,” he said.
Fiona Bartholomeusz has just celebrated her 15th year since founding Singapore independent creative agency Formul8, which also has an office in Dubai.In this guest post, Bartholomeusz offers 15 lessons from her 15 years running an agency in Singapore, from getting over rejection and the lack of loyalty in advertising, to dealing with sexism and cost-conscious clients.
#15. It’s a business first. It doesn’t matter how creative you are or how you’re going to revolutionise the ad world if you can’t run a proper business first. I get a kick out of reading about the next person who wants to create the next award-winning/multinational/experiential/mega network in Asia when they can’t even get it right in their own backyard first.
There’s no harm in dreaming big, but walk the talk first.
#14. There is no loyalty in this business. Get used to it and get over it. Clients and staff rarely remember what you’ve done for them, but for the rare ones who do, keep them close and well fed!
#13. This is a rejection-based business. Losing is tough but there will always be another client to be won, but do learn and grow stronger from it. I try never to enter a pitch half-arsed, so if we lose one, I tell my team, it’s the client’s loss not ours. If you don’t believe in your own product, then half the battle is already lost before you’ve even begun.
#12. Learn how to drink well, this applies to any gender in the business. Alcohol and client entertainment mixed with the inability to hold down your liquor is sheer disaster!
#11. It’s not always about work. I’ve made amazing friends out of some clients, and these are things you can’t put a price on.
#10. If you care more about money than the work, go do something else. You will pull in more hours and make less than what your peers in banking/law/medicine get paid so you’ll need to have an innate love for what advertising is. People who work solely to chase money or an acquisition, have lost the plot in my opinion.
#9. Hire people with integrity, not just those with talent. People with heart and a good head on their shoulders can be taught to be great at what they do. Talent often comes with a colossal ego that obstructs the ability to see or think straight. Seen too many in this business alas.
#8. Never start your job application letter with “I have an MBA from…..” – it doesn’t matter how schooled you are, that’s not a guarantee of success in this business. Street smarts, yes. School of life, hell yeah.
#7. Just because you’re Singaporean doesn’t mean I owe you a job. You’ll have to earn it. As a Singaporean myself, I’m appalled with the sense of self-entitlement I see coming from many of the Gen Ys. I do worry about the future here if people really don’t buck up and learn to be hungry and ambitious because the rest of Asia is catching up with us. It’s really not the time to be complacent.
#6. The industry is small. So don’t lie about what you have done, whose work it was, why you left the agency and don’t list someone as a referee if they are not going to give you a good referral. Duh…
#5. Sexism exists. Use it to your advantage. Some clients just prefer not to deal with a woman or only want to deal with a female specifically. I don’t care as long as we get the work and clients remain professional and above board. The ones who are initially tougher on females end up being far more respectful once they realise you know your stuff and can’t be browbeaten. Trust me, I’ve worked in the UAE for seven years. There’s enough tales to fill a book I tell you…
#4. Winning business because you’re the cheapest agency is a death knell for the agency and industry. “Free ET and proofing/three months waiver of retainer/free creative director on the account/free creative concepts” – I’ve heard it all. It’s myopic and you’re just propagating the notion that our work doesn’t have value in the communications food chain. Why aspire to be a sweatshop, there’ll always be a cheaper agency anyway.
#3. Get out of Singapore, being comfortable isn’t good. Fly the flag high as Singapore Inc. has value overseas. Now with so many tax incentives, why not? At the worst, it can be an offshoot base for the talent you can’t seem to hire here.
#2. Be shameless about wanting the business. Clients love the passion, energy and excitement an agency has because it’s infectious. What’s the worst that could happen? You lose the pitch because you’re just too damn happy to work on the account? Yup, that’s not going to happen anytime soon…
#1. It should always be fun. Work with people you like as you’ll be spending more time with them than your partners/family. S**t hits the fan all the time, it’s stressful, staffing issues will always drive you nuts, the hours do not make any sense whatsoever but if you wake up wishing it was a Saturday, then do something that fuels you again. Life is too short to be spent doing something you dread. I’m lucky to work with an amazing bunch of colleagues and clients and they’re the reason why I still love what I do after all these years. That and a healthy dose of masochism…
MR B. Jeyaprakash, a bus driver working for a government transport company in India’s Tamil Nadu state, has never been to Singapore and, until last month, had never heard of Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
But he was so moved by the outpouring of grief over the Singapore leader’s passing that he named his newborn son Jeyaprakash Lee Kuan Yew.
Mr Jeyaprakash, 37, lives in the town of Mannargudi, which has a population of 70,000.
Soon after Mr Lee’s death, placards with photographs of Mr Lee were put up across the town. On the day of his funeral in Singapore, more than 300 people from Mannargudi and nearby villages marched silently for 4km behind a wreath for Mr Lee. The procession stopped in the centre of town, where people bowed and prayed before a photo of Mr Lee.
The tribute moved Mr Jeyaprakash so deeply that he decided on the spot to name his son after Mr Lee. “I wasn’t planning to give him that name. I had gone to the bazaar to buy milk and saw this procession and memorial for Mr Lee. So I stopped and heard people talking about all the great things he had done for Singapore. There was so much respect for him,” said Mr Jeyaprakash.
“That was the first time I heard Lee Kuan Yew’s name. I didn’t even ask my wife, I just decided on the spot that my son should have an auspicious name. So I put Sir’s name in the hope that my son will do very well in life.”
His son was born at 1pm on March 23, the same day Mr Lee died.
In Tamil Nadu, parents sometimes name their children after international and historical figures, including Josef Stalin, Karl Marx, Nikita Khrushchev and Winston Churchill.
Mr M. Karunanidhi, leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party and former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, named his son M. K. Stalin.
Mr Jeyaprakash’s mother is unable to pronounce her grandson’s name. But his wife, Ms Bhagiyalakshmi, 27, has no such problems.
“It is the name of a great man and leader,” she said, smiling broadly. “Lee Kuan Yew!”
The baby, dressed in pink, sleeps peacefully in his mother’s arms as people talk around him. “He doesn’t cry that much and he is much easier to take care of than my daughter at the same age,” said Ms Bhagiyalakshmi.
Mr Jeyaprakash has been reading up on Mr Lee in the local Tamil newspapers.
He cut out a photo of Mr Lee from a newspaper and plans to hang it on a wall.
“If I have a photograph in the house, I can point to it and then tell people about my son’s name.”
He is also donating 10,000 rupees (S$220), nearly his month’s salary of 12,000 rupees, for a museum being planned in town for Mr Lee.
Still, the grandmother looks doubtful about being able to pronounce the name. “I just cannot pronounce the name. I call my son ‘thambi’, so I will call my grandson ‘thambi’ too,” she said. “Thambi” means “son” in Tamil.
But Mr Jeyaprakash has a solution for that: “I told her to call him ‘Mr Lee’ for now, and then we will see.”
NIRMALA GANAPATHY
BACKGROUND STORY
AUSPICIOUS NAME
I heard people talking about all the great things he had done for Singapore. There was so much respect for him… I didn’t even ask my wife, I just decided on the spot that my son should have an auspicious name.
– Mr Jeyaprakash, on naming his son Jeyaprakash Lee Kuan Yew, after the late Singapore leader
The controversial Prevention of Terrorism Act (Pota) Bill was finally passed after nearly 15 hours of debate with 79 votes for and 60 votes against in the Dewan Rakyat early this morning.
The anti-terrorism law faced considerable opposition and criticism for containing a detention without trial provision, similar to the repealed Internal Security Act (ISA) and came after police arrested 17 suspected militants.
Lawmakers said Parliament adjourned at 2.26am when the last motion to amend the Pota bill by Segambut MP Lim Lip Eng was defeated with 60 votes for and 79 votes against.
A subsequent motion to the refer the bill to the full house of the Parliament was passed 79 to 60 while a third reading of the proposed law was also passed 79 to 60.
The Dewan Rakyat had earlier stopped its clocks before midnight last night to enable the committee stage of the Pota debate to continue since noon yesterday.
The motion to stop the clock was tabled by the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim and seconded by the Works Deputy Minister Datuk Rosnah Shirlin.
Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Junaidi Tuanku Wan Jaafar said there were certain provisions in the Pota that differed from the ISA, including its executive powers and power of detention.
Putrajaya tabled the anti-terror bill last Monday, which empowered authorities to detain terrorist suspects without trial and disallowed judicial reviews on such decisions by a Prevention of Terrorism Board.
Under the proposed law, suspects can be first detained a maximum of 59 days (including the initial remand period), before being brought to the board, which can then order further detention of up to two years.
Following this, the detention period can be renewed if the board decides there are reasonable grounds. It can also direct a person to be set free if it deemed necessary.
The bill does not allow any judicial review in any court, noting that no court shall have jurisdiction over decisions by the board in its discretionary power.
Critics including Kuala Terengganu MP Datuk Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah Raja Ahmad and Kelana Jaya MP Wong Chen had raised concerns over the new law, saying that it was just a “reincarnation” of the ISA. – April 7, 2015.
