Rilek1Corner

Tag: nation building

  • Commentary: Leaders Are No Longer Chosen On The Basis Of Merit

    Commentary: Leaders Are No Longer Chosen On The Basis Of Merit

    The image of a ponding MRT on its submerged track is iconic and deep with prophetic tell-tale signs of the state we are in as a Nation.

    The admission of a culture of complacency in SMRT by its very CEO has served to expose the parasitic cancer eroding all that we have build as a Nation, when we abandoned what we used to champion, i.e., meritocracy.

    Leaders are no longer chosen on the basis of merit, required expertise and capabilities for the core functions demanded. Political interests to maintain control and power dictates who gets any top jobs. The best gets sidelined for not being correctly aligned politically. The mantra of the best man for the job no longer applies.

    A pervasive culture of silence exist deterring anyone to speak up for the truth which in today’s high salaried pseudo corporate top jobs potentially means foregoing that politically laced iron rice bowl. We are doing everything that the best management gurus warned against. Never to compromise separation of powers to ensure adequate checks and balances as well as non tolerance to conflict of interest situations.

    Now instead, an elitist tight clique safeguards their own vested interest as they run the faltering Singapore Inc. The reminder and caution of pitfalls when government do business is simply ignored. Lessons strangely don’t apply of gross abuse that always happen when the sacred lines on separation of powers that must never be crossed disappears.

    Emblematic of this chronic malaise is the blurring between who is checking who. We are shockingly reminded again of this sickness with the reply Minister Khaw gave to Low’s question in parliament. The information of how checks and balances are ensured between Ministry, Stat boards and Operators are vital and valid and must be clearly answered. Simply brushing aside such queries in parliament with pathetic line of we know what we are doing and can be trusted will not do anymore.

    Singaporeans must remember all these moments and there are surely plenty now to list. Government must never be allowed to get away with excuses instead of explaining why things fail and must take responsibility for their failures which clearly is the case with poor judgement on top executive choices. Poor decisions and bad judgments must have consequences.

    Ultimately, the root of the problem begins in government. This government has abandoned all the lofty ideals of governance that our founding fathers stood for and defended. The government has no checks and in truth we the People made it so. With no real accountability by the government to the people, the inevitable will happen. Remember this image when we next go to the polls and vote wisely.

     

    Source: Damanhuri Bin Abas

  • Is Singapore Truly Home?

    Is Singapore Truly Home?

    SINGAPORE, Feb 8 ­— The other day I was talking to a good friend of mine. Sitting with glasses of wine in an open, airy café next to Punggol Waterway with our husbands by our sides and a dog at our feet — it was idyllic. Yet, like so many others of my generation, we found ourselves bemoaning the state of Singapore.

    The complaints were the usual — some valid some not: an out-of-touch government, the daily rat race, the general rudeness.

    Like many of my peers, the friend in question is an intelligent, well-travelled middle class Singaporean. Educated at a local university but with experience working and studying abroad.

    Now with a foreign husband, she has returned to Singapore to build a life but is finding it hard to accept the daily frustrations of this city.

    On a recent visit back to her husband’s home in North America, the couple found themselves shocked at their own surprise when a barista at a café greeted them heartily, the person ahead of them in line insisted they go first while he pondered his order and another customer opened the door and wished them a good day on their way out.

    A neighbour, she says, had walked over and brought a basket of apples. It was easy. People were relaxed and life was better-paced.

    “I don’t want to keep living here, it’s a bubble and I want to live with space and less pressure,” she explained matter-of-factly.

    Later that evening, my husband who isn’t Singaporean as well (why do we all marry foreigners? But that is another question for another day) asked me what I thought of my friend’s desire to leave. He said, this is your only home, you have no other — why not work to change it?
    And I paused.

    Is Singapore our only home? My friend is of Chinese descent and I of Indian descent. Did we belong to this island more than an Asian American in North America? Was Singaporean an identity that existed outside of the country’s borders?

    If my friend and I had and raised children abroad entirely, would those children still be “Singaporean” simply because they had Singaporean mothers? Or was Singaporean an experience — one you could choose to walk away from in favour of another?
    With SG50 plastered everywhere, it has become blasphemous to suggest anything other than undying devotion to the Singaporean identity but this is increasingly hard.

    Singapore is a great city, it’s wealthy and filled with opportunities but it is a city. An economic experiment fuelled by the industry of immigrants – and as more and more immigrants stream in, this notion of indigenous people becomes harder to grasp.

    And it breaks my heart. I am Singaporean. What else can I be? It was with this very friend I celebrated Aug 9 years ago when we were both marooned in New York City — singing National Day songs we all know by heart.

    And though my state perpetually classifies me as “Indian,” I am confounded by India — it is incredible and interesting but it is so intrinsically foreign.  I suspect my friend has similar feelings about China and yet when someone asks why not stay, why not fight to change this country, it is hard not to suppress a shrug.

    Is it because Singaporeans just don’t care enough – that this place isn’t worth it? It would seem so; many people are not interested in changing Singapore because if you don’t like it you simply leave and many do.
    So who or what is to blame for this rootlessness?

    A lot of it has to do with the fact that this is a city-state — a unique entity in the modern world as neither Hong Kong nor Dubai are truly states. For the last few centuries, people have belonged basically to nations. They are Americans or Japanese or Thai. Cities are places you move to for opportunity and when a better opportunity arises you move somewhere else.

    I think that’s part of the dilemma and within this parameter, Singapore has done well in trying somehow to be both a city and a nation. But we’ve also got some things wrong. Somewhere along the way it seems our nation building efforts began to unravel.

    In my next column, I would like to explore why.

    * This is the personal opinion of the writers or organisation and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.

     

    Source: www.themalaymailonline.com