Move Over - Make Way For "Progress"

Wilde's Wry Wit
I shall leave you with this: "To be good is to be in harmony with oneself. Discord is when one is forced to be in harmony with others."

I cannot agree better after living with so many weirdoes the past couple of months and I am continuing to live with weirdoes right up till today.

Possibly My Last Blog
I think I have had about enough of blogging my thoughts here. I can't be forever here, watching the world and Singapore pass me by. I, like the rest of the emigrants, who have found this place wanting in many respects, will have to move on....hopefully to greener pastures.

All I can say to the people here is this: You make this place so shall you live and die by it too - for better or worse, for the moment or forever.

My Last Word On The Foreign Talent Debate
I have to state again, very categorically, that I do not begrudge any foreign talent on our shores his/her rightful place. But let us be very sure it is indeed a "talent".

Speaking for myself, if I emigrate (and this thought has besotted me many times recently) and if the lifestyle, culture and everything afford me the things I wanna pursue and I am madly enough in love with it, I see no reason why I shouldn't be embracing citizenship with my heart and soul. Why would I look over my shoulder unless of course the biblical "do not look back warning ala the destruction of Sodom and Gnorrhea" didn't sink into my head. Which can't say very much about me, can it? Didn't I turn into a pillar of salt after that?

This is my commitment to the country. Period. I can't speak the same for "dual/triple citizenries" or "permanent residents" though.

Just Own Up And Do The Right Thing, MOE
First you read about it in my earlier blogs. PSS, MOE registers commercial schools which confers some kinda authenticity and legitimacy to these schools while CASETRUST (Consumers Association of Singapore) takes over the accreditation, which in effect means that "private" education has been subordinated to a "consumerism" role. Imagine, the larger social good and objective of a holistic, meaningful education must surely be abrogated when Adam Smith's capitalism must surely be on entrepreneurs' minds. And who are we entrusting education to in the "commercial" realm? Ex-CEOs or ex-production floor workers?

If we were to have a commercial school system that shadows the mainstream one, wouldn't it make sense to abolish the former and incorporate its merits into the latter. Parents can be told that the money they spent on commercial schools can now be better spent on public schools viz enrichment programs or some complementary programs of sort. Better still, raise the fees a little and make the commercial schools into one with the public schools.

Now, special education schools (which is the education of the intellectually disabled and not education of the intellectually gifted as it is also commonly known in other parts of the world ) is canvassing for it to be under the ambit of MOE which all the time it has been languishing under the wings of NCSS .

MOE only does a perfunctory educational audit but NCSS does a thorough financial audit with a net effect that special education schools are run like charity organisations with no proper educational structure or curriculum. Not to speak of ever dreaming to assimiliate with mainstream schools, the latter being important for ultimate societal integration especially for mildly intellectual dysfunctional cases.

If the two scenarios are not redolent of the same staid air of shirking one's educational responsibility, public and social good, rats can't stink any more than civet cats do.

James Gomez' "Self Censorship And Singapore's Shame"
James Gomez does a superbly well-surveyed and precise critique of the political scene here.

Yes indeed it is to Singapore's shame if we can't express our views or even hold a different opinion from any incumbent's . I can't blame people like James Gomez or Steve Chia who deem the opposition's case as a lost cause in politically apathetic Singapore. James has left Singapore for Sweden where he works and Steve has, after his disappointing showing in the GE results, decided to quit politics.

James has not only put in perspective how the political climate has evolved but he has also given very concrete examples of the self-pertuating mechanism that advantages the dominant political party .

Mechanisms like a lethal cocktail of a climate of fear, economics and ethnicity. In his last chapter, he has even set out an agenda for action, which led him to run for the May 2006 General Elections on Worker's Party ticket.

It Is High Time For An OmbudsMan
James speaks my mind exactly when he suggested this. But I am thinking of the people, not politically affiliated, but who are impacted by socio-economic policies. Economic policies which seem to preclude some non-partisans who just simply wanna get on with setting up a small business for example. When one examines the corporate structure here, one finds no small number of present or past politicial affiliates on its boards which seems to suggest that one has to be party-partisan to get anywhere here in Singapore.

The Ombudsman must be someone non-partisan, someone who is outside the establishment and who can lend an authentic voice to all who has been wronged by the system in one way or another. Anyone, from individual citizens to corporations, who has a legitimate concern or complaint against the existing regime. A final "court of appeal" when all community or trade association (which incidentally are filled with the rank and file of the dominant party) channels have been exhausted.

Aid could range from helping someone to apply for a licence or inquiring into the circumstances why a certain licence is rejected or simply helping someone exercise his individual right.

Above all, this ombudsman must be seen to be neutral and to be a true people's arbiter for social and economic rights, independent of any party politics or politics.

How Politics Get Ugly And The Citizenry Can Only But Revolt
For many of us, we just wanna get on with the day to day business of making a living and doing what we wanna do. Imagine, someone, like myself, who is neutral to politics in many ways (we may be politically aware and only choose to exercise our rights at the ballot box), coming face to face with political obstacles hurled our way that deprives us of our rice bowl (the bureaucracy after all is seen as a state controlled organ) that can only enrage the citizenry to revolt against the political regime.

Not to mention all the state-imposed controls ranging from certification to licensing. If these were for the better good, we cannot but follow but they were wrongly and absurdly applied with no good reason or rhyme in my instance. How can PSS, MOE insists on a URA search when a premise is HDB-owned or SLA-owned ?

If the certification imposed were of a gold standard, we would also oblige. But in many of my encounters, they were sub-standard and even ludicrous. Theoretical airy-fairy.

I am not embarking on a political route (or to go political begging and have political heavyweights tipping the political scale in my favour) just so to go on my economic or social freeway, which is my constitutional right, to make a living for myself in the first place.

It is already DAMN STUPID that our MICE people actually has a hand in encouraging entrepreneurs fritter their financial resources in the way of organising education fairs overseas to recruit international students when this should have been the prerogative of the recruiters themselves.

Otherwise why are they paid the hefty commissions? If the entire association of schools boycott this practice, can they refuse to admit these students to the commercial schools for a prolonged time?

We are spoiling the whole damn market. It is like one oil producer impinging on a cartel's pre-agreed fixed price which can only lead to a price war of sorts, to the detriment of all the producers' bottom lines.

Can our policy makers get this into their thick heads? Or can't they?