Singapore civil servants should have no shame in getting the highest pay

Labour chief Lim Swee Say said Singapore should not be shy about having one of the highest paid civil services in the world.

He said this is because Singapore's civil service is the world's best and most effective and part of the credit must go to the public sector's biggest union, The Amalgamated Union of Public Employees (AUPE).

"We may be the highest paid, but at the same time it is also important for them to understand we're probably the most effective, the best civil service in the world. And this came about because AUPE and PSD (Public Service Division), we work hand in hand, so on the one hand, we negotiate for fair terms, for good terms, for responsive rewards for civil servants.

"And yet at the same time, we mobilise our ground to ensure that the civil service always move ahead, stay ahead to do their best for the citizens of Singapore, because that is our purpose, our mission."


And this is from the man who wants Singaporean to work "Cheaper, Better, Faster".

I'm not sure where did he get that hunch that Singapore's civil servants are really that good and best in the world, but this does helps to prove his point that he is but a deaf frog at the bottom of the well.

Now they suddenly realised there are shady real estate agents in Singapore!

"Since this is the first time we are regulating in a formal way, I would expect a lot of pent-up demand for such an avenue for them to vent their complaints ... I would expect this to taper off over time."

- National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan, who was not surprised by the deluge of complaints on real estate agents. Within five weeks of operations, the nCouncil for Estate Agencies (CEA) launched to regulate the real estate industry has already received about 150 complaints.

The question then is, what took them so long to set up the regulator?

Nevermind the rest of the world, we'll still get 2.5 months of bonus for doing nothing!

Labour Chief Lim Swee Say said he would not be pushing for every company to match the two—and—a—half months year—end bonus for civil servants. He explained performances across different industries would be different.

Well, of course. Just listen to what Lim Der Shing, CEO of JobsCentral.com.sg was saying.

"There are still many economic trouble-spots around the world and there's always a danger of pullback for Singapore. Even in Singapore, not all sectors have rebounded evenly, and I suspect some SMEs and industries may have difficulty giving good bonuses even this year."

And apparently it must have sounded perfectly logical and seemed totally fair for these buggers to receive 2.5 months of bonus for doing nothing. Oh wait. I must apologise for not being fair there. To be fair, we should pay them for the effort in screwing up YOG and keeping the flood water in Orchard.

If Singapore is attacked by terrorists, you know who to blame

"Singapore boasts one of the lowest drug abuse rates in the world, and its streets are 'now safer than they ever have been'.

And despite its status as a 'prized trophy target for terrorists', Singapore has yet to be hit by such an attack."

-- Law Minister K. Shanmugam


We can understand it is human to carry your predecessor's balls when he hand over the burning torch to you, especially when he has done quite a job in keeping the fire burning.

But saying publicly that Singapore is a 'prized trophy target for terrorists' that is yet to be hit by any attack is like announcing in a hacker forum that your company's security system is unbreakable.

Only at 75% best? He must be talking about statboards

“There are not that many people in Singapore who really want to be extremely good at what they are doing.

We are always in danger in Singapore of mistaking excellence for competence. Most people in Singapore are happy to be competent, above average than exceptional,” he added.

I half suspect that once we get to 75 per cent of that level — which is quite good — you think that’s good enough, you’re already better than the rest in Singapore.”

-- Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Finance Minister


Our minister must be looking at his department when he made this comment, as we all know how statboard workers will make 100% effort to taichi their jobs to the guy next table/door/department so that they only have to do 75% of their work.

Someone please take this minister to a field visit to the nearest factory/MNC office/SME office to have a feel of what it's like to be working at 110% effort. Can Mr PM please sign the approval slip for him to go out of the office?

The only thing we want to hear about the YOG are positive comments

"Even the newspaper report, I didn't even know about it until I read about it in the papers. It shows that I almost didn't care. I had more important things to do, I had good feedback and good suggestions from so many people, and I focused on that. I didn't lose sleep about that."
-- Vivian Balakrishnan, a Minister

"More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren't so busy denying them."
-- Harold J. Smith, a Canadian Mohawk Indian actor

Oh how highly we have positioned ourselves in the name of YOG!

"I think this is not a trifling amount. But it is an amount that will give us value for money in terms of positioning ourselves, in terms of marketing ourselves, in terms of making sure we are on everyone’s radar screen the next time they make an investment decision."
-- Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan


So let's see where are we positioning ourselves and find our spot on the world's radar screen...

• YOG food poisoning - 21 volunteers, 16 from East Coast Park and five from the Singapore Indoor Stadium, were hit by food poisoning after consuming their meals while on duty.


• Food fit-for-maids for YOG volunteers - Change in caterer for meals provided to Youth Olympic Games (YOG) volunteers after a volunteer took a picture of the meal he was served and posted it on his Facebook page, igniting a furore. The meal, served in a plastic box, comprised a mound of rice, a meat fillet and six pieces of long bean.


• Half-empty YOG venues with tickets sold out - Organisers were forced to correct a ticketing problem that has seen scores of empty seats at the Games although tickets have been sold out.


• YOG blackout - A circuit trip at the Toa Payoh Swimming Complex during an evening saw the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) boys’ 10m platform finals delayed for close to 15 minutes. The incident happened while China’s Qiu Bo jumped off the platform in his fourth round dive. While those who were at the venue managed to catch his dive live, TV viewers at home could only see the floodlights going black in the background of their screens when Qiu made his dive.


• Dumb and Dumber YOG commentators - Over at the forum of reputed gymnast magazine “International Gymnast“, angry and bemused fans took turns to take pot shots at the two commentators for the gymnastics events. Even former national gymnast champion Mr Alex Liang had to let it out on her Facebook page.


• Adidas and Nike not allowed in YOG venues - MOE issued an advisory to schools that students going to watch the Games should not bring water bottles with the Nike or adidas logo, only to back off after much complaints from the Internet.


• Arrested for hating YOG - 27 year old project executive Mr Abdul Malik Mohammed Ghazali was arrested by the police for his criticisms of the PAP minister in charge of the YOG Dr Vivian Balakrishnan on the “I hate YOG” Facebook. He had written that it was time to “burn the sports minister and the PAP” and to “rally together and vote them out”.

So Mr Minister, are we in the correct position now?