http://wayangparty.com/?p=7848
Double standards of DBS: why staff is allowed to join PAP as MP but not AWARE as Council member?
April 17, 2009 by admin
Filed under Daily Musings
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From Wayang Party:
Bank executive Josie Lau, 48, was appointed the new president of the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) at a recent meeting of the new team in charge. She is vice-president of consumer banking group cards and unsecured loans for DBS Bank.
But shortly after she announced that she was president, DBS expressed unhappiness that she had taken the top post at Singapore’s AWARE.
In a statement issued by a DBS spokesman:
‘The bank requires all employees to obtain approval before running for or taking on an external appointment, and many DBS employees are involved in community work and/or support various charity organisations in their own personal capacity.
‘Josie was informed prior to the Aware election this evening that although the bank supports her involvement in Aware as council member, in her own personal capacity, DBS is, however, not supportive of her intent to run for president of Aware. We believe that as a vice-president in DBS, she already has a challenging job with many responsibilities, and the role of president would demand too much of her time and energy.’
We find DBS’s statement most hypocritical and smacks of gross double standards.
Why is Ms Josie rapped for taking up the top post at AWARE while DBS has maintained a dignified silence so far over another staff Mr Liang Eng Hwa who is also a PAP MP for Holland-Bukit Panjang GRC?
Mr Liang Eng Hwa is the Manageing Director of the Treasury and Markets Division of DBS bank. He joined DBS in 1993 and became a PAP MP in 2006. We did not call DBS making a similar public statement in 2006 when Mr Liang contested in the general elections under the PAP banner. (read Mr Liang’s CV here)
Either of these assumptions must be true to account for the wide disparities in treatment between the two:
1. Mr Liang’s position is less challenging than that of Ms Josie.
2. Ms Josie’s role as AWARE’s President will demand more time and energy than Mr Liang’s work as a MP.
Or is it because DBS cannot stop any of its staff from becoming a PAP MP since it is owned by Temasek which in turn owned by the Ministry of Finance? Will Mr Liang even be allowed to contest in the elections had he joined the opposition instead of the PAP? Or rather, can he keep his job if he declared his allegiance to the opposition?
DBS has absolutely no right to dictate to its staff on how they spend their personal time. Ms Josie Lau is not using working hours to serve in her capacity as AWARE President. What she does outside her work is entirely her own business.
If DBS did not protest against Mr Liang’s decision to join the PAP, then it has no grounds at all to interfere with Ms Josie’s involvement with AWARE.
We hope to hear DBS’s clarifications on this apparent preferential treatment it gives to one staff over the other.
Double standards of DBS: why staff is allowed to join PAP as MP but not AWARE as Council member?
April 17, 2009 by admin
Filed under Daily Musings
Leave a comment
From Wayang Party:
Bank executive Josie Lau, 48, was appointed the new president of the Association of Women for Action and Research (Aware) at a recent meeting of the new team in charge. She is vice-president of consumer banking group cards and unsecured loans for DBS Bank.
But shortly after she announced that she was president, DBS expressed unhappiness that she had taken the top post at Singapore’s AWARE.
In a statement issued by a DBS spokesman:
‘The bank requires all employees to obtain approval before running for or taking on an external appointment, and many DBS employees are involved in community work and/or support various charity organisations in their own personal capacity.
‘Josie was informed prior to the Aware election this evening that although the bank supports her involvement in Aware as council member, in her own personal capacity, DBS is, however, not supportive of her intent to run for president of Aware. We believe that as a vice-president in DBS, she already has a challenging job with many responsibilities, and the role of president would demand too much of her time and energy.’
We find DBS’s statement most hypocritical and smacks of gross double standards.
Why is Ms Josie rapped for taking up the top post at AWARE while DBS has maintained a dignified silence so far over another staff Mr Liang Eng Hwa who is also a PAP MP for Holland-Bukit Panjang GRC?
Mr Liang Eng Hwa is the Manageing Director of the Treasury and Markets Division of DBS bank. He joined DBS in 1993 and became a PAP MP in 2006. We did not call DBS making a similar public statement in 2006 when Mr Liang contested in the general elections under the PAP banner. (read Mr Liang’s CV here)
Either of these assumptions must be true to account for the wide disparities in treatment between the two:
1. Mr Liang’s position is less challenging than that of Ms Josie.
2. Ms Josie’s role as AWARE’s President will demand more time and energy than Mr Liang’s work as a MP.
Or is it because DBS cannot stop any of its staff from becoming a PAP MP since it is owned by Temasek which in turn owned by the Ministry of Finance? Will Mr Liang even be allowed to contest in the elections had he joined the opposition instead of the PAP? Or rather, can he keep his job if he declared his allegiance to the opposition?
DBS has absolutely no right to dictate to its staff on how they spend their personal time. Ms Josie Lau is not using working hours to serve in her capacity as AWARE President. What she does outside her work is entirely her own business.
If DBS did not protest against Mr Liang’s decision to join the PAP, then it has no grounds at all to interfere with Ms Josie’s involvement with AWARE.
We hope to hear DBS’s clarifications on this apparent preferential treatment it gives to one staff over the other.
