Kampong Days - Remember Singapore Weblog - Worth Reading

[neddy]

The ordinary Singaporean put in very little effort. Everything came easily. I should know. I was one who benefitted immensely. I was pretty laid back in those days. A well paying job came my way without my even trying courtesy of the PAP's pragmatic policies.

Did Singapore wasted its opportunities to develop its own brands?

Alllowed the MNC geese to lay golden eggs for us. We had it too easy.
Everything we touched turned into gold.

I saw the Malay driver took the traffic offence on behalf of the american tuan, I told myself, why can't Singapore companies be the boss?

When Singapore want a Swiss standard of living, I looked at my watch and think Made in Singapore indigenous branded watch. Possible?

Otherwise, we can focus on quality. But we don't, the Japs and Koreans have that in their culture.
Singapore end up with Number ONE workers.

I blame that Lee control freak who nanny us and spoil us so we dare not protest his rule. Our education system produced the wrong people for 21st century Singapore.

 

[neddy]

beside the firecracker,i miss the kampong rooster crowing which is one of the traditional sounds of kampong living.

Teacher, how come the picture of your rooster look sissy?

 

[Kohliantye]

we don't have the brain power or the critical mass to develop technology. However, in the real world, it is not so easy. What you say has to be transformed into action and it then has to work.

It is wrong to0 say that we do not have the brain power to develop technology................

Did we NOT have brains that created the COE sytem, privatisation of hospitals, introducing the word, "OUTSOURCING", ERP, off-peak cars. The list goes on.............

 

[Kohliantye]

Did you try higher incentives for workers on midnight and weekend shifts? Did you reward workers with shares? I find it disingenuous that many employers can complain cannot find workers when they are paying peanuts. If the hourly rate is 50% or 100% more, you can bet a long line of sinkies will form. If highly automated, this higher rate for non standard hours should not be an issue as it will be a small portion of total expense. Just look at how many sinkies are working odd hours and weekends as fairprice cashier, property agents, drivers etc.

The key issue is still price competition from super low wage countries, especially china. The free flow of goods ensured that all workers get screwed while employers get all the profit.

Very well said Watchman8.

I personally know of a neighbour driving a red-plated "made-in-China car" who works the day as a fork-lift driver in the Cargo Complex of Changi Airport.

He starts work in the morning and comes home at about 4pm daily - Mons to Sats.

He again leaves his house (a 3-room flat) at 5.30 to drive a taxi till 3am for seven days a week.

If this person killed someone on the road due to lethargy or lack of concentration brought about by lack of sleep, will the AG agree to waive the charges against him for his negligent act on humanitarian grounds?

Lets face facts that our people are truly poorly paid and has lots of expenses to pay.

This system is slowly killing them and they become a threat to the people that hire them.

 

[Kohliantye]

Datok. Agree.

More and more middle-aged folks now knows that OUR hard earned Cpf money are unjustly locked up instead of being released back to us at age 55.:o

Many of these old timers possess a reservoir of experience.

They have seen the way Singapore had been run in the beginning from the colonial period to the days of self-government and finally independence.

These older folks saw the real suffering of the masses and the way the "liberators" (PAP) treated the common man.

They compare it to the days of the colonialists and regret the day the "ang-mors" left us in the hands of the PAP.

They are now seeing the rapid rise in salaries of the parliamentarians and the wealth.

They live in flats and know that none of the parliamentarians live in the same "pigeon-holes".

They have seen the ruling class drifting away from the people that they are supposed to serve.

This old folks should be made advisors or inducted as opposition members for future elections by the many opposition parties here.

Many of them are still Active and should consider opening a GREY PARTY. First for Singapore.



extensive experience in the way Singapore had been run

 

[Leongsam]

Did Singapore wasted its opportunities to develop its own brands?

Otherwise, we can focus on quality. But we don't, the Japs and Koreans have that in their culture.
Singapore end up with Number ONE workers.

I blame that Lee control freak who nanny us and spoil us so we dare not protest his rule. Our education system produced the wrong people for 21st century Singapore.

I can't speak for the rest of the Singapore companies but in the one that I was involved in the answer is "YES".. we did focus on quality.. "YES"... we did try to develop the brand.. we spent probably more than a million bucks in 2 years with the branding side of things.

When it came to quality, we spent even more ISO, TQC, Demming's methods, JIT, on line real time monitoring via robots using lasers.. whatever we thought the Japs and Koreans would be doing we put in the effort to do the same thing. After all, our products were going to the same end customers in the USA who could do side by side comparisons of quality levels and reliability.

Sadly, we just could not match our competitors. I make no excuses. We tried and we were beaten. As Singaporeans, we simply did not have the same technological depth as the competition. If ours was the only company that failed on the international stage, it would have meant that our management team was not up to scratch. However, history has revealed that none of our local counterparts succeeded either. They had all closed shop in Singapore by the mid 2000s. From this fact, the only conclusion I can draw is that Singaporeans, myself included, aren't as good as the Japs and Koreans when it comes to making quality products in the electronics industry.

Talk is easy. We had hundreds of well meaning "advisors" providing strategic advice of the sort that you are now providing. If you ask me, it's like advising the Saint Andrew's Rugby Team how they can beat the All Blacks. It's not going to happen. The genetic differences and the vast chasm between the two teams in skill levels makes beating the ABs in a game of rugby simply impossible. However, Singaporeans could easily beat them in IQ tests which goes to show you have to choose your battles in the game of life.

As for LKY's role in causing our failure I have to categorically state that he played no part in it at all. If anything, his organisations were very, very helpful and kept us going for longer than we expected with financial and technological assistance. I don't blame my lack of creativity and technical know how on LKY. In fact, I thank him for providing me with the opportunity to be part of the manufacturing world in the first place. As I mentioned earlier, I doubt if Lim Chin Siong, JBJ, Lee Siew Cho, David Marshall etc would have created the Singapore that enabled me to retire at 40.

 

[GoldenDragon]

[/COLOR]

It is wrong to0 say that we do not have the brain power to develop technology................

Did we NOT have brains that created the COE sytem, privatisation of hospitals, introducing the word, "OUTSOURCING", ERP, off-peak cars. The list goes on.............

Bro, you MIAed for awhile. Busy?

 

[scroobal]

Old man is like a parent who nurtured the young child called Singapore from birth. Unfortunately the child was raised to become highly dependent, trained to follow instruction, lacked the ability for independent thought, creativity or entrepreneurial pursuit. SO the first 25 years was wonderful. Not anymore. He does have to take responsibility for getting the model wrong and he was told. NZ has a smaller population so why the difference?

.

As for LKY's role in causing our failure I have to categorically state that he played no part in it at all. If anything, his organisations were very, very helpful and kept us going for longer than we expected with financial and technological assistance. I don't blame my lack of creativity and technical know how on LKY. In fact, I thank him for providing me with the opportunity to be part of the manufacturing world in the first place. As I mentioned earlier, I doubt if Lim Chin Siong, JBJ, Lee Siew Cho, David Marshall etc would have created the Singapore that enabled me to retire at 40.

 

[Leongsam]

Old man is like a parent who nurtured the young child called Singapore from birth. Unfortunately the child was raised to become highly dependent, trained to follow instruction, lacked the ability for independent thought, creativity or entrepreneurial pursuit. SO the first 25 years was wonderful. Not anymore. He does have to take responsibility for getting the model wrong and he was told. NZ has a smaller population so why the difference?

As a product of LKY's parenting skills, I reject that entirely. I consider myself quite independent even by Kiwi standards which I now measure myself against. I have never been good at following instructions. I have always wanted to be the boss rather than an employee. As for creativity I admit I'm no Peter Jackson or Steve Jobs but I have designed a few on line banners and logos and they aren't the worst that I have seen by a long shot.:p

NZ has a smaller population but they have an egalitarian outlook towards life rather than a materialistic one. They have no problems pursuing avenues which aren't financially rewarding and the parents of creative children don't tell them that being a painter or a sculptor or photographer isn't going to put food on the table. They don't force their children to pursue "lucrative" careers that the children have no interest in whatsoever.

Yes I put the blame squarely on the biological parents of each child who taught their children that the pursuit of wealth takes precedence over all else. If LKY had not been there, the parents would still have had the same attitude towards materialism. It has nothing to do with LKY, it is the peasant mentality which is part of the genetic make up most Singaporeans. When humans grow up living from hand to mouth, hoarding becomes second nature and the hoarding of money is just an extension of this instinct. It takes a while to breed this trait out of a population.

Shell gave a 10 cent per litre discount for one day at the pumps in NZ recently. There were no queues at the stations... perhaps slightly more busy but that was it. The same scheme in Singapore would result in major traffic jams at the pumps and that would include Merc and Beemer drivers who paid $300,000 for their cars but who still wanted to save $0.1 x 40 litres = $4... a one off savings which wouldn't even pay for burger meal. Imagine wasting 30 to 45 minutes of your life for $4 after blowing hundreds of thousands on a stupid status symbol.

Kiwis don't think like that. Therein lies the difference.

 

[scroobal]

You are not child of the old man. You are an exceptional individual even by western standards. You were in a phase of life where things worked, opportunities were plenty and there was continous improvement and growth. We all benefited from it. Unfortunately it was not a sustainable model. Some of us recognised it earlier and laid plans. The old man however did not. His successors seem lost. They too seemed to have lost faith on the "peasants" and are allowing foreigners to fill the gap.

As a product of LKY's parenting skills, I reject that entirely. I consider myself quite independent even by Kiwi standards which I now measure myself against. I have never been good at following instructions.
thousands on a stupid status symbol.

Kiwis don't think like that. Therein lies the difference.

 

[tonychat]

You are not child of the old man. You are an exceptional individual even by western standards. You were in a phase of life where things worked, opportunities were plenty and there was continous improvement and growth. We all benefited from it. Unfortunately it was not a sustainable model. Some of us recognised it earlier and laid plans. The old man however did not. His successors seem lost. They too seemed to have lost faith on the "peasants" and are allowing foreigners to fill the gap.

Your PAP did not lost faith with the peasant. They are just too incompetent to run a country and deal with the problem which is facing them.

Who are they to lost faith to another human. It shows that you still have that ruler mentality. Sinkieland cannot be truly democratic with people like you.

 

[Leongsam]

You are not child of the old man. You are an exceptional individual even by western standards. You were in a phase of life where things worked, opportunities were plenty and there was continous improvement and growth. We all benefited from it. Unfortunately it was not a sustainable model.

There is no such thing as "sustainable model" All models have to fit a particular time frame and a particular set of circumstances. LKY created a model that suited the phase of development that Singapore was at and taking into consideration the situation that the rest of the world was in at the time.

He obviously realised that his ideas had run their course as far as the economy was concerned and I believe he did surrender his role of charting the econominc direction of the country after he stepped down. However, his concerns regarding social cohesion, the role of religion in politics and the lack of a homogeneous population are every bit as valid today as they were back in the 50s and 60s.

You only have to look at what happened to Tito's Yuglosavia after his departure to see how important an omnipotent power is when it comes to holding together a society that has no shared values or culture. I therefore understand his paranoia which survives till this day. Hence his inability to keep his mouth shut and get out of the way.

As for Singapore's "sustainable model". If I was the PM, I'd be quietly telling all those I know to take profit. I see no magic formula for the long term. The competition is simply too keen and the rest of the world too formidable. In the old days we only had to be better than the likes of Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines in order to progress. Now we have to fight in the heavyweight division.

Finally, I am no exceptional individual and this is the real me speaking. Average in school. Average at work. Average at play. Average IQ. Average EQ. If I was to define any trait which helped me in my life, it's nothing more than the ability not to get caught up in hype coupled with the ability to ignore "wise advice" from the smart alecs and naysayers. It's called "Keeping the Faith". That's about it.

 

[tonychat]

Old man is like a parent who nurtured the young child called Singapore from birth. Unfortunately the child was raised to become highly dependent, trained to follow instruction, lacked the ability for independent thought, creativity or entrepreneurial pursuit. SO the first 25 years was wonderful. Not anymore. He does have to take responsibility for getting the model wrong and he was told. NZ has a smaller population so why the difference?

what a cockshit that is. you think the first 25 years is wonderful, it means the whole world has to think that is wonderful too?

what you think does not equate to what others think.

You love having your ass screwed by the PAP , it does not means everyone will like it. Simple basic human wisdom and you are even lack of it. how sad!!

 

[Leongsam]

what a cockshit that is. you think the first 25 years is wonderful, it means the whole world has to think that is wonderful too?

This discussion is out of your depth. I suggest you go elsewhere to some other thread. You're just making yourself look silly.

 

[RandomNexus]

This is a website that was recommended by forummer Dreamer1. It is an excellent site and the author has been receiving accolades all around including from ex British Servicemen and women and their families. Painstaking work.

http://remembersingapore.wordpress.com/

great website!

 

[RandomNexus]

You've missed my point. I agree that Singapore is devoid of creativity and innovation but it has nothing to do with the PAP. It's me and you.

I was party to the plan to try and keep the Singapore plant going and all my ideas failed. The PAP, via EDB and TDB, was very supportive. They gave us grants, subsidies, tax breaks.. the works. We could not save our manufacturing plant because we simply ran out of ideas.

At cabinet level, I can imagine the team going through the same process as we did.. trying to figure out ways of keeping the economy ticking along with limited resources and limited brain power. The answers won't be forthcoming either. As a tiny Island of only 695 sq kilometers, there are very few options where the country to take on the big players.

You are right about the difficult options facing Singapore. Not just all its past, and also now and the years ahead.

The simplistic bashing of government for every ill or mistake or preconceived flaw, sometimes gets too far in this forum.

This forum was really great in its early days, refreshing due to previous dominance of local news media overdoing its "one-sided" impressions of the local regime. It provides alternative thinking and other perspectives from many fellows who flooded this place, and for a while, folks woke up to realise that things may not be what they seem and we are enlightened by it. As years drag by, this forum has taken a form that is no different from the old 154th with the many one-sided comments, laden with bias, misrepresentations and terrible logic. Good posts are now a rarity here and one has to sieve through many nonsensical posts in the threads just to find good ones. One gets turned off and posts less, resulting in more bad posts.

Singapore has gotten this far, and my view is that it has done very well and yet many seem not to realise the price we have to pay, and bash the government, people and the culture without substance. If you want to bash, do it with style and substance, and that will be great.

The steps to progress and economic growth, has its inevitable consequences, and sometimes, if one just focuses on the 'bad' consequences, it forgets why one needs the original focus of growth and progress in the first place. If many forumers here are the majority of Singapore, this country got no hope.

 

[Leongsam]

One gets turned off and posts less, resulting in more bad posts.

Tell me about it. I've ended up with a "if you can't beat them join them" attitude and post just as much rubbish as the rest.

However, once in a while, when I'm in the right state of mind, I try to pen my real thoughts in a logical manner.

 

[jubilee1919]

Tell me about it. I've ended up with a "if you can't beat them join them" attitude and post just as much rubbish as the rest.

There are just too many whiners in the forums that blames everything on the government without taking the trouble to analyse and look deeper at the problems Singapore faces. One should agree with them and if we don't we are either pro-PAP or their enemy.

 

[RandomNexus]

The problem wasn't finding production operators. We needed very few of those because of the efforts we had put into automating the processes.

However, what automation does is change the nature of the job required to keep a production line running. What we needed were skilled technicians keep the automated equipment humming along within tight calibration tolerances and I can assure you that we paid an arm and a leg for their skills. If tolerances drifted, the equipment would jam and downtime would throw the whole process out of sync.

With shift allowances included, they were taking home $4000 to $5000 per month. Many of them grossed more than the engineers they reported to but that's another story for another time. They could all afford cars and fancy home theatre systems. I know because I visited their homes during CNY. They had more hi tech stuff than I had.

These are the sinkies who are now driving taxis. Their demands were never ending. They helped strangle manufacturing and killed the goose. There is only so much a company can do before management calls it a day.

You need the factors: Capital, talent and management. Of the 3, talent is the most difficult. Talent flood to the place where incentives abound. If companies compete, it raises costs till its unsustainability.

Singapore's experience in manufacturing faces this difficult problem. Over here, we have a vibrant service sector which competes for talent. The service sector is deemed more attractive hence we are hard-pressed to compete in this arena.

The last 10 years of Singapore's economic progress reflects this tendency to shift more to the service sector. However, the manufacturing sector, like it or not, has many multiplier advantages, and it is economically unwise to just rely on the service sector. If you take a look at Great Britain, you can see what its future problems is going to be. The service sector has great years but will have terrible years as well. Tan Jee Say, the champion of the over-reliance of the service sector, who cites Great Britain as an example to follow, has flawed economic reasonings.

Electronics-based and semi-con manufacturing are not the strengths for Singapore, and we are too far behind to compete in terms technology, talent and scale. Relying on R&D medical and pharmaceutical manufacturing is the bet and seriously, Singapore has got no choice but to take this bet. This is besides the petrochemical manufacturing, powering near half of the manufacturing which has done well but at a great cost to environment. Look here, if one does not do it, we truly run out of options how to move forward.

It is no easy task.

 

[Leongsam]

Relying on R&D medical and pharmaceutical manufacturing is the bet and seriously, Singapore has got no choice but to take this bet. This is besides the petrochemical manufacturing, powering near half of the manufacturing which has done well but at a great cost to environment. Look here, if one does not do it, we truly run out of options how to move forward.

Manufacturing was great when it came to creating employment and business opportunities. Seagate, at its height employed 15,000 people over 3 shifts at its Senoko facility alone. This giant entity probably created another 50,000 jobs at subcontractor level. Even a low tech enterprise that manufactured styrofoam packaging material and shipping cartons for Seagate generated 100 jobs and made a couple of Sinkies multi millionaires.

R&D doesn't do that. Neither does the medical/pharmaceutical industry.