Teo Chee Hian in Danger

[aurvandil]

Among PAP watchers, Teo Chee Hian is widely regarded as the top contender to the 4th PM of Singapore. He got an accelerated promotion over more senior ministers to become DPM.

His star however now appears to be in danger. In the recent budget announcement, he was appointed to head a new agency in charge of promoting productivity. He has been given a huge war chest to implement the lofty ideal of improving productivity as the main engine of driving GDP growth.

Not sure if he is aware but it looks like he has been set up for failure. No matter how large the war chest, he has been set an impossible task. In all likelihood, we will waste a huge amount of money (in the billions) and not see any significant improvement.

Hence unless Teo manages to jump ship before the failure becomes apparent, this will likely have a huge impact on his chances to become PM.

Teo's loss will of course be the gain of his rivals.

KBW has carefully steered clear of political minefields. With an expected decisive win againt a seasoned political veteran in the upcoming election, he looks likely to overtake Teo as the front runner.

MBT is currently on the defensive. He continues to lose political support due to his failed policies. A big and convincing win in Tampines is a must to keep his PM dreams alive.

Younger Ministers Viv and Ng are quietly biding their time. They have managed to steer clear of major controversies and are making quiet gains. If the current front runners slip up, they will have their chance.

 

[Spirit-Centred]

He will just like Tony Tan?

 

[zuoom]

He will just like Tony Tan?

thought Tony Tan didn't want the role. (sort of vaguely remember something in the 90s that he mentioned before.)

he was more comfortable taking the back seat instead of the driver (hot) seat.

 

[po2wq]

dat guy wil go 2 library n scan all books n 10 yr series 4 solns n den implement all of dem ...

 

[Queen Seok Duk]

Hence unless Teo manages to jump ship before the failure becomes apparent

So will Teo be tempted to join NSP ?

 

[kingrant]

The first Productivity Movement was kicked off by Old Man himself, and every year after that, until it was quietly dropped, no less than the PM himself has made the Anniversary speeches and host the grand ceremony. So I don't see how you think that just because Teo was given the mantle, he is given the millstone aroud his neck. In fact, I'm more inclined to think since the mission has been assigned to him, the PAP will give him the commensurable support and that could well be the whole govt works and machinery to do his job. This will surely boost his stature.

His star however now appears to be in danger. In the recent budget announcement, he was appointed to head a new agency in charge of promoting productivity.

 

[hairylee]

As long as he remain politically correct, losing billions is not a factor.

 

[aurvandil]

The first Productivity Movement was kicked off by Old Man himself, and every year after that, until it was quietly dropped, no less than the PM himself has made the Anniversary speeches and host the grand ceremony.

If I remember correctly, the previous movements were just campaigns. The Minister/MPs stood up, made some nosie and that was basically it.

This time round, the PAP is saying that productivity will replace the FT policy as the main engine of growth. To do this, they have anted up an initial S$5 billion.

My bet is that the S$5 billion will get spent but we will still have to rely on FT as the main engine of growth. This is because the policy proposal is economically impossible.

So I don't see how you think that just because Teo was given the mantle, he is given the millstone aroud his neck. In fact, I'm more inclined to think since the mission has been assigned to him, the PAP will give him the commensurable support and that could well be the whole govt works and machinery to do his job. This will surely boost his stature.

We will have to see if everyone in the PAP gives Teo their wholehearted support. While on the surface all card carrying PAP members will loudly declare that they are behind Teo 100%, there are plenty who personally hope he will fail and fail badly.

 

[Queen Seok Duk]

that could well be the whole govt works and machinery to do his job. This will surely boost his stature.

I'm not sure if I want him to be the next PM. If you look around Asia, the new leaders are quite handsome. Taiwan's Ma Ying Jiu is handsome. Thailand's Abhisit Vijajiva is very handsome. Well, not that our existing PM is handsome. If if we want to pick a new one, might as well get someone who can stand head and shoulders above the rest of the Asian leaders.

Anyway, I don't buy the media's promotion of Teo Ser Luck as handsome.

 

[kingrant]

Hello, you're not looking for a prospective son-in-law, are you?

I'm not sure if I want him to be the next PM. If you look around Asia, the new leaders are quite handsome. Taiwan's Ma Ying Jiu is handsome. Thailand's Abhisit Vijajiva is very handsome. Well, not that our existing PM is handsome. If if we want to pick a new one, might as well get someone who can stand head and shoulders above the rest of the Asian leaders.

Anyway, I don't buy the media's promotion of Teo Ser Luck as handsome.

 

[IR123]

I'm not sure if I want him to be the next PM. If you look around Asia, the new leaders are quite handsome. Taiwan's Ma Ying Jiu is handsome. Thailand's Abhisit Vijajiva is very handsome. Well, not that our existing PM is handsome. If if we want to pick a new one, might as well get someone who can stand head and shoulders above the rest of the Asian leaders.

You are kidding me right?

 

[aurvandil]

GCT fires the first shot. Not quite sure what to make of his position. It is certainly not a ringing endorsement of Teo's new portfolio. Even before Teo has made his maiden speech in parliament, there is talk of failure. On the other hand, GCT could be discretly trying to lower expectations so that when things do blow up, the damage will be less.

Will post what other Ministers/MPs say as and when possible.
----

Transformation will be painful'

But though results are not absolutely certain, strategy is 'the correct one': SM Goh
by Leong Wee Keat
05:55 AM Mar 02, 2010
SINGAPORE - The Singapore worker has been down this path before and cannot be said to be unfamiliar with the current productivity push.

Yet, going by their questions last night, there was uncertainty about the road ahead among Marine Parade GRC grassroots leaders at a Budget dialogue with Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong.

Given the Republic's open economy, how confident is the Government that the productivity push will boost economic growth, asked one grassroots leader.

Another wondered if retraining of the Singapore worker will prove sufficient in the face of companies' outsourcing practices. "How will our worker set their (productivity) vision if they are uncertain about their future in the company?" she asked.

Mr Goh said the Government was "confident" the strategy of raising productivity is "the correct one".

But he "cannot say with 100-per-cent confidence" that Singapore can achieve the goal of increasing productivity from 1 per cent to 3 per cent.

And in some cases, there may be some short-term pain, he acknowledged.

One grassroots leader, who owns an Indian vegetarian restaurant, said his business may suffer as he stands to lose a chef from India, who cooks the restaurant's signature dish, as a result of changes to foreign worker levies.

When Mr Goh asked if he could cook the dish, the restaurant owner replied: "I can do that, but I alone cannot run the restaurant myself."

"If I do that only, my productivity is much lesser," he added, drawing laughter from the 200-strong audience.

But the Senior Minister acknowledged the restaurant owner's "dilemma". "Your profits will go down, but this is the real difficulty of the transformation of the economy. There is pain," Mr Goh said.

The pain may also extend to some Singapore workers who, despite retraining, face companies outsourcing operations. "We have to be realistic. You cannot promise that everybody who is prepared to be upgraded, who trains himself, will get a job at the end of the training exercise," he said.

But even if the retrained worker may not get a job immediately, a job would eventually be ready for the worker, Mr Goh added, if he or she has the right attitude and the right skills.



Minister's wages: A Productivity component?

In his opening remarks, the Senior Minister said the Budget aims to transform the economy and bring it to a higher level, even though it is "unexciting" to the ordinary Singaporean.

And other than the productivity issue, he fielded questions at the 90-minute dialogue on a range of issues, from dependents' tax relief to the aging population and political salaries.

Since Ministers' salaries are tied in with economic growth, one grassroots leader suggested that a productivity component be included.

Mr Goh replied that policymakers can consider his suggestion, even though economic growth already accounts for productivity growth.

"At the end, the public and the Government must be satisfied that the pay level for the Government is competitive with the private sector, and that you are not overpaying the Government sector," he added.



What if the goal's not met?

But what if Singapore does not achieve its goal of raising productivity growth from around 1 per cent to 2 to 3 per cent within 10 years? What is the Government's contingency plan, asked one grassroot leader.

To this, Mr Goh said, "If we can't achieve our 3-per-cent growth, we achieve 2, 2.5, we will say, 'It's not bad', because 3 per cent is aspirational, we think we can do it."

But if productivity does not double, at least, "then you will have a real problem and you will see this in terms of the economic growth since we are tightening on labour force input, from foreign workers especially".

"That means our wages will go down," he said.

Raising productivity, Mr Goh added, was essential for the Singapore economy to transform itself to compete against developed countries, "and more importantly against China, India and Vietnam".

The Government is confident about raising productivity as the Republic has the resources and the creativity to do it, Mr Goh said.

This, even though the productivity push now will be more challenging than in the past.

 

[ChaoPappyPoodle]

Whether they fail or not is irrelevant because the scums will massage and manage the pertinent numbers to suit their needs.

TCH is a good old friend of Pinkyboy.

What matters most is that the scums have to be voted out. They are the most unproductive set of ministers in the entire world. Just look at how many porlumpars there are, their salaries, the population and the output created from the PAPy ministers.

Stop fooling yourselves into thinking that any figures they provide can test proper scrutiny. Their CPI, spurious use of aligning GDP to their salaries, reluctance to provide pertinent figures on HDB and our reserves. The list goes on and on. In short, stop fucking yourself!

Just do your utmost best to influence others to vote these intellectually dishonest people out of parliament.

 

[kingrant]

Agreed. Hedging a lot of bets. In HK, you die yr business. In Sinkieland, govt gives crutches to business and mollycoddle them with kids' gloves.

Profits, laugh all the way to the bank; losses, cry to the govt. KNNB!

GCT fires the first shot. Not quite sure what to make of his position. It is certainly not a ringing endorsement of Teo's new portfolio. Even before Teo has made his maiden speech in parliament, there is talk of failure. On the other hand, GCT could be discretly trying to lower expectations so that when things do blow up, the damage will be less.

 

[phouse3]

Just like banks which are too big to fail.

Probably tasked to take back HG. Just look at the map. Parts of Pasir Ris will be hived off as SMCs, then HG will be absorbed into Punggol.

 

[nickers9]

He will just like Tony Tan?

Tony Tan is good! When he was the defense minister, all the NSmen who went back for reservist, their training were comfortable and reasonable.

But when this Teo Chee Hian Teo Chee Bye Chow Chee Bye took over as defense minister, all reservist training were very tough and miserable. Have you ever heard of NSmen kanna stand by bed nonsense?

The regular officers treated the NSmen like dogs. All training are unreasonable. They treated all the NSmen like the chow recruit who entered the NS for the first time.

I remembered when I was an NSF, all NSmen who came back for reservist, our regular officers never disturbed them. When they have finished their exercise, the NSmen were left alone and we the NSF and regulars will do the area cleaning and etc.

But now, NSmen not only need to do area cleaning, still need to do stupid stand by bed nonsense!!!

FUCK YOU TEO CHEE HIAN TEO CHEE BYE CHOW CHEE BYE!!! FUCK YOU MUTHER CHEEBYE!!!

 

[panzer]

I'm surprised by the standby bed stuff. My own reservist experience in a pdf unit from 1996 to 2007 didn't have that though reservist training was tough because they compacted the training program from 2-3 weeks to average of 7 to 11 days including weekends.

But I also hated the stupid haircut and attire anal-ism that was disguised as "military discipline". How does having a sloped haircut help me become more combat effective?

 

[SneeringTree]

KBW has carefully steered clear of political minefields. With an expected decisive win againt a seasoned political veteran in the upcoming election, he looks likely to overtake Teo as the front runner.

You got to be kidding. KBW can barely hold on to his Ministership!