Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Let Common Sense Prevail

Phew! The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) has stated that, in terms of legal principles, they agree with District Judge Siva Shanmugam's key submissions and will not be appealing against the acquittal of former Central Narcotics Bureau chief Ng Boon Gay. See, it's not that difficult to come to your senses.

The birds do it, bees do it. The procreation instinct comes naturally. Of course, if a baby is on the way, then it's time to make the hard decision: pro-choice or pro-life, to save the old marriage or start a new one. Whatever happens, it's not criminal, definitely not something corrupt.

The Civil Service will have to examine it's own moral code of conduct, and decide if it has the disciplinary framework to mete out punishment. On question of moral authority, they have to make sure people who live in glass houses should not throw stones. We have too many recent instances of media whores who are quick to point one finger at others without realising more digits are pointing backwards at their own hypocritical self. Worse, they forget they should be politically neutral, and taint the public institutions they serve in with personal agendas.

Once upon a time, Hewlett Packard Singapore had a personnel manager who had chalked up more than 15 years of dedicated service. Then his name was mentioned in a divorce court case. The erring woman was sued by her husband, but the poor guy was sacked by the American company for tarnishing the firm's high moral standards. That had to be a gold standard of sorts.  Unfortunately the price of gold has fallen much, and so has the quality of our high flying civil servants. Even the hospital staff, instead of taking a blood test, send you home with a Panadol despite the obvious signs of dengue infection, namely fever, headache, and joint pain, vomiting and body rash. Their excuse: most dengue patients recover.

17 comments:

  1. Let's take PWP issue. Where were research on medium- and long-term issues being put out there to the public and creating debate? If those works were already done prior, why didn't public service being non-partisan share the information and seek consultation from us?

    Instead, there are signs that they have been cowed into silence, which may fuel a loss of faith in government among the people. Take the case of MDA recent regulatory acts. It gives the impression that the decision was already made between the policy maker and politicians, and the citizens are the after-thought insomuch just to "inform" them. When trust goes, I think the institutions become disconnected from the people.

    When we see these institutions being totally undermined, if they are not prepared to push back then they are bystanders, and if civil servants are a bystander then they are also a reinforcer. And I think they are reinforcing the culture taking place right now. To me, that’s wrong.

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  2. Wow!

    Sg has became a lousy place to stay.

    First, the Political Leaders are found incompetent and wanting.
    Then many top men in the Civil Services are found corrupted in material and in moral.
    Now, health service providers are found to be unreliable.

    What's next?

    patriot

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    Replies
    1. Not the least surprised. The rot is indeed deep and widespread among all spheres of coverment. That is the operative word for me.

      Once, a government degenerate to a"coverment", things just fall apart. The signs were there for years already.....

      Delete
    2. Thanks to internet and free speech, wrong doings are uncovered much faster these days. MDA is not in a position to censor since the entire government system has failed to ensure that gov staff to read the right staff and do the right thing.

      Delete
  3. Sorry, another simple "review of its code of conduct" will not solve your problems. How many reviews, Board of Inquiries (Mindef on the various deaths of soldeirs, MoT on SMRT, Bromptongate, AIMgate) have they conducted? I remain steadfast in my belief that hubris has set in so deep into the rotten core of the civil service nothing short of a purge will do. The problems we see started when the Ngiam/Joe Pillay generation of mandarins retired (after a kiss on the face from the heir?). Then "wet-behind-the-ears" scholars who now form the bunch of multi-million PS and DS were allowed free rein to play politics rather than solve problems, spent their time milking the system by engineering the current pervert incentive system of GDP bonus and million dollar salaries, pushed short term fixes or copied blindly from conservative magazines like The Economist (especially on matters on economic and population growth). When faced with all the alarming signs in the last 5 years of breakdown in the public infrastructure, education, healthcare and housing, the civil service's response was a "bumper crop of promotion in the admin service" (over 100 new ones in 2013, now they total 500, so many some had to be sent to CDCs as "advisers" aka OJTs). Nero twiddle while Rome burns, thats what they remind one of, the peak of hubris before the final descent.

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  4. One swallow does not make a summer.

    Yet, it is a pleasant sight.. the freedom and hope of better things to come ( HOPE is another 4 letter word though)

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  5. Even when the prosecution loses, they still wanna save face by insisting that the judge makes a personal decision without considering the facts of the case. Total denial. Just like how Vivian Bala is when he burst the YOG budget.

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  6. What about all the wayang about how to improve the COE system for cars ... so that COE is not so expensive?

    The problem is the high population of foreigners imported into Singapore.
    Especially the rich ones.

    Too many people chasing too few COEs.
    That's the problem.

    But the Shit Times never addresses this fundamental cause in their coverage.

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  7. In the past, they convinced daft singaporeans to pay their politicians the highest salaries in the world. And we did.

    Now they convinced daft singaporeans to pay their academic/civil servants the public sector salaries with no accountability. And we did.

    Next, they convince daft singaporeans to pay their PA/grassroots leaders the best salaries for (i don't know what.) and we will also say yes.

    That's the down hill pattern for Singapore when the 60% still didn't wake up. They have surrendered their common sense, and the turkeys will be sent to the cooking oven every christmas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. First of all, make it clear. None of us lesser mortals and man on the streets agreed on their extraordinary and unjustifiable salary hike, perk and benefit (eg free parking for some grassroots). They are forced onto us to pay for them by own PAP-created law.

      Delete
  8. "Retrenchment is good for Singapore . If there is no retrenchment, then I worry."
    - SM Goh

    Let's hope for more retrenchments at GE 2016.

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  9. LEt's look at the timeline published on media : -

    29/3 Dengue fanning out hotspots (3100 cases)
    16/4 S'pore may see worse ever dengue epidemic
    20/4 Dengue case this year exceeded 2012
    26/4 4632 cases
    29/4 NEA gets tough..could rise to 1000 a week (5230 cases)
    21/5 Dengue 7000 cases
    30/5 Claimed 1st life
    31/5 Dengue epidemic in SG surged to 8195
    08/6 Dengue crosses 9000 mark
    09/6 2nd person dies (9100 cases)
    11/6 Dengue cases 9303

    In short, over a period of 2 months, there has been an increase of 200%!!!!!
    All NEA & Vivian Bala can do is to toot the horn and say "mozzies are coming, mozzies are coming.." while we helplessly watch the numbers climb. Wouldn't common sense will tell you that whatever vector control or steps they have been doing hasn't been working at all? And on what basis do I trust the figures that 67% of the infection comes from homes? After all, mozzies do fly right? They could be flying anywhere from the construction sites or public areas to homes for all I know!!

    Looks like Mr Vivian is applying his killer instinct in fighting the wrong type of crises.

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    Replies
    1. Agree with you that NEA together with this bloody Minister should not be so petty to be involved in the Aljunied hawker scaffolding issue when more critical national issues like fatal dengue outbreak is still lurking around killing people ?

      Has PAP reached the level of those dirty scum politicians as often seen in underdeveloped countries?

      Delete
    2. Maybe Bala should hire this PBM Ng Kok Khim guy to engineer another exercise, but his time to kill mozzies. Perhaps this time, he can really put his talent and skills where it belongs. That's what his medal was for isn't it? Do blood and cock sucking works?

      Delete
  10. That's what Millionaires-In-White are good for
    - they are good for nothing
    - other than blaming Singaporeans for anything bad
    - and claim credit for anything good

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  11. Let's sack a few more Millionaire Ministers in GE 2016.

    "Retrenchment is good for Singapore . If there is no retrenchment, then I worry."
    - SM Goh

    Let's not worry our Emeritus SM.

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  12. Some put out to pasture, others to the slaughterhouse. Two legs better, yeah!

    ReplyDelete