True to his scholarly background, Ng rolled out statistics to prove he is grossly under-manned, and wants money for 1,000 more officers. As of Dec 31, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) has 8,784 officers, which works out to be a 614 ratio of population to policemen. This is nearly twice Tokyo's 303, which is worse off than Hongkong's 252 or New York's 242. It looks like 1,000 more men in blue won't improve the ranking by much. And the SPF does have the 3,688 full time National Servicemen and 2,000 volunteer policemen to beef up the numbers. All they need to do is put on the impressive uniforms and scare the rioters to submission. That was the commissioner's original bitch, 54 "policemen at best" to face off 400 rioters. The numbers vary depending on who's doing the telling, and whether you include bystanders and busybodies whipping out smartphone cameras.
Ng admitted communications were "totally screwed up" and "non-existent". Then we are told there is a "large technological enhancement" in command and control that is currently being installed. Taking years to implement, Ng says it should be in place by year-end. Since we don't know when the project was first initiated, we can't tell if the delay is worse off than the 40 odd minutes it took for the Special Operations Command (SOC) troops to dash from City Hall to Little India. Hopefully it will all happen before the powder keg that is Geylang will blow up. Last year Police Tactical Troops were sent to Little India for anti-crime patrols only 16 times, compared to 41 times in Geylang where, we are told, there is "overt hostility and antagonism towards police presence".
Whatever happens, the Commissioner is in no danger of losing his decorative medals anytime soon. Quite unlike former Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) protocol chief Lim Cheng Hoe, who has been stripped of all his public service awards - Public Administration Medal (Silver), Commendation Medal, Efficiency Medal, and Long Service Medal - for his predilection for pineapple tarts. Scholars never fail, they are just promoted according to Peter's Principle.
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The more screw up, the more experience they have. More chances of promotion and musical chairs to move.At worst lateral movement of appointment.
ReplyDeleteIt is time for the Public Service Commission to review its policy of fast-tracking these scholarship holders. There is more than sufficient evidence of their epic failure as real leaders. Their failure is also the failure of the PSC. Its composition needs to be radically changed from establishment figures to people capable of identifying real leaders.
ReplyDeleteThe country is screwed up with all those imported problems like the bus strike, little india riot, geylang prostitution, cigarette smuggling, murder cases, more foreigners, more PR, more new citizens. They are asking for more policemen, more civil servants, more manpower, more defence budget and more and more others. I want to ask the slack and highest paid PM and cabinet a question : Who are footing all the bills?
ReplyDeleteThe only way to improve our Police Force is to vote out PAP.
ReplyDeleteSeriously.
The PAP ideology is killing off courage & creativity in Singaporeans.
Don't believe me?
Just quote LKY and all debate will instantly cease.
LKY's books is like the Bible.
Nobody wants to publicly disagree with these books.
LKY's books are like the Bible? No. They are more like Mao Tse Tung's The Little Red Book or Karl Marx's Das Kapital!
DeleteLKY 's books are displayed prominently at all good bookstores but his political opponents' are not even on sale here but only in overseas.
DeleteGuess these store owners know 'God' is really watching them
wish someone would quote kuan yew that 5 million pple on this island is it! enough!! that's all we can hold/manage/vaguely cope with!!!
DeleteObviously they're not short of staff when circling opposition party members.. go google for pics
ReplyDeletehttp://photos1.blogger.com/blogger2/7844/3505/1600/Chee%20Siok%20Chin%20detained.jpg
ReplyDeleteExcellent point and photo! Have you ever seen how many Gurkhas and police guard LKY and LHL 24/7/365, in Singapore and overseas? Ridiculous. Criminal waste of our money.
DeleteWho says the police were useless and cowardly during the Little India Riot? The pic here shows them absolutely fearless encircling Chee Soon Juan's little sis. Someone was even extremely kind to her, shading her with an umbrella from the hot sun!
DeleteThe number of police officers used in Operation Chee Siok Chin shows that CP Ng Joo Hee was lying thru' his teeth to the COI when he claimed that he was badly shorthanded, which resulted in the Little India Riot NAWO ("no action watch only")!
I will say it again. I have zero regards for our SPF. Have at least 3 personal encounters with them stretching across decades . The previous Minister in Charge sure screwed us up by cutting cost through Out-sourcing and tweaking their Mission Statements not only for the SPF, but all members of the Home Team.
ReplyDeletespf is outsourced because we cant outsource saf
DeleteLOL..the Peter Principle. The cream rises until it sours.
ReplyDeleteOne has to ask why was SPF even "under-manned" in the first place. It all started with the "outsourcing" of so-called non-essential works in all the ministries followed by a deep manpower cut in the last few decades. The true intent of the outsourcing or best sourcing or whatever it is called and the manpower downsizing was, for obvious reason, never made known. It's not difficult to conclude that one of the reasons is probably to boost the minimum wage of the elite class through the cost savings realized from the manpower cut. SPF like all other ministries are "under-manned" intentionally , not by accident. The elites have since been enjoying their handsome pay check and fat bonus. No one is complaining, so why is Ng Joo Seng complaining now? He wants to have the ratio like HK, Tokyo and New York but does he want to be paid like their police commissioner? If not, he probably wants to have the cake and eat it. If there is a general feeling that government ministries are getting more and more ineffective (think dengue fever, worker's welfare, faulty MRT), you can be sure they are all "under-manned" and it all started with chasing industry's best practice - outsourcing.
ReplyDeleteThey didnt outsource to just anyone. They outsourced to GLCs. All of them staffed with people of the same kind as them. And places where they could safely retire to.
DeleteI have lost my respect for CP. He is asking for more men only when his force is found wanting. Phui, other times he just kept quiet and let the men suffer? What fxxking leader is this? Promote more scholars lah!!
ReplyDeleteduring normal times his request for more men will not be justified
DeleteWhat to do? PAP imported so much trash that it has lost count of our population figure. Most round off to 5 significant figures when even HK can round to two.
ReplyDeleteNo choice.
ReplyDeleteWe just have to vote them out.
Please make sure by converting your friend, relative or family member to vote Opposition.
Allow me to correct you, first the admin and civil services promote people based on their Current Estimated Potential, an idea based on how shiok the perm sec feels after looking at your photo during ranking.
ReplyDeleteSecond, you are also too optimistic if you believe these top civil servants move up the rabks based on Peter's Principle. Wiki summarised that Peter's principle is "based on the notion that employees will get promoted as long as they are competent, but at some point will fail to get promoted beyond a certain job because it has become too challenging for them."
Do people seriously think LTG Kwek and his predecessor LTG Ng Yat Chung and his colleagues would have been competent as even colonels? WO2s? Sergeants? or GD boys? Do you think Ng JH's performance merited even that of a small-time pen-pusher at the home team HQ? He is good at numbers, good at asking for more men when the job is poorly done. But think (assuming you know what its like after 10pm in geyland's backstreets): throwing more "bodies" at the hostile joy seekers, working ladies and pimps in geylang? how does that help solve the potential time bomb? Sounds like a school boy text book answer only pinkie and his daddy would like..
Wonder what is the crime rate by nationality in geylang? It would help shed more lights if this was due to population increase, and more convincing.
DeleteThe CP is right in saying he is short handed. It is not just huge increase in population.
ReplyDeleteTHERE IS ENORMOUS EXPANSION IN THE VICE INDUSTRY.
ALSO HARDSHIP HAS CAUSED MANY TO TAKE RISK IN SMUGGLING CIGARETTES, ILLEGAL HAWKING, ILLEGAL BETTING AND A HOST OF OTHER ISSUES INCLUDING UNHAPPINESS WIYH WORK AND EMPLOYER.
EVEN THE GOVERNMENT CAUSES MUCH HEART PAIN TO LOTS OF SINKIES.
NOTICE THE INCREASING RAGES AND SUICIDES?
patriot
Scholars are promoted according to time norm not Peter's Principle. It's like public transport's fare hike is not linked to service quality, their promotion is not linked to competency. Everyone knows it's their god damn right. All scholars have "godfather" to shield them, who dare to say they are not competent? The whole system conspires to make them appear like crème de la crème until they fall from grace due to their own stupidity or the loss of godfather.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is like ridding on a tiger's back. Once you are on, nobody would want to take you off just in case he got eaten up by the animal.
DeleteIts a bluff game started by PAP. The premise is that all scholars are supreme human being (very much the thinking of Nazi). Once the SYSTEM identified you as one, NOBODY would dare to say otherwise. These scholars will sail through the system and all reports would be fantastically good. Its like bluffing yourself but people manning the system dare not admit. This is one sore point that may cause PAP to fall eventually.
Since they have spent hundred millions to install cctvs islandwide, in theory, claiming that these machines and technology can help them do a better job and cutting people cost, then they shouldn't complain about the lack of manpower! What;s the point of comparing police/population ratio..do you have the same crime rates as hk tokyo ny and what not? How many protests do you have to control per year? what a laughable joke.
ReplyDelete100,000 cctv to be exact.
ReplyDeletePlus body camera, and cameras for their vehicles.
Not to mention volunteers and what not.
If they are so short handed, how come our crime rates is the lowest and safest according to them.
And our incaceration rate is one of the highest of prisoners per population.
So i can't imagine giving them SPF more men and more guns. They will have more resources to put more behind bars. Withered singaporeans? You bet.
100,000 cctvs?
Deletecameras for their cars?
Who is the supplier?
Does the seller have any political affiliations to any political parties?
Not just cctvs, CP said they must have recording capabilities. Looks like another Brompton bike case, specifying product to meet favoured vendor specs. Don't all cctvs have recording?
ReplyDeleteThis is one more screw up in the population policy.
ReplyDeletePopulation 3 million in 1990, 4 million in 2000 and 5 million in 2010 - yes, you can literally draw a straight line projection.
But trains, buses, hospital beds, roads, etc did not keep pace. And now add the number of policemen. Not only it did not go up - it went down because of outsourcing to Certis/Cisco.
And we even have a inter-ministerial high powered team to coordinate talent and population issues. What happened to that entity - I think it was headed by Lim Boon Heng. Such inter-ministerial task force is designed precisely to make sure that the left hand knows what the right hand is doing, yet we landed up with such mess and uncoordinated snafus.
The new faces of the shamed SPF is live sized cardboard policeman placed almost everywhere
ReplyDelete