Recall that Manpower Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen once said “You’re getting a bargain for the ministers you get… I worked half as much and earn(ed) five times more when I was in the private sector.” (Channelnewsasia, 9 September 2003). That set everybody (including Goh Chok Tong who was seated next to him at same press conference) wondering if he was dumb to sign on, or just plain bullshitting.
Straits Times decided to tell us what we were supposed to know all along: "It is public knowledge that top surgeons like Dr Ng Eng Hen, prior to joining government service, earned a income of $4.5 million in 2001." What is not public knowledge is whether 2001 was a bonanza year for Ng, or he was consistently invoicing super-sized bills. But we do know that, based on the current ministerial salary of $1.6 million (before add-ons like mid-term, year-end, GDP indexed bonuses, etc), the 2001 number is definitely less than the 5-fold he rattered off. There's another key difference to note. Those in the private sector knows that pay can go up and go down - even Steve Jobs was jobless when his board kicked him out of Apple in May1985- but ministers' payola is recession free and guaranteed. Even when they turn complacent and let terrorists escape through the toilet window.
Ng's name was brought up as illustrative of how brazen Singapore doctors can be when billing for their services.
Dr Khoo Kei Siong, deputy director of Parkway Cancer Centre, reportedly quoted $300,000 for a 30-minute overseas consultation that took less than 3 days including travelling time - the first class air ticket and hotel accommodation are extra costs. Dr Goh Seng Heng, a general practioner once billed $55,000 for 2.5 hours of treatment spread over 15 days. He also charged an Indonesian client $3,000 an hour for the 17 hours of travel and treatment he undertook. Professor Soo Khee Chee, head of the National Cancer Centre and one of 3 witnesses for the Singapore Medical Council (SMC), said Dr Susan Lim could have charged her Brunei client up $300,000 without batting an eyelid - just for the good doctor's service, all extras to be billed separately.
Ng is current Minister of Education, and the $10.9 billion budget allocated for 2011 is second highest, right after Defence. Let's hope he hasn't carried over the billing philosophy of his private practice days.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Game On
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
"Gerrymandering is a practice of political corruption that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected, and neutral districts."
To maximize the effect of supporters' votes and to minimize the effect of opponents' votes, two strategies of gerrymandering employed are packing and cracking. In packing, voters of one type are corralled into a large electoral ward to reduce their influence in other wards. In cracking, voters of the other type are spread out in order to deny them a sufficiently large voting block in any particular ward. The incumbents in Singapore are using cracking to maximum effect, roping supporters into friendly territory, and hiving off pockets of opposition to weaken their cultivated base.
That's the theory anyway. The ugly practice is best illustrated in the Aljunied GRC, where Foreign Minister George Yeo had a close shave of just 12.2 percent from the Workers' Party team led by WP chairman Sylvia Lim in the last general elections (GE). 5,614 voters suspected of voting for the wrong party have been lobbed from Aljunied and consigned to Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC. For addition insurance, 19,549 voters have been added from PAP "stronghold" Marine Parade GRC. Another opposition party has already lamented aloud that all their targeted SMCs have been redrawn into GRCs, and one targetted GRC has been “cut into pieces”. You can't get any more explicit than that.
All the changes by the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee, the composition of which is a guarded secret, are supposedly done to reflect population shifts and housing developments. The total number of constituencies has gone up from 23 to 27, the significant figure being the number of 12 single-seat wards. This pales in comparison to the 21 SMCs up for grabs during the 1991 GE, when the opposition scored its biggest win of 4 single seats. To make sure that never ever happens again, the number of SMCs was slashed to 9 in the following GE of 1997. Now that's kiasuism for you.
Makes you wonder why the opposition bother with the skewed playing field. Before Mubarak caved in, Time magazine wrote that the Egyptians lacked a charismatic, reassuring figure among the protesters. Without a Corazon Aquino or a Václav Havel to rally the masses, the people's will has no punch. The incumbents however, still have their symbolic relic on call. Whether wheel-chaired up a ramp, or hoisted by fork lift to the stage, you bet Lee Kuan Yew will be put on display. And should faltering vocal cords fail him, they'll probably attempt lip sync with past speeches of past glories. The wayang season is officially on, but tuning to American Idol is less aggravating. There the people get to vote, and their votes count.
"Gerrymandering is a practice of political corruption that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected, and neutral districts."
To maximize the effect of supporters' votes and to minimize the effect of opponents' votes, two strategies of gerrymandering employed are packing and cracking. In packing, voters of one type are corralled into a large electoral ward to reduce their influence in other wards. In cracking, voters of the other type are spread out in order to deny them a sufficiently large voting block in any particular ward. The incumbents in Singapore are using cracking to maximum effect, roping supporters into friendly territory, and hiving off pockets of opposition to weaken their cultivated base.
That's the theory anyway. The ugly practice is best illustrated in the Aljunied GRC, where Foreign Minister George Yeo had a close shave of just 12.2 percent from the Workers' Party team led by WP chairman Sylvia Lim in the last general elections (GE). 5,614 voters suspected of voting for the wrong party have been lobbed from Aljunied and consigned to Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC. For addition insurance, 19,549 voters have been added from PAP "stronghold" Marine Parade GRC. Another opposition party has already lamented aloud that all their targeted SMCs have been redrawn into GRCs, and one targetted GRC has been “cut into pieces”. You can't get any more explicit than that.
All the changes by the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee, the composition of which is a guarded secret, are supposedly done to reflect population shifts and housing developments. The total number of constituencies has gone up from 23 to 27, the significant figure being the number of 12 single-seat wards. This pales in comparison to the 21 SMCs up for grabs during the 1991 GE, when the opposition scored its biggest win of 4 single seats. To make sure that never ever happens again, the number of SMCs was slashed to 9 in the following GE of 1997. Now that's kiasuism for you.
Makes you wonder why the opposition bother with the skewed playing field. Before Mubarak caved in, Time magazine wrote that the Egyptians lacked a charismatic, reassuring figure among the protesters. Without a Corazon Aquino or a Václav Havel to rally the masses, the people's will has no punch. The incumbents however, still have their symbolic relic on call. Whether wheel-chaired up a ramp, or hoisted by fork lift to the stage, you bet Lee Kuan Yew will be put on display. And should faltering vocal cords fail him, they'll probably attempt lip sync with past speeches of past glories. The wayang season is officially on, but tuning to American Idol is less aggravating. There the people get to vote, and their votes count.
Friday, February 25, 2011
$8 For Heart Bypass Is Still Cheap
In 1955 Susan Lim MBBS (Hons 1, Monash), PhD (Cantab), FRCS (Edin, Gold Medal); FRCS (Glasg), M.Med Surg (S'pore), AACS, FACS, FAMS was born in Singapore and educated at Singapore Chinese Girls' School and Raffles Institution.
In 1974 she studied medicine at Monash University on a Colombo Plan scholarship.
In 1984 she was awarded a fellowship with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
In 1988 she completed a Ph.D. in cell immunology at Cambridge University under a Winston Churchill Scholarship.
In 1989 she was appointed Senior Lecturer and Consultant in Surgery at the National University of Singapore Hospital.
In 1990 she successfully performed the first liver transplant in Asia history.
In 1991 she rose to the prestigious position of associate professor in surgery.
In 1995 she left the university and went into private practice, it was difficult for her to be a surgeon, a researcher and a lecturer all at once.
In 2000 she was named Singapore's "Spirit of the Century" following a national contest to select a role model for the 21st century.
In 2003 she founded Stem Cell Technologies which researches the use of adult stem cells for cell therapy and regenerative medicine.
In 2005 she became the youngest-ever elected Fellow of Trinity College at University of Melbourne.
In 2006 she was awarded the Monash University Distinguished Alumnus and appointed visiting professor at the Institute of Cell and Molecular Science at Barts and Queen Mary's School of Medicine in London.
In 2008, the U.S. Committee for Review & Recognition named the 28th American Academy of Continuing Medical Education award "the Susan Lim Award". It recognizes achievement in the advancement of laparoscopic and minimally invasive surgeries.
In spite of her busy schedule, Dr Lim provided breast cancer treatment for the younger sister of Brunei's Queen from 2001. In 2007 she spent 33 days in Brunei, setting up a "medical infrastructure" there for her patient who died 7 months later in August. Between March 8 and June 28, Dr Lim sent several invoices for services rendered, adding up to a total of $24.8 million. The bill is at the heart of a court case between Dr Lim and the Singapore Medical Council (SMC). Reportedly reduced to $3.25 million, it is still a substantial sum, with or without the assistance of Medisave, Medifund or Medishield.
"Are you worth all that money?" was the final question presented by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) interviewer Jonathan Head in 2009, who had read that "you’re apparently the highest-paid head of government in the world." Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's reply (snipped off by local censors) comes to mind here:
Supporters of Dr Lim argue that charging as much as the market will bear is an accepted practice in business, even the SMC Code of Ethics has nothing to go after doctors about the pricing of their services. But is it acceptable practice for governance?
In 1974 she studied medicine at Monash University on a Colombo Plan scholarship.
In 1984 she was awarded a fellowship with the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
In 1988 she completed a Ph.D. in cell immunology at Cambridge University under a Winston Churchill Scholarship.
In 1989 she was appointed Senior Lecturer and Consultant in Surgery at the National University of Singapore Hospital.
In 1990 she successfully performed the first liver transplant in Asia history.
In 1991 she rose to the prestigious position of associate professor in surgery.
In 1995 she left the university and went into private practice, it was difficult for her to be a surgeon, a researcher and a lecturer all at once.
In 2000 she was named Singapore's "Spirit of the Century" following a national contest to select a role model for the 21st century.
In 2003 she founded Stem Cell Technologies which researches the use of adult stem cells for cell therapy and regenerative medicine.
In 2005 she became the youngest-ever elected Fellow of Trinity College at University of Melbourne.
In 2006 she was awarded the Monash University Distinguished Alumnus and appointed visiting professor at the Institute of Cell and Molecular Science at Barts and Queen Mary's School of Medicine in London.
In 2008, the U.S. Committee for Review & Recognition named the 28th American Academy of Continuing Medical Education award "the Susan Lim Award". It recognizes achievement in the advancement of laparoscopic and minimally invasive surgeries.
In spite of her busy schedule, Dr Lim provided breast cancer treatment for the younger sister of Brunei's Queen from 2001. In 2007 she spent 33 days in Brunei, setting up a "medical infrastructure" there for her patient who died 7 months later in August. Between March 8 and June 28, Dr Lim sent several invoices for services rendered, adding up to a total of $24.8 million. The bill is at the heart of a court case between Dr Lim and the Singapore Medical Council (SMC). Reportedly reduced to $3.25 million, it is still a substantial sum, with or without the assistance of Medisave, Medifund or Medishield.
"Are you worth all that money?" was the final question presented by British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) interviewer Jonathan Head in 2009, who had read that "you’re apparently the highest-paid head of government in the world." Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's reply (snipped off by local censors) comes to mind here:
"We go on a system which is open, honest, transparent. What is the job worth, what is the quality of person whom you want. You need the best people for the job and these are jobs where you make decisions which are worth billions of dollars. And you cannot do that if you’re pretending and you just say, well, we’re all in it for the love of king and country. We wanted to be honest, we want people not to come in for the money but at the same time, their sacrifice cannot be too great."
Supporters of Dr Lim argue that charging as much as the market will bear is an accepted practice in business, even the SMC Code of Ethics has nothing to go after doctors about the pricing of their services. But is it acceptable practice for governance?
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| Another instance of converting airplane to hospital for VVIP |
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Of Gods And Animals
Although fluent in Chinese, Pomfret admits, on page 235, that he was rarely treated as equal. He quotes Lu Xun, China's greatest twentieth-century writer, "The Chinese have two ways of looking at foreigners. We either look up to them as gods or down on them as animals." Pomfret says he enjoyed being treated like a god, even an animal, by Chinese women (lots of cross cultural dalliances in the book), but couldn't stomach it from the men.
Before xenophobia reared its ugly head, foreign workers coexisted peacefully with Singaporeans, except for the odd episode with the Serangoon Gardens dormitory. Filipina domestics stay with the same employer for as long as 16 years, and shipyards hire NTS (non-traditional source) workers routinely to handle the dirty, difficult and dangerous marine jobs - the dreaded 3 Ds. CEOs at top multinationals have always been worshipped as gods as early as Goh Keng Swee's pioneering industrialization days. Here we refer to expatriate representatives from Fortune 500 companies, although Nick Leeson in his heydays was similarly idolised at SIMEX before he broke the Barings bank.
But when the government opened the floodgates for IT staff from India, finance executives from the West, and academics from China (with barely passable command of the English language), all in the name of economic growth, congeniality became limited in supply. Not only were middle class jobs endangered, overcrowding on trains and public roadways pushed up costs. These arrivals grabbed from the same pool of affordable housing and COEs.
Ministers tried to paper over the issue by claiming that they are transients. After the casinos, MRT tunnels and other infrastructure are built, they will go home, and Singaporeans will have their country back. But the same bunch of Ministers are also saying they are needed to address the low fertility rate. Foreigners, if we are to believe them, are prolific breeders, and not just in the Year of the Rabbit.
Temperatures can only rise higher with Finance Minister Tharman's recent exposition that "the increase in foreign worker levies is not an attempt to get employers to substitute local workers for foreign ones". That was his response to a query at a post-Budget forum, asking why the hike in levies, which apply to employment pass and S-pass holders, do not apply to skilled foreign workers. Unionist Wilfred Thiang Singapore Maritime Officers' Union made sure the Minister understood the message: imposing a a levy on foreign professionals would boost the employment prospects of tertiary-educated Singaporeans. But Tharman is adamant that "It is going to be a process of winnowing out. Some will lose, others will win." Singaporeans will prefer to do the winnowing.
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| Student leaders at Tiananmen Square 1989 |
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Machines With No Souls
Russian world chess champion Kasparov disparaged Watson (see yesterday's post) as a passing entertainment akin to the wind-up automata of the 18th century. A strong human Jeopardy! player, or a human doctor, may get the answer wrong, but he is unlikely to make a huge blunder or category error, answering "Toronto" in the "US Cities" category, as Watson did. In a closed-system of raw data computation, cold logic misses the significance of the emotive element.
There's gotta be good reason why 88% of Singaporeans polled are not "definitely" satisfied with this year's election budget goodies. Goh Chok Tong admitted just as much when he went on the defensive to tell his Marine Parade constituents that "each Budget will not be able to please everyone." Personally, he identified two areas missed out in the budget, that of special needs children, and of caregivers. We all have our own wish lists.
But surely, the $110 savings from abolishing of radio and TV licence - just enough for transport and entrance fee for a trip to the casino - should put a smile on the glummest of faces. Except that it is also a rude reminder that every law abiding citizen who faithfully paid his dues has been ripped off for decades. Just like the Water Conservation Tax of 30% in our monthly utility bill - subject to GST - isn't that a tax upon tax?
The 1.5% to 2.5% reduction in progressive income tax rates that frees up cash in hand, instead of being buried in untouchable CPF accounts like the Medisave, should also be cause for celebration. Except that the beneficiaries of this group are also those worst hit by the regressive Goods and Services Tax. Those with chargeable incomes of $40,000 will see the maximum 35% tax saving of $350. Assuming a modest weekly grocery bill of $100, the GST paid out over a year will be $364. See - easy come, easy go. It's too depressing to compute the cost benefit analysis for those struggling on monthly paychecks of $2,000 or less (Hint:chargeable income of $20,000 attract no tax, and no budget savings). Worthy of note is that income tax estimated to be collected in 2011 is $19.6 billion, vis-à-vis GST to be harvested of $$8.4 billions. All we need is a little nudge to the GST rate, and you can wipe that smile off your face.
Watson has no soul, its banks of Power7 processors have special air-conditioning systems to keep it cold. Maybe the Ministry of Finance types are not much different. Which makes one wonder if Lee Kuan Yew actually shed tears at the 1965 press conference about the separation from Malaysia. Or was it because, to paraphrase Mark Zuckerberg's assessment of the Winkervoss' motives, "for the first time in their lives, things didn't work out the way they were supposed to for them"?
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| As of 0953 hrs 23 Feb 2011 |
But surely, the $110 savings from abolishing of radio and TV licence - just enough for transport and entrance fee for a trip to the casino - should put a smile on the glummest of faces. Except that it is also a rude reminder that every law abiding citizen who faithfully paid his dues has been ripped off for decades. Just like the Water Conservation Tax of 30% in our monthly utility bill - subject to GST - isn't that a tax upon tax?
The 1.5% to 2.5% reduction in progressive income tax rates that frees up cash in hand, instead of being buried in untouchable CPF accounts like the Medisave, should also be cause for celebration. Except that the beneficiaries of this group are also those worst hit by the regressive Goods and Services Tax. Those with chargeable incomes of $40,000 will see the maximum 35% tax saving of $350. Assuming a modest weekly grocery bill of $100, the GST paid out over a year will be $364. See - easy come, easy go. It's too depressing to compute the cost benefit analysis for those struggling on monthly paychecks of $2,000 or less (Hint:chargeable income of $20,000 attract no tax, and no budget savings). Worthy of note is that income tax estimated to be collected in 2011 is $19.6 billion, vis-à-vis GST to be harvested of $$8.4 billions. All we need is a little nudge to the GST rate, and you can wipe that smile off your face.
Watson has no soul, its banks of Power7 processors have special air-conditioning systems to keep it cold. Maybe the Ministry of Finance types are not much different. Which makes one wonder if Lee Kuan Yew actually shed tears at the 1965 press conference about the separation from Malaysia. Or was it because, to paraphrase Mark Zuckerberg's assessment of the Winkervoss' motives, "for the first time in their lives, things didn't work out the way they were supposed to for them"?
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