Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Passing the buck

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Passing the buck

This expatriate wants to set up a representative office in Singapore. He has to go from one agency to another. No agency wish to take the responsibility to assist him. It is a common behavior in Singapore. Read this letter.

10 comments:

C H Yak said...: Never completely trust those index used in the surveys, such as PERC, etc. ... Leviathan state at work ... maybe his setup is small scale and so he could not get help. If big enough, all the Ministers may Q to see him.

We are the "best bureaucracy" ... not to make things work ... but to "merry-go-round". LOL.; June 30, 2010 5:20 PM
Anonymous said...: Look, the fella is looking for free business consultation and advice. Is he nuts or cheapskate? Want to start a business yet whine over $10? I do not see how the various agencies have failed to discharge their duties. I am starting to think these foreigners believe they have the right to be mollycoddled.; June 30, 2010 7:48 PM
Anonymous said...: In Singapore every service, from healthcare, application for XXX, police investigation, etc is prioritised according to which category you belong to.

Too bad if you or your businesss belong to the category that is accorded the lowest priority in terms of service.; June 30, 2010 8:03 PM
Anonymous said...: I'm sure if he pays a few hundred to a law firm, accounting firm or corp secretary firm, he can get things settled.

Also, he should not be asking for special exemption, just b'cos he is foreigner. If there are rules to be followed, then he has to follow them. Eg. when I set up a company in Aust, they required an Aussie PR/citizen to be one of the directors. So I had to rope an Aussie PR into the company, even though he does nothing.; June 30, 2010 9:36 PM
Anonymous said...: Just for fun, I tried to figure out which government agency should be helping this foreigner. And then I asked myself, if it were a Singaporean, which government agency should be helping him.

In the end, I concluded that ANON: June 30, 2010 9:36 PM is correct.

The Singapore government cannot help.

Only the private sector can help. But I think it will cost you more than a few hundred dollars.

So how did this foreigner get the impression that Singapore got so many freebies? Must be all the advertisement Singapore keeps putting out;
- we are the hub of ....
- we are the gateway of ....
- we are the thought leaders of ...

As ordinary Singaporeans, let's go back to our old and trusted slogan and values;
"Talk Less, Do more"

Stop listening to Pied Pipers telling us to "teach less, learn more". There is no free lunch.

Ask NUS Economist.
"Private Tuition: Does it help?"
Straits Times, 1st July, page A28, bottom right hand corner, 2nd last paragraph.

"It could amount to the difference between being on the borderline and being at the top of the cohort of admitted students"

I find this disturbing when read in conjunction with another paragraph in the same article (middle column, 3rd paragraph from the bottom)

"Indeed, the Singapore Household Expenditure Survey also shows that households with higher income spend more on all forms of education - private tuition, school fees and materials."

CONCLUSION?
The Singapore education system may not be as meritocratic as we think. You spend more money, you get better exam results, everything else being equal.

But really. Am I telling you anything you don't already know in your heart?

Haven't you already been told that our National Pledge is just an aspiration?; July 01, 2010 8:35 AM
Anonymous said...: Govt agencies are full of deadwood who are only Interested in collecting pay rather than do anything constructive.; July 01, 2010 9:35 AM
Anonymous said...: It takes two hands to clap. This expat did not do his homework and only has himself to blame. Cannot expect the agencies to bend backward for him just because he is an expat. Personally I find if one really bothers, all the information and details can be found on the agencies' websites. Is that so difficult? Anything more the expat will have to pay for professional advice.; July 01, 2010 10:25 AM
Anonymous said...: I think that foreign chap has chosen a wrong time to approach the government agencies for help. Why? It is a few days to July. Yes July is their bonuses month remember? So they are busy thinking of which oversea cooking class to enrol. Where got time to do other things lah!; July 01, 2010 10:41 AM
Anonymous said...: It is the trend here, agencies passing the buck around, the civil servants just want to wash their hands off if anything is remotely off his job sphere.; July 01, 2010 11:37 AM
Anonymous said...: I'm shocked that ST went ahead to publish such stuff. Cos I ask myself, if such a letter was written by a local encountering Singapore's bureacracy, would ST merely deem the writer a local "complaint king", and dismiss his opinion?

For an angmo scrimp on some small money to pay a management consultancy (who can handle such admin matters), I think he would not be investing much money in Singapore anyway.

And we also need to distinguish between foreign businesses that set up in Singapore to compete with Singapore businesses for domestic sales, versus foreigners who bring in overseas sales (i.e. exports) to Singapore. The latter is more desirable, cos overseas sales can increase our GDP and hence better-paying jobs for Singaporeans.; July 02, 2010 6:40 PM