Wisdom of the Crowd: 32% of the respondents expect PM Muyhidden to win the vote of no confidence in Parliament. Another 32% expect him to lose the vote. 36% expect the situation to be chaotic.
Note - there was no vote.
Monday, June 08, 2020
Wisdom of the Crowd - New Issues
2. Is the coronavirus being eradicated globally?
Vote in
https://tklcloud.com/Crowd2/vote.aspx
Have a broader perspective to the risk of covid-19
I said that the corona virus is mild and will not cause much harm in Singapore.
Some small minded people ask if I will have the same opinion, if I were infected.
My answer to them is - my view remains the same, regardless of who is affected.
I will only be worried if many people are infected and many are hospitalized and many die from the corona.
It does not matter whether it is someone that I know or not.
I continue to be disappointed at the narrow minded, self centered people. They make their decisions based on their selfish, personal perspective.
They cannot think more broadly and more rationally.
Salary subsidy of 50% for one year
I propose that the government provide a salary subsidy of 50% for one year for companies to employ locals into certain jobs that are now being done by foreigners.
The salary should be set at a level that can attract locals into these jobs. The government should specify what the salary level should be.
What happens after one year? Will the employer be able to sustain the salary without continuing government subsidy?
After that, I will leave the terms of employment to market forces. The employer may offer a lower salary to the worker after one year. Or, the employer might be able to maintain the attractive salary, if they are doing well.
If the employer is getting public contracts, such as cleaning and maintenance, the government should set the example by continuing to pay adequate fees for the contract. This will allow the employer to continue with an adequate salary for the workers.
It may be somewhat challenging in the private sector, such as retail or food and beverage. If the business conditions do not improve, the employer may have to reduce the salary.
It is important for the employer and the local worker to try out the new arrangement for one year. The local worker may find that the work is quite acceptable after all. The employer may find the local worker to be quite good after all.
After a year, they can work out the salary to be mutually satisfactory to both parties.
I believe that the government subsidy of 50% of the salaries for one year could make the difference in changing to a new arrangement, and in getting locals to accept the jobs that are now done by foreign workers.
It may be possible that the government will continue the salary subsidy for the second year at 25% of the total salary. This may give another year for the new arrangement to work well.
Sunday, June 07, 2020
National Jobs Council will create 100,000 jobs
The National Jobs Council has a challenge to create 100,000 jobs in 12 months.
I wish to suggest how this can be achieved.
We must avoid the temptation to take short cuts to achieve the target. It is easy to create the wrong kinds of jobs. This has happened in the past.
The government has succeeded in creating the following kinds of jobs in the past and currently:
a) Social distancing ambassadors
b) Trainers under Skills Future
Many of the people trained under the Skills Future programs take it as a hobby to spend the money set aside for them. They are not able to get skills to find a suitable job.
These jobs do not achieve the long term goal of maintaining employability.
We need to focus on jobs that are now done by foreign workers and make them acceptable for locals.
We can continue to develop jobs for the economy of the future but we cannot rely on this source alone. It will not create sufficient jobs for the future. We should not overlook the above types of jobs that need to be done and make these jobs attractive for locals.
These jobs include the following: a) Bus drivers b) Maintenance and cleaning c) Food & beverage To make these jobs acceptable to workers and local employers, the government has to provide financial incentives and set the wages and working conditions. This is how it can be done: a) The wages are specified by the government. b) The government will subsidize 50% of the salaries for one year. c) The government provides the public sector work at contract sums that the contractors find to be attractive. In the past, the government outsource the work to the contractors who then offer inferior terms of employment that are not able to attract locals. The one year wage subsidy may change the situation. It is possible that many locals will enter the food and beverage industry if the terms of employment are attractive. The establishments can pay better wages it they can have the 50% subsidy for one year. Beyond one year, the subsidy can continue at a lower level. If the government provides contacts for cleaning and maintenance and pays an adequate contract sum, it is possible to specify better terms of employment that can attract the workers. There is a need to employ a large number of bus drivers. But the nature of the job has to change. Instead of employing people to drive the bus, we should adopt automated self driving technology. The bus should have conductors who are responsible to provide the customer service and ensure that passengers pay the fares. The work of driving the bus can be taken over by self driving automation - which is feasible for vehicles driving along fixed routes. I now wish to summarize the key points. a) To achieve job creation for locals, we have to make it possible for them to accept the jobs that are now being done by foreign workers. b) The government has to make a fundamental change in the terms of employment. They cannot continue the past practices and expect to get different results. http://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=3091
We can continue to develop jobs for the economy of the future but we cannot rely on this source alone. It will not create sufficient jobs for the future. We should not overlook the above types of jobs that need to be done and make these jobs attractive for locals.
These jobs include the following: a) Bus drivers b) Maintenance and cleaning c) Food & beverage To make these jobs acceptable to workers and local employers, the government has to provide financial incentives and set the wages and working conditions. This is how it can be done: a) The wages are specified by the government. b) The government will subsidize 50% of the salaries for one year. c) The government provides the public sector work at contract sums that the contractors find to be attractive. In the past, the government outsource the work to the contractors who then offer inferior terms of employment that are not able to attract locals. The one year wage subsidy may change the situation. It is possible that many locals will enter the food and beverage industry if the terms of employment are attractive. The establishments can pay better wages it they can have the 50% subsidy for one year. Beyond one year, the subsidy can continue at a lower level. If the government provides contacts for cleaning and maintenance and pays an adequate contract sum, it is possible to specify better terms of employment that can attract the workers. There is a need to employ a large number of bus drivers. But the nature of the job has to change. Instead of employing people to drive the bus, we should adopt automated self driving technology. The bus should have conductors who are responsible to provide the customer service and ensure that passengers pay the fares. The work of driving the bus can be taken over by self driving automation - which is feasible for vehicles driving along fixed routes. I now wish to summarize the key points. a) To achieve job creation for locals, we have to make it possible for them to accept the jobs that are now being done by foreign workers. b) The government has to make a fundamental change in the terms of employment. They cannot continue the past practices and expect to get different results. http://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=3091
Career Future is not working well
I have advertised on several occasions in Career Future website on several occasions during the past years. I looked for local candidates. I did not get any response.
This website is operated by the Workforce Agency under the M of Manpower.
Recently, I advertised in Facebook. I received several responses. Many of them met with my requirements.
I found it easy to communicate with the applicants using the Facebook platform.
I asked a few questions and got answers from the applicants. This helped me in the screening. I followed up with a telephone call and talked to the applicants.
Clearly, Facebook is more effective, compared to Career Future.
It is important for our government agencies to adapt to the modern environment. They have to build a platform that is easy to use.
This website is operated by the Workforce Agency under the M of Manpower.
Recently, I advertised in Facebook. I received several responses. Many of them met with my requirements.
I found it easy to communicate with the applicants using the Facebook platform.
I asked a few questions and got answers from the applicants. This helped me in the screening. I followed up with a telephone call and talked to the applicants.
Clearly, Facebook is more effective, compared to Career Future.
It is important for our government agencies to adapt to the modern environment. They have to build a platform that is easy to use.
Improve websites of government agencies
I have bad experience with the websites of many government agencies, including ministry of manpower, ACRA, IRAS, etc.
I share my experience here. I hope that the officers in the Smart Nation office take these suggestions into account to improve these websites to make it easier for the public to submit applications and requests to these agencies.
a) Allow the public to download a PDF fillable form to submit the transactions.
b) Improve the design of these forms to make it easy to fill the form
c) When the applicant upload the form, carry out a validation at that point and identify the errors that need to be rectified
d) Ask for the data that are essential to process the application. Avoid asking for data that are not needed for the exceptional situations. Ask for these additional data separately by subsequent communication
e) Communicate with the public using e-mail. Although there is a small risk of the data being seen by an unauthorized party, the risk is small and the data is usually not sensitive.
The approach that suggested above can reduce the time and pain that the public has been facing over the past two decades in using the websites of the government agencies. It will also reduce the cost of developing the websites considerably.
I will be happy to elaborate more on my suggestions, if someone in the Smart Nation office is willing to explore my suggestion.
https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=3090
I share my experience here. I hope that the officers in the Smart Nation office take these suggestions into account to improve these websites to make it easier for the public to submit applications and requests to these agencies.
a) Allow the public to download a PDF fillable form to submit the transactions.
b) Improve the design of these forms to make it easy to fill the form
c) When the applicant upload the form, carry out a validation at that point and identify the errors that need to be rectified
d) Ask for the data that are essential to process the application. Avoid asking for data that are not needed for the exceptional situations. Ask for these additional data separately by subsequent communication
e) Communicate with the public using e-mail. Although there is a small risk of the data being seen by an unauthorized party, the risk is small and the data is usually not sensitive.
The approach that suggested above can reduce the time and pain that the public has been facing over the past two decades in using the websites of the government agencies. It will also reduce the cost of developing the websites considerably.
I will be happy to elaborate more on my suggestions, if someone in the Smart Nation office is willing to explore my suggestion.
https://tklcloud.com/Feedback/feedback2.aspx?id=3090
WOTC - Treating different categories of workers
Wisdom of the Crowd: 28% of the respondents agree with the current approach to treat locals, permanent residents and foreign workers differently. 72% prefer this approach to be changed.
See more details in
WOTC - Find jobs for locals
Wisdom of the Crowd: 66% o the respondents are pessimistic about the ability of the leaders to find enough jobs for locals. 24% said that we need to lower our operating costs significantly. 11% are optimistic about our ability to adapt.
See more details at
Wisdom of the Crowd - New Issues
1. US employment increased in May 2020
2. Is it safe to relax the circuit breaker completely in June?3. Should the govt hold an early general election?
Vote in
https://tklcloud.com/Crowd2/vote.aspx
Thursday, June 04, 2020
A platform to improve private tuition
A private tutor, who more than 20 years of experience in giving tuition, attended my briefing on the Online School platform.
She gave the following feedback.
At present, she has to travel to the home of the student and usually teach one student at a time. As she has to take into account her travel time and the teaching time, she needs to charge a high fee for the tuition to earn a living.
The online platform allows her to give the tuition from her home. It uses the Zoom teleconferencing platform.
She says that the ideal size of the tuition class if 4 to 7 students. It allows the students to interact and make the lesson more interesting. A larger group will be difficult to manage.
The Zoom platform is quite good. It allows the group to interact and the teacher to communicate with the students easily. It is as good as a physical class.
She said that the platform will allow the tutor to charge lower fees and still earn more. It may be possible for her to reduce the fees by half and still earn double her normal income.
The platform allows her to manage the lessons. It will automatically remind the students about the class. This saves time in reminding the students on her own.
She also likes the ability to upload the notes of the lesson for the students to read before the class and to upload the exercise for the students to do after the class. The answers are marked automatically by the platform and saves her a lot of time.
She will also be able to keep track of the progress of the students by looking at their attendance and the marks that they get for each lesson. All of this work is done automatically for her.
She said that we have to keep up with the times and use technology to improve the way we do our work. I agree.
Although she is not familiar with computers, she finds the platform to be quite easy to use. She want to encourage other tutors to try the platform.
I am encouraged by her positive feedback.
Monday, June 01, 2020
Have a broad perspective
I want to share a story to show the narrow perspective of many people. These people cannot see an issue from the perspective of the other person. They can only see it from their selfish perspective.
It is a common weakness.
Constitution of China
This is the 1954 constitution of China. 1954 Constitution
Main article: 1954 Constitution of the People's Republic of China
In accordance with the Common Program, preparations soon began for convening the first National People's Congress and the drafting of the first permanent Constitution of the People's Republic of China.
On 24 December 1952, a resolution was moved by Premier Zhou Enlai on behalf of the Communist Party of China at the 43rd meeting of the first CPPCC Standing Committee to draft the new, permanent, Constitution.
Why I banned a group of people
I have deleted the comments and banned a group of people who attacked my views on my preference for the political system in China over that of America and other democratic countries.
They said that they were challenging my views in a polite manner.
They were not. I find their comments to be rude, personal and arrogant.
They probably did not read my view as I have stated. They attacked me on the following points:
a) The Tiananmen Square incident
b) The Chinese system is corrupt
I find the first point to be irrelevant. Each country had its dark history.
I do not accept the second point. I believe that there are different degrees of corruption in all political systems and China today is not worse than many other countries.
These views were presented to challenge me. I did not say that the system in China is perfect in all respects, but they challenged me on that wrong assumption.
They must have thought that they were clever in being able to challenge people - even if they distort my view.
There were other nonsensical comments that were personal. These were deleted. One of them asked why I did not migrate to China.
A few people presented their views to disagree with my views. They stated the reasons for their views and were polite. They did not engage in judgment of my views. I accept their disagreements.
Finally, I do not accept the practice of a gang of people acting in concert to challenge me. They have an ulterior motive and are not entitled to their say in my space.
Prerequisite for the right to vote
Nearly all countries require their residents to have a driving license before they are allowed to drive cars on the road. They do not allow any person to drive without a license.
They have the individual right to drive a car, but they must prove that they will drive the car responsibly by getting a license.
This practice is well accepted. Nobody argues against this loss of freedom to drive a car without a license.
This concept also applies to voting for the leaders of a country. In order to vote, the resident must be eligible. In most countries, the right is based on being a citizen and above a certain age.
I prefer that an additional requirement should be imposed. The eligible person should also pass a test on knowledge of the country's constitution.
If a person does not know the constitution, he or she should not be allowed to vote.
In the communist party system in China, the right to vote is given to members of the communist party. The membership represents 9% of all adult citizens. There are 90 million members in the party.
A member of the party is required to study and understand the constitution of China. The constitution enshrines a socialist system under the leadership of the communist party.
If any Chinese citizen does not like the constitution, he or she is free to migrate to another country which is willing to accept them. China does not stop people from leaving the country. They did stop them in the past, but this has changed.
Hundreds of millions of Chinese nationals travel each year out of China. They return to the country willingly.
In theory, every person who wishes to join the communist party as a member is allowed to do so. In practice, the party does have some additional restrictions on who they accept as their members. Perhaps they have a quota on the number of members in each locality.
I would prefer a system where everybody who wishes to join the party should be allowed to do so. But I am not aware if there are strong reasons to have the quota.
Even if there is a quota on the members of the party, I would not argue against that practice in principle. I consider 9% to be quite a high proportion of the population.
The members of the party vote for their leaders at the local level, maybe the village that they live in. The village leaders vote for their leaders at the county level. The county leaders vote for the provincial leaders. The provincial leaders vote for the national leaders.
I prefer this system of election. The party members can be expected to know the candidates in the village well and can make the choice. They are likely to elect the most capable people who are less corrupt and cares about the village.
The election at the higher levels are likely to produce similar outcomes.
There is no guarantee that this system will prevent the people in power from being corrupt. But if they are corrupt, the voting system can act as a check and the leaders can be removed from power.
There is also the discipline within the party to deal with corruption and abuse of power.
Within the party, we can expect leaders to form groups, or cliques. This is part of the natural outcome of social groups. However, this group is not formalized into a party with separate ideologies. All party members have to follow the national ideology as enshrined in the constitution.
I do not hold the view that the communist party system is perfect. I am sure that many people can point out its flaws and abuses.
However, I wish to argue that there are merits to this system. It is quite democratic, at least within the party, and is able to produce capable and honest (hopefully) leaders to lead the country.
If we compare the quality of the leaders produced by different countries, I would say that China comes out at or near the top. There are merits to the communist party system.
I am not saying that the communist party system is the best among all the political systems. I only say that it is a good system. I also like some other systems, such as the direct democracy adopted in Switzerland and the proportional representation system adopted in Germany.
I wish to summarize with the following main points:
a) We need a good system to produce the right leaders for a country
b) We should restrict the right to vote to people who are qualified to exercise the right.
c) The system of voting at various levels is probably better than voting directly for the top leaders.
Sunday, May 31, 2020
Have an open mind about non PAP politicians
Several people have told me that they like to see a change of government, but they are not able to support the non PAP parties and their candidates.
They consider that the non PAP parties are not able to offer any constructive alternative.
I asked them if they have read the policy papers put out by these parties, such as the Workers Party, Singapore Democratic Party, the Singapore First Party or the Reform Party.
These papers are well thought out and are often better than the PAP policy papers.
They admitted that they have not.
I asked them - how can you expect to have a credible opposition if you have a negative opinion of the alternative parties and are not even willing to keep an open mind to understand what they stand for.
I also see another negative trait. Many people are more inclined to see the negative aspects of the non PAP candidates. I suggest that they should look at the positive aspects, rather than the negative aspects.
They should remember that the PAP candidates also have their positive and negative aspects.
How can they expect to see a change in the direction of the country when they are not willing to support an alternative.
Do they expect a miracle? Even if the messiah appears, will they be able to support him? They are likely to reject him.
Many people also fear that the future of Singapore will be uncertain if the non PAP forms the government.
This is not likely to happen. At the very best, the non PAP parties can only hope to capture one third of Parliament.
We do not need to see the PAP being toppled down. If we can vote non PAP to hold one third of the seats in Parliament, we can see a change in policy of the PAP. If they continue to hold more than two thirds, they will not change.
If the majority of the voters in Singapore have a closed mind and expect a miracle, Singapore will remain under the dominance of the PAP. The future for the young people will be bleak.
The problem is not the non PAP parties or their candidates. The problem is the closed mindset of the majority of the people in Singapore.
Why I prefer the communist party system of China
Most people criticized the system in China where the Communist Party is entrenched in the country's constitution. They prefer the multi party systems practiced in democratic countries.
I prefer the system in China. It prefer a one party system. Under this system, the competition is within the party. The leadership of the party has to be elected among its members.
China has transformed its economy very well
In 1989 or thereabouts, I visited China as a member of a minister's delegation. We were received by the vice premier.
At that time, China was very poor and backward. Singapore was advanced.
The vice premier spoke in Mandarin. He said that the biggest challenge in China was to find jobs for the millions of workers in the state enterprises. These enterprises were inefficient and overstaffed.
They are developing the service sector to allow the excess workers to be absorbed into the economy.
I was struck with the clarity of their goal.
Well, as things turned out, they succeeded very well in their transformation.
Singapore now face the same challenge - the transform the economy to face the future. Can we do it?
Saturday, May 30, 2020
Attacking people based on wrong assumptions
I want to share this story to show how evil some people can be. They do not check the facts. They make wrong assumptions and attack other people based on these assumptions.
Recently, I advertised for a software developer for a salary of $1,800 to $3,600. I offered the position to citizens, permanent residents and dependent pass holders.
The dependent pass holders are spouse of employment pass holders and are now living in Singapore.
Although the job holder has to develop software based on the Microsoft .NET platform, I am prepared to take a person who does not have the working experience and provide training.
Actually, the main duty is to provide support for the software platforms that have been developed. As this is not a full time job, I wanted the person to develop software as well.
I advertised on Facebook and on Career Future (which is operated by the Ministry of Manpower).
I did not get any single application from locals. No locals wrote to ask for more details of the job.
I shared my experience on Facebook.
Several people criticized me for offering an inadequate salary. I cannot understand why they should take that view without knowing the facts.
I received a few applications from foreigners who are now working in Singapore, including a dependent pass holder.
I interviewed the dependent pass holder. She is suitable for the job, although she does not have the required experience on the development platform. She has knowledge of the platform but not the actual working experience. She can be trained. She has excellent work attitude and is willing to learn.
I offered her a hourly rate which she considered to be adequate. It worked out to a full time monthly salary in the range that I had indicated.
I would love to pay a higher salary, but I have to keep my expenses low to be within the revenue of my company.
I shared my experience on the difficulty of applying for a "letter of consent" in the MOM website. This is the same website that is used to apply for an employment pass, which commands a minimum salary of $3,600.
A few people assumed that I was employing a foreigner on an employment pass for a salary of $3,600 per month and attacked me for not offering the job to a local. They did not check the facts and are ready to attack somebody on their false assumptions.
I was actually employing a dependent pass holding at a much lower salary.
I would have preferred to give the same job to a local, if they take the trouble to find out what is required, and have a good work attitude.
I hope that the unemployed locals who found it difficult to get a job offer can learn from this episode. They need to have a positive work attitude and be willing to learn. They also need to understand that the employer can only pay them as well as the business can afford. They have to be an asset to the company.
I would have preferred to give the same job to a local, if they take the trouble to find out what is required, and have a good work attitude.
I hope that the unemployed locals who found it difficult to get a job offer can learn from this episode. They need to have a positive work attitude and be willing to learn. They also need to understand that the employer can only pay them as well as the business can afford. They have to be an asset to the company.
Maintaining my weight at 72 kg
During the two months of the circuit breaker, I managed to keep my weight at 72 kg.
On some days, it increased to 73 kg or 74 kg, but I exercised more to bring the weight back to 72 kg.
I frequently go on 90 min walk in the hot sun and wear a mask (as mandated by the insane ministers). Insane or not?
Shhhh. Don't tell them. When nobody is around, I take off the mask.
The insane ministers want me to get obese and to die from heart attack. Liddat? Why are they so bad?
Changing to a new computer
My friend approached me on a problem. His computer died. He wants to find someone to help him to buy a new computer and to transfer his files into the new computer.
I told him that I have changed my computer (home, office, laptop) several times during the past years. Each time, I changed to a new computer, I never bother to transfer my files.
Why? I stored my important files in the Cloud. I use Google Drive.
My friend has a Singnet account for his email. I will also advise him how he can access that account from GMail.
I will also give him some tips on how to use Facebook, as he is afraid to use it. He found it too complicated.
I will create a video to cover my tips on "How to upgrade your Online Skills".
Good or not?
Retrieving a letter of consent after approval
I got the approval for the Letter of Consent. I still have to go through a complicated process to get the letter of approval. Insane or not?
APPLICATION OUTCOME NOTIFICATION
Name of Employing Company : TAN KIN LIAN & ASSOCIATES PTE. LTD.
Your EP Online application for xxxxxxxxxx on 29/05/2020 is approved.
1. Select "Apply > Check Status - Application Outcome" or "Renew > Check Status - Renewal Outcome" on the left menu bar.
2. Enter a Search Criteria (e.g. FIN or Application No) and click "Retrieve".
3. From the Search Results, either select the radio button or click on the Status hyperlink.
4. Print the Outcome letter - LOC Issuance Letter.
Why can't they just send the approval letter to me? I now have to look for my mobile phone to sign in to the website.
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