Stop giving work pass to foreigners with fake degrees

There were several cases of foreigners who obtained work passes with fake degrees. The Ministry of Manpower do not carry out any verification of the qualifications when they issue the work passes. They rely on employers to do the checking. But most employers are not equipped to carry out this task.

How can this challenge be addressed?

First, we have to recognize that this responsibility should be place on the government, and not of the individual employers. Here are the reasons:

1) It is difficult to verify the qualifications. But it is important to find a solution, as this is a key attribute to granting a work pass.,

2) The government is better equipped to carry out this task, as they have the authority of the law and can impose sanctions on people who intentionally cheat the system. The individual employers do not have this power.

3) It is more economical for the government to carry out the task, as they can build a central database that can be used permanently.

If the government accepts this responsibility, here is my suggestion on how it can be carried out effectively.

1) The foreigner applying for a work pass should state up to three qualifications on which they based their application. They should state the educational institute, the year of qualification and the study course that they have applied for.

2) A central database can be built up to identify the recognized institute and to establish connection with these institutes to verify that the diploma or degree is authentic.

3) For institutes that are not registered, an external agency can be appointed to verify the status of the institute. The applicant can be asked to provide contact information of the institute. This process can help to identify the suspect institutes early. It is also possible to post the names of these institutes for the public at large to give information to identify the suspect institutes.

By adopting this approach, it is likely that most fake qualifications can be identified quite easily.

How Singaporeans can compete with foreigners for jobs

In recent years, there was a large influx of foreigners who have replaced Singaporeans for the middle management and technical jobs. Employers prefer the foreigners who are willing to accept lower salaries, are more "obedient", do not job hop and are not disrupted by reservist duties.

Singaporeans have complained about the loss of jobs to foreigners. In some companies, the displacement is quite noticeable.

The government has responded by cutting down the issuing of work passes to foreigners but this has not solved the problem. It is a complex issue and any approach will have negative consequences that need to be solved.

I wish to give a few suggestions about what Singaporeans should do to ensure that they can compete better for these jobs in Singapore.

1)  Be realistic about your expectation.  Singaporeans do expect high salaries, especially if they have obtained a degree at great expense of money and time. They also have to meet the high cost of living in Singapore. But employers pay according to productivity and the high salary expectation will put Singaporeans into a disadvantage. This issue is most difficult to solve.

2)  Be productive. Many Singaporeans spent too much time on getting a degree which they do not fit into the requirements of the job. They need to learn the skills that are needed for the job. A good approach is to accept a job that pays lower, and use the opportunity to acquire the skills that are needed for the job.

3) Be patient. It is easy for a Singaporean to find another job in a tight labor market. If you change job too often, you do not acquire the skills. Instead, you will get a bad reputation and the new employer will avoid you. It is better to be patient and to stay with the same employer for a longer time. Even if the work environment is not conducive, learn to adapt to it. The next place may not be any better.

I know that it is difficult for many Singaporeans to take my suggestions to lower their expectation, to learn new skills and to be patient. While we can continue to press the government to give better protection to Singaporeans, especially those who have sacrificed for the country by serving National Service,  it is better for us to do something on our own to become more valuable to our employers.

Singaporeans do have some advantages to offset the negative points mentioned above. We know Singapore better and have better connections and networks. We should be able to compete better, if we minimize our negative points.

An independent statistics commission

Kenneth Jeyaretnam argues strongly that the National Statistics Commission should report directly to Parliament and not to a minister in the government. This is to ensure that the statistics are reported truthfully and are not slanted to give a favorable impression to the performance of the government. I agree with his arguments.
http://sonofadud.com/2015/05/29/lies-damned-lies-and-singapores-statistics/

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Universal health insurance in Indonesia

President Jokowi is introducing a universal health insurance system in Indonesia. It provides comprehensive coverage to all employees. The scheme is compulsory and employers have to register all their employees to join this scheme and to pay the premium.

The state insurer has introduced a computer system to link up all the providers (i.e. doctors and hospitals) and all the people who are insured under the scheme. The government providers have registered under the scheme and there is provision for private insurers to join the scheme.

Many employers have given notice to terminate the private insurance coverage for their employees and are moving to join the state scheme. This is likely to have a major impact on the health insurance market in Indonesia.

This is an extremely ambitious scheme and is likely to be very challenging, judging from the painful experience of America in introducing Obamacare, I wish President Jokowi well, in overcoming the daunting challenge.

Indonesia going through a difficult time

Three articles in the front page of the Jakarta Posts shows that Indonesia is going through a difficult time:

1. Another big setback for KPK
KPK is the Corruption Eradication Commission. A court has thrown out a case taken by KPK against a government official for corrupt practices. The sole judge decided that the KPK should not use independent investigators. This decision threatened to invalid all the prosecution cases that were taken by KPK since its formation 11 years ago.

2. Property firm deceives thousand of buyers
The Police has arrested the commissioner of a property marketing firm that allegedly deceived more than 1,000 buyers of properties in various cities. The marketing firm did not own these properties. More than US$60 million were paid to this firm.

3. Nearly 50,000 factory workers lose their jobs
This was due to the economic slowdown that hs now affected the labor intensive industries.

Primary 1 registration

The following thought crossed my mind when I read about the new rules regarding primary 1 admission:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/…/new-primary-1/1871218.html…

I wondered:
1) Why do parents take the trouble to move their residence near to a "good" primary school?
2) Why is it necessary for a new rule to be introduced to prevent the "abuse"?
3) Is the school going to expel a pupil who has broken this "2 1/2 year rule"?
4) Is there a better approach?

Medishield Life - household information

I overlook the hard copy mail that was sent to me regarding Medishield Life transitional subsidies. Fortunately, I got this timely reminder from Richard Giam's Facebook:

Quote

Please remember to log in to www.medishieldlife.sg with your singpass. To declare your household members in order to receive the 4 years transitional subsidies given by the government due to the implementation of medishield life.
Only 1 member each household need to do this. So any member of the family can do it.
Please do this by 6th of June 2015.
Ministry of health data collection to decide on the subsidy for the coming medishield life exercise. Fill up and replyTake only less than 5 mins to confirm your household members details.

Unquote

I am sure that there will be a few hundred thousand people who would have overlooked this step, like me. Why was it necessary to carry out this registration? I guess that the government wanted to give a lower subsidy to those who stayed in private houses.

As the government intends to label people according to the type of house that they stay in to give different levels of subsidy, it is better than they assign a code that will last a lifetime. They can use this code to determine the amount of GST offset and other subsidies. It is wasteful to carry out a separate "registration exercise" every time.

A better way is for the government to impose higher property taxes (if this is really necessary) for people who live in private houses. (Actually, this is already happening). After imposing this higher tax, they should give the same level of subsidy to people without worrying about the type of housing that they stay in. They can still differentiate by age group. 

It is wasteful to carry out this type of unproductive work, which must have cost the country several tens of million dollars each time. This waste should be avoided.

Follow the rules

I overheard two elderly teachers discussing how to deal with student issues in school. One teachers raised two issues - taking drugs and being raped. Should the teacher inform the parent? According to the school manual, these affect the privacy of the student. The teacher is not supposed to inform the parent. He said that the parent should be informed, but it is best to "follow the rules".

I dislike thus "follow the rules" mindset that is prevalent in Singapore. What if the rules are written wrongly? Do we follow them blindly?

Common lobby for 2 gates

My flight to Jakarta used gate C25. It uses a common lobby with C19 but there are 2 separate doors and 2 separate screening gates. The door to C25 is closed and the screening gate is unattended. Many passengers to Jakarta were waiting outside, confused. There is a queue waiting to be screened at C19. I asked a security staff why C25 is still closed. She said that it uses a common screening gate as C19. To her, this is "understood". She did not realized that many passengers were confused and waiting outside. This "brainless" behavior is quite common. 

Poor business at Kopitiam

I visited Kopitiam at Greenwich V at 8.30 am on a Sunday morning. Only 2 stalls were operating - the drinks stall and the noodle stalls. Another six stalls were closed.  This is in stark contrast to Hong Kong where the restaurants were packed every morning at 7 am. 

Lions XII win the Malaysia F.A. Cup

Congratulations to coach Fandi Ahmad and the Lions XII team for wining the Malaysia FA Cup. It is an unexpected win and something for Singaporeans to be proud of! Here is the coverage in the front page of Today paper. Link

I was following the live blog of Channel News Asia last night. Congratulations to CNA for covering this event. 

Posting in blogspot

I had stopped posting in blogspot for the past year to focus on Facebook. I have now decided to abandon Facebook and come back to blogspot.

Although the readership in blogspot is smaller, I find it  to be a better platform. I do not get the idiots from the Internet Brigade posting their nonsense in my Facebook page.

A morning walk

I took a Sunday morning walk from my home to Greenwich V, a distance of 2.2 km. I could have driven or taken a bus, but I decided that a walk would do me good.

Along the way, I saw a plump woman walking in front of me. As I passed her, I said "good morning" to her. Guess what happened?

Well, she turn around, smiled and said "good morning" to me!. Further down the road, she run passed me to a waiting car. As she entered the car, she looked at me. I gave her a wave and she waved back. The male driver of the car must be wondering what had happened!

Further down the road, two female joggers passed me. I said "good morning" and they replied back.

On the way back, a male jogger was coming towards me. As he passed, I said "good morning". He panted and replied back with a "good morning".

All the people that I had met that morning were polite in returning a greeting.

Turning a weak point to an advantage

My friend told this interesting story of how he turned a weak point to an advantage and landed the job that he was passionate about. Link

Can Singaporeans think?

The writer of this article made a statement that most Singaporeans cannot think. It attracted several interesting responses. Half of them disagreed with him while the other half agreed. I also agreed with his view. Most Singaporeans cannot think and lack common sense.  Link to the article. 

Fake flash drive?

I bought this 32G flash drive from Hong Kong for HK 10 (or SGD 1.60). 
It does not work. I think that this is a fake flash drive. 

Protecting the image of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew

SINGAPORE – The Government is looking at enacting laws to protect the name and image of the Republic’s founding Prime Minister, the late Mr Lee Kuan Yew, from commercial exploitation and misleading use.

Culture, Community and Youth Minister Lawrence Wong revealed this while speaking to the media at the sidelines of the National Community Engagement Programme Dialogue today (May 23).


Mr Wong said the move comes as many members of the public have raised concerns over the misuse of Mr Lee’s name.

A POSTING BY SEE SEAH

See Seah
This is a dangerous preposition ....As much as we respect the Late LKY ...we should not reduce him to be a Cult figure or allow ourselves to embrace such culture of being overly obsessive...as I remember what was being spoken by one of LKY grandson during his eulogy speech which reminded us that we should remember LKY by the system and foundation that he has built and not by monuments and legislating rules on the use of his names that reflect badly on our society maturity...as a nation.

New Zealand Air Force

My friend said, "It is quite funny that the symbol of the New Zealand Air Force is the Kiwi - a bird that cannot fly.

I told him that the Kiwi is the national symbol for New Zealand, and not for the Air Force alone. He said, "is it"? 

Singapore Lions XII in Malaysia Cup Final

Best wishes to Lions XII. I was not following football and was surprised that our team is doing well to reach the finals!
Click here for more details.

The case for a minimum wage in Singapore

Kenneth Jeyaretnam said:

A few days ago I put up a post on Facebook about the decision by the Los Angeles City Council to raise the minimum wage in the city to US$15 per hour. I asked why Singapore could not afford a minimum wage of, say, $8 per hour. In response an American economist gave his reasons why the case for a minimum wage was much stronger in Singapore than the USA:

There are many. But I’ll give you four. One, the Singapore workforce is now nearly 40% foreign imported labour vs. 16% in the US. Actually, since a good percentage of foreign workers stay and eventually get citizenship vs. very few in Singapore, the gap is effectively much larger. Two, Singapore has much tighter controls on immigration than the US. Three, Singapore’s “democracy” is structured to minimize specific-issue local dissent. Four, Singapore is a city-state with a tiny physical geography while the US consists of 50 states, DC and nearly 10 million square km.


Read the full article here.