ESM Goh proposes good but not great monkeys

Goh is only interested in what works for Singapore. Our leaders are no different from Cao Cao. From time to time they need to borrow some heads for the good of the country. Recently they had been borrowing many heads in the guise of FTs. When EDB can't find the high paying jobs for highly trained locals they have to settle for good enough and cheaper foreigners.

The better Singaporean engineers can either suck it up to lower pay or head for Silicon Valley and be handsomely remunerated. That is the meaning of attracting investments and creating good enough jobs. FTs loved it, locals with high local cost find themselves under employed or worse, high potential fresh graduates do not get the working experience and training they need. Just go and check how they are doing audits now at the Big Four. The standards were far higher thirty years ago when we were still a developing country.

In my previous post as usual without much elaboration I submitted that we have no choice about the monkeys we have to live with. These monkeys will likely work especially for their families and associates interests. They like the FTs they bring in would be good enough but not great.

We will continue losing our best and brightest to other countries, especially America. Come on, even the best FTs come here as a stepping stone to the USA. Even after Trump makes America worse, they will still be a great nation.

Our leaders do not want to be leaders of a great people because they can't and specifically the EDB can't with the other agencies unable to foster enough indigenous opportunities. They are only capable of leading good people. A silent brain drain of great people is going on in Singapore. Family held some back or bring back some but that homeward pull is also diminishing.

Monkeys whatever you pay

That is what has become of our system since we took this path of richly paying our ministers. It is not going to be better if you cut pay. It is no good except for the elites and themselves if you pay ministers well as it is their instinct to protect themselves and their kind first in any policy making. We have the least worst situation when settle for the good to stop the great from coming in. Now we can't get the really great ones until we face an impending crisis. Problem is we will then see the good is the enemy of the great.

Mr. Brown is right. Pay well you get exceptional monkeys. Pay poorly you get mediocre monkeys. All are monkeys until there is a forest fire.

Our Zero Sum Games

Zero sum games getting more common here because we have ran out of space. 

How do you manage this when there is no escape from winners and losers? You got to have a society of give and take. One which is always asserting their own rights, calling it human rights even will create tension and discord. Right now there is no so much give and take but whoever has money wins, followed by the majority wins provided they make a lot of noise which is also capable of pushing back those with money. The majority do not often raise a hue and cry but they will eventually when they learn from experience. Then what would we become? Some might say this is not going to happen. Well that is thinking of those who is also in the same breadth saying, "I will be out of office" 

Selecting leaders: Good is the Enemy of the Great

To me there are two minor stories on top of the main story focusing on Bitcoin (Finally someone is making sense of this thing when Jaime Dimon and Warren Buffett could not).

I am interested in the main character Jeff Sprecher ability to spot talent. Something which our leaders and system refused to admit (afraid to be honest about) they can't do without using very high pay as a screen. Jack Sim the maverick could have been a younger Philip Yeo but the post LKY generation would never be able to deploy his talent inside government. As for pay, he is willing to work for free, and he is doing exactly that now for global sanitation.

So we run a system where we pretend to have great people by hiring good ones. People cannot know what are the great leaders when the jobs are taken by good ones except to compare them against the better ones before. Indeed Good is the Enemy of the Great!

Read the Fortune Magazine story.

Pay: Right Policies+Bad Politics...

EW Barker's daughter pointed out how out of touch Goh Chok Tong and his club have become. I have a slightly different take on this. I do not assume the daughter could speak for her father unless he had left behind writings for her and siblings. Were Eddie Barker a young and rising lawyer now, he might adopt the attitude of let others serve. But he was a product of a different time. There may be no Singapore if men like him to do offer themselves. GCT had referred to a repeat of that if this place ever face an existential crisis again.

I think we have good policies and bad politics. That is a combination which eventually produce bad policies, and we are at that point now. The baseline for a competent and effective politician, and we are not even talking political leaders which is what the PM thinks his team is, is to be able to connect successfully with the people. When you are out of touch with voters in politics that is the beginning of the end for you. If you are able to stick around for a long time, that is because the dustbin is sealed shut. Then the place really begins to stink.

Right policies + Bad politics = Bad policies. It is only a matter of time.

Two National Pledges

On Singapore's 53rd independence day, I received these and shared them with others.

Update: 1:25 pm

I added this during discussions with friends across various chats.

Ministers Pay: The solution is also the problem

Goh Chok Tong thoughts on this matter is still stuck in the 90s. If high pay were a beautiful solution voters would have gladly accepted if after decades of this experiment. In fact the opposite is true.

Now we have a problem that clearly cannot be solved by money. The example of Edwin Tong suffering a pay cut from $2 million to $500K was just convenient because he is a senior counsel. Almost all the ministers cannot get what the government pay them if they leave their jobs today. They are fond of picking lawyers and doctors as their examples. What about the generals? What about retired permanent secretaries?

When these leaders by and large cannot get the pay government pay them if they leave the service, their big pay package is indeed a problem. Just ask their wives. And when they serve it is not a sacrifice for most of them unless they were former lawyers doctors and bankers or CEOs of the largest companies. This only read like some and not the majority of them especially former army officers.