National Day Rally 2010

I was actually going to write about YOG, but Jim Raynor and Sarah Kerrigan had different ideas. Then came the rally speech. YOG’s gonna have to wait. Anyway, I’ll keep this brief. If I’m going to analyse this I’ll want to go point by point, and each one is worth an entire post on its own.

Say what you want about PM Lee, but I’m lightly impressed by his ability to pretty much memorise a three-hour speech. I’m sure he had a sheet of notes before him on the podium, but still he hardly ever gave it a glance. Not bad, better than SM Goh used to be. Although frankly his Mandarin could use some polishing.

I like how the three different speeches in three languages touched on different subjects. For the Malays, there was praise for their contributions in winning YOG medals (good for them, Malays need more things to be proud of), and for the Chinese admonishing about gambling in the IRs. I like that.

On to the meat in the English speech. Oh by the way, this year, his jokes fell flat.

PM Lee has this habit of downplaying the government’s role. Notice how many times he uses the expression “a little bit” when it comes to the contribution of the government. We all know that’s not too true, but whatever. I shan’t nitpick.

He started off talking about how others wanted to learn from our experience in coming out of recession so quickly. Cheap shots here. He didn’t have to blast Europe and US and Japan like that about their deficits. Frankly it ain’t our fault though, our surpluses have always been more about wise spending and thrift than currency manipulation or mercantile economics. Still, those deficits helped, as became obvious when the developed world embraced austerity. The day we grow while they save is the day our economic model can truly be said to be successful.

A bit of self-praise followed. NTUC and its foreign delegation. I quote: “The day when my government behaves like the Singapore government, is the day my union behaves like the NTUC.” Quite succinctly put. The Singapore model has to be taken as a whole then, not in bits and pieces.

Then warnings, about how the 15% growth we’re having ain’t not awesome, because averaged over the recession it’s nothing unusual, so workers really shouldn’t expect so much in terms of pay rises. OK, I agree with the first bit, we mustn’t run away with the idea that this full steam ahead phenomenon is going to last. 5% averaged over three years; not bad, given the annualised 6% they were predicting before the 2008 Financial Panic. But pay? Pay needs to be restored, and bonuses topped up to make up the difference suffered over the past two years. I won’t accept averaging growth if you don’t average the gains and benefits.

Then Deepwater Horizon and the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. That oil rig was built in S. Korea, by the way. Just think about what the fallout would had been if it had been a Chinese company. I bet Obama wouldn’t be demanding compensation from BP would he? No, he’ll be wanting it from Beijing.

Anyway, the focus here is Singapore. Another cheap shot by the PM, but a good one. Got the whole ‘feel good’ factor going after all that gloomy talk ahead of it. A real ‘Singapore Boleh’ moment. You can feel the audience relax, and in fact, they would be at their most cheerful for the night.

I’ll skip the bit about productivity in IPPT. It’s not terribly important.

OK, then 100,000 foreign workers recalculated down to 80,000. I’m still not sure where these 80,000 workers are going and what jobs they’re supposed to be taking up. PM Lee is really going to have to take number-crunching more seriously, because right now I don’t see these numbers anywhere, and I have the government’s statistics board on my Google Reader.

He went on to talk about foreign workers and immigrants for over an hour. Nice to know he’s aware this is Issue #1 at the moment.

Oh, by the way. I’m sick of hearing statements like “We’re not the only ones facing these problems, others have them too!” Yeah well, that’s no excuse. Let’s knuckle down and figure out how to beat everyone else to the solution instead.

His Texas example is proving to be kind of controversial on the blogosphere. I didn’t quite understand the relevance of Houston as an example, but I don’t understand why all those bloggers are blasting it either. It’s not a good, easily understandable case study, not it’s not that bad. I’m ambivalent. It didn’t occupy a lot of space in his transcript, and it wasn’t very impactful either. I’ll shrug and let it pass.

The Redmond-Vancouver thing was much better. Much, much better. I don’t know why he even bothers with the Houston one.

Then a bunch of waffle for about ten, fifteen minutes. I switched off and didn’t regret it later.

Then the usual “we need to be open to gain talent”. Like he said, yes, I believe most Singaporeans do understand the logic, but many are also worried that the newcomers aren’t being screened well enough. Not hardly enough assurance and transparency there by the government. Please, let’s go with an English-speaking test to begin with. I’ll have to expound more on this another time.

I particularly enjoyed the Pinnacle scenario he talked about, with the Malaysian architects. That’s something new to me, and certainly helps to present the case for professional foreign talent.

Just a couple of things. First, many Singaporeans don’t even consider Malaysia as a foreign country any more, so Malaysia-born architects aren’t that big a deal. Second, architects represent such a narrow slice of the workforce the example lacks punch. Frankly, middle management and commercial office jobs strike much closer to our hearts. So, yes, enjoy that bit of the speech, accept that it’s a valid point, but don’t get bowled over so easily.

Then yadda yadda yadda Isabelle silver medal. Don’t mistake me, well done for her, great, awesome, epic. Does anyone remember we won TWO silvers? Rainer Ng got the other one in swimming, but we’re all so fixated on table tennis because we had a China-born team represent us in Beijin 2008. My attitude towards this has adjusted somewhat in the intervening years, but I’ll save that for the YOG post.

PM Lee coined a few new demarcations in his rally. Clear lines being drawn between foreign workers and immigrants, PRs and citizens. About time, if you ask me. That he spent so much time trying to convince the audience the government was very serious about the difference worried me however. I sincerely hope the social divisions don’t run that deep. Oh, and the thing about immigrants making up for falling fertility rate; I’ve spoken about this before, and my views haven’t changed.

I don’t know who wrote his speech, or maybe he just missed it out, but I’d think it’ll score political points if he had said he’ll spend money raised from the higher foreign worker levies on WorkShare for the low-income.

I’m wondering how the higher levy and the relatively lowered number of 80,000 will combine though. Is that right? Too much, too little? Too blunt, too fine? I don’t know, I’m no economist. Construction and blue-collar industries will take a hit, definitely. Hopefully that’ll translate into a boon for the unemployed 40-something technicians and electricians and so on.

Here’s the thing. I don’t believe in “hopefully” when it comes to governing. I shouldn’t have had to say that. That I did, gives me my verdict: too little.

There’s always a thing when it comes to making PRs and new citizens serve NS. Not practical, which is true. But no unsurmountable. We are Singaporeans, are we not? We are miracle-workers, the top national engineers of this world. We can find a way if we want to.

That’s not license for the jackals to howl at the PM. Unless the jackals can suggest how to overcome the practical difficulties, their mad barking is only so much noise.

I don’t like how so many people are making noise over the S$9,000 being paid out to NSMen. I mean, come on, it’s inevitably going into the CPF. It’s far too remote to be bribery. You could of course feel all high and mighty and insulted, saying it cheapens your service, but that’s really hypocrisy. “Cheapening” means yea you acknowledge you can be bought with the money, you just don’t think 9K is enough, but with that mercenary attitude what the devil gives you the right to take the moral high ground in your whining?

I’ve suggested this $$$ policy before, actually, but I had a much bigger figure in mind, along the lines of S$30,000, with each payout adjust and affected by annualised GDP growth. But I’m not the guy making the speech behind the podium, am I?

Oh, PM, you might not be aware, but SAFRA doesn;t count as NS welfare, because no one gives a damn about SAFRA except when we need the discount for movie tickets.

The biggest thing which pissed me off is the bloody MRT expansion programme. Ever since Yeow Cheow Tong left Cabinet the West has been under-served in transport, and none of the new lines take pressure off Jurong East Interchange, which is easily the busiest station in the country. Spoilt Easterners got all the good stuff. I swear I feel like punching the living daylights out of Bedok heartlanders who complain about lack of parking spaces. Bloody hell, you guys have a more extensive public transport network than we do, so shut the hell up and save everyone some carbon and petrol.

The new housing policies to cool the property market got a raised eyebrow from me. For one, I’m pretty sure Mah Bow Tan’s the first minister to use the word “bubble” in reference to this housing market performance. For another, those policies are old material, just tightening further. Nothing in the way of innovation. Not certain if it’s going to work (although the early signs are hopeful with property bonds taking a hit), but I sure hope they have something else up their sleeves in case it doesn’t.

Now, does Wong Kan Seng’s new appointment mean he’s giving up his portfolio at Home Affairs? That Mas Selamat incident has been scarred into everyone’s minds and tarnished his image forever. I actually think this is nothing more than a face-saving way for him to exit Cabinet without awkward questions. That unfortunately, probably means he’ll stick around after the next election. Argh.

I got my back up at the education bit. Expanding the IP? WHAT? This is going to be one of the biggest and longest-running beefs I’m going to have with this government.

Let me explain using the dear PM’s own logic. The education system is being reformed to move towards a structure with less emphasis on make-or-break examinations, so students who bloom late or mess up once get more chances to advance the ladder later without losing out.

You know why I’m pissed? I’m pissed because I support the above principle as a pillar of meritocracy, but IP undermines it. In IP, performing well once, in one examination or one set of examinations, locks you into a rather higher stream, the IP stream. There’s no exit. There’s no pitfall. There’s no criteria for you to be thrown out, to be dumped. There’s no minimum standard you have to maintain in order to stay in IP. Complete bullshit, that ain’t meritocracy. Opportunities must be given for success, and opportunities must also be given for failure. I don’t care if you’re a “peak”, if you don’t keep growing alongside the rest of the range I’ll boot you back into the “foothills” category.

By the way, BPGHS got a special mention (again). Principal Lee Seng Hai got a front row seat too, in his favourite black-and-white striped shirt. Could use better posture though.

That said, education was a surprise inclusion. Hadn’t really been on anyone’s radar for some time now. Could just be a political trick though; given how controversial education is tapping it up can be a marvellous way to deflect pressure from something else.

I also don’t know came up with the “Singapore Spirit” thing. What the heck, seriously, the idea’s fine, but it just smacks of patting yourself in the back and more “Singapore Boleh!” Poorly developed idea too. I mean, I have my own notion of what the “Singapore Spirit” consists of, but after listening to the PM I still don’t get what his concept of the “Singapore Spirit” is and whether it gels with mine.

Hmm. Yea I think that’s it. Overall? 6/10. I don’t like it when the ideas expounded don’t interlock into each other well enough. I don’t like my policies piecemeal, if you will, it smacks too much of patchwork and plugging leaks. Here’s a note though: he spent a great chunk of the speech detailing how he intends to manage the inflow of foreigners. Those are practical concerns he’s addressing, which means policywise, immigration is here to stay. All he’s going to do is to see if he can make it rather easier on the rest of us.

I’m also a little surprised that anti-terrorism and national security got so little attention. Especially with that self-radicalised NSF and the hardware display at the NDP. Another thing: PM Lee completely neglected income gaps. He sort of pretended they didn’t exist.

Whatever dude. You’d better know what you’re doing. More and more people are learning to watch, as much as I detest many of their tinted glasses.

Piaroh-Cze:

I will not accept giving others a second chance to succeed if they don’t also get a second chance to fail.

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