“I make no apology for trying to grab all talent available. Ultimately, whether the PAP stays in power or not depends on which party can attract, nurture and grow that talent pool, and offer that talent pool to the people of Singapore to decide.”
MCYS Minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, 2010, (CNA)
“So far, the People’s Action Party’s tactic is to put all the scholars into the civil service because it believes the way to retain political power forever is to have a monopoly on talent. But in my view, that’s a very short term view. It is the law of nature that all things must atrophy. Unless SM allows serious political challenges to emerge from the alternative elite out there, the incumbent elite will just coast along. At the first sign of a grassroots revolt, they will probably collapse just like the incumbent Progressive Party to the left-wing PAP onslaught in the late 1950s. I think our leaders have to accept that Singapore is larger than the PAP.”
Ngaim Tong Dow, Ex-Civil Service Chief, 2006, Straits Times
What’re your views?
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I view it as entrepreneurs vs scholars. both hv brains for different purposes. so if scholars are taken into civil services, I do not think them as bad. There are enough intelligent people around. We need more entrepreneurs to create jobs….for Singaporeans.
I am totally FOR Singapore and thus, see Ngiam’s proposal as the only way to go. But scholars are Higly Over-rated. Many of the rest of us who are not scholars have not only brains but also street smarts. Goody to you if you can score in exams. However, living and leading well needs more than book knowledge. If Viv B does not know this by now, he’s been wasting his and our time.
“…from the alternative elite out there, the incumbent elite will just coast along. At the first sign of a grassroots revolt,….”
Right on…… with the way things are happening….. they are all “coasting along” !
What’s up with the elite mindset? The reason why we’re in this state of political apathy is partly because we embrace a “leave it to the elites” mentality. Ordinary civilians should take ownership of the country!
So-called scholars are just paper tigers, very good in theory form, but when faced with harsh reality, they just play safe and coast along, or worst got beaten hands done, when faced with foreign threat, they are just not world street-smart enough to survive.
Thus they have to hide behind the trousers of their peers for support and face-saving.
it’s already over …
45 years of rule under these so-called PAP’s scholars and we have achieved nothing. Our survival now depends on 2 million or more foreign workers.
Get rid of these so-called scholars who have only their paper qualifications to show. Bring in the real workers as these PAP scholars are only interested in enriching themselves. 45 years of PAP rule and the prices of public flats have spiraled out of control, public services have become dog shit, health costs are beyond the reach of ordinary citizens, jobs prospects dimmed by the presence of all sorts of foreigners here, etc, etc.
All we have now is a good-for-nothing Prime Minster who has nothing to offer but empty words. Give us a break. Enough is enough.
One speaks from the point of view of protecting the interest of a small ruling clique while the other has the nations’s interest at heart. Who speaks what I leave it to your own conclusion.
Ngiam must make amends for his long long years of being one of the ELITES in the PAP dominated government.
He must do all He can in the remaining years of his life to atone for his complicity in way Singapore citizens have been governed and treated with such utter contempt by the PAP.
Vivian’s statement about making no apologies of grabbing all talent …..if He is an example of TALENT then HE certainly is the ultimate example of the failure of that policy. He should be sacked for being utterly INEFFICIENT…and his latest screw up is spending almost $400million of Peoples’ money for a non event like YOG lwhen the people are are crying for Government assistance and involvement.
either PAP does not have pooled the right talent for the job or they are really bad at ultilizing talent.
scholars are but 1 aspect of talent. schooled in the rigours of rote learning, i wonder if they rely too much on textbooks solutions to solve real life issues.
a good example is climate change, maybe to these scholars, until climate change can be proved beyond doubt, they would just dismiss it as hot air. when it is confirm then i guess they will backtrack & throw excuses? din see it coming, unavoidable,…
in public service, the main thing is “Can You Serve”, a game show with the same name about people (being put through customers from hell) from frontline servie sector should be the key consideration. of course i mean serve the general population, not pappies only lah..
the day when ngiam removed himself from politics is the day his GOD/Ancestor talk to him in his dream.
remember when Ngiam took over as CEO of HDB inc private limited?..by the end of monthends..he sweat when he find that he cannot maintained a profit to run HDB Pte Inc…
now you all know why all the socalled sacked/retired ministers don’t hav the BALLS to start a REAL MAN businesses..they onLEE know how to run MLMs…asked leekingyou himself to start his OWNWED enterprise with his OWN money..let see how long he can LAST?
If talent is presented right before VB – can he recognise what talent is all about ?
VB speaks as if he is in control of all the levers, and the choice of picking talent is within his portfolio.
His position today is owed to his talent being spotted by the Second Generation Political Leadership of the Pro Alien Party.
Apparently, his talent has been put to the test more then once, and he failed on more then two occassions of which the YOG event is the biggest exposure to his WEAKNESS in the areas of MANAGEMENT, ORGANISATION, and INSPIRATIONAL LEADERSHIP.
If the available TALENT is as limited as claimed by the Pro Alien Party, it is even more critical that Ngiam Tong Dow’s view concerning the remaining available talent should be spread evenly around.
This is to ensure that each talent will keep the other challenged, and their attention and alertness will be sharpened by mutual competition.
When all the talent are put into a common basket, it can only result in polite deferrence to each others’ views, and ‘inbreeding’ of ideas can only be the subsequent outcome.
Singapore has plenty of enterprising people who are smart but they are no risk-taker as the ‘hunger’ is not there.
This mindset won’t change becos they are living in a sheltered environment.
Talent comes from within and not from excellence in garnering grades from schooling. There is a confusion that grade advancement equals education and getting a degree meant that one is educated and is competent. Being an educated man is not getting that costly piece of paper, but how you play the game of life.
Talent take the people’s money to get more talents to organise a show which is pretty half-bake is not real talent. There are many real talented Singaporeans, but they are definitely not in the government, many of whom appears half-educated.
Scholars are naturally adept in academia, arts and the sciences… and not in civil service. seems like we have created a new kind of “scholars”.
Both Mr.Balakrishnan and Mr.Ngiam were correct.I believe PAP can still stay in power indefinitely so long as its allows political changes from within.It it not wrong to pool all the talents together by one political party.Above all,most of those scholars and talented people recruited into the civil service were foreign educated and have learned a lot about the goods and the bads of western civilization and they have much to contribute to Singapore.The only way to see changes in our government is to make them humble by voting more oppositions to the parliament.Please do not erase PAP totally from the political map.It is out of the question.
What does VB know about running a business. He is merely a doctor or an ordinary surgeon who knows next to nothing to running a corporation or a big scale business. Worse still he talks so big in the midst of his biggest faux pas of his career – the YOG!
The PAP can have all the scholars in the world they want. Scholastic achievement does not guarantee success in governing of a country.
The problem with the PAP is that they are an unethical government bent on holding power at all costs.
Main stream media is completely dominated by them and they pass unjust laws to make sure they can rule indefinitely.
The bunch of PAP MPs and PAP ministers are a self-serving lot.
Thw way to go is to vote out as many PAP MPs in the coming election. It may take a few elections to completely remove the LKY and PAP virus.
Voters! Singapore is not about PAP.
How is talent defined by VB?
Take a top-flight scholar and a good “char kway teow” vendor at a hawker centre.
The latter can cook up fares so supremely delectable that customers from afar,including the scholar(who also needs to eat)would make a beeline for the “char kway teow”stall several times a week.
Does the food vendor have less talent than the scholar?
“If you were a poor person, anywhere on this planet, Singapore is the one place ………,
where you will have food on the table.
EVEN IF YOU CAN’T AFFORD IT, WE WILL HAVE MEALS DELIVERED TO YOU.”
(MCYS Minister Vivian Balakrishnan)
http://zh.sgforums.com/forums/10/topics/394784?page=1
THE ABOVE IS A LIE N EVERYONE KNOWS IT.
“I think our leaders have to accept that Singapore is larger than the PAP.”
Hear hear!
listening to you guys speak, you guys seem to be the ones that are obsessed with the idea that Singapore = PAP.
if you guys can couch your arguments as anything other than anti-PAP sentiment, people will take you seriously.
if you care about Singapore, then insist on reasoned debate online, and throw out the rubbish arguments, like the one comparing scholars and char kuay teow sellers. otherwise, this is just a circlejerk.
until you can do that, the opposition has no chance. so stop being part of the problem.
Vivian should go back to medicine, Community Development, Youth and Sports are not your specialty.
All the talents that PAP acquire only seeks to perpetuate their own interests.
k, 30 August 2010
i hear you. ;)
i think its worth a try avoid lumping everything together. maybe on your part your should see the reasons behind those negative sentiments? rather then just view it as anti-PAP, try look beyond the emotive rants that some posts contain?
comparing scholars & culinary experts isn’t trashy argument. both are examples of talent, 1 is an acadamic talent, the other is a culinary 1. with YOG just concluded, 1 should also be open to the idea that talent isn’t just about acadamics, but sports, arts, etc.
ask a foreign based S’porean & more likely than not, food is one of the main draw. maybe only sushi chefs qualifies as culinary talent to you?…
m.i.n
I just cannot trust anyone who will have me believe that the YOG is a success… oh, and very well done…
Bold face liar
This is really a very stupid statement from VB, coming so soon after the YOG fiasco. I think it is clear everyone wants to portray the YOG as some sort of winner and the focus has thereby shifted to the volunteers and athletes, since the intended international hype of it has obviously failed.
.
Now VB have 2 years to plan/organise, initially $107m to burn (subsequently increased effortlessly to $387m) and all the talents available (including apparently in cahoots with the MOE, vast pool of forced ‘volunteers’). Yet the YOG was mired by low ticket sales, weak overseas interest, food poisoning, blah, blah, blah – and this guy MAKE NO APOLOGY FOR THEM EITHER. In short, the end results did not justify the amount of resources committed.
.
So, is this becoming the trademark of this $2.3m minister, or what?
.
Remember: bringing together a bunch of like-minded people can result in great things being done, or in absolutely nothing being done.
smacks of poor planning. got to run around with Luck knocking on ticket booths to open up and sell? what kind of poor planning is this?
‘’ Former Permanent Secretary: I think our leaders have to accept that Singapore is larger than the PAP ‘’
‘’ When I first read Plato’s Republic, I was totally dazzled by the great logic of this organisational model where the best selects the best. But when I reached the end of the book, it dawned on me that though the STARTING POINT WAS MERITOCRACY, THE END RESULT WAS DICTATORSHIP AND ELITISM.’’
http://philochristus.blogspot.com/2006/05/interview-with-mr-ngiam-tong-dow.html
@k
Another elite in lecture speech.. hianzz.. tiring to hear.
well said, Mr Ngaim Tong Dow! impress with your views on politic. Everything needs a balance. SG is not that special
In all democratic political grounds around the world, there is always a balance between opp & incumbent party. This is to ensure that the incumbent party always have to be hold accountable for his action as the opposition will always be there to keep an eye on them.
I see no accountability in the incumbent party right now. i am sure most agree with that.
For what he said about allowing talents to dissent,I concur and respect his guts.
But,guys like NTD are co-opted into TLCs and GLCs to assume high positions after their stint in govt or the civil service.
It would have been better for the SCHOLARS and THINKERS like NTD to refuse the ‘OFFER THEY FIND HARD TO REFUSE’ and either,START their own companies(thus,creating jobs for the economy) oe better still,be that DISSENTING VOICE themslves.
We are not short of talents for private enterprise or for opposite representation;it’s just that folks like NTD ‘CANNOT REFUSE THE OFFER MADE TO THEM’ by their ‘GOD-FATHER’?
which civil servant came up with the price tag $104 millions for YOG , then YOG snowballed to $387 millions. who approved the initial budget of $104 millions , dont they have experts to realise the $104 millions is too little?
please note: Yes, they will ‘grab ‘ , ‘attract, nurture and grow’ talents’ to support and extend policies. Talked as if he is very noble.
@preston loon 30 August 2010
Both Mr.Balakrishnan and Mr.Ngiam were correct.I believe PAP can still stay in power indefinitely so long as its allows political changes from within.It it not wrong to pool all the talents together by one political party.Above all,most of those scholars and talented people recruited into the civil service were foreign educated and have learned a lot about the goods and the bads of western civilization and they have much to contribute to Singapore.The only way to see changes in our government is to make them humble by voting more oppositions to the parliament.Please do not erase PAP totally from the political map.It is out of the question.@
The Pro Alien Party grabs all the talent and you say it’s alright. Guess you don’t care a damn whether or not Sinkapoor is a democracy as long as your pet party remains in power. What if SDP grabs all the talent, leaving none/zero/zilch for the Pro Alien Party. Would that be alright too?
Remember: what’s sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander.
today..the 143th medias print how the south korea foreign/whateverminister abushed/placed his daughter in a highearnin positions…the results from the peasant in south korea is simple..get the FART out of politics..
you are HERE to serve the/ALL south koreans..not your familLEE…even maotzetung grandson who is a general in china do not favour or placed himself above the rest and onLEE 1s to work in a low profile positions…
our leekingyou ley? his WHOLE familLEE was placed high in every goverment ventures which included nephew/niece as well..who knows 1 day leekingyou might even place his filipino maid as head of manpower inc?
Mr Ngiam Tong Dow is the culprit where our homes were destroyed at Admore Point.
Thanks to his ignorant!
He forgets that the PAP is the one who raise him, such human should never exist in the 1st place.
PAP will win as usual who will vote for such person like Ngiam Tong Dow.
VB is one of those ministers that PAP should be shameful to have but he is still sitting around after the biggest joke of all- the YOG incident.
with such incompetentcy for a cost overrun of a few hundred million dollars of tax payers money and at the same time he was seriously trying to proof his worth to his bosses by debating over an extra meal for the needies- can you imagine that we sporeans have such a minister up there???
he was actually, belittling, sneering and sniding MP Lily Neo for her emphathy towards the poor- i think PAP should just remove this poor quality minister without blinking an eye- what a disgrace for all of us- sporeans.
put VB in a one PAP member with another Opposition, – i can bet that VB will lose with a big margin, its only the GRC unfair system that’s protecting him, we seriously dont like him alot as he is such ass licking and heartless minsiter that sits in the ivory tower- looking down at us.