WP MP Faisal Manap - Why no Malay in Navy.

Razak Ali

April 8 at 12:31pm · 

 

I being seeing this topic appeaing….appearing….appearing….

WP MP Faisal Manap - Why No Malay in Navy.

I feel many have over reacted regardless whether which position or group they are at.

Being an ex-military personnel serving two decade of service in a classified unit perhaps i share my story.

Majority of Malays who enters SAF are majority are NSF means they will only serve about 1 year plus which means the rest of the time they will be serving in their basic and skills courses. While the SAF regulars (signed on) have a bigger pool of Chinese and Indian coming in.

Also most Malays cepat patah hati.

I have about 5 Malay friends together with me who applied to be regulars. We went to CMPB which was in Tanglin. Since we got nothing to do after studies.

“Bros, si A je dapat kita tak dapat. Apa kata kita apply sekali lagi nak tak?”
B said “ Jangan buang masa lah kita Melayu. Dia orang taknak tengok kita lah X”
C adds “ Sudahlah dari aku buang masa nak jadi askar lebih baik aku kerja pat PSA je. Kerja relak takyah nak fikir2 nak ippt lah soc lah range lah. Buang2 masa jugak seh bro”
D said “ Ini takdir Tuhan. Kita Cuma merancang”
Then few minutes later, A joined us. “Eh bros, sorry lah aku rasa aku taknak lah join SAF. Dia cakap aku kena post overseas for satu ke dua tahun ah. Takmo ah. Nanti GF aku lari camne?”

We all laughed at one another.

Then came enlistment, I was posted somewhere in the east while the rest of them served in various units.

I am so determine that I need to be a regular as I want to be in the uniform group.

I approached my OC. “Sir, I want to sign on.” His reply “If you have to die for Singapore will you die?” My answered “YES SIR!” He wrote me a 2 page testimonial after knowing me for 1 year, He then told me. Approached your manpower officer with that and tell him it’s from me. Days later I got news that I was granted being a regular. Soon later everything crumbled. My dad passed away due to heart failure. The only mean to survive was to be a regular and not to cock it up.

I then met with the rest of my friends who we applied as a regular together. They seem to be more interested in girls, motorbikes & trends. I asked “Eh kau orang tak nak jadi regular ke?” Their reply is almost the same. “Bro, malas ah”

They would rather not push for it instead they just biarkan pada takdir.

I was holding various appointments and was in various camps.

One shocking discovery I was undergoing underwater demolition course. My course warrant has the same name as my grandfather. He was a Malay and very garang. No nonsense man. NDU cookhouse was halal when I had training. I always look forward for Thursday lunch as the chefs who are navy warrants will cook nasi briyani. Graduated from the course and back to my unit.

I met up with my friends. Again I asked if they are still keen to join the SAF as I am willing to help them. They used to have this referral scheme where you can get someone be a regular you get $100. ($100 those days are A LOT OF MONEY)

Their answers were the same and they are not focus. So just trying their luck and their attitude is dapat2 kalau tak dapat2 it’s ok.

Then came we were tasked to a Middle East country. A familiar handsome Malay pilot who was a child actor was piloting the kc plane. We spend days chatting and even cooking for one another during our tour of duty.

In my 2 decade of service I have seen many Malays who are inside the forces. I can safely say this Malays who are there not because they are Malays because they earn to be where they are.
It’s a progress based on individual, that many have asked and the government is giving but based on what?

Should we give Malays just because Malays wants or should we give the Malay based on merits he deserve.

By the way, one thing WP MP is wrong. There are Malays in the navy just that there are there deployed in other appointments and job scope.

Also I emphasis and share this short story of mine not belittling anyone just to also share some weakness in the community.

Melayu suka patah hati. We must stop this mindset and go beyond our limits.

Salam Jumaat

Chan Chun Sing called for a sectoral approach to raise productivity

To overcome the lacklustre productivity gains seen, Labour Chief Chan Chun Sing called for a united approach to re-examine mindsets and methods, including looking at job design.

“We got to go sectorally, to examine where are the laggards in our productivity drive. How best can we help them to uplift the productivity in their respective sectors?” he said.

“We either do this or we pretend that some broad macro measures will miraculously lift the productivity of all. I don’t believe that. I’ve visited enough companies to know that no two companies are the same.”

Recognising that raising productivity requires winning over workers, and retraining them according to their capabilities, Mr Chan pledged the labour movement’s commitment to work with the various ministries to “do this well”. 

 Source: CNA

Chan Chun Sing explains how the Singapore workers will be helped

The economy is undergoing both a cyclical as well as a fundamental, structural slowdown in which consumer habits and production patterns change, Chan Chun Sing said in Parliament on Monday (Apr 4).

The Singapore workforce will need to be adaptive to avoid structural unemployment in this slowdown. 

He cited the example of a retail worker who has been displaced due to e-commerce or online shopping.

"The problem is not the total number of jobs available in the economy. The real question is: How do we help the person who is displaced at the retail line get into another job that has been created? It will be too far-fetched to expect someone who is displaced at the retail scene to be able - with minimal training - to go into the e-commerce space of data management space," hes said.

To ensure minimal structural unemployment, he said the labour movement will work closely with employers and the Government.

"At this point in time, we are at a critical juncture of our economic transformation. How do we restructure our industries to create the jobs of the future? How do we ramp up the capacity to upskill our workers to equip them with the skills of the future?" he said.

He highlighted 3 key ways in which workers can be supported. These are:

1. Provide career guidance. Counselling to be redoubled. An announcement from the NTUC and Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) can be expected later in the year.

2.  The Government will make sure relevant courses are available so that workers can utilize and maximize their SkillsFuture credit.

3.  There will be a "second-skilling" of workers, especially those past 40, to ensure that they are equipped in the event of a retrenchment. 



Source: CNA

He cares for Singapore, so he will choose the best person for the job regardless of nationality.

Edmund Koh will choose the best person for the job, regardless of nationality.

Singapore has "swung too much" towards prioritising the hiring of local over foreign talent, says Edmund Koh, Swiss private bank UBS' Asia-Pacific head of wealth management.

"First and foremost I am very proud to be a Singaporean," he said.

"But I'm also acutely aware that we should not overplay that, because being a cosmopolitan city and being an international hub, we need to... be pragmatic and realistic about what our requirements are."
In short, he said, an international financial hub requires international talent.

"In banking there's one thing that's very important and that is affinity-built trust," he noted.

For example, he said, if an Italian client interested in investing in China were to approach a bank in Singapore, he would be ill-served by an adviser who does not really know Italian culture, or how to build a relationship with someone from Milan, versus someone from Rome.

"Remember, because of that kind of deal flow that comes to Singapore, we create more banking jobs. If you are so myopic and keep thinking it has to be local, local, local, we lose that element of internationalising, of being truly an international centre," he said.

"Yes, I'm a champion for Singaporeans. Once a very wise man told me: 'Ed, we must never forget to plant our own timber.' Yes, we plant our own timber. We should. But if you need to supplement it, if you need to buy an orchard, then you buy it."

To be sure, Mr Koh has made some high-profile local hires.

He recruited former Singapore Exchange president Gan Seow Ann in 2013 as vice-chairman of wealth management in South-east Asia.

And last week he announced that he had managed to convince banking veteran Tracey Woon, now Citi's vice-chairman of Asean corporate and investment banking, to join UBS, also as a vice-chairman of wealth management in South-east Asia, in the third quarter of this year.

While his views might not be considered politically correct, the 55-year-old said, he believes it is what Singapore really needs.

"I care for my country. If I look at my country 15, 25, 30 years out, this is what we need for now. We need to be nimble and pragmatic, we need to communicate very well our needs and we need a balance."

By: Edmund Koh

Swiss private bank UBS' Asia-Pacific head of wealth management
Source: ST
bit.ly/1McD8ss

Do we want to develop a 'blame culture'? - SGH Hep C cluster

Naming the individuals responsible for the hepatitis C outbreak at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) last year will develop a "blame culture" that will not help patients in the long run, Health Minister Gan Kim Yong told Parliament on Monday (April 4).

"Instead of focusing on naming individuals and developing a blame culture in our healthcare institutions, we need to encourage a learning culture to make our hospitals as safe as they should be," he said.

"Revealing the names of the officers and specific sanctions each individual received does not contribute to better care of patients. In deciding what to disclose, we have to bear in mind the longer-term impact on our healthcare system and healthcare workers, and strike a balance."

The Health Minister was responding to NCMP Leon Perera of WP who asked for the names of the 12 staff who were disciplined over the Hep C cluster.

Nobody should insist that they know the right way to honour Lee Kuan Yew and compel others to follow.

The distribution of the book on founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew to secondary school students has gone somewhat viral and generated a variety of different responses, including apprehension and fear about a cult of personality emerging ("New workbook for students on what Lee stood for launched"; March 24).

While blind worship of mortal humans is unwise, not having heroes to look up to and model after is foolish.

At the core of successful communities and societies is the need for heroes and for narratives of their lives and achievements to inspire us to live at a higher level.

When we stop having new heroes, the bedrock of our success may be shaken.

As humans, we need heroes to be our pacesetters and to motivate us.

In many ways, we stop having heroes not because we have grown old; on the contrary, we have grown old when we stop having heroes.

We should continue to remember and honour the heroes who have contributed to our success.

We should each honour them in our own way. Nobody should insist that they know the right way to honour these leaders and compel others to follow.

Heroes are a reflection of our desire to turn a dream into a reality. They help to define us and inspire new visions.

Heroes promote a stronger desire for more heroic acts in our midst. They become models for our achievements and fuel for our motivation to achieve success.

We admire heroes for their stand against the tide of their times.

We are absorbed by the way they defy overwhelming odds.

Yes, they may have flaws, and they may have failed in certain areas. They may even have fallen deep into the pits of life. But heroes rise again to make history and leave a meaningful legacy for us.

Heroes such as Mother Teresa, Confucius, Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and Mr Lee show us that we can achieve far more than we can ever dream or imagine.

To progress, we need to find and incorporate more heroes into our lives. We need to share their stories again and again, so that we may be truly inspired towards always improving our lives and our society.

Patrick Liew Siow Gian (Dr)

ST Forum
Published 2 April 2016

SINGAPORE TO BEEF UP NUCLEAR SECURITY, PM LEE SAYS

Singapore will roll out tighter controls to detect and analyse radioactive and nuclear materials passing through its borders, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said this at the 4th Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) in Washington, DC on Friday (Apr 1), where more than 50 countries shared their progress in strengthening nuclear security.

Since the first NSS in 2010, Singapore has tightened checks on radioactive materials passing through its ports, with every case of nuclear fuel transiting through Singapore being tracked. “From time to time, we have intercepted cargo and confiscated items,” Mr Lee said.

He said that Singapore had recently discovered a significant amount of thorium - a radioactive element which can be used as nuclear fuel.

A laboratory called the Protective Analytical and Assessment Facility (PAAF), plans for which were first announced in 2011, will also be ready this year. The lab, located at Pasir Panjang, will be able to conduct radiation-nuclear detection and analysis.

On top of that, the city-state also cooperates with international partners such as the Interpol Global Complex for Innovation in Singapore, which fosters the sharing of data about transnational threats among countries.

Singapore also participates in the Proliferation Security Initiative – a global effort that combats the trafficking of weapons of mass destruction. It also adopts the recommendations of the Financial Agency Task Force, which is an intergovernmental body that fights against money laundering and terrorism funding.

NUCLEAR ATTACK BY TERRORISTS NOT IMPOSSIBLE: PM LEE

With the world becoming increasingly vulnerable to terrorism, a nuclear attack by terrorists using devices bought from the black market is “very plausible and believable”, and is a threat which countries must take seriously, Mr Lee said.

In its Dabiq magazine published last May, the Islamic State militant group had described such a scenario – where it launches a major attack with devices from the black market, Mr Lee said, urging the global community to continue fighting against nuclear terrorism.

“Terrorism in itself is a severe problem. If it's mixed up with a terrorist who has some form of radioactive weapon or WMD (weapon of mass destruction), a nuclear weapon, nuclear bomb, that's even worse,” he said.

“I think the countries (at the summit) are taking the issue of terrorism very seriously. In fact, we spent the last session this afternoon talking about terrorism rather than talking about nuclear issues –Turkey, Belgium, France all intervened passionately because they have direct experience of it,” Mr Lee said, adding that Singapore also takes a serious view of the issue.

Since the NSS began in 2010, more than 3.8 metric tons of nuclear materials have been removed globally. This amount could be used to make more than 150 nuclear weapons.

Mr Lee also expressed concern over North Korea, which he said continues to develop nuclear capabilities and conduct tests that raise tensions in North East Asia. These moves can destabilise the region, he said.

“I hope all countries will encourage (North Korea) to restrain itself and work towards denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula,” he said.

Mr Lee also touched on the region's plans for nuclear power plants. Vietnam and Indonesia are among the ASEAN countries planning to develop such facilities.

Nuclear power plants are not in itself a security issue, he said. “The risk is safety and in case of sabotage or theft of material, then we have a problem. That's why we are building up our capabilities to understand nuclear safety and that's why we participate in conferences like this, because the security part requires international cooperation."

During the summit, Mr Lee met with Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who has accepted an invitation to deliver the keynote speech at the Shangri-la Dialogue later this year, Singapore’s Prime Minister's Office said.

Mr Lee also had bilateral meetings with his Denmark and Netherlands counterparts, as well as Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and ministers from Australia and Israel.

Source: CNA