Moral High Ground

After a pretty long week of attending interminable meetings and surviving a lot of entertaining at night, I have finally copped out and pleaded sick tonight. I actually do have a cold, so it's not as bad as it sounds. Haven't had a stuffed nose for a while now though, so I'm relishing the experience, strange as that may sound.

This is also the first night this week that I'm done with the night completely sober, no trace of alcohol consumption today at all. I think it's not such a good thing for me to drink then get home and sit in front of my computer. I seem to say, or type, very unbecoming things under such circumstances. I get into a fair deal of trouble that way. Quite aside from little things like firing off strange emails, I also have odd conversations where I explain the most extreme ways I think about certain things. My takes on any situation are many and varied, the most reasonable are those I express in a lucid and sober state of mind. It is only when I am inebriated that some of these other modes of thought are spoken or typed. I cannot honestly disclaim responsibility for the things I say when drunk, for even a drunk me is still me, just under a particular set of circumstances. I do think, however, that whatever I say must be seen in the light of being influenced by my mood at the time, which under the sway of alcohol, tends to a bit emotional, even over the smallest things. It is a simple matter for me to create something that fits exactly how I feel at the moment. That is why so many people think I am both capable of speaking off the cuff, and culpable of making a lot of smoke out of very little. The logic always works in some way, but the facts may not be present to support the logical process. Logic cuts in many directions, and choosing the one you desire is the key. In other words, if I ever offend you, or say and do something weird while I'm drunk, be ready and willing to listen to me while I'm sober before making a judgement. I will make one apology for drunk antics, but no more, for I am a fairly proud sort who cannot abide continual debasement. That would be asking too much. If you ever see me making repeated apologies, kick me hard in the head.

Strangely enough, I am actually looking forward to the start of the school year. It seems that the cold is far superior to the terrible heat and humidity in this city. Sweat is a terrible thing. The smell alone is enough to offend, much less the rashes I sometimes get from too much sweat. Life in school seems so simple compared to now. Then, all I had to worry about were essays and reading and finals. I didn't even have to work vaguely hard at all to make a pretty decent GPA. If I were on scholarship, I would be comfortably within the requirements for a Master's. Imagine if I were on a scholarship and under pressure to perform as well as I can for the imagined benefit of that extra 0.05 on my GPA. My god, I would be some sort of academic legend, I tell you. As it is, I'm coasting by and wondering if I should be working harder.

Does bring me to another point though. I have often wondered at how narrow the view of my fellow Singaporeans is. I mean, how can anyone honestly believe it's a good idea for the government to decimate the private sector? Come on. Or for the ministers to play musical chairs instead of specialising and building competence in their respective areas? In any MNC, it would be anathema for the Vice Presidents to simply swap jobs between themselves. There would inevitably be a loss of in-depth knowledge resulting from this system. Ok, how about the myth that Singapore GLCs are actually good at what they do? They really aren't, y'know. Capitaland is one of the major glamour GLCs in China, and it has been reduced to building new apartments next to successful Hong Kong or Taiwan properties to cash in. That is a very sad state of affairs. While I do not believe that civil servants and their ilk are necessarily poor entrepreneurs, I do think they are disadvantaged by the scholarship system. How can being contracted for 6 years be a good thing? Does the government really need so many smart, talented people? I really don't think so. These people are mostly wasted in their functions, being trapped in a system that rewards performing well in their own roles. It is like a huge multinational corporation, except without the profit incentive to alleviate problems of infighting. So these people of some degree of raw intelligence and ability do not get to test themselves in the world without the safety net of a system of promotion and superscales. It is near impossible for them to see beyond the limitations of the organisations that hire them.

Speaking of limitations of GLCs, why do Singaporeans think we are better than the rest of Asia? We really aren't. We don't have any real advantage over anybody. True, Singaporeans tend to be more cosmopolitan than many other Asians, but that is a fairly minor edge over China Chinese or Hongkongers in particular. We are far poorer business people than people from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Korea, Japan ... We have no edge in technology or processes over Japan, Korea, even China. Management systems we do have some knowledge of, but why would anyone buy that from us when the Europeans and American are dying to sell their expertise? I have seen the China civil servants at work, and they are far more diligent, enthusiastic, aggressive, savvy and capable than our own. Really, what do we have that others do not?

So that is why the Singapore government tries to help our own companies expand beyond our shores. Wow, that sounded so cliched I could thump the table with it. Don't ask. Anyway, just taking China as an example, the services EDB provide are easily available, but more expensive and of inferior efficiency as compared to the local service companies. And us taxpayers support these scholars to do a job worse than the Chinese?

Ah, another gripe. Civil servants and employees of anything owned by the government are servants of the people. Really. They are not our bosses. If you're a PSC scholar, then you should be thinking of how to serve the interests of the country, not of yourself or the ministry or your bosses. People don't seem to get that. Citizens pay taxes to support the government. Every cent each civil servant is paid comes from the pockets of the citizens. So tell me why civil servants think they are above the citizens in the hierarchy of things.

On a related note, GLCs doing business in Singapore should not be making money! If you're owned by the government, then why on earth are you making profits? I agree that GLCs should be efficient and non loss-making, but if you're making profits, then you can stand to lower prices some. A prime example is Singtel. When the mobile phone market opened up a bit, the prices plummeted immediately. This means that the prices before were exorbitant. Why in the world are Singaporeans paying such high prices? To feed salaries? Preposterous. Why are civil servant salaries so high and perpetually rising anyway? We get a small rebound in the GDP, and immediately government salaries rise. Hello, unemployment didn't change. People are still out of jobs. Spend the money on something else. The classic argument of high salaries to prevent corruption doesn't work. If you're amoral enough to take a bribe because you're not lavishly paid, then I don't want you as my government servant anyway. This is even more so for politicians. If I must pay you millions just to keep you clean, then you're not trustworthy enough to lead my country. If you want high salaries because you want the money and feel you deserve it for the job you do, say so, and I'll happily pay you. Well, maybe not quite as much, if I could choose, but a goodly sum anyway. I'm a believer in compensation for effort and competence. Don't try to take the moral high ground here.

I'll rant about the other side of Singaporeans, the cynical, snooty types, another time. I'm sick, and need to nap a bit occasionally.