Some people think that Dr Tan is a Yes PAP man. Read this for your self. Article is from: http://www.thinkcentre.org/article.cfm?ArticleID=2340
MP questions SM's intervention in SIA saga
(Today Online)
16 March 2004
VETERAN backbencher Tan Cheng Bock yesterday asked why it was necessary for Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew to intervene in the Singapore Airlines pilots saga, when younger Government ministers were capable of handling the issue.
MP questions SM's intervention in SIA saga
VETERAN backbencher Tan Cheng Bock yesterday asked why it was necessary for Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew to intervene in the Singapore Airlines pilots saga, when younger Government ministers were capable of handling the issue.
Said the outspoken MP for Ayer Rajah: "Now, many have told me that SM should have let the younger ministers handle the issue by taking a back seat. They asked me: 'Why must SM run to their help so fast? They want to know'."
Handling the pilots' union was a matter that required "people management", "EQ (emotional quotient) as much as IQ (intelligence quotient)" and "political judgement", he said. "Do I believe that the new leaders can handle this issue? Yes. I'm sure they can," he asserted.
"You watch how our new leaders handle Sars, you watch how they handle the Asian financial crisis and you watch how they are managing our economic downturn," he said, noting that they had the confidence and ability.
And, for emphasis, he added: "When Singaporeans are afraid that our younger leaders cannot manage without Mr Lee Kuan Yew and are losing their sleep, I tell them: 'Don't worry. Our younger leaders can do it'." VETERAN backbencher Tan Cheng Bock yesterday asked why it was necessary for Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew to intervene in the Singapore Airlines pilots saga, when younger Government ministers were capable of handling the issue.
Said the outspoken MP for Ayer Rajah: "Now, many have told me that SM should have let the younger ministers handle the issue by taking a back seat. They asked me: 'Why must SM run to their help so fast? They want to know'."
Handling the pilots' union was a matter that required "people management", "EQ (emotional quotient) as much as IQ (intelligence quotient)" and "political judgement", he said. "Do I believe that the new leaders can handle this issue? Yes. I'm sure they can," he asserted.
"You watch how our new leaders handle Sars, you watch how they handle the Asian financial crisis and you watch how they are managing our economic downturn," he said, noting that they had the confidence and ability.
And, for emphasis, he added: "When Singaporeans are afraid that our younger leaders cannot manage without Mr Lee Kuan Yew and are losing their sleep, I tell them: 'Don't worry. Our younger leaders can do it'." VETERAN backbencher Tan Cheng Bock yesterday asked why it was necessary for Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew to intervene in the Singapore Airlines pilots saga, when younger Government ministers were capable of handling the issue.
Said the outspoken MP for Ayer Rajah: "Now, many have told me that SM should have let the younger ministers handle the issue by taking a back seat. They asked me: 'Why must SM run to their help so fast? They want to know'."
Handling the pilots' union was a matter that required "people management", "EQ (emotional quotient) as much as IQ (intelligence quotient)" and "political judgement", he said. "Do I believe that the new leaders can handle this issue? Yes. I'm sure they can," he asserted.
"You watch how our new leaders handle Sars, you watch how they handle the Asian financial crisis and you watch how they are managing our economic downturn," he said, noting that they had the confidence and ability.
And, for emphasis, he added: "When Singaporeans are afraid that our younger leaders cannot manage without Mr Lee Kuan Yew and are losing their sleep, I tell them: 'Don't worry. Our younger leaders can do it'."
Govt intervention in SIA, PSA sends wrong signal: MP
It has not shown the will to let go: Inderjit Singh
Government intervention in state-owned companies like Singapore Airlines and PSA Corporation isn't helpful to what Singapore wants to promote - a reduced government role in business and more competition, Member of Parliament Inderjit Singh said in the Budget debate that kicked off yesterday.
'In both cases, we see very senior ministers getting directly involved, despite the fact that both companies already have supposedly very strong management teams and boards running them,' the MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC told Parliament. 'This is not a good signal and is not in line with what the government has been saying about its role in managing companies owned through its investment arms.'
Mr Singh did not elaborate on the government's 'involvement' in SIA and PSA but Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew was very much in the thick of an effort to settle the recent dispute between SIA pilots and management over wage cuts and other industrial relations issues.
Through investment company Temasek Holdings, the government owns 57 per cent of SIA. It also has substantial stakes in seven of 10 of Singapore's biggest publicly traded companies, with its stake in them worth about $28 billion.
'I feel that the government should shed its 'I know best' attitude when it comes to the management of these companies,' Mr Singh said. 'Many a time, many Singaporeans have given feedback to the government, the latest being the recommendations by the ERC (Economic Review Committee), where the recommendations are for government not to interfere and be involved in business.'
While the government has been receptive to the feedback and recommendations, according to him, it has not shown the will to let go.
'While many of them are already listed companies, we continue to see the strong influence of the government, including giving helping hands to these companies, hence creating an unlevel playing field to the detriment of the private sector,' Mr Singh said.
From the Wall Street Journal's editorial page
When foreigners choose to adopt an Asian country as their long-term home, one crucial consideration is some assurance of their right to continue to live there. It's a situation which has been improving in recent years, as countries across the region recognize the importance of such residency rights in attracting and retaining foreign talents.
Hong Kong now grants permanent residency to almost everyone who lives there for seven years, making it impossible to deport them under any circumstances. Japan has begun making it easier for long-term foreign residents to gain similar residency rights. Even China recently announced its own version of America's green-card system.
Singapore too, has generally adopted a policy of encouraging long-term foreign residents, to help alleviate shortages in the island's workforce. Many have been encouraged to apply for permanent residency and the number enjoying this status has shot up in recent years -- reaching 7.2% of the city state's population in the 2000 census.
But a recent case may cause many to reconsider just how much security that status really provides in Singapore. On Saturday, the island's immigration authorities announced they were stripping Singapore Airlines pilot Ryan Goh Yew Hock of his permanent residency. No reason was given beyond the fact that the minister for home affairs had decreed that Mr. Goh, who is Malaysian, had suddenly become an "undesirable immigrant" after 26 years of living in Singapore.
It's not difficult to divine the reason. Only a week earlier Mr. Goh, a former senior figure in the local pilot's union, had the misfortune to run foul of the man who many believe still runs Singapore. At a Feb. 26 meeting with pilots' leaders, Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew angrily accused Mr. Goh of being the "prime mover" in persuading pilots to sack their union leaders last November. The fired leaders had backed the pay cuts and layoffs proposed by the airline in response to last year's economic downturn. And reading from a file that showed someone had been delving into the pilot's personal history, Mr. Lee accused Mr. Goh of concealing the fact he'd moved his wife to Perth and taken out permanent resident status in Australia.
Now it's no crime to be a resident of two countries. Far from it. We'd have thought the fact that some skilled workers were hedging their bets by seeking residency rights elsewhere would be reason enough to step up Singapore's efforts to retain the human capital on which its prosperity depends. We're still waiting to hear why the long-term resident is being stripped of his residency rights. The Ministry of Home Affairs told us it would be "inappropriate" to elaborate because Mr. Goh still has the right to appeal against the decision to immigration authorities. They also said his case was not unique.
Nonetheless the action has reinforced a perception in some quarters that Mr. Lee's word still amounts to law in Singapore -- hardly the sort of image the island state wants to project in the run-up to his son's expected assumption of the premiership. Lee Hsien Loong may become prime minister in the next few months.
"It shows that if you run foul of the first family then you're out," one concerned foreign resident told us this week. The Singapore media put it more politely. "Revoking someone's PR status gives other people a feeling of uncertainty about what they can or cannot legitimately do," social activist John Gee was quoted as saying by the Today newspaper.
And in the long run, that threatens to do far more damage to Singapore's attractiveness as a place to live than any amount of industrial action by airline pilots.
11 March 2004
Sources and Relevant Links:
Today Online MP questions SM's intervention in SIA saga 10 March 2004
Business Times: Govt intervention in SIA, PSA sends wrong signal: MP It has not shown the will to let go: Inderjit Singh 9 March 2004
Yahoo Asia News: Govt's intervention in issue of SIA pilots' union to improve relationship 30 November 2003
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