The Trolls Are Amongst Us

The internet is abuzz with commentaries about the upcoming elections. There are heated exchanges amongst netizens who speak without restraint about their feelings on a wide variety of subjects. Sadly, it is also the time when the most vulgarities and expletives are used.

Reading the commentaries brings me back to my first day in national service. I had a culture shock when the sergeants and corporals were verbally abusing every recruit with that infamous four letter word and a myriad of Hokkien expletives. I guess one of the best things that the army has done for me is to numb me to the impact of such vocabulary. But for those who have not gotten use to it, try and see it this way. When people run out of words to say or use to express their anger and frustration, they jump straight into their pool of swirling unpalatable adjectives and nouns. Learn to read the feelings and not the words. They are just human.

But there is a group of netizens who do give rise to some concern. They enjoy name-calling, inflaming matters and inciting negative emotions to derive a certain psychological thrill. They deliberately choose to use mocking, insulting and incendiary language to work up a storm in the forum and to provoke a response. The term "trolls" is used to describe them.

How do you identify trolls? Well, they do not use their real names and would work behind an air of mystery. Sometimes, they would use monickers which are derogatory names of the people they are targeting. Their tactics are easy to detect. They use strong abusive language to throw a rational discussion off-course by refusing to accept any logical reasoning and then make personal attacks without checking out their facts.

We need to be aware of who are the trolls and avoid becoming their prey. They are out to thrill themselves at the expense of a serious public discourse on matters that deserve to be treated rationally, reasonably and responsibly. If you identify a troll, all you need to do is to ignore them. Don't give them the thrill that they are looking for.

I Am Not Alone

Some people think that independent candidates are working all by themselves and are short in resources and may not be able to run a town council. Conversely, they think that party candidates have more resources and are better able to run town councils. If we care to think deeper, these are merely assumptions and are not absolute truths. 

I may be an independent candidate but this does not mean that I do everything by myself. The amount of work that I have been able to do on the ground and in so many places would not have been possible without a dedicated team of supporters and their resources.

As a matter of fact, when it became known that I no longer had any party affiliation, there were immediate invitations from various political parties for me to join them. Some had even sought support to tap on the resources that my supporters have as they do not have adequate resources of their own.

A political party cannot succeed without strong supporters. With so many political parties on the scene, there is not only competition for talent but also resources. I am open to sharing the resources of my supporters with anyone who genuinely wish to serve the people and are not involved in politics for ulterior motives.

The idea of making MPs run a town council is an unfair political move that has shifted municipal duties from HDB to an MP. It not only makes the job of an MP more onerous so that he has less time in his parliamentary work but to also act as an electoral hurdle. It has been seen that even PAP town councils have their own issues. Voters, however, choose their candidate not because the candidate will be good in running a town council but because he or she can be their effective voice in parliament. Otherwise, their estate manager would be their best candidate as MP. And many may not know that I am not entirely new to town council work and was once a volunteer lawyer in the drafting of tenders and contracts for the Bukit Batok Town Council when it was first formed under the late Dr. Ong Chit Chung.

Having said so, since running a town council has been thrust upon an MP as his municipal duty, it makes sense for any new MP to continue to employ the services of the existing staff who are managing the estate. This is a step towards depoliticizing the system and ensures continuity of service with necessary improvements under the new MP. Obviously, if this continuity is not possible because there are issues of political ties, which will be truly regrettable, my plan will be to adopt a direct management approach with the help of my team of supporters which comprise people with the relevant skills and experience.

As an independent candidate, I am no different from a party candidate. In fact, I may be more equal to the task of running a town council.

THEME: Employment - The White and Blue Collars

In recent years, our legal profession has seen an open-door policy that allows foreign lawyers to practise law Singapore law in transactional matters. Yet, even though the rules are relaxed to admit foreign law practices into Singapore, there is still one category of foreign lawyers who remain subject to a long-standing strict legal regime for their admission here - Queens' Counsels.

The rules permit the admission of Queen's Counsels (or "QCs") for them to represent a litigant before our courts if the QC has, inter alia, special qualifications or experience pertaining to the case. This idea in the admission of QCs ensures that a real foreign talent is being allowed to represent a litigant in place of a local counsel. This same idea of "special qualifications or experience" should be considered as part of the criteria for allowing foreigners to take up any job in the category of Professionals, Managers, Executives and Technicians ("PMET") in Singapore where we are not short of suitable candidates.

It is a reasonable assumption that each job taken up by a foreign PMET in our job market means that one potential Singaporean candidate is displaced. The justification for doing so must be that the applicant is a "real foreign talent" who is not paid a less favourable remuneration package than that offered to a local candidate. Where a real foreign talent is recruited, there should be a requirement that a transfer of his/her knowledge and skills should take place during the tenure so as to upgrade the quality of our own local pool of PMETs. Any extension of the foreign PMETs' eligibility to continue working here should be supported with cogent reasons and corroborated by a statement from a local apprentice.

The construction industry has traditionally relied on foreign construction workers and there are not many Singaporeans who will consider taking up construction work except as foremen and project managers. Construction workers do not seem to pose a threat to our workforce and have become more or less indispensable. However, in the F&B industry, the need for cleaners, waiters, front service and other workers has not been adequately met by our local workforce because of low wages and a lack of pride in such jobs. In order to develop our own labour force to undertake the work that is now substantially taken up by foreign labour, we need to take a hard look at the costs of living that our workers at the lowest rung of our economic ladder are facing and how to inculcate job-pride.

There is a growing need for us to seriously consider whether minimum wages should be imposed to protect the rights of the most vulnerable groups in our workforce who contribute to the massive profits that many of our local companies are generating. The Progressive Wage Model advocated by NTUC to increase the salaries of workers in the cleaning and security industries, which is enforced only through licensing requirements,is in substance a minimum wage scheme and a step in the right direction, But more can be done to match up the wages to the minimum costs of subsistence.

Wages and work morale are not unrelated. In fact, low wages lead directly to low morale. Perhaps, there are business owners who will be genuinely troubled by wage increases because of their costs of doing business such are high rental costs. But if businesses are taking care of their workers, then the state with all its resources, ought to step in to see how they could help these businesses.