Where's your evidence of cover-up? Or is this another mindless ranting thread again?Originally posted by dumbdumb!:or are they just good at covering them up?
Posted on Sunday, January 07, 2007 Talkingc0ck.comif there are no quotas on the number of medical students n law trainees, etc ... what wud meritocracy be like? ah... education....
Proposed Policy Measures to Help Ex-Scholars Find Second Careers
by Phoenix Klaw and Kok Kok Kway
With a limited shelf-life, life is not a bed of roses for scholars and Admin Services officers, who are often forced to retire early to make room for younger people. In a fit of (rare) pity for these fallen elite, the Talkingcock Institute of Policy Studies (TIPS) Director Ridiku Las has published a paper proposing ways that the civil service can help them settle down to a life of mediocrity in the real world.
Mr LasÂ’ paper has identified many reasons former scholars, especially SAF Scholars and Admin Service officers, are unsuitable for the private sector when they retire, e.g., SAF scholars are too used to ordering recruits around; ex-PS and DSs are too used to everyone accepting their ideas like biblical truth; in spite of the fact that the Public Service Commission has paid for expensive MBA degrees for them, civil servants have no idea what companies do to make money, etc.
More controversial, Mr Las also alleged that these scholars are promoted quickly and forced out early because the civil service canÂ’t afford their high pay, which is pegged to top private sector rates. Top admin service performers can become Deputy Secretaries by 33 and make as much as $20-25k per month.
Explaining his motivation for his paper, Mr Las said - “I’m very sorry for these people, you know. They still have expensive car loans, housing loans and children to send to overseas universities. Most of them are in their prime of life, not the useless windbag that their younger colleagues treat them as.”
Mr LasÂ’ proposals include:
- On the job training. During their tenure in the military, SAF officers should be rotated to spend a year serving tea and coffee, so that when they retire, at least they can find jobs in the service sector. Likewise, civil servants should be rotated to work at local hawker centers.
- Set up a company to give advice to other governments about how to run their country and ship them overseas. (EditorÂ’s note: Mr Las is obviously uninformed, because the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already set up such a company, which will no doubt replace GLCs as a resting ground for former scholars.)
- Create more civil service jobs. “The macro environment is getting more complex, hence we need more senior mandarins to centrally plan Singapore. For example, we can create a Casino Promotion Agency to market Singapore as an IR hub. At the same time, we need a Gambling Control Department to deal with problem gambling. Voila! Two Chief Executive positions created, plus countless positions for Deputies, Directors and the like. After creating these new departments, we in turn need more Coordinating PS’s in the PM’s Office to coordinate inter-agency issues that we created in the first place. Voila! More jobs created. A stroke of brilliance.”
Asked what has resulted from his paper, Mr Las (whom we found out is himself a retired Admin Service scholar) said, “Ha? Must show results ah? I thought it was enough to write a paper.”
Head of Civil Service Mr Ho Tum Sum declined to comment on the issue. “We have our own ways of dealing with the issue.” he said.
After reading the paper, taxi driver Mr Wai See Wan said, “Aiyah! Si mi tai chi? If they all not marketable, then admit it, lor. Why pray pray and pay them private sector salaries? Just lower civil service pay and dun promote so fast, then you’ll have money to give them iron rice bowl for life lor.”