The two years wasted on our conscription is one big issue, the other is also how the long reservist training each year is affecting Singaporean's job prospects and bonus.
1. Companies are reluctant to employ Singaporean males compared to PRs or WP Work Permit holders because of the disruption to their business. Although taxpayers make up for the salary, what cannot be quantified is the loss of business and for some, opportunity. Business or opportunity waits for no one. The civil service mindset cannot understand this as they have never operated a business and many of them never worked for the private sector.
2. Although businesses are required by law to release these reservist for training, what is there to stop them from reducing performance bonuses or promotion prospects? Can the law stop businesses from having a employment preference for foreigners due to this disruption?
3. Many senior managers or employers are foreigners, can they understand the sacrifice of our NSmen. Some even put pressure on our reservist for having to do training every year.
4. Many businesses also expect reservist to return to work during off period or when they book out to continue with their work or projects. These reservist are carrying the extra burden of training and work at the same time. Probably, 10% of reservist take the training as a break from work. Given the ease of employing foreigners without this reservist disruptions, how long more can they hold their jobs without a pay cut?
5. Even in large corporations, result orientated work teams with more Singaporean men achieve lower results due to their disruptions although their colleagues are supposed to take over their duties. Their colleagues are already busy up to their ears with work to bother about other duties. Can a civil servant understand this? Because of lower results, the team members lose out on performance bonuses and promotion opportunities as the corporation will ultimately look at the financial results and not your sacrifice to the nation.
6. Singaporean men who have families also carry the responsibility for their small children such as ferrying them, emotional support of their spouse and children. These are lost every year.
7. How many reservist need to take time off every week for failing their IPPT and have to do RT?
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Silence of the Lambs
"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
Bishop Desmond Tutu
“And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and whereever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
Elie Wiesel
“Cowardice asks the question, Is it safe? Expediency asks the question, Is it politic? But conscience asks the question, Is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right.”
Martin Luther King, Jr
By keeping silent about issues whether it is political or family, you are also an accomplice to the crime.
“A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man\'s self-respect and inherent human dignity.”
Aung San Suu Kyi
“I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.”
Bishop Desmond Tutu
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Martin Luther King, Jr
“To avoid making a mistake, say nothing, do nothing and be nothing.”
Anonymous
“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”
Martin Luther King, Jr
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall - think of it, ALWAYS.” Mahatma Gandhi
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope and, crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
Robert F. Kennedy
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear.”
Mark Twain
Bishop Desmond Tutu
“And that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and whereever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
Elie Wiesel
“Cowardice asks the question, Is it safe? Expediency asks the question, Is it politic? But conscience asks the question, Is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but because conscience tells one it is right.”
Martin Luther King, Jr
By keeping silent about issues whether it is political or family, you are also an accomplice to the crime.
“A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man\'s self-respect and inherent human dignity.”
Aung San Suu Kyi
“I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.”
Bishop Desmond Tutu
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Martin Luther King, Jr
“To avoid making a mistake, say nothing, do nothing and be nothing.”
Anonymous
“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”
Martin Luther King, Jr
“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall - think of it, ALWAYS.” Mahatma Gandhi
“Each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope and, crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
Robert F. Kennedy
“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear.”
Mark Twain
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