Coaching in Asia- Mind over Matter on Stigma

What is coaching? Eminent coach Jeffrey T Sooey; President of JTS has categorically stated being a coach is NOT equivalent to being a consultant, guru, expert, psychologist or friend. This is important as coaching has been closely associated rightly or wrongly with psychotherapy, psychiatry or sanity.

This is important in Asia because in general, psychology, psychiatrist and sanity are viewed narrowly in a binary manner or either sane or insane instead of a continuum. To combat this, Institute of Mental Health in Singapore started an Early Psychosis Intervention Programme to overcome the stigma and get patients to seek help earlier for better outcomes. In the same vein, one should also seek coaching earlier as you never know how it can help unlock the potential in you.

In a nutshell, coaching is supportive in nature involving training, teaching and development to reach professional or personal goals. It is more developmental rather than therapeutic as described above.

The Chinese Experience

(c)Peking University

We shall examine how coaching was already in existence in ancient time by examining the famous “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” written by Liu GuanZhong around 14 century as a non-fiction. It was set against the backdrop around the end of Han Dynasty and start of Sui Dynasty. Between these two dynasties, China went through a period of disunity and the Three Kingdoms was a part of this chaotic era. Though it was written as a novel, it had a strong dose of historical fact embedded to qualify as one of the great four great writings of Chinese literature therefore reflective of the culture of that era. The significant characters of interest are advisors Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi together with their masters Liu Bei and Cao Cao respectively.

The plot is thick, complex and long but the important plots here were the four main castes. The two leaders by way of benevolent Liu Bei and villain Cao Cao and their advisers Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi. In today’s context we could equate both Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi as having played the role of coach to their leaders. It was very evident that the advisers were not part of the line of authority and served in staff role giving them a more objective perspective. In coaching lingua franca, we would put them as not belonging to the system. Their primary role was to ensure the success of their masters and they were trusted and highly regarded by their masters. They do not hold direct executive power in most instances save for short period of time when the situation was dire. This distinction is important as coaches that cross this line to be part of the system normally do so with non-optimal outcomes if not managed carefully.

“The Art of War” widely attributed to Sun Tzu is another prime example. Although the authorship is still highly debated amongst scholars in light of new archaeological findings. This discourse is not important to us as there is common agreement that it existed way before the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”. This book has reached renowned status globally and has been translated into many languages and adopted by many modern management schools and practitioners. Sun Tzu was a military advisor and/or general to King Hule of Wu State and highly regarded as an advisor to the King. It is interesting that the legacy he left behind in this book has served as a virtual coach to the many readers of his book who internalized the dictum appropriately. In the contentious chapter 11 of his book, he states the leader must be "serene and inscrutable" and capable of comprehending "unfathomable plans" which was against many modern thinking that the leader must stay in touch with ground zero. This truism was most probably why a leader needs a coach. A coach can apply frameworks more independently being NOT a part of the system and therefore able to help the leader see the forest from the trees better as both aspects are equally important.

Modern US Government

In modern government like USA, the President is surrounded by many advisors specializing in different areas like homeland, security, economics etc, as well as secretaries. A key differentiator between these advisors and the secretaries surrounding him lies in the fact that the advisors are non-executive in nature whereas those of the secretaries are executive in nature either directly or by fiat. By doing so, these advisors are also playing the role of a coach being detached from the system itself and having less issues when it comes to conflict of interests.

The “realization of what you are lacking is the beginning of knowledge” and coaching might bridge that all important divide standing between you and your goals in both the corporate and/or personal arenas. So what is stopping you from calling a coach and examine what a difference coaching can make to you and your key men and make a difference in your organization.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter
lkypeter@gmail.comSafe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye
(c) Peter Lye 2014

Social Media-The Next Paradigm

Managing Social Media in the Work Place

Peter Lye

Social media is becoming so pervasive that to ignore it is tantamount to subscribing to the ostrich syndrome. As senior leaders of your companies, it is best to examine how to leverage social media by harvesting the upsides and addressing the down sides.

Technologies

Two other partnering technologies also served to make social marketing more pervasive. The first is the advent of smart phones like Apple's proprietary iPhones and Google's open source Android software married with Samsung and HTC hardware primarily. I have left out Microsoft and BlackBerry as they have sort of lost the mind share of their customers.

The second is the introduction of high speed wireless technologies like 3G and LTE to carry the heavier traffic that these smartphones consume at more reasonable rates. Being digital it can make more efficient use of finite radio frequency spectrum translating to lower cost for the consumers.

Software

We shall examine  FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Goggle+. From a usage perspective, we can group FaceBook, LinkedIn and Goggle+ as an information sharing platform. It basically dishes out information to pre-determined sets of customized groups called friends, links and circles respectively. The latent power is its ability to go viral very quickly as information gets relayed down further vertically like a tree spreading out from the tree trunks. These content can be a text, picture or even movies.

Of late, LinkedIn also provides services to HR functions by using their automated résumé profiler. Job seekers, wise up om this.

Twitter also functions like wise but is limited to 140 characters. It is very useful and potent. Recently, A twitter account was hacked to send out wrong material information of a company and her share price tanked for a couple of minutes. Double check the information from an alternate source unless you have no choice.

Right Angle Turn

Before the advent of cellphones or in its initial phase, the functions were restricted to phone calls. It was also a sort of status symbol as both cost of handsets and usage were pretty hefty. The first few smartphones were primarily made by Nokia with Symbian software but the take up rate was patchy. Microsoft  and RIM also introduced their line-up and RIM was most probably the most successful in the enterprise space primarily because of their stable and more secure email platform. For once, executives could read and reply to emails outside their offices.

The right angle turn most probably happened with the introduction of iPhone and competitive data plans to ignite the spark of this paradigm. It was fashionable to have an iPhone. It displaced the existing market leaders like Nokia and Ericsson in a space of less than a year. Apple maintained market leadership for a number of years without much peer to challenge them until Samsung decided to discard her image of selling phones based on lower price points to a premium player to challenge Apple. The relationship between Apple and Samsung was very complex as Samsung was also a supplier to Apple. It is like sleeping with your enemies initially. It went so bad that legal eagles got involved in suits and counter suits for patent infringements claims in the courts of many countries.

Work and Play

The Y and Z generations basically harvested the framework done mostly by the generation X. Being born into this phase, their viewpoints of technology and out look of life integrates both work and play. They considered the concept where work were only done within the confines of office as dated as work can be done at any place save for some professions. However for such professions, they can or are working part of the time in cyberspace. The upside being able to cut down on travel time. The other social implication is the blurring between work and play time.On the same note that they believe work can be done anywhere, they also believe in having adequate private space and time to go onto their social media. What then do we do in such situations? A smart  manage/supervisor will keep enough straight jacket on to ensure work is done and allow time for the private space and time.

Collaboration tools like multiple parties conference can also reduce the need to travel.

Internet materials can range from peer reviewed materials down to outright cheating and it is not advisable to treat it as the gospel truth without verification, Lastly, social marketing could also bring your products,services and image to a new level or down the chute with the same velocity.

Walk into any cafes, restaurant or shopping centers, it is common to see groups or couples armed with their smart phones either doing work, playing games or watching their shows with headphones of course. Sometimes they start talking or listening only to eat or when their movies have ended. In my mind, these  are hardly gathering as they spend more time with their smart  phones than with each other. This phenomenon is also very common at home robbing the family of quality time together.

Where do we draw the line on acceptable use policy at workplace? Social media access is also a necessary tool for many employees. There is no right or wrong answers but either extremes is ill advisable. However for pornography, it is an absolute no-no in most companies. Knee jerk reactions just because of a few out layers is also not advisable.

On a concluding note, social media looks like rock and a hard place but being aware of the factors might provide you the right level of light for you to take the next step but not to see light at the end of the tunnel. It might not be a root problem and simply a symptom of issues such as motivation, home front issues, unreasonable supervisor  etc.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter

Safe HarborPlease note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Copyrights of all contents in this blog belongs to Peter Lye unless stated otherwise.

Effects of Government on Macro Economic Performance-Singapore Experience

Human nature prevails that where credit is due, the queue to claim it can be mile long and on the same note, when blames needs to be apportioned, all and sundry will stay miles away from the situation. This small and young nation of Singapore commonly known as the little red dot was once near annihilation due to a multitude of factors like racial/religious divide, poor economy, low rate of literacy with absolutely no natural resources to live on the land. This era of the 1960s bore witness to the bitter struggle for independence that was also opportunistically made use by the communist to agitate the populace against their old colonial masters flying the altruistic flag of our struggle for freedom but with a more sinister underlying aim of converting the country into a communist state. Racial and religious issues especially racial issues were polarized to stir the pot of multi-racial harmonious co-existence and tolerance into a struggle for a monolithic society. All these are behind us save for the historians whose records of these events through their individual looking glass on what and why of the past. History was never meant to be an objective study although foundational principles are there to shed light along our path towards the truth.

The then chief minister and the current minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew and his contemporaries many of which has left the cabinet and this life due to old age have pre-sided over a period of renaissance of Singapore economy with many years of double digit growth and structural transformation of the economy from a industrial/manufacturing to a knowledge and service orientated economy as Singapore survive one after another economic downturn with relatively small and quick healing battle scar of economic recession.

This period also witnessed the baton of premiership handed over from Lee Kuan Yew to Goh Chok Tong to our present prime minister Lee Hsien Loong who is the eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew. The issue of cabinet remuneration and sustainable leadership quality was maturely brought up in the open as a discussion point for the public to opined on. The basic argument being that we cannot expect a quality leadership to bring Singapore into the next leap on an altruistic only basis and a comparatively pittance financial reward. A novel model was brought to bear that benchmarked the political leaders and top civil servants salaries against the top n earners of the captains of various industries like lawyers, doctors, engineers etc. The application of the model had the effect of pushing up the salaries of the these leaders fairly substantially. The basis of which was that it would be a model that will serve us well in good and bad times as the cabinet salaries would decline if the top salaries were to decline in an economic downturn and provides for a certain level of social equity as well.

My basic belief being that poorly remunerated political leaders and top civil servants might lead be linked to poor economic performance but high remuneration is not a pre-condition for good economic performance and might not guarntee good economic performance in most cases.

First of all, we shall try to proxy good economic performance against a basket of indicators and this is not perfect or the best but would suffice for this discourse. The proxies are:

-GDP or GNP

-GDP or GNP compounded growth

-Measurement of government participation in economy - Fiscal Budget/GDP or GNP
-Years in power of head of state
-% of popular votes to ruling party
-% of seats controlled by ruling party
-Gini index
-UN Human Development Index

Our closest neighbour Malaysia has a parallel in having an iconic leader helm the top post for many terms. Mahatair Mohamed in the case of Malaysia and Lee Kuan Yew in the case of Singapore. Fortunately or unfortunately, both countries does not have a ruling to limit the number of terms the prime minister can stay in office like in USA where it is limited to 2 terms. We shall measure USA differently on this proxy in terms of number of presidents that managed to serve their maximum two term. It is indeed a good record as Bush, Clinton, Ragean all did two two terms. It was only in recent past that Malaysia saw some movement after Mahatair stepped down. In both countries, it is not invisible that both iconic leaders continue to enjoy some influence over the political landscape even though they are no longer prime ministers.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter
Safe Harbor
Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Copyrights of all contents in this blog belongs to Peter Lye unless stated otherwise.

Oslo Carnage-Singaporean Perspective

93 lives vaporized in a matter of about 90 minutes in Oslo on 22 July 2011 because 32 year old Anders Behring Breivik wanted to ensure that the authorities gave his beliefs the necessary attention. This event would change the Norwegian way of life like what 911 did to USA. Instead of taking his own life, he allowed himself to fall into the hands of the law and face the prospect of 20-30 years behind bars if convicted and accorded the full force of the law as Norway has no death penalty. Perhaps he wanted his day in court to promote his far-right ideology as by default, court proceedings are open to public and journalist. However, from his indictment proceedings which is unprecedentedly a closed one, his newsprint hours in court might not be that full. It was a surprising move as closed proceedings are the norm mostly in cases involving minors or of a sexual nature. Even the 911 court proceedings were open in US.

His actions are definitely pre-mediated over a period of 9 years but it most probably would not qualify for first degree murder as the victims are sort of random in nature. As of now, they prosecutors have not actually decided on what to nail Breivik and court has allowed a special 8 weeks of solitary confinement where only his lawyer is allowed access to give the prosecution more latitude in the conduct of the investigation and finally arriving at a charge. Perhaps extraordinary events call for extraordinary measures. On a lighter note on this very grave issue, perhaps it is a sort of reverse class action.

This event set me thinking on what can Singapore and Singaporean learn and take precautionary measures beyond policing and intelligence spheres but also on public, political, economic arenas and also rethink the meaning of justice beyond the restrictive meanings of those in the lawyering and judiciary profession. Perhaps also the parliament where our laws are made.

Punitive Measures
As a maturing society, we ought to come to terms that no amount of effort is enough to totally prevent such risks. On the same note, much can be done by our government and society acting in concerted effort to minimize the risks. To throw caution to the wind and do nothing just because it is an impossibility would amount to gross negligence.

The maximum punishment that laws in various countries differs widely but it can be classed as 3 broad categories. Death sentence by which ever means, time limited life sentence which can vary from 20-30 years and life sentence till death with no time limit. Various comparative especially between death sentence and life sentence and its impact on serious crime rates has not been totally conclusive that death sentence reduces serious crime rates. This is not a pro-life debate and one thing we can conclude that death sentence appears to be a cheaper alternative for the government in terms of managing such criminals. There is some co-relation that most first world nations consider the death sentence as cruel and so do away with it but in many states in USA, the death sentence is still the order of the day for serious crimes. It is rather conclusive that in almost all countries, the law is sufficient or perhaps too punitive in some cases.

Besides the law,the co-joining factors relates to policing and judiciary process. Being mostly libertarian at heart, I think that we need to titrate the level of policing to a sufficient level to have an acceptable level of public safety and law and order and not be driven to the extreme of being a police state with little or no freedom for the citizenry. This is a complex issue that the government in consultation with the citizenry must decide not only on the level of policing but also the matter and form as well.

Judiciary process is a very loaded item and I would be very careful else I run foul of the law. Basically, the two main categories are a judge based or jury consisting of the citizenry. There is no conclusive evidence of one over the other. I stand very economized here.

In terms of punitive measures, I am of the opinion that we overall fairly sufficient altogether there have been some controversies on both end of the spectrum. We had to contend with and grow up as a nation with regards to the escape whilst under Singapore custody of a key potential terrorist element Mas Selamat arrested by the police of our neighboring country Malaysia succeeding man hunting down Mas Selamat and extraditing him back to Singapore. On the other hand, we have also been criticized by NGOs like Amnesty International for Internal Security Act which allows for detention without trial. I recognized that this act is a caricature left behind by the British that used to be our colonial masters. I also see reasons for not dropping or changing this Act as Singapore was facing substantial struggle from communists or communalists elements both internally as well as externally like the Communist Party of Malaya and fast breeding of communism in our corridor like Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma with their larger over lords of Russian and China. This dispensation is most probably passe with communism running out of style as well as being reformed greatly like in China. Let not in our haste for popularism throw the baby out with the bath water by eliminating the Internal Security Act altogether but can explore changes to it to fit the political climate. USA enacted the Patriot Act and created a Homeland Security Bureau in reaction to 911 and perhaps having the backbone of an Act of similar nature, we can revise the Act instead.

As in all things, we must sought for balanced and well considered position rather than a knee jerk and more extremists measures. No doubt time is of the essence but we can always have temporary legislation subject to further review with a given time frame perhaps. The Patriot Act in USA is not without detractors internally as well as fear of turning the country into a police state or fear of misuse by those in powers for their own ends.

Social Glue-GINI index and Social mobility
There are research evidence co-relating high GINI with either terrorist activity, revolt and war. I see social mobility as part being a big part to address high GINI index overtime. It is my worry here as a Singaporean that our GINI index has been increasing even with a growing GDP. I am all for a meritocratic value system but it must be tampered with a humane heart and safety net for the those at the bottom of society as well as those that falls through the strict rules of the safety net. I know that the current PAP government is very resolute in not encouraging a lethargic socialist populace by holding back on expanding the social safety net. I am very concerned in this arena as a widening rich poor gap coupled with fairly porous immigrant labour laws which is a major part of the ingredients capitulating into the Oslo carnage.

Back on social mobility, history has shown that it is easy for a meritocratic society to transform into a class stratified society.  The rich and powerful overtime will be tempted to change the rules of the game to preserve their place in society. Our now retired but still influential statesman Lee Kuan Yew recently was quoted by the press that he will feel sorry for Singapore if we were to have a two party government granted he has various merits for a one party system. History has proven in Animal Farm speak that absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is a very common tendency based on the strength of self interest as stated by Adam Smith. Many have mis-quoted or misunderstood his self interest for selfishness and if we look deeper, there is a big differential between self interest which is lawful, moral and normal to selfishness which can disintegrate a society into the vestiges of hell surely though it might not be immediately.

We have to be true to ourselves that in the same breathe that we speak of meritocracy, we cannot deny the fact that blood the flows in us is thicker than water. This is why I was very concerned when the PAP government decided to scrap Estate Duty totally as estate duty is there as one of the tools to guard against poverty trap. In addition, we ought to watch out and arrest the spread of nepotism as we push towards an equal opportunity society as it is a very human tendency to do so. The spread of the tax burden is also a very key policy instrument and I am in favor of an across the board consumption like our GST as a good and efficient tax practice as it is easier to administer, has fewer tax loopholes as well as encouraging savings for future versus consumption. GST also tend to have a negative effect of shifting the tax burden towards the poor as generally, the poor will save less than the rich as a percentage of their income. To add injury, we have also lowered corporate tax as well as skewed the personal income tax in favor of the rich by reducing the tax rate for those on the higher tax brackets. The rationale explained by the government for the corporate tax to for us to stay competitive with neighboring economies like Hong Kong and the tweaking of the personal income tax to discourage 'tax planning' activities. Perhaps we ought to re-examine the corporate tax, personal income tax, estate duty and GST holistically together.

I am certainly no anglophile but I endorse their making equal opportunity, transparency and equitable society as non-negotiable. England was as feudal state as one can be and remains one of the last few larger economies to continue constitutional monarchy. It took England about 200 years to transition itself from an executive monarchy to constitutional monarchy in a fairly peaceful manner although there has been bloodshed compared to the number of people that died in the communist revolution that overthrew the executive Tsar monarchy in one swoop.

This is not an opportunistic endeavor to use the stage of Oslo carnage to further my personal views but looking at the Oslo Carnage through Singapore looking glass.

Cheers,,,,, Pete

My Fellow American

Singapore Election Theme

With so much written on our coming general election in Singapore, I would like to take a slightly different view for voters to ponder. I take this as an open letter to all Singaporeans as it is in my blog.

1. Are we really too small to afford a more balanced parliament with sufficient check and balance ? How about some of the smaller European countries with about similar population that have done so. In Animal Farm speak "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" and it must be done constitutionally both in the letter and spirit with another quote from Plato's Republic in paraphrase "democracy without law leads to anarchy'.


2. Minimal government can sometimes be prosperous like Hong Kong pre-1997. Bad government can lead to chaos and under-development I do not dispute. However, does well paid government leads to superior performance for the country if we were to take a co-relative longitudinal study of a few countries for comparison? I am not too sure it can lead to better government in my humble opinion. I would challenge that a study be done to proof the case and not get emotional on this and let the facts speaks for itself. Whilst paying so called market rate for government talent might reduce corruption but it might not as well as Mr. Paul Getty, one of the richest American billionaire when asked by a journalist at his death bed what is enough, his answer was just a little bit more. In addition, those who want to be in government must have a certain degree of altruism and not purely on economic grounds alone.


Please do circulate to as many friends as possible and can visit my blog for other writings.


Cheers,,,,, Peter Lye


Safe Harbor
Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Copyrights of all contents in this blog belongs to Peter Lye unless stated otherwise.

Oracle / Sun Humour

C. Montgomery Burns said
"Since the dawn of time man has dreamed of destroying the sun!"

However Larry Elison have managed to buy SUN and integrated its name into Oracle recently.....

Peter Lye aka lkypeter

Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye

The Singapore Pledge Debate

The Singapore pledge has moved from becoming a daily ritual during my school days to grow on my altruistic ensemble over the years. I heard somethings about a parliamentary debate on the pledge on the car radio. Shock pulled my other part of my body from my bed a few kilometers away. No danger as my wife was driving and I was desperately trying to catch up on lost sleep.

I decided not to read a singe shred of this topic so that I can form my own opinion unadulterated by you reporters and journalists alike. No pun intended. Up to now, I have kept this faith and will launch into penning my thoughts on such topics in an unadulterated manner.

To me the pledge represents a couple of things namely:

a. A state that we would like to arrive at at year X in the future.
b. A common compass to point us towards the year X destination.
c. A common moral goal post for a secular society polarized across various divider like race, religion, language and social standing.
d. Justice is blind and fair. (the lady with a blindfold on top of old supreme court has always caught my attention). Not the woman but the concept it conveys.

Singapore is a young nation whether you use 1819 or 1959 or 1965 as birth years. Not only that, the multi-ethnic composition right from the start did not help and a sprinkling of riotous events along racial and religious lines did not help. It seems that the low flash point thinner to glue the society together as one never had a chance and the low flash point thinners were used in the raw with disastrous results as we look back using our rear view mirror and hopefully wiser.

On why the pledge written by Rajaratnam and revised by Lee Kuan Yew should stay the way it is to allow it to sink deeper roots a few more generations for it to be internalized in the future generations. I am not suggesting that we continue on a track and not change it for old time sick to bring us all into destruction. By not changing the pledge which we have very little reasons to do so after such a short period will transmit to the younger generation the meaning of sacredness and longevity of some of our institutions. Seeing my two kids grow up and the youths that I interact with, it seems that we need not worry about them adopting to the fast changing environment that is becoming second skin to many of them but to root them in the areas that needs longevity together with their dynamism transform Singapore into unique society in the world and no longer the little red dot as we are commonly known as.

On the question of equality, there seems to be an existing dichotomy like granting the Malays in Singapore certain special privileges. And if I read it correctly, the ruling party might be concerned that the pledge might be used as instrument to rally SIngaporean into one be made to polarized the nation and allow racial overtones color our largely islamic and Malay geographical neighbors. Many countries like New Zealand, USA, Canada,Malaysia and Australia practices some form of first nation rights to certain groups to varying degrees.

This could also have been prompted by religious activism world wide and this worries me too and in a secular society, we should at all times be able to live as one people with different races, religion and practices. Tolerances, understanding, and respect shall be hall marks by which we live by.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter

Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye

Social Safety Net Determinants

I use to think that social safety net is only relevant or practised effectively in states with a strong socialistic and communistic doctrine but as I give a bit more leeway to the meaning of social safety net to include activities of a philanthrophic, altruistic, religious, political and philosophical origin, the heaven seems to open before me.

Basal Dungeon Level/Poverty Line
My fundamental believe being that no matter how criminal, immoral or inhumane a person might be, there exists in each of us an intrinsic in-culpulability to help lift a fellow being from a basal dungeon to an acceptable level of survival as we each perceived it to be. The basal dungeon level is not an absolute concept but a relative one. Many economists and sociologists has attempted to define this as the poverty line along monetary and quantitative lines. This is very useful as it makes it possible to translate the concept into actionable points in determining how help should be apportioned. However, in distilling a concept into a quantitative illustration some important intrinsic qualitative elements are also removed in the process. Firstly, the basal dungeon level is a micro concept that is applicable on a personal or a monolithic social group rather than a macro concept with wider and more polarized applicability. An elderly wearing clothing consisting of a variety of patch work ( other than the fashion statement of the day ) in a relatively well off suburb like Rodeo Drive would most probably has reached beyond the basal dungeon level in that community to warrant a helping hand be it a contribution in terms of a coin drop of sort. However, in more impoverished parts of Africa, such a person is very unlikely to be offered help. Secondly, the concept is not the absolute or relative social distance between the person in need and the potential helper. It is not a absolute distance because a millionaire is unlikely to be moved to help a middle class person athough the absolute distance can be large, it is definitely not a charity case. Neither is a relative distance applicable because relativity would require us to define relative to what. Basal dungeon is basically a level that would trigger one group or person to help the other as a result of a conscience trigger. Thirdly, it is not a stable level that transcends time and space as the level changes over time in line with changes in the social political norms. However, the concept transcends time and space as it is there from the time of recorded history till now and not likely to vaporize into thin air in the foreseeable future.

Singapore
There is general believe that social safety belongs to the government alone and not body else. However, there are enough evidence both empirical and otherwise that this is not the case. I live in Singapore where the official ideology of socialist democrat is actually closer to capitalistic democrat as the leadership has make no apology in public that Singapore is a meritocratic practitioner in terms dividing the fruits of our labour. There is general perception that the social safety net is very thin in Singapore and the government has made it very clear to the populace that having seen the social safety net framework degenerate the motivation to work and the economy, Singapore shall not follow in similar light. However, over the years as the Singapore economy develops and accumulates fiscal surpluses to be in a position to afford some safety net, the government has over the years especially during the tenure of Goh Chok Tong as prime minister, dished out narrow and directed safety nets liken to a fishing by rods and line rather than broad based ones like fishing with nets. I see this as a deterministic shift in fundamental thinking as the government slowly but surely start to acquire heart ware. Some of these schemes includes the Medifund scheme to help the poor pay for the cost of essential medical care, dollar for dollar matching contribution to selected charities etc. One interesting means that the government has contributed to the social safety net in a less obvious showing which is I think is a deliberate attempt is though the innovative use of co-funded help schemes for various areas deemed to be much greater in need like innovative structuring of health care financing which might not be perfect but at least is affordable, of fairly high quality and not a drag on the economy unlike in the US where health care has become such a huge part of staff cost that it is a major factor affecting their economic competitiveness on a global basis. These Singapore cases underlines the fact that social safety net need not be narrowed to more direct transfer payments like unemployment payments or absolute freebies like free health care, education etc that more often than not lends itself to over consumption. On the note that such narrow schemes leaves a lot falling through the crack, my thinking is that like line and rod fishing, it is meant to bait and catch the more needful ones rather than a broad based safety net that would able to cast a wider net but would also end up with a lot of garbage in the process as well in the form of non-deserving recipients. Your choice.

Japan
In the case of Japan where I used to visit on a very frequent basis in my previous job where the visible governmental safety net is so thin that it is as good as none. In addition, the certain pride that the Japanese culture infuses into the work ethos makes it almost socially not acceptable for the populace to even be seen to be consumers of such safety net. In those years there during the early 1990s, there is a stark difference between Tokyo and New York as the streets are relatively void of beggars and homeless people compared to New York. It baffles me how was this possible with such a thin safety net. I slowly begin to understand that job for life philosophy results in less redundancies and retrenchments which I view is also a form of safety net that is enacted by way of social norms rather than governmental regulation. We can debate on end on the economic and business poison that such a system can breed but no safety net is without cost to the economy and society. One of the feature of the TOPIX which is the de-facto securities exchange of Japan and the largest in Asia, it has one of the lower beta compared to their counterparts in the west and one of the reason is the complex web of cross share holding between the giants of the economies call Zaibatsu and their subsidiaries as well as a very centralist macro economic planning by way of good coordination between the Ministry of International Trade and Industry ( MITI ) that even the Zaibatsu rarely go against MITI. One rare exception is Honda which was persuaded by MITI to concentrate on motorcycles and reduce their involvement in automobiles but has done almost the opposite.

Philanthrophy/GINI
Philanthrophy in terms of participation by percentage of the populace as well as percentage of the GDP, US beats Europe by a large margin. There are various studies done to explain this differential including factors like how the GINI index which measures the distribution of wealth, differentiating tax incentives for philanthrophy, old and new money as Europe tend to have more old money compared to US, immigrant society in US versus a more monolithic society in Europe. The factor that stands out is that on a ideological level, Europeans seems to be more socialistic but in practice on a personal level, US seems to put money where their mouth is rather than paying lip service. In response, the Europeans would argue that either the government is doing such a good job or they have contributed to a large part through taxes ( which are not voluntary whereas philanthrophy is ) and there so less need for private philanthrophy.

We all have a part though not always a deterministic one but a key part in shaping social safety net for our society either on an ideological or macro platform by our votes or privately on a personal and group basis. Give it a thought went you next see someone deserving of help.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter

Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye

The US Presidential Elections-A Simple Singaporean Viewpoint

Over the weekend, I had an interesting back and forth email exchange with my close friend who was born in Singapore but had since given up her red identity card for a green card after marrying an American and has been living in Atlanta which is the capital for the southern state of Georgia. Atlanta is also dear to me as it is home to my favourite drink Coke. I must first profess that any racial or religious mentioned in this article is not to accentuate and amplify the racial and religious issues but merely to pen down the state of the union on where such issues stands. I am pro affirmative action in achieving equality along all lines including racial and religious lines.

(c) Wikipedia

This state is interesting in that it is both predominantly non-white and part of the bible belt. From reason standpoint, the bible belt tend to belong to the Republican due to their conservative stand especially on being anti-abortion which tend to win them popular votes. Being predominantly non-white, I would reason that racial lines would draw them towards Obama on the Democrats ticket. At the end of the day, the results partially spoke for itself as the state of Georgia went to the Republican candidate. I could read the results in many ways and one of which is that America has grown up in terms of racial equality in that a predominantly non-white state did not vote along racial lines The other way is that religion issues has won the day. A third alternative being that there are other factors that could have affected the results.

(c) Wikipedia

Firstly, I was shocked to hear that polling day is NOT a national holiday in the world's champion of democracy. Although I have been to America numerous time, I have always assumed that polling day is a national holiday to allow citizenry enough time and opportunity to vote. I was wrong. Democracy does have a voice and voters have to take time off work on their own private account to vote as not all companies are lucid enough to grant time off for voting. This could be part of the reason why the voter turn out has been fairly poor compared to other democracies around the world. It is either American could not be bothered or there is just too much barrier to the poll station. I was told that some queue up for as long as 3 hours to vote and I salute these brave souls especially in these tough economic season where time away from work might not be too popular. To me it is a resounding mandate for Obama to win by both a large majority and having record voter turn out.

Secondly, it is one rare occasion for a single party of have a clean majority sweep of the presidency, senate and house of congress. Americans, I believe still stand by the maxim that absolute power corrupts absolutely and this could be one of the reason why it is rare to a single party to have control over the presidency and both houses thereby leaving less check and balance. Another indicator is the freedom to bear arms as citizenry as no government is infallible. Perhaps it is the unprecedented economic backdrop of a looming crisis on a scale and complexity not seen before and therefore, it is better to have a coherent government rather than a balanced and divisive government that could make unpopular but needful policies difficult to carry out. Perhaps it is the stomach that won the day as what the use of being a free but hungry man.

My selection of the State of Georgia is a personal one as I have been there and have a close friend there. My next choice of state is more deliberate; the State of Massachusetts. The capital of this state Boston is very unique town as it has produced the most number of nobel laureates as well as home to many of the country's ivy league schools. I would say that on this count without checking the census, the per capital wealth and income is likely to exceed that of Atlanta. Again this state has defied one norm of the richer generally tend to vote for Republican and one of the reason is that they tend to favour tax cuts which tend to favour the richer more economic wise. This has been shrink wrapped into a popular postulation of Reganomics or supply side economics that has largely gone out of fashion and thought leadership. I salute the voters of Massachusetts for not voting according to their pockets but for a higher calling of the good of America. Perhaps the strong academia population could have an effect on the level of altruism in the voters.

All said and done, my approach is too simplistic to be a viable gauge of the actual current that carried Obama to the White House but the simpleton mind could only process that much of complexity. Lastly, those who are in my inner circle of friends who grew up with me as a student will know who I am talking about in Atlanta. No prizes for the right guess.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter.blogspot.com

Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye

Email, PushMail, BushMail and BUll SHit Mail

In the office, we get E mails.
Outside the office, we get PUSH mail.
At the White House, they get the BUSH mail.
This might be the reason for the spate of resignations last of which was Treasury Secretary Snow which cannot stand the BUll SHit (BUSH) mails anymore

The Singapore Election Diaspora by Peter Lye (lkypeter@gmail.com)

The Singapore leadership is grappling with the twin issue of a falling birthrate that has gone way below the universal population replacement ratio of 2.1 and the increasing number of Singaporean that have decided to leave Singapore and start life anew in greener pastures elsewhere. A thunder bolt of idea flash by me that sets me thinking about how the electoral process is inter connected with this twin issue. It is too simplistic to use the electoral process as the only microscope to examine these two issues but lets do this so that we can give the perspective a more focused look.

The incumbent ruling party; Peoples Action Party (PAP), has been ruling this nation state for more than 30 years. For a large part of this period, the PAP has managed to set an unprecedented electoral miracle. In a few general elections, the victory is complete in that they have managed to win every single electoral seat. Of late, this record has been broken by scarce victories by the opposition in 1 to 2 seats out of a total of over 70 seats. Under this backdrop, a few notable developments have also happened which might or might not be related to the electoral process. You be the judge.

Firstly, the electoral process underwent a fundamental change with the introduction of the Group Representation Constituency (GRC). Most Singaporeans would know the basic framework of GPC but I would describe it briefly for those who might not. Essentially, the GRC would group a portion of the electoral seats into a GRC which would consists of between 4 to 6 individual seats. With this change, political parties would have to field that number of candidates to contest in a GRC electoral boundary instead of individually. While there are many merits for introducing GRC like enabling better servitude of the constituency as there are a few representatives instead of a single one to turn to, some of the unintended or intended effect of this new ruling are as follows. Firstly, independent candidates are also not allowed to contest in a GRC by virtue of the fact that they are a one man band. Secondly, this is likely to make it more difficult for the opposition to contest effectively because they now need to field a team instead. Let the results speaks for itself. No opposition party has won any GRC since its introduction. If this is the case, why has the GRC bill pass into law?

Secondly, PAP not only have the simple majority needed to pass most bills but also a two third majority to pass bills that could change the basic fundamental rule in our nation state. Being a parliamentary system, there is a further advantage to the ruling party in terms of the party whip that will force PAP representatives that have views contrary to their party from voting according to their conscience. This has the effect of appropriating additional authority to the ruling party. The party whip can be lifted if the party so chooses to do so but the question is whether it is in interest of the ruling party to do something to reduce their authority? An additional last safe guard which was introduced lately to accord the elected president with veto power to block the passage of bills that the elected president deems as being against the interest of our society at large. However, this power of the elected presidency is being curtailed by the presidential council of 3. My question is why have an elected presidency with electoral mandate and subject him to a presidential council without any electoral mandate?

Thirdly, the issue of political apathy of our society has been so bad that it has become a national concern. It is difficult to understand the psyche of the ruling party on this issue. Are they playing masquerade? It is not uncommon to see a marked increase in court room drama casting the incumbent politicians and political wannabes. The right to legal redress should be available to all including people in high office. However, one should also consider the micro issues with the larger macro issue at hand. Because of the high profile of the caste involved in the court room battle, some coloration by the populace will be the order of the day. What is legal might not be right. The ruling party might have won the court room battle but with regards to winning the war for the hearts and soul of the populace, you decide.

With these behind us, we shall examine the likely behavior of the populace. To be more adventurous, we shall stretched our imagination further a field and come down to earth thereafter for a more balanced view.

Firstly, the basic premise of a democratic system is to have the will of the populace represented by the majority in regular election whereby potential candidates offer themselves for election. The essential ingredient is entrance of potential candidates. While there is a need to exercise a certain level of safeguards to prevent real rouge from offering themselves, such safe guards should be the based on the bare minimum as they would have to pass through the rigid electoral process of the populace and therefore there is sufficient check and balance in place already. In Singapore, some additional requirements like not having a conviction that attracts a certain level of sentence might be too rigid. Like what stock analyst like to say that past performance is no insurance of future performance, it cuts both ways in that a clean record does not guarantee crime free future and a stained record that now necessarily equal to a repeat offender. On this note, as our society matures, we ought to have the concept that there is a differential between the effectiveness of the office bearer and his moral high ground. I am not suggesting that we should have a crook for a leader but some level of tolerance ought to be in place as nobody is perfect and everyone has some skeleton in one’s closet. Although I do not condone what Bill Clinton has done in the private life but it is a fact that the then leader of the Democrat did a fantastic job on the US economy.

Secondly, on the need to impose OB markers on freedom of press, we have grown up as a nation and the racial and religious flashpoint of yesteryears no longer applies. If it does, why is the ruling party concerned with the level of political apathy? The populace is also no so gullible and is able to give the proper gravity to the issues at hand than just take it at face value. The wisdom of yesterday being that the press can incite social unrest but I in today’s society, I believe that suppression is more likely to result in sudden outburst of societal unrest as the suppressed pressure would ultimately need release. It would be better for issues to have an outlet and discussed openly so that misnomers can be addressed.

Lastly, I would like to introduce the concept of Fight, Flight and Silent Anarchy. The first two is common to us in that placed in an uncomfortable or unlikable situation, we would either fight it off or flight away. What one chooses is a complex of many factors including the power differential, perceived chances of winning, perceived level of damage and tolerance for damage, perceived level of losing, possibility of flight etc. As we can see that the option of flight is not open to all but to the select for which there is demand for their wealth or talent. The majority would have to contend with staying put. For those that do stay put, if they do not see the possibility of winning a fight, they are likely to follow the path of evolution and take on the veil of what I call silent anarchy. On the outside, it looks good but on the inside , values that national pride, patriotism and societal altruism ranks way down. Economic success is important but it is not the only measure of success.

With a heritage of a largely immigrant society, we ought to value building of national pride, patriotism and a strong value ( not economic ones ) that galvanized the society together. For the Americans, it is freedom, respect and the pursuit of happiness. For us, we need to and must first create a more inclusive society first that shares a certain strong value system ( not promoted by campaign as campaign fatigue is the order of the day here ) that would galvanized us or we would polarize as a society. If even Hong Kong that had the highest rating for political apathy can slowly but surely achieve that, so can we and so must we.

Peter Lye aka lkypeter
lkypeter@gmail.com Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye (c) Peter Lye 2014
September 2006