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Janos Starker-Highly Complex Muscian

Hugarian Jewish cellist Janos Starker. (photo credit: courtesy)

Of late, I seems to be writing tributes to public figures like Margaret Thatcher. When news of famous cellist Janos Starker death on 28 April 2013 reached me, writing a tribute to this great musician has been on must do list.

Thanks to marketing hype, Yo-Yo Ma rings most bells and some might ask who is Starker. Ma is sort of a crossover performing both popular and classical music that reaches a larger audience.It includes performances in key events like the inauguration of president Barack Obama which was inflamed by voice over tactics having criticized China of the same during the Beijing Olympics.

In China's case, it was a straight forward case as both the recorded voice talent and the live performer were two different persons; Yang Peiyi and Lin Miaoke respectively. The USA presidential staff defended their move ferociously stating categorically that it was not voice over as the artist and performers were the same person and the 'mixing' of the two was due to strong wind conditions that could decapitate the microphones. The first few rows of audience clearly heard the dissonance and it quickly became news. Whether it was a lame excuse to ensure near perfect performance or otherwise, only God knows.

My knowledge of Starker is gleaned from his recordings as well as second hand accounts from the media. Cellists are most probably a distant second only to violinists in terms of works to show case them on the pedestal. These works can be classed as solos, sonatas and concertos. Some of the famous cellists both past and present includes Rostropovich, Piatigorsky, Maisky,DuPre and Casals that popularize Bach Cello Suites which the general public might hear excerpts of as background music. Starker won a Grammy award for his recording of this much recorded piece which says volumes of his skills.

Starker's parentage were both of Jewish stock with father of Hungarian and mother of Ukrainian descent. During the Second World War, he cheated death although he was interned in a Nazi prison that deeply affected him as he made much reference to it thereafter. Without being racist, even Adolf Hilter listens to records by Jewish musicians when they found records of them in his personal bunker.

He was a child prodigy and much sought after during his life time. It saddens me that such a great musician spent his final days in a hospice in Bloomington, Indiana USA instead of his home according to New York Times corrigendum who thought he died in his home instead at a ripe old age of 88. Plus he is survived by many close ones like his two daughters, three grand children and his second wife. His first marriage ended in divorce like most talented musician perhaps due to their idiosyncrasies.

Starker's persona seems like polar opposites to his musical style. He was well known for his technical mastery sometimes edging on being a stoic. He recounted in an interview with Internet Cello Society in 1996 that he is a musician, not an actor and criticizing some musicians for acting like making love to themselves on stage. To add leanness to this, he was judicious in the use of vibrato which only gain fade in recent past. Excessive vibrato is like women smearing lipstick on their face according to him. This was an interesting conjecture as he lost the top place to his student Ivan Janzer in a Geneva Cello Competition in 1946 on account of technical accuracy. This did not dampen the teaching aspect of his career as he himself remarked that he cannot perform without teaching and cannot teach without performing.

Just as well that this humiliating episode happened early in this life as humility wass certainly not in his dictionary. Fellow peer Rostropovich shared this about Starker “What I’d like to see is a little more humility and dignity displayed towards our art, and less self-aggrandizement,” in a 1980 interview with People Magazine.On one occasion reported by The Telegraph, he remarked that Rostropovich is more famous but he is a greater cellist. For Jacqueline DuPre whose life was cut short by multiple sclerosis, his view being that she gave too much of her life to music until there was not much left.

This off stage behavior was not only limited to his peers but also to conductors.He was quoted by New York Times reporters that "conductors are the most overrated musician" having cross swords with giants like Herbert von Karajan and Eugene Ormandy. In the case of Ormandy, the feud lasted 30 years after a joint performance of Die Fledermaus on account that Ormandy did not know the score according to Starker. The verdict on who rules the stage; conductor or soloist will never cast in stone. My own opinion is more about harmony as well as seducing rather than forcing each other into their agendas.

Cigarettes and Scotch were his other habits or rather addictions as he keeps them close with him always. It was rumored that he once cancelled a concert as the hall imposed a strict no smoking rule.

Which was his real character? As expressed by his music or his off stage character? You be the judge.

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.

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.

Tributes to Margaret Thatcher

Photo Credit : Wikipedia

How often do you have an opponent arranging a more honourable final send off? This was exactly what Tony Blair from Labour Party did to honour the late Margaret Thatcher of Conservative Party with a military funeral procession which is one level short of a state funeral. The Economist also noted that she was most probably the two most notable prime ministers in UK with Winston Churchill being the other. Churchill was remembered for Normandy that ended World War II. Thatcher most probably out ranked him with a smaller but more controversial Falklands Wars and creating an economic school of thought known as Thatcherism. President Ronald Regan is the other head of state that managed to postulate an economic school of thought called Reganomics.

Her ascent to 10 Downing Street was significant for 2 reasons. Firstly, she had to unseat the then leader of the Conservative Party Edward Heath who was bitter about this to the end before she lead the Conservative Party to victory in 1979 General Election. Secondly, her downfall was started by her own party colleague Michael Heseltine. Her premiership spanned from 1979 to 1980 making her the longest occupant of 10 Downing Street in 20^th century.

Thatcherism was a bitter pill for UK with the Labour Party deeply rooted Keynesian welfarism over a period of 44 hours. She was very convicted that UK needed to be weaned off Keynesian welfare state mindset. Many believed that Thatcherism was primarily an off-shoot of Chicago School of Economics championed by Milton Friedman who won a Nobel Prize. There were strong evidence to suggest that it was influenced much closer to home by Friedrich von Hayek from Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) who went on to share the Nobel Prize for his work on theory of money. Thatcher was widely reported to have many meetings with von Hayek than with Friedman perhaps due to geographical reasons. Neither von Hayek nor Friedman was officially appointed as her economic advisor. The trade unions and the Labour Party though defeated were her largest headache in steering UK to Thatcherism and perhaps won her the “Iron Lady” infamy. There was also joke that Thatcherism equals her domestic home economics.

The Falklands war in 1982 was a gamble that won Thatcher domestic support and was a key reason for her re-election 1983. With the bi-polar distribution of influence between US and USSR then, this war had the potential to escalate further up-stream between US and USSR. Good diplomatic posturing and the UN helped to keep the war between the two countries largely isolated. France had sold Exocet missiles to Argentina way before the war and officially went on record that they would stop selling and supporting the these to ease the historically difficult cultural Anglo French relations. UK for once proofed that military wise, it was not tail coating US and can stand on its own two feet. In hindsight, the wisdom of this war though short and causalities below a thousand each with Argentina suffering larger loses is questionable

Looking at the state of the Euro, perhaps UK should be thankful that Thatcher either had great foresight or simple common sense in limiting UK participation without the Euro. Given the current situation with the Euro, UK is spared some of collateral damage from the problems facing countries using the Euro.

As Margaret Thatcher is put to rest in peace, some has rightfully remarked that UK without Thatcher is like Cuba without the Sun.

Privileged Communications. Doctors v Lawyers.

Photo Credit : Internet

I have always wondered why thousand dollar a plate charity benefit dinners are always held in the best hotels in town. Food so gastronomic that it is normally served with silver spoons that most of these guests are born with. Dressing wise, it is the standard tuxedo for men but for the fairer sex, it is a horrendous issue of God knows why? I am lucky not being a woman. Needless to say, those that would benefit from such proceeds will most probably not get to eat at or dressed in such fashion in the near future. To me, why not cut these cost and donate everything to charity instead. This is sort of like wolves in sheep clothing aka hard core meritocracy dressed in charitable egalitarianism.

The social norm is to have alternating seating arrangements for couples. By the way, if you do not have a partner, you would normally have to go find one of acceptable social standing to accompany you. The intern in the public relations company responsible for this event made a mistake of arranging the wives of a doctor and lawyer to be seated beside each other with their husband to buffer. Their disdain for each other via stiff and acidic upper lip sarcasm was common knowledge in high society. What do you expect leaving arrangements to interns unsupervised! Their doctor and lawyer husbands were made aware of it during the pre dinner cocktail. Both agreed that it would serve their purpose and those in the table for the two gentlemen to be seated beside each other to minimize their feuding wives spoiling the occasion. The lawyer told the public relation staff to make the change and she was very apologetic to him for the fiasco.

After the cocktail, the guests were gracefully directed to their tables and seats personally. Both wives were surprised that they were in the table and threw a dirty look at their fellow spouse but the lawyer was quick to save the day by giving the excuse that he has some matters to discuss with the doctor and has arranged for both of them to be seated beside each other and it was their shout. The situation went extremely well with their wives finding like minded guests seated beside them and there was no sign that a tsunami was within sight between their wives. However, signs of an erupting volcano were showing at the table between the doctor and lawyer to everyone.

Photo Credit: Internet

Between the starter and soup, both gentlemen were engaged in a very plastic social butterfly conversation on which profession is more privileged. Women gossips about people but greater men discuss ideologies. Apparently both gentlemen were highly regarded in their profession and the comparison went on various planes. Just before the main course was served, they exchanged verbal torrent on which profession is older and therefore more respectable. A tolerant and introverted district judge that happened to be seated across the same table spoke louder than normal "prostitution as the oldest profession does not make it more respectable" to everyone surprise. The increasing loudness of their verbal exchange was annoying him. It startled everyone in the table but the judge looked around the table with a stoic and unapologetic manner and ask if anyone disagree speak up or forever hold their peace.

Seizing the opportunity, the lawyer asked the judge if he would referee on which profession is more privileged or honorable. The judge replied that on the count of honor, his answer was neither and it was for this reason he is addressed as honorable in formal occasions.

Photo Credit : Internet

As for which profession is more privileged when in comes to information as he understand it, it is most probably neither as well. He qualified that it could be a biased opinion being a lawyer before becoming a judge. Doctors are last within the narrow pecking order as it is not difficult for judges to over ride doctor patient confidentiality and demand their testimonial. For lawyers, it is almost next to impossible to direct a lawyer to testify on privileged communication between him and his client but there are exceptions in some countries although in a very narrow manner.

Photo Credit : Internet

Lastly, the judge opined in his personal capacity that the most robust privileged communication is mostly probably spousal in a defining and conclusive manner and carried on working on his main course. In between the marbled cuts, he asked if there are any objections for the two couples to change seats so that everyone in the table can have a peaceful meal and everyone in the table clapped gently in unison and the change was made gracefully without further incidents.

Abe 2 Able?

Prime Minister of Japan Abe has made a rare come back in the same seat that he occupied previously. The question on everybody’s mind is the difference and similarity between Abe then and now. Having just started his tenure, he has made some surprising changes in a short space of time. Not only were they made domestically but also on internationally. This is quite surprising firstly because he belongs to the more conservative LDP party. Secondly, in Japanese political culture, behind the façade of a democracy imposed on them after world war two, Japan has been a monarchy for hundreds of years.

His recent visit to the Yasakuni Shinto Shrine that worships some of the worst second world war heroes/criminals trial by the international court of justice in The Hague. This has created much controversy on domestic and international front although he said that his visit is on a private basis and not as PM of Japan. On the international front, this visit tantamount to a certain extend that Japan isn’t totally repentant about the atrocities it has done during the second world war. It sort of endorses or justify that the war was not totally the fault of Japan. The Germans have surrendered totally and there is no monument to worship Hitler of the Third Reich as heroes. It could also be an overture to the international community that Japan is sovereign to do what it likes within reasonable global sand box.

On the domestic front, the visit is still highly regarded as a heroic act as a man of guts knowing full well the international implications. Secondly, it endorses his personal religious practice of Shintoism. This would likely win him more popular ground support but not all Japanese are like minded about it. Japan is still practicing revisionary history books about their second world war criminality or the lack of it much to the consternation of the international community especially China. Germany has come to terms and condemn their actions openly in their history books to remind future generations never to repeat it.

As if this is not enough to create controversy, he wanted the history text book to change references of ‘sex slave’ to ‘comfort women’ . There seems to be little differential between the two but the interpretation in Japanese is vast. The former implies that the women were forced into sex slavery against their own will. The latter seems to imply that it is not much different between the comfort women and present day prostitute. After all prostitution is the oldest trade by some quarters of society.

There has been long standing sovereignty dispute of old over what China calls Diayu Island and Senkaku by the Japanese. Abe decided to up the ante by first having the island bought over from private ownership to state land and instructing its self defence force to safe guard their claim strongly and there had been a recent near miss between Japanese and Chinese fighter jets over the island with no weaponry exchange. These islands are mere land is in vast sea between Japan and China and have very little economic value unlike some of those in the South China Sea with minerals or oil or much sea or airspace implications.

These two issues have placed the newly elected Chinese XiPing in a tight corner as he cannot be too conferential or lax. So far, he has left the people of China to do the job for him by encouraging or putting minimal steps in stopping the riots against Japanese interest in China. China is totally able to quash the riots like it did in Tiananmen Square but XiPing is letting it go to appease the masses. Heads he wins tail you lose.

On the international front, this has also created a problem for USA who has viewed the Asia Pacific arena as being trilateral between China and its other communist allies as one. On the religion front with Malaysia and Indonesia especially after 911 and Japan with the rest of the countries as the third camp especially The Philippines, South Korea and Japan where USA has defence bases in. Suddenly the alliance has become more complex over night. China has been spending double digit percentage of their GDP on defence and now there is loud outcry for Japan to up its single digit self defence budget to match. After world war two Japan has enshrined into their constitution that they will not go to war and their defence force for self protection. To a certain extent, I would say this part of the constitution could have been placed on them under duress. The culture of violence is very in grained in them evidenced by their comics and computer games for adults. North Korea is on close watch but not on the radar as the largest threat is their ability to launch ICBMs tipped with nuclear head into USA; selfish to a certain extend.

On the economic front, Abe seems determined to get the economy out of the lost decade. He has ‘told’ not ‘advise’ the central bank to achieve a 2% inflation after the long deflation. In recent past, currency traders were also stunted by the dollar yen overnight exchange rate hitting a 4 year low and zig sawing between technical rebounds. This is caused by the Japanese central bank soaking up liquidity by buying back their bonds. Exchange rate is crucial in making Japanese exports competitive and this has ignited a small trade war with USA. The newly elected president Obama has not taken any action or met Abe face to face yet and is likely to leave it to the new incoming vice president. Democrats being less libertarian is likely to have their central bank intervene soon. Normally central banks do not like being told by the government as they view themselves as being independent. Perhaps he is sounding the my way or no way to the rest who intend to stand in his way.

It seems that he has done little to deserved a memorial place in history during his first term and his current agenda is to be a historical change agent for better or for worse so help us God. Japan and Japanese are walkovers although she was decimated after world war two. Unknowing to the world, second world war has not ended but has change facade from a combative to an economic front.

Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 Opus 107-A long wait

Good things are worth the wait cannot be more true than in the case of Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 composed in 1959 and dedicated to Rostropovich. Rostropovich had been yearning for Shostakovich to write him a cello concerto but had to harbor it secretly on advisement of Shostakovich's first wife Nina. When asked by Rostropovich how to ask Shostakovich to write him a cello concerto, her advice was not to mention or even hint anything about it. It must have been a long wait as Nina passed away in 1954 and the composition was only realized in 1959; at least a good 5 years. Many did not realize that it was such a long wait until we put the time-line together. When the composition arrived, Rostropovich received it with such enthusiasm by committing it to memory in a matter of 4 days.

Shostakovich was teacher to Rostropovich I believe for orchestration in the 1940s and he certainly held a deep respect for his teacher. When interviewed by The Strad in their May 1959 issue by M.B.Stanfield, his account of the Shostakovich and Prokofiev cello concertos as "They are supreme masterpieces and one cannot expect all music to come up to their standard" says it all.

Both Shostakovich and Rostropovich share a common trait in having a heavy dose of Russian politics intertwined into their musical career. Shostakovich did it mainly through his composition and Rostropovich his stellar cello performance. Shostakovich had many brushes with Stalin having been publicly denounced by Stalin and thereafter living in paranoia fear of death as people who cross path with Stalin have a habit of disappearing from the face of the earth. Although he outlived Stalin who died in 1953, the mental torture has left a debilitating mark on his psychological landscape as evident in many mysterious and unexplainable passages in his compositions. It was mentioned in passing that the fear of death might have been a greater torture than death itself.

As for Rostropovich, it could have been a soul born in the wrong country so to speak as he was very much a libertarian at heart living in communist Russia. In-spite of this, he had great love for motherland Russia choosing to return once his revoked Russian citizenship was restored and was laid to rest in Russia. Some of his landmark political highlights including performing in London in 1968 on the day when Russian tanks rolled into Poland. There was widespread protest at the concert but Rostropovich continued playing Polish composer Dvorak piece with tears in his eyes. The second significant event this time of his choosing was an impromptu basking in front of the Berlin wall in 1989 when the wall came down.

As with most Shostakovich composition, there is little explanation or narration giving the performer and audience almost total free play in interpreting the music with little or no point of reference save for the historical canvas against which it was written in. My main aim in the review of this cello concerto is to provide that backdrop so that you can enjoy the music more deeply in whichever way you heart bring you as there are enough exposition on the music itself.

Briefly, the piece has the signature Shostakovich motif DSCH written all over the piece. Mainstream opinion that it is only a translation of his name could be too simplistic for this four note motif. I think this queasy four note motif that pervades most of his work has a very deep meaning of a man that has gone through much psychological torture and the equation to his name could be a mere coincidence.

This four movement piece also has a unique feature of having the third movement almost exclusively a cadenza. The possible raison detre is to hall mark the piece as a virtuoso to allow Rostropovich latitude to display his prowess. In reviewing the piece with Shostakovich, Rostropovich has told him not to worry about the outer limits of the cello and just let his soul lead the way. This also explain why this piece is one of the more technically challenging piece amongst the limited cello concerto repertoire.

In the last movement, there lies a distorted version of Suliko song which is a favorite of the now dead Stalin. Perhaps it is meant as a mockery of Stalin than a respectful acknowledgement. Unfortunately, he has brought it to the grave without mentioning anything about it.

Lastly Shostakovich has mentioned personally that he drew much inspiration of this piece from Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante but perhaps my limited understanding of Prokofiev music has me finding it hard to see the relationship between the two. Maybe my love for Shostakovich music as this juncture has to do with the circumstances I am embroiled in.

Some of the recordings I have listened to while writing this article are as follows and it is not in any particular order of preference or merit.

1. Mstislav Rostropovich, Seiji Ozawa, London Symphony Orchestra
2. Mstislav Rostropovich, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, USSR State Symphony Orchestra

3. Mstislav Rostropovich, Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra
4. Yo-Yo Ma, Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra
5. Heinrich Schiff, Maxim Shostakovich, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
6. Jiri Barta, Maxim Shostakovich, Prague Symphony Orchestra
7. Alexander Ivashkin, Valeri Polyansky, Moscow Symphony Orchestra

8. Frans Helmerson, Valeri Polyansky, Moscow Symphony Orchestra

9. Mischa Maisky, Tilson Thomas, London Symphony Orchestra

Why Government Services Fails Sometimes? A Singaporean Perspective-March 2012

Why Government Services Fails Sometimes? A Singaporean Perspective-March 2012

There has been enough negative press about the state of services provided by our government, governmental agencies or government related companies. It ranges from train, bus services and road congestion in the transportation sector to cost of public housing both in the new and re-sale market in the property segment. Cost of tertiary education and basis of allocation of these highly competitive seats as well as entry criteria into primary schools have also invited comments of all shape and size. Even the environment ministry was not spared for the increase incidence of flooding as well as cost of rental of hawker stalls contributing to escalating cost of hawker food which is quite a staple for most Singaporean.

After thinking hard about the surficial causes instead of the root causes being a practical person with limited resources of an arm chair hobbyist commentator, citizenry is not totally innocent for all these as they have only elected the current government into office in the 2011 general elections including the recent presidential elections where the president was elected to add injury to the whole matter. Did the nation’s consensus and consciousness failed terribly in voting in a stupid and incompetent government and if so, we must live with the consequences until the next election and perhaps beyond as some policies of the current government will outlast their term of office. I can almost hear war drums of the vast majority descending upon me that the election was only fair within the sandbox drawn by the long suffering oops I mean long serving incumbent party and personas of People’s Action Party (PAP) which has been the ruling party since time immemorial since Singapore gain independence. Policies such as electoral boundary, group representation which can distort the electoral results in conveying the will of the citizenry but let’s grow up as no election rules will result in simple majority prevails. However, if we were to use the percentage of parliamentary electoral seats against the percentage of individual votes, the gap seems fairly wide. Perhaps some study should be made about this in Singapore and published as an academic paper from the birth of our nation to the last election in 2011 and see how the empirical information paints the situation.

Causes of Failure

There are very good reasons why government services fail sometimes we must recognise some of these premises before we can be part of the solution for the greater good of society. Being a capitalist at heart and one the believes in minimal government, I have seen fairly concerned and critical about the growth of government, this discourse seems out of place as there is a large element in defence of the government. I have not changed my surname nor DNA.

Firstly is the issue of transparency. Except for a few areas like defence relating to external and homeland security, diplomatic relations and perhaps justified covert operations if any. We sometimes forget about the tremendous constraints, cost associated with making transparency in its various shades of hues from opaque, frosted, tinted to switchable variety On one end of the continuum, where and what I decide to have lunch, is a totally private matter. I do not need to publish my rationale for doing so and whether there were interested party involved in the decision. In all likelihood, there might be an interested party like going down to a café owned by my aunt. On the other end of the continuum, in government decision making, there is a presumption it is rationale, free of conflict of interest and if there are, it is properly declared, and can withstand the naked scrutiny of oversight bodies or the public. Transparency is not binary in practice and it ranges from privacy of private individuals which the government must protect in some areas to private companies for which it need only transparency to a small pool of private shareholders to public listed companies accountable to larger audience of shareholders for which anyone can become a shareholder by paying the requisite market price. When private companies go public, they normally suffer the shocking underwear syndrome and see them retching from their mouths that they now need to declare what type and colour of underwear. For the more liberal male captains of these companies that might harbour or like to wear swanky G strings meant for the fairer sex. Metaphorically speaking.

Universal access is the second plague that I sometimes nickname it the 7Eleven solution. A private business have great latitude in deciding what product and services, when, where and who it decides to do business with. For government services, there is a presumption of universal access for all within bounds of stated level of service like operating hours, grade of service etc. For example, we expect police service to be available to us anytime we need and at the force level that mirrors and exceeds the threat we face on hand. However, when we engage the services of a private security company, the expectation is only for the stated hours and for so many people armed in a certain manner. The private security company could plan their resources based on expected volume of business with some expectation that utilization will not be 100% as demand might not be a linear or so closely correlated to the supply. If demand exceeds supply, the private company can call a stock out situation and not provide the service. Of course there would be many stock out cost to be considered in addition to the short term lost in profit opportunity like longer term customer satisfaction and of repeat customers. However, for the police service, if it fails to respond to any call for service, it risks a major public affairs situation as well as potential political collateral damage to incumbent elected officials. To be fair, the police can only plan their resources based on past records as well as future projections. The journalistic maxim of 1 life too many can result in an over staffed and resourced government services.

One of the commonly cited rationales that some services like certain segment of public transport cannot be privatized because of the need to provide universal access in terms of hours of operations and route to cover unprofitable hours and routes to provide universal access. My challenge is to re-examine the operations of the 7Eleven franchisor/ franchisee model whereby shops are kept open 24 hours a days all year round including new year holidays. This business model has been so successful that its operations is almost global and have even attracted copycat franchisor operating similar models in some countries. Perhaps the Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) that is both regulator and licensor of transportation services both private and public should re-consider their current practice of licensing public transport to a handful of companies to operate rail and bus to consider the public suggestion of allowing a larger pool of private small bus operators to be a part of the public transportation services like in Hong Kong which has quite similar population density and size as Singapore. Big buses and rail transportation is not likely to be a good answer to off peak hours as well as less densely populated areas and could actually represent a larger carbon footprint than private cars. Work on the licensing and oversight practical to small private operators and this could well be part of the solution to our current transportation woes than multi-billion dollar funding for more buses, bus lanes and bus stops.

The third item comprehensive planning to me is one of the greater joke. While failing to plan is planning to fail but planning like crystal ball gazing is comprehensive to the extent that is takes into consideration currently known variables and certain reasonable assumptions. Legislators and judges act as if current wisdom as embodied in the constitution/statutes and case law respectively are evergreen. I used to work in healthcare once and know of the need for the health ministry to license clinics and hospitals to ensure that they comply with certain requirements to ensure that they can provide their services safely and this is a very good idea. If a qualified doctor decides to operate a doctor on wheels service providing care to patients only on a house call basis without a physical address, I wonder how his so called clinic can be licensed. It makes sense in land scarce Singapore where rental cost is high and is passed onto patients indirectly. Here I go again getting LTA in the picture as it might be illegal to use a vehicle as a clinic as it is only meant for transportation purposes.

Smart Government

The basis for deciding whether a particular goods or service should be the exclusive enclave of the government or best left to the private sector is a very academic one and I would not want to repeat the wisdom of many before me here. There should be an oversight committee tasked and empowered by the people for the people to make recommendations to parliament. This is to ensure that in areas where the government should be playing a role and is not doing so be brought to task. It would also be empowered to investigate governmental involvement in the economy through various government owned subsidiaries, joint ventures or related companies. If the government needs to invest excess funds in the economy of Singapore, there should be a proper blind trust that does this for the government free of executive over lord or interferences.

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.

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.