Election 101: What the PAP does not want you to know

[Papsmearer]

just happen to read this interesting post of yours. i also don't think Sim would make a trade minister. Sim is too much a technical person and his skills and experience will serve the private sector better.
as a trade minister you need to plan strategically on a macro level instead of being just technical. Creative tech lost their lead because Sim did not have the vision and appetite to match apple's.
Saying that I hope Creative re-group and come up with another killer. Maybe something in the ebook segment to kill the stupid iPad.

Basically, I bring up Sim's name as an example. I understand that many people think he is not suitable. Well, that may be the case. Does he know what aid and support the govt. needs to provide local companies in order for them to succeed overseas? Yes, i would think so. Will he be able to identify creative local companies that might benefit from some form of govt. aided venture capitalism. I imagine so. Is he a career civil servant, ex-general, or someone who has no experience running their own business? No he is not. Will someone like this have a role in a oppo govt.? Definitely. Do you think that MIT is doing a good job now? Do you think Lim HNg Kiang and George Yeo were great MIT ministers and are better than someone like Sim? If you do, than good for you.

 

[Papsmearer]

To be fair, Sim is one of a kind.

Uniquely Singapore.

Cheena man who is a high tech co. CEO ?
self-made multi-millionaire yet still single, frustrating his mum's wishes ?

Talk of his demise has been much exaggerated.

survived the up/down IT biz cycles.
survived the overstocked CR-ROM crisis.
2 time winner of Businessman of the Year Award.

Survived Intel's challenge of putting sound capabilities on a CPU.
Diversified - bought speaker companies, try to be top name in IT Audio.

pioneered hard-disk based stereo players against iRiver etc.
Out-gunned by iPod.

Spore's 1st NASDAQ co. then left NASDAQ.

Still CEO after all these years.

What is his next new breakthrough ?

I supported him in his pre-Cubic 88 days & bought his Sound Blaster predecessor the Creative Music System (CMS) card....

But his sense of aethetics, lifestyle concepts are not in tune with the US youth & early adopters mkts...

Microsoft tie-up promoting the Zune standard ....

Come on, Sim - whatever your shortcomings, we are still proud of you as a true Son of Singapore !

I bring up Sim's name as an example. But u need to ask yourself. As far as anyone knows, he is not affiliated closely to the PAP. Could the oppo use someone like him in their new govt., maybe not in the MTI role, but someone else? The resounding answer is YES. This is what I trying to say in this thread to sinkies. Don't be afraid. The PAP will tell u thye have the franchise on smart talented people in S'pore. They don't. There are better people out there than their line up of so call ex-generals, career civil servants, people who have never had to compete in the market place for their jobs, etc.

 

[Papsmearer]

Well said. Up ur point.

But there is one more very important thing this country MUST do after next GE. We must re-structure the minister pay. Either decrease it to past levels or peg it to clear performance targets.

The pay scale model is very dangerous and corrupt any one going into that position. This is what we are seeing at Wall street now.

The oppos have to mention it in their party platforms. i.e. in the event they form the govt. they will immediately decrease the pay scale back to what it was before. They must also eliminate the generous pension benefits voted in under the PAP. But this is really the tip of the iceberg. The most savings u are talking about with regards to minister and top civil servant pay is $200 million. More importantly, the oppo needs to find out exactly how much the country has left (national reserves) after billion $ losses at GIC and Temasek. As well, they need to repeal the immigration policy and reverse the FT influx. the impact of this on Singapore is also in the billions of dollars and finally,they have to address the need to spend $6 billion (over 5% of GDP) a year on the military and buy stealth frigates, subs, KC-135, F-15 etc. Allthese issues are $billion issues compared to minister pay. By the way, thanks for upping my points.

 

[Rogue Trader]

Basically, I bring up Sim's name as an example. I understand that many people think he is not suitable. Well, that may be the case. Does he know what aid and support the govt. needs to provide local companies in order for them to succeed overseas? Yes, i would think so. Will he be able to identify creative local companies that might benefit from some form of govt. aided venture capitalism. I imagine so.

it is common knowledge Sim had a brush with Isd during his early days. He is no way co-opted. He built Creative on his own without Edb grant (i believe) and credit to him for that.

My point is that he is better suited for a role in the private sector. His network and experience is valuable in the advisory committee of MIT, but not the minister.

 

[Rogue Trader]

To be fair, Sim is one of a kind.

Uniquely Singapore.

Cheena man who is a high tech co. CEO ?
self-made multi-millionaire yet still single, frustrating his mum's wishes ?

I know people in the industry who have done business with Creative and they say the company's living on past achievements, not customer-centric and don't focus on marketing. If you owned a Creative product you will agree.
i dounch know if Creative has changed but i hope Sim trims the fat and re enters the hardware fray. Many giants, like Wang Computers, have fallen in the hardware industry. It is normal because of the super fast electronics industry cycle. The real champions like Apple get up and fight back.

 

[manokie]

it is common knowledge Sim had a brush with Isd during his early days. He is no way co-opted. He built Creative on his own without Edb grant (i believe) and credit to him for that.

My point is that he is better suited for a role in the private sector. His network and experience is valuable in the advisory committee of MIT, but not the minister.

can u elaborate more abt his brush with ISD? just curious...

 

[leetahbar]

60 to 70 hours are spent at the office but very little work actually gets done. Many hang around the office way beyond official hours simply because they don't have a life outside of work.

The best evidence of this that I can offer is the fact that peak hour traffic in this forum is during office hours from Monday to Friday. It drops off considerably during the weekends.

and we thought ISD is monitoring this kopitiam while actually our kopitiam towkay is monitoring their pte office actvities. LOL!!

 

[leetahbar]

just happen to read this interesting post of yours. i also don't think Sim would make a trade minister. Sim is too much a technical person and his skills and experience will serve the private sector better.
as a trade minister you need to plan strategically on a macro level instead of being just technical. Creative tech lost their lead because Sim did not have the vision and appetite to match apple's.
Saying that I hope Creative re-group and come up with another killer. Maybe something in the ebook segment to kill the stupid iPad.

creative SIM is such a weirdo. how come there isn't any news about his love life? he was once rumoured to ve hook up with chang hai jie and even bought her a pte condo. chang had denied the rumour which directed us to another puzzle: HOW DID CHANG LIVE WHEN SHE QUIT CHANNEL U last time? was sim his backdrop provider??

sim has up to date still classified as a swinging bachelor blowing his humble harmonica. really reminds me of sgp's version of a real-life stephen chow! LOL!!

 

[Papsmearer]

Bump, maybe appropiate now.

 

[Lestat]

Funding is 1 major issue Sim has if he were to re-enter the hardware fray. Who will be willing to fund his venture if the sound card is the only successful product Creative has made so far?

 

[lancerglxi]

60 to 70 hours are spent at the office but very little work actually gets done. Many hang around the office way beyond official hours simply because they don't have a life outside of work.

The best evidence of this that I can offer is the fact that peak hour traffic in this forum is during office hours from Monday to Friday. It drops off considerably during the weekends.

That do mean that Singaporeans are very efficient. Can surf Sammy and work at the same time. Weekends they are busy with partying and family commitments. Thus the low traffic.

 

[Papsmearer]

I thought I should revisit this thread I started back in 2010 for the 2011 Elections. I feel it still have much significance.