Moral Values And Conflicts Of Interest

In the Sunday Times of 24th December, 2006, it was reported that the ex-Emporium boss, Mr. Lim Tow Yong, threw a $150,000.00 dinner last Wednesday in appreciation of the loyalty of his ex-employees who stood by him when he was down and out after he sold the company in the late 1980s. Subsequently he was declared a bankrupt in 1996. About 1,400 people attended the dinner and they were given a hongbao of $100.00 each.

He told the Sunday Times in a feature published on 29th October that it was the dinner given to him by 800 of his ex-employees that motivated him to move on. After ten years of hard work he is a millionaire once again with stores in Sabah, Labuan and Brunei. The resurrection of his business is an eye-opener for others to emulate. It is also rare to find loyal employees and considerate bosses nowadays.

After reading this story, I can’t help reviving an unpleasant incident that happened during the same period. It involved someone very close to me ( I shall call him X) and my wife’s uncle ( I shall call him Y). X received Christian education during his formative years and later graduated from a world renowned law school abroad, and Y is a taxi driver.

Y’s son died about one month after he collapsed while digging a trench during a training session when he was serving his NS. Acting for Y, X wrote a simple letter to the competent authority seeking an explanation into the cause of the death of Y’s son. About five months later, the competent authority responded with an offer of ex gratia payment in full and final settlement of the case.

X billed Y an exorbitant sum of $2,500.00 for that simple letter. It was chickenfeed to X for his net worth at that time. I consider it most despicable of X to fleece Y during his tragic period. As fate would have it, his dreams of avarice brought him down from his ivory tower following the collapse of the property market that started around 1997.

In these two anecdotes, which of the two people (Mr. Lim or Mr. X) has better moral values?


When I reflect on the issue of moral values I tend to link them with the teachings of ethics that guide us in distinguishing between what is morally right and what is morally wrong. It is a continuous education for life. However, some may succumb to weakness in their moral fibres and cause extensive harm to others. Some of those corporate scandals caused by the misconduct of their chief executives could be taken as a good case in point.

The Code of Corporate Governance 2005 issued by the Ministry of Finance takes effect from AGMs held on or after 1 January 2007. It requires, among other things, that companies should disclose the relationship between the Chairman and the CEO where they are related to each other, e.g., sibling or husband/wife relationship in one of its guidelines. In this particular instance, the issue of conflicts of interest would likely be called into question. It is difficult to dispel such perception. The best way to avoid this issue is for one of the parties involved to step down from his position as generally, codes of ethics forbid conflicts of interest.

As 2006 fades away to be followed with the arrival of 2007, I hope that those with weak moral fibres would reflect on their misconduct and make amends, and that the corporate world would uphold the sanctity of the guidelines set out in CCG-2005 to avert further corporate scandals.

Speak Mandarin Campaign - Any Side Effect?

The 27th Annual Speak Mandarin Campaign kicked off on 30th October, 2006 with a message from our Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Wong Kan Seng, that it was intended for ethnic Chinese Singaporeans to use Mandarin in addition to English as it added so much to their cultural and personal enrichment and business effectiveness.

If my memory does not fail me, the campaign originally started in 1979 with the primary aim of replacing the various types of ethnic Chinese dialects with Mandarin as a tool for communication among the ethnic Chinese Singaporeans. It caught on like a conflagration at wet markets and hawker centres where Mandarin suddenly became the lingua franca among the ethnic Chinese stall holders. Those stall holders, who used to converse with me in dialects, began speaking Mandarin to me. I was taken by surprise because I was not mentally prepared for it then.

The print media has reported that Mandarin has overtaken over dialects as the predominant home language of ethnic Chinese homes here; and that the percentage of Mandarin speakers have also increased while dialect speakers have dropped over the same period.

The campaign has since switched its strategy to target at the English-educated ethnic Chinese, although its original aim remains intact. The Promote Mandarin Council must consider all the ramifications of its strategies. That more ethnic Chinese are now speaking Mandarin cannot be denied, but we must take note that it is only at conversational level. Ethnic Chinese children would likely grow up not knowing their ancestral roots. Tell tale signs are there.

At public places, it is not uncommon to overhear people rattling off Mandarin that is often peppered with English words. I shall call it pidgin Mandarin. To make matters worse, sometimes radio/TV hosts manning Mandarin programs and Chinese language teachers also speak in similar fashion. I cringed whenever I heard it.

Children of the ethnic Chinese Singaporeans, especially those born after 1975, would likely lose trace of the cultural heritage of their respective dialect groups. A good case in point would come from those families who use Mandarin exclusively at their homes. Mandarin polluted with English words would subconsciously become the native tongue of their children, and dialects would be Greek to them. They may not know where their forefathers came from.

I am not against the Speak Mandarin campaign, lest I be misunderstood. In fact I treasure its economic value that has surfaced. We may even have to build a reservoir of effective bilinguals in English/Chinese to compete globally for a slice of the cake dished out by the emerging economy of China.

I felt enlightened with the media release issued by the PMC on 23rd October that the campaign would continue to use the life-oriented approach revolving around movies, music and metaphors. More than 50 years ago, I supplemented my Mandarin lessons by watching Mandarin movies very often, although I am essentially an English-educated Chinese Singaporean.

We must make a concerted effort to speak standard Mandarin in order to raise the level of proficiency of the language. Those radio/TV hosts manning Mandarin programs and those Chinese language teachers, who have the habit of speaking in pidgin Mandarin, should set exemplary models by speaking in standard Mandarin. To this end, PMC can help.

Traumatic Experience of A Golfer Hit By Thunderbolt

It has been more than five years since that fateful afternoon on 21st April, 2001, when a friend of mine was killed by thunderbolt while playing golf with me and two other persons at the Palm Resort Golf and Country Club in Johore, Malaysia. I am lucky to be still alive to tell this tragic story…

We started off the game from the 10th tee box at around 1.10 pm. The weather was cloudy. As we were walking towards the directions of our balls to play our second shots at the 11th hole while chatting away, there was a sudden lightning flashed at a distance high up in the cloudy sky. She reacted with fear and told me that she was very scared. I replied telling her that we should take shelter after completing the hole. Then a few rain drops started falling on us. I told her to hold on while I walked back towards the caddy for my umbrella, but she subconsciously continued to walk towards the direction of her ball.

When I was about to open my umbrella, thunderbolt struck. I felt as if a packet of fire crackers exploded in my palm; my umbrella was pulled away from my hand to a distance of about three metres; my right arm went numb; and I was blacked out momentarily.

When I regained my composure, I saw her falling forward to the ground with her right hand still holding her club; and I instinctively rushed towards her. To my horror, I saw her eyes remained wide open; and she did not respond to my call. One of our flight mates prevented me from touching her body as a safety precaution.

I was about five metres away from her when the tragedy struck. The thunderbolt ripped the turf apart with a thickness of about four cm., leaving a crack covering a distance of about two metres. She had burns on the lower part of her body and her legs. She was pronounced dead upon arrival at the Kulai Hospital in Johore, Malaysia.

Every since this bout of traumatic experience, I have got a phobia of lightning. Whenever it starts to drizzle during a round of golf, I would start feeling paranoid that lightning would follow; and I would try to convince my flight mates to stop the game. I wonder when I shall overcome my phobia of lightning!

Who Are The 'Native English" Speakers?

The Minister for Education, Mr.Tharman Shanmugaratnam, announced on 5th of June, 2006 that following its review of the teaching of English language as a subject in schools, his ministry would embark on a recruitment drive to recruit the so-called ‘native English’ speakers from various sources abroad to teach this subject in our schools.

With regard to this, it prompted me to refer to a dictionary for the definition of ‘native speaker’ which is defined as someone who has spoken a particular language since childhood, rather than learning it later. According to this definition, one of my nieces, who is of Chinese descent and was born and bred in Sydney, should be considered a ‘native English’ speaker because she speaks only English since childhood, but would MOE regard her as one?

As reported in the Sunday Times on 18th June, 2006, Mr. Tharman spoke to reporters on the sidelines of a South West Community Development Council function at Jurong Lake Park , an extract of which is quoted below:

“Many people will remember the nuns and the brothers who taught them in schools, many of them spoke with a thick Irish brogue. But no one complained about it. They spoke perfect grammar and were very strict about the rules of the language.”

If the above quote is of any indication, I cannot help thinking that MOE is only looking for Caucasian ‘native English’ speakers; that students should not complain about their accents; and that our local English language teachers were not as good as they.

It is a known fact that our students, who went abroad for further studies abroad, generally scored better grades than the so-called 'native English' speakers of the host countries in their English language tests. That shows that the general standard of the English language of our students is not really that bad as perceived by MOE. By the same token, I would not be surprised that our teachers would fare better than the so-called 'native English' speaking teachers when put to a test on the level of proficiency of the language.

MOE has to rid itself of the mentality that only 'native English' speakers are capable of helping our students to raise the standard of English here. I am certain our English language teachers are capable of teaching this subject, otherwise our students would not have excelled in it abroad.

If it persists in going ahead with its plan for reasons known only to itself, MOE has to avoid recruiting those speaking with thick Irish brogue, Cockney or Australian accents. While we do not expect them to speak in accents similar to ours, we would expect them to speak with an accent similar to the standard English of BBC announcers to which we are accustomed to.

However, I still strongly believe that MOE should rethink its plan. The amount of money that is likely to be spent on these ‘native English’ speakers may be used for training a bigger pool of local English language teachers in its stead. The beneficiaries would be our students some of whom may lead our nation one day.

Reflections On GE-2006

The GE 2006 has ended two weeks ago. It is good to reflect on the hustlings during the 9-day campaign trail and its outcome on 6th May.

The campaign started off with a big bang on the controversy over Mr. James Gomez’s ‘missing form. It was blown out of proportion by the main media to take centre stage to the exclusion of more pressing issues that voters deserved to hear. The ’wayang’ went on for seven days before PAP realized its mistakes. However it did not attract any attention from opposition parties. They simply concentrated on raising national issues.

During the campaign trail, I noticed that the Workers’ Party focussed on their main issues very well. Its leaders conducted themselves so gentlemanly in a manner that befitted of their status. They not only refrained from launching scurrilous attacks on their rivals but also avoided being dragged out of focus when being taunted by them persistently.

On the other hand, PAP went off course for seven days over the ‘missing form’ before it found its direction. In its hustling for votes some of their leaders lost their cool by belittling their rivals.

Acts like questioning the physical fitness of Mr. Chiam See Tong, aged 71 years old; challenging the Workers’ Party to lower oil price; and labeling opposition MPs as troublemakers were totally uncalled for. These acts would not only reflect adversely on their personal character but also tarnish the image of PAP.

The main media had been biased against the opposition parties in their coverage of the rallies. Whatever the ruling party said were considered newsworthy, but many major issues brought up by opposition parties were either ignored by them (the main media) or scantily reported if they ever decided to oblige. A distinctive case of biased coverage was the customary victory speeches supposed to be delivered by M/S Chiam See Tong and Low Thia Khiang upon their re-election. They were not telecast live on TV at all.

Gone are the days when the general public were at the mercy of the biased media for well-balanced dissemination of information. With the birth of cyberspace, it became easily accessible via internet which has played a vital role in the recently concluded GE. With this technology, a totally a different ball game will emerge in succeeding GEs; and the media will have to review their modus operandi to stay relevant.

The PAP scored a landslide victory with 66.6% of the votes cast by American standard. It won 82 out of 84 seats contested under the ‘First Past the Post’ system coupled with the creation of GRCs (Group Representation Constituencies) which disadvantaged the opposition parties, but the euphoria was eclipsed by the sensational result at the Prime Minister’s stronghold in AMK GRC where a group of six young rookies garnered about 34% of the votes cast.

At the start of the race, the Prime Minister regarded them as ‘suicide squad’; and its Chairman, Mr. Lim Boon Heng, predicted a victory of at least 85% of the votes cast. It shocked the political pundits. What went wrong? Could it be due to their arrogance? Only PAP had the answer.

It was gratifying to note that Mr. Chiam See Tong and Mr. Low Thia Khiang were re-elected to Potong Pasir and Hougang respectively with increased majority of votes. The voters had sent a strong signal to the government that they would not be intimidated with withdrawal of facilities rightfully theirs; and that they would not be easily bought over with offer of upgrading their estates. However, when given free shark’s fin soup, abalone porridge and breakfast again, they will accept , but they will still vote with their conscience without fear. What an admirable lot!

With about 40% of the voters comprising those born after 1965 nobody could fathom out how they voted. However, the results of voting showed a consistent pattern. Parties putting up better quality candidates tended to get higher percentages of the votes cast. It showed that the voters had voted intelligently, and signaled that they still wanted opposition MPs in the Parliament to play the role of watchdogs and not troublemakers. It augurs well for a new political scene to emerge in the not too distant future.

A Humble Football and a Public Hydrant...

Between the years 1950 and 1952, I was a living in the neighborhood of single storied terrace houses at the Kim Keat Road area. They were built by the then Singapore Improvement Trust (the forerunner of Housing Development Board), and arranged in clusters with a playing field each. There was no electricity supply, no water supply, no modern sanitation, and no public transportation plying in the neighborhood. Public hydrants were the only source of water supply available to residents. It took about twenty minutes to reach the main road at the junction of Lavender Street and Balestier Road.

The residents comprised a good mix of Chinese and Malays families plus a few Eurasians and Indians. Colloquial Malay and Teochew dialect were the lingua franca of this small enclave. They interacted with one another very well. The guys used to play football together, and swim at the Whampoa river during high tide. The urchins liked to play hide and seek , and a game of piggy ride. The ladies were fond of mingling at the public hydrant area ostensibly to do their laundry.

The spirit of neighborliness was very prevalent. They would share the joy of the festivals together, like Hari Raya Puasa, Chinese New Year, Deepavali and Christmas. The residents had the opportunity to taste the delicacies of various ethnic groups during these occasions.

This small enclave had given way for redevelopment sometime in the mid-1960s when the Housing Development Board embarked on its public housing program to build a new satellite town known as Toa Payoh. It has been replaced with high rise buildings with all the infrastructures which include, among others, schools, community clubs, sports complex, polyclinic, and light industry flatted factories.

The populace in the estate has a good ratio of racial mix. They live in apartments with their doors closed most of the time unlike the days of 1950s when the doors of those cluster houses were opened most of the day. I think it is due to constraint of open space and their hectic schedule that they do not mix so freely.

To make up for the shortcomings, the government began building community clubs for them to interact. Many social activities have been organized to achieve this end, but how successful they have been I am not sure, as I notice that they (the residents) seem to confine to their own kind. For that matter, one morning I saw an all-women aerobic exercise in progress where the participants were all Malays. On other occasions, I saw only Chinese at line dancing sessions.

In view of the foregoing, I cannot help concluding that the two humble objects ( the football and the public hydrant) of the 1950s have played a pivotal role in bridging racial integration which seemingly comes from the hearts.

The Role of Our Mother Tongue

Not long after the 2nd World War that ended in August, 1945 , I began my kindergarten education at a Chinese run by the Presbyterian Church. The following year, I continued two years of primary education in the same school. In 1948, I was transferred to an English school run by the Methodist Mission until I completed my Overseas School Certificate Exam in 1958 ( present day O Level) because my father foresaw the economic value in the English language as Singapore was a British Crown Colony then. It was also considered a privilege to be admitted to English schools. During that time the number of places available in English schools were limited. They were run by the government and the churches. The Chinese schools were run by the clan associations of the various ethnic Chinese groups.

Imbued with Confucian value, my father advocated that his children, being of Chinese descent, should study at least the rudiments of the Chinese language. On his advice, I resumed my Chinese education in 1951 for another three years when I had to attend both English and Chinese schools simultaneously dividing into morning and afternoon sessions. Owing to limited time available at my disposal, I could not handle the workload assigned to me by the two schools. Eventually I opted to drop out the Chinese school.

After an interval of a few years, I resumed my Chinese language lessons for another two years in the evenings at the Singapore Chinese Mandarin School located at Prinsep Street. I improvised it with practical sessions by hopping into Majestic theatre or Oriental theatre for Chinese shows occasionally while on my way to attend classes. It was the most fruitful lessons that I ever gained; and I even managed to offer Chinese as one of the subjects for my Overseas School Certificate Examination in 1958 (present day 'O'level Exam).

Sometime in March,1959, I began attending a Malay language class conducted by a Community Centre in the evenings for about nine months. When Singapore became a self-governing state in June the same year, Malay was declared as our National language. Classes for the language mushroomed. It was an asset to know Malay when looking for jobs in the 60s especially during the period when Singapore was a part of Malaysia.

I have tried to be equally proficient in all the three languages that I have studied, but I found difficulty in accomplishing it. I cannot help attributing it to Singapore's colonial past when English was the sole administrative language of government departments until it became a self-governing state in 1959, and the circle of friends with whom I moved around in my formative years. Subconsciously, English becomes my principal language for communications in my daily life while the other two languages are confined to secondary roles.






Malay (our National language), English, Chinese, and Tamil are the official languages our nation. The students study English as first language in schools plus a second language (the mother tongue) to be chosen from one of the official languages based on ethnic groups. Members of Parliament are permitted to deliver their speeches in the Parliament in any of the four official languages of their choice. The lyrics of our National Anthem are written in Malay (the National language). The text of the National Pledge is penned in English. At football and sepak taktraw matches, Malay is the common language used for the occasion; and Chinese language is associated with spectators at table-tennis and basketball matches. It is also not uncommon to overhear local people here speaking to each other in a mixture of English/Chinese/Malay along the streets or in MRT trains. It is very unique, and all these add spices in our lives in a multilingual society.

With our bilingual policy in education, I believe we have built up a populace that is at least bilingual at conversational level, although English is more commonly spoken than the other official languages. As our four official languages combined are spoken extensively through out the world, it puts us in good stead in the field of commerce and the tourism and hospitality industry. Multi-national companies will find it conducive to set up their regional offices here; and tourists, especially those from Asian countries, will not encounter any language problems during their short stay here.

Occasionally I hear people with chauvinistic inclinations lamenting the dominance of English over the other three official language. They are anxious that this will lead to a decline in the standard of the mother tongue. I doubt we can arrest this trend because the world is biased towards the English language for its economic value and wide usage. It has become the lingua franca of Singaporeans. Countries, which have previously replaced English with their respective national languages for nationalistic pride, are re-introducing it to their people out of pragmatism.

I am not against the bilingual policy in our education system lest I be misunderstood. Our school children are the very fortunate lots, unlike my times when the mother tongue was not taught in English schools. With all the opportunities available to them, they should be encouraged to attain at least a reasonable level in their mother tongue while in schools, and hopefully they can still read and write it reasonably well in simple style when occasion demands.

We may even have to build a reservoir of effective bilinguals in English/Chinese to compete globally for a slice of the cake dished out by the emerging economy of China. It further reinforces the future role of the mother tongue that is going to play. Therefore, it is imperative that they have to strive, to seek. to find, and not to yield.