Is it true that Sembawang Corporation or Temasek again lost
heavily to the tune of $685 million due to certain delays in vessel
conversions.
It is economic commonsense that all our decision makers running
GLCs and Temasek have to have that uncanny extraordinary ability to
feel the market directions as well as the strong hands-on
implementation ability to contain quality-time-cost aspects of
managing such companies.
Have they ever learnt enough that in running Sembawang Corp and
investing people's monies in such industrial and technology
knowledge applications, all these key personnel have to posssess
that business acumen equivalent to the best in the industry.
Unfortunately, based on assumptions about scholars and academic
talents too many GLCs are exposed to this kind of risks without
anyone seemingly in control over such diverse major decisions in
running the GLCs.
Are the ministers going to tell us how they are going to safeguard
our surpluses so that they are not wiped out by such poor decision
making as seen in these innumerable fiascos.
In the face of the latest investment losses by Sembawang and
Temasek, it is time again to reexamine our past policy assumptions
that our ex-civil servant highflyers are fit to run the GLCs.
These people have been constantly praised as people who know how to
make decisions.
Ministers should tell the people whether they can still entrust the
running of GLCs to the ex-army captains and all the ex-MPs and
ex-ministers by pushing them to take up posts in these companies
after retirements.
Is the kind of naive underbidding as has happened in this instance
under some form of psychological crucible test to see if these
scholars might sacrifice shareholders and public monies just to
secure projects of certain nature to win names and reputations. Or
do they have the attitude that the monies belong to the public and
therefore do not regard them as at risk. If they make wrong
decision, do they have to take the rap as happened in the private
sector.
How do our engineering GLCs compete with companies like INTEL if
Chip design is revolutionalised every three years with values
multiplied per function increasing by 100 times over 10
years.
If our MM/SM/PM do not understand such matters, being not trained
to succeed in such businesses before how do we trust them to invest
our monies in all the businesses with this kind of repeated
mistakes.
The EDB and finance minister have on records implemented many
economic restructuring exercises since 1980s. What happened to
achieving our target of value-adding and technology-based new
economic model as announced? What have they achieved by way of new
technology start-ups to catch up with other Asian tigers since the
Asian Financial crisis and subsequent prolonged recessions of
1997-2002.
What is needed badly is more practical implementation abilities and
not all the scholar-managed GLCs for show. How will the scholars
compete with China and India or are they mentally giving up and
regarding them as too competitive and we cannot do anything to
compete.
Sadly, at every crisis, ministers are found to be in the habit of
pushing away problems to the people with some finger pointing only
at workers and not their won lack of implementation abilities.
Workers have been subjected to all the relearning and retraining
going on at SPRING and EDB all the past twenty years and yet the
leaders are still slamming them for not doing their part. So who
can lead better, workers who should try harder and perhaps not the
leaders.
