Wee Shu Min: elitist, yes; intelligent....?

The current controversy surrounding the 18-year old daughter of a Singapore MP reflects on the harsh reality of Singapore society. This controversy started after a Derek Wee, who work in a multinational company, wrote about job insecurity for those over 40 years old and how the government should look into the matter. This triggered a response by Ms Wee (no relation to Derek), a GEP student from one of the top secondary schools who also topped the 2004 GDE 'O' level examination. In her blog, which had since been removed, she chastised Derek with some very strong derogatory terms. This in turn generated much 'debate' or rather reactions to her blog in local forums. The defence and apology given by her MP father did not help to abate the controversy either.

Derek Wee has made a very good observation that nowadays there is no longer any job security in Singapore, although I differ by saying that this job insecurity is across the board, not only for these over-40s. Where previously, the job availability is dependant on the performance of the company, in recent years, the main indicator is productivity. Although ultimately productivity and company performance is about the bottomline, productivity is not about viability of the company. Productivity means maximum output for minimum investment. This means that a company who is doing well may still retrench its staff because the cost of a new employee capable of doing the same job is cheaper. Being the same age group as Derek, I can understand his feelings. Nowadays it does not matter how hardworking, how loyal you are to the company; its all about dollars-and-cents. A hardworking and loyal employee has the same risk of being retrenched as one who skives. This is especially so if they are lumped together in the higher salary scale for their jobs. The employee is disadvantaged because hardwork and loyalty does not guarantee job security anymore.

The government has always urge the workers to train and retrain. However the advantage to the individual is diminished not matter how much retraining is taken. This is because if everyone retrains, the standards of the employees increase across the board, and everyone will be 'setback' to square one. Of course, this should not be used as an excuse not to retrain, because the increased employability of workers here will encourage more companies to invest in Singapore and hence more job opportunities, but not necessarily job security. Furthermore, no matter how much retraining, there is only so much one can learn, either due to the constraint of time, finance or one's ability.

Derek, who has worked in many countries, has also noticed that other countries are catching up, if not better than ourselves. This is another accurate observation that is unfortunately not seen by our younger generations. At the risk of over-generalising, youths today are too proud of Singapore's achievements. They think that just because Singapore is prosperous over the last 10 years, it will be prosperous for the next 10 years. What they fail to understand is that Singapore is properous because, (and not in spite) of its neighbours. In previous years, neighbouring countries are agriculture-based economies. Singapore, being more established as a commercial centre, even before independence, becomes the natural choice for banking and commercial companies. There is no competition to talk about. However, with education and modernisation of neighbouring countries, and the shifting of agriculture-based to a technology-based economy, Singapore's advantage becomes less and less clear-cut. With limited land for expansion and increasing labour-cost, the advantage of setting up companies in neighbouring countries becomes more obvious. This is especially so when their population becomes more educated, further eroding the our competitiveness. Furthermore, Singapore's success can be easily copied - the setting up of airport hub, commercial hub, medical hub, shipping hub and education hub in neighbouring countries are plain examples. And there is always the potential for the building of a canal in South Thailand, connecting the Malacca Straits to the Gulf of Thailand, which has the effect of ships by-passing Singapore port altogether; luckily this will not materialise in the foreseeable future due to political and financial constraints.

Ms Wee has every right to rebut Derek's observations. However any rebuttal should be done without any prejudice or emotionally. Calling Derek a crackpot and a leech is overboard by any standard; especially if his observations are accurate and when Ms Wee herself had not been subjected to the harsh reality of working life. Her rebuttal smacks of arrogance. And when she received negative feedbacks, she conveniently choose to run away. As she is 'unfortunate' to have a MP father, she should have known better that the use such strong derogatory terms can invite costly lawsuits if used on the wrong people. Luckily, Derek is a forgiving person.

Her outburst also expose a social-ill in Singapore - that in our quest for paper qualification, children are not taught social grace. I am sure she is not an exception. Unfortunately, these seemed to be more obvious in the higher ranked school; maybe because such students tend to be more self-confident and vocal. The emphasis in most of the 'elite' schools is on examination results. Social grace and social etiquette takes a backseat. Maybe there is a feeling that as the majority of students from such schools have parents who are professionals, their upbringing should be fairly good. However in today's world of double-income, professional or not, as I mentioned in my previous blog, both parents have little time to guide their children. Hence, these children are as likely to lack social grace and etiquette as any other. Maybe it is time for the Education Ministry to include social etiquette and school disciplines standards into the ranking criteria.

Maybe Miss Wee is naive, maybe she is privilaged to have an MP father who shielded her from the real world. Being a GEP student, I assume that she is well read. And if she is well read, then she should understand that the job market is getting very tight. Not only there are more graduates entering the job market every year, the already tight market is further saturated with foreign talents. This is complicated by the need of companies to watch their bottomlines and the rise of competition from neighbouring countries which has cheaper workforce, comparable infrastructure and vast land for expansion. Everything is finite, and if you are approaching the maximum, how much further can you go?

I am not surprise if none of Miss Wee's friends are from the lower income group. Because if she has such friends, she will know that the world is not created equal. There are those from poor family who are intelligent and capable but cannot go far because of unequal opportunities. There are those who are less intelligent or capable but had a head start in life because they are from rich families. I find it hard to believe that being the top 1% of the cohort, she fails to see that different opportunities open to different segments of the society. This is precisely the stark reality that his MP father is trying to resolve together with the government. This is another reason why our education system has failed.

Anyway, Derek's observation and appeal to government is not new. MPs had voiced the same sentiment as Derek earlier in the year. So Derek is not a crackpot nor a leech, because if he is then the MPs who have spoken on the matter are also crackpots and leeches. Far from it, the MPs who have spoken out are good people who listen to the people and think of ways to help their fellow citizens. They are not like Ms Wee, who has a silver spoon, shielded from real life because of her elitist attitude. And unlike Ms Wee, they have the wisdom and privilege to mix and mingle with the other 99% of Singaporeans, and appreciate the truth about real life.

In an effort to defuse the situation, Ms Wee's MP father explained that Ms Wee's privacy was infringed because her blog is private. He further defended his daughter by saying that "her basic point is reasonable, that is, that a well-educated university graduate who works for a multinational company should not be bemoaning about the Government and get on with the challenges in life" and that "some people cannot take the brutal truth and that sort of language, so she ought to learn from it".

I say, chip of the old block. He is as arrogant as his daughter. Derek voiced a concern, not because he cannot take the brutal truth. If his daughter's English is as powerful as she claimed to be, she would agree that Derek has accepted that other countries are catching up. He has accepted that life is going to be more difficult and job security is no longer present. In fact, Derek has more vision because he can see a potential problem that will plaque the government of the day - a large jobless middle class. I am surprise, Mr Wee the MP, cannot see the potential problem!

There should be no disillusion that a blog is private. You write a blog because you want to be heard. If you want something private and not heard or seen, then use the good old diary!

I am also surprise that he agreed with her daughter who essentially ask Derek to stop bemoaning about Government and get on with challenges in life. As an MP, unfortunately his job include listening to the people's grouses, whether justified or not. How can he be a good MP when he agreed with his daughter that people should just shut up and continue their struggle? MPs work for the people and convey the people's grouses to the government. In the current climate when the government is trying to reach out and encourage feedback from the people, such MP will only hamper the process. His ability as MP is further suspect when the same sentiment was brought up in Parliament before.

Hopefully, these saga will get the attention of the government. There is something wrong with our education when top students show such arrogance and insensitivity. Education is not only about qualification but also about social etiquette. In addition, the government should also re-look their MP selection process, so that their MPs show more sensitivity and concerns to their constituents; MPs who will listen to the constituents. And more importantly, the plight of the potential jobless middle-aged middle class people.

At the end of the day, there is one thing I can agree with Ms Wee's MP father - that he has failed as a father in this aspect.


Updated: Ms Wee's MP father had issued an apology on October 26.

For those unfamiliar with Singapore education system, GEP or Gifted Education Program, is a program to nurture to top 1% of Singaporean students to their maximum potential. Screening is done when they are in Primary 3 at the age of 9. Their syllabus is different from the other 99% of Singaporean students. These students have virtually guaranteed places in the best schools of Singapore from the primary to Junior college levels although this will be discontinued from 2008.