Watching the Singapore Economy

PPSMI and State of English in Malaysia

2009-07-09T17:02:00.004+08:00

"Currently, out of the more than 30,000 English teachers nationwide, the prime minister said only eight per cent were confident enough to carry out the PPSMI." - PM Najib Razak as qouted in the Malaysian Insider.

Fact:

1) Most textbooks in science and math are written in English. In fact, all formulas being used in Science and Match are based on English.

2) Only 2,400 teacher are confident in teaching Match and Science in English.

Does that tell you more about the quality of the teachers and their own grasp in English rather than the failure of the program?

"Najib, however, said that the fact that the government is considering making English a compulsory pass subject reflects its seriousness in the matter."

What's the point if they are going to make it so damm easy so that the weaker ones can also pass? Even when I was in school then, the standard between the good and the mediocore were so great, and we were in an urban school, and we still had good teachers, in fact, in my town one of the best schools.

"We can achieve the same objectives if we increase contact hours in English teaching so that students can become confident in other subjects," he said, adding that the government is considering increasing English teaching time in schools soon.

I think it is more wise to increase the English contact time for the teachers while they are in Uni or Teachers Training College than to stuff it into the kids.

Give the kids a break, if you get good Teachers, you get Good Students.

And while they are revamping the program, why not insist the world of science and match speak in Bahasa Melayu.

Shout Out!

Adventures in Daddlyland: day 21

2009-04-21T12:00:00.002+08:00

I spent more of the day in JB for a business meeting.

I managed to send J1 to school and then got down to work before headng out to JB.

So the kids have gotten into a routine that it's pretty much manageable now.

When I got home, I found J1 doing her homework and J3 lying on the couch.

J2 was down in the pool for her swimming class and going through her swim test routine still together with the rest of the kids.

Later J3 came down to join us in the pool and played well with the other kids.

We watched amazing race, the episode where the 2 basketball sisters were involved in a pushing match with the mother and son team, and had to explain what "bitch" meant!

Well be thankful it wasn't anything more sinister.

Adventures in Daddyland: Days 16 - 20

2009-04-21T11:42:00.002+08:00

Due to my current hectic schedule, I am unable to update daily. As Murphy's Law would dictate, life would get more complicated as the travel date draws closer.

Day 16:

Yesterday, towards the evening was walking around like a zombie due to a whole day of meetings and running around town, and even had a second cuppa at 6 pm, to no avail. It was pretty much on the go from 6 am onwards till about 940 pm when I finally got into the floor.

I had a series of meetings, in between which I had to make a detour back to Clementi to pick up the car. Another reason why I let you drive, but I do bitch about having to get wet and walk under the hot sun.

J1 thought she had her wushu test, but turned out to be a false alarm for her, but some of the other kids did have their exams. I think it's because she just signed up and the rest may have been from last year.

J3 for once, did not cry when she went to take her bath and to school. My mom thinks its because she got a "new" dress to wear yesterday. We'll see her in action today to see if it's a once off or the tide is turning.

j2 was OK as usual, and I took both J1 and J2 out to cycle in the evening before I realized that she had her speech and drama, so that was cut short, and also the 2 of them argued. I think more J1 took offense to something J2 did and took off running, and then J2 came and ask where was J1 oblivious to fact that J1 was upset.

Anyways by the time her class time, I was really shagged, and when I took her home, she started to whine about not bringing her milk. But she has learnt not to whine when I am tired.

Also another issue cropped up. J2's school will be having a mother's day outing, and with the mom not around, I wonder how J2 will react. I think I am just being overprotective, but we will see how the drama pans out.

We got home in time to do a story, and J1 was waiting on the computer for you to call, but had to set her right that you are working and that you'd call on the weekend. So this weekend, you better wait for us to get back from our swimming tests and talk to them.

Day 17:

Just sent J1 to school and I think this is the earliest we have ever left for school 635 am. So when we got there, none of her buddies were there yet, and I sat with her until Esther came by and then I left both of them alone, since I'll be like the lamp-post. No problems in the morning, and the same lately.

Also she scored 3 x 100 and 1 x 98 for her ting xie, so she has put in her hard work and I think deserves a small treat. Mrs lee also called to say that she has passed the syllabus and worksheet from the time we are away. Additional stuff will be provided by Kah Yuen. Also J1 may get to sit for her SA1 together with everyone else as the exams were slated to happen the week of our departure. So we will see and keep her on her toes.

J2 as usual had little problems. Seems to be eating better. She's still wet at night, so I guess we will have to bring with us her diapers.

J3 in the morning was fine, but I think she has regressed again. Last afternoon, again she didn't want to take her cat nap and was energetic, so we went for a walk and J2 and J3 wanted to go swim (my mom had also gone for her exercise as no kids around) , so left J1 at Jasmine's and took 2 and 3 down. All were ok, until we got up when 3's adrenaline wore out and she was a terror all night long. Nearly gave her one good smack. This morning, more of the same as she's yelling for poh poh.

Day 18:

Thankfully Friday did not have much problems.

J1 went to school early and did not have any problems waking up as did J2 and J3.

Today being the last day of the school week, decided to be more relaxed with the kids and took them down for a quick walk and run, but most off all to keep them off the pool in preparation of the nassa test tomorrow.

J2 is still a bit apprehensive on her bronze test, and I have told her it was a practice session in a new pool with other students, and she seemed to calm down a bit after that.

Day 19:

This is the big day, J1 is sitting for her Silver medallion (at 7+ years old) and J2 for her bronze (at 5 yo)

Morning was relaxed and did some packing for the big trip in a months time. And got the kids to eat their lunch early and then got prepped to go to Queenstown for the test. The swimming coach, uncle saw took a ride with us, which was good as it made the girls a bit more relaxed.

As j1 got ready for her silver, I spoke with Mr saw that J2 was a bit apprehensive, and being the experienced coach that he is, he took J2 down to the pool to get her to warm up and just get relaxed with the pool and water. THis worked out great as she didn't want to get up after that.

J1 as usualy breezed through her silver although she kept muddling with her cap as it was threatening to slide off, so that slowed her down, but overall, she was great.

Now for the biggie and J2 was quite excited to get it going and get it over and done. She was the shortest of the group, which is unusual because she's the tallest in her age group, and this goes to show that she was indeed the youngest of the bunch.

As expected she didn't swim the fastest and had a bit of trouble with the float making part, but mr saw went to give her encouragement and she got it done.

In fact, I am so proud of her as part of the exam was to dive to the bottom of the pool and the examiner pick her as an example to 2 older boys on how it should be done.

I had a series of videos taken from my phone and this was quickly uploaded to youtube for the mom to see. the mom had a running commentary on skype/fring so she was virtually in the thick of things as well.. almost like live blogging.

Day 20:

Was a bad day as I had a lot of trouble sleeping.

So through the day I was in a bad mood, and the kids got to skype with the mom.

Worked a bit more on the holiday itinerary, but that is all about what I want to say about sunday.

Adventures in Daddlyland: Day 15

2009-04-15T08:00:00.001+08:00

The kids were good yesterday, as took all 3 of them down for a swim. J1 and J2 to practice for the sat medallion exams and J3 becos she wanted to tag along. Su was down as well to look after J3 while I swam/exercised.

J1 came up with a blocked ear and no matter what we did, she said her ear still blocked, including this morning and said that when she yawned, her ears hurt. Any advice for her? I've tried looking via the digger flashlight, but I don't really know what to look for. Her wax is gone so nothing else there and am afraid to dig any deeper.

Mr Saw said J2 is ready for the exam and she was quite excited about it. It wasn't so when we first got into the pool as she wanted to play with J3, but after some encouragement from Uncle Saw, she went into the pool and did her drills.

J3 didn't sleep until 9pm. Amazing so she was awake most of the day. In the morning, as usualy, was bad. She now doesn't want to take off her PJs, so my mom had to shower her in her PJs. I had a shout at her and that piped her down somewhat, and since I was the big bad wolf, she was more than happy to leave the house to go school, only to cry again when she got there.

But when she got home, it was as if, nothing had happened.

Adventures in Daddlyland: Day 13 and 14

2009-04-15T07:59:00.002+08:00

Over the weekend, the kids went down for their pool session and to practice for their medallion exams in the coming week.

it was surprising that J2 had wanted to take part in it, since she's quite young, and the coach said she had no problems.

We also did more worksheets for J1 in keeping up with her studies from school and to train her up for the time when we will be in Italy.

Saturday was quite unproductive as kept the kids occupied and skyping with the mom.

Sunday, we took a heavy breakfast and had a late lunch as esmirada, hoping to slowly pu J3 into the mood for eating western. She ended up eating bread (from the fabulous garlic bread they served).

THen when we came back, got the kids to go to the pool again and then, later in the night, to skype with their mom.

Adventures in Daddyland: Day 12

2009-04-12T09:56:00.001+08:00

This was good friday, and the kids had the day off.

An outing with J1 and J2's friends were planned for the Henderson Wave, for a bit of an outdoorsy outing.

The plan went to schedule (slightly behind) and the kids were enthusiastic about seeing their friends again. When the other family arrived, we had to do a 3 way exchange. J2 went with her buddy, G in her parents car. Jboy, came into our car to sit with J1, so J1 had to relocate from the front to the third row of the car.

The kids started with a burst of energy, but sadly about 20 minutes into the walk J2 was pining to be carried, but persevered on up until we reached the summit which was the Jewel Box and the cable car station to Sentosa. Surprisingly, j3 took it slow and easy so she had a better time compared to J2.

Had a rest, and some snacks before making our way down again, and this time J3 was too tired to walk so had to be carried by Su. J2 was really going off the rocker with her whining, so in the end had to encourage her to walk a bit by bit.

So we came back after about 2 hours, and that was it for the rest of the day. They managed to skype with their mom, while I attended to some other activities.

Later that evening we had wanted to go to an indoor gym. it was pouring rain, but we went ahead just the same. I made an agreement that if it was still pouring when we got to the gym, we will head home. So as luck would have it, the rain tapered to a drizzle, so we got into the gym only to find out it was closed for a party! Murphy's Law!

So drove home, and dropped J3 off, and brought the 2 older ones to get their DS in preparation of the trip to Rome, as I have found out that the Thai plane from BKK to FCO will not have the personal entertainment system like what we've come to expect from SIA.

So we will have 11 hours of nothing except eat and sleep and hopefully the DS wil keep them occupied.

So the kids are not acquanting themselves with the DS and so am I.

Adventures in Daddyland: Day 11

2009-04-09T19:58:00.001+08:00

yesterday was a bit of a challenge. J1 came home early due to ear pains, so luckily we managed to get her mom on skype so kinda sorted the problem out. We dug up 7 years of ear wax from both her ears, and boy, I was shocked! I hate to imagine how much ear wax I have in my own ears.

J1 was quite open to the whole solution thing and the water spray which she said was ticklish rather than painful. And then my mom spotted some parts of her brain wanting to come out, and plus my bro had given my dad one of those scoops (plastic this time) attached to a light bulb (LED to be exact) so it can shine into the canal, and part of the brain was jussst about to come out.

So ended digging it out plus a bit more. And then asked whether she wanted to treat the other side, and since she had quite a good experience, she said OK. So that was from both ears. She still said it hurt, but more towards the outside of the ear rather than the canal itself.

And yes, no more bringing this up with J2, but I will bring the solution with me since I have a brand new one, JIC.

J1 was good in waking up. Our alarms go off almost simultaneously now, so not really a problem plus she now eats her own breaky while I do my morning business.

Oh update, Uncle saw has passed the bronze and silver medallion forms to J1. The test is on April 18, which is 10 days away. I think J1 can do it, but will need to seek the counsel of Uncle Saw to see if J2 is ready. She can do it, just takes a bit longer than the others. So worried that she might be a bit freaked out if she's the last, plus you know how competitive she is.

The night before was a bit restless as before that, J1 complained it was too cold, so ended with my shuffling between 25 and 26 the entire night, and a lot of restlessness with the kids. So had a chat and asked if they'd prefer it cold or hot? Luckily both came back as cold (as opposed to the usual because you say this, i must say that). So last night, settled back to 25, and no problems.

I am slowly trying to psycho J3 into going Wee Care, but I think after the initial apprehension, she will be OK. I spoke with her, which tumbling about in bed with J2 as well, and the first thing she said was that she didn't want to go wee care because the teachers would scold her. So I don't think that shouting teacher at EB does not help make her want to go school more. So I think the lovey dovey environment at WC would suit her nicely, and also plus they emphasize learning thru play (emphasizing on play!)

But the long term problem is another J1 problem once she graduates to primary school.

Oh, I also met the teacher from j2 speech and drama, and he spoke to me to remind me about the fees, and explained the whole lot to him, but he's no in charge anwyays. But he said that J2 is making an effort to learn and participate, which is good. I said I couldn't speak, but too old to join his class.

It's been quite an experience having all 3 at the same time, and luckily my mom is handling J3 since she's the most tempermental.

Adventures in Daddyland: Day 10

2009-04-08T10:35:00.001+08:00

A bit of excitement today for all the wrong reasons. Italy (where the mom is) was hit by an earthquake. When I spoke with the missus, there was no problem on her side of town, but then was buzzed by a cuz who said there were fatalities. So called my ma-in-law to convey that she was OK, only for the comm to be mis-comm as I mentioned "she's sorta OK", which the ma-in-law took as NOT OK.

I think the kids have gotten into the routine. J1 was happy (surprise surprise) coming back from school. She did well for her ting xie. The new one she got 95, and the repeat, she obtained 100. So congratulated her on her effort. She also did some of the math CA1 (which had just passed), but didn't wanna push her as she had her Mandarin class shortly after.

Then went down to swim with j1 and j2. Had j1 do 6 laps before allowing her to go play with saki. Saki had her fins down, so she tried on for 2 laps. She swims faster than me now. J2 had a good 6 laps around the pool (as opposed to to and fro, Saw got them to swim round the perimeter of the pool). Mostly all of them did the froggy, which I must say should be her fav style as she could swim as fast a P3 girl in the same class.

THen they did the survival test, and must say that J2 has a bit of problem tying the ends of the pants tog (which is normal as her fine motor skills not all there yet), but she persevered until she got it done. So gotta get her to practice tying at home when possible.

J3 came down with my mom for a dip, but didn't wanna go into the big pool. So by that time, J1 and Saki were playing with her, but they game play still is not quite compatible with J3, so after awhile, she played on her own and asked to go home.

I check with thai, and sadly will be on the old plane there and back, meaning to tv screen in front and all share the same tv screen. so will be on my pc and ipod a lot while the kids are on their ds. so a ds now is definitely a must buy.

THis morning, no more 530 wakeup call. J1 again had no problems getting up, and was rewarded with a chance meeting with her best friend this morning, although we got to school at 7.

J2 woke up on her own and was dry. she didn't get her night milk and got her to pu before sleeping.

J3... nothing new to report, except she finally pm this morning, and agan asking for my mom. I think she's reacting to you being away by sticking like a leech to my mom. But otherwise, she is ok.

So anyways, as written, it will be a short call this morning as my meetings from yeterday got bumped to today. so back to back from 1 pm to 6 pm. Also will do maiolini's check later as the euro had gone to 2.012 so better grab the chance fore it goes away again. also will change another euro 1 k for us.

Adventures in Daddyland: Days 8 and 9

2009-04-06T16:51:00.001+08:00

THis marks the first week of me shouldering more of the family responsibilities in view of the absence of my wife, who is away for 6 months for her advanced training.

Days 8 and 9 were relatively uneventful, in the bad sense.

Day 8:

It was the day of shuttling the kids to their ballet and stuff.

THe only unfortunate incident was with J1's extra work, as trying to put her through her paces in time for the SA1 exams. She seems to be having problems with the 5 tens and 50 tens and the like, and the other weakness is the x is 12 less than y sort of questions. So we got into a heated argument as she was not even trying to get through the questions.

Felt bad afterwards, and will need to make her more questions for her to try out.

We all went for a swim later, and patched things up with J1.

The kids knocked off around 930 pm and J2 got up on her own in the morning, and went to the toilet and did stuff on her own. sadly she wasn't dry, you gotta give her credit for being independent.

I brushed their teeth for the morning, and then got J1 to do her english paper. She did reasonably well, but still with some mistakes, while the other 2 kids were playing outside.

Day 9:

Just after dinner and sitting in front of the computer. Dinner was hor fun, except new stall. The old one is no more, so had to experiment again. The faux pas this time is that I didn;t know that the sour chilly was put into the noodles, so had to scramble to clear the noodles of the chilly, but overall no drama from the chilly incident. The hor fun is OK, but the hokkien char sucks. So back to KL or another stall to get our fill.

YC's was good. Pretty much the whole wee care clan was there, and J3 had a good time playing with her future class mate casey. The older girls (including ours) were stuck playing Kate's DS as well as Maya's new toy.

It was penang food, and it seems her dad (YC's) knows the chef personally as they were chatting away like old friends. but sadly did not have my fill of food as had to take care of the kids, and often times, they were in 3 different places and 2 adults. Had a good time catching up with my bros (mainly Lawrence and TS) and also did the courtesy chat with the snooties. nicholas was there as well as was Ling, so chatted also a bit with them. Laz's sister was also there so sat with her a bit to chat since she was kinda sitting on her own. So the secret's out about the trip and everyone was asking how I was coping! And also how the girls were coping.

Then j2 and j1 went on and on the ds, and was considering going to sim lim to get it. The on second thoughts decided to do more research on the ds from sim lim and just too many stories. besides as they say, if its too good to be true, it probably is. So checked out 2 shops at clementi central and perhaps have found our outlet for purchase. the market price without bundle and in store warranty of 3 months is about 180. One shop gave a bundle of 229. So my thoughts are to get one withouth bundle and one with bundle and get them 2/3 original games. But just need to set strict ground-rules.

Also took them to the bday playground, and managed to get in on the dot 5 pm, so we left at 6 pm when they closed. I managed to do some more reading on the proposed trips, and we may decide to skip milan and go to the mountains instead where they have cable car going up the mountains. I think that would be more interesting than just seeing more churches.

Adventures in Daddyland: day 7

2009-04-03T20:57:00.001+08:00

yesterday was a good day where the gals were concerned. J1 has no issues in the afternoon and evening time with her homework and such, although true to her nature, it all pops up at 930 just before she goes to bed. her concern this time was her ting xie, and not the most recent one but the one where she had to repeat the exercise for getting 75. So we got up early this morning to get that done. she got slightly grumbly, but i guess it was more the combination of waking up early and anxiety.

J2 was slightly wet this morning, and she got up on her own to go poo. She had her drink at 8 pm and then nothing else to drink. I think she'll be ok in a week or 2. may not make it dry to rome, but she's getting there. Again no problems with her.

J3 as usual went to bed a 7 and woke up a short while later, but she lazed on the couch the entire evening. And as usual, don;t wanna go school. Su had to bribe her with a lollipop in the morning to get her to go.

Took the kids out for a swim yesterday, incl J3 which would be her first dip since falling sick. J1 did 6 laps, J2 4. J3 did about 1.5 laps before they all went to the small pool. I was hoping to tire J3 out so that she'd go straight to bed at 8, but the plan was not fool proof. She knocked off after dinner at 7 and then woke up at 730. Luckily for all of us, she kinda lazed around the couch and spent the whole evening nursing her drink (milk, what did you think?) and in the process got her top all wet, so had to change her top before bed. Was told by mom that she went to sleep around 11 pm.

Work as usual is busy, but like a friend said: much of the work has speculative outcomes, so perhaps a 5% chance of success. but as I repeat my mantra: gotta try, else the only answer will be a No.

Adventures in daddy land: Day 6

2009-04-02T10:06:00.001+08:00

Yesterday there was not much problem with J1; last night or this morning. We had set her alarm as well as mine, so there's a safety net. In fact her alarm went off before mine, but didn't wake her up until I was about ready.

And when I did wake her up, no problems. She was quite a happy camper this morning, so I think her mom's analysis about her letting off at home could be spot on. In fact, my mom has said that she's always a happy kid in school when my mom's there on weds and also after changing to her wushu clothes, she's off like a rocket.

J2 was wet again this morning, so we will try again tonight. not sure if its a push back for their mom being away, but will try again tonight with su's suggestion of drinking her milk at 8 pm, and see what happens. Last night j2 had her milk on the way back from the chinese speech and drama. speaking of that, her term is coming up ad the second term's fees are due on like 22/4. However the term starts early may and ends sometime in august, so the girl at the counter has recommended we skip term 2 and then come back for term 3. the usual teacher is not around, so will wait and inform her that we will be away from may to august, rejoin in term 3.

J3 again was crying when it came time to go to school. I think it's because of that oldish chinese teacher so shouts at the kids, so not as nurturing as WC. So sent her to school by car today and she was going the entire trip and even after i dropped her off. dared not wish her goodbye! She knocked off at 6 pm last night for a 20 min nap and didn;t go to sleep until close to midnight. my mom was trying to get her to sleep all afternoon but no luck, until 6 pm.

As for myself, I think I am sinking into a depression. All the effort, and all the high hurdles to hop through just makes me think if all the effort is worthwhile. I keep seeing potential job openings that could be a fit, but due to circumstances, I am unable to apply, which makes it doubly frustrating.

There was one today which may fit, but I worry if I'll bust my chances if they ask for a start date, and the earliest I can do is September, which is like 6 months away. Perhaps a 6 month notice period?

Anyways, life goes on.

Adventures in Daddyland: Day 5

2009-04-01T13:10:00.001+08:00

Yesterday was an OK day. Managed to get my work done, but sometimes quite frustrating because too many preconditions before a deal goes through.

Had a long chat with a colleague in the us. Our old man is down again with health problems, so a lot of the plans has stalled. My colleague, J, also threw some ideas into the lot on how do we make our money independently on our own, and it seems that we may move into an incubator mode, which is great because i'm also putting together my thoughts on this.

So more work without promise of delivery, but at least gotta try.

The kids came back and immediately, J2 chucked out her lunch. Not sure why, but she just complained of stomach ache. She chucked in the toilet so she's able to tell and control better now (not tha it makes it any better).

J1 came back to complete her homework and by the time she finished, it was time to take J2 down to the pool and J1 wanted to follow. So they were playing with Su, and suddenly after I myself got changed, J1 was sulking on the bed, crying its not fair. So not knowing head or tail, I gave her a lecture to get off her attitude problem and if she wants to go swim get changed.

She was still sulking at the pool and so I sat with her to talk to her. Evidently multitude of problems at home and at shcool
1) She got upset with Su and J2 because they were a team, and she was alone. So I told her the mathematical truth about a 3 pax and 2 team.
2) Then it emerged that her buddies at school (namely Y, N and E) all prefer to go library during their recess and she is unable to follow because she has not finished her recess food. So then I suggested she eat faster, and also how's the other finish their recess food so quickly and she said they don't. Asked some more if J1 didn't go find them in the library, and she said she did but couldn't find them. So today's suggestion was to asked the girls where'd they be in the library so that she could join them after fnishing her food.
3) JJ is now her partner, and pokes fun at her. Marks her worksheet wrong althought she got it right, cheekily did not wan to sign when the teacher is not looking and all. So all suggestions, from fighting back to ignoring JJ will not work with our brittle princess, so I just told her off. I just told her that until she gives me a solution about what to do with her, I will not go talk to Mrs Lee because all solutions provided by her dear father does not work by her standards, and so if everyone was the problem, then she needs to decide what to do with herself.

Finally, I got sick and tired to deal with her complaints and really told her off, to the point that she can sulk thru school and uni and work, and if she thinks school's bad now, she'll really suffer during uni and work. And moreover, if she continues to sulk over the littlest of things, all her friends will not want to be her friends anymore.

I think she needs to go for positive reinforcement sessions, role play or something like that. I wonder to myself, how'd she become this way? I was never like this, and neither was her mom.

J2 had a good swim as mr saw just had her do laps. in total I think she did close to 12 - 15 laps (kiddie lap count) which was pretty good for a small fart like her.

After class, J1 (by this time had gotten over her sulk; she was swimming alone in the small pool) and J2 were playing with saki and her cuz, so a bit of happiness came back to j1.

J3 as usual cried when she got to the school. But otherwise was ok when she got home. But didn;t go swim because of her just recovered sickness. Plus she was asleep when we all went down to the pool.

Dinner was quite painless as J2 was famished as was J1 (is she ever not??). We watched the chopped version of HSM3 after dinner and then mom decided to skype but had to cut short the skype to send the kids off to bed by 9. The water was nice, so shooed my mom down for her exercise. She got back after the kids were changed, so J3 was with me in bed with J1 and J2 for a bit of bed time reading.

Set the temp at 26, so the kids were quite comfortable. THen in the middle of the night, J1 had her nightmare. And I was too tired to bother, so told her to say a prayer and go to sleep. I dunno how long she stayed awake, but I know I went to sleep. Then my alarm was either not switched off or had accidently been switched off, so woke up only at 645. Then the usual lah. J1 waslike didn't want to get up, and when I told her I was late, she then went into why are you late, i want to go to school by 7 mode. There's just no winning with this girl!

*J3 is outside now throwing a mega tantrum about going to school* let's hope she gets out of this funk by primary school or we'll have 2x trouble.

Hopefully today will look cheerier!

Adventures indaddy land: day 4

2009-03-30T20:57:00.001+08:00

Happy to note that j3 continues to improve and should be able to go scholl tomorrow after a week of being sick. With the mom 's advice, i called to cancel her appointment with her paed as it's just a waste of the prof's time to see a kid who's on the mend.

j1 had trouble waking up for school not as much as lack of sleep but having boy trouble at school. Ahem, not what you think, but she's got a couple of boys who keeps giving her a hard time and she, being the princess that she is, is unable to cope with the attention.

J2 is her usual self but did not make it to her swimming as it was threatening to rain with thunder and lightning. But true to form, the second she got to the apartment, there were no morw thunder and lightning!

And i have some work that requires my attention in the coming days so will be kep busy with that.

And this is turning out to be an uneventful day.

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adventures in daddy land: day 3

2009-03-29T21:29:00.000+08:00

Day 3, a sunday turned out to be quite nice.

j3's fever had subsided, and she's back to her cheeky old self. She only needed a dose of fhamol all day, but her sniffles and cough are still quite bad.

J1 finally got down to doing some of her homework and in addition we gave her some additional work to do in english and math. We have found that her math linguistic skills are not up to par and she has some trouble undertanding written questions.

J2 was being her usual self. She had helped make breakfast of scrambleb eggs and toast. She also did some drawing though bot so much work sheets. Need to give her more work sheets to do to encourage her to be diligent in her work.

We stayed at home, more for j3's fever and the kids got out to play by the lobby instead og going down to the playground.

There was a will smith show on tonight but decided to reward the kids by allowing them to watch high school musical during dinner time. As a plan we will be watching high school musical 2 tomorrow after dinner, if they behaved themselves.

J3 hadn't slept all day, so she took a short nap at 7 pm only to wake up in a bout of cough. J2 also did not nap was asleep by 9 pm and j1 should be going to sleep soon.

mommy was on skype with them for 2+ hours, so they had mommy there with them. J2 is still suffering from mommy withdrawal although she seems to be adjusting nicely.

All in all a good day, and plus i managed to get some work done as well!

Till tomorrow, the journal continues.

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Adventures in daddyland: day 2

2009-03-29T18:38:00.000+08:00

Surpringly quiet. j3 was still running a temp for most of the day but the good part is that she's getting her cheekiness back.

The girls skyped with the mom, and naturally j2 was all tears and having a really shitty time being apart from her mom. The other 2 was just taking it in their stride.

Then the sleep monster overcame me and i crashed for a couple of hours, waking in time to take j1 to her swimming lesson and then off to Lizzie's wedding.

I got a call from home asking to feed j3 her brufen as her temp had by 8 pm soared back to upper 38, so told my mom to go ahead to do that and then it was quiet for the rest of the night.

I had a ball catching up with ex-colleagues and the food was good (kudos to Lizzie's ma-in-law).

By the time i got back was close to midnight and the girls were all asleep, and so ended day 2 of my adventure and thankfully not as manic as day 1.

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Adventures in daddyland: day 1

2009-03-28T11:30:00.000+08:00

Yesterday marked the 1st day i was a dad at home with 3 kids as the mom is away for her work training for 6 months.

Of course, i am not completely home alone but with the benefits of a 3 generation family under one roof with a maid to boot.

I will have 6 weeks on my own at which time i hope to have all the kids' digits intact, then we're off to be with the mom for 9 weeks and then back again alone for another 6 weeks.

On top of that i have to contend with work.

So yesterday chronicled my 1st day.

It was relatively uneventful. I was in front of the enotebook most of the day, unfixing a boo boo i did when i tried to install ubuntu onto it. Had to do a complete reformat and reinstall.

J1 was at home from school, and was tasked to finish her homework as well as some test papers to test her readiness to sit for the exams on the coming weeks.

J2 was sent to school by myself as she had a late night sending the mom off at the airport.

J3 was still suffering from fever and the cough and sniffles she caught from me since monday. her temp was consistenly above 38 and 39, so we had to supp her to try to keep her fever down at mid-day. That worked for a few hours and by early evening, her temp had spiked again.

I checked and her temp reading said 40.5 deg c. So instead of trying to get her to see her paed on monday, my mom and i made a beeline to the children's emergency.

luckily it was not a full house, and we were seen in relatively short time. J3 was misreable by then and the sight of unfamiliar docs made her even more misreable. Luckily the MO on duty pull up some mulan on youtube and that placated her some.

3 hours, 1 blood test, 1 xr and 2 doses of brufen later we finally left emergency.

The mom had a long distance chat with the consultant or reg on duty and she's happy that the tests came back normal.

So much for a low-key kick-off, and instead we got all the excitement.

Hopefully day 2 would be more relaxing.

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A case of out of the frying pan and into boiling water.

2009-03-25T21:03:00.000+08:00

My notebook running vista had just given me the blue screen. It was reliably giving the blue screen on a daily basis for the past week!

So today i decided to take the plunge to install ubuntu and hopefully no more blue screen.

Well was i wrong! I set out to have it dual boot, but ended up only being able to boot in ubuntu. My limited knowledge of linux and ubuntu did not help, but i like the UI, and hopefully the stability.

Luckily i backed up my key files, and am prepared to spalsh money on xp home, but i feel a need to solve the problem or give it a whack first. Call it the engineer in me, (or a sucker).

Am enlisting a friend's help but for now will have to work on the desktop while i figure out the notebook problem.

Talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the pot!

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So that's how it feels like

2009-03-03T20:09:00.000+08:00

I am sad. I am upset. I am angry. most of all I am disappointed.

Why am I feeling so? It because I have roundly and soundly been stabbed in the back by someone I thought I was helping.

Case in point: I prepared a document for him,a spent close to 2 full days (on my own cost), sent it to him to review; and today news filtered back to me that my version was the outdated version.

It was not like there was no opportunity to send me an updated document, in fact we had spoken many time on the phone. he had the chance to review and rebut the information in the document but he decided to keep it from me, and make me look like a fool in front someone whom I had said I've pre-qualified the project.

All the pro-bono work was for nothing. I am damn angry, in fact I have not felt this level of rage in a long time. And I thought I was doing my best to help him.

in making me look bad, I think he has done himself a further disservice. because he has made himself to be a person who is untrustworthy, or worse; a person living in his own little world.

Now I know how it feels like to have a knife shoved and twisted into one back. The road to hell is paved with good intentions and this is one of them. And I'm unsure if I am magnamacious enough to let it slide. I want revenge, I want payback.

Lord, please help me be strong in the face of such adversity and stupidity.

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Cool!

2009-03-02T19:19:00.000+08:00

I was listening to my download of jazztrax when I saw this and thought it was simply beautiful.

Wouldn't you agree?

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My future

2009-03-02T13:26:00.001+08:00

In a short span of 24 hours, the first or many decisions will be made by others that will impact my future.

There will be a meeting a skeptical entrepreneur and an unorthodox investor where they have a meeting and decide if they both want to jump into bed together on a project.

I put that project to my partners who then worked behind the scenes to set the ball rolling.

The stakes are high, and the returns potentially lucrative.

but that tentative first step may be the hardest because the entrepreneur has been screwed over by too many people to be an optimist, whereas the investor is unorthodox to say the least.

Within the next 24 hours we shall see if my project and indirectly my firm will be able to survive.

Let keep our fingers and toes crossed.

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Part 2 - Water Investment

2009-03-02T11:45:00.003+08:00

Some may say that I am one of those who follow the herd mentality.

The Cleantech Group has just finished their investment forum on Cleantech, and there was a discussion on Water investment, so I can safely say that I am not alone in this thinking. In fact, this is a well known fact for the past 20 years or so.

A lot of pundits are saying that Water will be the next oil. UNlike oil where there can be substitute to energy, human rely on water to survive. Man (or woman) can survive with minimal use of energy such as coal and oil (just live like caveman of the past), but we cannot survive without water. You could say it is the elixir of life. THe lack of water will not only cause huma suffering but it will also cause social unrest, and thus potentially leading to antagonistic attacks on neighbouring countries in order to have that access to fresh water.

Singapore has accutely felt this fact since day 1 of independence, when Malaysia used water as a leverage in its dealings with Singapore during its short time as part of Malaysia.

So naturally, Singapore can be considered the Oasis in water technology, as the government has sought to be independent from Malaysia in terms of the citizen's water needs. It has desalination plants, as well as the Newater, which is essentially is recycled water.

So where would I look for in terms of water investment? I'd say 2 or 3 major themes.

1) Low energy desalination or filtration.

Technologies that will take salt water (in abundance) and convert them into fresh potable water. Based on the traditional way of desalinating salt water is to boil the water, extract the salts and then allow the water vapor to condense back into water, sans the salt and other minerals.

However, this is energy inefficient. THe latest technologies include reverse osmosis (RO) membrane technology. Hyflux, a Singapore based company is a prime example of a listed company taking advantage of the need for access to clean water to grow its business.

THe key would be to push these technologies into more energy efficient processes, or to take an out of the box approach in desalination.

2) Recycling water.

When Singapore started bottling Newater for the public to have their first taste of recycled water, much was made of it; and some in not so nice terms, ie jokes like drinking pee etc etc.

However, the asronauts have been doing that since the spacelabs days as it is important under those circumstances to be able to bring a bare minimum amount of fresh water from earth and then depend on what can be recycled to sustain the astronauts in space.

Again, recycling water uses a variety of membrane technology as well as charcoal scrubbers.

There are some innovative technologies like Katadyn and Hydration Technologies, that provide solutions that require no power (except human power) to provide the clean water for the users. These are mainly driven by the need for military personel to have access to clean water irrespective of their location as long as they have access to a river or pond for fresh water.

The opportunities here are then to look for key enablers that can lower the cost of adoption. Or to be able expand the volumetric flow of the membranes to something a village could use, but continue to be human operated. Or perhaps to expand the life of the membranes.

3) Irrigation and piping.

I believe this is one of the most wasteful loss, which can be controlled.

A lot of pipes in Malaysia are old and the infrastructure is crumbling, thus leading to flow loss that could otherwise be recovered and used by the users.

Perhaps the next innovation could be how to monitor leaky pipes deep underground. The current use of ground microphones are limited to the area of coverage. What is needed is a grid monitoring system akin to the electrical grid system to detect unusual activities within the water grid, ie higher than usual flow of water etc. This is an interesting article about detction of water leakage.

No I believe the next innovation to come out would be in the area of leak detection as there are current major efforts to improve the membrane technology for the filtration of water.

Next, agrotechnology.

The next thing in investment.

2009-03-01T09:59:00.000+08:00

If I were running a venture fund right now, I'd be looking at 3 major themes, and I have been consistent at sticking to these themes:
1. Energy
2. Water
3. Food or I'd call it agrotech

Now anyone not in a comatose would have known that billions of dollars of investment has been pumped into cleantech, so I kinda believe the whole sector is tapped out.

Potentially the bright spots are technologies that improve upon existing solutions, ie the race for better efficiency in solar is never ending, and so is the race to make cells and panels cheaper.

We have also seen a lot of investment into smart grid technology, and perhaps a movement into electricity on demand like if a domicile has its own source it is able to better regulate its own use, and also be able to sell any excess to the grid.

The other area is how to make wind more ubiquitous? There are areas where current wind technology does not work due to inconsistent or low wind speeds. I read the other day that a company was just funded to commercialize their gear technology to reduce energy loss via mechanical means.

Similarly to wind, how about underwater current (as opposed to the current wave technology). However of key would be concerns of environmental impact to oceanic life.

And for many company's in the area of energy, the race is now building up generating capacity, be it via plants or solar farms or wind farms.

I am hopeful that within the next 5 years we will start to reap the benefits of such technology in our daily life.

Next installment will be my thoughts on water technologies.

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Whitney Houston

2009-02-27T09:18:00.001+08:00

Last night as I drove home from a meeting, Whitney Houston's All at Once was playing on the radio. Since I was alone in the car, I blasted the music.

I realized what amazing voice this woman has (and hopefully still does), and it was such a tragedy to have her married to Bobby Brown and get caught in the downward spiral of drug abuse.

Well, the good news is that she's divorced Bobby and hopefully her voice is also on the mend and she'll come back with her amazing voice again to vow listeners like me.

And I do miss her, and her voice (especially ballads)

entrepreneurship in a downturn

2009-02-25T20:57:00.001+08:00

I read an interesting article on the harvard weekly about the above
topic and its amazing that entrepreneurs will always find opportunity
in any situation, and in this case, the opportunity is during a
downturn.

It goes to say that when capital is scarce, then only the best most
efficient, most creative ideas will get funded.

However, I am puzzled by the above. If this occurs in an environment
of high entrepreneurial activity, then one can postulate that the
businesses that get funded are truly the cream of the crop.

However, what happens in a situation where there is relatively low
entrepreneurial activity, where risk taking is frowned upon. What
then? if there is a scarcity of projects, then does it mean that there
would be a mismatch between the capital that is going into less than
ideal projects?

I see singapore as being in the latter group, and fear that while the
efforts of the government in stimulating more risk taking, the
projects that are being funded is not the one that have a high
survivability factor.

What do you think? Keep capital scarce or risk pouring good money into
bad projects?

Airport users subsidizing the ERL at KLIA

2009-02-25T12:28:00.000+08:00

This came about as some relevation that users of both KLIA and the LCCT is subsidizing YTL for the operating cost of the ERL.

While some may feel cheated, especially if you don't use the service but I feel that one must look at the matter objectively. I used to travel quite extensively to Heathrow airport and the cheapest, fastest, most reliable way of getting from London city to the airport was to use the Heathrow express.

The service is prompt and zooms me into London within 30 mins. The other alternative is cab, which could cost close the 60 gbp instead of able 30 gbp for the X.

And so does the ERL. The trains are clean and runs efficiently. I think it was a mistake not to extend the line to the LCCT because more people can then use the ERL to get to and from the airport from KL.

So for once, I think some quarters are barking up the wrong tree. Sure, the concessions should have been disclosed, but rather the cry over spilt milk, why don't the people put their heads together and lobby for the ERL to extend the line to include the LCCT?

At the end of the day, people must be willing to pay for service. Take the bus, while cheap may not be conducive since the bus is at the mercy of the jams that KL and its suburbs are so prone to.

Fair or not, you'll not hear me complain about the ERL as I think it's the right infrastructure to put in place.

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Elizabeth Wong - How low has Malaysia sunked?

2009-02-18T11:16:00.001+08:00

I read with disgust the treatment meted out to Elizabeth Wong and the recent revelation of compromising pictures sent to the tabloids and the media. Let's see what's fact and fiction (I shall try my best)
1) She is single and non-Muslim (fact). So she is free to have sexual relations with her partners. While the older folks may frown on pre-marital sex, but to be honest, this is a trend that we have seen in both the Muslim and non-Muslim community.

2) These pictures were taken without her consent. Until proven otherwise, we must assume she is innocent.

3) It was taken in a private setting, therefore, by right should remain private.

4) She has a track record for doing what's right (which is so often missing in politicians in Malaysia today)

The key question is:
1) Will her constituents still be able to trust her to do a good job after this?

2) Does it matter to her constituents what she does in private? Is she hurting anyone? Is she committing a crime (having pre-marital sex is not a crime, unless you are Muslim or a minor)?

To be honest, I think Khir Toyo is supremely hypocritical to ask Eli Wong to quite when this is the only transgression she has made. Who knows perhaps he also has skeletons in his own closet and it is just a matter of time before the skeletons come out to play.

If you subscribe to the conspiracy theory, and I fell many do, it would seem that BN would stop at nothing to dig enough dirt on the PR elected officials to force them to jump ship or quit, thus allowing them to take over the state governments. If you cannot win using a democratic method, then you use an underhand method, which is to force people to defect or shame them into quitting.

In the end, I think BN (be they be responsible for the entire fracas or just an innocent bystander - but by Khir Toyo making statements, it would mean that the BN or UMNO is linked somehow or other) will end up being the major loser, because the sympathy of the masses will sway to the direction of Eli Wong. And coming so soon after the Frog incident in Perak, it would further strengthen the people's perception that BN is desperately to take over the State Government (by whichever method that works best) and does not care what the Rakyat's wishes are. The BN has put themselves above the Rakyat they are supposed to serve.

And this puts Malaysia very close to being a failed democracy.

This is Technopreneurship!

2009-02-13T11:15:00.002+08:00

My main beef with supposed technopreneurship coming out from multi-million dollar research funding is that the gap to close between the lab and the consumer is WAY WAY too big.

I saunter over the many websites on venture funding when I stumbled upon this company, Smule, who managed to raise US 3.9 million at a time when many tech companies are slashing workers or dying off.

Check this out. For the users, KISS (keep it short and simple), but underlying the user interface, I can only dare to imagine the coding needed, but even more, the IDEA!

This is simply AMAZING!

If you read the articles on why it is successful:
1) Any idiot with an iPhone can make music with it (good or bad is not the issue)
2) Users can hear music from other users around the world. This is the network effect, and ISP or the telcos all love this because it drives data usage (already iPhone users use more data than other traditional users of the mobile phone)
3) Well, it runs on the iPhone (need I say more?)
4) Rather than targeting other developers to use the technology, this goes to the consumer direct. Risky, but any investment made by VCs tend to be high risk high return.

What do you think?

Rain, glorious rain!

2009-02-04T16:39:00.000+08:00

I just came back fro penang and alor seats where I spent my chinese new year holidays, and boy, was it scorching hot!

I went up north with 1 sick kid and adults, and I came back with 3 sick adults, all down from the pure heat up north.

And now as you can see it is raining in singapore. Have never been happier!

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Volvo ocean race singapore

2009-01-19T18:09:00.000+08:00

Finally had the chance to go to the race village yesterday. Though the boats had left singapore for qingdao, there were still activities for the kids.

Woofball was fun, although the wife complained of the smell inside the ball. But the ocean simulator was really cool. Would have been better if they had some air conditioning on board as it was hot and muggy inside.

I hope they will come again in 2011.

Fruitful meetings

2009-01-18T21:00:00.001+08:00

Yesterday was a whirlwind day of meetings, with me leaving the house at 6 am and didn't go to sleep till past 1.

Good meetings, and action items.

I am hopeful that there will be many more cross border forays for business, leveraging on my network both in singapore and malaysia.

And you know what, I do feel a bit homesick for malaysia. I see my friends and they have more opportunities, even with the nep, just by virtue that malaysia is developing and singapore has developed.

A friend remarked that many things that entrepreneurs try to do in singapore ultimately need to touch the government (and I do not mean permits and registrations) and eventually will touch the tlcs, which may not have such a good result for the entrepreneur.

It is an interesting observation, and one that warrants a bit more thought and understanding.

In the mean time, plenty of work to do on both sides of the border.

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Happy New Year 2009, and good riddance 2008

2008-12-31T17:59:00.000+08:00

I must say I am happy to leave 2008 behind, and can't wait for the prospect that 2009 will be a better year for me.

you can say that I am an optimist as most people are dreading 2009 as a very bad year for the economy, but certainly from where I sit, 2009 can only get better.

Let's review 2008 briefly and you will see why I am more than happy to kiss it goodbye.
1. My boss left at the end of 07 and the big boss decides to give the job to an old hand who then decides to undo everything we had done in the previous 18 months, and still put the blame on those who had left although the new guy was as much to blame.

I left soon thereafter.

2. The promise of a new job turned out to be more hot air. I had a firm offer but was informed that my reputation had preceded me and was giving everyone in the new organization hives. So I felt that pointless to try to change people who can't take dissent.

So I decided not to join and get ambushed. I guess it was a blessing in disguise as that group I was supposed to join had not done much in the preceding 8 months after my decision.

3. More promises of jobs went unfulfilled. I had many "projects" and jobs that did not materialize. I worked for free hoping to gain employment, but in the end, I guess it was not to be.

4. Failed projects. My first try at helping entrepreneurs to raise funding was surprisingly easy, and sure enough I found a funder for the guy, only for the entrepreneur to turn around and screw me. I had burnt some goodwill because of that damm guy, but luckily my friends continue to support me.

I also had other projects fail for the lack of investors, so I have decided to stick with the areas I am comfortable with, and sadly some of these projects are good projects.

5. Well being of family. As with any person with elderly relatives, death in the family is to be expected. This year I lost an aunt and an uncle. In the last month, I've had an aunt getting a stroke, a niece break her leg, a cousin getting shingles, another cousin in an accident, and another cousin almost breaking his back in a fall. Closer to home, i've had to go to the ER twice when my youngest fell and knocked her head and my second borne having to take all sorts of medications.

But overall, I guess it could have been worse and I am glad that most of us and my family is in the pink of health.

So as I prepare to kick off 2009 , I am looking at securing a consulting project (a small one albeit), close an investment and hopefully usher another 2 to fruition.

As the Buddha once said (and I am taking massive liberty at paraphrasing Him:
Dwell not in the past, for it has gone,
Think not of the future for it has not come,
Live and act for today.

And with that spirit, everyday is a new day and a new opportunity to do good and create value for oneself.

Happy New Year. May the year bring bountiful prosperity and luck to you.

Kylie X concert in Singapore

2008-11-26T11:37:00.001+08:00

The Missus and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary early by going to Kylie's X concert.

I planned to get us there a bit early, and was wondering if we should eat at home or at the venue. Wisely she said to eat at home, as when we got out towards the venue, the AYE was chockers because of an accident.I was thinking: Murphy's Law. So we took the CBD route instead and got hit by 2 ERPs, anyways, after spending 200 bucks for tics, what's 2 bucks.

The concert doors opened at 8, and the audiences slowly filtered in and there was a DJ to keep the audience occupied playing club music, as if to set the tone for the rest of the concert. I did notice some young kids accompanying their parents, and rue'ed a missed chance of bringing our oldest one with us, but then again if we had brought the oldest one with us, the other 2 younger ones would have kicked up a stinker!

I also noticed a lot of preggie mommas at the concert, 3 within line of sight, so they must be really committed fans. After all, this is the first time Kylie is in town since the beginning of her career 20 years ago. I also noticed a young muslim couple, with the lady wearing tudung, and remarked that if this was in Malaysia, it would have been haram for them to come to the concert (a cynical reference to the recent hoo haa about Muslims doing yoga and it being haram)

There were a couple of people who came in with feather boas, and a few "showgirls" as well. I was telling my wife how Kylie's songs have a big following in gay clubs, and she wondered how I knew ;)

The concert started at 9, straight away with 2 of her hits. I must admit that I am not a real big fan of Kylie (meaning I know some of her songs, but don't follow her religiously). Her 2 number was that infectious tune "Can't get you out of my head", and damm that tune is really really infectious, in fact, it's still in my head now.

I turned around and saw that that young muslim couple were the first to leap out of their chairs and dance like no tomorrow! Kudos! Damm they really know how to enjoy themselves, and I don't think it made them any less pious Muslim.

Anyways, then the pregnant lady in front of me also gets up and starts to dance! WOW! Is this Singapore? I looked around (I was still sitting, engine is still cold) and almost 90% of the crowd was on their feet. EXCELLENT!

There was excellent choreography, and the wife, who has a dance background, remarked that Kylie's movement is all accounted for down to her hand movement (I looked, and it follows the beat of the drum)

The dancers were excellent, and her costume changes were amazing. Her set followed a theme, which jived with the songs she sang for the set.

It was too infectious, and I finally got off my ass and danced with the rest of the party people halfway through the concert.

She bade farewell, and I thought, damm that was it? I glanced at my watch, and it was already 1030 and she'd been going non-stop for 90 minutes. After numerous cheers and claps and shouts, she emerged or an encore.

Not a 1 song encore, but another set for the encore. The encore was a bit less scripted I felt, with a bit more time to banter and all. Actually she had 2 encores, but we all knew she was coming out again for the second one.

The final song for the day pull all of us back to the 80's when she broke on to the scene with "I should be so lucky" and everyone danced, and sang with her.

All in all, I'd pay 500 bucks (but in view of the economic downturn, perhaps could be better spent). 200 was well spent , enjoyed every second of it. It was like a 2 hour rave party.

And it's the closests that we've gone boogeying in a long long time. And hopefully Kylie doesn't take another 20 years before she comes back again.

Patents: quality or quantity?

2008-11-24T19:19:00.000+08:00

I had a good laugh the other day when I met with an ex-colleague who told me that the debate on whether an organization should go for quantity or quality when it comes to patent filing is still raging.

Even more incredulous, is this is a premeir organization! naturally I find such debate to be so silly because it is quite obvious quality will trump quantity any time of the day, especially in technology.

However, admittedly there are situations where quantity is more important and one of the situation warranting such a model would be when an organization is trying to create and incentivize their r n d department.

I had gone through this same exercise when I was part of an organization bringing r n d into a traditionally manufacturing complex. Patents were alien to this people, and we had drawn people from manufacturing to man the development teams, with a sprinkling of new graduates like myself. The boss was an old hand in r n d, and had crafted a scheme to encourage disclosures of potential patents by just putting forth a 4 slide ppt.

his scheme was idiot-proof:
Slide 1: introduction and problem statement
Slide 2: your solution
Slide 3: more details of your solution
Slide 4: cost savings as a result of adopting this thingamajig

Not perfect, but it got the ball rolling.

But past the initial 2 years, the internal patenting committee put up additional barriers and lifted the hurdle higher such that we introduced more quality into the pipeline.

Now this was for an organization that at best had basic engineering degree holders with a few graduate degrees and post-grads.

How about for an organization where you had tons of post-grads? Shouldn't this NOT even be a question? (re: quality vs quantity). If quantity ruled the day, would be throwing hard earned money after useless technology patents, or can we afford to play the numbers' game and let fate decide?

In any situation, I'd advocate quality and especially in this tough climate, we need to make tougher decisions instead of molly-collding the egos of these people.

Sound-off : what do you think?

Sound-off: does age matter when deciding value one brings to the table?

2008-11-17T12:18:00.000+08:00

Sound-off: does grey hair matter when it comes to doing business?

Recently I have been trying to approach a potential client to offer my services to his organization. We had a good discussion I felt, and I am planning to do a show and tell to the rest of his group come the new year.

But I understood he had some queries on the number of years I have under my belt, ie I'm too young and indirectly perhaps fears on whether I can properly represent what I said to him or not.

While I don't hold it against anyone, but fundamentally the answer should be: does age matter?

arguably I can understand and justify his concern, afterall, he will be the one trying to rally his colleagues to attend the show and tell on his behalf come the new year, so if I am too wet behind the ears, the surely it will impact is reputation and that of his boss as well.

So for this case, I intend to show him what I am made of. If the work I had done had sufficiently impressed the ex-CEO of a listed company, then I think it should do for him, his colleagues and his boss as well.

enough said for my experience, but I would like to expand that to the larger picture of singapore and perhaps the asian countries.

Entrepreneurial activity in the US is mainly done by fresh grads or your people, with a few grey haired serial entrepreneurs thrown into the soup. And yet they are able to survive. I haven't done extensive research into whether they are able to thrive without a grey haired Ceo or not, but google is a good case study. I believe (and I could be very wrong here) that sergei brin and larry page got their start and first customers before eric schimdt came on board (he was the grey haired boss). VC and angels all judged them by the technology they had and as well as the customers. It was only later when they were in the growth mode did the Board bring in Eric.

Here if everyone expects an older boss to always helm the venture, then where does that leave our younger generation of entrepreneurs? Are they then doomed to failure from the onset or do they justify bringing in an older person as CEO and possibly high salary and higher burn rate at the same time?

For my case, I am thankful that my potential client had not raise his private thoughts to his boss, and that he was willing to give me a chance to prove my mettle to his colleagues, I guess some of whom may not be as forgiving.

As I said when the show and tell comes, then the proof will be in the pudding.

But what do you think? is this experience prevalent in this part of the world or not?

How much is the value of track record and reputation?

2008-10-31T13:29:00.000+08:00

This is something tickling my mind. How much value do you put on track record and reputation?

Yes, this is part and parcel of the intangible asset but how do you deal with multiple parties with different take on the intangible worth.

For instance, if A has done work in country 1 and B has done work in country 1 and 2, then who has more reputation? Again its hard to qualify because if 2 has done little work (but still some) in country 1, then would A have more leeway in determining leadership role compared to B? Or what happens when the collective (A and B) want to go into country 2?

Now I understand why the concept of intangible asset and brand value is so hard to understand. Makes it even tougher when each have their own definition of it.

A spot of sunshine amidst the gloom

2008-10-28T07:16:00.000+08:00

Reading the papers this past days and weeks is an exercise in futility and gloom. Everywhere there's bad news. Even if one is not personally affected by the market and the economy, just reading it makes one depressed.

I saw something this morning that was quite nice and really is a spot of sunshine.

Enjoy.. Best you can.
Thks and brgrds, ken

--
Kenneth Low
M: +65 9088 5988
E: kenneth.tk.low@gmail.com

Does this make America Great or What

2008-10-24T09:48:00.002+08:00

Only in America do politicians take a time out and look at themselves in a less serious manner.

Why can't we all lighten up a bit.

Will there ever be an Obama-like person to be PM in Malaysia

2008-10-23T17:23:00.001+08:00

I was looking at Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama on Meet the Press. I saw the video and was really moved by the eloquence that Powell showed on why he will be voting for Obama. But the thing that got me most was on the issue that Obama has been mislabelled as a Muslim, and indirectly as a terrorist.

Powell said something to this effect, the right answer that McCain gave was that no, Obama is Christian but Powell said even that was not the right answer. The right answer to him should have been, why does it matter if he's Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist or event a Free thinker? What matters more is that he is an American.

He ended that spot with a touching recall of a photo-essay he saw about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, which he was most touched by this last picture showing a mum crying over her son's headstone at Arlington National Cemetary. The son was killed in action, and had a purple heart and a bronze star. Powell also mentioned that the deceased was 14 when 9/11 occured, and waited until he could enlist to fight in the war. But the part he emphasized most was that at the top of the headstone, there was no cross or star of david, but a cresent moon and star, symbolizing that he was a Muslim.

So his point was that if a Muslim can give his life for America, then why can't a Muslim be President of the United States.

It is with the exact same concept that I reflect on why is it that it is so difficult for Malaysians to allow a non-Bumiputera to be PM? If everyone contributes to nation building, then why can anyone have a shot at being the top guy in the country? Why is that?

And also there is another trait that I see in Obama that I see in someone else in Malaysia today. That trait is inclusiveness, bringing people together instead of singling a class out (the rich and the poor etc) that McCain so fondly likes to do. In Malaysia that person today is Anwar Ibrahim and his concept of Ketuanan Rakyat. It's a pity that the minority of rakyat does not share his vision of inclusiveness.

Lunch or dessert art

2008-10-19T15:25:00.000+08:00

had a typical mediterranean lunch, and now wishing for the siesta that comes after lunch, but have errands to run.

The kids decided to be a bit more creative with their dessert, tiramisu laced wit liquor. That ought to put them to sleep soon!

Kids having fun

2008-10-17T18:37:00.000+08:00

It's nice to see the kids going out and living out their childhood, although it beats me why they are playing school, when they actually on a short holiday.

Whatever, as long as they get away from the idiot box called television and actually interact with kids in the rough same age group.

I guess this is something that I did not get to enjoy growing up as I was the only kid close to where I lived.

I recently spoke with a friend who lives in a landed property and he too rues the lack of friends the same age as his kids in the neighborhood. For me, I'm just glad that my kids get to enjoy a childhood I did not have.

And I have to run interference and order the kids out as they're equally stuck on the chinese serial that has way too much adult themes for the kids to be exposed to at this age.

Channel 8 listen up. I think your programming needs to be tweaked such that serial being show during the 5 - 7 pm time band needs to be more kid friendly.

Sometimes I am at a loss on how to explain the back stabbing and the adultery to the kids. I think they should have more time to maintain the innocence in this day and age.

Down sick

2008-10-16T16:57:00.001+08:00

Have been down sick since yesterday. Imagine the coincidence, falling sick 2 wednesdays in a row.

And last night, I discovered that one of my lymph node is swollen and I think that freaked the wife a bit, so she did a couple of test on me and threatened to take me to the hospital for a blood test, and reinforcing that I shouldn't have gone golfing over the weekend.

I guess lesson learnt!

Anyways, the missus will check the swolleness again on Sunday and make an assessment if I need to head to the hospital for a blood test.

Today, still a bit woozy, but feeling much better.

Had a very interesting discussion, and I believe a few of us will join forces to see if we can create a small niche for ourselves in this trying times. Unfortunately, the problem in getting numerous parties involved is that you can never satisfy everyone. So one of the people I was hoping to bring on board has decided to opt out because of concerns that there would be a lack of profit to be shared amongst the various parties.

Anyway, will have to try to bring this partner on board into a win-win situation. That is the only way to work. It will not work if one party feels that they're losing out because of the joint cooperation.

Life is never easy, much less life in business... amidst trying times.. makes it even tougher.

Economic woes

2008-10-07T17:44:00.001+08:00

Boy has the market taken a beating this last 2 day, and in general for the past 2 weeks!

Things are definitely not well, and I can sense a lot of anxiety, especially from me.

Have I chosen the wrong time to try to work on my own? Or will this be the best time ever for me?

On one hand, I do enjoy being my own boss, and not having to play office politics; but at the same time, I am feeling a bit pressured to come through with some of my projects. Don't get me wrong, good projects are there, but having to work with funders (whose own funds may be drying up) will be difficult. And also I'm trying to do some consultancy work, and now I am unsure how much these people will pay for such services.

It is almost like deja-vu from 6 years back when I joined a start-up trying sell consultancy services to companies at the time when they're more interested in staying alive. Hopefully, I have learnt from that episode, plus I am paying myself nothing until the first orders come in may help in prolonging my staying power, instead of sucking it all up on HR costs and expensive office costs.

However, it would be nice to enjoy a steady paycheck from an employer, and I know of people hiring.

Ah.. decisions, decisions. The best for me would be to find something in between, but in these times, it's an employers' market and not the other way around. So unless I can quickly establish my niche, I'd better close one of my projects successfully. That one project will be able to last me for 2 years at my current spending level! So I can either slog forever, or try to hit it once and then slow down for the next 2 years before hitting the pedal again.

No one ever said that living life successfully was easy! I just hope with hard work and a bit of luck (and a prayer), I might just make it!

So I guess my decision has been made hasn't it?

Initial impressions of the nokia e71

2008-10-03T13:11:00.001+08:00

I just recently switched over to the e71 as the main working phone, and at the same time engineered a coup d'etat on the wifey's phone number.

anyways, after the fubar with singtel and all my subscriptions related to me switching over to the mio plan, i can safely say that i have been using the phone for the past 5 days.

initial impressions? It's a damm good phone. So far the only snafu i've had to deal with is on the email where i've had to reset the phone in order for the email to start syncing again.

the qwerty keyboard is tons better than the e61i i used, even though it's much closer together in order to shrink the form factor. The key improvement is that the keys have a "click" feel as opposed to the flubbish feel the e61i has, so when i'm banging out an email, i know when i've hit the keys. The only downside to the keyboard is that they switched the "?" Keys and some of ! the other keys to another location.

the phone is fast, and even starting up time is loads improved compared to the e61i. And starting up a program is faster compared to my old phone.

the T9 intuitive dictionary needs some getting used to but nothing that cannot be overcomed.

however email is still a problem with no real push capability apart from microsoft exchange. As most watchers have said, the lack of html support for email is also a key weakness. Nokia has come out with a beta for their push mail, but currentl i cannot use my company email (though sitting on a google server) to push my email, now am i able to push from 2 separate emails. I've decided to live with the installed email client until nokia sorts itself out wherfe push email is concerned.

the battery life is fantastic - so far, as i keep it connected to 3G plus download my emails every 15 mins, plus do about 30 minutes of calls per day, and i still get more tha! n 3 bars of battery life left (this is approximately 40% left). And wo rst come to worst, i can still swap my e61i battery for the e71 as backup.

i have not used the on board gps as yet, so more to come.

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Pain with Singtel

2008-09-29T12:39:00.001+08:00

I've had a very painful morning with Singtel.

Background: I recently decied to swap over to the Mio plan, from my individual plans, in order to "save" money. As it turns out, because my broadband contract had not yet run out, they banged me with a 30 months contract with Mio, instead of 24 months. Extra 6 months, I thought it was OK.

THen they insisted on giving me a new adsl modem which I do not need (my current one works just fine), but they insisted, and so I relented. I swore to the counter girl that all the technician will do is to come over, and when I tell him or her I don't want any of the settings compromised, he will switch off and on my modem and declare that I am on the Mio plan. I was giving this innocent girl such a hard time that I agreed to the stupidity of Singtel and made an appointment for the technician to come over to flip the power switch. I mean, the technician has gotta earn a living right?

Anyways, today is the day that technician is supposed to come over to flip the stupid switch, and it is now 1 hour past the appointment time. He was supposed to come between 0900 - 1100 (2 hours of opportunity cost is alright I guess). At 1030, I call up the Singtel Mio hotline to say the technician has not come and that I will be around for another 30 minutes so the tech better hustle. At 11 am, I receive a call from the Singtel call center, and by this time I have had it with the incompetence of the technician (he had not shown up) and had grown tired of speaking to a junior staff at the call center, who could not answer anything more challenging.

So I got put onto his manager Laura, who sounded a bit more capable. She promised to check the backend to see what was needed to be done to get me on the Mio plan, so I agree to hang up and let her check. She calls back to say that I AM on the Mio plan, and that the technician still needs to come by to install the new modem (by this time I could have strangle anyone from Singtel who kept wanting to stuff the stupid modem down my throat!), so I asked what so great about this new modem.

She was ready this time. I was a difficult prick of a customer now, so she brought on her technical guy. Before the guy went any further with his explanation, I interjected that I am an engineer and asked if he was a techie, so which he replied in the affirmative. So I let him do his song and dance, and to my dismay, the best he could do is new warranty and a new power supply. I mean, what the.... I was hoping for better spec, so I asked if I was getting a gigabit ethernet, am I getting the whole wireless alphabet soup of a, b, g and pre-n? No, it was the same as my current modem, just with a new warranty and new power supply.

Really, what the.... so I said thank you, but just get the technician to drop off the modem and we shall all get on with our lives!

Singtel, I know you have a monopoly on the home line, broadband, and mobile phone. You are the big giant that everyone quivers when they come up against you. But heed this. The next time a customer wants to know why that technician have to come to the house to flip the stupid power switch; be prepared with an answer.

When the customer says he is happy with his modem, don't insist on shoving (I meant ramming) a new modem down his throat. Give him a shopping voucher, or better yet, pledge the amount equivalent of the modem (50 or a 100 bucks) to a charity of his choice. Let's not generate more carbon and trash the earth by a) getting a technician down to flip a switch, and b) to get him to drive to my place, and c) to throw away a perfectly good working condition modem, all for the sake of changing to a new plan.

THis is stupidity at its pinnacle!

And since I am on your case, why not give me the 2009 F1 race ticket for my troubles?

The world in turmoil

2008-09-17T18:31:00.001+08:00

These past 2 weeks have been pretty sobering, in terms of trying to find peace amdist the turmoil.

malaysia and thailand is in political turmoil.

china had 2 major incidents, the more heart wrenching one being the adulterated baby milk powder, and the other no less serious, the major landslide that killed over 250 people.

the US and central america got hit by 2 consecutive hurricanes.

but i think the closests to home is the world wide repercussion of the financial turmoil, a result of the irrational financial exxuberance of years past.

solid, statured financials companies of the past has rocked to the core, and this "perfect storm" of sorts is making even the studiest of financial companies shaky.

and it's impact is far reaching. Singapore, in its effort to become a financial hub for asia is starting to feel the impact. Hiring and spending is slowing and the domino effect is slowly! being felt by other sectors.

i guess it would take a very brave person to strike out on their own now. This is the predicament i am facing.

as i consider to incorporate my own firm, i am staring what could be the abyss of the future. True they say that in trying times is where fortunes are made, and i certainly hope so.

this afternoon, i got a call from a friend, and he was advising me to take shelter from the current turmoil and get a job. It is definitely enticing.

but what i am working on does present unique opportunities that cannot be overlooked, for better or worse.

and as if to drive home the point, a friend of mine called to say he's just been let go.

decisons, decisions!

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State of affairs in malaysia, part 2

2008-09-15T19:04:00.000+08:00

Continued..

5. Raja petra. I believe he's been locked up not for perpetrating any criminal acts. In fact the only act he has committed is to highlight the misdeeds of the current regime and the immediate past one.

he's been locked up because he has become too dangerous for the BN regime.

and on the charge that he is spreading untruths about Islam, well, why not we let the religious academics debate about that. Learning and enlightenment does not come about by sweeping discontent under the carpet, but the opposite, by encouraging active discourse and debate amongst the faithfull and those not of the religion.

in this case, why call the badawi brand of islam "islam hadhari"? Might as well just call it BN Islam.

sad, so sad to see the country i grew up in descent so such a banana republic and to become the laughing stock of the world!

question is will pakatan save the day, or is it more of the same. For the future of malaysia, i certainly hope for real change.

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Dismal state of affairs in malaysia

2008-09-15T18:51:00.000+08:00

Oh what the country was and could still be. If only the idiots who run the country leave the land and go fly kites.

the recent flip-flops on the isa arrests show the lack of any understanding on the basic tenets of decision making, the rule of law and the chain of command.

1. How can one arrest a journalist who reported on facts? Even if it flamed the fans of racial discontent. Should it not be the person uttering those statements be locked up instead?

2. And how can the home affairs minister say he was not given prior notice of the arrests? That's not adhering to the chain of command. The use of isa is not a trivial matter because it tramples on the accused's basic right to the legal process.

And coming from a trained lawyer. His alma-mater should disown him!

3. And how stupid can syed hamid be in saying first that the journalist threatened the peace, and then (true to the flip flop nature that is the badawi regime) turn around and say she was being held for her own safety.

minor civil servants would be fired for making such stupid mistakes. Again, one should check if syed hamid has full control of his faculties, in particular his brains.

4. Then for theresa kok, why is it that a malal umno figure - khir toyo in this case and utusan fans the racial flames and yet not even get a warning or show cause letter, when it emerges that the dap mp had nothing to do with the accusation, which was the petition to remove the call of azan from the mosque?

even the chief of 2 mosques in her constituency has come to her defense to say that one, the pa system has gone kaput, and the other, that kok has not set foot in their mosque, much less to deliver a petition!

To be continued....

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Ahmad Ismail

2008-09-09T10:16:00.002+08:00

I think that's the name of the guy making such a ruckus in penang right now.

the key question is: will the pm badawi act against such blatant remarks to incite racial hatred, when other have gone to jail under isa before him? My guess is no, because he is an umnoputera. It's a case of damned if you do, and damned if you don't because he'll be accused of giving in to the chinese and be seen as weak if he does, and if he doesn't, he'll be seen as condoning such racists acts in his own fold, thus making his islam hadari as a empty vessel (where is the moderation) much less his declaration that he is pm of all malaysians.

but to further incite hatred and the bring the heat up another notch by mca and gerakan is fool-hardy as it will end up as another may 13, so its a self-fulfilling prophecy.

instead one should follow teddy roosevelt's famous doctrine: walk softly, carry a big stick. That big stick today! is the threat of these parties of leaving bn. For once, the people in gerakan and mca, and what's left of mic should just weild the big stick and leave the coalition. It does not mean that they have to join pakatan (although that would be nice, but it impacts the balance of the pakatan coalition), but become a neutral minority in government. Without mca at least, bm would already loose their majority, even without the east malaysians jumping ship (which i hope they do because umno's culture of devide and conquer will mean the end of the indigenous parties in east malaysia).

so stop harping on ahmad and start walking. One of the bloggers have got it right, no more nato (no action, talk only) as it will serve to confirm that mca and gerakan as just eunuchs to umno.

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Heartless mrt riders

2008-09-04T09:39:00.000+08:00

As i am writing now, i am witness to a bunch of heartless mrt riders.

in front of me are 5 able bodied young females (they could me males for all i care), and directly in front to them is a young 6 year old girl. And none of them have given up their seat for this young girl.

one is asleep, another pretending to sleep. One i can see if debating within herself whether to give up her comfortable seat or not, but at this time, she's not giving up her seat. Another has buried her head in her psp playing silly games, and finally the last couldn't give a shit!

i guess this is the example the young women of singapore show to their younger generation.

opps latest update, the self doubting one has up and left the train, so at least the young girl gets the safety of a train.

shucks, i am glad i take my girls out in a car. With self centered young people like this, i wouldn't want to expose them so such sn! obbery.

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Lucky healthy

2008-08-13T13:07:00.000+08:00

Yesterday i accompanied the wife to get her foot looked at. It was nothing life threatening but it left her with a lot of pain.

as i sat at radiology, i had a good look at people surrounding me, mostly patients waiting to get scanned.

one particular scene that got to me was that of a sick child, on a drip. The hospital bed looked enormous compared to his size. His arms were not much larger than my 2 fingers put together. He looked barely 2 years old, close to my No 3.

part way through the wait, he had to have oxygen. What ailment he had i don't know but i know he is a brave kid. I then reflected on how luck i am to have normal kids, with all their idiosyncracies.

then i looked at one of the nurse or nurse assistant who had genuine compassion for that sick child, whereas there were other nurses around who took nursing as a job, thus did not show the kind of compassion exhibited by this one nurse.

then i! got me thinking: what makes a good nurse. Is he or she one to exhibit compassion, or is the attitude of the rest a survival skill brought on by experience to to keep the spirit and soul sane from ll the suffering they see on a daily basis around them?

whatever it is, i am glad they are there for i would not be able to do such a job.

to reflect, i am very lucky to have 3 healthy kids and i hope they remain that way for a long time.

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Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't

2008-08-12T09:13:00.001+08:00

Politics in Malaysia is a funny creature. The old adage of dammed if you do, and dammed if you don't ring true more often that not, primarily because of the state of politics, where religion and race is more often brought up as a bogeyman, usually the bogeyman being non-bumi people.

As statistics would proove, the muslim have nothing to fear but ignorance itself. By itself, it is already the majority. Is it because they fear that Muslims will flock to other religions if suddenly the apostasy ruling is lifted? I think not. I believe most muslims are happy with their religion, and perhaps only a few would want to convert to another religion. However, this balance would hang precariously if other religions become too aggressive in trying to convert "non-believers" into "believers".

So news has been made where there were politicians, both from the BN (not unexpected is it) and the PR (well, religious fevours crosses political boundary) as well. I have always seen PR as the hope for the next generation of Malaysians, and unless Anwar can do something about it, then all hope is lost because Malaysia will never rise above racial and religious politics, and that irrational fevour will never go away, and it will be things as usual.

But the opposition thread a fine line. While trying to come clean as a government in waiting (hopefully still), they potray themselves as competent and above corruption and most of all, a government for ALL MALAYSIANS, not just the bumis, and even within the bumis, the chosen ones. But in their ranks are those who are use to the way of life where grease money is the norm rather than the exception, and as bumis, they deserve more than other equally capable Malaysians.

WHat will happen only time will tell.

A tale of 2 countries

2008-08-03T10:18:00.001+08:00

In the month of August, 2 neighboring countries celebrate their Independence day, or national day. These 2 countries are inexplicably tied to each other, in terms of geographic locales to the human connection between its people. These 2 countries are Malaysia and Singapore. I for one, am Malaysian, but have made Singapore my home.

And August usually makes me reflect on the state of the two countries, which I have called home (both of them). On one hand, I always dream about going back to Malaysia, because this will always be home, and then reality strikes, when I read the news, and reflect upon the future of my children, to which then I decide that SIngapore will be home because of my kids.

Crazy some may say as Singapore is such a pressure cooker. And you're right, it is such a pressure cooker, but you know what, at least my kids will grow up being an equal. If they make it here, they'll be recognized for what they have achieved and there will not be a person who will doubt otherwise. As opposed to Malaysia, where my ancestors of 5 generation have called home, have lived and died in the country, and yet, I feel like I am a foreigner in my own homeland. At least here in Singapore, while I do not enjoy some of the perks Singaporeans do, I do it willingly because this is personal between me and the state, and the business I carry on between my business partners are done without fear or favor of who I am. However in Malaysia, if I were to take on some businesses, there will undoubtedly be concessions that I would have to make, though I must say that I could probably find equally capable bumiputeras, but the issue I take is that in Singapore, it is my own choice, whereas in Malaysia, the choice has been made for me.

I read on Lim Kit Siang's blog the other day on this author who wrote a wonderful piece on the difference choice that Singapore and Malaysia has made since Independence. If I may reproduce the entry here, or you can read it at http://blog.limkitsiang.com/2008/07/31/at-84-the-fire-still-burns/

At 84, the fire still burns!

By Ahmad Mustapha

Singapore's Minister Mentor, Lee Kuan Yew, who was Singapore's founding father, has always been very direct in his comments. This was the man who outsmarted the communists in Singapore (with the innocent help of Malaya then and the willing help of the British) and who later outwitted the British and outpaced Malaysia in all spheres.

Singapore practices corrupt-free meritocracy and Malaysia affirmative action. The former attracted all the best brains and the latter chased out all the brains. The Singapore cabinet consists of dedicated and intelligent technocrats whereas Malaysia has one the most unwieldy cabinets. Not only that, brain wise it was below par not even good for the kampong.

With that kind of composition, one that is very brainy, naturally Singapore , with no natural resources could outstrip Malaysia in every aspect of development. Malaysia, on the other hand, was too much preoccupied with its Malayness and the illusory 'Ketuanan Melayu' and was also more interested in useless mega iconic development rather than real social and economic development.

Whenever Kuan Yew utters anything that deemed to be a slight on Malaysia , voices were raised admonishing him. Malaysia would never dare to face reality. That Singapore had shown that it could survive was a slap on those who believed that Singapore would fold up once it left Malaysia . Therefore it was natural that these doomsayers would try to rationalise their utterances to be in their favour to combat on whatever Kuan Yew commented. Its political jealousy.

Singapore achieved its development status without any fanfare. But here in Malaysia , a development that was deceptive was proclaimed as having achieved development status. It was trumpeted as an achievement that befits first world status. This was self delusion. Malaysians are led to believe into a make believe world, a dream world. The leaders who themselves tend to believe in their own fabricated world did not realise the people were not taken in by this kind of illusion.

Lee Kuan Yew believed in calling a spade a spade. I was there in Singapore when the People's Action Party won the elections in 1959. He was forthright in his briefing to party members as to what was expected of them and what Singapore would face in the future. Ideologically, I did not agree with him. We in the University of Malaya Socialist Club had a different interpretation of socialist reconstruction. But he was a pragmatist and wanted to bring development and welfare to the Singaporeans. Well! He succeeded.

Malaysia was so much embroiled in racial politics and due to the fear of losing political power, all actions taken by the main party in power was never targeted towards bringing wealth to all. Wealth was distributed to the chosen few only. They were the cronies and the backers of the party leadership to perpetuate their own selfish ends.

Seeing the efficiency and the progress achieved by Singapore caused the Malaysian leadership to suffer from an inferiority complex. That Malaysia should suffer from this complex was of its own making.

In a recent interview, Kuan Yew said that Malaysia could have done better if only it treated its minority Chinese and Indian population fairly. Instead they were completely marginalised and many of the best brains left the country in drove. He added that Singapore was a standing indictment to what Malaysia could have done differently. He just hit the nail right there on the head.

Malaysia recently celebrated its 50th year of independence with a bagful of uncertainties. The racial divide has become more acute. The number of Malay graduates unemployed is on the increase. And this aspect can be very explosive. But sad to see that no positive actions have been taken to address these social ills.

Various excuses were given by Malaysian leaders why Singapore had far outstripped Malaysia in all aspects of social and economic advancement. Singapore was small, they rationalised and therefore easy to manage. Singapore was not a state but merely an island.

There was one other aspect that Malaysia practises and that is to politicise all aspects of life. All government organs and machinery were 'UMNO-ised'. This was to ensure that the party will remain in power. Thus there was this misconception by the instruments of government as to what national interest is and what UMNO vested interest is.

UMNO vested interest only benefited a few and not the whole nation. But due to the UMNO-isation of the various instruments of government, the country under the present administration had equated UMNO vested interest as being that of national interest. Thus development became an avenue of making money and not for the benefit of the people. The fight against corruption took a back seat. Transparency was put on hold. And the instruments of government took it to be of national interest to cater to the vested interest of UMNO. Enforcement of various enactments and laws was selective. Thus a 'palace' in Kelang, APs cronies and close-one-eye umno MPs could exist without proper procedure. Corruption infested all govt departments, the worse is the police and lately even in the judiciary.

Singapore did not politicise its instruments of government. If ever policisation took place, it is guided by national interest. To be efficient and to be the best in the region was of paramount importance. Thus all the elements like corruption, lackadaisical attitude towards work and other black elements, which would retard such an aim, were eliminated. Singapore naturally had placed the right priority in it's pursuit to achieve what is best for its people. This is the major difference between these two independent countries.

Malaysia in its various attempts to cover up its failures embarked on several diversions. It wanted its citizens to be proud that the country had the tallest twin-tower in the world, although the structure was designed and built by foreigners. Its now a white-elephant wasting away. It achieved in sending a man into space at an exorbitant price. What for purpose? These are what the Malays of old would say "menang sorak" (hollow victories).

It should be realised that administering a country can be likened to managing a corporate entity. If the management is efficient and dedicated and know what they are doing, the company will prosper. The reverse will be if the management is poor and bad. The company will go bust.

There are five countries around this region. There is Malaysia , and then Indonesia . To the east there is the Philippines and then there is that small enclave called the Sultanate of Brunei . All these four countries have abundance of natural resources but none can lay claim to have used all these resources to benefit the people. Poverty was rampant and independence had not brought in any significant benefits to the people.

But tiny Singapore without any resources at all managed to bring development to its citizens. It had one of the best public MRT transport systems and airlines in the world and it is a very clean city state. Their universities, health care, ports are among the best in the world.

It is impossible to compare what Singapore has achieved to what all these four countries had so far achieved. It was actually poor management and corruption, and nothing more. Everything is done for the vested interest of the few.

Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines and the Sultanate of Brunei need good management teams. They would not be able to do this on their own steam. I would advise that they call on Kuan Yew to show them what good governance is. Why look East to Japan when it is just next door across the causeway.

Nrf gives funding to early stage VCs in singapore

2008-07-31T17:03:00.000+08:00

Finally, my complaints have been resolved.

today the national research foundation, or nrf has awarded $60 million to 6 early stage VCs, in hope that they will in turn kick-start the start-up entrepreneurial ecosystem here in singaore.

the VCs have to raise at least 10 million each to enjoy the matching funds from nrf, so in total the pot available to start-ups is 120 million, over 8 - 10 years.

but realistically, entrepreneurs have only 5 years max to try to vie for the VC's funding as in the latter half of the fund life, the VC's will be more interested in liquidating their portfolio.

but out of the 6, only 1 is a biotech VC. Doesn't there need to be more biotech VCs in the pool to help stir up competition to find the best deals, and how does that jive with the amount of funding poured in by nrf, a*star, nus and ntu, collectively? There seems to be a disconnect.

but something is better than nothing.

however, one thing did catch my eye, some of the awardees are outfits i have not heard off, and one does not even have a website. How's that for web 2.0? But at least the nrf did not repeat the debacle that was the original tif funding, which was splash money all around except singapore. At least this time, there's money but nt big enough to get the pretenders into singapore.

i expect the entrepreneurial scene to liven up a bit more with this announcement.

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Sandiwara

2008-07-30T12:44:00.001+08:00

The longer the Anwar saga drags out, the "looney tunes" the government is made to look like.

It is as if the entire government machinery is run by a bunch of idiots, from the top to the bottom. Now, it is probably unfair to label every with a broad brush, but the sheer ineptitude of how the case is being handled is ... awesome!

So is he guilty or not? Is RPK's copy of Saiful's medical check accurate or not?

While in all respect, the government cogs are right in saying that the medical examination report should not have been sent out of the hospital as this document is labeled secret (all patients information is labeled as such, FYI), but here, it' not all black and white. Is it not wrong for the person to send it to an "ally" if he or she knows that the report could prove the guilt or innocence of the accused, and that the authorities will move to seal the document forever, or that the due process would be tampered with?

Why is this secret when the newspapers have all reported that Saiful, when checked by the KL Hospital, was indeed sodomized? Why the double standard? THis would lead to more people being confused and sadly for the BN government, that the case against Anwar was fabricated to prevent him from taking office, and to fracture the PR alliance.

So if in the event both reports are true, did Saiful get sodomized on the way to KLH?

No wonder Malaysia is not being mentiond in the same breath as Zimbabwe, the only difference is that in Malaysia, people still have some shred of dignity and are keeping their anger from turning physical, whereas in Zimbabwe, the fear is quite physical. But in essence, both governments are corrupt, and the people are no longer beholden to their promises, lest the uneducated or the brain-washed ones.

Perhaps when Malaysia Day comes, and PR does indeed form a sitting government, Malaysia can move forward for the benefit of all, not just the Malays. But if this continues, in a few years, the Tourism Department can no longer use the slogan "Malaysia.. Truly Asia" as the demographics will clearly show that it will become a mono-racial country.

I like this article!

2008-07-25T17:35:00.001+08:00

I had a semi-serious discussion with my 7 year old daughter about a family friend who is doing his in-camp this next 2 weeks as part of his National Service reservist obligation as a Singaporean male.

To kick start the discussion, I had to qualify that I am a Malaysian and our friend, Singaporean, and for the typical Singapore, what is National Service and what is the purpose of his NS obligations years after he has served his full time national service.

"Why did uncle have to go back to become a soldier?", she asked; to which I replied in the event any country were to attack Singapore, they could defend their country.

Then the big question popped: "..and what will we do?"

At a lost of words, I said the first words that came to mind: "We will also fight to defend our home"

Funny, I now consider Singapore home, and would be willing to lay down my life even though I carry a different passport. Why? Because Singapore has given my opportunities that I otherwise would not have gotten had I lived back in my home country, and the only way I can repay the country in times of need to make the ultimate sacrifice (though I doubt very much if the armed forces would want a middle aged man with a broken knee - I would have been downgraded had I been SIngaporean)

And I guess this article lays out the reason why I feel more affinity to this country that my own. Though theoretically a foreigner, I was never question about my loyalty to the country in my previous line of work as they had judged me to be professional enough to make the right decision, without prejudice - period! Whereas, in my home country, I would always have to play second fiddle to the bumis and to the mass bumis, I would always be questioned on whether I am enriching myself or the country (why can't it be both)

http://themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/headlines/42-lead-stories/2180-sold-out-at-the-altar-of-malay-unity

The china allure

2008-07-25T07:19:00.000+08:00

And no, i am not talking the women.

i am talking about the busness potential of china. One word: massive!

lately i have been involved in more than 1 china project, suprising as i am a "banana" in all sense of the word (instance: i try to speak mandarin and still flub up by interjecting cantonese words into madarin - that's how badly i suck in speaking the language).

i was with a partner to discuss one project and i finally saw how immense the country is, and how incredibly lucrative that market is. If you thought there are a lot of 7-11's in singapore, there are millions of such provision shops across china!

but at the same time, the go to market strategy for each region is different as there is no one national chain (ie like our cold storage or fairprice) that has coverage across the country. Instead one finds provincial or regional autonomous companies, each with their own chief exec and p&l responsibilities.

from an investment perspective, sad as it may seem, any start-up without a china strategy would be awfully uncompetitive in chasing investor dollar unless there is a clear niche. Perhaps i should qualify that statement as companies targetting mass consumers and not nice b-b or b-prosumer markets.

and what differentiates china from india is that there is a very strong middle-class, thanks to the liberal communist rule over the past 20 or so years since deng xiaopeng opened up the country. For india, its democracy i would say is also its downfall as the country is somehwhat hampered in reforming the country by constant threats of coalition partners jumping ship. But i guess they (the indian government) is playing catch up.

simply amazing!

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Ugly people

2008-07-20T16:16:00.000+08:00

And i am not talking about physical appearance.

this happened to me just now. My family and 2 other families decided to have lunch at kuishinbo in suntec as our weekend gathering, and to allow all our kids to hang with each other.

what was a happy event was marred by a small event with a lady and her family. What happened was that both our families (i had 7 in mine) and her (she had 5 incl an elderly lady in a wheelchair) waiting for the lift. When the lift arrived, it was large enough to accomodate both sets of families, if the pram and the wheelchairs were arranged properly.

so my wife asked them to kindly move the wheelchair to one side (instead of being in the center) so that our pram could go in the other half of the lift. This evidently infuriated the lady, and when it was time to get off for them, she shouted rudely "get out!" at her helpers.

i think this show the lady in very poor light, as the lift is a common lift and if it were possible to share it, why not?

i don't know if this lady is singaporean on or not, and i don't think it matters. What matters more is that people need to be more compassionate and respect each other. What this lady has shown is a lack of compassion and repect for us and her helpers (by shouting at them to get "back" at us.

ugly. I think graciousness needs to be a subject to be taught in school since there seems to be a lack of it amongst adults in singapore.

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Corporate social responsibility

2008-07-19T17:40:00.000+08:00

This word is plastered in many a corporate websites and annual reports.

however for the case power generation companies (gencos) and oil companies, what does this exactly mean?

many governments, including the mother of all governments (the US if you want to know) have recently hauled up chief execs of these companies to explain why is it that these companies are reaping huge profits, and at the same time consumers are suffering higher pump prices.

so for these comapnies, how much profit can they make before it is too much? Do these companies not have a right to make the profits? In many areas where they operate, there is a co-sharing with the local governments, so the local theoretical should benefit as well, but as in the case of malaysia, it has lead to a series of problems because the government have long subsidized the pricing of gas.

so now it becomes a cruel circle, the oil companies cannot be seen as making too much profits, so they will cut back on oil exploration projects, and only pump from old wells which would make recovery cost more expensive, thus while maintaining some certainty in the pump prices, it would shave off their profit margins. But in the long run, it would lead to even more expensive pump prices.

perhaps the challenge then is to make the consumers less reliant on fossil fuel, as al gore has advocated.

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Entrepreneurs

2008-07-18T17:04:00.000+08:00

In my line, i deal with a lot of entrepreneurs with me being one of those aspiring entrepreneurs.

without prejudicing myself, i have come to the conclusion that in my small circle of entrepreneurs that i have come in contact with, a lot tend to overvalue their companies and technologies. Sometimes it's good, but most times it starves the company of needed investment.

because i am both on the buy (entrepreneurs)and sell (investor) side, i see a disconnect between the 2, which makes life interesting and difficult.

how do investor value a company? There are known methods like pe multiples, discounted cash flow etc. Of course there is a premium on technology but you'd be surprised how much (or little) that premium is. Customer orders, unless it's already in hand means zilch in calculating the value of the company. Counting on the future does not manage the risk.

on the other hand, entepreneurs tend of overweigh on the utility of their technology, and also potential customer orders, and thus value their company accordingly. And also some of them hang out for 'name-brand' investors.

sometimes, the gulf isn't too big that it cannot be bridged, and most of the time, it.s not even worth putting in the effort to close the gap.

the reality is that in the land of the have and have-nots, the haves win it, and unfortunately, the investors hold a commodity that the entrepreneurs desire: money, thus relegating entrepreneurs to the have-nots category.

and if you can get an investor interested enough to to listen past the first 10 minutes, the entrepreneur should take any offer or advice being given seriously.

in singapore, both side have a lot to learn though.

n

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Ren ci

2008-07-18T07:44:00.000+08:00

I read with dismay the recent revelation on the possble wrong doing of the venerable ming yi and the ren ci organization.

assuming he is convicted of the said wrong doing, and i will be very dissapointed with him, as a buddhist and as a person. As a person belonging to the sangha (or the clothe), he is expected to hold himself higher than the rest of us. This is important because how else then can he impart the dhamma to the rest of the people?

leading by example is key. If me as a layman sees a monk abusing his role as a monk and community leader, then what sort of morals will that imply to me.

sadly he is not the first and neither will he be the last, which is why i believe in monks and people joining any reigious order take a vow of poverty, but even that did not stop joseph kang where a vow of poverty was explict.

does that mean more policing, or forcing all religious trusts and charities to submit to audtng on a yearly basis? While i believe the these people will reap what they sow (karma), i think they should be audited yearly to mantain the public's trust.

to

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Anwar arrested

2008-07-16T16:10:00.000+08:00

Is this a prelude to crowd problems in malaysia? Judging from history, the presumptive answer would be yes.

but can malaysia and the surrounding countries afford it? The answer is no.

is this also a prelude to the government suspending the constitution and declare an emergency if they can't put a lid on the public outcry?

i dread the answer.

there's no need to accuse foreign powers of trying to undermine the country, the ruling party is pretty successful in doing that all by themselves.

it is times like this that make you go " LKY was a freakin genius when singapore gained independence!"

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Tough Job Market

2008-07-10T12:30:00.001+08:00

I have been sniffing around for possible job openings, and although there have been many "let's do it", but none yet has returned with a firm commitment to hire me.

And if I want to get into the Financial sector, I understand that industry is slowing down rather rapidly due to the tepid markets since the sub-prime blowout, and now sky-high energy prices.

So for the moment, I will continue doing my freelance project with the hopes that at least one or 2 of them will materialize in some sort of monetary rewards.

What a shitty time to be "in between jobs

Conspiracies abound

2008-07-07T09:13:00.000+08:00

I read with alarm the latest SD twist afflicting malaysia.

the indian pi who is at the center of the controversy has gone missing with his family. Not unexpected is it?

the internet media is buzzing with the news, and to me, it lend credence that there is a conspiracy behind all this, be it from the government or the pr front.

with such maneuvours, how is one to distill which is the truth when everything is so muddied. How is the country going to drag itself out of the funk? The people, i feel, no longer trusts the government institutions meant to police the government because there is no proper separation in reporting?

come on, we all know the judiaciary is not independent and neither is the aca, and these are the main 2 institutions meant to provide the check and balance.

i salute those still trying to live their lives in malaysia and fight for their principles. I hope soon, makkal sakthi will prevail and justice served to those have wronged and those who have been wronged.

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Malaysian heat is risng

2008-07-04T17:44:00.000+08:00

The news headline on the screen shouts: malaysia troops may be used to help with quell the protes, or someting to that effect.

if that occured, it wuld beunprecedented and would relegate malaysia to an iron state.

since the emergency, i can't recall if troops have been used against civlians, and it is thoughti shudder at.

but instead of calming the population down, musa hitam is turningup the heat, which is contrary against convetional wisdom.

the saga continues

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Aiyoh so drame aka malaysian politics

2008-07-04T16:06:00.000+08:00

I have come to the realization that watching malaysian politics is much more interesting compared to watching soap operas.

the plot is even more sordid than dynasty or dallas in their peak season.

what will happen next? My worst fear is another may 13, this time it will not be inter-racial but intra-racial.

let's hope cooler heads prevail, but in a country where there is effectively no separation of court and state ie check and balance, determining the truth will be harder than mulder trying to solve the x-files.

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How prophetic - anwar ibrahim

2008-07-01T15:51:00.000+08:00

When i wrote this morning about the BN spin meisters turning to singapore to be their whipping boys in the event the tide turns against them vs anwar???

well one of the pkr people just said that a neighboring country is feeding them intelligence about potential assasination attempts on anwar.

well, what more justification do the spin miesters need to start another to keep the pressure off aab amd ntr?

self fulfilling prophecy?? My guess is as good as yours!

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Nitpicking

2008-07-01T10:21:00.000+08:00

I caught a glimpse of an ST forum letter that was published over the weekend, where the writer alledge (sp?) that the upcoming circle line does not benefit the western population, because it links to the north-south line at ang mo kio and does not pass through orchard.

i'd say this write is not really objective about the whole matter and is just putting his/her shopping hat on. The line passes buena vista, and will be the main conduit for people travelling to fusionopolis and nuh/nus, and that to me is benefit enough.

if he had travelled through the london tube he will also have noticed that not all lines mirror the circle line, and people live with it. If you happen to live close to the circle line tube stations, lucky you, else transfer like everyone else.

then on the other end of the spectrum is my beloved penang. It can't seem to get out of a funk. Anyone who has been to penang islan will bitch about its public tranport system and the haphazard traffic woes.

a rail system is needed, no doubt about it, and i beg to differ that it does not benefit the people. Yes it does as much research have noted that the cost of doing business increases with traffic jams, and penang need to get its act right to maintain the inward investments. So i don't this there is any choice to this.

but how do you convince the private sector to participate? Definitely not when there is the potential of the federaland state government going to court to resolve jurisdiction. Until there is actual agreements btw the federal and state, i believe that this project is dead.

another sign that patronage driven politics is depriving malaysia of needed development, and pampered singaporean residents will only want public transport if it takes them from their front door to wherever they want to go.

opps that's called a cab!

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Villification of anwar ibrahim

2008-07-01T09:58:00.000+08:00

Most of us would have been glued to the various news channels over the weekend after news broke that anwar ibrahim sodomized another guy.

my impression: c'mon guys this is getting old, and soooo uncreative. To the spin doctors of BN, you should employ good screenwriters to do the plot and scripts because its more interesting on the idiot box.

why do i think this is a character and olitical assination? Because:
1. He would done so in prison and word would have leaked out.
2. Since he has been overseas quite often, anyone with half a brain would have done the deed overseas where discretion would be easier to obtain.
3. Why would he have done the deed in KL where everyone recognizes him. Did he not learn from the past experience himself, and that of chua soi lek?

and to this saiful, the world in which we live in is far different from that when anwar was first caught. The internets is far more wide-spread and now, there's alternative news channels, be it they spread the truth or lies (the same could be said of malaysia's traditional news papers and networks)

i see this as a desperate measure to take the pressure off aab and ntr + wife, using the familiar tactic: create anoter fire elsewhere as people like sensationalistic news. Believe me, if thus anwar issue is put out quickly, singapore beware and the spin miester will surely find fault with the country.

silly silly. Wonder why the people of malaysia vote anyways? Might as well vote some actors into parliment.

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Parenthood

2008-06-21T09:42:00.000+08:00

I was doing my usual grocery shopping round at bukit timah plaza when i saw this couple and their baby daughter, and a thought made me smile.

if you do not already know, we have 3 princesses of our own, and from the look on this couple, this baby is most likely their first.

how do i know?

simple, they tend to be more loving, affectionate and devote an obscene amount of time cooing their baby. It was the same with us and our first one.

add 2 later, our family outings (even for grocery) is longer spent oohing and aahing but more like sessions of be carefuls, don't runs and stop shoutings.

but we still love our brood just the same and wouldn't change a thing, even the slightly elevated blood pressure levels. It is priceless to see all of my princesses play and laugh hysterically together, at least until the older 2 get too rough and someone eventually cries.

so to all young couples with a baby, enjoy your time. And to those planning more, there will be more priceless moments to come.

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How big does a big contract need to be?

2008-06-18T17:37:00.001+08:00

Today, I had my first experience as a small fry trying to pitch to a big organization.

Background, I had a project land on my lap. This project is small, about 40 K a year for 2 years, and the best part was that everything had been set-up for the client, so the client need not do anything further (well not that much anyways as I had done all the hard work)

Today I had a meeting with the senior management to seek their view, and I was frankly disappointing by what was said: We're not going to do it because its peanuts. If it's 40 million, then it's worth doing.

I was pretty hurt by that high and mighty comment, because I have done this project on a pro-bono basis, looking to build quanxi with this organization. Instead I was asked to go suck eggs.

For the first time, I finally felt how countless of start-ups felt like when they approach big organizations to buy their product etc etc, and I got to thinking, surely this is NOT the way.

But instead of seeking revenge (which I could easily), I think it' best to move on and look for like-minded people to work with

Changing fortunes

2008-06-13T14:09:00.000+08:00

Last week, i had the opportunity to reconnect with an old friend, jeff, in penang, and i got to wonder, how life moves in funny circles.

when we were roomies in college, he had this DAP banner hanging on his side of the wall, while i had a poster of an atomic blast on mine - not sure which was more politically incorrect then. I used to kid with him that he's gonna get me in trouble with the govt in malaysia.

recently with the political change in penang, he is now part of the state machinery, and somehow it is quite comforting that the state has this brilliant chap on the payroll.

the job ahead of him is not easy, which is to look at how to sustain and increase manufacturing investments into the state. I know it first hand as i used to debate about the situation here in singapore with my colleagues when i was a civil servant.

but the good part is that jeff is still very much rooted and has not changed one bit or taken his new position into his head.

and on the other side of the coin is another friend we know who had for many many years championed the cause for MIC. Unfortunately his fortunes were less good as the leadership team there had overlooked his services. He's not a bad guy, he's got charisma and he's put his career on hold for the party.

wisely, i've been told that he's reconnecting with his career again and screwing MIC, which was just about what ever other voter did during the march 8 elections.

then i look at myself, from an employed person with 3 degrees to an unemployed one. Of course i label myself as freelance, but to be honest it's starting to get stale when project don't pan out and with it, the promise of some windfall.

perhaps i am not an entrepreneur, or perhaps the windfall has not come. Perhaps the problem is within, in that i can't begin with the end in mind because i don't know what the end is. One of my professional mentors once told me, long term goal, short term wins are needed.

to paraphrase mulder: i want to believe. But it gets harder before it gets easier.

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Mana Boleh - Where Can??

2008-05-27T13:23:00.003+08:00

I read in dismay today that the Malaysian government (read BN government), instead of tackling the issue of fuel subsidy has decided to close part of the fuel market to foreigners.

And how much stupider can they get?

Their ruling is that the gas stations sited within 50 km of the border of Thailand and Singapore will not be allowed to sell gas to foreigners.

Now I am deeply troubled because I am planning to head north to Penang for the holidays, to be with my in-laws. While going up is not the issue, my beef is with the journey back.

When will I need to fill up before I get into the 50 km ruling? And how is it counted? 50 km radius or via the roads? Technically, it seems quite impossible to monitor this and worst of all the only people to suffer from this is the gas stations adjacent to the highway both in JB (Woodlands and Second Link) and also in the north of Kedah, Kelantan, Perak and Perlis.

I recall in the Second Link, direction towards Singapore, there was a Shell gas station that just opened perhaps a year ago. I pity them because they will most likely take a long time to recoup their investment because hardly any Malaysian cars use the Second Link (mostly Singapore based cars).

It would be interesting to see how long this effort will last before they figure out money speaks louder than words.

The best solution to this is to remove the subsidies, or find a way to channel the subsidies back into the pockets of the poor. The middle and upper class can surely "tahan" the raise in fuel prices.

In the mean time, all I can say is..... THIS SUCKS!

Racial politics and roadblocks to reality in malaysia

2008-05-19T13:54:00.000+08:00

I read in the papers about Mahathir's latest outburst about IDR (or whatever its called now) and Singapore's investment there and how the Malays will loose their birth right if all this noise made by non-Malays continue.

frankly I am getting a bit sick of all this paranoia pandering. So far i have not heard of any one or party asking for the malay special privileges to be removed. What the PR states and officials are asking for is for a transparent way of doing things, which can still abide with the NEP.

right now, so many things are done with no transparency that the rakyat does not know how much exactly of the nations coffers have leaked out to areas where it is not supposed to.

like how can state assemblymen use up 2 million of their allocation in 2 months. I find it had to fathom such things.

BN for all intent and purpose has made Malaysia into their own cash cow, using up its resources for their own benefit. I'd say that they are only slightly better than the British colonials as the colonials took the money back to the UK, whereas, there are actual work being done here, but as we have seen in szechuan this past week, if a malapetaka were to happen, how many of these buildings are built to standard?

but i guess things are getting desperate for certain quarters who have made it their life work to harp of the racial divide, unfortunately i think their efforts would have been put to more use if they had used all that energy to heal the racial divide rather to make it more jarring.

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In memorium

2008-05-07T14:30:00.002+08:00

Over the past 2 days, I have had bad news delivered to me about close friends passing on.

Lee Hertzberg

I got to know Lee, or Pops, as we all fondly called him about 15 or so years back when I was a student in the US. He was my foster-dad's dad, so in essence my Grandpa when I was in the US.

He was an electrical engineer and was on the forefront of many things. He also belonged to what is termed at the "Greatest Generation". His contribution to the Great War (WWII) was his expertise in radar technology, which was in its infancy then.

He and his late wife, Viola or Lala told us how they had to study under armed guard because all the textbooks and reading material was then classified as top secret.

I also fondly recall that he told us the story about Christmas or Thanksgiving during the Korean War when he was deployed at a radar station. There was a storm, and there was supposed to be a delivery of turkey for the troops, except with the storm, the plane could not land. So the flight crew just chucked the turkey out of the planes, determined that the men on the ground would not have to spend the holidays without their traditional turkey. Except that one turkey crashed through the roof of the radar station, and luckily no one was injured.

After many years (and Lala's death) I finally got a chance to go to San Francisco about 2 years back and made a trip to see my foster Dad and mom, Lanny and Jane. Together we journeyed to see Pops, who was still fit as a fiddle at 91. Driving himself around town and to the air force base where he got his medical treatment.

2 days ago I received a sad email from Lanny saying that Pops had passed away from a major stroke. I was in shock, but upon reflection, I do know I have that last photo I took of us from 2 years back and the stories he told.

Cheryl,

An ex-colleague from my workplace just passed away from Cancer. She was younger than me, lived life to the fullest and had so much potential still to be fulfilled.

Even though she was sick, she didn't kick up a fuss about it. She did her job and she did well, and more importantly, she took my jokes and character in her stride, which many of a good people couldn't.

I guess there's so much more to write, but we only worked together for a short while, and didn't get much more time to interact outside of the office.

To Lee and Cheryl, Rest in Peace!

Is malaysia regressing

2008-05-05T13:28:00.000+08:00

I read with great interest (and with incredule) the proposa put forward by dr ras yatim where women traveller, if travelling alone, would require a letter from their respective families or company attesting to the natureof ter travel overseas.

i really find it hard to believe a seasoned politician and respected member of the community could put forwad such a proposal. His proposal was based on some statistics where malaysian ladies were caught smuggling drugs into other countries, ie used a drug mules. If i recall the news article, he said, no insinuated that a large percentage of ladies were being used as mules.

i used stats can be used to argue both sides of the same arguement, and this the perfect case. If you had wanted to push for the legislature, of course, you'd dig up some silly stats. But the reality is that those who got caught or even engaged in illegal stuff is a small small percentage over the larger number of legitimate women travellers.

also it reeks of chauvinistic values, ie the women are dumb and like frog in the well. Chances are, those who engage in this illegal activity know full well what they are doing, and this include males as well. They do it because of some reason that they only know. Feigning ignorance is a sure way of claiming innocence.

who knows, perhaps the next step would be to disqualify single female malaysians from holding a passport, or better yet, why not stop them from going to school altogether.

i always malaysian politics is interesting, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons.

out!

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Testing from mobile

2008-04-30T15:03:00.000+08:00

Testing.

let's see what mobile blogging looks like, and with my mobilem@il subscription

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A new life

2008-04-30T14:58:00.003+08:00

I am experiencing a second wind as a freeagent (short for being unemployed)

I must admit its a bit scary, with 3 kids to feed and no regular income. But it sure as heck beat what I have been doing for the past 4 months in my previous job where I took a regular pay, but did nothing at work.

Some may say this was the ideal job, but for me, I fear that any longer and it would dull my "edge" and make me into a complacent chap.

But now, it's quite exhilarating and yet scary. I am more busy than ever (so I will keep this short) because I know if my projects do not move I will not get paid. So in a funny way, I am unemployed and yet stressed out for tight timelines that I have put myself on.

As compared to no stress and regular pay.

You may think I'm a sado-masochist, but I would prefer to think of myself as driven.

2008-04-30T14:55:00.000+08:00

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Political Baggage

2008-04-25T11:01:00.002+08:00

As one who likes to watch Malaysian politics from afar, I was pleasantly surprised the government in Penang is coming together, and more importantly, one member (or rather ex-member) of the BN component party has decided to cross the unsaid line to work with the DAP government.

What is wrong with that, I ask. If the guy believes he can contribute the well being of the state of Penang, then all the more better. I would like to commend the CM of Penang for putting politics aside and welcoming Lee Kah Choon into the state government to head up the InvestPenang team.

What should matter more is:
1) He is the right man for the job
2) He is willing to work for the people
3) He does not mind working for people, who just weeks ago were considered his opponents.

Like a good lawyer I know likes to say: Let's call a spade a spade. If he's the right man for the job, then no one else should say anything to the contrary.

But his motivations must be sincere for I believe Penang will be in for a hard time getting assistance from the federal government until the next election.

And I say to the people in BN. GROW UP! Don't bite the hand that feeds it. Penang needs all the help it can get to continue to attract high tech jobs into the country, it is still a state of Malaysia and has not annexed itself out of Malaysia.

But with the childish approach that the BN government has done so far, I would not be surprised if the PR states will hold a referendum to annex itself out as independent states since it will not be getting any help from Putrajaya.

But back to Kah Choon. I can sincerely emphatize with him, for I have just also experienced a similar situation. But I laud Kah Choon for bravely taking on the position, for I took the opposite direction and declined to take the job.

But perhaps that is what that sets me apart from Kah Choon. He aspires to help all Penangites on his shoulders, whereas I just want to go on making a living and hopefully provide my family with an above average lifestyle.

No backbone.

2008-04-16T13:45:00.001+08:00

I am most amused recently by the news of the BN (Barisan Nasional to non Malaysians) big wigs jumping on the blog bandwagon, after it was announced that BN lost the cyberwar.

It's like the MasterCard ad, where the tagline is priceless, as prior to the election, the bloggers were heaped with insults. Now, everyone in the government is on it, and I am really curious what they have to say, or perhaps there isn't much to say anyways.

Then even more amusing is how the knifes are finally out in the UMNO circles asking Pak Lah to step aside. THis is politics to the max. Before its all for one and one for all, and now with a wee bit of encouragement, it's everyman for himself!

With this kind of leadership, I am glad that 60% of Malaysia's GDP is now in the hands of people not accustomed to such idiocy. Or is it?

We'll have to wait 5 years to see if my Philosophy prof was right in saying, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I certainly know it be true for the BN government.

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The new wave - part deux

2008-04-16T13:35:00.001+08:00

After I wrote the piece, I keep seeing the current effort to re-engineer the food chain for the future.

But unfortunately, not many investors have caught on.

Is biofuels to blame for the recent price increase in food commodities.

Yes and No

Yes because the world has only such a defined amount of feedstock available. It is not an ever-growing pie. So when it becomes more lucrative for the middle mens and farmers to sell to biofuel customers than to food customers, you bet they will do that. That is the beauty and the horror of the free market.

No because if companies wayyy back had come to realize the even oil is a limited commodity, they should have pushed harder to develop technologies such as the hybrid, fuel-cells etc etc.

Yes, it is a bit simplistic, but I do try to keep it short and simple.

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The next big thing in investment?

2008-04-11T15:01:00.001+08:00

I met a friend over the weekend, and one of the more interesting topic of discussion was the recent press on food shortage, and the increase in food prices plus food producing countries taking steps to ensure they have enough to feed themselves before exporting.

It seems that a big shot consulting firm forecasted sometime back that food producing countries are producing more efficiently, coupled with improvements in the supply chain, that soft commodity prices would stay depressed for a while.

Companies, having paid mucho bucks for that piece of report, naturally under invested in their technologies and products that form the basis of agricultural usage, such as fertilizers etc etc.

What the consulting firm did not envisage is crop disease, weather that have gone amok and competition from another sector for the raw feedstock: energy.

So today we see the following trends (this is by no means exhaustive and represents my own view OK?)
1) Biofuels: government subsidy meant that the farmers or middle men get more money to sell their corn, sugarcase, palm oil etc etc to biofuel makers than to traditional food processors. As a result, soft commodities have seen their prices increase, which naturally leads to increase cost for end processed material such as flour, rice etc etc.

I advocated once back that I thought Biodiesel would partially offset the world's hunger for energy. I still do, except now, I advocate that the suppliers seek out alternative feedstock; in particular feedstock that does not compete in the food chain. There are aleternatives out there, one of them being jatropha.

Jatropha does not need as much maintenance palm oil, plus it is able to survive in inhospitable land. Therefore, in theory, it would be better for the citizens of Beijing (or the outskirts) to plant jatropha to prevent the yellow desert from encroaching Beijing and the reduction of sand storms in the capital.

But I digress.

2) Due to global warming, we have seen the weather turn upside down. At least in Singapore, what was dry season is now innundated with rain. In Australia, when there was supposed to be rain, it is dry as a bone. Recent pictures have shown the Artic shelf shrinking, thus leading to increase in the sea level.

3) Diseased crops. Because of the factors above, plus the liberal use of pesticide, I believe that the insects have grown resistant to the pesticide, plus leaving the crops prone to more diseases

4) There are genetically modified plants available, but due to the bad press and lack of legislation (or progressive, sane legislation) it meant that these GM plants are not getting into the food chain. To some it may be good, but to other, it would be bad as investment into GM food research would be channeled elsewhere, and we would never know the long term effects of consuming GM foods.

But these GM foods hold the promise of better yield and shorter growth cycles and hardier plants. Does that not justify additional research into GM foods? Who are all the people making noise about GM foods? People with a full stomach and more than enough food on their plates, or the poor and hungry in Africa?

5) Under investment from suppliers. Chemical companies supplying into the agricultural industry have been under-investing in their product segment due to the misguided belief that the soft commodity market would remain soft, therefore the margins would be kept in the lower range.

But now, they have been pressured to produce more, and manufacturing efficiency can only increase the output by so much. Additional facilities need years to build and tool-up and tested before they too can come online and produce at great volumes.

Therefore as I see it, the next growth cycle in investment would naturally go into the soft commodity business sector.

Where are areas of opportunity?
1) Green pesticides. Many of these plants have in-built mechanism to keeping itself safe from insects and such. One key items is how do we find and couple these defense mechanisms from different plants to achieve the ideal outcome.

2) Green fertilizer, or at least greener ways of fertlizing the ground.

3) Hardier seedlings. TO be quite honest, the fastest way to get results is through genetic modification (GM), but the GM monster is still very prevalent among the learned and noisy. What I do not advocate is a chimera seed, where animal gene is inserted into plantform (if at all possible - I am no scientist), but in between plants I believe should be OK. I could be wrong. Also along the same vein would be seedlings that grow faster, and yield more end products.

4) Improving the production efficiency. Simple and yet impactful. Can Statistical methods and efficiency programs such as TPM and 6 Sigma be used in the harvesting and later on, producing process? I bet there are areas of opportunity.

I had the opportunity to learn a bit about social entrepreneurship, and I think this could be in line with what I am advocating. So in essence labs like Temasek Life Sciences, AVA and a lot of Malaysian Uni should gear up their research to reap the returns in a few years time.

Will I be right, will I be wrong. Only time can tell. I'll revisiting this again in a few years and perhaps so a post-mortem!

End.

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Anticipation and then, disspointment

2008-03-31T15:00:00.001+08:00

Last week, I was a bit on edge. I read how the RIEC was meeting again, and I knew that the outcome would partially address the issue of early stage VC in Singapore, and hopefully would answer some of the issues being highlighted by entrepreneurs here in Singapore.

On Friday night, I saw the running banner (at the bottom of the screen) at Channel News Asia, and boy, was I excited. Had these issues been resolved, what IS the announcement?

Unfortunately had to be called away during the regular news update, so the earliest I could catch the new was 10 pm Singapore update. Zip, nothing more than generalities. Disappointed.

On Sat, I eagerly opened up the Straits Times, to read more, and again I found the piece on VC funding lacking. Disappointed again.

So I went into the NRF website to see if they had done a press-release. The Cheng hu types usually have quite a comprehensive press release.

THis is what I got, and I only copy and paste the bit on VC funding.

"To spur the formation of start-up companies, funding will be provided for various enterprise support structures, such as proof-of-concept studies and technology incubator programmes, which will bridge the gap between university research and market needs. In addition, several early stage venture capital (VC) funds, managed by professional VCs, would be set up with matching investments from the government. These funds would invest in technology-based start-up companies in Singapore, particularly those linked to the IHLs."

Under the Annex A, there was more infomation:
1) We know the amount to be committed is 350 MM from 2008 - 2012, translating to 70 MM per year.
2) However, this is to be split between the Academic Entrepreneurship portion (50 MM), Creating Enterprise Support Structures (160 MM) and Tech Transfer (125 MM)
3) Therefore, for the VC portion, the amount allocated is out of 160 MM over 5 years, translating to 32 MM per year.
4) Under this funding, it would include
- POC grants
- Incubators
- Early stage VC funding
- Disruptive Innovation Incubator.
5) Of interest would be the early stage VC, which would have a 1:1 co-funding for funds raised by VCs in Singapore companies.

This is a good start, but it is definitely short of details. I have many questions,
- As I read it, it would seem that NRF would be funding the VCs, or is it matching the investment made by the VC into the company (ala SEEDs)
- What is the basis of selection for the VC?
- Who manages the VCs?
- What are the terms of exit, IRR or is NRF jumping into this knowing full well that it may score a GOOGLE exit, or worst case scenario, loose it all?

Good first step, now to see it in action.

To read the entire press release, go here.

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XiD on ST: Bright ideas aplenty, but where's the money?

2008-03-26T14:08:00.001+08:00

I read this with interest as I have interacted with Dr Roberto Mariani in my previous job. He is a good chap, and an entrepreneur through and through.

From ST, Joanne Lee wrote:

IF ROBERTO Mariani gets the latest application of his patented face-recognition technology off the ground, Singapore might well be the birthplace of a new Internet phenomenon.

With just a two-dimensional photograph, FaceTheater will allow web surfers to render their very own avatar into 3D, dress up their character and interact with others in various online communities.

It has potential for use on social networking websites and computer games popular with Netizens everywhere.

But all this is moot unless the 40-year-old French scientist is able to raise venture capital for his Singapore-based company XID Technologies.

Venture capital is essential for technopreneurs like him. The seed money helps them survive the lean years as they develop their technology.

Often, they need a further injection of capital before they can deliver the final product to the mass market.

In return, venture capitalists (VCs) or angel investors get a stake in the start-up - a gamble that could produce a handsome payout or end up a complete write-off.

In recent years, Singapore has seen an influx of VCs setting up their Asian offices here.

After the dot.com bubble burst in 2000, American start-up financiers like Walden International Investment Partners and Draper Fischer Jurvetson hailed Asia as the next frontier in early-stage technology investments.

Walden struck gold with Singapore's Creative Technologies when it listed here in 1994.

But Creative remains one of the rare home-grown technology companies that VCs call a 'double-digit-bagger' - an investment that returns more than 10 times the initial investment.

The problem is that until there are more Sim Wong Hoos soundblasting their way to the big time, there seem to be few angels willing to bridge the financing gap.

This funding purgatory is precisely where Dr Mariani is trapped right now.

In 1997, the physics and computer science PhD-holder from France's National Geographical Institute moved to Singapore to work on a mobile robot project between A*Star and the Japanese government.

He quit his job in 2003 when he raised US$1 million (S$1.4 million) from angel investors here and founded XID. Since then, he has registered three patents and expanded his team to 17 staff members.

He is now looking for US$12 million to expand and break into the international security and mobile consumer markets.

His hook to reel in the VCs is the possibility of an initial public offering in 2011.

Exits, he knows, are all-important to VCs. The shorter the runway before the company's profits take off, the higher the returns on investment. The longer this period, the less willing the VCs to stomach the risk.

Over the past five years, he has dealt with at least 15 VCs, almost all of whom told him to come back when he had secured a million users for his product.

His retort: 'If I have a million users, I won't need to come back!'

Lamenting the lack of risk-taking VCs here, he said: 'We have a solid story, proven revenue streams and clear growth. If we had started up in Silicon Valley, we'd probably be overfunded by now.'

What keeps entrepreneurs like him based here are the considerably lower business costs and taxation.

But of course, they need revenue before tax even becomes an issue. It is a chicken-and-egg problem that has plagued entrepreneurship here for a long time.

Of the estimated US$20 billion of assets under management here, Singapore Venture Capital Association chairman Kelvin Chan estimates less than US$100 million is invested in local companies.

He says: 'The focus here remains on later-stage pre-IPO investments. They mature quicker and offer better returns.'

There appears to be a lack of entrepreneurship among the VCs themselves.

Mr Carmelo Pistorio, founder and managing partner of Upstream Ventures, who invested in XID Technologies in the first round of funding, explains: 'The larger VCs here are just not comfortable with the smaller deals. Their minimum bitesize before they invest is usually US$5 million when the company is already preparing to IPO.'

Aside from common complaints about the lack of talented entrepreneurs and internationally-scaleable ideas here, early-stage investors say local start-ups are averse to relinquishing meaningful ownership stakes.

They want the funds, but are not willing to part with their shares or sell stakes to perceived competitors who might add value to the business.

Mr Mark Thornton, who co-heads British investment house 3i's Asian business in Singapore, says: 'It seems to be the culture here for entrepreneurs to hang on to as much ownership as possible until they list on the stock market - even if they get a good offer from other players who might be in a better position to develop the business.'

Professor Wong Poh Kam, chairman of a group of early-stage investors called Business Angel Network South-east Asia, explains that Singapore is new to the ways of knowledge-based businesses.

He notes: 'Even Silicon Valley took a while to build its venture-capital support. Until Singapore has more successful entrepreneurs who understand the start-up model and are willing to take risks, angel funding and VC will continue to be lacking here.'

Prof Wong notes that like the VCs, angel investors here still tend to stick to old-economy industries which they made their fortunes in.

However, as an entrepreneur-turned-angel who is currently invested in two IT companies, he is confident that this will change.

'We just have to give the industry more time to produce entrepreneurial venture capitalists.'

So let's analyze this:
- we have an entrepreneur, with a potential technology that is very Web2.0 (if you don't know that, stop dunking your head in the sand"
- While we wait, the government RIEC (Research, Innovation and Entreprise Council) meets in the next couple of days, and I suspect based on the noise being made by the NRF since Dr Tony Tan's visit to Israel, would now include a VC component
- The question is: will they have a TIF Ventures Redux, or will they look and adopt a model that is more local enterprise and VC friendly. Case in point is all the VC's mentioned in Joanne's article above with the exception of Walden is no longer around.

I think this article is timely because 2 days in a row,we have see what our own local technopreneurs can do with how little resources that they have available to them in Singapore. So I think it's about time the scholars and policy makers at MTI and MOF and PMO start looking at how to deploy Singapore surplus locally to generate local content and companies instead of bailing out foreign one, even though it should be done as they will return a profit. But bottom line is now is the time to take a risk, a risk for both the investor and the entrepreneur.

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Veredus Labs

2008-03-25T15:16:00.001+08:00

For the very few times I watched the telly at night, I managed to catch a short snippet of the new flu test kit that was the culmination of effort between Veredus Labs and ST Microelectronics.

In short, what they have done is to put together their expertise in developing diagnostic kits using known genetic markers, and coupled with the use of bioelectronics from STM, and VIOLA!!! lab tests with a 2 week turnaround time (and what more how many other people infected while waiting for the test results) can now be done within 2 hours.

While not in the biomedical sector, I have had the opportunity to meet up with the tenacious lady who is the CEO of the company, and I must say that she is one of those entrepreneurs who will bet the house to make sure her company succeeds.

In fact, anecdotally, I was told that she traveled for business meetings within like 2 weeks of giving birth to her child. WOW! That to me is an indication on how tenacious she is. One could see it as good (committed CEO) or bad (founder unable to let go), but at this stage, her attitude is definitely a big plus for the company.

My congratulations to her, and I certainly hope that it will be a successful product as I definitely believe we will come to use it at one stage, especially with the recent flu scare in Hong Kong and the potential of H5N1 mutating to cross human to human.

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Nasi Kandar Boycott - WTF???

2008-03-25T14:56:00.001+08:00

Lately it has been said in the news that there is an SMS circulating in the state of Penang for non-Malays to boycott nasi kandar sellers.

WTF??

Why must boycott?? Evidently, this came about when some indian muslim demonstrated in Komtar after the new CM was misqouted by Bernama.

But according to my in-laws in Penang, business really has been hit.

Why penalize some poor sop who has been dishing out nasi kandar all this years, without fear or favor of the NEP? He most probably did not know enough big wig in UMNO to qualify as an UMNOputra to enjoy the fruits of the NEP.

I call to all the state EXCO in Penang to show solidarity with the Nasi Kandar sellers and to dispel the ugly SMS and put this to bed sooner than later. Quite simply, just have lunch at a Nasi Kandar shop to proove that that SMS is from a stoopid person, most probably an UMNO-crat looking to ferment and spread ill will amongst the food-loving people of Penang.

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Squash

2008-03-24T17:37:00.001+08:00

Been playing squash since beginning of the year with a couple of my kids' classmates dads.. phew!

Anyways, I must say I am quite happy with the progress since we've only played like 3 games since Jan.

Let me recount what the heck happened.
Jan game - twisted my knee.. so out for the whole month.
Feb - CNY
Mar - well this is our 2nd game for the month of March,

And surprisingly I could still manage to hit the gym this morning for a light workout.

I think I will enjoy playing more once I get my stamina back to ... hmmm .. I guess better than it is now.

At least I no longer walk like something strange happened to my A**E the day after my game!

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Malaysian New Cabinet

2008-03-19T10:22:00.001+08:00

I've actually quite neutral on this, but again a bit disappointed at the inclusion of one ex-Selangor MB who was caught with a bag full of cold hard cash in Australia years back.

Hasn't Pak Lah learnt anything from that episode?? The guy is tainted, worst still the only stupid reason he could come up with was that he couldn't understand the English used in the declaration form.

If someone that stupid can go on to become a Minister... oh well, we might as well have a cow being the PM since the IQ is not much better than that Minister.

Instead, I believe what the Opposition should do is to set up a shadow government, much like the UK and Australia. I believe this should keep the BN government on their toes. The same goes for those states where the Opposition is the state government and BN being the Opposition.

But the whole shadow government thing should be viewed through the lens of objectivity, and not just criticizing for the sake of criticizing. Good policies and execution should be lauded, and bad ones objected to.

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Malaysia: The Next Generation???

2008-03-14T09:58:00.001+08:00

As a dislocated Malaysian, I view politics there with a certain detachment. My kids are more Singaporean than Malaysian. They know Majulah Singapura, but not Negaraku - heck, even I don't know which revision of Negaraku it currently is and to what tune. THey speak English and a smattering of Mandarin, but not much Malay. During the SEA games, they cheered for Singapore, whereas I am thoroughly confused on who to cheer for (I ended up cheering for both)

But the latest GE has been an eye-opener. There is still some hope that Malaysia will pull itself out of the funk that the BN government has instilled over the past 50+ years.

Then reality set in.

Penang looks like their trying to annex itself off from Malaysia.

Perak.. well history repeats itself. Remember how the Brits got Perak, because the royalty couldn't get along and started playing politics and then one of the ang mohs got assasinated? While the royalty now takes no sides, politics; and more dangerously, race and religious politics are being played to the detriment of the new hope in Malaysia.

Selangor, hopefully nothing untoward is happening, though RPK has said some back office jockeying is occuring.

Kedah, my home state looks quite peaceful and hopefully I will still be able to hold my wife's hand when I go home the next time.

Hold on guys, let's not throw the baby out with the bath water.

Let's take an objective view of the NEP: much the bane for the recent losses of the BN.

IT IS a good thing. But it's implementation with the BN government is very haughty with corruption. So there is nothing wrong with Guan Eng wanting to stamp out corruption, and put in place an open tender system that is transparent and all. But rather than stoke the fears of racial marginalization, perhaps he should have activated his pause button and leave it as that.

And rather than saying everything that comes from his brain, he, as CM of Penang, should put in a place a commission, of respected persons (much like the ASEAN one for the ASEAN charter) from all races to study and recommend how to bring Penang to the next level. This should include investments, education, poverty eradication etc etc, for all races. The end objective could be what Koh Tsu Koon had said before the election: To to catch up with Singapore in 10 years.

One just needs to drive from Perak or Kedah to Penang to see the vast difference in lifestyle of the people there. Penang is just not the island, but encompassing the rural areas as well.

Therefore, one should seek to eradicate poverty of all races, which is why BN lost it's absolute 2/3 majority. They were only seen as trying to eradicate poverty amongst the Malays, and leaving the Chinese and Indian to fend for itself.

The old saying of "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach the man how to fish, he eats for a lifetime" holds true.

I have said before, the key is supporting those in need of support to move them up the economic value add. For instance, the lone fisherman, or the rubber tapper, or the padi farmer, or the hawker, be it Ali, Ah Meng or Lingam. If they have kids, and the kids show promise, the kids should be given assistance to go all the way to University if possible.

Instead of serving a bond in their next career, get them to contribute 1 or 5% of their paycheck (for 10 years) to a foundation that provides education scholarship to the needy. This is paying it forward. They must never be lulled into thinking the scholarship is their entitlement or birth right, but a gift to do better and help their families out.

As for Perak, if indeed what RPK says is correct, then it is almost certain that when the next GE comes along, Perak will return to BN because it shows that the opposition is nothing but an opportunistic party brought together out of convenience (or desperation) to deny BN of the state.

For the PAS man to be MB, it doesn't matter, because he cannot single handedly run the state. He still needs the state legislative to approve the proposals and again, no man is an island.

So why hanker over one post, when there are more important things to do in the state.

The Great Wall of China wasn't built in a day, but it certainly doesn't help if people start arguing about where to place the bricks.

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Overwhelming

2008-01-31T09:30:00.001+08:00

To all who have pop by the blog to read about my Jerry McGuire moment.

THANKS!

And I hope that, if nothing else, get the brain juice flowing a bit.

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Technopreneurship in Singapore - A Commentary

2008-01-30T11:09:00.001+08:00

Note:
On Monday night, I was up partially to help look after my No 2 who was sick with fever. Then I couldn't sleep, and literally had a "Jerry McGuire Moment" - recall the show Jerry McGuire, where Jerry had an epiphany in the middle of the night and wrote this long thesis about something, only for him to loose his job the days after.

My Jerry McGuire moment was triggered from a conversation I had earlier in the day with a VC friend, but to be honest, it has been something that I have been thinking off for the longest of time. Defining moments include the press release by Dr Tony Tan when he visited Israel, as well as of my own conversations with entrepreneurs and VC friends alike.

It definitely is a long document, but let me warn you that I did very little factual research on it. Most of the points are stuck somewhere in my head, and I do not have time to research up the points for I am doing this as my own interest and not as an MBA thesis.

Comments would be welcomed, but again, this is MY commentary and MY thoughts formulated through discussions and news articles.

Long article below:

Transitioning Singapore into Economy 1.5

We have all heard about Web 2.0, and lately at CES, the CEO of Yahoo proudly stood in front of a banner which said “Yahoo 3.0”. So what is Economy 1.5? Well, a quick search on Google indicates that the term Economy 2.0 is taken as a virtual economy, ie similar to what we see happening on Second Life. However, what I am talking about is not virtual, it is very real. And as such, perhaps I will call it Economy 1.5, which roughly translates to more than the old way of doing things, but not in the virtual world.

Economy 1.0: Building Singapore from Scratch

The exploits of MM Lee Kuan Yew during his time as the Prime Minister of Singapore is well documented. Many people around the world still gaze in amazement the rapid progress he has brought to Singapore in 40 short years.

Consider this, Singapore is a small country, with no real natural resources to speak of. It’s key strength was human capital, but at the time the then PM Lee Kuan Yew rose to power after the Independence of Singapore from Malaysia, the masses were generally poorly educated with only a select few having university education.

Through sheer grit and determination, PM Lee marshaled the educated select few and the uneducated masses to work as a team. In short, Singapore started with virtually nothing, and as a first step to become the world’s manufacturing hub. She started with manufacturing of low technology goods such as toys etc etc, and slowly made the step to move up the value chain.

Fast forward 40 years. The Singapore of today is unable to produce the cheap toys of yesteryears. China has taken over that role. In fact, Singapore can’t manufacturer even the lower end consumer electronics any more, our costs are just too high. So the only way is to continue to climb the value-chain, transitioning from manufacturing to research and development.

Moving into Economy 1.5

Along the way, to government had realized this and had started to invest in public funded R&D through the universities and institutions of higher learning and through the setting up of the National Science and Technology Board (now known as the Agency for Science Technology and Research).

R&D has even found its way into primary schools to get the pupils a headstart in undertaking simple research and development. And the government has itself branched out of the traditional Science and Technology (encompassing chemicals, microelectronics, manufacturing, materials and infocommunication technologies) into the Biomedical Sector.

In 2006, the government set up another research arm called the National Research Foundation, spearheaded by the then Deputy Prime Minister Dr Tony Tan. Its objective was to undertake research that is not covered by its sister agency A*STAR.

Moving the economy from a manufacturing based to a knowledge based (which all these R&D workers are labeled as) is not as simple and there was a period of some turmoil as Singapore’s Economic Development Board had a tough time attracting inward bound investment, facing stiff competition from not only neighbouring countries, but also India, China as well as the recently liberated economies of Eastern Europe. All these countries offered cheaper skilled manpower than what Singapore could offer.

At the same time (this was in the mid to late 90’s), the dot.com bubble began to grow in the US, and technopreneurship was THE “buzzword” of those times. The Singapore government, through the foresight of people like Mr Teo Ming Kian, the then Chairman of NSTB together with the respective ministries created the Technopreneurship Innovation Fund, amounting to some SGD 1 billion and TIF Ventures was set-up to manage that fund. The large portion of the fund was earmarked at Fund of Fund (FoF) to be invested into VC’s funds on a Limited Partnership basis, and the rest earmarked for direct investment.

The aim of the fund was primarily to attract premium Venture Capital (VC) brands, through the FoF, to set-up office in Singapore and it was hoped that they would in turn invest in Singapore start-ups. The end-goal for the fund was to kick-start the process to get young, technology-centric, innovative start-ups to co-exists with the mature manufacturing companies that are already in Singapore.

After about 10 years of existence, TIF Ventures finally closed when the Ministry of Finance decided not to invest another tranche of funding for TIF. Does this mean that it was a very expensive experiment, and now the government has decided that it is safer to bet on what it knows best, which is primarily manufacturing?

Of course, at this stage, manufacturing now encompasses electronics (such as semiconductors and hard discs), but also includes pharmaceuticals, fossil fuel based chemical plants, as well as an increasing number of factories that cater for the renewable energy sector such as solar (one could consider them as part of the semiconductor sector) and biofuels.

With the dot com bust, and the rise of India and China, many of the VCs originally attracted here by TIF has now closed their Singapore office, or at least kept the headcount to a minimum and moved on to the next best thing: China and India. So how does this augur for aspiring entrepreneurs in Singapore?

Economy 1.5 Part One.

Evidently not good. For those aspiring technopreneurs, funding, especially at the early stages are almost impossible to come by. There simply aren’t many early stage VCs in Singapore that are willing to risk investing in these stage of start-ups. And these are supposed to represent the next wave in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and hopefully some will turn into MultiNational Companies (MNCs).

Is there something wrong with the picture?

I believe there is.

I believe that the EDB, even with the best effort it puts in to attract inward bound investment, will find it increasingly difficult to attract mega projects into the country. Why? This is because China is catching up to Singapore, in terms of talent, in terms of regulations and it is definitely not short of people wanting to pump investment into the country. And a similar thing is happening in India as well.

With the 2006 announcement that the government is allocating up to US 8 billion (or approximately SG 12 billion at an exchange of 1 USD = 1.5 SGD) dollars into research and development over the following 5 years, I believe there will be excess of funding that will be available to the R&D community.

The R&D community in Singapore comprises of the private sector and the public sector. In the private sector, the R&D undertaken is primarily driven by business objectives with many short to medium term projects than long term blue sky research.

In the public sector, R&D is undertaken at the institutes belonging to A*STAR, Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory, at the 2 IHLs comprising of NUS and NTU as well as publicly funded institution such as the National Healthcare Group and SingHealth. Additional R&D, though more end-use related occurs at the polytechnics.

But to what outcome will this investment of SG 12 billion bring? What will be the end result? Surely it is not to contribute to the general knowledge of mankind? While that will surely happen, it is politically not viable as the masses still need to put food on the table and to do that, they need to have gainful employment.

Therefore, from these R&D investment, there must be some commercial outlet or use where a business could be built from it. Some of the technologies conceived from this funding will be used to keep existing companies and their facilities firmly anchored in Singapore, and some others will be used to strengthen our current crop of SMEs.

However, there will be some technologies where either the current crop of companies small and large are unable to make full use of, or that it’s use or market is still undeveloped, are better used in the setting of a start-up company.

But for these start-ups, Darwin’s Law applies, just as it does in Nature. Only the strong survive. The general rule of thumb used by most VCs, even in Silicon Valley, is 1 out of 10 will IPO, 2 – 3 will be acquired with some returns, 3-5 will survive but the investor will not recoup their investment, and the rest will die.

If in Silicon Valley, the odds are such, surely the odds of surviving the start-up phase are even worse. But is there any other option for Singapore?

Frankly I believe that this is a path that has to be traveled. Yes, while the good people at EDB and the various other agencies try with all their might to keep the economy humming, it is paramount for the country to start looking at promoting entrepreneurship to generate the next generation buzz among the workforce.

As it is, it has been close to 5 years since the BMS R&D effort really kicked off with the then Chairman of A*STAR, Mr Philip Yeo and I believe that some of the projects funded during the initial phase are now starting to show some results. One may argue that the BMS industry, the gestation period for new technologies take a much longer time than other industries, and I completely agree with that.

We see in the past weeks and months, that A*STAR has put in place additional research groups meant to take the research from the bench to the bedside. The question is does it make sense to take this onwards as a publicly-funded R&D, or should these devices, or compounds be tested as part of a product portfolio of a start-up company? Or perhaps the burning question could be: at what stage does the public R&D monies stop and the industry and private R&D monies start?

Already we have seen some early successes in terms of laboratory prototypes coming from institutes like the Institute for BioNanotechnology (IBN), most prominently a bird flu detection kit, reflecting that the research being undertaken at these institutes are relevant (in the case of the bird flue detection kit – needed). In this case, the prototype is only the first of many steps that need to be undertaken to take the device from prototype all the way to market.

But essentially what Singapore lacks is the type of financing that is essentially makes Silicon Valley, Boston, San Diego and Israel what they are today where start-ups and VC are concerned. In Silicon Valley, there is a sophisticated network of angel investors, coupled with early stage VCs to provide a lifeline for budding entrepreneurs to spin-off the technologies that they are working on. Google was in fact started this way when founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin sought to commercialize their search engine.

Below is an excerpt of how the first tranche of funding for Google was obtained:

“Larry and Sergey soon began working on ways to harness information on the World Wide Web, spending so much time together that they took on a joint identity, “LarryandSergey.” By 1996, Larry had hit on the idea of using the links between web pages to rank their relative importance. Borrowing from academia the concept of citations in research papers as a measure of topicality and value, he and Brin applied that thinking to the Web: if one page linked to another, it was in effect “citing” or casting a vote for that page. The more votes a page had, the more valuable it was. The concept seems rather obvious in retrospect, and today most search engines operate on this principle. But, at the time, it was groundbreaking. Calling their new invention Google—a misspelling of a very large number in mathematics—Larry and Sergey shopped it around to various companies for the price of $1 million.

No one was interested. In the technology boom of the late 1990s, conventional thinking was that so-called web portals like Yahoo! and AOL, which offered email, news, weather and more, would make the most money. No one cared about search. But Sergey and Larry knew they were on to something, so they decided to take leaves of absence from Stanford and build a company themselves. Sergey’s parents were skeptical. “We were definitely upset,” Genia says. “We thought everybody in their right mind ought to get a Ph.D.”

Soliciting funds from faculty members, family and friends, Sergey and Larry scraped together enough to buy some servers and rent that famous garage in Menlo Park. Their venture quickly bore fruit: After viewing a quick demo, Sun Microsystems cofounder Andy Bechtolsheim (himself a Jewish immigrant from Germany) wrote a $100,000 check to “Google, Inc.” The only problem was, “Google, Inc.” did not yet exist—the company hadn’t yet been incorporated. For two weeks, as they handled the paperwork, the young men had nowhere to deposit the money. ”

(Source: http://www.momentmag.com/Exclusive/2007/2007-02/200702-BrinFeature.html)

I recently spoke with a few VC friends still left in Singapore. Their lament is not unusual: There is too few deal flows in Singapore to warrant an increased presence. The companies vying for these firm’s capital do not only come from within Singapore but from a world-wide competition as well. Each investment decision is undertaken after many rounds of debate with the Venture Partners, often located elsewhere as they sought to find the best companies to invest in.

The VCs left in town primarily operate more as private equity firms(mergers and acquisition and/or pre-IPO deals), with a handful looking at early stage companies. When one talks about seed stage funding, the number of formal investors can be counted with the digits on one hand.

And similarly, I have spoken to entrepreneurs and they lament that they are unable to find adequate funding to grow their companies beyond completely exhausting their own savings.

Their lament resembles the famous question: which came first, the chicken or the egg. For with the egg, there would be not chicken, and if there were no chicken, there would not be eggs. In the same vein, without capital there would not be start-ups, and without start-ups, capital will not flow here.

Therefore, how does one put a stop of this vicious cycle?

Further, with the recent governmental push toward cleantech, renewable energy, water technologies on top of the current Biomedical push, a fundamental question needs to be asked: are there enough sophisticated investors locally to be able to assess the market viability of the technologies being worked on now?

Economy 1.5 - Redux

Allow me to revisit the committed funding that the government has put aside for R&D. It was reported to be SG 12 billion spread out for 5 years. That works out to approximately SG 2.4 billion per year. While I am not privy to the details of the appropriation of these funds, I find it simply amazing.

But the vicious cycle still remains? Is it the lack of entrepreneurs, technology or investors? And do we have sufficient investment expertise to assess some of the new technologies that is being funded. Be mindful that we are not talking about the science as the institutes each have their Scientific Advisory Board, but the market application of the technology, which at best could be considered a little bit of crystal ball gazing.

What the government or the agencies under the government needs to do first is to set aside a sum from this R&D funding, and it’s main use is to invest into home grown technology based start-ups. We are not talking about providing loans, unless they are convertible loans, but straight up equity investment.

A 5% sum of SG 2.4 billion would equal SG 120 million per annum! Assuming that 60% of that goes to Series A funding and beyond would equal to SG 72 million per year. If these funding quantums range from SG 4 – 6 million each, it would translate to 14 transactions or companies being funded annually.

The other 40% should be devoted to the highest risk investment, which is Seed or funding at spin-off, where entrepreneurs and scientists are testing out their concepts in the market place and resolving issues with upscaling their manufacturing process. This would translate to SG 48 million, and if each of these projects get an average of 1 – 2 million, it would translate to at least 24, perhaps 30 new start-up being created each year.

If we look at the VC rule of thumb again, and of these 24 or 30 projects, it would seem that at least 1 -3 would survive to list as a public company, and hopefully another 8 – 12 would be acquired by bigger, more financially stable companies, and the rest would either be liquidated or forever remain in limbo.

Surely these numbers must mean something to the powers that be? To be sure, it does not have the instant gratification of releasing a press release to say this or that company is investing how ever many hundreds of million and creating how ever many hundreds or thousands of jobs.

But quite the reverse is true, for start-ups seldom advertise how many people they hire and how much money they are investing back into the company for they are private companies. One must see it in the same vein as tending a garden, where one nurtures the garden from seeds to seedling to young plants to hopefully, one day, producing plants. There is not much glamour in this, but still it is a role that needs to be filled, much like how the role of the farmer, though unglamorous, is an essential piece of the human value chain.

And when they do show up in the news it is only for the good news such as when Motorola acquired Soundbuzz, or when Bilcare acquire another home-grown start-up, SingularID. The other start-ups that get liquidated, do so quietly.

But should the model that funded TIF fund be used again? Surely there will be those in a position of influence that would shout a very positive “AYE!” This is the fastest way to import foreign talent (I must declare I am one of those foreign talent) who has expertise in the area which we currently lack. For instance, Al Gore is a partner at Kleiner Perkins, and KP is one of the foremost, and prestigious VCs in the world that is actively investing in the Cleantech area.

But to attract such a firm would involve much lobbying and a lot of money, but the key question is: would they stay once the money runs out, or will they bail like all the rest before them?

But what of homegrown talent? What of the people who’s daily work is exactly what these expensive foreignVCs do in a foreign land, though experts they are not, they certainly are trying their best.

So does that mean that we do not try to attract foreign VCs? But the best case study is studying how the VC industry grew in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, India, and China. Apart from India and China, many of the current VCs started out as a local firm funded and staffed by the very entrepreneurs who have successfully exited from their start-ups and decided to become a VC in turn, either from a financial angle or a more altruistic angle.

They did not short-circuit the process, they slogged it through and some in the process, lost money as well for they did not enjoy much benefit from their own government. More importantly, the start-ups they invested in were not tied to any political objective.

In Israel, it is the norm to have start-ups relocate their headquarters to the US after their initial stage of growth. This is not seen as being unpatriotic but as a fact of life. The United States still represents the largest market in terms of monetary value, and therefore, these companies move the HQ to be closer to the market. A substantial part of the company still resides in Israel, and in fact, more often than not, the R&D is still located in the home country. These companies consider R&D as the heart and soul of the company, therefore it is most important that it not leave Israel.

For China and India (especially India), many of the VC investors in both these countries are Chinese and Indians who have emigrated to the West, found success in their newly adopted country but yet still feel an affinity to their motherland. They speak the language, know the local customs and regulations, but also play an important role in bridging the social and financial differences between their homeland and their adopted home. Plus the fact that India and China are the 2 most populous countries in the world also mean that there is a large home market to sell to.

Singapore, unfortunately, does not have many of such traits, and potentially the closest country that it resembles is Israel with a very big difference in culture. However, one could postulate that the worldview of many Israelis are governed by the tumultuous short history in a region that is strife with conflict. As such, there may be a more “do or die”, risk taking attitude in the Israel culture. Many of the past exploits of notable Israel army commanders were decidedly risky maneuvers, but yet still brought victory to Israel.

Singapore, on the other hand, is blessed with peaceful growth since Independence, except for a few years of insurgency during the Konfrantasi years with Indonesia (Singapore was then still part of Malaya). Its population, except for the upper echelons of power never had to deal with life or death situation that the Israelis had to. In short, the culture that many Singaporeans are accustomed to is one that stable, and oftentimes, risk averse.

But the fact is that there are many people, mostly of the younger generation, both Singaporeans and foreigners alike who have seen and experienced entrepreneurship and coupled with the fact that entrepreneurship is being taught at many institutions from universities to secondary schools mean that the younger generation may be prepared to be less risk averse to chase their dreams.

Economy 1.5 – Finale

So in an economy where the venture economy is highly inefficient, I believe that the government has no choice but to play the role of kingmaker. But should the same model that was used for the initial TIF fund be re-used?

I believe that model is outdated, and should be replaced with a more updated model that takes into account the scenarios of today. That model should aim to go global by first being local. What this means is that end goal for the use of this funding is to fund companies that must be able to eventually compete on a global stage.

The fund should be strictly administered as a Fund of Funds (FoF) to as to allow the funa managers to have clear objectives, responsibilities and outcomes. For the FoF receipients, preference should be given to those already active in Singapore or local Venture Capitalists who are able to provide a sound investment thesis to the fund managers. For areas where expertise is lacking, the fund managers should not play the role of matchmaker, but instead, that responsibility should fall on the VCs vying for investment from the fund managers to form networks, be it formal or informal to tackle new areas of growth being funded through the various R&D organizations in Singapore.

However, one clear objective for the FoF fund managers is that the funds must be invested in Singapore companies, with a strong emphasis on home grown technology. This will allow the R&D outcomes to have a natural pipe to the market. The alpha and beta testing, clinical trials can all be conducted overseas which is a realistic view as the Singapore market is just too small to gain any meaningful insight.

In addition, due to the high risk nature of the investments being made, the FOF fund managers and in essence the ministries that disburse the funding must realize that the Return of Investment may not necessarily be in the form of monetary returns, but in intangibles, such as job creation, contribution to the Gross National Product. In fact, for the seed stage funding, it is plausible that the fund will loose some of its investment monies due to the fact that seed stage funding is typically the riskiest investment, but where the returns are the best if successful. Measure of success should also include success of follow-on funding by external investors, and not just on exits.

For the later stage funding, the manner of the fund administration should follow the norms of how FoF manages such funding worldwide.

I believe that it is time for Singapore to take stand to take ownership of its own future well being, by mostly thinking local and not to be so besotted by foreign firms bearing well known brands and names for they do not have any roots in this country to anchor them for the long terms and through bad times. If these foreign firms were to come, it must be on our own terms and conditions.

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Enchanted Pt 2

2007-12-05T14:21:00.001+08:00

Now I know how to embed youtube on my blog,

These are my other 2 fav music as well:

And:

Enjoy!

Alan Menken is as close to a Rodgers and Hammerstein of our time!

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Enchanted

2007-12-05T14:16:00.001+08:00

I went with my 2 older girls to see this Disney. All I can say is that the Disney folks have not lost the magic. I feared that with Pixar's acquisition, they would have lost the ability to create the timeless classics like Snow White, Cinderella, Lion King etc.... but I was wrong.

My younger one (3 yo) got freaked a couple of times, ie the time Giselle transformed to a real life character, the troll scene in the beginning, and the wicked stepmother/dragon scene at the end, but overall enjoyed the happy scenes.

My current faves are:

Enjoy!

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Wedding Anniversary

2007-11-29T10:47:00.001+08:00

The missus and I celebrated our 8th year together. A small landmark, but a good one still.

We had wanted to do Japanese and we saw a good deal with ABN AMRO for Kaisan Jap restaurant at Raffles Hotel Arcade. Unfortunately, numerous calls to the restaurant was not answered.

So when the day came, we decided to take a chance and go there without any reservation. Our back-up plan was Hanabi at Odeon Towers. When we got to Raffles Hotel arcade, looking for Kaisan, we realized why no one picked up the phone. The restaurant had closed.

Unbelievable!

And the ABN offer is good thru to March 08. I guess someone needs to update that!

So off we went to Hanabi. Luckily for us, it was a weekday night and we could walk in without reservation.

The food as usual was good. We pigged out on sashimi, my primary favorite being tune, cobia and yellow tail. Somehow Salmon didn't do anything for me. As part of their 3rd anniversary, they also served a free dish of giant prawn deepfried and coated with some roe sauce. It was deep-fried so you could eat everything, and the sauce was quite yummy though nothing to shout about.

We tried a few cooked dishes, but again nothing spectacular.

So all in all, it was a good meal, not too expensive (about 80 for both of us) compared to our previous anniversaries which we did at Lawry's and Les Amis.

And.. we went to a massage the day after in HV. Again not too expensive (compared to Amrita Spa) but equally as good.

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Singapore's Public Transport

2007-09-25T16:50:00.001+08:00

This has been a really hot topic lately, what with the increase of fares for the busses and the "outing" of SMRT and SBS Transit that their return on net assets is higher than that of SIA (how could that be???)

In anycase, many people have written many things about it and now I would like to formally contribute to the case that it is.

I have just returned from a week in London. THis year alone, I have spen about 4 - 5 weeks in London, and travelling to the other cities within England, and almost all the time, I have done so using the train system, and on one unfortunate occasion, on their bus (though no fault of the bus company or driver, but moi)

And what I find most amazing is the Tube lines that snake through central London and the suburbs, and then there is the network of railway that connects the further towns to London and other towns.

And more amazingly there is a cacophany of buses that travel via road above the tube.

So how does Singapore reduce the log-jam that most drivers find themselves in today at peak hours (I know as I traversed the ECP last night attending a friend's mother's wake)?

I think the concept of SMRT and SBS both running busses and trains as a form of competition is fundamentally flawed. Why? Because the market is so small that there isn't room for any type of free market movement, let alone a duopoly. If a completely free market movement of the transportation occurs, the only real competition is on the roads with busses as the rail network is a virtual monopoly.

So what is the best way forward for Singapore. I think in his letter to the papers, Tan Kin Lian got it right. It's gotta be a "hub and spoke" system. Why? Let's look at this.

Trains do not compete with the other automobiles for space as the busses currently experiences. So in terms of the most effective people mover, it has got to be the train system. Therefore, the MRT stations then become a "hub" for the public transport.

As for busses, what they should do then is to be the spoke of the system, moving people from condos, HDBs, landed, schools to the hub, and vice-versa. The busses should not replicate the train lines, at least as much as possible. And the busses have to serve this role as much as possible, meaning a bus should arrive at a bus stop say every 5 minutes at peak hours, and 10 minutes at the off-hours. I believe there is enough busses in Singapore to achieve this goal.

The administrators at LTA should take a leaf from the Transport for London, or TfL and they way they administer the transportation system for London. There is no distinguishing mark on the busses and the trains, as they all get contracted from TfL to run the service. But for a business to take on the contract, there must be enough money to be made all around so there needs to be a certain % of revenue sharing on top of the tender.

So for instance the tender to run the rail networks would include:

1) A service level agreement that covers arrival and departure frequencies, and say carriage/trains up-time.

2) Rail maintenance services. This could essentially be separated or kept with the same tender, and should include the maintenance of the rail lines, as well as upgrading the stations etc.

As we already know how many carriages are there, then the company tendering for the job would need to decide how much it would cost to maintain all of the above, plus manpower costs etc. So this would be the basic tender pricing.

The government would award the winning bid with the full tender, but to make the cake sweeter, perhaps 10% of all revenue collected would be given to the company running the rail line to encourage them to maintain the standards. If the SLA is not being met, then the fines come first from the 10% revenue sharing, and eventually it will cut into the company's operating profit from the tender.

For the bus service, this may be a tougher pickle to crack as there are many busses plying the roads. But the same principle applies. THe government could buy-up all the public busses currently plying the road from SBS transit and SMRT, and call it Transport for Singapore, TfS. Mutiple companies could then bid for certain regional areas of Singapore (ie Toa Payoh district, Jurong West district), instead of just a duopoly. In the end, it could be SBS Transit taking the most of the action, but it would also allow smaller bandings of individual transport companies to compete for a certain area.

Again an SLA would be signed with these companies that would include frequencies of arrivals at each bus-stop, and a maintenance of the busses. THe maintenance could also go to a big company like STAR Auto who's main line of business IS in the line of transportation maintenance.

To enforce the SLA, each bus would be fitted with a tracking device or GPS (which is plentiful now - there is no need for reinventing the wheel, just need to know how to harvest the info). Our GSM system can also triangulate the position of the busses, and possibly cross reference to any jams occuring on the road (to prevent inequitable fines for reasons completely out of the driver's hand).

Again, there would be an element of revenue sharing to allow the company to benefit from providing the service.

THen, finally, ERP. I believe the ERP needs to be increased to something that pinches the pocket. It's politically unsound, but I believe needs to be done to sway people's mind to take the public. However, it needs to be balanced with a park and ride system, which was tested but not really taken off in a big way. More parking needs to be devoted to this system to make it enticing for people to use, and ideally park and ride participants should pay for way less than market rates for the use of the car-parks, not market rates as then there would be no incentive.

There... I've said it all... and so much for my dreams of owning a car of my own.

But there is a silver lining to all this. I find time to answer email, and catch up on reading when I am on the public... which is something I have noticed a lot of Londoners do in the Tube.. Blackberrying other even though there is no signal.. but that's a productive hour answering email instead of getting frustrated on the roads.

I just think now is the time to re-invent public transport in Singapore. There's a jam, and it's still moving and I hope the civil servants won't wait until there is a standing jam on the roads before making the decisions.

technorati tags:public transport, singapore, tfl, Transport for London, London tube, rail, bus, trains, SMRT, SBS Transit, ERP, Congestion charge, Park and ride, parking

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Circle of Life

2007-07-26T15:31:00.001+08:00

I have actually wanted to write about this for a while. THis week highlights the circle of life for me. On one hand, my mother has lost her best friend to Cancer, and on the other, my friend has just given birth and the baby's life is just starting. And me, I am in the middle of it all.

Let me start with my mom's best friend, a wonderful lady by the name of Gladys Peters. She came from a poor family in Kedah, and was the oldest among many siblings. Her father passed away early and she was forced to take on the role of parent together with her mom at a young age.

My mom got to know Aunty Gladys (as we all called her) when they were enrolled in Nursing school, I believe in Penang. When? I don't really know. Both my mom and her came from similar backgrounds (poor) and I guess bonded through the years.

My mom would wistfully recollect the many things that they did together, like climbing coconut trees, scrimping on their Nursing allowance to give to the family back home. I guess both of them got into all kinds of mischief, including the time when Aunty Gladys went to see the late Uncle John (her then potential suitor) and used my mom as smoke-screen.

Aunty Gladys was the pereniel joker, and I was fortunate to be beneficiary of some of her jokes, albeit some crude ones. Some are mildly racist in nature, but all in good fun. Things that I remember from spending time with her and Uncle John , included a very healthy dose of jokes, Uncle John and trying to coax some bird he was keeping to talk, and my first stuffed sandwich - I have no clue what was the stuffing, but it was one of those that 'cook" in a contraption that .. basically made a sandwich. And she still called the ex-PM of Malaysia, Tun Dr M by his professional title: Doctor! - you see both my mom and her had at one time server under Dr M and/or his wife, Dr Siti Hasmah.

Early last week, we got a call from my brother and then from Aunty Filo (Aunty Gladys' sister) informing us that Aunty Gladys was in a bad way suffering from the final stages of CA. Details were sketchy and we made plans to travel to KL to see her. Little did we know that she was REALLY in a bad way, and finally passed away Friday morning, and we were late by about 24 hours. We managed to go for the funeral service, but it was not the same as seeing her alive, but alas, it was better than nothing.

After the fact, we found out that she had given strict instructions not to contact my mom while she was undergoing chemo, and it was only when she was finally admitted to ICU for the last time did the family finally called us. A wasted opportunity for my mom to speak to her best friend one last time.

That night after the funeral, we had coconut juice and we toasted Aunty Gladys, remembering her coconut picking skills in hey younger days. She's a one of a kind.. and that's the way it should be.

While one journey ends, another starts. One of my ex-colleague is celebrating the 1st month milestone in her daughter's life. She texted me I guess when I was in the air on my way to London late June, and when I got to Heathrow, the happy news was received. I was kinda chargrined that the little one had not heeded my request to wait until I got home from the UK before popping from her mommy's tummy.. but as they said, when you gotta go, you gotta go.

I will see the bub for the first time this Sat, and hopefully, I will see more of the little one, together with my 3 not-so-little-ones-anymore in the future.

technorati tags:life, death, birth, gladys peters, John Peters, coconut, joker, Dr Mahathir, nurse

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Calm amidst the Storm

2007-03-13T16:18:00.001+08:00

I took particular interest in the article on the Straits Time yesterday on Nadya Hutagalung tumultous past has calmed down, thanks to her dual support of her hubby and Buddhism.

Hooray to Buddhism, as this is one of the VERY VERY few times that ST carries an article on a notable artiste that has embraced Buddhism.

I am a Buddhist, thought I can't quite that I am card-carrying Buddhist aiming to show everyone the way to Nirvana. Buddhism, I find, is an intensely private religion or more of a way of life where one should practice what one preaches. It combines philosophy, inner reflection and meditation as a way to self discovery.

To me, it is so private that no one notices it and sometimes I feel as if it is losing its luster to other more "hip" religions. And frankly I can understand why it feels as if it's losing its luster.

First, many Buddhist organizations do not make a big show of it's events apart from during Wesak Day. Secondly, not many people feel the call of attending classes or sermons on a weekly basis.

Thirdly, when I was growing up, Buddhist classes were mainly talking about mundane stuff like suffering etc etc and chanting some Pali verses which I have no clue what I am chanting about. At that stage I had other pressing problems (like girlfriends - or lack of, trying to fit into a clique) than to debate about suffering, karma etc etc.

But it is as scientific as any religion gets, and is one where you reap what you sow (the concept of Karma). It invites people to come and see (ehi passiko).I respect this aspect of the religion as it encourages curiousity, and allows for multiple diversity in views. Some may find Buddhism their ideal religion, and to other, other religions may be more suitable for them.

In order for Buddhism to take a more prominent role in society, I believe that it should renew itself to appeal with the younger generation, and speak more with ease and not in tongues. While I appreciate the appeal of the philosophy, I doubt that we will find many discoverers who will follow through, when they start debating through many of the philosophical phrases like:

Emptiness is form, form is emptiness, emptiness is nothing but form and form is nothing but emptiness.

THis phrase is from the Heart Sutra, which is one of the most powerful (if not confusing) phrase I have come across.

I believe that Buddhism needs to connect with more lay people and simplify the Dhamma for people to be able to enjoy the serenity of Buddhism.

It is an uphill struggle to get people to understand the Dhamma, but I am glad that Nadya has found it!

I hope you too will find it.... one day. Ehi Passiko!

technorati tags:buddhism, nadya hutagalung, dhamma, relevance, renewal, karma

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Fair Use - My FOOT!

2007-03-09T12:22:00.001+08:00

I recently bought a CD, Lisa Ono, only to find that the CD is copy-protected by some technology from Midbar Tech.

I have copy protected CDs. As far as I am concerned, I am a responsible person who do not encourage music piracy, nor participate in it. I have been buying original music since time immemorial - I started buying originals since I was 12 years old and had to save up money over 2 weeks to buy my special tapes.

I digress, but the point of the matter is that fair use allows the user to make a small number of copies of his music collection for his own personal use. For instance, I listen to music at home, in the car and at work, and if you are like me, you will find that carrying the CD from home to the car to the office on a daily basis is not only a chore, it is ridiculous!

What is even more ridiculous is the RIAA, through the promotion of this Midbar technology, wants the use to buy 3 copies of the CD just for his own personal use. It's as good as robbing the consumer.

In this case, I do support all the hackers who try to find ways to defeat such copyrights because it is my right to listen to music that I have purchased however I want, provided I do not profit illegally from it.

I find this practice archaic, and undemocratic. Personally, I stuffed up as I should have looked closer at the CD sleeve to see if this was copy protected or not. I learnt the hard way with Sheila Majid's new Legenda CD, I've been bitted twice now with Lisa Ono's CD.

I swear that this will be my last CD that I will ever buy that have copy protection on it, and I hope both the RIAA or whoever promoted this technology, as well as the company itself go bust, as they are living in the ancient times. I this Steve Jobs is onto something, about eliminating copyright.

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Sprucing up the entrepreneurial scene - On Philip Yeo's to-do list when he takes over as Spring Singapore chairman in April: Championing technology SMEs

2007-01-12T13:24:00.001+08:00

On January 10, there was an article on ST interviewing Chairman-designate of Spring Singapore, Mr Philip Yeo.

The article chronicles what he intends on doing as CHairman on Spring and I laud his approach of making the SME's more technology centric, and utilizing (hopefully) the fruits of the R&D dollars that have been pumped into the universities and research agencies.

His 4 main thrusts is:

Money

Markets

Management

Technology

While I may not be the best person to discuss Markets and Management, I can definitely hold my owon on Money and Technology.

Money: in the article, he has mentioned working with the banks to release money for SMEs. But how does one become an SME to begin with. One has to go through a start-up phase, and the bank's charter is not to put money into high risk business propositions. Insteads, banks are typically utilized to provide factoring services, capex loans etc etc.

So the quandary is still unsolved. How does one make the leap from start-up to growth (in the truest definition of the word SME, start-ups also fall into this category) stage companies.

Once again, as I run through my mind to search out funding opportunities for really young companies, and my mind tells me that there really isn't that many sources. IN the US and EU, most of the funding opporunities come from Venture Capital and Angel Investors.

But here in Singapore, VC community primarily plays in Series A or B funding rounds, and prefer to stay away from seed stage funding as it is deemed to be too risky and the outlook for an exit is... well unclear and uncertain.

Angel investors in Singapore/Asia are a different animal altogther. They are mainly formed by high net worth individuals, and from feedback (I have not directly dealt with Angels myself) is that their outlook is relatively short term, so unless you can project and super high growth rate plus a plan to be profitable from day 1, good luck courting Angel money.

But can anyone blame them (the Angels)? If I put myself in their shoes, I believe I would act the same as the source of funding came from my own sweat, and of course, the entrepreneur would have to work his ass off to make my money go the extra mile or two.

So in essence, the Chairman-designate has not truly resolved the issue of money for SMEs. Besides, banks do not offer to open the little black book that could help the entrepreneur open doors to other suppliers and customers, whereas VCs generally pitch that as their value-add, and I have personally seen this relationship work to the benefit of small companies.

As for technology, without compromising too much of the confidentiality clause I have signed, I believe one should cast a critical eye on the research work that has been done in Singapore. Reporters who write about science and technology shoulds follow up their story after 12 months of it being published to determine what has become of their story, especially those technologies that are pitched as looking for commercialization partners?

How many of these are successfully commercialized? And how many are still sitting on the shelf awaiting commercialization? THose that are still on the shelf, the question should then move towards "What Happened?" and let no stones go unturned? Is it because of unfavorable licensing terms? Is it because it would cost the licensee another 3 million dollars to take it to the market? Or is it because simply the technology does not work as touted, or is not "World-class"?

But this is definitely the next step in pushing our SMEs forward. No way back as going back would be disastrous!

technorati tags:philip yeo, spring, R&D, SME, investment, technology, banks, money

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Red Herring: Florida Could Juice VC Activity

2006-12-27T14:02:00.000+08:00

THis is something that I think the Singapore government should consider. Currently, the only program that is active in such activities is the EDB SEEDs and SEEDs II program, BUT the main difference is that EDB does not discriminate whether the investors are institutional VCs, angel investors, blur people or idiots, just so long as the investors are not directly related to the founders or management of the start-up.

Giving tax credit to institutional VCs will help start-ups more than giving matching funding to Angels, primarily, in the Singapore context, IMHO, angel investors are not really angels and have unrealistic expectations of the start-up company and may end up hurting the very company they hope to make money from.

I also belive that TIF may have similar terms and conditions that they put into the fund they invest in, but word on the street is that TIF is currently not a very active participant. Hopefully I am wrong and TIF continues to encourage local VCs to invest locally.

From the Red Herring:

Florida Could Juice VC Activity

Legislation would encourage funding to back the state’s startups.
December 26, 2006

By Ken Schachter

Florida lawmakers are hoping a 2007 legislative lift will open the venture capital spigot to the state’s early-stage companies.

Though the session won’t start in earnest until March, lawmakers already are in talks to revive legislation designed to encourage venture capitalists to fund startups.

Sen. Evelyn Lynn said talks have begun to shape the language of new legislation designed to remedy the dearth of venture capital in the state.

One approach, she said, would seek to commercialize intellectual property emerging from the state university system.

“We’re talking about a lot of different things,” added the Daytona Beach Republican.
In 2006, Lynn co-sponsored legislation that would have provided $75 million in tax credits as backing for the Florida Opportunity Fund, a venture capital “fund of funds” to support state businesses and technologies.

In his 2006 budget proposal, Gov. Jeb Bush endorsed such a fund, noting that Florida accounted for only 0.3 percent of the nation’s seed financing, 1.2 percent of early stage funding and 1.4 percent of venture funding in 2004. Total state VC spending for 2003 and 2004 was more than $555 million on 114 deals, according to Enterprise Florida.

Though Bush will be leaving the governor’s mansion in 2007, his successor, Gov.-elect Charlie Crist, was a co-sponsor of the bill to create the Florida Opportunity Fund and is expected offer continued support. Under that plan, the state set aside $75 million in contingent tax credits as a guaranty for investors. Arkansas, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Utah offer similar programs backed by tax credits.

The legislation would have mandated that VC funds receiving investments from the Florida Opportunity Fund put an equal amount of their own capital into Florida startups. The fund was designed to seek to withdraw its investments in portfolio companies within three to five years.