Monday, April 27, 2015

Lesser of two evils

Which is of a lesser evil?
  1. Employee faking an academic qualification, or
  2. Employing company dissing the fake qualification as not required for hiring entry criteria
Allow me to state this clearly - I am NOT on a witch-hunt with regards to the recent degree mills saga. Neither am I 'bashing' the Foreignt Talent (FT) Immigrant Policy.

For whatever reasons the IDA employee in the spotlight (Nisha Padmanabhan) had chosen to obtain her MBA from dubious degree mills.

Is she is aware of the risk of being found out resulting in jeopardising her citizenship and employment contract?

I am certain she must be totally stressed out now - her greatest fear coming to reality. Don't we all have secret closet skeletons which we hope never to see the light of day?

Does it matter if Nisha is a diligent and committed employee to IDA? What about her good ideas and suggestions to improve processes and seeing many successful implementations? Does her being a law-abiding resident and committed Singaporean mean much?

Does her successful attempts to integrate with Singapore culture and people account for anything? Assuming she has a son and her family is committed for him to serve NS. Does it mean anything to Singaporeans?

What is going to happen to her and her family now? We are talking about lives at stake and future livelihood.

Let's pause here to pull you into another story.

Weekend news in Australia shared that Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran (also known as the remaining Bali 9 drug traffickers) will be executed tomorrow, 28 April.

We all know that drug trafficking in Indonesia (and Singapore) serves a death penalty. I'm sure Andrew and Sukumaran knew about it and the risks associated when they tried to pull the drug job.

Do their years of reform while awaiting their death sentence account for anything? What about their changed lives? I have heard of them becoming Christians and their testimonies have blessed to fellow inmates and prisoners. Doesn't it all mean something?

What about their hopes and dreams to help lives if they get released? Won't they be very effective voices to save drug traffickers and users in the dark world of substance abuse?

You see, it is easy to justify a cause and yet be torn by conflicting mindsets and realities. We can all take the easy path of:
  • Nisha deserved it. Kick her out of the country.
  • The Bali 9 knew the death penalty. They deserve their 'Meet the Maker' destination.
Really?

Back to degree mills and falsifying qualifications. There are subtle, underlying tones underneath the surface that have brought conflicting (and confusing) messages to me. And the government had better wake up to them!
  1. If the fake MBA is not an entry criteria to Nisha's employment, does it mean that IDA employed her on the basis of her Bachelor Degree?

    If so, does this mean that IDA was unable to source any Singaporeans with a Bachelor Degree to fill that job scope? I hope not!

    What does it say about entry criteria and employing FTs? Did the FTs have special experience that edged out our local graduates?

    .
  2. IDA employing Nisha on her University of Mumbai Bachelor Degree, does it mean that IDA see a Singapore Bachelor Degrees ranking worse?

    Pretty sure there are lots of Singaporean degree-holders waiting for IDA to offer them employment.

    With the ever-rising cost of NUS/NTU (or other Singapore university) qualifications and the spending on international publicity and exposure by Singapore universities to be on good international ranking and prominence, I'm pretty sure we are highly ranked among many countries. Or so claimed by our Education Minister.

    Will this issue also impact Singapore's standing as an education hub and integrity?
Actually it is not so much as Nisha's fake MBA, or IDA's employing her based on her Bachelor Degree.

To me it simply means the government (by and large) isn't on our side any more, so much so that anyone can be a Singapore citizen and anyone can fill your job. So why bother to be a Singaporean citizen and why bother with serving NS?

And your Singapore degree? For all the monies spent and years toiled on it, it has as much value as toilet paper.

That is the greater evil.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

the gov has sold the people out with the ceca agreement with india.
hence the need to create jobs for these Indians to come to sgp.
whoever negotiated the ceca deal on behalf of sgp is a traitor and ought to be shot for short changing the country,
why would modi come to sgp for lky's wake, why would india all have media coverage, fly flag at half mast etc.
ceca benefits the Indians - imagine every yr 200k new Indians in sgp earbing av 3k/mth
why would modi not kiss pinky's foot. these indian will send money back to their village to develop, freeing modi the problems of unemployment and village development...

Anonymous said...

There is also the proverbial elephant in the room: the Population White Paper. Both the population target and the time schedule have been set.

Now, Singaporeans aren't suddenly breeding like rabbits, and we know that real talents would never ever come to Singapore (except those parasitical money launderers, but that depends on your definition of a talent.)

The absence of a minimum wage artificially depresses wages across the board, and thus cheaper, third-rate 'talents', with the blessings of the PAP government and bilateral agreements, arrive in Singapore to be another cog in the machinery of SG Inc.

Essentially, Singapore is run like a Ponzi scheme. You'll need to keep adding more warm bodies to prop up the economy.

Not too long ago, there were talks of building underground cities in some urban planning presentation.

By now, you should be very terrified of the psychopaths in government running the country. Because this lack of wisdom - this insatiable pursuit of economic gains will inevitably culminate into something very unpleasant.

I have always said that if Singaporeans were more assertive and discerning, and less docile and compliant, we would not have given those so-called leaders free license to ruin the country.

The betrayal is almost complete. How ironic that it happens on a SG50 year.

The said...

Even if the MBA is not taken into consideration when employing her, it surely must have resulted in higher starting salary or wage increment. The fact that she claimed to have studied for the degree is misrepresentation. When IDA has the gall to say that 551st ranked Mumbai U is a reputable U.

Anonymous said...

Imagine the calamity if IDA were to sack her and all government departments, stat boards etc. have to start ferreting out the fakes. Who is left to do the donkey work at low pay to generate surplus for our ministers' paychecks?

Anonymous said...

no wonder our productivity cannot improve. with people like them and simpleton minister who asks us to be cheaper...
other developed economies become more productive by moving up value chain and becoming more innovative.
really overpaid bunch of clowns running the circus here. sad.

Anonymous said...

Nag nag nag...