Tan Yong Soon - A Product Of The PAP System

Source: Lucky Tan

Did you notice that I don't have a single article on our most famous French chef cum civil servant on my blog? I believe Tan Yong Soon is not to be blamed. He is after all just a product of the system.
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Singaporeans please be understanding. Tan Yong Soon and our top civil servants make about $1.54M a year (after the pay cut!). $46.5K for a vacation is merely 3% of his salary or just a fraction of the interest on his savings account. The misunderstanding is the other way round - Singaporeans should have a sense of proportion and be more understanding why Mr. Tan cannot possibly comprehend that you find his vacation so extravagant because it is not extravagant at all to him.

".... My colleagues and I feel very bad about this episode, because it stands in contrast to the values and ethos of the service. " - Peter Ho, Head of Civil Service
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"Gee...ethos and values? Tan Yong Soon has merely exposed the truth about our civil service!"
- Lucky Tan.
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At about the same time I received my "A" Levels exam results, I received a pile of scholarship applications form from various govt bodies. I took the whole pile and threw them into the waste paper basket. I wasn't sure what I've done to deserve one of these scholarships and what I'll being signing away if I accepted them. I did pay a heavy price ..... I had to take up a loan to pay for my school fees and gave tuition on weekends to earn an allowance so that I didn't have to burden ageing parents. So while my friends on overseas scholarships were enjoying skiing lessons on weekends, I travelled all over the island to give tuition to primary and secondary school kids. No hard feelings...it was a decision I made and I accepted the outcome. A few months ago one of my cousins called up and told me that he had won a scholarship to study in London, he asked me if I can be his guarantor. I agreed and having supported myself through university, I thought it would be a good idea for him to have a "easier life". I arranged to meet him at the scholarship office to sign the documents. When I got there, the walls of the office was filled with posters of smiling scholars diving, skiing, ...and experiencing the good life around the world. I sat down and the public servant did an outstanding job of explaining the T&Cs of the document I was signing. However, when it came to the bond quantum, I almost had a heart attack - the amount I was asked to guarantee was just short of 7 figures (one reason was my cousin has been with the organisation for a few years and will receive full salary while he is studying). I had a chat with my cousin afterwards and among other things make him promise not to break his bond and get me into trouble.
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You see the starting point of our top civil servants are all the same - fully paid education with generous allowance even before they put in a single day of work. After that a well paid recession proof job - they can afford a car and say goodbye to public transport the day they start their working life. If they are as successful Tan Yong Soon and climb the ladder in this elitist system all the way to the top, the pay is $1.5M....entitlements aplenty - free medical care, pension etc. We cannot blame Tan Yong Soon for the lack of empathy because it is impossible for him to understand the struggles of ordinary Singaporeans. He cannot possibly understand what it is like to stay up at night to worry about mortgage payments or having your electricity cut off because you can't pay for your electricity bills. Peter Ho and Teo Chee Hean are completely wrong to expect humility, the "ethos and values of the service" when the entire system breeds nothing but a oversized sense of entitlement and importance. When the civil service pay for top civil servants was hiked to astronomical levels, we are told that they are men of rare talents and their leadership is a scarce commodity....it is only scarce because of the elitist system in place that narrows the selection of good men...with rigid beliefs about what makes a man a good public servant. What is so difficult about about the formulation of public policy? The ordinary citizen cannot understand the tradeoffs and what is good for himself?
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What will bring about the empathy, humility, ethos and values are the things the PAP govt continue to resist - the freedom for ordinary men to express their views and demands democratically. The freedom of ordinary citizens to access information....so that there will be accountability, transparency and competition of ideas. Many of us don't understand why Tan Yong Soon deserves his $1+M salary ...we also don't understand why our leaders are paid so much higher than those of all other countries. But it is not Mr. Tan's fault that he paid whatever he is paid, he is just part of a system ....a system that the PAP govt wants to preserve.
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."Maybe it made lesser mortals envious and they thought maybe he was a bit boastful. Would people have taken offence if his wife (a senior investment counsellor at a bank) had paid for everything ?” - Charles Chong
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Teo Chee Hean and Peter Ho expressed great disappoint over Mr. Tan's article. This will encourage all the other govt mandarins to keep their extravagant ways secret.....yes, the ordinary citizens can feel better once they do not know. In the words of Charles Chong, the fault lies with us lesser mortals who became envious of Mr. Tan. His only mistake was to let us know what we don't....and the solution is for top civil servants to keep their secrets and keep the people in the dark and that is suppose to lead to great respect for our top civil servants.