Via Temasek Review:
Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Tanjong Pagar MP Koo Tsai Kee who is also the Minister of State for Defence heaped generous praises on DPM Teo as being the “best man” to lead the National Productivity and Continuing Education Council because of his long years in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).
Mr Koo claimed that SAF has been “practising productivity all this while” because “there are no foreign workers or foreign talent in the SAF, which is made up entirely of Singapore soldiers.”
“The SAF, despite its manpower constraints, has been able to face up to a widening range of security threats in recent years under Defence Minister Teo….And I am not saying this because he’s my boss,” he added.
Is Prof Koo trying to insult the intelligent of all Singaporean men who been through NS or reservist? Just ask any of us, I am pretty sure not a single soul will agree with Prof Koo’s sentiment (excluding deluded SAF regulars).
Any email queries to MINDEF takes at least 3 weeks for a reply (sometime there’s no reply at all) while other government bodies can reply within 3 working days. Just go check any random ICT or RT session and see how much time is wasted making Singaporean men sit around for hours at every stages, waiting and waiting and waiting.
Let’s not even talk about how the pathetic pittance masqueraded as “allowance” for NSF and rank pay for reservists. The rates are even lower than foreign workers because it’s a CONSCRIPTED armed force – meaning Singaporeans are FORCED to serve.
Obviously the law of market demand and supply is not applicable here. You don’t need a doctorate to figure this out.
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MP Koo is indirectly teaching Singaporeans what is true productivity in order to up your salary… it’s not about upgrading skills or acquiring more knowledge. It’s about apple polishing.
DPM Teo is also the Minister for Defence. Prof Koo is Minister of State for Ministry of Defence. Need I say more?
He is probably afraid to be left out of this recent tagling, “productivity”. So he must mouth off some crap. Old NS guys have a Hokkien phrase for this, in English, it translates literally to, “The mouth talks, the testicles gets stimulated”.
Anybody who is paid $130 per month can also talk c**k like this, $13k is too much to expect from clowns
Well said Alvin.. i fully agree
clearly he hasn’t served ns before
But is the real reason why there are no foreign talent in the SAF because SAF is productive and efficient (snigger snigger, don’t make me laugh…)…
Why can’t the Malaysians, Indonesians, Filipinos or Thais man our armed forces? I am sure they can do just as well, if not better, except we just gotta to remember we cannot go into a war with these countries…
This is real productivity indeed, getting so much while paying so little
Either the esteemed MP has never served NS or that he is unintelligent or he is being economical with the truth.
“…there are no foreign workers or foreign talent in the SAF, which is made up entirely of Singapore soldiers.”
The above statement has nothing to do with productivity and everything to do with national security. Most military forces of sovereign states do not accept foreigners into their armed forces as a deliberate policy, not because of “productivity” reasons.
The SAF has no Bangladeshi or Indian soldiers because it DOES NOT conscript nor recruit them into their regular force.
However, it should be interested to note that we have the Gurkha Contingent in the Singapore Police Forces. Is our esteemed MP casting aspersions on the productivity of our Singapore Police Forces because they have allowed Nepalese to serve in the Gurkha contingent who provide domestic security for our homeland by guarding key installations include PM residences, Istana, MFA and key installations?
Being economical with the truth is the part about SAF being “productive”. Any NSman or NSF who has served in operational units know the amount of waiting for instructions, waiting for this and that before we actually engage in real training and real operations.
I am saddened that the country is being representated by an MP who is of such quality.