Simple is the Reason of My Heart

Seminar on Internet Regulatory Reform

“The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open” – Gunter Grass. Are Singaporeans satisfied with the state of Internet regulation as existing? If not, what changes do we wish to see and how can a bottom-up desire for reform translate into policy review? Can Singapore afford the political and social costs of free speech? Is there a contradiction between wanting freedom for political speech and controls over social speech? Is technology really in the driver’s seat? Are governments powerless in the face of a global Internet? Organised by the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information - NTU, the event will be held on 21 June 2008, 2-5 pm in URA Centre, Maxwell Road, Function Hall, Level 5. The admission is free and RSVP is required. The speakers for the event will be Mr Arun Mahizhnan, Deputy Director, Institute of Policy Studies and presentations made by members of the Bloggers’ Group for Internet Deregulation and chaired by Asst Prof Cherian George, Wee Kim Wee School, NTU.
To register (RSVP), please send an empty email to : irr-singapore-subscribe@googlegroups.com. You will get an email response asking you to confirm your request.

Henderson Waves - A Childhood Dream Come True

When I was living in Telok Blangah Heights before I moved to my present home ten years ago, I often exercise or take a walk up to the Telok Blangah Hill Park. Opposite to the hill, is Mount Faber where you find the cable car that connects from there to Sentosa. The honest truth is that over the time when I stayed in that area, I have been to Mount Faber less than three times, while I always like to go up to the Terrace Hill on Telok Blangah Hill and take a look at the view of Sentosa and other parts of the city there. Sometimes, I often dream that a bridge should be built to connect Telok Blangah Hill to Mount Faber. Finally, my wish has come true today. This evening I took a walk from Telok Blangah Hill to Mount Faber via the Henderson Waves, which is the name of the bridge that connects between both hills. While I was there in the evening, I saw the bridge from daylight till it was lit up beautifully when the sky went dark. While I was there, many photographers were gathering their cameras to capture the best view of the bridge. If you fancy a good walk in the nature, do check out the connection of the Southern Ridges.

Official Reply from Government on the Proposal

For those who wonder about the progress of the proposal, Ms Bhavani from MICA representing the Minister of Information, Communication and the Arts have responded to us on the proposals and said that they will review the suggestions made on the proposals. There is a ST report "Government looking at Lighter Touch"  by Zakir Hussain narrating about the responses between MICA and the bloggers on the proposal. The engagement between MICA and us has been cordial and positive and that's a good starting point for proper debate in our society. From reading the response, my opinion is that they would at least review what we have proposed.  We have to wait and see what their eventual policy decisions may be, given that the report by Advisory Council on the Impact  of  New Media on Society (AIMS) is about to be submitted. In any case, both groups (the bloggers and AIMS) have been in contact, and have exchanged notes among each other through various closed door sessions on regulation issues in Institute of Policy Studies or private emails. Meanwhile, check out Alex's article on "The pigeons are among us already", Clarissa Onn's "Bureaucratic ambiguity and Internet freedom" and Mohan's "Maintaining Racial and Religious Harmony through Criminal Law". The full text for official email reply can be found in E-Jay's SGPoilitics.net. I have attached a copy here.

Proposals for Internet Freedom in Singapore

The paper "Proposals for Internet Freedom in Singapore" is now submitted to Dr Lee Boon Yang, the Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts. For those who want to a download of the paper, you can download it from here. As spoken earlier, it will be great to hear more feedback from fellow bloggers. 

Community Moderation as an alternative to Internet Regulation in Singapore

Community moderation is an alternative solution to Internet regulation as compared to the heavy hand approach adopted by the authorities (particularly in clamping down matters with law enforcement too quickly). I sketch out a few arguments to support the advocacy of this solution and present the summary of the proposals by the group of 15 bloggers led by Alex Au and Choo Zheng Xi who will be submitting a set of recommended proposals to the Minister for Information, Communication and the Arts within the next few days on the subject of Internet regulation. 

My Thoughts about the Co-Space Initiative & Virtual World

Yesterday, the Media Development Authority of Singapore (under the IDM office) has launched a new initiative that plans to create the interface and link between the real and virtual worlds known as the co-space initiative. The initiative will pull together the various stake holders, for example, the private sector and research institutes in the IDM space to submit ideas for services, tools, technologies and applications that creates the nexus between physical and virtual worlds. In my days when I first learned HTML, I constructed my website (now defunct) in a concept of a fantasy world, and my eventual dream is to have a virtual reality interface that can allow the audience to view my web site like walking around a virtual world. That reality is still light years away, although the virtual worlds industry has emerged in the Internet. Companies like Second Life and HiPiHi are now vying to be the new frontier of the Internet. I will outline some reasons why I have not been keen into investing in any company that are in the virtual worlds and some thoughts about the co-space initiative and how the vision should go beyond the present form.

Marketing & Monetization of Facebook: Hype or Gold Mine - Post Thoughts after the Panel

It has been an interesting and enjoyable experience moderating an interesting panel for the Facebook Developer Garage II: Face Two  event in Singapore. A collection of live blogs and photos can be found here. To conclude from my last post, I will post some of the interesting lessons which arise from the panel discussion with Leonard Lin (managing partner, Tyler Projects), Andrew Wee (Internet Marketer) and Kien Lee (founder, SENATUS). Two things I do want to say, is that the Singapore PHP User Group and Garag3 (E27) have done a great job in making the event (even though flyers came like a week before the event) and also kudos to Chris Ismael to helping us to host the event in Microsoft. (Updated with the video of the panel in this post)

Singapore to host Youth Olympics 2010

Congratulations to Singapore (picture from Straits Times). We are to host the first youth olympics for the summer 2010. Of course, it will be a good event to bring together people from all over the world for the Olympic spirit. We managed to beat Moscow to host the event. Definitely, I congratulate the team who went for the bidding of this event, and their efforts for bringing this event to Singapore. Of course, this will bring a big boost to the sport facilities in Singapore and also bring a healthy spirit of competition and passion in sports here.  It's quite exciting to watch the announcement somewhere close to the Padang with an internet connection. I watched it directly from the Olympics website. :)

Rules of Engagement for Internet Entrepreneurs starting up in Singapore

Last Tuesday, I was invited by Dr Jack Jiang from NUS School of Computing to deliver a guest lecture for his honours year course CS4260: E-Commerce Business Models. Through a meeting and several email discussions, I decided to break the one and half hours lecture into four parts: (i) The general concepts which are driving the current internet economy - the long tail, wisdom of crowds, direct micro financial transactions and a new phrase I coined for the students to remember "Cash is King but Information is Queen for Internet Businesses"; (ii) the emerging trends looking at the differences between internet companies coming out from Silicon Valley (California, US) and Zhongguancun (Beijing, China); (iii) two case studies I prepared to get the students into thinking: (i) Baidu and (ii) Second Life and HiPiHi and (iv) How to set up an internet business in Singapore. I decided to blog about the few pointers for internet entrepreneurs which I have invested, encountered and also talked to, and perhaps it might be of help for those who are thinking of setting up an internet business.

A-STAR 100K challenge is an outdated idea to both Innovation and Business

Recently, A-STAR launched a 100K challenge to look for the next generation search engine. Obviously, they are motivated by the successes of Google as a multi-billion company. They are looking for a media search engine and would award what they think is a big cash prize for the competitors to go for it. Let's give some credit to the policy makers in A-STAR to make an effort to promote innovation using an engineer's approach again. Still, I wish A-STAR the best of luck in their prospecting for a better search engine.  However, the challenge has a higher propensity to fail than to succeed if their approach is to find a good search engine maker and then buy out the technology so that they can develop it. I am going to outline why this challenge fails in both fronts: business and innovation.

Education in Singapore needs to see beyond KPIs

I read the news about our minister of state for education defending a principal who advised her secondary 5 students to transfer to ITE. It is important that there are three aspects of the same issue occurring here. The first issue relates to the mode of teaching students, whether educators should be allowed to use any methods to encourage or spur their students to improve better. To be honest, as an educator myself, I also used the harsh and benign approaches to my students but I usually decide my approach based on my understanding of how the student thinks and works. If I adopted the harsh approach, it is out of the genuine feeling to make the student believe that they are capable of greater things. Hence, we cannot fault the principal if the intention is to motivate the students and give them a sense of urgency to work harder for their own futures. The second aspect of the issue which it has not been clear to me is whether the principal is asking them to get a transfer to ITE, because the principal is worried about her KPIs for her annual performance. Well, it's not that difficult to fudge numbers in a way that her school might have 100% record of getting better performances by not taking into account transfers. However, I am going to give the principal the benefit of the doubt, but I will comment with a story which happened to a teacher (who's a respected senior of mine in NUS). The third is what does it mean to educate a person. Is it to just get high grades and get a good job or is it to inculcate good values and skills to students such that they can in turn contribute back to society.

A Year of Extraordinary Inflation - Singapore 2007

Another few more days, the year 2007 will come to an end. Examining issues from social media to our economy, Singapore seemed to have undergone a year in transition. Of course, the most significant aspect of the year 2007 is the extraordinary inflation which most Singaporeans would have experienced and complained about. While we see a strong GDP growth coming from foreign direct investment and high employment  mainly from the financial  sectors, we are also plagued with rising costs in the standards of living and adjustments (probably would be imposed in the coming years) to our daily lives, from CPF to healthcare costs. So, I list down and make some short comments in a random fashion (with no order of importance) on interesting events that passed this year of extraordinary inflation in Singapore.

The Cotai Strip - A Reprise of Singapore's IR Strategy

Over the past few days, I was on a holiday trip to Hong Kong and Macau. While in Macau, I visited the various casinos owned by the various groups who took part in the two IR bids a year back. One of the new kid on the block in Macau, was the Venetician Macao owned by Sands (who would also be opening up the first casino in Singapore by the Marina Bay). The Venetician Macao was already an amazing piece of architecture with an entire shopping area which replicated the city of Venice with gandolas and piazzas. Although I am not a fan of gambling and casinos, I was impressed and in awe by the infrastructure and pace of development of the Cotai Strip where this new casino resort is located. For that matter, Singapore will face a stiff competition from Macau which has already beaten Las Vegas as the largest gambling centre of the world in 2006. While visiting the casinos by Sands, MGM and Wynn, a few things fell in place for me, which helped me to figure out why the Singapore government did not choose any local operator for the casino and in the same light, why they ended up picking Sands for one of the IRs in Singapore.

The Singapore State-Owned Investment Corporations Conundrum

Without doubt, the recent news of the Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) to invest 11B Swiss Francs into UBS, a prominent Swiss investment bank for a 9% equity and no direct control has taken Singapore into the limelight. Of course, the reason why GIC was able to make such a big investment, is because UBS has made significant losses in the US sub prime crisis. For a long time, Temasek Holdings has taken a higher profile than GIC in terms of making state investments. This event has brought up a dilemma that is raised by many Singaporeans, including my colleague Wayne Soon who believed that some form of parliamentary accountability is required for such a hefty investment. Singapore has embarked on a very difficult course by creating state-run investment enterprises, that is subjected to a few extra conditions which normal private sector driven investment funds don't, for e.g., accountability to the parliament and a lot of public scrutiny if something goes wrong. Should state funds be used for such extravagant investments where it can be instead used for other purposes such as helping the lower class?

Fact Checking on Press Freedom/Stability in Singapore

Recently, an article from Channelnews Asia talks about Singapore's press freedom. The main gist of the article is to indicate that Singaporean citizens have a stronger preference for stability over press freedom as compared to the other countries in the world. This claim was based on a finding conducted by research firms GlobeScan and Synovate and was commissioned by the BBC World Service to mark its 75th anniversary. A few interesting findings are conveyed through the local press, for e.g. "Some 42 per cent of Singaporeans gave a 'good job' rating to government-funded media in accuracy and honesty, compared to 32 per cent for non-government funded companies. However, 51 per cent of Singaporeans were of the opinion that "ownership (of the media companies) is a major issue because you often see owners' political views emerge in the news'" (quoted from ChannelNews Asia article[2]). Of course, if you go to BBC [2,3] and download the actual report, you find that the local press did not report some additional information. So, what did they leave out?

Selective Liberalization - On the Brink of Breakdown?

A few events have been happening in Singapore. Most notably are the issues of public protests, opposition politics, repeal of section 377A and foreign talent (where we witness exaggerated conflicts between foreigners and locals). While the economy is moving for an all time high inflation for the first time in twelve years, echoes about problems in costs of living are once shoring up. As usual, we are hearing our ministers making confusing and insensitive remarks on the rising costs of living. There is one common thread that weaves across these few threads. The term that is broadly across the net is selective liberalization. For a long time, the ruling establishment has worked on the concept of selective liberalization, i.e. they decide when certain taboos or practices be lifted subject to the dictation of market forces. With a few hot-buttoned issues popping up from foreigners making public protests to rising costs of living, are the attempts of selective liberalization by the establishment failing?   

A Flat Fee Suffices - On Taxi Fares in Singapore

Recently, the news media discuss the issue of a cab fare hike as the  cab drivers are complaining of rising operational costs. A member of parliament has recently suggested to further increase surcharges during peak hours as a possible solution. That solution does not solve the present problem but instead exacerbate the crisis to a new level. The problem with his proposal is that the increase of surcharges will lead to further abuse from the taxi drivers during the peak hours. Instead, the better solution is to get rid of all the surcharges and instead impose a higher flat fee (say S$5-S$6) that can solve the problem for both the taxi drivers and the customers. Of course, the other thing is that LTA and the taxi companies must understand why surcharges are failing currently in Singapore.

Singapore: City State or Re-Merger?

After a decade, in a recent interview with Tom Plate, Minister Mentor Lee has once again brought up the topic of Singapore re-merging with Malaysia. He even highlighted the condition for a reunion based on the following statement: "If they would just educate the Chinese and Indians, use them and treat them as their citizens, they can equal us and even do better than us and we would be happy to rejoin them." Of course, if we look at the current trajectory of development in both countries and want to cast a bet on this reunion idea, I am pretty sure that no one can imagine that it will ever happen given so much animosities and unhappiness from both nations in the past decade. Instead of debating whether we should join back to Malaysia, there is possibly another model for Singapore to move towards. I call this the city state scenario.

Further than Closer to a First World Nation

Lately, I have been thinking about two issues in relation to recent events in Singapore. The first regards public protest (and the rule of illegal assembly) and the second, on discussion of sensitive issues about race and religion. In no way, there will be any changes coming from the establishment. However, there needs to be an inherent and slow transition towards opening up our society. With these issues in mind, even if we have the best infrastructure and the strictest of laws to maintain order, I want to offer my opinion why we are further rather than closer towards becoming a first world nation.

It is a Political Reality from the Bicycle

Recently, Sze Meng, my colleague from Singapore Angle, talks about the type of qualities that the next Prime Minister should have. One interesting feature that he hope to see is that the next PM encourages a culture of dissent. Of course, the reality is totally different from the ideal situation. In relation to recent incidents such as identify gays engaged in jogging events as "illegal assembly" to not allowing members from Workers party to hold a cycling event in East Coast Park, the anachronism that some political parties are more equal than others comes to mind with this interesting example from Mr Brown. Yes, I smell double standards from our ruling party and seriously, find them really being silly, mean and ridiculous to assign a bicycle event as some political posturing.

The Business of Politics and Ethnicity

My colleague, Wayne Soon from Singapore Angle, has recommended me an interesting book over a cup of coffee last weekend. He told me that this book is so good that he could not take it off his hand. After reading it, I cannot but help to agree with him. Of course, being immersed as both a researcher and practitioner in business and entrepreneurship (otherwise, as Joseph A. Schumpeter termed it "Creative Destruction"), the book "The Business of Politics and Ethnicity: A History of The Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry" (published by NUS Press) by Sikko Visscher (University of Amsterdam), offers a pair of lens to the social and political history of Singapore from a different angle. Strangely, this angle come from a business entity which was formed in 1906. The Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCCI) is a leading cultural and economic organization dedicated to promoting the interests of the Chinese business community. We often hear so much about the government promoting entrepreneurship lately but yet so little about the world of outstanding business leaders and ex-presidents of SCCCI in Singapore from the past to the present,  from Tan Kah Kee (a well-known Chinese industrialist and philanthropist or "Henry Ford of Malaysia" in 1920s), Lee Kong Chian (Chinese businessman and philanthropist who started the Lee Foundation that I am indebted to for my PhD scholarship) to Wee Cho Yaw (incumbent Chairman of UOB bank).  So, I offer you a glimpse of the book after reading this treatise about an interesting civic institution that very few younger generation of Singapore Chinese Entrepreneurs (most of us are western educated) know very little about.

Social Political Blogging: Singapore vs US

Recently, I did an interview with Jude Yew, a Singaporean PhD researcher about the impact of new (or social) media in the past 2006 general elections in Singapore. During the interview, we started teasing out the differences in the social political blogosphere between Singapore and US. Coupled with the observation on the netroots activity in the US Presidential Elections 2008 and the evolution of the Singapore blogosphere after the 2006 elections, some interesting differences emerge from that comparison. 

Entrepreneurial Popular Delusions & The Molly-Coddling of Crowds

Can we really teach entrepreneurship in Singapore? Some people thinks that it's a waste of time doing that. Some people thinks that we should teach the basic skills and let the people develop on their own. Here is my one line summary to the issue, "If I am going to teach entrepreneurship, the conventional education will not work and leads to molly-coddling. So, this is how I am going to teach it.

More Failure is Better Entrepreneurship

There is one dominant argument that the critics often lament why there is a lack of entrepreneurs in Singapore. That is atychiphobia, or in simple layman language, fear of failure. Instead of being boring by saying what critics love to do, I am going to use a simple economic principle (with the analogy of AIDS epidemic) to demonstrate why more failure is better entrepreneurship, and offer an interesting solution for those people (namely the government) who are desperate to get something kickstart here to think about.

What do Singaporeans mean by the private sector being better

My colleague, Kway Teow Man wrote an article to explain the rationale behind the Civil Service Appraisal System. The article prodded me to think about why a lot of people out there are always making this assertion that "the private sector is better than the civil service". So what is it that people mean when they say that the private sector is better than the civil service?
 

Seperated By a Mental Bridge: Thoughts on the Iskander Development Region

Yesterday, the Malaysia-Singapore Joint Ministerial committee started their first meeting on the Iskander Development Region (IDR) in Johor Bahru. The conclusion of the first meeting leads to the committee forming four common task force groups to explore the areas (on environmental matters, boosting tourism, facilitating immigration clearance and enhancing transport links) identified by a previous meeting between Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Malaysia) and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (Singapore) during their recent Langkawi retreat. The principle of the working groups is to achieve a win-win outcome for both countries and the committee will meet every quarter to discuss further cooperation and taking stock.

Institution Memory is Essential For Youth Activism in Singapore

My colleague in Singapore Angle, Dansong wrote that it is the lethargy rather than the apathy that dampens youth activism today. In my own engagement with student entrepreneurial initiatives in Singapore, one reason to support this increasing lethargy in youth activism, is the lack of institution memory and leadership transition. As a result, every few years, we see our youths continuing re-inventing the wheel, where they could have moved on to greater initiatives from their existing projects. I will provide some suggestions (drawing on my experience in the restructuring of NUS Entrepreneurship Society) on how we can help to engage youth into building sustainable and interesting initiatives for the future in Singapore.

An Opinion about Singaporean Business Culture

Sometime back, I was in Shanghai on a conference. During that trip, I asked a Singaporean friend (who has been working there for at least two years) to tell me more about the business culture and what are the rising industries there. He told me that the Singaporeans are better in the education sector as compared to the other sectors in Shanghai. In his opinion, Singaporean business men did not do so well against businesses from Hong Kong and Taiwan, particularly the food and beverages industry. 

Flat Economics in Singapore

The Singapore government has finally spoken today about our current hot and rising property markets. In an official press release from HDB, some data on the transacted prices of resale HDB flats and the Cash-Over-Valuation (COV) amounts in the resale prices for the 2nd quarter has been released to the public. According to HDB, the purpose  for the release is to assist both flat buyers and sellers in making informed decisions, taking into account the prevailing trends in the HDB resale market. The whole real estate boom has been set off because of the development of the Integrated Resorts and the heavy influx of foreign money into Singapore. As I have offered some arguments earlier that a lot of people are caught in the short term gains on the en-bloc sales, it may be good to put some economic principles to help someone to sell a flat.

An Autopsy on the SAF Email Saga

My encounter about the SAF email saga started from reading a post in Hardwarezone and two bloggers two days ago. Of course, at that point of time, I did not see the original email, but people are already offering their opinions on the issue whether they have read the original email. The moment when the news hit Tomorrow and Sammyboy forum, my feeling is that something will inevitably force the mainstream media to do something about it. Today, coincidentally Friday 13th, the mainstream media has finally broken the news to the public: The Defence Ministry has formally charged and reprimanded 2nd Lieutenant Li Hong Yi (Picture from ChannelnewsAsia) after he contravened orders by broadcasting a letter of complaint against another serviceman (which is actually an email by an anonymous person who happened to have access to the email and has taken some pain to mask off the names of the individuals involved)  to other servicemen. Many notable bloggers (Aaron, Elia, Ned Stark, Gerald, Legal Janitor and many others) have thrown in their five cents worth to the issue. In reading some many thoughts about the issue, I thought it might be appropriate to provide an autopsy on the whole event, and offer some thoughts about the issue.

Thoughts about Next Generation of Entrepreneurs in Singapore

Yesterday (7.7.7), I attended the National Youth Entrepreneurship Conference in NUS Business School organized by the Exoro team. Other than giving a talk on "Meeting Strangers 101", I also sat on a panel with Ron Sim (CEO and Founder of OSIM), Douglas Abrams (Venture Capitalist), Aileen Sim (Founder, First Meta) and Min Xuan (the incoming NUS Entrepreneurship Society President), moderated by Darius Cheung (CEO of TenCube). While listening to the other panelists and consolid