Normally I would have dropped on the floor and laugh myself crazy at such a statement. It is like waking up in the morning and remembering that it is important to brush your teeth. It is like realizing that we need to have our own soldiers and not hiring foreign mercenaries to guard our homes and country. But it is still good to remember and try to undo the damage, to do the necessary that have been long forgotten. It is a pathetic piece of news. Below is a part of an Editorial posted in TRE.
‘In a recent interview with the media, EDB Chairman Leo Yip said that EDB will work with MNCs to help get more locals into top posts.
“More companies are increasingly conducting global decision-making activities, such as procurement and brand management, out of Asia,” said Mr Yip.
“The market pull of Asia is increasingly attracting multinational companies… (and) companies are responding and organising themselves to have both regional and global functions here, and that is translating into new and exciting jobs for Singaporeans.”
He acknowledged that a pipeline of local managerial talent is needed to support the international and regional headquarters of MNCs being set up here.
“For a Singaporean to develop his or her career in a (multinational) on a managerial pathway, he or she will have to build up exposure to regional, or even global, markets,” said Mr Yip.
The EDB is working with companies to develop programmes that will identify locals for top positions in multinationals…’
And where should the EDB start, in foreign owned MNCs or in local companies or in the GLCs or ministries and stats board. I read recently that a foreigner is now a deputy Chairman of a stats board. I remember under the first generation of leaders, one of the key objectives was to quickly develop local talents, and local then meant Singaporeans, to assume key appointments both in private and public offices. When was this forgotten and the need to bring in foreigners became a fad all because we have forgotten to develop our own talents? When the mission then was to remove the colonial yoke quickly, today it seems that we are happily and quickly putting on the foreign yoke back on our neck and walking around as a statement of pride that we have arrived…back to the colonial days.
Our parent’s generation transformed this island in one generation to a modern and prosperous city, like planting a big tree. Now who is claiming credit and enjoying the fruits of this tree? Maybe like they said, it would not last through the third generation. Somehow some asses will lose it or give it away. It would be lost.
Chua Chin Leng aka redbean
* The writer blogs at http://mysingaporenews.blogspot.com