Open up, Burma

CHANGE is in the air of my country. Our new civilian government is busying to meet incoming several ministers from the west and region. Myanmar's leaders are experiencing this new trend like never before. Foreign investment companies are trying to seek an opportunity in our land. Some are cautious while some think no better time to invest in Burma. Some government are sending several delegates to assess our improvement. The oldies like China and Thailand may have worried with the flow of westerner to gauge our reform. Anyway, anyhow, nobody can deny that Myanmar is on the road of democratic. It make some companies and countries rush to engage with our authority to get permit for their investment. It's obvious that no government could able to create enough jobs without FDI. Thus, our government would pave a way to welcome such investment if they are right and worthy investor.

Today, there is a news related to Myanmar's development. It states that Asian firms in pole as Myanmar beckons in title. The news highlighted that Singapore-listed Yoma Strategic Holdings last week announced plans to develop a project known as Star City, near Yangon, that will include housing estates and shopping malls. One head of Singapore law firm commented that "Myanmar presents a relative low-risk, high-return proposition that is hard to ignore". He continue to say that "I've had queries from corporate clients in infrastructure and construction who are keen to explore Myanmar for the simple reason it presents a compelling high investment growth strategy". Japanese businesses are among those looking to expand, and the two governments agreed last month to start talks on an investment pact.

What a good news for my country is it? I am pretty happy to see such positive news. Usually I could able to see my country news as a negative one. This time, the local newspaper is highlighting a good part of our country. I hope our leaders will able to magnet FDI so they can decrease our human resource loss to neighboring countries in future. Who will want to go outside country if they can find a proper job within home land? Being foreign worker myself, it is hard to see educated workers from Thailand, even Vietnam here. It suggest that their educated workers are able to find a good job in their country and no need to go out abroad. For us, it's inevitable to find greener pasture in abroad as it's not possible to get a suitable job. I do believe, we all could return our homeland sooner than later if our government keep changing policies in positive way to lure potential foreign direct investment both in technology and dollars.

May our leaders wise enough to choose the best possible business partner from apparent opportunist ones.

Pay matter to all politician ?

TALKING focus has been on recent salary review statement by government and still in its people mind. Just like Singaporean, I also quietly curious in how much their millionaire minister's wages are above the rest of the world. As I stated in previous post based on top 10 world leaders who got highest salaries. Now I'm wondering how much Asian leaders receive for their role in policy making. As a part of finding true answer in people's concern, I wanted to know if the salary matter to other famous regional leaders whose performance are highly recognized just like Singapore's minister do. The following standing might have told us some dimension of answer.

Top 10 Asia Pacific Leader's annual salary in USD

1. Hu Jintao (China) - $10,633
2. Manmohan Singh (India) - $36,200
3. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono - $124,000
4. Lee Myung-bak (South Korea) - $162,000
5. Ma Ying-Jeou (Taiwan) - $184,000
6. John Key (New Zealand) - $310,000
7. Yoshihiko Noda (Japan) - $316,000
8. Julia Gillard (Australia) - $495,000
9. Donald Tsang (Hong Kong) - $550,000
10. Lee Hsien Loong (Singapore) - $1,650,000

Finally, I can't stop thinking our leader's salary to compare against regional counterparts. To the best of my knowledge, our president earn Kyats 50 lakhs per month. Thus I could able to convert it to USD to compare apple to apple. Assume 1USD is equivalent to 800 Kyats. Our president's salary can be calculated as follow:-
Basic salary : 5,000,000 Ks
Exchange rate: 1US$ = 800 Ks
Thus salary in US$ = (5,000,000/800) x 12 = $75,000

WOW, not bad, even higher than China & India counterpart. Exactly, 7 times to China's president and 2.7 times to India's PM. If we calculate based on GDP per capita, the figure might have gone further. Since our country was once one of wealthiest country in Asia, the pay is right to our newly elected civilian president. As the pay come better, the leader should be expected to perform better. Hopefully our president is doing his work by showing the world how he is trust-worthy with the serial reform. For sure, our ministers are never mind on the salary issue as the perk behind might have been the best in the world. May our leader able to please with their salaries. May our ministers able to have enough salaries to put corruption at bay.

Vegetarian Friend

I everyday take my lunch box to work and enjoy home made food. One Indian colleague also brings his own food like me. So we became lunch-mate and have been together eat lunch for more than 3 years now. Thus, he notices that I am everyday having meat lunch. He is vegetarian and everyday eat rice and bean soup only. I am surprise to see him everyday enjoy standard curry which is bean-soup. He cannot eat my food but he always give me his curry.

Besides, we sit side by side work desk and he can see whatever I do. I take at least one medicine after lunch and he also notice that. I have assorted medicines both English and Myanmar in my workplace drawer. As time goes on, we become more friendly and one day he asked me frank question. He raised, "I see you are eating meat, vegetable everyday and also eat medicine". I said "yes". He don't take any medicine with regular basis like I do. It make him puzzle why I needed to take medicine everyday while eating a lot curry. I also sometime asking myself that why I still need to take medicine. Perhaps, I am too much concern about my health. Or my immune system is vulnerable compare to my Indian friend. Anyway, my daily routine has been long practiced and became habit. So I find it hard to change it and keep doing the same.

My Indian friend might have understood that I will keep my daily procedure as usual despite his suggestion and never told me the same again. Strange thing is I still encountering sickness more frequent than my Indian colleague does. Am I able to rid of taking medicine in future? My answer is probably no since I became older and older. I simply hope that hectic life style in lion city and insufficient nutrient will keep me taking multivitamin supplement tablet. Myanmar has a saying that " Our live could be guarded by only wisdom".

Forbidden Country

VERY often, I am disappointed to learn Myanmar is not in the list of worldwide countries at the commercial ground. Recall one day when I was taking haircut at the local barber which is run by Japanese saloon. The hair-dresser guess I am a foreigner and ask me where am I coming from. I answer her shortly as "Myanmar". Surprisingly, she don't know my country despite she is from the region. She even added, she never heard such name before that prompt to explain by referring famous neighbour countries. I asked her if she knows Thailand, China, India. Easily she said yes and I explain that my country is located amid them.

Every time, I read airline's boasting advertisement, again I am upset to see there is no Myanmar destination in the long list. Even Cambodia's Siem Reap could be found in the list. Why like that? Only our authority may know the reason. What I know for sure is we suffer paying much higher from limited airlines. It's look like some type of monopoly is happening in our country's nature. Why our country leaders are not concerning about its citizen? If they are thinking themselves of civilian government, it's their obligation to try all possible way to ease our people's life. Otherwise they will never gain people's eternal love and trust.

Most recently was happening on yesterday to me. I was at the Mustafa shopping center to buy a prepaid sim card. The staff was needed to register my sim card to activate. But he was encountering difficulty to make it successful because there is no Myanmar under country list. He needs to fill up online form which require personal data such as Name, NRIC No, Nationality, DOB. While the rest is Ok to fill up, we couldn't go through as we can't find Myanmar in the drop down box. The problem is we are not allowed to manually key in. Eventually, we take Malaysia wrongly and luckily it is successful. Why not Myanmar in the list?

Above some matters in mind, I asked myself in the way back home, "Are we from forbidden country?" Only the God will know. May our country be recognized by world's society soonest possible following democratic reform recently.

Salary Matter ?

FOLLOWING the recommendation for Singapore's minister's salary, there have been a lot opinions on local newspaper and online. Senior minister Grace Fu posted on her Facebook wall and got several hundreds comments, mostly are negatively response. She recalled her days before she joined politic from her successful career with PSA in 2006. She reiterated that it wasn't salary that make her thinking to enter political world. I'm quite agree with her statement on her Facebook page. To be honest, I didn't think of government office holder's feeling. Her short brief can make me sympathize of politician at least. To make her opinion alive in my memory, let me share how did she face difficult junction before she skip her successful career for political office. Her original controversial respond to the salary cut recommendation could be found in her Facebook as follow:-

"When I made the decision to join politics in 2006, pay was not a key factor. Loss of privacy, public scrutiny on myself and my family and loss of personal time were. The disruption to my career was also an important consideration. I had some ground to believe that my family would not suffer a drastic change in the standard of living even though I experienced a drop in my income. So it is with this recent pay cut. If the balance is tilted further in the future, it will make it harder for anyone considering political office."

The above her opinion appeared some warning words in the end. We have to be realistic in thinking things especially for those affect policies. Some may not be agree with her opinion while others may agree. I would like to be in the latter group because Singapore has only human resource to rely on. Besides, republic may find it difficult to maintain its momentum if they fail to attract highly talent people to join politic. We cannot expect all politician to work passionately regardless of their pay. Some might be while other think other way.

In fact, I am just foreign worker in lion city whose application for SPRs had been rejected for twice. However I cannot assume recent minister's salary review is non of my business. Because without able cabinet ministers, Singapore will fail to create enough job opportunities that may affect us our current jobs. It's obvious that Singaporean come first when the government consider employment. Thus we have to pray a goodness of Singapore's economy if we are to work for longer term. Otherwise, it would be real risk of loosing job sooner than later.

May Singapore find an excellent solution with regard to current salary cut review so that its ministers can enjoy their public service absolutely.

Number Game

MYANMAR is busying with filtering who should they put in the list of serial amnesty. Analyst are tiring with how many political prisoner are included in the latest clemency. Likewise, Singapore has been busying for 7 months to review their million dollar earning ministers' salaries. It's hefty assignment for the 7 men plus 1 women committee. Eventually, the recommendation of month long research disclosed to public. PM wrote to chairman of salary review committee that the government is willing to agree with their encounter and will forward the message to parliament for final setting. What a good match between authorities and makeshift committee that is also assigned by authority?

We all knew that Singapore's political figures are getting world's highest salaries. The government have their own reasons for making this happen while the opposition always highlight this as a weak point. Some lowest income Singaporean also show their unhappiness on the always keep going up of live expenses. They seem not enough with government subsidies as they earn very little. The government may not cover all they needs as they want them to take some responsibility to ease their own difficulties. Let it be. This is the matter of republic's government and its people. Nothing to do with a foreign worker like me.

Where does it source that make Singapore's ministers millionaire? I read on a book of MM Lee with regard to this matter. He found that it'ld be difficult to attract talented people from going MNCs if there is not a good payment structure in the government office. He noticed that the successful professionals can make million dollar a month in their respective career. Also he understand that without highly rated talent in office, there would be slim chance to maintain the momentum of Singapore's economy. Perhaps, such thinking drive him find a formula that offer an attractive salaries to those who intend to join government service. However he didn't apply the formula during his day in PM office up to 1990. He drew his successor's attention regarding adjustment of public salaries by introducing his formula. Mr. Goh passed the formula to apply. The current formula must be same with MM Lee generated or discovered. How does it work?

It based on the median income of the top eight earners in six professions, including banking and law, with a one-third discount. The salary review committee has recommended the formula be changed to the median income of the top 1,000 Singaporean income earners, with a 40% discount. The committee also recommended a new national bonus to replace the GDP bonus that ministers currently receive. The proposed national bonus is to be decided based on four measures: GDP growth, unemployment rate, real growth in median incomes and real growth in the incomes of the bottom 20% of wage earners. Despite the steep cut in current salaries, republic's political leaders remain at the top of salary competition. Have a look at world's top political leader's salary by country as at 2010.

1. Lee Hsien Loong (Singapore) : $2,183,516
2. Donald Tsang (Hong Kong) : $513,245
3. Raila Odinga (Kenya) : $427,886
4. Barack Obama (United States) : $400,000
5. Nicolas Sarkozy (France) : $302,435
6. Stephen Harper (Canada) : $296,400
7. Mary McAleese (Ireland) : $287,900
8. Julia Gillard (Australia) : $286,752
9. Angela Merkel (Germany) : $283,608
10. Yoshihiko Noda (Japan) : $273,676

When it comes to what a leader is really paid, a distinction must be made between base salary and additional stipends. Leaders may receive free residences or residential stipends, free healthcare, free travel and other perks. They may be permitted expenses that most people would have to pay for out of pocket. Those figures are more difficult to come by, especially in the murky world of political influence. The hidden perks behind salaries might have been reason for why tiny city state's ministers are earning most against their counterparts from the world. Once MM Lee told that Singapore government let ministers decide themselves in spending their earning which is all inclusive. The government provide no other allowance like other political leaders enjoy with their relatively less salaries.

Our new civilian government should learn this competition as if they are to become clean government. Without enough salaries, it would be impossible for public officer to ban any incoming brides. In order to minimize the visible corruption, our new leaders must be wise in adjusting our public servant's wages. Otherwise, it'ld be mission impossible to make their pledge to become true. May our government leaders find a relevant formula with regard to salary of our public workers.


source: data from investopedia.com

Hello 2012

It's widely recommended that 2011 was a good year and turning point for our country's modern history. We all see a serial changes in which most of changes are deemed positive. Some are optimistic while others seem impatient with pace of changing. As our president said, we're in the transition stage and we can't compare with the mature nations of democracy in term of pace. It's agreeable that baby democracy state couldn't move very fast. Since Rome is not built by over night, our new civilian government won't be able to build with the rapid rate. They may need adequate time to construct our nation to escape from its own trap.

At the same time, people are busying with guessing the outlook of our political landscape in new year 2012. Some great world leaders thought it's irreversible in politic now. Who know for real challenges? We should welcome as long as new government is willing to change with regard to the development of our nation. However, 2012 is treated by unexpected clemency in which president used his power to cut imprisonment of inmates. People were much hope of freedom for political prisoner this time as by-election date had been set on April 1. The most beneficial prisoners from this amnesty are those who offended general criminal rather than political. Anyway, it's good for anybody to get freedom in the day of our independence.

For me, I had a good happy new year day on the very first day of 2012 with my close friends. We all went and see the famous MBS casino. The service they give are amazing to convince gambler keep coming their casino. No wonder Singapore's just over one year old casino over take once world's famous Lavegas casino, one spot behind China's Macau. We were impressing with the touch of interior decoration. We didn't test our luck during our first ever visit to casino. But we're enjoying to study how people are crazy with gambling. We noticed that most of people are senior citizen in which more than half are women. We agreed that women are more determined in gambling than their men.

After touring casino, we continue to walk around shoppe at marina for just window-shopping. Then we decided to climb famous sky-park at the top of marina hotels. It is located in the level no. 56,57 & 58. The lifts are super fast and we reach top within 1 minute. It cost us S$20 per minute. We were informed by ticketing counter staff that we are allowed to tour for limited area. We couldn't able to enjoy swimming pool area which are meant for their guest who stay at hotel. Perhaps, it's because they manage to protect their guest's privacy or avoid excessive human traffic at peak tourist season. Regardless, we're not allowed to access the famous swimming pool area. We got bird eye view from level 56 & 57. We took few hundreds photos to last our good memories. Luckily, the weather was good enough and excellent for dwellers. An hour later, we climb down for home.

In return, we took water-taxi from MBS to merlion park. The original round trip cost S$17 per pax. It begins at the foot of art-science museum and end the same point. The route stretch up to Boat Qwey. We bought one way ticket to merlion as we are so tired to walk back peninsular plaza for dinner. It cost us S$4.00 per pax. It's quite worthy to ride water taxi as we could get different perspective view from the centre of reservoir. The night sense gave us additional bonus. We could have a great happy moment at least for half day in the happy new year day. More importantly, we meet our long time no see friends and together make it a day to remember. My wife and I are especially happy for having a good metropolitan view photo for our little daughter. We'll save those beautiful photos in her digital album so she could feel keep in touch with us and remember her parent.

May year 2012 keep us have such happy moment.

Family Union Holiday

WITHIN 7 months from last visit home, I got another chance to go back home with the help of long CNY holiday. It has been full of excitement since we decided to buy air-ticket without being granted for leaves. My wife is very determined this time as she haven't seen her baby girl since she left her for Singapore. As I attended our daughter's one year Birthday celebration alone, I was less serious on buying risky air-ticket online. It cost us facing expensive ticket. We're now able to sight after acquiring a much needed couple weeks long CNY leaves grant from our respective job. In foreign land, it's not an easy task to ask leaves for very often. Most possibly once a year holiday grant could be considered a good job. Fortunately, I got a chance to go back home twice in 2010 & 2011.

As usual, we cannot simply go back home. We're busy with present-thinking and shopping. The cold winter in mother land will welcome us and it make us additional planning. When the chilly winter come to mind, it's a must to bring a warm-giving jackets and accessories. Meanwhile, we can't stop thinking how to convince our little daughter after long time no see especially for my wife. Being mother, her love is visible and always dreamed of daughter. She started to worry on whether our daughter would recognize us or not. Such irrelevant thought make her go through sleepless nights. Luckily, I met our princess 6 months ago when I held her one year Birthday ceremony. My wife was unable to get leave as she just joined new company when our daughter's B'day come. I knew she swallow her desires for the good sake of our princess.

The time seem going fast to us now. Our little baby girl able to walk herself. She could able to speak by short cut phrases. She could understand people's command. She is absolutely making progress obviously. Unfortunately, she fall into sick frequently and we're aware of her good health. We can't be happy if we know she is sick back home. Thus, we are required to give her calls. Now calling home even more meaningful as she can greet us "Phay Phay, May May" with her little sharp sound. Which parent don't want to listen their child especially when they are being apart? We are not exceptional and we all equally adjust our stingy attitude on spending telephone cost.

Last night, we were being told that our daughter and her guardian aunty who is my elder sister will come and meet at airport. Thankfully, we don't need to wait until we reach our home town to see our princess. Once we land our homeland, we will able to see our delightful daughter. That news keep us thinking through night. My wife and I are thinking of what should we buy for our daughter so as to grab her attention. The time is limited and we'll have no time to waste in family bonding. On the other hand, I remember one of my friend's reminder that we shouldn't make so friendly with our child as it'll suffer her more when we go back foreign land at the end of holiday. I'm cautious with the advice of my sisterhood friend and I'll remember it whenever we meet our little princess with the temporary basis.

Hopefully, we could able to return home permanently sooner than later so that we could enjoy family life to its fullest. Our country starts changing and opening up now. May our dream come true soonest possible.