Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Sydney University condemned by the Chinese: A case study of how to fail in business in Asia

In October 2011 the Vice-Chancellor , University of Sydney, The Rev Dr Michael Spence, announced that the University will accept for entry into the University grades achieved in China's National College Entrance Examination(or Gaokao in Pinyin).

On February 21 2012, the Chinese state owned English publication, China Daily, reported:
Compared with the admission cut-offs set by Chinese universities, the entry score set by theUniversity of Sydney is very low, according to the guide to academic entry requirements for Chinese students applying to undergraduate programs at the university in 2012.
The entry score is listed by China's municipality or province. In Shanghai, for instance, students with a minimum gaokao score of 468 can apply for the university, which is more than 100 points less than the score needed to enter China's top universities, such as Peking University orTsinghua University.

The publication is state owned and serves to disseminate the views of the Chinese leadership.


That the Daily has chosen to describe the University's cut-off mark as "very low", and then compared it unfavourably to Peking and Tsinghua universities should be of concern to Sydney University for the words convey a lack , if not a loss of regard for the University's standing.The reasons are unclear, but regardless of what the reasons might be, the University obviously does not enjoy the confidence of the Chinese leadership.
While their motives are not known, what is clear is that the above has followed the Reverend's decision to accept NCEE marks for admission. While he might have felt he was doing poor Chinese students and their families a favour, the Chinese reaction is that he has been motivated by money. As another state owned if not controlled publication , the Shenzhen Daily put it:
A growing number of Australian universities are preparing to lower the enrollment requirements for Chinese students in the hope of enrolling more high school graduates from the country.

This is an opinion shared by younger Chinese as well, who have made their opinions known on the website OffBeatChina
In that sense, the reaction of the Chinese leadership is easily understood as a simple taking of an advantage when the opportunity to do so is offered.The Reverend offered the opportunity by showing the University as being willing to lower standards to gain more fee paying students, the Chinese leadership took advantage of that opening to publicly demonstrate the superiority of Chinese institutions.
Any Asian would have seen that coming.

END

Saturday, February 4, 2012

The Australian Department of Defence-SingtelOptus Contract seen through Asian eyes

Singtel Optus has the prime contractor role to the Australian Department of Defence for the military communications payload.

The nature of the relationship is well described by the Department:
Joint Project 2008 Phase 3D was established in 1997 following an invitation from Optus for Defence to share Australia’s next generation commercial communications satellite. The project provides for supply and support of a Defence owned payload operating on the shared C1 communications satellite, together with Defence owned fixed terrestrial infrastructure for control and management of the Defence payload and the new communications network.

The network, otherwise known as the Australian Defence Satellite Communications Capability, will provide Defence with satellite communications across Australia and throughout the Asia Pacific region in the X, Ka and UHF radio frequency bands. Contracts with Optus were signed in October 1999.

“Information Systems Division will be responsible for control and management of the new communications network. Optus has been contracted by Defence to supply payload operators, to maintain and support the fixed terrestrial infrastructure and to undertake telemetry, tracking and command of the satellite. A satellite management agreement has also been established to guide Defence and Optus in the management and operation of the shared satellite asset."
http://www.defence.gov.au/news/raafnews/editions/4506/features/feature02.htm

Singtel Optus is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singtel Ltd, a subsidiary of the Temeasek Holdings Ltd , a wholly owned subsidiary of the Government of Singapore.

Few ,if any born and bred in Asia, would not see that this deal provides the Government of Singapore with a number of opportunities. These include:
a) The ability to listen in, catalouge and archive all Australian Department of Defence communications

b)To analyse that information so as to identify material that could be of use to Singaporean interests

c)To analyse that information so as to identify material that could be of use to Singapore's friends in the region whose interests might be affected by Australian foreign policy, for example Indonesia, Myannmar and China.

d) To determine the best use of that information to further Singaporean interests, including the sale of that information to any interested party

As anyone born and bred in Asia will tell you, for Singapore to not do so would be the height of stupidity. The Department of Defence would of course argue that there is no evidence to suggest......

END

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

People Smuggling: Did Australia's National Security Adviser learn anything in Malaysia?

The Sydney Morning Herald reported on April 25,2009:
WAVES of Australia-bound asylum seekers crossing from Malaysia to Indonesia have prompted the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, to send the national security adviser, Duncan Lewis, to talk with Malaysian officials about counter measures.
Mr Lewis was accompanied by the head of Customs, Michael Carmody, and senior immigration and Australian Federal Police officers. Before leaving Kuala Lumpur yesterday, members of the delegation said the meetings with Malaysian officials were "positive".
"There has been agreement at a conceptual level for increased co-operation and engagement to combat people smuggling," one member said.


On February 1 2012 a boat capsized of the east coast of Malaysia.The wording of reports regarding that incident by Malaysian media, which are essentially state controlled, is instructive:

EIGHT foreigners drowned in Malaysian waters early yesterday while attempting to sneak into Australia to seek greener pastures.
District police chief Superintendent Che Mahazan Che Aik said when police reached Telok Semayong about 8am, they saw eight bodies washed ashore while further off, the 12 survivors were spotted in a group.
“We believe the foreigners were trying to leave the country illegally. They were using Malaysia as a spring-board,” he said.
Initial investigations also revealed that the passengers had paid US$8,000 (RM24,000) each for the journey from their country to Australia.
The 12 who were rescued were sent to the district police station to assist investigations while the bodies were sent to the district hospital for post-mortem.
(by Sam Bak Heng, 8 drown off Johor;New Straits Times,02 February 201)



Eight people drowned, 11 others were rescued while six more are still missing, all foreigners, after their boat capsized off Teluk Semayong waters, Sedili Besar, near Kota Tinggi Wednesday morning. Kota Tinggi Police Chief Supt Che Mahazan Che Aik said the boat was believed to be illegally ferrying men from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq to a neigbouring country when the boat capsized.
(Report in the Borneo Post, 2 February 2012, quoting the national wire news service, Bernama)


Clearly, what Australia regards as "asylum seekers" Malaysia regards as opportunists.
As far as Malaysian police are concerned the main issue here is "illegal ferrying".
The persons being ferried are not being treated as asylum seekers, refugees, or anything of that sort but rather suspects or accomplices in a crime.


How then did Duncan Lewis and party come to the conclusion that "there has been agreement at a conceptual level"?
Lewis is now Secretary , Department of Defence, and the post of National Security Adviser has yet to be filled. Nevertheless, as NSA he was , in essence, the country's chief spy.
As Sally Neighbour put it:
The most recent initiative is the appointment by the former Rudd government of a National Security Adviser (NSA), who works out of the prime minister’s office and chairs a new National Intelligence Coordination Committee, to ensure the agencies are “closely aligned [and] effectively integrated”. Australia’s first NSA, the former SAS commander Brigadier Duncan Lewis.....
(the post) centralises control in the prime minister’s office ... the position is entirely outside the accountability umbrella of IGIS.
(Sally Neighbour, Hidden Agendas,The Monthly, 2010-11-04)

Despite these advantages, it does appear that the NSA learnt nothing in Malaysia, or of Malaysian attitudes to what Australia considers asylum seekers. Judging from the SMH report, and from the Gillard government's handling of the the "asylum seeker" issue it does appear that the present administration is light years away from understanding the problem of illegal migrants.Pretending that this simply another aspect of the white man's burden is an idea that has long passed its due date.

END

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Trees,people and Singapore's physical limits

When Singapore's former Minister for National Devepoment Mah Bow Tan suggested that the country's optimal population would be about 6.5 million people, none other than Lee Kuan Yew himself argued against the idea, asserting that a lower number of 5.5 million people would be more bearable, allowing for the preservation of open spaces and comfort.As he put it 'I think there's an optimum size for the land that we have, to preserve the open spaces and the sense of comfort.'
(http://app.mfa.gov.sg/pr/read_content.asp?View,9332,).

As a largely built environment Singapore is susceptible to the phenomena of heat islands, which is defined as "the phenomenon whereby urban areas are warmer than rural areas,largely due to the replacement of natural land cover with pavement,buildings and other infrastructure".
(http://app.mewr.gov.sg/data/ImgUpd/NCCS_Full_Version.pdf)

While "comfort" is somewhat difficult to define, there is little argument that
humans do not usually cope well with rising temperature.The extent of heat islands might then be a proxy for uncomfortable conditions, and their study could perhaps provide some guidance as to what an optimal population might be.

Heat islands can be measured using remote sensing data, as shown in this satellite image:


Anyone familiar with Singapore will immediately recognize the large red spot to the east as Changi Airport,clearly a "hot" area given the tarmac.It is then easy to recognise that much of Singapore is "hot".

That rising temperature due to heat islands will be an issue of national concern,quite apart from global warming ,has been acknowledged by the Singapore Government in its
National Climate Change Strategy which states among others:

Heat Stress
2.13. Warmer temperatures due to both climate change as well as the
urban heat island effect can lead to greater use of air-conditioning and
increase Singapore’s energy demand. Higher annual temperatures may also
mean more frequent and more severe episodes of warm weather, leading to
increased occurrences of heat stress and discomfort, particularly among the
elderly, the sick and those without access to air-conditioning.


The solution as the Government sees it:

2.14. Measures that can lower ambient temperature include increasing
the amount of greenery in the city (e.g. city parks, rooftop gardens, vertical
greening in buildings) and modifying building layouts and designs (e.g. using
building materials with better thermal properties, lighter-coloured building
surfaces, designing building interiors and exterior building layouts for better
ventilation and maximising the wind tunnel effect).

2.15. The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and the National Parks
Board (NParks) have been working closely to plan and provide greenery
islandwide, such as providing parks and green open spaces, and planting
along roads and around developments. URA and NParks have also been
promoting rooftop and vertical greenery on our residential and commercial
buildings through planning guidelines and incentives. The Housing
Development Board (HDB) is in the process of introducing rooftop greenery to
multi-storey carparks and residential buildings where feasible.
(http://app.mewr.gov.sg/data/ImgUpd/NCCS_Full_Version.pdf)

Singapore's population stands at about 5.1 million.Given Lee's optimum population of 5.5 million Singapore would appear to have capacity for just another 400,000 people.In other words,it appears that Singapore has almost reached the physical limits of its ability to sustain people.

However the argument outlined in the National Climate Change Strategy is for more greenery,which would probably require more open spaces,and less room for people.
The idea that HDB flat rooftops might be greened is admirable, but these are hardly going to qualify as green cover.Hence, even Lee's estimate may appear too high.

Be that all as it may Singapore Government policy as stated by PM Lee Hsien Loong is to grow the population in order to grow the economy.
It is difficult to argue with that logic, especially as the population ages.
Equally difficult to argue with is the country's physical limits.

Singapore is faced with a unique problem in that its people have nowhere to go.The consequences of the problem are complex and will have to be matters for discussion in a separate posting.
END

Sunday, December 4, 2011

The 2012 UMNO Assembly,the Chinese, Indians ,and others

At the close of the 2011 UMNO General Assembly UMNO President Najib Razak reminded members, and probably Malays in general , that UMNO needed the support of the other races to remain in power.
However it was his deputy, Muhyiddin Yassin who had just a day before declared: "We could have built a government on our own, but we decided to share".
(http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/litee/malaysia/article/dpm-umno-could-have-ruled-on-its-own-before-independence)
Then, it was not three weeks before that his defacto law minister,Nazri Aziz who said:
"...even if a certain act is within the rights of the constitution, but if that act is against Islam, then the act is inconsistent as far as Islam is concerned.
"Even though a certain act is consistent with the constitution, but is not consistent with Islam, the act is not applicable in Malaysia".

Therefore,Najib's words while soothing to non-Malays, appear not to reflect the sentiment of the leadership team and indeed the following facts belie a reality that non-Malays living in a democracy (even a flawed one) cannot but accept:


First, the population is now predominantly Malay, ie the ethnic breakdown is:
Malay 53.3%, Chinese 26.0%, indigenous (orang asli) 11.8%, Indian 7.7%, others 1.2%

Then the breakdown by religion is even more telling:
Islam (60.4%), Buddhism (19.2%), Christianity (9.1%), Hinduism (6.3%), other/none (5.0%).
(http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/2777.htm)

Given that Article 160 of the Constitution of Malaysia defines "Malay" as "a person who professes the religion of Islam, habitually speaks the Malay language, conforms to Malay custom", the effective population of Malay voters is probably closer to 60.4% ie the population of Muslims.
Added to that the opinion (albeit untested in court of law) that in Malaysia Islam is in effect the law of the land, it is difficult to see how minorities matter.
END