2012 / APRIL MARCH
08 Cover STORY 08
Beyond the gold
Going beyond producing gold medallists to building a thriving sports ecosystem
Meet the three public officers who brought Tintin to Singapore
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OVER BOUNDARIES, INTO CITIZENS’ SHOES
How Danish innovation unit MindLab co-creates better solutions
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MAID-TO-ORDER POLICIES Effective listening is helping two public agencies to design better policies
HIGHLIGHTS 04 NEWS FROM THE SERVICE
VIEWPOINTS 02
Inbox
Your views on the Jan/Feb issue of Challenge
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Your Say THE BUCKET LIST
Readers share what they’d do if they lived 2012 like their last year
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Thinking Aloud BEING A GREAT PARTNER
says management consultant Wendy Tan
A Cuppa With… “LIFE IS MORE COMPLICATED THAN BLACK AND WHITE”
Permanent Secretary (PMO, MND) Benny Lim on his passion for police work
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Perspectives FISHY BUSINESS ON ST JOHN’S ISLAND
Challenge trails a senior scientist to find out what he does on the island
Letters to a Young Public Officer Fathers make a difference
Jason Wong, of the Dads for Life movement, shares fathering tips
March/April
SO YOU DON’T LIKE THE GREAT OUTDOORS...
Here’s how you can still get sporty virtually. Wii Sports & Wii Fit Nintendo’s Wii Sports was the first in the market with motionsensing technology, and got many people swinging the Wii remote like a tennis, baseball or golf pro. Now Wii Fit (right) allows you to get virtual yoga and aerobics coaching too.
Kinect Sports Kinect ’s motionsensing capability lets you get active without having to wield a controller – a real plus point. Get your heart pumping as you smash a volleyball, swing a tennis racket, roll a bowling ball or perform some high ski jumps without having to brave the sun or snow.
GET SPORTY pages of tips to get you healthy
17-24
Read more at tgr.ph/wakeupearlytoslimdown
Movement is a medicine for creating change in a person’s physical, emotional and mental states.
SITTING KILLS The age of technology and desk jobs has banished most of us to long hours of sitting. A deadly habit according to this infographic at bit.ly/sittingkillsyou:
TRIVIA Youngest Champion Ever At his 15th appearance as a pro in 1997, Tiger Woods became the youngest Masters Champion in history at 22.
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Calorie burning drops to one per minute & enzymes that break down fats
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lifestyle The Challenge PullOut get sporty 8 pages of tips to get you healthy
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life.style coasting changi
The Challenge team uncovers some gems in the eastern tip of Singapore
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The Irreverent Last Page Singapore’s national sport Now if only the Olympics would recognise it…
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THE EARLY BIRD IS HEALTHIER A British online survey of adults on happiness and anxiety, physical health, and eating and sleeping habits found that early risers tend to be happier, and have lower body mass indices (BMI). Those who love to lie in have a higher chance of depression and becoming overweight. So stop pressing that snooze button and get an early start instead.
If there’s one thing you need to take away f rom this incredible pullout, it is to Stop Sitting Down So Much. It can kill. Seriously. So read on, we’re sure you’ll find something that’ll get you shakin’ and movin’!
A new book reveals how the use of psychology and economics has led to good policies
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34 LEVEL UP DELVING INTO MINDS TO DESIGN POLICIES
2012
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17 It all depends on who we are as a person,
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FEATURES
HELLO! HELLO! GET MOVING!
I am really lazy when it comes to sports, but thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) and the Singapore Sports Council (SSC), I’m less of a couch potato today than when I was in school. Back then, I would irritate my physical education (PE) teacher by lagging at the back of the pack when the class went jogging. I would be strolling and chatting with my fellow lazy partner, with my teacher scowling behind us as he had to round up the last sheep. Yet in 2010, due to sheer madness, a little determination, and lots of divine help, I signed up for, and completed, my first marathon. Nothing short of a miracle, and something that still surprises me till this day. Even my PE teacher was impressed. If, like me, you sense a palpable change in the sporting endeavours of the ordinary Singaporean, you are probably not alone. Suddenly, it’s become fashionable to sign up for every conceivable race in Singapore, and f riends who used to hate running are now donning their race bibs with relish. With more races appearing on our sporting calendar, getting sporty is infectious! Our cover story explores what it takes to achieve sporting gold, and yet, how sports is something to participate in at all levels in Singapore, not just competitively. Our sporty Pullout gives nuggets on how you can Wii, Zumba or drink your way to fitness, and how you can even turn a train ride into a workout. In short – don’t sit around, just get moving! Every little bit counts!
We finally get to have A Cuppa With... Benny Lim, who shares with us his stories as a cop and how he rose meteorically f rom rookie cop to Permanent Secretary of one of the largest Ministries in Singapore. Jason Wong, Senior Director, MCYS, writes about his passion – fatherhood – in Letters to a Young Public Off icer. We go behind the scenes to see what it took to bring the Tintin exhibition to Singapore and also kicked back as a team at Changi Cottage, a gorgeous bungalow overlooking the sea – perfect as a getaway to relax and reflect. This is my final issue of Challenge. It ’s been a great three years as Editor and such a pleasure for our team to bring you stories of the people and work of our Public Service, to unearth the amazing creativity and talent that exists here, and yet, to be honest enough to ask ourselves the hard questions – is this working? How can we do better? Not to mention, to try to make the Service look cool in the process, ‘cos who says being a public officer is boring? ;) It ’s time for me to get moving too; I’m taking a much-needed break and challenging myself to keep living passionately even if it means going down an unconventional track. I leave you in the good hands of our great editorial team, including our new Editor, Hui Min, and they will keep bringing you many more issues of Challenge that you’ll be looking forward to, so please continue to give them your support. On that note, stay inspired, stay creative and keep giving back!
If, like me, you sense a palpable change in the sporting endeavours of the ordinary Singaporean, you are probably not alone.
2012 RUARY Y / FEB JANUAR
Publisher
PS21 Office, Public Service Division, Prime Minister’s Office
100 High Street, #07-01 The Treasury Singapore 179434 Email : psd_challenge@psd.gov.sg Web : www.challenge.gov.sg
For enquiries or feedback on Challenge, please write to the Challenge Editorial Team at psd_challenge@psd.gov.sg. Editorial Advisor
Agnes Kwek Editor
Tay Li Shing
Assistant Editors
Shaun Khiu & Christopher Teo Editorial Assistant
Eric Loy
Tuber Productions Pte Ltd
298 River Valley Road Level 2 Singapore 238339 Tel : 6836-4030 Fax : 6836-4029 Email : info@tuberproductions.com Web : www.tuberproductions.com
Management
INBOX INBOX
ARE YOU
How real-time data can help you think differently (p.14)
INNOVATING
I read the latest Challenge and saw that you covered social innovation. It is very timely as my office has been in recent conversations with international non-profits who are involved in social innovation and cross-sector collaboration. It’s a topic that we are keenly interested in right now.
for Meet the Transformers who make good ideas work (p.5)
GOOD? SOCIAL INNOVATION EXPLAINED, AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CROSS-SECTOR COLLABORATION (p.8)
fantastic
I think you are doing a job with Challenge! Thanks for making it a magazine I want to read each time there’s a new issue! It’s up there with 8 Days now, for me at least.
I am impressed with your team’s keen sense of the global trends and ministries’ up-and-coming initiatives. Keep it up!
Adrian Ng MCYS
Chloe Huang EDB
Director
Lee Han Shih
Managing Director
Weiling Wong Project Director
Liew Wei Ping
Editorial
Contributing Editor
Bridgette See
Editorial Consultant
Koh Buck Song Staff Writer
Chen Jingting Interns
Nazurah Sa’ad & Nur’Ain Zainuddin Contributors
Satish Cheney, Ryandall Lim, Sheralyn Tay & Wong Sher Maine
Creative
Creative Director
Ashik
We like the flowchart How To Copy Right BLE CIT
A Y in the Nov/Dec VE 2011 issue LI of Challenge. The graphics were well-designed and the descriptions clear and concise to facilitate understanding by NYP staff and students.
Kudos for the good work on Challenge.
R 2011 MBE ECE ER/D EMB NOV
I enjoyed the articles and interviews – in particular, the sustainability and ownership issues highlighted in Nov/Dec’s From Liveable City to Lovable City.
us to it take f or W hat will apor e? mar r y Sing : Eat save the Earth your part to PLUS Do
saying ‘Sorr insect s | Why
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Hana Schoon PUB
Mohd Kamil Yusoff Nanyang Polytechnic
Art Director
Yip Siew Fei
Graphic Designer
Ng Shi Wei
Production Manager
Nurul Malik
Staff Photog rapher
Farhan Darma
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Cont ributing Photog raphers
John Heng (www.daphotographer.com) Norman Ng (www.normanng.com) Challenge is published bimonthly by Tuber Productions Pte Ltd (Registration No: 200703697K) for PS21 Office, Public Service Division, Prime Minister’s Office. Copyright of the materials contained in this magazine belongs to PS21 Office. Nothing in here shall be reproduced in whole or in part without prior written consent of PS21 Office. Views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of PS21 Office or Tuber Productions Pte Ltd and no liabilities shall be attached there to. All rights reserved. All information correct at time of printing. Printed by KHL Printing Co Pte Ltd (Registration No: 197801823M) 57 Loyang Drive Singapore 508968
Thanks for telling us how we’re doing and how we can improve in the recent Challenge Readership Survey. We’re now studying your feedback so look out for updates to the magazine in the coming months! Congratulations to the lucky draw winners.
Winners of $100 Takashimaya vouchers:
• Trisha Foo, MCYS • Selene Ng, STB • Crystal Hoo, MinLaw
Winners of $20 Takashimaya vouchers:
• Polly Tan, NHB • Sherry Lee, CSC • Alvin Lim, IDA • Wang Xiaojun, MTI • Tiong Lai Hong, NEA • Stanley Tan, MHA • Edmund Ooi, MHA
• R Rajendram, PUB • Hamimmah Amin, MICA • Cindy Soh, AGC • Yan Chui Ping, NEA • Suzie Sim, PA • Cheryl Tan, HPB • Cindy Chen, MOF • Edwin Chin, PUB • Eliyah Bte Sukor, MOE • Yap Ling Yen, MDA • Jasna Dhansukhal, NLB • Tan Loo Ling, PA • Mohamad Sanizar Bin Mumin, MOF
Your Say03
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We asked readers to list the top five things they’d do if they were to live 2012 like their last year.
in Ger ald
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1. T ie up loose ends at work so colleagues won’t suffer from the backlog 2. Go to places my family wants to visit 3. Meet friends and do what we’ve always wanted to do, and more 4. Compile a list of people who’ve made an impact in my life and reflect on how I might have impacted their lives 5. Commit time and money to a charitable cause
Goh Koon Guan Simon PSD 1. Go on a world tour with my husband and baby daughter, taking as many photos as possible 2. Make a list of my assets for them 3. Learn to cook for them 4. Make a will to distribute assets among family 5. Try not to cry on my last day I thought I could list the top five things in a breeze but while doing so, I felt sadness thinking what if 2012 was really my last year. There’re tons of things I’ve yet to experience such as seeing my daughter talk… So I’ll continue to live life like my last year so there’ll be no regrets! “Sometimes you will never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory” – Author unknown Thank you Geraldine for sharing your thoughts with us. We’re sending you a Sony Digital Photo Frame so you can store and display pictures of your family starting now. Seize the day!
1. Visit Michael Jackson’s grave with a childhood friend to do the moon walk (we used to be really crazy about him) 2. Sit on the top of a moving train in India 3. Join a binge-eating competition 4. Visit Google HQ and loudly declare how awesome the iPhone is 5. Take my parents to Universal Studios
1. Write a book. I’ve had friends and loved ones who left this world without bidding goodbye. I’d planned to write letters to those who’ve played a role in my life but I might not reach everybody. So I’ll compile the letters into a book and distribute it while I’m alive. I would want to thank them personally before I go! 2. See the aurora borealis or northern lights 3. Stay in an ice hotel in Sweden 4. Do the Matthew Harding dance around the world (Find him on YouTube!) 5.Participate in country festivals such as the Water Festival in Thailand or Burning Man in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada
Chau Yan Ting Doreen Vital
Tan Chee Yong
Who am I?
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04 Highlights
NEWS
Coming up...
from the
SERVICE BRIGHT LIGHTS AT MARINA BAY Asia’s first and only sustainable light art festival, i Light Marina Bay 2012, is back for a second edition from March 9 to April 1 along the Marina Bay waterfront. Following the theme of Light Meets Asia, the festival will showcase innovative and environmentally-sustainable light art installations by 30 multi-disciplinary artists from across Asia, including Singapore. www.ilightmarinabay.sg
WORLD WATER DAY 2012
OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (CHINA) If you’re keen to work in China, now’s the chance. The Overseas Development Programme (China) is open to officers with at least two years’ experience in the Public Service. Mr Moh Tiing Liang, a manager with the Internationalisation Unit of the Public Utilities Board (PUB), was one of 30 officers who joined the programme. He spent seven months working in the cities of Tianjin, Shanghai and Chengdu, with private and public sector organisations such as Hyflux and International Enterprise (IE) Singapore. At Hyflux, Mr Moh saw the challenges Singapore industries face in China. In Chengdu, he worked alongside IE Singapore and Economic Development Board (EDB) staff to expand Singapore’s trade links. The China stint helped him improve his Chinese language ability and understand the Chinese better – equipping him for more China-related work.
Mark your calendars for the water cause on March 24, as celebrations unfold across more than 10 different Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) sites islandwide. Featuring a host of activities for the community on, by and in the water, WWD 2012 aims to instil a sense of ownership in Singaporeans, to inspire everyone to play a part to conserve, value and enjoy what we have. www.singaporeworldwaterday.com
www.psd.gov.sg/odp
PUBLIC SERVICE CHANGEMAKERS The National Youth Council is launching the NYC ChangeMakers in the Public Ser vice (NYCCPS) grant. This is a franchise version of NYC’s existing Young ChangeMakers ( YCM) grant, which supports independent youth-initiated projects that benefit the Singapore community and society. Young public officers can apply for up to $3,000 of seed funding to initiate projects as part of NYCCPS. Projects can be part of divisional or departmental community service initiatives. All project applications will be assessed by a Youth Panel comprising young public officers. To apply, write to nyccps.grant@gmail.com. For more info: www.ycm.nyc.sg
EXCLUSIVE, FUTURE ART The Singapore Ar t Museum kicked off 2012 with two highly-anticipated exhibitions. The Collector’s Show: Chimera, which ends March 25, gives visitors the rare opportunity to see 28 artworks by Asia’s most prolific contemporary artists that are part of private collections. The Singapore Show: Future Proof, which ends April 15, showcases the fresh, original concepts of 26 of Singapore’s brightest young artists addressing a wide range of local and geopolitical issues. www.singaporeartmuseum.sg
The public off icers who brought Tintin to Singapore share the adventures they had in making the stamp exhibition happen.
Tintin fans: (Clockwise from right) Tresnawati Prihadi, General Manager, Singapore Philatelic Museum (SPM); Lucille Yap, Senior Curator (SPM); and Eric Tan, Director, National Archives of Singapore.
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The idea started innocuously enough. “Three years ago, we had a comic bookand superheroes-themed stamp exhibition which displayed one Tintin stamp,” shared Ms Prihadi. “Quite a few people approached us and wanted to buy that particular stamp. We realised there was interest out there and we could explore an exhibition specifically on Tintin.” Ms Prihadi, herself a voracious reader of Tintin comics as a child, shared the idea with her colleagues. “As we did our research, we found out that there was a movie in the works,” recalled Ms Yap. “We didn’t know when it was coming out, but thought we might be able to prepare and see if we could coincide the two events. So we started talking to the various museums to see if they were keen to share their collections with us.”
Around the world for Tintin
This began a series of communications with museums and postal services across
Not all talks were successful and attempts to borrow some artefacts fell through, but the team ploughed on. Various collectors also required intricate legal protection before they would agree to lend their collections. “We are a non-profit organisation and can’t afford those types of costs,” said Ms Yap. Ms Yap travelled to Belgium, the Netherlands and France to finalise deals and even collected some precious stamps herself, including special 2007 Belgium Post stamps featuring all 24 comic covers and a Hergé portrait. “I had intended to carry back more stamps but they weighed 8 kg and were a bit too heavy to carry on board the plane!” Ms Yap laughed. But the project had its perks. “One of the most enjoyable parts was to read all 24 comics during office hours.” The hard work paid off and the museum managed to time Sticking with Tintin: Rarely seen original stamp artworks, colour trials, and other philatelic materials from the Netherlands and France are on display for the first time in Singapore. (Images reproduced with permission from Singapore Philatelic Museum on behalf of Belgium Post and French Post)
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Laughing, they shared the “challenging” process to put together the Adventures of Tintin exhibition at the museum, with parts of their tale bearing hallmarks of the boy reporter’s own escapades – except for car chases and trips to outer space.
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the world, such as with the Netherlands, France and Belgium, home of Hergé, Tintin’s creator. Getting permission to borrow collections and attain reproductions meant a lot of paperwork and administrative and logistical issues, said Ms Prihadi emphatically. “It was a complicated process to coordinate with all the different museums and look for and negotiate contracts with collectors,” she said.
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It was a three-year-long adventure around the world, on the hunt for prized treasures. At each step, Ms Lucille Yap, senior curator, and Ms Tresnawati Prihadi, general manager of the Singapore Philatelic Museum, had to tap into their networks of friends and colleagues, navigate red tape and engage their ingenuity.
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Ms Yap travelled to Belgium, the Netherlands and France to finalise deals and even collected some precious stamps herself, including special 2007 Belgium Post stamps featuring all 24 comic covers and a Hergé portrait. the launch in November 2011 with the movie, as planned. The result: A fascinating peek into Tintin’s world, and also that of his “father”, Hergé, an avid scout and prolific artist and letter-writer. Apart from reproductions of Hergé’s hand-drawn pencil artwork from his incomplete final book, there are snippets from his astounding collection of some 40,000 letters that reveal wry humour and boyish charm. Other rare pieces include stamp artwork that never made it into print and colour trials.
Tintin fan to the rescue
Adding a touch of whimsy to the exhibition are Tintin figurines, from a bust of Tintin’s head to the submarine from Red Rackham’s Treasure and the intricately-patterned vase from The Blue Lotus. All these came from the personal collection of Mr Eric Tan, Director, National Archives of Singapore who, as serendipity had it, happens to be a collector of Tintin figurines. “I was in my 20s or 30s when I read my first Tintin comic book,” he shared. “I saw it in a one of those second-hand bookstores that rent books and was fascinated by the graphics and storyline. The times may be different now but the stories are timeless and the themes continue. Of course, the adventures are also exciting
to read about – going to the moon, undersea travel, pirate treasure... Who isn’t intrigued by pirate treasure?” What makes it all come together is Tintin the intrepid boy reporter, helped by his intelligent white fox terrier Snowy and the blustering Captain Haddock. His figurine collection comes from all over, including lucky finds at flea markets. “The bust of Tintin was acquired in 1991 while on a business trip in Paris,” Mr Tan recounted. “I took some time after work to hunt it down and found it in a toy shop filled with all manner of comic book figurines. It was too large to fit into my suitcase so I hand-carried the bust onto the plane, but it was worth the inconvenience.”
Tintin Trivia Born: Jan 10, 1929 Age: Forever young – 16 to 18 years-old Occupation: Reporter Constant companion: Snowy, the white fox terrier
Another rare vintage item is a tin model of Tintin reading newspapers in a rocking chair. With its mix of stamps, trivia and fan collectibles, the exhibit has been wellreceived by children and adults alike, said Ms Prihadi. It is quite a treat to see the range of Tintin memorabilia all in one place and learn about his feats. Tintin, after all, is a wonderful strange boy who is forever 16 to 18, but has a mysterious cache of skills, laughed Ms Yap. “He can ride a bike, drive a car, fly an aeroplane, a helicopter, dive, use firearms and even pilot a rocket to the moon!” The Adventures of Tintin exhibition ends on May 31, 2012.
First man on the moon Tintin was the first ‘man’ on the moon, even before Neil Armstrong, landing there in 1953 in Destination Moon.
Trend-setter Who knew Tintin was so fashion-forward? His signature quiff hairstyle and plus-four trousers happen to be the very hippest in vintage chic these days. The quiff hairdo first appeared midway through the very first Tintin comic, The Land of the Soviets, during a car chase in which his flyaway hair attained its poofy height and stuck. The brown plusfour trousers were featured in every Tintin comic except the last two when he swapped his rolled cuffs for bellbottoms.
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Gunning for excellence: Shooter Jasmine Ser is one of 11 elite athletes being prepared for the 2012 London Olympics, as part of Singapore’s Olympic Pathway Programme.
Cover Story09
The year was 1973. The 7th Southeast Asian Peninsular (SEAP) Games, as they were then called, were being held in Singapore. For two weeks, 11-year-old Lim Teck Yin would follow his father, who had taken leave and bought season tickets, to as many games they could pack in. Swimming, badminton, table-tennis, track and field, football – you name it. “It was during those two weeks that I saw C Kunalan, running into the stadium, burning his hand holding the torch,” recalls Mr Lim, now 48, vividly. The games kindled something in his heart – an admiration for athletes and a passion for sports. The young boy was infected by a sporting fever. Years later, he would go on to represent Singapore in numerous Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, sweeping gold medals in water polo. Today, his life continues to revolve around sports. Mr Lim heads the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) that aims to develop sports champions and make sports an integral part of Singaporeans’ lives – the way his father made sports part of his life. The SSC aims to cultivate a sporting culture, achieve sports excellence and create a vibrant sports industry. Sports, as marketed by the SSC, are a way to galvanise the nation to develop a strong sense of national identity and resilience. Mr Lim and his team have their work cut out for them. For one, spor ts have al way s played second fidd le to other endeavours such as studies or career d e ve l o pm e n t . I n a 2010 sports survey in Singapore, only 56 per cent of those polled played sports or did a physical activity at least once a week.
Also, each time a medal is won, critics question the use of foreign talent to represent the small nation in international sports – a strategy commonly practised by other countries. They ask where the Singaporean athletes are – an irony, considering the prevailing lack of support from society for people to pursue sports professionally. The sceptics wonder whether Singapore athletes will one day recapture the imagination of spectators the way the country’s footballers did during the Malaysia Cup days in the 1970s through to the 1990s.
A limited talent pool?
Singapore officials recognise that the sports talent pool is limited in the Little Red Dot with its small population.
He says the world is full of examples of small territories, such as New Zealand and Hong Kong, who have small populations and yet produce top-level athletes in a range of sports as well as Olympic and world champions. “So the excuse of having a small population does not fly.” Malcolm Gladwell, bestselling author of the book Outliers about the factors for success, would agree. W hile in Singapore last year, he argued that it would be defeatist to think that talent is inherent and hence limited, when the real problem for many countries is “low human capitalisation” or the rate at which a community capitalises on the potential of its people. In short, if we want more sporting talent, we have to think of ways to expand the talent pool locally and tap it more efficiently.
“It’s an issue for Singapore in every domain,” says Mr Lim, “not just in sports. It’s an issue in the economy, in the Civil Service.”
Need for society’s support
But it’s a challenge the country has addressed well, he points out. “Around this region, in spite of our small size, we did well in the recent SEA Games coming in fifth out of the 11 countries in the medal tally and we’re one of the smallest countries.”
Anecdotally, Singaporean parents show lukewarm support for sports. Teenagers are told to focus on studies and reminded that playing sports professionally won’t pay the bills.
Nicholas Fang, President of Fencing Singapore, feels that a smaller population doesn’t automatically equate to a lack of sporting prowess.
So, how do we make the most of our best resource – people?
Society’s overwhelming view of sports as an obstacle to a proper education and a safe career doesn’t help sports officials on the lookout for potential talent.
They ask where the Singaporean athletes are – an irony, considering the prevailing lack of support from society for people to pursue sports professionally.
Great Britain’s cyclist Sir Chris Hoy attributed his Olympics success to support from family and friends. The development of work-family-life balance requires the participation of multiple government agencies and industry. “This cuts the talent pool we have even further, killing off the interest of potential champions before they even have a chance to blossom. This certainly needs to change if we are to become a true player on the global sporting stage,” says Mr Fang, referring not just to fencing but other sports as well. Leslie Tan, founder of local sports website Red Sports, also feels that society’s expectations tend to come in the way of potential champions. “I see a lot of great talent from 13 to 17 years of age. After that, they disappear into National Service and further studies. Some even avoid playing for the national team because the setup does not fit their aspirations, or their parents’ aspirations,” says Mr Tan. For Kenneth Wee from the Singapore Bike School, which offers professional cycling coaching, it’s also a matter of work-life balance. “A c o r re c t wo rk - f a m i l y - l i f e b a l ance allows employees to pursue their own sporting interests, or for parents to follow the sporting exploits of their children. It’s no secret that positive parental suppor t for the
A win validates the techniques used on athletes; a loss requires coaches to reflect. This all feeds back to the ecosystem, contributing to better coaching methods and hopefully a larger talent pool. Most importantly, medal hauls raise awareness about a sport. They increase corporate sponsorship and encourage parents to support their children’s interest, hence strengthening the ecosystem. But the SSC chief is quick to emphasise that the SSC’s work is not just about winning medals. “From the time the SSC was formed, the mandate and the mission have been to try and encourage all Singaporeans to play sports – that hasn’t changed,” he says.
sporting careers of children breeds confidence and improves performance,” he says. “Great Britain’s cyclist Sir Chris Hoy attributed his Olympics success to support from family and friends. The development of work-family-life balance requires the participation of multiple government agencies and industry.”
Towards a sports ecosystem
To create a “sea change” in Singaporeans’ attitude towards sports, the SSC is taking a holistic approach to invest in infrastructure and programmes, as well as reaching out to partners to sell the importance of sports. S p o r t s ad m i n i s t r a t o r s a re i n t h e midst of creating a sports ecosystem on the island – a system of coaches, infrastructure, corporate sponsorship and youth development programmes that bring schools and the community together. Developing champions is part of building up the ecosystem. Winning, explains Mr Lim, allows authorities to find out where they stand among regional and international competition.
The hope is for the sports ecosystem to grow the talent pool by changing mindsets and encouraging more people to get involved in sports, especially at a younger age. This ties in with Vision 2030 – an initiative by the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) and the SSC to engage public, private and people sectors to develop proposals on how sport can best serve Singapore’s future needs. [see sidebar] As part of the Vision 2030 infrastructure, there have been proposals to have “Super Sports Clubs” that will boast quality and comprehensive sports programming, acting as bridges between schools and the community.
Cover Story11
Mr Lim explains that such clubs can be vital when it comes to looking out for potential champions as well. “I was told Michael Jordan missed the boat in the mainstream national basketball selection and development. And he subsequently took an alternative path through a community sports club and was discovered there and came up through the ranks.” A thriving ecosystem might have made things different for Fencing Singapore’s Nicholas Fang. The former competitive fencer says his Olympic dreams were hampered as it was impossible to turn full-time – a commitment necessary to reach his mark. Mr Fang had set his sights on reaching the Olympics in the late 1990s. He fell short of his quest despite trying his hand at the international fencing circuit for a few years largely because the key to success depended on training and competing in Europe. Instead, he had to shuttle to and from Singapore due to work commitments.
“In those days, the concept of a fulltime, professional athlete in my sport was unheard of in Singapore, meaning that I had to work to sustain my passion for my sport,” he says. Although government funding is higher today than before, Mr Fang thinks it’s still not enough to fund a full-time athlete lifestyle. “This means that I was, and we still are, up against professional athletes from other countries who are fully supported and have access to the best coaching and competition experience at their doorstep.” Mr Fang appreciates the ideals behind V ision 2030 and agrees that only by changing mindsets can Singapore sports grow. Mr Wee says the current ecosystem of infrastr ucture, talent de velop ment and coaching is under-funded, under-developed and under-appreciated. He believes more investments need to be put into infrastructure and marketing.
Wushu athlete Michelle Khor Poh Chin represented Singapore in numerous regional games, winning the Duilian ( Team) Gold Medal at the 25th Southeast Asian Games in Laos in 2009.
Vision 2030
Vision 2030 is an initiative launched in July 2011 to use sports as a strategy for individual development, community bonding and nation-building in the next two decades. The SSC is engaging people and private enterprises beyond the sporting community to draft a masterplan that will create a sporting landscape for everyone living here. This will include considerations such as an ageing population, a shrinking workforce, and increasing pressure of living in an urban environment. Launched in July 2011, Vision 2030 has had more than 500 face-to-face discussions with people from all walks of life, and another 2000 people have been engaged through the website www.vision2030. sg. Preliminary recommendations were posted to the Vision 2030 website in mid-February 2012. The public are invited to “join the conversation” by sharing their ideas, opinions and feedback on how to use sport as a strategy for the nation.
Show me the money
There’s been criticism that there are too many National Sports Associations in Singapore – all tussling for a piece of the government funding pie. But Mr Lim says it’s not the SSC’s job to judge what sports Singaporeans are interested in. “My job is to judge where government funding goes. Not all NSAs receive funding,” he says. With the footballers’ lacklustre showing at the recent SEA Games, Singaporeans have questioned why the Football Association of Singapore continues to receive strong funding support. Mr Lim says “wins” are not the only considerations when it comes to funding an NSA. The SSC also considers whether the funding benefits a larger group of Singaporeans. “Let’s take a sport like water polo. Would you argue that I give more money to water polo than I give to football? Because we win gold medals all the time and Singaporeans are very proud of our water polo team? The answer is no.”
“In cycling, one crucial piece of the puzzle is also missing – marketing. In order to nurture our young talents and create a well-lubricated feeder pipeline of riders to the national level, we need to market all disciplines of cycling in a local context and our heroes and champions creatively, generating revenue that can then be put back into making cycling attractive and lucrative,” he says. There are a number of other obstacles for Wee, who laments that it is tough to introduce a new co-curricular activity (CCA) to schools without the Ministry of Education (MOE) taking the lead. This can reduce the number of young people taking up a certain sport. Mr Wee, whose bike school is helping to prepare some athletes for the 8th ACC BMX Championship in 2013 and future SEA Games, says he is also unable to get support for his team as they are not considered national athletes yet. He says that, to qualify, they need to first produce results in competition – a bit of a “chicken and egg” situation for budding athletes. He points out that in neighbouring countries, local BMX races are frequently televised. Private enterprises invest in building corporate branded community tracks and are developing junior and professional teams.
This is exactly the vision the SSC has of the sports ecosystem: private enterprises stepping in to support athletes at community and professional levels; and a sports marketing industry that will make the business of sports more lucrative.
Seeking good coaches
The Achilles heel of the ecosystem may well be the coaches – or the lack of good ones. Mr Lim admits this is the one area that needs the most attention. “I was watching a school football training… the first thing that came to my mind from my own training at the elite level was that it wasn’t intense enough. You can see it in the drills – they lacked intensity. Second, they lacked deliberate purpose,” he shares. Coaches, he agrees, can make or break an athlete’s career. “I wouldn’t have been a national water polo player if I didn’t have an avenue through the university because in my school days, I got nowhere. I didn’t have the right guidance, the coaching environment, and I didn’t make the national team until I hit the university. It was only in NUS where everything came together – the coach and fellow teammates,” reveals Mr Lim.
Swimmer Rainier Ng took time off his studies to focus on the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in 2010. He won Singapore’s first silver medal in the boys’ 50-metre backstroke event.
Cover Story13
Silat athlete Syarif Hidayatullah Bin Abdul Raziz has fought his way to the top in numerous championships and represented Singapore at the 26th Sea Games held in Jakarta last year.
I wouldn’t have been a national water polo player if I didn’t have an avenue through the university because in my school days, I got nowhere.
This is what Mr Gladwell means by low capitalisation rate. Mr Lim had the potential to be an outstanding athlete, yet he wasn’t discovered, until much later. How many other potential athletes could have been overlooked the same way but were not lucky enough to get a second chance? Mr Fang, who has been reviewing the Singapore fencing team’s dismal performance at the recent SEA Games where they failed to bag any of their five targeted gold medals, says having good coaches is tied with creating an ecosystem. “Until a sport is seen as a valued endeavour which contributes greatly to society, we will not see ancillary services such
as coaching and sports administration grow in any meaningful way.” So, while critics have lambasted the sports fraternity for the lack of credible performances at the international stage, it may bode well to pause and consider the various factors at play, such as the social stigma against sports and the need for a stronger ecosystem. Ultimately, what needs to be done has to go beyond merely producing medalwinning athletes. It’s building a nation that lives and breathes sports, so that eventually the selection for sporting talent comes more easily. When that happens, it won’t be that tough to get spectators to relive the glory days of the Malaysia Cup.
Co-creating solutions: Christian Bason (above) and staff at MindLab’s office where they work with public officers and the public to create better experiences for citizens.
, s e i r a d n u o r b e ov
s e o h s ' s n into citize s eir position h t e d si a y icers la s. ial unit, off xperiences for citizen r te is in m ’s cross user e overnment her and create better g h is n a Jingting D the ge t , to b s a b y Chen t L m x d e le T b in o r At M lve p ations to so is n a g r o d n a
Helping young taxpayers make sense of a tricky system; assisting young victims of industrial injuries to handle complicated claims structures; helping youths manage personal finances – these are examples of how MindLab has served Danish citizens for nearly 10 years. A cross-ministerial unit, MindLab wo rk s w i t h i t s p a re n t m i n i s t r i e s
– the Ministries of Business and G ro w t h , Ta x a t i o n , a n d E m p l oy ment – to develop citizen-centric solutions using design thinking. Its 15 employees are trained in a range of disciplines: anthropology, design and management. MindLab exists to remove organisational silos in the Danish government, says Director Christian Bason, who
spoke at the Social Icon conference in Singapore last November. Ministries working in isolation are common in many governments but this will soon be ineffective in problem-solving, he argues. “Increasingly, [public officers] will have to work across organisations, because citizens don’t care how the government is organised. They care about their
Feature15 lives which probably involve education, housing, transport and social challenges – [issues] which cut across government.”
cannot capture users’ experiences and the meanings they attach to interactions with the government, he adds.
A lab with citizens in mind
Still, to obtain legitimacy of qualitative methods in policy-making, MindLab had to get the backing of senior management in government. “We have three permanent secretaries on our board who are our sponsors. The fact that they support us opens doors and gives us the possibility to show what these methods can do.”
MindLab’s evolution over the years reflects this phenomenon. It started out as an in-house innovation lab for the Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs in 2002, holding over 300 workshops within the ministry and for other public and private organisations. In 2007, when it took on a new focus to involve citizens and businesses in developing solutions with public officers, two other parent ministries – the Ministries of Taxation and Employment – came on board. By involving citizens and businesses in its research process, MindLab provides the three parent ministries with insights on users’ experiences and perspectives. Mr Bason gives another reason why MindL ab is conducive for crosscollaboration: “We are in the (government) system but don’t belong to any particular part of the system. And that’s a unique vantage point. We are a place where there is no power position. The only position we have is to make things better than they are now.” For him, improvements come with (seemingly) simple solutions. “You can argue that people’s lives are not complex, but the government organisation is complex. It’s our responsibility to meet people in a way that they don’t see the complexity.”
More than numbers
To have a taste of the problems citizens face, MindLab uses qualitative research methods like ethnography and observational studies. Mr Bason, who conducted a two-day innovation workshop for public officers here, acknowledges that such methods are not common in the public service, as most officers are used to dealing with numbers in quantitative methods such as surveys. Not that surveys are not useful. “They tell us what and how big the problem is. But surveys don’t tell us how to solve it,” says Mr Bason, a research evaluator for the Danish government for 10 years before joining MindLab. Surveys also
Sharing solutions: Publications by MindLab on its research and insights into cutting red tape and re-designing public service.
MindLab studies are also concerned with the future.The lab uses the “backcasting” tool, a kind of scenario work where researchers envision a desired future and build steps to accomplish that future now.
We have three permanent secretaries on our board who are our sponsors. The fact that they support us opens doors and gives us the possibility to show what these methods can do. Remove risks, reward risk-taking
So does he think Singapore is ready for its own MindLab? Mr Bason replies: “I don’t think Singapore is different from many countries in terms of [experiencing] organisational silos and lacking skills and experience in citizen-centred research. But after the general elections, I have a feeling that maybe the time is right for different approaches.” Affirming Singapore’s skilled and driven public service, he urges public officers to “also be professional and ambitious in innovation.”And the first steps have already been taken. “We’ve had visits at MindLab twice from the Public Service Division. We had very good dialogues. This can be the beginning to try out different citizen-centred approaches.”
Mr Bason acknowledges that change can be scary but feels that sometimes public officers magnify the fear unnecessarily: “Very quickly, public servants will start thinking about what might go wrong rather than about how might we benefit from the upside of change.” Design thinking may help allay such fears by removing risks, says Mr Bason. “It allows us to try out ideas at a very early stage, make them concrete as prototypes, and test them out with users in a safe environment (where we are not affecting thousands of people, haven’t changed legislation or told the media). That can make us more confident to launch in a larger scale the solutions we believe in.” He also proposes incentive structures that reward the upsides of change. But that may throw up some hard questions. “Are we measuring sufficiently well what really matters to people – the experience and outcomes? Are we organising our pay and career systems in a way that promotes intelligent and calculated risk-taking rather than discourages it? These are fundamental questions that very few public services can answer so far.”
16 Thinking Aloud
Being a
Management consultant Wendy Tan says it all depends on who we are as a person.
great PARTNER
We all partner. We partner peers, customers, suppliers; even bosses and subordinates. But how good are we at partnering? Good partnering begins with our skills in cultivating relationships. But great partnering depends on who we are. Some examples of flawed partnering: • Partner A claims all credit for a successful project, resulting in others’ u n h a p p i n e s s a n d re l u c t a n c e t o continue working. • Partner B is extremely careful with her intellectual property, unable to trust others, and consequently works alone. • Partner C acts in a controlling way and micro-manages others, hampering collaboration. Fear of personal failure makes Partner A try to look successful at the team’s expense. Fear of “losing what is mine”
violence. Uncanny parallels can be found in modern-day business situations. You might identify your own “devil” and see where it rears its ugly head. What makes one partnership a success, another a failure? The key elements are the individuals involved and their motivations. At the lowest level is fear – most commonly, fear of losing out or being taken advantage of. Such a person finds it difficult and unnatural to trust others, and may avoid partnering altogether. He may act in offensive ways to protect his own interests and finds it easiest to work alone, thus limiting his potential for growth. Individuals at the middle level are driven by their desires and personal goals – to accumulate wealth, build a business, and work more productively. Desire to achieve outweighs fear, and they are opportunistic and motivated to partner where it serves their interests. They remain conscious of selfinterests and partnerships that outlast usefulness break down.
Each of us is instrumental in building our own successful partnerships. triggers deep possessiveness and distrust in Partner B. Fear of project failure makes Partner C behave in intolerable ways. Such fears are the “devil” within us. In The Lord of the Rings, pursuit of a great prize (the “One Ring”) brings out insecurity, jealousy, distrust and selfishness. The character Gollum is transformed by obsession with the One Ring and knows only treachery and
Partners at the highest level are driven by ideals beyond self-interests, to create a larger possibility. They see themselves as integral to a larger whole and are generous because they believe the universe is abundant. They are confident that if they remain true to shared ideals and work towards larger goals, their needs will be taken care of. Everyone has a predominant level they tend to operate on but people often
move up and down the scale in different situations. The framework is an overview of where partnering individuals might be operating from, and helps us reflect on our attitudes and beliefs. Each of us is instrumental in building our own successful partnerships. We can repel others when we operate from lower levels of fear, jealousy and pride. Conversely, we attract like-minded people with generous, wise and abundant spirit. To be a great partner, start with yourself. Ask which level of cultivation you operate from when partnering: • In which types of situations have you found yourself operating at the three levels – Fear, Desire and Oneness? • Which level do you think you operate at in most situations? • What are your beliefs about building partnerships, and how would they need to change for you to be a great partner? • What experiments are you willing to try out, to test (and perhaps shift) your beliefs? Wendy Tan is the founding partner of The Flame Centre (www.flamecentre.com), an organisation development consulting and training practice. She welcomes comments at Wendy_Tan@flamecentre.com.
Letters to aYoung Public Officer 25
FATHERS MAKE A
DIFFERENCE by Jason Wong, Senior Director, MCYS Secretariat, Dads for Life Former Deputy Director/Chief of Staff, Singapore Prisons Service
DEAR YOUNG OFFICER, I’m writing this because I’ve seen firsthand how important fathers are to children, having worked in the prisons for 17 years, and am now working with at-risk children and youth. Even if you’re not a father, I invite you to read on, as I have something for you to take away too.
360 degree feedback
We do 360 degree feedback at work. We should do this at home too. There’re two key questions: “What would you like Daddy to do more of ?” and “What would you want Daddy to do less of or stop doing?” My son’s response to the latter: “Work less on your computer.” All my mistakes flashed back to me: “Can’t you see I am busy?”, “I need to finish this, if not my boss will scold me.” I must have given him the impression that bosses are bad and working life is no fun. If bosses told me time and again: “Don’t disturb me”, the message sent is “You’re not important” and I would stop going to them after a while. I’ve since stopped doing that to my children.
Mothers can help
Fathers are wired differently. Mothers buy toys for their children; fathers can act as toys – as a plane, horse, monster or Superman. Research shows children need such physical play. Mothers say, “Don’t run so fast”, “Don’t climb so high”; fathers say, “Run faster”, “Climb higher”. Mothers protect by preventing children from getting hurt. Fathers protect by preparing them so they won’t get hurt in future. Both are needed.
In Singapore, three out of 10 fathers find their wives a barrier to their desire to be more involved fathers. This is maternal gate-keeping. Mums can support dads. For example, I know one who helps by buying tickets for her husband to watch movies with their son.
Mothers protect by preventing children from getting hurt. Fathers protect by preparing them so they won’t get hurt in future. Both are needed. Be role models
Parents often ask me how to teach values. I tell them they’re teaching values all the time. Our children watch us daily, and in the process, learn good and bad values directly. Decide what you want your children to learn from you, then live your life accordingly. Children also need heroes. If they can’t find them at home, they find them elsewhere. Character and values are more important to me than academic achievements. Smart people, even scholars, end up in prison too.
Build relationships
A minister once said: “Singaporeans don’t suffer from lack of material wealth. We suffer from poverty of relationships.”
The home is where children learn about relationships. How you relate to your wife, and to your child, will determine how your child relates to you and others in future. Relationships are vital to influencing behaviour. Rules + Relationships = Response; Rules – Relationships = Rebellion. Rules are necessary, but whether it is prison officer and prisoner, boss and employee, or parent and child, positive relationships are the key, not rules.
Influence other fathers
Fathers, influence your children’s friends by influencing their fathers. I started a fathers group in my son’s school, after realising that if more fathers are involved positively in their children’s lives, my son would have more positive peers.
Be good ‘fathers’ at work too
Over the years, I’ve had father figures at the workplace who taught, guided and stretched me, like a nurturing father would. They let me fail and learn from my mistakes, yet lifted me up, and said “It’s ok, try again”. They encouraged me to go beyond my comfort zones and believed in me even when I doubted myself. They sought my best interests, instead of using me to serve their personal agenda. If you have staff, be a good “father” to them. You can also help employees who are fathers be better fathers. In doing so, you are helping to raise the next generation.
More fathering tips at dadsforlife.sg
“Life
is more complicated than
black and white” Permanent Secretary (PMO, MND) Benny Lim worked to keep Singapore safe for over 30 years. The senior public off icer who recently left the Ministry of Home Affairs shares why police work was his cup of tea. Text by
Wong Sher Maine Norman Ng
Photos by
As far as Permanent Secretaries go, Benny Lim is probably the first one interviewed by Challenge to waltz in with a Hokkien exclamation: “Wah, jin zhui lang!” (“So many people!”) The five people seated in the Ministry of National Development’s stately Banyan Room attending the interview burst into laughter, perhaps somewhat relieved that a man associated with the very serious matter of security for over 30 years is so reassuringly colloquial. The Permanent Secretary (PMO, MND), who until August 2011 headed the Ministry of Home Affairs, has spent most of his career as a police officer. He started as a rookie in 1975 and rose through the ranks, becoming a Deputy Commissioner of Police as well as Director, Internal Security Department for seven years.
A Cuppa With...27
Young ambitions
“So, what do you want to know?” asks the 54-year-old, after he places on the table his interview notes, contained in a colourful Winnie the Pooh plastic folder. Perhaps, how the ex-head prefect of Raffles Institution ended up in the police force? “The first memory I had about what I wanted to do when I was a child (studying in the now-defunct Siglap Primary School) was to be an artist,” he said. But it was his mother, a volunteer social worker, who influenced his eventual choice to join the police force straight after his A levels. He said: “A social worker picks the pieces up when things break down. But a police officer has some ability to intercede and prevent things from breaking in the first place. The ability to do that was appealing to me.” As a rookie cop, Mr Lim, who was posted to the now-defunct police headquarters at Beach Road, hit the ground running, moving around with patrol cars, being “arrowed” to do all sorts of rookie tasks like looking after corpses while waiting for the Police hearse to arrive and conducting field inquiries at crime scenes. One enduring life lesson he gleaned was from a suicide case. “An old man had hanged himself at one of
the flats in Beach Road to spare his children from taking care of him because he was sick. Frontline police situations like that make you grow up very quickly and you grow to become less absolute about moral judgements, about people and life.
Luck counts
“You learn to live better with ambivalence, stress and the tensions of sometimes morally difficult situations at a personal level, even though at a professional level you are supposed to be firm, decisive and clear in direction. That is one of the most valuable things which came out from my experience as a cop. Life is always a little bit more complicated than black and white.”
It is something he practises with his own subordinates. “One of the key characteristics of good leaders is to look for and identify leaders in people, and then find the opportunities for them to achieve that potential.”
There were many high points in his career, which is marked not only by successes on the security front but also by the fact that he moved up the civil service rungs the hard way sans Administrative Service membership.
Frontline police situations make you grow up very quickly and you grow to become less absolute about moral judgements, about people and life.
Once, his subordinate asked him how he got to become a Permanent Secretary. “I told her, don’t discount luck. I’ve had the fortune of having good bosses who took a chance on me.”
He said he has remained in the Service for as long as he has because he genuinely enjoyed his work. “Scholars or non-scholars, my view is that if a young person joins the Service, they should just do something that they like. If they don’t immediately love the job, try to discover a way to love it.” And labels like scholar or nonscholar, he said, are “intrinsically self-limiting”. “The bottomline is, you make your own luck, find your own chances and do the best you can.” Many of his successes – some of the most significant being counterespionage cases – he cannot talk about for security reasons. However, he lets on that one of the most personally satisfying cases was in dismantling the Jemaah Islamiah network in Singapore in 2002, because of the people he came into contact with in the process.
14 Feature
“The deep satisfaction that I got out of that was to bear witness to how brave people really were,” he said. “Ordinary people in the community, from the Malay-Muslim religious community, who stepped forward to work with us to craft the rehabilitation approach. Although it ’s lauded today, at that time it was untested, uncharted territory and went against the grain of conventional views. It ’s a measure of their conviction and courage that they stepped out and I really admire them.” To those who wonder if the presence of foreigners or the casinos have had a detrimental effect on Singapore’s safety, Mr Lim says no. No major crime wave has followed the opening of the casinos,
One of the key characteristics of good leaders is to look for and identify leaders in people, and then find the opportunities for them to achieve that potential. although the authorities are watchful, and the fact is that the bulk of crimes in Singapore are committed by residents.
Shoring up security
“The most challenging part of security work in Singapore was to convince people (in and out of government) that it ’s relevant. We’ve had it so good for so long that we find this idea of the need to shore up security a little bit alien.” What’s usually in your cup? Coffee. Your favourite flavour or brand? Real coffee – no decaf, no fancy additives like vanilla, hazelnut etc Where do you usually have your cuppa? At my office every working morning from “Cinda’s Cafe”. (Cinda is my PA.)
Pre-2002, there was more focus on safety issues and less on security, as Singapore was not known to be a terrorist target. “There was a rather sanguine view about security risk… and we had a lot of catching up to do,” he admits. A decade after, awareness of potential security threats is higher but “what people are not so clear about
now is that there is no such thing as absolute and total security.” He observes that when something goes wrong, “reactions are sometimes a little bit extreme.” Thus, striking a balance between preparedness and paranoia is a tough one – a judgement call made tougher by Singaporeans’ low risk appetite. “Our level of tolerance for security problems is very low largely because we’ve been blessed by peace, stability and safety.” These days, he is busy learning the ropes at MND. The Ministry’s mission of creating “endearing homes” for Singaporeans resonates with Mr Lim, a self-confessed homebody who misses home when he travels. The animal-lover spends some time talking with relish about Buddy and Sam – his two beagles – and Leroy, his father’s German Shepherd. “ We think Leroy is Buddhist because he shared his dinner with one mynah bird,” said Mr Lim. “Now, four birds share his dinner and he sits there quietly. He’s a pacifist.” Ask if there is a philosophy he lives life by and he responds: “The philosophy of life? That ’s so big and heavy. I suppose the purpose of life is a life with purpose.” Perhaps he said it best in his farewell email to his officers and staff, when he left the ISD. His last line: Try to be kind. Because it ’s just too easy to be mean.
d i a m -to-
r e d or s e i c i P ol
John Heng
d ternally an in – g in n e . e list licies ow effectiv ilor better public po h e r a h s s cie ta Two agen is helping them to – y ll externa
Ryandall Lim
MOM responds: Senior Policy Analyst Ruby Pan (third from left) responds: and colleagues from MOM Senior Policy the Manpower led Analyst Ruby PanMinistry (third from an extensive consultation right) and colleagues from exercise to review a led an the Manpower Ministry mandatory English test for extensive consultation exercise workers. toforeign review domestic a mandatory English test for foreign domestic workers
W
hen the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) implemented a mandatory English entry test for first–time foreign domestic workers (FDWs) in 2005, it was in re s p o n s e t o e m ployers’ demand for higher quality helpers who could communicate better.
Sharing at a Public Service Conference in October 2011, MOM Permanent Secretary Loh Khum Yean said a key lesson of the consultation was the need to be more people-centric. “In developing policies, we tend to prioritise macro-level considerations such as national concerns and system constraints. But… rather than thinking about problems in terms of Ministry KPIs or outcomes, we also need to look from the perspective of the individuals impacted by our policies.”
But over time, it became clear that training centres in source countries were training FDWs to pass the language test instead of focusing on enhancing their skills. The tests were a major cause of stress for the maids: those who failed had to leave Singapore, and pay back over S$1,000 they had borrowed to get here. Furthermore, many potential employers found the tests redundant if they did not need English-speaking maids, for example, the Ah Ma more likely to speak Malay to an Indonesian helper.
Instead of forming policies based on the Ministry’s framing of problems, the best solutions would involve brainstorming ideas together with stakeholders.
But it was the suicide of a 26-yearold Indonesian maid in May 2011 that thrust the controversial test into the media spotlight. It became clear to MOM that, instead of fulfilling its intended goal – helpers who could communicate better with employers – the test had become a stumbling block. In response, MOM embarked on an extensive consultation exercise in the last quarter of 2011.
A big listening team
Headed by a core team, with an external organisation to aid in design planning, some 40 MOM staff met with various stakeholders – FDWs, maid agents, employers and nongovernment organisations (NGOs) – in focus groups, in-depth interviews and town-hall meetings, giving space for creative solutions. In December 2011, MOM announced that the test would be replaced with a S e t t l i n g - I n Pr o g r a m m e ( S I P ) , which is being fine-tuned. The orientation programme covers areas inc luding adapting to lif e in Singapore, FDWs’ responsibilities and safety awareness.
Listen without prejudice
Mr Loh cautioned that for such sessions to be effective, public officers must first learn to listen to opinions without prejudice. “What public officers think is the problem, may not in fact be exactly the right or only one.” He revealed that one topic stakeholder groups brought up was the debt incurred by FDWs. This had been completely off MOM’s radar. Being open and allowing stakeholders to shape discussions helped such issues to be raised.
is vital – such as regular updates on Facebook, which may include a listing of shortlisted policies – so that the public knows they have been heard. The learning curve may be steep, but the exercise, Ms Pan says, has better equipped MOM to create policies with people in mind.
We hear you
Another agency keeping its ears close to the ground is the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA). In recent years, public complaints pertaining to intrusive unsolicited calls from telemarketers have been on the rise. Heeding their call for intervention, MICA announced that it would introduce a law to protect individuals from the unauthorised collection, use and disclosure of personal information by private organisations. MICA wanted to know if the public was in favour of a Do-Not-Call (DNC) registry, where they could register their numbers against receiving unsolicited marketing messages. So, it launched a public consultation exercise in September 2011 to inform the public about the new Data Protection Law as well
It was heartening to see responses like ‘Thank you! Finally, (we’ve) suffered long enough!’ Said MOM Senior Policy Analyst Ruby Pan: “We were encouraged (by the external design thinking organisation) to go out without pre-conceived ideas and to build ideas rather than seek results from fixed agendas.” MOM also sought staff opinions, as well as “extreme users” – stakeholders whose amplified needs would present more obvious solutions. Ms Pan pointed out that it was essential to “learn to listen past the noise and make meaning out of it.” With these analyses, some form of closure
as to solicit feedback and ideas on the need for such a registry. MICA received an over whelming response in favour of a registry. “While we sort of expected this would be a welcome move, we didn’t quite expect the strong response, with several writing in to express their heartfelt thanks and support for MICA in championing the cause to protect consumers,” revealed Ms Junie Neo from MICA’s Industry Division. “It was heartening to see responses like ‘Thank you! Finally, (we’ve) suf-
Feature31 Listening in: A team of MICA and IDA officers are engaging the public on guidelines for a Do Not Call Registry that would allow people to register their numbers against receiving unsolicited marketing messages.
fered long enough!’ and this gave us the reassurance to press ahead with our efforts.” MICA embarked on the next phase o f t h e i r c on s u l t a t i on e xe rc i s e i n October 2011 on the guidelines for such a registry, including the types of marketing messages to be covered under the registry, its design framework, as well as proposed penalties for marketing organisations that breach registry requirements. Ms Neo said the strong public support encouraged the team. One challenge they faced was learning to manage the extra time, energy and resources for such an engagement exercise. This was because unlike previous MICA policy reviews targeting specific stakeholder groups, the issue of data protection and a DNC registry concerned all Singaporeans and hence a more comprehensive consultation was required.
MICA created public awareness on the consultation exercises by engaging a variety of methods to seek public opinion, ranging from traditional tools like engagement sessions and surveys, as well as online channels such as through REACH - the government’s official online feedback portal, MICA’s website and via online polls. MICA also conducted engagement sessions with businesses and industry associations to explain the proposed framework and seek their views.
Looking internally
While listening to the public is a given for public engagement, the officers of MOM and MICA realised that listening and looking internally was important too. The MOM team tapped the wealth of experience in its own people, while MICA collaborated with colleagues from other departments
and government agencies to structure the framework of their engagement exercise, and involved them for feedback. Even as these engagement exercises give the public a sense of ownership and stake in formulating policies, the ministries stress that they should be carried out only after careful consideration because of the extra resources required. As MOM’s Mr Loh highlighted, such an exercise will be more successful if done early in the policy-making process, so that viewpoints have sufficient time to be heard and analysed. “The greater the level of public impact, the earlier we would need to involve our stakeholders.” This is the last of a two-part series on Public Engagement.
Amos arrives at St John’s Island where his office is situated.
fishy Business
Challenge trails senior scientist Amos Koh to f ind out what he does on the island.
on St John’s Island Te x t by
While most of us rush for a train or bus to work daily, Amos Koh has to make sure he catches the 8.30am boat to St John’s Island or be very late for work. Amos is a Senior Scientist at the Marine Aquaculture Centre (MAC) that is part of the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA). The centre develops new technologies to help local fish hatcheries and farms increase productivity to boost Singapore’s local food supply.
Amos fell hook, line and sinker for fish when he became a hobbyist during his polytechnic days. The biotechnology student decided he would rather work with gilled creatures than be stuck in a chemistry lab. He pursued a degree, became an intern at the MAC, and later, applied for a job. Ten years on, his interest hasn’t waned. “I’ve a strong connection with them – they make me feel welcome,” he said in jest, pointing to the way hundreds of thousands of fish fry swam eagerly to
Bridgette See
P h o to s by
Joseph Nair
him as he approached the tanks. “They make me feel I’m doing something meaningful for myself and AVA.” “Incubation Unit IV”, a large fish laboratory, is where Amos spends most of his time (pictured on opposite page).
I’ve a strong connection with them – they make me feel welcome.
Perspectives 33
The MAC is currently working with local fish farms to breed locally-spawned Pompanos.
He checks to see how the two-day-old fish larvae are doing, then goes over to observe the fish fry to sieve out the sick or overly aggressive ones. His team studies ways to breed stronger, faster-growing Asian seabass, and more recently the Pompano. This includes ensuring that “broodstock” (mature individuals selected for spawning) spawns well, selecting the best eggs for breeding, and weaning fish fry from eating microorganisms to fish feed before sending them off as fingerlings to local farms. The work with fish has led Amos to stop eating Asian seabass: “My aim is to help them grow well. So I feel bad eating them.” So if you’re having locally-farmed Asian seabass for dinner tonight, chances are it was once a fry tenderly bred by Amos and team. Enjoy the meal – just don’t tell Amos how it tasted. For more on Amos’s work, go on to Challenge Online at www.challenge.gov.sg
34 Level Up
Delving into Minds
design policies
to
A new book reveals how the use of psychology and economics has led to good policies.
W H Y I S I T I M P O R TA N T T O understand the cognitive abilities and biases of citizens? The Civil Service College’s latest book, Behavioural Economics and Policy Design: Examples from Singapore, explains. The book, edited by Donald Low, shows how successful policies integrated conventional economic principles with behavioural economics before the latter became popular. Here is an excerpt from the introductory chapter, “Cognition, Choice and Policy Design”.
Another way could be to provide more salient information, such as on energy consumption by household appliances, to persuade people into making better decisions.
“ We c a n i d e n t i f y a t l e a s t t h r e e behavioural economics lessons for policymakers. The first is that for any number of reasons — loss aversion, status quo bias, endowment effects, inertia, hyperbolic discounting or sheer laziness — people often stick to the status quo, even if their rational minds know that a change would better serve their interests. This is why defaults and opt-out clauses are important components of any policymaker’s toolkit.
Third, and arguably most importantly, it matters how choices are framed. If people often choose based on the most salient or accessible features rather than an objective, exhaustive c o s t - b e n e fi t a n a l y s i s o f o p t i o n s , framing the situation differently can induce different choices. The way a policy is framed can bring to mind particular emotions or associations or norms (logics of appropriateness) and thus trigger particular actions or behaviours.
Examples of the use of defaults in Singapore include organ donations and participation in MediShield. Second, we can think about defaults as part of a broader point about how choices should be structured. The behavioural economics literature suggests that people often make systematic and predictable errors when faced with decisions involving risk and uncertainty. Defaults are one way to structure complex choices to help people avoid error and make better decisions.
The stor y of how CPF LIFE was introduced suggests that policymakers can help people make better decisions by simplifying otherwise complicated choices, including reducing the options offered.
In Singapore, the gap between supply and demand for organ donation is large. Standard economics theory prescribes the free market as the most efficient way to allocate supply to demand. However, there are moral and ethical concerns with organ trading. Apart from the repugnance society might feel towards the unbridled selling and buying of organs, there are concerns with exploitation of sellers, who are likely to be poor, and diminution of the dignity of human life.
The government framed the issue of payment for organ donors not as a hard-edged economic transaction, but as one of fairness for the donor. In its public consultation exercise, the Ministry of Health (MOH) explained that the proposed legislative amendments were intended to ‘compensate living donors according to international ethical practices’. MOH emphasised the distinction between “compensation” and “the buying and selling of organs”, with stiffer penalties proposed for the latter. Feedback was generally positive, but some had reservations on ‘compensation’, which could be misunderstood for payment for the organ. By the Second Reading of the Human Organs Transplant (Amendment) Bill, MOH had dropped ‘compensation’ in favour of language that proposed ‘to reimburse or defray the costs or expenses of living organ donors’. The Amendment Bill was passed in March 2009.” CSC will be organising workshops on Behavioural Economics in 2012. For enquiries: cscollege_cpe@cscollege.gov.sg Behavioural Economics and Policy Design: Examples from Singapore is available at major local bookstores.
Coasting
Changi
The Challenge team goes on a retreat in Changi and uncovers some gems in the eastern tip of Singapore.
Te x t by
Nur’Ain Zainuddin
P h o to s by
John Heng
ACCOMMODATION Changi Cottage: The Cottage with a View
A gravelled walkway, lined with lush vegetation, ushers one down to the Changi Cottage. It prepares you for the “Ahhh…” moment when you step into the double-storeyed bungalow, and are greeted by an expansive sea view. Built during colonial times, the cottage’s red brick façade, gabled roof, window grilles with nautical motifs, and charming side-door with overhanging creeper vines are a blast from the past. But its newly refurbished interior boasts modern amenities and furnishings, including a flat-screen TV. Located one bus stop from Changi Village, the cottage is accessible yet private enough. The Challenge team found it airy and spacious – perfect for a retreat in the day and a barbecue in the evening. For a spot of exercise, head down to the small door at the bottom of the garden that connects to the Changi Coastal Boardwalk. It’s hard not to like this place. Even the former Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew found it a great hideout. In his memoir From Third World to First: The Singapore Story, 1965-2000, he revealed that he stayed here for some months when he became the “Number One hate object in the Malaysian Malay-language newspapers and radio and television broadcasts” in the wake of Singapore’s separation from Malaysia. Address: 30, Netheravon Road S(508522) Website: www.aloharesorts.com.sg/resort/changi Rates: Public rates from $450 per night onwards For corporate bookings, call 6581 9043 or email aloha@aloharesorts.com.sg
The right space: Bright and airy, the Changi Cottage is an ideal spot to chill out or be inspired.
Life.Style37
FOOD
M e n t i on C h a n g i v i l l a ge, a n d you’re likel y to think of nasi lemak. There are a number of stalls selling it at the Changi village hawker centre but the International Food Stall stands out as the most popular, with the longest queue. Be prepared to wait up to 20 minutes during lunch hour. But the fragrant coconutflavoured rice dish isn’t the only draw here. Sri Bistari Nasi Ayam Penyet (smashed chicken), Xiang Xiang Cooked Food (Hokkien Mee) and Wing Kee Famous Ipoh Hor Fun have made it onto the foodie’s must-eat list in Changi. Nearby, cafes are popping up to join the scene. Chock Full Of Beans has a variety of bites from pizza to cakes, and serves up drinks topped with latte art of butterflies and bears.
1
2 1. Xiang Xiang Cooked Food Blk 2, #01-73, Changi Village Road S(500002) 2. International Food Stall Blk 2, #01-57, Changi Village Road S(500002) 3. Chock Full Of Beans Blk 4, #01-2090, Changi Village Rd S(500004) 4. Wing Kee Famous Ipoh Hor Fun Blk 2, #01-04, Changi Village Road S(500002) 3
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew stayed here for some months when he became the “Number One hate object in… newspapers and radio and television broadcasts” in the wake of Singapore’s separation from Malaysia.
4
PLACES TO GO
Changi Museum & Chapel
At the chapel: 1,000 paper cranes folded by a group of visiting Japanese school children .
Address: 1000, Upper Changi Road North S(507707) Website: www.changimuseum.com Admission: Free
This is a de rigueur stop for anyone visiting Changi. Originally located next to the old Changi Prison, the new Museum and Chapel (above) was opened on February 15, 2001 to coincide with the 59th anniversary of the fall of Singapore to Japan. It honours those who lived and died in Singapore during the Japanese Occupation. Through the documentation of significant events of the war, and artefacts donated by POWs, the museum lends rich insight into life during the dark war years. For the families of POWs, this is a site for them to close the chapter on their painful past. You can light a candle or pin up a red poppy at the Chapel in remembrance of those who have passed.
Opening hours: Monday to Sunday 9:30am-5pm; last admission 4.30pm Tour: A 45-minute guided tour (in English) at S$8 per adult and S$4 per child
For more: Try the Battlefield Tour and Changi WWII trails by The Changi Museum and Journeys Pte Ltd at bit.ly/war_trails
Life.Style39
Through the documentation of significant events of the war, and artefacts donated by POWs, the museum lends rich insight into life during the dark war years.
In memoriam: (Anti-clockwise from left) Exhibits and stories lend insight into lives of POWs; red poppies and cards at the outdoor chapel in remembrance of those who died during the war.
ALL AROUND CHANGI There are other places and activities in Changi that will surprise you. Check out the heritage trees along the 1.2km Changi Coastal Boardwalk that connects the Changi Beach Club to the Changi Sailing Club. If you prefer something more sedentary, try bird-watching at the Changi Jetty, Beach Park or Boardwalk. For the bigger, noisier birds, head to Changi Beach Park Carparks C and D for the best views of planes landing at, and taking off from, the airport. If you like to be spooked, there are the infamous Old Changi Hospital and old Changi Commando Barracks but be warned, both are off limits, officially.
Go fly kite: Rustic Changi has lots of offer, from bird watching to kite flying and sea sports
40 The Irreverent Last Page
SINGAPORE’S NATIONAL SPORT
Need We Say More?
Here’s where we let the humour loose, and learn to laugh at ourselves a little more. Have ideas or jokes about the Public Service? Email us: psd_challenge@psd.gov.sg
Illustration by Mindflyer
Who says we aren’t sporty? For the things we love most in life, we’ll do anything to be f irst in line. Now if only the Olympics would recognise this as a feat of athleticism…
TRIVIA QUIZ The is an initiative aimed at generating more opportunities for sports participation and to further the aim of a sporting Singapore. a. Sports Partnership Promotion Programme (SPPP) b. Partners of Singapore Sports Programme (PSSP) c. Sporting Partners of Singapore Programme (SPSP) d. Programme for Sporting Singapore (PSS)
is an initiative to promote and enhance sports safety, as The well as create a platform for sharing safe and best practices in sports. a. Sports Safety Portal b. Be Sporty, Be Safe Portal c. Be Safe and Sporty Portal d. Safety in Sports Portal
Pairs of
Movie Vouchers To Be Won
Submit your answers by APRIL 3, 2012 at: The Singapore Women’s Table Tennis Team won Singapore’s first-ever . title at the World Team Table Tennis Championships in a. 2007 b. 2008 c. 2009 d. 2010
Challenge Online www.challenge.gov.sg Please include your name, email address, agency and contact number. All winners will be notified by email.
The 1st Southeast Asian Peninsular (SEAP) Games, predecessor to in 1959. the South East Asian (SEA) Games, were held in a. Singapore b. Indonesia c. Thailand d. Laos
CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of the January/February 2012 Trivia Quiz Ma Junxian MAS
Seet Wen Hao
The Olympic symbol, better known as the Olympic Rings, is made up of five intertwined rings in the colours Blue, Yellow, Black, and Red. a. Pink b. Green c. Orange d. Purple
MOE
Goh Yen Sze DOS
Ko Zhihong EDB
Seow Kin Siong ITE