Musings on integration, Temasek and Goal 2010

PM Lee urged Singaporeans to be inclusive.
For awhile, I was excited that this could signal a paradigm shift in PAP policy towards native Singaporeans. That was until and read on.

He was referring to foreigners and new citizens and went so far as to ask the local Indian grassroots to integrate Indians from other parts of India (North).

I've come across many North Indians working here saying rather unpleasant things about our native Indians who hail mainly from the South. Can't elaborate further for fear of being hauled up for questioning. I'm not PRC so the law won't be so lenient towards me.

So do new Indians want to integrate with our local Indians or just prefer to hang out with their own?
I'd wager that most North Indians are forming their own foreign cliques and circle of friends.
Why then should local Indian grassroots spend tax-payers' money planning programmes to integrate these foreigners?

In any case, the onus is on foreigners, Indians or not, to humbly integrate themselves into the Singaporean society. After all, they came here on their own volition.

Further, it begs me to question (continuously) if there's a real need for so many foreigners in Singapore.
How talented are these foreigners that step into our shores? Are we actually getting people of the highest calibre?
An interesting article from Temasek Review pulled out global rankings for universities around the world.
The top Indian university is a shocking 113 places below NTU and even further behind NUS. I'd also documented previously that India (and many developing nations) are notorious for fake degrees. More proof here.

If you search LinkedIn for office holders at Temasek Holdings, you'd realise that many of them are from India. That's our national sovereign fund for crying out loud!

It's little wonder that its latest FY performance is nothing to crow about.
Unlike Kuwait Investment Authority, who sold their stake in Citigroup in 2009, landing a $1 billion profit, Temasek befuddled the investment community by selling off its entire stake in Bank of America, making a whopping $2 billion loss in the process.
Remember that both investments were made around the same time during the global financial crisis in 2008.
The fund also managed to get embroiled in regulatory issues with both the Indonesian and Thai governments over their botched investment attempts.
It's mind-boggling how Temasek can't get a proper due diligence team in place when they spent $31 billion on expenses in FY08.

Then again, we can't put the blame on its foreign staff. Maybe they just weren't integrated.
Singaporeans should be held accountable for this.

On a related note, they aren't going to allow Tan Jee Say to run for President. This fella will spend all his time trying to pry open GIC and Temasek's books.
That will leave little time for more pressing issues like soliciting feedback for Major General (NS) Chan Chun Sing's sports masterplan.
Can't we at least be more original with the name- Vision 2030.

This just has Mah Bow Tan's Goal 2010 written all over it....