millerscourt
Your observation, whilst tongue in cheek, has the ring of absolute reality when applied to the Alice in Wonderland world of Singapore and Singapore Airlines – the latter a partly owned and wholly controlled subsidiary of Lee & Son (Pte) Ltd, majority shareholder of the former enterprise.
It would seem to be entirely possible that Captain Syed Abdul Kader Alhadad, who has recently popped up from nowhere, could be the regime’s imposed candidate, introduced in the customary oblique manner of the much vaunted Asian values and masquerading as the pilots’ saviour in the face of an imminent return to the “confrontational” ancien regime of Mok and Co.
Captain Kader’s presented credentials indicate that he was in the Flight Engineers Branch of the Singapore Airlines Staff Union during which time he included a three year stint as chairman in the late 1980’s. The Staff Union, of course, was then and still is, affiliated to the NTUC and hence neatly corralled by the Ministry of Manpower in its operating capacity as ringmaster to the cosy Singapore “tripartite” system of “arrangement” between government, employers and employee associations. Needless to say, it is entirely within the bounds of possibility that a new and compliant Alpa-S President, with former extensive NTUC links, in a newly legislated environment that has abolished individual Alpa-S members’ voting rights, could decide on the members’ behalves that affiliation with NTUC was in everyone’s best interest. Without wishing to draw everyone a series of pictures, the forgoing would appear to be an elegant solution to the ongoing irritant of a truly independent (though fearful) pilots’ association, continually prodding the flanks of an increasingly cantankerous dynamic duo.
Of which duo, the senior member recently mentioned that SIA would have to devote more attention to its management of human resources. Presumably this was a spur to the redoubtable Mr Loh, Senior Vice President Human Resources, SIA and, entirely coincidentally, PAP MP for one of the larger GRC’s. It remains unclear the extent of Mr Loh’s former HR experience and training as, indeed, it remains similarly unclear the extent of his past airline management experience. However, Mr Loh has had the aptitude to unilaterally and without any form of consultation whatsoever, wind up the SIA Provident Fund, as a “cost saving measure” and so deprive the eligible pilot membership of a further 10% of their remuneration. Resulting unreasonable squawks have been presented, I’m told, as further examples of pilots believing they’re special. They’ve got huge egos, apparently!
And finally, whilst alluding to misrepresentation of actuality, it’s amusing to note the Singapore Transport Minister’s laboured attempts to extrapolate an EU and US open skies regulatory framework to that of the highly regulated asian theatre when presenting the bogey of the dreaded buget airlines, aka the low cost carriers (LCC) laying waste to SIA’s profit profile. It was similarly interesting to note the central message of Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, on BBC Hard Talk, that the only environment in which an LCC could start up and survive was an open skies one. Perhaps we could have some accurate information as to when this arcadian state of affairs will come about within the region?