11/26/2015

Selling national icons

The Great Singapore Sale is on, but this one will take a longer time span as it involves real big ticket items. The PWD or Public Works Division was sold, power stations were sold, Robinson sold, Tiger Beer/F&N sold and the latest item under the hammer is iconic NOL, the national carrier of international fame and of big losses.

Richard Hartung, a foreign talent, wrote in the Today paper today asking ‘Why Spore should not sell off its iconic firms’. The reasons are obvious, there are things that are more valuable than just in monetary terms and should not be put up for sale using profit and loss rationale. There are national psychic involved, national pride, culture, aspiration and identity. What would Singapore be if they sell away DBS, SIA, the Istana, PSA, SMRT, SBS, HDB, the National Museum, National Arts Gallery, the universities like NUS, NTU etc etc? What the heck spending on foreigners to buy gold medals in sports for?

Richard Hartung also talked about the loss of core skills if a national shipping line would go and how it would affect the business of PSA. Would the new owner bypass PSA and make Malaysian ports their ports of call and head office? What about the core skills of shipping talents? Not important? Yes, not important. We already have lost our core skills in banking and finance and IT and would need 30 years to train our next generation of bankers, finance and IT experts if the govt is serious to pursue this line of thinking and not just paying lip services.

We even compromised our Total Defense Concept by bringing in foreigners in the millions and given important appointments in govt services and GLCs to foreigners called new citizens and some not even new citizens. We are at the verge of cleaning out our local academics in the academia by replacing them with foreigners. Would we be losing any core skills and talents?

And the NOL and SIA do not just play a commercial role for profit and loss. In times of war, they have supporting role to play for our military services as well. Are we really going all out on this Great Singapore Sale just counting dollars and cents? Are there other more important considerations to think about, strategic interests, the big picture, a nation versus a hotel?

All the kpkb in the social media will be of no use. Maybe what this Richard Hartung said may ring a bell, because he is a foreigner and foreigners are the smarter people in this Sin City. And in this case this foreigner also thinks this Great Singapore Sale of iconic assets is not a good idea.

What do you think?

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sale of iconic assets is not a good idea.
RB

Not really. Because PAP have sold so many already, so what is one more sale?

And even if sale of iconic assets is bad, I think it will also not getting any worse than it is already bad so far.

And bad though it may be, but the best thing for PAP is that it even increased its mandate to a whopping 70% of votes just on 11 Sep 15. So not surprisingly, the streets are as peaceful as ever, and even Hong Lim Park is deserted most weekends of rallies and protests. And what "Return our CPF" nonsense? Sinkies like Roy are now as quiet as a churchmouse, after getting only an embarrassing 21% of votes contesting against Hsien Loong last election.

Now if u were Hsien Loong, what more can u want?

Anonymous said...

Should it be called the Great Singapore sale or the Great PAP sale?
Who is doing the selling?
PAP or Singaporeans?

Anonymous said...

Who is doing the selling?
PAP or Singaporeans?
Anon 9:19 a.m.

Majority Singaporeans (aka 70%) gave PAP the mandate to do the selling, or for that matter, any other things PAP want to do.

That's how things work, understand?

Anonymous said...

"And the NOL and SIA do not just play a commercial role for profit and loss. In times of war, they have supporting role to play for our military services as well."
RB

Sale or no sale of NOL and SIA, Sinkieland will be finished if there is war. So don't ever think of war happening in Sinkieland.

PAP strategy for Sinkieland is to prevent war from happening in the first place by having a strong SAF with the best weapons money can buy. So this hopefully will be a effective deterrent against those who want to wage war on Sinkieland.

Anonymous said...

@ AnonymousNovember 26, 2015 9:28 a.m.
//Majority Singaporeans (aka 70%) gave PAP the mandate to do the selling, or for that matter, any other things PAP want to do.

That's how things work, understand?//

Sure!

Anything run by ex-generals also from gold turned into dust ......

Lau Go turned NOL from record lost to record profits in the 70s ......

Now 3-star Generalisimo Ng Tat Chung, with his ( childish ) war games room in his NOL office, has turned NOL from record profits to record losing streak in sinkieland history.

Any other corporations run by ex-generals?

Likely will be put on the auction table soon ......

Anonymous said...

Btw, NOL top 3 volume counter yesterday in SGX.

Looks like the market perceived ownership by a private professional team down the road would do NOL a lot of good than the current DPRK Kim Jong Um lookalike CEO?

Anonymous said...

/// PAP strategy for Sinkieland is to prevent war from happening in the first place by having a strong SAF with the best weapons money can buy. ///

Yeah hor.
Is our plane the F-35-SG is the "best" fighter plane SAF can buy?

Is our SMRT the best train company the SAF-linked people can manage?
Is our NOL the best run shipping company the SAF-linked people can manage?
Is our parliament populated with too many SAF-linked people?

Anonymous said...

"Looks like the market perceived ownership by a private professional team down the road would do NOL a lot of good than the current DPRK Kim Jong Um lookalike CEO?"
Anon 9:48 a.m.

Of course. That's why PAP make the right decision to sell and the buyers also make the right decision to buy.

Just as majority (aka 70%) voters perceived a PAP govt would do a lot more good than a govt led by the weak and one too many opposition parties. That's why 70% voted for PAP.

Anonymous said...

// That's why 70% voted for PAP. //

Eyes tuck stamps?

Anonymous said...

Is NOL a privatised company? If yes, nationalised it.

If it is a public company, privatised it.

Problem solved. Sure profitable.

Anonymous said...

In the 1932 German election, majority oso voted for Hitler's Nazi Party ......

Anonymous said...

@ AnonymousNovember 26, 2015 10:15 a.m.
//Is NOL a privatised company? If yes, nationalised it.//

Typical papigs chow Kuan style .....?

Privatise the PROFITS?

SOCIALISE the LOSSES?

Anonymous said...


Is there any differences???

Anonymous said...

Anything SAF-linked people touched become KAPUT?

Sinkieland is strategically located at the cross-roads of major shipping routes and it is one of the most important shipping hubs globally.

Most of all, it is the HUB of the most concentrated base globally for MNCs, implying unimaginable amount of biz opportunities for exports of MNCs finished products and massive imports of raw materials and other inputs and goods sinkieland does not have at all .....

How can a shipping company with the full backing of the top 10 sovereign fund globally still CANNOT MAKE IT UNDER such HUGE COMPARATIVE and COMPETITIVE advantages?

Hope they didn't appoint a 3-year old to run NOL?

Your full head of HAIRS scratch until like BOTAK oso cannot understand?

Anonymous said...

Knn

Call great saf-linked sale lah .....

Everything lose money sell liao .....

SMRT now cannot make it "nationalise" ( sell back to taxpayers, some more likely at a PREMIUM )?

KNN.

Sooner or later "NTUC" under 2-star kee chiu oso for sale?

"MSF" under tan seow Jin oso a matter of time ....

Ha ha ha

Not forgetting "MOE" under the parachuted "one shot one kill" ....

Anonymous said...

Sinkies are not bothered that they are sold and pawned.

Yew think they care even if the State is sold away?

Khongcum or wat ?

Anonymous said...

@AnonymousNovember 26, 2015 10:50 am
//Yew think they care even if the State is sold away?//

Hopefully the state not headed by any saf-linked ( hopeless ) people ......?

Anonymous said...

Agongkia surely will
agree that sinkies are
Khongcums.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

I think the more you sell off to foreigners, the (potentially) safer the security of the nation.

Private property owners tend to be very fussy and easily spooked when it comes to the stuff they OWN, so the more DIVERSE foreign ownership there is of formerly national assets, the safer for Singapore.

Singapore has a very tax-friendly climate too, so the revenues/ profits from these assets would probably be kept and invested in Singapore instead of being repatriated to their home cuntrees where these "foreign earnings" will undoubtedly be TAXED.

Consider an example case: PSA owned by Chinese company. SMRT owned by Japanese company. HDB owned by US company. SGX owned by Israeli and Russian joint venture. SIA owned by Indian corporation.

Now consider that Indonesia's president is assassinated and a group fundamentalist religionists---well-armed and trained---take over the cuntree. Their next target is Singapore....

What do you think will happen? These fuckers will face a huge joint force of Chinese, Indian, Israeli, Russian and Japanese military, joined by of course, our valiant SAF. The US can take a break, we got this covered.

The more DIVERSE the ownership, as well as the population, the better, more prosperous and safer your cuntree will be.

How's your xenophobia going, motherfucker?

Anonymous said...

Can we sell away Temasek and the entire management team?
Is this a national icon we hope never to see ever again?
What about PAP?
Can we sell away also?

How about changing SMRT's logo into the lightning logo?
Do you think lightning represents the speed of SMRT trains or the speed PAP's leadership ability to make corrective actions to policy mistakes?

Anonymous said...

@ AnonymousNovember 26, 2015 11:24 a.m.
//Can we sell away also?//

In SIN City, technically anything is possibly for sale including their souls, morals, conscience. ....

Sometimes we should be glad we are alive .....

Some people are probably very pissed with all the criticisms and flakes they get from sinkies in MSN ......

To continue to be alive and able to blog is a blessing but who knows we may be gone any time in any possible way including a heart attack etc .....

When anything can be sold, anything can be at anytime. ...... when there are buyers who are willing or motivated to pay and sellers willing to sell their service(s) or wares ......

Few months ago, some bloggers were murdered in 3rd world under broad day light ......

One always become more acutely aware of the preciousness and fragility of life after a close shave .......

Hope no such thing ever will happen ......

Meanwhile let what will be will be .....

No point worrying on things we cannot control.

What they want to sell, let them sell .....

At most follow Virgo foot steps and try out matland ......

Anyway already the 2nd ( freak ) incident this year out of "no where" .....

Meanwhile life goes out

Anonymous said...

Typo ......

Should be "Meanwhile life goes on"

Auto correct error ......

Anonymous said...

Mikhail Gorbachev : " The tendency to encompass every nook of life with detailed central planning and control literally straitjacket society. "

Ha ha ha .....

Gorbachev did not realise about 70% of sinkies like their lives to be controlled and planned as their papigs master see fit and see no wrong in them .....?

Is there something inherently wrong in sinkieland as in USSR before its collapse in 1991?

Is RB the "Gorbachev" of sinkieland seeing the destructive ills in SIN city but helpless except to blog about them?

Anonymous said...

MS why are you so childish? Now get back to your room in IMH.

Anonymous said...

Deng Xiao Ping : " Seek truth from facts. "

The Soviet model was discarded by Deng as it was NOT CONSISTENT with the real world.

Are SAF-trained generals, colonels and majors mindsets CONSISTENT with the REAL world?

What are the facts facing NOL, SMRT, MTI, MOE, NTUC, MSF?

What are the truths?

Can they defy the market or are they consistent with the real world?

Can sinkies taxpayers backstop NOL and all the generals and colonels and majors run entities eternally?

Is the NOL (mis)management fiasco an ominous warning for all sinkies and sinkieland that saf-linked people must put a stop to all the maciam masak masak handling in their duties and there is no such thing as balek or reset and start the game all over again and again?

This is the real world.

Not a game or to use saf lingua, NOT A WAR GAME?

This is for real.

Seek truth from facts, not some theories from textbooks hidden under the office tables or some war games rules non-existent in real world?

Anonymous said...

/// Meanwhile life goes out ///
November 26, 2015 11:44 a.m.

Blog too much, you die.
Write too many books, also Yew die.

Everyone dies.
It's just a question of whether you die while doing good or evil things.

Anonymous said...

There is a limit for everything in the whole universe. You can push & stretch a 12-year brain that much in a PSLE stretch, many want it abolished though.

A jet fighter can fly only that fast before the fan blades start to melt.

Up to a point people get fed up that transport companies are expanding outside Spore yet ...need to buy new buses painted with their livery( adorning insignia or symbol) with govt TAXER PAYER MONEY ...our 纳税人的钱 !!

Anonymous said...

repost

There is a limit for everything in the whole universe.

You can push & stretch a 12-year brain that much in a PSLE stretch, many want it abolished though.

A jet fighter can fly only that fast before the fan blades start to melt.

Up to a point people get fed up that transport companies are expanding outside Spore yet ...need to buy new buses painted with their livery( adorning insignia or symbol) from govt coffers , the TAX PAYERS MONEY ...our 纳税人的钱 !!

This is absolutely preposterous!

Anonymous said...

“Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
– Yoda, Jedi Master, Star Wars

Daft-ness is the path to the white side.
Daft-ness leads to fear.
Fear leads to strong mandate.
Strong mandate leads to suffering

Anonymous said...

Tiok!

Die. Die lor!

No "big deal" if blogging for a worthy cause like MSN for rb and all the loyal die hard sinkie fans and commenters.

Anonymous said...

Lim Bo Seng also die for a worthy cause protecting his comrades from the enemies.

Same for 岳飞。

Same for 文天祥

Anonymous said...

Wah!

Great insight!

Way to go! Sinkie got talent. ......

Anonymous said...

Wah!

Great insight!

Way to go! Sinkie got talent. ......

Anonymous said...

This is a case of paying millions to top management but revenue/profit cannot catch up with the humongous pay.

More companies will go down the drain if they continue to pay people in the millions for doing so little.

Goh said...

Anon4.39pm
Hehe...but I was not involve in this topic here.
I dun use anonymous to post.
Thanks for having me in mind.

Goh said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Khongcum.