Singapore Exchange Seeks High-Frequency Traders

The above is the titled of an article by Jonathan Burgos on Oct 28 in Bloomberg News. It quoted Magnus Bocker, the CEO of the Singapore Stock Exchange that this is the way to go to improve liquidity and quality of the Exchange. HFT accounted for a fraction of the liquidity in the trading of equities but 30% of the trading of derivatives, according to spokesperson Loh Wei Ling. HFT is thus in the system but would now go a big way into the main activity of the Exchange.
 
When Bocker first came on board he introduced several changes to facilitate trading, to improve liquidity, efficiency and trading volumes. Among these were smaller bid size, lower commission, no lunch break, allowing computers to be plugged into the SGX and located nearby to take advantage of the proximity and benefitted from the speed to make profits.
 
“The more liquidity and the more trading generally makes the market better, lowers trading cost and helps smaller investors,” said Larry Tabb. How would this statement measure up to the reason for Bocker to want to introduce HFT as stated below?
‘Bocker is seeking more business with the daily average value of equity trades down to about S$1.5 billion ($1.2 billion) this year, a 36 percent plunge from 2007, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.’
 
And David Gerald, President of SIAS, has this to say, ‘…allowing high-frequency traders will introduce unfamiliar risks to investors .…“A knife is good as well as dangerous,….Investors must know the risks and decide for themselves whether they want to invest or not. There are many products out there which are very risky and investors have to be educated on the risks and they must make an informed decision.’
 
Comforting words indeed. But with the HFT in full play, has the nature of stock trading been changed when profit and loss are incurred by virtue of computer speed and nothing else, and with funds using their computers to trade or cheat against the small investors? What is a stock exchange? Definitely it is not meant to be a jackpot machine or a computer game.
 
Would the authorities seriously look at HFT and the nature of stock market trading, the unfair advantages of big funds with big war chests and high speed computers profiting from the innocent and unsophisticated small investors without the aid of computers and information from the computers of the Exchange. What happens to fair trading practices and a level playing field? The MAS owes all investors big and small the responsibility to ensure that it is fair game and not a loaded dice. Would the MD of MAS, Ravi Menon, care to comment on this? My personal opinion is that this is worse than Lehman Bonds and toxic notes. Is David Gerald’s warning of a dangerous knife enough, sufficient, to the unsophisticated small investors? Anyone in the govt thinks that HFT is ok and acceptable to be allowed into our stock market? HFT is like throwing some piranhas into our reservoir and then ask what happened when all the fishes were gone, like where have all the small investors gone.
 
Should all remisiers, dealers and investors be made to take a course and test on HFT, to know the risk involved and to sign a letter that they know what they are in for and would be responsible for their own tradings?
 
An easier way to increase trading volume is to open the market 24 hours. By virtue of tripling the trading hours, the volume must increase by 3 folds. Or maybe cut commission to zero where traders can trade freely.
 
Over the last few days, the volume of trades must have opened some eyes that all is not well. No, Rip Van Winkle still snoring away?

War is imminent in East Asia

 Abe warned China that it would not tolerate the ‘use of force to change status quo’ in East Asia, a reference to the Diaoyutai dispute. And Japan has been acting aggressively by scrambling fighter jets to intercept Chinese aircraft in international airspace in the vicinity of the disputed islands. Such rattling of sabre has been what the Japanese were used to in the past, and the use of force to change the status quo, like invading all the countries in East and Southeast Asia were what the Japanese did during the Second World War.
 
Japan is still acting and behaving as if it is the undisputed military power of the region and China is still the Sick Man of Asia. In today’s context, China is in a better position to warn Japan and be the provocative one. Instead, Japan is still thinking that it is their right and think they could invade and run wild into China. Abe and his military hawks better have their heads check. Japan today is on its own, encircled by Russia, China and the two Koreas and Taiwan in the South. Any outbreak of hostility will see old scores being settled. Yes, Japan can count on the Americans, and there will be a big military battle at sea if the combatants can limit the scale of the war and the theatre of action.
 
Today, the cities in both China and Japan are so densely populated that bombings could be so destructive beyond the imagination of anyone. The scale of destruction and death in one day could be more than the whole of World War Two. But the Japanese would not want to think so and continuously provocating China for a showdown.
 
China has replied to Abe’s threat that any act against Chinese aircraft or ships will be an act of war. This is the first time the word ‘war’ is being used in response to Abe’s threat and warning of military action. By making such harsh statements, Abe is forcing the Chinese to take even stronger stand to face up to him.
 
War is imminent and a very violent and bloody one when it starts. There is no way the two countries can limit the scale of war and the participation of other countries, notably the Americans on the side of the Japanese, and Russia, the two Koreas and Taiwan on the side of China. Historical debt will be settled and the Ryukyu island chain will likely be reverted to Chinese rule, and the Koreans will make sure their islands will remain with Korea. Russians may be tempted to expand their grasp from 4 islands to a few more in the North Sea.

A Singapore Renaissance

With our affluence and so much money floating around, in the pockets of individuals and in the govt coffers, Singapore and Singaporeans are indeed entering its golden years. We have the arts festivals, theatres and major sports events filling up our calendars and all the space available. The celebrities and rich and famous of the world are treating this island of fun as their playground.

The fun, the celebration and partying and money spending are just a few ways to show that we are at a stage like Europe in the 19th century, full of wealth and time for indulgence, that people can afford to have a lot of free time to dabble with the good things in life, to be cultured and refined and to enjoy life to the fullest. These are actually superficial in away, just fun loving. The real stuff in a renaissance is the literature.

We need to have our own literature, the really good stuff, not pray pray type, not the money not enough type. We need serious and deep thinking literature in the class of the ancient barbs, poets, historians, writers of novels, economics, the arts and sciences. We have a few good starts in the right direction with LKY writing a few books on history and politics. SR Nathan also wrote something and recently Raymond Lim also wrote something, likely to be about public administration or politics. Then we have the eminent academics like Lim Chong Yah, Wang GungWu and many others that have written their own books in their respective fields.

In the area of public administration and economics, we have so many brilliant ideas and first of its kind to teach the world, eg raising GST to help the poor, how to build public flats at practically no cost, except charging land cost at one’s convenient and selling at market price and losing big, how to populate the country with third world no talents and fake talents and still going strong, how to reduce the citizen population to improve the citizen core, how to pay the world’s never heard of salary to fight corruption and with the people agreeing to it, how to keep the people’s savings for as long as the govt wants and without protest from the people, and so many many other great ideas like making things compulsory for the people to pay, and more. These will definitely make it to the best sellers list and becoming classics for the civil service in many countries, a must read for their civil servants.

We need more. If all the ministers past and present were to write about their specialties, their achievements and their wisdom, we would have a good collection of the best literature by the best talents money can buy. And Heng Swee Kiat could start a new revision in the syllabus for the schools using our very own text books by our very own intellectuals. We would be original, our children on completion of the school system will be thinking original and quoting from our very own kind. There would not be any need to quote western philosophers, historians, scientists or economists as if they were gods. Out from their mouths will be wisdoms from the likes of LKY, Goh Keng Swee, not sure if he has written any books, Rajaratnam, Nathan, Raymond, and maybe Ngiam Tong Dow. Of course we must not forget to quote from Chan Heng Chee, Kishore, Simon Tay, Barry Desker, and yes, military strategies and stratagems from our very own generals. We could have our own versions to rival Sun Tzu or Clauswitz.

When that day comes, it will be our Renaissance, a Singaporean Renaissance. And some of them will be recipients of Nobel prizes for literature and the arts, and their books could be standard text for reading in schools and universities around the world. Then we can forget about Shakespeare, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Socrates, Orwells, Obama, Bush or Clinton…. All the retired or semi retired ministers should start thinking and writing their memoirs for the benefits of our future generations on their great works and their contributions to the well beings of four young.

Where can you find kampong spirit?

I mean the real kind of kampong spirit when the people feel as one, think as one, to protect each other’s interest as one people, as Singaporeans? This is not the fake or synthetic kind of kampong spirit where you have to ask the people to come out to meet everyone with free chicken rice thrown in and all you get is some plastic smiles that disappear the moment each goes his separate way.

There was this sense of belonging, of being one people, being Singaporeans at the few Hong Lim Protests. And you can also feel that when the free makans and free shows and free handshakes with ministers in the Singapore day in the big cities in some parts of the world when Singaporeans were invited. There were identity and belonging.

Unfortunately these events did not last for more than a few hours. The most enduring and endearing sense of belonging, of being Singaporeans, can be found in the social media. This is where, despite being rudely called the fringes, the Singaporeans gathered to share their thoughts and views and speak as Singaporeans, to defend the rights and interests of Singaporeans.

The issue of discrimination against Singaporeans for jobs, the rude foreign cyclist bullying a local female Singaporean driver, the mad foreigner at the Woodland Bus Interchange, etc are events that brought the Singaporeans together, without being told to do so. The Singaporeans spoke out as Singaporeans against the abuses against Singaporeans and their country. They share the same ideology, the same emotions and attachment that this is my home and country, that we are one. No prompting needed. It is spontaneity, the real kampong spirit that is missing in general.

In the social media, the Singaporeans gravitate together to be with one another, to side with one another, to look out for one another, to speak out for one another. How could these kinds of feeling and behaviour be spread across the island for all Singaporeans to feel Singaporeans again? It is tough in the train when 70% of the commuters are foreigners most of the time. It is tough at work if the majority of the staff is foreigners. It is tough when many of your neighbours are foreigners, PRs or new citizens that still act, feel and think like foreigners.

Social media is reviving and keeping the kampong spirit alive and healthy.

Time for celebration

Our success story and the riches we have accumulated are coming together nicely to make merry. We worked hard, very hard, to achieve what we have today. We have grown up, from being young adolescents to young adults that wanted everything that are symbols of success to celebrating our successes. It is time to party.

We have so many things to celebrate for and we do it in very big ways. We went overseas to celebrate with overseas Singaporeans and ex Singaporeans. We celebrate National Days and a big 50 year anniversary bash is in the works for 2015. There are so many things that we celebrated and partied, the F1s, the arts festivals, the international sports events, New Year and all the various festivals, saving mother earth, saving energy, green day, lights off day, teacher’s day, mother’s day, father’s day, children’s day….founding father’s day, mother and father in law’s day….dog’s day, cat’s day.  Why not, we have the money to spend.

The latest in the news is a one year celebration to mark 50 years of Singapore India relations. There will be a series of celebration in both countries with visits of dignitaries and delegations and shows and whatever. It will be a year-long celebration that would include a Singapore festival in India and an Indian festival in Singapore.

There will also be opportunities to celebrate our relations with the Asean countries in the same way, with the Americans, our protector, our former colonial master the Brits. We forget to celebrate the crowning of a new prince, but did we celebrate the Queens titanium anniversary or moon rock anniversary? We should also celebrate our special relationship with Israel for helping us built our armed forces. Now who else shall we celebrate as there is still plenty of money in the kitty? Nevermind, we will remember more countries and occasions to celebrate while we are in the partying mood. The people will be joyous and maybe got free chicken rice to partake too.

I have had fond memories of the last few days when the British Forces were here. There were celebrations everyday and in very big ways. They needed to spend whatever funds they have accumulated in the kitties of the Officer and NCO messes. It was like throwing money away as it was not right for them to take the money along. If they didn’t spend them, the money would become OPM. The SAF officers would inherit the wealth which they did not contribute to it. They simply cleaned out every cent they had and left nothing for us. Why should there when they would not be here tomorrow?

Everything is happening in the island today in a different way. There are so many celebrations that Sinkies would be so happy and could have made them the happiest people in the world, or at least a people in perpetual celebration. Spending money is always an easy and happy thing to do, especially OPM.

Knock knock, who’s there

Hi, it’s your friendly MP. Please open the door.

Yes MP, what can I help you?

Oh, is this yours?

What is that?

It’s a diaper?

No, that’s not mine.

Then what about this pad?

No, not mine either. Thank you and good day.

And the MP moved on to the next door. Knock knock, who’s there. It is really tough and labourious job to be an MP. The latest chore is to carry a piece of soiled diaper or sanitary pad going door to door looking for the owner. And the more capable ones would have to deal with little puppies put to sleep prematurely and pricking the conscience of dog lovers. There are plenty of expensive and pedigree stray dogs that need attention and tender loving care out there.

What else is expected of our talented MPs with a string of degrees and being top professionals in their fields? Catching snakes or catching spiders or chasing wild boars and monkeys straying into housing estates? Checking longkangs for mosquitoes is also an important part of a MP’s duty too.

Now who else, with all their high qualifications and income would want to be a MP and to do this kind of work? The pay is good though, $16k for a part timer. Cannot hiam right?

Reinvitation for Obama

A few days back Simon Tay wrote about a reinvitation or a standing invitation to Obama to visit Asean again after he missed his last fling because of the govt shutdown. Asean countries really missed him and the Asean Summit turned out to be so dull, no threats, no call for sanctions, no thumping of fist, no American fleet floating around.

Among the things that Simon Tay reminded Obama to bring along should he take up the reinvitation are: 1. No need to bring economic presents like Xi Jinping did. 2. No need to bring anti Chinese rhetoric. 3. Be mindful of American allies like Japan and the Philippines egging for a fight with their maritime dispute with China. ‘…keep it soothing , rather than possiblky stirring more actions or proclamations.’ 5. Better to update the Asean countries of US China relations as this really matters to Asean countries.

Indeed the last Asean Summit was a dull one without Obama’s presence and his leadership to stir up more shit to offer the military might of the 7^th Fleet to back any Asean country that is willing to take on the Chinese or to claim more of the islands that the Chinese are claiming. Without the tension the adrenalines failed to flow and the leaders ended up partying and making friends instead of threatening each other.

Obama’s absence was greatly felt and is greatly expected to return to show that the Americans are the boss and to set the agenda and lead the Asean states to military glory. For those who are expecting more fireworks, it was a big disappointment. Abe must be feeling that he had wasted him time for attending the Summit. The Pinoys must be feeling empty for not given the chance to demand a couple of mothballed American battleships to battle the Chinese coastguards.

Hail Obama, you are missed by your Asean friends.  We need your fireworks. The Chinese would not be able to colonise the area. We were reminicising on our good old colonial days and perhaps the American Empire could help us to relive those glorious days to be colonies again.

Ang Hin Kee – Don’t blame external factors…

And Hin Kee, MP for Ang Mo Kio GRC, said, ‘ I have been to crowded places and seen how people accommodate one another. You have a choice. Don’t blame external factors for our behavior.’ Ang was referring to the anti social behavior of the hooligan who spat at the two female commuters and threatening to hit one of them if not stopped by a SMRT staff.  Ang should experience the rush hour crowds at MRT interchange and then ask if the commuters have a choice not to be there.

I would like Ang Hin Kee to read the study on how white rats behaved when overcrowded and the comments by psychologist Joel Yang, ‘that commuters may become “increasingly angrier” and tend to react negatively to minor annoyances as Singapore’s population density increases.’ Yang also added, ‘It has been widely researched in major, densely populated cities that crowding is linked to anxiety, frustration, aggression, and inappropriate social interaction.’

Do Sinkies have a choice on whether the island should continue to get more crowded and not less? Do Sinkies have a choice on the 6.9m population planning number or the unceasing influx of foreigners here?

Ang Hin Kee said, ‘You have a choice.’ Now what this choice? Can Sinkie stop the 6.9m population from happening? Did anyone give the Sinkies a choice? Who should Sinkies blame for the crowded environment? Yes don’t blame external factors. The foreigners can only come here to flood this place because of internal factors. They are invited to be here like swarms of locusts. And Sinkies have a choice to stop this.

How to turn friends into enemies the American way

Beginning of the week we heard the Saudis were so angry with the Americans that they were reassessing and realigning their security arrangements to distance themselves from them. And to think that the Saudis have been the staunchest American allies among the Arabs in the Middle East, excluding Israel, must be a cause for concern.
 
What happened flowing this episode is more astounding. First the Mexicans, than the Brazilians, then the French, followed closely by the Germans, all blooming mad about the Americans spying on the conversations of their leaders. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff had cancelled an official visit to meet Obama. French President Hollande is reconsidering how to respond to his American threat. German Chancellor Merkel was furious and had called Obama direct on the hotline. This is not how to treat your allies, snooping at their conversations like they were enemies. Obama has assured her that the CIA would stop doing it and not to do it in the future. Quite a comforting thought.
 
Thanks to Edward Snowden, all the worms of American treachery and betrayal are crawling all over. The ugly Americans and their disregard and disrespect for their allies are making their allies turning red in embarrassment for being treated so badly and dismissively.
 
No one can destroy the Americans. Only the Americans can do it themselves. The rot and decline have appeared on the surface and looking very ugly. Who else will be next to know that the Americans have been screwing their arses while they were in bed together?

Swee Say - minimum wage is a zero sum game

This is what Swee Say said and I fully agree with him. Setting a minimum wage is a zero sum game. When you have to make sure the low level workers be paid a minimum wage that is higher than what they are getting, it affects the overall payroll. With a cake of fixed size, the rest will have less to share.
 
I dunno if this same logic applies to the high pay and bonuses of top management. Is it also a zero sum game, that when they are paid so much, the low level workers must get less. Zero sum game is like that. The total sum is fixed, and when someone gets more, someone must get less.
 
But there are exceptions. In some circumstances, the top can get as much as they want without affecting the zero sum game formula, because the cake can be blown bigger if the supply of income is unlimited. Talented top management would know how to ensure that the money coming in is always growing and so it is alright if they are paid millions and millions. It would not affect what the low level workers would be paid. Tiok boh? The zero sum game formula thus does not apply.
 
What do you think?

Global war for talent

There is a big conference in Kuala Lumpur to extol the importance of chasing after global talents. This craze for global talents started initially in the banking and finance industry where the crooks went around the world cheating and selling fraudulent products to make huge profits for themselves, and if they made any losses the banks would have to pay for it. Many high net worth people and institutions lost big when the first bubble burst. But the scam continues today as the greed for more easy money by cheating the rich guys who think they are smart enough to make money but did not realize that they were stupid enough to be conned by these global financial talents and losing the money they made themselves.
 
this notion of global talents is spreading into other industries. The hype cannot be stopped as it is painted as the in thing, to compete for that global talents or the organization or country will lose out. It is like keeping up with the Joneses, they bought foreign talents so you too much buy some. They bought a few exotic pets, quickly get some too.
 
How many organizations really need global talents and can benefit from hiring these talents? Take the SMRT as an example, it is a local public transport company. Does it need to hire foreign talents and for what? I think the management is smart enough not to go down that road. There is no need for silly global talents to run a domestic public transport company. In fact you need local talents and local knowledge. I will fall out of my chair if they think it is necessary to put up an angmoh face to front their PR office. So far so good, that the top management are locals.
 
Even for organizations that need to compete in the international market, how many jobs really need to be filled by global talents and can benefit from their knowledge of the international scene?
 
Say for companies that operate internationally, like SIA or PSA, how many foreign talents are needed? Oh, may be the CEO needs an international team to work with him. So? Should the CEO and his top management team be forever filled by global talents? And how are the global talents made and how come global talents are always from overseas and we cannot produce our own global talents? The danger of a foreign CEO and his foreign team of top management is a recipe for disaster and forever dependent on this team. They will be entrenched and cannot be removed. Only silly shareholders will allow such a development to take place, when foreigners took the plum jobs and weed out the locals who would never be able to replace them.
 
Would our civil service and ministries benefit from having more global talents? Seriously I doubt so except to pay through their noses for talents and skills that are not needed but good to have. You want a Greek god to sit at the reception to impress the women? The other part is to deprive good jobs that should go to Sinkies. Why is there not a need to consider global talents for political office? It would be the most stupid thing to do. Only morons will flirt with such a thought and to consider having foreign talents as our national leaders, even if they are given pink ICs at the last minute to claim that they are citizens.
 
There are many GLCs that do not need foreign or global talents when the services and their products are domestic. As for the marketing of townships, do we really need global talents when most of the skills and knowledge were developed by our very own locals?
 
Oh yes, we need foreign talents for sports, for all the trophies and glories. Well, as long as we have all the more to splurge and the daft Sinkies do not protest for throwing good money for fake glories, let it be.
 
We are not what we are today because of flooding the island with foreigners. The present day foreigners are mercenaries that are here to pluck the fruits that our forefathers planted. We were selective in the past in our choice and numbers of foreigners needed. We were not so daft to take in all and sundry, fake and half baked, as our saviours. Who is the daft one?

No country, no govt, no citizen – bo cheng hu

The pathetic incident of this guy spitting at two young women at Woodlands Interchange, grabbing one of them and harassing them, is what this country has turned into, bo cheng hu. This guy went spitting at one woman after another several times each and everyone, including SMRT staff could only watch like a despicable circus act. No one could or would stand up to stop the abuse and humiliation of two women in broad daylight, in a crowded place.
 
How could such a thing happen in a first world city? I can offer only a few reasons. Everyone was so civilized except the guy who spitted at women, or everyone was so selfish, so afraid or did not know what to do or whatever. Chivalry is dead. Manhood is dead.
 
What happened could be like this. The guy could be fierce, but from the video, any medium built guy could knock him down. He was no big hunk, more like a grown up boy. Anyway, the women could also be foreigners. The people watching also could be foreigners, or most of them. Any Sinkie there, maybe a few. Even the SMRT staff in uniform could be foreigners.
 
So you have a group of foreigners in a little corner of this island watching something unpleasant happening. What to expect them to do? They are foreigners, no ownership. This is not their country, it is not their business to get involved. Why should they? And as for the Sinkies, the women could be foreigners too, so why should they bother?
 
The point is that there is no ownership. This island has so many foreigners that every other person is likely to be a foreigner. And at an interchange, the likelihood that the majority are foreigners is even higher. It is a situation of no country, no govt, no citizens. Anything can happen, who cares? No one will step forward to help anyone in distress, to defend or protect lives or properties. It is nobody’s business.
 
When there is a country, a citizenship, ownership, an identity, belonging, then there will be kampong spirit, to help each other, because we are a family, the people of a country. In a rojak situation when everyone is likely to be a foreigner, when none can identify with anyone or anything, this is what could happen. Apathy, alienation, distinterest, not my business, nothing to do with me. No one people one nation, no stand up for Singapore. This is the same as the foreigner cyclist threatening the Sinkie driver in the middle of road. In a country when the national identity is strong, the cyclist would not be seen walking or cycling again if he dared be so rude and aggressive to the citizens. In some countries they would mow him down and it would be his fault for being there. He was not supposed to be there. He did not belong there.
 
We are looking every bit like a failed nation. Yes we are just a city with no identity, not a country or a nation. Nobody cares for anyone except when their interests are directly affected.

Studio flats versus 2 rm flats

The big price gap between these two types of flats came up for questioning in Parliament. Boon Wan rightly said that one cannot compare apples with lemons. This really sums up what were at stake and the perceived unsatisfactory pricing. Some felt that the oldies were ripped off by paying so much for their studio flats and with so many strings attached. But then they should be happy that they were getting apples instead of lemons. Those getting lemons should not complain as the pricing was just right for lemons.
 
Putting this aside, the best thing coming out from the discussion is the kind of profits that studio flats could generate for HDB. In the first place the pricing for the first owner was already very high compared to the 2 rm flats. I think HDB must be making a big loss from such a sale. My apologies for the contradiction.
 
After 30 years, HDB would have to repossess the flat, upgrade and refurbish it, and sell it at what kind of price, you can make your guess. It is going to make another big loss I think, if the same way of reasoning applies. And the same flat would have another round to go, to be upgraded, refurbished and sold a third time to another oldie at even higher price, due to inflation and of course upgrading. And of course, HDB is going to lose another huge sum of money for reselling it a third time.
 
For whatever reasoning and whatever sum of huge losses, I wish that I could be the developer to build and sell these flats with the same terms. I don’t mind making all the huge losses for the good of the people.

Termination of a train driver, a Sinkie

We have heard the story of the termination of a train driver after 18 years of service. Gintai did not explain exactly why but I gathered it was due to some minor mistakes he made. What actually went wrong is not the issue in this article. What I want to address is where should a Sinkie go from here.
 
Gintai was with the Police Force before he became a train driver and had chalked up 18 years of experience on this job. He is about 50 and still has many good years to go even if he does not intend to work till 80.
 
From the company’s point of view, has Gintai committed mistakes serious enough that it was necessary to lose a very experienced train driver with many good years ahead? What is the opportunity cost to hire and train another driver? The new driver could be cheaper without taking the training cost into account. There are opportunity costs involved as well as opportunity to save some money for the company. They can’t be hiring a more experience and higher pay train driver for sure.
 
The other point is that a Sinkie lost his job, hopefully not to another foreigner to be trained to take his place. Now what shall Gintai do, what are his options if he intends to work again? I think at his age, not working is not an option. We also know that getting a job is a near impossible task.
 
First, there is only one train company here, so there is no chance of Gintai driving trains again. Neither can he return to the Police Force. If he is to remain in the city, his next job is probably driving taxi. For Gintai to look for any other jobs, retraining is necessary. And he is likely to get a job that would pay him less than his current basic, without the overtime pay. He probably has school going children and a housing mortgage to provide for. He needs an income.
 
The alternative for Gintai is just not too rosy. The net effect is for the train industry and the train company to lose a trained and very experienced driver. And this driver has to start anew in a new job in a new industry. It is a waste of trained manpower. We value our workforce. Our workforce is our main asset. We foolishly wasted a trained worker who would have to downgrade to do something he has no experience in.
 
On the whole it is a lose lose situation. Maybe the train company will gain by getting a cheaper and new train driver. And a new driver is born. Very likely a foreigner. Sinkies better be nice to their employers and don’t make mistakes to warrant a dismissal. The consequence is dire straits, and nobody will be there to help you, no institution or organisation will be behind you, except Gilbert.

Need to build more private hospitals

The over utilization of our govt privatized hospitals is becoming a joke when an appointment could be in terms of several months or even years. What kind of nonsense is this? Many medical problems would have died or healed by themselves or could have eaten the affected patients. But never mind. Let’s try to do something positive.
 
We have a population of 5.4m and a citizen population of 3.31m. The rest, PRs and non residents, make up 2.1m. This is by no means a small number of people. Now you know why our govt privatized hospitals are finding it difficult to cope. Many of these people are really consuming the health services provided by the govt privatized hospitals, leading to high and over utilization.
 
Perhaps one way to go about improving the quality of healthcare services to the citizens is to encourage the private sectors to build more hospitals to cater to the needs of PRs and non residents. It would be good for everyone, win, win and win solution. The citizens can have better healthcare services from the govt privatized hospitals or private hospitals if they can afford to pay for them. The PRs and non residents can have their private hospitals that are better and well run, to serve them.
 
And the medical profession can have another big industry to make more money. And more land can be sold to build more hospitals, more employment, more jobs and higher GDP. The MOM may even make exceptions and let them staff with foreigners as this is strictly a foreigners industry. Someone just need to do the sums right, on the cost/benefits to the country for providing such services for foreigners, including good jobs in our first world country and the cost of first world infrastructure.
 
Have a new directive that foreigners are now allowed in govt private hospitals to ease the bottleneck. They can go to private hospitals. This may ease the jam in public privatized hospitals and shorten the wait for a medical appointment.
 
What do you think? Think 6.9m coming.

Many questions and answers in Parliament

Many questions were tabled in Parliament and the ministers were busy answering them. Somehow I find the drift not going the right direction. What are all the questions about, and what are the parliamentarians there in the first place?
 
Parliament has degenerated to a state of talking cock to score points for whichever party. Questions and answers were there to do just that while the interest of the people was secondary, do not really matters. At least that is my impression.
 
When would Parliament and parliamentarians be there to speak for the interests of the people with politics taking a break? The politickings should be set aside after the GE and all should work together or separately but putting the well beings of the people ahead of everything else. It is time to work for the people.
 
Roll up your sleeves and get down to work, and forget about party or whether you like that bugger or dislike his or her face. Can we have a bit of sincerity, to deal with issues as elected leaders of the people and working for the people? Do not brush aside the concerns of the people by clever or slippery answers or excuses.
 
Put the people first and everything will fall into place. When this is not the case, everything will be screw up as the intent is wrong, misplaced and nothing will be right. There are still a couple of years before the next GE and there is time to do things and work for the people. The results will speak for themselves.
 
The people are watching and the social media can be harsh to those that are just wayanging and not working for the people. The people are not daft for sure. Whether a politician is sincere and genuine will easily be recognized and be put in their place in the next GE. There is no where to run and no where to hide, and no where to talk rubbish or act silly. Those days of going with the flow and hanging on to the gravy train are over.
 
First base, got problems or no problem? If got problems, what are the problems and what must be done to remove the problems? Or maybe there is no problem so can continue to talk cock and sing song and be merry and enjoy the good office and the good pay and the good blessing of abundance.

Hsien Loong – Don’t perform will have to go

During an interview with the CNN Hsien Loong said that anyone in his team would have to go if they did not perform. This statement has been quoted by some bloggers as a reason for Boon Wan to go since the MND is losing several billions for building HDB flats for the people. The issue is not that simple as it is made up to be.
 
How shall a minister’s performance be judged, in particular, like the case of building public flats? Should the measurement be about making profit for the govt or building affordable housing for the people? Or should it be about building enough flats for the people are reasonable prices, not affordable prices, and without having to wait for several years? Or should it be about building enough flats to meet the demands of the people without incurring huge losses.
 
The above questions are quite straight forward reality. In the current case, the issue is not just about the losses, or is it about the losses? And what is this loss, or is there really a loss? This can only come to light if the details of the costing are laid on the table. Then it could become an issue of productivity, efficiency and taking care of the interests of the people. Or it could become an issue to taking care of the interests of the party.
 
The factors to be used to measure Boon Wan’s performance can be complementary or be in conflict with one another. And different people with different perspectives or vested interests would want to judge his performance according to their own set of good or right factors.
 
In this case, the loss of several billions is academic, in a way fictitious as it is a matter of right pocket left pocket. That is why Boon Wan could proudly announce it with a blank expression knowing very well it would not affect his performance. If it would, he could easily ask the finance guy to jiggle the factors and numbers to show a profit instead. It is all about what factors to be used for the input.
 
So, what should be the pertinent factors to be used to judge a minister or Boon Wan to reflect the real performance and the desired results? Should it be the price or the quality of the flats? Should it be the ability to meet the demand and expectation of the people? Should profit be a factor and if so, how should it be measured and what factors should be used to be reasonable?

Chennai Industrial Park

There was a programme on the Tianjin Eco City on CNA last evening. In a piece of waste land, a lake used for dumping industrial waste, up rose a sparkling clean eco city, a joint venture between China and Singapore. The infrastructure was first class, like a super condominium but at least a hundred times bigger in size. The roads and buildings were many times better than our best and newest new towns in Punggol or Sengkang. It was like a modern new suburb in the western world.

Tianjin Eco City easily outclassed the first industrial town built in Suzhou, the Suzhou Industrial Park. I think this is a great expertise of ours that can be easily replicate in other countries. Vietnam is getting one and I think India is getting one soon. The Vietnamese do not need much convincing to want their industrial park Made in Singapore.

The Indians may need more convincing as the project does not seem to be moving, or has it been moving that I don’t know. If convincing is necessarily, actually we have a perfect model of a modern Indian industrial park right in our little island. I have been told many times that the Changi Industrial Park is every inch like an Indian Industrial Park with Indian companies and Indian workers forming the majority of the companies and residents in the Park. It would be a good idea if the govt could invite the Indian leaders to visit the Chennai Industrial Park to take a look at what future modern Indian industrial parks would look like. Oops, I mean Changi Industrial Park.

This Changi/Chennia Industrial Park could be a big tourist attraction for Singaporeans to want to have a feel and taste of what an Indian Industrial Park looks like without flying to India. And Indian tourists, not necessary just the Indian politicians, can be arranged to tour to this Park, a model on which future Indian industrial parks would be like. I am sure they would be very impressed by what they see in Changi/Chennai. And the residents in Changi/Chennai Industrial Park could bear testimony to the good life here, the great and modern facilities that they have come to live with and enjoyed that they could not find anything better in India. Maybe I am wrong and there are better and more modern Indian Industrial Parks than the Changi/Chennia model.

But that is not all. Even if the Indian govt could replicate the physical part of the Park. What they could not easily replicate is the software, the ease of doing business the Singapore way. This is the trump card of Changi/Chennai Industrial Park. Singapore and the Indian govt could have a long list of cooperation in building more industrial parks in India if the Indian govt could come and see it for themselves. It is already there, a working model with many Indian companies and a nearly all Indian workforce.

Our community centres and Residents Committee now have a new place to visit for their constituents. It would certainly be a wonderful experience to be in Mumbai or Chennai in Singapore. Come and visit our Indian Industrial Park at Changi.

What is real behind the myth of freedom of navigation

 Freedom of navigation in the regional seas has been harped by the Americans in every occasion available to raise tension and fear among the Asean countries. Hugh White, the Professor from Australian National University has an article in the ST last week to demystify this rubbish talk of the Americans.
 
Freedom of navigation in the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea has never been an issue. There were a few cases of piracy that were nothing more than mosquito bites and could easily be dealt with by the coast guards of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. There is no need to bring in the American Seventh Fleet and all the nuclear tipped missiles to deal with the pirates. And even if the pirates were navy guys in civilians, like the Pinoys in the South China Sea harassing and bullying the fishing boats and kidnapping them for ransom, they can be easily taken care of. The Taiwanese have shown the Pinoys that they would sink their navy ships if they dare to attack their fishing boats again. China is going to sink their biggest antique warship with compliments from the Americans.
 
So what is the real issue of this freedom of navigation shit? When it was the Straits of Malacca, the Americans were aiming at the Malaysians and the Indonesians. In the South China Sea, the target is China. But then, the whole thing is a hogwash. All the three countries have never threatened freedom of navigation in the region. All of them, according to Hugh White, needed freedom of navigation for trade. How on earth would they threaten freedom of navigation against their national interest?
 
The American humbug played at the highest key with the biggest orchestra is all noise to deceive the countries in the region. The tension and bickering by pesky countries like the Philippines and at one time Vietnam and India, were all the works of the Americans egging them on. Now with Vietnam and India backing out, Japan is now dragged into the frying pan, willingly of course, with the new right govt of Abe aspiring to rearm Japan as the new military power in the region. Under normal circumstances the Americans would have objected after suffering from the devastating sneak attack of Pearl Harbour and the thousands of American lives lost. The Americans would want to continue to keep this barbaric people under a pacifist constitution they imposed on Japan. But because of its wild big power ambition and rivalry with Japan, they are willing to use the Japanese card to give trouble to China. American is consenting and helping Japan to rearm and return to its military past.
 
Hope the Japanese would be strong enough to return the Americans the favour of two nuclear bombs to remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But before that, the Americans would be using the Japanese to raise tension in the region, with the Pinoys in tow.
So much for the fear of freedom of navigation in the Straits of Malacca and South China Sea. When have the Indonesians or the Malaysians or the Chinese done anything to threaten freedom of navigation? The real threats of freedom of navigation is when the American Seventh Fleet is here to choke up the passages and control the movement of ships through the region, and to conduct searches as and when they like on the pretext of intelligence reports of terrorism.

The injustice of justice

In this modern world, the treachery of the elite is much more sophisticated than the wisest of yore. The elite are using the system to cheat and scam against the interest of the ordinary men in the street.
 
Just read in the media today, ‘JP Morgan set to pay record S16.1b in deal’. What is wrong with this statement? Everything is wrong with this statement. It is trickery, treachery, deception and lies of the highest order. It is never about justice though it gives the appearance of justice. There is no justice!
 
The elite are exploiting the goodwill, reputation, funds and power of big institutions to cheat, to fraud, to scam for their own benefits. In the JP Morgan case, and many other related financial frauds during the financial meltdown, the top management of these financial institutions devised and designed fraudulent notes, CDOs and all kinds of gambling chits in the form of derivatives to cheat the people, the funds and also high net worth customers. And when they were successful, they paid themselves crazy and walked around like gods.
 
When they were caught with their crimes, with their hands in the cookie jars, they used the funds of the institutions to pay for the fines. The guilty party is the institution, no the management. And the money is from the shareholders, not theirs. The shareholders have to pay for their crimes, for their salaries and big bonuses. They have no personal responsibility and accountability. To them, they can cheat and forge all kinds of dubious products and instruments, and they win in all ways. The masses and shareholders are the losers. It is head they win and tail the masses, shareholders and the main street will lose.
 
They will not be caught to pay for their wrong doings. They have the law enforcers in their pockets, paid by them to share the loot. And they are repeating their crimes in bigger ways since then, with the help of the law and lawmakers, that they will not be prosecuted or persecuted. They are the modern day bandits and crooks in suits and ties. They can do not wrong and are above the laws. Many billions will be coughed out from the banks and financial institutions to pay for their crime, now passed to the banks and financial institutions.

Where is the justice? There is no justice.The bank pays the fine and the criminals keep their loots.

Gintai lost his job as a train driver

One of our regular bloggers that stopped posting after his long story of his conversation with Shanmugam posted in his blog has lost his job as a train driver with SMRT. He worked 18 years in the company and is still fit to drive maybe for another 10 years. Was he dismissed, sacked, asked to resign, asked to leave, or whatever term you called it, he lost his job. He is a full blooded Sinkie.
 
This is what Gintai said of his experience as a train driver,
 
‘For almost 18 years, I live, sleep and breath within the train system. I worked almost every day including off days unless I was on courses or on leave. I can’t even recall when was the last time I reported sick. I work with all kinds of odd hours with bizarre reporting timings and rotating shifts with rotating off days. Almost everyday, I had to remember my train timings, places (depots, stations and different platforms etc) to take the trains and worry about my train schedules. If I miss taking the train, the handing over driver will need to continue driving the train. With few misses within a short time-span, it’s out you go. That is one example of many where I was always pre-occupied with trains – even in my sleep; over the last 18 years. I had to force myself to sleep if I were to wake up at 4am the next morning to prepare for work sleep or no sleep! The train must be launched from the depot! No one will understand what I’m trying to say here except the 400 over train drivers in the system whose job is to move millions of passengers regardless of rain or shine, flooding or ponding, lightning or thunder!’
 
And this is what his India Indian friend had to say about his abrupt departure.
 
‘My FT Indian friend Manish had this to say, “… India maybe 3rd world country but it seems that Singapore is poorer than India in all respects now. If they can’t take care of a person who served 18 yrs loyally, then it’s curtain down for them where human values are concerned. You take care my friend.” PS: Reproduced with permission.’
It is so regrettable that an experienced train driver with so many years of dedicated service and loyalty will have to be let off. Nevermind, they will train another foreigner to take over his job if they cannot find another Sinkie to do so. Welcome to the unemployed PMET club.
 
Gintai should give his friend Shanmugam a call. Maybe he will be able to fix him with a better job now that the govt is talking about Fair Consideration Framework to consider Singaporeans first in job offers. Looks like Gintai did not benefitted from FCF.
I feel sorry for Gintai. Hope he will get a job soon. If not he can join Gilbert Goh and speak up in Hong Lim Park for the unemployed PMETs. This group of Sinkies is growing in strength daily. And thank God the govt is working very hard to help them and get them a job.

FCF is not just balancing of employer worker interests

Rip Van Winkle woke up after a long stupor to find a pool of local PMEs underemployed and unemployed while foreigners of all shades are taking over their jobs. What if Winkle continues to be asleep, would anyone know of this problem or would anyone recognize that there is a problem. What is the meaning of being proactive, being able to see over the horizon?
 
Now we know there is a problem, and the problem has grown to a point that nice talk is no longer an option. But they are going to talk nice to the employers who have exploited the situation at the expense of alienating a group of experienced and well educated citizens to the fringe of the country’s development. Industries have been taken over or dominated by foreigners to the point that they could not find locals good enough or available to fill even low level positions. And millions of foreigners are now living among the citizens and their sudden departure could create a social and economic crisis.
 
The influx and employment of foreigners in great numbers and the exclusion of citizens in vital and essential services and jobs are no small matters. There are strategic and security implications at stake. A country that is populated by foreigners and employed in essential and strategic industries is like allowing the foreigners to have a stranglehold on its security and national interests.
 
Total Defence is not limited to the uniform groups but also to the economy, the well being of workers/citizens and the sustainability of the economy to continue to run without being held at ransom by foreigners. Do I have to say more when key positions are occupied or dominated by foreigners who could do harm to the country? Do I have to say more when key industries are owned by foreigners that could undermine the nation’s interest in time of crisis?
 
Getting our citizens to be fully employed and in essential and strategic jobs and industries must be part of our national defence. Well, a good start has been made. According to Lim Swee Say, ‘The next step, he added, would be to work with the companies to put in place a programme to nurture local talent over the next few years.’ Things should improve with this programme and over the next few years it will be better. Thank God they are finally doing something.

Limiting influx of foreign talents may affect growth

‘For the past couple of weeks, I have been teaching my annual course in microeconomics in Singapore, a country whose remarkable growth owes a lot to the theory of incentives embedded in my course.

An independent country only since 1965, Singapore is now one of the wealthiest countries in the world in terms of per capita income. Visitors agree that it may be the cleanest and safest country, with remarkable racial harmony and city streets that can be driven at rush hour without the gridlock that you see in most of the rest of the world….

In response to a growing income gap between the many less-well-educated Singaporeans and the highly-skilled foreign workers who are well-paid in the country, the increasingly democratic government has begun to yield to populist pressure to greatly limit foreign workers. Even more so than the U.S., Singapore has benefited from the highly-educated, creative and hard-working expats who drive much of its economic growth.

By subverting the laws of supply and demand and deliberately not allowing the most talented workers to be hired at the going wage, Singapore may be relegating its miraculous growth to the past.’

Dr Lewis Mandell is a financial economist with a research specialization in financial literacy and a teaching specialization in investments and valuation at the graduate and undergraduate levels

The above is part of an article by Professor Lewis Mandell reprinted in the TRE with his permission. It was a nice piece of work praising the great achievements of the govt and what they have done to this island. As a Sinkie, reading it also makes me feel shiok. We are so damn good, but with a few drawbacks. The professor said Singapore must keep opening its door to let the ‘ highly-educated, creative and hard-working expats’ in or else  ‘Singapore may be relegating its miraculous growth to the past.’ I beg your pardon, when Singapore was rebuilding this country, were these foreign expats here and what were their contributions? Thought they were here only after everything has been built, the infrastructure, the industries, the big local banks and institutions?

The article has generated more than a hundred comments from netizens, 116 when I last read, mostly not too complimentary, and still adding. The daft Sinkies were just being disrespectful to this eminent professor. He is here to add value to our universities, teaching our young undergraduates about microeconomics. And he wrote such an enlightening piece on Singapore and even gave free advice to bring in more foreigners for Sinkies’ own good. How can our laypeople spoke so dismissively against this article and the professor without knowing their place? Boh tua boh suay.

No foreigners and dogs allowed

Below is a short paragraph posted in TRE by a blogger, pijitailai, in Mandarin.

新加坡可是越来越威风了，在洋人的地盘竟然不让洋人进入新加坡日的庆祝会。真想不到，新加坡政府在澳洲的一小片短暂的不到一天的租界，竟然表演出一幕《洋人与狗不准进入》的种族歧视风….

The gist of the article is about the Singapore Day in Sydney’s Botanic Garden. Let me try to translate. Singapore is getting more and more garang. In a foreign land Singapore refused to let foreigners enter to celebrate Singapore Day. Can’t believe it, the Singapore govt in a short span of time in Australia could demonstrate ‘foreigners and dogs not allowed in’ racist behavior.

Please regard this as a joke. Of course not, the foreigners could hang such a notice in Shanghai in those colonial days. Singapore would not do such a thing especially in Australia. Now that it has incurred an unfortunate racist protest, maybe to do some damage control and at the same time to advertise how happy we are to welcome foreigners to Sin, it can hold another Singapore Day for foreigners only to make amends and to soothe the nerves of the offended foreigners. It would be good PR and money well spent if more white Australians would visit Singapore and make it their home.

In job adverts in Sin, the foreigners are saying, No Sinkies and PRs needed. This one is true. No bluff.

Xenophobia frenzy in Singapore

The anti foreigner trend is gaining momentum in this city. The intolerance of foreigners is becoming second nature and openly flouted by the perpetrators in job advertisements. A few cases have been quoted with many violations sent to the MOM who are now investigating. The victims of this xenophobic outlash are furious and are standing up in protest and taking matters into their own hands. They are doing their own investigations and feeding the whistleblowing section of the MOM with more cases of outrageous and demeaning discriminations against the Sinkies. They know that if they don’t help themselves, they can only expect lip services and nothing will happen.

Yes, the victims of xenophobia in this city state are the citizens, the Sinkies. It is true, the citizens are quickly becoming an absolute minority if the trend is not stop or reverse. There will soon be more foreigners in the city state and they may think that the Sinkies are foreigners. The following are examples of job advertisements that have been posted in the social media and the respective CEOs have made apologies and retracted them. They are only the tip of the iceberg.

1. FST, a British firm, in its advert for an Art Director, ‘Must have Singapore residency(PR) status or PEP visa status.’

2. Randstad, a foreign recruitment company looking for a Merchandiser Planner, ‘The position is open to candidates who are not Singapore citizens or PRs.’

3. La Fondue Swiss Restaurant that wanted to recruit a Pinoy chef and proudly claimed to have a 100% Pinoy crew and Pinoy working environment.

What is happening? Sinkies are xenophobic or victims of xenophobia in their own country when discrimination against them is open and blatant, without the need to be polite and to disguise for fear of offending the Sinkies. Where is the sensitivity that is demanded from the Sinkies to be understanding and kind to the foreigners when the foreigners are bloody rude and abusive and discriminating against Sinkies?

Why like dat?

Thrift is not our national ideology

Just look at a few examples one would not fail to notice that thrift is not the ideology of this sinfully rich country called Sin City. The third world countries were once sneered at by the rich and matured countries of the first world for wasting money on grand projects like building mausoleums and palaces or anything that is good for nothing but costing a bomb. How much did it cost to build the artificial garden at Marina South, $1b? And much is needed to maintain it annually, another $300m? Anyone knows the actual figures?

And this is not the end. Another similar crown jewel is coming up in Changi to attract visitors to visit Sin City. Beg your pardon, is Singapore a destination or just a convenient gateway to the region? Like it or not, as long as the Airport is good enough, the people will come and go. But the Airport is never a destination. Neither is the artificial garden. The casinos maybe.

Then there is the F1 when everyone keeps telling that it is money well spent. Ngiam Tong Dow compared it like paying for the English boys to come and race their sports cars as a hobby. And we paid for it. How many hundreds of millions for playing host for the English boys to party?

And look at the money they are paying themselves. It is now a world record and would put Obama to same. Even a minor minister would have taken back more than the President of the USA, the Emperor of the American Empire. Thrift?

And what about the people? They are made to buy properties according to how much money they have. They cannot buy smaller properties from the govt if their income is more than the affordable formula. And if they are earning a bit more, they must squander their income, over 30 years, to buy private properties. Thrift? No, it is spend if you have it. Retirement no money? Who cares?

And the same formula applies to being warded in govt hospitals. The patients are frowned upon to ask for lower and cheaper class wards. There is also a mean testing to make sure they cannot get admitted to lower class wards. And if they do, the disincentive is that they will not get the same subsidies as the lower income, very meritocratic. And it is not the intent of the hospitals to build more lower and cheaper class wards with more beds to cater to the demand of those who do not want to splurge or squander their hard earned money away. Getting sick and admitted to hospital is a great opportunity to spend, to show how much money one can afford to spend. Spend until no money left for retirement or go bankrupt.

And the latest, spending millions on Sinkies living overseas. Some are questioning why the need to spend such money when the money can be put to better use at home, to feed the less fortunate. Is this about thrift? No, it is spending in style. We are the envy of even Europeans who insisted that they be invited into our eat all you can parties for free. My God, we are truly rich beyond the imaginations of the people of rich countries.

We have the money, we have a lot of money in our reserves, and we can afford to spend, to buy the latest and most expensive military toys at several hundred millions a pack. Who says the money is for rainy days? If the money is not spent, if people are thrifty, how can the economy expand, who is going to buy all the expensive homes and cars, how can the GDP keep growing?

Spending is good. Over spending is better. After all, money value shrinks quickly with the high inflation, and saving and not spending are as good as letting the money to rot away.

Affordable has destroyed our retirement plans

SG+ is a new programme very similar to Talking Point. Last week’s topic was about CPF and whether Sinkies have sufficient money left for retirement. After the two experts gone through with Melanie, the host, it was a glaring admission that many Sinkies will be in deep shit when they retire. The only hope to survive those greying years is to downgrade their homes, provided they have one and is down gradable.
 
The two were talking about having more savings and more schemes to bolster the existing schemes which would not be enough due to high inflation and the huge amount of money sucked into housing and medical insurance. The recommendations are something like another CPF to cover for the shortfalls in the current CPF and more insurance schemes to cover for the inadequate schemes that the people are paying now. 

The assumption is that the people have a lot of spare cash to pay and save. My ballpark figure to ensure that these people have enough to retire, to live well and to pay for their medical is to save 70% of their current income. Madness is another word.
Don’t blame the recommendations or the experts. Basically our retirement savings through the CPF are screwed. Despite being one of the biggest savers in the world, we don’t have enough for retirement. No joking. If the planners would have their full proof schemes, everyone must earn 3 times what they are earning today or save 2/3 of their incomes if they want to be safe.
 
What went wrong? Affordable is the word. By declaring everything is affordable or priced to be affordable, the savings of everyone is at risk, to be just enough for the day, for all the schemes, including housing and medical but somehow retirement was forgotten. They computed everything to be affordable, ‘gum gum ho’, and nothing left for retirement.
 
How did it start? It goes back many years ago when housing was priced to one income and to be paid off by 15 years. At this kind of affordability, many people’s savings started to grow. They genuinely smiled when they looked at their CPF statements, I mean the average workers. They would have paid up their housing loans and started to save everything they put into their CPF. And better still, if the spouse is also working, the whole CPF contribution would be in the CPF, and growing at 4 to 6% pa.
 
Then someone must have noticed the big and bigger savings in the people’s CPF. Heheh, they got plenty of money. Public housing prices must be made affordable to these people. They can afford to pay more. The prices became affordable for one income from 15 years to 25 years. Still got a lot of money leh. Make it even more affordable, with two incomes and 25 years. And then even more affordable to stretch it to 30 years or more. They called it market pricing or market subsidy or something like that, but very affordable.
 
Today, the first 30 years of CPF contributions by both spouses would be just enough for the affordable public housing. The real savings will come after 30 years of working, when both are about to retire or already retired. How to have enough for retirement? And there are the minimum sums to set aside, and now another great scheme, the Medishield Life is going to make retirement a less stressful time without the fear of big medical bill, but would tax on whatever is available in the CPF. The premium sure affordable, to who?

Best for HDB not to declare its losses or deficits

The latest $797m deficit that HDB said it has incurred due to the building of more flats is going to be disturbing to many readers. It was $2b a few years back, then it was $1b of losses. In these three announcements, a total of $3.797b has been lost by HDB on behalf of the MND. Can the ministry really believe that the people will be convinced by these numbers without questions asked? Can the ministry blame the people for doubting the validity of these numbers given the market pricing of the flats sold?

What is the purpose of the ministry declaring that it made such colossal losses? Is the ministry telling the people that the govt is so generous in absorbing the huge losses that should otherwise be forked out by the buyers of the flats? Is the ministry trying to tell the people that they should be grateful to the govt for carrying the losses? Or is there any other purpose or reason for wanting to show the people such drastic sums of money lost for building HDB flats?

Whatever is the agenda, it is going to boomerang and instead of gaining some goodwill or sympathy and understanding, it is raising many eyebrows. Pardon the people for saying, ‘How can it be?’ Throw a straw poll or a proper survey and I can guarantee that most people would not want to believe the numbers. They are just so difficult to believe to the point of absurdity. Don’t blame anyone for thinking this way.

If the ministry thinks it fit to throw out such numbers, it must be prepared to give the details to remove all doubts. If it is not prepared to do so, this could be a failed PR exercise that makes thing looks even worse. It is better not to issue such claims and probably the people would not even think about it. Saying it only invites a lot of unnecessary questions and even anger and cynicism from the people.

So, MND, what do you think?

HDB incurring $797m deficit

It is unfortunate that the HDB has incurred a $797m deficit, a jump of $354m from last year. This is caused by the ramping up in the building of HDB flats. 72,737 units are in various stages of construction. HDB has to spend $5.2b just to acquire the land for the flats. Some of the deficits were due to higher subsidies for the new flats. The people, or those eligible to buy HDB flats must be grateful to the govt for absorbing the higher prices, a whopping $797m.
 
Assuming an average price of $300k for each flat, the 72,737 units of flats should fetch $21.8b of revenue. I hope my numbers are as close to the real numbers. I only have 10 fingers and it is a bit touch trying to use the toes as well. With this revenue, I am wondering what would be the final deficit when all the flats are sold. Last year about 10,000 units were sold. I am not sure how the $797m deficit is derived, but the deficit for 72,737 units must be at least 5 to 7 times more when all is done.
 
I am afraid the govt is going to run a loss for building so many flats. But it is good for the people with such affordable priced flats. Just hope that there will be no more schemes to cover up for this deficit.

Singapore a truly rich country

We held parties called Singapore Day for our citizens and their friends abroad in cities like New York, London, Melbourne, Shanghai and the latest in Sydney. Each event could see near to 10,000 Sinkies being feasted with our local favourites to remind them of home, all free, paid by our govt. And the cooks and their foodstuff were flown there from home to ensure authenticity. We even flew a real minister and several big shots there to really make them feel at home. See how hardworking our ministers are. Each event would probably cost a few peanuts at most. Good value for the money. Our overseas Sinkies will be so happy and their guests will be impressed. I don’t think the Americans or the Japanese could afford such parties.
 
It is one of those events that Sinkies really feel like Sinkies and being surrounded by Sinkies. You can’t even find such a gathering and atmosphere back home except in Hong Lim when Gilbert Goh threw a party. And this is what a Sinkie, a Anthony Sim, in Sydney said, ‘… he had never seen so many Singaporeans congregating in the one place.
 
“It is quite heartwarming to know we are not alone. Everyone of us were on the same page,” he wrote.
 
"There were no PRCs, India Indians, Bangla or Pinoys to annoy us.” Ahem.
Sinkies back home would not have many chances to be in the company of just Sinkies.'

Unfortunately this Sinkie event has attracted the wrong gatecrashers who demanded to be invited. And when failed to get in, they accused the organizers of racism. KNN, how can our govt be accused of racism when they invited all foreigners with their open arms here? Typical outback country bumpkin mentality! It is unbelieveable but it is true. The two hungry and hard up white Australians said on a talk show that they were refused entry to a private party for Sinkies. I hope the Australian govt is not going to demand an apology and for SIA to fly the two men for a two week fully paid vacation in Sin City to appease them.
 
Actually since we have so much money to spend, the Singapore Day could be open to all and sundry. It can’t cost that much more than the F1 or the synthetic garden in Marina and another one coming up in Changi. It is goodwill money and will be money well spent. And the hard up Aussies will be blowing our trumpet happily on how generous we are and how good are our hawker cuisines, and all the good thing about Sin. Ya, good PR value for tourism money.

Asia Asean partied in the absence of the gangster

The Asia Asean Summit came and gone, cordially and with many economic issues addressed and advanced. The Asean states and their Asian partners locked themselves up in Bali and Brunei to discuss and chart their path for economic cooperation and trade. The climate was conducive and dignified and befitting of a platform of national leaders in conference. The enmity and hostility were totally absence. There were no thumping of the table and no gangster was there to set the agenda for Asean. It was Asean taking the lead as host to other Asian leaders. It was all about moving forward for their mutual benefits. No gangster was there to seize the moment, to hijack the meeting for its hideous motives and agenda.
 
The recent Asean Asia Conference and Summit were marked by the absence of tension and big power rivalry and big power agenda. The gangster was not there to stoke tensions talk about instability and threats of war where there were none. The gangster was not there to agitate and incite interstate rivalry and hostility when there was none without the gangster behind pulling the strings.
 
The meeting was one of the most productive and least contentious that Asean and Asia have had for a long time. Whenever the gangster was around, it was the gangster that set the agenda, for more bickering and for creating fears and threats of war.
Thank God for keeping the gangster away, for keeping him busy and no time to cause mischief in the region.

Chipping at the Greenback

One by one, slowly but steadily, countries are starting to negotiate to trade with China using the Renminbi or Yuan and their national currencies. The Indonesians have started the ball rolling and soon more Asean states would do likewise. Why would they want to use the Greenback that is losing its value rapidly with the Americans happily printing them to consume more and getting more into debt?
 
The latest American crisis and the threat of a debt default is very real and it is only a matter of time even if they could kick the can further down the road. The British have also signed a new agreement to be the centre of Yuan Pound swap in London. It is going to make London the biggest financial centre to trade the Yuan.
 
With this move by London, knowing how strategic the Brits are in their thinking, more European countries would not want to lose out. And this also applies to New York. There is no stopping for Yuan to be used more widely as an international currency. And the victim to this development is none other than the Greenback.
 
Countries holding on to huge American Treasury bonds are sweating in their pants with the Greenback shrinking in value like melting ice in the summer heat. The Americans are not helping either. They could not as they are deep in the shit and wanted to print more to reduce their foreign debt.
 
An avalanche is waiting to happen with the Greenback turning into banana currency very real. The confidence of the Greenback is being eroded daily and all the holders must be planning on how to get out, how to get rid of the Greenback at the earliest sign of trouble or opportunity to do so.
 
The Americans have killed two Arab leaders that were trying to scuttle the Greenback supremacy and a third one in Assad temporarily delayed. They could not be culling the British PM or other European leaders for wanting to cut down on the use of the Greenback.
 
Don’t worry, the Americans have worked it all out. It is time for another pow wow at Bretton Woods. And the Greenback would have a few zeros sliced off its back and buried for good at Arlington with the American flag wrapped around it. So would the holders of American Treasury bonds.

The Socrates syndrome

Socrates a great philosopher of ancient Athens who died around 399BC was blamed for all the ills and failures of the City State in Athens and was sentenced to death by the state.
Socrates -  ( ancient Greek philosopher )            Versus            Athenian City State

Ngiam Tong Dow  ( a pragmatic Head of Civil Service )     Versus           Singapore City State


Result
_____


Socrates:   Death  by drinking hemlock , a poisonous drink

Ngiam Tong Dow :       Recant

Verdict in History
______________

Socrates :         An honourable man vindicated by History

Athenian City State went into decline after Socrates death

Ngiam Tong Dow : People in tune with his original version

Singapore is in the doldrums, unsure of its  future