No need more regulations for cyberspace

Why is there such an obsession to want to regulate the internet? Who wants to regulate the internet and for whose interests? I don't see bloggers being too keen to want people to regulate their activities. In communist countries, dictatorships, authoritarian states, regulations and laws are the tools to keep the people in check and the rulers in power. Laws and regulations are aplenty, all for the sake of the rulers and not for the people. That is the reason why they are so obsessed with more rules and regulations. In our case, thank god, we have elected honourable people with high principles, morals and selflessness as our rulers. So the danger for abuse of rules and laws is not there. Our rulers are righteous people and will not interpret the laws to their benefit or to the disadvantage of the people. For such reasons, we are an exception. Actually I would support more rules and regulations as they will be made for the good of the people. Let's talk about govt and rulers in general, excluding our govt as we are different from the rest of the world. It is very common and easy for rogues to be elected as rulers or assumed power. Some will wear the mask of absolute righteousness. But when in power, the only thing they care is to keep themselves in power forever. And they will want to keep the people in control with more rules and regulations. All done for their own interests. Even without more regulations and laws, many tricks are available to them to intimidate the people. Calling up people to harass them, invite them to the police station for tea. Or worst, if all things failed, they can use the ISA and arrest innocent people on fictitious charges. If the people remains quiet, those arrested will be arrested for good. If the people make noise, they may release them and claim that the arrest was for the safety of the person. Do people really want to have more rules and laws governing internet? I feel that common law, the law of human decency, the law of respecting other people etc should be adequate. There are enough laws to regulate human behaviour and crimes. No need to have more. What for, for who?

Why no Tamil signages at the airport?

Red card was shown and a speaker was not allowed to talk on the above topic at Hong Lim Park. This is a sensitive issue on race. A K.Sabesan wrote to the ST and said, 'I wish to express my strong displeasure over the decision of the police to cancel a planned talk at the Speaker's Corner over the absence of Tamil signages at the airport and other tourist attractions...I strongly supported the initiative not out of hatred towards other races, but felt that the issue had to be addressed.' I have full sympathy with such feelings. We have so many Tamils and Bangladeshis here who don't read English or Chinese. We also have so many Thais, Myanmese, Filipinos and Indonesians and people from other countries. And we also have tourists from around the world coming here, including Arabs, Russians, East Europeans, Japanese, Mongolians, Vietnamese etc etc. As a global city welcoming the world to our home, we must show our hospitality towards our guests and our guest workers. We need to make our facilities friendly to all of them. And this is especially so to the valuable foreign workers and foreign talents sacrificing to build our countries and provide employments to Singaporeans. We should have signages for all the languages of the world in our airports and tourist spots. That is not only natural justice, we can also claim another first to do so. Soon big cities like New York, London and Paris will follow our example as truly international cities and put up language signages in their airports. If we are not going to do so, then we should do the next niciest thing, to cut down on the number of foreign workers and foreigners in our country. Then no one can be angry with us or complain that we are being unfair to them. We can't really blame them when there are so many of them here. We must treat them fairly, at least let them know how to go from A to B, in their own languages. Where on earth can you find foreigners demanding rights to have their languages in signages in our airports and tourist spots? Only in Sillypore!

Local fund managers grotesquely underpaid

Below is an article showing how well off American and European fund managers are being paid in year 2007 alone. Top on the list is John Paulson at US$3.7bn, second was George Soros at US$2.9bn and third was James Simon at US$2.8bn. We should quickly raise the pay for our local fund managers before they all ran to America and Europe. American hedge fund billionaire John Paulson 'American hedge fund billionaire John Paulson was his industry's biggest earner in 2007 thanks to a bet against sub-prime mortgages that netted him $3.7bn (£1.9bn) in personal profit. As the world's biggest banks reeled in the face of the credit crunch last year, the top five hedge fund earners took home at least $1.5bn apiece after their funds gambled the right way in exceptionally volatile markets. Hedgie Paulson's made it, now he must spend it. A survey by US hedge fund magazine Alpha, published yesterday, said the five - Mr Paulson, George Soros, James Simons of Renaissance Technologies, Philip Falcone of Harbinger Capital and Kenneth Griffin of Citadel - all individually earned more than the $1.2bn that JPMorgan will spend to buy Bear Stearns, the most high profile victim of the crunch. Mr Paulson, himself a former managing director at Bear Stearns, stole the crown after setting up the $150m Paulson Credit Opportunities Fund in June 2006 to short sub-prime mortgage-backed assets. Where other investors bet against the entire sub-prime index, Mr Paulson's team drilled down to the individual CDOs, delivering net returns of 590pc for investors in the fund by the end of the year. Number two on the list - 77-year-old Mr Soros, who called the dotcom bust - also owes his $2.9bn payday to his bets against sub-prime, as does ex-Barclays Capital man and Harbinger founder Mr Falcone, who pocketed $1.7bn. Hedge fund traders needed to earn at least $210m to reach the top 50, a feat achieved by eight London-based traders. Top of the UK's hedge fund performers, at number 13 with $450m, was the head of Atticus Capital's fund, David Slager. Others include GLG Partners' co-founders Noam Gottesman and Pierre Lagrange, who made $350m apiece, while star trader Greg Coffey made $300m. This was on top of the hundreds of millions of dollars the trio made when they listed GLG on the New York Stock Exchange last year. But GLG has entered more treacherous waters. News emerged yesterday that Mr Coffey - a specialist in emerging markets - unexpectedly handed in his resignation at GLG earlier this week, sending the fund's shares plunging by 12.5pc to $8.75. The GLG partner rescinded his resignation on Tuesday, but is locked in talks with Mr Gottesman and Mr Lagrange about his future, with no guarantee he will stay on.' I would like to give credit to the source of this article. Unfortunately the source was not disclosed.

A tale from NTU

I did something naughty last week by Terrence Lee What a week it has been. I'd expect my four years in university to be extremely peaceful, free from trouble and fuss. My idea of university life used to be that of dating, studying, and having fun generally. How things have changed in the space of seven days. Things are certainly getting interesting, right here at NTU. In one night, at the click of a mouse, I became an activist, and I did not even realise it then. So, what is activism, you wonder? It is standing up for certain beliefs, and fighting to get it recognised by the authorities and the wider public.... So, what exactly happened? Here's a brief: 1) Chee Soon Juan came down to NTU to gave out flyers and talk to students. They were generally apathetic, but student reporters were on hand to report the event. 2) However, the campus administration did the unthinkable -- they censored all coverage of Dr Chee's visit, wanting to "protect students." 3) Many of us at the Nanyang Chronicle, the school's campus newspaper, were infuriated. It showed two things: that the school has no regard for the opinions of students and that the school treats us like children, thinking that we will be easily influenced by whatever we read. That was when a thought came to me: Get it out! Get it out! Singaporeans need to hear about this!.... Above is an extract of a post by Terrence Lee and crossed posted in the TOC. It is a lamentation by a university student on how NTU, an institution of higher learning, dealt with the visit of Chee Soon Juan to the university. According to Terrence Lee, the students were treated like children and the university was trying to protect them. Where is papa and mama? If university undergraduates are so naive, so fragile, so innocent, that they need to be protected by the university from a politician, how could our children be exposed to the vagaries of life and to make informed opinions of the world? It looks like the undergrads are a cohort of kindergarten children. What happens to the old belief that the university is a fertile ground to nurture the young minds, to liberate them from ignorance, to acquire an inquiring mind, to deliberate and expound and exchange ideas, of youthful idealism? Looks like it is better to feed them with Vitamin C daily to protect them from the common flu. These are poor and helpless students and can be easily exploited and manipulated as they are quite mindless. I just make up my mind to send my children overseas to get a real education.

Wrong perception on power station sale

Jenny Teo, Director, Energy Market Authority, wrote a letter to Today to explain the rationale for the sale of power stations to private companies. The story that the govt was selling the stations for 'good profit' and to avoid 'having to explain to the public high (electricity) tariffs' were wrong. These were not the reasons why the power stations were divested. It was all a govt's strategy to open up the market for more competition, restructure the industry, which ultimately will benefit the consumers. And this is already bearing fruits. Otherwise the consumers will now be paying much higher tariffs when oil prices rose. The efficiency and productivity gains were passed on to the consumers. With the opening up, with participation of more players, with liberalisation, 'there will be more scope for innovation, better service and competitive pricing' which means consumers will benefit more. The main logic is still privatisation. Organisations that are not privatised will be inefficient and unproductive. This logic is quickly loosing its meaning and becoming stale. The civil servants of today are no longer the dumb and dull civil servants of yesteryears. They are the best of the crop, the best talents of the country. And they have all the resources to improve and better the system. They can do all their studies, go on study trips, all information and technology are open secret and available to them. The civil servants can do much better, given their talents, to run more efficient and productive organisations. There is no need to privatise, to commercialise, to be efficient. In the present context, a govt monopoly is an advantage and can be very productive given the scale of operations. Unless our civil servants are not as talented as they are make out to be. Then that will be a different story. And we should actually sack all of them. Why pay them market salary if they are unable to compete with the best in the market?

The housing bubble

Other than the genius of the best financial minds in printing worthless papers to be sold in the trillions of dollars, the basic ingredient in the American financial crisis is non other than the housing bubble. Property prices were allowed to run unchecked in parallel with more loans to those who cannot afford them. And when the bubble bursts, when the people no longer be able to afford the properties they could not afford in the first place, the house of cards crumbles. We are also creating the housing bubble here. Asset enhancement to make properties more expensive by the days. Great wealth creation. Great illusions will soon become great delusion. When the income is not rising, or shrinking, the runaway prices of properties are unsustainable. It is extremely hazardous to give loans in the hundreds of thousands and millions, at 80% or 90% of the property value. Even at 60% or 70% is risky when servicing such huge loans is dependent on the economy and the monthly salary. When the economy falters, when the income stops coming in, the dream house will vanish in the dream. The fundamentals of economics, of thrift and living within your means is an evergreen truth that one can ignore at your own risk. The American dream of living on future income, on borrowing, has come to an end. It is a miracle that it can go on for so long. The bubble has burst. The dream is shattered. The Americans will find it increasingly dependent on cheap Chinese products, not matter if the quality is not up to their expectation. That's what they can afford now.

The wrong vibration

The mantra of foreign talents is still being sung in high places. We need a new vibration. We need more concerts, arts festivals, F1s, bohemian corners, pot parties, gay parties, yatch racing etc etc. We need to fill up the Esplanade and the museums. These are the kinds of vibrations we are expecting to befit a first world city. Black tie parties, wine drinking and beautiful women in their expensive fineries. What kind of vibrations are we getting? The Geylang kind, the vibrations of litter, noise and stench. And we have little Geylangs aroung the islands. We are a first world city within a city of sleaze. We have kept the foreign workers in dormitories in graveyards and secondary jungles or industrial parks. But when these run out, or when the number can no longer be contained, we are going to see them swimming in the plummest corners of paradise. Serangoon Garden is only the beginning. They will move nearer to us as a matter of time. Nice vibration.

When the end is nigh

The dramatic change of fate of UMNO is a set piece of how things will be when the end is nigh. All the facade of confidence, of things looking right, of support from every corner, of supporters swearing and willing to fight for the cause, of the silence majority remaining as acquiescence as before, will take an about turn. First the brave will start to take sides. The Malaysian bloggers were the suicide squads that took the challenge of the media through the internet. And gradually the ground was won when the other side of the story got an opportunity to be aired and heard. The truth becomes tooth while the bigger truth emerges from the wilderness. The continued abuses of the people and the trampling of their rights were given a bigger airing and more were willing to stand up as in the Hindraf case. The Chinese community were the pathetic lot that continues to swallow all the discriminations and obstacles placed in their path, education, economic opportunity, religious freedom etc were accepted by the Chinese component parties in the BN. They totally discredited themselves remaining in the company of their abusers. They were abandoned. Then the Malay ground was worked up to face the truth. That they too were the neglected lot. And they too abandoned UMNO. UMNO was left with a bunch of politicians that were showering themselves with the wealth of the country but projecting the image of fighting for the interests of the bumiputras. The deception was unveiled and the conclusion was foregone. The royalties stood up to claim higher moral ground that they could not do so before. And now the judiciary and the legal profession are standing up to say no to the abuses of the judiciary and the police. They are saying no to ISA! Where would all these lead to for UMNO? More will stand up. All the injustices and unfair policies and practices will be challenged. And the last bastion of UMNO's supporters will revolt and tear down UMNO themselves. These are the eventualities of events when the end is near. It can happen in paradise too. The wrongs cannot be kept under the lid forever. When the time comes, people will stand up and speak up from the most unexpected corners. In the meantime, the incredulous and nonsensical will keep on piling up till that day, to be removed and sent to the dustbin of history.

Where are the accountabilities?

Should heads roll? The near collapse of the US financial system and the bankruptcy of several investment banks must surely see someone taking responsibility and getting the stick. Looks like it is not going to happen and they will live happily ever after with their loots over the years of mismanagement. According to Ann Williams in her article on the financial crisis in the Sunday Times, the CEO of Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld, 'gets to keep the US490 million he earned.' If it was a simple case of business failure, fair enough. What if there were mismanagement amounting to fraud, cooking of accounts, hiding losses etc? From her article, she mentioned 10 reasons for the current turmoil and among which were the churning out of dubious financial products to unwary customers, raising loans and living off loans and more loans, 'keeping loss making investments "off balance sheet" and the failure of regulators to do their due diligence. All the policing and regulating agencies, including auditors etc that were supposed to check on the soundness of business practices and accounting systems were not doing their jobs. The accountability of failure of such a scale does not lie alone on the respective investment banks but a hoard of regulating bodies, including govt agencies. But as mentioned by Ann Williams, the Americans and those apeing the American practices, have been living on a culture of greed 'that gave outsized rewards for success and risk taking but did not penalise failure.' Do we have a mirror of similar practices and culture here? Are we harbouring a similar potential problem that is waiting to explode in our face? Have we been doing things like the Americans, for greed without any concern to the consequences of failure? This is what Tan Kin Lian said, 'There has to be stronger protection of consumers. Regulators should disallow unsuitable products form being marketed to the retail investors. Regulators also need to take stronger action against financial institutions that fail in their duy to provide good advice to their customers.' This should include financial institutions and regulators who have failed to do their due diligence. A case in point is the churning out of many IPOs into the stock markets which eventually failed within a few years despite the glorious accounting data dished out to the investors in the prospectus. Listing companies into the stock exchange with no control on their qualities is a crime. So far no one has been held accountable.

Uniqueness of space in Cyberspace

The nature of space in Cyberspace is very different from the space that we know. What we are accustomed to is a three dimensional space that can be define in physical terms. The space within our properties, the geographic space of a country, a space that is either yours or mine or share by all. Hong Lim Park is a physical space. What about the space in our minds? Cyberspace is very similar to such mental space except that one can actually visit such a space. Mysingaporenews, redbeanforum or any forum in cyberspace is just an abstract space in nowhere. Each space can actually be as big as the universe and can be ever expanding. And the best part of it is that everyone can have a cyberspace as huge as the universe but not at any time infringed or violated into another person's cyberspace. And that space literally does not exist if one does not key in the cyberspace address to enter that space. Why or how can such space that is there but not there be subject to regulations? If no one wants to key in www.redbeanforum.com or www.mysingaporenews.blogspot.com, these places do not exist at all. The person who enters into someone's cyberspace, enters on his own initiative. The cyberspace owner can openly announce to visitors that they need not visit if they are not comfortable with the space. The govt needs not visit any cyberspace site. The physical govt can exist in its own physical dimension and at the same time cyberspaces can exist in parallel but in a different dimension without encroaching on the physical space of the govt. So why the hang ups and the uneasiness of the existence of cyberspaces? Why can't cyberspaces exist without the interference of govts?

The pathetic being of politicians

The politicians are the leaders of the people. The honourable and righteous role model to be respected by the people. And rightly so, they shall not be objects of ridicules. They have big missions and noble roles to play in any society. And when they play their roles well, they will be held in high esteem, to be remembered in perpetuity in the history books. Why is it that politicians can become pathetic and lose the respect of the people? How could they land in a situation when they become a mockery or jokes in private parties? They will if they allow personal or non national interests to rule their thinking and policies. A good case is the arrest of journalists and parliamentarians in Malaysia. When they could not find any good reasons to arrest the opposition or critics, they threw the ISA at them. And what have these people done to be arrested? And the most ridiculous of all is for the Home Minister to turn around and said the arrest was to protect the journalist from harm. And Anwar Ibrahim is now pronounced as a threat to national security. This means that he can be arrested under ISA. For what? For having the majority of MPs to qualify to form the govt and replace the current govt? It is so easy to call anyone names or hang a security threat placard on anyone's neck and put that person in prison. A dog is a fish. Yes, a fish got two eyes. A dog also got two eyes. A fish got a tail, a dog too got a tail. You still don't believe that at dog is a fish? A fish can swim. Yes a dog can swim too. So a dog must be a fish. This kind of cock talk can only come from arrogant politicians. When politicians speak in this kind of logic, they deserve to be put into a gossip corner. People may politely smile at their cock explanations, but there is no running away that they have made a fool of themselves in the eyes of the people. And when that happens, all respectability, honour, moral authority etc is gone. Habis. That is how pathetic politicians can be when they take a wrong stand for the wrong reason.

No change in Dictation Culture

The CPF ruling on sale of property for those above 55 has changed again without any discussion with the public. The rulers think that it is good or their right to keep the people's money. So when you sell your property, your money must go back to make up for the shortfall in the minimum sum. Now they did not even go through the motion of letting people know of the impending change, no need for feedback. Just dictate it. And it's done. No need to put up a farce of consulting the people. The rulers shall rule and the people shall be ruled. It is our money!

More hugging and embracing may do the trick

MP Lim Wee Kiak, who sits on the Government Parliamentary Committee for National Development and Environment, suggested that employers work with grassroots leaders to organise dorm visits for residents, to foster mutual understanding. Quoted from TodayOnline. This is a good suggestion. We should organise more social activities, visit the foreign workers more, have more parties with them to get to know them better. Then they will understand the locals and the locals will understand them. And with such understanding, they can live happily together. Problem solved.

Foreign workers due to poor planning

Mr Mah, meanwhile, admitted to possibly “poor planning” on the authorities’ part when it came to accommodating foreign workers. . “We plan for a certain level of increase (in the influx) but we never expected the demand to go up so high,” he said. In 2006, the increase in foreign workers numbers was 55,000, compared to 102,000 last year. . So is Singapore planning adequately, going forward? “If we get more people to accept the trade-offs, I am confident we can meet demand,” said Mr Mah....Quoted from TodayOnline Lin Yanqin yanqin@mediacorp.com.sg Oh, can we accept poor planning as an excuse?

The Loot Chain

The trouble financial institutions in the US did not happen yesterday. It did not happen last year. It happened many years back. But all these institutions were reporting glorious profits all these years. And the top management were paying themselves crazy for turning in profits after profits. And they all looked so real. These are high profile public companies and are audited annually by the top auditing firms. Cannot be wrong. And there are top notched regulators regulating them. Everything is above board. Now they have turned out to be cans of worms. Why nobody knows? Why no whistleblowers? Yes, there were. Read a Bloomberg article posted in http://www.littlespeck.com/ for the full story. Whistleblowers were threatened inspite the laws to protect them, and threatened by the regulators who were supposed to look at these companies carefully. The moral of the story is to check who are behind these looters before you blow the whistle. US$900b have been pumped in so far to save all the fallen blue chip companies. Would the investors be able to take a single cent back from the management who have been looting the companies? Would the auditors and regulators be hanged? Unlikely. They are all in the loot chain. Would this happen here? Unlikely. We have the best brains administering the system and watching over them like a hawk. Even people who bought a single lot of 20c share and recorded the date wrongly will be caught. This is how meticulous and detailed we are. We have the resources. And there will be more resources to watch over the big boys. Then we have the best auditing firms, and top notched management team. If they play around with the accounting system they will be caught. No way will it happen here. But if 'sway sway' that it happens to some of the big companies, just pray hard that they are not managed by foreign talents. For most foreign talents will come in with a golden parachute. Anything wrong, company goes bust, they will still bail out safely with a soft landing and a big bag of loot to retire happily.

Game over in Wall Street

The financial wizards and witches in Wall Street are running out of magic and tricks. All the derivatives, paper money, junk bonds etc that they have concocted to be exchanged for money are not working. By the stroke of mid night, they will be transformed back to their original forms, worthless papers. We have seen Merrill Lynch, Citibanks going down. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Lehmah. AIG barely breathing. Now who's next? Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sach? Is there anyone that would be spared? The game is over. But the wizards and witches are still very, very rich. It is the poor investors in America and the world over that have paid the price. Someone care to explain why these people are paid millions and millions when they are gambling with other people's money? And when the game is up, they just pack up and go. They only lose other people's money, not their own money.

Thumbs up for CPF staff

Nothing to do with the policies and the need for people to contribute till death do they part. Wondering why people who are economically active after 60 would still be needed to contribute to their CPF? Just a side track. I was at CPF the other day during lunch time and there were quite a lot of people waiting to be attended. Quite normal as lunch time is a good time for many employees to do their personal chores. What struck me was the attitude of the counter staff at the reception. There was a kind of purpose, enthusiasm and dedication to their job. They came across like self employed people running their own business and knowing that every customer counts and every second counts. They attended to their customers as quickly and attentively as they could. For those who needed to join the long queue, they were advised to go for lunch and return later after collecting the queue number. For those that could be attended to quickly, they did it immediately. I have never seen a govt dept or stats board that is so fired up. Whoever is motivating these staff to work that way deserves an award.

The immigrants of Malaysia

I have received the following note which I think is quite informative. *Mahathir's father who speak Malayalam came from Kerala, Southern India. Badawi's grandfather, Ha Su-chiang (also known as Hassan), was a Chinese Muslim who came from Sanya in Hainan, Southern China. Syed Hamid Albar's father is of Hadhrami Arab descent. Khir Toyo His father, Joyo Erodikromo, was an immigrant from Java, Indonesia. And even the current 'racist' Ahmad Ismail that went into hiding came from Sumatra. And all these people dare to call others squatters & immigrants in Malaysia?!

The official definition of what is political

What is political and what is not political were clearly spelt out by Ho Peng Kee in Parliament. He also explained what can cause people to debate with politicians in public events and cause security concerns and what cannot. The definitions were the most explicit that one can get and I don't think any political scientist or lawyer will be able to dispute it. The gem was not about what he said. I didn't pay any attention to them. What was impressionable was the seriousness in the way Ho Peng Keng explained his position. His face muscles were all taut and tense. And I think Parliament must be very silent with all the Parliamentarians listening intensely to what he had to say. He passed with flying colours for his no nonsense approach to an issue that is becoming a talking point in every gossip corner. It was a very brave delivery. The best gem was a little clip in the news that I caught a glimpse of. It was on Sylvia Lim listening to Ho Peng Kee's discourse on what is political and what is not. You should see the smile on her face. It was all lighten up. That was the most exquisite smile that I have ever seen. And it told so many things without her saying a single word. It would be good if the full clip can be made available in Youtube. I will call it the smile that says everything.

The Malaysian Revolution continues

Just a matter of a few months back you would not believe that it can happen. Two muslim groups and the Mufti of Perlis, Asri Zainul Abidin, are speaking out to defend the arrest of Chinese journalist and Chinese DAP parliamentarians under the ISA. The racial divide is breaking down and the different races are finding a common ground as Malaysians. This is impossible and unimaginable. And it is happening. The mindset of the Malaysians of all races are changing. The voodoo spell of UMNO has been cast away. Malaysians are uniting as one people for a new Malaysia. And all of a sudden UMNO is looking like a bankrupt political party, running out of ideas except threats of violence and the abuse of police authority.