The Shahibs have landed

Goodyear is here. And many more good years may follow. We have unfolded our new secret formula to take on the world of corporate giants. We are in the big league, with a big war chest to spend. And we need a new formula to prove that we are different. We need an Angmoh face to front our international vehicles to look more real and international. Don't get me wrong, I am not xenophobic. In a brave new world when a black man can front the most powerful nation on earth, why are we still sticking to the old colonial formula of Angmoh best? Have we not learn enough? Have we not learn any lessons from the financial crisis that is unfolding in our face? There is no short cut to success. The only short cut is fraud or deceit. In other forms they called it creative accounting or doctoring the books. We don't need to learn this from the West. If Asians do not think they can succeed without an Angmoh face, then Asians should deserve to be doomed. China and India have proven that Asians are not duds. Japan, Korea and Hongkong have proven that Asians are equally eloquent and good in the theatre of warfare in international business. Perhaps our colonial fantasy is still deeply engraved inside our psychic. There are some advantages in having an Angmoh face to run our business. I dread that this is the magic formula to live by. Someone told me that some of our overseas businesses deliberately hired Angmohs to give it more credence and respectability. If the logic of western superiority is true, UOB should have folded up long ago. And India and China will still be colony or semi colony. All the Indian and Chinese corporations are doomed. How is it that Japanese brands are household names in the world market? Yes shahib. Tea or coffee?

Nuisance complaint against Siew Kum Hong

'My ministry and the police are not intending to let that asset be debased by allowing the police to become a tool for petty politics.' K Shanmugam He added, 'The integrity and impartiality of the police force should be beyond reproach and that has been and will be our policy.' Shanmugam was responding to Siew Kum Hong's complaint that while the latter was conducting a street survey, 2 policemen were watching him and he was later told to stop his survey. He was only allowed to do so half an hour later after checking with their superiors. It seemed that the police received some complaints on Siew Kum Hong causing a nuisance to the public. And Shanmugam assured him that the police has a duty to investigate all complaints even if they do not merit an investigation. I just got two nagging doubts. Who would complain about Siew Kum Hong conducting a survey? He looks like a very nice guy, very polite and very learned, as handsome as any of the MPs. He does not bear tattoes or carry a parang around. Who was the complainant and what was his background or intent? I think all the mothers will let him carry their babies. Secondly, would the police do the same if a nuisance complaint is made against any MP or the grassroot leaders or anyone walking along the street? Ok, MPs should be safe. Low Thia Khiang or Denise Phua need not worry. Correct or not? Hey, Siew Kum Hong is also an MP, albeit an NMP! Was Siew challenging anyone on the streets or carrying a loud hailer blowing at top volume?

3 cardinal sins committed by taxi operators

Premier Taxis MD, Lim Chong Boo, wanted to lower the $2.80 flag down fare during non peak hours. Johnny Harjantho, MD of Smart Taxis wanted the 35% surcharge for peak hour fares reviewed. And Neo Nam Heng of Prime Taxis wanted the authority to allow the operators to use used cars which are cheaper and can reduce operating cost. After fighting so hard to get the current fare scheme to be running without too much objections from the commuters, which increases their income by the way, how could the taxi operators want to turn the table to lower fares? Have they forgotten about the problems of the past when there were too many fares and too many taxis clogging the roads, and long queues? With the current high fares and surcharges, they need only pick lesser passengers and work lesser hours to get higher returns. And with a better paying passenger profile, lesser taxis need to run the roads, and traffic woes will be a thing of the past. The better paying passengers will definitely demand better quality or newer taxis since they are paying more for it. Second hand cars are old and not worth paying the high fares and surcharges. And don’t forget, with lesser passengers being able to afford to take taxis, the queues will be shorter and make taking taxis a privilege of those who can afford it. And that should be the way. Taking taxis is a privilege of the more wealthy commuters. They want the convenience, not to wait and wait.

Notable quote by Wong Kan Seng

'Whether Mas Selamat is in Singapore or he has fled our country, we will hunt him down as we did before.' Wong Kan Seng said in Parliament

The independence of an Indepedent Presidency

Low Thia Khiang raised the thorny issue of how independent is our Independent Presidency in Parliament. He reckoned that the two key system is as good as two keys opening simultaneously, or two keys working as one. This has led to the call for a more transparent process in the excercising of the presidential powers. Tharman replied that our system is sound, run by men of high integrity and challenged Low to question their ability to act as honourable men. We are in fact in a very privilege position at this moment in time to talk and debate over the issue of how independent is our Presidency and whether there is a need to be more transparent to let it be seen that the Presidency is indeed independent. At the moment it is all about faith, the faith of good men in office. Otherwise the issue would not even be raised, that there is no doubt in the people's mind. Now, what do we have in practice now? We have a President in office who was a candidate nominated and sponsored by the govt. A govt's candidate, and walked into the office by default because of the stringent criteria that ruled out the possibility of more candidates being qualified to contest for the position. And he is assisted by a Presidential Council of eminent citizens, also nominated by the govt. It is only natural that the independence of the President becomes an issue. We are fortunate that the President has not been called upon to exercise his powers on controversial issues. If there be a day, the President's independence will not just be discussed in Parliament only. It is obvious that for the President to work independently, he needs to be independent or not too closely linked with the govt. And this applies to the Presidential Council as well. We are all familiar with the chorus, 'All the King's men.' Parliament also raised the issue of the transparency in the process in which the Presidential Council and the President would have to walk through before coming to their decision. This is still not apparent to the people. The other point that I would like to raise is the possibility of the two keys opening the vault in the middle of the night. Is that possible? Would there be an alarm system when the vault was opened, by two keys, but without proper authorisation? Who guards the vault to prevent such a happening?

Sharing our reserves

The reserves were accumulated over many years, probably from 1965 onwards. Theoretically all the old citizens contributed to it one way or another and is a minority shareholder to this money. Now that we are using the reserves to share with the citizens, does it mean that every citizen, new or old, will be entitled to the same handouts, ceteris paribus? If yes, are the old citizens being shortchanged or the new citizens just being treated to a buffet from the accumulated reserves which they did not contribute a bit to it?

The Sahibs are coming

Obama is going to put a cap to the salaries of CEOs whose corporations received bailout aids from the govt. Many of these highly talented CEOs will be making a beeline out of America, and where to but paradise. It will be a great loss to America, a brain drain. America will lose their great talents. And paradise will benefit from their presence, their skills, experience. More good years ahead. Just pay them for what they asked for. Every cent is worth it. They will come in handy to manage our investments in Citibank, now BOA, UBS, Barclay and whatever.

An end to treasury raiding

Obama is furious at the irresponsibility shown by the corporate big wigs in Wall Street and the American corporate world. Despite so many of them being bailed out by the taxpayers, they are still splurging on themselves and paying themselves crazy. Obama is going to put a stop to all the money madness in America. He is going to put a cap on the CEO's salary at US$500K per annum for those corporations receiving govt aid. This madness of salary without a cap is running to a wall. It has been going on for too long. How could it be allowed to continue for so long? An employee with an open ended income that can literally shoot to the moon? Only the greedy could not see anything wrong with it. There must be a cap to all salaries and all incentive schemes to stamp the abuses and corruption in different guises.

Making sweeping statements

This appear to be the norm in Parliament. Low Thia Khiang was whacked for running down the JCS outright. Of course there are goods and bads of the JCS. It is not meant to be a cure all solution. Then there were sweeping remarks that the netizens were immature as if MPs were mature in making such unqualified remarks. There were unkind and cruel remarks of Seng Han Thongs burning. There were many sites that gone to town burning the news. There were sites that did not do that. At least I know redbeanforum.com and mysingaporenews.blogspot did not. Don't make sweeping statements to tar and feather everyone. That is immature even when spoken in Parliament. So, does Lui Tuck Yew really think that netizens should regulate themselves or a body of netizens to regulate other bloggers? What a missed opportunity that we don't have ABS in action. To tackle the abusive bloggers is a full time job. Who would want to do it for free! Everyone is asking to be paid for doing national service. Let's be realistic. A reasonable voice may say a little to moderate the outcry. But would he/she take it on himself/herself to police the net without being paid? Come on, you must know how big cyberspace is and how much work needs to be done to trawl the sites. Ok, so what's next? More regulations and setting up cyberspace police squad? Or sending in the insurgents to attack abusive bloggers, fighting fire with fire? This will only define the war zone and set up a never ending feud between the nasties and the govt. Another option is to pay for the services of PR agencies to do the PR jobs. But that would be costly and may also backfired as anyone seen to be speaking for the establishment for the sake of it will be attacked or ignored. It is not an easy task to moderate the feelings of bloggers. And don't take the outburst so negatively. It is the purest and most brutal truth, a genuine feedback from the ground. Silencing them will only throw up the sweet and pleasant tooth. Is that what the govt wants to hear? To have the raw feelings out is better than just hearing the good stuff. Maybe paying some established bloggers to be the voice of reason to cool down temperatue could be a possibility. But it is a tricky task. Mishandling it would discredit the bloggers and fan the fire. You need good seasoned bloggers to handle this in the most acceptable way without offending the already angry mob. And it takes a lot of effort and devotion. Doing it for free? Fat hope. It is still a task or a role that has to be filled. And only respectable bloggers can do the job, carefully without ruffling feathers or rubbing the bloggers the wrong way. The heat can be lowered and cooled with the right effort. It is all about maturity! And not making sweeping statements to run down all and none.

Ouch!

Click the wrong button and lost my Contributor list! Got to re enter one at a time again. Anyone knows how to get it back?

Low Thia Khiang taken to task

It was reported in the ST that Low Thia Khiang had doubts on the effectiveness of the Jobs Credit Scheme in saving jobs. "He was promptly taken to task by six PAP MPs,...including labour chief Lim Swee Say.' Surprisingly several PAP MPs also questioned the same thing as Low Thia Khiang. But they were not taken to task. One thing which everyone is careful not to touch is the CPF. It seems that touching the CPF is taboo or will cause undue hardship to the hardlanders. And I too strongly disagree with Ngiam Tong Dow's suggestion that the CPF should be cut. I think he is too far away from the masses. Why can't we cut the CPF? Please ask the HDB or Mah Bow Tan.

Singaporean first or foreigners first

This is gearing up to be the new debate of the day. Several MPs are standing up to be heard in speaking up for a Singaporean first policy. It was never an issue till now. We used to hear things like foreigners are talented and here to help us. Why are we chasing them away if they are here to help us? Not very logical. Then there is also the brutal truth version. Singaporeans who cannot make it in such an ideal environment like paradise, to make money and a good life, deserved to be kicked aside. They just don't have it to make it in life. Let their places be taken over by the hungrier foreigners. Maybe we should compromise on this. Singaporeans, being less talented, can take over the cleaning jobs in food courts. The talented foreigners can run the country.

What is US$60b? It's only Madeoff!

Tony Tan reported that GIC was managing a fund of $450b and Temasek Holding managing a portfolio of $200b. These work out to be $650b. He also said that 7% was in cash and something like 30% in income paying investments. And we have outperformed the market! The market valuation of stocks worldwide has fallen by 42%. Our portfolio only lost 40% of its value. Not bad after taking some precautionary measures to trim down our investments in stocks and shares. So what is our paper loss to date. A 40% loss of $650n is $260n. But if we deduct the cash and other investment part, assuming 40%, then the sum invested in stocks and shares should be around $390b. A paper loss of 40% works out to be $156b. Still not a small sum of money. A little more than what Madoff has lost. But this is based on the above data and extrapolation. The actual amount loss, on paper, may be lesser. How much did we really lose? The number must be unspeakable.

Step aside Tan Kin Lian

We have two heroes coming in to help the investors in the minibond debacle. Professor Hans Tjio of NUS will oversee the process at Hong Leong Finance. At DMG & Partners Securities, Kim Eng Securities, OCBC Securities and UOB Kay Hian will be Hwang Soo Jin. Both "will not be personally involved in the resolution and settlement of individual complaints. 'They will provide MAS with regular updates on the progress of the financial institutions' complaints review and will highlight to MAS any shortcoming in their processes as well as any issues that require regulatroy follow up,' said the central bank." This is reported in Today paper. Tan Kin Lian's role is over. Now the heroes will step in to finish the job.

Workers clapped after being retrenched

This is the headline of an article in the old media, 'Somthing to clap about' by Lin YanQin in Today. Workers of Chin Heng Garment Factory still found something to clap about after being retrenched. They were initially unhappy and angry and feeling quite emotional about being out of job. Soon they were clapping when the severance package negotiated over a month was improved. The workers greeted the news by bursting into an applause. This is a very positive spin on a depressing news. And the workers' morale is high and bubbly and looking forward to more challenges in good spirit, like oxens.

Singapore's answer to save the world

Singapore went to Davos with a solution to save the world from another financial meltdown. It has diagnosed the cause of the current crisis to the low pay of regulators and administrators in charge of Wall Street and the financial institutions. The solution is simple, pay the administrators and regulators at least as much as the bankers and fund managers and the problem will not have happened. The underlying assumption, according to my understanding, is that you pay for good talents. By paying the administrators and regulators as much as the bankers and fund managers, the supertalents will become administrators and regulators. And if they are paid even more, then they will be better than the bankers and fund managers. Now, how much will be enough to pay these supertalents? The bankers and fund managers are being paid hundreds of millions with the top three getting billions at the peak of the market. But there is one problem that I noticed. These supertalents of bankers and fund managers were being paid so much and they could not stop asking for more and actually resorted to frauds to continue to demand more and more pay. Would they behave differently if they become administrators and regulators? Won't they be the same greedy and unscrupulous thieves again? One thing for sure. If this is our solution, we must put it into practice first to show the world it works. The minibond crisis and the rubbish dump stock market are indicators that our administrators and regulators are not being paid enough. Let's pay them as much as the bankers and fund managers first. And when our stock market shoots pass 4000 points and no more similar minibond crisis, then we can tell the world that we have done it. We can solve all kinds of problems by throwing money at the problems.

Who is more guilty?

Wall Street and the American corporate world are in a big mess. And the whole world is suffering the pain. Who is guilty or more guilty? At the moment only a handful of big wigs are caught with their pants down. No, they were not caught. They surrendered to the authority, confessed their own crimes. The authority was sleeping! Or were they sleeping with the thieves? The wonder of it all, the real criminals are all enjoying their ill gotten wealth without any sense of guilt and not guilty of any crimes. The real criminals are the regulators and administrators. They created and managed a flawed system! And the rest took a ride on the flawed system and benefitted from it. No crimes, just mismanagement. The thieves are stealing from an open till. So who is to be blamed? The regulators and administrators are pointing the fingers everywhere except themselves. Who is to regulate the regulators? Who is to guard the guards? When the administrators and regulators are cock enough to let flawed systems to operate and the thieves to take from the till legally, or without breaking the law or the rules, where is the crime? It is time to hang the regulators and administrators. They cannot find excuse that they are not paid as well as the thieves.

Pass the hats around please

We need to create more jobs. I don’t mean creating jobs like cleaners and chambermaids. I mean real jobs that pay reasonably well. There are three ways to go about it. One, with our huge reserves, more jobs can be created with the money available. We can create more seniors and deputies positions, eg senior or deputy President to the President or senior vice Presidents, deputy to the vice President, senior Perm Sec, deputy Perm Sec or deputy to deputy Perm Sec. We can also have senior mayors, deputy mayors, or even create new ones like governors and deputy governors. The people have already accepted the practice of seniors, so it should not be an issue. Precedents have been set. It is a good precedent. A second way is to pass the hats around. Stop the ridiculous practice of one person wearing 10 or 20 hats. Pass the hats around so that more people can wear one or two fat hats. The greedy practice of several hats on a small head or a small head that thinks it is very big is unhealthy. Ok, I must be careful about this as there are not many people that are fit to wear big hats or many hats. A third way, and this concerns the filthy rich oldies. Many of the oldies are so rich that even without the income from their jobs they will have enough money to last a few generations. Let them retire gracefully to enjoy their wealth, to see the world and smell the roses. And let the younger and hungrier people take over their jobs. After all many are so feeble that most of the time they were on sick leave or fail to turn up for meetings or for work. We can spread a little generosity around and cast the net wider to share the goodies.

Too much bad news!

This seems to be the complaint of the day. The old media is joining cyberspace in reporting bad news and more bad news. Now isn't that bad? It is time to report good news. And this is a sign of being responsible, to tell good ending fairy tales. How would the media react to this call of telling good news in bad times? Would they be challenged by their professionalism or their conscience? Should the journalists or anyone reporting on news, deliberately take on a one sided approach, to cook up good news for that happy feeling? To tell the tooth or to tell the truth? It seems that telling the tooth is a duty call. What kind of spin shall one put into it when job losses, wage freezes, cannot keep up with bills and debt payments are the order of the day? One way to approach it is to report on the lifestyles of the rich and famous and their parties and expensive taste. Forget about the hard luck cases. Those are losers and they deserved to be in those desperate situations. These are the people who skims to save 10c on their bus fare, try to whip up dinner for 4 for $10 or downgrade from drinking $200 a bottle wine to a $12 bottle of fermented grapes that are still drinkable. What a life. I hope writing on bad news does not become seditious.

Colossal pays and bonuses to go?

Is it just a sickness? With all the big financial institutions and corporations asking for millions of dollars from the govt to prevent bankruptcies, the CEOs in Wall Street are still paying themselves crazy. They take it as their dues, their just rewards for bringing in big businesses. Gary Goldstein, President and CEO of executive search group Whitney Partners, has this to say. 'It has become very corrupt...I've watched it over the years and everyone was taking their piece of the pie...and not paying attention to the end game, which is the little guy who ends up with all of these securities on their retirement accounts.' If these people have created real value or wealth, no one is going to protest. Have they? Their ingenuity in creating false wealth, doctoring of accounts, false businesses, supported by all the regulating agencies and the civil servants, have led to this world wide financial meltdown. And the best part is that they don't care and are continuing with their taking habits. It is part of the system, authorised, no fault, no crime and no guilt. Obama is furious and so are the Americans. They want to stop it but can't. The people are helpless while those in position to take continue to take. And the value of the stocks of many corporations hit bottom. No sweat. It is the small guys that are holding to the stocks thinking that it will see them through in their retirements. It is time to review the fat bonus scheme. It is the scheme of the thieves in power, to fatten their own pockets. Corporate honchos should tie their bonuses to the performance of the company as well as the value of their stocks. This must be fundamental to the health of the corporations and the wealth of the shareholders and the viability of the stock market. If stock prices are allowed to be manipulated by big funds and corporations do not care a dime whether it is going up or down, or if it is $20 or 20c, then the value of the stock is worth only the value of the paper it is printed. It is worthless. At the rate it is going, the stock market industry across the world will hit crisis situation just like the banking industry. Small investors will end up holding worthless pieces of papers. The compensation of corporate managers must be tied to the performance of the companies and stocks. This will ensure that they will bet their future on the well being of the corporations and stock value. Of course the flawed stock market mechanism must also be revamped to prevent massive sell down of stocks regardless of the value of the corporations. There must be responsibility and accountability! At the end of the day, when investors found themselves holding hoards of worthless papers, someone must be hanged!