HDB lease buybacks is on

The first batch of HDB owners have opted for the HDB lease buyback scheme yesterday. The scheme will ensure that they will have a roof over their heads and an annuity payout for the rest of their life. By this scheme, these people would have some form of income in their old age, a replica of what CPF annuity scheme and minimum sum scheme were trying to do. So, does it mean that now these people do not need to buy annuity scheme or have their CPF locked up in the minimum sum scheme? To continue to retain their money in the CPF will not be accepted as good faith. People will now see the retention of CPF minimum sum in a different and negative light. The money must be returned to these folks as they have made provisions for their retirement and old age. To claim that the amount from the lease buyback scheme is insufficient and the need to continue to hold back to the minimum sum is anything but atrocious. No amount is enough if the reasoning shall go this way.

A proactive and caring govt - A big thank you

In the 60s and 70s, most of the population were living in wooden huts, squatters and cubicles in the city. Then came the govt to the rescue. They built cheap and affordable HDB flats at less than $10k in Queenstown for the people. When the people get richer in the 70s/80s, the govt started to build better and bigger flats, 5rm, executive and HUDC flats for the people. Then came 90s, people getting more prosperous. And the govt was pleased. They started to build condominiums for the people. All still quite affordable. Now comes 2000s, what happens, flats are now too expensive. People cannot afford to buy bigger flats. So comes the proactive and caring govt. It starts to build smaller flats, 2/3 rms and even 1 rm rental flats. The people are so lucky. They can always downgrade. Always a roof of their choice to befit their pocket. Very affordable.

Medisave - the magic cure

It is reported in the ST today that chronic disease patients managed their health better when allowed to tap on Medisave. In a study by the MOH, 'Diabetics, for one, experienced improved diabetic, lipid and blood pressure control over the two years... 46% had optimal control by the end of last year. And nearly 4 in 5 diabetics with initial poor control, had made improvements by the second year....As for hypertensive patients, up to 85% of those with poor blood pressure control made improvements by the end of last year.' These fantastic findings were due to they 'being allowed to tap on their Medisave for outpatient treatment.' Wow, Medisave must be a wonder drug. The MOH must allow more patients to dip into Medisave to improve their health. I was involved in a free health screening in one of the constituencies in the North. We were surprised that despite being free, and so many volunteer doctors, very few people came forward. So some of our volunteers went to one of the aged homes nearby to encourage the inmates to come forward. They were scolded by the oldies. Their reason, screening was free. But what about the followup and medicine that were prescribed after the free screening? They could not afford to pay for them. So they rather stayed put and gave the free screening a pass. The moral of the story is have money have good health. No money, poor health.

The greatest con game

This game is invented by the fund managers. They gamble with OPM, other people's money, and call it investing. When they placed a winning bet they pat themselves on their back and proclaimed how clever they were. When they lost, they still charged the investors a management fee. They cannot lose. Just like the doctors and lawyers, whether one is cured or otherwise, wins or loses a case, they are paid handsomely. But fund managers outdo the other professions by the way they measure their performance. They have a shifting or relative target, mark to market. If the market makes $1m and they make $1.2m, they are better than the market. If the market loses $1b and they lose $900m, they outperformed the market. In both instances the investors must thank them for being smarter than the market, and even reward them. The other trick which they invented is selective data. Choose a time frame or a specific area that makes money, just talk about it and ignore the rest that register losses. Or do some window dressing on a particular day of the month for book closing. Push up the prices before market closes to look profitable or lose lesser. I want to be a fund manager.

Is building 2 and 3 rm flats a sign of progress?

How many of you agree that building more 2 and 3 rm flats is a sign of progress? To me it is the clearest indicator that we are going down, getting poorer as a people. For those who are living in private properties, good luck to them. They are the people who are living well and progressing. What on earth is happening that we keep crowing about how rich we are and how much reserves we have and we are now launching a new batch of smaller and smaller flats? The uplifting of the lives of the people must be across the board, not just for the elite and the well endowed. As I have mentioned earlier, we went through a phase when everyone is thinking of buying the next bigger flat. There were hopes and aspirations. HDB even had to put into the back burner its building of smaller flats. The aspirations of the people is for a better and comfortable life, better and bigger housing. Today, the sentiment is reversed. A number of people are thinking of downgrading and many are actually downgrading. Even Wally Buffett is thinking of downgrading. And at the same time, people are buying their 10th or 11th property for their grandchildren or grandchildren's children. The divide is getting wider and wider. Many factors contributed to the people being unable to afford better housing. We all know why. Land is the most precious part of our limited resources. And if we keep on building to sell to foreigners and leaving the 2 and 3 rm flats for out citizens, will this lead to our own people being displaced or feel displaced in their own country? Are we for the betterment of our people or foreigners? What is the point of selling land and properties to foreigners, more profits for what? PS. Wally, the hell in Jalan Kukoh is not just the structural design. It is social, the people who are being displaced, who are desperate and with a mentality that can be dangerous to you and your family. Not all are like that, but all you need is a few and your life will be turned into hell. And in this modern slum of our first world city, the proportion of desperados are more than in other areas.

All bridges lead to JB. Why?

More opposing voices are being heard against the 3rd bridge. I can understand the people of JB for not wanting any bridge that does not go their way. I can understand all those with vested interests in JB, businesses, properties etc to want everything to go to JB. A 3rd bridge will only divert people and business activities away. But have they thought of the consequences of everything going into JB? Do they want a KL or our CBD in JB, when the place is jammed packed with vehicles and people and pollution? Could they not see any merits in diverting away traffic, people and vehicles that are not bound for JB, through other avenues, and bridges? Yes, the 3rd will not benefit JB directly but more for the east coast towns like Mersing, Kota Tinggi, Desaru, Pulau Tioman and all the islands, and also Kuantan and perhaps Trengganu and Kelatan. But JB will benefit from a cleaner and less congested city, less through traffic, less enforced travellers that must go through JB short of alternatives. The Federal Govt is right in looking at the big picture. Who will have the final say? I think not Najib. Another stillbirth.

Make yourself useful and work for life

Yesterday a Raymond Lo wrote to the ST to encourage Singaporeans to make themselves useful and they can be guaranteed of life time employment. His role model was LKY, who he quoted, at 86, 'MM Lee did, to a gruelling round of visits to Malaysia, meeting important personalities, gauging opinions and cementing ties. He has my respect and admiration because he does it for Singapore's well being.' In the same page a Kelvin Tan wrote to complain about the plight of his 81 year old father who was literally a football, being kicked all over the place and no one interested in his well being. The old man could not qualify for the Eldershield and need to be certified as 'disabled' to get help from the Interim Disability Assistance Programme for the Elderly(Idape). And it needs a simple process to confirm that he could not eat, dress, bathe or go to the toilet, move around and transfer from bed to chair. Kelvin Tan was able, and made many calls only to be pushed around too, with no solution to his father's plight. He was very disappointed. What is the moral of the two stories? 1. One must be useful. 2. One must be your own boss and have a job that is only yours, to work at your own time, to decide what you want to do and not to do. 3. No one there to breathe down your neck, to check on you and ask you to hurry. Why so slow? 4. The job must pay so well that you die die still want to work. How many of the taxi drivers would want to work to their 80s if they have a choice? How many cleaners, clerical staff, executives, mechanics, technicians or even professionals would want to work till their 80s if there is someone younger and fiercer yelling at them at every little mistakes they make? I would like to emulate LKY if I have that kind of job, or even be his personal blogger for the rest of my life for a pittance of a minister's pay. To be real, find something to do and enjoy doing it, like blogging or photography, and make yourself happy. No one to boss around with you and you decide what, when, where and how to do it. Happy blogging people. Forget about emulating LKY. Forget about emulating Nathan or Chok Tong. Find your own peace. But don't end up as a football to be kicked around, useless and unwanted.

Revelation of the MPs

In the follow up to the changes to the political system that is akan datang, ST has a full page report of the views of the ruling MPs on these changes. And the revelation is quite enlightening. Teo Ser Luck said this, 'We will be thinking in terms of national interest, and less about putting things across because of political points.' He was referring to the Govt Parliamentary Committees which were trying to serve as a check on govt policies in the absence of a significant opposition presence in Parliament. Both Ser Luck and Amy Khor probably share the same view that it would be a step back if PAP MPs were to censor their views just to toe the party line. For all these years, how much of the MPs views were party lines or to score political points and how much were based on national interests? The two positions may or may not be in conflict, but at times they could. The other interesting quote from Amy is that, 'When a PAP MP criticises govt policies, he or she is not doing it just for criticism's sake or playing to the gallery.' Well said, Amy. How many had been guilty of criticising for criticism's sake or playing to the gallery? Anyway, what is the point of having opposition views when they have no right to vote against the bills? Opposing views for the sake of opposing views or playing to the gallery of the public eyes? Can this be all there is to it? This is best answered by Charles Chong who said, 'Currently, MPs can say whatever they want,...The Party Whip - applies only during voting.' This simply means that the MPs can make all their opposing views, but when come to voting they must vote for the party line. Doesn't this smack of hypocrisy? When one is so against a policy but must vote for the policy? What is not very enlightening in the report is the comment by Dr Gillian Koh. She said, 'Gone are the days when opposition can say there are so few opportunities. No longer would that excuse be there.' She was referring to the increase of single ward seats from 9 to 12. Hmmm, what kind of logic is that? Didn't she know that once all the seats were single wards? So it is a great concession after taking away all the single seats and now say you can have 3 more from 9? Better say a big thank you to the govt for being so generous and magnanimous.

Putting a lease and tag on thieves and cheats

Obama is going to do it. Make no mistake about it, the thieves and cheats of the corporate and financial world must be leased and tagged and kept under observation. They have committed horrendous crimes against the innocent public and minority shareholders for too long, robbing, stealing and cheating under the guise of financial engineering, clever accounting and selling toxic products that were no better than snake oils. And practically none, only a handful, has been put behind bars. And who is to be blamed? The govt and regulators of course. They were either sleeping or in cahoot with these thieves, sharing their kickbacks. The Obama Administration is going to take the lead, to show the way, that a crime is a crime no matter how well conceived, how legally documented and how sophisticatedly worded and looking so real. The financial system has been at the brink of being ruined by these thieves and cheats. And one bunch is still happily singing and whistling as they go about cheating through a game that they cannot lose by sheer advantage of financial power and a set of rules of the game that are in their favour. I am referring to the hedge funds and how they are courted by stock market operators to participate in the market, to give a false sense of an active and healthy market, but at the perils of the small investors and shareholders. Obama shall not stop at just the corporate thieves and cheats, but also the hedge fund operations. Taking advantage of arbitraging is acceptable. Taking advantage of a trading system by its system weaknesses is unacceptable. And the fault does not lie just in the hedge funds but also the system administrators for creating a faulty or flawed system, an uneven playing field. Obama shall show the world how the bad systems, sold to the world as the best and workable systems, are really a scam, and let the little administrators around the world wake up to their follies of blindly following Wall Streets and the dictations of the big fund managers on how the system should be, of course to enable them to participate and exploit to their benefits. Just hope Obama is not bundled out as the forces stacked against him is huge and powerful.

From hot heads to wise old men

We have progressed over the last 50 years, and in two months time we will be celebrating 50 years of self government. During the early years of nation building, many of the ministry and dept heads were young and hot headed task masters. They howled and they growled to get things done. They were intolerant of mistakes and heads would roll at the smallest of errors. They demanded the best and no ifs and buts. In a way these were brash and rash men in a hurry to get things done. The room for errors were small. There were heads being given the boots for sending their peons to buy lunch or lottery tickets. Today, as we celebrate our manhood as a nation, we can see the change to a more mature people, civil and graceful. Mistakes were accepted as part and parcel of a job. No risk no mistakes. Big risk big mistakes. No sweat, another day's job. In a way we have grown to be kinder and more forgiving, a sign of maturity and age. We have arrived as a rich and graceful people with plenty of botok on the face, full of forgiveness and compassion for the people. No more hot heads in charge, but plenty of Yodas.

I Sultan

Najib could not have gotten a worst start in his attempt to stamp a mark as PM with a new approach on how Malaysia should be managed and its relations with Singapore. He started with lots of promise for cooperation and development, and to do away with the time consuming and unproductive politicking of Mahathir's days. Unfortunately in his haste to get things moving, he forgot that there are Sultans in Malaysia. And Mahathir's way of by passing the Sultans is over. Building bridges, straight or crooked, is not a simple affair and the Sultan must be consulted. Now, before anything can happen, the Sultan has made it clear, I Sultan, cannot be ignored. I am still around and kicking. How is Najib going to negotiate this mountain is going demand the best political skills from him. And his key party members are starting to voice their opposition to the idea as well. On hindsight, LKY should make it his last stop at the JB Istana for dinner before coming home.

Scoring hospitals

Lee Soh Hong, an accountant, started a website to monitor performances of public hospitals by feedbacks from the public. If this is taken positively without fear or feeling under scrutiny, it could go a long way. No one likes to be publicly scrutinised or have a complaint box ready to receive complaints about them. But this will be the trend as customers wise up to their rights and demands better service for the money they are paying. I was at the NUH for a couple of occasions recently and have made some observations. We have very good medical and support staff manning the institutions, especially the doctors and nurses. We have the best and most modern equipment available. But they are not perfect, especially the software. I feel that they need to have someone full time to look at the software aspects, on how to take good care of customers and their needs, not just medical alone. The quality of the medical care is a given. It is the small nitty gritties that are still found wanting. I did mentioned in the previous post about the PA system. Maybe it was because of some restructuring and relocation due to the H1N1 crisis. Even then a little thought will have make things easier and friendlier to the customers. When I raised this to the staff who was trying his best to help, he told me to write in. This amazed me. Why my on the spot feedback was not enough for him to raise it internally? Why is it that feedback must be written officially for it to be acted on? The other part that I want to repeat is the appointment time and when the patients will eventually be seen by the doctors. After 30 or 40 years, we are still seeing patients having appointments at 9am and seen at 10 or 12 noon. The wait is unnecessarily long. Perhaps there are good medical reasons to do so. To a patient, going to the hospital early and having to wait and wait is bad. In my recent encounter I find that if the staff were to put more urgency or priorities in clearing the patients and let them off over some routine paper works, it would surely help. Spending 5 or 6 hours waiting for a treatment which often ended with 10 or 20 min with the doctors is very difficult to justify. Attempts should be made to cut down this waiting time as many people's time are wasted unnecessarily. My comments are from someone looking from the outside. There must be good reasons to drag the procedure for hours. If not, then the long waiting time is unacceptable.

The new sandwich

While we are seeing the fading away of the old sandwich class, it is surprising to see the emergence of a new sandwich class. Is this new sandwich necessary? The old sandwich came from a period of adject poverty, when educational level was low and many were caught in the low income trap, from parents to children. The short job cycle and the formula of retiring at 55, which was necessary in many hard labour jobs, resulted in many with little savings. The children would have to continue to provide for the old folks and their own children. Today, has the picture changed? Many with families are likely to own a flat, have some CPF savings and with children that are having bigger income. Relatively the people today are much well off except for the dysfunctional families, the remnants of the illiterate and ignorant generations and the squanderers. The problem is or should not be pervasive. Why the need to legislate laws today to create another sandwich class by compulsion? What went wrong? One possibility is the breakdown of the family and family values. The children do not see it their responsibility to look after their aged parents. Of course this is only a generalisation and may not affect too many. Then there is this ‘heart willing, pocket not willing’ situation when the cost of living has made caring and looking after a small family that much more costly financially. And to pay for and look after children and parents simultaneously is not an easy option for many. Law or no law, if the pocket is empty, there is not much that can be done. Isn’t it an irony that in today’s context, with so many levels of protection and provision, the oldies should be happily retired without having to be a burden to children and society. What causes this failure to see our olds retiring to the sunset amply provided? Or retiring to the sunset is a fleeting dream? How many will turn into sour sandwiches, unable to look after their own families and legally bounded to look after their parents? I think if this is becoming such a problem, we have failed as a society to give the people a better life. Too much money and resources are wasted in maintaining a costly lifestyle and with little left to look after parents. Can we then blame the new sandwiches for failing to be filial or were they the victims of circumstances that were promoted as the good life?

Euphoria lost even before LKY is back

I read some of the comments in the ST about the responses and reactions of Malaysian politicians on the LKY visit. Khairy, Anwar and former minister Idris Haron and Johore MP Shahrir Samad were quoted and all were very negative. Even Najib's proposal of a third bridge was attacked as a useless idea. And Khairy stood firm in not selling sand to Singapore. Oh, according to Shahrir, the third bridge is unnecessary as the two bridges were not fully utilised. How come he did not say the crooked bridge was unnecessary for the same reasons? Anyway, Najib is going to have a hard time if his cabinet or MPs were to stand against him. Luckily the third bridge is not Singapore's idea. And the killing of the idea of selling sand to Singapore is as good as calling everything off. The LKY trip started very promising. Now it may become another wasted effort. No fairy tale ending. Just a fairy tale.

Sorry guys/gals

My apologies for not posting anything today. Was at NUH with the missus. Unfortunately the Singtel Wireless reception was poor and can't get my article out. Will post it this evening. Title is New Sandwich.

No he won't shut up

On the tail end of the LKY tour of Malaysia, Mahathir had to let go his pent up feelings. He left it to the last day, a courtesy, or knowing that LKY did not have time for him? He harped on the perpetual issues of Malays losing out, of selling water cheaply to Singapore and how important Singapore has become. He will never die in peace if he cannot get these issues out of his system. It must be very painful to him. Were his fears real or imagination? Every country will strategise their policies with themselves as the centre of the universe. Is that anything new? As for selling untreated water to Singapore at 3 sen, he did not comment that Singapore sold treated water to Johore at a special price in return. Changing one will have to change the other. And the Iskander project, other than the fears of bumiputras being marginalised in their own country, think deeply, is it possible in today's context? This was possible in the pre independence days of colonialism. Today the bumiputras are in control of the country. There are their own masters. And from the economic point of view, if Malaysia cannot remove the blinkers and think that foreign investors will go there, throw their money in and leave everything to the Malaysians, without leaving any traces of their presence, they can give up their dreams of attractive foreign funds. When foreign investors came, they will bring everything, money and their culture and presence. And they want to make profits out of their investments. And Malaysia would naturally want to benefit from their presence. But Malaysia cannot blame the foreign investors for raising the cost of living, fighting for all the space and services, buying up their properties etc etc. These are part and parcel of the bargain. There will be more Singaporean cars and Singaporeans all over Malaysia if they want to promote tourism. And there will be more jams and ugly Singaporeans. If that is something they did not want to see, then it is better to close the door. Malaysia will now have to reassess its position without the fears and threats of a Mahathir mindset. To move forward and embrace the world, or to remain as a kampong?

A 6 hour experience at NUH

This is one of our world class hospitals. This was the first time I had the opportunity to observe it at close quarters, for a solid 6 hours. I was at the A&E dept to admit someone. I must say the facilities were first class. And the front line staff were also first class, very helpful and pleasant to deal with. We are in Yellow state of H1N1 and they were all geared up for it, with new areas being provided for visitors as a result of this flu threat. There were ample seats at the waiting area, free distilled water, and fans to cool the temperature. The latter didn't work much in the current hot spell. Warm air blowing. Two areas which I found wanting is the PA system. The sound was not clear, maybe it was outside and the acoustic wasn't good. What is not too good is the instructions given. Everytime they called out for the visitors to be at the counter or somewhere else, they presumed that the visitors know where that place was. In many cases the visitors, probably first time there, did not have a clue where they should be going to. I was there for 6 hours and tried very hard to figure out the instructions. I felt victim to it too when my turn was called. I went from one point to the next in a blurry way. Go to that counter, over there. Without the H1N1 precautionary measures this may not have happened as everything, every counter, is inside the department. For the moment, the visitors have to stay outside the building and make do with the temporary measures. Oh, in case of patients who have been there for several hours, more feedback to their family members will be welcomed, at least to let them know how many more hours they would have to wait and in the mean time they could go for a snack or do something else. I waited patiently for 6 hours. Only the first hour was I given a short brief.

I work, so I am

Several years ago someone asked me when I was going to retire. It was a normal course of event. People stopped working at 55 and retired. I am still working, more of a necessity than anything else. Over the weekend I heard of this friend who is going to ask for extension of employment. He is in the mid 60s. He is not the Ah Pek that needs a job to pay for the next meal. He is a CEO of a MNC. Why would he want to continue working at that age? His children are on their own. He had not only bought them a car each, but also a landed property each. And his own net worth is easily $20-$30m. Doesn't he want to spend the rest of his life playing golf, sail or travel around the world, doing things that he did not have the chance to do before, playing with his grandchildren, or become a small emperor in Bintan, Batam or JB? He cannot retire, and he must not retire. He does not want to be known as a retiree. It sounded as if he is a worthless man, a retiree! Many of these successful and multi milllionaires may have fallen into this same situation. The fear of retirement and the loss of their big titles. They want to be known as CEO, Director or Chairman of this and that. Money is also good, for some, for doing nothing. And there are all the perks and the names and name cards to throw around. All these people will work until they die. They live to work and work to live. That is their meaning of life. The only reason to justify their existence as a human being, to work and work and work. Perhaps we should glamorise the title multi millionaire or billionaire and people who are so rich should print it on their name cards as a status symbol. And they can add in the phrase, 'I don't need to work.' I like to gripe about people not knowing how to die gracefully. Now there are all these successful people who can afford to retire gracefully to enjoy a life with newfound freedom that money can buy. But retire they not.

The white mice experiment

There was this experiment done in the past on population control. The guinea pigs were the white mice. What the researchers did was to introduce white mice into a cage. The white mice were happy and quickly multiply as there were abundance of space and food. The mice were healthy and vibrant. As the population keeps increasing, the vibrancy increased and it seemed that the mice were also getting happier, working harder and running faster. Then a point was reached when the population grew too large and you could notice the unhappiness and the difficulties to find space and food. And the mice started to look hungrier and angrier and less well fed. They need to fight with each other for every inch of space and every piece of food in the cage. And tension rose. But vibrancy was getting higher and more exciting. This went on undisturbed. Soon rioting and fighting among the mice were a normal and frequent activity. The final part of the experiment saw the mice eating each other for food when food ran out. Today, our 6 million or 8 million population target has not been in the news for a while. So quiet. Will we still be heading in that direction? Will the population end up eating one another? It would not be white mice eating white mice. It could be white mice eating black or grey mice or vice versa. Is that our destiny?

The changing colours of Malaysia

I wonder if any of you notice this subtle change in Malaysia over the last couple of years. There is change in the making in the mindset of UMNO. I am not referring to their racial politics. I am not referring to the fading era of Mahathir. There is a physical change, the choice of ceremonial colours. It used to be green. The new colour is red. UMNO is turning red, even in their party uniforms and colour. Would this mean anything? China was red but turning more blue. The Americans were blue but turning a little red. The Islamic states were green and so was Malaysia. But Malaysia is turning red. Indonesia, the most populated Islamic country, has always been red. Malaysia has seen the passing away of the second generation of political leaders when Mahathir left. Badawi was the transition stage. Now we have Najib, Muhyiddin, Hamidi, Hishamuddin and several other new generation leaders in the driver's seat. Hamidi and Hishamuddin came from UMNO youth and cut their teeth as ultras, riding on the cause of championing Malay supremacy to power. No one can fault them for taking those stands when young and full of fire in their bellies. Have they matured while rising to their present positions and able to see the bigger picture, the longer term of socio economic development and progress for nation and all? Today's report concluded that they are fully behind Najib to work with Singapore for the good of both countries. Such developmental approach, a break from the berserk politicking mindset of the past, is a big step forward. If they are to pursue this earnestly, instead of wasting time politicking to score empty victories, the relationship between the two states will have a long way to go and both will benefit along the way. Between the two countries, there are more to learn and gain through cooperation and working together to better the livelihood of the people of the two states. For this to be true, to materialise, serious and conscientious effort must be made to change the whole psychic of the people both in the corridors of power and the kampong folks. Will Malaysia be able to transform itself into a vibrant economic power, or will it still stick to its kampong mentality, living in a fast pace modern world but led by leaders with attitudes and mindsets of medieval kampong chiefs? Is the changing of colours a sign of real change, deep seated change, or just cosmetics?