Minibond saga - The Missing Conscience

Greed is good. But greed with no tinge of conscience is bad. And this is the message that I would like to see to come out from the minibond saga. But no, it was totally missing. The whole scam was a business and when the product was found unacceptable, it was simply removed. There was no social responsibility or accountability. No human beans involved in the whole process except the poor losers who bought the products. I think all the decisions were made by robots, machines and computers. There must be social responsibility and accountability in business. And this applies to the management of all institutions, public or private, finance or the casinos. The next problematical institutions is the stock market. Why is it that hedge funds were not operating in the casinos? They have huge resources to fall back on to their advantage. In the stock markets across the world, the hedge funds bully and exploit the small investors by their unfair advantage of huge financial resources, technology and unfair practices. No matter how big they are, inside a casino, the advantage of hedge funds and small gamblers are the same. At least the casino has the conscience to ensure a level playing field. We have seen how the minibond saga exploded, only when the pain was too big. We have yet to see or hear small investors crying foul in the stock markets across the world. Are the operating systems and procedures in the stock markets fair to small investors? Or is it a case of caveat emptor? There must be the conscience and social responsibility to protect the interest of small investors, to provide a level playing field. An organisation or country that has no conscience to protect the small people and the disadvantaged is a lost cause.

Mechanical Appointees

I have a solution that will help organisations to cut cost. Organisations that think that they are paying too much for their Chairmans can head to ToysRUs and grab a mechanical toy. Bring it back, pin a name tag on it with the word 'Chairman' and plant it on the Chairman's office. By so doing they can save all the cost of paying for a Chairman. They don't come cheap today. And the best part of it is that they can happily fire the Chairman to appease the unhappy employees or shareholders should the oganisation fail to perform or make losses. And they can walk back to ToysRUs to get a newer model, version 1.1 to replace the ineffective one. I don't think such toys will cost very much. The same concept can be applied to Directors of companies. Any busy director who is unable to attend board meetings can send a mechanical toy as his representative in the board meetings. At least when he collects his director fee his attendance record is perfect. I claim intellectual property rights to this idea and anyone practising it only needs to pay me 10% of his first year income. ToysRUs can also pay me a small commission for higher sales of mechanical toys.

Perfect ending to a perfect storm

After 7 months of thorough investigations the MAS has come out with its findings and punishments for the minibond fiasco. The investigation was done very objectively and the three objects that were found to be the cause of the financial storm were financial institutions, training and toxic products. And the punishment was to ban the toxic products and the financial institutions from selling them. No human is at fault and no one will be made a scapegoat. Thank god.

A little bit history

Many of you may not remember the days when the majority in this island was discriminated. Yes it happened. It was an anomaly of history which escaped the notice of many, and many today took it for granted that the majority in power is a norm and will be here to stay, forever. During the colonial days, the masters called the tune. The ruling class and its coterie of officers monopolized all the govt offices, including big western corporations and banks. Key appointments were held by the British and the English speaking elite comprising mainly the Eurasians and those imported from the East India Company. Forget about the Chinamen, they could not speak English and looked funny with their slant eyes. Or maybe it was the British form of meritocracy and the Chinamen were not meritorious enough. When self govt was returned to the locals, all the high offices were naturally taken over by those from Her Majesty Services, filling the positions vacated by the British. The majority Chinese were in the peripheral of the govt. They were either in commerce for the richer ones, semi skilled craftsmen or small time hawkers, and the rest odd job labourers. They were thus grossly under represented in high govt offices. When the PAP govt took over, this state of affair continued for several years with key govt appointments continued to be dominated by the minorities. It took several decades to moderate this historical discrimination and a more representative govt service based on the population profile. But in so doing, many of the Eurasians who were favoured by the colonial govt left for Australia. That was how things were then. Would the majority be discriminated against one day? Given the twist and turn of history, anything is possible.

Planning a City for Crawlies

I watched the news last night and was very impressed with what SBS is trying to do to help the wheelchaired commuters. They have a special point with a button to press and the bus will come to the entrance of that point to pick up wheelchaired commuters. It was so convenient and so pleasant for these commuters. Along HDB estates, new hand railings have sprung up all over the walkways for the oldies to grab as their crawl along their ways. We can expect 300k or 400k of the 70s to 90s in the next 20 years, crawling all over the place. Some will wheelchair into buses or MRTs to have a swing in Orchard Road, some jogging in the parts on their wheelchairs, and many going to work, to their offices, if they are still employable. Yes, we are going to have crawlies everywhere, not the vibrant young things in their fanciful gears and makeups. We are ageing as a population. I too will be one of the crawlies. Actually there could be a few hundred thousands even now. Surprising thing is that not many are seen crawling around. Are we expecting them to appear suddenly in the next few years to swarm the city? 200 wheelchairs queuing for the buses at the interchange at any one time. How many buses will have to be at the designated pick up points and how long will it take to clear the queue? The parks, shopping malls, HDB void decks, all littered with crawlies? Possible? I think I will be content to sit in front of a terminal banging away and enjoy a cup of kopi. The only thing that will still be active and have some energy to do so will be the little ones, the fingers, and a few grey and dying cells in between the ears. I really cannot believe that the 80s and 90s will be so itchy to be crawling all over the places. They will only pose a safety and security problem to themselves. We haven't seen or heard any mugging of the oldies yet, except by their children. It may happen, daily, if they offer themselves too freely and easily.

A tragic hole

I still remember this little hole in the 60s, the hole that I crawled out before being buried in it. The parents were all illiterate coolies cramming into little cubicles with 10 or more in a family. Life was simple and without any aspiration. It was just living, working and sleeping. Many dropped out of schools in their pre teens and ended as kopi kias or kopitiam helpers. That was their fate if they failed in school. Never mind, just get a job and get on with life. The next phase of life for these ignorant and illiterate boys and girls was to get married and have children. They got married before they were 20, some at 18. It was time for big celebration. The following year would be parenthood time. At those juvenile age, it did not need much imagination as to what they knew was installed for them. The parents were around to help in the mothering of the new borns. And there went another chapter of their lives, cut out to replay the tragedy of their parents once again. Don't expect their children to be much better than these boy/girl father and mother. Fortunately with education and higher literacy, these things of the past are getting lesser today. These people are not helping themselves. But were they happy? I think they didn't know. It was just living, working and making babies and that was it. Surprisingly not all failed. A few ended up as contractors and became successful! I see it as a big gamble with many losers and few isolated winners.

Poverty and underprivilege are not exclusive to any race

Rewind back to the 1950s and 60s, the better off racial group was the Eurasians, partly because of their European heritage and ancestry, and partly because they were the next closest to the colonial masters in language skills and cultural affinity. The Malays, Indians and Chinese were all in the same boat, all ekeing a living as best as they could. In terms of housing, the Malays were living in quite spacious kampong houses while the non Malays were squeezed in cubicles in their respective town enclaves. Many Malays in the East Coast/Eunos areas were land owners if I am not mistaken. Came independence, everyone was literally on the same starting block, and the field was level to all. The English Language was the neutral instrument for all to learn and level up. The Malays enjoyed free schooling while the non Malays must be the poorest of the poor to be granted free schooling. In those years, the Malays received the most assistance from the govt vis a vis the other races. Why, after 45 years of independence, the socio economic divide between the Malays and the rest became a gulf? The other races did not get any special assistance from the govt in schooling or in the English Language. And they are not blaming the govt for not being able to keep up with the other races. Why are the Malays still asking for govt assistance as a necessary condition to be able to keep up, that without govt assistance, they are destined to fall behind, to be disadvantaged? As of today, there are proportionally as many poors among the Chinese and the Indians as the Malays. They soldier on, to compete with whatever they have. Some will make it, some will not. The field was never made uneven to their advantage. Some couldn’t cope with the mother tongue requirement and had emigrated. The mother tongue problem is especially more serious among the Chinese than the other races, as many Chinese could not speak their mother tongue, which incidentally was never Mandarin. Mandarin was a foreign language to many of them. It was not to their advantage to learn Mandarin. It was a very tough obstacle unlike the Malays coping with Bahasa. Assistance from the govt is a great help. But without assistance from the govt, life goes on. How and why are the Malays falling behind?

Not a mindset issue

Ridzwan Dzafir wrote a book encouraging the Malays to change their mindset to climb the educational and socio economic ladder. This is the same advice that the other communities, including the Chinese, have been told by the govt. What the Malay doyen was saying is a conventional wisdom. One needs to help himself to climb the socio ladder. There is no short cut. This elicited a reply from an Abdul Shariff Aboo Kassim in the Saturday paper. It is easier said than done. In our highly competitive educational system, the playing field is not level. The rich, with their resources, can do that much more to help their children. The poorer parents, ‘even with financial assistance, could not match the investment made by richer ones.’ I agree that the poorer families are at a disadvantage. But not all is lost. Personally I too grew up financially very disadvantaged, socially and academically handicapped in a very poor quarter of the society. I crawled all the way back, without any tuition or assistance from anyone, not even my parents or kin. Then came my children. They too did not benefit from any tuition or special conditioning to assist them in their studies. They went through schools as any average family children did. The only thing we did was to be at home, no drug taking, no clubbings, no havoc and heavy drinking or partying and leaving them at home on their own. We were just there as parents, to keep the family functional and intact. We provide the emotional and psychological support. I have witnessed many well off families with plenty of tuitions but not benefiting their children. The only advantage they really had was to pay for their degrees from an overseas university as they were not good enough for a place in the local universities. Poorer families are disadvantaged but not to the point that it is beyond hope, that they need a miracle to do well. I think any above average students with enough parental care and encouragement should be able to climb the academic ladder on their own. A little assistance would be welcomed, but without them is not the reason for their under performance academically. There are enough assistance schemes for those who need them. Poverty and underprivileged are not the exclusive rights of the Malay community.

Properties are up for grabs

Melvin Chua, a businessman, sold his 4rm flat in Jalan Membina for $550K and bought a 5rm for $638K. He only needs to top up $88K for a bigger flat. No sweat for a successful businessman. Sales of HDB flats have surged due to demand from young couples, upgraders, downgraders and PRs. It looks like the prices of properties will continue to rise, fuelled by demands from people who can afford them. The prices must therefore be reasonable. In the facing page of the ST was an article by Fiona Chan asking whether the property rally is sustainable? I can simply answer that with an affirmative yes. The pool of flats built by HDB is stable, no new flats are being built unless they have been booked in advance. This is a new concept compare to the old when flats were built ahead of demand leading to oversupply at times. And if the locals are not there buying, the huge influx of PRs and new citizens will be there to make up for the slack. We need them to shore up the CPF scheme. Anyway, what is $500k or $600k? Jet Li bought a bungalow for $14m or $16m. And in the Life page there is a huge bungalow of 7,500 sq ft sitting on 16,000 sq ft of land or the equivalent of 15 5rm HDB flats. The value could be more than Jet Li's. The PR hedge fund manager owner did not disclose the price but it is a handsome house in the choicest corner of Singapore. The rich are living very well here. And so are the average Singaporeans in their affordable 5rm flats. Those who cannot afford it, the losers, need not fear. The govt will look into their needs and build more affordable 2 and 3 rm flats to suit their pockets. And for the real losers, there will be more rental flat built specially just for them. Actually we should not be wasting our time talking about the losers. They make their lives that way, lazy, stupid, and failed to seize the golden opportunities to make more money to buy bigger and affordable flats or landed properties. Shall we say good riddance?

Not too long ago

I wonder how many of you remember the school days when a bus from the Institute of Health would arrive at the school weekly to fetch students for dental treatment. All the scalings, extractions, fillings and dentures were provided free to the students. And after each treatment, the bus would send the children back to schools, all the time accompanied by a nurse. It must be a very costly operation as there were many schools and many school children needing dental care. Those were the early years of our nationhood when the country was not that rich. But we could afford it. It was govt taking care of the people. Today, we don't even bat an eyelid for losing hundreds of billions. But healthcare is no longer free and no longer cheap. We could not afford it. Or it would lead to abuses, the country will go broke. Strange tale isn't it.

I am branded, not like Prada or Luis Vuitton

Matilah has branded me as alarmist and even irresponsible for highlighting the high cost of H1N1 test. My fear is that some people will not seek treatment or test because the fee is too prohibitive. You only need 5 people infected and walking around, not seeking treatment, and you will have an epidemic in your hand. This is alarmist? Denis Distant also wrote to the paper on the same issue of cost. Not everyone can throw away $85 or $214 just to confirm if one has contracted H1N1. It is not cheap. Let me list down a few things of what alarmist is. 1. Voting an opposition party into govt will chase all foreign investors away. 2. Voting an opposition MP will turn the estate into a slum. 3. Holding a party in a park can be a security issue, maybe rioting going out of control. 4. Our wives and daughters may become maids if we vote the opposition in. 5. If we give handouts, the people will develop a welfare mentality, a crutch. I could go on and on. If I am alarmist, I am in great company. I am not in the naming game or else I would give matilah a brand as well. But that will be cheapo. When has matilah joined the branding clique?

Was it $214 or $124?

A couple of days back a forumer wrote to ST, I think, to complain about having to pay $214 for a H1N1 check in a govt hospital, or was it a privatised hospital? H1N1 is an epidemic that is going to affect the whole population. What if everyone finds this too expensive and refuses to seek treatment, how would the situation develop? What would happen if the people find our medical fees too high and choose to skip treatments for all their deadly diseases and sickness? Can we say, well it is their own health and it is their own problem. If they die, we can replace them with more migrants or with new citizens. What if the diseases they are infected were highly infectious? Would it become a crime for not seeking treatment?

Sweet dream turning into a nightmare

I was at this long queue of happy people waiting for our angpows. The queue was long but the people did not mind. The govt had announced that it would be giving out $2b worth of angpows to the people as part of the Sharing the Nation's Angpow Programme(SNAP). This was mooted several years back and was finally being implanted. Profits from the country's investment of our reserves would be shared with the people. At an estimated sum of $500b and a 3% return it would give a neat profit of $15b annually. Of this, $2b would be shared with the people so that the golden goose would not be killed in the process. Everyone was in the queue. And so was I. Then screams were heard and the queue scattered in all directions. No angpow, not for another 10 years at least. The fund managers need to earn back the $100b that were lost. Without the loss, $100b at $2b a year could be spreaded and given to the people for 50 years. Now we have to live with not angpows. The people were angry but that was how fate had dealt the people a nasty blow. We had a lot of money and wanted to make more. Through no fault of anyone, the world financial system collapsed on our investment. It was a sweet dream that turned into a nighmare. Then I woke up feeling pissed.

Najib making very bold moves

After his proposal for closer cooperation with Singapore, Najib is making even bolder policy changes that will test his tenure in the hot seat. His new changes on foreign ownership of private corporations and properties even surprise me. My earlier impression of him was that of a careful and not to ruffle feathers PM. His third bridge has already created a storm. Now the announcement of these changes could raise a typhoon if he does not have the backings of his cabinet. While these are good to attract more foreign investments, the question is whether they are enough? Is there any assurance that the next PM would not remove everything and back to status quo as before? Would the foreign investors feel confident that this will be the new Malaysia for the forseeable future?

Discrimination - Another point to add

Another major difference between Malaysia and Singapore is that in Malaysia, racial discrimination is official, legal and morally a right thing to do. Anyone opposing such discrimination can be threatened with bodily harm or attacked by mobs running amok. In Singapore, the official position is no discrimination. It is against the law. The govt is embarrassed by whatever little signs of discimination and took pains to explain why it was a necessary evil, a temporary one. When conditions are favourable, we can see that all discriminations will be removed in a matter of time. In Malaysia, discrimination is institutionalised, a way of life, official govt policies and will be there to stay.

Putin was furious

Putin has been on a warpath against the high cost of living in Russia. He yelled at the grocer for selling sausages at $11! To him it was too expensive though the grocer told him it was good quality. He was on a rampage and took it personally to bring down the high cost of living. I was wondering what would he say if he knew that the flats at Duxton Pinnacles that could be sold at $300K was sold at $500k because the market forces said so, because people were willing to pay for it? Maybe if he were a Singapore leader he would say differently, and said, 'Very clever!' Or 'Good for the economy.'

Discrimination - Malaysian and Singapore models

We have discrimination on both sides of the causeway. In fact we have discrimination everywhere across the glode. Let's just look at some of the pertinent features of the two policies that discriminate its citizens. Discrimination Singapore style, not spoken too loudly but strongly felt by the Malay community, cannot be denied or brushed away. Among the other communities, they can hardly complained about discrimination as they were very well treated with hardly any discrimination at all. If they are discrimination, it is positive discrimination. In the case of the Malay community, discrimination is in the area of appointments in sensitive and strategic military appointments. If one look at this closely, one will notice that the discrimination was more of a contingency arising from the difficult relationship between Singapore and Malaysia in the early days. The tendency for the Malaysian side to target Malay Singaporeans was an issue that cannot be treated lightly or ignored. That was the gist of the discrimination policy. It was not intended as a racial discrimination policy to begin with. For that, the govt has tried in other areas to compensate for it by adopting affirmative policies to give the minorities more assistance and attention. Our policies towards the minorities is to favour them when all things are being equal. In contrast, the Malaysian discrimination policies were to favour the majority, with affirmative policies for the majority and discriminate the minorities in practically all fields. The discrimination is widespread and pervasive and without any need of disguise or apologies. Our govt, when questioned about the military appointments, has always been awkward and difficult. Hopefully, with time and better relations with Malaysia, and the different pace and development, we will become two distinct people with very different aspirations and inclinations that will put all forms of discrimination as a bad dream of the past. It is unthinkable if we were to practise the Malaysian kind of discrimination here. The best part of it is that the minorities in Malaysia are resigned to the discrimination policies and the govt is proud and think it is right to adopt those discriminating policies. PS. Are we able to discuss this issue in a mature manner without punching at each other?

A transient society

Seah Chiang Nee wrote about the transient nature of our society in www.littlespeck.com. Everything is transient and changing, from the traditional kopitiam to the population. Soon the original Singaporeans will be a minority in the island, at the rate new citizens and PRs are coming in. The original Singaporeans built this island from the leftovers of what was a British colony. The vestiges of our colonial past are well preserved and would probably be there for a longer while. Some of the old buildings in the clusters of Chinatown, Bugis and Little India may still be there to remind us of our inglorious past. When most of the original Singaporeans are gone, would the new Singaporeans, the more materialistic and in a hurry to make it good, feel any emotion or attachment to the things of old? Would they just wipe them off and build another phase of modern and high tech infrastructure? Would they harbour any misgivings or distaste for the less able Singaporeans and their history and think of economic and material progress, and erase all our past for a futuristic Singapore? Things are changing fast and our progress and economic development are built on the premises of pulling down the old and rebuild into new. For there is hardly anything or land left to generate more revenue. So build, destroy and rebuilt will be the key to keep the economy going. Don't be surprised one day a new batch of Singaporeans, hungry for growth, will tear down Chinatown, Bugis and Little India for the good of the country.

Revamping the financial system

Chok Tong talked about the changes in the financial industry and the fear of unscrupulous or toxic products. Investors are returning to basics, looking for smaller but steadier gains like bonds, govt bonds, not any cheap bonds. With all the cheats and thiefs exposed, and the American govt watching them like a hawk, hopefully they will not be allowed to design another batch of fraudulent products to cheat the masses. All the sins and crimes orginated from the US though they were brushed aside as something of lesser evil. Evil they were. So, how would all these white collar cheats and crimes affect us? Today we read in the ST that SGX needs to compete for IPOs. We either compete for good IPOs or be content with sub standard companies that ended up as another bunch of frauds. The confidence among our investors have also been hurt badly by all these fly by night companies. Many have been suspended due to frauds that were dressed up as pristine companies with great growth potentials. And the parties involved in the dressing ups, making all the fees, are still at large, laughing all the way to the banks. This is only one aspect of the financial systems that need to be placed under the microscope. The other are the practices adopted by big funds that capitalised on their muscle and technology to exploit the system to their advantage, often leading to the destruction of values of stocks. Dubious trading strategies and methodologies that are contrary to the well being of stocks and the stock market must not be allowed to be practised in our stockmarket. The gains of a little clearing fee and the fictitious churning to give the impression that the market is alive and healthy is not worth it for the huge losses incurred by innocent and small investors. There is a need to revamp the way the stock market is operating.

Proud owners of a $3m dollar piece of space

How many of you are proud owners of a $3m or $1m piece of space in the sky, with 4 walls that you called home? I bet there are many out there, some willingly forking our several millions to have a little space fancifully dressed up and called high end apartments. High end or low end, it is a big chunk of money that people are paying for. Imagine how many more things they can do with that kind of money to better their lives and the lives of other people? But relatively speaking, the money they spent is only a fraction of their worth. They still have a lot to spare to live a great life. At the lower level, at the HDB level, many are paying a relatively higher portion of their income for that space called flat or home. Why do we have to pay so much just for a place to sleep? The joke now is that the people who really enjoy the expensive flats or landed properties are the maids. They are the ones staying home while the owners slogged day and night to pay for the flat or houses. For many who just have one property to live in, a 4 rm or 5 rm flat is still a flat whether you pay $200k or $1m for it. High prices are good for those who want to trade their homes. And if the cost of a flat can be reduced, the savings can be used for a better quality of life, to purchase many other things. What is happening is that the money is now locked in this little flat called home. It is a deplorable allocation of resources. Asset rich and cash poor, and little money left for other things. Is this a good model?