The idiots are thinking very hard

5 idiots are in a business that is commission based. There are only 5 operators in the industry. Business has been bad because the main operator of the business has turned it into a gambling den instead of the real business it used to be, when genuine goods were exchanged. Now the business is all about toxic notes that were printed from thin air.

The 5 idiots could not figure out why the business is running out of steam. In desperation, given the 5 IQ they had, one is suggesting to cut commission to gain market share. This idiot could not see one centimetre ahead of him and could not think that if he lowers his commission, the other 4 idiots will also do so.

So when one idiot comes out with his brilliant plan, the next will follow with a betterer plan. They will keep the cycle of commission reduction going on and on, from 5c to 4c to 1c, to 0.1c and so on and on, as long as they think they can gain market share.

And they are congratulating themselves for being so idiotically brilliant.

Compromising the Singapore Brand

We have branded ourselves as the best in education, an education hub, and also in healthcare, a medical hub, to attract students and medical tourists for the fees they are willing to pay. They came and still coming, for the quality associated with the Singapore Brand.

The private schools sector has received quite a fair share of bad publicity. Now the medical profession is looking like the next candidate to tarnish the well built reputation of the Singapore Brand.

I have heard of countries lowering the standard of entry to medical schools to churn out more native doctors. But the standard has gone down so low that the better informed would avoid the local graduates for their own good.

Not that we have lowered our standards for the same purpose. We have raised our standard so high that many straight As students could not even enter local medical schools. They ended up overseas in some of the best medical schools available in the West. They are excellent doctors whether from our local universities or overseas. That is the kind of standard expected of the Singapore Brand. We have our best in medicine.

The grouses in the media are that we are mixing this elite core of highly qualified professionals with foreign imports of doubtful qualities. And the fear of fake degrees is even more frightening. This rojak of the best and the dubious is going to burn down our shining Singapore Brand in healthcare and, if not careful, destroy the medical hub that we have painstakingly built over the years.

Are we in a hurry for numbers, quick profit and ended up compromising the quality of our healthcare? Are we putting the patients at risk in the hands of quacks or poorly qualified medical professionals?

I hope not. I hope we still have a little commonsense left not to mix shit with good food and spread it around to the innocent and ignorant customers. Or has the rot already started?

Presidential Election – A test case for PAP

With the PAP back in power, the Presidential Election is looking set to be a test case to see whether the people will blindly support the proxy candidate of PAP. In the past elections, a vote for the PAP sponsored candidate was a vote for PAP. In the case of Nathan, there was no election to talk of.

It looks like there will be a contest in this Presidential Election with at least three independent candidates indicating intent to stand. The PAP has yet to announce its candidate. It will be interesting to watch how the voters will vote this time. A defeat of the PAP sponsored candidate will be a big blow to the ruling party. It will be an emphatic NO by the people to the all embracing power and control of the govt. It will also be the first defeat of the PAP in an election. If that be so, PAP will have a problem to fix. It will be the clearest sign of a change of time that the wind in the PAP sail is off.

Would PAP be able to put up another sure win candidate, or is there such a candidate in the PAP camp? Or would this be a contest for separation of power, which means that no matter who the PAP puts up, he will not stand a chance? The unilateral decision of George to want to stand could undermine the PAP’s plan as it may have its own candidate in mind. It is getting more interesting to see the contest of ex PAP, old PAP, defeated PAP and sponsored PAP contesting against each another.

The rationale for an independent Presidency to control the second key against any raid of the treasury by the incumbent govt is anti thesis to a PAP candidate from its inception. The logic is simple and clear, unless the people are plain daft for not being able to see why there is a need for a truly independent President. This will be the test of the people’s will, whether they are independent thinkers who will decide what is best for them, or just daft sheep blindly listening to self serving logic. Then they can be contented with just grazing happily in the well crafted field divided nicely into little sheep pen.

The pathetic part is that the rest of the population have been excluded from standing for the Presidency. The winner will still be one that used to wear a PAP badge before.

The Singapore Crunch

The rush hour crunch is getting on the nerves of Singaporeans and costing the job of the Minister of Transport and Communication in the last election. Whether it is a case of mismatch of policies or a case of not listening, or a case of losing touch, while the commuters are groaning in pain, the official policy is to discourage car ownership and pushing more people to take public transport. And there is also this big and desperate call for more foreigners to come in or else there will be no economic growth.

If this is not madness, then the dictionary would have to change the definition of the word. The population is feeling the crunch everywhere, on the road, in the bus and trains, in social outlets, in schools, looking for jobs, looking for a place to live, there are just so many people fighting for space and services.

Saturday’s front page news in the ST is about shortage of hospital beds in public hospitals. Can it be? We have one of the best healthcare systems in the world and hospitals are running out of beds! The corridors of some hospitals have also been temporarily converted to squeeze in more beds.

Queues are everywhere, even to park cars. And it will be worst when there is a big event being held.

Not to worry, some wise cracks will pronounce that these are signs of progress and prosperity. Singaporeans who want high growth rates and prosperity must not complain about such little inconveniences. These are happy problems. Do they want to switch places with some underdeveloped countries when these problems are non existent? So, please welcome another 900,000 foreigners to ensure that there is continued growth.

The crunch is on. Is this what the Singaporeans want? Is this what growth and prosperity is all about? Can the standard of living be maintained or be betterer without having to live to the brim in all things? Why must every activity or place be bulging and congested and people in a constant state of stress, fighting for fresh air?

Why must we increase the population further from the 5m today when living conditions are showing signs of stress and fatigue everywhere? Is slowing down the population growth a guarantee for economic downturn and decay? No better way out?

Let’s make Money and More Money

It is good if everyone can make more money. The govt makes more money, the people make more money, everyone else make more money, including the foreigners. Making a lot of money is not a bad thing. It is good, really.

The trick is making more money from who and for who. Our govt has made plenty of money and a huge reserve. Who are the main beneficiaries of this wealth? Why are the people feeling the pinch and some calling for mercy? Obviously they are not benefiting from the prosperity of the country. I am not commenting on who the HDB is making money from, if they are making money at all, as they recorded something like $1b or $2b loss a year ago, I think. It was in the papers. Likewise the other ministries and stats boards and their money making policies, and who they are making money from.

I am fully behind the govt for making money as their top priority. The whole country must be restructured to make money, but not solely from the people. We can import more foreigners too, if they can help us to make more money, subject to how many our little piece of land can take.

The next most important priority is to make sure the Citizens benefited from all the wealth created. Let the Citizens be the ruling class. The wealth of the country must filter down more to the Citizens, not $10m for you and $1k for me.

Redesign and re prioritise

The govt can redesign the benefits of citizenship and make citizenship a very special class of people, the owners of the land, and not be given to any Tom, Dick and Harry. Make citizenship a privilege class, even an entitlement class, with the right to a share of the nation’s wealth and cheap housing and facilities. Isn’t that what a govt is for?

The country has already set aside a huge reserve. The reserve needs lesser top ups from the profits of the country’s future investments. A bigger portion of the profits can be returned to the Citizens.

The PRs, the foreign workers and professionals can work and live here, to contribute to our wealth. That is the whole purpose of their presence in our land. Let them work for us, treat them well, but don’t forget that this is OUR Country and we own this piece of rock. We provide them with the opportunities to work, to make a good decent income, safety and security, and a good place to stay. We must be rewarded for that. If they think they have a bad deal here, and have no choice but to come here, they can go elsewhere. You have to pay to visit Disneyland! What more if they even allowed you to make a good living here?

If the wealth and benefits of the country are well filtered down and shared by the people, there will be less anger and more pride and commitment to the country and govt.

Make Singaporeans the ruling class of their homeland. They are not daft. Many policies of citizenship/population must be tweaked to accommodate a new system and priorities in favour of the Citizens. Singaporeans be the master, the owner and main beneficiary to this paradise that we have created. There must be a distinction between a Citizen and others. In Rome, not everyone is a Citizen. Don’t throw away our citizenship like casino chips if they are really worthy.

PS. We already have a very exclusive ruling class.

Falling strawmen

The first strawman to fall in our political system is the GRC. Just like the impregnable mothership of the movie Independence Day, the weakness of the GRC is fully exposed and can be brought down. In the next GE, the ministers will be shivering, who will go next. And by the look of things, many will go down with the GRC in the present form.

We are now looking at another strawman bending with the wind, the elected Presidency. With $24m and more to take, hardly anyone is showing interest. For those who have come forward, they brought along a history that are not necessarily welcomed by all the people. Sure, a few will have their diehard fans, converts and cheer leaders edging them on as if the whole island is for them. The truth is further out there in the whole population.

Why is such an honourable office finding so few takers? Okay, 95% or more of the people have already been pre disqualified by the elitist criteria. All men are equal, many are less equal. The criteria is dismissive, with a stroke of the pen, the majority of the people are ruled as not good enough, and their rights as a citizen is limited, not fit to be President of the country.

As a NSman, trained and fit to fight for the country, to die for the country, why is he unfit to stand for the highest office in the land? He is prepared to stake his life for the people and country, defend its honour and freedom, why is he NG? All because he did not have the chance to be a top civil servant, a top politician or the CEO of a big corporation? Can the people accept these criteria lying down? They did, and still not questioning, and keeping mum.

Who is in a position to deprive all the honest and respectable citizens from running for the highest office in the country? A higher being?

The Singapore Squeeze

Two aliens looking at the Singaporeans being squeezed in a public place.

The Aliens of Paradise

Singapore is home to more than a million foreigners. Actually nearly half of Singapore’s 5m population are foreigners if permanent residents are included. Some were on temporary work passes as construction and manual workers, but many were professional and technical staff in the group called PMETs. The foreign PMETs is a big group of foreign talents employed in high earning jobs. Many were appointed to top local institutions over the locals when local talents were found wanting.

They are a very blessed group of professionals, earning high incomes and an enriching lifestyle that they could not find in their home countries. Some may take root and eventually become citizens while many will return home with a nice savings that will multiply several times in their homeland.

The Singaporeans must thank these people for contributing to the vibrancy and high economic growth of the country. This is the daily mantra that is heard in all the right places. And grateful the Singaporeans should be for the jobs that were created by their presence. Otherwise Singapore will not be able to enjoy the sustained high growth rates over the years, culminating in a superlative 15% growth in year 2011, the highest in the world.

While praises were heaped on these benefactors, a small corner of the population is sulking. There is another group of PMETs, the locals, that is finding life pretty tough going. Those above 50 got to pray that they do not lose their jobs for any reasons. For if it did happened, they are unlikely to find another employment. If they did, it will be a big downgrade and big reduction in income.

Many have gone for retraining for lower grade jobs with lower pay. Their skills and experience were no longer wanted and their jobs replaced by the new and gleaming foreign PMETs. Some turned to being self employed, driving taxis or becoming housing or insurance agents or any kind of agents, to be financially productive. With the high cost of living, high medical fees and high of everything, no income is a dreaded option. Worst, many still have school going children to support.

The lack of job opportunities for this small group of Singaporeans is not confined to just the oldies. Many in their 30s and 40s are also facing intense competition from foreign PMETs for jobs. The experience of writing tomes of application letters without getting a reply is defeating and humiliating. The sense of being not good enough or not wanted by any organisation is hard on the morale and self worth.

Even young graduates are encountering bad experiences in their job finds. The trend of hire and fire and contract staff are making life that much more uncertain. And the young people are expected, if they choose to get hitch, to take a huge housing loans of several hundred thousands, and repayable over 30 years.

How many people on temporary or short term contract jobs would dare to make such financial commitments? The letters of desperation and despair are mounting. In a country that can provide hundreds of thousands of good paying jobs to foreigners, it is troubling to see a section of its own citizens being marginalised, living in fear of being unemployed. These are the alienated citizens of a country that boasted of the highest concentration of millionaires in the world.

The aliens of paradise are complaining. They want to be heard, their plight known to the policy makers that turned their lives upside down. They are living a life of insecurity in a land of plenty for foreigners.

There is no official figure on the size of these aliens in their home country. Many are trying to make their presence felt today at Hong Lim Park, the Speakers Corner for free speech, provided one has registered with the Police. I am not sure if the rules have changed. If not, no free speech for anyone who is not registered with the authority before his freedom to speak.

Today, 4 June, at 5 pm, Gilbert Goh of Transitioning.Org forum is calling for the aliens to gather and make their feelings and plight heard. They are to wear black as a sign of unity and support for the affected. Jobs for Singaporeans is their call.

In the land of millionaires, fear not the despair.

A need for a referendum

Before the plague of 900,000 locusts hit our shores, it is urgent that the people, the stakeholders of this piece of rock, make their stand clear to the servants of the people that they do not want to be swarmed and die of suffocation.

When we were 1m there was fear that we were too small to survive. We survived. When we were 2m, the same fear was repeated. We survived. We survived when we were 3m, 4m, in fact we prospered even with the smaller population. Now at 5.5m, one corner of the truth is that we need more, 6.5m maybe 7.5m or more to continue to grow the GDP. What about economic growth at the expense of quality of life and living conditions?

Is there an option for smaller GDP growth, or GDP growth without the plague of another 900,000 locusts? There must be a way, lower GDP from lower influx of foreigners but maintaining the quality of life. There must be alternative models to development and a better life for the people.

It is time to call for a referendum. The people and the opposition party representatives must take the initiative before everyone has to jump off this piece of rock. This high population policy is like the high cost of living and high housing price policy. They must go together. With a huge population, other plagues will fall in line, concrete jungle, need for jobs, infrastructure, services, energy, water. The nuclear option is a consequence of this high population policy. If population goes up, nuclear option becomes a Hobson’s Choice, or no choice.

The masters must have the final say, not the self serving servants. This is our country, for our children and their children. Why should we allow a few elected politicians to determine the future of our children? The people must tell the govt where it must not go before it is too late. The people must pre empt the influx of another million or more foreigners here. Say no to the ballooning of our population.

Self serving logic

Is there such thing as self serving logic? It is the kind of justification that people used to do silly things that they would not do without having some defensive arguments to justify their actions. An accident victim lying unconscious on the road and his money bag was on his side. The self serving logic would say, take it, if not, someone else would take it.

If we don’t go nuclear, our neighbours will. So the decision to go nuclear is made. QED. We don’t need to pay super talents to make this kind of decision with this kind of logic do we?

In the Singapore context there are plenty of such wonderful logics in use. The people will be corrupt. So how, pay them to prevent them from being corrupt. I also get paid by the way.

The people will squander their CPF savings. For their own good, lets lock it up for as long as possible. The people will all go for C Class hospital wards. So introduce mean testing to prevent such abuses. The higher income will all rush to buy HDB flats. So introduce an income ceiling to keep them away, so that they will go to the private market. Now my private property prices will definitely go up.

Water is a precious item. We must teach the people not to waste water. Charge them a higher fee and higher taxes for consuming too much. Is this self serving logic too?

The daft Singaporeans do not see these as self serving logic. They went along happily for decades. The not so daft Singaporeans remain reticent. But they turned them into party and private jokes among close friends. They are not that daft not to see walla when there is walla. Yes, not all Singaporeans are daft. The betterer dafters will be out there defending the self serving logic with all their might.

A futuristic Stock Exchange

Looking at my crystal ball and from the inputs of what are being implemented in the western model of stock exchanges, I have this vision of what the future stock exchange will be like. As desired, it will be a state of the art computerised system with minimal human beans involved, and superbly efficient.

In short, traders and remisiers can be excused from the system. They will not be able to compete with the machine. What will evolve will be high speed trading by computers and machine. Every big fund will roll out its state of the art computer system to trade for them, programmed by the best programmers applying the most complex algo logic to profit from every trade. To make a winning trade, they only have to beat the rest of the competitors by a micro sec faster or by a bid of 0.1c. That is all it takes. It is not about investing but a battle of machine. No need to bother about fundamentals or real values of the stocks. And all these will be done at extremely high speed by the supercomputers.

The game will be so sophisticated and super fast that no retail investors/traders will be able to play, or to think of making a profit. They will all pack up and call it a day. Trading houses too will not be in business when there are no investors/traders to pay them the commission to cover the operating cost.

Companies and business organisations too will find listing meaningless as the stock prices will hardly move, controlled by machine to minimise risk and making brisk profits in micro seconds and with marginal changes in prices. With the high cost of listing and listing fees, and unable to raise funds in a virtually lifeless market, many will delist from the stock markets.

Then what will the machines be trading? Derivatives, ETFs, CFD, ADRs, covered warrants, or any kind of papers that the funds could generate for the market. There will be virtual stocks created just for trading, with no need for a company and a profit generating business. A typical trading pattern for a penny stock like R2D2 will be: Buy 200m at 1c and Sell 200m at 1.1c. Or the higher value stock like C3PO Bank: Buy 20m at 8.00 and Sell 20m at 8.01.

And the industry will be so efficient that the management of a stock market would need not more than 20 staff. And the fund managers too will be operating with a handful of staff manning computers and machines. The whole industry could comprise of less than 100 expert financial professionals.

The broking houses will be a thing of the past, so are remisiers and traders and real stocks. It will be a real virtual world of stock trading, with stocks from non existent companies and machine trading for non existent traders and investors.

And the stock exchanges can churn in several trillions of trades daily from the handful of big operators and their machines. The stock market and exchanges of today will only be remembered and taught in schools as part of the syllabus in the subject called History.

The $24m race is on

If not for the silly exclusion clause that disqualified the majority of the population, I will also throw in my hat for the race. This clause must be deleted in time to come as it is the most discriminating clause against all citizens in the name of justice and equality. Reminds me of the Animal Farm where some are more equal than others. Who is to say who is more equal and has more right to be qualified as candidate for the Presidency except the people?

For the time being, only a select group of people who are rich and powerful are eligible to contest for this position. If not I would like to suggest that the Presidency be rotated on a monthly basis with each candidate selected from a pool of qualified senior citizens, excluding the unreasonable clause of being in high offices and running an organization of $100m. This will provide 12 high paying jobs of $400k per monthly term a year, or 72 happy presidents every 6 years.

The daft citizens will have to contend with the few candidates available today. Just be wise in casting the vote. Like Lim Boon Heng said, some are too close to political parties and may not be suitable. I fully agree with this kind of concern. The people must be guarded against incestuous relationship, and the elected President must be one that is not related to any political party.

Let’s hope there will be enough of neutral and decently qualified candidate to choose from. For those who are eligible under the present restrictive clause, they must know that there are very few around, they must stand up to contest as a service to the people and country. The people are hungry for an alternative choice.

Bikers

Two bikers riding side by side, a guy and his girl. More pics in Art of RAR Gallery on top right.

I did not ask for it

Hypothetically, or just my imagination, when the huge increments and pay were thrown at the lap of the President, could his eyes pop out and follow by a grumble, ‘Why so much? I didn’t ask for it.’ Nathan is a simple man, nothing ostentatious in his lifestyle, and probably very happy with his banana leaf fish head curry. He has never been seen as someone who would flaunt his wealth, spending wildly. Neither is his wife. Both very decent people living quite a simple lifestyle.

The millions of dollars thrown at him would probably go into his bank accounts and never see daylight. I am being presumptious of course. My point is that we are paying too much for a non executive president. We are not living in a kingdom where blue blooded aliens must be kept to live very well from the taxes paid by the people.

Also, whoever is elected to this high office, he is likely to be a man that is held in high esteem by the people, and unlikely to be corrupted. So no need to pay him an out of this world salary to keep his fingers away from the coffer. Anyway, his position is unlikely to get him too close to where the money is kept. The idea of paying an officer a lot of money to keep him from becoming corrupt is demeaning to such an office. For all its honour and dignity, this concept must be taken out of the equation when the good office of the Presidency is concerned.

Paying people to prevent them from corruption should be kept at those levels where people are likely to do so. I still got this funny feeling that the whole reasoning is foul, at least I can smell that something is not right.

I hope the Salary Review Committee will take the Presidency out of the package and deal with it separately, away from the stigma and idea of corruption. The thought of a president that is incorruptible may be a bit idealistic. But the safeguard is the office of CPIB, watching everyone to keep them honest.

A decade of failed public housing policies

With only a couple of weeks in office, Koh Boon Wan has virtually overturned many of the old housing policies of his predecessor and frantically trying to make up for lost time to make good what had went wrong drastically. Would the changes in housing policies be good enough evidence of the mismanagement of public housing or just a change of policies and nothing more? The decade of under building of public flats and the influx of foreigners have caught many first time buyers of HDB flats sleeping. Many did not really understand what was happening and were caught napping through no fault of theirs. As a consequence, many ended up buying excessively priced flats or missed the boat altogether. Many too have to put off plans for marriage, for starting a family, while some were forced to buy resale flats at higher prices or private properties at even higher prices. The net result is that many young people have to pay overpriced properties and cleaning up their savings. Those that missed the boat are just as bad as the little savings they stinged to save can never make up for the runaway prices. Could the victims of the decade of misguided public housing policies find recourse or reprieve in some way with new policies that will recognize their plight? Many have been forced out of the market for not being able to buy a HDB flat when their incomes were within the HDB ceiling. Is it their fault? Would there be an amnesty of sort to let these victims of past policies back into the public housing system? Or would it be a case of just too bad, caught by wrong policies at the wrong time? Or would some wise guy quip, ‘It happened, let’s move on? How flexible and people centric will the new regime be to the victims of flawed policies?

An unbelievable world record!

Other being a PAP MP, he(Yeo Guat Kwang holds) has an amazing 64 other positions !!! http://www.parliament.gov.sg/mp/yeo-guat-kwang?viewcv=Yeo%20Guat%20Kwang 1) Member, Government Parliamentary Committee on Manpower 2) Member, Government Parliamentary Committee on Community Development, Youth & Sports 3) Member, GPC for Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts 4) Vice Chairman, Aljunied Town Council 5) Alignment Director, NTUC Quality Worklife & All Nationalities 6) Acting Advisor to Taxi Operators’ Association 7) President of Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) Vice-Chairman, North East Community Development Council 9) Member, Board of Directors of PUB Board 10) Advisor to the Singapore Table Tennis Association 11) Advisor to the Singapore WeiQi Association 12) Advisor to the Ren Ci Hospital 13) Advisor to the Bright Vision Hospital 14) Advisor to Artistes & Performers’ Association 15) Advisor to Restaurants Association of Singapore 16) Executive Secretary, Singapore Chinese Teachers’ Unions 17) Director, Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre (FIDReC) 1 Advisor, Federation of Merchants’ Associations, Singapore 19) Executive Secretary, Amalgamated Union of Statutory Board Employees 20) Member, Workplace Health and Safety Council 21) Co-Chairman, National Tripartite Committee on Workplace Health 22) Co-Chairman, Customer Centric Initiatives 23) Co-Chairman, NTUC-SNEF Migrant Workers’ Forum 24) Member, Aids Business Alliance 25) Member, Mental Health Alliance 26) Member, Centre for Service Excellence and Leadership Governing Council 27) Member, SPRING Standards Council 2 Patron to Pets Enterprises & Traders Association (PETAS) 29) PAP Community Foundation HQ Executive Committee 30) Member, Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning (CPCLL) 31) Member, Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) 32) Member, AVA Human Resource Committee 33) Member, WSH Council Finance Committee 34) Member, Tripartite Committee on Employability of Older Workers 35) Member, Tripartite Committee on Portable Medical Benefits 36) Member, Tripartite Committee on Flexible Work Arrangement 37) Member, Quality Service Advisory Council 3 Member, Institute for Service Excellence @ SMU (ISES) Governing Council 39) Member, Motor Industry Disputes Resolution Centre Pte Ltd Board of Governors 40) Member, Retail Price Watch Group 41) Member,Tobacco Licensing Consultative Panel 42) Member, Ngee Ann Kongsi Council 43) Advisor, Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore Staff Union (IRASSU) 44) Advisor & Trustee, NatSteel Employees Union (NEU) 45) Business Advisor, NTUC LearningHub Pte Ltd 46) Advisor, Yeo Clan General Association 47) Advisor, Singapore Taoist Federation 4 Advisor, Fo Guang Shan (Singapore) 49) Advisor, Mun San Fook Tuck Chee 50) Advisor, Society of Sheng Hong Welfare Services 51) Advisor, Sian Chay Medical Institution 52) Advisor, Society of Tourist Guides (Singapore) 53) Advisor, Singapore Furniture Association 54) Advisor, Eggs’ Import/Export Trading Association (Singapore) 55) Advisor, Federation of Merchants’ Singapore 56) Advisor, JCI Senators Club of Singapore 57) Advisory Board Member, Singapore-China Association for Advancement of Science & Technology 5 Patron. Buddist Fellowship 59) Independent Director, Grandwork Interior Pte Ltd 60) Independent Director, Japan Foods Holding Ltd 61) Independent Director, Koyo International Ltd 62) Independent Director, United Envirotech Ltd 63) Independent Director, Asia Water Technology Ltd 64) Independent Director, HLH Group Ltd The above is copied from Thoughts of a Singapore Statistician. This is the kind of overworked super talents that Singaporeans can be very proud of. As an average individual, I would forget at least 80 per cent of the names of the organizations in the above list. It is a marvel to even remember them, let alone trying to perform all the duties associated with them. But I am just an average bean. The uncomfortable or unfair part is that for a miserable $15k per month, this super talent is made to shoulder such an unenviable number of important positions and responsibilities. I really feel sorry for him. I doubt he even has time to eat or sleep if he is to do his duties, just to attend meetings alone. But when I look at how well he looks, I think he is coping very well. And he is not alone. I believe all his peers are also shouldering a fuller list of appointments, maybe more. So Singaporeans should not begrudge these great talents and the money paid to them. They deserve every penny they received. In fact they should be paid more. I will die trying to do more than 3 jobs. Singapore is indeed blessed with such super human beans, rightly described as more than mortals.

How long will the Ponzi Scheme last?

Many have commented that the public housing scheme is another Ponzi Scheme or something similar in nature. In all sense, it will die a naturally death by the time the lease expires in 99 years, all 900,000 of them. On that day, all will be worthless. There seems to be a way out though, to extend the game, by SERS, whereby the HDB will buy back the flats before the lease expires, offer the lessee a new flat of the same market value or slightly more. The lessee will be happy to get a new flat for a smaller fee and a new lease. This option of buying back and offering a new flat can go on and on provided certain conditions are present. Without these conditions, the renewal and new life will still come to an end. The first condition is that the flats to be acquired are low lying, and on the same plot of land a doubling of the units of flats can be built. A 10 storey block can easily go to 20, and 20 to 40. After that it must go to 80 or 100 storeys so that the cost of building the new flats can be paid by new lessees. As the cost of building is going to be much higher, and there is inflation to add on to the cost, it is also assumed that the income of the new lessees will go up proportionally to pay for the much more expensive flats. Or else, the aspiration will be for smaller and smaller units or smaller in size like what is happening now. The third condition is that there must be more and more buyers to buy the new flats. As the formula is based on the doubling of the units, if all the flats are to be rebuilt, it will need a doubling of the population, from 5m to 10m. So the floodgate for foreigners cannot be closed. The fourth condition is that the island will not sink with all the Towers of Babel loading on it. And hopefully, the supporting infrastructure to house the kind of population density can cope with the increase. If all the conditions are met, the Ponzi Scheme can go on and on.

The crime of earning $10k

The arbitrary $10k ceiling for the combined income of young couples is looking like a crime. It has been elevated to a sacred status that it is almost untouchable, like a commandment carved in stone. Young couples who have a combined income of $10k are disqualified from public housing. They are deemed too well paid, and able to pay more for private properties. They should go and buy a smaller but more expensive private property, or go for the big owns and take a bigger loan to service. The value of thrift and savings and financial prudence is thrown to the wind. If after taking a big loan and something untoward happens to their income that is their problem. And the private developers and speculators are all rubbing their hands eagerly waiting for these young couples to commit, after being forced out by the system. They have no choice but to take the plunge. What kind of philosophy is this? Forcing young people to go into big debt because they earn a little more than others? What is $10k anyway? Any decently qualified young couple that failed to get hitch within 3 to 5 years will see their income exceeding this arbitrary ceiling pronounced by god. Is it wise or decent to force young couples, just starting to work and with a full list of commitments ahead of them, to plunge in with a half a million or one million dollar loan? I think it is a crazy idea and very irresponsible. The crap about some of these young couples adding to the queue is another hogwash. Just like the spurious building acitivity today, it is all about building to meet the needs and demands of the people. The crime is for not building, not the young people wanting to join the queue. And not many would join the queue as those with lesser commitments would risk taking a bigger loan for private properties. It is no crime or shame to want to buy a cheaper home and save for tomorrow. The principle of thrift and prudence is age old wisdom. Punishing the young people for your own inept, poor planning and farcical beliefs is shameful. No one must be forced to eat sharksfins and force to pay for it. The $10k ceiling is another mean testing that is wicked to the core, like its parallel in healthcare. It only serves to fatten the pockets of speculators and developers at the expense of the young people. Just go and build the flats that the people need, and stop the silly reasoning. Every able young man must be given a chance to buy his first public housing. This is only equitable, just and fair. They also do their bid to serve the country like everyone else.

The housing mess or housing achievement?

25,000 BTO flats will be built this year. And now Boon Wan is saying tens of thousands of rental flats are needed and building of rental flats must also be ramped up. Are these happy problems or manifestation of infested problems in public housing that are surfacing today? With 25,000 being built and the demand is still growing, and a shortfall of tens of thousands of rental flats! What’s happening? Didn’t MND know the problem or they did know the problem but not building because the policy maker decided otherwise? Or is it that the information on supply and demand was misleading that led to the current mess? MND data quoted in today’s ST said that there were 3,700 and 2,300 rental flat applicants for year 2008 and 2009 respectively. If these were the data that MND was working on, not more than 5,000 rental flats need to be built. How could the numbers balloon to tens of thousands of flats needed as mentioned by Boon Wan? Whatever, policy failure or information failure, something is wrong with the housing needs of the people. They can’t say they did not know or did not see it coming. Boon Wan is only in the job for a couple of weeks and he is in a big hurry to clear the mess. The media also reported some views that the ramping up of rental flats would have little impact on the price of private properties. Could this kind of thinking be the main determinant in the supply of public housing, both rental and purchase? There must be many big speculators out there hoarding 10 or 20 units of properties each and fearing that the prices will fall. So are the property developers, all fearing that their profits will fall. It is thus important that the supply of public housing be carefully managed to ensure that the speculators and property developers are happily sitting on huge profits. Yep, must not remove the $8k/$10k ceiling so that these young people have no choice but to support the private property market and help the speculators and developers to make handsome profits. Tell them there are cheap loans, low interest rates, just borrow, half a million, one million, just borrow, no problem. Hope the ramping up of BTO flats will not affect the price of private properties, or else speculators, big investors and developers will be hurt.

Boiling the daft brains

After a long period of gradual abuses, the human beans would have adjusted and adapted to a higher level of pain and absurdity. Subsequently any lowering of suffering would be greeted with relief and gratitude. The high housing price is a living example that the people are getting used to it and paying a little less is cause for celebration. The people are now jubilant over the announcement by Boon Wan of the release of more public housing and a change in policy to build in advance of demand instead of waiting for demand to build up. Great man, compassionate man, with people centric policies, compare to his predecessor. Now this is a caring govt for the people and will look after the needs of the people. They have forgotten how they have ended in the shit hole in the first place. The history of lack of housing in the founding years need not be retold. The story of govt building public housing for the people, where people can go and choose their flats like choosing to buy a car or private properties must be repeated to remind the beans that it should be that way. But after getting used to waiting for 4 or 5 years, the beans are so happy if they can get it in 3. Now they will go down on their knees if they can get it in 2 years. Even the expectation for 5 rm, executive or private properties is forgotten. They no longer aspire for them and are contented with a 4 rm public flats for young professionals. Boiling daft brains are not much different from boiling frogs. The daft Singaporeans deserved to be treated that way, easily conned, easily appeased, easily contented, in their unthinking way. They will take it lying down when told to plan their marriages 4 or 5 years in advance or they will have to suffer the brilliant BTO housing policy. It is their fault for not planning ahead. Dumbos.