stock exchange raising listing fee

a few years ago there this cry to cut business cost. everyone was complaining that doing business in singapore was too costly. so labour cost was cut. rental cost hardly come down. on the other hand sgx has been raising its fees in several areas to increase its profitability. who is paying for all the increases? the latest increase in listing fee is quite substantial. the easiest way for a monopoly to raise profit is simply raise fee, like the public transport companies raising fares. who can say no? the commuters cannot say no. it is an essential service and the workers must take the transport to work. in a monopoly you don't need a genius to make money. who does not know how to raise fees and fares? raising listing fees is another matter. the cost is going to bite and some smaller and less profitable companies will find it too costly to maintain a listing here. some delisting will be on the card. who is going to suffer when delisting of a company takes place? the public who bought into the shares. just hope that we are really a premier stock exchange and these companies will find it beneficial to pay the higher fees and maintain their listings. if the premier exchange title is only self praise, words, then the delisting will come swift and hard.

raising cpf withdrawal age

what has raising retirement age got to do with raising cpf withdrawal age? keeping the people gainfully employed is the job of the govt and good for the nation. raising retirement age means we can retain more workers in the pool and be less dependent on foreign workers. keeping the cpf money is a totally different thing. the cpf money is the worker's money and there is an agreement between the govt and the people when this money is to be returned. by changing the rules and date for returning this money to the people is a breach of good faith and the written agreement provided in the cpf acts. amending the cpf acts does not reflect well on the sincerity of the govt. the people is beginning to lose their trust on the govt on this matter. the govt has no right to keep the people's money at their whims and fancy. the thoughts of changing the cpf acts again, and the union thinking of championing this movement will see a repeat of the time when howe yoon choong tried to raise the withdrawal age. the repercussion is grave. if the govt and ntuc think it is wise to try it again, only time will tell whether the people will go along with it. the ntuc, at the higher level, will try to push it for its own reasons. union leaders will have to go along. but are they really sold on the idea or deep inside they are strongly against it? they have to carry the people and the union members with them. will their members go along? will the people go along. we will see how far this top down, shafting into the people's throat policy will go. we will continue to hear that the ground is sweet and the people will support such policies. just wait for the straw that breaks the camel's back.

a malay renaissance

the malay civilisation is relatively young when compare to the arab, indian or chinese civilisation. the european civilisation too is older and far more advanced especially in the fields of science, technology and even philosophy. they have even leapfrogged over all the older civilisations and have set the pace for the pursuit of knowledge, arts and culture, science and technology in the last few centuries. it may be too early to talk about a malay renaissance for so young a civilisation. but in terms of size, the malay stock, including indonesians, bruneians, the filipinos and to a certain extend the thais and kampucheans, is quite numerous. there is enough critical mass for the civilisation to find its own place among all mankind. though it does not have an indigenous written script other than the jawi script which was adapted from the arabic script, it has its own clearly defined language, custom and culture. the malay stock, under some of the more progressive malay leaders like mahathir, anwar and habibie, has been pushing itself very hard to establish itself as a recognisable people and race. malaysia did show a lot of promise during the early years under mahathir. unfortunately, too much affirmative actions and govt assistance plans have an adverse effect in retarding the progress of the nation and people. the literacy rate has gone up but without much success in throwing out shining examples of scholarship or men in the fields of science and technology, or in arts and culture. perhaps the greatest hope for a real malay renaissance lies in the young and successful malays in the little republic. this breed of malays are modern, confident and academically proficient, having gone through tertiary education in some of the best universities in the western world, on their own merits. there are enough of them to form a core of malay elite to spearhead a movement for excellence in all fields of endeavour. time is on their side. they have climbed the social and intellectual ladders all within one or two generations. many are still very young, in their 30s and 40s, but very well qualified. with this group, they could attract the other malays in the region and be their role model in the pursuit of modern science and technology and lead the malay civilisation forward. a strong and credible base has been formed and is essential for the advancement of the race.

the world is burning

with the latest explosion in jordan, the bombings in bali and india, with france burning, are we seeing the world on fire? the possibility of this happening is very real. how does it all started? after the second world war there was a gradual relaxation of immigration policies, allowing freer movements of formerly colonised people to move to the countries of their ex colonial masters. must be a kind of retribution for the plundering and exploitation during the colonial days. the new waves of immigration was not seen in that light. it was democracy and human rights and a kind of payback time to the colonised. but all these need not be that bad. it requires more ingredients to transform and bring the bits together to be what it is today, the seed of discontent and social unrest. one can probably trace the beginning of this structured violence or terrorism to osama, and a little further back in time, to the americans who helped to organise, train and armed them. they were taught how to organise, given the knowhow to built bombs and how to explode them. and the injustice in the middle east coupled with the continuous exploitation, control and domination of the arab/muslims by the west, in particular the americans, have now developed into an international movement of terrorism. the network of these little cells of insurgents, well trained and independent, will keep mushrooming and duplicate themselves across national borders and bring the fight to all corners of the world. the sparks are flying, and fires are starting everywhere. europe is on fire, the usa is awaiting, and so is the world. if it continues to escalate, it will be a very different kind of warfare at a global scale, a third world war, fought with different ground rules, different tactics and strategies, and different kinds of soldiers and arms. any place at any time can be a war zone.

the singapore soup, changing flavour

there is an article in the straits times today comparing the racial strife in france with the relative calm in singapore and the different approaches adopted by the two countries to integrate the minorities. france chose to adopt a policy of pretending that there is no difference, and thus no problem. that the migrants will somehow find their niche in society if left on their own. even their racial and religious inclinations were not reflected in their identity cards/passports. thus no way to trace them or conduct any meaningful studies on them. in contrast, singapore did not run away from the problem of racial integration. we confronted them as they are and take necessary actions and policies to deal with them. and yes, we have the race and religion of every citizen clearly printed on the identity cards. and we acknowledged that there will always be some problems and these need to be tackled promptly and sensitively. there is no running away from minority problems. it existed in all societies. after almost two hundred years of existence with a migrant population, some form of identity is taking shape. conscious national policies to develop an identity over the last 40 years also helped to gel a society of mixed fellows into one that recognises the differences as well as respecting them but emphasising on more neutral factors that are common to all. while this is taking shape, a kind of singapore flavour is developing and getting more distinct, we are throwing more meat and spices into the soup. perhaps we are adding too much of new ingredients into the soup too fast. the flavour will change. it might turn out better, into a totally new brew, or it might become a poisonous concoction that becomes unpalatable. it is better that we be more careful and slow down the pace of such a vital change to the mixed bag of people that we have now. too much of a change might dilute everything and destroy the broth. changing the composition of a society is not something to be trifled with and thinking that all is safe.