corporate governance and guardians

The issue of corporate governance is getting more attention. One principle that must not be violated, and for corporate governance to be effective, is that one cannot allowed the potential thieves to appoint his accomplices to guard the vault. Any system that allows this is flaw. Another principle is to have people who have a vested interest in the money in the safe to be the watchdog instead of people who are making a living as guards. Guards or guardians too may help themselves when the alternative is more attractive. You can always bribe the guards or guardians.

Zage versus Rasif - what's the message

From the trend of the questioning by Hri Kumar, the Zages should bear part of the blame for trusting Rasif and not taking reasonable precautions to safeguard their money. Though Mrs Zage was not called stupid, she broke down after being asked if it was wise of her to leave her money in trust for a property deal. The moral of the story is 'don't be too trusting with your money to anyone, even an organisation.' And remember what Gerard Ee said? Someone may just helped himself to the money. And this is exactly what happened. And recently we have seen so many cases of such nature. I want my money in my own pocket where I have full control over it. Do not trust anyone with your money. Not even god. The other point arising from this case is related to the Singapore Brand. People have so much faith in our system that they will sign away a $10 million dollar cheque. Would one do it in countries that one have doubts about the system? But if it goes on like this, soon this Brand will become No Brand. Once we lose it, once we lose the trust, it is gone. There is nothing wrong with the practice of depositing cheques in clients' accounts. It is a common practice in the finance industry. Only the safeguards appear to be in question. Are there loopholes? Or is it a case of fraud when parties are involved in facilitating the fraud? Again, don't trust your money in anyone.

NKF story - Efficiency in law enforcement

Am I proud of our system? The latest I heard in the news is that Durai will face another charge for paying $5000 to a non existing company to recruit a senior manager. It is clear that no stone is left unturned in the investigation. After the first charge of a $20,000 cheque, now another charge of a $5,000 payment. Will more be revealed in due course and bigger amounts appeared in the picture. Or is this the trend? $20,000, $5,000, $500....

There was a time, when...

It was just 40 or 50 years ago. Not that long. But many of you may not be born yet. It was a time when the people in this island were mere travellers, merchants, passersby etc. Even the natives were not more than part of the flora and fauna of the landscape. There was no such things as citizenship of the island. We were called subjects as in the English grammar. A sentence must have an object and a subject. That was what was written in my birth certificate. A subject, without the rights that come with a citizenship. And the island was run, managed and control by expats, just like a hotel. yes, we were a hotel at one time. And our forefathers' lives were dictated by the hotel managers. They were allocated red subject zone, blue subject zone and green subject zone to live in. The choice part of the island were reserved for the hotel managers. That is not all. Employment of plum jobs or jobs of some significance were the reserves of the expats. The subjects were at best employed as chief clerks. And the expats would handpick and favour a few of the subjects and elevated them to half their status, which was a great honour for the subjects. And clubs formed by the expats were reserved only for the expats. Locals and subjects not allowed. Don't ever think of becoming a member of the SICC or the Singapore Cricket Club or any of the expat clubs. Those were the days when the people of Singapore were denied citizenship status. And those were the lives of subject people without a country. Do we want to go back to those days and give away our citizenship and the rights of citizenship and become subjects or flotsams once again? Do we want our little piece of land to be turned into a hotel and we be kept out of it?

another quote for the good singaporeans

"Changes are being made so Singaporeans can have more money when they retire." Minister Of Manpower Jan 2007 Singaporeans are so lucky. The govt is planning for everyone to have more money when they retire. For the mean time, please stretch your dollar, if you have one.