Myth 200 - Workers need to be represented by worker's parties?

Can a worker's party not representing the worker's interest or with a membership of workers? Can a worker's party operates without trade unions under its umbrella? In every country, when a party calls itself a worker's party, it normally has a list of trade unions in its organisation. In paradise, it is very strange that trade unions are under govt link organisations instead of worker's party? You do not need a worker's party to represent the workers. This is a unique formula.

Telling the good stuff

This was easy in the olden days when things were either black or white. In the ever increasing complex modern world when grey is bigger than black or white, trying to say that things are white when they are not is going to be tricky. This is made more difficult by the higher literacy level and worldly wise population. Everyone can now see a rotten fish when they see one no matter how many layers of gold plating were coated over it. It thus takes a very brave man or woman to proclaim that something is white in a public forum or with international audience when it is not. Whew, what a task. For the people put in such a position, often it only compromises their own integrity and reputation as decent and honourable men and women. How could someone stand up on stage and claim, with a straight face, that there is no shit when shit is everywhere? Earning a decent living nowadays is not so simple. Righteousness, morality, decency will have to be sacrificed for the right to lead a comfortable life. I try to tell the good stuff as often as I can here. But I will look very fake if the good stuff that I claimed were not really good at all. So it is a very sticky situation. I can only tell the good stuff when they are really good to retain some credibility here. Similarly, I can only tell the wrong stuff if they are really wrong for the same reason.

Why an A Team will succeed

I posted on a hypothetical A Team with members like Tan Kin Lian, PN Balji, Leong Sze Hian, Goh Meng Seng and maybe Subhas Anandan to stand in a GRC in the next GE and I think they will get elected quite easily. I received comments that they may not really be that good. That I agree. How good is the A Team is relative as there are many better people out there to form even better A Teams. For the moment, a team like the above is the best the opposition has ever assembled. This team, if they could come together, could stand in any GRC and win. That's my assessment. I mean any GRC with no exceptions. No GRC team in the ruling party today is infallible or formidable given the current situation and climate for change. And the ruling party has done itself a disservice by painting their A Teams too highly, and with a pay package that demands that they perform like super human beans. Unfortunately they could not and came out looking like very ordinary. Given the high expectations and mismatch in perception and reality, the people must be very disillusioned with the A Teams. Any opposition party that could put up teams like the above will be a tough proposition for the ruling party to take on in the next election.

Any lessons to learn from the Madoff con job?

The cats have been led out of the bag and everyone is shock and asking many obvious questions. Why such a big con job could be so big and go on for so long in an industry that is highly regulated? Reputation seems to be the biggest valiant in this case. Madoff has built up a reputation over the years as a man of integrity, trustworthiness, unquestionable faith and ability. And people just simply trusted him, blind faith? Again this is the same moral. Never trust anyone blindly. Anyone asking you to have faith and just trust him without questions, must be questioned immediately. Don't be a fool at the end of the game. Nepotism played a big role too. His key executives were from the family, brothers, children and who else. With an inner circle that is thicker through blood, everything can be concealed and no dirty laundry aired. Look out for this formula and run. Transparency, a familiar word. No transparency means something bad to hide. Period. His was a secretive operation. How could that be when there is a Securities and Exchange Commission doing regular checks and investigations on all financial institutions? Are we saying that the SEC was not doing its job or they chose not to do the necessary? Can we trust the SEC or the regulators? The Americans are saying that all the warning signs were there. So negligence or working in cahoot? 'They trusted him with everything' is the title of one article in the Sunday Times. Trusted him with everything! Isn't this frightening? We can't even trust gods with everything, how could we trust another human bean with everything? Singaporeans take note. Never trust anyone with everything. Never put all your eggs in one basket. The ancient truth never fail to show how silly human beans are at the end of the day for being too trusting. The truth shall set you free. Insist on the truth. Not the tooth.

Ponzi scheme in Singapore?

Former chairman of Nasdaq, Bernard Madoff, is being charged for a massive fraud involving US$50 billion. He was running a huge hedge fund and paying good dividends for 15 years. What an unbeliever track record! For those who are staunch believers of track records, please take heart to this. Track records can be cooked anyway the chef wants it to look. What happened to Madoff was that he paid his old investors with money collected from new investors. He was losing money all the way. But through this version of the pyramid scheme, he collected new money to pay old debt that were due. Familiar? His con job could go on forever if he could find ways to keep the investors invested. Or he could bring in more and more new investors to cover up for the older investors. Or if he could delay the pay out to the old investors by keeping their money as long as he can. He should learn from the Redbean Bond. Keep the money and don't pay out. Just send to the investors their growing investments. That would keep the investors very happy and he could conceal his losses forever, and continue to pay himself handsomely, and crow about it. Unfortunately he could not hide it any longer. He could not bring in more investors to build a bigger and ever bigger pyramid base. He could not con more people to put money into a scheme that need not pay out for 20 or 30 years. When he has to pay according to the contractual terms, no delay is allowed, he is dead meat. Things will be different if he could shift the goal posts. Such a scheme cannot go on forever. It is only a matter of time before the pyramid collapses. And there are many such schemes in Wall Street. And all are collapsing. Wonder if there are any here? Why did I have this uneasy feeling, a bad hunch?