What is public interest?

We had been hit by a continuous barrage of articles that were deemed news worthy during the Aware saga and the recent Miss Singapore World scandal. The amount of information and effort spent on these two issues, the number of space allocated to report on them, must have given the public the impression that these were two very serious issues that were affecting the lives of Singaporeans, or at least Singaporeans were nosey and lapped them up with glee. We had a few reports of the LUP in opposition wards and the prominent role played by grassroot leaders over the role of elected MPs. There must be many interesting angles to look at this development, from the constitutional, political and party politics angles. I am hoping that this will be news worthy enough for the issue to be discussed at least for a month with the main media giving it an in depth coverage, front page and centre spread. Looks like this issue is of not much public interests and has died a natural death after a couple of reports and a letter from Low Thia Khiang. Not news worthy. Does not affect the lives of Singaporeans or our political system and culture.

CPF annuity take up rate encouraging

The scheme was announced in February last year followed by promotions and free gifts of $4000 for those who signed up early. 200,000 invitations were sent out to those eligible and 11,787 have signed up. This is an encouraging figure. What, less than 6% signed up for such a good deal? Another 500,000 invitation letters will be out in the next round to encourage more people to sign up. These belong to the group that has escaped the compulsion net. Singaporeans are really hard to please. With such a well thought out scheme, all devised for their own good, and with early bonus of $4000! Why aren't Singaporeans rushing or queuing up for such a great scheme? Singaporeans are known for their kiasu mentality and ability to smell out a good deal. And when there is one, you can bet that they will queue up overnight for it. When there is money to be made, the Singaporeans will be there. The scheme was announced in February last year followed by promotions and free gifts of $4000 for those who signed up early. 200,000 invitations were sent out to those eligible and 11,787 have signed up. This is an encouraging figure. What, less than 6% signed up for such a good deal? Another 500,000 invitation letters will be out in the next round to encourage more people to sign up. These belong to the group that has escaped the compulsion net. Singaporeans are really hard to please. With such a well thought out scheme, all devised for their own good, and with early bonus of $4000! Why aren't Singaporeans rushing or queuing up for such a great scheme? Singaporeans are known for their kiasu mentality and ability to smell out a good deal. And when there is one, you can bet that they will queue up overnight for it. When there is money to be made, the Singaporeans will be there.

Myth 213 - Competition is fictional in monopolistic environment

While my dreary eyes are still half open on a Sunday morning, I have woken up to a new truth. Competition in a market with only two monopolistic players can be good and true to the spirit of bringing better quality of services and goods and lowering cost. This is exactly what is happening in the tussle between SingTel and Starhub. Despite the fact that SingTel is paying $400m or double of what Starhub was paying for the rights to screen EPL, it is charging its customers less. How could this be possible beats me. There must have many things up their sleeves, eg efficiency, more advertisers, more cost cutting measures, or maybe they are doing national service. Whatever, Singaporeans and football lovers have woken up to a pleasant surprise this morning. At least the $23 package to watch EPL will be around for one year. And all the other services provided by SingTel are competitively priced against Starhub, and cheaper. I will strongly recommend that we should have two organisations building public flats for Singaporeans. This will definitely bring the price of flats down. Long live free competition, in the uniquely Singapore way. All the other industries and service providers should follow the example of SingTel to provide better quality services/goods at lower fees. SingTel's CEO Allen Lew deserves an equivalent of the Nobel Prize in Economics if he can pull this through over three years without significantly increasing the subscription fees.

Low Thia Khiang is furious

Finally he spoke out after months of silence. He was literally left out in the cold in the current Lift Upgrading Programme. He was expected to put in his thumb print while Eric Low front up in announcing the LUP for Hougang. The grassroot adviser, not the elected MP, took on the leadership role to run the constituency. Oops, let me correct this. The grassroot adviser took on the role to announce the Lift Upgrading Programme. What other important roles he was involved, like deciding which precinct or flats that are deserving, how much etc, I am not sure. The MP, the representative elected by the people to look after their affairs and the estate has been sidelined. Here we have an MP, not part of the ruling govt, but a representative in Parliament, and an adviser, not part of the govt, but an appointee of a ruling party, both contesting to serve the residents. Who should do the job? Who has been chosen by the people to do the job? The answer seems simple enough. But is that so? HDB has given all its right and good reasons why the grassroot leader should do the job. Period. Whose money is involved in the LUP, people's money, govt money, or party money? Now, what has Chiam See Tong got to say on this? He is also affected, I think. Would he write another letter to the ST forum like Low Thia Khiang?

A curious letter in My Paper

Teoh Kueh Liang wrote to My Paper saying 'Govt should take the lead in hiring older workers'. Now where has Teo Kueh Liang been? The govt has been taking the lead in this area for many years. Just look at the cabinet? No, not the one in the kitchen. Or look at the Istana. Or look at the board of directors of all the govt linked companies and stats boards. Then do a count on the number of oldies in them, starting from the Chairman down. The govt has been the leading light in hiring oldies all these years. It is all there for the people to see. What would be nice is to have some top jobs like Chairman and Presidents to go on a rotation, a one year term for each incumbent. Then many Singaporeans could benefit from the experience to be in such positions and would appreciate the problems the country is facing better.