Stock market or casino?

The Australian Stock Exchange has made the most innovative decision to appoint the CEO of a casino as its head. They must have come to realise that the stock market has in all counts nothing but a casino. And they need a casino man with his experience in running a gambling den to manage it. Also, for a gambling den, the strong regulations are vital to protect the customers from being cheated.

In the same page of the ST today, the SGX was reported to tightening its enforcement of errant listed companies. It wanted to do more to prevent more failures. It would apply its rules and regulations to the letter and spirit.

Good sayings, and the problems are always with other people. Has the SGX contributed to the problems, or is the SGX the problem itself? Is there a conflict of interest in its pursuit of profitability and thus violating its own rules and regulations to the letter and spirit?

The introduction of high speed trading, programme trading and the plugging of these super computers into the trading system to trade against the small investors, is this fair trading? Is the playing field level as this is the key principle and spirit that the SGX is to uphold? Then there is the Dark Pool which violates the principle of transparency that is also another key responsibility for the SGX to uphold.

Has the SGX been operating under the same principles and rules and regulations that it is legally bound to uphold? If it doesn’t, who is there to ensure that SGX does according to its mission and role as the operator of a profit making body and its own regulator?

This is another case of who is to regulate the regulators and protect the innocent customers?

Polling Day - What are we voting for?

We have an election for a ‘lame duck’ President under the Constitution. Yes, he has veto rights to several important areas. He can only exercise his veto if a piece of paper is placed to his desk. If nothing is placed on his desk, there is nothing to veto at all. Get it?

This does not mean that this election is not important. It is, and every citizen must think about it carefully and use his vote wisely. This election is not about voting against the PAP. This election is not about voting the coolest uncle to take pictures with. This election is not about voting someone to kick butts.

This election is about checks and balance. This election is about being sensible and knowing what is good for you and your children. This election is to tell the world that you are not daft.

And you can confirm your daftness by voting for absolute power. You can double confirm your daftness by voting for checks and balance by ‘ka ki lang’, or in English, voting for the same kind to check on the same kind. And you can triple confirm your daftness by voting for both above reasons. And your daftness will forever be carved in stone.

Go to the polling station tomorrow to redeem yourself, your dignity and self respect, that you are not daft, that you are able to think clearly and logically.

What a mischievious post!

The Online Citizen, 25 Aug 2011
There are rumours circulating online that Presidential candidate Tan Jee Say gatecrashed Singapore People’s Party’s (SPP) National Day dinner last Saturday (see HERE).
A Workers’ Party member Melvin Tan who contested in the 2006 General Election, writing a note on his Facebook said that he has chosen to vote for Dr Tan Cheng Bock over Mr Tan Jee Say because Mr Tan Jee Say seem to have “an air of superiority” around him, and also because he did not like how Mr Tan “heckled Tony Tan” in TOC’s ‘Face to Face 2′ Presidential Forum.
That Facebook note is now being circulated widely online.
In the same note Mr Melvin Tan said:
“The last straw was the SPP National Day Dinner on 20 Aug ’11, where I bought tickets to attend to support Chiam See Tong for all he has done for Singapore. TJS (Tan Jee Say) turned up and in my view gate-crashed the event and stole the limelight. From very reliable sources, that wasn’t pleasant for the Chiams or SPP.”

TOC tried to clarify this with SPP and spoke to Dr David Tan, Central Executive Committee member of SPP.
Dr Tan in speaking to TOC said, “It’s untrue! I invited Tan Jee Say in my personal capacity to the dinner. Mr Tan initially declined because of his prior commitments. But later, because of my insistence, he agreed to drop-by to say hello to the Chiams and myself.”
Dr David Tan was Mr Tan Jee Say’s teacher when Mr Tan was a student in Raffles Institution.
When informed that Mr Tan Jee Say would like to drop-by the party to greet the Chiams, Mr and Mrs Chiam welcomed him, clarified Dr David Tan.


Why would this Melvin Tan come out with such a statement that unwary readers would form a bad impression on Tan Jee Say at a critical moment like this? Why, why. why?

Let me think. A lot of conspiracy theories appeared in my mind. For someone who wanted to be an MP, it can be expected that he would make such statements only if the facts were correct. Why would he make such a statement only to be proven wrong immediately by the organisers?

Fishy eh?

New clothes maketh a new man

Are Singaporeans mortals or higher mortals, or simply robotics? We have a Presidential election tomorrow. From the onset of this election the Singaporeans were told that this is a non political election. The Elected President is non political and is above politics. There is no politics involved here, but the higher national interests. So Singaporeans all went about garbling that the election has nothing to do with Singapore’s politics.

Next came the candidates for the presidency. Three resigned from their political parties only a few days ago, and one resigned several years back. All claimed to be independent of any political parties or association. And all claimed that they are now new men and will not be influenced or affected by their past associations. The apolitical Office of the Presidency is safe. It will not be tarnished by any swine that will be elected to serve the interests of political parties.

And no political party stands out to endorse any of the candidates, to keep politics out of the election. Any politicians that endorsed or spoke well for the candidates were speaking in their own personal capacities, with no political agenda.

This is how clean this Presidential election has become. It is a role model for the world to emulate. Change the clothes and change the man. We have instant trees. Now we have instant apolitical men.

My apologies. Think I have a few glasses too many.

Test for daft Singaporeans

This Saturday, 27 Aug 2011, Singapore will again have an opportunity to sit for a test to prove their daftness once again. For so many years, Singaporeans have not only been told that they are daft, they even agreed that it is true and accepted the fact shamelessly.

After a life time of slogging, when many have become grandfathers and grandmothers, when the normal process of growing up and ageing would have made them wiser, they were told that they cannot be trusted with their hard earned money. And this money will be kept away from them, maybe return to them in drips, and in exchange they will be given a piece of paper every month to tell them how rich they are, and also how daft they are.

They were also told that foreigners are here to help them, to create jobs for them. But before doing that, the foreigners would have to take some of their jobs. And if they lost out to the foreigners, they were told to buck up or that they were lazy, less competitive and must go for retraining, for a lower skill job than before. And also, the foreigners are here to help to increase the value of their properties that they cannot sell. For after selling, they would not be able to afford to buy the next property except by downgrading.

There are many other things that were shafted down their throats to confirm their daftness. This Saturday, they will be put on another test to confirm how daft they are, or whether they are beyond redemption.

The test is about a Justice Bao, a Song magistrate that was legendary for his impartial dispensing of justice, without fear or favour. This time the daft Singaporeans were told that Justice Bao has reincarnated. He is going to stand for election as the next President. And Justice Bao will uphold justice with absolute impartiality. He will not be affected by his relations with anyone in the execution of his duties. Any govt official that is corrupt will be beheaded under the tiger head guillotine. The Singaporeans are told to elect this Justice Bao the reincarnated as their President. And Justice Bao will demolish the myth that absolute power will corrupt. With Justice Bao as the President, there is no such thing as corruption of power. The more absolute the power the better for Singaporeans, when Justice Bao is around. Singaporeans will once again be told to vote for absolute power.

Would Singaporeans again prove themselves to be daft and vote the reincarnation of Justice Bao to be their President? The verdict will be out by 28 Aug 2011.