Quote of the Day – Justice Philip Pillai

"There is no requirement in the Constitution to call elections to fill elected Member vacancies," - Justice Philip Pillai

The much awaited decision of the Vellama Muthu versus the PM case is out. And it is now clear, a ruling by a high court judge, that according to the Constitution, there is no need to fill the vacancies of a constituency if it is empty for whatever reasons. And the judge also ruled that the PM has absolute discretion whether to call an election to fill the vacancy of an elected Member.

Is that the final answer? Apparently yes. Can make a call for help? An appeal against this interpretation of the law? I don’t think there will be any other interpretation unless the Constitution is amended. So the people would now have to live with a constituency without an elected MP if the bugger buzzed off during his term of office for some reasons until the PM decided otherwise.

That must be the intention of the Constitution and must be good for the people. Constituents who go voting must now think doubly hard when they go to the poll. They must check the health and conduct of the candidate before voting just in case the bugger mati half way or kenna exposed for something and force to resign. Then they can be left with no MP throughout the term.

The legislators must have seriously thought through this before writing the law into the Constitution, and this is good for the people and country. And technically if after 3 days of an election, an MP is knocked out for some reasons, just too bad. Under the Constitution and under this latest judicial interpretation, it is possible to have no MP to serve the constituents.

SGX targeting the heartlanders

SGX is mounting a public campaign to educate the heartlanders to invest in the stock market. One thing unsaid is that the market is very sick and there is an urgent need for an injection of morphine before the market turns into a cold turkey. I said morphine injection and not tonic as more innocent traders entering the market, if they take the bait, will only be a temporary respite. The market would still go into a coma and then mortis rigour if nothing is done to look at the real causes of its bad health.

What has happened to a flourishing market that saw hundreds of thousands of investors vigorously trading daily but vanished into thin air and the market looking like a cemetery on a weekday? Where have all the investors gone and why?

There is something very sinister in the dying market. Is this due to the uncertainties in the collapsing world economy, the financial system, or is it something local and systemic? Or is it that the products are unworthy or unfit for consumption? It is important to understand the causes of this pathetic state of the market before bringing innocent and naïve heartlanders to trade in a market that is more like a casino, dominated by computers and the big boys. Someone once advised that traders cannot trade against Robocop or the computers and hoping to come up tops.

The heartlanders are not the super rich that have easy money to splash and to lose. Their little savings or spare cash are blood and sweat money and if they are encouraged to trade in a stock market, their interests must be protected at all cost. Does anyone want to know what happened to all the traders in the market? Where have they gone, what happened to them and why were they no longer in the market?

This could be a good place to start and the answers could reveal the causes of the dying market and what needs to be done before bringing in the sheep for the slaughter.

Is there anything wrong with the market? This is a spooky question that begs to be answered.

My grandfather’s company

My grandfather’s company is the place for happy people. All the employees are absolutely happy, at least in their pay and bonuses. There are so many MDs that I have lost count. And there are more presidents than the country has. We have no problem creating good and high value jobs and every talented employee will be promoted to MDs and presidents in double quick time. Money is never an issue. My grandfather pays for it. Just don’t ask where my grandfather finds the money.

I know that many eager beavers are waiting in a long queue to join my grandfather’s company. But sorry to say, employment is by invitations only. And being my grandfather’s company, a little purple blood will make entry and promotion that much faster. My grandfather loves that kind of things.

And there is never short of cash. So promotion is always a happy and easy thing to do. And if any MD or president is not too happy with his or her pay, my grandfather will just add a few more appointments in the name cards, and the unhappy employee will walk away merrily.

Nobody wants to leave my grandfather’s company once they have joined. And we have a policy of not firing anyone. How could that be when everyone is so talented, so devoted and so self sacrificing? My grandfather’s company is the best company in the Top 100 companies of the world. It is a dream company.

Integration, an exercise in futility

What or who are Sinkies supposed to integrate with, the foreign workers, maids, the EP talents, definitely not the real super foreign talents? The latter no need to integrate. Or are the Sinkies supposed to integrate only with the new citizens and PRs or with all of them?

Not only this is a problem, there are many conditions and developments that made integration just that unrealistic. Those who remembered, we used to have Integrated Schools in the 60s and 70s, to integrate our young as people of a nation. That was the right place to start with, the impressionable young. And from schools to working life, there will be plenty of time to get to know each other even as acquaintance. We have achieved some degree of social cohesion over the years, over many years, not days. And we have a people, though of various races, but already here for generations and quite adapted to the culture and social norms.

Life then was quite different too. There was no rat race and people generally have a lot of free time to socialize, to visit one another. Life style today is so hectic. The working adults would be working their guts out to make a living and to pay high mortgages. After work, they would be so exhausted that there would be no time for anything. They even have problems to spend quality time with their child or children. Still got time to integrate with foreigners? The rich have a lot of time, but with a lot of amusements to keep them busy and occupied. Integrating with the foreigners would be the last thing on their mind.

The young would be busy studying and trying to get good grades. Any time available would be spent integrating with their little machine, Iphone, Ipod, Ipad and computers. They don’t have time for anything else.

The only group left with all the time in the world to integrate with the foreigners would be the retirees, the uncles and aunties. Then again, would the young foreign workers and maids want to integrate with them? I know for sure, the maids and foreign workers would be busily integrating among themselves. The remainder of the foreign adults would be in Little India or Geylang trying to socialize and be happy.

Who else is there with all the time in the world to want to integrate? The middle executives, both locals and foreign would not have the time nor the interest to want to socialize. What ever little precious time left would be for sleeping and catching up with their little hobbies or preoccupations.

By the way, you don’t say integrate and lo behold, the people are dancing and hugging each other all over. Integration is a long term process that would not happen overnight like instant trees. The foreign workers and maids, even the middle executives are transient workers and residents and many would not be here for long. And who is going to pay for the time and effort to integrate? Time is money and integration also cost money.

Integration seems like a magic word to some, like go forth and multiply.

GIC and Temasek’s annualised returns revised?

In the media today, GIC has confirmed that its 20 year annualized rate of return was only 3.9% and Temasek’s was 15%. Who is spreading the misinformation that their returns were 17% annualized? How did people got such a fantastic figure that no fund managers would dare to claim? 17% annualized! Unbelieveable, incredible, insanity!

Oh, I remember that Professor Balding was using this number to compute the missing $160b in the national reserves of the island. At 17%, where have the $160b gone, he asked? There is a big dark hole somewhere that is concealing this fat chunk of money.

Now the mystery is solved. With the declared official numbers of GIC at a meagre 3.9%, less than the payout for CPF’s Retirement Account, GIC may be incurring a loss if the money is borrowed from CPF. And CPF’s annualized returns over 20 years must be much more as the earlier returns were much higher. I think if any funds were to park their money with me, I could guarantee 4% return over 20 years too. And I am not a super talent and need no super talented salaries.

Temasek’s 15% is still a stunting number for 20 years. So the mysterious $160 b could be lowered to perhaps $60b to $80b unaccounted. This is just a wild guesstimate if there was really a $160b missing in the books.

Prof Balding will now have to justify how he got the 17% number and what would now be the new missing cash hoard. It would definitely be less than the $160b that he came out with after scouring over the two funds past financial statements.

What else is new?