DBS doing National Service

‘Thousands of HDB homeowners are turning to DBS Bank for a mortgage product that guarantees savings.
 
Those who took up a POSB HDB loan when it was launched in April could be looking at savings of as much as $1,600 by next month, calculations from DBS showed.…
 
The first POSB HDB loan pilot launch – where homebuyers enjoyed a floating-rate loan with interest capped below the HDB concessionary rate for 10 years – was fully sold.
The bank is now into its second offering, which charges the same rate but for eight years, said Ms Lui.
 
The current POSB HDB loan charges for the first eight years the three-month Sibor (Singapore interbank offered rate) plus 1.38 per cent, capped at the CPF Ordinary Account rate. The current CPF Ordinary Account rate is 2.50 per cent.
Thereafter, the loan charges three-month Sibor plus 1.48 per cent. The September three-month Sibor is 0.374 per cent.
 
The HDB concessionary loan now charges 2.60 per cent, which consists of 0.10 per cent plus the CPF Ordinary Account rate of 2.50 per cent. Based on the three-month Sibor of 0.38 per cent, borrowers who switch from the HDB concessionary loan will pay a lower interest rate of 1.75 per cent.
 
For a homebuyer refinancing from the HDB in April, based on a loan of $400,000 and 25-year tenor, the potential savings over six months amount to $1,684.
And should interest rates rise over the next eight years, DBS guarantees that it will be capped at the CPF Ordinary Account rate of 2.50 per cent or 0.10 per cent below the HDB concessionary rate….’
 
The above is posted by Thoughts of a Cynical Investor in his blog. What is obnoxious is that bank housing loan rates have been below the rates charged by HDB for years and why is HDB is charging 2.6%? Making money from daft citizens is so easy as long as they don’t complain.

WP’s frightening silence

The Workers Party has skipped many controversial social and political issues with a stony silence. Many critics have accused the WP for opting out, for losing its balls, and choosing the easy way out by keeping silence. This non committal strategy is frowned upon by those who expect the biggest opposition party to take the ruling party on important issues, at the very least. And many have expressed disappointment with the WP, some even claiming that it has been bought over by the ruling party.
 
Within a matter of days, two outspoken MPs from the ruling party have lashed out at the WP for their reticence on the hijab issue. They accused the WP for sitting on the fence by not taking sides and leaving the PAP to make a stand that is not well received by the Muslim community. It will cost the PAP dearly in votes from the community. This has made the PAP fuming mad as it cannot win on this issue.
 
WP’s silence is the best strategy for the moment. Let the PAP confront the Muslim community alone and take the blow. WP only stands to gain by being neutral. The strategy works if it can extract strong reactions from the PAP. And judging from the frustrating comments by Indranee and Hri Kumar, the WP is not only scoring without lifting a finger, it puts the PAP in a very defensive and uncomfortable position and feeling the full weight bearing on them. The attack also proves that WP has not been bought over or has sold out on its political mission.
 
The strategist in Low Thia Khiang is showing itself again. The PAP has been rattled and could not do anything about it except to provoke the WP to stand up and be shot at. You can bet the WP would stay even lower and let PAP face the wrath of the Malay community all alone.
 
Who says a political party must always kpkb to be effective? WP’s silence is not only effective, but also very unnerving.

There was a time – Jean Yeo

This is a six part series produced by Jean and Pedro and shown on Channel 5 at 9 pm every Monday. Tonight was the first half of the 1964 racial riot in Singapore. The next half will be shown on ncxt Monday. I am not sure how many of you have seen this episode and the other episodes of early Singapore.

I was in Secondary Two then. Still a bit young to really understand what was going on but could not miss the fear and tension of those days. My memory was still vivid on that night, in a coolie keng in Borneo Road. This was a row of double storey prewar houses with 9 units attached together and an open verandah on the upper floor. One unit was occupied by a lone Malay family, two by Indians, one of which was an Indian coolie keng. The rest were Chinese families. Though only nine units, there were many Chinese families as each family occupied just one room with the exception of three units. There were several rows of shophouses along the adjacent Nelson Road. The nearest cluster of Malay residents was in a govt quarters at Miri Road about 50 metres away. It was a mixture of Malays, Indians and a few Chinese families.

I was sitting there with more than ten Chinese coolies, all male singles from China in their 40s and 50s. Remembered them looking at me, an excited little boy in their midst. They did not say anything to me. They were very calm and did not seem to want to do anything or were bothered by the news of the racial riots in Geylang. No weapons were prepared, but as coolies there were many wooden poles under the long beds if needed. There were no talks of going after the nearest Malay kampong in Radin Mas a km away.

Outside there were movements of people. The gangsters had a job cut out for them. They became the much needed guardians of the neighbourhood. Over the few days of curfew, nothing really happened in the neighbourhood. Not a single incident. The Malay family were not disturbed at all. But one could imagine their fear living in a Chinese neighbourhood.

I think this was the normal state of affairs in many areas when the non Malays were the majority. The clashes were in Malay majority areas in Kampong Glam, Geylang and Eunos areas. This could explain that the riots were likely to be incited by foreigners.

The only event that came pretty close was the death of a woman that I happened to know. I used to call on them to collect night soil removal fees, the bucket system that we provided as a side income to some of the households in kampong Radin Mas. It was weeks later that news of her killing reached us. That dreadful night her family members heard her scream just a little distance from their attap hut. It was not the right thing to be brave to rush out. They collected her body the next morning on a path leading to their home. By then we had stopped providing the service and I no longer run all over the kampong to collect the monthly fees.

The tragic event of 1964 was called a racial riot in Singapore. The non Malays clashed with the rioters and fought for their lives. And there were the presence of impartial law enforcers to keep everything in control. Though we were in Malaysia, the patrols were conducted by teams of mixed racial origins officers to ensure that every incident was evenly handled. Within the local communities there were really no bad blood or deep rooted baggages to allow the riots to be blown out of proportion.

The riots in neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia were misnomers. They were killing the Chinese in those days, with the partial law on the side of the killers. Many Chinese were brutally killed in both countries that the Chinese media termed the events as ‘pai hua’ or killing of Chinese. They were not racial riots but highly racist mobs out to kill the Chinese.

This dark part of our history came and gone and hopefully would not be repeated again. The HDB policy of allocating flats to different ethnic groups to prevent any concentration of a particular race had its origin from this tragic past. We must not take the small discomfort and inconvenience of such policies lightly and think it is ok to remove them without taking heed to our history. What happened in 1964 was nothing compares to the events in Malaysia and Indonesia that were best not spoken. The wounds have healed but the ugly scars are still there.

It is worth watching the second part of the 1964 riots next Monday and to hear the personal encounters of the people who are still living with us. We must learn from our past, our history and our mistakes and not to let it ever be repeated. We must not be complacent to what can go wrong once again. Never take racial harmony for granted.

Daft Sinkies will lose their country

The Malays in Malaysia will never lose their country. They are fully conscious and politically aware that they are the owners of their land. The daft Chinese almost lost China when the country was ruled by a minority tribe, the Manchus, who cared more of their tribe’s interest than the interest of the bigger country China, chose to protect their own interest. As long as they could preserve their dynasty, even just the forbidden city, the rest of China can go to the foreigners. When the Chinese people did not believe in themselves, lost confidence and faith, did not believe that they own the country, they just give up. Foreigners were everywhere in China, with more rights than the citizens.
China was lucky that a new elite emerged to gather the lost Chinese together, to politicize them again, to renew their faith and patriotic love in their country, to take back their country. The rest is history.
 
Singapore is at a juncture when the lost sheep is led by blind shepherds that only believe in selling the wool to make more money. They would sell the sheep and the pen if the money is good. No one cares about the country and the people. It is laissez faire, and money can buy anything. The rich are intoxicated with the money they have made, and everyone is trying to make more money, selling land and properties and whatever they have, for more money.
 
Sinkies no longer think about country. Sinkies no longer believe that they own this country. Sinkies were told to share this country with any Tom, Dick and Harry. It is like lelong, come all and take all, come and feast. Whoever can and willing, can take and have everything. There is no ownership, no country, just a hotel.
 
While the rich Sinkies are merrymaking and laughing to the banks, the average Sinkies are lost, without a leader to lead. They simply give up, not fighting anymore. Don’t know how to fight or what to fight for. If Sinkies do not think they own this piece of land and allow others to take it away from them by default, they deserve to lose their country.
 
While they remain apathetic and disinterested, others are not. There are many waiting and scheming to take this island from the daft and pathetic Sinkies. And the good part, the daft Sinkies don’t even know that it is happening. The world is so innocent and beautiful to the daft Sinkies. They could not see the sinister hand of the real world at work. Their island home is slowly slipping away from their limp fingers. Their country is being taken away right before their eyes, wide shut.
 
Sinkies better wake up before it is too late. This is their only home, their country. Lose it and you will become boat people. The rich will fly away to be rich in other countries. Those left behind will not go on to live a life like what they have today, if they lose their country. And they will lose it, under a rogue govt of bad leaders that think of nothing but their self interest.

Do not adopt a tiada apa attitude and let this country become a hotel.

The insanity of the rich Singaporeans

Yes, Sinkies are rich, high income and high spending. Many are worth half a million or more just be housing alone. But one thing the Sinkies did not bargain for or fail to realise, the money in their pockets, savings and bank accounts flies away faster than the money of their peers in the neighbouring countries. Our money cannot be kept for too long and keep flowing out and many would have serious problems on retirements, selling houses and flats to get by.

Our neighbours may not have big incomes, but the money they have somehow stay with them much longer. And when they look forward to retirement, they have no fear of losing their homes, the homes they bought and lived for their whole lives, just to have some money to get by.

Be careful with your money. They are here today, gone today. One can have hundreds of thousands wiped out without knowing what is happening. This is going to be the shocking reality that rich Sinkies would have to come to terms with. The bulk of the ‘rich’ sinkies, notably the average living in public housing, will realise that the equation will come to nought when they reach the end of their life journey. In a way it is a zero sum game, every cent planned to be used for just this life time. Nothing left in their CPF or savings, not even their HDB flat when it is game over.

The ability to plan to such details to perfection is really an amazing art of ‘gum gum ho’. The precision is an engineering feat unmatched anywhere in the world.