Chong Kee Hiong - PAP introduces a high flyer

I thought after the last GE PAP will be pulling more grassroot leaders to stand in the next GE. Now we are seeing another of PAP’s elite in Chong Kee Hiong as a potential candidate. His academic records and CV are typical of the kind of quality expected of a top notch PAP candidate. This one is another minister grade candidate for sure. He came from RI, a scholar and a high performer.
 
The bloggers are having a bit of misgivings on the thoughts of this elite. A post in TRE quoting an interview with ST two years ago highlighted the disappointment he had when he got one academic prize instead of two at Primary 5. He scored top marks in Mathematics and Chinese but the Math’s prize was given to another student with half a mark lesser than him all because the teacher taught he had won one prize too many. ‘I didn’t argue with the teacher but I was very upset. The fact that I still remember it with such clarity shows that I am still disturbed by it…The episode went against the idea of fair play and meritocracy.’ The quotes were posted in the TRE article and claimed ST as its source.
 
I can understand how a Pri 5 kid felt when a prize he deservedly won was taken away from him. This Chong has all the right to be unhappy. Now, why was this reported in the ST as claimed in the TRE article? What kind of image would be projected because of this incident and how the public will view it? For the less talented masses, one thought is likely to be, share share a bit lah, why want to win so many prizes. To some elite, this is unacceptable. Meritocracy is meritocracy, it is about the best getting the best. They worked for it, they are talented and deserved it.
 
Somehow I got this nagging feeling that Chong or the ST was misquoted. The self centred elitist tag is not a comfortable one to wear for a person seeking political office. In politics, there are more to it than just black and white or getting what one is entitled to or deservingly so. And I am very sure this Chong is politically smart and sensitive enough not to make such a statement in public and draw unfavourable flaks.
 
What is happening?

Is SMRT a private or public company?

‘(Reuters) - Singapore's SMRT Corp Ltd , the operator of the city-state's main rail network, asked the government on Wednesday about a financing framework which would reduce its capital expenditure, The Straits Times reported….25 Apr 14
 
SMRT has previously expressed interest in changing to a financing framework that was introduced by the government in 2010. Under this system, the government would own the assets, and be responsible for replacing them. This would free SMRT from having to incur huge capital expenditures on asset replacement.’
 
I dunno what to make out of this latest call from SMRT. The SMRT was built using public fund. It then went private, got listed and run as a profit making business. In the meantime, the money spent on the infrastructure, the land, did not become part of the computation of cost. And SMRT has been making millions annually and paying its management staff handsomely because of the great profits.
 
With this new development, with the govt bearing the cost of assets and asset replacement, SMRT could run an operation without huge capital expenditures and thus can register huge profits. How real is this profit? Is there anything wrong with this new formula? Where on earth can one run a private profit oriented business with the major part of the cost taken out of the equation, to be paid by the govt?
 
Who eventually have to pay for the cost and who will be benefitting from the profit without capital expenditure and asset replacement? Should SMRT be returned and run as a public service, a stats board?

How much do you know of your CPF nomination?

It was meant to be a simple straight forward procedure to make a nomination for someone to inherit whatever savings that is left in your CPF upon your demise. And the nominee will simply be presented a cheque for all the cash balance and the account closed. Someone has raised a query on why some of the deceased’s CPF balance is being transferred to his Medisave Minimum Sum Account. I have made an enquiry with the CPF and awaiting their reply on this matter.

When I wrote an article posing this new development, I also discovered that actually there are many changes to the issue of making a nomination and the complexities on how the savings of a deceased will be distributed. Effective 1 Jan 2011, there is a new scheme called the Enhanced Nomination Scheme, ENS. According to CPF’s website, I quote,



‘Previously when a member passes away, the Board will distribute his CPF savings to his nominees as a lumpsum in cash according to the proportion indicated in his nomination form.

The new ENS option enables CPF members to transfer their CPF savings to their nominees’ CPF accounts when they pass away, subject to the prevailing Minimum Sum limit and Medisave Contribution Ceiling (MCC).’

I went through the explanations in the CPF website and am still confused by the number of variations that could take place once a member elected the ENS. I am also not sure how the Minimum Sum limit and Medisave Contribution Ceiling comes into play. I would need some time to try to figure out what these changes meant and how they would affect savings of a deceased when returned to the nominee/nominees.

What about those who made a nomination before 1 Jan 2011? As in the case mentioned above, how did the transfer into the Medisave Minimum Sum thing comes into play? Is it a voluntary choice or it is a change made by the CPF without the consent of the deceased and nominee? I am still not clear on this. If this is a new thing, that the Medisave balance will be transferred to a nominee’s Medisave, it will be a no ending transfer from one Medisave to another and to another. I am waiting for CPF Board to reply on this. And I hope this Medisave Minimum Sum does not affect those who made a simple nomination to receive all payments in cash, every cent of it without having to transfer some money into the Medisave Minimum Sum.

There may be people who for some reasons chose to have the balance of a deceased’s savings transfer to their CPF accounts and may subsequently also to their nominees CPF accounts. I can’t think of a good reason to want to do so.

This CPF nomination to receive the balance of a deceased’s savings is getting to be a very complicated matter indeed.

Kopi Level - Yellow

SGX – Reality sets in

Jeremy Grant wrote ‘Singapore exchange losing out to regional competitors’ in the Financial Times on 23 Apr 14.
 
‘Singapore’s equity market is looking increasingly unloved. Last year the city-state’s stock exchange suffered the indignity of being overtaken in terms of trading volume by its Thai counterpart, knocking Singapore into second place in southeast Asia for the first time. More recently it was also overhauled by Japannext, a relatively small trading platform that competes with the Tokyo bourse.
 
This makes SGX, the Singapore exchange, Asia’s ninth-largest share market – a frustrating state of affairs for an exchange that prides itself on being “the Asian gateway” for investors in the region.
 
Singapore’s problems – a combination of low trading volume, or liquidity; relatively high transaction costs; and a dearth of big-ticket initial public offerings – were highlighted on Wednesday when SGX reported a 22 per cent fall in net profit for the third quarter….’
 
Is it surprising that the SGX is going down into the longkang as a failed stock exchange? People in the industry knew this long ago but the media has been hyping about how successful it has been with increasing volumes in derivatives and all kinds of shit except the real business of stock trading. And many who are supposed to be doing something to right the wrong are pretending to be Rip Van Winkles.
 
There have been a slew of measures rolled out by the SGX and every time it was touted to improve the trading volumes, improve liquidity, good for small investors, and the ridiculous no lunch break to extend trading hours for more volumes. We all know that it did not get better but worst.
 
So, how long would this myth of a fantastically successful stock market, the best managed in Asia, the financial centre that is doing roaring business going to go up in dust? When would the govt face the reality that things are in shit and the SGX is already in the intensive ward? This thing did not happen yesterday. The writings were on the wall a couple of years but everyone turned the other way. No one wants to know, no one wants to lift his little finger, no one wants to take responsibility but only prayed that the magician would continue to pull little rabbits out of his hat. Are there still rabbits left in the hat for the show to go on and everyone clapping for an encore?
 
Do they know what is happening, what is the cause of the dying stock market?

Kopi Level - Yellow

The books that I would want to write

There are so many books that I would like to write about the golden years of Sin City. And many people too will be writing their books on the same topics with some being the originators of these fascinating stories. They could even call them autobiographies.

No, I am not going to write about making my first million in rupiahs. Too many people have written on that. The very first book that came to mind is ‘How to run down a profitable and sound public transport system.’ It is not easy, like they said, when something is running well and smoothly, it will take an exceptional talent to run it down, or maybe a dud to do it in his best. In the latter case, it will be so easy with the dud thinking he has really done an excellent job.

The second book is likely to be ‘How to run down a vibrant and profitable stock market singlehandedly.’ This is a much more difficult task to do compare to running down a train system. To run down a stock market, you must not only have a list of fictitious but grand money making schemes, but must convince those people who think they are very smart that the silly schemes you have hatched are really good. Having a brilliant scheme to convince smart people to go along is elementary. Convincing smart people with fictitious and destructive schemes and to have them going along needs the talent of a genius. The only time when you don’t need a genius is when the smart people are really gullible idiots in disguise. Then the job will be a piece of cake.

The third book, this must be more difficult than the above, ‘How to rob the people’s life savings without them knowing.’ The difficulty of this book is that in the former two, you only need to convince a few people to believe in you. That is not difficult when they themselves did not know what is happening or did not want to know what is happening as long as they can spend time counting their money. To con all the people in a saving’s scheme is not easy. And it is not easy to turn a good saving’s scheme into a monster, a life taking scheme when people have to commit suicide to get their money back.

In this third book, with millions of people having a vested interest to want to protect their money, it is not easy to pull wool over their eyes to prevent them from seeing or knowing what is happening to their money. And you need to keep doing it everyday and make them believe their money is still there when it is not there. For the moment they know their money is gone, everything will fall flat.

My fourth book, ‘How to sell a country right before the eyes of its people.’ In terms of difficulty level this must be above all the three books combined. No one has ever done this in history. Some tried and were killed as traitors. Actually I am wrong on this. There had been many cases of traitors in the history of China for conspiring with foreigner powers. The Ming Dynasty fell because of traitors working with the enemies outside. The Song Dynasty also had the same fate when an idiotic general chose to follow orders blindly, without question and refusing to question, and left his post to allow the enemies to overrun his troops leading to the fall of a dynasty. But some people honoured such idiots as role models of blind loyalty to the emperors.

In modern cities, selling a country is much easier as long as you have a willing citizenry that would not protest, happy to follow instructions or orders, willing to believe the leaders, and lost the ability to think and unable to see when things go wrong. This book is going to be very interesting and would likely be written by many historians in the future.

Come to think of it, there are many people more qualified to write such books as their biographies. It would be instant best sellers, something like ‘kiss and tell’.  Just imagine if the authors actually engineered the downfall of a public transport system or a stock exchange and live to tell the stories. Every book is a fertile material for a Hollywood movie.

Kopi Level - Green