Why need so much in CPF Minimum Sum Schemes?

Below is quoted in a post in TRE on Gerald Giam’s question on the CPF Scheme in Parliament and a reply by Tan Chuan Jin.

Mr Tan Chuan-Jin: Most seniors have various sources of financial support in retirement. Based on the findings of the latest Household Expenditure Survey, a retiree household in 2012/2013 received $1,740 of non-work income on average a month. The sources of income include monthly payouts from CPF, contributions from family members, rental income and investment income. Results from the National Survey of Senior Citizens 2011 also indicated that about two-thirds of senior citizens received income transfers from their children.

Many of our seniors today also have savings in their housing assets which have appreciated significantly. A typical retiree household who owns a three-room or a four-room flat has $300,000 or $400,000 worth of net equity in the flat respectively. The Government has introduced schemes such as the Lease Buyback Scheme (LBS) to provide Singaporeans with additional options for unlocking the savings in their flats to supplement their retirement income if they wish to do so. Seniors who have other forms of financial support might not see the need to take up LBS, or they may choose to move to a small flat or rent out rooms in their flats instead.

Exactly, most seniors have other forms of income and financial support. The CPF savings is only one of these supports. Why is there a need to compel all the seniors to keep so much money in the CPF like ‘dalit’ money, untouchables? From the huge numbers, the statisticians must have used the premise that this is all the money needed for a senior to live on. This is false, a great flaw in assumptions. Many seniors not only do not need to depend on their CPF savings, many have more to spare and did not have to rely on their CPF savings. Ask the rich, the elites, and the ex ministers and political appointment holders.

There is no need to imprison the money of all the seniors in the CPF. I quote, ‘Most seniors have various sources of financial support in retirement.’ So, what is happening? Head I win tail you lose argument? When is the govt going to review the CPF Schemes and return the money to their rightful owners?

Listen to the insurers, everyone must have more than $1m in savings when they retired. How many people have $100k in savings when they retired? Are they going to starve to death? When don’t they say everyone must have $10m to live like a king?

Return Our CPF.

Kopi Level - Green

Integrity, Transparency and Accountability in NTU Governance

by MIKOspace

Reflections on Purported Forensic Investigations by the major public accounting firm Ernst&Young into possible financial improprieties and misconduct at the highest levels of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU).

Good Governance is not natural or automatic. The promotion and maintenance of good governance is not easy.  Powerful financial forces act to corrupt power and trust to erode and succumb feeble-minds to the temptation of greed and corruption.  An unspoken “social contract” exists between public officials and the Singapore people whereby we “The People” can expect public institutions to put the interests of the many over those of a few, including themselves, as they exercise wise judgment in decision-making in accordance with the inherent principle of Trusteeship when advancing the economic, social and moral needs of an ethical and caring society.

Whither therefore the truth and nature of purported forensic investigations by the major public accounting firm Ernst&Young into possible financial improprieties and misconduct at the highest levels of the Nanyang Technological University (NTU)? Would the Report, if available, be made public like the one concerning the National Kidney Foundation some years ago? 

Of greater importance and public interest is whether public integrity watchdogs and enforcement agencies like the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) and Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau (CPIB) would follow up on the Report, if any, to evaluate whether any laws were breached and whether anyone should be charged for corruption or other heinous breach-of-trust offences, or they had abused their entrusted power for private profit.

If the purported Ernst&Young Report indeed revealed breaches of laws, it would not be surprising.  On several occasions, it had been mysteriously bizarre as to why NTU Senior Management chose to ignore relevant legal boundaries with such impunity even after these have been pointed out them. {Read More}

Would the purported Ernst&Young Report on NTU uncover other instances of corporate misconduct or breaches of established corporate governance rules?  Hopefully, no.  I shudder to think of the shameful publicity and ramifications that would result from such scandals on the fine reputation of NTU.

We must guard the integrity of public institutions jealously. Corruption takes over when we allow our national institutions to be subverted by unprincipled public officials or public employees determined to abuse their power, position and prestige for personal profit and gain. 

Kopi Level - Green

  

Read Full Article:

NTU Governance - Integrity, Transparency & Accountability

Laws Broken for Top Universities Rankings

A rebellion in the Stock Market?

It has never happened before. But the frustration and anger must be so high and waiting to explode that a petition has been posted asking for the resignation of Magnus Bocker. The usually quite, docile and hapless remisiers and retail investors must be really pushed to a corner.
 
This is the introductory paragraphs of the petition:
 
Petition to remove Magnus Bocker as the CEO of SGX due to his mismanagement.
 
We demand that Mr Magnus Bocker, CEO of SGX, step down from his post immediately.
Since taking over the helm from Mr Hsieh Fu Hua, Bocker has not been focused on building the capital markets. Instead, he has been putting in a lot of effort to build the derivative and commodities market to enhance the profits. This is almost similar to when SMRT decided to focus on developing their retail income to enhance profits and forgetting their role to provide a safe and reliable public transport system.
 
The breakdown of the SGX trading system yesterday for almost three hours is almost similar to the massive train disruption we experienced just a while ago. Given that hundreds of millions have been spent on the system since Bocker became CEO, such a breakdown should not happen.
 
The petition is at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/petition-to-remove-magnus-bocker-as-the-ceo-of-sgx
 
Why is this happening? Are there enough justifications to call for this petition? Would there be enough signatories to make this petition meaningful and for MAS to act on it? The outage on Wednesday appears to be the straw that breaks the camels back. Maybe, maybe not, as there are no talented Singaporeans to replace Magnus Bockers. They could not even find a Singaporean good enough to be the Chief Operations Officer cum Technical Officer.
 
I think both will be safe and will continue to run the SGX. They are the best talents that the SGX/MAS could find for the jobs. And SGX is doing very well, with all the measures introduced, SGX is well ready and well prepared to be the best stock exchange in Asia. Just give them time. Think long term.

Kopi Level - Blue, Thank you.

Dalit aspiration, to ride a bicycle

The new aspiration for Singaporeans are changing, and the latest is to aspire to own a bicycle, an expensive one of course. Cars are out of reach to many and will only get worst. So reconditioning the Singaporean Dalits in the making to think cheap, think low, have low aspiration, is a good start. Tell them to cycle to work or to go any where, go dating, go for dinner, just cycle.
 
Don’t look at Communist China and the Chinese. They have different dreams as rich Communists. They want all the best things money can buy, branded goods, good housing and of course to own and drive cars, luxury cars. We should aspire to own and ride bicycles. We must have reached a stage when luxury and material comfort is no longer important to us. Next aspiration is for the new Dalits to aspire to live like monks, give up all possessions and desires.
 
And there are many good pretensions to ride bicycles. Think green, tell your neighbours that you want to save Gaia. If they don’t know what that is, tell them it is the fashionable name for old Mother Earth. Tell people you do not want to waste natural resources like consuming precious oil. Oh, tell people cycling is good for health. It is a life style thing. Every Dalit is cycling and owning a bicycle. Just ignore those who drive Mercedes and BMWs and with a few top of the range bicycles sitting on the roof of the cars.
 
The best thing about cycling is that you can throw your temper around with rude motorists. You can dump your bicycle on the car’s bonnet. It is not crime. After venting your anger with the rich car owners, you can cycle away happily. The only catch is if the bugger is rich enough to hire a lawyer to sue you. If not, you got your chance to show your manhood for free.
 
And the Govt is all for cycling. There is a National Cycling Plan to turn more roads into cycling paths and make cycling easy and safe. With the hot weather and tropical thunderstorms, they may think of building a roof over all the bicycle paths. Now, wouldn’t that be good and thoughtful? But don’t ask too much and demand the cycling paths to be air conditioned. That is not acceptable.
 
There will then be no shortage of car parks when there are less cars on the roads. Car parks can be converted to bicycle parks. As for loss of revenue from COEs, this can be compensated in two ways. COE should start from $200k. And once there are too many bicycles, can introduce COEs for bicycles to make up. Of course it cannot be the same as car COEs. But with the numbers of bicycles on the roads, even at $1k could be quite a princely sum.
 
Yes, tell the Dalits it is a reasonable aspiration to ride bicycles. They will manufacture two seat bicycles for those datings. It is so romantic and so nostalgic, like in the movies. Grandpa and grandma also did the same.
There is no need for four seater bicycles as the family unit is getting smaller with some not wanting to have children. A two seater bicycle is just perfect.

Kopi Level - Blue, Thank you.

Sin City is a low crime city

When overcharging or over billing is no crime. When cheating customers buying iPhones with phony insurance scheme is no crime. When beating up motorists by cyclists is no crime, it is only natural that crime rates will be low. It is utterly disgusting to see rogue shop owners in Sim Lim Square, like those reported in the media, cheating their customers in broad daylight, and the authority could not do anything about it. And the poor customers would have to go down on their knee, at least one tourist did that, to beg for mercy. And when CASE intervened, the victim just got back half the money paid without the goods. And everyone thinks they have done a good job and the poor victim should be happy with half his money back and the other half still inside the pocket of the robber. Have they changed the meaning of robbery in the dictionary?
 
And no one is shouting vile in any of these instances. Over billing or overcharging by the millions or hundreds of thousands, not vile. Cheating a vulnerable old lady by the millions, not vile? Then what is vile? Oh, heckling Special Needs Children is vile.
 
But low crime is not no crime. We have serious crimes like making a nuisance in a Speakers’ Corner when demonstrating too loudly and disturbing other Park users. Six people have been charged in court for this serious crime. Another crime currently in process in the court is a Town Council headed by a democratically elected MP holding a small fair in her constituency and being charged for not filling a form properly, meaning no permission to do so. Luckily no one said this is vile also.
 
Victims of those cheating crimes at Sim Lim Square, or I may be wrong to call them cheating since it is not a crime, can only find their own justice by suing the ‘cheats’. And if they are lucky, the public will stand up for them, to raise fund to cover the money lost to the ‘cheats’. My apologies, I do not know how to call the shop keepers as I am not sure they are cheats. Some lawyers are out defending them and warning the public not to harass them emotionally. The poor Vietnamese victim that went down on his knee was not emotionally harassed for sure.
 
And the public spirited citizens are now resorting to taking matters into their own hands by shaming the shopkeepers. This is the best they could do to protect themselves. And they are warned not to go over board or they could run foul of the law. What kind of justice is this? The law seems to be in favour of the rogue merchants but anyone trying to take justice into their own hands would risk the law coming down hard on them. This is a Rule of Law state. I am still trying to figure out what this meant.
 
Has this Sin City progressed to Shame City of low crimes? Did anyone bother if this Shoppers’ Paradise is turning into a Pirate’s Cave? Does it? Rip Van Winke did not know that such foul practices have been happening for years. Just a few incidents only leh. No big deal lah. Who cares? Bo Cheng Hu is the best.
Isn’t it scary to think that these shops could cheat so openly with impunity and could continue to do the same after repeated complaints against them? What is going on? And shoppers are advised to take precautions themselves when shopping. How about hiring a couple of bodyguards and lawyers when go shopping to be safe?
 
‘China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has officially put up a notice warning their nationals to be careful when buying electronics such as mobile phone in Singapore.
A similar message is being shared around Vietnam as the news of the Vietnamese tourist being scammed then crying and begging on his knees for a refund made national headlines in Vietnam.’
 
The above quotes are posted in The Real Singapore.

Kopi Level - Blue, Thank you.