Police – No offence to distribute flyers by PAP activists

It is reported in the media today that the distribution of flyers by PAP activists ‘urging residents to quiz their Workers’ Party (WP) Members of Parliament over the accounting and corporate governance lapses committed  by the Aljunied Hougang Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC)’ is not an offence.  ‘The distribution of flyers in itself is not an offence in Singapore.’ By ruling that there is no offence in the flyers of PAP activitists, it also means that the content in this is ‘no offence’ too.

Let’s be clear that there are two elements here, the distribution of flyers and the content. The first part is a clear cut thing. The second part can be a bit dicey and subject to different interpretations. For instance there is another flyer put up by Roy Ngerng in his blog and reposted in TRE urging the people to quiz the govt on improper governance and lost of more than $100b by GIC and Temasek. Roy is asking the people to make copies of the flyer for distribution to the people. The distribution of this flyer is definitely not an offence. What about its content?

Would the distribution of Roy’s flyers be an offence? What do you think?

Extended Settlement Contracts designated as dormant

‘ In view of the low levels of trading interest in the SGX Extended Settlement (ES) Contracts, SGX has decided to designate these contracts as dormant, with effect from 1 April 2015.’
 
This is a product that has its lifespan prematurely shortened for lack of interest. Trading on this product has petered to negligible level in its few years of existence since its introduction into the market in Jan 2009.
 
A peep into the stock market also revealed that hundreds of stocks listed in the SGX were also thinly traded or not traded for weeks or months. Interest in such inactive stocks is so low that it would not be a surprise if they will be delisted voluntarily by the respective companies in due course.
 
It would not be funny if such inactive stocks will also be designated as dormant stocks one day. A quick count on Friday 20 Mar morning, 11am, showed that at least 350 stocks were not traded at all, inclusive of 28 suspended counters. This is nearly 50 percent of the 805 counters listed. If this is going to be the case and going to be a norm, what does it say of the market and these stocks?
 
What do you think? Would they join the company of Extended Settlement Contracts as dormant stocks?

CPF – The bugging issue that everyone turns to look the other way

To all the foreign visitors to this blog, the CPF or Central Provident Fund is not a govt pension scheme. It is the life time savings of an employee, money deducted directly from his pay to be kept in the CPF and originally legislated to be returned to the contributors when they reached the age of 55. The return of all the money in the fund to their rightful owners was not a problem until recently when the rules were changed by the govt.
 
Several changes were made primarily to delay the amount to be returned to the rightful owners and the creation of other sub accounts to retain the money for as long as the govt so decided in minimum sums schemes that amounted to several hundred thousands of dollars. A minimum sum of $155k must be left in the CPF when the contributors reached 55 when he is allowed to withdraw his savings. Used to be a complete withdraw from the CPF with nothing left inside. Another minimum sum in a Medisave account for a sum of $43,500 must also be left in the CPF. This will be raised to $49,800 in a new subaccount called Basic Healthcare Scheme and will be retained till the member dies or the amount is used up, whichever is later.
 
With minimal protest from the people, a number of unprecedented protest rallies were held to opposed these changes at the Speakers’ Corners, the govt gets bolder and introduced compulsory life annuity insurance and medical insurance schemes that the people must pay for from their life savings in the CPF without the people’s consent. The govt is acting as if it has the approval or right to do what it wants with the people’s life savings of a life time. These changes meant that the contributors could hardly withdraw anything from their life time savings when they reached 55, now extended to 65.
 
What is the problem? No one, no a single academic, the legal counsels or Members of Parliament, has questioned the ethical and moral justifications for the govt to act in this way, to touch the people’s life savings. Legally the govt can change all the laws it wants with a 2/3 majority in Parliament. But changing the laws does not remove the principle of private ownership of properties and assets, in this case the people’s life savings.
Is it morally and ethically acceptable for the govt of the day to touch the people’s life savings and decide when and how much to return to the people, how the money should be spent on insurance policies that the people did not consent to?
 
The silence of the elite, the legal professions, the law makers and the academics and all the civic organizations can mean one thing. There is nothing unethical or morally wrong for a govt to touch the people’s life savings and to decide how to spend them.
 
If this is the case, then there is no case to talk about. What moral rights does the govt have to touch the people’s life savings without the consent of the owners of the money? Why are all the elite and professionals so reticent about this? Do they think the govt has crossed the line by making all these decisions on the people’s life savings? Or are they afraid to even think about it, and talking about it is taboo?
 
No? Nothing wrong with it? Are there any intelligentsia in the city state? Where is the conscience of the intelligentsia on a major issue like this? All daft, deaf and dumb? Where are the outspoken elite of this first world city state? Don’t they have anything to say about this?

Out of this world’s ministerial pay under pressure

This is another take on the poor minister’s salaries. The ministers are feeling tremendous pressure from the ground to raise their out of this world salary to another level. They were hinting that they wanted to do something about their pay being stagnant for 3 years but fearing a call to raise their ridiculous pay higher would precipitate an end to their PR status in Parliament.
 
In 2011, there were signs and indications that they were looking forward to another round of fat increases but the whole plan was shelved after the set back in the GE. A Ministerial Salary Review Committee was hurriedly assembled to readjust their pay downwards and the 24 months lucrative bonus scheme was scrapped and replaced by a more ‘Spartan’ watered down version with less than 12 month bonus scheme.
 
This set back was painful and a minister threatened to leave politics as the pay would affect the lifestyle of the family. The minister was subsequently promoted and regained all the lifestyle missed as a result of the salary cut.
 
Three years have passed and with the high cost of living, with Sin City becoming the most expensive city on earth, how could they make do with their miserable pay and with no increases for 3 long years? The pain and discomfort must be getting unbearable. It is high time that their pay be revised, after all the handout budget is giving so many billions to the people, why were the ministers left out in the cold? Oh, they also get some of the handouts from the budget I think. But those are pittance really. What could a miserable couple of thousand dollars do when some were yelping what is 10 million?
 
The problem, would the people allow a small increase of say 10%, mathematically speaking, only 3% per year to offset 3 years of drought? Only 3% mah? Is the ground sweet for an increase? Let’s test the water first. The people’s mood must be good, with surveys saying the people are very happy with the handout budget.
 
Should the govt proceed with the next step like reconvening the Ministerial Salary Review Committee? The govt seems to be approaching this issue very cautiously. It is the first time that the weight of the people is being felt by the deaf frogs. Yes, felt, they may not be able to hear, but still can feel. It was ‘just do it’ in the past when the daft were so easy to please or cow. Has anything changed? Is the govt starting to get more sensitive to how the people feel or react to things like asking the people to cough out another plate of char kway teow? Things cannot become so difficult after losing one GRC right? This govt is proud of its ‘just do it’ when it is right, no need to listen to the people. Maybe they know that it is not right yet, not the right time to do it. It cannot be that the people are putting pressure on the govt to hold back their horses on any impending pay hike. They will do it if it is the right thing to do, be sure about that.
 
Which is which? What is holding the govt back from giving themselves another raise when thing are going so well. How about making it as part of the SG50 Celebration, to make the ministers happy also since they have been working so hard to make the people so happy with all their well conceived schemes?

The 3 long and 2 shorts of LKY 三长两短

Yesterday was a day of rumours, all about the 3 long and 2 shorts of LKY. It was proven false with the PMO coming out with a denial but not before international news like CNN made the wrong call. LKY is still in the ICU and breathing.
 
The other big controversy is the opposing camps, one calling for people to be kind and forgiving and the other throwing the most unspeakable diatribes against the man that cannot talk back now. I have never had any direct contact or personal dealings with LKY and thus have no reason to say not nice things about him. Neither do I need to forgive him for he has done me no wrong.
 
The two camps engaging in the war of words are still at it with many in the middle calling for moderation, be reasonable and be forgiving. It is always good to forgive whenever one can do it than to live with a mountain of hate. The contrary argument is that those who suffered badly, life destroyed, career destroyed, family destroyed, fortune destroyed, it is easily said than done. The pain and suffering are felt personally and by everyone in the family. Asking to forgive is easy, but when in their shoes, it is a totally different matter. They are in the best position to know to want to forgive or not to forgive. Unless one is in their shoes, it is not easy to understand what they have gone through.
 
For LKY and his family it is just one of those things, a stage in life that we mortals have to live with. The time has come to leave and part company. There will be sadness, but for a man that has lived so well, did so many things that only a few could ever dream of doing, more ups than downs and more good than bad, it was a remarkable life to go through. He lived a good life, there is little regrets I supposed.
 
How many would have lived and left behind a fortune, a lot of children and grandchildren, and in the dying hours, with so many keeping in vigil, keeping him company, and really without a worry of unfinished work that still needs to be done? And in his condition, there is no pain and no suffering, it is like in a sleep, a semi conscious or more unconscious state, what a way to go.
 
At the ripe age of 91, according to Chinese customs it would be an occasion for celebration, a red event. The joss sticks would be red instead of green. In fact red would be the colour for the occasion. Wish him a good journey and RIP when the moment comes.