SG50 - One suggestion to keep Singaporeans home

Halimah had made a plea for Singaporeans to stay home to celebrate the SG50 National Day. Knowing how practical Singaporeans are and what a great opportunity to have a very long weekend to get away, the call must be in vain. Shouldn’t have declared 7^th Aug a holiday. Not thinking surely.

The latest from the grapevine, overseas tours are 700% overbooked. Now, how many Singaporeans would be left behind to attend the National Day Celebration, this would now be a serious issue. But not to worry as the seats can always be given to foreigners, especially the foreign workers who have no where else to go. The ICA can even set up a few tables to offer instant citizenship application if the 6.9 million target is falling behind.

It would not be funny if the seats are half empty at the Marina Bay platform. It would not be funny if the SG50 Celebration is celebrated by foreigners instead and all the money spent to make the foreigners have a good time while the citizens are all overseas.

Quick, quick, come up with a solution or alternative plan. The Celebration must go on. The holiday cannot be cancelled. So how? How to keep the Singaporeans in the island short of closing down all the exit points for a week?

Let me offer a solution. Hold the GE on 7 Aug. And since voting is compulsory, they would have to cancel their holiday trips. Would they? Some would say who cares, my holiday more important. But there is a risk as the more wealthy and thus more pro establishment would be away leaving the ‘money not enough’ at home to vote. And you can guess who they will vote for. This is no good.

Anyway, just a suggestion only mah. Who is the smart ass who suggested that 7Aug should be a public holiday? Not the President for sure. He simply announced it.

To forgive or not to forgive?

This has become a major topic for discussion in the social media. Many are cursing and swearing. Many are asking for forgiveness. There is this assumption that something wrong and bad was done and it is the time to forgive.

There are many questions to ask and many issues to be discussed. In the first place, did the person ask to be forgiven? Two, did the person admit any wrong or guilt? Let’s put aside the victims of the wrongs and how adversely they were affected, how they had suffered. Such calls for forgiveness are not something new. This expectation of forgiving has been repeated over and over again, at the level of ordinary beans, among friends that became enemies, within families, business people, colleagues and in political struggle for power.

The people that committed wrongs against their victims did not know that one day they would have to face the consequences or the maker.  Of course this cannot be true with some exceptions. They knew exactly what they were doing, wrongs against people, rivals in business, family members and friends. People cheated, lied, fabricated stories, fixing other people, all in the course of winning or to gain something. We are seeing it happening everyday, not necessary among the average daft but people who are very clever, too clever for their own good. They knew what they were doing.

Do these people deserve to be forgiven when their time comes when they are on their deathbeds? As we are talking at this very moment, many are still committing their wicked acts and deeds. They did not care.  They did not want to apologies or to forgive.  So are they deserving to be forgiven? They only think of their own interests, their benefits. What is going to happen to their victims and rivals is not a concern.

Under such situations, is there a need to ask for forgiveness for the person that committed wrongs? Look at the wicked things people are doing, and knowing very well that they have done wrongs, and are continuing to do wrongs, do they deserve forgiveness? Do they care if they are forgiven? Why don’t they stop their wicked deeds now and forgiveness would not be an issue when their time comes to go home to where they came from?

Some may even laugh at the daft for forgiving them and call them silly. I screwed you so bad and I did not ask for forgiveness and you stupidly think you are so graceful and kind to want to forgive! How stupid can you be? You deserved to be screwed a hundred times over. And I will repeat it all over again if I have the chance to do it again. Would there be such people and is forgiveness the right thing to do?

What do you think?

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?