Eddie Teo – The ethos of an era

There is an article in the ST on 28 Apr by the Eddie Teo, the Chairman of PSC on the ethos of a bygone era, the things that the Civil Service breathed and lived by. The story of the Civil Service is best summarized by what Eddie Teo said in these paragraphs.

‘There was already a strong ethos of incorruptibility. I recently met Mr David Rivkin, President of the International Bar Association, who asked how our ethos of zero tolerance for corruption was imparted to, and sustained in, the public service. I told him there had been no training classes or brainwashing sessions.

But public servants watched and followed the examples shown by our political masters.  We were incorruptible because they were incorruptible. We saw that they lived simple, frugal and unostentatious lives and dedicated themselves totally to nation building and improving the lives of Singaporeans. All the older public servants who worked closely with our pioneer generation political leaders will have stories to tell about their frugal habits. To people like Mr Lee Kuan Yew and Dr Goh Keng Swee, there was no such thing as work life balance. Work was life, and life was work.’

These few paragraphs sum up the ethos and philosophies of a time not too long ago that seemed strangely different from what it is now. And it is only a couple of decades apart. The difference in ethos and values and the motivations of the Civil Servants are simply glaring. And they lived and work and developed a new ethos by the living examples of the political masters today.

Though apparently the message of an incorruptible, merit based and impartial Civil Service is still there, the essence and practices are starkly different from the days gone by.  Indirectly Eddie Teo touched on the new values and aspirations of a new generation of people that looked at life differently and wanted to live life differently and these would and must affect their work style and ethos as civil servants.  Affluence and opulence are the new aspirations and wide income gap is good as it allowed the top to indulge in the decadence of wealth and an extremely good life of plenty.

What makes the new civil servants today are greatly influenced by the affluence of a better time and also by the examples they see in their political masters. They follow the leaders and whatever the leaders do would and must rub down on them. The civil servants of today are not the same as the civil servants of yesteryears, crafted by a confluence of changes from many dimensions.  The aspirations are not similar and the ethos, have they changed?

Policies and political decisions were and are made by politicians. Civil servants are now expected to defend political decisions, in a way compromised to take sides with the politicians. This is a big diversion from the past when the political masters were confident to take a stance and make their own defence.

The emerging problems facing civil servants today is the possibility of a change of political fortune and new political masters on the horizon. How would such a change affect the impartiality of civil servants, their loyalty to party versus dedication to the service of the people, and their tenure of service? Would it affect the ethos of the Civil Service? A relatively less politicized civil service like the British system would provide better continuity than a politicized civil service that would have to go with the flow of political realities, serving the wrong masters of the land. They would have difficulties to stay relevant and remain in the Civil Service when the political masters changed. They are now in the same sampan as the political masters, to float or sink together.

Amos Yee - A piece of trivial news

The boy, Amos Yee, was hit by a man outside the court when he turned up to hear the charges against him for insulting religion and God. After hitting the boy the man ran off but not before shouting ‘Sue me, sue me’ in front of journalists waiting outside the court for the boy’s appearance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJ17hfhI0C0

The news, though trivial, is now the hottest topic in the social media. People were shocked at the audacity and defiance against the law and order of the city state. All kinds of rumours are speculating in the social media as to the ‘who and why’ of this attack and how the man was able to get away without anyone thinking it necessary to apprehend him. Conspiracy theory seems to be having a very high rating here. Many were pointing the finger at you know who and have made all kinds of conjectures and the disappointment of how such a brazen act of defiance of the law could happen in broad daylight, in front of the court house, and in front of so many people, many armed with cameras.

I am sure the super efficient men in blue would have no problem taking this man into custody as the incident was captured by so many cameras and seen by so many eyewitnesses. Justice will be served for sure. No need to make wild speculation and gesticulations. Save the middle finger.

The issue is that this likely to be an isolated incident and of an aggrieved public taking the law into his own hand. Pure and simple as that. Would this be seen as a criminal act or as another private matter and the boy be told to take a civil suit against the assailant? Just wondering how the charges could be made, the hitting was like a hard slap. Can it be justified as causing serious bodily harm? Would it be assault or just a case of being a public nuisance?

The Law Minister Shanmugam has commented in his Facebook that this kind of acts is unacceptable. I am sure he would have given his order to get the culprit arrested ASAP. No sweat except for Amos Yee and his parents. If it is a civil suit, would they have the money to pursue the case?

Credit goes to LKY – 3rd World to 1st World

Ok, ok, don’t be angry. I know many of you don’t like this statement, but other than all the iffy arguments, it was during LKY’s watch that Singapore moved from 3^rd World to 1^st World. This one, no matter what, like him or hate him, you got to give credit to him or someone else would be getting the credit.

The question that I would want to ask is, who would want to claim credit for taking Singapore from 1^st World to 3^rd World? There are many ways to equate Singapore as a 3^rd World country today. Just by demography alone, one can classify Singapore as a 3^rd World country. Why, because half the population comes from the 3^rd World. So at least it is a country that is half in and half out of the 3^rd World.

Then look at what is happening all over and you have no choice but to admit that Singapore is looking more like a 3^rd World country. First point, it has no talent, or no native talent. Second point, it needs 3^rd World talents to help to grow the economy, to provide jobs for its citizens. These are official hard truths uttered everyday by the leaders, so must be the truths. Thirdly, the foreign talents are mostly from the 3^rd World, ie 3^rd World talents. This is one of the reasons why the streets are getting dirtier with litters everywhere. The trains and public transports are smelling like the 3^rd World, including the chattering. Don’t ask me what is the official reason for the litters and dirty streets and who are responsible for littering. 

Fourth, look at the frequency of train break downs? And very likely they are seeking help from some #rd World country to solve the train breakdown problems. Fifth, look at the number of fakes being employed here? Sixth, we got no talents and our universities are being filled by foreigners as lecturers and professors to teach 3^rd World students?

What more, what more to put this country in the 3^rd World league of nations? The political system, a citizenry of daft Sinkies that  are incapable of thinking? A country that is dependent on 3^rd World citizens and talents for everything. 3rd World culture, 3rd World thinking, 3rd World politics, and 3rd World talents laughing silly at our stupidity for employing them to replace our real talents with fakes.   

Is Singapore not already a 3^rd World country?

And who is going to claim credit for this?

LOCAL ACTOR LIM KAY SIU: TIME FOR LEE HSIEN LOONG TO STEP DOWN

 THEREALSINGAPORE 29 April 2015 - 2:04pm
 
‘Let us not forget the term FIXING! LHL used it openly at the 2011 elections, and found, to his surprise(!!), that it made him utterly unpopular. Can the inheritor of a bogus democracy, that is actually a dynasty, even get close to understanding, let alone rectifying this travesty, and move forward with the full trust of the people he supposedly promised to serve?! I think not....’

 
The above article appeared in The Real Singapore and many people must have been caught with their mouths open wide wide. Since the days of The Last Hero, the heroes today are relatively young in the likes of Martyn See, Roy Ngerng, Leslie Chew, Han Hui Hui and the boy hero Amos Yee. We have not seen a ‘lau’ hero for a while.
 
Oh I digress. Let me come back to Lim Kay Siu’s call for Hsien Loong to step down. Maybe I would approach this from a different angle. Singapore has very few talents, and super talents even fewer. Fortunately or unfortunately Hsien Loong is one of the few rare talents that we have. Unless we want to consider all the 6b people in the world to pick as our PM. Hsien Loong is pedigree, from a distinguished family of talents, first class honours and president and queen’s scholars. How to find such an impeccable family track record? This one did not come from Mumbai or Southern Pacific for sure. We all know that. No need to check. Real stuff, no fake.
 
And he has been trained from young by the founding PM of Singapore that happened to be his father. The training is personal and intimate. Many kungfu masters would not teach their disciples everything, and would keep a few tricks up their sleeves. In this case you can bet Hsien Loong would be taught everything that he needed to know. Unless he is a poor student that failed to learn, he must have learnt well like young Luke.
 
And he went under a second tutelage as Chok Tong’s favourite disciple, 12 years of training under him. No PM in the world has this kind of privilege to have tutors before becoming a PM. Many were novices, like his father and all the PMs and Presidents of a democratically elected system. Actually in all systems, other than a monarchy where the prince could be groomed to become king, all leaders did not have the skills set or experience of a national leader and learn on the job, OJT. No skills set means cannot be hired. Fake skills set also good when the employers can’t find one Sinkie with the relevant skills set.
 
Where else can we find another PM that is so well trained to be a PM? And Hsien Loong is working so hard to bring more growth so that every resident can benefit from the growth. And he has brought in the best team to run the country. Things can only get better and better. See CPF Life, Medishield Life, Pioneer Generations? It is premature to ask him to resign right? Everyone is so happy here. The foreigners here are even happier. Everyone is getting so rich, millionaires and billionaires. If one is not a millionaire it is the individual’s fault. We can even live with fake degrees from fake countries and everything will still go on running smoothly. Oops, there are some exceptions, isolated cases or happened once in 50 years, so no count.
 
And being the third generation PM there is a lot of pressure. There is a saying that fortune will not last through the third generation. Imagine how much pressure Hsien Loong is facing to make this belief not coming true? He is fighting against this ancient truism. Even if he fails, touch wood, it is not his fault. Fortune will go away in the third generation, nothing to do with him. He can be the brightest, and have the brightest team, but when lady luck is running out, nothing can be done. It happened.
 
So Kay Siu may be putting the blame on the wrong person. It is not his fault if the country goes down. It is fengshui, hope he does not touch the family house. And ancient wisdom said that what goes up must come down, and all parties must come to an end.
 
Take it easy, Kay Siu. We are in good hands. The country is in good hands. See. Where got problem? If there are problems, they are only imaginations or wrong perceptions. A little communications will solve everything. Everything is fine, just fine, fine, fine.

GIC is my model fund management company

Phillip And wrote an article in his blog titled ‘Should GIC invest our CPF in a company after its share price quadrupled?’ He raised the question based on a number of reasons. I just quote this one,

‘GIC has paid for a business which was worth only a quarter of the price less than a year ago. Its purchase price of Rs 222 valued Nirlon at US$316 million when the market had earlier valued it at below US$80 million.’

I think any layman would also find this outrageously funny or even stupid. Why not buy it when it was Rs 50 but only after its price quadrupled to Rs 222. Isn’t this a perfect example of the market joke, buy high and sell low for losers?

I must disagree. People not in the industry of trading stocks always think it this way. But from my 20 years of experience, this is called play safe strategy. Do not buy a stock until one is sure that its price is up and confirmed up. In this case the price has quadrupled, which means it has confirmed going up and the uptrend is very strong.

Normally I would play safe and buy when the price is double. To me when the price is up 4 times is like playing safe 4 times safer. This is obviously a very conservative strategy. Look, when you are gambling with OPM, you cannot anyhow buy. You buy only when you are sure, very sure, double confirmed, triple confirmed and better still quadruple confirmed.

Fund managers adopting a ‘quadruple confirm strategy’ are very careful fund managers. I regretted that I did not follow this strategy. I always buy when the price has doubled. And you know what happened, I lost my pants. If I have known of this strategy, I would have made just as much money as GIC. Look at its past records, it is making profits practically every year, sometimes more sometimes less, but still profits. I did not follow this strategy, that is why I have been making losses all the time.

I am now watching and learning from this GIC strategy and learning a lot from it. Buy high, go higher! You see, when the price of a stock has gone up so high, it can only go higher. Now I am trying to start a fund to invest using this formula. This kind of strategy needs a lot of patience and homework. There are not many stocks that would have gone up 4 times in a year, or in 50 years. The chosen stock Nirlon is a rare gem. This kind of buys sure to make money one.

And better still if it is an Indian company. Indian companies are growth companies. There are 1.3b people there and growing. Soon India will have more people than China. Use the same logic, China’s population is 1.4b and many of its companies are growing and very profitable. The Chinese banks are the biggest in the world in capitalisation. Alibaba is one of the most successful IPO listing in New York. Indian companies would follow the path of these Chinese companies and would do better as they have more super talented banking and finance talents. They would out do Chinese companies in a matter of time. A caveat, unless all their top talents are in US or overseas, like in Singapore.

I ‘pai seh’ to tell Phillip Ang he did not know what he was saying. If GIC is a 3rd World SWF, you can bet something is not right. The analysts, the person who approved the buy and the board to concur, everyone must have a cut in this dubious acquisition. But GIC is a Singapore SWF managed by honourable people and with many layers of checks and controls. The decision must be make very carefully and it must be a good decision and the timing must be just right. The GIC is very professionally managed by the best talents money can buy. Period.

I like GIC, my favourite company, when investing strategy is concerned. Always make money one. Anyone wants to invest in my fun, oops I mean fund? I guarantee them sure make money using the same formula as GIC. Buy high and the price will go higher. And buy India, the most promising country for growth. The prices would not only quadruple, but could go up many more times.

My advice to Phillip Ang, don’t worry, be patient. Time will tell. Think long term. Remember CECA? If India is not such a good bet, the govt would not have signed CECA with India, a win win agreement. We laymen, outsiders, did not know how much thought processes, planning and homework have been put in before the decisions were made to invest in India and to sign CECA. You can blame them on anything but not on due diligence and expertise.