Chan Chun Seng just gave me a reason to support GST hike

Read the extract of an article posted by Augustine Low in the TRE below.
 
‘Forgo the GST hike and Singaporeans could end up finding imported goods and holidays less affordable. This was the warning given by Chan Chun Sing at a Lunar New Year dinner.
 
The pain of having to contend with price hikes and tax hikes is bad enough. But politicians like Chan have the habit of making it worse by giving excuses and rationale which shows a disregard for Singaporeans’ common sense and intelligence.
 
Defending the GST hike, Chan Chun Sing somehow managed to turn it into something which simply had to be done, otherwise Singaporeans would lose their privilege to continue enjoying imported goods and cheaper holidays.
 
How he got from GST hike to imported goods and cheaper holidays is a classic case of taking the argument to the extreme in order to convince Singaporeans that a GST hike is the only way out because the alternative is far worse.
 
To sum up Chan’s argument: without the GST hike, the government would have to draw from reserves and the world would surmise that Singapore has a weak fiscal policy. Forces at large would therefore collude to weaken and destabilise the Sing dollar, and after the Sing dollar comes under attack, Singaporeans’ savings and spending would be negatively impacted. The result: less money for imported goods and holidays.
 
Wow! And just like that, Singaporeans are supposed to buy into his argument that a GST hike is preferable to none?’


I state categorically that the above is not written by me, but appeared in the TRE.
I am truly convinced by such clever argument. Our PM in the making, more good years coming with more GST hikes. Oh, there is another reason to support the GST hike, it will help the poor, for the good of the poor. Now, how not to support the GST hike, you tell me lah.

PS. Below are some not so complementary and hilarious comments on our future PM in Ausgustine Low’s article. Please don’t take them seriously and treat them as fake news or comments of the losers.


 
Samuel S:
March 5, 2018 at 9:38 pm (Quote)
For once if we have chance to choose our PM, we will 100% write CCS off the the list! Just dont understand why our current PM think he is suitable choice because PM Lee himself is not qualified to lead the country. The reason he is here is because of his father LKY.
 
oxygen:
March 5, 2018 at 10:18 pm (Quote)
4th GENERATION “GET SINGAPORE THINKING” aka GST have all run out of ideas of how to govern LEE-jiapore.
The art of governance is reduced to simplicity of CHICANERY including floating the trial balloon and accusing others of working up on suspicions AFTER they had tabled falsity statistic to advance their wicked plots of accusing WP of municipal accounting fraud that never existed.
We don’t want the PAPpys around anymore. They are all failed apprentices whereever they go.

NotMyProblem:  
March 5, 2018 at 11:05 pm (Quote)
I am not sure if Chan Chun Seng actually takes Singaporeans as some kind of an idiot.
Idiot politician is not the problem, the problem is we have idiot voters keep voting for them. That’s the reason, Chan Chun Seng treats Singaporeans as idiot.
Singaporeans, we have been called daft by the PAP, are we going to prove that they are right!!!
 
doggie:  
March 5, 2018 at 11:19 pm (Quote)
No worries, gong gong sinkies are very forgetful.
Once GE comes, dangle some goodies, add in some threat if miw gets voted out housing price will fall and our women have to work as maids
gong gong sinkies will vote against pee and poo.
add in the new citizens, it will be 80% next time
hahahaha
 
opposition dude:  
March 6, 2018 at 1:10 am (Quote)
Keechiu was never very bright so the things he says are absurd at worst and good for a laugh at best.
This goes to show that ministers do not think before they talk. I’m sure we all remember Josephine’s forever unforgettable you don’t need a big space to orh ee orh or Zorro wanting to upturn the downturn or even once in 50 years.
Just wait for the next time kee chiu speaks, it will be another lightbulb going off moment.
 
kenny:  
March 6, 2018 at 7:14 am (Quote)
CCS is an ABSOLUTE IDIOT of a politician ! ! !
Three words for him ” OHHH SHUT UP ! ! ! !”

Korean Reunification amidst new realities and Korean interests

After the Korean War, nearly 70 years have gone by and many leaders have come and gone. The North Koreans are seeing a third generation of leaders led by the grand son of Kim Il Sung while the South has seen many leaders served and departed. The leaders of both Koreas are of a very different generation from the Cold War days and are coming to terms with the new realities of a 21ts Century world and a new generation of Korean people on both sides of the 38 parallel.
 
War is increasing becoming irrelevant to settle differences between people of a country, of the same nationality, race and culture except for the evil Empire. The Germans have reunited. The Vietnamese have reunited. The Chinese are working to be reunited but with a long trajectory without wanting to force the issue unless the Taiwanese seek independence. The reunification of Taiwan is a matter of time, a matter of when. There is no hurry as the two people and economy get to fuse and intertwined more closely and become more interdependent.
 
North and South Korea would also be reunited in a matter of time. They are one people and would not be separated forever. The issue is how to go about this reunification. The new reality is to bring about a reunification peacefully. The two halves of Korea could start by agreeing on some fundamental principles like China and Taiwan, that there is one China and the reunification will be by peaceful negotiation. And they shall not be pressured by time, that the reunification must take place within a fixed time frame. Let the future generations, if necessary to settle the reunification issue if needed be as long as the One China principle is not threatened. There could even be a gray period of one country two systems to gradually integrate and merge the two into One China.
 
North Korea and South Korea could adapt the Chinese model, agree that there is one Korea and reunification will be by peaceful negotiation without a fixed time frame and they could even live with a one country two systems for a long gestation period till the two people and govts are ready to be reunited as one Korea.
 
When there is agreement that war is no longer an option and both agree on the eventual reunification of the two Koreas by peaceful means, both govt and people could start to work more closely, cooperate with each other, share and help each other as they progress along without being forced into a war by the evil Empire. The denounciation of war would remove the main reason for the Americans to justify continuous war games to provoke the North Koreans.
 
South Korea should also exert its independence and not be coerced to conduct provocative war games with the Americans to threaten North Korea. All acts of hostility should cease and replace by acts of cooperation and good will. These would pave the way to the eventual reunification of the two Koreas peacefully, in 30, 50 or 100 years. Let the Korean people be reunited as one people again without going to wars, without having to be in a hurry.
 
Keep the foreigners out of the equation and settle the differences among the Koreans themselves, with both sides pledging not to go to war. The Koreans must decide their own fate and not be dragged into a war by the evil Americans and Japanese. They must treasure their independence and unity as a proud people living in peace like the Vietnamese now, after driving out the foreign forces in their land and reunited as one people to charge their own destiny.
 
There is great hope that the wise leaders in Kim JongUn and Moon Jae In would be able to bring their people and country together. The Americans and Japanese are still working desperately to bring the two Koreas to a war instead of reunification. Only the Korean people can avoid this calamity to their people and country by seeking peace through negotiation.

A simple way to guesstimate the reserves

The non transparent secret of the country’s reserves, speculated to be worth $1 trillion has been subjected to many queries as to what is really there. As it is a closely guarded state secret, no one really knows, even the President that holds the second key to guard the reserves. In a way, the reserves could be like a mirage of a mountain of gold. The people could imagine or were told that it is large and is there, but cannot feel or touch it. The big question in many people’s mind is whether this is true. It is only fair for any reasonable man to have doubts about something that is like what the salesman told them, and they have to believe his words, to trust him.
 
When the people are kept in the dark, it is very difficult to know the truth. The more the govt tries to hide this info, the more suspicious will be the people who want to know the truth. And the more the govt is frantically trying to raise taxes, even very unpopular measures, the more worried would be the people as to the health of this gold mountain mirage. Simple, got so much money no need to panic to raise so many taxes. The reason that the reserves cannot be touched, to be kept for the rainy day, is hogwash. It was touched many times during Nathan’s days.
 
Let’s see what we can extrapolate from some of the official statistics provided by Heng Swee Kiat to figure out how much is there in the reserves. The estimated NIRC for FY2018 is $15.9. I am not sure this is profit earned for the whole year prior to FY2018 or the estimated returns for FY 2018, ie not earned yet. But putting this aside let’s just use this number as a basis to extrapolate the reserves gold mountain.
 
The $15.9b is net return, ie after paying 2.5%/4%/5% interest to CPF members, estimated at $400b borrowed. If we use a 3% interest paid to CPF, this would work out to be $12b. The gross profit from the funds invested, less expense other than CPF interest, would be $12b + $15.9b +15.9b = $43b. Assuming NIRC is 50% of net income and balance 50% went into the reserves.
 
The govt has been using a 3.5% figure as the returns from investing our reserves. Thus if $43b is the gross return or 3.5%, the reserves should be $1.23 trillion. If we use just the $31b as net return, the reserves should be $886b. Could have use $32b ie 15.9 +15.9
 
But 3.5% return is supposed to be an average. The estimated return of $31b could be 5%, 7.5% or 10% over the years. These would give the reserves as $620b, $413b and $310b respectively. I use the different percentages to show that the higher the rate of return, the lower would be the reserves.
 
Alternatively if we use $43b as the gross return and 5%, 7.5% and 10% return, the reserves could be $860b, $573b and $430b respectively.
 
The good news, the reserves could be as high as $1.23t or $886b. The bad news, it could be as low as $310b or $430b.
 
If the funds are not performing that well, ie making a 3.5% return, then the reserves could be in the region of $886b to $1.23t. Someone said the interest rate for long term interest, risk free is about 3%. What is the point of paying hundreds of millions to fund managers to bring in 3.5% with high risk of losing the capital. Sack the whole bunch if they cannot bring in more than 5% returns.
 
Extrapolating from the rate of returns based a given NIRC of $15.9b, the paradox is that higher the percentage of returns means lower reserves and vice versa. If the funds are doing well, ie making returns of 5%, 7.5% or 10%, then the reserves could be quite scary, like a glittering golden mountain but not all gold.
 
What is the real thing, when would this be made known, or forever be in the unknown?
 
PS. MOF stats stated that GIC has a 20 year annualized return of 3.7% while Temasek’s annualized return from 2002 to 2014 is 15%.

Parking up the wrong tree

I knew it would come, sooner rather than later. No, I am not talking about the GST hike - that one would come later rather than sooner (you have the Government’s word on that). I am talking about the Parking Places (Amendment) Bill that was introduced in Parliament to curb indiscriminate bicycle parking. When I saw the unsightly mounds of two-wheelers dumped (rather than parked) like scrap heap across the island, I knew the end was nigh - “How long can the Government tahan when even I cannot tahan!?”

So as sure as night follows day, up popped the proposed scheme to license bike-sharing firms and hold them accountable for their customers’ sins. Under this scheme, the size of the operators’ bicycle fleet would be reviewed every six months, based on how well they manage the illegal parking problem and how often their bikes are used. Other details include data-sharing with the authorities and removing illegally parked bikes in a timely manner. Failure to meet the authorities’ standards would attract fines (max $100K) and even cancellation of licence.

It’s ingenious. In one fell swoop, the authorities have put the onus of tidying up the mess on the operators. And they may well succeed. Monetary caning in Singapore seldom fails, let alone the threat of business closure. But is this really the end of the problem? Have we answered the larger question of what’s behind inconsiderate parking? In the same way that litter bugs treat our island like a gigantic dustbin, bikers are treating it like an unregulated bike-park. But why?

I cast my mind back to a 2015 article by The Straits Times’ Han Fook Kwang who lamented on the declining standards of cleanliness in Singapore. Han’s article was inspired by PM Lee Hsien Loong’s FB post of a photo of the rubbish left behind after a music festival at Gardens by the Bay. A sampling of the comments that followed PM’s post included (a) schools should develop the right values instead of focusing only on academic achievements (b) too many Singaporeans are brought up in households where maids do all the cleaning (c) Singapore society looks down on cleaners, so children grow up thinking cleaning up is beneath them. But the one comment that hit the nail well and truly on the head is ownership and responsibility. When you consider yourself as part of the community and not a community apart, you will take ownership and responsibility of the public space in a way that many bike-sharing riders have so far failed to do.  The authorities should not just stop at fixing illegal parking. Our sense of community needs fixing too. Miss out on that and we would simply be parking up the wrong tree.  

How can Singaporeans compete with more skilled, experienced and cheaper foreigners?

The above is the title of an article by Leong Sze Hian in the TRE. The content of the article argued against the policy of inviting foreigners to steal the jobs from Singaporeans, which to me is a very disgusting and deplorable thing to do to the citizens of a country. In general I quite agree with what Leong Sze Hian wrote. But I would like to take issue with the way the title is written which gives an impression that foreigners are really more skilled and experienced than Singaporeans, cheaper in some cases but not all. Do you know how much are they paying to the foreign CEO of local banks and other GLC linked companies?

Many of the foreigners came from third world countries that are less developed than ours. If these foreigners are that good, if their education system are that good, their countries would not be in such deplorable state and condition.

Two, many of the foreigners are rejects and failures or unemployed in their countries. The good ones will be employed. How can we compare our able workers with these failures and claimed that they are more skilled and more experienced than our own workers?

Third, many of their paper qualifications and the experience they put down in their CVs are fake. How to compare our people's qualifications and experience with fakes and claiming that they are better? At least half of them are fakes or have faked qualifications and experience.

There are exceptions, but in general, the foreigners coming here are the average at best and mostly the rejects and the fakes. Do a proper screening of their qualifications and experience and you will be shock to find out what and who they really are, what kind of education they got.

Singaporeans should not assume that the foreigners are better than them. If they are they would not be here but holding high appointments in their own countries or in the West. Even in the West, many companies are being run down by these foreigners and they are starting to fire them. The West have been sleeping for a while and hired a lot of the half bakes and fake foreigners. More of these companies in the West and also in Singapore will be run down by these foreigners in a matter of time. Some have already gone to dust or are on the way.

Do not take it for granted that the foreign fakes and half bakes are better than our workers.

The fakes and half bakes cannot cheat and fool everyone all the time. Even in IT, the signs are everywhere that the quality are half baked as well. Look at Creative Technology, after Sound Blaster, they went into incubation for a while but has reemerged with another earth shattering product in Super X-Fi Audio Holography, a product that would revolutionise the sound of headphones and mobile phones. This is home grown innovation that you don't get in third world countries.

Would there be more money to support Creative Technology into another international giant or would our money be poured into third world half baked companies and run down bankrupt western companies because we don't believe in our own talents, our own companies but in foreign fakes?