Lim Tean - accountability and transparency in Temasek and GIC

The Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), which invests the pension funds of Canadians, has published its annual report. It is a model of clarity as it fully accounts to every stakeholder who contributes to this fund on how the fund has performed over the last year.

...the CPPIB reported:
a) $239 Billion net income, after all CPPIB costs, for the last 10 years. The rate of return was 11.1% (net nominal);
b) As of March 31, 2019, the CPP Fund Value stood at $392 Billion;
c) The fund made a net income of $32 Billion, after all CPPIB costs, for fiscal 2019. The rate of return was 8.9% (net nominal)....

We cannot continue with our SWFs operating an opaque system where vital information, including the remuneration of management and our true national reserves, are kept away from the stakeholders, who are the CPF contributors and every tax payer in Singapore. Every Norwegian citizen knows at any given moment what the national reserves of Norway are. That is true transparency and accountability.

When Peoples Voice is in government, we will ensure that our SWFs operate with the transparency that is in line with 1st world standards!

The above is posted in TRE by Lim Tean. I would like to point out a few points raised by Lim Tean and why they are not relevant to compare to our CPF and the top talented fund managers in Temasek and GIC.

The lack of transparency is important in the CPF case because if they are to tell the world how much money we have in reserves, all the bankrupt companies would be queuing up to beg for money as in the case of the global financial crisis. And when the white men went down on their knees to beg for money, it is very hard to refuse and we would end up giving away our reserves to help them without knowing that white men can be con men and can cheat us and make us look so stupid.

Another good reason related to this is that our reserves could be many times more than the announced figures. And the profits could be many times more than what the Canadians are making, maybe 15%, but just being humble only. So don't think just because the announced profits are less than 5% they really mean it. The truth could be quite flattering.

As for transparency of management remuneration, they really cannot tell, if you believe what I said above. If they are transparent and tell you how many billions more they made above the Canadians, and demand to be paid proportionally, then what is being paid to them would not be enough. Singaporeans must say thank you for this.

Let's not quibble about this transparency thing if we know that our national reserves are huge, very huge and very safe. The only way to know that this is true is the amount of money the govt can spend, always in the billions on big projects, big and expensive war machine and big parties. If the govt does not have so much money in reserves, they would not dare to waste public money in unnecessary or non essential projects or events or parties.

Not to forget, they are giving away money freely to the seniors, the pioneer and merdeka generations. The money must come from somewhere, meaning our reserves are big and safe, only don't want to tell that's all.

Singaporeans must be very thankful for the non transparency in how much we have in the reserves, in how much we made every year and in not knowing how much the managers are being paid.

Accountability and transparency are unnecessary when a country is so well run by the most honest and honourable men and women money can buy.

Do I make sense?

The world should stop appeasing the Evil American Empire

The appalling record of the American Empire in starting wars, conducting

regime change, supporting terrorist organisations, conducting false flag

incidents to invade a country, raising tensions, committing crimes against

humanity, conducting unilateral sanctions against countries and endangering

the lives of the victimized countries, must be put to a stop. The world,

especially the UN, must take immediate action against the Evil American

Empire from destroying countries and the rest of the world with their

hostile and belligerent acts to bully and threaten other countries.

The Evil American Empire is raising military tension everywhere, provoking

other countries by the used of naked military forces like amassing a huge

war armada in the Persian gulf to threaten Iran, by amassing hostile forces

in Eastern Europe to threaten Russian, by sending warships into China’s

territorial limits cannot go on unrestrained.  And worse, by raising

tensions everywhere, they are blaming others for raising tension like

blaming Iran in the Persian Gulf and China in the South China Sea.

These acts of military terrorism are being taken for granted as the rights

of the Evil American Empire just like their right to amass unlimited

nuclear weapons as their sole right and other countries are not allowed to

as a defensive act to prevent from being attacked by the American Empire.

The Evil American Empire must be disarmed, removed its nuclear arsenal to

stop it from threatening to use deadly nuclear weapons against other

nations that did not have them or have less of these WMDs.

Economic terrorism also must be stopped. The Americans must not be allowed

to unilaterally impose economic sanctions to hurt the economies and

people’s livelihood in their victimized countries eg North Korea, Iran and

Venezuela. The American Empire are controlled by war hawks, war criminals

and holding the world at ransom. They must not be allowed to terrorise the

rest of the world like international gangsters. They are the real villains,

not their victimized countries. The mad men in Washington must be removed

for the safety of the rest of the world.

Appeasement and tolerance to this Evil Empire cannot go on. Without the

rest of the world and the UN to tell the Evil Empire to stop their

aggression and crimes against nations and humanity, the Evil Empire will

take the world for granted, like their war plans against Iran, against

North Korea, against Venezuela, against Russia, against China but accusing

others of planning to attack the Evil Empire. War criminals must be brought

to justice. The world’s Number One Rouge Nation must be given noticed, be

told that it is the world’s Number One Rouge Nation. They cannot set red

lines for the rest of the world. It is for the rest of the world to set red

lines for the world’s Number Rouge Nation not to cross. Their behavior

against the rest of the world is shameful, criminal and intolerable.

The world’s Number One Rouge Nation is The threat to world peace, not Iran,

not North Korea. The world’s Number One Terrorist Nation is the Evil

American Empire. Has not doubt about it. It is engaging in all the wars in

the world. It is the main culprit in regime change and threatening regime

change.

When would the world’s Number One Terrorist Nation stop its war against the

rest of the world, to stop terrorizing the rest of the world because its

economy its dependent on its war industry and its dominance depends on its

formidable war machine?

PS. The Americans are behaving like our gangsters in the 50s and 60s,

creating troubles in the Persian Gulf, raising tension and alleging that

Iran is going to attack the shipping in the region. So they are coming in

with their warships and wanting to form a coalition of gangsters to protect

the shipping from being attacked by the Americans.

Just hope and pray that Singapore would not be the little eager beaver to

volunteer to join the coalition and be the runner to the American

gangsters. As for the rest of the world with shipping criss crossing the

region, the Americans are going to demand protection money or they would be

attacked by the American gangsters masquerading as Iranian soldiers or

Iranian backed terrorists.

Deutsche Bank is a responsible employer...

As far as taking care of its retrenched employees is concerned, Duetsche Bank is doing what any other banks would do when retrenching their staff. They made sure that the staff would be duly compensated for their services with the bank. In this case, most of the equity department staff are employees and are covered by the Employment Act and would appropriately receive a retrenchment package before leaving the bank for good.

This is what was posted in theindependent.sg on this retrenchment exercise,

'The Deutsche bank spokeswoman assured the press that the bank would be directly in touch with employees. She added: “We understand these changes affect people’s lives profoundly and we will do whatever we can to be as responsible and sensitive as possible implementing these changes.”

Deutsche Bank’s Chief Executive Officer Christian Sewing called the retrenchment exercise part of a “restart.” In a letter to employees, he wrote: “We are creating a bank that will be more profitable, leaner, more innovative and more resilient.”'

Supposing that the equity staff of Deutsche Bank were agents of the bank like remisiers, would Deutsche Bank treat them just as fairly and compassionately as the bank treats its employees? Employees or agents of banks, in a retrenchment exercise when a bank closes down a department and people's lives are profoundly affected, any decent bank, the management of any decent bank, would likely treat them with grave responsibility and sensitivity. Any bank or management would be expected to treat their employees or agents whose livelihood are gravely and negatively impacted by their restructuring or retrenchment exercise to make the bank profitable with great sensitivity and compassion. Doing otherwise would reflect badly on the conscience and reputation of the management of the bank.

Would there be banks that would treat their retrenched staff or agents badly, inhumanly, insensitively in such a dreadful time when livelihoods are at stake? What kind of people would act so harshly and dismissively to their staff, agents or partners in business? What kind of respect would one have on such people if they could treat their staff, agents and partners poorly, miserly while they continue to receive their fat and comfortable pay while the retrenched leave the bank without the assurance of a job and with very little compensation?

I think and believe Deutsche Bank would do as spoken by its spokewoman. For if they were only giving lip service and do otherwise, the retrenched staff are not going to leave with a bad feeling for the bank but may even seek redress with the authority. Some may see their MPs or Ministers or even go to see the PM to pour out their grouses. The publicity would be very bad for the bank thereafter even if there is a compromise solution  subsequently.  Any bank in such a situation should think carefully not to ill treat their employees, agents or partners and think they can get away with it by under compensating the affected staff, agents or partners.

Would there be any irresponsible bank in Singapore that would treat their staff, agents and partners unfairly in the event of a retrenchment or restructuring exercise?

Masters Athletes – Selection to represent Singapore

 In all sports, representing Singapore is a big thing, an honour that every athlete would cherish to do Singapore proud. In most instances the athletes would be chosen by a team of experts from national bodies like the Singapore Athletics Association and the various sports councils. The involvement of such national institutions reflects the importance of the sports and representing Singapore in the international arena. There are also stringent criteria and objective rules and regulations to abide by before an athlete is selected to represent Singapore.
 
In the case of Masters athletes, this task is not the responsibility of any national body at the moment but assumed by the Singapore Masters Athletes, a sports club. Some may think that this is a national body, in a sense it is as it has Singapore as part of its name. But this is unlike other national bodies and institutions that were sanctioned and supported by the govt financially and with govt appointees. In other words, Singapore Masters Athletes is a private club in every sense, I stand corrected. I can’t say that mysingaporenews is a national media because it has Singapore as a part of its name.
 
There are historical reasons for SMA to assume the role of selecting athletes to represent Singapore. For many years, masters athletes were a loose grouping of senior athletes competing casually and donning the Singapore colours in international events with only scant recognition and acknowledgement that they represented Singapore for merely being Singaporeans and carrying the Singapore flag on their attire. Did the governing sports authority officially sanctioned their representation?
 
There are obvious reasons why athletes representing Singapore are normally selected by national bodies with experts sitting in the selection committees. There are also good reasons why private sports clubs would not be delegated the responsibility to select representatives to represent their respective clubs especially when they also have club members vying to represent Singapore in competition with other club members.
 
The time has come for the Singapore Athletics Association, a governing body, to step in to select athletes to represent Singapore in international masters athletic events if masters athletes representing Singapore is to be taken seriously. The days when anything goes need to be formalized and officially sanctioned by a national sports organization to avoid conflicts of interest, to ensure fair play and to prevent inter club rivalry. Maybe the sports governing body does not think much about masters athletes representing Singapore. If that is the case, then every club should have a free hand to send their athletes to compete in international masters events and not be left to a single club to dictate the terms and rules for participation and representation. It is unhealthy for any private club to have the de facto power to dictate to other clubs.
 
The choice is between representing Singapore seriously or let it be a laissez faire activity, and participating and representing Singapore in such events be less exacting and more for sportsmanship and enjoying the sports. If representing Singapore in international sporting events is a serious matter, even in masters athletics, then it is highly desirable and necessary that a national body be in charge, be responsible in the selection of masters athletes to represent Singapore, done officially, objectively and fairly.
 
What do you think?

When Malaysia thinks business, Singapore will be in trouble

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia will implement six short-term measures to handle the congestion at checkpoints especially at Bangunan Sultan Iskandar (BSI) Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) complex and the Sultan Abu Bakar CIQ (KSAB) complex in Johor.
Also decided was extending the use of autogate for all foreign visitors; increasing the number of Customs scanning machines, increasing the number of lorry counters at KSAB on par with Tuas; usage of hybrid counters; and the development of immigration integrated system (IIS) with automation features....

Above are a few paragraphs of a post in theindependent.sg on Malaysia's move to make moving in and out of Malaysia easier and to cut down on the jams that are affecting visitors going to Malaysia. This kind of thing was unthinkable in the past. The thinking then was don't come if foreigners think it is a big hassle to queue up at the Causeway. It was a kind of visitors/tourists and business transportation were not really wanted. Malaysia did not want them and the visitors would have to live with the inconvenience and long wait at the immigration.

The sudden change to want to free up the Causeway and to facilitate entry and exit into and out of Malaysia is a big change in the thinking in Malaysia. It is all about business and revenue from the visitors. The choke points are bad for business and detrimental to more money coming into Malaysia.

Now all the lanes are to be open, immigration staff are to work overtime if necessary. When Malaysia is thinking of money and business, Singapore is in for big trouble. Malaysia would pose a big and powerful challenge to bring in the visitors and their money. And this is just the beginning. When all the ministries and officials are thinking this way, Malaysia would pose a very serious threat to Singapore for attracting business and tourists into Malaysia.

Singapore can only hope that this is a passing craze and Malaysia would be back to its old normal self soon, tiada apa, money not important, want to come, come, don't come, never mind. Malaysia does not need the tourists nor the business nor the money.

Would Malaysia gets its acts right and pursued this for the long term, be persistent and consistent in wanting to change to bring in more growth and development and revenue for the country and not be bogged down by petty political squabbles and agenda?