When money 'chiat buay leow'

Genting Chairman Lim Kok Thay's leadership puts our PAP Ministers to shame

June 22nd, 2019

I was most impressed that Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, Chairman and CEO of Genting Malaysia, has announced during an AGM on 19 June 2019 that he will be voluntarily taking a 20% pay cut in the face of an increased in gaming taxes from 25% to 35% and a decline in business performance.
That was not wayang. There was no need for him to wayang. That was true Leadership. A 20% pay cut will translate to about RM$10 million.

Now, look at the PAP government. Not too long ago, Goh Chok Tong even had the audacity and cheek to publicly lamented that PAP Ministers are not paid enough despite them getting from our taxpayers, in a very small population, the highest political salaries anywhere in the world!

To add insult to injury, he was also quoted as saying that those who earn under S$500,000 annually in the private sector are mediocre. Senior Counsel Edwin Tong was quoted that his many tens of thousands of dollars in monthly political salaries were also tough on him because he has to support his in-laws too etc. I wonder if he is aware that there are too many married men out there earning much, much lesser than him and are also supporting their in-laws too?....


The above is part of an article posted in TRE by Simon Lim. It reflects on the hypocrisies and realities of people with too much money and some crying money not enough while some knew that it is near insanity to keep wanting more. Sure, the more the merrier, so many said so. Who want not want to have more money?

The pursuit of money for the sake of money, or to have more money than your neighbour would lead to no end. There would come a time when people get an awakening and realise enough is enough. Maybe those with so much money need not feel shameful that their neighbours are earning many times more, need not have to compare with others that are earning millions everyday.

Many people really have money chiat buay leow, depending on their lifestyle, that they could do something more interesting in their lives, more meaning and satisfying than chasing for more money.

Lim Kok Thay is one of them, so is Donald Trump. And there are many in China, including those in top political office and the new rich that regard national pride more than anything else.

When money not enough, it is fair and normal to want more, but up to a point when more money could become quite meaningless in the sense of diminishing return, so much more for what?

When one has only 20 or so years to live, many only a handful of years to live, how much more is needed when one already have millions and dunno what to do with the money?

And there is Mr Oon of Tian Tian Lai chicken rice stall at Maxwell. He also has money chiat buay leow in his own way. Different people have different definition of money chiat buay leow. Some earning millions and still money not enough. Read this as reported in theindependent.sg,


Singapore—Kindness and support come in many ways indeed. For one food stall owner, helping the country’s elderly comes in the form of 100 free plates of Hainanese chicken rice every Wednesday for seniors of the Pioneer Generation, Singaporeans born on or before December 31, 1949.

“The government does it their way, I do my own”, said Mr Oon who owns Uncle Sky (Tian Tian Lai) Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice at Maxwell Food Centre, stalls #01 and 02.

Not only that, Mr Oon does his part for the Merdeka Generation as well. Every single day, both the Merdeka and the Pioneer Generation are given a whopping 50 per cent discount on the chicken rice dish at his stall. This means, instead of paying S$3, the members of the Pioneer and Merdeka Generations only pay S$1.50 for a delicious meal.

Seniors get a numbered card with which they can claim their meal at Tian Tian Lai—a card that allows them to have not just one but two meals a day.

Mr Oon says he will make the daily discount available until “the stall is no longer around”.

Black Day in DBS Vickers - How can there be trust?

Sanjay Perera  - Is this how trust is built?

'In a speech on ‘Effective, Accountable and Inclusive Governance’ ‘PM’ wannabe Mr Heng said some interesting things. He states:

“By drawing diverse ideas and perspectives to explore issues, experimenting with possible solutions, finding common grounds, we can overcome challenges and seize opportunities together.”
Indeed, through insisting that different voices in parliament from alternative parties is not a good thing (unless he no longer mouths the ruling party’s monolithic chant of ‘One Party To Rule Them All’), he cannot possibly mean what he is saying.

Since he wholeheartedly supports the shameless Fake News laws he cannot be serious in what he asserts....

To allow Dishonourables to cling onto office, to bully citizens, to stifle dissent and alternative views, to proudly proclaim yourself a price-is-right-politician who is reluctant to serve without the right monetary incentives: if that is not a sign of the dark souls that have taken over government, what is?...'

The above was posted in TRE by Sanjay Perera.

I  would like to mention only two points. Until everyone gets his/her CPF savings back, not hijacked by all kinds of schemes, can see but cannot touch, when you borrow from your CPF for some extenuating situation, you still have to pay interest, even if you are pass 55, or about to die, in your 60s, 70s, 80s etc etc... where can there be trust?

Secondly, I have just experienced what bullying citizens, stifling dissent and alternative views, etc etc meant. Just ask the remisiers in DBS Vickers what they have gone through and they would share the same feelings...it is darkness without a sign of light.

How can there be trust? How can there be, to quote Heng Swee Kiat, 'explore issues, experimenting with possible solutions, finding common grounds, we can overcome challenges and seize opportunities together'.

Does Swee Kiat or Hsien Loong know what is happening in DBS Vickers? Do they know that there was a Black Day in DBS Vickers during a townhall meeting last week when everyone wore black?

North Korea - What the West did not want you to see or know

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/north-korea-china-ties-xi-jinping-visit-11648808

The above is a short 3 minute clip of Xi Jinping's recent visit to North Korea. What is interesting is to note the infrastructure of North Korea, roads, buildings and the people, what they are wearing, the common folks and their residents etc etc.

Are these the images of a poor country suffering from famine and abject poverty that the evil West want you to believe in? The West have been spreading their white lies about North Korean since the end of the Korean War, imposing trade sanctions and conducting military exercises threatening to invade North Korea. They hope to destroy North Korea. And if they are unable to, they spread white lies to make others think North Korea is about to habis, finito.

Do not believe in white lies. Open your own eyes to see the truth, things that the West did not want you to know. Be liberated from the oppression of western imperialism.

PS. Listen to this American introducing a China made phone, One Plus, in Mandarin in America, so fluent and eloquent. 5 min clip.

Poor America and poor Americans

If you listen to the narratives of Donald Trump, Americans, you would believe that the Americans are being raped by China. So pitiful. If you listen to Trish Regan, China is taking advantage of the Americans, China is bullying the poor Americans and the Americans are so cornered that they have to fight back. The poor victim, the Americans are being bullied by the Chinese!

Similarly, they moved more than a hundred thousand troops tens of thousands of miles to the Straits of Hormuz to be threatened and bullied by the Iranians. The Americans are so frightened of the Iranians, that the Iranians are going to attack them, attacking commercial shipping, shooting down American drones. Why are American drones flying around Iran, on holiday, freedom of flying drones?

How many of you believe in these shits? The biggest rogue nation, the biggest bully in the world, the biggest gangsters in the world, is being bullied by a militarily weaker country called China and Iran? Who is the real big bully? Who is the one that has been doing the bully then and now?

The Americans are losing their way. The Americans have forgotten the principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty? Heard of the accusation and pronouncement that Huawei is guilty of espionage against the US and the rest of the world? Or at least it could happen, that Huawei may be doing it under the behest of the Chinese govt in the future, in the future not now, no evidence to prove so? So Huawei is guilty and Americans and their allies cannot do business with Huawei, before Huawei has been proven to be guilty of the alleged crime made out by the Americans.

China is a thief, China is stealing intellectual properties from the Americans. The Americans are hapless and lost everything to China. And oh, the Americans are no thief, they don’t steal, they don’t spy on others? Remember what Pompeo said in Congress, 'We lie, we cheat, we steal!'. He said this with pride and to the cheers of the American leaders in Congress.

China is stealing American intellectual properties amounting to US$600b! Is there anything left in the US that is not stolen? Did the Americans lay out their secrets and IPs for the Chinese to steal? And China is launching an all out war against the Americans. Now who has been spreading all the lies and smears about China in the world media for more than a century and still doing it today, daily, 24/7? 

Read all the western media, even Singapore media reproduced western and American authors badmouthing China. Did anyone read any similar articles in the main media smearing and bad mouthing Americans except in mysingaporenews that is just doing that little bit against the main media of the western and English world?

Who is badmouthing BRI, AIIB, who is attacking Huawei and 5G technology, who is sending hostile offensive aircraft and warships into the South China Sea, infringing into the 12 nautical miles territorial limits of Chinese islands, into the Gulf of Oman, threatening WW3?

Poor America and Americans, being bullied and beaten by China, China, China! God please help this poor big bully being bullied by China. God please protect this Evil Empire from being raped by China. China is so bad to bully this big bully and Evil Empire.

Really? Who is bullying who? Who dares to bully the world’s number one bully?

Oh, China is a Communist country, Communism is bad, bad, bad. Only liberal democracy is good, good.

Just heard Pompeo said the American people has suffered and lost for decades under the current rules. Who set these rules, the Chinese? Who dictated trade rules for the world under the American Empire? The Americans are saying they set the rules and forcing others, including China to accept their rules and they are suffering from their rules.

PS. 

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Friday (Jun 21) he aborted a military strike to retaliate for Iran's downing of an unmanned US drone because it could have killed 150 people, and signaled he was open to talks with Tehran.
An Iranian surface-to-air missile destroyed a US Global Hawk surveillance drone on Thursday. Tehran said the drone was shot down over its territory and Washington said it occurred in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/trump-us-strike-iran-casualties-drone-11650558

Let’s talk massacre Part IV

Below extracts were written by Richard Spencer in Seoul from telegraph.co.uk
 
Korean War civilian massacres, Daejeon Massacre Busan Massacre Namyang Ju Massacre Truth and Reconciliation Commission
 
Authorities in the country have discovered mass burial sites containing thousands of bodies, including scores of children.
 
Trawls of records including declassified files in Washington have uncovered evidence of the massacres of at least 100,000 people suspected of having sympathy with the North Koreans.
 
In some cases, American forces are alleged to have been present and in at least one case an American officer authorised a massacre of prisoners believed to have left-wing sympathies.
The Korean War, in which South Korean, American, British and other allied forces fought the North and their Chinese allies to a standstill, was particularly bloody….
 
But under the South's military dictatorship, the crimes of its own forces were rarely discussed. The new findings suggest there was a pattern of disposing of those suspected of left-wing sympathies as the North Koreans advanced, and then again of those who were accused of collaborating as they retreated….
When the South Koreans and Americans army swept back north, a local police chief in their district, Namyang Ju, ordered those suspected of collaborating to be rounded up, along with their families.
 
The massacre in Namyang Ju was eventually brought to a halt, but not before 460 had died – one of many such killings documented in painful detail by the Commission.
 
Research in US archives has found one exchange in which a US colonel gives approval to a massacre in which 3,500 suspected leftists were shot….
 
The white American angels never commit massacres, only the coloured people?
See the lies they are spreading now to justify the massacre of Iranians, amassing more than 100,000 troops around Iran with two aircraft carriers and lying to the world that Iranians are threatening to attack American forces and Iranians are raising tension in the region. See the false flag incidents they started and putting the blame on the Iranians....

Can retailers sell cheaper that producers of electricity?

How can electricity retailers offer cheaper electricity than SP Group?

Retailers in the Open Electricity Market are either the retail arm of power generators or independent retailers which buy electricity in bulk from power generation companies in a wholesale market where prices change every 30 minutes depending on demand and supply....

Retailers are also able to customise price plans, including the bundling of other services or products, and can impose contract lock-in periods or early termination charges....

As with energy markets overseas, several retailers are likely to be successful in the long run, said Professor Subodh Mhaisalkar, executive director of the Energy Research Institute at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

Companies have to innovate and offer differentiated services in order to adapt as the market evolves, he added...

The prices offered by retailers will change as the underlying cost of energy changes.

“While price may seem the most important factor for now, consumers must understand that lower prices today are not a given in the long term regardless of whether you stay on the current scheme or change to a new retailer,” said Geneco’s Mr Low.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/how-do-electricity-retailers-charge-lower-prices-than-sp-group-11208792

The above extracts from Channel News Asia were used as explanation for the recent intiatitves to have more alternative retailers selling 'cheaper' power to the users. One simple question, if the retailers can sell cheaper without the production processes and cost, why can't the producers of electricity sell at the same price as the retailers or even cheaper? The retailers now have excess cost in marketing and sales that needs to be paid and can sell cheaper? This is an economic miracle. The added manpower must be added cost, cannot be free, must come from somewhere. And the retailers are not charity organisations, they can sell cheaper and make a profit?

Another strange thing from the discussion is the cost of natural gas that was used to produce the energy and the computation of the selling price that included oil prices that were not part of the production cost. Slimy isn't it? Read this,

'The energy cost, or cost of imported natural gas, is tied to oil prices by commercial contracts, which change depending on global market conditions. It is based on the average price of oil and the average SGD/USD exchange rate in the previous quarter.'

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/how-do-electricity-retailers-charge-lower-prices-than-sp-group-11208792

And here is another report made in different circumstances, the failure of Hyflux in its entry into energy production to highlight how much the price of gas has fallen, meaning lower production cost, but not much of this benefit was transferred to the retail users.

'Due to oversupply of gas in the market, the projected reserve margin for electricity demand in Singapore increased to 70 per cent in 2017 from 30 per cent in 2011, it said. The reserve margin measures the excess capacity at peak electricity demand.

This resulted in the fall of the wholesale electricity price.

"The average wholesale electricity price has dropped from about SGD220 per MWh in 2011 when the Tuaspring project was awarded to an average of SGD81 per MWh in 2017, resulting in significant losses from electricity generation," the letter said.'

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/olivia-lum-deeply-saddened-investors-sias-dividends-salary-11247804

If we put all these facts together, it means that the producer of energy has gained a lot of savings from lower gas prices and they could sell energy to the people at a very cheaper price than it is. There is no need to have more retailers, with more marketing and sales costs, to sell energy cheaper to the consumers. Right?

What do you think is the scheme of things?

'An elderly woman who lived near me met me at the bus stop.
She said – Mr. Tan, I agree with what you wrote about the retail electricity supply. As an elderly person, I do not know what to do choose my electricity supplier. Why don’t the government just get Singapore Power to reduce the electricity price, instead of asking us to look for our supplier. I find life to be very complicated....

I also read that some electricity suppliers are exiting the market, because it is too costly and too wasteful to be marketing the supply.

What a wasteful practice. What an incompetent government.'
Tan Kin Lian

Nathan Rich – Hongkongers protest for the sake of protesting

As a responsible government, I feel obliged to find a way to deal with the Taiwan murder case so that justice can be done for the deceased, her parents and society, while at the same time address the deficiencies in our system so that Hong Kong will not become a place for criminals to evade legal responsibility. 
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asia/carrie-lam-hong-kong-speech-extradition-bill-in-full-11630390

The above is Carrie Lam's comment in her long speech on the Extradition Bill that has since been suspended due to the street protest. Nathan Rich, an American working in China gave a more detail explanation for the Extradition Bill and the irrational Hongkongers protesting against this Bill.

In Nathan King’s video on the recent protest in Hong Kong against the Extradition Bill, he explained it clearly the reasons for this Bill. Nathan Rich is an American, a creative tech nerd working in China. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCokRDKR89c

In short, the Bill came about when a Hongkonger brought his girl friend to Taiwan, murdered her, put her into her luggage bag and dragged it out of the hotel. He subsequently disposed her body and returned to Hong Kong to brag about it. The Taiwanese could not bring him back to face murder charges due to a lack of extradition treaty between Taiwan and Hong Kong. Though the crime was committed in Taiwan, I am puzzled why Hong Kong could not prosecute him.

This is the story that led to the Extradition Bill proposed and initiated by the Hong Kong govt, not by China. Initially there were a lot of opposition just like the Huawei and anything related to China, it is bad, can be bad, could be bad. The strongest critic by an anti China lawyer for fear of this new law being abused for political prosecution eventually accepted the Bill after several provisions were included against such possibilities. The Bill will not be used for political prosecution etc etc.

Still the protest went on and such a big scale. Why, the Hongkongers could not understand the Bill, protest for the sake of protesting, just being anti China when the Bill was proposed by the Hong Kong govt to ensure that justice is done and criminals would not get away from their crimes, or there is something more sinister to the protest, instigated by foreign elements?

As Nathan has said, this is an irrational protest, creating irrational chaos. This is lawlessness and the law is supreme against lawless people. There is no excuse to engage in lawlessness.

I agree that the protestors should be put down. All the baseless allegations cannot hold water in this case about abuses, just like the American dubious allegations against Huawei is mischievous.

Protesting against this Bill is saying, murder, crimes by Hongkongers overseas are ok and should not be prosecuted. The Hongkongers are protecting their criminals from foreign prosecution.

If this is not obstruction to justice what is?  What do you think?