SGX washes dirty underwear in public

SGX recently released a report detailing for the first time the number of listed-companies which have had their stocks suspended from trading for 12 months or more. This report will now be a yearly affair.

Of the 20 companies, 17 are S-chips (companies which have their operations in China but are listed on SGX), two are Indonesian companies listed here, and only one is a local company.

Surprising that SGX washes its dirty underwear in public.

In the late 90s and noughties, SGX became the place for PRC companies to be listed because SGX requirements were less stringent than those of the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Problems with S-chips soon surfaced which included loan defaults and fraud (missing cash, long-overdue receivables, or significant over-payments to suppliers only to have these amounts written-off later.) In 2009, the Singaporean authorities even appealed to their Chinese counterparts to maintain ‘stringent supervision’ over their companies that list on the SGX. I’m sure they were told to F-off: “SGX collects the fees, SGX’s problem”, I’m sure the S’porean authorities were told.

Retail investors lost serious money, something that even the constructive, nation-building media reported.

Yet despite continuing problems with S-chips (missing cash, long-overdue receivables, orsignificant over-payments to suppliers only to have these amounts written-off later still occur), and London’s nasty experience of Chinese listings on AIM (eg London-based directors not hearing from the China-based CEO, or the corporate “chop” going AWOL after the China-based CEO was sacked), SGX’s plans for the future include attracting  more S-chips.

WTF!

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Good corporate e-mail policy

Daimler, a German carmaker, gives workers the option of automatically deleting the e-mails they receive while they are on holiday, instead sending an auto response informing the correspondent what has happened and suggesting he resends it when they return. As the firm itself admitted, it was not only being kind-hearted. It was also, it said, to “safeguard their performance in the long run”. As workers become ever more connected, sadly, one suspects, that is a losing battle.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/gulliver/2016/05/electronic-ties-bind

 

Pearl of Wisdom Dr Chee and other activists should heed, but don’t

I came across this morning in FT: GK Chesterton, “a few men talked of freedom, while England talked of ale”

When translated into Singlish this means, “A few ang moh tua kees talk of human rights and social justice, while 70%+ talk of EPL footie over kopi or beer.”

A reader of this on why PM will not follow the Japanese PM’s suggestion about focusing on the quality of life, not economic growth, put it thus

Sometimes you get the feeling the real problem is that guys like Chris K are not prominent enough. They don’t run for election, and leave it to the likes of s/o JBJ, GMS and Roy to do so. They are also not prominent enough in online commentary, and instead it is the likes of P Ravi, The Indies, Andrew Loh and the other Ang Moh Tua Kees who hog all the limelight over issues like Amos and Kho Jabing.

A pity really. Even on TRE, Chris’s comments will not doubt be drowned by the incessant useless noise of the cybernuts.

The trick for Dr Chee and friends is to connect with the swing voters, not the TRE nuts and otherb anti-PAP paper warriors. Happily for the PAP, they keep on playing to the rabble that will always vote against the PAP, ignoring the swing voters. They reach out to the swing voters only at election time. They should learn from the WP: ignore the loonies because they’ll always vote against the PAP.

NORTH KOREA LINKED TO ATTACKS ON BANKS

From NYT Dealbook:

Security researchers have tied several online breaches at Asian banks to North Korea, Nicole Perlroth and Michael Corkery report in DealBook. The digital security firm Symantec said that in three recent attacks, the thieves used a rare piece of code that had been seen in only two previous cases – the hacking attack on Sony Pictures in 2014 and attacks on banks and media companies in South Korea the year before.

Symantec researchers said the evidence linked an attack at a bank in the Philippines last October with attacks on Tien Phong Bank in Vietnam in December and another in February that resulted in the theft of $81 million from the central bank of Bangladesh.

Eric Chien, a security researcher at Symantec who found the code used across the attacks, said it was the first time that a nation had used online attacks for financial gain.

The attacks raised alarm bells because the thieves gained access to Swift, which is considered the world’s most secure payment messaging system. It is used by 11,000 banks and companies to move money between countries, making it a tempting target. Swift itself had warned of a coordinated assault on banks, although it stressed that it was the banks’ connections to its networks, rather than the network itself, that were breached.

The possibility that Pyongyang had turned to digital theft was not surprising. North Korea’s economy has been ravaged by sanctions and food shortages. Its gross domestic product was estimated to be $12 billion to $40 billion, compared with South Korea’s $1.4 trillion.

“If you presume it’s North Korea, $1 billion is almost 10 percent of their G.D.P.,” Mr. Chien said. “This is not small change for them.”

There is no evidence to date that the thieves have gone after large American or European banks, though new possible attacks are being reported weekly. Last week, evidence emerged that Banco del Austro, an Ecuadorean bank, was infiltrated by hackers who were able to sneak into the Swift network.

FireEye, the security firm investigating the intrusion on Bangladesh’s central bank, is looking at several more undisclosed cases where banks’ systems were compromised, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing a person familiar with the matter. The suspected attacks involved eight other banks, all of which are in Asia.

Analysts worry that the breaches could hold back global finance; larger banks may become reluctant or even refuse to transact with smaller banks in the developing world unless they have assurances that their networks would not be compromised.

Malaysia’s Investigation of 1MDB Said to Be Flawed

Seems Najib was never interviewed and some leads not followed up.

From NYT Dealbook

Investigations ordered by Malaysia’s leader into graft allegations at the state-development fund 1MDB have been undermined by political pressure and a lack of transparency, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing documents and interviews with people involved.

• THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Why PM won’t heed Jap PM’s tots

Foreword: Chris K (A S’porean FT living in Japan) commented on Facebook on this piece. I’ve worked his comments into the original piece and added some background info. Hence this retitled piece which is an expanded and reworked version of the earlier piece.

…  ….

Prime Minister Abe … in his latest op-ed in the WSJ says that if developed countries are facing a future of low or no growth, and shrinking populations, then perhaps governments should focus on improving living standards and not simply chase high economic growth rates.

Well as S’pore is now facing a future of low growth and a shrinking population, unless FTs are let in by the cattle-truck load, the PAP administration should focus on improving living standards and not simply chase high economic growth rates?

After all Goh Chok Tong said we should be like the Japanese. And PM and ministers cite Japanese practices: here, here and here.

But then the PAP can’t let in its beloved FTs to eat S’porans’ breakfast, lunch and dinner and all snacks in between. FTs are needed to spur S’poreans to be as cheap to hire as FTs are, despite the higher cost of housing etc here. Hard Truths are more important than the well-being of S’poreans?

Here’s what Chris K says about life in a stagnant, past its prime Japan

Lived in Japan 1990-1995 and then again from 2006, the difference between the 2 periods in my view is that it is more livable today than before despite all the “bad news” of stagnation and deflation. Working hours have steadily declined despite shortage of labour. Total Fertility Rate has gone up.

(Btw, a few yrs ago I reported that HSBC showed that Japan was doing pretty well)

Life can be good in a country with a shrinking population and deflation. The PAP juz doesn’t like stagnation, deflation and a shrinking population.

Chris K then goes on to criticise the PAP’s administration policies here. Pay attention to (and think hard about) the section beginning the entire pension and healthcare proposition have under LHL been tied to ever-increasing real estate prices …

But I completely agree with Cynical Investor, the PM won’t be heeding Abe’s advice. Why? Just 2 simple things.

First the government salaries are marked to GDP growth despite the factthat in today’s digital economy GDP is a terrible measure of progress since many improvements and convenience in life comes free (think on-line shopping vs going to shops) or below cost, thus understating the impact on GDP growth. So nuts and bolts, brick and mortar still rule their head even if they have to accept the digital challenge.

---

Harry and Dr Goh has things easy when  running S’pore. They grew the economy and jobs and wage rises followed.

Nowadays GDP is decoupled from jobs and wages. I wish someone would do a similar chart for S’pore.

——————————

Second, far more importantly, the entire pension and healthcare proposition have under LHL been tied to ever-increasing real estate prices (think downgrades and LBS to finance you and your parent’s healthcare and pensions). That means forget about quality of GDP growth, quantity is the game where large increases in population are required not just for those nuts and bolts, brick and mortar but with the benefit of keeping real estate prices elevated.

If you think we have a real estate bubble that may or may not be deflating, then equally we then must have a bubble in the government’s projections for our retirement and healthcare. Both are inexorably linked, one cannot exist without the other because of the use of CPF for housing. So 6.9m is a done deal, 10m a very likely eventual outcome. More foreign labour supply to hold down wages, a more crowded country, more stresses and greater wealth disparity. At some point this will stop and then this country will have an almighty day of reckoning.

Long term, anything can happen

The PAP administration likes to boast that the PAP’s hegemony in local politics  enables them to plan for the long-term.

Some three-and-a-half centuries ago the Dutch shook hands on what is possibly the most misguided trade deal in history. Pursuing a monopoly in the spice trade, Amsterdam agreed to take one small island in eastern Maluku province from the British in return for another small island in the US — Manhattan.

(FT I think)

But in the short-term the Dutch were right.

Maybe PM should heed Jap PM’s tots?

Prime Minister Abe … in his latest op-ed in the WSJ says that if developed countries are facing a future of low or no growth, and shrinking populations, then perhaps governments should focus on improving living standards and not simply chase high economic growth rates.

Well as S’pore is now facing a future of low growth and a shrinking population, unless FTs are let in by the cattle-truck load, the PAP administration should focus on improving living standards and not simply chase high economic growth rates?

After all Goh Chok Tong said we should be like the Japanese. And PM and ministers cite Japanese practices: here, here and here.

But then the PAP can’t let in its beloved FTs to eat S’porans’ breakfast, linch and dinner and all snacks in between. FTs are needed to spur S’poreans to be as cheap to hire as FTs are, despite the higher cost of housing etc here. Hard Truths are more important than the well-being of S’poreans?

Emerging Tech Takes Jobs

Wall Street Told to Fear the Machine as Emerging Tech Takes Jobs Software engineers, whole technology departments and anyone who’s moving numbers from one spreadsheet to another is “going to get decimated,” Daniel Nadler, chief executive officer of Kensho Technologies, said on a panel at the Milken Institute Global Conference.

• BLOOMBERG NEWS

NYT Dealbook

Markets: Frontier, Emerging

S’pore listco really global tua kee

Making victims of cybercrime pay: So PAPish

But it’s the UK, not S’pore.

The FT reports that UK bank customers may have to cover cost of fraud under new proposals. Under the plans, individuals or companies with lax online security could find themselves  without banking services or even excluded from the system under which banks compensate customers whose accounts are hacked.

Bet u this will happen here first. It’s so PAPish. It’s a Hard Truth to favour big biz over the little people, is it  not? Harry must be turning in his metaphorical grave.

We need to attract more PRC visitors

 

 

Big breasts like triple A status and budget surpluses have a downside

(I’ve juz binned the piece I did this morning and rewritten it.)

When a PAPpy boasts about S’pore’s Triple A rating, e-mail to that PAPpy or post a comment asking: “What benefits do the issuer get for a triple A rating versus a double A and what benefits do they give up?”. A bond strategist at BlackRock quoted by the FT asked this question in the another context. He was talking about corporations issuing bonds, but the reasoning applies to countries too.

Triple A status is a virility symbol like extra-big breasts or muscles. Btw, a UK celebrity (She was the partner of Dwight Yorke — Remember him?) with extra-large breasts had to undergo surgery to make them smaller. She was suffering from backache from her frontal heavy load.

Here’s two FB posts from Chris K who was a capital markets man, and self-confessed geek on the impacts of macroeconomic policies on capital markets that explain why triple A status and budget surpluses are not good for S’poreans. (Emphasis mine)

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Chan Chun Sing also said at the rally that Dr Chee wanted to give the impression that “we are cheating Singaporeans”. But the market was not stupid, he said.

“Why is Singapore one of 11 countries in world that has triple-A ratings from all three credit rating agencies?” he pointed out.

I’ll answer it for Chan Chun Sing even if he avoided the essential truths of the triple-A rating. That rating is mainly based on

1. The constitution rule that forbids the government from running deficits over the parliamentary term.

2. The massive year-on-year budget surpluses ran by the government, amounting to an average of nearly 10% of GDP per year over the past 15 years alone.

Those budget surpluses that underpins the government finances do not appear out of the blue and they certainly do not result from some magical fiscal policy formula. Those surpluses results from selling land at ever increasing prices, excess returns from investing debt proceeds which includes CPF and low social expenditures.

In other words, those triple-A ratings are paid for by the people and by denying them financial security in retirement and healthcare.

And just to be clear, Norway and Singapore are the only ones among the 11 triple-A rated countries that have long term budget surpluses. That means countries do not need to have budget surpluses to be rated triple-A, sustainable deficits will be enough. Norway’s long term surpluses are from natural endowments, Singapore’s…… let’s put it this way, a transfer of wealth from households to the state.

And

Despite being backed by the nearly 10% of GDP a year long term budget surpluses, the triple A ratings have little direct to benefit to households. The surpluses are not without consequences to households since they are derived from land sales at increasing prices and denial of social benefits both leading to inadequate retirement and healthcare funding, and to an acceptance of high levels of inequality.

Do read the full post

https://www.facebook.com/notes/chris-kuan/tax-benefits-and-singapores-barely-useful-triple-a-rating/481998245323602

To conclude,  triple A status and budget surpluses, like big breasts can be a problem.

MU’s woes foreshadow S’pore’s woes post PAP

José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix will according to a FT reader, based in his track record, do the following

year 1, build the team and squad that you want and get the players to bend to your will; year 2, win lots of trophies and years 3 or 4, move on. With the possible exception of Madrid, it’s worked every time.

I bet it won’t work for MU too. MU. like Barcelona, Bayern, Real and Milan, are in a different universe From Chelsea, Porto and Inter. The fotmer are clubs that have a history of success since year zero or thereabouts. Mourinho is a great manager of clubs with lesser traditions of success. Real shows he can’t manage the really great clubs.

Interestingly the FT just carried an interview with Munich-bound Carlo Ancelotti. He likes working in “family” footie clubs like Milan (where he won honours — Champions League, Serie A — as a player and manager) and Bayern. Surely that term fits MU?

I always tot he’d be good for MU.  But would MU be good for him? That I doubt because MU is rebuilding after a long period where one man dominated.

In MU. we can see what will happen to S’pore post PAP rule. A real hard slog for S’poreans with lots of trips down blind alleys, and lots of u-turns. And a lot of heart ache and loss of prosperity.

But keeping the status quo (i.e. PAP hegemony based on LKY’s Hard Truths as modified by the natural aristocrats to keep the S’porean rabble contented which is what is happening already what with the increases in spending of the rabble’s own money to keep them from voting for the Oppo) which Ferguson tried with Moysie is not a solution.

Everything has its shelf-life. Ask the USSR communist party or the US Republican Party. Even LKY expressed doubts that the PAP could like Old Man River keep on rolling.

He knows his history. The only party that has survived and thrived for centuries is the Conservative Party of the UK. It had been in power for long periods in the 19th and 20th centuries, and returned to government in 2010. It is successful partly because it had, time and time again, to reinvent itself or become irrelevant. Liberal democracy forced it to change. We know don’t we that the Hard Truths and liberal democracy are incompatible?

 

Can employ FT drivers meh?

I know a FT (M’sian PR) married to local. He has a SME business. A few yrs ago he employed a local as a company car driver: the first time he employed a company driver. He was grumbling about how lazy the driver was: didn’t want to wash car etc. He claimed to have paid the going rate.

Recently, I learnt that he has since had two FT drivers. I was surprised as I didn’t realise that FTs could get the papers to be drivers. But apparently they can. And it’s not applying  the papers for another job and then switching jobs on the quiet.

Now here’s another interesting bit. The present driver is an Indian FT graduate. I mean if can get FT graduate to be driver, who wants a local boy with only vocational school skills? .

And the business is in the construction field. Tot FT supply restricted in this area?

Media visionary

“If you integrate big data, supercomputing and virtual reality with the skill sets of editors and writers, you could create a news network that is unprecedented,” Dr Soon-Shiong who bot a 13% stake in Tribune Publishing. He’s a Califonian South African-born pharmaceuticals billionaire,

AVA’s e-system sucks, really sucks

In March I received a letter from the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority telling me one of my dog licences was expiring today. I put it aside planning to go to post officer nearer the date.

About two weeks ago, I took out the letter and found the usual forms were not attached. Seemed everything was to be done electronically.

When I went into the website, there was a notice telling people not to call the help-line because there were lots of calls. Better to email contact number and wait for a call. looks like there was a lot of problems.

I emailed the AVA asking what was happening on renewing licences. I got a prompt call back. The girl told me that so long as I had an i/c number to create an account and a credit card to use to pay no problem.

Well today I went into the system to create an account. At first things were easy. But then there were two problems

— Some of the address fields were not working so I could not type in my address in the prescribed format (Code got Buddhists taking day off, isit?).

— The form required an alternate contact. That would be my 90+ mum as we stay together. Problem is that the alternate contact must have a H/P number. Well my mum doesn’t have a H/P. Bet, I’ll be told to key in my H/P number twice

So I emailed AVA pointing out the problems I’m having. And posted this.

I’ll keep readers posted on this e-govt initiative.

FYI, I use Chrome browser and am still on XP, so let’s see if they blame the technical problems on these.

Update at 2.40pm: AVA is working today. I got a prompt reply which helped me create an account. As expected I was asked to use my H/P number for my mum’s contact number which really defeats the purpose of a second contact.

And I had double confirmation that there were problems in the address fields. They asked me to key in my postal code. Well I had done that first time, but nothing happened. Now my address appears. WTF!

I got into the system but there was no way to pay. Worse there was a misleading info. There was a note saying that I had received a second reminder earlier this month, Never did. WTF!

Update on 24 May qat 4.00 am. AVA’s response team is awesome. When I sent my second email, I got a phone call. The girl took me thru the payment process. Turned out to be my fault. I like using Chrome but because I have cataracts (Cannot yet be operated on: I’ll ask doctor on next visit whether if I were a private patient, not a SingHealth cheapskate, would I have had an operation by now?) I zoom to 175% for easy, speed reading. I should have reset it to 100% for the AVA site.

Actually Firefox is a better browser, But S’pore organisations are not Firefox friendly. I’ve filled up forms, press “Send” and get “technical error”. Turns out that the sites don’t do Firefox. .

 

 

 

 

 

What are the biggest risks to financial markets?

Or “China kua kee”. See that deflation is also a major concern. Commodity price movements are “peanuts”

But notice was missing? Nothing on that gorilla in eoom? The Fed.

Two “secret” tecniques that Buffett uses

In March this ye, the FT carried an article “The $62bn secret of Warren Buffett’s success”.explaining that that he’s a leading proponent of delaying tax payments as long as possible.

A reader in response to the article said that this technique was part of another technique Buffett uses: unique, deep value liability funding strategy inasmuch as it is an investing strategy

Great article. Most of us misunderstand Buffett’s strategy. It’s a unique, deep value liability funding strategy inasmuch as it is an investing strategy. He was able to get 15%-20% return even if his stock investments only went up 5%. How? OPM leverage. Check out these guys’ explanation below – they’re really sharp. I’d keep an eye out for them: https://www.scmessina.com/2015/02/if-warren-buffett-had-to-start-today-could-he-still-reach-his-current-level-of-wealth/

Cyberattacks on global payments system

NYT Dealbook

SWIFT REPORTS A NEW ATTACK Thieves have found their way into the Swift global bank network as investigators are still trying to solve the $81 million heist from the central bank of Bangladesh, Michael Corkery reports in DealBook.

The second attack involved a commercial bank, which Swift declined to identify. In a letter it planned to send to users on Friday, which The New York Times reviewed, Swift warned that the two attacks bore similarities and were likely part of a “wider and highly adaptive campaign targeting banks.”

Banking experts said the attacks might be impossible to solve or trace. Swift said the thieves got their hands on legitimate network credentials, initiated the fraudulent transfers and installed malware on bank computers to disguise their movements.

“The attackers clearly exhibit a deep and sophisticated knowledge of specific operation controls within the targeted banks – knowledge that may have been gained from malicious insiders or cyberattacks, or a combination of both,”Swift said. It also warned that the gang of thieves may have been able to recruit bank employees to hand over credentials.

Security experts who have studied the attacks said the thieves were probably lurking inside the bank systems for months before they were detected and are likely to strike again.

Swift’s core messaging system was not breached, but the criminals attacked the banks’ connections to its network. Banks are responsible for maintaining the security of their own connections to Swift and digital criminals have found ways to exploit loopholes in bank security to obtain login credentials and dispatch fraudulent Swift messages.

This second attack suggests a highly sophisticated threat that did not depend on weak digital defenses.

No need tea parties to recruit top PAPpies

 

 

Can data crunching tell you the best candidate for a job vacancy?

Any established organisation will have a group of very successful people in it – employees who fit and perform outstandingly well.

They are already there, and every day they generate hundreds of bits of data about the way they go about performing so well – productive salespeople, for example.

So one way of recruiting is to use number-crunching computer power to assess the traits of the outstanding people a company already employs… and then shortlist potential new recruits by comparing them with established corporate high performers.

But doesn’t that lead to companies hiring only people who most resemble what the company is like here and now? Doesn’t the use of Big Data tend to drive out vital diversity?

Not necessarily, says Bill Nowacki, because of the subtlety of the analysis process. At KPMG they’ve built a model which incorporates 10,000 different data points generated by a single individual. That’s millions of bits of data about a group of individuals in a big firm.

Number crunch those intelligently, and important signals may emerge. Bill Nowaki calls that “training” the algorithm by reviewing the data generated by previous recruits and comparing that with the current results – who stayed, who was promoted, who performed well.

You see what’s emerging here? A new complex model of an organisation viewed through the Big Data prism that the people who work for it generate every day. The very practical aspects of their working life, obviously, but also the relationships and interests they mention in their social networking.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36129046

HSBC: Bad news, good news

HSBC Said to Hire 175 Compliance Employees HSBC is hiring 175 people for the financial crime compliance team at its British consumer bank, which will eventually be isolated from its trading business, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the plan.

• BLOOMBERG

HSBC to Move 840 Technology Jobs Out of Britain to Save Costs The bank announced plans last year to shed as many as 50,000 jobs by the end of next year as it seeks to reduce its costs and reshape its business.

• NYT »

Us little people can bet against hedgies

Going by theie recent performance, Goldman Sachs’ planned ETF tracking the 50 most popular hedge fund stocks might be better shorted than purchased. Retail investors can exploit any period of outflows from the hedge fund industry:

1MDB: Feds dig deeper

From NYT Dealbook

Goldman’s Leissner Said to Get Money From Ex-1MDB Employee U.S. prosecutors are examining an alleged transfer of hundreds of thousands of dollars from a former employee of a Malaysian investment fund to Tim Leissner, who was then a senior banker at Goldman Southeast Asia operations, according to people briefed on the matter.

• BLOOMBERG

Here we go again

Fed Is Seriously Considering Raising Interest Rates in June, Meeting Minutes Say The central bank sent an unusually frank message to Wall Street, delivered in the official account of the Fed’s April meeting.

• NYT » | AFTERNOON REPORT: STOCKS SWOON ON SIGNAL OF FED RATE INCREASE

Lesson for Kong Hee and friends

Eat yr hearts out Kong Hee, Sun Ho and CHC members for nor seeling the Kingdom of Heaven but lucre.

God loves the Church of England, not you people who believe in the gospel of prosperity. He helps them make serious money while Kong Hee still has to finance his Sentisa Cove penthouse that is less worth than its purchase price.

The church commissioners, who manage the C of E’s £7bn investment fund, said they enjoyed market-beating returns of 8.2% last year but warned they would struggle to keep up that pace in future. Over the past 30 years the fund’s average annual return has been 9.7%.

…

The commissioners’ private equity managers returned 20.2% during 2015 and the value of the church’s £2bn property portfolio was up by more than 14%. The commissioners continued to invest in forestry with two new holdings in Australia, bringing the total to nearly 120,000 acres, they said. The timberland and forestry portfolio delivered a return of 13% last year.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/16/church-of-england-sells-investments-fearing-market-slowdown.

There’s another report that CoE is a big buyer of Google’s parent.

Dr Chee fixed Chiam in the 1990s

I wrote sometime back that the Chiams were really very petty people when they got real shirty about a photo of Chiam and Dr Chee. But Dr Chee deserves the “Mad Dog” tag by escalating the row into an attempted nuclear strike that turned out to misfire by calling a news conference where he distributed this document http://yoursdp.org/news/timeline_of_events_of_the_sdp_chiam_saga/2016-05-14-6121 which in my opinion called Mr hiam as a PAP stooge

I’ll comment on an important fact that the Chee document left out, and talk about a more mainstream narrative about the Chiam and Chee row that many moderate S’poreans in their 40s and above believe in, but which young S’poreans may not because they were too young or not around in the mid 1990s.

What the SDP document left out?

Why did Chiam want to discipline Dr Chee? The answer is that Chiam realised the damage to SDP’s reputation that Dr Chee’s hunger strike (It last five days and it seems he cheated) and his public comments condemning the PAP for his sacking, to protest his sacking by NUS.

After initially backing Chee, Chiam became critical of Chee’s hunger strike and his public comments condemning the PAP for his sacking. He said Dr Chee had made his point and should produce evidence that the PAP got him sacked. Remember that Dr Chee never sued NUS or the PAP.

He knew that the public damage that Chee was doing to the SDP’s image as a moderate Oppo party

Chiam wanted to censure Chee for his comments, but failed and the rest u can read in SDP’s document and below.

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A reader gives a reason for Chiam’s resignation, I never heard before

The SDP account says chiam’s resignation as leader occurred because of his failure to support Chee’s hunger strike; this is incorrect; the resignation occurred much later, over Chaim’s objection to Chee being employed by Bukit Gombak town council, under MP Lim How Dong who was SDP chairman at the time, and found nearly the whole CEC on Chee’s side.

References please.

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The mainstream alternative to the SDP narrative. 

Someone blogged this (https://thoughtsofrealsingaporeans.wordpress.com/2016/05/15/the-tale-of-ah-chiam-and-ah-chee-three-points/ which almost reflects what I was planning to say (I don’t agree with the last three sentences of the extract, though). So rather than reinvent the wheel, I’ll quote.

The point he’s making is that Chiam had to resign as secretary-general to retain credibility and that Dr Chee was willing to lose a parly seat by seeking to sack Chiam.

Dr Chee did not address the crux of the matter – what were the circumstances then that forced Mr Chiam to quit a party that he founded, and did Dr Chee do right by Mr Chiam?

Here’s three points of rebuttal to Dr Chee:

1. The way I see it, Dr Chee is playing with words. Dr Chee technically didn’t formally oust Mr Chiam as Secretary-General. There wasn’t an official motion to remove Mr Chiam as Secretary-General. But Dr Chee made things extremely difficult for Mr Chiam, and turned parts of the party hostile towards Mr Chiam. Mr Chiam was forced to resign as Secretary-General.

 What Dr Chee did was akin to a company suggesting that an employee should leave and making conditions very harsh for him, and maintaining that the employee was not retrenched as he resigned voluntarily. Jialat, don’t even get retrenchment benefits.

 It is clear from the news reports in the 1990s that there was fierce party infighting after Dr Chee joined SDP in 1992. There was a clear contestation of wills over the direction of the party. It is difficult to determine who was right or wrong, but the key personalities in both camps can hardly be absolved of any blame or responsibility. So why is Dr Chee trying to make himself seem innocent and wriggle out of it?

2. It is ironic that Dr Chee said that PAP was trying to use Mr Chiam to destroy him, when Dr Chee was the one who tried to destroy Mr Chiam’s political career in the first place?

 As if forcing Mr Chiam to resign as Secretary-General wasn’t enough,SDP (under Dr Chee’s leadership) tried to expel Mr Chiam from the very party he founded – a move that would make Mr Chiam lose his Potong Pasir parliamentary seat.  Luckily for Mr Chiam, the courts ruled that his dismissal from SDP was illegal.

There is a Chinese idiom called “赶尽杀绝”, which roughly translates to ‘eradicating/destroying completely in a ruthless manner’.  Quite an apt description I’d say.

3. So Dr Chee said that PAP has been using Mr Chiam. But hasn’t Dr Chee been making use of Mr Chiam as well?

 He hijacked Mr Chiam’s party agenda and took over as Secretary-General. If Dr Chee had been honourable, he wouldn’t have joined Mr Chiam’s SDP in the first place given vast ideological differences. He would have set up his own party instead. But Dr Chee chose to take a short cut – by joining the biggest opposition party at that time (SDP held three parliamentary seats when Dr Chee joined), and forcing its leader out. Yes, like a fifth column.

 

More on Buffett’s Apple buy

It’s peanuts for starters, both fot Buffett and Apple.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Mr Buffett did not make the actual investment himself, meaning the order would have been placed by his stock-picking team Todd Combs and Ted Weschler. The paper says they are willing to invest in areas that Mr Buffett himself wouldn’t.

They are each thought to manage a $9bn portfolio and usually make the smaller investments, while Mr Buffett makes the big bets.

The Apple holding makes Berkshire Hathaway the 56th largest shareholder.

BBC

SDP: No adult supervision isit? Why liddat?

(Note the SDP has before the publication of this piece changed the u/m headline to reflect the outrage on social media and the internet at its “cock-up”, “honest mistake”, or “dishonesty” (Goh Meng Seng, who else?*). But the problem of lack of adult supervision still stands, so I’ll not change the piece, but just add this foreword.)

Given that there are people in SDP (like Dr Chee and Dr Paul) who are familiar familiar with statistical analysis, it’s surprising that SDP can make the claim: SURVEY: BB VOTERS SAY CHEE BETTER CANDIDATE BUT FEEL SAFER WITH PAP*

http://yoursdp.org/news/survey_bb_voters_say_chee_better_candidate_but_feel_safer_with_pap/2016-05-15-6124

But the survey showed that 33% of SDP voters (only 39% of the total) gave as one of their reasons for voting for Dr Chee because they felt he was the stronger candidate, versus 29% of PAP voters (61%) who gave the reason that they felt Mr Murali was stronger. So did more BB voters say that Dr Chee was the better candidate? No but taz what the SDP headline says.

Using the SDP’s logic, the result of the survey shows that Chee should leave the SDP. They’re just dragging him down. 53% like him (The survey also showed Dr Chee with a 53% overall positive perception by Bukit Batok voters.), but PAP prefered at 67% to 28% SDP. Surely he would have won as an independent

What the survey really shows

A pre-election survey conducted between 30 April to 3 May 2016 by Blackbox Research showed that Bukit Batok voters found SDP candidate Dr Chee Soon Juan to be the better candidate than his PAP rival Mr Murali Pillai.

However, residents rated the PAP as the preferred party (67%) to SDP (28%).

The survey had predicted that the PAP would win the by-election by 64.4% of the vote to the SDP’s 35.6%. The actual result turned out to be better for the SDP which secured 38.8% of the popular vote.

http://yoursdp.org/news/survey_bb_voters_say_chee_better_candidate_but_feel_safer_with_pap/2016-05-15-6124

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*To be fair, there are many other people who call the SDP “dishonest” in its misuse of stats here. They unlike GMS have no axe to grind.

**Changed after inter and sicial media outrage to: SURVEY: HIGHER % OF SDP VOTERS IN BB SAY CHEE BETTER CANDIDATE THAN THOSE ROOTING FOR MURALI

 

 

M’sia: Najib’s stepson and 1MDB

Forst it was using 1MDB to make movies, Including “Wolf of Wall St”, it was alleged

Now, from NYT Dealbook

Malaysian Leader’s Stepson Is Said to Fund U.S. Property Deals With 1MDB Money At least $50 million said to have been diverted from a state investment fund in Malaysia was spent on luxury properties in New York and Los Angeles by the stepson of the Malaysian prime minister, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal and people familiar with the matter.

• THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

SDP: No adult supervision isit?

Where were Danny the Bear and Drs Wong Souk Yee, Wong Wee Nam and  Paul Thamby at the SDP media conference on Saturday? A media conference that was called to slime Mr Chiam as a PAP stooge (My interpretation of what the event was about based on this official SDP document http://yoursdp.org/news/timeline_of_events_of_the_sdp_chiam_saga/2016-05-14-6121.

My sources tell me that only the above two Old Guard members of the SDP were present. And that it was called on the spur-of-the-moment.

Looks like Dr Chee is feeling the effects of the loss of the Bukit Batok by-election where his ass was whipped by an Indian in an area where 75% of the voters are Chinese, many of whom elderly and less well-off. They are the kind of people who the SDP says it cares for, unlike the PAP. They obviously don’t believe him.

When he said that he didn’t feel it was a defeat at the time, I joked that the RI doctors Drs Wong wee Nam and Paul Thamby must have pumped him with sedatives before the result was announced. Looks like he was really sedated, or on a natural high.

Whatever, he has returned to reality and blamed the Chiams for fixing him.

Seriously SDP has an image problem when Dr Wong Soul Yee is considered by the likes of me as a moderate, restraining voice in the SDP. She was detained under the ISA foe 15 months in the 80s as a “Marxist conspirator”.

I’ll blog on why it was most unwise of Dr Chee to remind voters of what happened between him and Mt Chiam all those yrs ago. His narrative left out one important bit that those around at the time remember. And it’s not to Dr chee’s credit.

SGX: Where “T” in “FT” stands for “Trash”

S’pore aircraft lessor to launch IPO in HK.

Another blow to SGX where with the exception of CEO, senior managers are FTs.

Singapore-based leasing company BOC Aviation is planning an initial public offering (IPO) worth $1.5 billion-$2 billion …, according to an application filed with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKSE).

BOC Aviation, the Bank of China’s aircraft leasing division, will place the offering on the HKSE through the Goldman Sachs banking group. It said it will create up to 50% of the offering as new shares, with the remainder offered from within the tranche of existing shares held by BOC Aviation.

The company prospectus said IPO proceeds would concentrate on its “core business model of focusing on purchasing new, fuel-efficient, in-demand aircraft at competitive prices directly from aircraft manufacturers” for operators across the region and further afield.

Established in 1993 as Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise (SALE), BOC Aviation has seen solid growth and is now one of the top 10 global leasing companies with 270 aircraft on its books valued at up to $12 billion.

The original SAL company was sold to BOC in 2006 for $965 million. In 2015 the company posted a net profit of $343 million, up 11% year-on-year.

BOC Aviation has agreements with 62 operators in 30 countries; in January 2016 it placed a $3 billion order for 30 Airbus A320 aircraft. It has also committed to acquiring more than 240 more aircraft in the coming years to be serviced by its Singapore, Dublin, London, Seattle and Tianjin offices.

http://atwonline.com/leasing/singapore-lessor-boc-aviation-launch-ipo

Chipping away at PAP hegemony

But first, a truism: if the public are not buying the product politicians are selling, no end of stunts and clever tricks or lies will convince voters to change their minds. Tan Kin Lian, Goh Meng Seng, s/o JBJ, Roy Ngerng, Tan Jee Say, M Ravi, New Citizen Han Hui Hui. Lina Chiam and, of course, Dr Chee, can testify to this fact. Sadly so too can Dr Paul Thamby, Dr Ang Yong Guan, the WP teams in Marine Parade and East Coast and P Ravi.

Now, having reminded that voters are like consumers of beer or soap in that they have to be persuaded, here’s my constructive, nation-building solution on how to chip away at the PAP’s hegemony. Those challenged for time can skip the next three paras and start at “Cherian George …”

Here I said: My serious point is that Oppo and social activists must realise that Brand PAP is very strong* with easily 60- 70%% of the voting market; and that their own base is, at best 30%, of the voters, with a core but passive base of about 20% of all the voters. The good news is that only 35% of the voters are hard-core PAP supporters like Eunice Chia-Lim and Jason Chua. There is the 35% of the voters that are prepared to listen to the right message delivered by the right person (not any mad dog or Chee): remember they voted for Dr Tan Cheng Bock. And in GE 2011, up to 10 points of them voted for the Oppo, allowing the WP to win Aljunied (which had two cabinet ministers, and one junior minister).

Until the Oppo and social activists realise how the numbers stack up, the PAP’s hegemony is assured so long as the PAP doesn’t mess up too badly.

So being willing to accept reality waz to be done?

Cherian George had an insight that he never developed. In a piece last year he grumbled that the PAP had succeeded in persuading S’poreans that freedom of expression was not a good thing. Actually the list is a lot longer. The PAP has made  Western constitutional democracy, universal values, civil society, neoliberalism and “the West’s idea of journalism”*, progressives ideas all, bad products, not suitable for sheep us.

Well if a brand is toxic, what do good marketeers do? Detoxify and repackage i.e, rebrand. Example: In the USA  shareholder [a]ctivism has gone from being frowned upon, something that marks you out as a rogue or a maverick, to almost socially responsible. The shareholder activists rebranded themselves as good responsible corporate citizens, not greedy corporate raiders.

But who can do the rebranding of progressive ideas here? Certainly not the two leading Oppo parties. The WP is too timid and its elected MPs only interested in protecting their sinecures, while the SDP is toxic, so long as Mad Dog Chee leads it. And the minor parties are also useless, the

— Chiams’ Party is only interested in slimimg Dr Chee;

— NSP is discredited so long as it has a president who never told voters of his criminal record and bankruptcy;

— SDA is asleep between election;

— RP, PPP and DPP are one-man shows and

— SingFirst is run by retirees for retirees.

—————————————————-

The French economy minister is ambitious but has no political base Mr Macron has never been elected—he was economic adviser at the Elysée before being appointed economy minister in 2014—and is not even a member of the Socialist Party. He has only a handful of parliamentary deputies behind him, and no local, grass-roots network.

And his party is way behind in the polls.So what does he do? He has started a movement: He insists that, for now, his movement is about ideas, not politics. The plan is to build a virtual network online and through social media, using public opinion to construct support outside traditional structures. Mr Macron, though, is known to harbour his own political ambitions, and France will hold a presidential election in 2017. There is a giant leap between a one-man thinking outfit, however refreshing, and a political movement that can gather sustained electoral momentum.

(Quote from Economist blog)

———————————————————

In S’pore, those who want political change have no representation in parly except for Leon the Lion and his fellow NCMPs and no local, grass-roots network. So they –I’m thinking of people like Richard Wan, Dr Ang Yong Guan**, Yeoh Lam Keong (the ex-GIC economist), Siew Kum Hong, P Ravi***, Dr Pauk Thamby****, Eric Tan (Remember him?), Peter Teo (WP’s go-to lawyer, Remy Choo (co-founder of TOC and now a lawyer) and Affin Sha — should get together and start a movement … about ideas, not politics. The plan is to build a virtual network online and through social media, using public opinion to construct support outside traditional structures. 

This movement’s big idea should be to market progressive ideas like Western constitutional democracy, universal values, civil society, neoliberalism and “the West’s idea of journalism” professionally and responsibly.  They should also market these values as a package that can promote material well-being not juz human rights.

This package should be marketed like an existing European heritage beer that is popular around the world but reviled here (bad marketing in the past and dirty tricks by the dominant players).

———————————————

Here’s an alternative marketing strategy — using a campaign based on shock tactics

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36024782

But remember, its been tried here before by Dr Chee and JBJ. Remember Dr Chee’s civil disobedience activities? Remember JBJ’s allegations of PAP corruption? And the rabid stuff put up by TOC and TRE regularly?

——————————–

The main platforms will be social media and the internet which in S’pore are friendly to progressive ideas. TOC and TRE can play a big part but keep the sabo-king the Indian away. Remember how it fixed Dr Chee with the story about “a Dr Lee Wei Ling” supporting a petition in favour of Dr Chee, plastering a big picture of Harry’s daughter for better effect? She reacted by dissing Dr Chee. The PAP could not have asked for more from Balji, a shareholder of the Indi and an editorial adviser.

This marketing of progressive ideas campaign will be a peaceful form of the guerilla warfare practiced by Mao, Fidel and Che.

The best insurgency strategy is to win the propaganda war, erode your opponents’ support base and offer an alternative that keeps your supporters onside: taz how I interpret what Mao, Fidel Che as saying about successful guerilla warfare.

They won didn’t they?

---

*Like the CCP, the PAP is worried about progressive ideas:Western constitutional democracy, universal values, civil society, neoliberalism and “the West’s idea of journalism”

In  China, the CCP’s concerns were made clear in a document that began circulating in secret in April 2013 and was later leaked. Document Number Nine, as it is called, describes “the current state of the ideological sphere” and identifies seven challenges to it. They include Western constitutional democracy, universal values, civil society, neoliberalism and “the West’s idea of journalism”

**I’m assuming he resigns from SingFirst.

***I’m assuming the Chiams kick him out of SPP for giving his backing to Dr Chee in the Bukit Batok by-election when it was clear that Lina Chiam was trying to destroy Chee’s credibility: Oppo sabo Oppo.

****I’m assuming Chee does what he usual does to those than threaten his power. Think Jeremy Chen and Danny the SDP Bear.

Red Card applicants?

“No matter where the Chinese people are, China will always be their “maternal home””. – President Xi Jinping

China to implement “Chinese Card” for overseas born Chinese including those from South East Asia.

http://thecoverage.my/news/china-to-implement-chinese-card-for-malaysians-born-chinese/

Meng Seng, Uncle Redbean and TRE Cybernuts are rushing for this Red Card, I’m sure.

If it’s one thing the three have in common is the love of PRC China. They tell Honkies to accept the restrictions China is imposing on human rights and freedom of speech in HK, while attacking the PAP’s restrictive policies in these areas here.

 

Reasonable to mistrust Pinoys?

After S’pore said that a Facebook post showing Lee Hsien Loong appearing to endorse Mr Duterte was false, he talked about burning a S’porean flag.

Still 77% of the Pinoys working here voted for him.

So many hate us meh? Despite many stealing S’poreans’ breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper and in-between snacks.

Seriously, can we trust the Pinoys whenever they say anything nice about us?

The Pinoys say they adore Pope Francis and the late Corazon Aquino.

Yet Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte said, “Pope, son of a whore, go home. Do not visit us again.”. And in a row with the outgoing president, son of Corazon, he called the president, “son of a prostitute”.

Yet 39% of Pinpys voted for him (an overwhelming number, given there were five presidential candidates).

Reasonable to mistrust Pinoys? Be wary of them? Cut immigration of Pinoys here?

What do you think?

Cheer up TRE cybernuts, “Be happy”

It’s been a really bad week for the TRE cybernuts (Note only a minority of visitors to TRE fall into this category but they infest the place like vermin.). Dr Chee got his ass whipped by an Indian, Amos Yee got arrested and Heng didn’t die in agony.

So going into the weekend, I tot they need a bit of cheering up.

Daily Star, which reports a study by a sex therapist who says he has found that less intelligent people have a better love life as they are less likely to worry about “performance” or “how satisfied their lover is”.
“The findings that dumb people have better sex will be welcome news to hordes of everyday Brits, as well as numerous celebrities,” the paper adds.

BBC

Should have shouted “I’m not a Muslim”?

Or “Jesus died”? Or “I’m Siva the destroyer”? Or Buddhists can kill”? Or “I God am a healous God”?

The above tots crossed my mind when I read a BBC piece:

Many papers report on an apology issued by Greater Manchester Police after it staged an anti-terror drill in which a man playing the role of a suicide bomber shouted “Allahu Akbar” – Arabic for “God is greater” – before “detonating” a dummy explosive belt.

…

But the decision to have a Muslim extremist as the fake terrorist sparked a social media storm, says the Daily Mail, “with critics complaining it was a stupid decision and accusing the police of fuelling Islamophobia”.

The Sun – which headlines the story “Ploddy Ridiculous” – says the force was accused of “bowing to political correctness” after Assistant Chief Constable Garry Shewan stated the chant “was unacceptable and said sorry to Muslims who complained”.

The anti-Islamophobia group, the Community Safety Forum, is quoted in the Times as saying “this sort of thing panders to stereotypes and further divides us”, adding that it would “increase anti-Muslim hate crime”.

The Daily Telegraph gives space in its leader column to what it believes are the issues raised by the story: “fear of saying anything at all on the topics of race, ethnicity and cultural difference is leaving us unable to address some of the major challenges of our time – extremism, terrorism and segregation.”

I mean who were the bombers in NY, London, Paris and Brussels? Any of these suicide bombers other than self-professed Muslim?

Who killed French cartoonists? People who profess any religion other than Islam?

Come on.

Whatever, the voters in London are pretty smart. By electing a Muslim mayor who was when he was a human rights lawyer. the go to lawyer for Muslims of extremist views. they may have calculated that they bought goodwill from Muslim extremists.

After all, pre 9/11 and the London bombing, the British had a dubious reputation for ignoring overseas terrorism. The intelligent and security services from Europe, the Gulf states and even the US believed that the British had a deal with Muslim extremists: so long as no violence was advocated (against the British), plotted (against British rargets) or happened on British soil, extremists were free to do what they liked in the UK. London was Londonisation.

This live-and-let live attitude can be traced bavk to the 19th century, when the Breitish allowed in political dessidents who fled Eutpean countries like France or Russia after rebellions were crushed. So long as these people didn’t cause trouble in the UK, they were safe from the authorities in their home countries.

 

60-70% of the voters happy with trade-off?

But first did you know the ratio of milk produced to manure produced?

2,500 prolific pedigree bovines were producing 30,000 litres of milk a day, as well as a staggering 100,000 kilograms of manure.

(Economist blog)

Translated into Singlish: Want PAP, got to put up with the BS: a lot of it.

But obviously most voters think the deal worth it.

Taz also my summary of  a chim, long-winded piece by a strategist for the M’sian DAP on why S’poreans vote for the PAP.

http://www.academia.edu/22666466/James_Chin_The_2015_Singapore_Swing_Depoliticised_polity_and_the_Kiasi_Kiasu_voter

S/o JBJ is absolutely right

Kenneth J: Stop Complaining, Singaporeans, You Get the Government You Deserve

But he forgot that most S’poreans are matured. They know that there is trade-off, just like between milk and turd.

 

The real aristocrats

Beats S&P which in tirn brats hedge funds

 

Would this happen in a one-party state?

Even in a country like the UK with its long tradition of fair play, an active and usually liberal civil society, and independent institutions, it took almost three decades to uncover a cover-up and a perversion of justice about 96 men, women and children who died in the Hillsborough stadium disaster in April 1989.

The cover-up has taken almost three decades to be torn down. A government inquiry, the Taylor Report, concluded that the disaster was caused primarily by a failure of police control. The inquest into the deaths of the victims was completed in 1991 and recorded a verdict of accidental death. The refusal of the families to accept the inquest’s findings led to a campaign to have the evidence re-examined. This eventually led to the formation of independent panel, which in turn resulted in a High Court decision in 2012 to order a new inquest. That investigation concluded on April 26th with the very different verdict of unlawful killing.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2016/04/economist-explains-18

The critics of the PAP administration would point to the SGH tragedy (SGH tragedy: “Penny wise, Safety foolish” allegation), the deaths during NS training, the frequent MRT breakdowns as examples of our Hillsboroughs that need exposing.

Even without going so far, the official response to the SGH tragedy “no one is really responsible” (my interpretation of what the Health Minister said in parly leaves a bad taste in the mouth. As does the failure of accountability in SMRT and other TLCs and GLCs when goof-ups occur (think NOL and, SGX for starters).

In a one party-state, the party must be protected against the people.

In  China, a de jure one-party state the CCP’s concerns were made clear in a document that began circulating in secret in April 2013 and was later leaked. Document Number Nine, as it is called, describes “the current state of the ideological sphere” and identifies seven challenges to it. They include Western constitutional democracy, universal values, civil society, neoliberalism and “the West’s idea of journalism”

Now isn’t our very own PAP worried about Western constitutional democracy, universal values, civil society, neoliberalism and “the West’s idea of journalism”. 

To end, only in a de facto one party state,

— can the loser in a by-election who lost by 22 points can say “[I]t doesn’t feel like [a] loss”.

— and for anti-PAP cyberwarriots (more likely to be nutty than rational) to proclaim that the PAP should be afraid, very afraid because it only won by 22 points.

Gem of an investment insight

“There is one vital difference between gambling and investing. You cannot logically explain why, for example, a given set of cards turned out in a game of poker, but you can work backwards and explain why a stock had to fall. And I think here there is a trap is for unwitting investors. Because the past can be analysed and explained, we think the future can be too.”
By Trutheludes on Betting and investment both require skill and luck

FT reader

Dr Chee thinks we Pinoys isit?

Going by his election speeches, he thinks S’poreans want change.

—————————————-

A plurality of Filipino voters do not, in fact, want continuity: they want change. The current economic boom has failed to trickle down far enough. Poverty—particularly rural poverty—remains endemic. Millions of Filipinos who live far from cities, attending substandard schools, are ill-equipped by education and geography for service-sector jobs.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2016/05/economist-explains-3

“People are tired, people are disillusioned,” Ms Grace Poe a candidate says.

————————————————-

S’poreans are not  Pinoys, They don’t want change and are not tired pr disillusioned: OK, OK only 70% are happy with the way things are, or going (More spending of our money on ourselves; more room for individualism, less regimentation etc). There are up to 30% of the voters who want change, and within this there has always been a disgruntled angry, vocal but otherwise passive, always unhappy with the PAP and life in general. The latter are about 20% of all the voters?

Whatever, Chee is obviously an avid reader of TRE, the favourite site of born-losers, cybernuts, cyber-rats and bums (the hard-core 20%, who don’t even try to fund TRE, claiming poverty or the right to be frr-loaders.), and TOC, the favourite of the chattering, ang moh tua kee classes (Terry Xu’s an exception. He’s cut from the same mould of those arrested in Coldstore. And another exception is SDP’s Dr Paul who would make a good PAP minister in the Tharman mould.).

My serious point is that Oppo and social activists must realise that Brand PAP is very strong* with easily 60- 70%% of the voting market; and that their own base is, at best 30%, of the voters, with a core but passive base of about 20% of all the voters. The good news is that only 35% of the voters are hard-core PAP supporters like Eunice Chia-Lim and Jason Chua. There is the 35% of the voters that are prepared to listen to the right message delivered by the right person (not any mad dog or Chee): remember they voted for Dr Tan Cheng Bock. And in GE 2011, up to 10 points of them voted for the Oppo, allowing the WP to win Aljunied (which had two cabinet ministers, and one junior minister)

——————————————————————

Throughout my campaign, we focused on the issues that Londoners care about most – the lack of affordable housing, transport infrastructure and fares, the NHS, the need for real neighbourhood policing and pro-business policies. It might seem like stating the obvious, but offering solutions to the challenges most people face every day is the only way to win elections. How can you expect to enthuse an undecided voter, or persuade a previous Tory voter, if you can’t gain their trust on the key issues, or you don’t want to talk about what they care about most?London’s new mayor. Emphasis mine.

————————————————-

Until the Oppo and social activists realise how the numbers stack up, the PAP’s hegemony is assured so long as the PAP doesn’t mess up too badly.

Actually the first half of the last sentence is wrong. The Worthless Party realised long ago the strength of Brand PAP and beat  the PAP in Aljunied in a year when the PAP wasn’t listening to grievances that were real. “Only noise” and “Astroturfing”, their grassroot leaders assured the PAP ministers and MPs, about the grievances circulating on the internet and social media. There was a mass culling of these leaders, a culling that would have made Mao, Stalin, the Kims and out Harry proud if people were executed, not juz “let go”.

But the elected Wankers MPs are so paralysed with the fear of losing their $15,000 sinecures that they decided to keep quiet and become good social workers. Almost didn’t work. But all the indictions that the elected Wankers WP MPs  will persist in keeping silent. Letting Lion Man and his fellow NCMPs roar.

Waz to be done to weaken the PAP’s hegemony? I hope to address the issue soon.

---

*If its support were brittle, social media and the internet would have eroded the support of the PAP by exposing the games and misrepresentations (Examples 1, 2)  the PAP administration play. Something that the constructive nation-building media conceals and even aids and abets.

This strong brand answers the question my avatar posted on Facebook about the failure of social media and the internet to help the Oppo cause when one of the usual suspects was KPKBing about Chee losing because of  “hate, fear, ignorance, and greed”.

The excuse used to be that the voters didn’t know the truth because of PAP control of media. Well there’s new media now. So waz the excuse? Or I forgot “hate, fear, ignorance, and greed”. Always ada excuse.

Where Buffett & PAP agree

From NYT’s Dealbook last Monday

WARREN BUFFETT TALKS OF SHARING THE WEALTH Nebraska has just hosted Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting, also known as Woodstock for Capitalists, at a time when Bernie Sanders has beaten Hillary Clinton in the Democratic caucuses and younger generations are questioning the very premise of capitalism.

This has not passed Warren Buffett by, Andrew Ross Sorkin writes in DealBook.

“You should be questioning it at that age,” Mr. Buffett said in an interview.

He acknowledged that the system “left too many people behind,” but said Mr. Sanders’s solutions were “are very off base.”

As for those skeptical young people, he said “The conclusion shouldn’t be to kill the golden goose.” Instead we need to make more eggs and better distribute them.

Now doesn’t “[W]e need to make more eggs and better distribute them” sound like what the PAP is telling us about “Growing the pie”? What do you think?

NYT Dealbiil goes on: Indeed, there was talk at the annual meeting of the businesses that power the economy and spur employment that perhaps required a slightly broader audience.

Mr. Buffett has mostly managed to avoid becoming a political target, in part because he is described as a compassionate capitalist. But critics say his folksy image is just for show, pointing to his partnership with 3G Capital, a company known for running a lean organization, and the wealth he has tied up in Berkshire, which itself is run to limit his tax bill.

But for a new generation entering the workplace with reasonable questions about the opportunities available in the current system, Mr. Buffett could provide another perspective, Mr. Sorkin writes.

“Twenty years from now, there’ll be far more output per capita in the United States in real terms than there is now,” Mr. Buffett said. “In 50 years, it’ll be far more. No presidential candidate or president is going to end that. They can shape it in ways that are good or bad, but they can’t end it.”

GRCs mean no pandering, clowning to Cina

An Oppo usual suspect used the Murali victory to spoof the GRC system saying

“But Muralidharan Pillai never won the by-election. It was ‘Ah Mu’ who won. He had to not only speak Chinese, but also sing Chinese songs. He had to prove that he was ‘Chinese’ despite his skin being darker – that’s why he won! So you see, that’s why we need the GRC. Without it real minority can’t get into Parliament.”

But when you think about the matter seriously, the piece does reflect something that is problematic in a country where 70% of the voters are Chinese. Dr Chee was dog-whistling his Hokkien credentials to the Pioneer Generation voters

— By singing a Hokkien song in a video.

Inspired by Dr Chee Soon Juan in his ardent endeavour in running in the Bukit Batok by-election, producer and director Tay Bee Pin (of Wormwood Films) reached out to the Singapore Democratic Party chief. 

The motive? Have him sing classic Hokkien song ‘Ji Pa Ban’ in a music video dedicated to all those who’ll be heading to the polling stations this May 7.

— And giving a message in Hokkien

Mandarin-speaker Murali had to counter in what seems an outlandish way: His most popular video, by far, is a self-introductory piece to Bukit Batok voters called “Introducing Ah Mu”, a nickname Mr Murali has picked for himself. I had tot that “Ah Mu” was a joke when I read it on social media. It wasn’t and is was weird, demeaning and worrying.

In a GRC contest, as we’ve seen in GEs, no need for this kind of BS.

I’ll leave the last word to Sangeetha Thanapal who hates the fact that 70% of S’poreans are Chinese (She sneers, mocks, lies and decries about the “Chinese Privilege”*). Writing on Facebook Ms Thanapal said that Murali had to resort to sinicising himself because S’pore is a country that actively encourages assimilation into “Chineseness”.

She asked if any Chinese candidate ever had to change his name to make it sound more minority-like, and ascertained that it was simply not necessary for them to do so**.

She said regardless of Dr Chee not being a racist, he would benefit from ‘Chinese Privilege’, in this instant by mere virtue of being Chinese, and that Murali is merely trying to make up for that in these misguided ways.

She said that Murali was “desperate to be seen as more Chinese” because of how racism manifests itself in Singapore, “to make up for the disadvantage of (him) being born Indian in a country where Indian people are called racial slurs everyday.”

Gee and the commanding heights of the legal profession are owned by Indians and two of the PM’s most trusted ministers are Indians. Gemme me a break Ms Racist.

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*Want Indians to rule isit?

**Being majority is unfair isit?

Wah PAP that good meh, s/o JBJ?

S/o JBJ argued on Sarurday that the PAP wanted to lose in Bukit Batok

So if we agree that the PAP aren’t trying that hard to win are they actually trying to throw this election? Or at least are they not particularly concerned about the prospect of a CSJ victory on Saturday? I can think of a few cynical reasons why, although no-one in their right mind throws an election, it might suit them to lose this seat.

Are the PAP Deliberately Throwing This Election?

Well his so called weak PAP candidate (ang moh accented Indian don’t like to say good things about Indian with local accent isit?) whipped Dr Chee’s ass real hard.

So either the PAP couldn’t lose even if wanted to or s/o JBJ can’t analyse.

What do you think? Kee Chit those who think s/o JBJ is a spastic retard.

Lego not so cool, creative

And on;y last yr S’poreans kids were given a special Lego kit to commemotate SG50.

Lego kits are ruining children’s creativity, says Ben Fogle – despite adventurer Fogle having been named as a brand ambassador for the Danish brick toy giant four years ago, he now believes Lego is “harming children’s development and stifling creativity”, according to the Daily Mail. Lego has “transformed into a rigid box-ticking discipline”, he reportedly said.

BBC

Pinoys are Asians not transplanted Latins

Pinoys hoping not to have to work overses.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36206608

Heard this excuse from yr egg seller?

On why the price of eggs are up?

From NYT Dealbook

CHINA LENDING SENDS EGG FUTURES SOARING China has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into its economy in a bid to support growth and a lending deluge has sent money into some unexpected places,Neil Gough reports in DealBook.

At a financial market in Dalian, where investors can place bets on the future productivity of the country’s hens, egg futures have surged by as much as one-third since March. This might be justified if investors were expecting an end to China’s chicken flocks, but the market’s usual participants say the chickens are fine. Indeed, the actual price of eggs in the country’s markets has fallen from a year ago, according to government statistics.

China is the world’s biggest producer of eggs, but it is not clear whether the investment surge in eggs will have an impact on real-world prices, as futures prices can take months to trickle down to the real world. If it subsides, the price of eggs in local markets may not move.

Eggs are not the only commodity out of kilter – domestic prices and trading volumes for steel, garlic, cotton, iron ore and other items have soared despite demand being dampened by China’s economic slowdown.

Economists blame Beijing’s efforts to shore up the economy. China has a tendency to experience investment bubbles when the government steps up spending and lending – previous efforts to bolster growth have created unexplained rises and striking drops in the real estate and stock market.

Government officials increased lending by state-controlled banks and offered other support measures in the first few months of the year as economic growth slowed and longtime drivers like manufacturing and exports showed continued weakness.

In the short term, the lending may be good for global growth, but China risks adding to its already fast-growing pile of debt, which is nearly 300 percent of gross domestic product by some estimates.

It seems that policy makers have set aside their concerns about the debt burden for now, but by delaying a move to wean itself off cheap credit, China may be setting itself up for even more problems.

LKY was wrong on service jobs/ Lessons from the Foxes

I was recently at my barber and it reminded me that LKY was talking cock about service jobs. Many yrs ago he said that service jobs like cutting hair and waiting at tables could not be exported i.e. locals could not lose their jobs doing these things. (He was talking when the disk drive manufacturers were relocating out of S’pore, retrenching workers, and the govt was moving towards creating more service jobs. The move resulted in two casinos. A good thing in my view.)

Well the lady cutting my hair (for $6) is M’sian*. And so was the previous barber I used ($10). And it’s a fact that hair cutters  and dressers in S’pore are from M’sia.

We want services to be cheap and good, and so have to import people willing to work for peanuts (by our standards). The PAP administration is very happy to oblige us by allowing FTs to eat our breakfast, lunch dinner and supper; and all snacks in between..

And now robots will be replacing humans. So FTs will be replaced not by locals, but by robots.

True it’s in the US but it’ll come here.

Now to the Foxes. They have a British core: 9 of 23 are British. Better than the core S’poreans in S’pore businesses, NTUC and MoM should note.

The club’s Thai owners, King Power, have spent little on players, but lavishly on coaching, scouting and training facilities.

Must have lessons for S’pore.

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*Yes I know there are  locals who will cut hair for $6. But they tend to be druggies who not only look high but are probably high. So I prefer FTs.

HoHoHo: Chinese banks

Mid-sized Industrial Bank reported some of the highest levels of investment receivables in its first-quarter results. The bank held Rmb2tn in investment receivables as of the end of March, 36 per cent of its total assets and equivalent to the size of Singapore’s gross domestic product last year.

(FT)

And remember we hold shares in  three out of the four biggest banks

The suspicion is that Chinese banks are owning up to just as much bad news as they can afford while keeping reported earnings stable. It’s not clear who they are trying to fool. Shares of the big five trade at between 70 and 80 percent of book value, suggesting investors wised up long ago. The latest trickery will only make them more cynical.

http://blogs.reuters.com/breakingviews/2016/04/29/chinese-banks-stealth-clean-up-fools-nobody/

Bukit Batok: The tyranny of numbers

Here I wrote that if the Foxes could win the EPL title, Dr Chee can win Bukit Batok  After all the bookmakers who put the odds of their victory at 5,000 to 1 (the odds anyone would get if anyone wanted to bet Elvis was still alive). the odds of Chee winning Bukit Batok must be a lot less. So a “miracle” can happen.

But The race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that’s the way to bet.

Guys and Dolls

Chee would need to overcome a deficit of 24 points to win. Ah Lian had only to overcome a deficit 9 points to win in Punggol East. In the end she won by 14 points. Even if he got 14 points, that would take him to 40% of the votes.

And Chee is no Ah Lian (he’s no typical S’porean) and the SDP is no WP. After all the WP was fighting in an area that had strongly supported the Barisan Sosialis.

And the PAP is not making the mistake it made in Punggol East of parachuting a fake son of Punngol (he left the area almost as soon as he was born). Instead the PAP parachuted in a real son of Bukit Batok. He had been serving the people there for many yrs before being sent on a suicide mission in Paya Lebar. By all accounts, he did well there against a lawyer turned highly paid social worker, who is reputed to be WP Low’s Dauphin.

So I’m sure Dr Chee and his allies (think the social activists and the cybernuts and rats of TRELand) are publicly rehearsing to bitch publicly why he lost when he gets thrashed an humiliated: “Gutter politics by the PAP”. But they conveniently forget that he was dog-whistling like mad. In the West, dog-whistling is the pariah of gutter politics, but not it seems in S’pore. At least not in cyberspace (no friend of the PAP), and the salons and gardens of the chattering classes.

The PAP always fight dirty: it’s in their DNA. But so does Dr Chee. Ask Mr Chiam.

Besides where got fun if cannot call names, especially if the cap fits? Ask the Chiams about Dr Chee’s character.

No longer the Apple in Chinese eyes

Apple iPhone, Once a Status Symbol in China, Loses Its Luster The company’s second-quarter earnings show how hard it can be to keep the attention of the country’s fickle and increasingly hard-to-impress consumers.

• NYT »

Carl Icahn Says He Has Sold Stake in Apple Mr. Icahn says he is concerned the Chinese government could make it difficult for Apple to do business in that country.

• NYT »

From NYT Dealbook

Chee reinvented SDP after making it toxic

Below is a post from one of my readers about Dr Chee’s claim that even if he was unemployed, he built up the SDP. The regular commenter ended:

So even if we do not pass personality judgement on Dr Chee’s not finding a job, how much has his time in unemployment been useful to the SDP and opposition politics as a whole? I think not as much. It has been useful for his personal redemption and image revamp, as he can all along play the jobless martyr victim card, drive his celebrity status, sell some books, and that’s about it.

Taz a bit too kind because Dr Chee led a political party that was the leading Oppo party into the Wilderness and irrelevancy and then having realised that he and the SDP were lost in the desert of public scorn and derision, reinvented the SDP and himself.

When he defenestrated Chiam and even before defenestrating the rest of the Old Guard (no friends of Chiam) he moved the SDP into the politics of civil disobedience, and in the process allowed the PAP and its constructive, nation-building media allies to demonise him and the party. Other than Chiam, the party had two other MPs. But since he took over, the SDP had none.

Remember his antics that got him the well-deserved moniker of “Mad Dog”?  And the antics of his supporters who made the very name of SDP toxic?

If you don’t, just google. Reminder: he wanted to contest Punggol East and handover the running of the place to the WP (that’s the Mad Dog in hime for you), he wanted public protests, and he wanted to be like Gandhi.

I give Dr Chee credit that in the 90s his vision of S’pore in 2016 was a lot more closer to the reality (Mad prophet?) than mine or the PAP. And for the alternative policies that the SDP has proposed. And I’ll give him credit for his actions in reinventing the SDP and himself. But there’s too much historical baggage,

But let’s not forget that he screwed up big time leading the SDP into the Wilderness, not the Promised Land.

(Yes, yes I know he and the SDP claim the credit for liberalisation measures that we’ve seen over the years. But I’m sure others too like the Americans, civil society activists and even one Lee Jnr can also claim some credit.)

Here’s the rest of the comment from the regular reader. Make sure you read the bot on those who left the SDP.

I posted the following on another blog:

“But ok, let’s just say I am wrong and lets not begrudge Dr Chee Soon Juan on his not finding a job. In fact, he gave a couple of reasons to justify it and why his time unemployed has been well spent.

Now he told us, don’t judge him as an unemployed person. Judge what he has done to grow the SDP while not working full time. Alright. In the 2011 GE, the SDP contested 11 out of 87 seats and won none. In 2015, it contested 11 out of 89 seats and won none. Wow, not much growth there. And in the 4 years in between, high profile candidates like Vincent Wijeysingha, Tan Jee Say, Ang Yong Guan, as well as promising youngsters like Jarrod Luo* have left the party, some parting ways on really bad terms. Dr Chee himself made a big screw up of the Punggol East BE with his “joint ticket” proposal to the WP. (Incidentally, I wonder why the PAP is not attacking this, rather than his other past indiscretions”.)

Dr Chee Soon Juan also told us that the SDP has been hard at work putting forth policy papers on various national issues. Even if I do not agree with their policies, this is something I give them credit for, which is at least a lot better than the likes of RP, NSP, etc. Well then, I guess the whole of SDP must be unemployed, in order for them to work on these policies full time? Not at all! Dr Paul Tambyah, the one saving grace for Dr Chee’s recent tenure, is a full Professor at NUS since 2013, and was probably instrumental in crafting the SDP’s healthcare policy. Unless Dr Chee is saying that all his SDP colleagues are working full time, and he is the only one who is working at home crafting all these policy papers?

So even if we do not pass personality judgement on Dr Chee’s not finding a job, how much has his time in unemployment been useful to the SDP and opposition politics as a whole? I think not as much. It has been useful for his personal redemption and image revamp, as he can all along play the jobless martyr victim card, drive his celebrity status, sell some books, and that’s about it.”

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*Left out Jeremy Chen and Danny the SDP Bear.

Jeremy Chen was a scholar and was working in MINDEF in the division where Ho Ching was once working. He left and went to do a PhD in NUS biz School. But he can be a bit dumb. He got into a row with self and others when he accused SIA of “fixing” the results of its investment in Virgin Airlines where it lost money but wrote-back a profit. We explained to him that SIA had already progressive written off the investment and had overprovided, hence the write-back. He yelled that he “didn’t do accounting”. I asked how come can do PhD without knowledge of accounting and how come SDP can accept him as member

He claims to have single-handedly written most of SDP’s policy papers. He left SDP after a row with Had Dog.

OCBC pays price for biz model

While

United Overseas Bank (UOB) posted a 4.4 per cent fall in first-quarter net profit, as lower wealth management fees and trading income more than offset higher net interest income. (CNA)

OCBC had a 14 per cent decline in quarterly net profit. Unlike UOB and DBS it has adopted a bankassurance model which depends on income from its life insurance division.

Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC), Singapore’s second-biggest lender, announced on Friday (Apr 29) a 14 per cent decline in quarterly net profit, as its insurance income dipped and allowances rose.

For the three months ended March, net profit was S$856 million, down from S$993 million a year ago.

Profit from its life assurance unit plummeted 58 per cent, a fall of S$116 million, largely due to unrealised mark-to-market losses from subsidiary Great Eastern Holdings’ bond and equity investment portfolio, the bank said.

Wealth management income, comprising income from insurance, private banking, asset management, stockbroking and other wealth management products, was down 17 per cent to S$482 million, from S$583 million a year ago. (CNA)

DBS’s results should be a lot closer to UOB’s than OCBC’s, unless there’s something really nasty at DBS’s Indonesian business.

 

BB By: Dreams can come true

The 2-all draw between Spurs and Chelsea means Leicester has won the EPL: a fairy tale come true.

But maybe not. The role played in the team’s success by Buddhist monks, who have been flown in by the club’s Thai owner to bless the players before games, is covered in the Sunday Telegraph. BBC

Maybe Dr Chee should be calling up the same Thai monks to come here to bless the him and the SDP,

Seriously if Leicester can win the EPL, anything is possible. Even Mad Dog Chee winning in Bukot Batok against a very decent son of Bulit Batok who happens to be Indian and a lawyer.

He’ll show up the elected MP Wankers in the Worthless Party who prefer to be highly paid social workers like the PAP’s Kate Spade Tin.

White Mare bites Chee

“Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt”:PAP

He haw. When Dr Chee talked of becoming a full-time MP; and of Murali going to office everyday and being a part-time MP when he would be going to Bukit Batok everyday if he won, I couldn’t help but laugh at his pretentious nonsense. I mean since when has Dr Chee worked full-time since his NUS days? (Now I speak as someone whose mentor said the last time I really worked was when I was studying law: I been skiving since then). And hasn’t he heard of multi-tasking? Or delegation?

So although I’m not a fan of White Mare Grace Fu, I tot this response appropriate in the light of Dr Chee’s comments and his history.

 

It would be good if Dr Chee got into parly. He would show the up the elected WP MPs. We’d get someone who aspires to be more than a highly paid social worker like Kate Spade Tin. But let’s face it, he’s not a typical S’porean.

Take his attitude towards his wife not working: Dr Chee is using his family life to show that he can relate to ordinary working S’poreans. Does not work: he has a  highly qualified wife who doesn’t go out to work, choosing instead to look after the kids and do the housework; and he is happy with this.

More

But if he were, he wouldn’t have spent the last 3-decades banging his head on a wall would he?  He’d be out trying to earn some serious money to pay for his penthouse and his BMW.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BB By-election: Relax S’poreans/ DNA of PAP and Dr Chee

Whoever wins in Bukit Batok, S’pore is the real winner. I wrote shumetime back. So chill out both sides.

The Bukit Barok bye-election will show that we are really multi-racial society. An Indian who speaks Mandarin will whip the ass of a Chinese who speaks Mandarin and Hokkien. (It goes without saying that Both candidates are English educated,)

This victory will demolish once and for all, the arguments for GRCs and a presidential election where only Malays can be candidates: even though there’s a Malay that can beat Dr Tan Cheng Bock, the person the PAP die-die doesn’t want to be president.

No matter who wins in Bukit Batok, the result is good for S’pore. Voters either put the final nail into the coffin of race based politics*; or we get someone who aspires to be more than a highly paid social worker like Kate Spade Tin.

More 

The problem is that fighting dirty is in the PAP’s DNA (with the notable exceptions of Tharman and Murali: PAPpy Indian’s DNA different isit?) while Dr Chee can revert to his Mad Dog persona by

— Dog whistling about David Ong: raising the issue of David Ong’s affair while saying he wasn’t raising it.

Dr Chee had said there was “no honour” in kicking a man when he is down. He added: “For all I know, David Ong is a good guy, but sometimes good guys make bad mistakes. Who hasn’t?”

Dr Chee also said that he did not want to capitalise on the ruling party’s “weakest point” and said that people should leave Mr Ong alone to let his family heal and for him to “find his life again”.

(Today)

— And giving permission to other SDP speakers to mention the David Ong affair.