HK/ S’pore: A Tale of Two Cities in charts

Advertisement

Kate Spade Tin and PAP HQ blame each other for omnishambles

I don’t know what to say. In army if boy, she garbra and sabo king.

She threw the PAP mgt under the bus by telling us that she cleared it with HQ.

They then pulled her under the bus by saying that she didn’t give details. They implicitly said that they assumed she knew the rules about lobbying when she raised the matter.

Prediction, she won’t be standing in next GE. Will she be in Grab after making way for PAP new blood? ‘My retired PAP MP friend resigned from a senior private sector job when he had to make way for new blood. Go figure it out. But I very cynical.

Adrian Tan comment on FB

PAP FB statement

Employment of Ms Tin Pei Ling by Grab Singapore

In September 2022, Ms Tin Pei Ling informed the Party that she would be taking up the post of Public Affairs and Policy at Grab Singapore (“Grab”), and the nature of the job. The Party noted this and did not object. Earlier this month, following public comments about Ms Tin’s appointment, we discussed the matter with her again to understand better the scope of her duties. It then became clear to the Party that she would be expected to engage regularly with Government ministries and agencies on public policy issues on behalf of Grab. While she would make it clear that she was engaging in her private capacity and not as a PAP MP, there could still be challenges in carrying out these responsibilities, especially under the current circumstances.

Ms Tin has since discussed the matter with Grab and informed the Party that her role in Grab has been changed to Director (Corporate Development). In this role, her primary duties will not involve Government relations in Singapore.

The PAP holds itself and its Members of Parliament to high standards of propriety and integrity. Most PAP backbench MPs have private careers. This keeps them in touch with our economy and society and enables able and committed people from many professions and walks of life to serve as MPs, raising the quality of MPs in Parliament. However, it is essential that MPs rigorously separate their public role as MPs from their professional and commercial interests in their private careers.

Under the “Rules of Prudence” issued to every PAP MP, MPs are expected to conduct themselves in their duties and responsibilities with utmost propriety, to uphold the reputation of the Party and the integrity of the Singapore system. In no circumstances are they to abuse their status as MPs, or their access to ministers, civil servants, and government agencies, for private or commercial gain. While performing their MP duties, they are expected to declare potential conflicts of interest, and recuse themselves as appropriate from decisions, discussions and positions where there is a risk of such a conflict arising.

The Party wishes Ms Tin Pei Ling success in her new role in Grab, and is confident that she will continue serving residents of MacPherson as their MP effectively.

All reactions:

1111

Bullish 2023 mkts in context

2022 was a bad year.

Our market’s been pretty stable.

This year’s rises (Added at 7.15am after publication.)

Temasek trying very hard to make our reserves go further?

Or there are some FT financial engineers there trying very hard to show the private equity funds that they should employ them as financial engineering specialists who know how to borrow up to hairline.

PAP Old Guard at its best?

This had me thinking of the time when the Pay And Pay party tried to help the plebs.

This was a time rich men like LKY, Lim Kim San and Baker joined “mediocrities” (GCT’s term for those who didn’t earn a lot of $) like Dr Goh and Devan Nair to help S’poreans. Now civil servants become millionaire ministers and many S’poreans think these millionaires sneer at the plebs. Many S’poreans were upset by GCT’s remarks “mediocrities” even after his “clarification”. I’ll say this for PM, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he doesn’t do sneering at the poor.

The environment in which the Old Guard operated:

Dr PaulA and other younger S’poreans should read the u/m book. While they rightly discount much of the LKY, SPH stuff, as propaganda, they can’t and shouldn’t discount this written by a ex-Special Branch ang moh, after he was sacked by the British. He was married to one Han Suyin and was sacked from Special Branch because of her: In 1956, she published the novel And the Rain My Drink, wherein she described the interrogation techniques used by the Special Branch against Communist suspects.  Comber has written that he was sacked (asked to resign) as Assistant Commissioner of Police (Special Branch) because of said book.

The book describes how bad things once were. A PAPpy would say they make my above bitchings petty. He could also point out that after reading the book, I sent an email to friend in his 60s who moved on from S’pore after Sec 4,”Reading this book reminds me why you did the right thing: go to London. It was a tough time, and the rhetoric from LKY wasn’t reassuring.”. My friend went on to become v.v. rich as a financier.

“I’m invested in S’pore” & S’pore in 50s/ 60s

And Devan Nair had a vision, for the workers, albeit a flawed one: NTUC: What Devan Nair got wrong

More on DBS

Further to The kind of FT turned citizen that S’pore needs, here’s more on why DBS is a favourite among ang moh investors.

And the CEO is paid peanuts compared to JP Morgan’s CEO and the CEOs of the other banks referenced in the chart. Mamas provide cheap labour.

Btw, my banking exposure here is in UOB via Haw Par: Haw Par: Rediscovered yet again

Why Temasek should not have punted on FTX

Temasek has written off its US$275mn stake in cryptocurrency company FTX, saying its trust in former chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried appeared “misplaced”.

Much has been written by PAP and anti-PAP paper warriors and investors.

Talking about two Canadian pension funds losing $ in two crypyo investments (one of which was FTX) this year, the FT pronounced (or should it be” pontificated”?)

Pension funds have no business investing customers’ retirement savings in a market as volatile as crypto.

FTX’s $8bn crunch exposes a dog-eat-dog cryptosphere

While Temasek is not a pension fund, I think that given the way the PAP govt treats our reserves (Die, die must raise GST to protect the reserves: Reason why die die must have GST rise in January to replenish our reserves? ), this principle should apply to Temasek and GIC.

Btw, while Temasek took its time admitting the cock-up, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan disclosed almost immediately that the US$95mn investment in FTX FTX collapse will have ‘little impact’ on its performance. “Naturally, not all of the investments in this early-stage asset class perform to expectations,” loss on this investment will have limited impact on the Plan, given this investment represents less than 0.05% of our total net assets.”

Asean countries are winners from Sino-US decoupling

https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2022/11/06/who-wins-from-the-unravelling-of-sino-american-trade

And we are Asean’s financial centre and a global port to boot. Our PAP millionaire ministers are very lucky that S’poreans allow them to govern us. But are they grateful? I doubt it.

LOL: Millionaire PAP ministers are really looking after the plebs

Look at this and you’ll see that with the exception of the Chinese banks (Communism at work?) and DBS (Remember that POSB was the people’s bank?), at least $10,000 is needed for FDs. Quite a number (including OCBC and UOB) have a minimum of $20,000.

So it’s nice to know that the millionaire PAP ministers are helping the plebs to get good interest rates on fair terms via Singapore Savings Bonds.

Plebs only need to invest $500 (Same like the Commie bank, ICBC. Need $1000 at DBS) in the the Singapore Savings Bonds. The minimum one can invest in SSBs is $500 — and this can increase in multiples of $500 — but the total amount of such bonds one can hold at any one time cannot exceed $200,000. (Btw, in 2020, when the interest rate on SSB was 0.96 per annum for the first few years and S’pore was being locked down and I got very lucky, I applied for 200k and was filled. It can’t happen nowadays. The allocation is 10k nowadays. Fine by me as I don’t have $200,000 needing to find an urgent home. Btw2, I redeemed the lot in batches in 2021 and very early 2022.)

Returns on the Singapore Savings Bonds hit record highs for the second straight month, with the latest December issue offering a 10-year average return rate of 3.47 per cent. Better still, the first-year interest rate of 3.26 per cent is also the highest ever, beating the record set in the previous issue. I’ll be applying.

And there’s more:

Safe and flexible bonds for individual investors. Enjoy returns that increase over time and redeem in any month without penalty

https://www.mas.gov.sg/bonds-and-bills/Singapore-Savings-Bonds

“[W]ithout penalty”: remember that FDs can only be “broken” by foregoing the interest. But SSB only have a $2 fee when redeeming. Interest is paid up to redemption date. Pretty fair.

More at https://dollarsandsense.sg/complete-guide-buying-singapore-savings-bonds/?

Do remember that the govt is tightening money supply via SSBs and other interest-bearing securities. this to to try to keep inflation in check. There’s a reason for its generosity. But its also keeping the banks honest.

Property exposure of local banks

Further to The kind of FT turned citizen that S’pore needs, I tot I’ll share this so that someone overseas can KPKB about our banks very, very large exposure to the local property sector.

DBS estimates that approximately 44%-50% of Singapore banks’ loan books are exposed to Singapore properties via residential mortgages and via lending to REITs or other private vehicles may be captured under “financial institutions, investment and holding companies”

https://www.theedgesingapore.com/capital/brokers-calls/dbs-explains-what-higher-interest-rates-spell-banks-and-developers-cdl-uol

As the PM’s Mrs made me $ (Tempting fate but thanks again Ho Ching), and I’m not one of those PAP running dogs from our constructive, nation-building media who turn on the PAP like hyenas and jackals once they no longer get paid (Another running dog turned self-appointed tribune of the HDB plebs ), I’ll just keep quiet and look at my bank statement.

I also got exposure to UOB and UOL (via Haw Par: Haw Par: Rediscovered yet again) and Reits.

I’ve never voted for the PAP. But to quote the FT minister, “I’m invested in S’pore”and that is the way I show my appreciation of what the PAP does to keep me in prosperity.

The kind of FT turned citizen that S’pore needs

Gupta makes DBS Great. Previous ang moh or pseudo ang mohs made it a laughing stock. CEOs Btw, he’s another Citibanker

Our other two banks are also looking good. Eat your heart out, the overseas based anti-PAP paper warrior. U should bot into them.

Which reminds me of a clueless tai tai (Tai tai’s luck runs out, heading for Woodbridge?/ Tai tai forgot this ), sold her SPH shares her elderly husband gave her when they married in the 90s, sold them and bot DBS when she panicked in 2020. She then sold DBS because she said UOB paid more in dividends (What an ass). Then sold UOB to buy SPH when it spiked from 1.20 to 1.90 last year, then sold out in panic when it weakened before it rebounded

. Her husband told her to buy back the UOB because it was cum dividend and there was 80 cents in it.

She didn’t sitting on cash. Then going into Hang Seng and Chinese techs: Tai tai keeps losing money

Tempting fate but thanks again Ho Ching

This reminded me that I forgot (Thank you Ho Ching) to also thank her for another Temasek special (massive rights issue at a huge discount to the existing price) that’s looking good.

Sembcorp Marine announces change in terms of Keppel O&M transaction

https://www.theedgesingapore.com/news/ma/sembcorp-marine-announces-change-terms-keppel-om-transaction

The share price tanked last year (It was already sick because of a previous Temasek special in 2020, followed by a really bad results) when Temasek did another special.

As I wanted good quality TLC penny stock exposure to the offshore marine and energy sectors, I bot a few shares and then applied for lots of rights shares at $0.08. I got filled to the gills.

The shares have been on a wild run: up to $0.138 and then back down to -$0.11 recently. I regretted not selling out at +$0.13. But I was going for $0.16 or more. After the above announcement, they are back to +$0.13. Riding the tornado like Pecos Bill: GameStop in charts: Riding the tornado

Usually when Temasek does a special, shareholders or new investors who participate make $. It’s money for jam. The downside is finding the cash to fund it. Not like Temasek. Need $, make a call to MoF and PMO if dividend income not enough.

Not always, Sembcorp Marine did an earlier rights issue at $0.20 in 2020. Everyone lost $ when it had a really bad set of results. Hence the 2021 rights issue. At that time I didn’t want exposure to the offshore marine and energy sectors, so I missed a bullet. Praise the Supreme Being. And yes, I made a charitable donation.

But I really shouldn’t be counting my chickens, tempting fate or the gods. Not taken profits. And no immediate plans to. I’ll ride the whirlwind on this ($0.19 says a broker) and hope to come out alive or belter still smiling. Why Wall St is a cowboy town.

Minority shareholders (those who participated in 2020 Temasek special) might reject the deal (one reason why the terms were changed).

And pray that I remain lucky. I’ll be getting more SembCorp Marine shares via Keppel distribution. Might sell these.

Investing tip: back Temasek’s corporate moves. More on this soon. Meanwhile think SATS: SATS: Temasek gives away another free lunch?

More on SATS from the archives: SATS — More Dividends or a Rights Issue?

Thank you Ho Ching

SIA redeems outstanding zero coupon MCBs worth $3.5 bil

Edge magazine headline

reminded me that she retired from Temasek on 1 November last year.

It also reminded me that my mum and I made decent $ on SIA shares and MCBs.

My mum once had 900+ SIA shares. Why this odd number I don’t know and neither does she. It’s been there for decades.

Anyway I never got round to selling this when she transferred her shares to me for me to manage a few years ago. She’ll be 99 next year.

So when 2020 came and SIA did a “Temasek Special” (Massive and deeply discounted rights issue), I applied for excess shares and MCBs. Ended up with 3,000 shares and 3,000 MCBs.

(Applying was a massive headache because I had to use PayNow. But it was Covid time, so no-one to blame except self for being unfamiliar with this payment mode. First and last time I used it.)

And in 2021, we got another 6,000 MCBs.

I’ll get round to selling the SIA shares one day soon. And buy into SATs. There’s another pending Temasek Special that is upsetting minority shareholders.

Meanwhile an additional $3,000+ to pay for the groceries. There’ll be $100 early next from the PAP govt using our money.

Reason why die die must have GST rise in January to replenish our reserves?

This despite inflation not abetting in this quarter, something that our millionaire ministers said would happen earlier this here.

In early July, I wrote about looming markdowns to private assets referencing the comments of Temasek’s CIO defending Temasek’s investments in private assets: Was Temasek’s CIO whistling in the graveyard? Note that GIC is also big investor in private assets.

Recently, the managers of Harvard University’s $51bn endowment have warned of substantial markdowns to come in its private equity and venture capital portfolio, predicting heavy losses for institutional investors.

Trumpets please.

.

White Horse: Twisting in the wind

Or is Karl Liew being hung out to dry? LOL.

Karl Liew, facing charges for lying in Parti Liyani’s case, to undergo neuropsychological assessments

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/karl-liew-kai-lung-parti-liyani-former-maid-neuropsychological-assessments-hospital-court-2999306?

This headline reminds me of a conversation I had with a retired State Court judge about this case earlier this year.

He said in his time as a DPP (He was a very senior DPP before he became a judge), the DPP conducting the case would select a few of the charges that he or she could easily prove beyond a reasonable doubt and proceed with those. The DPP would have asked permission to stand down the other charges.

The DPP certainly wouldn’t have tried to prove so many charges as those DPPs did.

He agreed with the supervising judge’s decision to acquit the lady. With so many charges, the judge at first instance lost the plot.

Coming back to Karl, the White Horse must really be desperate to resort to the possibility of being a fruitcake to avoid jail. I’m sure he’ll rely on the fact that he was a cross-dresser. Remember his claim of owning and using gal’s clothes?

Seriously, White Horses like him give the S’porean elites a bad name. The elites don’t need enemies with children like him.

Hard to believe she was once a PAP cadre

Former SPH senior editor delivers scathing remarks on state of journalism in Singapore

https://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2022/10/02/former-sph-senior-editor-delivers-scathing-remarks-on-state-of-journalism-in-singapore/?

Maybe my many ST newsroom contacts were fibbing that she was a tua kee cadre in the PAP’s women’s wing?

Maybe she really was a PAP cadre who had a Pauline type conversion after she retired? Saul persecuted Christians but had a sudden conversion which made him a Christian zealot and, ultimately a saint?

Or maybe she’s just one of those people who start biting the hand that once feed her: no sense of decency? Quite a few around from the constructive, nation-building media: she’s not alone. Think this guy: Another running dog turned self-appointed tribune of the HDB plebs

Back to the lady

#berthablowsup

Dear people in the media,

You DO realise what is happening to you right? You are being sidelined by the biggest newsmaker in Singapore, the G, which also happens to be supporting your operation with State funds. You’ve never had much of a say in media-G relations, but god knows your predecessors tried. And we were lucky that politicians at the time know the value of a credible media, even as they try to hem us in in other ways. They know that they need to get out there and answer questions. They were quick to hold press conferences (as opposed to the briefing which is a kind of gag order which the media doesn’t seem to know how to negotiate). They were okay about taking questions at the sidelines.

Now they ignore you entirely, in the hope that no answers mean no story. They tell you to look at their FB which you do so dutifully because you’re afraid to miss any pearls of wisdom. They go on TikTok and have their own mock interviews on YouTube done by their ministry minions. They hold “doorstop’’ interviews so as to look casual but we all know it’s only because they have something to say – not because you have something to ask.

Now it looks like you’ve lost the fight and are completely resigned to playing the role of publicist. Not only that, you seem to have forgotten basic journalistic principles and I mean stuff like grammar and housestyle and getting the 5Ws1H. You’ve descended to repeating press releases which are themselves badly written. I was very concerned with the deterioration of journalistic standards, the ability to write a story with a strong angle, clearly and concisely. I wondered if journalists forgot that the news is “out there’’, the need to build a network of contacts and how reporting is the basis of all your writing. I sure hope you don’t believe your own propaganda about how wonderful you are at your work. I will say you are clearly deluded if you think so.

But now I can’t blame you if you lose heart in the news-gathering process (as well as the freedom to decide how to put the news across) and decide to quiet quit, or just plain quit.

For Singapore, the plethora of laws and the demise of some alternative media only serve to make sure that one voice remains as the purveyor of truth and collective opinion. A voice that isn’t “moderated” by anyone. Increasingly, journalists don’t think it’s their place to ask certain questions or to bother officials, in case they are being tagged as “unfriendly’’. And there are no other types of journalists to irritate the G into responding. (They moved abroad or lost heart)

I find it ironic that despite being a public trust, you’re not looking to get the public on your side. I thought any deterioration of professional standards could be reversed at least slightly since the public trust is not so closely tied to the fortunes of the parent company and its board. But the opacity of your operations and governance process only serves to confirm that it is business-as-usual…and thanks for the money.

The 4G isn’t on your side. They want only their messages heard loud and (un)clear. I bet that they see the media as a hindrance if it goes about doing the job they are supposed to do. Now I think they see the media as a wonderful mechanism to convey any message or narrative that they see fit. That’s why they hold closed door dialogues etc and continue to trot out that old chestnut about how having reporters will stop people from being frank – as though it’s something to be encouraged. And they think they are doing everyone a favour by giving a briefing on what happened later. Or they summarise the “findings’’ in a report or they tell you how many pieces of “feedbacks’’ they have. And you duly repeat that there has been extensive public consultation and intensive reviews. You have no part to play in building a community of civic minded citizens unafraid to speak up. In fact, you have to be an MP to get questions answered.

As for the 4G leaders’ constant exhortations about the need to build trust, I ask that they look at how the media plays a role in building trust. The G can cite its track record, mouth platitudes about honesty and good governance. Remember that we only know the G from what we READ everyday, and that most people do hope that the media plays the role of asking questions that they themselves might have. The more “cut-and-paste’’ there is, the faster the erosion of the credibility of the media. And when the media can’t even spell right or is sloppy about the details, then they aren’t even good enough to be a teaching tool for language.

I ask that the journalists hold the line, and put professional principles into practice. You do NOT always have to do what the G says. You should tell readers about the obstacles you face in getting information. You should list the questions you want answered. You should behave like a public trust, not a public agency. And that is actually IN the G’s interest too.

These are things that she seemed to be doing when she was gunning to be ST editor. She never got the job. Maybe that’s why she casts herself as a Jedi: she failed to be a Sith Lord.

SATS: Temasek gives away another free lunch?

Big opportunity to make serious money by buying into SATS if they have rights issue.

Buy “small” amount of shares cum and apply for excess (lots).

Those who did this for SIA and Semb Marine (last round) still sitting on good profits if they didn’t cash out already.

Temasek usually prices its rights “right” to make easy $, post rights for those buying into its rights issues.

But it got it wrong in earlier Semb Marine rights.

But whoever said share investing is riskless is an idiot.

S’pore is rich, but do S’poreans benefit?

What do u think?

We got the US$, yen etc.

Our central bank is really Mickey Mouse

(Explanation: When Chris K was a tua kee swinging big dick, MAS was known as Mickey Mouse, according to him. Don’t know about now)

Several months ago, former US treasury secretary Larry Summers, made an acerbic remark, taking issue with central bankers’ growing focus on climate-related risks. Comparing them with children neglecting their homework for the sake of extracurricular activities, Summers said: “Maybe you don’t get to take on global climate change when you’re having double-digit inflation rates.”

This remark about the consequences of not focusing on one’s reason for existence while doing BS came to mind recently: firstly when I read

A South Korean court issued an arrest warrant for Do Kwon, the co-founder of collapsed cryptocurrency operator Terraform Labs, over alleged violations of capital market rules after the $40bn implosion of the terra stablecoin.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-62910462

The South Koreans said he was in S’pore, though the S’pore police deny he is here. Whatever, the five other individuals connected to the case that the Koreans want to arrest are here.

Meanwhile MAS is trying to clean up its act by cracking down on crypto firms. It had encouraged them to come here.

Secondly, Chris K, now a pensioner who is managing his money like a hedgie is KPKBing:

Ofcos the supertalents missed inflation surge earlier this year. They were in the transitory bandwagon even at the time the central bankers were getting cold feet whether it was after all transitory. And don’t worry, the inflation rate will moderate in the 2nd half of this year, the minister(s) cooed. Ofcos none of that happened, they were offside by a long yard …

Chris K on Facebook

All in all, MAS’s cockups on crypto and inflation (Remember that it’s part of the Pay And Pay ecosystem) show that paying millions doesn’t mean not getting monkeys.

Was Temasek’s CIO whistling in the graveyard?

He was very bullish in his remarks about Temasek’s unlisted assets: see below. Wondering out loud, because maybe being super KS (a PAP Hard Truth) now requires Temasek’s unlisted assets valued as at 31 March 2022 to be marked down by 30% to reflect present day reality?

No I’m not being anti-PAP or alarmist. I just read the international financial media and extrapolate what I read into the S’pore context. Something our constructive, nation-building media don’t do because they are constructive, and nation-building.

Let’s begin at the beginning.

A typical example of how our our constructive, nation-building media reported Temasek’s results:

Temasek Holdings’ net portfolio value reaches record S$403 billion, made up of mostly unlisted assets for first time

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/temasek-holdings-net-portfolio-value-reaches-record-s403-billion-made-mostly-unlisted-assets-first-time-1941811

Going by the usual definition of “unlisted assets”, Temasek’s unlisted assets include investments in private equity, venture capital. property and infrastructure. Btw, the differences between these categories are often very thin. One category can morph into another and then another.

‘Mapletree Investments (property), the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) (infrastructure), and the Singapore Power (SP) Group (infrastructure) are examples of unlisted assets.

In the past decade, this segment of the portfolio has generated returns over 10% per annum through IPOs, trade sales or from the performance of the businesses. The value of these unlisted assets has risen nearly four-fold from S$53bn to S$210bn. It was money for jam to invest in unlisted assets:

 Cheap debt is a red rag to private-equity bulls: around half a typical buy-out is paid for using debt, magnifying the returns to investors’ capital. It has played a critical role in each buy-out boom period; the present one can trace its genealogy directly to rate cuts by central banks during the global financial crisis.

https://www.economist.com/business/2022/07/07/private-equity-may-be-heading-for-a-fall

So when interest rates rise, valuations fall.

Below is part of Chris Kuan’s FB post on Temasek’s unlisted assets. Read how Temasek’s CIO bullishly (Or defensively for cynics like me?) pictures what Temasek’s unlisted assets are doing for our reserves, and Chris K’s retorts. My take, if so good why die die must raise GST in the face of inflation?

But before you read it, here’s some analyses from the Economist and the FT on private equity investments (Remember the lines between the various categories of unlisted assets are often very thin).

If they are revalued today, they be marked could down around a third. Do remember that Temasek’s unlisted assets are valued as of as 31 March 2022.

The analyses of the FT and Economist are premised on the view that public markets are a useful window on the future of unlisted assets. The view on that premise is ugly, very ugly.

Firstly,

One index, which maps private-equity portfolios to their public stockmarket equivalents, is down by 37% this year.

https://www.economist.com/business/2022/07/07/private-equity-may-be-heading-for-a-fall

Secondly, in the UK, investment trusts that invest in private equity are now trading at big discounts to their reported net asset valuations (NAVs), reports the FT. The average being currently well over 30%. The reason? Investors expect the value of a lot of the holdings will soon be written down in line with price falls in listed markets.

Unlisted assets benefit

from a fig leaf of illiquidity, resulting in a delay between real and reported fund valuations. In the absence of a liquid market to price investments, private-equity funds assess the current “fair value” of their portfolio based on the price an investment would realise in an “orderly transaction”, which should look similar to the valuations of comparable companies in the public markets.

https://www.economist.com/business/2022/07/07/private-equity-may-be-heading-for-a-fall

But to be fair to Temasek, the situation is not be that bad for some (Or maybe most?) of its unlisted assets. The FT explains that “not all private equity trusts invest in the kind of early-stage growth businesses that are collapsing in value”. It goes on, “Some are focused on mature businesses and focused on profits and cash flows.” These should not see the same writedowns.

PSA, and SP Group are good examples “of mature businesses and focused on profits and cash flows” that should not see huge writedowns.

And do note that in the recent quarter, Blackstone (tua kee in unlisted assets: it started life in private equity) marked down its US$276bn portfolio of corporate private equity investments by 6.7%. And some funds tied to real estate and credit investments were also marked down. One fund had had virtually all of its investment gains wiped out. So maybe a 30% markdown is alarmist?

Let’s hope the bulk of Temasek’s unlisted assets are like PSA and SP Group, but as Chris K KPKBs, we juz don’t and won’t know. 

The CIO may wax lyrical about the “liquidity”, “steady dividends” and “insights” derived from unlisted assets, the fact that unlisted assets comprised the majority means Temasek’s portfolio is more illiquid, hence higher risk. The more fully owned assets it has, the more difficult it will be for the company to sell assets at a pinch and at a reasonable price. Add in the issue of price discovery for assets that has no ready market, you can see how risks have gone up. This is the asset liquidity issue raised by S&P a few years ago when the rating agency gave a much lower standalone credit rating that is apart from the implicit guarantee from the Republic (which by implication means Temasek’s AAA rating is undeserved if it were not for the implicit state guarantee).

Now becos unlisted assets are illiquid any asset manager investing in them needs to price in the illiquidity premium….. which is to say if the expected total return from a listed asset is 10%, that of an equivalent unlisted assets should be higher in order to compensate for the risk that it is difficult to sell and the price discovery is poorer. The CIO says the unlisted assets in Temasek more than compensate for the illiquidity premium but beyond words, no picture no sound. Here is the problem with unlisted or private assets – the manager of these assets have ample opportunity to fudge asset values. It is a well known trait among such managers, i.e. the private equity funds, to be slow in marking down asset values when stock market fall like presently but quick to mark them up when markets are rising. A clear example of the fudge can be seen when private equity assets have not been marked down or marked down little in comparison to the stock price of listed investment companies holding private credit assets which had been hammered (there is little difference between private equity and private credit). So what are the board of directors got to say about this – they obviously approve but are the returns justified by the increased risks and the increased non transparency of asset values. Someone did pontificate that Temasek generate “good risk adjusted returns” some years ago and yours truly wonder if the term “good risk adjusted returns” is really understood.

Chris Kuan

Having read this post, maybe you will share my very cynical tots that the CIO was defensive (rather than bullish)? And maybe he was whistling in the graveyard? He’s hoping not to write the obituary of unlisted investments in next year’s annual report. We should hope not. LOL.

GST at 15% to save our reserves from being the investments in unlisted assets?

Share

Some context to Temasek’s Chinese bank holdings

Backgrounder: Temasek owns 2% each of China Construction Bank and Industrial Bank of China as for 31 March this year, Temasek reports.

Headline

Chinese regulators rush to tame investor panic over mortgage boycotts

Homebuyers stop paying loans on more than 200 unfinished property projects

FT article on China

Chinese banks provide these mortgages.

Will the constructive, nation-building media ever link these facts?

Read this in constructive, nation-building MSM?

S’pore only number 9 in Asia.

In a recent survey of “liveability” in Asian cities (which include those in Oceania) by the EIU, ranking is as follows

Melbourne/ Osaka

Sydney

Tokyo

Brisbane

Adelaide

Perth

Auckland

S’pore

Wellington

Not seen our constructive, nation-building media report this.

Those who have been in Wellington know it’s a pretty dismal place. And I’d put Auckland ahead of Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

But in Asean no-one anywhere is near us. Country miles ahead. So I’m surprised that our constructive, nation-building MSM doesn’t report this achievement of our millionaire ministers.

Coming back to the top 10 cities, case of ang moh tua kee?

Are we inclusive enough?

Wonder what S’pore spends on human corporate resources?

The FT reports that Japan spends only 0.1% of its corporate human resources, compared with 2.1% in the US and 1.1% in the UK.

It also reports that the Japanese PM places some of the blame on society’s inability to be more inclusive on companies’s failure to invest in their employees.

If our spend on corporate human resources is a lot closer to than of Japan than the ang mohs’, another good reason to KPKB and beat up the millionaire PAP ministers for Talking the Talk of a more equal society but not Walking the Talk.

SDP and Cheng Bock’s gang please do some research. We can only expect the Leader of the Opposition and his wankers to only wank. They can’t even be expected to even talk about the cost of living.

As usual Spore Inc plays catch up when world moves on

Whatever happened to the Spacs that were going to list on SGX and make SGX Great Again? Three listed and are trading below their issue price.

Spacs are now taboo on Wall Street with investors nursing big losses because many of the companies that listed through Spacs have seen their shares slide. Spacs have raised US$12.7bn this year: “peanuts” compared to the US$166bn raised last year.

“The product is dead. There’s no more Spacs,” said one lawyer at a firm that created its own Spac team to capitalise on the boom.

FT

European govts doing the most to tackle energy bills

Notice that they are all reducing VAT/ energy taxes. No-one is planning to raise GST ie VAT to protect the reserves.

https://www.bbc.com/news/61522123

The difference between Californians and Sinkies

A megadrought means Nevada, Arizona and California have all stepped up efforts to limit water consumption.

But when California’s governor Gavin Newsom asked residents in March to cut their water usage by 15% compared with 2020 levels, consumption across the state increased by nearly 20% instead.

Will never happen here. One reason why the millionaire PAP ministers won’t be able to have anything close to Silicon Valley here.

Sembmarine: Feeling lucky?

“Do I feel lucky?”

If you do,  

In a report last week, UOB Kay Hian raised Sembmarine’s target price to 13 cents, citing new order wins in oil and gas and renewables, and the potential upsizing of the company’s capabilities following a merger with Keppel O&M.

It added that, based on a five-year price-book ratio of 1.1 times, the stock prices should be 14.3 cents; while a 10-year price-book average of 1.5 implies a stock price of 18.9 cents.

https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/stronger-global-player-with-merger-of-om-unit-and-sembmarine-keppel

Fyi, I bot a tiny amount before the shares went ex-rights last year and then applied for a lot of excess rights shares at 8 cents.

In case you don’t know, a merger of Keppel O&M and Sembmarine is being worked out.

Finally Temasek has gotten its way on the merging of Keppel’s and Sembcorp’s offshore marine businesses. Since the recession in the 80s, it’s been trying but Keppel wanted to be top dog because its rig business was bigger and better. Sembcorp didn’t want to lose face.

Now Keppel wants to get rid of the business and Sembcorp cut loose Sembmarine last year. Sembcorp shares are flying. Expect Keppel’s to do the same. I also got Keppel shares.

Touch wood.

Time to make an offering to the deities.

The real reason why SPH refuses to put Keppel’s offer to shareholders?

It costs money? Paper prices have gone up.

Asset manager Abrdn was recently forced to delay a vote on a £1.5bn deal, after it struggled to produce the printed documents it is required to send out to shareholders.

But could the real, real reason because there’s someone who may be contemplating paying a better price? SPH might be worth a punt as a risk arbitrage play as the downside is covered because it’s actually already a risk arb play. Read up the Cuscaden bid details before doing anything.

Background

SPH said the Keppel scheme’s cut-off date of Feb 2 has “come and passed, and not all of the scheme conditions set out… in the Keppel implementation agreement have been satisfied, nor has the Keppel scheme become effective in accordance with its terms”.

It also says that the implied value of the Cuscaden scheme consideration has remained superior to that of the Keppel scheme consideration.

Keppel is taking SPH to arbitration.

This arbitration will delay the EGM date to decide on what happens to SPH. Is SPH trying to delay the probable sale to Cuscaden because there’s someone who may be thinking of paying a better price?

Reminder: SingTel’s into fintech/ Fintech mkt in Asean

After winning a digital bank licence here last yr, the Grab-SingTel venture is expected to be in contention for more such licences in the region. I think it’s bidding for one such licence in M’sia with local partners.

The u/m shows why this j/v with Grab could be extremely lucrative.

Of course given the size of SingTel’s earnings’ base, any contribution is likely to be “peanuts” and on the margin. But who knows? The j/v can grow like Topsy, given the size of the addressable market and the connections SingTel can bring via its associates in Thailand, Indonesia and PinoyLand can bring. And there are the Pinoy and Indon maids that need to remit $ home.

In my portfolio SingTel is a dog, good dividend though which I take in scrip form, like Temasek.

So here’s hoping. LOL.

And with plenty of luck, maybe it’s associates in the Philippines and Indonesia may get really lucky:

Mobile phone operators MTN and Airtel have both received partial approval from the Central Bank of Nigeria to operate mobile payments in the country.

BBC report earlier today

The last paragraph was added at 1.80 pm on day of publication.

Can play in EPL, cannot get deferment: Don’t blame Mindef, blame FAS

Many S’poreans are cheering Harry Birtwistle for avoiding NS because he has opportunity to play in EPL.

In response to For Singapore to reach the World Cup, we must first ‘sliding tackle’ NS deferment, there was this very good response:

Chicken and egg. FAS as an organisation can’t even convince the general public they are running the sport in Singapore well, league’s not that great, quality of players subjective, stadiums are shared resources, funds are also not pouring in. With that, how do you even convince mindef that these are the elite athletes of the country? That they deserve to be treated differently from other professions or sports. And then once awhile we have someone like Harry or previously Ben Davis and we can’t give them our best but we call them traitors when they decide not to play for our country in the end.

What are basic standards of living? Let the debate begin

A recent report by some academics on basic standards of living (Three cheers for them on insisting that “basic” doesn’t mean just living above poverty levels*) that have gotten the anti-PAP usual suspects on social media and cyberspace cheering and the PAP govt upset.

A study has found that parents with two children aged two to 12 will need to each earn $2,906 a month to meet a basic standard of living
For a couple with two children aged seven to 18, they will need at least S$6,426 a month to meet their household’s basic needs
A single parent living with a young child will need at least S$3,218 a month 
The Ministry of Finance has criticised the study, done by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
It said the findings may not be reflective of the circumstances of lower-income families
 

Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/parents-2-children-need-earn-about-s5800-6400-monthly-basic-standard-living-study

“What People Need in Singapore: A Household Budget Study (2021)” focuses mainly on two types of households, parents with two children (aged seven-12 and 13-18) and single parents with one child (aged two-six).

But as I don’t fall within the above two categories, I’ll talk about “Single elderly person” category.

Two elderly persons living on less than budget of “one elderly person”

Going by the figure that an oldie like me or my mum supposedly needs (I look only at the bottom line numbers, not the breakdowns), MoF has a point (See ** , juz about) about the accuracy of the figures.

Between me (late 60s) and my mum (coming to 99), we live comfortably within the $1421.30 figure meant for only 1 retiree. And we exceed by $3.40, the figure without housing, healthcare, education and childcare: $1196.59): I assme $1200 for our basic monthly needs. And that includes food for our S’pore Special that has been mistaken for a Thai Ridgeback or a Dobie.

It’s not as though we are that frugal or live just above the poverty line. Yesterday, we had duck’s breast for dinner and tonight we’ll have pork ribs for dinner. Both from the Cold Storage deli, not Fairprice.

Of course, our basic-living-expenses budget excludes the costs of our helper and my mum’s hospitalisation bills (SingHealth and private), and my subs for the FT and Economist. Even if we include the cost to us of our helper and my subs, we are well under a budget of $2842.6 ($1421.30 x 2) let alone $2393.18 (1196.18 x2). Hospitalisation fees is very volatile. Mum had bills in 2019 and this year. Zero in 2020.

Maybe despite eating Cold Store deli food regularly, we are lower-income in the eyes of the PAP govt? We get CDC vouchers. We don’t pay income tax because we live on dividends. (Blur? See ** to understand what I’m talking about).

Whatever, very complicated topic: basic living standards because of cost of living assumptions, group dynamics, profile of the surveyed, compilations and computations.

So kudos to the academics for trying. Especially since they come from that bastion of Hard Truths, the LKY School of Public Policy. Maybe, we’ll see them somewhere else or jobless soon?

---

*They have detailed in great detail their assumptions and methodology: https://www.asiaone.com/money/how-much-do-you-need-basic-standard-living-singapore? Do read the article. Not the usual constructive, nation-building BS. It’s from a good financial blog, not the SPH group where PAP enablers turn anti-PAP once they stop getting their 30 pieces of silver: Another running dog turned self-appointed tribune of the HDB plebs.

**

The methodology used to arrive at the Minimum Income Standard (MIS) is highly dependent on group dynamics and the profile of the participants.

…

With most participants having post-secondary education and 15 per cent living in private properties, the findings expressed may not be reflective of the circumstances of the lower-income families situation and understates the support given.

https://www.asiaone.com/money/how-much-do-you-need-basic-standard-living-singapore?

Another running dog turned self-appointed tribune of the HDB plebs

(Apologies to the real dogs for associating them with PAP enablers)

Another retired editor/ journalist starts biting the hand that once fed him (FB post edited to get rid of typos):

A newsroom guru/mentor called PN Balji would often ask: How many of your reporters live in HDB housing? How can they resonate if they cannot relate? It leads me to this post to the arrogant, natural aristocracy: At the core of our culture is the hawker centre. It is where we gather, to escape the claustrophobic confines of pigeon-hole pods. For affordable food, accessible access to conviviality and multi-cultural mingling. Impose restrictions that go against the grain of inclusivity, of natural affinity, of old folk camaraderie as opposed to indifferent, self-entitled country club aristocracy, and you are fucking with the 61.2 per cent force of the heartland. Never underestimate the extent of discontent. There is a difference between policy and people — the cold, calculative logic of policy vs the emotive vox populi of lived reality.

Ken Jalleh Junior

Last year, Balji started this anti-PAP FB page: https://www.facebook.com/thenewsingapore

More on Balji, tua kee running dog, turned self-appointed tribune of the plebs: Feeling free to bite hand that once fed him written in 2015.

Btw, what was the tribune of the plebs?

Tribune of the plebs, tribune of the people or plebeian tribune (Latin: tribunus plebis) was the first office of the Roman state that was open to the plebeians, and was, throughout the history of the Republic, the most important check on the power of the Roman Senate and magistrates. These tribunes had the power to convene and preside over the Concilium Plebis (people’s assembly); to summon the senate; to propose legislation; and to intervene on behalf of plebeians in legal matters; but the most significant power was to veto the actions of the consuls and other magistrates, thus protecting the interests of the plebeians as a class. The tribunes of the plebs were sacrosanct, meaning that any assault on their person was punishable by death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribune_of_the_plebs

I despise those who were happy to be PAP propagandists and enablers when they get paid their 30 pieces of silver, but when the silver is stopped, KPKB anti-PAP slogans and clichés. They really have no shame.

But maybe, people like Balji, Ken Jalleh and Bertha Henson were deluded when they were working in the constructive, nation-building ST or the wider SPH group? They thought they were the Fourth Estate propagating the Truth, Democracy etc, not PAP propagandists and enablers. They have realised the truth and are repenting to make sure they go to Heaven?

Whatever, the fact is they repented (if true) only after their 30 pieces of silver stopped.

PSA: The Good and the Bad

Our ports don’t have the problems that some other major ports are facing. Delays here are relatively minor.

But PSA isn’t that efficient. Two of M’sia’s nearby ports are a lot more efficient.

But to be fair, they most probably don’t have much business most of the time. S’pore is bunched together with many other busy ports.

Retraining, meritocracy’s dark side from a S’porean resident

The u/m appeared in the Economist’s letters-to-the-editor:

Not every worker gets a lift

Tearing down barriers to occupations through meritocratic access to education and retraining will not create more opportunities for low-skilled workers hoping to “climb the ladder” to high-skilled jobs (“Riding high”, April 10th). This assumes talent and ability are evenly distributed and that some people will work harder to jump on a waiting empty elevator, pushing the button to reach a higher socioeconomic position.

Mobility is upward and downward. The higher floors have a finite space. The elevators are also full of people on the way down. Anne Case and Angus Deaton call this the dark side of democracy in “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism”. Those left behind are devalued and disrespected as “losers”. The meritocratic elite contribute to the culture of overwork, their success making everybody else feel that they have failed.

Christopher Voisey
Singapore

‘Umbrage’ Is Typical Pappy Quality

No I didn’t think up the above title or topic. An intelligent TRE contributor did. Below is his piece which I commend for yr reading. It’s good.

The recent show of arrogance, talking down and condescending by the paper general who sank two ship is nothing new. If you look carefully at Cotton Chan and Paper General Gan, they talk in similar body language and tone. The typical top down, please do not question, your duty is to take order; the typical army SOP. Remember Cotton Chan was secretly recorded at some business meeting belittling the sheep with his army style talk?

If you look at the exchanges in parliament, most of them are armed with absolute arrogance and condescending style. Remembering how Slyvia Lim was cornered by a pack of wolves for her “test balloon”, those wolves also displayed the “Umbrage” quality.

Pappy loves to groom these “umbrage” quality and put them in key positions. Despite sinking one ship, he is again made captain of another. If you look at the overall, many things are sinking and quality deteriorating, all those lapses and poor quality in new BTOs. This explains the overall deterioration of PAPPY standard since they embraced such quality. Mind you, we complain but 61% is happy with such. Even the recent survey, the young people felt confident with this govt. Honestly, I don’t know what to say. It is a strange phenomenon to why people would embrace such BS quality.

Singapore’s growth cannot be just restricted to massive foreign immigration, all kind of price hikes and changes to CPF policies. This country needs new blood and people with humility to steer this ship in a new direction, the old umbrage ship has shown its decline and the crews’ heads now bigger than the ship.

We have to vote in new crew to either replace these umbrage quality or to have competition so that their heads are not swelling this big. If I were you, I will go and convince 10 more people to VTO “Umbrage Team” out in 2024.

VTO 2024

FT on new Temasek CEO/ Dog training

Singapore Inc gains new figurehead as Temasek appoints next chief

FT headline

---

Googling “figurehead”

figurehead

1. 1.a carving, typically a bust or a full-length figure, set at the prow of an old-fashioned sailing ship.
2. 2.a nominal leader or head without real power.

---

But there’s more. The article talks of Ho Ching persuading him to join Temasek 20 yrs ago when he was 37 and one of S’pores’s best corporate lawyers. It took three years of persuasion

with final discussions taking place over a meal of Pillay’s favourite chai tow kway (stir-fried radish) at Singapore’s Four Seasons hotel. 

FT

Wah his favourite chai tow kuay is cooked at Four Seasons hotel. Even when I was an equities broker and trader, never tot of ordering chai tow kuay at an atas hotel. It was a decadent indulgence too far to order hawker food in an atas hotel. But then I was only a pleb (albeit with old money relations: think the College of Alice & Peter Tan) who juzhappened to be earning serious money. I was lucky enough to participate in the M’sian bull run of the 90s.

Whatever, in Which minister will take the Chinese Kung Flu vaccine?, I talked of putting down my elderly dog, who like Heng, had a serious stroke attack, but who unlike Heng was paralysed in its hind legs. I forgot to tell readers that fortunately, a week earlier, I was gifted a rescued S’porean puppy with Doberman blood. It came to me when it was about a year old (Dobermans are puppies until 18 months.) when the previous owner found him a handful: first time dog owner. He’s trainable but I do wish I had him at 2-4 months: a lot easier to train.

Always start training dogs as early as possible.

Coming back to Pillay, he was born in M’sia and went to university in the UK. Like junior minister Puthu who was proud he didn’t do NS:

I didn’t like him because of his sneer at NS (equating saving lives with doing NS. Dr PaulA, put him down by pointing out that there are docs who do NS (including reservist and save lives), and because he said his view on ISA was secret (PAP locked up dad, then deported him).

“I’m invested in S’pore” & S’pore in 50s/ 60s

Grab kicks S’pore Inc in the balls

Grab’s

  executives to consider an initial public offering in the US this year

FT

It has just raised US$2bn, most of it from US investors. It upsized its term loan from US$750m to US$2bn.

Time for our SWFs to buy into sports teams?

In the West, the latest investment fashion is to buy into sports teams. Private equity is rushing to buy into European football teams. Italian clubs have put up “For sale” signs.

“Sports assets have shown a low correlation relative to the broader market, with teams selling for record values through the 2008 financial crisis and Covid-19″, said Michael Kenworthy, head of sports investment banking at Goldman Sachs. He added that some valuations had outperformed other traditional investment benchmarks, such as the S&P 500.

“If you’re thinking about what’s the best way to construct a portfolio and you want to diversify, there could be, potentially, merit having sports assets in that portfolio,” he added.

Well the A-Rabs led the way. Many moons ago,

Sheikh Mansour bought Sitty for US$360m in 2008. Now a Chinese consortium led by China Media Capital is to buy a 13% stake in Manchester City* for US$400m. That puts City’s value at US$3bn.

Too bad for us HoHoHo doesn’t do footie

An almost 10X increase in valuation in about 8 yrs is not to be sneered at.

Local brokers missing a trick/ Time for Temasek to let SGX be foreign owned?

Local brokers are still dying even if retail punters are returning because Covid-19 lockdowns (Sorry “circuit breakers”) mean bored S’poreans e-trade. They should learn from Robinhood. No not free brokerage (It’s Pay And Pay Land here) but providing lists of trades that were the most popular among its customers in an effort to encourage trading on its app and site. And when trades are completed on the platform, customers are sent emoji-laden messages prompting them to purchase additional shares.

As to foreign ownership, after all FT’s run the place even if the CEO is the token local.

Seriously look at this chart

See how concentrated the ownership is. And “Others” include a couple of Chinese King Kongs: HKSE and the mainland exchanges.

Time for SGX to join the world: sell itself before it becomes irrelevant. Pigs will fly first though.

For the record: Over 20% of SGX shares are held by SEL Holdings, a special-purpose company wholly owned by Temasek Holdings under Singapore’s regulations that restrict the exercise of votes attached to shares of financial exchange companies. 

How much of Ant will S’pore Inc own?

Ant, the fintech controlled by Alibaba’s billionaire founder Jack Ma, will sell shares in a dual listing in Shanghai and HK. The sale, roughly 3.34bn shares, which account for 11% of Ant’s total outstanding stock, will fetch US$34.4bn

The Shanghai portion is worth Rmb114.9bn (US$17.2bn) or about half the total.  GIC is subscribing for Rmb2bn worth of shares (1.7%) and Temasek wants for Rmb1.5bn (1.3%) in Shanghai portion. Institutional buyers in the onshore deal agreed to hold half of their shares for 12 months, and the other half for 24 months.

Assuming that GIC and Temasek don’t buy any shares in the HK offering, GIC and Temasek will collectively own 1.5% of the public offering. Remember that the HK and Shanghai tranches are rough the same.

In the overall context of Jack’s and Alibaba’s holdings, the amount bis “peanuts”.

“Temasek executive”defending Liew is talking cock

Worse, he’s coming across as saying to the plebs, “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.” He might even come across as justifying Liew’s actions because Liew “contributed to both public service and private sector in Singapore for the benefit of Singapore.”

Let me explain my tots.

CAG chairman Liew Mun Leong has contributed to S’pore, public should hear his side of the story: Temasek executive

Headline in constructive, nation-building media.

The Temasek executive said he deserved to be heard because “he contributed to both public service and private sector in Singapore for the benefit of Singapore”.

The Temasek executive should note that Mr Liew has been silent and declined to comment when ST “who licked his balls and ass fawned over him last yr over his book on leadership) asked him to comment on what had happened.

So how caqn the plebs can follow his advice since Liew decided to sit down and shut up, even with a balls and ass licking fawner?

More importantly, Liew was paid a lot of money as a consequence of his “contribution” to S’pore: not enough isit? No must also allow him to “fix” an innocent person, is the message I seem to get from the Temasek executive even if it’s not what he actually said.

Jokes aside, seriously, at the very least the Temasek executive is implying that natural aristocrats got to close ranks and give the finger the plebs.

At the very worse, the Temasek executive is implying that if someone never contribute to S’pore in a big way, it means there is no need to hear the person’s version of events? Follows from that it’s right to allow Liew to fix his maid because she has no right to be heard?

Btw, the “Temasek executive” is Temasek’s International CEO Dilhan Pillay Sandrasegara. He should pull the other leg, its got bells on it.

Here’s a more nuanced judgement from a FB pleb:

More inclined to agree with Min Shan about not jumping to conclusions. Ie. people shouldn’t be making statements like maybe the district judge has no integrity, or the rich find a way to escape, blah blah.
But with regards to his side of the story. legally it is done isn’t it? At least his family has spent the past few years putting forth their version of events, which has now been proven untrue.
Maybe what this article means it, don’t write the man off completely. Maybe he’s not as bad as people think. And that is probably true. IMHO more likely he succumbed to covering up for his family. The wife and son look like the real bad eggs here. Maybe he’s a decent man (who really contributed to the country), but he was weak in terms of protecting his family. Who knows?
But that is besides the point in the way the article is written. Does it mean that if someone never obviously contributed to Singapore means there is no need to hear their version of events? No right? Because if in that case, the maid never contribute much to Singapore. But thankfully our high court heard her version of events.

Here’s another FB pleb who has more judgement than the natural aristocrat from M’sia Temasek:

Temasek’s Pillay has got his views all mixed up. That Liew has make contributions to Temasek is separate from what he did to the maid. You can praise him for his contributions and that’s fine and should be recognized. But that does’nt exonerate himu from blame and responsibility from his actions in reporting his maid to the police for [w]rong allegations of theft just so to prevent her from reporting him and his son to the MOM for illegally using her for work in his son’s house. Don’t he have any conscience for the suffering and harm he inflicted on his maid just so to save his skins.

Btw, I think Pillay, like a certain minister didn’t do NS.

Minister Iswaran doesn’t know that 10 yrs ago DBS’s chairman aspired to have “homegrown” CEO

Or has that aspiration been discarded?

Let me explain my queries.

Minister Iswaran recently said: “I am not sure what you mean by “homegrown”.

He said this in the debate over the issue of foreign talent here on Friday (Sept 4). Minister for Communications and Information S Iswaran chiding (sneering?) NCMP Leong Mun Wai for his comments on DBS Bank not having a “homegrown” CEO.

Mr Leong (Progress Singapore Party) had said in his maiden speech in Parliament on Tuesday that he is “deeply disappointed” that DBS still has not appointed a homegrown CEO, 22 years after former JP Morgan executive John Olds became first FT CEO in 1998. He was a disaster and he was followed by a series of FT ang moh (including one honorary ang moh: American born Chinese) clowns until Gupta came along: He made DBS respectable again. And he’s making it great.

(Mr Piyush Gupta, who is the bank’s CEO, was born in India and became a Singapore citizen in 2009, the same year he was appointed CEO.)

I’d like to remind the minister that shortly after one Peter Seah became chairman of DBS in 2010 (He still is), he said that DBS had good locals that could one day be CEOs. He unfortunately, in my opinion, cited a lady who later became an NMP: in that postion she showed why she can’t even be a CEO of even an SME.

Seriously, it seemed then that having a local as CEO was seen as an aspiration of the chairman and the bank.

Going by the minister’s chiding (Or is it a sneer?), it’s no longer an aspiration of the chairman and bank since DBS already has a new citizen as CEO?

What do you think?

Btw, Iswaran is a true blue S’porean and according to his Wikipedia entry “a Tamil Brahmin“. Tharman’s and Shahmugam’s Wikipedia entries juz say they are ethnic Tamils.

Many yrs in the ST newsroom, a newbie FT ethnic Indian from Nepal is alleged to have asked a veteran ethnic local Indian colleague, “I’m a high caste Hindu, what caste are you?”. She’s now one of S’pore’s prominent Wokes and ang moh tua kees.

Wonder if Iswaran did the same to Tharman and Shahmugam when they met?

Why we need to know PAP govt’s projected investment returns and why it’s a secret

Look at this table

It shows that its assumed return targets are BS. Fyi, Calpers is the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, a major global investor. As of 2018, the agency had U$360 billion in assets.

Before I go further, some defining of terms. From shumething I wrote in 2018

[O]ver the last 10 years, Singapore’s net investment returns (NIR) contribution (NIRC) to the Budget has more than doubled from S$7 billion in FY2009 to an estimated S$15.9 billion in FY2018.

…

Waz this NIRC and NIR BS?

NIRC consists of 50 per cent of the Net Investment Returns (NIR) on the net assets invested by GIC, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Temasek Holdings and 50 per cent of the Net Investment Income (NII) derived from past reserves from the remaining assets.

In other words, we spend 50 per cent of the estimated gains from investment, and put the remaining 50 per cent back into the reserves to preserve its growth for future use.

Associate Professor Randolph Tan is Director of the Centre for Applied Research at the Singapore University of Social Services, and a Nominated Member of Parliament.

Under PAP rule will S’pore become like UK or Venezuela?

Now to why I think we need to know PAP govt’s projected investment returns. In 2016, a reader asked

A Qn: The NIR used for the budget is projected returns. If the projected returns did not materialize, then how? It seemed like insurance agent selling us a policy on projected returns which never materialize.

Am I comprehending the NIR correctly? Because this seemed to me that there might be hefty tax increase down the road if the projected returns did not materialize. This will also affect all the social spending currently on Singaporeans

NIR, Budget untruths, & the President

That is why we need to know the projected Net Investment Returns (NIR) on the net assets invested by GIC, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Temasek Holdings. Remember NIRC — Singapore’s net investment returns (NIR) contribution (NIRC) -consists of 50 per cent of the Net Investment Returns (NIR) and 50 per cent of the Net Investment Income (NII) derived from past reserves from the remaining assets.

For your info this is what ex-TOC star commentator, Chris Kuan (Today, he seems to be too objective for the team running Terry’s Online Channel: they look to be the ST of S’pore’s cyberspace), wrote:

Your reading of the Constitutional NIR rule is correct – the NIR Contribution is calculated on the expected long term real rate of return (LTROR) on the government’s net assets (assets in excess of its liabilities). Pls note it is REAL returns we are talking about – that is the actual dividends and market valuation of the net assets minus the inflation rate. Therefore not all returns are spent. Then the rule limits the spent to 50% – therefore more than half of the actual or nominal returns are re-invested. Again pls note this is nothing unusual, Norway’s GPF and university endowments permit up to 100% of the returns to be spent.

NIR, Budget untruths, & the President

As to why the PAP govt wants to keep the projected Net Investment Returns (NIR) a secret, I’m sure you are thinking what I’m thinking LOL.

The strange case of the missing $18b in “Contingencies Funds”

In https://atans1.wordpress.com/2020/05/28/cheat-sheet-for-fortitude-budget-hali-tied-of-signing-peanuts/ in May, I pointed out that $18bn was in “Contingencies Funds” in the then latest “Fortitude Budget”.

So when I first heard about the latest $8bn in corporate welfare (OK, OK there’s trickle down to the plebs), I tot “Only $5bn left leh”.

But then I learnt

Fresh S$8b Covid-19 measures funded in part by no mid-year bonus for civil servants, lower military spending: MOF

Constructive, bation-building media

So it seems that the entire $13bn has already been spent, and this new $8bn in corporate welfarism is being funded by squeezing civil servants (not that they don’t deserve having less Bismati rice and chicken thighs in their iron rice bowls) and spending less on the military (Can cut meh? Tot our paper generals need every cent in their budget to keep S’pore safe?) and on the development of infrastructure?

An Adrian Tan commented on FB

Smoke and mirrors. They drew down $13bn more than they needed for contingencies: https://atans1.wordpress.com/2020/05/28/cheat-sheet-for-fortitude-budget-hali-tied-of-signing-peanuts/. Now they say the extra $8bn coming from savings. What am I missing? 

Slow growth sucked, didn’t it?

The last time Singapore was in a recession was in 2001 when the dot com bubble burst and the economy declined by 1 per cent. 

Constructive, nation-building media

But life still sucked when growth was low by historical standards.

We’ve had slow growth since 2011. And it sucked for most S’poreans but not for millionaire ministers and reit investors (including self). To be fair, it hurt the PAP ministers electorally in the 2011 GE and PE. They then gave us back some of our money: Are you better off now than you were in 2011?

Another chart showing same thing. Really. That’s why I’m showing it: how numbers are presented can be deceptive.

https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/SGP/singapore/gdp-growth-rate

Did these now billionaire foreign scholars do NS?

Both Chen and Ye arrived in Singapore as teenagers under a government effort to recruit foreign talent through scholarship programs that began in the 1990s. Chen studied computer engineering at the National University of Singapore, while Ye, also originally from China, went to Hwa Chong Institution and Raffles Junior College, and later got bachelor degrees in computer science and economics from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

…

The lives of Sea’s three founders are now deeply rooted in Singapore. They’ve all become citizens, and Chief Executive Officer Li is a board member of the Economic Development Board, the government agency charged with promoting growth and positioning the city-state as a global center for business.

https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/how-singapore-nurtured-foreign-trio-who-became-billionaires-023434141.html

The background stories of two of founders of NASDAQ-listed Sea (bigger market cap than our biggest listco DBS) is juz the kind of thing that the MoE needs as anti-PAP cybernuts question the need to give $238m annually to foreign students to study here.

So far until this story from Yahoo, not the usual propaganda mouth piece of the PAP govt, this is the best the PAP govt can say about spending $238m annually on FTs

“While MOE (Ministry of Education) spends about on foreign students a year, as stated in a parliamentary reply on 5 August 2019, the significant majority of these students are still required to pay fees higher than those of local students and/or fulfil a bond obligation after graduation,”

The Government said on its fact-checking website Factually.

But I repeat, do these really smart FTs turned locals do NS? I give Li (the third Chink) a pass because

Li, who was born and raised in China’s port city of Tianjin, followed his wife to Singapore after finishing an MBA at Stanford University.

Think PAP minister, Puthu, who was proud he didn’t do NS. He parachuted in after being born to a subversive exiled from S’pore after Coldstore, and after going to Angmoh land: “I’m invested in S’pore”.

Btw, when I was with a start-up in the early noughties, we had one of these scholars. A really pretty Chinese gal. She was a good programmer. The start-up went bust. Also met over the yrs, a few other scholars who worked with start-ups. Hard working, smart gals.

Let’s cut a deal, PAP govt?

No returning to pre-Covid world, with trade and business changed ‘irrevocably’, says Chan Chun Sing

Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/no-returning-pre-covid-world-trade-and-business-changed-irrevocably-says-chan-chun-sing

So let’s cut to the chase, let’s have a new social contract, PAP govt?

You’ve been floundering trying to find a new one acceptable to ordinary S’poreans since the 2011 GE and PE. Returning part of our money worked in 2015 (Are you better off now than you were in 2011?) but didn’t in 2020 (S’poreans see Fortitude Budget no ak and Legitimacy problem for the PAP as 9% of voters get smarter.)

Here’s the deal.

We keep giving you 60-70% of the popular vote, let u bully the Wankers and Cheng Bock’s gang, and social media, and be mean to the ang moh tua kees and their allies, the drug baron, mules and addicts. And btw sllow you to feel free to takan PM’s siblings and their families.

In return let’s have Albert Winsemius’ Dream for S’pore

“[F]ull employment”

(Its not “full” employment when unemployed S’porean PMETS are deemed employed because they drive taxis or do Grab trips.)

Followed by

“Only when every Singaporean can go to the level of education he needs;

“Only when every Singaporean can establish a family and have children;

“Only when every Singaporean can find a job that he can do to his best capacity;

“Only when he can grow old without financial worries;

“Only when he can get sick without loss of pay;

“Only when he can afford to die without financial worries for his wife and children … then you have a Singapore.”

Dhanablan’s recollection of what Albert Winsemius said: file:///C:/Users/GBT/Downloads/Booklet_-SG50-Winsemius%20(2).pdf

For the record, he was our chief economic adviser from 1961-84, and with Dr Goh Keng Swee and Hon Swee Sen, was responsible for the economic framework that made S’pore a shining city on a tropical island swamp.

Btw, I wrote

For all their academic brilliance Ah Loong and team have not advanced beyond tinkering with the framework that Dr Goh Keng Swee, Hon Swee Sen and Albert Winsemius devised. Evolution is fine to a point. But surely the world has undergone revolutionary change. When they were constructing their model of serving MNCs as a path to grow the economy, serving MNCs was “neo-colonialism”. Today even Red China serves as the MNCs’ factory.

Problem S’pore, PAP face

How TLCs perform before/ after GEs and latest TLC consensus forecasts

OCBC report dated 12 June 2020

Xia suay: Must be SIA’s website not working again

(Update on 17 May at 6.00am: SIA’s rights issue application website still not working. WTF. Want shareholders to die of Covid-19 isit?)

What’s the point of setting up a website for shareholders to apply for the SIA rights issue (there’s a Covid-19 pandemic raging thru FT dorms many of whom flew here via its cattle class: It’s a Great Way to Fly), encouraging people to use it, and then making it non function-able?

I cannot even scroll the “consent” form or press “submit” to access the site: https://www.singaporeair.com/rights/intro

What a lot of BS. Juz like DBS: DBS: Some things never change, bad service is a given

DBS: Some things never change, bad service is a given

Earlier this week, I posted Weath mgt is not the treasure chest local banks think it is.

Well its over a week since the DBS call centre told me that someone would call me in response to a query that the person couldn’t answer. I have an existing POSB account and I was thinking of moving all of my mum’s interbank giro’s instructions (She’s in her 90s and I didn’t want to find that everything was cut off once she moves on and her banks find out) to this account. I had some queries that the DBC call centre couldn’t answer.

Later, I happened to call Starhub and the call centre gal told me what to do to change payment instructions. I had also by then realised that I would have to go down in person to a POSB branch to apply for a debit card. (Not DBS’s/ POSB’s fault, as I never had a POSB debit card. Given the pandemic, I didn’t feel like risking getting the virus juz to get a debit card so that I can then do e-banking.)

Anyway, I’m half way thru the process of converting all my mum’s standing instructions to my HSBC account.

Will DBS ever call me?

In the 1980s, I closed my DBS current account after really bad service. In recent yrs the ang moh media and our constructive, nation-building media have been lauding DBS’s growth into a “super regional” bank by using technology to propel its growth.

It’s share price must surely reflect its success in e-banking.

But for me, service still sucks.

Xia suay! Ho Ching should go kick ass at Temasek Foundation

Recently, I came across this Temasek Foundation video telling us to wash our hands: https://www.facebook.com/TemasekFoundationCares/videos/169555744295112/

This reminded me that my neighbour and I never got our free hand santisers from Temasek Foundation.

In my case, I never got the pamphlet that would authorise collection. My neighbour got theirs a few days before the cut-off date, but when they went to collect, they were told “No more stock”.

Btw, we have no complaints about the two mask collection exercises.

Maybe Ho Ching should spend less time posting on FB, and more time kicking ass at Temasek Foundation.

PAP govt supports S-Reits

IRAS, MAS and MOF jointly issued a press release on 16 Apr highlighting new measures to support S-Reitss following the market collapse caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

One initiative comes in the form of an extension in timeline from three months to 12 months for S-Reits to distribute at least 90% of their FY20 taxable income to unitholders to qualify for tax transparency.

(Btw,I had advised those who asked my views on S-Reits that I tot this 90% payout rule would be scrapped for this year.)

The second measure is the increase in leverage limit from 45% to 50% with immediate effect to allow more flexibility in the management of capital structures. About time too: our Reits I’ve been KPKBed were too conservative (as per the regulations) in their leverage. Should be 55% to 60%. But seeing the carnage, I’m glad that the regulatory ratio was only 40%.

There’s more: the implementation of a new minimum interest coverage ratio requirement would be deferred to 1 Jan 2022.

In general, brokers are recommending government-linked REITs with strong sponsors

Example OCBC:

Ascendas REIT (AREIT SP) [BUY; FV: S$3.59], Mapletree Industrial Trust (MINT SP) [BUY; FV: S$2.87] and Mapletree Commercial Trust (MCT SP) [BUY; FV: S$1.96]. We also like NetLink NBN Trust (NETLINK SP) [BUY; FV: S$1.10] for its resilient business model.

Research Team

Will we see S’pore Girl working in hospitals?

Or in polyclinics?

In the UK

Thousands of easyJet and Virgin airline staff are being offered work in the new NHS Nightingale Hospital.

Those who sign up will support nurses and senior clinicians at the coronavirus field hospital in east London, the NHS said.

Virgin Atlantic said furloughed staff who help will be paid through the government retention scheme.

NHS England said many airline staff are first aid trained and already have security clearance.

The workers will be changing beds and performing other non-clinical tasks and helping doctors and nurses working on the wards, the NHS said.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-52085701

How and why meritocracy morphs into a rigid caste system

A rigid caste system of winners and losers.

Further to Why S’poreans don’t trust the constructive, nation-building media, are we already like this?

In “The Meritocracy Trap”, Daniel Markovits, a legal scholar at Yale, blames the loss of social solidarity, and much else besides, on the slow corruption of American meritocracy, which has ossified into a formidable caste system. As the economic premium on education rose, he explains, competition for places at elite institutions of higher education grew. That struggle has become an obstacle to success for all but the cognitive elite. The gap in academic achievement between the children of rich and poor families is now larger than that between black and white pupils in the era of segregation, Mr Markovits notes.

https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2019/10/24/in-the-past-america-was-not-as-unequal-as-it-has-become

And like this also?

If Mr Markovits is right … Subtly but corrosively, he thinks, the idea of meritocracy has validated inequality, because rich and poor alike “earn” their position. Success depends on educational achievement beyond the reach of many, but winners feel they deserve their spoils, while losers are asked to accept their fate.

In Meritocratic hubris/ Who defines “meritocracy”, I wrote that Michael J Sandel who  teaches political philosophy at Harvard University said

merit is defined by those who “made it”.

I went on

The meritocratic elites define the attributes and qualifications that allows one into the magical citcle: in S’pore, the British or French civil service, Harvard or other leading universities, or investment banks. And it always means: People like us.

going onto describe

what Charles Trevelyan, the permanent secretary to the UK Treasury 1840-59, had in mind when he proposed that meritocracy should be introduced into the civil service.

“He wanted young people to be chosen who had merit – the very best,” says Greenaway. “But he believed that the best were to be found in the gentry, in the professional classes. As the 19th Century went on, the education system mirrored the social system. The universities in Oxford and Cambridge and public schools became the preserve of the gentry and the professional classes – clergy and lawyers and so on.”

Education locked in what used to be patronage, replacing it in a way that was acceptable to the conservatives who had been fearing that these exams would undermine the social fabric of the country.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-23376561

S’pore: Meritocracy? What meritocracy?

My tots on how meritocracy, S’pore-style works:

Why PAP doesn’t do accountability, meritocracy

Meritocracy? What meritocracy? How our PMs are chosen

Connecting SMRT failures, 4th gen ministers & change of PM (Or “Another Heng cock-up”)

Why do we keep getting mediocre ministers?

Why cabinet can’t do bold new ideas

More on Hali’s judgement between 2007 -2011/ Meritocracy? What meritocracy?

Meritocracy? No leh Cosiness

Meritocracy’s feet of clay: Ong Ye Kung

Here’s something on Gilbert Goh who shows up meritocracy S’pore style

And here’s Real meritocracy at work. 

GIC outperformed by tell-all Norwegian SWF

By 15%.

GIC’s annualised 20-year real rate of return, its main performance metric, was 3.4 per cent up to the year-end in March. That compares with a real rate of return of 3.9 per cent since 1998 at Norges, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund.

FT

Please remember that GIC (like Temasek) says it needs to be non-transparent to make money for us. Well tell that to the Norwegians who even tell the world the colour of the underwear of the fund managers.

Btw, GIC is investing less in stock markets, more in private equity. Who isn’t?

SingTel, Hong Leong will get digital bank licences

MAS to issue up to five new digital bank licences: SM Tharman

Constructive, nation building media

It’s a nap that two of the licences will go to SingTel (or a SingTel jv) and Hong Leong Group

SingTel or a jv led by it will get one of the two digital full bank licences, which will allow licensees to provide a wide range of financial services and take deposits from retail customers. The focus of a SingTel bank will be regional remittances via its regional network of telcos. Think of all the Peenoy and Indon maids who remit money via remittance firms.

Grab or Go-Jek could decide to try to cut a deal with SingTel, rather than apply for a virtual bank licence themselves because they can bring to the party a regional presence via their apps etc. But SingTel may be too greedy to do a jv. I suspect the authorities will make SingTel tie up with Go-Jek or Grab. But the other co will not be left out in the cold (see below) because I think the authorities want competition here between the two and because Temasek has stakes in both: Temasek, GIC got this right in our backyard. Related post: Offered money, Grab it

Hong Leong group will get one of the up to three digital wholesale bank licences, which will allow licensees “to serve SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) and other non-retail segments”. Hong Leong Finance is a de facto SME bank though people like Inderjit Singh and Jack Sim are not happy with the way it does biz, and are forever KPKBing for really cheap financing for SME owners, even though it’s a fact that SME owners often divert biz loans to buy property.

Grab, Go-Jek and Razor will try for the other virtual bank licence, though I think they’ll have to find a S’porean partner because

Companies headquartered in Singapore and controlled by Singaporeans will be able to apply for digital full bank licences.

Foreign companies who wish to apply must form a joint venture with a Singapore company, the authority added. The joint venture must meet the headquarter and control requirements. Digital wholesale bank licences are open to all companies.

I’m sure they will try to get M1 owned by Keppel and SPH to partner one of them.

But as I said for Grab and Go-Jek working with SingTel could be a better bet if SingTel is not too greedy. The other could then tie up with M1.

As to Razer? Razer? Who the f@#! is Razer?

 

 

 

 

SingTel Prepaid: SMS giving wrong info

To get users to top-up unnecessarily?

A friend who uses a pre-paid SIM card because he doesn’t use his mobile phone that often told me that on 4 May he topped up his Singtel Hi card ($15) successfully. On 7 June, he got an SMS message saying that there was less then $2 in the Hi card account. He was shocked as he hadn’t made or received any call since the top-up, and had received only two SMS messages (excluding the SMS confirming the top-up), prior to SingTel’s SMS message.

He tried to access his account via the Hi card website but he could not key-in his mobile number because only 7-digit tel numbers could be keyed in. I kid u not, I tried to access and only 7-digit numbers could be keyed in. Know any S’porean with a 7-digit HP number?

He then tried calling on his mobile a SingTel toll free number to check his balance. He had a bit of a problem accessing his account, but finally got thru. He was told by a bot that he had $16 in the account.

Was the SMS message an honest mistake?

He (and I) have our doubts. Prior to this incident, whenever he got such a message, he topped up because he assumed he’s really running out of $. This time, the message came juz after he had topped up. The honest mistake in his view was sending him a top-up message juz after he had topped up, instead of waiting a week or so. Adding to our suspicions is that in mid April he had topped up by $10 his account, and he doesn’t remember using the phone that much.

What do u think?

Btw, my mum’s maid had recently received such a message, shortly after topping up last month. She went on to ask me to top up her card thinking that she had used most of her the earlier, recent, top-up. In her case, knowing her, she might have really used up the money. After what happened to my friend, I told her to keep me posted the next time she receives a message that she has less than $2 in her account. I’ll investigate.

To be continued.

Buffett “responds” to our PM presumptive

Heng said last Saturday our time

It is “not a given” that having an opposition party, or having multiple parties, will “result in the best outcome for our society” …

“So the question is this: As our society becomes more diverse, as our people are better educated, better exposed all round the world, how do we harness the energies of everyone in a constructive way and to take Singapore forward? Rather than spend time scoring political points, debating for the sake of debating.”

Buffett said last Saturday at his co’s AGM:

In the end Berkshire should prove itself over time. There are no perpetuities and it needs to deserve to be continued in its present form.”

Since the time GCT and Ah Loong took over, the one-party state leaders have run into one problem after another: asset inflation, MRT breakdowns, immigration etc etc. The younger leaders have not proved themselves. They have been living off the legacies and ideas of the Old Guard.

PAP has lost “output legitimacy”

The PAP govt has lost “output legitimacy”: Discuss

Memo to Paper General heading Computer Security Agency

Even PAP voters don’t trust the PAP to tell the truth

But because there’s some form of Opposition, the PAP govt is forced to spend more of our money on S’poreans (not on foreign investment bankers and other advisers on our reserves) to keep its share of the popular vote above 60%.

Hard Truth why PAP wins and wins

Merdeka Generation: PAP cares for u, really they do

Under PAP rule will S’pore become like UK or Venezuela?

Imagine if there was no Oppo candidates to vote for? We’d have to eat bitter while our reserves pile up.

Vote wisely. Vote tactically.

 

Why S’poreans migrating to Antipodes or Canada

Totful, caring or juz KS pushy parents want their children to more easily move up the economic ladder.

This is something that our constructive, nation-building media wouldn’t dare tell u about. Funnily neither does alt media (TRE excepted, if it republishes this piece).

The Great Gatsby curve illustrates the connection between concentration of wealth in one generation and the ability of those in the next generation to move up the economic ladder compared to their parent. Shows that in S’pore very difficult to move up the economic ladder. We are in same boat as UK, USA, France, Italy and Switzerland.

No wonder S’poreans migrate to Australia, NZ and Canada. They hope their children can be more mobile economically.

Equal Opportunity in S’pore? What equal opportunity?

Groceries: PAP cares for u, really they do

(Part of an occasional series meant to burst the blood vessels of cybernuts like pork-eating, alcohol drinking “bapak”, and tax-dodging grave-dancer “Oxygen”).

Yuppie, continued “peanut” prices for Fairprice’s baked beans, fried dacre, sardines, instant coffee (Robusta and Arabica: I use the cheapest brand available several times a week to strengthen my daily brew of coffee brewed for at least 24 hrs) and dog biscuits (actually Fairprice’s marie biscuits).

Btw, feel free to skip the following quote if u know what I was talking about and go direct to my comments below:

NTUC FairPrice has slashed the prices of 50 essential items under its house brands by up to 30 per cent, as part of moves to help customers cope with the cost of living.

The prices of these items, as well as 50 others under its house brands FairPrice, FairPrice Gold, Pasar and Home Proud, will also be held steady from Monday (March 18) until June 30 next year.

This means that regardless of inflation, the prices of these 100 items, which include daily essentials such as rice, oil, toiletries, batteries and household cleaners, will stay the same for the next 15 months.

Mr Seah Kian Peng, chief executive officer of FairPrice, said that these 100 items are “representative of what an average Singaporean household would need, and they are popular”.

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/prices-ntuc-fairprice-house-brands-cut-remain-same-for-15-months

Elections must be coming to the world’s most expensive city, a ranking now shared with HK and Paris, much to the relief of the PAP.  OK, OK, I know it’s fake news that S’pore, HK and Paris are the world’s most expensive cities: unlike TOC, The Indians Idiots, Meng Seng’s FB page and other cybernut must-reads, I read the fine print.

Seriously, going by the time frame of the price freeze, the elections will be held by June next yr. I’ve always maintained that it’ll be held later this year. In 2018, I wrote Akan datang: GE in late 2019.

As for the dog biscuits, must be minister Shanmugam, dogs’ best friend in parly, that got Fairprice to freeze the price. If the pet dogs support the PAP, the owners will follow must be the reasoning. Every vote matters for the PAP.

Btw Fairprice’s special for French made butter are great value, make it affordable for me to have gourmet butter now and then.

Vote wisely.

Remember that only in S’pore does a govt (PAP of course) and trades union movement-related grocer sells French butter (albeit only now and then) at “cheap” pleb prices. Only slightly more expensive then its house brand ordinary butter.

S’pore is parasite

Ong Hai Chuen posted on FB

Why is SINGAPORE the RICHEST country in ASIA? – VisualPolitik EN

Sonny Liew, yes he of The Art of Charlie Chan gave this totful response (Somewhat related post: “Bullshit is the glue that binds us as a nation” )

This analysis suffers from a common problem of failing to recognise Singapore as essentially a metropolitan area – as evinced by the presenter’s own constant switching from descriptions and comparisons using both the terms “city” and “country”.

The economic writer Joe Studwell in his intro to “How Asia Works: Success and Failure In the World’s Most Dynamic Region ” writes that his book “restricts itself to the developmental challenges facing what I would call ‘proper countries'”.

He goes on to say that he “ignores east Asia’s two main offshore financial centres – Hong Kong and Singapore”, along with the ” “micro oil state of Brunei” and “east Asia’s traditional gambling centre, Macau”, before describing comparisons of development between places like Singapore and Indonesia as a “pointless and deeply misleading debate”, since “Offshore centres are not normal states. Around the world, they compete by specialising in trade and financial services while enjoying lower structural overheads than other countries, which have larger, more dispersed populations, and agricultural sectors that drag on productivity… ”

“Offshore centre’s lower overheads mean that they also have a built-in fiscal advantage. Yet they can never exist in isolation – they are in a strict sense parasitic, because they have to have their host or hosts to feed on.”

It would make more sense to look at Singapore in City or Metropolitan Area terms when evaluating it’s policies and successes – so places like Hartford and San Jose would be in a similar league. These cities have small population sizes and may have comparable types of economies – Hartford’s economy is “strong in finance, especially insurance and benefits and is an important government center, as the capital of Connecticut”, while San Jose “is home to the larger part of the world’s leading technology center, suburban Silicon Valley.”

While good governance is still key to its success, failure to at least view Singapore partly through metropilitan area lenses may end up presenting a muddled picture…

Welcome to S’pore: Punish public-spirited S’porean is priority

(Part of an occasional series on uniquely S’porean behaviour, attitudes, customs etc)

It was recently reported in the media that a lady was hit by a falling glass door at the Alexandra Central Mall on Sunday (24 Feb).

As a result, she suffered multiple serious injuries, including head and liver injuries. She also had multiple fractures along her legs and pelvic bone, which means she will have to undergo surgery to help support and stabilize her spine.

She has been warded at National University Hospital. According to the victim’s sister, the victim would “cry out in agony” every time the painkiller wears off.

Meanwhile, the management of Alexandra Central Mall is reportedly on the hunt for the person who leaked the CCTV footage online. The footage captured the entire episode showing how the glass door fell on the lady.

TOC

Seems that mgt is claiming that the leak is in breach of data protection laws so he has to be caught.

Shouldn’t the mgt of Alexandra Central Mall be more interested in ensuring that no-one else gets hurt?

But TOC may offer an explanation

[F]ormer Chief of Navy and Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew joined Chip Eng Seng’s Board of Directors in 2016, after he stepped down from politics in 2015. He did not want to run for elections anymore.

(Chip Eng Seng, a listc, owns the mall)

Remember an ex-soldier told MRT commuter that people must die before SMRT train can be damaged: SMRT SVP is great believer in shareholder value?.

OK, OK, I exaggerate, the PR head of SMRT said yrs ago

If you are stuck inside a train, never smash the windows or force the doors open. Stay calm and wait for help.

My response:

But what if passengers are in great discomfort or suffocating to death in the dark because the back-up system that was supposed to activate emergency lights within the carriages and provide ventilation was not working? And passengers don’t know when help is arriving because the driver is not authorised to tell them, or he doesn’t know?

Still no smash windows to breath fresher air, Mr Goh?

The reasonable implication of what Mr Goh says is that SMRT (remember he is SVP) prefers S’poreans to suffer great discomfort or die rather than damage SMRT property.

Shareholders will be pleased that they have someone, like Mr Goh managing SMRT, who is so concerned about shareholder value that he would rather people die than damage SMRT property.

I’ll go buy some SMRT shares tomorrow. With managers like him, nothing for shareholders to worry about neh?

That was a great buy. Sad didn’t buy enough.

6,400 senior citizens each get $312.50 hongpao from a TLC

(Part of an occasional series “PAP govt really cares for u, really they do” meant to burst the blood vessels of cybernuts like pork-eating, alcohol drinking “bapak”, and tax-dodging grave-dancer “Oxygen”).

A TLC gives 6,400 elderly S’poreans hongpaos each containing $312.5, whether they are Chinese or not.

A computer system error by NCS (owned by SingTel and ultimately by Temasek) caused about 7,700 individuals to receive inaccurate healthcare and intermediate- and long-term care subsidies, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Saturday (Feb 16).

But those who were overpaid will not have to refund. So that’s a lot of free lunches. Can buy a lot of restaurant or hawker food as each hongpao works out to an average of $312.5.

About 6,400 individuals received higher subsidies than what they are eligible for. The total amount is estimated to be about S$2 million. MOH intends to recover from NCS the costs and expenses incurred as a result of this incident, as allowed for under our contract.

And taz not all

“About 1,300 individuals received lower subsidies than what they are eligible for. The total amount is estimated to be about S$400,000. This will be reimbursed to the affected individuals,” MOH said.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/7-700-singaporeans-received-inaccurate-chas-subsidies-due-to-11249848

PAP govt really cares, but could it be because a GE is coming?

Public-private initiatives: the Hard Truth

I tot of the National Stadium, Hyflux and MRT (though not technically a public-private initiative) fiascos when I read

The important question is not whether we choose publicly managed infrastructure or public-private partnerships. Neither prevents overbuilt infrastructure projects that do more to profit private interests than to serve public needs. Though we’re used to hearing about burdensome “subsidies” for the most cost-effective modes of transportation, the surface transportation infrastructure we can no longer afford to maintain was built for the least cost-effective mode, which predictably proliferated in response. Only when users of the most expensive infrastructure pay the full costs of the infrastructure they use, and when public policies encourage (instead of deter) the more sustainable mobility modes, can we hope for a more sustainable future.

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2019/02/08/1549605601000/An-honest-history-of-how-America-pays-for-roads/

The public-private initiative that is the bus system seems to be working.

Related post: Bus driver says complain to LTA about bus sign problem

 

Why S’pore’s economic progress went downhill after Dr Goh retired

Remember Goh Cock Chok Tong’s tots about building 5G leaders? This cock talk had me laughing because he (and his DPM, one Lee Hsien Loong) cocked up Dr Goh’s economic framework that took a lot from the Germans:

The Germans have a name for their unique economic framework: ordoliberalism. Its origins are perfectly legitimate – a response of Germany’s liberal elites to the breakdown of liberal democracy in 1933. It was born out of the observation that unfettered liberal systems are inherently unstable, and require rules and government intervention to sustain themselves. The job of the government was not to correct market failures but to set and enforce rules.

[…]

The ordoliberal world view is asymmetric. Current account surpluses are considered more acceptable than deficits. Since the rules are based on national law, ordoliberals do not care about their impact on the rest of the world. When they adopted the euro, the rest of the world suddenly did start to matter.

FT

As a very junior officer in the central bank, it was clear to me that Dr Goh tot

The job of the government was not to correct market failures but to set and enforce rules.

Cock Goh and Lee Jnr aided and abetted by people like Tharman (ang moh tua kees’ think the sun shines from his black ass) moved to a pseudo market economy where

Current account surpluses are considered more acceptable than deficits.

And where GLCs dominated the economy, sometimes wayanging against one another (think telcos).

To be fair, I think they were, and are, not cynically conning S’poreans. They really believed in their version of the mkt economy.

Coming back to Dr Goh, Dr Goh was really ordoliberal not socialist nor free market liberal. That was how he made S’pore great. The 2G, 3G and 4G leaders remain clueless on what made S’pore great.

[The folowing was added at 1.35pm]

As I wrote

For all their academic brilliance Ah Loong and team have not advanced beyond tinkering with the framework that Dr Goh Keng Swee, Hon Swee Sen and Albert Winsemius devised. Evolution is fine to a point. But surely the world has undergone revolutionary change. When they were constructing their model of serving MNCs as a path to grow the economy, serving MNCs was “neo-colonialism”. Today even Red China serves as as the MNCs’ factory.

Problem S’pore, PAP face

Related posts

— Dr Goh’s HK counterpart had similar views on MRT and other major issues

— Why S’pore industrialised in the 60s

— SG50: Three cheers for Goh Keng Swee

 

Broker speculating on another big TLC merger

Following Temasek’s recent $6 billion divestment of Ascendas/Singbridge to CapitaLand, CGS-CIMB sees benefits in streamlining the yards and conglomerate structures of Sembcorp (SCI), SembMaritime (SMM) and Keppel (KEP).

“If the rig building industry does not recover in the next three years, we think the consolidation of both SMM and KEP O&M could strengthen Singapore in the large-scale FLNG (KEP) and FPSO (SMM) newbuild segment as well as create an O&M design and engineering powerhouse, competing head-on with the Koreans.”

‘A possible structure is one mega yard (SMM + KEP O&M), one renewables/utility group Sembcorp Industries (SCI) and one urbanisation/infrastructure group (KEP).”

It thinks Sembcorp could be the long-term winner as a pure renewable energy/utility group focusing on overseas M&A to grow its capacity, commanding higher valuations. Brokers forever flogging this dog.

Meanwhile, it thinks, Keppel could continue to pursue its urbanisation solutions of property and infrastructure development, backed by asset management capital.

The total book value of SembMaritime and Keppel O&M amount to S$5.3 billion. The hypothetical shareholding structure of the enlarged yard could be in the form of a JV, with Temasek having a majority control stake, the broker says.

CGS-CIMB has Keppel, Sembcorp and SembMarine at “add” with target prices of S$8.41, S$3.49 and S$2.46 respectively.

I’m happy with the present Keppel set-up as there’s no guarantee that it’s O&M managers will run the joint show. SembMarine’s O&M managers are second rate by Keppel’s standards.

 

PAP forgot S’pore’s history, missing economic opportunities

Germany is the world’s second-biggest coffee exporter, even though it doesn’t grow coffee commercially. Huh? Fake news?

Vietnam grows more robusta than any other country, but exports most of this as raw, unbranded coffee beans to markets such as Germany for processing, branding and marking up for sale to end users.

FT

This set me thinking.

A hundred years ago, S’pore was a major exporter of processed rubber despite not having that many rubber trees. The rubber came from Malaya, the world’s largest producer. Of course, the Malayans (M’sians today) after independence in 1957, decided to process more of the raw rubber there, so we lost an industry. The same was also true of tin (Pulau Brani, now part of Sentosa, processed imported tin ore).

Where was the PAP govt and its vaunted EDB when Vietnam started exporting coffee beans in industrial quantities circa the 80s? They should have been encouraging global coffee brands to set up here to process, brand and mark up for sale to end users. I mean it must be cheaper to ship the beans to S’pore, than to Hamburg or Rotterdam? And German labour is a lot more expensive. Here got FTs meh.

Instead raw Viet Kong beans end up Germany.

For the record, the Viet Kong are trying to capture more of coffee’s value in Vietnam. Power to them. But until then, the German coffee manufacturers are laughing all the way to their banks.

Someone here blundered

All this PAP talk about our history, is juz talk: BS.

S’pore value screens by KGI Securities

Value in MSCI Singapore Index: KGI Securities

Why PAP govt don’t dare sink a M’sian ship

PAP will lose power if naval comdr is like Desmond Kwek: sure to sink ownself instead of M’sian ship.

Seriously

Err what if Desmond Kuek in charge of ops to protect water supplies?Jialat. Ops sure fail like SMRT when he in charge lei and we will die of shame before we die of thirst. He could be in charge because he got no job and PAP govt always looks after scholars and generals.

I tot these tots when in response to Why sink a M’sian vessel, a well informed reader responded to Chris K’s point about Tun cutting off our water.

Cutting off water supply is as good as a preemptive military strike on S’pore i.e. S’pore will likely strike without much clarification with the M’sian side. Will likely see mass open mobilisation within 24 hrs. Those of us who did NS in the 80s & earlier will recall the many times exercises both in the field & table top where the scenario is “forward defense” or basically invasion & control of certain JB areas. There’s a good reason why we have so many LSTs & why we practice so much for beach invasions & seaborne attacks. 😉 With today’s hardware, S’pore will likely follow US style — predawn attacks by airforce & SF from 2-3am onwards to capitalise on SAF night vision superiority, intense electronic jamming & counter elec warfare, followed by saturation artillery & rocket bombardments and follow on by armor & mechanized troops by dawn and/or seaborne invasions on JB coastline. S’pore will count on having localised air superiority & airborne radar and drone recon. Plenty of deaths on both sides though.

Btw, I told Chris K that I doubted Tun could find the taps to cut the water flow.

Btw2, I partially disagree with “Plenty of deaths on both sides though.”. The whole aim of US-style “shock and awe” to to scare the hell out of the enemy’s ground troops. and mats are not exactly Roman legionaires, Spartans or Vikings or Japanese infantry. The heavy casualties will come later when S’pore has to defend the water infrastructure against Muslim jihadists drawn to the battle against enemies of  Islam: bit like the US occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

Why paper generals, not private sector CEOs make it to PAP cabinet

Today when flipping thru the FT, emphasis mine, I read

The desire to have more “business people” involved in politics is a well-worn itch. Gordon Brown’s decision, for example, to form a “ government of all talents” in 2007 with non-politicians such as Lords Digby Jones and Alan West proved a flop. The skills that make individuals successful in business rarely translate into politics. CEOs are programmed to take charge. Operating under political guidance grates, even for the most seasoned executive, however alluring the grace-and-favour mansion may be.

FT editorial

Our paper generals are programmed to take orders from ministers and senior civil servants; local private sector CEOs are not. Unlike our paper generals, who never have had to lead troops into battle or even into a hostile, environment, these CEOs “are programmed to take charge.”

---

Paper General in action

Kidding me? Kee Chui potential PM? He from RI?

Why “Kee Chiu” got renamed “Kee Chui”

——————————————————-

Btw, the CEOs of those successful TLCs and GLCs that are world class, are somewhere in between, if they rose from the ranks of the GLC or TLC, and not parachuted in. And the best ”are programmed to take charge”.

Uniquely Temasek? Kill Mandai wildlife to build wildlife paradise

This headline in our constructive, nation-building media on Monday

Mandai mangrove and mudflats to be Singapore’s newest nature park

reminded of a BBC story a few months back headlined

Singapore’s Mandai eco-resort: Paving paradise to put up an eco-resort

Singaporeans are getting a new wildlife paradise to bring them closer to nature, but as the BBC’s Yvette Tan writes, the development is carving into the jungle and pushing rare animals into the path of danger.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44856567

Animals are getting killed  to create a new wildlife paradise

Five animals – including a leopard cat, a huge sambar deer, a wild boar and a critically endangered sunda pangolin – have become roadkill since development began last January. All the accidents took place in the area around Mandai – with two occurring on a busy expressway.

This reminded me of two US military operations in the Vietnam War :

— “Did we have to destroy the town in order to save it?”” Colonel Myron Harrington was a US Marine officer at the Battle of Hue during the Tet Offensive. The battle resulted in the destruction of the town and the killing of its residents—. Harrington is credited with the quotation “Did we have to destroy the town in order to save it?””

— “It became necessary to destroy the town to save it.” This has been attributed to an unnamed United States major, referring to the bombing of Ben Tre, South Vietnam; reported by AP correspondent Peter Arnett, “Major Describes Move”, New York Times (February 8, 1968).

Coming back to the Mandai project, Mandai Park Development (MPD) says

the resort, to be run by resort operator Banyan Tree, will be built “sensitively… to reduce impact to the environment”.

But Mr Subaraj, a self-styled conservation expert (I know he has no academic or formal credentials in this field, but I also know he’s passionate about local wildlife)

argues that this may not be enough.

“If you look in other countries, for example [at an eco-resort in] the Danum Valley in Malaysia, they’ve got around 30 rooms,” said Mr Subaraj.

“We’ve got up to 400 rooms. When you develop a resort that big, no matter how much mitigation you put in place, there will be an impact.”

In other words, the development is akin to building a HDB block of flats as opposed to a jungle hut.

Btw

MPD is a branch of Mandai Park Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Singapore’s state investor – Temasek Holdings.

🤑

Btw2, MPD

the body behind the work, says developing the area into an eco-hub is a much more “environmentally sensitive” choice than if an urban development were to take over the area.

😪😢😢😪

HoHoHo: Time for StanChart’s CEO to go?

Another one for the repair shop is UK-listed Standard Chartered. After damaging revelations about the bank breaching US-led sanctions against doing business with Iran, it had already paid a $667m fine to avoid criminal charges in 2012. This week another $1.5bn in fines from US authorities was highlighted after allegations that the bank continued to defy certain sanctions. Even without the added headache, Lex adjudged that chief executive Bill Winters has done a poor job of preserving shareholder value — never mind building some — since he joined just over three years ago. The shares are down 40 per cent.

Emphasis mine. FT’s Letter from Lex summarising it’s article that’s behind a pay wall.

Time for Temasek, the controlling shareholder, to talk to other top 10 shareholders about removing him? Pigs will fly first. The CEO that ran the bank into the ground was kicked out because another top 10 shareholder,Aberdeen Asset Mgt, as it then was, organised a campaign against him.

But then Temasek’s paper general CEOs would also have to go if they are judged by best practices ang moh private sector standards,

Related post: HoHoHo: StanChart’s CEO is worse than our paper generals

 

Memo to Paper General heading Computer Security Agency

From a Mr Happy

I avoid Intel and use AMD in my systems. I have found that the Ryzen processor family offers great performance with out the power consumption or heat output of its predecessors.

Putting my CTO hat on for a moment, in reality there are always holes in the security of both software and  hardware or exploits previously not considered. So keep things patched, keep security layers tight, stay on top the available information and do not get complacent because at that point you assume you are secure then you become vulnerable. It comes under two headings, security and managing your IT estate, if you fail to maintain your investment you will fall behind and be vulnerable. If you or your organisation does not have the knowledge get a professional in to conduct an audit and security sweep. Organisations are facing far more security vulnerabilities and threats than at any previous point in the technology revolution and many organisations are not managing it correctly.

Comment on FT article about latest Intel problem

Paper BG can cut and paste and pass off as his own genius at work. Like SMRT Neo juz cutting and pasting ang moh practice

Related post:

Is Computer Security Agency CEO talking thru his ass about stolen info?

SMRT Neo juz cutting and pasting ang moh practice

In Man that should be running SMRT,I wrote about the ang moh running the MRT system in the world’s greatest global city, New York. He has always worked in public transport and has always taken public transport to work be it in London, Toronto, Sydney or NY.

As mentioned in the piece, he’s no Oxbridge or Ivy League type. In an article, I read after doing the above piece, he tells of the times when as a junior manager in charge of a station in London’s MRT system, he was treated like dirt whenever he had to go HQ to meet the senior managers.

Btw, by GCT’s standard he is Goh Chok Tong’s standard, he is “very mediocre”: he earns only US$325,000 a year. He took the NY job because it was a challenge bhe couldn’t resist. The salary was close to his previous job.

Whatever, SMRT Neo is jux cutting and pasting: what our paper generals and scholars are well known for. And ministers too. Think all our restructuring plans: Economic restructuring: This time, it’s really different.

 

Man that should be running SMRT

As Desmond Kwek’s successor, instead of another scholar and general as reported by  ST, the PAP administration should try to recruit Andy Byford who has worked in some tough MRT systems (London, Sydney and Toronto) and has a record of success in the MRT field. So much so that New York turned to him to do something about its system.

He is a MRT man to his bones: all his jobs involve trains.

Better still he personally checks the system daily: he takes the MRT to and from work. When was the last time Desmond or any other CEO or presumptive CEO took the MRT to work?

And finally, he personally apologises for delays. A Ferrari driving FT MD of SMRT said commuters had a choice not to use her trains if they were unhappy. Even the PAPpies found this too much to stomach.

But he’s no Oxbridge or Ivy League man, so our system discounts him immediately.

He made a name for himself running transport systems in London, Sydney and Toronto. Now Briton Andy Byford is in charge of turning around New York’s ageing, failing subway system. What did he get himself into?

About 400,000 people pass through the Bloor-Yonge subway station every day in Toronto, Canada’s largest city.

And on a summer’s day in 2013, the city’s transport chief Andy Byford tried to apologise to every one of them.

Earlier in the day, water damage had caused a signal failure, delaying trains from rush hour that morning until early afternoon.

Walking up and down the platform, Byford tried to apologise in person to harried commuters while a recording of him formally apologising played on a loop on the station’s loudspeaker.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43561378

 

 

Why S’pore’s growth is so gd this year

And next yr’s should be better.

Nothing to do with the PAP administration.

All down to the recovery in global trade.

Since 2010 global trade has, by and large, shown only lacklustre growth. Once expected to grow regularly at 1.5-2 times global gross domestic product, trade has been growing at, or even below, the rate of broader economic output in recent years, prompting some to proclaim the end of an era of “hyperglobalisation”.

This year is expected to be the best in recent history for global trade. The WTO in September upgraded its forecast for world trade growth, predicting it would expand by 3.6 per cent in 2017. That is largely the result of a better global economy. For the first time since the crisis all of the world’s major economies are in relatively rude health.

FT

Don’t overleverage in property

But the recovery in global trade remains far from a boom and there are still plenty of signs of fragility.

FT again

And yes the scholar and SAF general now running SPH screwed up big time when in ran NOL. selling it when the cycle was turning.

Chiat lat if SMRT involved in this

Sure a lot of problems. Hope that SMRT will be left out of the driveless bus scheme to be introduced in Punggol, Tengah and the Jurong Innovation District from 2022*.

But I forgot, with GE scheduled at latest by early 2021, SMRT will be great again by 2019 at the latest. The PAP administration will throw our money into fixing SMRT so that by the next GE, the present unhappiness will be a distant memory. Remember this was done before: On the contrary cybernuts, Desmond did a great job.

Desmond did such a great job between his appointment in 2012 and July 2015, that a major MRT cock-up weeks before the last GE did not help the Oppo.

————————————

*BBC report

Singapore plans to introduce driverless buses on its public roads by 2022.

The government says they will be piloted in three new neighbourhoods which will have less-crowded roads designed to accommodate the buses.

The buses will be used to help residents travel in their communities, and to nearby train and bus stations.

Densely-populated Singapore hopes driverless technology will help the country manage its land constraints and manpower shortages.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-42090987

 

On the contrary cybernuts, Desmond did a great job

Look at his track record from 2012 to 2015 and to now sack him would show that the PAP are a bunch of ingrates like the TRE cybernuts and rats (From conception to death, the PAP looks after S’poreans),

He was appointed CEO of SMRT after two major problems in December 2011 that affected 250,000 commuters and which resulted in a public inquiry.

From his appointment till April 2016, there were no major cock ups bar one major whopper just before GE 2015. This was on 7 July 2015 and affected the North -South and East-West lines. 500,000 commuters were affected.

But I suppose S’porean voters didn’t think about this massive-cock up when they voted on 11 September 2015, a month and a half later. I suppose that they were really happy that commuters had reliable service from 2012 till 6 July, and from 8 July till election day. They thought it was one-off event.

Whatever, they gave the PAP a really overwhelming mandate of 70% (10 more points from 2011 GE, held before the December train cock-up.)

What I’m saying is that Desmond ensured that SMRT service did not become an election issue that could cost the PAP votes.

Things only started going wrong after some trainees died in an avoidable accident in March 2016.

There was a real problem on 25 April 2016 affecting the North -South and East-West lines, parts of the Circle Line, and the Bukit Panjang LRT

Then this year there were the October flooded tunnels and then the 15 November train crash.

Maybe the deaths in March 2016 of some trainees have something to do with these problems? Their spirits need to be appeased?

Time to call in the bomohs? Maybe ex SMRT director Hali, now president (#notmypresident protest and me), can recommend one? More on Hali’s judgement between 2007 -2011/ Meritocracy? What meritocracy?

Now if he fails to call in the bomohs, he should be fired. What do You think?

 

 

Khaw blaming Dr Goh for SMRT failings?

How can Khaw say we were poor money 30 yrs ago?

Thirty years ago, Singapore’s per capita GDP was about $16,000. Last year, in 2016, it has grown more than four times to about $73,000….So when there are people who criticise the North-South and East-West Lines on why we did not do this and that, we were simply short of cash.

Khaw

In 1981, 36 yrs ago, we had so much reserves because of consistent budget surpluses that Dr Goh Keng Swee decided to set up GIC to better manage the returns on the reserves. (Btw, Goh was no fan of the MRT system. He wanted buses.)

Is he implying that Dr Goh, the then PM of the day, one Harry Lee, and the cabinet decided to prioritise overseas investment returns over the MRT system? Is he also saying that the money in the reserves stashed away then were better deployed building a Great MRT system?

Khaw must be punch drunk after taking too many head blows because in defending SMRT, he’s telling us that the then leaders prioritised surpluses i.e. reserves, over infrastructure. Until his latest comments, the official narrative was that we could have surpluses (reserves), and good infrastructure and that the founding leaders achieved both in their wisdom. Now Khaw is saying that the official narrative is BS, and that the money that went to GIC to manage should have been used to make a Great MRT system, not one that is braking down 30 yrs later.

Separately as Chris K pointed out

GDP per capita had grown more than 4 times in 30 years means the govie has 4 times as much tax revenues as 30 years ago. If “we were simply short of cash”, then the govie is not spending enough for the transportation system to keep up with the size of the economy.

Is Khaw, blaming the other Goh and PM (then DPM) for not spending $ in the 90s?

I’ll leave the last word  to a M’sian PR working here (he married local so as to get HDB flat)

30 years ago might have been short, but since then fiscal surpluses have been close to 10pc of GDP a year by IMF accounting. See this is the problem, train investments come out of the budget but land sales get squirreled away unseen. And we pretend we are poor… So easy to invest in a massive investment portfolio, so hard to invest in your own infrastructure. This fiscal dinosaur begs to be made extinct.

Related posts

SMRT: The cock that Khaw talks

Fat cats need help

P&G mgt reminds me of the PAP

SMRT: Why Desmond must go

PAP has lost “output legitimacy”

SMRT: The cock that Khaw talks

Improving rail reliability is a “multi-year war”, said Mr Khaw, who added that calling for a leadership change with each disappointment would be a “sure strategy for failure”

Hey Desmond Kuek was brought in (or “volunteered”) five years ago. So how long more will he be allowed to disappoint?

Did he, when he “volunteered” ask for “5 + x” number of years to make “SMRT great again” or was promised  “5 + x” years to make “SMRT great again”? If he asked for, or was given a specific number of years to make “SMRT great again” we must be told the number and the reason for that number.

Otherwise five years on the job, and still no results sounds like jobs for the generals.

And this is BS

Due to budgetary considerations faced by the government decades ago and the island’s land scarcity, the design of the North-South and East-West lines — Singapore’s oldest MRT lines which were opened in 1987 — is not ideal.

And overcoming the constraints would require the halting of operations for an extended period and at large costs to taxpayers, Transport Minister Khaw Boon Wan told the House on Tuesday (Nov 7).

For instance, the two lines, which account for about 60 per cent of the MRT ridership, have relied only on one depot in Bishan over the last 30 years because of “budget constraints” at the time of design.

…

Budgets were not the only constraint. Citing the example of train systems such as those in London and New York, Mr Khaw said he was “quite puzzled” by how the trains there could run 24 hours while allowing engineering work to be done.

While these lines were designed as far back as a century ago when land was cheap, he has also realised that the networks catered for many side-tracks, such that trains could run on alternate tracks. “That’s why they were able to continue running 24 hours, not necessarily along the same tracks. It will go to the same stations but there are bypasses … And that’s how a well-designed network ought to be,” he said. Again, Singapore does not have this “luxury”, he said.

Not having these “luxuries” means that there should have been a lot more emphasis on preventive maintenance. It’s now clear that this was lacking, hence the present rush to fix the system before the next GE.

And btw, land was (and is) expensive in HK too. And the British administrators were not exactly spendthrift in their MRT construction budget.

SMRT: Why Desmond must go

That SMRT has asked staff to own-up to lapses without being penalised before a detailed audit is carried out is very worrying. The implication is that SMRT’s senior management is worried that the falsification of records on the maintenance of a tunnel is not the work of “a few rotten apples”. As someone posted on FB:

To be at this juncture, they must have lost control over the operations of the company. Employees must be very unhappy and demoralised too!

Management must be worried that the falsification of maintenance records is systemic. If it’s systemic, senior management cannot escape responsibility even if S’pore does accountability and responsibility in its unique understanding of “meritocracy”: Why PAP doesn’t do accountability, meritocracy.

Talking about the falsification of maintenance records and the failure to detect that work was done, a few days before the amnesty:

Singapore Management University’s Toru Yoshikawa said they are indicative that it was not a priority for SMRT’s top management and board to review its system of checks and internal audits.

Well Desmond has been CEO long enough (5 years) to be responsible for systematic mgt failings. so he and other senior managers should commit hari-kiri. And btw, Hali, the president, and Ong, a contender to be PM, were directors of SMRT: More on Hali’s judgement between 2007 -2011/ Meritocracy? What meritocracy?

During his 1984 National Day Rally speech, LKY had this to say about getting things done and what should be done when things don’t work: “Everything works, whether its water, electricity, gas, telephone, telexes, it just has to work. If it doesn’t work, I want to know why, and if I am not satisfied, and I often was not, the chief goes, and I have to find another chief. Firing the chief is very simple.“

Wonder why his son forgot this Hard Truth when rereading LKY’s speeches? How PM honours “Pa”

Because LKY would fired him after the 2011 GE if LKY had the power? Instead LKY had to move on and was rumoured to have said that Teo Cheen Hean would have made a better PM than “Hsien Loong”.

 

 

 

 

 

MRT: Pouring petrol on the waterborne flames of discontent

That’s what the chairman of the Public Transport Council did last week, a few days after Khaw, and the chairman and the CEO of SMRT did a pale imitation of Japanese-style apology over the “ponding” problem. 

The Public Transport Council (PTC) will consider the rising cost of maintaining new rail infrastructure as it goes into its annual fare review exercise, PTC chairman Richard Magnus said on Thursday (Oct 19).

…

Mr Magnus wrote in a blog post, titled Balancing Sustainability and Affordability, that the council “cannot turn a blind eye” to rising costs as it has to ensure the “viability of the public transport system”*.

Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/fare-review-adds-to-rising-costs-of-public-transport-magnus-9325772

He obviously isn’t singing from the hymn sheet as the other three because the last thing the PAP administration wants, is to remind the commuting public that once the trains run like clock-work again there’ll be fare rises**. (Funny that the trains were on time when ran by a Ferrari-owning FT retailer, who also owned a Mercedes sports, not a paper general.)

Whatever, somehow I think that even if the problems at SMRT and the other MRT lines are fixed by this time next year next year, way before the next general election (latest possible date is in early 2021), there won’t be fare increases until after the general election. (And if the problems ain’t fixed by 2021, I wouldn’t be surprised if PM declares a state of emergency, delaying GE until after the MRT problems are solved.)

Btw wonder who are the

— turkeys voting for Christmas,

— suckling pigs voting for Chinese New Year, and

— the sheep voting for Eid al-Adha,

in the focus groups that tell the PTC that “fares are affordable”. Must be the die-die must vote PAP PAPpies.

————————————————

*The report contined:

He detailed the cost of investments in public transport, such as the new Downtown Line and bus contracting subsidies.

The Government’s investments in new rail infrastructure will cost S$20 billion over the next five years, and comes on top of S$4 billion to renew, upgrade and expand rail operating assets, he wrote. Another S$4 billion will be spent on bus contracting subsidies over the same period.

“While these investments are a necessary part of the Government’s push to improve the public transport experience, they raise operating costs and impose a heavy cost burden on taxpayers,” he said.

**Chris K, no fan of the PAP, points out that by first world-standards, public transport fares are low. Funny on this pro PAP occasions, he doesn’t point out that salaries here are not Swiss standard. Btw, his FB wall is becoming the home of TRE’s cybernuts. Comments by the likes of Albert Tay and Es Nolan could have come TRE cybernuts like Oxygen and Rabble-rouser. Chris K will steal eat the lunch of TeamTRE. He doesn’t ask them for funds.

Making MRT Great Again

“Win back our trust”. Taz what Khaw, and the chairman and paper general CEO at SMRT should be doing to make Our MRT Great Again.

First world country.
First world transportation.
First world ethics.

Not the usual suspects KPKBing “PAP is always wrong”.

Someone by the name of Eugene Weeposted u/m on FB. Although he isn’t at present living overseas, he’s spot on on his take of SMRT and what needs to be done.

I think Singaporeans are an understanding bunch.

Yes, we complain like mad when the train service is delayed because in more ways than one, it affects our daily lives and jobs.

But this does not mean we are on a witch hunt to get people fired.

We have been brought up in a culture of honesty and responsibility, and we expect the same from the highest levels of management or government. I believe we are simply looking for an honest response, admission of the issue and a credible solution.

We are more than happy to move on.

But what is unacceptable is when problems remain unaddressed, and worse still, its getting more common.

In light of these, of course there is a swelling ground discontent. but what makes me really uncomfortable is the responses to the public are nothing more than PR spins… get the public to be grateful, look at the hardworking people, to empathize with the workers etc etc.

These PR stunts are not only failing to address our concerns but also basically missing the point, not to mention eroding public trust.

We are not blaming the workers; what we are saying is that the only affordable form of public transport (that the majority of Singaporeans relies on for their bread and butter) is not reliable and please fix it – that is the management’s role.

Yes, we get it. Transportation is not an easy role, and we are not saying it is. But please don’t whitewash or brush it over with some convenient statistics of how more reliable it is when it is not.

If we believe Singapore’s education is top notch; we too, have to believe that Singaporeans are not that gullible to believe in selective statistics, and ignore the day to day disruptions.

If we aim to uphold our values as a first world country that takes pride in what we do, then please don’t give third world responses.

Take issue with the problems at hand, fix it, stop pushing the blame and definately not passing the buck down the line.

We are better than this.

Please don’t take aim at the ground workers, it is not only an appalling display of poor leadership but a clear indication of a lack of moral courage to be there for your people.

And please don’t talk about increasing public transportation fares or increasing salaries till you can increase reliability.

We know it’s an uphill climb, but important sacrifices have to be made in the higher echelon and communications have to be more sincere.

Win back our trust.

First world country.
First world transportation.
First world ethics.

Why PAP doesn’t do accountability, meritocracy.

SPH: Blame previous CEO

It’s fashionable to berate scholars for incompetency especially ex-generals, especially the present Kim Jong-un look-a-like CEO of SPH. After all he did preside over the decline of NOL and its sale juz before the shipping market turned.

But take a step back and look at how SPH was managed before he became CEO.

Low hanging fruit left to rot

Why weren’t these things only done now, not earlier?

— Newsroom consolidation: “The New Paper sports desk will move to ST in November, and ST money desk will move to BT.” (Atas version of Petir)

— And “the AsiaOne team, comprising about 10 members of staff, will be re-deployed to the Straits Times Digital team,” (Yahoo)

These actions should have been done years ago, not last Thursday. After all, revenue from ads and circulation have been declining for years, so why wwere these simple acts of newsoom and tech consolidation not done earlier?

Only scholar can think of these actions isit?

Retrenchment

The original plan by the previous CEO was to cut jobs over two years. The Kim Jong-un look-a-like accelerated the culling, and rightly so.

Here’s something that someone I know wrote on FB

I’ve honestly never seen a retrenchment exercise (and it’s happened to me before) where the retrenched staff are not asked to leave immediately. OK locking out of computers is not the proper way for the staff to find out, but sad as the news is, what’s happened is pretty much the norm. Once a retrenchment exercise is decided on (and one can debate whether it is good or bad), there is no point delaying.

I was at a local bank when they did a major retrenchment. They said they would do it in two months’ time. It was a terrible time waiting and wondering who would be hit. In the end they did it in a week. It was still bad, but there was no point waiting.

Why PAP doesn’t do accountability, meritocracy

Meritocracy and accountability are two sides of the same coin as the US navy has recently shown (PM, this is accountability). (Btw, a long time ago, the British executed a white horse to encourage other senior naval officers to do their duty.)

Therev are many examples where despite all the talk of meritocray (Meritocracy? No leh Cosiness), by the PAP, failures are rewarded, showing there’s no accountabilty. Think NOL’s CEO who is now SPH’s CEO or Ong Yee Kung  or SMRT’s Desmond Kwek or paper General Ministers.

The reason is simple: they were doing what they were supposed to do. Juz like when algos fail, the algos are not faulted. They juz doing what they were designed to do: “only doing what it was told”.

This realisation came when I read this

If Facebook’s algorithms were executives, the public would be demanding their heads on a stick, such was the ugly incompetence on display this week.

First, the company admitted a “fail” when its advertising algorithm allowed for the targeting of anti-Semitic users.

Then on Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg said he was handing over details of more than 3,000 advertisements bought by groups with links to the Kremlin, a move made possible by the advertising algorithms that have made Mr Zuckerberg a multi-billionaire.

Gross misconduct, you might say – but of course you can’t sack the algorithm. And besides, it was only doing what it was told.

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41358078

Blame the PAP (or rather the leaders of the PAP). And blame the pioneer generation for allowing S’pore to become a de facto one-party state?

Looking at things this way, and maybe the poor among the pioneer generation deserve the “peanuts” the PAP are shelling out.

What do u think?

NOL: More evidence scholar screwed up

Looks like NOL was sold juz when the shipping cycle was about to turn (finally).

Yesterday FT’s authoritative Lex column said under the title “Container shipping: surf’s up

Now that the industry is rationalising, how high can prices go?”

Industry volume growth is expected to hit 5 per cent this year, from 3.8 last year. Scrapping rates have picked up, while new capacity on order is finally falling. Such newfound discipline might last longer than in previous cycles because consolidation has increased the market share of the top six operators to almost two-thirds, from two-fifths in 2013. Four alliances have become three.

Well the ex-general, scholar and ex-Temasek MD running NOL is now CEO of SPH. Good luck to the shareholders.

Here’s real meritocracy at work: US navy when there’s a suspected systematic problem PM, this is accountability

Job mkt for NTU maths grads

But first contrasting HK and S’pore in one sentence:

Tycoons are as synonymous with the story of modern Hong Kong as founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew is with Singapore.

FT

But thinking about it, both share a common preoblem resulting from this contrast.

The article then goes on to analyse why young Hongkies are unhappy with the legacy of these tycoons. They dominate the HK economy, stifying the aspirations and creativity of the young. Even a tycoon’s heir can feel so frustrated that he has to enter the family business, in order to get on.

Sounds like the legacy that Harry left us. Because of Hard Truths, TLCs and other GLCs dominate our economy, stifling the aspirations and creativity of the young.

And the job market ain’t that good even for elite local grads.

Recently I spoke to a friend whose daughter, an NTU maths scholar, is just about to join a big local bank’s data mining development team on a one year internship (very decent pay). So far so good.

But the catch is that out of the previous cohort of NTU maths grads who finished their internships, only 3 out of 10 manage to get permanent jobs, some continuing on a yr to yr contract. They are told it’s the economy.

Meanwhile LKY’s son rows with his siblings and fixed the presidency so that a presidency reserved only for Malays, has none of the three declared candidates having an i/c saying “Malay”. As I wrote here:

The PAP’s candidate and a candidate who speaks Malay badly both have i/cs saying “Indian” while the third person has one saying “Pakistani”. Even for me who knows about the thin culture line between Malays and some Indian Muslims* am shocked that there isn’t someone with an i/c saying “Malay” willing to stand. Don’t want to be regarded as selling out to the PAP isit? Or unlike “Indians” and “Pakistanis” feeling piseh to stand in a presidency reserved only for “Malays”.

And he headed SAF and SingTel?/ Where PM’s siblings have the high moral ground

Mdm Ho Ching was “never authorised” to remove the personal belongings of Mr Lee Kuan Yew from his home, Mr Lee Hsien Yang said on Saturday (Jun 24).

(More details from CNA below)

So why wait till now to tell S’poreans that he and his sister didn’t do their job as executors? If they really didn’t give their consent, shouldn’t they have taken steps to retrieve the property then? And as citizens, and good children of Harry, expose their sister-in-law’s thefts and their brother’s lies?

And he should remember that by keeping quiet at the time, the executors are likely to be deemed to have consented.

Where else have they failed in their duties? Given they held high executive posts in S’pore Inc., we have a right to know.

Seriously, I think he should stop being petty, because he and his sister are trying to frame the row as about the abuse of power, the absence of “checks and balances to prevent the abuse of government”, and how the constructive, nation-building media ignores or disses those that don’t fit into the “right” narratives. And how these are new developments and that they are the first to notice**.

They should have focused on where they have the moral high ground, not give spurious, cock reasons.

To my mind, they  are right to be morally upset with their brother for not challenging the will but telling his subordinates that he had problems with the circumstances surrounding the will.

— Why PM could not go to court.

— But he should have just sat down and shut up not tell his subordinates his concerns.

Especially since LKY recognised that the govt could override his wishes.

And PM’s statutory declaration was nothing less than an attack on the integrity of Lee Hsien Yang and his wife. As a son of LKY, Lee Hsien Yang would have learnt the importance of defending his integrity. He could do no less as a son of Harry than to attack his brother’s integrity in return.

——————————

*The youngest son of founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew was responding to a note on Facebook by Mdm Ho, the wife of his brother and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, on the circumstances under which the elder Mr Lee’s belongings were loaned to the National Heritage Board (NHB) for a memorial exhibition.

Mdm Ho had explained that she was tidying up the house after Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s death when she came across “small interesting items which (she) thought were significant in papa’s life”. She also said that she kept both Mr Lee Hsien Yang and his sister Dr Lee Wei Ling informed on what she had done, including the loan of the items to NHB.

PM Lee also said on Friday that the loan to NHB was “openly done, and for a good cause – an exhibition remembering my father soon after he died”.

But in a Facebook post on Saturday, Mr Lee Hsien Yang said that he and Dr Lee – the executors of Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s estate – had not authorised Mdm Ho to lend the items to NHB.

Read more at http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/ho-ching-was-never-authorised-to-remove-lee-kuan-yew-s-8975018

**They seem to have forgotten JBJ, Chiam, the Coldstore and Spectrum detainess, etc.

 

Revisited: Why we don’t buy the “explanations” of S’pore Inc

In 2010 (before the double blow to the PAP of GE and PE of 2011), I posted a piece that I reproduce below.

I repost Why we don’t buy the “explanations” of S’pore Inc below because recently

— The police and prison service confirmed (double confirmed?) that a 74-yr old woman was handcuffed and restrained when she was moved from the police post to the police division and to the courts. They said it was “part of standard procedure lar”.

— AVA’s culling of fowl asserting are not junglefowl, refusing to do genetic testing. We have to accept its word despite discrepancies in its explanations that the public pointed out.

And last year we had the Benjamin’s death and in Dec 2o13 the Little India riot. Again everything was done by the book: hence no need to explain further. No need even to rethink or learn lessons. (I don’t think the changes introduced after Benjamin’s death and the riots amount to anything other than cosmetic changes to appease its supporters who were troubled by what happened.

In short, the PAP administration has not changed its spots when it comes to accepting responsibility or explaining when mistakes or cock-ups happen.

---

Why we don’t buy the “explanations” of S’pore Inc (first posted in 2010)

The ex-head of the civil service and now chairman of the Public Service Commission showed he “got it” when he said at a recent speech in the US to S’pore  scholars: If we strive to be world-class, we will be judged by world-class standards. If we say that we have one of the best governments in the world, the public will expect it to solve virtually any problem Singapore faces.

Taz correct.

But he showed he didn’t “get it” when he went on: Some of our citizens are now beginning to expect the government to do the impossible. Many citizens are now less prepared to give the government room to make mistakes and are less forgiving and more demanding. They tend to regard explanations as excuses. Take the recent floods. To some Singaporeans, saying that floods are natural disasters and Singapore cannot be flood-free, sounds like a cop out. Every time something goes wrong in Singapore, citizens ask: “If our public servants and Ministers are so smart and paid so well, why can’t they prevent the problem from occurring, or solve it for good after it occurs?”

He is assuming that the “explanations” given explained what had happened. He should relook this assumption.

Juz look at some of the recent “explanations” that have been given for goof-ups or incidents that caused public inconvenience. Are we wrong in thinking sume people were trying to avoid responsibility?

When MPs asked why the flat of Mas Selamat’s brother was not watched, they were told by the Home Affairs minister that that Mas Selamat could go undetected in the flat “was not a security lapse’ and that hundreds were probed . Err how abt answering the question, “Why wasn’t the flat watched?”

As to the floods, I could not understand the minister’s and senior officials’ explanations. I only “got it” when, on an inside page of ST, it was reported that more rain had fallen in a few hours than it had for days on end i.e. it was very, very heavy rainfall in a very short space of time. Point taken. But this explanation by a junior official was buried deep inside ST, and I’m sure many would have missed reading it. The front page “explanations” failed to give this fact, or where they did, this fact was lost in the smoke of hot air.

The problem is that the “explanations” given often ignore the question, assume that S’poreans are morons or that we are educated, and refuse to admit that mistakes were made. Perhaps PSC should run courses to train scholars to be less arrogant; to admit to making mistakes; and to write in simple, believable prose? One gets the impression that ministers and civil servants attend courses where they are taught not to ever admit making a mistake; and to avoid answering questions.

It wasn’t always like this. When one LKY was PM, mistakes were admitted; and explanations were given in simple and understandable English. I wonder how GCT or LHL would have explained why and how we were kicked out of M’sia, and what was the future of S’pore post-demerger?

And on economical and financial matters, no minister post-1991 has matched the simplicity of Dr Goh’s radio talks and articles.

And asses were kicked and faces shamed. (Admittedly, sometimes the wrong people were punished.)

But let’s be fair: MoE did admit that a scholarship was given to a peeping-tom because the boy’s teachers got some things wrong. He was recently convicted in England for possession of child pornography. But what if the balls-up had been made by officers higher up the food chain? I mean teachers are the lowest of the low in the education food chain, or so I’ve been assured by teachers.

https://atans1.wordpress.com/2010/11/27/why-we-dont-buy-the-explanations-of-spore-inc/

KPMG says SIA is not a global brand

This was published in the constructive, nation-building freesheet that is MediaCorp last week:

Can Singapore companies be globally competitive?

The United States has Apple. China has Alibaba. Japan has Toyota. Korea has Samsung.

Why doesn’t Singapore have a company or brand that is equally recognisable, globally?

This was written by

Larry Sim and See Wei Hwa are Tax Partner and Senior Tax Manager, respectively, at KPMG in Singapore. These are their own views.

What this piece shows is the ignorance or stupidity, or both, of the people working in KPMG.

In consumer brands, there’s  S’pore Int’l Auntie. Admittedly her bottom and breasts are sagging when compared to her A-Rab counterparts but still SIA is still a global brand* like Alibaba, Apple, Samsung or Toyota. In fact SIA has been around longer as a global brand than Alibaba, Apple or Samsung. Yet the men from KPMG doesn’t know this fact. Stupid.

And taz’s not all.

In the global offshore marine industry, we have Keppel and SembCorp. In commodities, there’s Wilmar and Olam (And there was Noble).

And we don’t have “a company or brand that is equally recognisable, globally?” Stupid KPMG.

Sad that these people working in KPMG doesn’t know S’pore. Or that KPMG employs such stupid people. They FTs where the “T” stands for “Trash” isit? Or are they S’porean products of our education system?

Or is KPMG another nest of anti-PAP cybernut pests, like TRE or TOC? There is nothing good in S’pore worth praising is the attitude of these nuts.

And is KPMG juz another pretentious, shirty company that thinks it is the peer of a company like PwC?

---

*I was talking to the a retired SIA gal yesterday who still looks glamorous; she’s the mother of a 17-yr gal.

Will CEO of TLC behave in the recommended PAP way?

The PAP administration likes to say that S’poreans should follow the Japanese way accepting responsibility for cock-ups: apologise and, where necessary, resign.

So will the CEO of Surbana Jurong follow the Japanese practice, after the  Manpower Minister Lim Swee Say on Tuesday (Feb 7) scolded Surbana Jurong in Parliament describing the company’s behaviour as unacceptable? The GLC had publicly labeled the 54 employees it sacked as poor performers,

—————————–

Surbana Jurong is a Singaporean government-owned consultancy company focusing on infrastructure and urban development. It was formed in June 2015 with the merger of Surbana International Consultants and Jurong International Holdings. It is wholly owned by Temasek Holdings and has about 4,000 employees

Surbana Jurong group chief executive Wong Heang Fine said: “We cannot allow our 1 per cent of poor performers to continue to affect the rest of the 99 per cent of staff who are performing.” The company later said the process could have been better managed after even the running dog that is NTUC KPKBed.

———————————————————————

“To the best of my recollection, this is the first time that an employer conducted such a major termination exercise and … labelled the workers as ‘poor performers’. I think as Manpower Minister, it’s something I do not find acceptable.”

Adding that one’s work environment and a company’s human resource practices may be contributing factors to performance: “I hope we will not come across another case where a company does a major termination and labels employees as having poor performance publicly.”

He said Surbana Jurong’s management and the unions reached an agreement on ex gratia payment, “which in our view is a fair outcome for the affected employees”.

---

The law on unfair dismissal

If an employee files an appeal of unfair dismissal to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), the ministry will first mediate. Should that fail, MOM will conduct an inquiry and require the employer to produce evidence to justify the termination.

If the employer is unable to substantiate claims that the affected employee’s performance is poor, the employer may be ordered to reinstate the employee or provide compensation. If it does not comply, it can be prosecuted.

By settling Surbana Jurong has effectively admitted that it cocked-up.

——————————————————–

Will the CEO accept Japanese style responsibility for cock-up? Or will it be usual “move on” that so discredits our so-called meritocracy system? Sadly the latter is more probable.

The PAP believes that “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others”:

https://atans1.wordpress.com/2015/07/21/why-khaw-vikram-must-commit-hari-kiri/

https://atans1.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/learn-from-japanese-set-example-leh-elites/

After all, a Surbana Jurong spokesperson said the matter had been resolved “amicably” with the unions, adding “It is currently reviewing our performance management processes to improve the system.”

This means that some S’porean human resources manager is going to get the sack (Replaced by a Peenoy or Arneigh FT? Cheaper leh.), while the CEO will continue smiling when he gets his monthly CPF statement like Lim Swee Say.

Sad!

 

S’pore Inc: Ownself pay ownself

CapitaLand Commercial Trust Singapore’s First and Largest Commercial REIT 8 – 9 November 2016 Presentation for investor meetings in Hong Kong

Click to access 20161107_172614_C61U_P2DBY8KUFMS4XEEF.1.pdf

Slide 14 showed that Top 10 tenants contribute 36% of monthly gross rental income

From the perspective of Ownself Pay Ownself

3rd was GIC — 4%

5th was StanChart — 3%

6th was CapitaLand — 3%

10th was EDB — 1%

For the record Temasek owns 40% of CapitaLand and CCT, and about 20% of StanChart. But be be fair HSBC is the second biggest tenant of CCT contributing 4%.

ST on how rotten SMRT’s culture is

Must read this ST article as it describes how rotten the SMRT culture was or is. An excerpt

Truth is, SMRT must be accountable for many of its recent missteps, including one which led to the deaths of two young employees on a track early this year.

Just days after an embarrassing bus driver strike thrust the operator into the limelight in November 2012, newly minted chief executive Desmond Kuek admitted that the company had managerial, structural, cultural and systemic issues. Fixing those “deep-seated” issues, he said, was going to be a top priority.

Four years on, it is clear some of those issues remain unresolved. To be fair, no one person can effect profound change in an organisation of some 9,000 employees. A top-down approach rarely works. Change has to come from within, and start from the bottom. Management has to walk the talk, and be ready to join the troops in the trenches.

Many years ago, Lee Han Shih, a really brave and good SPH journalist (now a media entrepreneur), told me that the reporter who wrote the above report, was one of ST’s best. This report is more evidence.

Another GLC in the making?

Chris K one of the few sane bloggers in alternative media, on matters econimics and financial (Actually he’s the sanest voice on these topics in alternative media) speculates:

Watch for it. There may be a new GLC. And being one means it will at least initially be 100% owned by Temasek. And being 100% owned by Temaseek means, to use Senior Minister Josephine Teo’s words in Parliament a couple of years back, it will generate “good risk adjusted returns”. Like most GLCs, its business model will capitalise on its connectivity with the government and its unique insights into government policy choices to earn profits from Singaporeans and maybe foreigners.

As a GLC, a scholar preferably a high ranking officer in the SAF will be appointed CEO. As this GLC will be a pioneer in a new type of industry, a regulatory agency will be set to be headed by another scholar, preferably another high ranking officer in the SAF.

[I]ts business? To run a chain of love hotels situated in discrete areas in every part of Singapore in order to provide space for Singaporeans to have sex and hopefully produce babies. Like its fellow GLC, this newcomer to the stable of Temasek will derive its profits from Singaporeans through rent seeking. it is expected that its revenue stream is recession proof.

It is too early to to forecast if this new GLC will do an IPO.

Seriously, it lools like he’s turning stand-up comic like Tharman and other PAP ministers. Let’s wish him better luck. At least they have their million dollar salaries to fall back on when they flop. He’s only got his savings.

But he has serious message: how our GLCs make money,

Like most GLCs, its business model will capitalise on its connectivity with the government and its unique insights into government policy choices to earn profits from Singaporeans and maybe foreigners.

Only three S’porean GLCs make serious money overseas: Keppel (rig building), SembCorp (rig building and industrial parks in Vietnam) and SIA. And the first also has a big local property arm.

GIC rushing in after Temasek got taken to the cleaners

Second time lucky? S’pore Inc trying its luck (with our money) at the roulette wheel again?

I’ll let the FT tell the tale:

GIC, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore, plans to buy a large minority stake in Irish telecoms group Eir, in a deal that is expected to value the former state monopoly provider at more than €3.3bn.

And

The Eir deal would mark the second time in less than a decade that a Singaporean investment fund has taken an interest in Eir, which has been traded between investors and debt holders in a convoluted series of deals and flotations over the 16 years since it was privatised.

In 2012, the senior lenders of Eircom took control of the Irish group following a restructuring of its €4bn of debt, which slashed about €1.7bn of borrowing from its balance sheet but also wiped out the previous shareholders including Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT) — owned by Singaporean investment arm Temasek — and all the more junior levels of debt holders.

Reminds me of “Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better,” Samuel Beckett.

Temasek and Eircom

IE, next squanderer of our money?

One Belt, One Road (OBOR) will cause massive losses for investors. According to the FT, Chinese officials privately admit they expect to lose 80 per cent of their investment in Pakistan, 50 per cent in Myanmar and 30 per cent in central Asia.

Well IE Singapore, the state-owned trade development board, has agreed to a partnership with China Construction Bank to finance OBOR projects, with about US$22bn in funding envisaged. The FT reports the US$22bn in funding, not CNA. Wonder why?

CNA reports:

To help Singapore companies tap infrastructure opportunities in China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative, International Enterprise (IE) Singapore has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).

One Belt, One Road (OBOR) is an ambitious plan proposed by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to build land, sea and air routes reaching across the continent and beyond, with the aim of boosting China’s trade and carving out new export markets between Asia and Europe.

Under the agreement, signed at the 2nd RMB Internationalisation Summit on Tuesday (Jun 7), ICBC will provide financing services and look at project structuring to support Singapore companies in OBOR infrastructure projects across Asia.

ICBC will also set up a team in Singapore to provide project financing and related professional services required in OBOR infrastructure investments.

Our cock town planners

They cut and paste ang moh ideas. Works in Animal Farm but not in India

“The draft masterplan for Amaravati was prepared by planners from the Singapore government as part of an agreement between the state of Andhra Pradesh and Singapore,” explained Srikant Nagulapalli, commissioner of theAndhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA). “But when the first draft arrived, we realised that it would not work.”

According to Nagulapalli: “Global town planning principles do not take Vaasthuinto consideration. But the people of Andhra Pradesh have a deep-rooted belief and will not buy any property that is not north- or east-facing. We had to send [the draft plan] back to the master planners and ask them to rework it taking these principles into account. The whole capital city project would have had no buyers if the initial draft had been implemented,” he said.

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/jan/26/amaravati-andhra-pradesh-india-singapore-new-state-capital-city

More

“The master planners with the Singapore government were puzzled,” Nagulapalli said. “They wanted to know what Vaasthu was and who wrote it. We were stumped. After some rather frantic research, we found that the Indian scholar Varahamihira had written it in the 6^th century. We have learnt a lot during the process of building this capital.”

And

Amaravati was envisioned as a world-class smart city, the first to be part-funded by the Indian government. The new city will be built at an expected cost of 1 trillion rupees (£10.7bn) on 217.23 square kilometres of land on the banks of the Krishna river, and is expected to generate jobs to sustain a population of 9-12 million people in the surrounding capital region.

The Andhra Pradesh government signed a pro-bono agreement with Singapore in December 2014 to plan the new capital. In all, the government of Singapore, along with private agency Surbana Jurong, committed to preparing three masterplans – the last of which, the “seed capital masterplan” for the core of the city (which will house the Central Business District and the state’s new government offices) was only submitted last week.

Three cheers for the PAP

(Or “Why our GLCs work”)

Talking of the UK (where remember LKY and Goh Keng Swee and Toh Chin Chye- the trinity- studied. I’d describe Lim Kim San, from Raffles College, now NUS, as their archangel who did the work they ordered):

There were significant efficiency improvements in nationalising the postal system and the telegraph network, but the nationalisations of the 20th century were much less successful. This was in part due to the rise of trade unions and the move towards a fully democratic political system. While nationalised companies were left to be minded by technocratic-minded officials in the 19th century, politicians with their eyes on elections started fiddling with them in the 20th. Whenever politicians needed tax cuts to win elections they tended to hack back investment in state-owned firms. They also had a free hand to bloat their payrolls in order to help governments achieve full employment in the economy overall, protected by a system of tariffs and monopolies designed to shield them from competition. And trade unions started to demand excessive pay rises and oppose efficiency improvements, knowing that the state, as owner, would always pay the bill to avoid a fuss at election time.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/12/economist-explains-1

Democracy? What democracy? Unions fighting for workers? What are they? Three cheers for elitism.

But this also rings true: parastatals like national airlines tend to be a handy way for government officials to dish out jobs to cronies. Neither the beneficiaries nor the benefactors of this illicit set-up want to ground the gravy plane.

(From anotther Economist blooger)

Why Pinoys should go home but don’t: S’pore that great meh?

Below is an extract from a FT report in late January on the sterling performance of Pinoyland. And the low price of oil means that it’s likely to do better. So gd that “The Philippines’ economic resurgence, driven by domestic demand and economic reforms, has led to renewed interest from Singapore as well as Singapore-based companies,” said Singapore’s Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang. “As the Philippine economy continues to grow, demand for consumer goods and infrastructure development in sectors such as transportation and housing will rise in tandem.”* (CNA 4 th February)

Yet the Pinoy PMETs still prefer to come here. Tells us a lot doesn’t it?

The Philippines has defied regional trends by recording a pick-up in growth in the fourth quarter, as a bounce in government spending gave a fresh boost to one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies.

The Southeast Asian country grew at an annualised pace of 6.9 per cent in the final three months of the year, far ahead of the 6 per cent expected by most analysts. The quarter-on-quarter figure of 2.5 per cent was the highest in almost two decades, according …. Barclays.

A rebound in government spending was a key driver of the higher growth rate. Exports also proved strong, with manufacturing growing 10.7 per cent year on year, while the agricultural sector also performed above expectations.

The Philippines has been among the brightest economic stars in Asia since … 2010. Although the annual growth figure of 6.1 per cent is the lowest since 2011, the economy remains one of the fastest-growing in the world.

The acceleration in growth last quarter contrasts with a slowdown in many regional economies, including India, Indonesia and China.

Investors have given the Philippines a clear endorsement in both the bond and equity markets this year. The Manila index briefly rose above 7,700 points for the first time on Thursday, having clocked up a string of record highs in recent days.

This month the Philippines became the year’s first sovereign issuer in the US dollar bond market, selling $2bn of 30-year debt while paying a record low yield. Unlike Indonesia, all three major international rating agencies now regard the Philippines as investment-grade.

Investor demand has helped make the peso the best-performing currency in Asia in the past three months, during which time it has risen 1.5 per cent against the dollar. No other currency in the region has strengthened against the dollar over that period.

The Asian Development Bank expects the Philippine economy to grow 6.4 per cent this year, the highest in the region after China.

However, some analysts say lower oil prices and the unexpected uptick shown in the latest data suggest the economy may grow even faster.

Research from Capital Economics highlights the country as the world’s biggest beneficiary of the lower crude price.

“The outlook for the rest of the economy is promising. Consumer spending should remain strong on the back of falling oil prices, which will boost consumers’ purchasing power,” … Capital Economics 

——

*More: Bilateral trade between the Philippines and Singapore hit S$15 billion last year – a 2-per cent increase from 2013. For the Philippines, Singapore is its fourth largest trading partner worldwide and top trading partner in ASEAN.

…

IE Singapore said there is great potential for Singapore companies to partner both the Philippine government and private sector, especially in developing infrastructure.

Under the Public-Private Partnership Programme introduced by the Philippine government in 2010, several projects have been successfully tendered by Singapore firms such as SMRT and MSI Global.

IE Singapore also said local firms are starting to explore opportunities beyond the capital city Manila into regions such as Cebu and Clark. 

“Singapore at the moment is our second largest investor in investment projects. It’s also the third largest in terms of direct portfolio investments,” said Mr Guillermo Luchangco, the Philippine co-chair of the Philippines-Singapore Business Council. “We do have a very active investment incentive programme. Depending on the type of industry you bring in, it can get a lot of tax incentives and there is ease of bringing in people.”

The Philippines also has one of the highest household consumption expenditure in ASEAN, with a population of 96 million people. This offers considerable opportunities in consumer sectors, across the F&B, fashion and retail categories.

 

Why we have so few world class GLCs

We only have three, Keppel, SembCorp and SIA.

Here’s a possible reason from the letters page of the PAP’s bible, the Economist:

State-owned failings

* SIR – No long analysis is needed to understand why state-owned firms underperform (“State capitalism in the dock”, November 22nd). Two main mechanisms exist for accountability in modern society: market pressure and political control. State-owned firms fall between the two. They lack the degree of competition that private firms typically face but also do not have the direct political control that applies in conventional government.

Lack of accountability means lack of performance. Effectiveness is best secured by either keeping ventures with classic government agencies, instead of with state-owned firms, or by placing ventures in fully privatised companies with full market exposure, whichever best suits the activities in question. A bit of each is not enough, but instead creates a grey zone with grey results, which is what we see for state-owned firms.

Bent Flyvbjerg
Said Business School
University of Oxford