Single Worst Investment in History

This is to put on record that our extraordinary talents in Temasek Holdings have created world history with their extraordinary transaction: they lost 4.7 billion on their 5.7 billion investment in Merill Lynch/Bank of America

Video link: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1124895352&play=1

World Standard Government?

In a letter sent to the media, National Environment Agency CEO Mr Andrew Tan wrote:

“When markets and hawker centres are being upgraded, grassroot organisations and their advisers can choose to have a temporary market which is not provided for under the Government’s Hawker Centres Upgrading Programme.

If so, they also carry the responsibility of keeping the temporary market clean to meet NEA standards. However, NEA will intervene if it assesses the need to do so in the interest of public health.

In the case of Geylang Serai Market, the Kampong Ubi Citizens Consultative Committee decided to build and manage the temporary market. Despite the best of efforts put in by the Temporary Market Management Committee in implementing its cleaning regime and in tackling the rat infestation problem, the problem had persisted.”


The above letter is disturbing in the following ways:

Firstly, persistence rat infestation is not considered threatening enough to public health for NEA to intervene.

Secondly, NEA seemed only too happy to cede its oversight duty to some ordinary laymen.

But worst of all, PAP is feared so much that no public agencies dare to censure any of its subsidiaries even if their action, or inaction as in this case, not only can harm but lead to loss of human life.

What happens to our world standard government?

'Bonus' Not a Dirty Word

BONUS has become almost a dirty word in these times, with its meaning highly misunderstood, Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Lim Boon Heng said on Saturday.

Speaking at the launch of this year's Singapore Kindness Month, he noted that public anger arose in the United States over large bonuses paid to executives of failed American corporations because of the economic downturn.

'Nowadays, the word 'bonus' is almost a dirty word,' he said in his speech. 'There has been great misunderstanding over what the word 'bonus' entails. You have to understand that in today's context, companies' bonuses are part and parcel of the overall wage package.'

'We now operate differently from the past. So, let us not get overexcited whenever we see the word 'bonus' being used,' he added.

He said the uproar over bonuses paid by troubled firms like AIG was because the American public perceived these to have come from government bailouts.

But Mr Lim said people should not mistake a bonus as 'somebody getting something extra and undeserved and out of line with the current economic situation'.

He stressed that, with the downturn, it is even more important for Singaporeans to be kind and considerate towards others.

He also called on Singaporeans to be kind to foreigners living here, such as students from overseas.


Be kind and considerate towards others? Does that mean keeping an elegant silence when we learn of some Deputy General Manager and Senior Manager of some government agencies receiving 7 months bonus?

If the bonuses paid to executives of troubled U. S. firms did not come from government bailouts then could Mr Lim enlighten us where did the money come from?

So, for organising MM Lee's 80th birthday bash, Mr Lim deserves every cents of the millions he gets?

The Bad Old Days Are Back!

Some time last year, we were told that we were in a golden period which could stretch out over many years. Instead of having a golden period which hopefully could lead to some kind of renaissance, recent events showed that we are heading back to the bad old days.

Those notorious financially-ruining and fear-instilling court cases are making a fast and furious comeback.

Just this year alone, MM Lee and PM Lee won two defamation suits, one against Dr Chee Soon Juan and the other against Far Eastern Economic Review.

The judiciary appears to miss the 3^rd world stage so much that it is now actively seeking out individuals as well as companies to bring them to court. One was charged and convicted for insulting the judge, others are being charged for peaceful protest. It has also taken and taking a series of contempt proceedings against critics like The Wall Street Journal Asia, Dow Jones, three activists who donned kangaroo t-shirts and Nair Gopalan for his articles in his blog.

It appears that our Golden Period has become our Dark Age prematurely, how sad!

Why the Goverment Hates Singaporeans

I gained so much enlightenment after reading Ms Chua Lee Hoong’s profound article, “Why they hate Singapore ” that I’m able to demystify several mysteries in Singapore .

One of these is the government’s resistance to adjust the wages of Singaporean workers.

The wages of the bottom 30% of Singapore workers have fallen and those of the middle class nominally higher by 1%. Why would a self-proclaimed caring and inclusive government not allow Singaporean workers to be fairly remunerated? By Ms Chua’s doctrine it would be because the government hates Singaporeans. And our sin: for being non-talented. Don’t believe? Remember the reason given for the handsome pay rise for the already well paid top civil servants and the ministers? It was to retain and attract talents. By extension of that reason, hard working non-talented Singaporean workers don’t deserve any wage revision even if inflation is at all time high.

Another mystery was the opening of floodgate to foreign workers. Initially only foreigners who either possessed skills that Singaporeans didn’t have or were willing to do jobs shunned by Singaporeans were allowed in. Soon the door was thrown open to all and sundries.

Why does the government allow foreigners to not only depress the wages but to take away jobs from Singaporeans? Again according to Ms Chua’s doctrine it would be because the government hates Singaporeans and for the same sin of being average. Didn’t a Wee Shu Min episode where her MP father’s defense for her and the silence from his political colleagues gave some indication of the disdain the elite government has for the average Singaporeans?

Celebrate the Singapore Spirit

The theme of this year national day celebration is “celebrate the Singapore spirit”. I really do not know what kind of spirit we have to celebrate. We’re all too busy eking out a living that we’re more like zombies with no life or spirit to talk about. The only spirit palpable is the Machiavelli spirit of the government.

The government has been refusing to adjust the wages of Singapore workers though many of us are taking home less pay, in real dollars, than 10 years ago. It claims that wage increment will stoke inflation and make us less competitive. The government however keeps increasing the already humongous salaries of its ministers.

Wage control is of course one of the strategies used by governments to control and manipulate their people. To appear to be a caring government, the PAP leaders will once in a while dish out little goodies like ‘growth dividend’ and ‘work income supplement’ to appease the people. Upon receiving such goodies, the people will be distracted of the real issues at hand and continue to be controlled and manipulated by the Machiavellian government.

Organ Trade Won't be Condoned

Home > Prime News > Story
July 4, 2008
Judge warns: Organ trade won't be condoned
He gives two donors short jail terms, blaming syndicates for exploiting them
By Elena Chong, Court Correspondent
THE two poor Indonesians recently caught agreeing to sell their kidneys for over $20,000 each were given relatively light jail terms and fines yesterday.

The law will reserve a bigger punch for the shadowy syndicate that arranged the deal, said District Judge Bala Reddy.

Mere fines would not do for those running these syndicates, he said, adding: 'Longer custodial sentences should be reserved for the ringleaders and other major players in such syndicated offences who profit by exploiting the poor and disadvantaged.'

He said the duo knew they were breaking the law, but went ahead anyway because they needed the money.

Singapore law thus had to send a signal that commercial trade in human organs would not be condoned, and people must be deterred from trying to profiteer from the illegal sale of organs, he said.

The prosecution had sought a fine at the lower end of the spectrum for the two men, Sulaiman Damanik and Toni, on the illegal organ supply charges because their poverty had been exploited.

The prosecution had also recommended short jail terms for their having made false statutory declarations that they had not been paid for their kidneys and that they were related to the recipients.

Under the law, a transplant ethics committee (TEC) cannot give the go-ahead for a living donor organ transplant unless it is satisfied, among other things, that the intended organ donor had not entered into any contract to trade away his organ.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Nor'ashikin Samdin asked for a sentence that would deter individuals like Toni and others from trying to profiteer from the sale of their organs.

Toni, who successfully sold one of his kidneys for 186 million rupiah (about $29,390) in March, was to be paid again to act as runner for another prospective kidney seller.

This transaction involving Sulaiman, which would have brought a kidney to ailing C.K. Tang boss Tang Wee Sung, did not go through.

Soon after the TEC approved the application for Sulaiman to become Mr Tang's living donor, the two Indonesians were arrested at Lucky Plaza.

The DPP said Singapore, in its quest to promote medical tourism, would not hesitate to take all measures to protect itself from becoming an illicit transplantation hub.

The Indonesians' lawyer Mohamed Muzammil Mohamed said his clients had no complaints about the sentences.

He said he felt the court had been 'very fair', and noted that it had considered that his clients had not actively sought to sell their organs.

After the sentencing, Toni spoke to his wife on the phone briefly and consoled her.

Mr Kemal Haripurwanto, the minister-counsellor and head of protocol and consular affairs at the Indonesian Embassy, said that considering the maximum sentence the pair could have received, the sentence passed was light.

elena@sph.com.sg


I find the above news very disturbing. Why were only the sellers punished? What about the recipient, would-be recipient, the surgeon, the hospital and the TEC? I'm sure that just like the duo, the recipient, the would-be recipient and the surgeon knew very well that they were breaking the law but went ahead anyway because they needed the organ or the business. Are we again making the poor and "small men" as scapegoat and letting the rich and powerful go unscathed?