Law Abiding Citizens



SBHEU - Singapore Business Houses Employees Union

BERSATU - Singapore Association of Trade Union

Found the above union member's badge at my parents' home belonging to my father. Brought back memories when i showed it to him. My father has been a law abiding citizen. First, of the British Empire, then of the Federation of Malaya and now of the Republic of Singapore. He provided for the family. Never smoke, never drink, besides the occasional 4D/TOTO bets, is not a gambling addict.

And yet, i cannot help but felt a sense of fear when i was deciding whether to put up the picture of this now defunct union badge onto my blog. You see, as a citizen of Singapore for forty years of my life, i am so conditioned to practise "self censorship".

I do not know what came over me today. But i think it started on that Thursday, i was at the bus terminal waiting for about half an hour, by then the queue had snaked well over the length of the railing and intrude onto the walkway and it seemed to threaten to invade the opposite bus queue. By the time i boarded the bus, all the seats were taken and so i proceeded to the rear. The last row of seats were fully occupied. There was a family comprising of a little girl and her parents. They had luggage, probably going home to Johor Bahru across the causeway. The family occupied a corner of the last row with the dad seated facing the aisle, a burly man. I thought it was rather considerate of him, because the family of three plus the bulky luggage only took three seats. The bag was "seated" in between the mom and pop whereas the little lass was seated awkwardly on the mom's lap as well as onto what was remaining of the corner seat. He could have given his family ample room by placing the luggage in front of him by the aisle, thereby taking up "standing space", or even better, took up four seats.

By this time, the "ground crew" ( i do not know what to call them) from the bus company were waving for the standing passengers to move to the rear so that more can come onboard. I complied. Trying to balance standing at the slightly slopped tail end of the bus, almost coming onto contact with the man's knees. I think i have done my best for the share holders of this bus company.

There was this man who was standing next to me, he was not so law abiding. Maybe he did not benefit from forty years of Singapore upbringing. Bring back memories of squeezing onto military three-tonners during national service days, the consequence of which could be dire if you did not comply. He ignored the instruction of the bus company employees. I do not know why, right there, i felt that i have never felt like this before. In the past, i would view this fellow with disdain. Inconsiderate behaviour. This time, to put it simply, i supported his action.

I do not have many friends but i dare say that all of them are law abiding citizens as far as i know. Those very close ones were from my secondary and polytechnic school days. I know of three law abiding citizens of Singapore as my very good friends.

Law abiding friend #01

A friend from my Polytechnic school days. Technically inclined and liked to dabble in computer software, the goto guy for my "FORTRAN programming" tutorials. A project leader, worked hard and got distinction for the final year project.

National Service: Army, Service Support ( down-graded due to an episode of spontaneous pneumothorax)

After NS found work in the manufacturing sector in the area of software testing function. Worked and studied part-time in the National University of Singapore, obtained an engineering bachalor's degree. He would go back to the office to conduct conference call with his overseas counterpart in the wee hours. Tight project date-lines were a given during those boom times. Non-smoker, non-drinker. Remain single till today.

Age: 41 years old

Status: Retrenched.

Law abiding friend #02

Also a fellow class mate at the polytechnic. A talent for art. Did okay for his results.

National Service: Combat, Artillery

First job worked for a while with a hard disk manufacturing plant. Through good fortune found work in a field of his forte - Technical Illustration ! He poured himself into the work. With cumulative experienced in technical illustration for 15 years ( 7 years in the first company subsequently moving to the next and rose to senior position) Was dispatched to Tokyo for a couple of years for work assignment. Worked day and night and on weekends. Projects, dead line, projects, dead line ...

The last two years he suffered hypertension and was down for a period due to kidney stones. Non-smoker, and yes, dispite going to Japan, he remained a non-drinker. Single.

Age: 40 years old

Status: Retrenched.

He paid for his dad's Prostate cancer treatment through his Medisave (the father was a taxi-driver) whom had since pass on. Now, he is paying for his mom's diabetes, glucoma treatment and medication...

Currently undergoing "retraining" in the field of horticulture and landscaping. I hate to see him waste his talent to spend the remaining rest of his life as a landscaping labourer. Hope he can take up the mouse again maybe as a landscaping artist. But he express reservations, with his carpal tunnel condition, he dreaded working with the mouse again, i think only professionals in their field would understand. Has been taking up yoga and Tai-Chi (for the later, he wanted to make sure the mom get some exercise and that is why he is doing it and bringing her along)

Law abiding friend #03

A secondary school friend whom we still meet up during Chinese New Year class gathering. Went to a diferent polytechnic.

National Service: Combat, Navy

After NS, found work in the manufacturing sector, also a computer nut. Put himself through part-time studies finally obtaining a bachelor's degree in computer science. Married with three kids. After moving away from manufacturing found work in the IT sector. Initially was for a permanent position, then later worked on a contract basis, moving from site to site till now...non-smoker, non-drinker.

Age: 40 years old

Status: Express worry that this time round his contract will not be renewed.

31 December 2010

With money you can do many things ...

TodayOnline: Was villager killed deliberately?

Photographs of suspicious death ignite fury in China after going viral on the Internet

BEIJING - The photographs are so graphic that they appear cartoonish at first glance: A man crushed under the tyre of a truck, his head detached from his flattened spinal cord.

The pictures of Mr Qian Yunhui, 53, have gone viral in China, with hundreds of thousands of people viewing the images online since the weekend. And they accuse officials of gruesomely killing Mr Qian to silence his six-year campaign to protect fellow villagers in a land dispute.

Illegal land seizures by officials are common in China but the horrific photographs of Mr Qian's death on Saturday have ignited widespread fury. It is the latest in a string of cases in which anger against the government has been fanned by the lightning-fast spread of the Internet.

Officials in the city of Yueqing in Zhejiang province, which supervises Mr Qian's home village, insist that the photographs show nothing more than an unfortunate traffic accident, making their case in a hastily-arranged news conference on Monday.

Mr Qian's family, some Chinese reporters and residents of Zhaiqiao Village cite the photographs as proof of foul play and a sloppy cover-up.

In 2004, the city government approved construction of a power plant in Zhaiqiao Village. The company building the plant got virtually all the arable land in the village and the 4,000 or so villagers received no compensation, according to a blog post written four months ago under Mr Qian's name.

At the time, Mr Qian and other villagers went to government offices to protest against the land grab. Riot police officers beat more than 130 people and arrested 72.

Mr Qian, the former Communist Party representative in the village, travelled to Beijing to file a petition with the central authorities. In the news conference on Monday, city officials said that Mr Qian had been arrested, found guilty of criminal conduct and imprisoned at least twice.

Mr Qian continued his crusade after recently being released from prison. According to local media reports, he was the overwhelming favourite of the villagers in a coming election for village chief before his death.

IT WAS MURDER, WITNESS CLAIMS

Around 8.30am on Saturday, Mr Qian received a call on his mobile phone and walked out as he was talking, his wife Wang Zhaoyan was quoted as saying.

An hour later, he was run over by the truck, his body crushed beneath the left front tyre. The driver has been detained, according to the Yueqing city government.

Chinese news reports said another villager, Mr Qian Chengwei, told people that he had watched the victim being held down on the road by several men wearing security uniforms. One of the men then waved his hand and a truck drove slowly over Mr Qian.

Villagers arriving at the scene were immediately suspicious. They refused to allow the police to remove Mr Qian's body and a scuffle ensued.

Government officials told the Guangdong-based newspaper Southern Daily that the witness was a drug user. The paper also reported that the witness and the victim's family members were detained, though subsequent reports say Mr Qian's family members have been released.

Internet users and Chinese reporters have continued to question the explanation by city officials, pointing to discrepancies revealed by the photos. Why does the front of the truck show little sign of impact or blood? Why, if Mr Qian had been accidentally hit while walking upright, is his body lying completely perpendicular to the truck's tyre? Why was a brand-new security camera at the intersection where he died not working on Saturday? Who called Mr Qian that fateful morning?

"A few years ago, there were other people petitioning with my dad," family member Qian Shuangping told China Business Daily. "Some of them were bought off. Some of them got scared. We said, 'Just take some money and forget it. What if something happens to you?' My father wouldn't listen to us." The New York Times

... and that includes murder.

30 December 2010

Chuiew Kong Lum Pah Song

TodayOnline: America's political class struggle comes to a head

With their backs against the wall, working-class and poor Americans will begin to agitate for social justice

by Jeffrey D Sachs

(Jeffrey D Sachs is Professor of Economics and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is also Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals. This commentary is exclusive to Today in Singapore.)

 

America is on a collision course with itself.

This month's deal between President Barack Obama and the Republicans in Congress to extend the tax cuts initiated a decade ago by President George W Bush is being hailed as the start of a new bipartisan consensus. I believe, instead, that it is a false truce in what will become a pitched battle for the soul of American politics.

As in many countries, conflicts over public morality and national strategy come down to questions of money. In the United States, this is truer than ever. The US is running an annual Budget deficit of around US$1 trillion ($1.3 trillion), which may widen further as a result of the new tax agreement. This level of annual borrowing is far too high for comfort. It must be cut, but how?

The problem is America's corrupted politics and loss of civic morality. One political party, the Republicans, stands for little except tax cuts, which they place above any other goal. The Democrats have a bit wider set of interests, including support for health care, education, training, and infrastructure. But, like the Republicans, the Democrats, too, are keen to shower tax cuts on their major campaign contributors, predominantly rich Americans.

The result is a dangerous paradox. The Budget deficit is enormous and unsustainable. The poor are squeezed by cuts in social programmes and a weak job market. One in eight Americans depends on Food Stamps to eat. Yet, despite these circumstances, one political party wants to gut tax revenues altogether, and the other is easily dragged along, against its better instincts, out of concern for keeping its rich contributors happy.

This tax-cutting frenzy comes, incredibly, after three decades of elite fiscal rule in the US that has favoured the rich and powerful. Since Ronald Reagan became President in 1981, America's Budget system has been geared to supporting the accumulation of vast wealth at the top of the income distribution.

Amazingly, the richest 1 per cent of American households now has a higher net worth than the bottom 90 per cent. The annual income of the richest 12,000 households is greater than that of the poorest 24 million households.

The Republican Party's real game is to try to lock that income and wealth advantage into place. They fear, rightly, that sooner or later everyone else will begin demanding that the Budget deficit be closed in part by raising taxes on the rich. After all, the rich are living better than ever, while the rest of American society is suffering. It makes sense to tax them more.

The Republicans are out to prevent that by any means. This month, they succeeded, at least for now. But they want to follow up their tactical victory - which postpones the restoration of pre-Bush tax rates for a couple of years - with a longer-term victory next spring. Their leaders in Congress are already declaring that they will slash public spending in order to begin reducing the deficit.

Ironically, there is one area in which large Budget cuts are certainly warranted: The military. But that is the one item most Republicans won't touch. They want to slash the Budget not by ending the useless war in Afghanistan, and by eliminating unnecessary weapons systems, but by cutting education, health, and other benefits for the poor and working class.

CORRUPTION IS STAGGERING

In the end, I don't think they will succeed.

For the moment, most Americans seem to be going along with Republican arguments that it is better to close the Budget deficit through spending cuts rather than tax increases. Yet when the actual Budget proposals are made, there will be a growing backlash. With their backs against the wall, I predict, poor and working-class Americans will begin to agitate for social justice.

This may take time. The level of political corruption in America is staggering. Everything now is about money to run electoral campaigns, which have become incredibly expensive. The mid-term elections cost an estimated US$4.5 billion, with most of the contributions coming from big corporations and rich contributors. These powerful forces, many of which operate anonymously under US law, are working relentlessly to defend those at the top of the income distribution.

But make no mistake: Both parties are implicated. There is already talk that Mr Obama will raise US$1 billion or more for his re-election campaign. That sum will not come from the poor.

The problem for the rich is that, other than military spending, there is no place to cut the Budget other than in areas of core support for the poor and working class. Is America really going to cut health benefits and retirement income?

Will it really balance the Budget by slashing education spending at a time when US students already are being out-performed by their Asian counterparts? Will America really let its public infrastructure continue to deteriorate?

The rich will try to push such an agenda but ultimately they will fail.

Mr Obama swept to power on the promise of change. So far there has been none. His administration is filled with Wall Street bankers. His top officials leave to join the banks, as his Budget Director Peter Orszag recently did. He is always ready to serve the interests of the rich and powerful, with no line in the sand, no limit to "compromise".

If this continues, a third party will emerge, committed to cleaning up American politics and restoring a measure of decency and fairness. This, too, will take time. The political system is deeply skewed against challenges to the two incumbent parties.

Yet the time for change will come. The Republicans believe that they have the upper hand and can pervert the system further in favour of the rich. I believe that they will be proved wrong. Project Syndicate

Saying just, to satisfy your testicles

 

30 December 2010

It is set in motion ...

Earnings drop for 2nd consecutive quarter

By Leong Sze Hian for TOC

I refer to the Ministry of Manpower’s (MOM) Labour Market Third Quarter 2010 Report. Earnings Average (Mean) Monthly Nominal Earnings Singapore $ Per Employee, has continued to fall from $4,310 to $3,819 and $3,754, for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Qtrs, respectively.

With the economy booming and expected to be the fastest growing in the world at 15 per cent GDP growth, and media reports reporting that the job market is bursting at the seams, why has earnings continued to fall for the second consecutive quarter?

Since we are talking about Average (Mean) Earnings, what is the median earnings?

Normally, as in the past, media earnings may be lower than mean earnings?

So, although the annual growth rate was 5.4 per cent, with inflation hitting 3.8 per cent in November, which is the highest since January 2009, (“S’pore’s inflation hits highest level since Jan 2009”, Channel News Asia, Dec 23), we may yet end the year, with a third consecutive year of negative real median wage increase.

Unemployment

Mature residents aged 40 & over continued to form the largest group of resident job seekers (24,000 or 45%). As to long-term unemployment, the majority (67%) of them were mature residents age 40 & over.

For Residents Made Redundant, the occupational group, Professionals, Managers, Executives & Technicians (PMETS) formed the largest group, at 51.7 per cent.

By educational attainment, those with a degree, formed the largest group, at 29.9 per cent.

By age group, age 40 & over formed the largest group, at 51.8 per cent.

Sinced the data on residents made redundant pertain to private sector establishments each with at least 25 employees and the public sector, the number made redundant may be more if we include private sector establishments with less than 25 employees.

The number of workers placed on short-week or temporary lay-off rose to 410 in the third quarter, from 290 in the second quarter.

Similarly, the above excludes less than 25 employee establishments.

Re-employment

For re-employment, the improvement over the quarter was for all groups, except for residents with diploma or other professional qualifications whose re-employment rate declined from 64% to 60%.

Business outlook

The business outlook has softened. For example, a smaller net weighted balance of 3% of manufacturers expect improvement in the next six months, down from 18% in the quarter’s survey.

In summary, the above statistics may indicate that perhaps things are not as rosy as most media reports have portrayed, particularly for older and more educated residents on a relative basis.

29 December 2010

Rewriting History

Krugman: Invincible Ignorance

So Republican members of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission are going to issue their own report, placing primary blame on the government — because it’s always the government’s fault.

And according to reporting at the Huffington Post, all four Republicans voted in favor of banning the phrases “Wall Street” and “shadow banking” and the words “interconnection” and “deregulation” from the panel’s final report, according to a person familiar with the matter and confirmed by Brooksley E. Born, one of the six commissioners who voted against the proposal.

Yep. It was all Fannie and Freddie, which somehow managed to cause housing bubbles in Ireland, Iceland, Latvia, and Spain as well as the United States; and the repo market had nothing to do with it.

And bear in mind that this wasn’t one Republican; it was all of them.

I really do wonder how this country can remain governable, when one party insists on creating its own reality. Next thing you know they’re going to reject the theory of evolution. Oh, wait …

Orwell and the Financial Crisis

"... The same thing happened with Social Security privatization. There was a long effort by conservative groups to promote privatization, a term they themselves devised. ... But then, when it turned out that the term polled badly, they began rewriting old records in an attempt to cover up the fact that they had ever talked about it. ..."

"... The right has always understood that the perceptions game is a long game, that you have to rewrite history on a sustained basis to shape the assumptions that govern politics. Work at it steadily, and you have even a liberal Democratic president believing that Social Security only covered widows and orphans at first, that Medicare started small, and that the Clinton-era productivity boom began under Reagan... So of course they’re working hard, right now, to expunge deregulation and shadow banking from the story of the 2008 crisis."

17 December 2010

Will Global Warming submerge the whole of Singapore ?

Who cares ...

S$1,000,000 - 78 SqM, HDB 2 Bed- Room Flat ( 99 year lease ) ?

Unsustainable Policy : HDB

By Goh Meng Seng

Minister Mah Bow Tan has continued to claim that HDB flats are "affordable" despite of the 30 years mortgage. He has however, made a few interesting points today.

First he asserts that due to land scarce, in order to have a "SUSTAINABLE" housing policy, the present HDB policy should continue. Secondly, he has somewhat RETRACTED from his earlier position that it is ok to have high HDB prices because we could "monetize" aka sell our flats for retirement. He now says that we may not need to sell our flats and downgrade for retirement.

I have explained why selling flat for retirement is NOT A WORKABLE and SUSTAINABLE OPTION at all.

Before I talk about why this scheme of "selling flat for retirement" is not sustainable in the long run, I would like to address the basic fundamentals of why such HIGH HDB PRICES under the guise of "asset enhancement" is the deliberate policy direction of PAP government.

High Property Prices to solve Aging Population Problems

Since early 1980s, PAP has suddenly realized that their aggressive "TWO IS ENOUGH" policy is flawed and it would create unprecedented acceleration of aging population. By doing a demographic projection, it would mean that the CPF scheme may not be sustainable in providing adequate retirement financing for this aging population.

The burden of providing retirement financing lies on the government to give constant returns to CPF account holders. If less and less people are going to work in the work force while more and more people are going to withdraw their CPF money, it will create cashflow pressures on CPF. i.e. CPF will have to liquidate its assets to repay the CPF holders while earning lesser returns from a smaller asset pool. This problem will aggravate in time to come. This is also part of the reasons why CPF withdrawal age keep postponing.

The brilliant idea of maintaining high HDB flat price comes about to solve a lot of these problems derived from aging population. The following are the reasoning:

1) If people have less savings in CPF, the government won't be burden by interest payment to the account holders. i.e. the government will wash its hands off from retirement financing of an aging population.

2) How or who will finance the future retirees then? A 30 year mortgage plan will DEFINITELY force Singaporeans to sell their flats for retirement! This is basically because their CPF accounts will have very little amount of funds left! By allowing HDB prices to increase, these future retirees could well "withdraw" their "retirement funds" by selling off their HDB flats at high prices! This would solve their retirement financing!

Impact of HDB flat for Retirement Financing

Such simplistic thinking will have a few impacts. All of these impacts are unfavorable to Singaporeans but very favorable to the Government.

1) The Government could benefit from selling HDB flats at high prices to citizens and they no longer need to fork out money for any subsidies. All so call subsidies are basically on paper accounting, market subsidies.

2) The first adjustment is to raise land prices. HDB, on paper is in deficit because it has to buy land from SLA (both under Ministry of Development) at market prices. Please note that SLA has become the biggest land owner in Singapore with monopoly power to determine prices.

3) All proceeds from Land Sales go directly into the reserves and that is why our reserves grow at rapid rate since 1980s.

4) The government earns interests, instead of paying interests, from making loans to HDB buyers. This also means that Singaporeans are paying higher HDB prices using almost all their CPF monies and burden by higher mortgage interests.

5) The prices of HDB flats MUST increase substantially over time in order for this scheme to be sustainable. If not, the whole system will collapse.

Implications

What are the implications?

Apparently, the government benefited the most from such scheme! It relinquishes its responsibility of providing retirement financing for an aging population basically transferring this burden to the future generations in terms of HIGHER HDB PRICES. MAKE PROFITS from these higher HDB prices which transferred into reserves which make them good i.e. they have been boasting how good they are because they have accumulated so much reserves. On top of that, make money from interests collected from HDB buyers!

What they government gain will be what the citizens will lose. This is a very simple logic. HDB is the MONOPOLY of the new HDB flat market and it is also the lender who earns interests from all outstanding loans.

This scheme will impact on both present HDB owners who bought their flats at high prices which end up with 30 year mortgage. They will most probably be FORCED to sell their HDB flats when they want to retire. The future generations will have to suffer higher HDB prices because this is intended, so that the present generation could generate enough funds for their retirement needs!

Unsustainable

This model is NOT sustainable in the long run. The reason is pretty clear. In order to preserve the purchasing power of the amount of money Singaporeans have put into their HDB flats, the future price of their flats has to increase tremendously to cover the interest cost as well as inflation throughout the 30 years period.

However the wages of the working class normally grow at the rate just enough to cover inflation. That is why we are witnessing this impact of wages lagging behind HDB price growth for the past two decades. From the following graph prepared by Lucky Tan.

 

From 1990 to 2009, wage doubled while HDB prices grow by FOUR folds! This correspond to the increase in the mortgage payment period from 15 years to 30 years! In time to come, our future generations may have to pay for a 40years or even 50 years mortgage for just a decent HDB flat!

Is this sustainable?

Nobody can guarantee property prices to grow forever at such rapid rate. With an aging population, less youngsters will demand for MORE supply due to more elders trying to sell their flats. This will have downward pressure on relative prices.

There are CONFLICTING policy objectives. On one hand, in order for the scheme of utilizing high HDB prices as a means for retirement financing, we need HDB prices to outstrip wage growth but in order to maintain "AFFORDABILITY" for all generations, we need to maintain the price increase according to wage growth! How could these CONFLICTING policy targets be met simultaneously?

This is really an ill-thought out HDB-retirement scheme by the PAP government. This scheme benefits only the present government by alleviating its burden to provide for the retirement funding needs for the citizens while benefiting from all the higher HDB prices and interests earned from loans to HDB owners. This is in the expense of Singaporeans both present and future.

Almost all present Ministers will not be around in 30 years time to take responsibility for the effects of their policies. It is important for Singaporeans to understand the great implications of this HDB-retirement scheme upon our present generations as well as future generations.

I have come to this realization of this scheme ever since PAP started to embark the so call "Asset Enhancement Scheme" back in early 1990s. I have written a number of articles in protest of this scheme but many Singaporeans were overwhelmed by the immediate gain of paper capital gains. There were even Singaporeans trying to capitalize on the sudden increase in their flat value by upgrading or multiple upgradings. In the whole process, they committed higher and higher debts.

The latest report has indicated Singapore's housing debt has constituted more than 51% of total loans from our financial loans! This is even higher than Hong Kong's 20%! We will be doomed if there is a property crash! The whole financial system will be burden with unperforming loans!

An economy cannot invest too much of its financial resources in assets like properties which are not "productive" for the economy. If the property sector takes up too much of financial resources of the economy, we will not be able to have enough resources to finance investments by our local entrepreneurs. It will also means that the financial sector will be over-exposed to a potential bubble which will wipe off our wealth when it burst.

Experiences from Japan, Ireland and even US have shown that over-exposure of the financial sector to the bubble prone property sector will destroy the economy. Japan has hardly recover from its collapse of economy due to property bubble since 1990s!

It is up to every Singaporeans to judge on whether what I write here make any sense. It is easy to sell greed to the masses but it will create non-reversal damage to our future generations. It is not easy to convince people that high property prices are BAD for them. I have waited this long for the opportune time to explain what I have learned throughout these years. I urge every readers who agree with my views to help me to spread this message to your friends and relatives.

This unsustainable and potentially damaging HDB-retirement scheme must be stopped and ceased else our future generations will suffer in vain for our inaction.

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From Web Blog - Singapore Notes

Gambling With Your House

... the NKF definition of subsidy, as exposed by the KPMG investigation team:

6.11.1 The NKF reported in its Investment Report 2004 that it enabled its patients to save in excess of $3.5 million in treatment costs by providing subisdies for costly medication and by bringing down drug prices.

6.11.2 We found that the amount of such savings was derived from the difference between the prices charged by NKF and a notional market price of drugs based on estimated annual consumption in 2004 instead of the difference between the prices charged by the NKF and the actual prices of drugs paid by the NKF. These savings were reflected in invoices given to patients.

6.11.4 As mentioned above, the market price was a notional market price determined by the NKF. The NKF, being a substantial and significant purchased, enjoyed subsidies and rebates from its drug suppliers. Instead of passing these costs savings to its kidney patients, we found that the NKF charged its patients a premium for certain drugs.

11 December 2010