Singapore Notes

Temasek Holdings Pte, which managed $223 billion (US$166 billion) of assets as of last March 2015, was riled when Standard & Poor (S&P)'s new criteria lumped Singapore with riskier nations such as Greece and Jamaica. At risk was Temasek’s lack of direct ownership of assets, the challenges they face when selling in illiquid markets, and the volatility of assets held by them.

The new criteria for assessing asset liquidity of investment holding companies (IHCs) by splitting their main countries of operation into four baskets, based on a 30-year history of those nations’ share market swings, put Singapore squarely into the third. Sven Behrendt, a managing director at Geneva-based GeoEconomica, which researches sovereign wealth funds explained Temasek's ire: “It’s understandable to me that Temasek doesn’t want the country to be put in the same category as Greece, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago".

A day after the Budget was announced by Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, S&P issued a top AAA unsolicited rating on Singapore. S&P noted that investments in the $68.2 billion budget - including efforts to boost innovation, skills training, as well as funding to meet the needs of Singapore's ageing population - "significantly outsized" the $705 million transferred to households. Investments such as the $26 billion for trains that keep breaking down, while $9.3 billion is allocated for hospital grants and construction, and suspect "Medishield Life subsidies".

What is also impossible to miss is that the $10.5 billion to be harvested from Goods and Services Tax (GST) is second only to the $13.5 billion contribution from corporate income taxes. Even the poorest of the poor, who are spared the $8.9 billion to be collected from personal income taxes, will have to pay 7 percent extra for the bread and water to survive on. Lest we forget, our water bill is doubly taxed, the GST is applied on top of the 30 percent "Water Conservation Tax".

As long as there is sheep to be fleeced from, Singapore is in no danger of going broke.

Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam told the television audience: "We have got to be careful that we don't think we are Robin Hood, where you can simply take money from the rich and give it to someone else." He was probably referring to the higher personal income tax rates for top earners introduced in Budget 2015. To put things in perspective, the effective increase in tax rate amounts only to pinpricks of 0.2 percent for those with $250,000 annual income, and 1.6 percent for those with $1.5 million pay packets.

That would hardly qualify as daylight robbery. Now consider the 2.8 percent fare hike effective from April 5, which will hit anybody who can't afford a Certificate Of Entitlement (COE). It's more insidious when you realize this is part of the original 6.6 percent increase recommended by the government appointed Public Transport Council (PTC). The two public transport operators - SBS Transit and SMRT - stand to rip off an additional $48.5m in revenue from the hapless commuters with the fare increase. Money which will no doubt find its way into funding lavish investments like the Changi "jewel", projects designed to make life more enjoyable for the jet setters who can afford to fly around.

That can't be what Robin of Loxley had in mind. Over the course of 700 years, the fable was about the outlaw from Nottinghamshire who supposedly helped the poor by returning some of the ill-acquired wealth stashed away by the obscenely opulent. Monetary issues aside, Robin Hood also represents the notion of a brave rebel who lives on the outskirts of society, fighting injustice and oppression with his band of companions, constantly harassed by the politicised instruments of law enforcers.

If you were confused by the motives of Khaw Boon Wan's Zhu Ying Tai, you will be puzzled by Tharman's remake on Robin's cause of helping the poor.

Now that M Ravi has been suspended from practice, he's worried about some of his clients who "have no prospects of obtaining other legal representation". He could have been thinking of the lady who filed an application to the High Court on matters relating to the ruckus at the February 3 Thaipusam incident. The application listed the Attorney-General, the Hindu Endowments Board and Law Minister K Shanmugam among the plaintiffs.

Others in the Indian community must be wondering why the Hindu Endowments Board is strangely silent about speaking up for their religious rites and practices. Some clues are found in Timothy Auger's book, "SR Nathan in Conversation". The subject said that in 1982, he was appointed chairman of the Hindu Endowments Board, main job being to look after four important temples held in trust by the government.

"I got hold of some good friends, including Gopinath Pillai, Chandra Das, Sat Pal Khattar, Birgadier-General (Rtd) Kirpa Ram Vij, and Justice Rajendran, to form a core - we were all of us locals without much of a clue about religion."

The lack of domain knowledge among members of the select coterie is italicised for good reason. He adds, "We were not concerned with theology - that's the priest's job".

The emphasis was never about religious sensitivities. Instead they were more concerned that "these temples were not rich - quite the contrary, despite their popularity with crowds on festivals". So they put the priest on a salary, and took over the management. The worship was about money, not a spiritual entity. Nathan's smug conclusion:

"I think we put things in order and today the four temples are doing very well, with a good level of reserves. So much so that they're now attracting a new bunch of aspirants for leadership. Many of them are keen to find ways of spending funds raised through hard work on cases other than those of religious significance." (page 170)

All that protestations about noise makers and traffic disruption will soon be forgotten. If you still have doubts, tune in this weekend for the mother of all frenetic processions -the two day blowout for the spare-no-expense Chingay parade.

Do you see a circle or an octagon?

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said in his Budget speech that the rise in petrol duties is meant to encourage less car usage and reduce carbon emissions. One man took that advice to heart and went one step further. He even skipped the bus alternative - another carbon emission source - and decided to walk on the viaduct between Choa Chu Kang and Bukit Gombak MRT stations. Hence the latest train service disruption for over a span of 90 minutes on Friday evening (Feb 27).

February 2015 seems to set a record of sorts for train breakdowns and other hiccups:

03 Feb - NSL no train service from Marina Bay to Marina South Pier station for an hour
17 Feb - EWL disruption from Joo Koon to Jurong East due to a train fault at Jurong East
18 Feb - NEL train service suspended for 40 minutes, signalling fault
23 Feb - NSL disruption between Yew Tee and Kranji, track fault
24 Feb - LRT service between Choa Chu Kang and Keat Hong disrupted by damaged third rail
25 Feb - NSL delay between Somerset and Dhoby Ghaut, signal fault with train departing Somerset
27 Feb - NSL disruption due to track "intrusion" near Choa Chu Kang station

There's a story about then-Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew consulting the highly respectable Venerable Hong-Chuan when the plan for building the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) was first mooted in the mid-eighties. The monk warned that the crisscrossing tunnels would severely damage the excellent fengshui of the island, and the only solution was to ensure all Singaporeans carry a "bagua"(octagon diagram) with them. In consideration of the sensitivities of various races and religions on the island, Lee suggested the minting of a new coin embossed with the shape of a bagua. The new $1 coin was launched in September 1987, just two months before MRT began its first operation.

Note that the road tax label is also in the shape of an octagon, which means every car on the roads of Singapore is carrying a bagua too. Not that it does any good for the motorists pummeled by punitive taxes and tariffs.

I want my 5 minutes of fame too

Somebody is paying big bucks for Sir David Attenborough to narrate the two-episode "Wild City", Channel NewsAsia's first documentary on Singapore's wildlife. The first episode will feature the wildlife found in and around the urban sprawl in Singapore, such as civets that take up residence in roof cavities, and wild otters spotted at Marina Reservoir.

Attenborough's voice over has been used in many of the natural history programmes produced by the BBC Natural History Unit. The most expensive documentary series ever made by the BBC - billed as "the ultimate portrait of our planet" - is Planet Earth. In Episode 8, "Cities - Surviving the Human Jungle", Attenborough talks extensively about the rat patrols in New York, New York.

Which means he is amply qualified to cover the rat infestation in Bukit Batok. Apparently the big bucks spent by the Housing and Development Board (HDB) on pest controllers like Star Pest Control only resulted in the rodents moving off from the natural hilltop adjacent to a train station to nearby concrete housing blocks, such as Block 165. And since Minister of State Desmond Lee is the member of parliament for the Bukit Batok GRC, he may get to share the limelight with Attenborough, widely considered a national treasure in Britain.

Ms Mok Choy Lin, Vice-President of Programming at Channel NewsAsia said, "I really hope that it's going to reveal a side of Singapore that even locals have never seen before, and that it shows off a wild diversity of wildlife and species that have never been documented before." It is doubtful the rodents will ever get to share the same billing as the civets in roof cavities, and wild otters at Marina Reservoir. And we have had enough television coverage of the rats in parliament.

The disgraced Bo Xilai was the fourth child and second son of prominent Communist Party leader Bo Yibo, one of the Eight Great Eminent Officials (Chinese: 八大元老; pinyin: Bā dà yuánlǎo), a group of elderly members of the Communist Party of China who held substantial power during the 1980s and 1990s. Bo's fall from grace exposed disunity within Communist Party ranks, and some observers opined that it was because he posed a threat to Xi Jinping, current General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, President of the People's Republic of China, and Chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Much of the intrigue and inside stories about Chinese politicians, past and present, are covered in "A Death In The Lucky Holiday Hotel" by Pin Ho and Wenguang Huang, a thrilling documentation of the downfall of Bo Xilai and the personalities involved. Most fascinating of all, is the insight into a unique coterie of favoured sons known as "the princelings".

Following the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989, Deng Xiaoping was quoted as saying, "Nobody is more reliable than our own children. We need our children to protect the red China that we have established." At that gathering to discuss leadership succession, veterans including Bo Xilai's father agreed in a secret deal that the government should pick one child from the family of each veteran leader who had fought with Mao during the 1940s revolution and gradually elevate him to the equivalent of a vice minister or higher in the government and the military:

"This special group of senior leaders' children were the original princelings. Over the next two decades, the princeling definition was expanded to include children of all senior leaders, national and regional, and the princelings have emerged as a formidable political faction. At the recently concluded Party Congress in November 2011, three have made it to the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, the highest decision-making body." (page 93)

We don't know what Goh Chok Tong was alluding to when he said succession planning has long been a part of the Government's DNA. Maybe it was just a poor choice of words, like his recent phrase about "dropping the ball" after someone had his prostate gland removed. DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is the hereditary material in humans and almost all other organisms, solid fuel for the nature versus nurture argument. The White Horse special treatment during national service has not been forgotten. Makes you wonder what other secret deals are under wraps.

The first thought that comes to mind: what's a nice girl like that doing in politics? Chia Yong Yong was diagnosed with peroneal muscular atrophy at age 15. As her muscle tissue progressively weakened, she had to resort to crutches, and then a wheelchair. She has not been able to stand for 20 years and her hands have grown limp and curled as well. The perfect posture child for president of the Society for the Physically Disabled since 2008.

But we worry for her mental faculties when she argues that our life savings stowed away in the Central Provident Fund (CPF), is not our money.

"Is it our money? Our CPF savings are enhanced and forced CPF savings which are accumulated through our own deferred consumption, through co-payment by our employers and through top-ups from public funds. Is it really my private money? Do I have the right to spend it the way I would spend my own salary? I’m not entirely sure.”

This is not just a gaffe like the one committed by another lawyer who insisted that managing agent (MA) rates at Town Councils are identical for residential and commercial properties. One suspects she spoke not from her heart, or cranium capacity, but political motivations. The clue lies in her other affiliations: member of Our Singapore Conversation Committee (formerly National Conversation a.k.a. NatCon), member of the REACH Supervisory Panel (the Singapore Government’s "feedback" apparatus), member of the Council of the Law Society’s panel of approved Mediators and Investigative Tribunal members. The last being one who sees fit to deem a lawyer unfit to practise because of suspect medical condition.

Be kind with your visceral reaction to an obviously flawed interpretation of the original concept of the CPF. The people who reneged on the promise to release funds at age 55 are just as capable of resorting to all manner of wile to withhold our hard earned monies.

Jusuf Kalla, vice-president of Indonesia, has denounced neighboring Singapore and Malaysia for complaining about the severe haze caused every year by Indonesian forest fires.

"For 11 months, they enjoyed nice air from Indonesia and they never thanked us. They have suffered because of the haze for one month and they get upset.” (The Jakarta Globe, 3 March 2015)

The outspoken vice president is peeved because he thinks that foreign technology was behind the forest fires and therefore foreign countries must share the burden of responsibility in dealing with the forest fires. “Somebody once told me that Indonesia must restore its tropical forests, and I told him, ‘Excuse me? What did you say? Do you know who damaged our forests?’” Kalla added.

Kalla was probably making a snide reference to the Indonesian businessmen who have set up shop in Singapore after shipping millions, if not billions, out of their country, and are still operating their logging operations via remote control. The more interesting aspect of his tirade is that it reflects on the failure of our Foreign Minister to establish friendly ties with some of our short-fused neighbours. And to think the Environment Minister was supposed to have resolved the ugly issue of the smog some years ago, carrying big white envelope by hand and all.

Both should pay closer attention to the upset politician, he's no pushover like our local opposition members. You can catch a glimpse of him in a cameo role in Joshua Oppenheimer's 2012 documentary film "The Act of Killing" (Indonesian: Jagal, meaning "Butcher"). He was on camera, speaking at the rostrum of the right-wing paramilitary organization Pemuda Pancasila that grew out of the Indonesian killings of 1965–66, an ostensibly anti-communist purge in which more than 500,000 were murdered. It will interesting to see how our two debaters take him on with their characteristic hot air.

Angst is German for “neurotic fear, anxiety, guilt, remorse,” from Old High German angust, the root of anger. It is usually applied to a deep and essentially philosophical anxiety about the world in general or personal freedom. George Eliot used it (in German) in 1849, and it was popularized in English by translation of Freud's work, but as a foreign word until 1940s.

Member of parliament Lily Neo knows the word all too well when she told Parliament, "In these times of more angst than gratitude, there is a need to change our handling of residents in terms of expanding communication and improving our engagement strategies."

In 2001 Neo had called for Medisave fund to be extended to cover health screening procedures, in particular, screening for breast cancer, only to have then-Health Minister Lim Hng Kiang demurring with dripping sarcasm, "Save on one hairdo and use the money for breast screening". And when she queried Vivian Balakrishnan in 2007 whether it is too much to ask for just 3 meals a day as an entitlement for the welfare recipients, the YOG profligate responded with “How much do you want? Do you want 3 meals in a hawker centre, food court or restaurant?”

Given the shoddy treatment dished out to a person of her standing, it would be another sheer waste of public funds to send odious government staff for training to gain good communication skills as she suggested. What people like Goh Chok Tong needs is a full frontal lobotomy when he sprouts nonsense like "For those at the top 20 per cent, for every dollar that they pay in tax, they get less than a dollar back in benefits." Eduardo Saverin and the multi-millionaires that made a buzzline to Singapore must be chuckling away.

Forbes said that for Saverin, tax purposes are probably the biggest reasons for renouncing his U.S. passport. He is clearly unaffected by the exorbitant car prices (a 2008 Bentley Continental that costs about US$130,000 in the U.S. commands over US$580,000 in Singapore), while locals are scrapping their vehicles because of the crippling Certificate of Entitlement (COE). His kind are also entitled to the choicest real estate in posh Sentosa Cove, while locals are relegated to the rat infested Bukit Batok precincts. Their lot can guzzle up all the alcohol at Boat Quay without the bother of police patrols overlooking shoulders in Little India.

While the Financial Times reported “Billionaires and their supercars add to Singapore inequality concerns", Lee Hsien Loong was saying, “if I can get another 10 billionaires to move to Singapore and set up their base here… I think Singapore will be better off". Lily Neo may still have faith in training, but many others strongly feel it's really time to pull the plug.

At a "Supper Club interview" in January 2014, Senior Minister of State for Transport and Finance Josephine Teo was talking about her work as an MP for Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC and personal life:

"Every year, I make it a point to travel with my family. It’s my protected time with my kids. Twice a year, I need to remind them that they do have a mother. I enjoy being a mum. I’d have had four kids if not for politics."

Earlier on in 2012, another disgraceful minister had this to say during a Parliament debate about trimming ministerial pay,

"When I made the decision to join politics in 2006, pay was not a key factor. Loss of privacy, public scrutiny on myself and my family and loss of personal time were. The disruption to my career was also an important consideration. I had some ground to believe that my family would not suffer a drastic change in the standard of living even though I experienced a drop in my income. So it is with this recent pay cut. If the balance is tilted further in the future, it will make it harder for any one considering political office."

However, when a participant at a forum hosted by Senior Minister of State for Health and REACH Chairman Amy Khor suggested that national servicemen should be paid more, Teo had this notion of supreme sacrifice: service for the country “cannot be measured in dollars and cents”.

Meanwhile, at another hen party, Nee Soon GRC MP Lee Bee Wah wants the men to cough up more blood:

"Tonight you can go back, discuss with your husband and tell him that for the first $30,000 in your CPF account, you will get 6 per cent interest. Discuss that maybe it's better to put money into your CPF account".

This coming after another female just ruled that the balance in our CPF account no longer belongs to us because of "co-payment from employers and top-ups from public funds".

How is it that, when it comes to hard earned money, Singapore men are drawing the short straws? There may be the odd few who enjoys being a cuckold so long as there's peace in the house, but no self respecting alpha male should take this lying down. What next, men stay home and make the babies? Time to re-read John Gray's "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus".

Plenty of pockets galore

This has to be another Brompton Bike saga in the making. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) put up a tender on last Friday (Mar 6) for a prototype of a “smart vest system”. MHA said a typical frontline police officer’s waist belt is now chock-full of gadgets galore — revolver, Taser, bullet pouch, radio set, baton and handcuffs. The bulk gets in the way sometimes, they admit, which “greatly restricts (their) ability to execute their duties”, such as when they need to chase or restrain a suspect. Like the time they had to handcuff a 6 year old at the junction of Joo Chiat Road and East Coast Road.

If it's a lot of junk they want to be hauling around, why not pick up any of the photographer's vests available on eBay? And yes, Batman, they do come in black. What may be missing is the portable "body cooling system". Then again, how often do you see a policeman on foot patrolling under the hot sun? Most times you find them hunkered down in the airconditioned police neighborhood post, or cruising the streets in an airconditioned limousine.

And why is there a need for a "health status monitoring system" if these guys are certified physically fit to carry out law enforcement duties? Makes you wonder if they have need of mechanical ventilation to stay alert. Hooking them up to heart rate sensors may not be a smart idea as the online readings may spike at the presence of chio-bu in the surrounds. Unless it's due to xenophobic fear of dark skinned alcohol infused potential trouble makers.

Note also the fancy Tom Cruise type aviator glasses, also geared for health status monitoring and reporting capability. That has to be coded specification for a cool pair of expensive Google Glass, available to developers and testers at US$1,500 (or £1,000 in the UK). Watch out for a reprise of Khaw Boon Wan's justification for $2,200 foldable bicycles:

"Providing staff with bikes was thought to be a simple and effective way to raise staff productivity as it enables the officer to cover more ground and do more inspections within the same time."

Member of parliament for Moulmein-Kallang GRC Edwin Tong’s question was whether it was timely to review the framework by which political salaries are determined. It was just a subtle reminder that U.S. President Barack Obama is (still) paid only about US$400,000 annually while Japanese Prime Minister is paid US$359,000 a year. Point of fact, the Japanese PM’s pay was cut 30% in Nov 2011 as part of plan to reduce Japanese public servants’ pay and help fund reconstruction for the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami devastation. Not to appease voters seething with anger for years of pillage from public coffers.

True to form, Teo Chee Hean dodged the bullet and went off tangent to highlight that political salaries have not gone up in the past 3 years even as the benchmark they are linked to has risen by around 3% per year over the period. He itemised the "3 Principles" which guided their iron-clad rice bowl connection:

Salaries must be competitive;
Ethos of political service entails sacrifice, reflected as "discount" in wages;
Salaries paid without hidden bonuses

Even the most daft of Singaporeans can spot Pinnochio's nose lengthening as he spoke. Compared to Eduardo Saverin, Obama and Shinzō Abe must feel like living the subsistence of a Mother Teresa. Teo can't be making too much of a personal sacrifice when his residential home, funded by public service pay, consists of two houses sited side by side in a Good Class Bungalow estate. As for the "hidden bonuses", what they are getting from the newly introduced National bonus component - wherein ministers can receive up to 3 months bonus if the targets set by the Cabinet (meaning themselves) are met - are not exactly public knowledge.

The most infuriating part of Teo's retort is his not-too-subtle suggestion that political salaries should go up after 3 years. He may actually be swallowing Lui Tuck Yew's line that "train reliability has actually improved" when we are witnessing a transportation disruption every week, if not every other day. Teo should take a closer look at the top 1,000 earners whose pay they are benchmarking against - these guys actually get marching orders if they are not up to scratch. Just ask Magnus Bocker, ex-chief executive of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) who chose not to seek to extension of his appointment beyond his current contract, which ends on June 30 this year. Not for him the option of saying, "If we didn't get it right, I'm sorry. But we will try better the next time."

With some children, they are best seen and not heard. Senior Minister of State for Transport Josephine Teo is one over grown kid who just does not know when to zip her lips. Even before we have a chance to recover from her disastrous “national service cannot be measured in dollars and cents” sound bite, she has to come up with a more monstrous "zero car growth likely in the future" quip.

Our parents once looked forward to the 5 Cs - Cash, Car, Credit Card, Condominium and Country Club. Although short changed by Goh Chok Tong's promise of a Swiss standard of living, through hard work and prudent financial planning, many have managed to achieved the 5 C status. Now Teo is threatening to set us back by one C. Whatever happened to "progress for our nation"?

She could have checked with her boss first - Transport Minister Lui Tuck Yew - who promised in 2011 that the car growth rate would not be reduced to zero, knowing that such an outcome would go against the aspirations of those looking forward to owning a personal set of wheels. Perhaps she is making the bet that Lui, cursed and bogged down by the recent failures of the train system - poor guy is reportedly vowing to "claw back confidence in the rail system" - would never survive another election. Perhaps she wants a situation whereby only the elite can drive around in private vehicles on publicly funded roads, relegating the rest of us mere mortals to - how did Anton Casey put it? - the "stench of public transport."

The Singapore Vehicle Traders Association secretary raised a pertinent point, "If it's zero growth, is it still necessary to leave a COE system?" Let's see how Teo responds to her ultimate pay master about the loss of revenue from the lucrative COE scam.

The provision for active election campaigning as permitted by law question is covered by the Parliamentary Elections Act (‘PEA’).

The term election advertising is defined in section 2(1) of the PEA as: “any poster, banner, notice, circular, handbill, illustration, article, advertisement or other material that can reasonably be regarded as intended —
(a) to promote or procure the electoral success at any election for one or more identifiable political parties, candidates or groups of candidates; or
(b) to otherwise enhance the standing of any such political parties, candidates or groups of candidates with the electorate in connection with any election, and such material shall be election advertising even though it can reasonably be regarded as intended to achieve any other purpose as well and even though it does not expressly mention the name of any political party or candidate…”

So has an election been called? Or did somebody finally kicked the bucket, precipitating an inconvenient by-election?

In a Facebook post, Victor Lye, PAP branch chairman for Bedok Reservoir-Punggol ward, proudly admitted that he was one of the PAP activists who busied themselves distributing anti-Workers Party flyers in Aljunied GRC, stuffing uninvited printed material indiscriminately into unsuspecting households.

PAP Paya Lebar branch chairman K Muralidaran Pillai has told reporters the aim is to target all 55,000 HDB units under the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East Town Council (AHPETC). Maybe he thinks that since the flyers do not carry the PAP logo, or say who printed them, he can be absolved of accountability or, when the shit hits the fan, he can simply claim he was misquoted.

Meanwhile the super efficient Singapore Police Force (SPF) has classified a case of anonymous anti-PAP flyers being distributed in Sengkang under the Sedition Act, by which an offender could be fined up to $5,000 and/or given a jail term of up to 3 years. David Attenborough has also just completed narrating the first Wild Life in Singapore episode for ChannelNewsAsia at 9 pm tonight. Looks like the wild life in the city just got wilder.

In classical Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman on Earth. Pandora was also the one who opened a jar containing death and many other evils which were released into the world. She hastened to close the container, but the whole contents had escaped except for one item that lay at the bottom - hope (elpis). The implications of Elpis remaining in the jar were the subject of intense debate even in antiquity.

Latest to join the cacophony of female voices demonstrating a distinct disconnect between mouth and brain is MP for West Coast GRC Foo Mee Har, who proposed that joint consent of both spouses be required when a member’s CPF withdrawal is linked to a CPF charge on the couple’s jointly owned property. She may not intend it, but a pre-nuptial agreement style arrangement will drive a wedge into any fragile marriage.

A classmate married late, so he was earning twice as much as his bride of 10 years younger when they bought their first house. His Central Provident Fund (CPF) contribution to the joint purchase was close to 80 percent of the total financing. When they upgraded and sold the first house, some clerk credited the bulk of the CPF sum withdrawn for the first purchase to his wife's account without so much as informing him. Pressed for a reason, he was told his "wife's CPF balance was so low". He left it at that, believing that married couples should not quibble over money. Thanks to the ups and downs of the private sector, his salary is now close to his wife's, who is a civil servant with an iron rice bowl and compounding annual salary adjustments of 5 percent on the average. All this talk of who actually owns his CPF monies is now driving him nuts. Why, oh why, did he not sign a pre-nuptial agreement before tying the knot, he laments.

Friends provide consolation by assuring him his better half is not the gold digger type, so there may be hope in this world after all. Then these female politicians afflicted with verbal diarrhea had to send him back into deep depression by suggesting CPF top ups for spouses and joint consents.

The headline of a 21 October 2014 online post in the People's Daily, China's Communist Party mouth piece, captured Xi Jinping's place in history after only 2 years in office: "Mao Zedong made Chinese people stand up; Deng Xiaoping made Chinese people rich; Xi Jinping will make Chinese people strong." Our own version of an epitaph after 50 years pales by comparison: "Lee Kuan Yew got us kicked out of Malaysia; Goh Chok Tong merely kept the seat warm; Lee Hsien Loong dropped the ball." To be fair, the latter had his surgically removed.

Perhaps if the prime minister had studied law instead of mathematics, he would have recognised the shame of a nation when the law enforcement agency of the land refers you to to a third party for a legal position. If he's any good as his supporters claim, he should be able to make a million bucks in the lucrative business of providing private tuition in math.

Suddenly, it makes sense why the Thaipusam procession supporters were harassed by men in plain clothes, why the Hong Lim Park protestors were accosted by men in mufti. They themselves were uncertain if their thuggish tactics were legal in the first place; to put on a uniform would be justifying a farce. They were merely following orders blindly.

One former nominated member of parliament claims that the impartiality of the police force and the judiciary in Singapore are being questioned. We have to agree with Calvin Cheng that faith in our legal system and our police force underpins our hard-won social harmony and stability. The difficulty here is that the Singapore Police Force is seen to be washing their hands off the issue at hand. An issue which had a legal precedent in December 2010. Pontius Pilate could wash his hands off a bloody affair because he was not a Jew, but can a policeman really walk away from the law?

In his swan song address to some 500 social workers at the annual Social Workers’ Day Symposium convened at the fancy Concorde Hotel, Social and Family Development Minister Chan Chun Sing didn't exactly check off his solid accomplishments after 4 years at the helm.

Instead, he threw up some nebulous recommendations like "piloting 'self-organising' models that are somewhere in between relying on domestic helpers and on institutionalised homes". Even Daiso has better suggestions when it comes to DIY solutions, most of which are priced at $2. This million dollar minister had nothing, zilch, nada, no concrete plan to offer.

Chan also said the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) has tried to “bootstrap” standards and protocols so that people beyond the sector will listen to the views of social workers. Suffice it to say, those standards and protocols must be written in Greek, since none of us, MSF members included, can possibly decipher his highfalutin terminology. For all we know, distributing flyers surreptitiously in the middle of the night is included in the methodologies.

SR Nathan has this story to tell about Goh Keng Swee being upset by jargon - accountancy jargon, engineering jargon, whatever. Goh had instructed him to call a chap up: "Look, tell the bloody fool to write so that another fool will understand him." Knowing that Goh wanted very simple language, Nathan tried to express same to said officer, and was rebutted with: "Oh, I've got a PhD." As Nathan tells it, Goh called the officer direct and gave him a shelling he probably never forgot all his life. ("SR Nathan in Conversation", Timothy Auger, page 116). Too bad Goh is no longer around to effect any shellacking.

CNN quickly corrected its initial report after Farah Rahim, senior director for the Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information, dismissed it as a hoax. Nobody likes to be wrong, so the dagger was twisted after the stab, "The elder Lee has been credited with Singapore's remarkable transformation from a colonial trading post to a prosperous financial center. However, he has also been a divisive figure, attracting criticism for stifling media freedom and for the harsh treatment of political opponents."

To quote Mark Twain, "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated". The expression derives from the popular form of a longer statement by the American writer which appeared in the New York Journal of 2 June 1897: ‘The report of my death was an exaggeration’. The correction was occasioned by newspaper accounts of Twain’s being ill or dead. At the time, Twain’s cousin James Ross Clemens was seriously ill in London, and appears that some reports confused him with Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain).

A good death needs not carry a sting. Lee personally witnessed how Hon Sui Sen, close friend and old guard minister, drew strength from his Catholic faith as he lay dying in 1983: "He was fearless. I was at his bedside. The priest gave him the last sacrament. His profound belief was from childhood. Because he had that belief, he had an equanimity of mind and spirit." (Hard Truths, page 218)

A verse oft quoted at Christian wakes and funerals goes like this:

“Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin,

and the power of sin is the law.

Providing plenty of grist for the rumour mill

Ouch! That is so NOT the kind of epitaph to die for. The Business Insider write up of 19 Mar 2015 is proof that we are not alone in begrudging an installed princeling for helping himself to the nation's cookie jar.

Maybe Putin was putting on a show of personal sacrifice when he took a 10% pay cut in the face of mounting economic sanctions and low oil prices, but Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was sincere when his pay was shaved 30% to help fund reconstruction in the aftermath of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami devastation. But unlike the cape crusader wannabe Lim Swee Say who effused endlessly about his CPF statement, Putin told reporters that "Frankly, I don't even know my own salary, they just give it to me, and I put it away in my account."

Over the last 15 years under Putin’s reign, Russia has raked in over US$3 trillion “petrodollars.” Although detractors claim that Putin’s brand of crony capitalism has turned many loyalists into billionaires, he did not peg his salary to the top earners.

The rot started in November 1994, when Lee Kuan Yew made a mockery of the Old Guards' sacrifice, "My generation of political leaders have become dinosaurs, an extinct breed of men when went into politics because of the passion of their convictions." One journalist was brave enough to tell him that higher salaries would change, and Lee quoted him, "the name of the game and attract a different type of person with different motivations."

His speech during the debate on the White Paper on ministerial salaries concluded with these lines: "In five to ten years, when it works and Singapore has got a good government, this formula will be accepted as convention wisdom." Now that we have rat infested housing estates, trains breaking down with alarming frequency, rising healthcare cost showing no signs of abating, it is questionable what a working government is really like. Ten years after 1994, we had a new prime minister, whose next ten years' turn at the helm was coined a "roller coaster decade" by Straits Times journalist Chua Mui Hoong, the nadir of which has to be the Population White Paper in 2013.

When Indonesia's former dictator Suharto finally gave up the ghost on 27 January 2008, it was 3 long weeks after being admitted to Pertamina Hospital in South Jakarta. Despite the gallant efforts of dozens of Indonesia's best doctors, he was done in by anemia and low blood pressure due to heart, lung and kidney problems.

And as he lay in hospital, kept alive by the scientific marvel of a life support machine, victims of his repressive regime fumed at the failure to prosecute him for mass murder of at least half a million killed during his 32 years in power. During the mid-1960s, Suharto supervised a purge of suspected Communists that saw between 500,000 and a million lives snuffed out in cold blood. Until the world learnt of the Khmer Rouge's atrocities in Cambodia a decade later, it was the bloodiest event in the region since the Second World War.

However, his children and business cronies waxed lyrical about his qualities, having reaped the bountiful fruits of his inglorious reign. Transparency International, the anti-corruption pressure group, estimated that Suharto amassed a personal fortune of between $15bn and $35bn, much of it through bribes and kickbacks. His wife was nicknamed "Ibu Ten Percent" for obvious reasons. Suharto also learnt to make effective use of lawyers, he won a $106m lawsuit against Time magazine after it suggested his family stashed away $15bn of state funds.

Quite naturally, not too many world leaders made a beeline to his bedside. The notable few who did: Malaysia's ex-president Mahathir Mohamad, Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew, and the then Philippine President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. They lauded Suharto for promoting regional unity. Lee's cogent contribution spoke volumes about their shared values:

“Yes, there was corruption. Yes, he gave favors to his family and his friends. But there was real growth, real progress… What is a few billion dollars lost in bad excesses? He built hundreds of billions of dollars worth of assets. I think the people of Indonesia are lucky. They had a general in charge, had a team of competent administrators including a very good team of economists.”

Lee Kuan Yew died at 3.18am today at the Singapore General Hospital. He was 91.

Digital art created with AndreaMosaic

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There Goes The Quiet Weekend

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Running Wild In Singapore

The Fate Of Princelings

Is It Really Our Money?

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire

The Real Meaning of Angst

Gender Wars

Cool Smart Vests

The Artful Dodger Is Asking For More

Spectre Of Zero Car Growth

Going Wild In Singapore

Money And Marriage

Laws Of The Jungle

Hidden Meanings

The Rumors Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Poor Putin

The Legacy Of Great Leaders