That is not hade currency but Singapore currency ! Damn, some freaking oldman still can even sleep peacefully.

If this is true and accurate then all Singaporean would be doomed soon. Just imagine how much more taxes and price increase would be implemented to recover all these losses, not even to mention the on-going obscene salaries all these MPs are drawing today.

Assuming USD200 billion holding, 20% = $40 billion burnt

The USD’s value is heading for the ocean bed as the US crisis moves into the next phase.

My personal experience with government scholars re-affirms your statement that “the fear of offencing his boss and lost promotion and favours that force to act in unethical” way“. Most of the Singaporeans at my university are government scholars. I recalled the times I campaigned for the reform of Parliamentary Elections Act on campus and was seeking for signatures for petition. Some welcomed my actions and stressed that they support my action in principle but will not bite the hand that feeds them, while others branded me a trouble-maker on campus. Either way, it is clear that these government scholars do not intend to stand up for the ethical choice.

In fact you don’t have to second guess, you just need to go to the ground to know and speak to these people. Try not to find those who still in government job, they won’t divulge much and many will just talk positively just to keep their job. Speak to those high flyers who left the government sectors and you begin to understand the “brutal truth”. But then, it is the same for many organization, just that in government job, the budget tend to be greater and is using taxmoney (Singapore INC is that freaking rich, isn’t it ?)

Yet, our most basic and instinctual response is to find news, to justify that we are right. And by censoring the news, the government forces Singaporeans to fight the information battle. But in this war, information is the red herring. By expending resources justifying our self righteousness, by finding scarce information, we are giving up on the war. And while we point our fingers at the ruling party, the same system would gladly and inevitably lower its tendrils on the next party.

Something else is needed, be it an inferential jump or acts that follow astute analysis. Something more than mere news and angst.

I am glad to see a departure from objective news into inferences. In the absence of information and truth, an educated guess is better than no guess at all. Since there is an absence of other inferences here, yours is the best guess.

So, let’s take what you said as the truth, that our “elites” are talented, able and possess a sense of what’s right (and is motivated to do what’s right to a certain extent). Then we have to conclude that it is a factor external to them that’s resulting the failures we discuss. Let’s call the external factor “system”. If what you are saying is that the “elites” are not doing their job well, then what it implies is that there is a flaw in the system.

The best of the elites are nothing if they cannot correct a flaw in the system. Yet, if elites chose to be elites out of free will, then they willingly chose a life that perpetuates (since they lose all option to correct the system) the system. As you (and so did some other politician) said, our elites are talented and can find equally (if not more) well paying demand for their talents and services in the private sector. It is clear that our elites did not perpetuate the system out of greed for material wealth, but perhaps out of some darker values (power hunger without virtue?).

Another more worrying implication is, if the elites,because of their predisposed positions of power, cannot change the system, then who can? If we take it that understanding comes before control, and observation is the precursor to understanding, then we are still only struggling with the observation part.

Anyway, as a Singapore citizen, I have to eat supper and ensure my survival that results in the economic productivity that is seemingly more and more necessary to ensure political stability in my country.

In fact, I strongly believe that Singaporean scholars and gahmen are intelligent and know what is right and wrong. They have propensity to learn. But whatever intelligence and education are useless if they could not do what is right. My observation is that these scholars probably able to discern what is right but in pursuit of materialistic gain and faster promotion, they playing smart by just doing what upper management want them to do and just use their smartness to support their boss.

It is sad. Very sad. When you speak to most of these scholars, their answer are generally “No choice. If want to promote and has good life, just follow and support the orders. If I don’t do it, someone will. My boss is my client and I have to make him happy.” It is the fear of offencing his boss and lost promotion and favours that force to act in “unethical” way. As who his boss take order from, it doesn’t take long for us to figure out.

The best of the best elites are nothing if they could not do the right thing and stand up for their moral conviction.

Our elites are selected mainly by grades and psychometric tests.

Career performance and good results with high IQ has been shown to be mildly correlated, but not fully correlated, and 100% (deterministic) causality is out of the question.

Furthermore, for careers, bright people with options self-select themselves into the careers that fit them. Our elites, often being indoctrinated at a young age, lose their options and choices before a mature decision has evolved. Even if they hate their elite job, if they performed as badly as einstein did in school, they would still be stuck there.

Lastly, our elites, the cream of the crop of Singaporean student, is merely the best out of around 4 million compared to a global (educated) 2 billion. Our “elite” is less than 0.2% of the global “elite” (not to mention that the western world produce more great people per population).

Although this does not conclusively say that our government is not elite, it leaves any such assertion open to many questions and doubts.

Also, the above reasons excludes the mention of Singaporean bureaucratic culture and other workplace politics that can stunt even the most able, so even if we do have the best elites of the world, we are not guaranteed of their best work and results.

The more likely scenario, in line with your proposition about a partly defunct government, is that our government has failings in many areas, which leads to worrying issues like this.

Should we take the worst case after all this government pride itself having the best elites to run the nation, nothing but the best. If such a best people do such a pathetic job, what cannot be worse in the government ?

life expectancy and death rate, along with birth rate and fertility rate, don’t agree
inflation does not tally with price rise, or they’re using a seriously wrong consumer goods basket
unemployment and GDP growth along with wage growth
etc

But let’s not be too hasty jumping to conclusions. It’s one thing to note huge discrepancies, it’s another to draw inferences from them. It could be merely be extremely inept statisticians… Or it could be something much worse than just hiding bad results and mismanagement.

Good question here, where are the other US$200b? sure alot of singaporean folks would like to know where have the difference gone to!

[39,490 new babies + 15,000 new citizens - 1,000 “give up citizenship” - 17,140 deaths = Total: 36,350]

The new babies they mentioned may only refer to those who came from live births. Well, at least that’s what I inferred from the statistics dept. There wasn’t any consideration on babies who were adopted from overseas, and then converted to Singapore citizenship (?). If this is also allowed, the number may not be 36350, but higher….(though we don’t need to be precise for big picture discussions).

The reality is that 5 to 7% are acceptable numbers for passive investors.

What we do know is the smartest and the best are choosen to run this CIC fund.

25 years ago the 20 year bond rate in Australia was 15% and the US Bell Weather 25 year bond rate was 12%.

Lately, the big long term investment in Merrill Lynch was made at $47 per share it was a flip of a coin wheather Lehmans failed or Merrill failed.
The last time I looked the investment had lost a third of it’s value.

Thank goodness we have the scholars looking after GIC.