There was no money in it that’s why the million $$ ministars did not show leadership……..

Now you see why the Hong Kong government, which cost less than the Singapore government, are so much highly regarded: at least they bother to deal with the issues hands-on and immediately. That’s leadership.

Singapore, everything must wait and see. Like the poisoned milk incident. Meanwhile, people may wait and si(die). Then pay so much money to the minister for what? Copycating other people’s policies. Any idiots can do that for much, much less.

I wonder how much months of bonus the ministers are taking home this year?
I mean, the economy is not good, the people are suffering and the ministers congratulate themselves for a good job done (with the Mas Selemat, the Serangoon Gardens, the MAS’s initial refusal to deal with the Lehmann Brothers case until 1000 people turn up to protest, the electricity hike despite rapidly falling oil prices).

And these ministers (e.g Swee Swee Say) have the cheeks to ask people to tighten their belts and squeeze their budget by jacking up the electricity bills.

Show me how they are paid and I will show you how they will behave.

Not that it’s how they are paid, not how much they are paid. Understand the difference.

I actually Expected the people’s representatives, just 1 of them, to step forward for these investors who potential will loose all their lifetime’s hardearned savings, especially those whose retirement and coffin money are stuck in this minibonds.

did LTK and Sylvia lim even made a small sentence at HLP ? Maybe they are not financially as savvy ? u know, u let me know. spore is unique.

did any MP and Minister made a statement for the investors? I have no idea leh.
u know or not?

Comparing the HK and SG approach, bluntly frankly, I am not optimistic for the poor investors. I hope if at least 50% of their investments is gone, they do not resort to taking their life away. this is not to be desired. 1 life too many.

When troubles come – PAP style.

1. wash your hands. . . . . . . . . . you invited your own problem
2. defend your position. . . . . . . this is between investers & banks
3. find a scapegoat. . . . . . . . . . . you and always you
4. wait for reaction . . . . . . . . . . . lucky got TKL to lead the way.
5. play hard-to-get . . . . . .. . . . . this is between investers & banks, not govt’s problem.
6. copycat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .see how other govts react then copy whta is necessary
7. job well done . . . . . . . . . . . . . give themselves pat on the backs, high 5s
8. self-praise and then demand more pay

If you see the poor oppressed in a district, and justice and rights denied, do not be surprised at such things; for one official is eyed by a higher one, and over them both are others higher still. The increase from the land is taken by all; the king himself profits from the fields. Ecclesiastes 5:8-9

And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: “This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’ Zechariah 7:8-10

Woe to you, teachers of the law . . . . . you hypocrites and frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Matthew 23:22-24

I love my country and am praying for it!

The reply will be “you ask me, I ask who”..This is a reflex reply..The measured reply will be TKK.

“Now you see why the Hong Kong government, which cost less than the Singapore government, are so much highly regarded: at least they bother to deal with the issues hands-on and immediately. That’s leadership.”

That is mainly because there is no conflict of interest. HK politicians do not run profitable business which impedes effective and efficient decision-making.
It is time to remove conflict of interest in our government. With all politicians as head or chairman of government body running profitable business at expense of citizens, how can there ever be partiality ? Everytime, these Singa politicians make decision, they will have to worry about the bottleneck and whether their decision will impact their perks and salary since some of them may related to the affected company at hand or because the flawed KPI which depends on economic growth which encourage short-term performance.

gemami ,
you forget #9
#9 PM, MM, SM & President’s Disappearance – These gahmen show lacks of National interest. No sound, no movement, no bragging anymore. Nothing, just like pinkish clown in Mas Selamat’s saga. Disappear to prepare script ?

They are the main decision-makers and overall responsible for the well-being of Singapore, don’t they ? How come not a single word utter ?

When times are good, some (aside from the pathetic president) just come out and talk big, but when crisis, they just disappear. These are the pillars of Singapore, and not even to hear a word of comfort from them are stupidity. Don’t they have EQ ?

Though I have to agree even if they do, it is often more devastating than keeping silence. Remember Woody’s remark of “That’s life” and someone You Know’s “Conspiracy to do us in”

Whose know, keeping silence by them is could a blessing in disguise for Singapore.

gee, Daniel, how could I missed that?!

Latest news!! All ministers in hiding in their mansions fearing “ah longs” looking for them.

Heard they worried pay cut for them! Their slogan is not “Owe money pay money” Theirs is “no pay increase no talk,take cover”.

You need help, you help yourself,la. We also got problems, worried government ask all of us ministers to take pay cut. But government will tell them : Don’t worry, take small pay cut, next time double increase in pay. Suffer a little, show people u care, ma. Con them again la, always work , wa.

How to ensure ministers resolve Lehman’s issue.

The gov must now announced that all minister’s pays are been used to purchase Lehman’s minibond. So they may not get any returns at all if bank did not return the principal. If ministers farting heckCare , they will forfeit their salary this month, next month and forever until lehman thing is resolved.
Now let’s see if money talks louder than fart.

13) Daniel on October 18th, 2008 10.02 pm How to ensure ministers resolve Lehman’s issue.

The gov must now announced that all minister’s pays are been used to purchase Lehman’s minibond. So they may not get any returns at all if bank did not return the principal. If ministers farting heckCare , they will forfeit their salary this month, next month and forever until lehman thing is resolved.
Now let’s see if money talks louder than fart.

Cannot cannot, if like that then they start to resign one by one soon, this is very dangerous cos they will lose more vote in the next coming GE, no way! their salaries must keep going up to keep these greedy robots working in accordance to the master plan or else . . . well unless they abolish the next GE which is quite possible.

why so many hikes sudden come huh?
enjoy more good what?

when are MNCs gonna sack people ?
how soon ? anyone knows?
which company have sacked people liao?

i expect the msm to report all sackings by MNCs to give a transparent info on the effect of this RECESSION. Yes, spore is said to be the 1st in asia – to go into recession. I not sure is this something to be proud of ?

Next GE don’t fall for the “short term carrot”! As you all already realise every “carrot” they issue, they take away even MORE from you.
GST, Transport, ERP, PUB bill….. these are long term. Only go UP and never come down.
Cause They already have an impression that we will just complain and forget.
So note down all these events and we will SHOW THEM we will not forget when the next GE come!

No worry, we have alot of buffers standby . . . . did I read wrongly? buffers of bluffers!

i know of some wafer fab lay off small number of staff. other plants that sent staff for oversea training got layout off even before the training complete. These people fly back S’pore w/o job. of course they will not declare as retrenchment, this is call “re-structuring”. or they can give you a “under perform” rating and use that as a reason to finish you off. So Good Luck and Pray Hard!

“Next GE don’t fall for the “short term carrot”! ”
Carrot must eat because whether you like it or not, it is after all your own money that is be paid back to the coffers after election. Do note that in the tradition of the government, the citizen need to return bigger and juicy carrot for the government that cost multitude of time more than the carrot they give you in the form GST, price hike, million dollar ministers, Mee Siam Mai Hum

Just don’t vote the jokers and the clowns after consuming the paltry carrot.

“Cannot cannot, if like that then they start to resign one by one soon, this is very dangerous cos they will lose more vote in the next coming GE, no way! ”

Don’t worry. We can always backdate it as the gov teach us. Remember there is such thing as forward contract just like the oil. We can backdate it to a year ago for the lehman contract. If they quit, they have to return all the previous salaries since the contract start.

To avoid another similar fiasco there are 3 areas to be addressed.
1. The FIs… ….There must be stringent check in the internal control of the FIs. Most FIs are cheats. They will do the minimum and cover up the rest. MAS must audit them frequently and cannot trust them to do internal audits.Especailly the insurance companies they would not shoot their foot. They close 2 eyes to the activities of their salespeople.The FIs are only interested in the sale and they don’t care how this sale is brought in..MAS must hold everyone responsible from the CEOs to the salespeople if anything goes wrong.
2. The salespeople or agents or RMs must be controlled. They cannot be allowed to push products , mis-sell or to misrepresent. If they are found flouting MAS must come down hard on them. If they don’t comply with section 27 of the FAA they should be punished and be seen to be punished.I can’t understand why we dont’ hear of any insurance agents or RMs being charged for this offence or that when thousands and thousands of these people are flouting the law daily. Is it too many that MAS is shy to act? or scared to let the regulatory weakness and flaws of the system be known.
3. MAS must police and not supervise and let the thieves(FIs and their salespeople) take charge of consumers’ piggy banks. They must make sure the products are safe, will benefit the consumers in term of return and wealth accumulation and in terms of protection at lowest cost and not dubious products with toxic buried below the heap of the rubbish and frills.This kind of products are common nowadays with insurance companies and the banks.
The key to the success is enforcement. MAS must not play taichi, blame game and drag its feet. MAS must act swiftly to see justice is done impartially. There is no such thing as over regulation . The current financial turmoil is a testimony of no or under regulation.
Once again, remember the words of pro-consumer CEO of HKMA. He said something like this or to this effect.
” The financial markets are NOT created to serve the interest of the FIs, the RMs or the insurance agents, to line their pockets at the expense of the consumers but to help the consumers, the ordinary folks and man in the street to meet their financial goals and needs..
Hope MAS will get into action to review the whole set of FAA laws to protect the consumers so that they receive fair dealing and best outcome

20) Daniel on October 19th, 2008 1.16 am
Don’t worry. We can always backdate it as the gov teach us. Remember there is such thing as forward contract just like the oil. We can backdate it to a year ago for the lehman contract. If they quit, they have to return all the previous salaries since the contract start.

Wa lau! if like that I think some of them is now or already making plans to eh-lak (avoid) this scenerio liao! better resign now and migrate sooner the better.

19) Daniel on October 19th, 2008 1.14 am
————————————————————–
Regretably, trust me, history will repeat itself. People are aPATHETIC and scared. some are blind. news is so good feeling.

I have heard lots of friends complaining about our garment. But when I comes to GE, they will say no choice lah, or they will say the garment knows who you support. Lots of people behave like that, very sad, right?

Whatever People ask for, they will get it.
Lets all be silent humans and just move on like no fiasco has happened.
Lets be Kuai.
Lets Pay And Pay even if everything HIKES.
We are rich and hikes is peanuts.

glob crisis 10 years ago, david gerald was the man who fought a lone battle to help retail investors though he did not succeed

10 years later, tan kin lian iz the man of the moment.

where iz our entrusted govt? why keep quiet & so non-proactive when the people who vote you has run into trouble…

our govt has really disappoint us too many times….& now with recent inflationary hardship, price increase iz the only answer.

i have in fact written to the now-defunct ’streats’ newspaper few years ago to propose we should have a layer of ‘true cooperative organisations’ that serve the basic need of our citizen (eg healthcare, education, finanicial etc).

look how fast our govt corporatise / privatise our ‘posb’, various ‘utilities & transport corporations’? pls do not mask these ‘greedy practices’ as higher efficiency & professionalism…….bcos all these cost extra $$$$$ at our poor expense….

is bloody sad that now we do not have a true oragnisation that serves the needs of singaporean…….no even ntuc fairprice

It is commendable that some one like Mr Tan has come up with this rally to get the authorities to act. But we have to also to view this situation from a overall perspective. This is definitely an emotional topic as well as an economic topic and the authority must handle this with an even hand with compassion and also dignity. I hope someone from the authority is reading this chain of comments, some of these comments are downright condescending with names of certain high profile ministers mentioned. But these are emotional times and during these crisis time, some form of change in style may be necessary.

There seems to be very little feeling for citizens – at times like this – a minister happily mentioned something about his CPF ( hugh amount compared to the common citizen) , another talked about globalisation when there are clear signs that many Singaporeans will be losing their jobs with the looming economic crisis; the same minister commented about “no apologies in defamation suits” in a timing after the passing away of JBJ.
A third minister commented ” to see losses in perspective’ in the financial products which DBS is also one of the banks featured.
Despite the invaluable feedback provided by netizens, the Government is not heeding to help close the great divide – there will be a hard landing soon for all.

They elders said, “If you will be a servant to this people, be considerate of their needs and respond with compassion, work things out with them, they’ll end up doing anything for you.” 2 Chronicle 10:7

But Jesus called them to [Him] and said to them, You know that those who are recognized as governing and are supposed to rule the nations, lord it over them [ruling with absolute power, holding them in subjection], and their great men exercise authority and dominion over them.

But this is not to be so among you; instead, whoever desires to be great among you must be your servant,

And whoever wishes to be most important and first in rank among you must be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man came not to have service rendered to Him, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:42-45

“Tthe king [leader] shall consider as good, not what pleases himself but what pleases his subjects [followers]” – Kautilya in Arthashastra

The greatest leader forgets himself and attends to the development of others. – Lao Tzu in The Tao Te Ching

Great leaders support the bottom ten percent. – Lao Tzu in The Tao Te Ching

According to the Goverment’s mantra, if you are not highly paid you are

- prone to corruption
- not a capable person

So are Mr Tan Kin Lian and his merry men
-corrupted
-not capable

We have seen clealy in this situation.

More Good Years Ahead!

During the last 10 years or so there are only 2 main things that our garment wants, i.e. keep making alot of money and start rewarding themselves at the expense of the citizens.

For the 10,000 investors who have lost money and you have voted the PAP in the last election, you have literally paid for the current government with your hard earned money. It is literally quite sad but you have forgotten to exercise your rights back then and paying for it now. You get what you have voted for.

Huh! me vote for PAP? when? you got me all wrong leh. I am just sad that half of my family members already packed and left some years back and still I’m stucked here.

I think there are more like TAN KL and Leong in sgp.
But due to u-know reasons, they rather enjoy their weekends at home, in restaurants or golf courses or pcc.

I am sure if a few more good men like these step forward, this fiasco boo boo would be addressed faster. HK response was world class and it shows they have a responsible government.
I am sure if more step forward, these investors , who lose so much, may have more confidence about salvaging the losses.

But….then again, if not your problem, how many singaporeans would wanna help? Based on historical evidence …. yada yada yada….

But i still hope you also hope for
MORE GOOD YEARS!

Huat AH!

Yeah lor there are so many mp so young and rich yet nobody lead. where are the leadership and their duty?. then why do people vote for them. must as well vote for tan kin lian if he come out to complete in next election.

jbj so old and not rich yet he still can fight till his last day for election in bukit batok.

where are all the mp? they did not even say a single thing. hope they can voice out something at least. facts are facts, truth and truth i do not believe anyone so powerful in a lawful country can sue or punish or revenge people who are doing or saying factual or real things? why are mp so scare? if any mp get any injustice by doing or saying a right thing he should voice out also. that is then a real mp.

if it is a right thing to do then mp should say and do the right thing no matter they are from which party. they cannot do nothing just because if they are control by their party.

if mp are so afraid then next election we should not vote for any mp from a party but maybe vote for an independent candidate so there is no such thing a party whip right?

mp mo mo your liang xin (touch your heart) and ask what have you all done?

shame shame and sad sad.

LUCKY i have never got a chance to vote because i live in bukit batok, since i never get to vote because my grc always get walk over, then i do not feel so sad because the mp good or not good is never chosen by me……i am just cheating myself by saying so….

(actually in the bottom of my heart i am so sad and pitiful that i cannot chose the right person with a big heart like tan kin lian to be my mp so that he can help me when i am in trouble, to do what is the right thing to do and say the right thing to say, no matter which party or independent, the mp is from).

tiredsingaporean ,
where did your family go to ?

“if mp are so afraid then next election we should not vote for any mp from a party but maybe vote for an independent candidate so there is no such thing a party whip right?”

The gov is so kind and helpful to vote for ruling party on behalf of many citizens. Don’t need to waste time to go to voting centre anymore. Where in the world can you find such a understanding gov ?

“mp mo mo your liang xin (touch your heart) and ask what have you all done?”
Our gov has done a lot of works to help us. They help us to lose billions of tax-money, think up of scammy and PayAndPay scheme and increase cost of living, and increase inflation so to help us to stay frugal, economical and healthy without retirement. By working till death , our gov is helping us not to be senile as the old fart. Their remarkable indelible contribution on loss of billions of tax-money in bank investments is the greatest achievement in the history of ruling party. With that, they deserve to rule Singapore for another 50years.

hahaha so funny but very true. with tears flowing when i am laughing. they call it koo xiao (bitter laugh) hahaha

suddenly i have this thought.

mr cst (sorry do not know how to spell his name) the mp from potong pasir is very old and going to retire i think. so there might be no person to take over him.

now there is mr tan kin lian. maybe mr tan kin lian you should consider to complete in potong pasir in the next election? hope you will consider very carefully because of your capable leadership. and also hope mr cst may give tan kin lian a chance?

hope that a good candidate like tan kin lian will go into politics.

hope that a good candidate like tan kin lian will go into politics. – one day (#40)

We need 6 good candidates to run against PAP in Ang Mo Kio GRC.

God is definitely at work. He has harden the hearts of these leaders so that they can’t hear nor feel the pain of ordinary singaporeans. They thought they are destined to rule singapore with a iron fist. Their arrogance is overwhelming. The lord sees these million dollar ministers as proud and full of themselves. Their downfall will be swift. For the lord has harden their hearts even more so that they will not heed the people’s advice. Instead of lightening the yoke on the people’s neck they will further add more burden. We just wait for more crap to be thrown at us.