It is moving towards the right direction. Both the governing and the governed must grow politically.

Sometimes it is really ‘hurting’ to see that we have such an ‘obedient & fearful’ citizenry treated like children and with those people up there behaving in that higher-than-thou fatherly manner.

It is good that Singaporeans are starting to demand for more transparency and disclosure.

Well, we have put ourselves into this labyrithine kind of dead end situation – where we need to find for ourselves and put together whatever missing pieces that we may happen to find floating around, and be pleased to come out with whatever flimsy & scant picture of understanding. Unique ?

I know you meant well. But you too know they are politicians and MM is at his best as an old guard. There can be no clear cut clarifications in his/their announcement otherwise they cannot recourse (sad but true). gemami has a point, at the end of the day, it could be his assumption is right and I rephrase “…sorry folks, we’ve given our best and this is the best we can do for you, the rest is up to you to play a part”.

On the DBS highnote/minibonds issues. I want to draw your attention to what Hong Kong legislative council (or rather the pan democratic representatives) is trying to do. No doubt they wanted to help the affected people, and they are going all out to invoke their legislative rights to bring the banks to court. Whether this (if the motion is voted and pass) will help or drag the issues on claim, is anybody’s guess (i.e. 50/50). If the banks are cornered, they will back-off from any out-of-court settlement and put on their defense “cohesively amongst banks to protect their industry” (contractually, the investors are in the disadvsantage until they can provide out-right-proof that they were clearly mis-sold ~ we know how hard that is going to be). Who will suffer most at the end?

1. ” We all…” — Spoken like a true leader: “We are in this together”

2. “…compared to…” — comparison with neighbours meant to motivate all and give reason why we are in this together.

3. The punchline that kills…..“…sorry folks, you’re still better off than the rest…” —

If the government were to withhold information and data from the public, then it does not have the right to tell the people to acknowledge they know better because they themselves artificially created this situation.

Come now my friend. Don’t be so extreme with your view. I don’t think they meant “Poverty based on International Standard” that you have cited. – Observer (SG-HK) (#30)

What I had highlighted in my statement is that there was no clarification what the poverty line. If no clarification is made public, then citizens are most probably being duped into thinking the government will do anything. It is similar to the DBS High Notes 5 saga whereby DBS stated that DBS will compensate investors whose unique situation did not meet DBS standards, yet DBS remains adamantly silent on what this standard is.

Let’s not jump the gun and be trigger happy. Let’s see the unveil plan as the government promised and we can follow up on that. I am sure TOC will have a report or an article related to it. Life’s too short to take every point to task. Why not channel our energy as a whole in helping to find ways to help our fellow needy citizenry?

I am already beginning to feel giddy trying to follow the on slot of articles posted and I must admit that I am some lost in the crowd. May be age is really catching up with me. So please excuse me if I happened to tick you off.

Am I ranting? Am I radical? Am I ahead of my time?

“The international standard for poverty line is living at less than US$2/day. If that is also the standard PAP adopts, the PAP government does not actually has do anything at all unless Singapore overnight becomes a bankrupt country.”

Come now my friend. Don’t be so extreme with your view. I don’t think they meant “Poverty based on International Standard” that you have cited. let’s be fair and project a matured and rational thinking group of citizenry to our leaders that we do not always rant for the sake of ranting. It does not good to help and it may project TOC across to them as a site filled with “radicals”. We are not. We are purely a group of civic minded concerned citizenry that cares and are in touch with the ground.

I don’t know if it is possible to write up a detailed proposal to be forwarded to the relevant ministry for consideration on your suggestion on CPF use. It is the simplest and most workable solution to our current crisis that I have heard anywhere from anyone.

Any financial experts or mathematicians out there who can assist?

Well. It is either petition or a full-force riot to the parliament. If the government continues to ignore petition from the people and maintain that they are only accountable every 5 years (during General Elections), Singaporeans are not better off, whether Singapore is under PAP or the current Alternative Political Parties. The paradox behind choosing the lesser evil is that evil is still being chosen.

And why was this type of message not regularly incorporated into some educational programmes on such financial instruments in the public media and in the form where aunty and uncles including many others will get the message. – Aiyoh… (#23)

We should not depend on the government as it has proven itself to be most useless at the most critical times. It is essential that we the citizens should build up capacity at the community level to help each other in times of need and not continue to pressure the government for handout. At least, we are more likely to be accountable to each other and also more likely to be responsive.

I also would like to take this opportunity to recruit volunteers to work together on a Wikipedia initiative to document the entire minibond saga. This should not be forgotten and this history must be accessible to all. Knowledge is power and I hope through wikipedia, we can create a knowledge base to enlighten individuals through community empowerment. This wikipedia project is a community project for Singaporeans by Singaporeans. Please contact me at wiki.minibond@googlemail.com

The Government frequently engages in comparison based on their advantage or convenience. – Eastman (#24)

Yes. That is what happens when a political party adopts pragmatism. Pragmatism works when Singapore was a 3rd world country with widespread poverty with an obvious target to achieve – to rise to economic greatness. Yet when Singapore has achieved this economic greatness, then we no longer has an obvious target to work towards to, other than maintaining status quo. Yet other problems inevitably pops up, hindering the status quo, such as widening economic and social gap between the rich and poor, the increasing detachment between the state and the people. We need a renewed vision for Singapore.

“THE Government will not let any Singaporean fall below the poverty line as a result of the financial crisis ”

Spoken like it is MM. I certainly hope this is a sign of the government awakening to its conscience. Making sacrifices and taking pay cut is one way but not the only way. – Observer(SG-HK) (#25)

The international standard for poverty line is living at less than US$2/day. If that is also the standard PAP adopts, the PAP government does not actually has do anything at all unless Singapore overnight becomes a bankrupt country.

Please do not say that people only know how to do the easier part of complaining without giving suggestions.

“One commenter blade had suggested to me to do some research and provide data to support the call to authority.”

This is their most powerful and convenient widely used red-herring which will make you look as though you do not possess solid empirical data to justify what you are saying.

Spoken like it is MM. I certainly hope this is a sign of the government awakening to its conscience. Making sacrifices and taking pay cut is one way but not the only way. There can be a win win strategy for all if the government were to dig deep into our reserves to help all to ride over this crisis and stop thinking of profiting for the time being. I commented before, two years of less or zero surplus will not hurt Singapore and its reserves. Comparing to the countries cited, we are much much better off indeed. We are even much better off than big brother (not many Singaporeans live on credit so to speaks).

As for my call on interim solution for early withdrawal of CPF, an added criteria could be put in place to avoid abuse by not allowing to withdraw cash directly, but allow citizenry to pay their basic necessity bills (Utilities & Gas, Water, HDB Service Conservancy Charges, Annual TV License, Property Taxes, Income taxes) via CPF through end 2010. The cap suggested remained at S$25K (per household) over a three year period. One commenter blade had suggested to me to do some research and provide data to support the call to authority. To me, let’s make it simple. I like the KISS principle. No need sophisticated data and formula. Given the utmost calculation based on 2 million household (this about covers all of Singapore). The mzximum over a three year period works out to be S$50billion. This is approximately equal to 10% of our SWF. To quote the published article: “….its reserves accumulated over decades could see the country through the crisis without it going broke. ”

If and if this is coupled with reasonable reduction (price cut) on the basic necessities mentioned, I think we will recover sooner than most. China had already pledge to a 4 trillion stimulus package and greater flexibility on the currency policies. This indriectly is a booster to the world confidence and will help the world economy turn around sooner. The job sharing idea that was done up by Kent is a good idea as well to try on (if people are less selfish and more compassionate). Unfortunately, in reality, very few if any will do it. That’s human nature by and large.

When it is about GST, they compare Singapore with Japan and many European countries with higher VAT rates. Similarly they compare Singapore’s phone charges with many developed nations.

They dare not compare our national service/ reservist system to example Germany, Switzerland which has a much shorter NS period. Their favourite is probably Israel based on the threats in the middle-east.

When it is about Ministerial salary, not a single minister highlighted the fact that Singapore is a very much smaller economy compared to U.S, China, they continue to focus on Singapore’s vulnerability but so far we have not seen any fantastic performance from our ministers. In fact they are much slower compared to HK in term of Lehman mini-bonds issue, and now much slower in term of stimulus measures compared to China.

And why was this type of message not regularly incorporated into some educational programmes on such financial instruments in the public media and in the form where aunty and uncles including many others will get the message.

Why is this only done after the real damage is done where it now only comes as a painful hollow reminder.

Anyone to correct me on the education programmes that were aired in the public media before this financial fiasco.

Now, let’s start from the top; minister’s salary.

Care to tie your salaries to this benchmark?

We use info to predict our future.
Without info. How. Confident. R . U ?

USA citizens are the ones to pay for its country’s debt. every cent.