Today’s blog feature is from Koh Choong Yong on his attendance of the recent Parliamentary debates and how Mrs Lim Hwee Hua had slipped up in revealing that the GIC had lost 41% of its investments.
Excerpts:
There was also one incident which I witnessed, which is a bad reflection of the personality of a particular MP: Dr Ong Seh Hong. When he entered the chamber, he did the same thing as others, take a bow, and moved to his seat. As he was sitting down, I saw that he popped a candy into his mouth, and with a very fluid action, flicked his left hand towards the back of his seat. When his left hand returned to meet his right, I saw a clear wrapper sitting on the wooden platform behind his seat! About an hour later, I checked to see if the wrapper was still there, this time I think I saw 2 wrappers instead! So maybe that’s why camera phones are not allowed in the public gallery!
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She also added that Temasek Holding’s portfolio fell 31%. When it was time for clarification questions, Ms Sylvia Lim rose to ask about the exact figure for losses incurred by GIC, since no specific number was quoted, while the 31% was disclosed for Temasek. Mrs Lim Hwee Hua was stumped for words for a few seconds, stammered a little, mumbled something about “it was reported during the budget debate last week”, while frantically flipping her file infront of her to look for an answer. Sylvia Lim spread her hands in a gesture asking “what number”, and Lim Hwee Hua, after not being able to give a specific number, suddenly succumbed and threw out a number, “41%”. The Speaker was nice to Lim Hwee Hua, seeing that she was not very sure of the number herself, and asked if she wants to clarify the number later. She took the opportunity, and since it was also time for the recess at 1520hrs, the Speaker declared that the Parliament go into recess.
As I stood up to walk out the public gallery to a much needed toilet break, I saw Minister of Finance Tharman Shanmugaratnam walk towards Lim Hwee Hua. He did not look fierce, but I assume she must be getting her earful from him right there.
I scoured Straits Times, Zaobao, Channel News Asia, Today, and found no mention of this incident. So if I did not attend the Parliament live that day, I would not have known such an episode happened.
Read Koh Choong Yong’s full blog post here.
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Even if you are not answerable to the Singapore Citizens, you are answerable to God.
From Adolf Hitler:
“Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise. ”
“I am not a dictator. I have only simplified democracy.”
“The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims of a big lie than a small one.”
From Benito Mussolini:
“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power.”
William Shirer:
“You don’t need a totalitarian dictatorship like Hitler’s to get by with murder … you can do it in a democracy as long as the Congress and the people Congress is supposed to represent don’t give a damn?”
It is shameful to cover up all the shits. Pap will be overthrown if it is in H.K, but in Spore people are scare to protest. Imagine 100,000 people march through Shenton Way to demand answers, the govt will sure give in.
Was there a coverup by the MSM? If true, the MSM is perpetuating a tradition of irresponsibility onto the People of Singapore.
I would be very insistent that this episode concerning the 41% loss by GIC be transcribed verbatim in the Parliamentary Report when it becomes available online
http://www.parliament.gov.sg/Publications/sprs.htm .
If true, it is very unbecoming of the government to be playing “Hide and Seek” with the People. IT MUST STOP.
41% loss! That would make the loss by Temasek looks like small change!
Frankly, I am not too sure where we are heading.
Parliament sittings should be telecast live on tv, so that only sincere, capable and talented people (as claimed by the ruling party) show their mettle of their meteoric million $ worth in front of the public. Those not worth their propagandic worth should be casted out by the public in the next election, even if they are most favoured by senior figure in the ruling party. This is meritocracy that the ruling party is preaching, so they should not hide the truth from the public doing away with live telecast and even gagging the press from publishing the negative aspect of whats happening in parliament. To hide weaknesses of the performance of MP from public, government is doing injustice to the current lot of MP who sees there is no need to be up to their marks as nobody is going to notice their shortcomings except those in parliament and injustice to the public who will time and again blindly voted in incompetent MP or Ministers who just collect multi-million dollars salaries and leave the fate of Singapore to the Fortune In USA.
These clowns are swear to oath to serve Singapore honestly and justly. Did they forget the oath or do they need to see the plight of MP Seng Han Thong to remind them that they will be punishable by God (definitely not LKY) ?
Frankly I never pity those clowns if they meet their retribution, for they serve not Justice but certain family, and even betray the trust of the nation. They deserve nothing but condemnation as money can even buy their soul and conscience.
If they, mortal or immortal, still do not repent, bad things will follow them due to bad karma.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath
“An oath (from Anglo-Saxon āð, also called plight) is either a promise or a statement of fact calling upon something or someone that the oath maker considers sacred, usually God, as a witness to the binding nature of the promise or the truth of the statement of fact. To swear is to take an oath.”
The MOE shld go after this Ong SH and fine him $1000 (Max) for littering, worst still inside parliament house.
As much as I dislike PAP politics, I have to admit that even PAP politicians are human. We should not expect them to produce miracles, but then PAP itself should not claim to be producing miracles too.
PAP is a gamble Govt? A small country with TWO Funds, in good time, we make big, in bad time, we make double losses. (This is like in a family, husband lost 41%, wife lost 31%, soon the family will be broke!) Singapore is becoming Iceland. Sad!
6) Spirit-centred on February 16th, 2009 2.03 pm
“Parliament sittings should be telecast live on tv”
Yes, why should we allow all these mafias to hide all the ugly sides in parliament sittings, it should be shown “live” telecast to the people of singapore. If they are so proud and boastful of their team, why need to hide? Obviously, there are many things the people need to know, decisions, options and solutions. Not just a team of clowns sitting there laughing as though they are paid millions to play masar masar, this is singapore, a democratic country not your grandfather playground.
Everyone makes mistakes. That’s life. We were responsible for voting them in, remember?
All our money is lost !!
Who must be responsibe??
Charge the fellow!!
TOC should get a copy of the Hansard to check and see if the 41% figure was actually recorded. However, I would not be surprised if the particular debate was selectively omitted by our elites.
“Singapore is becoming Iceland”
Worse than Iceland. At least in Iceland, you can eat free ice kachang. In Singapore, you can only eat bitter medicine, and what’s more, you are the one to pay for the expensive medicine !
41% ? What a makeup figure. It doesn’t take a clown to confidently say that this 41% is concocted figure, just to say it to get away. A humdum figure and you need expensive gahmen to say it ?
“Charge the fellow!!”
Yes, charge the fellow. Last time, the fellow is called Complacency, so this time the fellow is called Arrogancy ! Yes, Arrogancy is the one behind the loss of billions ! Now the gahmen can breathe a sign of comfort and sleep well having found out the culprit behind the loss. Let’s charge Arrogancy and bring it to justice, whatever it is !
Lincoln says that “I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” So our gahmen are not providing us with the real fact, how to handle any national crises?
and to quote one of my fav “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.” and that is coming true for singapore case. they are trying to hide, but the truth is bursting out.as the chinese saying goes “纸是包不住火的“ you can’t hide the fire with paper.
Kudos again to our opposition for doing what the extraordinary paid MIW failed to do.thank you
41% lost…Think it is the beginning of the end. :S
History will always be a judge for any political party, spiritual group or country. The PAP and its leaders has already written themsleves into the rut of history. This assurance will give us hope that even today if we cannot vote them out, we can be sure that they will always be on trial by the annuals of history. With today’s information technology, all the more this history will be made known to current generations and even faster with a click of a button on electronic devices. What is assuring too, IT cannot be “shredded” unlike hard copies, somewhere, someone would have a file with all these up and downs of the PAP and our leaders. So carry on being unaccountable to the people bacause the people can account for all their actions, good or bad.
aiyoyo
is it new media again?
aiyoyo
alky,
You can access Parliament’r report/speeches here:
http://www.parliament.gov.sg/Publications/sprs.htm
41% – where the accountability and transparency?!!!
Actually, Temasek’s losses could be alot larger year to date. 31% was just to November 2008.
alky (#14),
The parliament seating in question was on 10 Feb 2009. The hansard report for this parliament seating would be out on 17 Feb 2009. We will know whether this slip-up was deliberately omitted tomorrow!
The bigger the loss, the more they want to keep it a secret….this is not a reflection of a govt that is suppose to have a core value of integrity and honesty. They don’t lie but that doesn’t mean they will tell us the whole truth.
Sylvia Rocks!
Dear Ministers , NMP’s and reporters reading this blog,
Please clarify if we had infact lost 41% from GIC ,
How did we end up in such a state ? I do not think its the economy……
16/2/09
GIC lost 41% and Temasek lost 31%, bottomline both are huge losses and we added up both the total is 72% and this is very bad for our Mother Singapore.
Dr Ong behaviour is uncalled and perhaps he must not be nominated to stand in the next coming General Election and he has totally no respect for our Parliament which is the highest law making body in Mother Singapore.
Regards
Andrew Chuah
The film industry can even consider into producing a new movie “Singapore, the shocking of all Asia” when all the truth is out in the open, hopefully soon. It could hit the highest record breaking box office throughout the entire world. But again, where can we ever find out the entire truth within our present ruling system, and I wonder???
Let’s take to the streets and demand some explanation for this!
I wonder how would their supporters respond to this thingy.
where are they by the by?
31% and now another 41%. No wonder LKY mentioned it was not good for people to know too much or else they get the wrong idea.
This is why there is no annual report for GIC.
See, what happened after Temasek issued its annual report for the first time?
Come on people..
Think long term..how can your be so shortsighted?
Anyway,do you still believe God exist because so many years of doing this,the PAP is still in power and getting stronger, financially or otherwise. Or if God really do exist..and God favors the PAP?
To me,what they did and still doing is the blueprint for success..the proven winning formula! Thats why they do it time and again,selective media releases and such.
Do you really think they care so much about what you wrote here? How many people are going to see it anyway..? In their words..its peanuts.
I don’t think Singapore people care anyway..maybe in the 1st place,they don’t even know what is politics because the closest they ever brush with that word is office politics.
Forget about saving the world when they world don’t even want to be saved.
It slipped out ofMs Lim’s mouth…they tried to hush her, but it was way too late.
Now we know the GIC loss is 41%.
Now we know.
Add the GIC LOSS was US $38 Billion and Temasek Loss was US$62Billion.
Total loss of investments that the Singapore Govt has is a staggerring US$100BILLION!
How can??? Litter inside??? ON MY!!
Thanks Koh Choong Yong !!
aiyoyo
why the ELITEs like loss instead of gain huh?
it’d be very informative if ELITEs can advice commoners on that theory!?
maybe the school teachers/professors also like to better understand, think so…
aiyoyo
Govt should ban people like you from attending Parliamentary debates. Your eyes are so “sharp” that you actually spotted the big white elephant (100B Loss) that they tried to hide in the house.
Guess we the voters are responsible for this complacency and total lack of accountability. I will remember to right my wrong during the next election and I hope you do too.
Funny that MP Sylvia Lim has not commented on the accuracy of whether minister said 41%.
And if other WP MP was in parly at time, can he confirm that minister said 41%?
Nothing on WP website as at time of writing.
I am reminded of Sherlock Holme’s remark, “The dog didn’t bark”.
The money will come back one day. Just in time for me great great great grandchildren to enjoy the benefits. In the meantime, I just have to live with the fact I was responsible for putting them in charge of me bloody life.
Just when you think the mother of all cons is Bernard Maddof of Wall Street…………….when the worms start crawling out of the cans of TH and GIC, the grandmother of all cons of cons is about to be crowned. It will make Bernard Maddof scam all so midgetry.
Haha, can it enther the Guinness world record book? World greatest cover-up?
Come to think of it, do you really believe rhat the paper loss will be recovered in 10, 15, 20 year time? This is another “smart’ talk by the elites. They are mixing up money that is totally loss with money that might be recoverable. Remember some minibond investors have got ZERO values for the investment (TYPE 0) and others got LOW values for their investments (TYPE 1). Suppose GIC and Temasek also have TYPE O and TYPE 1 investments. How come they do not separate them? TYPE 0 is totally, completely loss for good. Your son, grand son, great grand son and great great grand son will never see recovery for such TYPE 0 loss.
I am sure some will say there is nothing that can be done, but for starters we all need to create awareness, spread t he word or link to websites that offer alternative views and this will get them thinking
Small steps lead to big changes…..for a better Singapore.
“Its the economy, and its got nothing to do with my decision making abilities”
GST to help the poor
Send your old folks to Johore
Build no frills HDB – please remove the toilet, the folks can do in along the bare grasslands, this way we don’t need to buy fertilizer.
We should encourage no frills marriages – No kids for poor people.
Whether it’s 31% or 41% I’m sure it’s on the higher side because the world
equity market peaked on October 2007. If we were to measure the losses
from this date I’m sure the losses were more than 50%.
Latest news from dow jones, GIC lost about 45 to 50 billion.
http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/1932-mr-lee-and-the-conflict-of-interest
Was Nathan’s approval sought in the investment of GIC funds into citibank.
I thought with insider trading, you bao chiak – sure win one –
how come our wily wolf got conned instead, along with all of Singaporean reserves. No wonder he keep claiming 15 year horizon – he won’t be around to explain it – only Tony Tan :P
/// 29) Andrew Chuah on February 16th, 2009 9.49 pm
GIC lost 41% and Temasek lost 31%, bottomline both are huge losses and we added up both the total is 72% and this is very bad for our Mother Singapore. ///
Andrew Chuah, I think you need to go and have an extensive revision of your primary school arithmetic.
You don’t add up percentages of two different portfolios and arrive at the total loss. Assuming, both portfolios are about equal size, the average loss (and total loss) for the combined portfolio is about 36%.
The worst case would be if GIC’s fund size is $1,000,000 billion (meaning much bigger than Temasek’s), then the total loss would approach 41%.
That Dr Ong who littered the parliament – is he a medical doctor or a PhD holder?
As a Member of Parliament he should know fully well the standard of behaviour required when the Parliament is in session.
Yet showed total disrespect to the Speaker and fellow Members of Parliament by littering the floor with his sweet wrappers.
If he is a medical doctor, this incident is even a reflection upon his training and professional etiquette.
Such a highly educated person behaving like a low-wage construction site worker is really disgraceful.
The Ministry of Environment should charge him and make him go for corrective order for at least one week.
Hi Andrew Chua,
pardon me, are you this Andrew Chua?
http://www.easb.edu.sg/updated_pages/about_us/Resumes/Andrew%20Resume.pdf
If so, your resume speaks a lot about you.
:)