TR EMERITUS

By Gangasudhan, Guest Columnist Frankly, it has been super-annoying to make sense of the latest figures from Temasek. A lot of questions and head-scratching has been going on and honestly, I just wanted to ignore all the crap and tried hard to suppress the indignity of being treated a fool by my own government. But thanks to being tagged in a Facebook message (*looks at Seelan*) - the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back - I began making sense of the latest statements from Temasek Holdings (a.k.a. the bermuda triangle of taxpayer money). What I have gathered is as such: 26 August 2008 - Temasek announces its performance for Financial Year (April 2007 to March 2008) and reports that its portfolio value increased 13% from S$164 billion to S$185 billion (source: Temasek Review 2008 & Temasek Holdings) August 2008 - Annual Temasek Review defines the VaR as a 'statistical model that estimates the potential loss on a portfolio for a given confidence level ... for a 12-month period at an 84% confidence level (and) is derived using a Monte Carlo simulation based on three years of price data'; and estimates the theorectical figure for 2008 to be S$40 billion - as compared to S$24 billion for 2007 (source: Temasek Review 2008 & Temasek Review 2007) 10 February 2009 - Senior Minister of State for Finance, Lim Hwee Hua reveals in parliament that Temasek's 'net portfolio value at 30 November 2008 was S$127 billion', however AFP's request for confirmation of that figure from Temasek goes unanswered (sources: Singapore Parliament & AFP) 28 May 2009 - Minister for Finance, Tharman Shanmugaratnam corroborates Lim Hwee Hua's version by declaring in parliament that the 'full year accounts to end March 2009 have not been audited, but the picture should not be fundamentally different from what I have described as equity markets globally showed no major change as at end March 2009 compared to end November 2008' (source: Singapore Parliament) 29 July 2009 - CEO of Temasek, Ho Ching shares in a speech at a forum that the estimation of the VaR at S$40 billion 'has turned out to be so, and more' (source: Institute of Policy Studies) So, essentially, nobody is lying about the figures - but they aren't telling the complete truth either. The 'magical' S$40 billion thrown up yesterday is merely a theoretical figure derived from a (purely) statistical estimation. My speculation is that if the value of the losses was less than the November 2008 figure of S$58 billion (S$185 bilion - S$127 billion), Temasek would have used this opportunity to trumpet this positivity. Therefore, the very fact that no actual figure was mentioned and a wholly-theoretical number was relied upon instead (when concrete figures would be available to the CEO by now) suggests that the losses might very well be GREATER than the recorded S$58 billion. Of course, a nice capital injection from Temasek's only shareholder, the Singapore Minsitry of Finance could mitigate that value nicely, just like it happened in 2008 - '(p)art of the increase in portfolio size came from a net fresh capital injection of S$10 billion from our shareholder as part of its asset allocation rebalancing' (source: Temasek Review 2008) - which would mean the portfolio increase was actually S$164 billion to S$175billion (6.7% growth) + S$10 billion. Well, I'm waiting for Temasek Review 2009 which should be out sometime next month to get the actual figures - and all the creative accounting it will contain. I'll be sure to keep you all informed on what I find then but in the meanwhile, don't make too much of the magic S$40 billion figure - focus on the S$58 billion instead as it's closer to the truth.  Read More →

From our Correspondent Every year as 9 August approaches, the grassroots machinery of the ruling party will move into high gear to decorate their respective neighborhoods with the national flags. Extra workers will be employed to hang the flags along the roads, on the decks of multi-storey car parks, at the markets, shops, schools and at every visible corner of the estate. Of late, banners depicting photos of PAP MPs "celebrating" National Day with the residents hung on roadside lamps are ubiquitous throughout the island. (has anybody wondered how much taxpayers' money has been spent on these ostentatious displays of "patriotism" to 'celebrate' national day?) Grassroots volunteers will come knocking on every household urging them to hang the national flag at their balconies. The community clubs, schools, government buildings will be completely awashed with the national colors of white and red. The mainstream media will trumpet the achievements of leaders of the ruling party ad nauseum, remind Singaporeans of the "long" way we have since independence and to get the nation into a celebratory mood with daily coverage of the national day parade previews. Ironically, the few people who seem to be 'excited' about National Day are those from the ruling party and its auxillaries. For ordinary Singaporeans in the streets, it is simply another public holiday and for some, a family trip up north to Malaysia. Malaysia celebrates its national day three weeks after Singapore's on 31st August and the difference cannot be more obvious. You will see many families displaying the Malaysian flag proudly outside their homes, on the roof of their cars, along the roads and at the stalls. The outpouring of national pride and joy is spontaneous and not orchestrated. If the degree of patriotism can be judged solely by the number of flags displayed by citizens, then a majority of us will be "unpatriotic". Just take a look around your neighborhood and you will not fail to realize that you can count the number of flags hung per HDB block with two hands. There are hardly any flags seen hanging outside the units of condominiums. Some argued that Singaporeans are shy people who seldom reveal their love for the nation openly. Others attribute it to a gradual erosion of civic consciousness and sense of belonging to the country. Singapore's demographics has changed radically in the last decade with the unremitting influx of foreigners which now made up one third of the population, a quarter of which are PRs. How many of them will take up Singapore citizenship? Are they truly loyal to Singapore or are they merely making use of it as a springboard for greener pastures elsewhere? The continued political hegemony of the ruling party and exclusion of ordinary citizens from participation in nation-building has led to widespread public apathy and indifference with deepening rifts between the ruling elite and the people. Are we really celebrating 44 years of nationhood or 50 years of PAP rule? (The PAP started ruling Singapore effectively in 1959 when they won 43 out of 51 seats in the Legco elections.) With each passing year, the number of flags being displayed by Singaporeans outside their homes are getting less and less.  Patriotism cannot be instilled overnight by the government, grassroots organizations or mainstream media. It is spontaneous feeling of pride and joy emanating from a deep sense of connection with the land of one's birth. We started out as a nation of immigrants and now we are being flooded by new migrants. The British colonial government is replaced by another nanny state run by a small exclusive group of elites disconnected with the suffering of the masses. Singapore is still far away from attaining real nationhood.   Related articles: >> Hanging national flags in Yishun   EDITORS' NOTE: In the next few days, we will be bringing you photos of four HDB estates in different parts of Singapore to illustrate our point: that it is farce that the entire nation is looking forward to National Day; in fact ONLY the ruling party and its axillary organizations are "celebrating" National Day by lining every road, pavement, markets, carparks and even overhead bridges with the Singapore flag whereas very few Singaporeans had bothered to display the flag outside their homes. So much for "celebrating" national day as one united people!  Read More →

From Our Correspondent Over 6,000 people turned up yesterday at the integrated resort's (IR) two-day job fair, which ends today, at Suntec City Convention Centre. Up for grabs are over 1,000 positions as dealers for the resort's casino. Over 3,500 applications were received yesterday. It is not known how many of these are applicants are foreigners. Previous job fairs organized by the IRs attracted applicants from as far away as Taiwan and the Philipines. There is no cap imposed on the number of foreigners they can employ. The resort had said its earlier efforts to fill 4,500 gaming vacancies had seen only 2,000 of these jobs taken up. For its position of dealer, candidates need to be above 21 years old, have manual dexterity, customer service and simple arithmetic skills, and not be colour-blind. In Singapore's other integrated resort, Resorts World at Sentosa, about 30 per cent of the Sentosa IR's hires for the dealer post so far are foreigners. The two IRs are supposed to create more than 10,000 jobs. However it appears now that foreigners may be the real beneficiaries rather than local Singaporeans. Being an open economy, Singaporeans are finding themselves increasing squeeze out of the labor market by an uncontrolled influx of cheaper foreign workers over the years. The competition for limited vacancies also helps to depress the wages of unskilled blue collar workers. The median salary for the low-income group has remained stagnant for the last decade. The government has always defended the need to import more foreign workers in order to sustain the economy.   Related articles: >> Are low wage workers really better off? by Edmund Khor >> Are locals shunning jobs at Tze Char stalls? >> Jobs for Singaporeans or foreigners? by Jeremy Koh  Read More →