TR EMERITUS

Combined and translated from Straits Times and Wanbao CNA Report An avid gamer and loner According to Widjaja's friends from NTU, he was an avid gamer and fan of World of Warcraft 3. His obssession with the game may be the cause of his worsening grades. A fellow hallmate said he would hear the deceased playing computer game in his room even at 3m in the morning. The last time he saw him was two nights before the assault at the toilet. They exchanged greetings with one another and he did not notice anything wrong in him. However, a NTU student posted on his blog that Widjaja cut off contact with all his friends suddenly one week ago. The deceased was still playing World of Warcraft 3 on the internet an hour before he met his Professor. Due to his love for computer games, he even set up a NTU PC Games Committee in 2006 and he was its first Chairman. Termination of scholarship may be a motive for attack THE Nanyang Technological University student who stabbed his professor and then fell to his death was apparently upset over the termination of his Asean scholarship, said an Indonesian Embassy official here. Mr Djatmiko of the Embassy's Counsellor Protocol Office told Indonesia's detikNews on Monday: 'The motive of the stabbing apparently has to do with the termination of his scholarship, and there seemed to be a miscommunication over this.' He believed that the student, David Hartanto Widjaja, 21, a final year engineering student, had 'stabbed the wrong person by mistake' as the professor had nothing to do with the termination of his scholarship, a view Mr Djatmiko said was shared by many NTU lecturers. 'There is no problem with this professor. He did not decide and issue the decision to terminate the scholarship. The NTU staff said there seems to be a case of mistaken person,' he added. 'This is the final year of the scholarship and David seemed confused. When the scholarship is terminated, he can work part-time, there is no problem.' 'It's a real pity, a real pity,' Mr Djatmiko told detikNews. 'His examination is due in April and the results will be out in July, so he has only several more months.'   Parents came to claim body Widjaja's distraught parents claimed his body at the Singapore General Hospital mortuary on Tuesday morning. They and their elder son, aged 24, flew in from Jakarta on Monday evening after the NTU authorities notified them of the tragedy, which stunned students returning to campus on the first day after a one-week break. The family arrived at the SGH mortuary at 8.40 am on Tuesday in a grey van, accompanied by NTU counsellors and officials from the Indonesian Embassy here. They left the mortuary at about 1 pm, after Widjaja's body was taken away by a white van, understood to be from a casket firm. Widjaja's body is expected to be cremated later on Tuesday.   Prof Chan recovering well Meanwhile, Prof Chan, who is from the Division of Information Engineering, is recovering from injuries to his back and arms at the National University Hospital. His condition is said to stable although a sign outside his ward on Tuesday morning says 'No visitors allowed.' The father of two young children underwent an emergency operation on Monday evening to stitch up wounds to his back. A finger on his right hand was also placed in a splint. His wife said he was doing fine and is expected to be discharged in a few days.  Read More →

What is happening to the Straits Times editors ? Are they sleeping on the job ? In 2 days, we spotted 4 glaring mistakes on the online edition of The Straits Times, 2 of which have since been corrected:       We know that SPH shares have fallen nearly 50% compared to last year. Is SPH cutting cost by employing substandard news reporters ? There is simply no excuse for a national English Daily to come up with such sloppy journalism without even bothering to proof-read its articles before publishing them. Do they have any respect for its readers or themselves as "professional" journalists ? We have been told repeatedly by the government to use concise and impeccable English and not Singlish in our daily conversations. Singapore has been touted as an education hub to attract students from neighboring countries because of our high standard of English. What will these foreigners think of us if they happen to surf Singapore news and discover these embarrassing spelling mistakes ? Even a Primary one  kid will be able to spot these errors ! Hey, wake up SPH editors ! Spend more time brushing up your English instead of focusing on sowing discord between opposition politicians and spinning stories to exonerate your PAP masters from their gaffes !  Read More →

By Lee Chong Meng, Guest Columnist This credit crisis has claimed many victims. GIC and Temasek ’s investment portfolios have suffered too. However, this is not the time to despair, instead it’s time to pick up good bargains like Berkshire Hathaway. Instead of throwing good money,which is Singapore’s hard earned money, after bad money like US Treasuries,Merill Lynch, UBS, Citigroup, Barclays, ABC Learning Centre, Shin Corp,etc., it may be wiser to start investing with the master. Berkshire Hathaway is the world’s best managed company, with the world’s best investor,Warren Buffett at its helm and has a diversified portfolio of world class companies. Although its reinsurance business is cyclical and thus can affect short term results but in the long term, it is the best in the field as it has a capable team who can adopt counter-cyclical measures to ensure profitability in the long term. It is also rated the best by AM Best, an insurance rating agency. With Berkshire’s strong balance sheet as its backup, it is capable of writing risks that others don’t. Warren Buffett is presently taking care of investing the ‘float’ from the insurance premiums and is doing a great job. He invests in businesses with strong competitive advantage, whether they are public or private without overpaying for them and always seeking a margin of safety. Recently, he has invested in Goldman Sachs (the best in investment banking field) and GE (one of the rare counters to stay on the Dow Jones Average) demanding 10% in dividend and got free warrants to convert into shares in the future. I doubt anyone can have this type of opportunities but he has due to his prestige as the world’s best investor. No doubt, Berkshire’s share is suffering now due to Warren’s bets on index derivatives, the downcycle of the reinsurance business and the recession affecting Berkshire’s other businesses. But Berkshire’s shares is down about 40 plus % from its peak, which is pretty good in view of the holocaust out there. Warren always says “when people are fearful, it is time to be greedy”. His recent article in NY times urging people to buy stocks is rare as he doesn’t make forecasts easily as he says that’s for the fortune tellers. For him to put his reputation at stake, stocks must be cheap enough and indeed they are. Berkshire’s shares are now about 1.1 X book value, and close to 5 years low. People are hoping to see Buffett fail as they think he has met his Waterloo, but I disagree. The reason is that he has make wise, prudent investments in new wonderful business which will perform well in the future, his bets on the index is only due in the future when the secular bull market will start again and he has a succession plan if he is not around. Warren has cautioned investors in Berkshire’s stock to expect less than 10% returns per annum in the long term, but he always use this under-promise,over-deliver method to please investors. I am confident that Berkshire will be one of the best stocks to buy and hold for Singapore’s GIC and Temasek holdings. As Gates Foundation will be holding more and more of Berkshire’s stock in the future, it is expected that Berkshire Hathaway will be incorporated into the S&P 500, or maybe even the Dow Jones(though,i doubt so due to Dow peculiar price weighting feature). Thus, more index funds, ETFs which track the S&P 500 will be forced to buy Berkshire which will push the price further up. However, that’s the future,in the meantime, we buy Berkshire because it is cheap, good and solid. Berkshire’s has not given out a dividend for many years but its market value has make it one of the world’s best performing stocks. However it may consider giving out dividends once Warren is not around as i doubt his successors can match his investing prowess. Nevertheless, Warren has laid a good foundation for Berkshire. For those folks out there in town council, forget about Lehman toxic assets and buy Berkshire instead, you will never have to answer for your mistakes in the future. As Warren says, ‘i will rather cross 1 foot bar than climb 3 foot hurdles”, Berkshire Hathaway is the ‘ 1 foot hurdle’ for Singapore. Perhaps, Temasek and GIC can considering reducing their workforce then as they need not so many overheads (which Warren detests most) to monitor Berkshire Hathaway. P.S. Warren just commented that he is willing to buy back Berkshire shares if they go too low,that will act as a floor for Berkshire's stock. He has also lent money to Harley Davidson,Tiffany at a high interest rate which should guarantee increased income in the next few years. Most importantly, Buffett is honest enough to admit mistakes when he make them,this is one guy that everyone can trust. Chor Meng blogs here  Read More →