TR EMERITUS

Firstly my commiserations on missing out on becoming the interim seat-warmer in waiting (at least until your boss LHL, whom you served loyally as PPS from 2002 to 2004, changes his mind yet again). However the reason I am writing to you today is that I have grave concerns about red flags and discrepancies in your Ministry’s budget for 2022. This was passed by Parliament with little or no scrutiny by the Opposition yet it is now the single highest spending Ministry. By way of comparison Education received $13.6 billion while Defence got $16.4 billion. From an expenditure of $2 billion as recently as 2006 your budget has grown to over $19 billion in 2022, a nearly ten-fold increase. 92% of this is operating expenditure ($17.84 billion) so the money is not going to finance the increase in capacity which you laud in your speech to the Committee of Supply. In fact your speech is remarkably short on facts and figures. If we divide your Ministry’s budget by the number of Singaporean residents we get a spending figure of approximately $4,750 per resident. I assume that all healthcare spending on foreign workers including Employment Pass holders is private and that the Government is not making Singaporean taxpayers pay for their healthcare. I would also argue that a more appropriate denominator should be the number of Singapore citizens and not include PRs, who should not benefit from subsidised healthcare as male PRs have not done NS. However I will ignore that for the time being. Government spending of $4,750 per Singapore resident in 2022 compares with a budget of around £2,600 (or $4565 at current exchange rates) per person for 2022/2023 in the UK, the bulk of which goes to fund the National Health Service (NHS) which is free at the point of delivery to all UK residents. So the UK, with a publicly funded health service out of taxation) appears to be spending only very slightly more per capita than Singapore. As I am sure you are aware having studied at the London School of Economics, all visits to the GP are free and so are all specialist consultations and hospital operations including the costs of beds and surgery. There is a charge for prescriptions but many categories (the over 60s, the disabled, those with chronic conditions) are exempted The Singapore healthcare system is of course not remotely as generous. The overarching principle of your Government’s philosophy is that Singaporeans must pay for everything because there is no such thing as a free lunch. Presumably the revenue collected from Singaporeans for healthcare (whether at poly clinics or hospitals) must go somewhere yet it does not appear to be shown in the Budget. I am guessing that the revenue is collected by MOH Holdings Pte Ltd, the company the Government set up to manage the public healthcare clusters back in the early 2000s. Why are the accounts not included in the Budget or at the very least available easily on the MOH Holdings website? Why the secrecy? I have tried to gain access to the accounts of MOH Holdings through the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority’s (ACRA) website but despite paying $26 out of my own pocket for the last set of accounts I was sent an extract with no accounts attached. My emails to ACRA pointing out the error and asking to be sent the accounts have gone unanswered. I also emailed MOH Holdings directly but was rebuffed by one Sheela Narayanan, who did not disclose her job title until requested. She then told me she was Deputy Director Corporate Communications. Ms Narayanan declined to provide the accounts merely stating that I could obtain them from ACRA. I do not see why as a Singapore citizen I am unable to see the accounts of MOH Holdings and when I do pay for it I do not receive the information I paid for. I would be grateful if your Ministry would send me a copy of the financial statements of MOH Holdings for the last three years. I hope you will not rebuff me with the argument that MOH Holdings is a private company and therefore Singaporeans are not entitled to the information, which was the argument used by your senior colleague Lawrence Wong when refusing to provide Parliament with amount that the PM has paid his wife as head of Temasek. I would like answers to the following initial questions (either from you or from the Minister of Finance Lawrence Wong) : 1. Why does the Budget only include spending by MOH and not revenues collected, either directly from Singaporeans or through their Medisave accounts or Medishield Life policies apart from the insignificant sum of $93 million? I am perplexed because your website shows that Medisave balances reached $110 billion as far back as 2020 and that Singaporeans used only $1 billion in 2020 to pay for direct medical expenses. 2. On your website it also states that over 90% of the cost of treatment in B/C class wards is covered by Medisave and Medishield (I presume the balance is covered by out-of-pocked expenditures by SIngaporeans). If that means the $1 billion withdrawn to pay for direct medical expenses then why is your Ministry requesting a budget of $19 billion and $17 billion for operating expenditures? It is difficult to believe that the Ministry’s healthcare expenditures per Singaporean resident could be so high and more than in the UK, given that the proportion of over 65s in Singapore is lower (under 16% compared to over 18% in the UK) and the cost of manpower (except possibly doctors) is so much lower. 3. Your Ministry has budgeted $9 billion in transfers to institutions and organisations in 2022. I assume the bulk of this goes to MOH Holdings. Given that Singaporeans pay for the bulk of their healthcare through their own savings, Medisave and Medishield, It seems likely then that MOH Holdings is running a substantial surplus. What is happening to this money? Is it being transferred directly to GIC or Temasek or used to cover losses elsewhere? It should be easier to answer these questions once you send me the accounts for MOH Holdings. 4. Elsewhere on your website it says that Government healthcare expenditures include spending from endowments and trust funds yet this has not been broken out in your Ministry’s Budget. What contributions came from the Merdeka Generation Fund, the Pioneer Generation Fund, the Eldercare Fund, the Medical Endowment Fund or the Long Term Care Support Fund? Why are these being included in the Expenditure estimates if the money has already been set aside? I have previously expressed my concern that there seems to be double counting. Money is set aside in earlier years but then is expensed against revenues a second time in the Budget. I would be grateful for your reassurance that this is not happening. If this is not a question you can answer perhaps you can pass it your senior colleague Lawrence Wong. 5. I note that the increases in healthcare expenditures in recent years seem to mirror the increases in the Net Investment Returns Contribution. I would be grateful for your reassurance that there is no connection between the two and that the Government is not trying to deceive Singaporeans through matching book entries with no new money actually entering the system. I look forward to receiving answers to my questions. If I have made any errors then the responsibility rests with me alone. Regrettably I do not have access to the resources that you and the Finance Minister possess or even that available to the Leader of the Opposition. I am sure there is a perfectly innocent explanation for why Singaporeans are paying so much for healthcare (through both taxes and direct expenses) and have accumulated so much in apparently unnecessary Medisave balances that are loaned to the Government. If you fail to answer my questions I will assume that there is something that you do not want Singaporeans to find out. Much as I would like to believe that the PAP’s mantra of “ownself check ownself” leads to incorruptible and efficient government, it defies logic and reason for Singapore to be unique among all the world’s one party authoritarian states ruled by one man particularly as your government refuses to provide the information necessary to make sure it is properly accountable as it would be in a democracy.   Kenneth Jeyaretnam   I’m a Singaporean economist who became an opposition activist. I blog to provide an alternative to the porkies that the Pinkies tell. It just so happens that my alternative is the truth. That’s why I’ve never been sued in any civil or criminal court no matter how hard hitting my criticism. I’m quoted and interviewed and asked to speak across the world but largely censored in Singapore in an effort to silence my political opinions. The left hate me because they think I split their vote and because I eschew their outmoded economic models. Models that don’t work. The Right and the Conservatives hate me because I’m a liberal. I’m not sure what the middle think of me. I don’t think there are more than a handful of people in the middle, here in Singapore. I’m a Singaporean born and bred, dual heritage, my parents Singaporean established here before the State of Singapore was created. I’m not Eurasian. I read economics at Cambridge and could be broadly described as from the Keynesian school but I believe in interventions. I was formerly a successful hedge fund manager. After economics and politics my greatest interests are history, film and Makan. I run but I run so I can eat like a Singaporean.      Read More →

One of the most talented vaccine creators in the world has warned that the coming onslaught of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) “vaccine” injuries and deaths will be so large that a total collapse of the health system is inevitable. Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche, who used to work as a senior program manager at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), warned listeners in a “Message to Austria” regarding that country’s lockdown measures that the true fight for health is in not getting vaccinated. Last year, as you may recall, Vanden Bossche stated publicly that trying to vaccinate people in the midst of a “pandemic” is about the worst thing you can do if stopping the spread is truly your goal. “We need to help them as much as we can because they will need extensive treatment, in many cases,” Vanden Bossche said about the “fully vaccinated” who have no idea what will soon become of them. The number of fully jabbed requiring hospitalization, he further warned, “is now steadily increasing” with no end in sight. “Whereas more and more, with training of the innate immune system, with more exposure to the virus, more and more non-vaccinated people get protected,” he further explained. “This will lead inevitably – and I am not a doomsday preacher – but this will inevitably lead to a collapse of our health system. It cannot be otherwise.” COVID “vaccines” actually suppress innate immunity, leaving the body more prone to diseases Contrary to what is widely claimed, injecting these poisons into human bodies does not promote strengthened immunity. In fact, the jabs are suppressing innate immunity, which is required for generalized protection against disease. Man-made chemical cocktails, in this case experimental in nature, “cannot substitute” for innate immunity, Vanden Bossche stressed, nor do they contribute to so-called “herd immunity.” With this in mind, it is especially egregious to inject children with the stuff since their “innate immunity can easily be suppressed by vaccinal antibodies,” Vanden Bossche warned. “[Their] antibodies are so young and so naïve that they can easily be outcompeted by vaccinal antibodies,” he added. This is actually true for all vaccines, which compete against and usually defeat innate immunity, leaving a person prone to autoimmune disorders and other problems throughout his life. The fact that children have a zero percent risk of dying from the Fauci Flu, or even showing symptoms of infections, makes the jab push on them even more nefarious. How many vaccinated children will now suffer a lifetime of health problems due to getting injected? In Vanden Bossche’s view, jabbing children with these biological agents “is an absolute no go!” “We cannot vaccinate our children with these vaccines,” he says. Adults are similarly damaged by the shots, which likewise suppress adult immunity. Depending on a person’s age and existing health status, getting shot could mean a death sentence, even if it does not happen immediately. And the “booster” shots? Vanden Bossche called the concept “absolutely insane” during a recent presentation, further calling them dangerous nonsense that “should not be done!” Those who remain unvaccinated should stay that way no matter what, Vanden Bossche said. They more than likely already possess immunity to whatever it is that is circulating under the name of covid, and any interference with that via an injection will likely trigger health problems. “Very importantly, all are protected,” Vanden Bossche said about the unvaccinated. “They all are still protected against severe disease and the majority of them will be protected against very mild or moderate disease.” COVID, he added, “is not a disease of healthy people.” “People who are in good health have a healthy innate immune system that can deal with a number of respiratory viruses without any problem,” he said. The latest news about Chinese Virus injections can be found at ChemicalViolence.com.   Sources include: GlobalResearch.ca NaturalNews.com      Read More →

The Straits Times headline says that the “shortage of cleaners worsens as more return to Malaysia after border re-opens”. And to ensure that the “news” is noted by all readers, a teaser paragraph appears on the front page, and the whole article, billed the Big Story, is prominently displayed in the centre of the second page. Is the shortage of cleaners headline news? No, Singaporeans shunning menial front line jobs is common knowledge as the pay does not commensurate with the work and the cost of living. Perhaps the only newsy part is that instead of Malaysian cleaners streaming down south, some are quitting and going home up north. But then, they have not seen their family for a long time due to the pandemic, so nothing surprising. So, why the Big Story? Because it is propaganda to drive into Singaporeans that we need more foreign workers. No better place to drive home the point than a dirty hawker centre impacting the average Singaporean directly. It also serves to prepare the ground as more foreign workers will descend onto this tiny island as the Malaysian as well as international borders re-open. The real story is that the construction, marine, process, manufacturing, F&B, retail and other labour intensive industries are hampered by a shortage of foreign workers due to the pandemic and are now trying to bring them back. They are complaining that they have to give up deals due to a lack of workers. But there will never be enough workers if they think Singapore is a borderless country and functions without constraints. It is really sad that it took a pandemic to reduce the number of foreign workers, but the moment normality returns, businesses are quick to pounce, and the government, instead of using this opportunity to rid them of the addiction to cheap foreign labour, is indulging them and thereby keeping labour cost down which is the least innovative way to stay competitive, and it is not without long term consequences. For one, Singaporeans toiling in low end jobs will never earn a living wage, that is, a wage that can afford a decent and inclusive life in this country, simply because foreign workers set the baseline which will be too low for Singaporeans since foreign workers hail from cheaper countries. For another, although businesses will be making more profits due to the influx of foreign workers, they will be adding to overcrowding, pollution, strain on amenities like public buses, MRT, roads and hospitals, but are not accountable for these so call external costs. Instead, the public will have to bear with it. And more importantly, Singapore will be stuck with a third world workforce and productivity and quality will never match that of other developed countries. The never ending clamor for foreigners also applies to PMET jobs. Employers are complaining that the push for a Singaporean Core is making it difficult for them to employ foreign talent, unlike the good old days when it was truly an open leg policy. The people have made some progress in pushing back the the number of foreign workers because citizens have spoken up and the Opposition Parties have taken up the issue. As fate would have it, the pandemic has also reduced the number of foreign workers. The people must continue to speak up or else they will be swarmed because employers are pushing for more foreign talents 24/7. It’s a tug of war.   Foong Swee Fong      Read More →