TR EMERITUS

Singapore state fund Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. released its performance review for the 2014 fiscal year on Tuesday. The firm has a lot of influence as one of Asia’s biggest investors. So, what did it get up to over the past year? Temasek says it made S$24 billion (about US$19.2 billion) of new investments and divested S$10 billion in the year through March, writing that it sought “to take advantage of market weakness in Asia.” It invested the most in the financial services, life sciences and energy sectors, according to the review. However, two of Temasek’s most eye-catching investments just barely missed the cutoff for inclusion in the report. Temasek’s US$5.7 billion purchase of a 24.95% stake in drugstore A.S. Watson & Co. from Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, which completed post March, was among its largest deals ever. And back at home, a consortium led by Temasek put up nearly US$2 billion to buy out commodity trader Olam International Ltd., in which Temasek had steadily increased its stake ever since Singapore-listed Olam was targeted by short seller Carson Block and his firm Muddy Waters LLC in November 2012. [Read more:  The Wall Street Journal]  Read More →

I managed to catch a couple of minutes of the news when the CPF was discussed. They were talking about the withdrawal of CPF on retirement. The argument went something like this. The govt allowed CPF members to withdraw their money in one lump sum at 55 at a time when life was short. The people were expected to die in 5 or 7 years after retiring at 55. Today, life expectancy is 82, so there is a need to ensure that people have the money to spend after retirement. Letting them have the money at one go and at too early an age would mean depleting the saving faster. Jumping onto this logic, Lim Bee Wah asked the govt to consider working backwards from 82 to allow the people to get a lump sum on retirement. Most retirees are looking forward to touch their life time savings when they retired. Chuan Jin’s reply, extending the logic of longer lifespan, it was not possible to know how long people would live after 82. They could go on living and it was necessary to make sure that they have money to go on living. Here came my goose pimples, and my hair stood on ends. Fear crept up and I was really frightened, like watching a horror movie. No, Chuan Jin and Lim Bee Wah did not turn into Dracula or vampire. It was this sense of wholesome goodness for the people, so caring and so earnest to want the people to live well till their last day. I cannot imagine that there are really people that are so virtuous, so good and so genuine in this world to really want to help other people. No, don’t get me wrong. Chuan Jin was really sincere in wanting to help the retirees. I would have doubts if it was someone else selling his koyok. It was too good to be true. And the scary part is that it was true. And they are going to make sure that the retirees will have the money to spend, and no lump sum return of their savings, and the payback will be delayed for as long as possible to make the money last, perhaps another 100 years. Oops, I shouldn’t say that. They might believe people will live to 200 years and make your CPF savings provide for it. Bad idea to say that. And the people will have to leave their money with the CPF for a very very long time. Irene Yap, or is it Renee Yap, should not gripe about withdrawing her money in the CPF. Going forward, CPF retirees would be expected to leave their money in the CPF to last them their life time being alive. This is now a case of better to overprovide than underprovide. Chuan Jin is right to say that no one can predict how long a person would live beyond 82. But he was silent on how many would not live beyond 55 or 60. Anyway, this part is not important as they would not be a burden to themselves or to the state if they die young. Gan Kim Yong should follow the same principles in his Medishield Life scheme. I think Gan Kim Yong is doing the opposite by providing the minimum, B2/C wards instead of A wards or private hospital wards. Should not Gan Kim Yong follow the same logic, provide for the best, for all contingencies like Chuan Jin? Or why don’t Chuan Jin borrow the principle of Gan Kim Yong, provide for the basics or minimum, and the extra or excessive part would be an option? Gan Kim Yong may be providing for B2/C wards but the people can opt for better wards by voluntarily paying more. For a compulsory across the board scheme, this is a sensible approach. In the case of the CPF, the govt can go for the best, though it claimed to be using the lower income Singaporean as the benchmark, as the money to be retained in the CPF comes from the people themselves. If the money is to come from the govt, would the govt use the same yardstick, to demand the people to keep so much money in the CPF/minimum sum after retirement? I still remember the saying, when the govt says it wants to help you, is so serious and happy and voluntarily offering to help you, be frighten, be very frighten. The thought of saving enough CPF to live up to 100 years or 200 years is really damn scary. I could not sleep the whole night. It was a frightening display of human goodness at its extreme. You don’t need enemies if you have people thinking like that and planning your life and your money… for your own good.   Chua Chin Leng aka redbean * The writer blogs at http://mysingaporenew.blogspot.com    Read More →

Bangladeshi construction worker, Sheikh Rubel Hossen Sheikh Ismail, 27, was sentenced to 4 months' jail by the court yesterday (10 Jul) for molesting a 12-year-old girl. She was molested by Rubel in her Woodlands flat on 9 Jun when he was supposed to be renovating the toilet. He admitted to touching and stroking the girl's left calf. Deputy Public Prosecutor told the court that the victim was at home using the computer when she let Rubel in to check on the kitchen toilet, as part of the block's toilet upgrading scheme under the HDB's Home Improvement Programme (HIP). The girl was then at home with her sister, who was asleep in her room. About 10 minutes later, Rubel approached the victim started to chat with her, asking about her age and other things. Then he moved closer, squatted next to her, and touched her calves. Frightened by Rubel's move, she ran to her room and emerged only after he had left, to lock the gate. However, Rubel came back later and persuaded her to let him back in. She then called a friend for help. When Rubel demanded that she put the phone down, she ran to her sister's room to wake her up. Rubel quickly left at this time. The family later made a police report. Rubel was later identified and arrested. He could have been jailed for up to five years, fined and caned for using criminal force to outrage the modesty of a person below 14 years old. Under the HIP, HDB will send contractors to maintain and upgrade the older HDB flats which have not undergone the Main Upgrading Programme. The construction period for a typical precinct comprising 8 - 10 blocks will take about 1.5 - 2 years. Works in each flat will take 10 days or less, depending on the improvements chosen. This is not the first time a child was molested by a foreign construction worker. Three months ago, Indian construction worker, Palanisami Mohankumar, 27, was jailed for 6 months for molestation and other crimes. Palanisami admitted to touching the thigh of an 11-year-old girl through her flat's common corridor window in Little India last Aug 30, at about 3am. The 11-year-old girl woke up when she felt someone touching her on the thigh. She saw Palanisami outside her half-opened window. She did not scream as she was scared, but slapped his hand. Palanisami then retracted his hand and fled. Her father called the police on 16 Sep stating that he suspected his daughter had been molested a couple of times in her room. Fingerprints left on the window eventually led the police to Palanisami. Since then, the girl is too frightened to sleep in the room next to the common corridor and had been sleeping with her grandmother in another room. The number of foreign construction workers on work permit has been rising in leaps and bounds in recent years due to the number of massive construction projects approved by the Govt [Link]: Year (End) No of Foreign Construction Workers % Incr 2009 245,700 2010 248,100 1.0% 2011 264,500 6.6% 2012 293,400 10.9% 2013 319,100 8.8%  Read More →