TR EMERITUS

Singaporean blogger Roy Ngerng is being sued by his country's prime minister, has been fired from his job, and has gained national fame over a post that said the prime minister was "guilty of criminal misappropriation of the monies paid by Singaporeans to the compulsory state pension fund. (Stefanus Ian/AFP/Getty Images) (25 June 2014) - They’ve called it a David versus Goliath fight and, for once, the cliche is appropriate. On one side, a 33-year-old public hospital employee; on the other, Singapore’s prime minister. Until last month, Roy Ngerng was just a normal guy blogging about social issues in Singapore. He’s now being sued by the city-state’s prime minister, has been fired from his job, and has gained national fame. It all started last month, when Ngerng published a blog post suggesting — according to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s lawyer — that the prime minister was “guilty of criminal misappropriation of the monies paid by Singaporeans” to the compulsory state pension fund. Roy Ngerng was asked to take down the post (now available here), publicly apologize, and offer compensation. He complied with the requests. The apology even involved flowers. But the approximately $4,000 compensation he offered was deemed “derisory” and rejected by the prime minister’s aide. He’s now being sued for defamation. To Human Rights Watch Asia deputy director Phil Robertson, Roy Ngerng has clearly “hit a nerve.” In a normal democracy, he says, the response would be to send someone from the pension fund administration to debate the allegations, instead of suing an “ordinary citizen.”   More in: http://www.whittierdailynews.com/general-news/20140625/this-singapore-blogger-lost-everything-just-by-criticizing-the-prime-minister    Read More →

The Government announced today (27 Jun) that it has accepted all the recommendations of the MediShield Life Review Committee (MLRC) with regard to the MediShield Life scheme. It said it will provide close to $4 billion in subsidies and other forms of financial support over the next five years. "With better benefits, premiums will need to increase, but will be able to be fully paid for from Medisave. The Ministry of Health will ensure that Medisave Withdrawal Limits can continue to fully cover MediShield Life premiums, and the additional 1%-point Employer’s Medisave contribution from 2015 will also be sufficient to cover the increases in MediShield Life premiums for most households," MOH said. MOH said support will be in the following forms: Government bearing the bulk of the cost of bringing those who have pre-existing conditions into MediShield Life. Government will pay for three-quarters of the cost in the first five years (about $850 million over five years). This will ease the shift to universal coverage under MediShield Life and keep the premium impact manageable for all; Premium subsidies i.e. Pioneer Generation subsidies and subsidies for lower- to middle-income Singaporeans, and Additional Premium Support on a case-by-case basis for the needy (about $430 million per year). These will remain permanent features of MediShield Life; and Transitional subsidies (for all Singapore Citizens) for the first four years (about $830 million over four years). Pioneers will enjoy special MediShield Life subsidies of between 40% and 60%. They also enjoy annual Medisave top-ups of up to $800 which can be used to pay for premiums. Up to two-thirds of all Singaporean households will be eligible for MediShield Life premium subsidies of up to 50%. The subsidy rates will be higher for those who are older, have lower income, or live in properties with lower annual value (AV). Households living in properties with AV of $13,000 or less can receive subsidies of between 15% - 50%: A Singapore Citizen living in a lower-income household of four will receive up to 50% subsidy for his MediShield Life premium. Permanent Residents receive half of the subsidy rates for Singapore Citizens in the same age and income/AV groups. For the needy who are unable to pay for their net premiums after the various premium subsidies and Medisave top-ups, they can receive Additional Premium Support from the Government, for up to full coverage of their premiums, similar to Medifund for healthcare bills. In the first year of MediShield Life, with the premium subsidies and first year transitional subsidies, the maximum premium increase will be less than $3 per month for the lower income, and no more than $6 per month across all ages and income groups; In the fifth year of MediShield Life, after transitional subsidies have been phased out, the maximum premium increase compared with MediShield premiums today will be $30 per month ($360 per year) for the high income. Singaporeans from lower-income households will continue to benefit from premium subsidies and premium increases from MediShield premiums today will be no more than $11 per month ($132 per year). The detailed MediShield Life premiums and Government subsidies and support measures are shown in Annex A. MediShield Life will be implemented in end-2015 next year. The Government also agrees with the Committee’s suggestion for Government to work with private insurers to review the landscape and features of Integrated Shield Plans (IPs), including developing key features for a standard IP with B1-level coverage. The statement added that the Government will table the MLRC Report in Parliament for debate at the next Parliamentary Sitting in July 2014.    Read More →

(26 Jun) - China’s chief auditor discovered 94.4 billion yuan ($15.2 billion) of loans backed by falsified gold transactions, adding to signs of possible fraud in commodities financing deals. Twenty-five bullion processors in China, the biggest producer and consumer of gold, made a combined profit of more than 900 million yuan from the loans, according to a report on the National Audit Office’s website. Public security authorities are also probing alleged fraud at Qingdao Port, where copper and aluminum stockpiles may have been pledged multiple times as collateral for loans. Steps by the Chinese government to rein in credit by raising borrowing costs in recent years created a surge in commodities financing deals that Goldman Sachs Group Inc. estimates to be worth as much as $160 billion. “This is the first official confirmation of what many people have suspected for a long time -- that gold is widely used in Chinese commodity financing deals,” said Liu Xu, a senior analyst at Capital Futures Co. in Beijing. “Any scaling back by banks of gold-backed financing deals might lead to a short-term reduction in Chinese imports and also spur some sales by companies looking to repay lenders.” As much as 1,000 metric tons of gold may have been used in lending and leasing deals in China, where commodities including metals and agricultural products are used to get credit amid lending restrictions, according to World Gold Council estimates. More in http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-26/china-finds-15b-of-loans-backed-by-falsified-gold-trades.html  Read More →