Daily Discourse – Pay Cut

2008-11-25 Grievous2 comments

Well, I got this on the news on the evening of 24th Nov.

Up to 19% pay cut for top civil servants; lower year-end bonus
Channel NewsAsia – Tuesday, November 25

SINGAPORE: Ministers and top civil servants will get a pay cut of up to 19 percent next year. The Civil Service is also reducing the year-end bonus payment for this year.

Top civil servants and ministers were supposed to get a pay rise in January next year to bring their salaries in line with private sector pay.

It was to be the third adjustment to bring public sector pay to 88 percent of the private sector benchmark, a move announced in April 2007.

The benchmark is set at two-thirds of the median pay of the top eight earners in each of the six sectors: multinational corporations, lawyers, bankers, accountants, local manufacturers and engineers.

In April 2007 and January this year, the salaries of top civil servants and ministers were revised to keep pace with soaring private sector salaries. But the Public Service Division said the 2009 salary revision for this group has now been deferred, in view of the clouded economic outlook.

In fact, the annual salary for top civil servants and ministers will fall next year to levels below April 2007, because close to 25 percent of their annual salary comprises variable payments linked to the GDP growth of Singapore and their salary will fall as long as the economy remains weak.

In 2009, the Prime Minister and President will see their annual salaries cut by 19 percent. Ministers and Senior Permanent Secretaries will see an 18 percent fall. The allowance for Members of Parliament will be cut by 16 percent.

Commenting on the pay cut, Mr Teo Chee Hean, Minister in charge of the Civil Service, said: “Public sector salaries follow the market up and down. The mechanism we introduced last year to link a significant proportion of the salary of senior civil servants to the performance of the economy is working as intended. This mechanism allows salaries to respond more rapidly to market conditions.”

The Public Service Division also said the Prime Minister has and will continue to donate all increases in his own salary after the April 2007 revisions, to good causes for five years.

Next year, the Prime Minister will actually see his salary fall to pre-revision levels.

As for civil servants such as teachers and police officers, they are getting a total of two months’ bonus payment this year, plus S$100 to S$300 paid out in July. This comprises the 13th month payment or Annual Wage Supplement and a one-month Annual Variable Component or AVC. The year-end AVC has been reduced to 0.5 month.

Last year, the total bonus payment was three months plus S$220, including a half-month Growth Bonus which was paid for the exceptional economic performance in 2007.

Public Service Division news release on civil servants’ annual pay

When my friend SanNiang told me of this news, he made a comment along the line of: some times, you got to be careful what you wished for.

How true! I supposed many people would have wished that the mini$ter$ cut their pay. But I doubt anyone of us wished for a recession and one of the worst economic crisis in our life time. And so we got what we wished for, but at what cost? And personally, I am not really interested in the degree of the cut, nor am I interested in debating if it is too much or too little. After all, they are probably still the most highly paid politicians in the world…

But on a broader basis, I think a lot of us – other than the most selfish Darwinist bastard – would rather our employers cut our pay than cut our jobs. Simply put, if there are 4 people in the company, and 1 headcount needs to be axed, I would rather the employer reduce 25% of my pay and keep all 4 headcounts. That way, at least the four of us would still have a salary to pay our bills and not need to feed on our own savings. Neither do we become an unemployment figure and a problem for the nation.

Retrenchment itself creates a social problem. Just the threat of retrenchment – and in effect unemployment – lowers consumer confidence and causes a reduction in spending. As for the people who are retrenched, they would now have to rely on their savings and there’s almost negligible spending whatsoever. Even if one gets a ‘golden handshake’ to go along with the retrenchment, they would be hoarding that money for no one knows for sure just how long before they become employed again. All of these goes on to make the existing ‘economic malaise’ worse. And when everyone stops spending, a recession becomes nothing more than a self-fulfilling prophecy.

That being said, I doubt anyone would feel any remorse if the Darwinist bastards themselves are the ones that got axed. They can live by the principles they believed in, and die by them for all I cared. I considered that poetic – if not divine – justice.

Finally, I had an exchange of emails over Facebook with a friend last night. Apparently he is now working longer hours as the company has retrenched a guy and they have to cover his duties as well. They managed to identify a ~~foreign~~ fallen talent who isn’t suitable for his current post, and actually managed to prove his incompetence. Now, for our own survival I would suggest we identify and expose some of these ‘economic refugees’ as well.

They should be their own country’s unemployment problem. Not ours.

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Good reads:
The World of Fat4: Reaction of Singapore to DBS and NKF
Diary of A Singaporean Mind: Ho Ching takes a pay cut!!!
Information Read By Me: Video interview with Singaporeans from three different constituencies on their views of Town Councils’ loss of sinking funds

Daily Discourse – Sink Hole Funds

2008-11-20 Grievous4 comments

I wasn’t even aware of this until my friend wrote me an MSN message. He is probably livid on the other end.

Dr Teo says ‘be thankful’
Some residents upset; MP points out how funds have grown

Ong Dai Lin
dailin@mediacorp.com.sg

AS RESIDENTS of Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council reacted to the news on Monday that their constituency’s funds were exposed to Lehman-linked structured products, its chairman Dr Teo Ho Pin had this message for them: Be thankful that the funds have grown under the Town Council’s watch.

Told of the rumblings on the ground about the high-risk investment, Dr Teo said the potential $8-million loss should be viewed in the context of the $24 million in investments generated over the past six years. If the Town Council had invested all its funds in low-risk investments, it would have earned only $5 million, he said.

“They (residents) should thank the Town Council for working hard to come up with a diversified portfolio to generate income so that residents do not have to fork out more money.”

Generally, residents in Holland-Bukit Panjang and Pasir Ris-Punggol whom Today spoke to had no issue about Town Councils growing their accounts through investment.

But the 20 of them insisted that Town Councils must, nonetheless, draw the line at high-risk investments. Another clear sentiment: The Town Councils should have been more upfront about their current investment situation.

Retiree Mdm Low Li Choo, who lives at Holland Avenue, said: “The Town Councils were not honest and sincere enough by not revealing the details of their investments right from the start.”

Restaurant manager Dhanie Herman, who lives at Pasir Ris, also said: “Town councils should reveal from the start so that we can have a clearer picture of their investments.”

Why didn’t the Town Councils keep residents in the loop?

According to Dr Teo, it was because Town Councils cannot reveal their investment strategies and, anyway, Town Councils abide by the proper financial reporting system.

Details of their Lehman-linked investments were revealed on Monday by Senior Minister of State (National Development) Grace Fu in response to a question in Parliament. Prior to that, letters had been written to the press after Dr Teo, the coordinating chairman for the 14 People’s Action Party Town Councils, had responded to media queries to say that these investments amount to “a couple of percentage” of funds.

Overall, they accounted for 0.6 percent of the Town Councils’ total funds available for investment. In Holland-Bukit Panjang’s case, it was 6.7 percent ($8 million) of its funds and for Pasir Ris-Punggol, $4 million (2.6 percent)

Yesterday, Tanjong Pagar Town Council, one of six other Town Councils with exposure to Lehman Brothers, said that $250,000 has been invested by its fund managers in the bankrupt institution’s bonds – or 0.14 percent of its total sinking funds.

Pasir Ris-Punggol MPs Teo Ser Luck and Penny Low said that residents’ sentiments were fair, but urged them to understand that the Town Councils did not foresee the financial tsunami and its impact on complex structured products.

On the timeliness of making information available, Mr Teo said that “we will definitely have to inform the residents as soon as possible at a timely time”, but “we need to first make assessments to know what has happened before making announcements”.

Both Mr Teo and Ms Low assured residents belonging to both Town Councils that upgrading and maintenance works in the estates will not be affected.

Customer service representative Nura Fadhlin, who lives at Pasir Ris Drive 6, said: “It is unfortunate that there is a financial crisis now and the Town Council lost money, they couldn’t have predicted it… but I’m concerned that we don’t know what they are doing with our money.”

And thus is the Gospel of Teo Ho Pin, that we should actually be grateful he didn’t lose everything because he would have made lesser had he not been greedy! On top of that, he seems to be saying he has a right to gamble with that money because, had he not done so we would actually be paying more!

When I first read this nonsense, this was what I said. (To listen, click the speaker icon and download this short sound clip: .)

It should be apparent by now – if it hasn’t been so a long time ago – that the Tali-PAP has forgotten that we put them there to work for us, and not to lord over us. Are they trying to hint that we are being ungrateful here by asking for some accountability? If so, it would almost seems like we citizens are being held in contempt simply by asking for that! Is it a wonder why Baby Lee recently tells us again why a two-party political system is bad for us yet again? No second party – no need for accountability. And all Singapore could do is sing this to the tune of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 – lan lan lan lan…

Let me also say this. Why stop at ensuring that we don’t have to pay more, Teo Ho Pin? Is that all you, being one of the top talents the Tali-PAP touted to us, is capable of? Let me tell you the conditions where I will be grateful to you! And that is when the reason why I don’t even need to pay a single cent for my conservancy charges is because of the returns of the town council’s investments! Now, don’t blame me for being unreasonable here because I wasn’t the one who brought up the matter of being grateful in the first place!

Anyway, we residents understand the need for a sinking fund, but really couldn’t fathom the justification to keep it growing. Having no limit on it makes it feels like throwing money into a deep hole where no one can see its bottom [深不見底]. I reiterate my call to put a cap on Town Council sinking funds and this cap should be revised every few years with respect to inflation and the economic conditions. It shall also be determined what is the minimum required to be done to preserve the value of this fund in the face of inflation. What good is having all that money when it is nothing but a figure – ‘good to see but bad to eat’ [好看不好吃]?

Oh, I get it… the reason why there is never a cap on it, is for Tali-PAP’s candidates to show off just how much more capable they are in managing the town compared to the opposition! Guess it backfired this time, didn’t it? Serves you right, just too bad we normal Singaporeans are paying for it. Damn you!

Frankly, it is rather ironical to call it sinking funds in the first place. It should be now more aptly be called sink hole funds, because this hole which you can never see the bottom may actually be bottomless pool [無底深潭] where whatever money you throw in gets swept away by some subteranean passages it connects to.

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Daily Discourse – War on Terror

2008-11-18 GrievousOne comment

One of the greatest idiocy of the 21st Century must be the War on Terror.

Why do I say so? The reason being that it is a war that can never be won. After all, terrorism is but a tactic used by its perpetrators. Just how does one declare war on a tactic and expect to win? That is a question you must ask the dumbest U.S. President ever – George W. Bush – and his fumb duck ~~administration~~ regime.

This isn’t the same as declaring war on an political ideology – for e.g. communism – where you can exploit the flaws of of the system that is based on it. To declare war on terrorism is about the same as declaring war on Sun Tzu’s Art of War or von Clausewitz’s On War. Generally speaking, both of these works explore how to effectively conduct a war or fight battles and to win them. In other words, when you beat someone who used a tactic he learnt from Sun Tzu’s Art of War, does it mean you have defeated the book and the tactic itself? Will it stop that tactic from being used again?

It could simply mean that that tactic was badly applied or inappropriate for that situation. Above which, bringing the might of conventional forces upon the terrorists is simply forcing the terrorist to fight on your terms which thus allow you to beat / kill them. Does that really constitute a victory against the tactic called ‘terrorism’? Will killing the likes of Osama bin Laden, or his successors, bring an end to terrorism?

A M1 Tank ‘winning’ the ‘War on Terror’ – Priceless!

Simply put, to declare war on terrorism is nothing more than an ill conceived notion that it will come to an end once you killed enough of those who fight on the side of those who apply the tactic. That is terrorism in itself, and it says a lot about the idiots – including that of our ~~government~~ gahmen – which support this hare-brained war.

Even if terrorism had been a political system / ideology like Communism, was it defeated on the fields of battle? Look at North Korea and Vietnam – all of these engagements didn’t end in an American victory. But today everyone can see communism as a dead end in these countries and other than North Korea, just who practices Communism anymore?

So this is how Communism was really defeated in the end! It was only defeated when the people who once supported and lived under it no longer believed that it worked for them and make the necessary changes. Indeed, when we look at the ‘War on Terror’, it simply affirms the fact that when we looked at our history, we discovered that we never learn from it at all.

Frankly, the so-called ‘War on Terror’ has not made the world more stable or secure. In fact, it did the contrary. While enhanced security measures now makes it more difficult for acts of terror to be perpetrated, look at the disruption it has brought to our lives when we take flights, use our public transports and even something as simple as finding a rubbish bin to throw away a useless receipt.

However, we must thank the ‘War on Terror’. It is one of the many things that managed to terminate Nixon’s ‘Southern Strategy’, an election strategy which brought an end to one generation of Democrat political dominance since Franklin Roosevelt. It is also an election strategy which for the past 36 years, put 4 Republican Presidents (Nixon, Reagan, Bush Senior and Junior) into the White house while the Democrats only managed to put in two (Carter and Clinton).

George W. Bush, has not only proven that he is the dumbest President in American history so far, he has also brought to an end a generation of Republican dominance in American politics. Once the Republican’s conservative stand has represented stability and security, George W. Bush and the current Republican party took matters too far and brought it to an end.

The idiotic ‘War on Terror’, among with the current economic crisis, are just one of the many things that brought many Americans to that realization. And if Obama manage to pull the American economy through this crisis, it will probably usher in a generation of political dominance by the Democrats. The Republicans will continue to be sidelined until some genius comes along and save that party.

Would a similar change come to Singapore? Perhaps, but it will not be the promise of change. It will only come when the people realised that the parties or candidates they traditionally support and voted for, can no longer provide the security and stability they have always represented.

In short, all that from Baby Lee about change coming to this country will not come from a two-party system but from renewal within the Tali-PAP… is nothing more but a load of horse dump.

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Uniquely Singapore #3 – Traffic Accidents

2008-11-17 GrievousLeave a comment

Singaporean drivers, for some odd reasons, like to slow down whenever there are some vehicles stopped on the road. The vehicle could simply be stalled, having a punctured tyre or involved in a traffic accident.

So, there was a 2-vehicle accident between a van and a small lorry this morning. It caused a jam on both directions of the roads Jalan Boon Lay and Boon Lay way as early as 7:15am, and for a moment I thought the economic crisis is already hitting so hard that more people are moving off earlier in the morning to avoid the ERP charges. Then there was a slow down along the AYE all the way to Clementi Ave 2, because a trailer has broken down on the shoulder.

As the cab I am on drove past the 2 ‘troubled spots’, I realised the reasons for most of these jams or slow downs is not because the vehicle-of-attraction has become an obstacle blocking part of the road and thus required some careful driving, but because of a lot of these nosy people are taking a look at what has happened. I seriously couldn’t fathom why in the universe they need to do that. As a result of their curiosity, it can cause slow traffic that could go on for several kilometers, and even those who are not interested ‘paid’ for their curiosity in the form of an unnecessary delay.

The usual explanation for their curiosity is that they wanted to take note of the license plate number so they can punt on 4D. And if that is true then there are several ways to deal with that.

By having the numbers displayed on those huge LTA displays. Instead of displaying information like: Accident vehicle on Lane 1 or Vehicle breakdown on shoulder, it should display, Vehicle(s) xxx xxxx x brokedown on shoulder, or Vehicle(s) xxx xxxx x in accident.

Have a subscription service provided by a GLC or maybe the Telcos. Whoever loves these information can always pay $10 a month (just about 35 cents a day) and numbers of all accident vehicles on the Expressway will be sent via sms to them. They will even get the numbers on roads they are not on!

Have the numbers automatically forwarded to Singapore Pools and the Singapore Turf Club to be marked so no one can place a bet on them. In short, give no reasons for the nosy-parkers to even look the numbers.

Adjust ERP rates on the fly to $5 in the gantry ahead within 10 minutes so everyone gets the ‘incentive’ to move faster instead of looking at the accident / broke down vehicles.