Politically Financial - Downright Disgrace
Monday, October 13th, 2008I refer anyone and everyone to this article on Straits Times, and pay attention to MAS’ disclaimer.
Sure, it is easy to hide behind a set of rules and policies and laws. Should we get robotic monkeys to sit in their places and follow the rules and policies and laws then?
Strictly business:
1. The investors signed the agreements with the respective Singapore finance firms. I’d love to see hard copies of the agreements to see how these finance firms indemnified themselves against such a collapse. If they didn’t, then it is jolly-well their responsibility to keep their promise, for the choice of investment portfolio was theirs and theirs alone - it is as good as the firm saying “Please lend me some money so that I can invest and share some profit with you.”. I think this should be the way of interpreting the relationship between individuals and finance firms (banks including), not “Let us help you earn some money, but it is not our problem if our investments fail.”. Is there such a thing as “good faith” any more?
2. A government is there to protect its citizens. Why bother to have debates and pass bills then? Or should we start paying $50K/month salaries to robots who run such “daily affairs” and then another $50K/month to the brilliant individuals who take office and convene X times a year to say “aye aye” to whatever bills they want to pass? Those “brilliant human brains” are there for a reason - to think of solutions in times like this. But apparently, they are spent thinking how to balance their own books, such as slashing road taxes and increasing ERP rates, tearing down blocks of big HDB houses and then rebuilding them with small units at the same “market prices” etc etc etc. I could go on forever I think.
3. I digress a bit to the fact that DBS is also one of the guilty parties. And guess who is the parent company? Whatever and however it is linked to the government, there should be pressure exerted to assume responsibility for the wrong choice in choosing Lehman-linked bonds. Sure, who would know a 158-year old bank would collapse just like that? For goodness sakes, the very fact that individual investors probably do not get access to such financial data, or do not understand such financial data, is the very reason why they have a purpose in existing - to digest that info and make an informed choice of investment portfolios. How can banks and finance firms bear ZERO responsibility when they are the middleman? Heck, we should start gathering resources and form our own banks then.
Last but not least, experts at wayang should know when to wayang. Don’t do stupid things like “warning” the nation of bad times ahead and then release concrete figures a few days/weeks later, before proclaiming a stupid term like “technical recession”. What’s next, CPF board proclaims massive losses in the CPF funds after revealing that the funds were invested in Lehman as well? If that’s the case, the ones drawing millions per year should dig out their own accounts to make up the shortfall. Like any business, Pte Ltd or not, the directors/decision makers must be held responsible for misconduct/mishandling of business/company finances. So why should S’pore Pte Ltd be any different?
Want to be nannies, better be prepared to face up, or lose that “above all” tone when talking to us. Some of us don’t owe jack shit to the nation, even if our previous generation felt some sense of gratitude for the better lives, relatively speaking. Since when did we have the “class” mentality? Our fathers and grandfathers were sloggers, so we should continue to be? And thank our lucky stars we have some people “looking after us”? 1965 is 43 years back. Some debts do not last that long, and are not meant to be “carried forward”.