What Transparency?

Here is a good article covered by Yawning Bread on Singapore's apparent lack of transparency.

Parliament sessions have started and PAPpy dogs are saying we should not fall into Europe's welfare system and see what is happening there now. Occupy Wall Street movement had a goal, to let governments know that Capitalists should not be the ones controlling the Government, their policies and the finance market. They resulted in losses which now is spreading across Countries with fingers pointed everywhere but themselves. Back are the huge bonuses and pay packages for these corporate jackasses, but more mortals are moving into the poverty line. Governments to blame or bankers? They are of the same breed.

PAPpy MPs are now defending policies but not reflecting on the failed investments made by our SWFs. As this turmoil unfolds, get ready to observe more of our Sillyporeans hard earned $$$ go up in smoke as China and India unfolds. Without transparencies, how can we be sure our own internal governance is doing work?

Time will tell. Let's just hope that when our time to retire, there is still CPF monies left.

British Transparency

Since we were British ruled before...I hope we reach the plateau of transparency soon with acknowledgement that this is necessary for generations of Singaporeans to come.

Government reveals 172 civil servants earn more than PM

Meanwhile, Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the British TaxPayers' Alliance, said the move to publish public spending data "is long overdue but is nevertheless extremely welcome".

"Taxpayers have a right to know how their money is being spent and anyone earning a large amount of money in government should have their pay packet open to public scrutiny, so people can judge whether they are providing good value for money," he said.

Source.

So apparently ours is the highest paid cabinet; politicians; civil servants in the world. So we Sillyporeans have every right to demand nothing but the best.

Kudos to the Singapore Police Force in catching 5 knives-wielding foreign workers around Kallang area, and hope they can catch the remaining 2. But it is no relief that 2 were caught trying to sneak back into Singapore, means they did a Mas Selamat? Or worse..they walked straight out of immigration exits. I just applaud the way Shitty Times write their stories...quoted "It is not known why they try to come back". One would expect more investigative-type questions to the police on how did they leave in the first place, instead of questioning criminal stupidity? So now crazy foreign workers can come in and out of Singapore holding weapons to terrorise our heartlands? Soon we will need police patrol all over our island to prevent such acts which reminded me of Mumbai, India... just that ours is crazier as we do have millions of foreign workers living in our midst from Serangoon to Jurong. I do hope well-known high budgeted military spending can come to good use in that seemingly likely event. Looks like I need to spend more time with my loved ones and practising my Wing Chun!

Bloggers Upfront

Well apparently bloggers now have to be clean about their write ups.

BLOGGERS and users of other new media may soon have to say so upfront if they receive gifts or money for their write-ups.

The Media Development Authority (MDA) has said it is looking at stricter disclosure rules.

Just for readers who think I work for Singapore Slingers since I do write up quite a bit about them. I am just a big basketball fan with nice friends like Nic and Daphne who got myself and Jase media passes to take pictures at courtside which we use for our blogs. So seriously no biased opinions here, other than critiques in hope for a better Singapore Slingers team.

And for all other reviews henceforth etc, I receive no monetary rewards or gifts in any way. Pretty much - unsponsored. But I do not mind being sponsored but upfront fact for any potential sponsors - I am known to many to be frank and in-your-face kinda guy. So expect nothing less but the truth.

Morals

Markets need morals - British PM says.

The world's economic system needs reshaping to reflect global values, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.

"Unsupervised globalization of our financial markets did not only cross national boundaries -- it crossed moral boundaries, too,"

Seriously, words like unsupervision, accountability, transparency is long overdued.

The world has enough problems dealing with crooked and corrupted greedy high paying officials, business leaders, bankers. And the state we are in and will be in another 18 months time, I do hope we all have our jobs still. But of course there are rich SOBs out there, with "old" money or big bonuses, please spend more!

Too much

I believe people should always have just enough - too much of anything is bad.
Too much KFC ice lemon tea gives me tummy aches. Too much chocolate gives me pimples. Just as if a person has too much money, he might indulge in more sins and in turn get into much more trouble like getting drunk.

Too much money drove NKF and many other Singapore charities to improper handling of finances, which eventually led to first class air travels, golden toilet bowls and the unforgettable "peanuts". I bet if their finances are just sufficient, there won't be any money to mismanage or abscond with.

I believe just as our town councils and many more government bodies who have excess cash will all start to behave like mini-funds, mini-Temaseks and mini-GICs and play the role of fund managers wanting more and more {I am sure they do not personally gain from this, but then again I bet KPIs (Key Performance Index) of their performance is part of their annual bonuses}. Would we have blamed them if they had grew the S$2 billion treasure chest instead of losing S$16 million? My only finger pointing is with S$2 billion, why am I still paying SC&C? Why are the subsidies such paltry sums? Are they really subsidies? Or like NKF, the cost of $3 medicine is sold at $4 and is subsidised based on market rates of $6?

The solution to having too much of a "good thing" is accountability and transparency.

1) Be transparent, show the cost of maintaining the Towns - do we really need S$2 billion in reserves? The recent national propaganda media has been showing US universities losing huge sums of investment and are saying it is acceptable in these times to lose lots of $, so we should accept our town councils' mistakes but the US universities have been transparent in their accounts which are published online and made available.

2) Let's be honest, if the government came clean with what they have been doing and apologized for their mistakes then perhaps it would have been easier to swallow. As we all learn from mistakes when we acknowledge them. Not just put on a defensive front and tell everyone to move on. I have been guilty of this many times as it is probably a guy thing but then again it is no excuse. But hey I am not paid millions by the people thus I am not accountable to the people.

I believe our government, town councils and many other GLCs have forgotten who pays their salaries and who gave them money to invest in the first place. I bet my grandfathers/parents and my tax/ERP/SC&C/CPF dollars have contributed some sweat into it and I should have every right to criticize any wrong doings.