When news broke last night that the Government is reviewing the CPF interest rates, the initial reaction was that voices from people like NMP Laurence Lien were finally being heard. Lien thinks that the Singapore Government should share more with Singaporeans if it is able to make more in its investments using CPF members’ monies. ("Joint responsibility for old age income security", ST 21 July).
Instead, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam is thinking of providing options for CPF members to undertake higher risks to earn higher returns than that afforded by the CPF Investment Scheme system. Maybe a free pass to the casinos is in the works. He said, "The Government is not a commercial entity that needs to be profitable and obtain compensation in return for taking risks," without referencing the double digit returns claimed by its investment arms and where those juicy commercial returns are parked.
One blogger pointed out that the GIC website FAQ clearly states that they (before June) do not know if they invest our CPF because it is not made explicit to them. Now (after June) Tharman is saying GIC knows it is managing Government assets, including sources from the Singapore Government Securities (SGS) mechanism which is the official conduit to the CPF cookie jar. The similarity to SIA's honesty about flying over Donetsk, before and after 17 July, is unmistakable.
"We can't let McDonald's or Yum China know that we add (chicken skin)," the same China worker said about their unsavoury practices. "They won't let us do that. Otherwise, we would lose the contracts. Who wants to do business with you if you break your promise?" It remains to be seen if the people will continue to do business with the ruling clique after all the broken promises.
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Unfortunately, really Good NMP like Mr Lawrence Lien are few and far in between. Those " elected" are by and large " eat up rice" type who must thank the Daft like us to put them into Parliament .
ReplyDeleteU mean to say Jiak Liao Bee!
DeleteLike what the PRCs always say abt singaporean business man, also applies to the silliporean at large. Our national forte: "How to kick our own ass by voting in robbers to manage our savinsg and tax collection".
DeleteNow Tarman is trying to manipulate the inflation rate by removing imputed rent component to make it look like CPF is giving returns above inflation. I call this openly cheating and farking dishonest.
ReplyDeleteThe announcement to review the CPF interest affirms that the PAP Government has short-changed its citizens for a very long, long time.
ReplyDeleteDo not, for once, assume that the review is going to be better for us.
DeleteThe G has a way of twisting fact and words. The outcome will be worse for us.
The CPF review folks on Shitty Times today also hinted at implementing CPF for the homemakers/housewives. Does this not remind you of the whole Transport complaint and then the healthcare complaints? Fare hikes to solve the lousy stinking MRT, and Medishield Life for better coverage (aka Medishield premium hike and birth to death payment no one can escape). Every grouse against the garmen, the shitty bureaucrats will milk it into another opportunity to rob more more more of your last dollar. Never let a good "complaint" from the sheeple go to waste to squeeze them dry! Soon all housewives would need to a) "contribute" to their CPF to better protect their retirement and b) contribute to their Medishield Life to lower their burden on their loved ones.... would be really really funny if we weren't the ones paying.
ReplyDeleteou want better
Private management of CPF already exist since Mr peanut was the seat warmer - they allowed you to use your CPF to invest in this or that CPF-approved unit trust. But don;t for a single second, think they will change the CPF withdrawal limits, the age of withdrawal, the rising minimum sums, and other goal-post moving rules remain to change just because you can now choose which fund manager will gamble away your hard earned money.
ReplyDeleteExcellent piece, Tattler. Reminds me of the standard defence of those charged with drug trafficking - he/she was asked to carry the parcel and was not told what it contained. It did not matter anyway since he/she was paid for the job.
ReplyDeleteGIC's FAQ statement is not only similar to SIA "MH17" statement in spirit, it is fairly typical of this government's way of obfuscating its way around the truth, like "ponding" is not flooding. As long as they don't admit openly that they are wrong, no one will be punished right? A bit like Mr Gay found not guilty because neither of the couple pocketed any financial "gains" (other gains maybe, but not financial so its not corruption right?).
ReplyDeleteBut both Tharman and the GIC statement are implicit admission of the falsehood of LKY's widely reported statement by the press many years ago, that "GIC does not manage your CPF money". What is true of GIC is also true of Temasek then? Which means our CPF money are a). Not invested conservatively in ultra safe AAA-rated foreign govt bonds yielding ultra low interests and therefore b) the govt is enjoying the upside of the claimed GIC/THL returns while paying us low CPF interest rates and c) govt is acting like a too-big-to-fail bank, taking depositors' funds to gamble in risky hedge funds, venture capital and bankrupt US real estate firms?
WTF is he saying about the Govt not being a commercial entity that needs to be profitable? Just name any GLC which is not profitable? Even the costs for the taxi driver, they take a cut in the form of the COE, yet he has got the cheek to bluff people ?
ReplyDeleteIf the CPF monies is loaned to the Govt and kept into a common pool, how can the Govt now admit GIC invests CPF monies while Temasek does not ? How come they never presented any proof of this fact ? Talk is cheap. In fact if the Minister is lying to us, can anybody find out ?
ReplyDeleteAnd if that is really the case, why is it that they had to HIDE this fact and NEVER informed the public from DAY ONE ? What is so secretive about this information that they have to hide this fact from CPF Members ? So was it a lie to cover another lie right from the beginning ?
The problem seems to be instead of clearing the mess, they are now raising even more questions which appears not to be able to square off ? I don't think I will believe a word from this Minister.
Hiding it as long as possible has many advantages. Its giving the burglar all the time to carefully search, pilfer and cover his tracks. Example: the hackers who still 0.1% of your bank account everyday for 50 years while you save more and more. Each year's 0.1% becomes astronomical. And no one, not even peanut counting AG office auditors would highlight 0.1% rounding error, right? Except CPF today is theoretically over half a trillion. Do your sums, even pasar auntie selling chicken backside could opine that was a lot of money.
DeleteIt about time people start demanding a probe into the operations of GIC. With all these nonsensical answers about not knowing where the money is coming from , one has to really wonder if they know where the money is going to. How sure can we be that money has not been siphoned off.
ReplyDeleteWho will entertain the demand of the people?
ReplyDeleteThe PAP Regime?
Lol!