Politics, Economics, Business, Altruism, Classical Music affects us everyday in more ways than we think. Singapore; my home; my city; my country occupies an outsized real estate on this blog. Classical music from the era of baroque, classical and romantic are my favourites.
Ethics as the yardstick by which society measure actions.
Morality the self-administered litmus test by which
individuals ascribe their actions against their values.
Legality
for constitutional, legislative and precedential is the pragmatic yardstick of
black and white in society.
Universal values and mores is therefore a punch bowl of
these ingredients so black and white does not exists save for the wide spectrum of greyness in which man co-exists
Peter Lye aka lkypeter lkypeter@gmail.com Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye (c) Peter Lye 2022
Amidst the lockdown or to be politically correct mobility
circuit breaker due to COVID-19, I dusted something penned on Ebola
and SARS in 2014. Recomposing the current COVID-19 global crisis against my
old brainwave in 2014, there were striking similarities and differentials on
the societal and political fronts. Seems like our
human race is more xenophobic
and short-sighted collectively than many like to believe individually.
Collectivism and individualism could be at polar opposite especially on
orphaned issues.
From the comparison between Ebola and SARS, my narrative on
the biggest similarities and differentials were along the lines of lack of therapeutics
or vaccines, orphaned disease status of the poor and infectability in terms of R0.
Ebola was clearly an orphaned disease of poor Africa. COVID-19 and SARS share
most similarities excepting orphaned disease and the spiraling extensive spill-over
into the economic, societal and political fronts. There has been reports of
overwhelming over-arching philanthropy across economic lines from rich to poor,
societal margins from capitalistic to socialistic leanings through various
governmental support schemes and lastly on political and diplomatic agendas
from cross country aids as well as putting aside rhetoric like the trade war
between America and China. Major problems plaguing these as are their shallowness coupled
with lack of depth or sincerity and lack of a trust-worthy leadership to carry these
through. Philanthropy has been sparse and even for the few, they were more
Hollywood than reality.
Echoing current IMF views that a lack of post COVID-19 solution
like who would own or pay for the bill of the bailouts cannot be reason enough
in this hour as the impact of stasis is un-imaginable chaos that will be harder
to see daylight, this line of reasoning carries the hazard where the fittest might
leverage to maximize their interest instead of being applied to the needy. This
is not an unreasonable worry as 2008/2009 schemes like the troubled
assetrelief program (TARP) in USA has mainly benefited Wall-Street who
were the main culprit leaving much of main street to shoulder the burden
although Wall-Street would opined that they re-paid every penny but imputing
the risk adjusted interest on these re-payment makes a joke as Wall-Street are supposed
to be good at pricing risk. They operate the primary risk market not only for
financial risk but a broad spectrum from food to natural resource like wheat, corn to
oil and metals. The best legal and law making minds must be deployed to craft
caveats to guard against such through either a combination of policies and wide
ranging prosecution measures embedded to make such attempts improbable. The
process of law making and has mostly tipped in the favor of industries through
their lobbying machinery against limited resources of the populace. In addition,
history through the ages and across civilizations have taught us that legal
frameworks does not ensure that justice is served in all cases as at the
perimeters, the powerful do get away normally out of legal technicalities or
the voiceless poor given all but cosmetic legal aid defense or not getting the
necessary time of day from the public prosecutors who holds some discretionary
power. Although this is not the most urgent, its importance cannot be thrown
under the bus of urgency.
The current COVID-19 situation is slightly different as the
source seems to be a product of mother nature although the verdict is not or
will never be out on it as with the likes of SARS, better to focus on the
solution for now. Unlike events like WWII, nipping the bud in terms of eradicating
the primary agents like the Axis of Evil will not solve the problem. This is entertaining
the wildest far fetched imagination that it might be a product of scientific laboratory
malfeasance or accident unless the source possess the formulary to the anti-dote
in the form of a combination of therapeutics or vaccine.
If the therapeutics and vaccine path is unlikely to yield significant
results in the short run even if FDA fast track the time to bedside
usage or relaxes the criteria and hasten the approval of non-approved pipelined
drugs on compassionate grounds, it is good that the medical community is visiting
the re-purposing of existing drugs used for HIV, Cancer, Flu and the 100 year
old plasma therapy to fill in the gap. These initiative are important as COVID-19
can do a lot of damage in the minimal 12 to 18 months it takes to get a new
drug in. Perhaps, targeted research should be directed in this direction in the
short run as what we need is a tool that can drive in the proverbial nail and
not necessary the perfect hammer.
Another big hurdle is the accuracy, speed and cost of
testing for COVID-19 for more effective epidemiological and public heath
measures to work. No test is perfectly accurate but the existing gold standard using
certain RT-PCR process has an exceeding low level of accuracy in both type I
and II errors as well as a big indefinite band in statistical speak. Head of
WHO has gone on record in an earlier press briefing comparing the accuracy of HIV
test against COVID-19 test with the former having a confidence level of more
than 99% and he did not reveal any percentages in the case of COVID-19 but add
that he is less sure. A possibility is the newness of the test and lower population
size to arrive at higher degree of confidence. Some health authorities have
adopted the 2 to 3 serial consistent testing results to increase the level of
confidence. Speed of the test is crucial with a fast spreading disease like
COVID-19 and current RT-PCR test takes hours or days to turn around. Some of the
processes in RT-PCR involves centrifugal spinning of samples and re-agents repeatedly
that cannot be short cut. Cost was a hurdle in some countries as the cost of
RT-PCR test can be in the hundreds (USD) and initial USA health insurance
coverage presented a cost issue as some patients without requisite insurance
coverage and large co-payment might not be able to afford or simply do not see
money well spent for the test. This has been largely addressed in most health authorities
by having the government bearing the cost of the test. On this note, it surfaces
that cost of health care is no longer entirely a private and individual concern
can be dependent on the least common denominator in our population and
therefore perhaps another case for social medicine.
Some diseases like COVID-19 do not live in a vacuum and pull rail
truck loads of collateral damage the length and speed of the Trans-Siberian
Railway along with them. Although the collateral damages and its interlinkedness makes it difficult to
separate between cause and effect, perhaps centrifuging the maze of collateral
damage might spread them out on a spectrum for better visibility and addressable
bit size.
Economically, it would generate simultaneous demand and
supply shocks resulting in massive un-employment or a newly coined temporary
non-employment with wage freeze. Unemployment in USA is north of 10% within
weeks of limited lock down measures. Airlines were the first industry to be impacted
intensively and extensively at the speed of light. It didn’t help that Boeing, one of the two largest
aircraft manufacturers globally was already reeling in a safety crisis
resulting in planned shutdown of some facilities after two crashes of her new
737-MAX leaving about 100 newly built 737-MAX aircrafts sitting parked in their
facilities un-deliverable as airlines refuse delivery and some even threatening
to cancel orders or not exercising purchase options for pipelined orders. Problems
of another nature surfaces as shortage for personal protection equipment (PPE)
to both protect front line staff especially those in medical and essential services. Key amongst the shortages were for surgical masks, N95 masks, ventilators and
disposable protective suits. Complicating this problem further progression or
some say regression, the manufacturing process and supply chain has become longer
and more complex. Most end products traverse continents with thousand of
touchpoints each of which is highly specialized to be optimized. This could be
one of the reasons to keep some of these manufacturing facilities and supply
chains mothballed instead being liquidated to pieces with lesser hope and longer to
re-assemble after the crisis. There is always room for re-organizing and re-purposing
resources for shorter term needs but the choices have to be made holistically for
the longer run and not solely on economic basis.
The central banks have been quick perhaps too hasty in re-acting
to ensure proper functioning of the banking system and liquidity a float. Central
banks have chiefly operated in the domain of interest rates, reserve ratios,
government bonds and the like even during various quantitative easing
undertaken previously. Even wildest dream could not envision central banks dabbling in
corporate bonds even venturing onto those rated as junk by the big 3 rating
agencies so long as the downgrade to junk happened after the onset of the COVID-19
crisis or can be attributed to the COVID-19 crisis. This might be done on the
one market without any restrictive covenants limiting certain top executive
compensation, share buy backs, dividend payments and declaration or the likes imposed
on companies that took money under TARP. This can present itself as a money making
trading opportunity by tail coating behind this novel and more opaque move by
the central banks with little or no accountability.
As most currencies are principally issue on a fiat
basis with some like HKD based on a peg to USD, a lost in trust in any major
currency could fall quickly like domino into a global monetary system collapse. The result
might be a return to the ancient practice of barter trade. Barter trade might
not necessarily be a bad temporary solution. However, the slide into barter
trade will be anything but orderly and might entail societal anarchy if not properly
unwound.
Politically, the COVID-19 crisis could polarize countries
further. It is a funny phenomenal that as our world become more inter-connected through
technological leaps in air, sea and land transportation and tele-communication,
countries are turning more xenophobic. This could further fracture crack lines already
present in relationship between countries and escalating into trade wars,
border disputes and perhaps limited scale local or regional conflict. Such
conflicts can leveraged by super powers into a proxy war with an enlarged foot print.
Assuming that humanity crosses this sea of danger to land
safely on solid ground, economic frameworks for distribution of wealth,
societal norms for power allocation and political boundaries and agendas might
have to take a reset. Communism might attempt to green-shoot but its track
record is both too poor and tainted. Capitalism will most probably still win
the day but the wide ranging GINI might not withstand the weight demanded by
social justice and the clarion call for a more egalitarian society. Finally, humility and transparency should trump over over-confident smug calls by the authorities. We might be in the early days where the known-unknown and the unknown-unknown dominates the scene. This is no time for evidence or fact based decision not that we throw caution to the wind and make decisions recklessly. It does call for novel, adoptive and practical approach in place for bureaucratic norms and precedents. For example, the not wearing masks in public is a poor judgement just because there is no proof that wearing of masks reduces spread of the disease. Why not explain that we might not have enough masks as we do not know how long the crisis might last and and need to prioritize for front line healthcare workers and are working on the supply situation actively either through local manufacturer or overseas sourcing. It was quite clear that masks were hard to come by in retails pharmacies and even at government pharmacies at times. Now that we have photos of our PM and his cabinet wearing mask during their meeting tells the obvious. The lack of public hospital beds has been a problem of many year with the long wait time between transfer from A&E to wards taking hours sometimes up to 12-20 hours is proof of that. We cannot degrade this deficit in healthcare facilities under the bus of more urgent matters any longer without paying a dear price as has been shown in various parts of the world recording needlessly higher mortality due to a lack of hospital beds and ventilators.
Peter Lye aka lkypeter lkypeter@gmail.com Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye (c) Peter Lye 2019
Explaining 'meta-data' is like double talk as it literally means data about data. It is fine to be
confused for the moment as the concept shall unveil itself by the end of this piece or I would be in trouble.
The Book
The latest spin in Singapore's chapter of cyber space revolves around the media regulator Media Development Authority (MDA) decision to attach a Not Allowed for All Rating (NAR) to the 2013 film "To Singapore with Love" by Tan Pin Pin. NAR is the apex rating meaning fully banned without exceptions and possession can be criminal as well. Statement from MDA on their rationale for the NAR is as follows; "MDA has assessed that the contents of the film undermine national security because legitimate actions of the security agencies to protect the national security and stability of Singapore are presented in a distorted way as acts that victimised innocent individuals"
The NAR news went viral quickly on Internet with a plethora of varied comments. Some in
Tan Pin Pin
coarse to the more refined academic and poetic language. Language aside, the contents of the discourse runs through a common vein. Allow it to be screened and let the public be the final arbitrator of truth privately and not collectively as opinions are not likely to be uniform. Perhaps, the dispensation of communism, race and religion can polarize Singapore into disarray has passed. Singaporeans have grown up and no longer an immature populace requiring paternalistic oversight by the government to keep us safe from harms way. Not withstanding these, I tend to support that some government operations have to be covert for national interest and even USA acknowledges this. However, these agencies like Secret Service, CIA, FBI and Homeland Security are accountable to a very select and small Congress oversight committee. They do have some form of blank cheque but large cheques will be scrutinized by the oversight committee after the fact as many of these covert operations are time sensitive.
The dictum today's news is tomorrow's history is even embraced by Lee Kuan Yew. He recognized this in his memoir mentioning that most probably some doctoral candidates might choose to research the dispensation on Singapore and Lee Kuan Yew during his rule. Finally, the raison d'etre for this piece is to facilitate the explanation of the concept of Meta Data. So please do not attach any political affinity to this piece and the author. There is no denying that chatter ( Meta Data) about the film and its rating by the government most probably generated more and varied materials than the film itself. Some of my friends in sales and marketing went so far as "Dirt Sells" by way of free news print acreage. People are curious by nature. Banning it will generate more curiosity. Perhaps law makers should consider censoring 'Meta Data' if there is ever such a phrase or even possible.
Peter Lye aka lkypeter lkypeter@gmail.com Safe Harbor. Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Peter Lye (c) Peter Lye 2014 Wikipedia®Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Social media is becoming so pervasive that to ignore it is tantamount to subscribing to the ostrich syndrome. As senior leaders of your companies, it is best to examine how to leverage social media by harvesting the upsides and addressing the down sides.
Technologies
Two other partnering technologies also served to make social marketing more pervasive. The first is the advent of smart phones like Apple's proprietary iPhones and Google's open source Android software married with Samsung and HTC hardware primarily. I have left out Microsoft and BlackBerry as they have sort of lost the mind share of their customers.
The second is the introduction of high speed wireless technologies like 3G and LTE to carry the heavier traffic that these smartphones consume at more reasonable rates. Being digital it can make more efficient use of finite radio frequency spectrum translating to lower cost for the consumers.
Software
We shall examine FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Goggle+. From a usage perspective, we can group FaceBook, LinkedIn and Goggle+ as an information sharing platform. It basically dishes out information to pre-determined sets of customized groups called friends, links and circles respectively. The latent power is its ability to go viral very quickly as information gets relayed down further vertically like a tree spreading out from the tree trunks. These content can be a text, picture or even movies.
Twitter also functions like wise but is limited to 140 characters. It is very useful and potent. Recently, A twitter account was hacked to send out wrong material information of a company and her share price tanked for a couple of minutes. Double check the information from an alternate source unless you have no choice.
Right Angle Turn
Before the advent of cellphones or in its initial phase, the functions were restricted to phone calls. It was also a sort of status symbol as both cost of handsets and usage were pretty hefty. The first few smartphones were primarily made by Nokia with Symbian software but the take up rate was patchy. Microsoft and RIM also introduced their line-up and RIM was most probably the most successful in the enterprise space primarily because of their stable and more secure email platform. For once, executives could read and reply to emails outside their offices.
The right angle turn most probably happened with the introduction of iPhone and competitive data plans to ignite the spark of this paradigm. It was fashionable to have an iPhone. It displaced the existing market leaders like Nokia and Ericsson in a space of less than a year. Apple maintained market leadership for a number of years without much peer to challenge them until Samsung decided to discard her image of selling phones based on lower price points to a premium player to challenge Apple. The relationship between Apple and Samsung was very complex as Samsung was also a supplier to Apple. It is like sleeping with your enemies initially. It went so bad that legal eagles got involved in suits and counter suits for patent infringements claims in the courts of many countries.
Work and Play
The Y and Z generations basically harvested the framework done mostly by the generation X. Being born into this phase, their viewpoints of technology and out look of life integrates both work and play. They considered the concept where work were only done within the confines of office as dated as work can be done at any place save for some professions. However for such professions, they can or are working part of the time in cyberspace. The upside being able to cut down on travel time. The other social implication is the blurring between work and play time.On the same note that they believe work can be done anywhere, they also believe in having adequate private space and time to go onto their social media. What then do we do in such situations? A smart manage/supervisor will keep enough straight jacket on to ensure work is done and allow time for the private space and time.
Collaboration tools like multiple parties conference can also reduce the need to travel.
Internet materials can range from peer reviewed materials down to outright cheating and it is not advisable to treat it as the gospel truth without verification, Lastly, social marketing could also bring your products,services and image to a new level or down the chute with the same velocity.
Walk into any cafes, restaurant or shopping centers, it is common to see groups or couples armed with their smart phones either doing work, playing games or watching their shows with headphones of course. Sometimes they start talking or listening only to eat or when their movies have ended. In my mind, these are hardly gathering as they spend more time with their smart phones than with each other. This phenomenon is also very common at home robbing the family of quality time together.
Where do we draw the line on acceptable use policy at workplace? Social media access is also a necessary tool for many employees. There is no right or wrong answers but either extremes is ill advisable. However for pornography, it is an absolute no-no in most companies. Knee jerk reactions just because of a few out layers is also not advisable.
On a concluding note, social media looks like rock and a hard place but being aware of the factors might provide you the right level of light for you to take the next step but not to see light at the end of the tunnel. It might not be a root problem and simply a symptom of issues such as motivation, home front issues, unreasonable supervisor etc.
Safe HarborPlease note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Copyrights of all contents in this blog belongs to Peter Lye unless stated otherwise.
I have always wondered why thousand dollar a plate charity benefit dinners are always held in the best hotels in town. Food so gastronomic that it is normally served with silver spoons that most of these guests are born with. Dressing wise, it is the standard tuxedo for men but for the fairer sex, it is a horrendous issue of God knows why? I am lucky not being a woman. Needless to say, those that would benefit from such proceeds will most probably not get to eat at or dressed in such fashion in the near future. To me, why not cut these cost and donate everything to charity instead. This is sort of like wolves in sheep clothing aka hard core meritocracy dressed in charitable egalitarianism.
The social norm is to have alternating seating arrangements for couples. By the way, if you do not have a partner, you would normally have to go find one of acceptable social standing to accompany you. The intern in the public relations company responsible for this event made a mistake of arranging the wives of a doctor and lawyer to be seated beside each other with their husband to buffer. Their disdain for each other via stiff and acidic upper lip sarcasm was common knowledge in high society. What do you expect leaving arrangements to interns unsupervised! Their doctor and lawyer husbands were made aware of it during the pre dinner cocktail. Both agreed that it would serve their purpose and those in the table for the two gentlemen to be seated beside each other to minimize their feuding wives spoiling the occasion. The lawyer told the public relation staff to make the change and she was very apologetic to him for the fiasco.
After the cocktail, the guests were gracefully directed to their tables and seats personally. Both wives were surprised that they were in the table and threw a dirty look at their fellow spouse but the lawyer was quick to save the day by giving the excuse that he has some matters to discuss with the doctor and has arranged for both of them to be seated beside each other and it was their shout. The situation went extremely well with their wives finding like minded guests seated beside them and there was no sign that a tsunami was within sight between their wives. However, signs of an erupting volcano were showing at the table between the doctor and lawyer to everyone.
Photo Credit: Internet
Between the starter and soup, both gentlemen were engaged in a very plastic social butterfly conversation on which profession is more privileged. Women gossips about people but greater men discuss ideologies. Apparently both gentlemen were highly regarded in their profession and the comparison went on various planes. Just before the main course was served, they exchanged verbal torrent on which profession is older and therefore more respectable. A tolerant and introverted district judge that happened to be seated across the same table spoke louder than normal "prostitution as the oldest profession does not make it more respectable" to everyone surprise. The increasing loudness of their verbal exchange was annoying him. It startled everyone in the table but the judge looked around the table with a stoic and unapologetic manner and ask if anyone disagree speak up or forever hold their peace.
Seizing the opportunity, the lawyer asked the judge if he would referee on which profession is more privileged or honorable. The judge replied that on the count of honor, his answer was neither and it was for this reason he is addressed as honorable in formal occasions.
Photo Credit : Internet
As for which profession is more privileged when in comes to information as he understand it, it is most probably neither as well. He qualified that it could be a biased opinion being a lawyer before becoming a judge. Doctors are last within the narrow pecking order as it is not difficult for judges to over ride doctor patient confidentiality and demand their testimonial. For lawyers, it is almost next to impossible to direct a lawyer to testify on privileged communication between him and his client but there are exceptions in some countries although in a very narrow manner.
Photo Credit : Internet
Lastly, the judge opined in his personal capacity that the most robust privileged communication is mostly probably spousal in a defining and conclusive manner and carried on working on his main course. In between the marbled cuts, he asked if there are any objections for the two couples to change seats so that everyone in the table can have a peaceful meal and everyone in the table clapped gently in unison and the change was made gracefully without further incidents.
Peter Lye aka lkypeter Safe HarborPlease note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Copyrights of all contents in this blog belongs to Peter Lye unless stated otherwise.
Why Government Services Fails Sometimes? A Singaporean Perspective-March 2012
There has been enough negative press about the state of services provided by our government, governmental agencies or government related companies. It ranges from train, bus services and road congestion in the transportation sector to cost of public housing both in the new and re-sale market in the property segment. Cost of tertiary education and basis of allocation of these highly competitive seats as well as entry criteria into primary schools have also invited comments of all shape and size. Even the environment ministry was not spared for the increase incidence of flooding as well as cost of rental of hawker stalls contributing to escalating cost of hawker food which is quite a staple for most Singaporean.
After thinking hard about the surficial causes instead of the root causes being a practical person with limited resources of an arm chair hobbyist commentator, citizenry is not totally innocent for all these as they have only elected the current government into office in the 2011 general elections including the recent presidential elections where the president was elected to add injury to the whole matter. Did the nation’s consensus and consciousness failed terribly in voting in a stupid and incompetent government and if so, we must live with the consequences until the next election and perhaps beyond as some policies of the current government will outlast their term of office. I can almost hear war drums of the vast majority descending upon me that the election was only fair within the sandbox drawn by the long suffering oops I mean long serving incumbent party and personas of People’s Action Party (PAP) which has been the ruling party since time immemorial since Singapore gain independence. Policies such as electoral boundary, group representation which can distort the electoral results in conveying the will of the citizenry but let’s grow up as no election rules will result in simple majority prevails. However, if we were to use the percentage of parliamentary electoral seats against the percentage of individual votes, the gap seems fairly wide. Perhaps some study should be made about this in Singapore and published as an academic paper from the birth of our nation to the last election in 2011 and see how the empirical information paints the situation.
Causes of Failure
There are very good reasons why government services fail sometimes we must recognise some of these premises before we can be part of the solution for the greater good of society. Being a capitalist at heart and one the believes in minimal government, I have seen fairly concerned and critical about the growth of government, this discourse seems out of place as there is a large element in defence of the government. I have not changed my surname nor DNA.
Universal access is the second plague that I sometimes nickname it the 7Eleven solution. A private business have great latitude in deciding what product and services, when, where and who it decides to do business with. For government services, there is a presumption of universal access for all within bounds of stated level of service like operating hours, grade of service etc. For example, we expect police service to be available to us anytime we need and at the force level that mirrors and exceeds the threat we face on hand. However, when we engage the services of a private security company, the expectation is only for the stated hours and for so many people armed in a certain manner. The private security company could plan their resources based on expected volume of business with some expectation that utilization will not be 100% as demand might not be a linear or so closely correlated to the supply. If demand exceeds supply, the private company can call a stock out situation and not provide the service. Of course there would be many stock out cost to be considered in addition to the short term lost in profit opportunity like longer term customer satisfaction and of repeat customers. However, for the police service, if it fails to respond to any call for service, it risks a major public affairs situation as well as potential political collateral damage to incumbent elected officials. To be fair, the police can only plan their resources based on past records as well as future projections. The journalistic maxim of 1 life too many can result in an over staffed and resourced government services.
One of the commonly cited rationales that some services like certain segment of public transport cannot be privatized because of the need to provide universal access in terms of hours of operations and route to cover unprofitable hours and routes to provide universal access. My challenge is to re-examine the operations of the 7Eleven franchisor/ franchisee model whereby shops are kept open 24 hours a days all year round including new year holidays. This business model has been so successful that its operations is almost global and have even attracted copycat franchisor operating similar models in some countries. Perhaps the Singapore Land Transport Authority (LTA) that is both regulator and licensor of transportation services both private and public should re-consider their current practice of licensing public transport to a handful of companies to operate rail and bus to consider the public suggestion of allowing a larger pool of private small bus operators to be a part of the public transportation services like in Hong Kong which has quite similar population density and size as Singapore. Big buses and rail transportation is not likely to be a good answer to off peak hours as well as less densely populated areas and could actually represent a larger carbon footprint than private cars. Work on the licensing and oversight practical to small private operators and this could well be part of the solution to our current transportation woes than multi-billion dollar funding for more buses, bus lanes and bus stops.
The third item comprehensive planning to me is one of the greater joke. While failing to plan is planning to fail but planning like crystal ball gazing is comprehensive to the extent that is takes into consideration currently known variables and certain reasonable assumptions. Legislators and judges act as if current wisdom as embodied in the constitution/statutes and case law respectively are evergreen. I used to work in healthcare once and know of the need for the health ministry to license clinics and hospitals to ensure that they comply with certain requirements to ensure that they can provide their services safely and this is a very good idea. If a qualified doctor decides to operate a doctor on wheels service providing care to patients only on a house call basis without a physical address, I wonder how his so called clinic can be licensed. It makes sense in land scarce Singapore where rental cost is high and is passed onto patients indirectly. Here I go again getting LTA in the picture as it might be illegal to use a vehicle as a clinic as it is only meant for transportation purposes.
Smart Government
The basis for deciding whether a particular goods or service should be the exclusive enclave of the government or best left to the private sector is a very academic one and I would not want to repeat the wisdom of many before me here. There should be an oversight committee tasked and empowered by the people for the people to make recommendations to parliament. This is to ensure that in areas where the government should be playing a role and is not doing so be brought to task. It would also be empowered to investigate governmental involvement in the economy through various government owned subsidiaries, joint ventures or related companies. If the government needs to invest excess funds in the economy of Singapore, there should be a proper blind trust that does this for the government free of executive over lord or interferences.
Peter Lye aka lkypeter Safe Harbor Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Copyrights of all contents in this blog belongs to Peter Lye unless stated otherwise.
Of late, the competition in stock brokerage has intensified drastically with non-clearing members offering brokerage rates unheard of previously. As with all cheap things, there is always a catch to it. If you are thinking of fattening your trading profits or reducing your trading losses, do read the fine print carefully. The list of clearing members in the case of Singapore is available at www.sgx.com The differential between trading with clearing and non-clearing members are mainly as follows:
For trades with clearing members, stocks would be placed in a custodial company or custodial division of the stock exchange that would also have a common modus operandi with companies providing share registrar service. Trades though non-clearing members are normally held in a separate custodial company normally owned by the non-clearing member as well. Some do use the custodial services not owned or operated by them.
Voting rights at annual or extraordinary general meetings are non-existent for the smaller retail traders as the custodial company is listed as the owner of the shares. If you are a big player, arrangements can be made for the custodial company to proxy it back to you. If you are in the habit of collecting nicely printed annual reports for your coffee table, there will be none in this case. The situation is similar to trading using CPF and SRS funds.
The custodial fees charged by the custodial company are standard and transparent and same for all clearing member. The custodial fees and fees structure varies widely and this is where the savings on brokerage fees can get wiped out. The fee structure for custodial fee can be broadly classed into transaction fees for buy and/or sell and a custodian charge levied based on a mix of quantity and value of share as well as the custodian period.
Switching between clearing members is seamless because of a common custodial operator so the clearing members fight tooth and nail for customers especially institutional and private clients. Switching from a non-clearing member either to a clearing or another non-clearing member can be a nightmare as any existing open positions would have to be unwound in one way or another and this is most probably not where anyone wants to be in. The switching cost can be very high and the process tedious. Once the non-clearing members have you, they have you for good ad infinitum because of this switching nightmare.
The security of the custody is normally more secured because the common custodial service has a more protective legal framework to guard owners interest in case of liquidation, bankruptcies or dissolution. For non-clearing member, the protection element varies. After Lehman Brothers, no one is too big to fail.
Most non-clearing members tend to be larger and international geographically and might hold non-clearing or clearing memberships in markets outside of Singapore. Very useful for trading across markets.
These non-clearing member also tend to have more products especially forex based products that can lower your forex transaction cost by offering more competitive forex rates on spot or forward hedging options as well positions in multiple currencies on demand or fixed tenure. Only applies to the more sophisticated traders.
Before making any brokerage decisions, you cannot be too careful especially with non-clearing members and only trading on the local market not that I have anything against them.
Peter Lye akalkypeter Safe Harbor Please note that information contained in these pages are of a personal nature and does not necessarily reflect that of any companies, organizations or individuals. In addition, some of these opinions are of a forward looking nature. Lastly the facts and opinions contained in these pages might not have been verified for correctness, so please use with caution. Happy Reading. Copyrights of all contents in this blog belongs to Peter Lye unless stated otherwise.
93 lives vaporized in a matter of about 90 minutes in Oslo on 22 July 2011 because 32 year old Anders Behring Breivik wanted to ensure that the authorities gave his beliefs the necessary attention. This event would change the Norwegian way of life like what 911 did to USA. Instead of taking his own life, he allowed himself to fall into the hands of the law and face the prospect of 20-30 years behind bars if convicted and accorded the full force of the law as Norway has no death penalty. Perhaps he wanted his day in court to promote his far-right ideology as by default, court proceedings are open to public and journalist. However, from his indictment proceedings which is unprecedentedly a closed one, his newsprint hours in court might not be that full. It was a surprising move as closed proceedings are the norm mostly in cases involving minors or of a sexual nature. Even the 911 court proceedings were open in US.
His actions are definitely pre-mediated over a period of 9 years but it most probably would not qualify for first degree murder as the victims are sort of random in nature. As of now, they prosecutors have not actually decided on what to nail Breivik and court has allowed a special 8 weeks of solitary confinement where only his lawyer is allowed access to give the prosecution more latitude in the conduct of the investigation and finally arriving at a charge. Perhaps extraordinary events call for extraordinary measures. On a lighter note on this very grave issue, perhaps it is a sort of reverse class action.
This event set me thinking on what can Singapore and Singaporean learn and take precautionary measures beyond policing and intelligence spheres but also on public, political, economic arenas and also rethink the meaning of justice beyond the restrictive meanings of those in the lawyering and judiciary profession. Perhaps also the parliament where our laws are made.
Punitive Measures
As a maturing society, we ought to come to terms that no amount of effort is enough to totally prevent such risks. On the same note, much can be done by our government and society acting in concerted effort to minimize the risks. To throw caution to the wind and do nothing just because it is an impossibility would amount to gross negligence.
The maximum punishment that laws in various countries differs widely but it can be classed as 3 broad categories. Death sentence by which ever means, time limited life sentence which can vary from 20-30 years and life sentence till death with no time limit. Various comparative especially between death sentence and life sentence and its impact on serious crime rates has not been totally conclusive that death sentence reduces serious crime rates. This is not a pro-life debate and one thing we can conclude that death sentence appears to be a cheaper alternative for the government in terms of managing such criminals. There is some co-relation that most first world nations consider the death sentence as cruel and so do away with it but in many states in USA, the death sentence is still the order of the day for serious crimes. It is rather conclusive that in almost all countries, the law is sufficient or perhaps too punitive in some cases.
Besides the law,the co-joining factors relates to policing and judiciary process. Being mostly libertarian at heart, I think that we need to titrate the level of policing to a sufficient level to have an acceptable level of public safety and law and order and not be driven to the extreme of being a police state with little or no freedom for the citizenry. This is a complex issue that the government in consultation with the citizenry must decide not only on the level of policing but also the matter and form as well.
Judiciary process is a very loaded item and I would be very careful else I run foul of the law. Basically, the two main categories are a judge based or jury consisting of the citizenry. There is no conclusive evidence of one over the other. I stand very economized here.
In terms of punitive measures, I am of the opinion that we overall fairly sufficient altogether there have been some controversies on both end of the spectrum. We had to contend with and grow up as a nation with regards to the escape whilst under Singapore custody of a key potential terrorist element Mas Selamat arrested by the police of our neighboring country Malaysia succeeding man hunting down Mas Selamat and extraditing him back to Singapore. On the other hand, we have also been criticized by NGOs like Amnesty International for Internal Security Act which allows for detention without trial. I recognized that this act is a caricature left behind by the British that used to be our colonial masters. I also see reasons for not dropping or changing this Act as Singapore was facing substantial struggle from communists or communalists elements both internally as well as externally like the Communist Party of Malaya and fast breeding of communism in our corridor like Vietnam, Cambodia and Burma with their larger over lords of Russian and China. This dispensation is most probably passe with communism running out of style as well as being reformed greatly like in China. Let not in our haste for popularism throw the baby out with the bath water by eliminating the Internal Security Act altogether but can explore changes to it to fit the political climate. USA enacted the Patriot Act and created a Homeland Security Bureau in reaction to 911 and perhaps having the backbone of an Act of similar nature, we can revise the Act instead.
As in all things, we must sought for balanced and well considered position rather than a knee jerk and more extremists measures. No doubt time is of the essence but we can always have temporary legislation subject to further review with a given time frame perhaps. The Patriot Act in USA is not without detractors internally as well as fear of turning the country into a police state or fear of misuse by those in powers for their own ends.
Social Glue-GINI index and Social mobility
There are research evidence co-relating high GINI with either terrorist activity, revolt and war. I see social mobility as part being a big part to address high GINI index overtime. It is my worry here as a Singaporean that our GINI index has been increasing even with a growing GDP. I am all for a meritocratic value system but it must be tampered with a humane heart and safety net for the those at the bottom of society as well as those that falls through the strict rules of the safety net. I know that the current PAP government is very resolute in not encouraging a lethargic socialist populace by holding back on expanding the social safety net. I am very concerned in this arena as a widening rich poor gap coupled with fairly porous immigrant labour laws which is a major part of the ingredients capitulating into the Oslo carnage.
Back on social mobility, history has shown that it is easy for a meritocratic society to transform into a class stratified society. The rich and powerful overtime will be tempted to change the rules of the game to preserve their place in society. Our now retired but still influential statesman Lee Kuan Yew recently was quoted by the press that he will feel sorry for Singapore if we were to have a two party government granted he has various merits for a one party system. History has proven in Animal Farm speak that absolute power corrupts absolutely. This is a very common tendency based on the strength of self interest as stated by Adam Smith. Many have mis-quoted or misunderstood his self interest for selfishness and if we look deeper, there is a big differential between self interest which is lawful, moral and normal to selfishness which can disintegrate a society into the vestiges of hell surely though it might not be immediately.
We have to be true to ourselves that in the same breathe that we speak of meritocracy, we cannot deny the fact that blood the flows in us is thicker than water. This is why I was very concerned when the PAP government decided to scrap Estate Duty totally as estate duty is there as one of the tools to guard against poverty trap. In addition, we ought to watch out and arrest the spread of nepotism as we push towards an equal opportunity society as it is a very human tendency to do so. The spread of the tax burden is also a very key policy instrument and I am in favor of an across the board consumption like our GST as a good and efficient tax practice as it is easier to administer, has fewer tax loopholes as well as encouraging savings for future versus consumption. GST also tend to have a negative effect of shifting the tax burden towards the poor as generally, the poor will save less than the rich as a percentage of their income. To add injury, we have also lowered corporate tax as well as skewed the personal income tax in favor of the rich by reducing the tax rate for those on the higher tax brackets. The rationale explained by the government for the corporate tax to for us to stay competitive with neighboring economies like Hong Kong and the tweaking of the personal income tax to discourage 'tax planning' activities. Perhaps we ought to re-examine the corporate tax, personal income tax, estate duty and GST holistically together.
I am certainly no anglophile but I endorse their making equal opportunity, transparency and equitable society as non-negotiable. England was as feudal state as one can be and remains one of the last few larger economies to continue constitutional monarchy. It took England about 200 years to transition itself from an executive monarchy to constitutional monarchy in a fairly peaceful manner although there has been bloodshed compared to the number of people that died in the communist revolution that overthrew the executive Tsar monarchy in one swoop.
This is not an opportunistic endeavor to use the stage of Oslo carnage to further my personal views but looking at the Oslo Carnage through Singapore looking glass.
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