The Israeli Embassy made a Facebook post recently which the Singapore government objected and requested it be taken down. The embassy obliged and said the post had no official approval and erring personnel has been penalised. Two issues the Minister for Law and Home Affairs K. Shanmugam was unhappy with were: a. The post pointed out “Israel is mentioned 43 times in the Koran. On the ..read more

"Public sentiment is everything. With it, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed." ... Abraham LincolnLand Transport Authority of Singapore had eggs in their face in the aborted migration of card-based transit ticketing system (CBT) to account-based transit ticketing (ABT). CBT cards - Ezlink and NetsFlashPay, were to be replaced by ABT card - SimplyGo-Ezlink (SimplyGo for short ..read more

"Temasek can afford to be contrarian because it has its own balance sheet and can think long term."  .... Ho Ching  That was Ho Ching in the aftermath of the FTX fiasco and US$275m write off. But Temasek did exactly the opposite of what she said. The FTX decision was made at a time when Sam Bankman-Fried was still a hero. The contrarians were those who raised red flags ..read more

SimplyGo has been derided as taking one-step-forward-two-steps-back or a case of fixing something that ain't broke. Some pilloried the government for the inability to come up with a one-payment-card-for-all solution. Is SimplyGo "putting lipsticks on a pig", a term that refers to making superficial or cosmetic changes to a product to make it seem like a new one.The contentious ..read more

At a recent Xmas gathering of some old school chums, a friend reminisced about some pranks he did. He told of a certain teacher who used to have him order her fishball noodle from the tuck shop, an old local term for school canteen. The dish came with six fishballs. Enroute with dish to the Teachers' Room, he would pick two fishballs for himself. The teacher was none the wiser. It ..read more

I am a heavy drinker of coffee. I used to down about 10 to 15 cups a day. The most important routine to kick start my day used to be a cuppa and the morning papers. It was the 30 minute window that I really hate to be disturbed. I am never a coffee connoisseur to talk of Arabica and other fancy names. All I wanted is just the good old kopitiam coffee. It all started for me with the black brew ..read more

2 Aug 1990 Iraqi Army invaded KuwaitBack in mid 1990 I was at a training course for Civil Defence reservist manpower officers. It coincided with a dinner the Civil Defence hosted for foreign defence attaches who had attended some displays put up by the camp. That event had nothing to do with my group but the organisers decided to volunteer us not as escorts, but simply to fill up the seats at ..read more

I was trying to parse some numbers on wealth and millionaires and came across this old article from Mothership (23 Sep 2022).  Mothership's views are seen as skewed in favour of the establishment. It was quick to flash this catchy and feel-good headline, careless as to veracity of the statement. Private wealth is not exactly public wealth. What if most of the private wealth is in ..read more

MNB is a UK-domiciled bank owned by Gosbank, the central bank of USSR. It opened its Singapore branch in 1971. The USSR collapsed in 1991 and MNB was taken over by, and renamed VTB Bank, a Russian state-owned bank, in 2005. Within 3 years, MNB's loan portfolio of US$600m was the largest amongst Singapore banks. It made quick and deep forays into the Chinese business community with ..read more

No matter how strict the banking regulators, how incorruptible and well-qualified its personnel, and how good the legislation, no country is spared the occasional crisis of financial fraud, huge credit defaults, money-laundering, and bank failures. Singapore has had its fair share. The worst on the patch was the 1995 failure of Barings Bank due to fraudulent options trading conducted by ..read more