Asia Sentinel

You only trust family members - even if it means we 've to bleed...
written by nicteo , January 29, 2010

The whole Singapore Inc., institutions that amassed $billions are guarded by the trusted cadres and family members. In words of Mdm Ho, the bleeds are part of the learning curve.

The citizenry wouldn't mind the little loss once in a while, else the political masters would have been replaced long ago.

A fool and his money
written by 7th son , January 19, 2010

"GIC suffered a loss around 59 billion Singapore dollars (US$41.6 billion) in the fiscal year ended March 2009, making it one of the worst years for the sovereign wealth fund since it was established in 1981. “The equities investments suffered the most, followed by falls in property valuations. It was one of the worst years ever” - Dow Jones Newswires

GIC claimed last September that it has since recovered “more than half" of those losses.

As NO figures were provided, we can only hazard a guess that this means it has lost between 7 to 9 per cent of its reserves of SGD$346.5 billion dollars which translates to a realised loss of between SGD$24.255 and SGD$31.185 billion dollars, more than the entire Gross National Product of some Third World countries.

Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd., Singapore’s second sovereign wealth fund, reported that its portfolio shrank to S$130 billion in the year to March 2009 from S$185 billion a year earlier due to losses in equities investments.

Now THAT is the bottom line - GIC lost of a minimum $32 BILLION of taxpayer funds even taking into account the (unverified) supposed 'recovery'. Temasek's pain is even greater.

Unsurprisingly, we have one of the 3 wise monkeys by name of Taneug trying to put lipstick on the the two pigs who are shamelessly still in charge of those funds, pretending that all is well and "in the case of Citibank, the government actually made helluva lot of billions when it reduced its stake"! Never let the truth get in the way of a good fairy story, eh?

As always, he made an attempt to conflate the country of Singapore with the grasping scoundrels who govern it and award themselves a king's ransom in the process. Pay attention at the back of the class, Taneug: it's not 'Singapore-bashing', it's a richly-deserved 'Peoples Action Party-bashing' that you're enjoying.

Don't let TAS's friendly intuitive face fool you. The fun you get here might even extend to learning to distinguish truth from falsehood and political knaves from their hapless prey.

Singapore bashing ...again
written by Taneug , January 19, 2010

I regularly visit the Asia Sentinel website for a bit of fun; you know, just checking what the old boy is offering on its latest Singapore-bashing plate. Every time Singapore has a spot of bad news, TAS wastes no time to bring it to the loyal reader' 'attention and in irreverent language. Another paper used to do that regularly. It castigated the Singapore governement's policies in severely but while being an expert on the little island's economic affairs, it did not quite understand its own and sad to say, the Far East Econmic Review had to fold up. Meanwhile, the little island continued to thrive. TAS obviosuly has not learn what is humility and is bound for the same end.
This month we have a bland author who tries to spice up his article with a monkey throwing darts. There is the litany of bad decisions made by the 2 SWFs, listing all the bad investmenst with glee. But he actually got it wrong. In the case of Citibank, the government actually made helluva lot of billions when it reduced its stake. The one left holding the can of worms were the Arabs who bought at a much higher price. As for Alliance Bank...Temasek may well have made a bad investment but can't TAS delay shooting-off until the investiagtion is complete? But then, if nothing untoward did happen at the bank, TAS would have then missed its chance for a bit of Singapore-bashing.

Last year, TAS ran an article also on the huge Temasek losses at the height of the market collapse. As if any body anywhere made anything anytime in the first 9 months. Strangely absent was the approbation due to the 2 SWFs for not having bought any CDOs and other worthless pieces of papers which have bankrupted other funds, such as those in the countries where the TAS senior staff have escaped from..And when the market recovered,with Temasek recouping a huge amount of its losses, TAS was strangely silent again. It is this sort of selective amnesia and one-sided reporting that keep me coming back to this fun web site. If the "enemy" has to resort to such tactics, the Singapore government ain't that far wrong.

http://www.rentinsingapore.com/browse/all/HDB 3 Room/all
written by hdb3 , January 16, 2010

How does it happen ? What is the present position ?

Peter Stuyvesant Tobacco Corp to LKY: Haha, revenge is sweet!
written by 7th son , January 15, 2010

"The biggest real-estate blunder in American history", says NY magazine. Unbelievably, amazingly, astonishingly, the financial geniuses at GIC do it again and actually manage to lose 10 TIMES AS MUCH as the actual owners of the company put in! Now we know what senile chairman Lee 'I've too much to offer to retire just yet' Kuan Yew can do for an encore to his loss of as much as US$50 Billion of the state's reserves in only 6 months in 2009.

Bravo, bravo! Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch. Clap! Clap! It's nice to know that the good old blinkered mindset that entertained us with the Shin Corp débâcle, the ABC Learning disaster and the Citibank/Lehman catastrophe is alive and well and living in the GIC. One can hardly wait for the fun to begin when China's property bubble implodes, delivering the brown fecal matter to the rotating mechanical device placed right in GIC's boardroom.

Sin city will recoup the losses
written by Vegas , January 14, 2010

No problem, there is F1, casinos, lotteries, taxes, ...

The day Temarsek Trusted Tun Daim
written by Ah Loong-UMNO , January 14, 2010

that was the day they put their heads in a noose. Daim stole billions from Malaysia and lives overseas. His Bank is the Alliance Bank. Thought Singaporeans were smarter than this!

History Repeats itself-Monkeys will damage Flowers
written by Ah Loong-UMNO , January 14, 2010

What can I say.Its time for LKY and family to leave after bringing Singapore up. But they are a reluctant lot who still want power. I think that there are many Singaporeans who can bring the country to another level.Like better huamn rights etc. Singapore is much more CIVILISED than Malaysia.

Whilst I undetsnad what Singaporeans want, we in Malaysia are still sitting on the trees and now have improved one more step.We are now swinging from brance to branch because every day the governenment is raping the country's coffers.

Now most Malaysian cabinet members have licenses-they are also MONEY LENDERS ( Ah Loongs), Other have all the Taxi licenses and many have every other thing. So what can I say about Singapore-we in Malaysia are so backward that rather than being in the 21st Century, we are experiencing the 1920 in Saudi Arabia. We are moving backwards!!

...
written by Lion , January 14, 2010

What Temasek did wrong is this --- They invested in Malaysia.

Do not ever ever invest in Malaysia, else you will be burnt !

I am a Malaysian, I know what I am talking about.

Due Diligence
written by GMG , January 13, 2010

A key question Singaporeans should be asking GIC is the outcome of the due diligence it presumably carried out on the Stuyvesant property deal in New York. The belief that the shabby deal involved in stripping middle class and legally savvy residents of such a prime piece of rent-controlled New York real estate would happen in any realistic investment cycle betrays a provincial grasp of that great city's realpolitik. However, if GIC is still in the market for New York property I've got exclusive access to a fantastic island just off Lower Manhattan. The only inhabitant is an old French lady, who I'm sure would jump at the chance of an offer of new home on Sentosa ...

Fall after fall
written by too lann , January 13, 2010

Recently old LKY told the world he is only a "forcaster" in the government! What! and get paid more than 3million a year? What s**t is this! All he can show is loss after loss by his brilliant scholars and politicans. His policies are square pegs in round holes. He has admitted to his education policy flop after more than 40yrs of iron fisted ramming through of his policies. What else dare he admit? There are at least 6 more. If this is the result of PAP brilliant rule than we are in deep cow-dung laid down by the PAP. Dare he stand for election again? I hope he does. Because we want to hear what he has in store for Singapore and the world. Will there be a difference if his successors take over? What the heck - NO. All of them are sycophants put there by LKY personally to prop him up and make him look good. If LKY is not around they will just look for another figure to sycophant up to. The iron fist of LKY has actually punched Singapore low down - it will take a long time to get over it.