Most Singaporeans have this fuzzy thinking that GIC and Temasek are just losing "government's money" and so it doesn't affect commoners like themselves.

Wake up, Singaporeans. The money that GIC and Temasek lost is *your money*. It comes from your CPF, your parents' CPF, the money that you overpaid when you cough up $400,000 for a $50,000 HDB flat, and the numerous other ways the PAP government has devised to siphon your wealth. This is money that, if it weren't squandered by Lee Kuan Yew and Ho Ching, could be yours for starting your own business or for funding your children's education, or it could be used to build more public hospitals or make university education more affordable for Singaporeans. Instead it's now been spent to buy up stakes in banks that own mostly worthless subprime mortgages and other toxic papers.

When the sovereign wealth funds of Abu Dhabi or Dubai or Kuwait make a loss in their investments, they are losing wealth that comes from the oil wells of their Sultans and royalties.

Singapore has no oil fields or diamond mines. The wealth of Singapore comes predominantly from the labour of its few generations of hardworking citizens. So when GIC and Temasek make a loss, they are losing money that the PAP government has siphoned from you and your parents and grandparents over the years -- hundreds of billions of dollars that are way in excess of the revenue needed to run the country (i.e. building roads and schools, buying fighter jets and MRT trains, etc).

A few billion here and a few billion there and now your wealth has been seriously depleted. You don't notice it right away because of a Ponzi scheme called the CPF, where investors over the age of 62 are paid small monthly sums of money taken from the contributions by current investors under the age of 62.

Like all Ponzi schemes, the people who devised the CPF scheme employs every trick in the book to prevent you from cashing out your investments -- imposing a minimum sum, ripping you off when you buy a flat, dictating in what ways you must spend your CPF money, etc. I have lost count of the number of times I read about folks who died because they or their spouse or parents are prohibited from drawing on CPF money to pay for treatment of life-threatening illnesses.

GIC and Temasek have collectively lost about S$300 billion. If we discount the 1.5 million PRs and foreigners, that works out to be about S$100,000 for each of the remaining 3 million citizens. Yes, that's S$100,000 for every man, woman, child, and infant in Singapore. If you have a household of five, that's half-a-million dollars. All this time you've been queuing up for hours and fighting each other over Hello Kitty dolls, hoping for a sorry $50 windfall when the doll becomes a collector item. Ironical, is it not?

The whole point is that Singaporeans did get it right -- they are among the most motivated and hard working people in the world -- that's why Singapore has prospered. Jamaica didn't have a population like this.

And of course it helps enormously that Singapore is geographically located at the nexus of the global trade routes and that the British Colonial office implemented a civil and legal structure excellent for business and commerce.

What is wrong is not Singapore but the PAP government, who despite all these advantages, squandered the wealth of the country and worse, destroyed the spirit of its people.

You are either lacking a brain or else a member of the PAP internet brigade out to mislead and obfuscate by employing the same old PAP trick --- attributing all success of Singapore to the PAP elites while putting the blame for any blunders on the lesser mortals. It's the other way round, you silly.

Trackback from CNBC Faber Report on Temasek :

Singapore's acquisitive Temasek is up to its old tricks again, buying high selling low.......

Its doesn't bother me how much Temasek loses, but "PLEASE" don't further push the CPF withdraw age time frame to 100 yrs .

Its doesn't bother me how much Temasek loses

That's the whole trouble. Most Singaporeans think like you. Even if you get all your CPF back, say, 10 years from now. By that time an MRT ride will cost S$25 and a plate of char kway teow S$50 if Temasek and GIC keep squandering the nation's wealth.

As far as the colorful pieces of paper you carry in your wallet are concerned, MAS can print as much as of those as it wants. But with every billion that Lee Kuan Yew and Ho Ching flushes down the drain, those colorful notes are going to buy you a little less. One Sing dollar may buy you a gallon of crude oil or a kilo of rice today, but it may buy you only half that quantity a year from now.

It's naive to think that the PAP government's cataclysmic policy failures would have no consequences on your life and your children's lives.

To the dear folk upstairs, either grow a brain and refrain from opening your mouth.

Sure, Singapore has come a long way from a fishing village almost 200 yrs ago. However, a society can only advance when we keep improving ourselves, and comparing ourselves with better societies, better examples. If you wanna comfort yourself by comparing us with the worst there is, then in fifty years time, Singapore will be as bad a place as Jamaica.

Ultimately, its not people like the marxists or Chee Soon Juan that do Singapore in. Its people like you that lives in the past and indulges the misjudgements and wrongdoings of the government that will ultimately cause the downfall of Singapore.

The same rubbish again. Are you paid to defend your PAP masters or are you so stupid that you have been deluded by their propaganda?

Singapore's prosperity is due to three main reasons:

1. Our geographical location and natural deep harbours. Singapore would not have prospered had we swapped coordinates with Bhutan, which (in case you do not know) is in the middle of the Himalayas.

2. The civil service, the basic infrastructure, and the rule of law, among other things, that the British implemented when Singapore was a Crown Colony. These are gems of the Anglo-Saxon civilization, wisdom accumulated over centuries of trial-and-error. The PAP government was fortunate to inherit these. If Singapore continued as a British colony the way Hong Kong did, it would have prospered anyway.

3. The culture of hard work, perseverance, and frugality of our ancestors from Southern China and India. Singapore would not have prospered if we had a population that would rather take naps under coconut trees than haul rice sacks from sampans. Of course it helped even more that a substantial number of coolies also had entrepreneurial ambitions.

Jamaica did not have any of these. That's why it didn't prosper the way Singapore did.

PAP may have done some good at the beginning but it has been fettering the country's progress, preventing the people's development, and squandering the nation's treasures for far too long. And yes, if you allow it to continue in this path, it will ultimately cause the downfall of Singapore. In fact, the downfall has already begun --- you are just too deluded to see it.

Oops. Responded to the wrong "Anonymous Coward". The comment above is not meant for you. My bad.

Trackback from Prescient 2002 report: In Singapore: Government squanders savings :

Since Singaporean growth rates were no higher for all the compulsory investment required of its citizens, it is fair to say that the government effectively dissipated all the forced savings. ...

Rangoon! Rangoon!

Now you guys know why singapore government is so good to foreigners and ask for high influx of foreigners ? That is to continue the Ponzi scheme as Singapore produce less baby !

hey, me again.

somehow the main point got lost.
Temasek made an investment. at this point that specific investment did not make profits.
Sucks, for sure. Intentional, no ! Does this justify to stir emotions in people against the entity that tries, yet not always succeeds, in growing Singapore's wealth?

oh well,..

Temasek made an investment. at this point that specific investment did not make profits.

That's understating things to the point of twisting the truth.

It is not "did not make profits". When you lost 4.6 billion in a 5.9 billion investment, you don't call this "did not make profits". You practically lost everything.

And it is not "at this point", the 4.6 billion loss has already been realized when Temasek sold its stake in Bank of America. The 4.6 billion is gone forever. The other investors who didn't sell might still have a chance of recouping if BOA becomes profitable, but Temasek, in keeping to its great tradition of "buy high, sell low", has just flushed 4.6 billion of Singaporean's wealth down the sewers.

In the bigger scheme of things, GIC and Temasek have collectively lost $300 billion, probably more. While they can hide their books and hoodwink most Singaporeans, this kind of loss will inevitably show up in the macroeconomic data of the country. As the news article upstairs pointed out, economists who analyzed such data have come to the conclusion that the PAP government has effectively squandered all your savings.

Governments have three major roles: (1) national defense and law enforcement, (2) insurance against major disasters (eg. banking crisis, tsunami, etc), (3) provide public infrastructure/services that serve the common good (eg. railways, power plants, health care, currency board, etc).

It is not the role of the government to take over major corporations and businesses and run them or to decide what ought to be decided by the market. The US government does not own Apple or Boeing or Citibank. It does not tell corporations how to run their business nor appoint directors to their boards.

If Apple wants to build an iPod industrial park in Suzhou, or if Nike wants to buy a 5.9 billion euros stake in Adidas, or if MGM Mirage wants to build two new casinos, those would be purely business decisions.

The US government does not tell Bill Gates or Steven Spielberg that because you are a college dropout, you should not be allowed to get into any business ventures; instead we will appoint these PSC scholars, all with 20 distinctions and triple first class honors, to start Microsoft and make the Indiana Jones films. And to ensure that undesirable college dropouts don't have the capital to go against our wishes, we will take away most of your money and your parent's money and all your relatives and friends' money through various means (CPF, HDB, COE, etc) and let the PSC scholars with 20 distinctions and triple first class honors grow your wealth for you.

That's why the PAP government owns most of the major local businesses in Singapore and most of the foreign investments. And it's kind of funny, if you look at the boards of directors of these government-linked corporations, in addition to the PSC scholars with 20 distinctions and triple first class honors, you will also find a lot of "Lee" and "Kwa" and "Ho" as well as former PAP loyalists:

http://www.singapore-window.org/sw02/020210gl.htm

I am not surprised that GIC and Temasek lost $300 billion. I am surprised they did not lost more, or did they?

Intentional, no!

Wrong. Intentional, yes! The whole thing is the PAP government's doing, thinking that it's alright to take the nation's wealth and let people that they choose (PSC scholars, PAP loyalists, LKY's relatives) invest it in businesses that they choose (Shin Corp, ABC Childcare, Merrill Lynch, etc).

wah lao. honest mistake lah.
most of the sovereign wealth funds also lose money.
anyway, the person in charge also resign already.

Are you trying to whitewash this? The whole point is that it is not an honest mistake. It is corruption and extreme incompetence.

And don't make up stories. Which other SWF lost as much as $300 billion? Which other SWF sold their stake in BOA at this point?

I'd say the ones with the hippies was the worst one ever.

Suppose you deposit your money in a bank and a few days later the bank informs you that a teller had accidentally flushed your money down the toilet and you won't be getting your money back. Are you going to say "honest mistake lah, let's move on"?

Suppose you are stupid enough to keep going back to the same bank and 9 out of 10 times the teller will accidentally flush your money down the toilet. But every time the bank will tell you that it is an honest mistake. So you're going to forget it as long as the teller resigns?

Trackback from Bank of America upped to buy at Goldman Sachs:

LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Bank of America was upgraded to buy from neutral and added to the conviction buy list at Goldman Sachs...

Right after Temasek sold its entire stake. You have to take your hats off to Temasek for their perfect timing for buying high selling l0w.

Cut your losses and run.
Leave Chinagapore.

Trackback from Kway Teow Man:

The KTM agrees with Money Editor Ignatius Low that the public deserves an explanation, not from MOF, but from Temasek: why was the investment made and why have we divested so early, leading to the huge losses?...

I don't know. But what they say about you guys are pretty true. One make an opinion, and all the rest senselessly jump right in. Just look at the number of gibbons here.

Well anyway don't know about you all, but i thought Ho Ching and LKY are humans too? Much as they may be 'high up there', don't they make mistakes as well? Even warren buffett wasn't correct all the time..

Chillax lah! Complain so much, fly to other country lor! Cannot then don't go around 'cry dad cry mom'..

The posts here are carefully argued and well-reasoned. You are the one who's senseless.

Don't give this nonsense about "they are humans too". This is not the first time they have squandered Singaporeans' wealth. It is not even the 10th or the 100th time. They have been systematically doing this for 10, 15, 20 years, as is evident from the news article upstairs.

And why this "they are humans too" excuse only apply to Lee Kuan Yew and his family and cronies? Why doesn't it apply to the rest of us? Why doesn't it apply to the grandmother who went to jail because she unknowingly rented a room in her HDB flat to two foreign workers who overstayed? She was over 70 and she was illiterate. It was genuinely an honest mistake. But no mercy was shown to her.

This is my country too, not Lee Kuan Yew's and nor yours alone. Why should I go elsewhere?

What a self-righteous fellow!

When you throw stones in a glass house, others will have to bear with the shards
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`We will regret the time lost if we do not now take the first tentative steps towards correcting a trend which can leave our society with a large number of the physically, intellectually and culturally anaemic`

Ya.. leave singapore and come to malaysia ma...