By Eugene Yeo
Wherever you go these days, be it the kopitiams, markets, internet cafes, restaurants or pubs, the topic of the day will invariably turn to the castastrophic losses suffered by our SWFs, Temasek and GIC, which at last count, is over SGD $100 billion dollars.
Tongues have been wagging on how the government manage to lose a bulk of our reserves and still remain eerily silent on the matter. Massive protests would have erupted in other countries as illustrated by Iceland. The calm and quietude on the surface seem too surreal to be true.
The issue was not debated in Parliament. The country’s leaders have not issued any public statements to allay public concerns. Neither has the press published any reports on it.
Speaking at a dinner celebrating Standard Chartered Bank’s 150th anniversary in Singapore, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has called on foreign banks to take a long-term view in their investment in Singapore. There was no mention on the “long term” investments of Temasek and GIC which are now in limbo.
The state media has been busy painting a rosy picture of how the various state agencies are doing their utmost to help Singaporeans tide through the storm, the latest being the Public Transport Council’s “kind gesture” to reduce the transport fare by 2 cents.
Is the PAP really ignorant of the endless rumblings on the ground which is whipping up a frenzy in both the internet chatrooms and the HDB heartlands ? Has it really lost touch with the people ?
Perhaps Prime Minister Lee doesn’t feel the need to explain his wife’s investment decision to lesser mortals like us which is after all deemed as a private matter between both of them to be settled in the confines of their bedroom. Or according to his warped logic, Singaporeans have accepted the SWFs’ losses heartily because there were no protests outside Parliament House.
Even during the Mas Selamat fiasco last year, opposition MP Low Thia Kiang manage to put up a half-baked wayang in Parliament when he appeared to be stunned by PM Lee’s direct question to him if he felt that Wong Kan Seng should resign. Low is nowhere to be seen too at this critical juncture where leadership from the opposition is solely needed and missed. (I forgot Low doesn’t regard himself as an “opposition” MP, he yearns to be a constructive “watchdog” of the PAP).
Will the matter simply go away if the authorities continue to put up the facade that nothing has happened ? In the absence of official news release, half-truths, rumors and lies are spreading like wildfire in the populace which will eventually erode public trust and confidence in the government.
The PAP should be astute enough to realize the long-term repercussions for keeping mum on their latest blunder now. Like in the past, the Chua sisters will always intervene just in time to save their skin.
So when will Dr Chua, our psycho-psychiatrist who has the uncanny ability of diagnosing personality disorders in opposition figures from afar without even examining them spin another fairy tale for us again ? Do not be deceived by her reticence so far for it is probably a delaying tactic to wait for the public fury to subside first before she start concocting her potent “red pill” to mislead the crowd again.
I reckon she will use some if not all of the following:
1. Quote figures from other SWFs such as the Kuwait and Abu Dhabi which have lost more money than us to put “things into perspective” so as to exonerate Temasek and GIC from their dismal, if not disastrous performance.
2. Solicit the views of some authoritative figures in the banking industry to defend the SWFs’ investment decisions on the usual pretext that they were sound at that time and nobody was able to predict the extent of the financial turmoil then.
3. Release selective figures from Temasek and GIC to defend its track records of generating annual returns and that they had merely lost what they had earned through “prudent management” over the last few years.
4. Interview some grassroots leaders for them to express their evergreen confidence and trust in the government to create the false impression that the people are genuinely behind them.
5. When all else fails, resort to the usual “ku3 lou4 ji4″ by tugging at Singaporeans’ heart chords with the gentle reminder yet again that Singapore will not be where it is today without our godfather Lee Kuan Yew. (YUCKS !!!)
Rest assured we will be seeing a repeat of the Mas Selamat wayang kulit in which PM Lee “disappeared” for almost two weeks before slamming Low Thia Kiang in Parliament only after his father had spoken out on the matter. A few days later, Chua Lee Hoong wrote a “let’s move on” article to tie up the loose ends.
Will Low Thia Kiang serve as the “punching bag” again to make PM Lee look good ? Will another wayang COI filled by the henchment of PAP be called eventually to appease Singaporeans?
Unless Singaporeans start to make themselves heard in the public arena such as a protest at Hong Lim Park drawing the attention of the international media, the PAP will never take us seriously and all our online grouses will remain forever, in the words of one Rear-Admiral, “unhelpful comments”.