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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - YPAP attacks RP's feedback on budget</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
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March 2, 2010 by admin
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http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/03/02/ypap-activists-privatizing-temasek-and-gic-will-deplete-reserves-and-squander-singapores-future-away/
Written by Our Correspondent
A group of YPAP activists from the “North (Singapore)” have put together their thoughts on Budget 2010 announced by Finance Minister Tharman last week on the YPAP website.
As expected, they offered nothing concrete except a rehash of the arguments made earlier by PAP leaders which appeared to be targeted at a series of proposals made by the Reform Party in its comprehensive report on the Budget last week. (read Reform Party’s recommendations here)
While the Reform Party has called for the introduction of a minimum wage for Singapore workers, the YPAP activists are of the view that it will “harm” Singapore workers, “especially low skill workers whose jobs can easily be replaced when the employer relocates overseas.”
It added that minimum wage “would hurt small businesses and SMEs with thin margins because these businesses have difficulty moving abroad – so they may have to close shop instead.”
The YPAP activists also took issue with Reform Party’s call to privatize Temasek Holdings and GIC to give the equity to Singapore citizens and warn that this is “a proposal to deplete Singapore’s reserves and give them away as a handout.”
“It is good to help Singaporeans, but wrong to squander Singaporeans’ future away!……Any proposal to drain Singapore’s reserves dry, no matter how carefully disguised, must be seen for what it is – lowering Singapore’s economic defences,” they claimed without substantiating their statements.
Both Temasek Holdings and GIC have received much flak from Singaporeans lately after they lost billions of dollars in failed overseas investments last year.
GIC reportedly lost more than $40 billion dollars while Temasek Holdings has seen the value of its portfolio plummeted by nearly 30 per cent.
The Chairman of GIC is none other than PAP strongman Lee Kuan Yee. His daughter-in-law Ho Ching heads Temasek Holdings. None of them has prior experience in the finance industry.
The YPAP activists seem to have misunderstood the proposal made by Reform Party to privatize Temasek Holdings and GIC. What it meant is for the returns generated by the two sovereign wealth funds to be channeled into a fund to help needy Singaporeans much like the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth fund and not to give handouts to every Singaporean.
Furthermore, they chose to conveniently ignore the fact that Temasek Holdings and GIC had lost billions of dollars in the last two years alone and we still do not know the exact amount of national reserves left to this very day.
Instead of throwing billions of dollars accumulated from years of Budget surpluses to rescue struggling foreign banks, why not invest it on Singaporeans? How this will “squander” Singaporeans’ future away is anybody’s guess.
As a matter of fact, Singaporeans’ future may already have been “squandered” away by Temasek and GIC by their reckless overseas investments.
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March 2, 2010 by admin
Filed under Headlines
Leave a comment
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/03/02/ypap-activists-privatizing-temasek-and-gic-will-deplete-reserves-and-squander-singapores-future-away/
Written by Our Correspondent
A group of YPAP activists from the “North (Singapore)” have put together their thoughts on Budget 2010 announced by Finance Minister Tharman last week on the YPAP website.
As expected, they offered nothing concrete except a rehash of the arguments made earlier by PAP leaders which appeared to be targeted at a series of proposals made by the Reform Party in its comprehensive report on the Budget last week. (read Reform Party’s recommendations here)
While the Reform Party has called for the introduction of a minimum wage for Singapore workers, the YPAP activists are of the view that it will “harm” Singapore workers, “especially low skill workers whose jobs can easily be replaced when the employer relocates overseas.”
It added that minimum wage “would hurt small businesses and SMEs with thin margins because these businesses have difficulty moving abroad – so they may have to close shop instead.”
The YPAP activists also took issue with Reform Party’s call to privatize Temasek Holdings and GIC to give the equity to Singapore citizens and warn that this is “a proposal to deplete Singapore’s reserves and give them away as a handout.”
“It is good to help Singaporeans, but wrong to squander Singaporeans’ future away!……Any proposal to drain Singapore’s reserves dry, no matter how carefully disguised, must be seen for what it is – lowering Singapore’s economic defences,” they claimed without substantiating their statements.
Both Temasek Holdings and GIC have received much flak from Singaporeans lately after they lost billions of dollars in failed overseas investments last year.
GIC reportedly lost more than $40 billion dollars while Temasek Holdings has seen the value of its portfolio plummeted by nearly 30 per cent.
The Chairman of GIC is none other than PAP strongman Lee Kuan Yee. His daughter-in-law Ho Ching heads Temasek Holdings. None of them has prior experience in the finance industry.
The YPAP activists seem to have misunderstood the proposal made by Reform Party to privatize Temasek Holdings and GIC. What it meant is for the returns generated by the two sovereign wealth funds to be channeled into a fund to help needy Singaporeans much like the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth fund and not to give handouts to every Singaporean.
Furthermore, they chose to conveniently ignore the fact that Temasek Holdings and GIC had lost billions of dollars in the last two years alone and we still do not know the exact amount of national reserves left to this very day.
Instead of throwing billions of dollars accumulated from years of Budget surpluses to rescue struggling foreign banks, why not invest it on Singaporeans? How this will “squander” Singaporeans’ future away is anybody’s guess.
As a matter of fact, Singaporeans’ future may already have been “squandered” away by Temasek and GIC by their reckless overseas investments.
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