BANK OF SINGAPORE SCANDAL AND HOW SINGAPORE DISAPPEARED FROM HISTORY

A friend of mine shared a video clip that showed some Americans who thought Singapore is somewhere in China. This isn't the first time I have been shown somewhat similar videos. The insinuation is the ignorance of Americans. Some Singaporeans think Singapore is the centre of the Universe and every human being, including American hillbillies in the Apalachians, ought to know where to pin our Little Red Dot on the World Map. A little humility is in order.

The Bank of Singapore was once caught in a scandal for which it then collapsed. Singapore itself disappeared in the 1970s, buried under shifting sand. Thankfully, that is not the Little Red Dot. So those Singaporeans who deride American ignorance, how many know of this Singapore? Friends of PM Lawrence Wong, or some of you, may have heard him mention this peculiar place before. The PM is an alumnus of the University of  Ann Arbor, Michigan, so he would have heard about the town of Singapore on the South-Eastern shores of Lake Michigan.

In sharing the story of this oddity of our namesake town, I thought there are lessons for us. I always try to capitalise on stories with teaching moments.

The town was founded in 1836 by New York land speculator Oshea Wilder. His idea was to build a port town to rival Chicago and Milwaukee. There is no record as to why he chose to name his town Singapore. Well, well, what do we know. Perhaps, after all, some American hillbilly had actually heard of the port that Sir Stamford Raffles built in the Orient.

As the township commenced development, there were some start up businesses such as lumber industry. Soon The Bank of Singapore opened for business. In those days there was no Federal banking regulation. These were independent banks with state charters. They printed their own banknotes. In Michigan, banks needed to match 30% of banknotes issued with specie coins which were coins minted in gold or silver. There were no bank inspectors and no one knew for sure if the reserves of specie coins were in those boxes in the vault. Just like today, no one really knows if the US government's gold bars are really in Fort Knox. Eventually, truth caught up. There were no specie coins in the vault. With no reserves to back up, the banknotes were just pieces of paper. The Bank of Singapore collapsed after two years operation as a result of the scandal.

In Singapore, the MAS prints the fiat banknotes, unofficially backed by huge reserves of the country. Banks print digital cash in the mechanism of fractional banking. Regulatory measures require banks to maintain a Liquidity Ratio, meaning they need to maintain certain levels of their assets in liquid form. This is to ensure banks have enough liquidity in the event of a bank run. The ratio is carefully calibrated at a level that ensures banks have sufficient level of liquidity as well as keeping in sync with monetary policies. It is not a line to flag insolvency which is monitored from regular financial reporting by banks. Thus regulators monitor the financial health of banks for liquidity and capitalisation, ie their solvency. Essentially MAS monitors to make sure banks have the reserves to back their net liabilities thus preventing banking failures like The Bank of Singapore, Michigan.

The same kind of monitoring mechanism and transparency in banking does not extend to the national level. I am referring of course to our national reserves. We don't even know how much is the reserves. How do we know the 'specie coins' that form our reserves are there. Our reserves are like Shroedinger's cat. When not observed, it is in both states of existence and non-existence. Only when observed does it manifest it's real status. Theoretically therefore, The Bank of Singapore, Michigan event is possible.

In late 1871, wildfires swept through a large swathe of land in Michigan Lake area, including the City of Chicago. The rebuilding after the fire saw a short-lived boom in Singapore's lumber industry. So much lumber was required and the urgency of the demand that all the forest around Singapore were totally destroyed. As the land laid barren it became unprotected from the sand blown across the lake region. By 1875, the town was completely buried under sand. The death warrant of Singapore was due to their neglect to protect their forest reserves.

Epitaph of Singapore, Michigan

When critical resource is not managed but abused for short-term financial gains, disaster looms at the far-term. It's often been said over and over in various circles, Singapore the Little Red Dot, has only one resource -- its people. In the past several years, our economic policies and the direction the Singapore government is headed, seems to be analogous to the chopping down of the trees in the hills of the eponymous township in Michigan. Will someone some day write an epitaph for us, not of a city buried under sand, but buried by an onslaught of rich foreigners and foreign workers given one of the best passports in the world.

Note: With apologies to some of my readers who clicked on the blog "Microsift Just Jolted The Competition In The Quantum Computing Race" which I accidently published last week. It is a work-in-progress blog.

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A "WINDOW-DRESSING" LINE IN THE BUDGET EXPLAINED

"There are three kinds of lies -- lies, damned lies, and statistics" Mark Twain (attributed)

"If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything." Ronald Coase

"The only thing more shocking than the numbers was how many people believed them" Bethany Mclean (on the Enron scandal)

"I gift-wrapped and delivered the largest Ponzi scheme in history to them, and somehow they couldn't be bothered to conduct a thorough and proper investigation" Harry Markopolos (the whistleblower on Bernie Madoff)

The above quotes basically say the same thing. I personally prefer this meme which I used in an economics article long ago.

Or how about this:

Show this to investors. A balanced budget means responsible governance. All the attractive grants and subsidies is pro-business which leads to more investments into Singapore and more jobs. 

$300 Other revenue
$100 GST
$  50 Increase GST
$450
$375 Other expenses
$  75 Corporate grants, subsidies
$    0 Budget balanced
====

Show this to Singaporeans. See, we have no choice but to increase GST. We cannot reduce the grants or subsidies which will lead to lower GDP and less jobs.

$300 Other revenue
$100 GST
$400
$375 Other expenses
$  75 Corporate grants, subsidies
$  50 Budget deficit
====

This is not to suggest the MOF fiscal statement above is false or scam, but merely to say one should make an effort to understand what it's all about.

Most people are puzzled by the line item "Capitalisation of significant infras" of $4.17b in 2024. I asked several qualified accountants does the statement represent a budget surplus of $6.41b in 2024. None has volunteered an answer.

This has MP Liang Eng How asking "Is this capitalisation an accounting item"?. One of my favourite social media commentator on things finance, Chris Kuan, also mentioned "accounting item". At first reading, I don't even know what "accounting item" means in relation to this $4.17b. 

This is a fiscal statement representing only cash flows. How does a capitalised item get into a cashflow statement. If anything, only infras that are "monetised" can get into this statement. The sales proceeds are cash revenue that is taken into the state coffers.  Of course, no such sales happened.

The government receives substantially much more cash which are not appropriated for spending as these are not recognised as revenue. There are basically 5 other sources:

1. The excess liquidity resources that statutory boards send to the Treasury for consolidated investment on their behalf. This is reflected in the Fiduciary Fund in government's books. 

2. Proceeds from the sale of land. This is transferred directly into reserves to be managed by GIC/Temasek.

3. Proceeds from issuance of government securities (ie government loans) which cannot be spent. These are Singapore Special Govt Securities (for CPF funds), Retail bonds (long term deposits for small investors) and Singapore Govt Securities (securities issued for the purpose of managing price discovery for SGD). These are accounted in the respective Securities Fund and managed by GIC.

4. Foreign currency proceeds from issuance of Reserves Management of Government Securities by the government to takeout the excess foreign reserves from MAS. These proceeds cannot be spent. It is reflected in the relevant Securities Fund and invested by GIC.

5. Government borrowing for special infrastructure projects under the Significant Infrastructure Government Loan Act (SINGA) which was legislated to allow the government to take advantage of cheap interest rates for infra building purposes. Aggregate borrowing is capped at S$90b.

Items (1) to (4) do not appear in the fiscal statement because the cash received are not to be spent.

Item (5) is different. The cash received is meant to be spent. Government borrows under SINGA by issuance of on-demand and 30-year or 50-year bonds. The cash coming in is recorded in Consolidated Loan Account and appropriated to the Development Fund. The Development Fund holds not just the SINGA debts, but appropriations out of Consolidated Funds, ie, cash from Revenue, set aside for other development projects. Some of the SINGA bonds are called Green Bonds which are meant to fund projects under the Singapore Green Plan 2030 objectives.

In 2024 $4.3 SINGA Bonds were issued and appropriated to the Development Fund. If I am not mistaken, this S$4.3b receipt is part of the S$15.25b under the "Other Fund" line in the statement.  As at 30 Mar 2024, Singapore government SINGA debt stood at S$12.5b. This appears in the Assets-Liabilities Statement under the Development Fund head which has a balance of $$128.7b as at 30.3.2024.

For SINGA-funded projects, disbursements during the year are "capitalised".  In 2024 S$4.17 were paid out of the Development Fund relating to these significant projects. This expenditure is reported under the "Capitalisation of Significant Infras" line. These projects are the North-South Corridor, Deep Tunnel Sewerage System, Jurong Region Line, and Cross Island Line.

So answering my own question, was there a budget surplus of S$6.41b in 2024, the answer is NO. The budget surplus was S$.2.62b which will be transferred to reserves.

The "capitalisation" of SINGA projects means any disbursements out of Development fund for such projects are taken into reserves.  I can see this accounting treatment window-dresses the  bottom line "Fiscal Position" to look impressive. Instead of a budget surplus S$2.62b we have a positive Fiscal Position of S$6.17b. Other than for this reason, I have no explanation for the purpose. 

In reality, the S$4.17b disbursement is a sunk cost. There is no funds to transfer to GIC/Temasek to invest. And how can it be a "capital" when the SINGA bonds have not been repaid? 

MP Liang Eng How also asked "... is it a cash item that can be used to fund current expenditure?" MP Liang is Managing Director of Institutional Banking in Development Bank of Singapore, certainly not a finance illiterate. If he cannot understand the S$4.17b is a sunk cost, that money has already gone out, how can lesser Singaporeans be expected to understand?

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CHINA'S BAN ON RARE EARTH EXPORT WILL DESTROY THE US - BUT IS THIS TRUE?

Tariffs may shake markets, but 'rare earths' can cripple industries. China holds the cards, and the US knows it.

Practically all commentaries or write ups about Trump's tariff on China make it appear the Americans are bumbling idiots when the Chinese reciprocate with a ban on 'rare earth' minerals. As the narrative goes, China produces about 70-80 % of world production of REE (rare earth elements) and the US imports about 60-70% of their needs from China. REEs are used in many industries, especially in the defence and high technology industries. China's ban of export of REEs is therefore an existential threat to US national security and can cripple many industries. Trump's tariff on China is thus suicidal. But is this what the status really is?

Why REEs are important:
REEs are indispensible across industries that define national power - military, energy, technology, and manufacturing. This is a rough distribution of the global application of REES and it's importance :
* Permanent magnets (44%) - Used in advanced military systems (fighter jets, guided missiles, radars, EVs, wind turbines. It is critical for military superiority and green energy initiatives.
* Catalysts (17%) - Used in catalytic converters. Critical for petroleum refinery and reducing emissions in vehicles. Energy security depends on efficient fuel production.
* Polishing powders (11%) - Used in high precision optics (camera lenses, smartphone screens, fibre optics, semiconductor manufacturing). Critical for tech industry, telecommunications, advanced optics in military equipment such as satellites, targeting systems.
* Metallurgical applications (7%) Used to improve the strength and durability of high performance alloys. It is critical for used in aerospace, defence and industrial machinery industries.
* Glass Manufacturing (6%) - Used in lasers, specialised optics, radiation-resistance glass for nuclear applications, protective coatings for astronauts' visors. It is vital for space technology, military optics, nuclear energy safety and scientific research.
* Ceramics (3%) - It is a key component in high temperature semiconductors, aerospace coatings and fuel cells. Critical for enhancing the efficiency of power generation, hypersonic missile technology,and next-generation energy storage.
* Battery alloys (1%) - Used in rechargeable batteries for hybrid/electric vehicles, defence applications and backup power systems. Critical to support energy independence.

The consumption of REEs for permanent magnets is so high due to demand for clean energy technologies and advanced electronics. For these applications, the usual temporary magnets cannot be used. Temporary magnets require an external energy source, such as electromagnets use electricity. Once the energy is cut, there is no magnetic field. Permanent magnets do not require an energy source. Their magnetic field is turned on forever.

What are REEs:
17 metallic elements that share similar chemical properties make up rare earth. They are divided into light and heavy rare earths based on their atomic weight. LREEs - Lanthanum (Eu), Cerium (Ce), Praseodymium (Pr), Neodymium (Nd), Promethium (Pm) and Samarium (Sm). HREEs are - Europium (Eu), Gadolinium (Gd), Terbium (Tb), Dysprosium (Dy), Holmium (Ho), Erbium (Er), Thulium (Tm) Ytterbium (Yb), Lutetium (Lu), Yttrium (Y), Scandium (Sc). 

Rare earth is not rare!!!:
The term 'rare earth' is an anomaly. It is actually not rare. It is in fact found all over the world. You can also find them under the ground you are standing on in Singapore. It exist in abundance in the Earth's crust. The average crustal concentration of REEs is 68 parts per million, which is more abundant than say copper. Even the least abundant of them, thulium and lutetium, is 200 times more abundant than gold. REEs are found in certain mineral ores such as bastnasite, monazite, xenotime and eudialyte. The REOs (rare earth oxides) need to be mined, the REEs extracted and processed. The whole operation is both expansive and expensive which explains, why there are only a handful of companies and countries involved in the production of REEs.

Why China is the biggest producer of REEs:
If rare earth is present everywhere, why are countries all over the world not mining for it? Why China is the biggest producer? Smarter readers would have jumped the gun and caught it. It came to me almost immediately, and I'm not that smart. Because rare earth is not found in concentration, vast amounts of waste product has to be removed for every ton of REE processed. For China's 240,000 tons (2023) of ores mined, who knows how many million tons of earth or waste product has to be removed annually. It's a potential for huge ecological disaster. In first world countries, regulation and numerous environmental protection laws make it extremely difficult to issue rare earth mining licence. China is lax on environmental regulation.

Unregulated and illegal rare earth mining has caused severe ecological disasters in China, specifically in Baotou, Inner Mongolia (home to Bayan Obo Mine, largest REO mine in the world), Ganzhou, Jianxi Province, Guangdong, Fujian, Sichuan, Guangzi and Yunnan Provinces. Disasters included toxic tailing with radioactive and chemical waste contamination, acid leaching, deforestation, sulfuric acid runoff, loss of biodiversity, landslides, habitat destruction, water contamination. Farmlands get poisoned, lakes turned toxic, and communities suffered displacement and long term health issues from radiation exposure, air pollution and heavy metal consumption.

Another point you probably do not know. Before you get REEs (rare earth elements) you need to mine or extract the REOs (rare earth oxides -- these are the unprocessed REEs). REOs need to be refined and processed, which is an expensive proposition. Due to its massive production, China has economy of scale, so most countries export their production to China for processing.

US vs China (2023 data):
REOs mined - China 240,000 tons (69% of world output). US 43,000 tons (12% world output).
REOs imported - China 133,000 tons of REOs.US - nil.
REES processed: China 170,000 tons (70-80% of world supply). US - insignificant.
REES exported: China 55,000 tons. US nil.
REES imported : China nil. US 9,680 tons.

US lacks infrastructure for refining and depends on China for about 60-70% of it's REE needs. China's import of unprocessed REOs in 2023 was a 40% jump over 2022, indicating an attempt at stockpiling.

Significant players:
1. China - China Northern Rare Earth High-Tech Co Ltd, Inner Mongolia - world's larges rare earth producer. It mines and processes.
2. China - Shenghe Resources Holding Co Lrd. Partly state-owned. It mines and processes. Has expanded globally through strategic investments to secure a steady stream of REOs.
3. Australia - Iluka Resources. Originally in sand mining but has expanded ton rare earth mining and processing.
4. Australia - Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. It's main mine is in Mount Weld, Western Australia. Has a subsidiary that mines rare earth in Gebeng, Kuantan, Malaysia.
5. Greenland - Energy Transition Minerals Ltd. Australian-owned company.
6. Canada -- Avalon Advanced Materials Ltd
7. US - MP Materials Corp. It owns and operates the only rare earth mining company in America at the Mountain Pass in California.

Mountain Pass Mine, California:
1952 - opened by Molycorp.
1960s-1980s - was the word's leading REE producer.
1998 - environmental violations forced it to shut down processing operations.
2002 - operation shut down due to declining prices as a result of Chinese competition.
2010 - Molycorp restarted operations due to China's export restrictions.
2015 - operations shut down when Molycorp went bankrupt.
2017 - MP Materials acquired the mine and operations restarted.
2020 - MP expanded operations. Plans for processing operations.

Is Trump's tariff on China so stupid as everybody say:
The US had long recognised its strategic vulnerability in REEs in the 1990s. It became a front burner issue of national security in 2010 when China restricted its export of REEs to Japan following a territorial dispute. Trump has taken various steps to reduce dependency on China.

Trump's initiatives:
1. 2017 - Defence Production Act (1950): Trump invoked the DPA for $millions to fund REE production, refining and magnet production in US. Recipients of such grants include MP Materials.
2. 2017 - Executive Order 13817. Directed federal agencies to identify and reduce dependencies on foreign-sourced critical minerals.
3. 2018 - The first US Critical Minerals List was compiled.
4. 2018 - Defense Authorisation Act which prohibited US military sourcing REEs from China, Russia, Iran and N Korea.
5. 2018-2020 - Trump imposed tariffs on REE imports, but later exempted rare earth magnets.
6. 2020 - Trump issued Presidential Determination on Rare Earths for National Security. Directed Pentagon to fund US REE mining and processing projects.
7. 2020 - DPA and Pentagon funding helped MP Materials to go public via SPAC (a Special Purpose Acquisition Company allows a company an easy path to go public without the IPO process.)
8. 2020 - Awarded $30.4m grants to Lynas (Australia) and MP Materials to build rare earth separation and processing facilities in the US. It also laid the groundwork for permanent magnet production in US.
9. 2020 - DOE pushed for research into alternative materials and recycling programs.

Trump brought awareness of US vulnerability of critical minerals to the fore and initiated major policy shifts after years of neglect by Bush and Obama administrations. Biden followed through this policy shift with :

10. 2022 - CHIPS and Sciences Act. This provided more incentives for US and allies (Australia and Japan) in rare earth mining and processing.
11. 2023 - More grants to MP Materials and Lynas to expand US refining capacity and new plant developments in Texas and California..

US alternatives to rare earth:
Trump's policies jumpstarted US push for rare earth independence in mining, refining and processing as well as developing alternative materials to replace REEs in key applications and recycling efforts. Examples:
- Use of iron nitride (Fe16N2) to replace neodtmium-based magnets in motors.
- Manganese bismuth (MnBi) to replace neodymium-based magnets in high temperature applications.
- Lithium iron phosphate LFP) battteries which avoid the use of rare earth unlike nickel-based hydride (NiMH) batteries.
- Sodium-ion batteries is a potential alternative to lithium-ion and NiMH batteries.
- Zeolites can be used to replace cerium-based catylysts in refining and chemical processes.
- Graphene may be used as a substitute for yttrium in superconductors.
- Magnesium diboride (MgB2) could be used instead of REE in high-temperature superconductors.

US has invested efforts in REE recycling from electronic waste, magnets, and batteries. Examples:
- Urban Mining Co (Texas) - pursuing rare earth magnet recycling for defense industry.
- Phoenix Tailings (Massuschusetts) recycling rare earth from mining waste.
- DOE investing in REE recycling technology through national labs.
- University of Kentucky - recovering REES from coal ash and waste.

At the moment, as US races to build infrastructure and invest in alternatives and partner supply chains, especially with Australia, China still dominates in REE refining. Trump now returns to where he left off. One wonders at perhaps 4 lost years of US race for REE independence during Trump's absence.

There is no public data, but it is apparent and there is market talk, that as it receives major funding from the government and racing to develop refining and processing infrastructure, MP Materials has been stockpiling REO productions. Meanwhile, its stock price is trending up. Critical industry + government grants and funding = good future. Does Temasek have a buy advisory on this?

Trump's public speaking style of syntactical trainwrecks, leaving sentences unfinished, and often repeating a trailer phrase, leads the literati crowd to consider him a scatter-brain. He often drops teasers without details, leaving one wondering if those are just some wild ideas or is there some policy under development. In one of his interviews, Trump mentioned:

"There is method to my madness, you do know that, right?"

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NEW WIND SWEEPING ACROSS USA AND SINGAPORE IS MISREADING THE CLIMATE

"The budget should be balanced, not by more taxes, but by reduction of follies."
Cicero

I very seldom read the Straits Times. but last Wednesday I had a peek and what did I see - five anti-Trump articles! On American politics, the Straits Times is skewed to the left. Perhaps it has no choice as it publishes from syndicated news which are predominantly controlled by the liberal left. But five articles in a day is saying the obvious - the Straits Times is pushing anti-Trump sentiments to Singaporeans. That the Straits Times is the mouth piece of the government, it is very disconcerting that this is the sentiment in the corridors of power in Singapore. There is a breadth of fresh air, a new wind is blowing across USA, and Singapore Inc is unable to see the clarity of direction the Trump administration is bringing.

How best to relate to Singaporean minds than to revisit the 1980 incident of how Lee Kuan Yew handled the SIA pilot revolt over pay. Lee carried a sledgehammer to the meeting with the pilots. He made it be known he was prepared to close down SIA and rebuild, but he was not going to let a bunch of pilots, especially the foreign ones, hold our national interest to ransom. The pilots backed off, the foreign trouble makers were sacked, and Lee won the day.

This is exactly the same situation President Donald Trump is in, but his problem is on a scale Lee would have been horrified. Trump carries a much bigger sledgehammer than Lee to solve a Herculean problem of a country driven to the brink of collapse by his predecessors, and held to ransom by un-elected Deep State bureaucrats, career politicians from the Democrat and some members in the Republican parties. Lee once remarked "the exuberance of democracy leads to undisciplined and disorderly conditions which are inimical to development". He was referring to Western style democracy, but some would have you believe Lee, who died in 2015 and never met Trump, fittingly described the latter's first presidency. Had Lee been alive today, he would on the contrary have seen the mess in US he predicted for what it is and laud Trump and his huge sledgehammer. The Straits Times articles tell me Singapore policy makers do not think highly of Trump and therefore unable to see the parallel of what Trump is doing to Lee and the SIA pilots.

Sir Gavin Williamson, a Conservative Party Whip in UK, coined the phrase "Guardian-reading, tofu-eating, wokerati" in 2016. He was mocking the Labour Party, the people on the Left who were out-of-touch elites more concerned with ideological purity than real-world issues. It is now a label the conservative Right puts on progressive or Left-leaning individuals. "Guardian" is a Left-leaning UK newspaper, 'tofu" is associated with vegetarianism (referencing activism on environmental issues) and progressive lifestyles, and "wokerati" is a portmandeau of "woke culture" and "literati". Woke culture is societal awareness and activism focused on social justice issues, especially those relating to race, gender and LGBTQ rights. Literati means a well-educated person. "Wokerati" thus is a sarcastic reference to a person entrenched in the woke culture. The Singapore silo of connected power people are certainly "Guardian-reading" and partly "tofu-eating" (the environmentalism part), but thankfully not "wokerati". However, the disdain for Trump reflects a preference for status quo with the likes of Biden or Obama, which translates to an acceptance of wokeratis.

For the past several years, roughly from Obama's rise, there has been a clash of two worlds in how information is pushed to the public. On the one hand is the legacy media, cable news, and social media platforms particularly Twitter before it became X, practically all owned by the Left. They have a progressive Left agenda that intensified into a Trump-hating mouth piece since 16 Jun 2015, when Trump descended the escalator at Trump Tower in New York City to declare his candidacy for the 2016 election. There is nothing wrong with media publishing Left or Right opinions. However, there was an obvious coordinated effort at anti-Trump narratives in timing and messaging, sometimes the use of exact same rhetoric throughout all networks. That crossed the line from journalism to corporate ideological activism.  ST's Wednesday issue carried the story of the opinions of five ex-Treasury secretaries who spoke not of fiscal matters, but the old talking head of democracy under threat. This seems much like the 51 ex-intelligence officials who interfered with the 2020 election by putting out the statement the Hunter Biden's laptop was a Russian hoax, done with malice since they know full-well it was not. Both were similar to the 18 scientists who signed off the report published in Lancet that the Covid-19 virus was zoonotic, the purpose was for Fauci to wave in the Congressional Inquiry to pooh-pooh the lab-engineered theory. And all three were similar to the 2018 Pulitzer Prize awarded to 9 journalists from Washington Post and New York Times, for the false report on the Russia-Trump hoax. We have now learnt that media talking heads did indeed hold regular sessions to coordinate their talking points, that Biden's White House participated and plotted the narratives, that USAID money flowed to these networks to sustain them and suppress conservative narratives. Almost all legacy media have been compromised in this manner, including distinguished names like Bloomberg and Reuters. It is an Information Suppression Complex.

On the other side of the isle, independent journalists have blossomed in the new digital world, publishing online news, podcasts or conducting unfiltered interviews. These independent journalists or talking heads could be Liberal or Conservative leaning. But it is the Right which have basically been driven by necessity to this new digital platforms for their conservative news. USAID, some dark money, Democrat operatives, and leftist pressure groups, all conspired to bring down these conservative platforms by suffocating them of advertising revenues. In the case of Alex Jones' Infowars, regarded as Enemy #1 by the Left, experienced attempted illegal bankruptcy process to physically take over his premises with private armed security guards

It did not take long before majority of the public sees legacy media, under the pretext of controlling misinformation, assumed for themselves the sole arbiter of Truth, and were actually themselves dispensing lies after lies, particularly in relation to Trump, the pandemic and the Russo-Ukraine war. The consequence is several legacy media of the Left are headed for the graveyard as their viewership plummets below the sustainable level.

The question is, how many of Singapore's "Guardian-New York Times-Washington Post-reading" elites who also take in their daily dose of CNN. MSNBC, CBS etc, pops into the sites of independent conservative journalists who are branded conspiracy theorists by the Left? How many pay attention to the likes of Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones (who, like Trump, has been proven right on so many issues and predictions), Glenn Beck, Charlie Kirk, Tom Fritton, Dan Bongino, James O'Keefe, Steve Banon, Bill O'Reily, Dinesh D'Souza, Edward Doud, and many others. In this clash of the two worlds of media, the Right has won. The Overton Window has shifted to the right. The Overton Window takes its name from Joseph Overton, one-time senior VP at Mackinac Center for Public Policy. This refers to "the range of subjects and arguments that are politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time". So whilst the narratives have shifted Right, Singapore Inc, as reflected in Straits Times reporting, are still stuck in the Left's fascist, misogyny, racist, totalitarian, Hitlerism, insurrectionist, convicted felon, populist, destroyer of democracy, etc, narratives of Trump.

Establishment type politicians, that basically means Singapore Inc, do not like disruptors. And Trump is the Mother of all disruptors. Trump must seem to them as Gargantua running through Washingto DC with his sledgehammer, smashing everything in his way. Yet what Trump has done in the past three weeks is exactly what he promised his voters. He is delivering everything he promised. In the home front this is essentially the clearing of the swamp of corruption, waste and spending abuse, abandoning the affirmative action of DEI and restoring meritocracy in hiring, restoring law and order by large scale deportation of illegal immigrants, starting with the criminal elements. Trump's popularity has soared in the past 3 weeks and he has polled 40% of black male support, a level unheard of. Obviously, the majority of Americans approved of what he is doing and Singapore Inc is misreading the situation completely.

Trump's dismissal of Federal public servants and suspension of funding certain agencies with whirlwind speed and on such a scale, has the Left in panic mode. They have no way of responding except to play delaying tactics by going to progressive judges in DC, of which there are many. As I write and before I can publish, America First Legal has uncovered damning evidence that federal Judge Jack McConnell, the Rhode Island judge who halted President Trump’s temporary spending freeze, has been deeply entrenched in a taxpayer-funded NGO called Crossroads Rhode Island — receiving over $128 million in government funding during his tenure. Judge McConnell just wanted the spigot turned on forever and ever. That, and instigating for protests, civil disobedience, violence, civil war, and even calling for assassination of Trump. All these from the very people who called Trump an insurrectionist.

Trump's dismissal of so many Federal employees must seem harsh to bleeding hearts. I want to put it across in a manner that Singapore Inc can understand the perspective, and there is no better way than to remind them of what Lee Kuan Yew said in 1984.

"Everything works, whether it's water, electricity, gas, telephone, telexes, it just has to work. If it doesn't work, I want to know why, and if I am not satisfied, and I often was not, the chief goes, and I have to find another chief. Firing the chief is very simple; getting one who can do the job better, that's difficult.'
Lee Kuan Yew

That was Lee emphasising on the importance of accountability and efficiency in public services. Lee Kuan Yew would have praised Trump for doing the same tough no-nonsense play he himself did, but in a much much larger and complicated theatre of the US, restrained by ridiculously complex legislation and activist leftist judges in the Federal Courts in DC. Unfortunately our current leadership in Singapore does not have the same eyeballs as Lee.

Presidents come and go, all promising to do good on the campaign trail. As Putin once put it, after a newly installed president sits in the Oval Office, he will be visited by some men in black carrying suitcases when he will be told "no Mr President, you can't touch this, you can't touch that". Putin was not referring to an extraterrestrial visitation, but illustrating his own independence compared to US presidents who are beholden and restrained by un-elected career bureaucrats known collectively as the Deep State. On his exit from the White House in 1961, Eisenhower warned Americans of the Industrial Military Complex. Big fortunes are made by those connected in this complex which sets the tone for large scale corruption and influence on American politics in general and foreign policies particularly. We now have Big Pharma Complex and Big Information Suppression Complex. This has been exacerbated by many top level positions in these complexes and the Deep State being heavily populated by liberal-leaning executives. The alignment of leftist ideology of these complexes, the power drive of the Deep State and Democrats, and corporate profit motivation, is the nexus that facilitated the Obama and Biden White House to weaponise various mechanisms of control, whether legislative, enforcement arms or judiciary. It has also given rise to rogue agencies that are aligned to the Left, which find common ground with Democrats for exploitation for financial gains and covert activities that bypass Congressional supervision.

This is the Great Wall of Resistance that Trump faces. Facing resistance, conflicts, negotiating with Democrats in the House is par for the course and is what a democracy should be. Resistance from establishment Republicans is also healthy. It may cause instability within the party, but a party leader must have majority support baring which is a dictatorship. Resistance from bureaucrats is insubordination and that cannot be tolerated. Submission to the courts is the hallmark of a democracy guaranteed with the co-equal and separation of powers of the Judiciary, Legislature and the Executive. All things being equal, with a constitutional judge and non-partisan jury, the system is fair. But Trump faces activist Leftist judges and predominantly partisan leftist jurors in DC. This will be Trump's biggest roadblock that will hamper his work and provide cover for bad employees to destroy evidence of wrong doings while cases wind their way through the Appellate and Supreme Courts. As I write, internet searches in the DC are trending on 'criminal lawyers", "offshore banking" and "Bleachbit" which is an app to clean the computer. DC rats are lawyering up, trying to hide ill-gotten wealth, and scrubbing their devices to destroy evidence.

The leftist media, Democrats, and the public can criticise, lambast, or vilify Trump all they want. This is freedom of expression protected under the Constitution. Peaceful protest rallies are also protected. Of course Trump and the public too can turn the same loudspeaker against the other side. The noises from the Left have been extremely loud in reaction to the 3 weeks of whirlwind Trump brought to the White House. But I wonder if Singapore Inc takes note that the loud noises from the Left are all rhetoric, complaints against the processes, and personal attacks on Elon Musk and Trump. Not a single soul from the Left has addressed the waste, corruption, and financial abuses that Musk's DOGE has uncovered. I wonder if Singapore Inc also takes note that whilst the Left wrongly claimed for years that Trump is guilty of insurrection on 6 Jan 2020, Democrats such as the irascible Maxime Waters, Congress Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, full-fledged communist Jamie Raskin, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and some others, have called for outright violence and even to assassinate Trump.

Law abiding Singapore Inc will of course measure Trump on the constitutionality of his deeds as far as the home front is concerned. The last 3 weeks focus has been on DOGE and Homeland Security. Let's look at some of the issues and marvel at the hypocrisy of the Left.

First off, the claim that Elon Musk is illegitimate and has no authority to poke his nose into other departments or agencies, much less to terminate employees, is pure hyperbole. DOGE or Dept of Government Efficiency, is created by Executive Order to audit government with a view to cut waste, flush out corruption and stop financial abuses. It is a short term agency. DOGE will conclude its work and shut down by 4 Jul 2026. Presidents have the authority to create agencies and delegate certain executive powers to the agency head. These EO agencies are not created by Legislation and therefore do not come under Congressional supervision or overview. Many Democrats like Maxime Waters made a big deal out of this fact. But these hypocrite Democrats made no objection to the agencies created by Biden's EO. namely Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, American Climate Corps, White House Environmental justice Interagency Council, White House Office on Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation and White House Competition Council. There are many agencies created by EO of past presidents, all outside the purview of Congress, e.g. National Security Agency, Council on Environmental Quality, Peace Corps, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

All executive appointees hold office at the pleasure of the President. In many other countries, these appointments are co-terminus with the president, and when even not so, courtesy resignation is the norm to allow the incoming boss the freedom to select his team. Replacing these appointees are standard fare. Each incoming president replaces thousands of appointees. As regards other public employees, the Executive has authority to make changes it deems fit. Provided of course, whatever employment laws, regulations and contractual obligations there are, are observed. Other than on grounds of violation of such obligations, it is absurd that a leftist activist judge can rule Musk and Trump have no right to terminate employees. This is the kind of push-back Trump is facing. Can you imagine Lee Kuan Yew unable to fire a 'chief'?

Every one knows the US government is excessively bloated, is corrupt to the core, has a US$37T national debt, and runaway deficit budget every year. Shrinking government size and cutting down expenditure is nothing new. Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton been there and done that. Clinton reduced the Federal workforce by 380,000! Tell that to the Democrats. The US is now in a debt spiral and it is critically incumbent for Trump to do something to save America and world financial markets from turmoil if the status quo of irresponsible fiscal management is not arrested. Given the extremely divided America and extremely un-cooperative and combative political foe in the Democrats, it needed an extremely strong Republican president to get the unpleasant job done. Trump is exactly the man for the season. The mandate from winning the popular vote and the trifecta has boosted Trump's confidence to use the big sledgehammer and steamroll his agenda. The accommodating and soft backroom wheeling-dealing model of establishment RINOs won't do in the face of fierce Democrats emboldened by 4 years of normalising weaponised judiciary and agencies to serve their progressive liberal ideology. Trump ran on the platform of bringing financial order to the government by common sense approaches or in the words of Cicero, "by reduction of follies.". DOGE is tasked by the Executive to audit the government with a view to cut waste, uncover corrupiton and financial abuse. As Trump puts it, if a president cannot call for an audit, they don't have a country anymore. Musk has said he is confident they are on track to save US$2T in 2025 with the waste they uncovered in 3 weeks.

There are three types of people who do not want the audit. The Guardian-reading, tofu-eating, wokerati, the corrupt who has benefited off the system, and the power-hungry. These folks do not want the taxpayers to know how their monies been spent. Is it a wonder corrupt Democrats are up in arms against the audit. Congresswoman Maxime Waters is angry that Musk is given unfettered access to all data on hundreds of thousands of personnel, and her Freudian slip "we don't know what he has on us." said it all. The fact is Musk and his team are bound to same privacy laws and regulations as all other employees. The hypocrite Democrats aren't interested in employees' privacy. Afterall, they applauded Biden employing 80,000 IRS agents to audit conservative taxpayers, didn't they? They want only to protect their own skin.

Democrats have no substance to complain and so their outbursts are rhetoric and mudslinging. They took juvenile potshots at Musk's youthful team of digital whizkids. It is obvious given the scope, time frame, scale and terms of reference, Musk team isn't going to audit like pedantic Chartered Accountants. I am pretty sure there are no accountants amongst them. It is likely they use big data analytics and AI to scan large data sets for anomalies such as improper payments or contract fraud, and track payment heads. It's not the age that matters. it's their performance. They have uncovered bombshell after bombshell of problematic spending in a matter of days. Hypocrite Democrats complain about Musk's whizkids but paraded a 15 year old Greta Thunberg around for a decade in their tofu-eating rounds. Trump has fired 17 Inspector Generals across various agencies so far. These are basically internal auditors. They have been at work for years and never uncover what Musk's team has flagged in 3 weeks. They have taken the case to court and I think they will win because 30 days notice as required by some legislation was not observed. Easily resolved. Here, take the 30 days pay, just no need to report for work tomorrow.

First order of the day for DOGE is USAID. It tells that Trump's people knows exactly what's going on in the corrupt system. People with good antennae have known for years the foulest stench in the air over the DC swamp is the funk of decades of financial abuse in USAID. This is the agency originally created by Executive Order of John F Kennedy in 1961 as US Peace Corps, tasked with using soft diplomacy through international humanitarian aid to promote US interests. It does not come under Congressional supervision. Over the years it has been captured by the CIA and State Department to use as their piggy bank for covert operations all over the world, often in rogue operations unbeknownst even to the president. In later years, the Obama and Biden regimes weaponised USAID to fund the Left's ideological activism both at home and internationally, often sabotaging foreign conservative governments. In the Information Suppression Complex, Biden weaponised USAID to go after conservative voices, fund leftist media including Reuters and Politico, and leftist NGOs as well as pressure groups. It has even gone so far as to grant one of the richest man in the world, George Soros, hundreds of millions of $ for his Open Foundation. In fact, Sorros and USAID worked often in the same subversive projects both in US and in the world. What DOGE has uncovered is abuse in both scale and numbers, in covert, ideological, and ridiculous projects. For example it funded the work of Victoria Nuland in the Maidan Revolutions in Ukraine, a farming project in Afghanistan which turned out to be a poppy farm, $20m to translate Sesame Street into Arabic for Iraq, transgender operation for some folks somewhere in Guatemala, etc. Billions of dollars have flown over the cuckoo's nest. It will take pages to list what Musk has dug up, and continues to dig up. Just to illustrate how Deep State has controlled the Information Suppression Complex, try using ChatGPT to give you a detailed list of what Musk has outed. It refuses to provide. The Democrats and Deep State are freaking out because Trump has turned off their spigot and transferred USAID over to be supervised by Marco Rubio's State Department. The fury of the Left is understandable.

DOGE will be moving into various agencies in due course. The pattern of fraud and abuse is becoming very clear. Use agencies that do not come under Congressional review, and illegally repurpose appropriated funds approved by Congress. For example FEMA, the agency tasked to handle natural disasters, transferred US$57m to NYC to pay 5-star hotels hosting illegal immigrants. Meanwhile Biden's Secretary Mayorkas declared FEMA does not have enough funds to assist Americans in North Carolina devastated by the recent tornado. Obama and Biden poured US$6.5B federal money into California's high speed rail project. The project started in 2010 and estimated to cost US$33B. It is far from completion and has already overrun cost by almost US$100B! It was supposed to include a connection between Los Angeles and San Francisco. As this part of the project is scuttled, Trump is demanding to claw back US$2.5B. In the last 2 months before Biden's exit, the Left rushed to farm out appropriated but not yet utilised funds for various environmental projects. The purpose for the rush is to prevent Trump laying his hands on them. In 2 months they rushed through contracts for billions of dollars of projects. With the scale of funding, the way projects were funded and the type of projects, it takes only seconds for the businessman in both Musk and Trump to know there is layering and round-tripping. Money goes out and some flows back to fatten some pockets. Ukraine President were given US$170B aid money. He said he received US$70B, the balance US$100B he has no idea. DOGE will soon visit the Pentagon which has failed the last 7 audits. With DOGE's big data analytics and the massive military spending, we can expect to find mind boggling financial shenanigans.

Just to get excited about the kind of Levathian fraud or abuse we are going to hear in the coming days, as we speak, DOGE has just uncovered US$1.9m of funds the HUD, the housing department, "misplaced". It got "lost" in the labyrinth of bureaucratic processes and systems. This reminds me of a story told by one developer long ago. One old money philanthropist (probably Tan Lark Sye) once donated a huge parcel of land in Singapore to the Malaysian Government. Being a donation it was carried in the Malaysian books at nominal 1 Malaysian Ringgit. At such a value, bureaucrats pay scant attention and soon the asset got 'lost'. A couple of decades later, the parcel of land ended up as the Gallop Estate, a private development of bungalow houses, each came with a swimming pool. From the mouth of the Malaysian small time developer, certain parties prospered tremendously. I recall this incident well as I was there throwing brochures for some home furnishing products. 

  

American universities are where bright young minds go to get indoctrinated and often radicalised with Leftist ideologies. Only about 17% of the faculty are conservatives. Of the 83% Liberals, many are progressive ideological activists. I have always said Trump appearing on the scene in 2016 saved America. It forced all the progressives to come out of the woodwork before the country's demographics had shifted majority Liberal. In his second term, Trump knows just who to trust and who to fire in the federal government. But in the long term, Trump has to do something about their universities. The good news is, he intends to. All DEI programmes have been ordered cancelled on pain of loosing public funding if they persist. Trump has plans to shut down the Department of Education and transfer the responsibility back to states. American education has been messed up by the Federal Government. Cost of education per student in America is one of the highest in the world but it has been slipping in world ranking in the past several decades. When the faculty goes berserk championing progressive ideology and DEI instead of meritocracy, block out robust debates of different political persuasions, the outcome is academic standards deteriorate.

In US Federal fiscal management, there are appropriated and non-appropriated funds. Appropriated funds come from taxes and spent under Congressional approval and supervision. Non-appropriated funds and other revenues collected by various agencies set up under some legislation or Executive Order which governs how the money is spent. But these are outside of Congressional review. One such agency with significant non-appropriated funds is the USPS, the postal service. I can barely wait for DOGE to go audit the USPS. It is highly possible this is where Musk will unearth the evidence for the massive fraud in 2020 election. The USPS plays a pivotal role in the transportation of mailed-in ballot papers and have been caught with delivering hundreds of thousands of completed ballots under secretive circumstances across state lines into the swing states in 2020.

The whole idea of the Democrats to flood the country with millions of illegal immigrants is simple. Open the borders, let them in, spread them into red and swing states, and Democrats get enough votes to lock in all future elections. If you think these immigrants just wake up one morning and decided to walk thousands of miles north into the US, you are being naive. There is a huge logistics and organisation behind it. Now who could be behind all these, who could be funding these enterprises, I wonder. Sooner or later, DOGE will find the money trail. It is a huge industry - there are the transporters, the hotels, the catering services, the air tickets, the social services, the half way houses, the caring for unaccompanied children, the employment agencies, etc. All those who have spoken vehemently against the inhuman deportation are hypocrites who are benefiting off the system. The Democrats sit on white horses who talk of the illegal immigrants taking on jobs that Americans do not want are not saying what the party wants is to enslave and exploit the immigrants as loyal voting cheap labour in under-paid jobs. The Church of various denominations, through their NGOs, receive billions providing various services to the illegal immigrants. Pope Francis hypocritically condemns the deportation of the illegal immigrants while banning the same in the Vatican City. The female Bishop Mariann Edgar Buddle from Episcopal Migration Ministries, famously spoke in a recent National Prayer Service, pleaded to Trump who was present. to have mercy on the illegal immigrants. She is a hero if you do a Google search. But internet will not show you her ministry, the EMM. received US$53m funding from government in 2023 alone to resettle 3,600 individuals. 

In summary, Trump is riding a wave of popularity from conservative, independent voters and increasingly even liberals are waking up to realising they are seeing evidence of Democrats weaponising federal funds, using agencies particularly USAID to stash slush funds to suppress conservative voices, promote ideological activism both at home and abroad, interfere with foreign governments' politics, support terrorist elements, spend on illegal foreigners instead of Americans who are suffering financially, and possibly line their own pockets. Trump has thrown the Democrats into total disarray, and entrapping them in a defensive corner, where their only defence are arguments that Musk and Trump's actions of outing fraud, cut waste and efficiencies in government, reduce federal spending, mass deportation of illegal elements, including hardcore criminals, are illegal. This is a suicide position and so they resort to ad hominems, attacking two billionaires Musk and Trump who are undertaking the toughest job in the land with no pay and risking their very lives. The Democrat brand is being destroyed and its going to take them many years to come back from.

About the only domestic policy of Trump that I think is illegal is stopping the birthright of citizenship. America's citizenship of jus soli meaning 'right of soil', is a right to citizenship to anyone born in the US. This is enshrined in the Constitution and Trump has no authority to change it.

"US has now willi-nilly - the image has changed from liberator to great disruptor to a landlord seeking rent. .... who, if anyone, any one country or region or bloc, can step in if US declines to protect the global commons and how effective, and against what resistance.''
Ng Eng Hean, Singapore Defence Minister

In my humble opinion, Singapore is on the wrong side of history on the Russo-Ukraine War, on the pandemic, and now on Trump. All three are related to the globalists and neoliberalists march towards their version of "end of history", which is a borderless one world government, with them in charge of course. (See my blog How Trump Stopped The Global Elites March To The End Of History.)

In the Russo-Ukraine War, Singapore's ill-advised quick sanction on Russia now finds us unwelcome in BRICS and locked out of their economic summits. Of course, the likes of Grace Fu, Josephine Teo and Desmond Lee prefer to hobnop with the rich and famous in WEF Davos summits, and President Tharman wants his relevance on the world stage in Davos too. Singapore's dependence on global trade justifies the alignment of economic interests with the globalists, but not necessarily the ideologies. The rise of Trump signals the demise of the globalists. Trump's nationalist and anti-globalist stand on trade, and his lack of interest in the climate change hysteria, irritates Singapore Inc.Now Singapore has to deal with weakening globalists, a nativist Trump, and an unfriendly BRICS.

Singapore has been the best student in class in the WHO-FDA led world effort in Covid-19 management. I appreciate it is not an easy task to make national decisions in managing a pandemic in an environment of so much unknown and fear mongering. The government was dealing with peoples' lives. But one way or another, some decisions had to be made and I am sure decisions were made with due consultations and the best of judgements. What I am critical of is the government bought into the Western countries' pursuit of information suppression, killing off all alternative opinions or even scientific studies. With Biden's pardon of Fauci, which means admission of guilt on all accusations levied against him, MOF has to address the ramifications of its implications. The  puzzle of why the pardon was back-dated to 2014 leads to reasonable suggestion the whole affair is tied to Obama. That was the year Obama put a moratorium on funding 'gain-of-function' research and Fauci, EchoHealth president Peter Daszak, and the scientist Ralph Baric, then outsourced their research to the Wuhan lab. Since the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, Ecohealth continued to receive USAID funding of US$60m. Now under Trump, RFK Jr as the new Secretary of HHS, and DOGE, the world may have a chance to finally find out the truth. Was the pandemic an engineered greatest humanitarian crime in human history?. 

 
There is no doubt Trump is a disruptor. But change managers know that disruptors are beneficial when the system is inefficient, innovation or new ideas are needed, corruption or dysfunction is present, the public is not being served. These are times when a crisis change is required. Such is the chaos in US which faces the additional problems of financial crisis of a debt spiral with national debt of US$37T and a political opposition willing to go scorched Earth to retain power while the president is trying to save the country. Trump is trying to save America, the Democrats want to make sure that won't happen.

The lengthy discourse above on Trump's first three weeks, there is no doubt he is clearing Cicero's "follies". It is difficult to understand why any American should object to what he is doing. The question for us outsiders is, why should we bother whether the US recovers in strength? What Ng Eng Hean meant was he wants a strong American sheriff for the world. In the Biden years, Russia invaded Ukraine, Hamas attacked Isreal and started the crazy war, fatman of North Korea lauched a few missiles,.China increased military pressure on Taiwan, Iran conducted direct missile attack on Isreal for the first time, Houthis fired missiles into Israel for the first time, Houthis attacked commercial vessels, and Syrian civil war re-erupted. A new sheriff is in town and though it is not all quiet on the Western front, there is a chance for peace and the heat in Gaza has been lowered.

But looks like Ng wants a strong sheriff who is not a disruptor. And he wants a sheriff who is not collecting rent. He is searching for anyone, any country or bloc, who will take over the old 'liberator' US role of a sucker - be the sheriff and pay for everybody's bills at the same time. And finally, Ng talks of his 'global commons', which is the globalists' literati gibberish dish on the 'tofu-eating' table, the climate change, electric vehicles, eat insects, no farting cows, carbon tax, etc thingy called Agenda 2030. Trump sure disappoints in this department.

Before we embrace "Guardian-reading" speakers, we should reflect on this. Every US president that wants to dismantle CIA, the Federal Reserve, or the Military Complex, has met with unfortunate circumstances. Four have been assassinated. Here comes a man who threatens all these three untouchables, survived two assassination attempts on his life, battled all the political hits and persecutorial shits, to take on an unpleasant job with no remuneration, and promise to his people a mission to save his country tottering on the brink of collapse financially, from internal strife of the woke culture, and an invasion of 17 million illegal immigrants. He promised the world peace from strength, not war. In dismantling USAID and calls for peace, and lately, a call for a drastic mutual reduction of defence spending by Russia, China and the US, Trump seems to be the American president to finally abandon the Monroe Doctrine and Brezinski Doctrine. Both doctrines have underlined US neo-conservative geostrategic engagement with the world with American exceptionalism in covert imperialism over certain regions. The man deserves support, not disdain.

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THE PANDEMIC SUPPORT GRAVY TRAIN COMES TO AN END IN SINGAPORE

The government's pandemic financial support packages come to an end this year. Although pandemic-specific packages have ended, the government remains committed to assist citizens through ongoing and new initiatives tailored to current economic conditions. Keep it coming!

Like most citizens I have been a recipient of several of these handouts. Have these been helpful? Many lamented about the inadequacies and likened it to the handing out of chicken wings and taking back a whole chicken when all sorts of rates increased. Well I belong to the miserable percentile that appreciates the financial relief that came my way. Does that translate to votes? Nah. It's a different matter altogether.

You didn't come here to listen to the same rinse and repeat trash. I cover issues from different perspectives, mostly views no one talks about. It's my way of adding value to a narrative.

First off, there are two different types of support schemes - one for the corporates and one for private individuals. For the business part, it has been done pretty much by all countries by way of special funds facilitated by central banks. This is essentially money printing to provide the liquidity. There was no bailout in the case of Singapore. Just cheaper and more accessible short term credits. The government provided some cashouts as relief for personnel costs to encourage employee retention.

I shall restrict my comments to the financial support for citizens. Here, Singapore is unique amongst nations. There was no fiscal spending. No funds came from appropriations out of revenue. The support was fully carved out of unappropriated funds from reserves. To this extent, the huge reserves managed by the sovereign wealth funds GIC and Temasek have been utilised, serving a need it was created for - for use on rainy days. In other words, Singapore was prepared for emergencies such as this.

There are many that say the payout was meagre compared to the vast reserves of the country. That is an argument for another day. I want to discuss the question of why not one lump sum single payment, why spread it over so many years?

Some years back when I was in the Philippines, I came into possession by somewhat unethical means, a nicely binded hard copy of Niccolo Machiavelli's "The Prince". Well, Picasso did say "Good artists copy. Great artists steal." Sully Tarnish puts it more succintly "Books are the only things worth stealing." I didn't exactly steal it, but let's just say I had it in a manner my mother wouldn't have been proud of. The Prince is a political treatise all aspiring politicians should read. I was introduced to a Filipino whose sister was trying for a mayoral race. In light conversation I suggested she should read The Prince. It led to my lending her the book, and alas, Cicero's "Ill-gotten gains will be ill spent" rings true. I never saw the book again.

The Prince suggests benefits should be distributed gradually to maximise their positive impact. This ensures subjects experience the ruler's generosity over a longer time period, thus fostering appreciation and loyalty. Was the pandemic cashout a typical Machiavellian policy?

On the other hand, punitive measures should be given with reduced duration, a quick one shot wham bang. Negative actions consolidated into one single event has high intensity but allows subjects to move past the harm more quickly and allow stability to be restored. Apparently the government did not heed The Prince's suggestion in the case of the GST and Carbon Tax rates.

When a state helicopter-dumps cash into citizens' bank accounts, there is a monetary policy consideration. At the individual level, it may be chicken wings. Consolidated at national level, it is a freaking giant chicken. Such a large sum creates a significant bump up in money supply, further amplified through money creation via the banking system, with various ramifications. Instead of one giant step, it has to be done in several smaller steps to smoothen out the monetary impact.

Textbook explanation is an increase in liquidity or money supply is inflationary. This must have tempered with the calibration of how much cashout to release each round. The government throws cash at us but is mindful not to fuel inflation.

In my opinion, liquidity alone does not cause the CPI (consumer price index) to rise. This has been proven in many countries all over the world in the past two or three decades. The era of low interest rates and central banks' massive buildup of their balance sheet (quantitative easing) where money is printed to buy back government securities, created tremendous liquidity but inflation had been at rather stable levels. Where did all this liquidity go? It went into the capital markets which caused mind boggling asset appreciation across various markets.

Inflation in the consumer market is a demand-supply function more influenced by the propensity to consume. A guy can only eat so much in a day. If he is given more cash he is not going for another meal.

So do we have a high propensity to consume? The financial packages were tailored to assist those in need to cope with the pressures of cost of living expenses. So it follows that the cashout went to majority of folks with a high propensity to consume. This is evidenced by the supermarkets like ShengShiong dishing out 8-month bouses to employees. It is obvious the financial aid package has an inflationary impact and thus the need to spread out the payments.

Unappropriated fundings require some cashflow management. The reserves are locked up in various assets. To monetise the assets requires certain planning and execution timeframe.

Lastly, I would think the "nanny state" mentality played a role in how the cashout is spreaded out and where folks should spend their money. Like a good dad and mom who does not want to give the kids too much pocket money in one go less they have carte blanche and squander on the unnecessary junkets, the government controls the spigot.

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PARSING A TYPICAL STATE MEDIA REPORT

Straits Times 31Oct 2024

This is an old story which someone referred to me recently. I want to put in a few pointers here to show the quality of the state media reporting.

Apart from the main narrative which is basically gossipy to my mind, the report ought to carry some related matters that add to our understanding and knowledge. There were also some name confusion.

First off, there is a distinction between creditors and lenders. All lenders are creditors but not all creditors are lenders. Anyone who is owed money to is a creditor, such as utilities, suppliers, contractors, etc. Lenders advance money to someone, often with a formal lending agreement. Although technically not wrong that ST often refers Tembusu, Qualgro and ACE Spring as creditors, it would be more specific to call them lenders.

Reading along, one needs to back track for the names. Seems there are 3 companies - FTMS Holdings, FTMS, and FTMS Global Academy. So the Academy is the business vehicle, FTMS is the plaintiffs' vehicle that owns the Academy, and FTMS Holdings is the plaintiffs' ultimate holding company. The report confuses which is the borrowing entity. It mentions loans to FTMS but then also mentions $4m loan from Qualgro and $4.5m from Tembusu to FTMS Holdings. Perhaps both have taken on loans, but it's not clear here.

I bet Singaporean readers are piqued by the plaintiffs' claim of conspiracy by lenders and other directors to oust them from the company. These are Cinderella stories to me. What drew my curiosity is firstly, a person-of-interest here, and secondly, is there a violation of the Money Lenders Act.

ST did not provide this backdrop. Qualgro and ACE Spring are capital ventures, Tembusu Growth Fund III is an equity fund managed by Tembusu Partners. The co-chairman of Tembusu Partners is Lim Hwee Wah who owns the company with her husband. Lim Hwee Wah was once a PAP stalward. When I see names like this, my antenna beeps. Not that there is anything wrong with ex-politicians. But surely this is an interesting fact that ST could have mentioned, I think. Won't be surprised to find some Temasek money here. Again not necesarilly means there is something wrong. But it rouses curiosity.
 

The Singapore Money Lenders Act strictly forbids non-bank or financial institutions from lending with interest to others. From the ST report, it suggests the 3 lenders have breached the Money Lenders Act. This is the irresponsibility of state media not to mention or dig into it.

There are exceptions to the rule. Those friendly loans we take from friends is not a problem. Entities which have a vested interest in a borrower can lend the latter to beef up the business.

My simple research shows the 3 lenders had FTMS Global Academy as investee company in their portfolio. Under the circumstances, loans to FTMS Global Academy would not have been in breach of the Money Lenders Act.

The ST report mentions loans to FTMS and FTMS Holdings. Does this constitute a breach of lending law? I'm not quite sure how the court will interpret this. Perhaps the test could be whether the proceeds of loans to the holding company and ultimate holding company of the Academy was used solely in their investee company.

ACE Spring eventually  dropped out of the claims against the plaintiffs and the company was not named a defendant in this case. ST did not explain why.

ST mentioned "March 28, 2017, the lenders transferred all their loan rights to Ace, a company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands." Here's another lack of quality reporting. This is puzzling to the layman. ST does not elaborate. What happened is private equity funds, venture capitalists and hedge fund managers normally gut failed and illiquid assets and transfer them to a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). There are several reasons. It protects their reputation of the companies as non-performing assets impact their ROI and asset values. These failed assets take years to restructure as liquidators try to regain as much value as possible. There are lots of tax issues which are better handled in a SPV. All these should have been mentioned to inform readers.

ST reports the Cinderella  part of the story but missed out on the business perspective that should give readers a better understanding. 

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CULTURE IS UPSTREAM OF POLITICS - DOES OPPOSITION HAVE A STRATEGY TO BATTLE IN THIS TERRAIN?

In his pre-inauguration rally, Trump presented Patriot Awards to several individuals who had been instrumental in moving the conservative base. It's an acknowledgement that Trump did not win all by his lonesome self, nor because of his team. There are many committed and very smart people who worked for years behind keyboards and video cams to bring stories and analyses that mainstream media will not cover. Many of these awardees paid posthumous credit to Andrew Breitbart, a name hardly any local commenter has ever mentioned, somewhat demonstrates the limitations of Singaporeans' worldview.

Breitbart was an American conservative journalist and commentator extraordinaire. He started off as a Liberal. a typical product of US universities captured by ideological progressivism in the last few decades. It was during the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Clance Thomas that Breitbart redpilled to conservatism when he saw through the Liberal lies of Anita Hill's unsubstantiated claims of workplace sexual harassment by Justice Thomas. Ditto for Justice Kavannaugh, ditto for Trump -- the Democrat playbook is predictable, all you do is make a claim. It's you-said-he-said stuff, it can't be proven either way, but the political damage is done. He co-founded Huffington Post (now renamed Huffpost) and was a regular contributor to Drudge Report. Eventually he left Huffpost to start his own Breitbart News Network. Huffpost and Drudge Report are now unashamedly progressive Left.

More than anyone, Brietbart recognised early "how the internet could be used to route arround bottlenecks imposed by official spokesmen and legacy news outlets." and how this could be the platform changing the way people write about politics. Breitbart inspired many on the Right in the online sphere. The Left dismisses them as conspiracy sites and weaponised various agencies to take them down. For example, the Islamic gangs in United Kingdom which gang rapes and grooms young British kids are only now getting publicity because of Elon Musk. This has been going on since the 2000s. If you know about this much earlier you probably heard from Tommy Robinson, who was on a mission to get the government to act since 2011. But you would have been branded a conspiracy theorist. Tommy Robinson is rotting in jail in solitary confinement under a marked up charge of being a terrorist when all he did was to raise awareness of about 180,000 rape victims. Musk said he will fund Robinson's appeal for some of the charges. Because of the publicity triggered by Musk's involvement, the case is now a full-blown scandal of unimaginable covers up by police and politicians pandering to the Muslim votes. Singapore seems to share this dismissal sentiment of anything not from mainstream media which is evident when state media publishes only syndicated news of the Left's narratives.

In Singapore politics, the opposition has had a long uphill struggle imposed by problems of fragmentation, quality, funding, lack of clearly defined ideology, and strategy.

Quality has been an issue for two reasons. One, as long as the PAP is providing the stability and decent quality of life, people are happy to trade off certain levels of personal rights and freedom for security. It has not been easy to attract talent under the realistic circumstances of the past several decades of economic success enjoyed by the country. Two, Singaporeans are generally reluctant to take on the sacrifice and pains of a start-up enterprise when times are good and more particularly, with Barisan Socialis, which was upfront Socialist, now long gone, there is no ideological struggle in Singapore politics. It is more like running a family business. A certain tipping point has to be reached before more committed brave souls would consider stepping forward. The Workers' Party appears to be emerging from mediocrity and moving towards that tipping point. It was no coincidence the PAP acted the way it did when it did, against the party. A blooming flower has to be nipped in the bud.

Except for SDP which has tried to put forward their views on the economic management of the country, I have not seen any parties' proposals in a comprehensive manner, be it economics, foreign affairs, education, defence, etc. Now, I am not debating the merits of SDP's ideas here, just mentioning this is what we need to have. The Workers' Party and the PSP are more level-headed. The others are chasing every mis-step and mistake of the government down rabbit holes. Some are focussed on bridgehead attacks, such as Reform Party's focus on management of reserves.

Lim Tean and Kenneth Jeyeratnam constantly share their opinions. Whilst their views are worth digesting, their ascerbic style of presentation drives away the very people they should be trying to convince. Personally I would like to see both of them in Parliament. The duo would be disruptive in Parliament but I see in their rambuctious style, firebrands and mavericks who will be good watchdogs in exposing gaps in governance. They can be guardians of transparency and integrity compelling the incumbent majority to address inefficiencies or wrongdoing. Much as the PAP hates it, this is in the public's interest.

It's often been said of the futility of opposition given the "lame 64%", a derogatory term for PAP supporters. Never blame the voters. Opposition carries the heavy yoke to convince voters on the other side of the aisle. But do they have the strategies? Sure, 'walk-abouts' and door-to-door outreach programmes, gifts, these are all great. But this is not strategy. These are just tactics.

Andrew Breitbart had a famius quote - "Culture is upstream of politics". What this means is the cultural priorities of a society shape the politics of the country. The politics do not dictate the culture. Was he right?

Breitbart was spot on with Islamist countries, and got it mostly right only with countries having decent democracies. Brilliant as he was, Breitbart certainly could not have explained for communist countries and most definitely not for what happened in the West in the past decade.

In the West, Liberal progressive politics created the culture of pronouns, transgenderism, LGBTQ+++, DEI, critical race theory, climate alarmism, all the shebangs of wokeism. The West turned extreme Left, and just like in the days of Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Castro, politics was upstream of culture. American 'conspiracy theorists' on the Right saw the trend very early and called out the Democrats as Communists in Socialists' clothings, much to the chagrin of majority of the people unable to see this from their Tik Toks. Don't believe Obama et al are communists? Here's an example. The first black president chose of all people to be his Master Spy, John Brennan, who became the fist conmunist Director of CIA. Brennan is a self-proclaimed communist who boasted having voted presidential candidate Gus Hall, leader of the Communist Party of USA. 

"Pick your target, freeze it, personalise it and polarise it"
Saul Alinsky's Rule #13 (Rules for Radicals)

Saul Alinsky was a self-proclaimed Communist who somehow evaded the McCarthyism dragnet in the 1950s. He was Hillary Clinton's mentor in university days. Barrack Obama honed his skills in community organisation from the teachings of Alinsky's institution, the Industrial Areas Foundation. Breitbart was absolutely wrong about the West. Progressive Democrat politics created the cultural schisms that divided Western socieries. What happened in the West was classic Alinsky #13 in action and how effective it has been.

Most thinking people outside of the West can see the craziness and wondered why are they self-destructing? It's Animal Farm playing out in real time. To recreate the world you want, you must first destroy the existing society. I have had a hard time in the past several years trying to convince people the Democrats are George Orwell's pigs.

"A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag."
Alinsky's Rule #7 (Rules for Radicles)

The US was just one Democrat president away from complete disaster. Trump won partly because the Democrats forget Alinsky's Rule #7. Fatigue sets in after some time watching girls get trashed by men in women's sports, seeing men in girls' bathrooms, or tampons in boys' toilets, kids coming home saying mom I'm not a boy but a girl (happened to Elon Musk's son), not securing a job because one is not with the preferred pronouns, etc, etc. DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) is Liberals' hypocrite virtue-signaling that smart people soon see for what it is -- affirmative action. In our part of the world, we understand what affirmative action has done to our Northern neighbour. DEI throws merit under the bus, quality dives and incompetence is normalised. The disastrous mismanagement of the ongoing forest fires in California is the consequence of municipal attention to DEI ideology instead of high levels of public service. All across America we see evidence of corporation and municipal services deteriorating, including the military, as a consequence of elevation of DEI ideology over merit. Just imagine how close Kamala Harris came to be the first DEI president.

Breitbart has it right in the case of decent democracies where the constitution prevails. Culture is upstream of politics. However, whether culture shapes the politics, or politics create the culture for control, the real political battle is not winning arguments about the SimplyGo funble, or the PSP vs PAP volunteers in the voter-outreach altercation, or the Rajahs of Ridout Road, etc. The real battlefield is in the terrain of our local culture.

Taking pot shots at the ruling party over isolated mis-haps and misteps of government is guerilla warfare or pandering to populist appeals. These are useful, but to win, the opposition needs to confront the real battle and must have a strategy for fighting in the terrain of our culture. To do so, it must first understand and identify what are the terrains.

Fighting in the culture terrain is not the same as culture war.

Culture encompasses values, norms, practices and beliefs such as freedom of speech, religion, association, gender roles, etc. A culture war is a challenge in all these components. The culture war in the West is between conservative Judeo-Christian values of the Right centred on family, personal responsibility, accountability, hard work, upholding the Constitution, versus the subjective relativism of the progressive Left of unfertered individualism that manifests in pro-criminal policies, religious persecution, and often surfacing in hedonism and debauchery. Thankfully, Singapore has no such problems. But we should be wary of the creep of progressive Leftism which advocates for systematic changes to achieve social, economic and environmental justice. An illustration is the statement on the LGTB+++ issue by the president of AWARE not too long ago.

The culture terrain is the arena where values, norms, practices and belief systems evolve in today's globalised and digital world. Fighting in the culture terrain means having an appropriate strategy and execution capability to maximise presence and understand trends. This places the opposition in a good position to offer policy propositions that are non-partisan in appeal. What are these terrains?

Digital culture:

These are contents consumed online over platforms like Facebook, Youtube, Tik Tok, X, Rumble, etc and more heavyweights like podcasts and online news platforms. It also involves online interactions and watching social media trends.

In the 2016 Philippines presidential election, Nicanor Gabunada was the social media strategist for Rodigo Duterte's campaign. A former ABS-CBN executive, Nic was instrumental in leveraging social media platforms to bolster Duterte's online presence and engage with voters. Nic's army of influencers turned the incumbent challenger, a brilliant administrator Mar Roxas, into a bumbling mess in the eyes of voters.

In the US, Trump faced a much tougher challenge in the online war as the Left has captured almost all forms of media. Of cable news, only Fox is the single Right wing voice. Even then, its CEO is ultra Left globalist Lachlan Murdock, and RINO ex-speaker Paul Ryan, a rabid Trump hater, is an influential board member. The original owner Rupert Murdock has lost control of editorial direction to his progressive son Lachlan. The son let his team lean right in their reporting and analysis work because it is all about the Benjamins, where they earn big bucks. But he pulls the reign at critical junctures, such as calling the 2020 election early for Joe Biden, and sacking the very popular Tucker Carlson.

Almost all Big Tech such as Google, Meta, Apple, Youtube, etc, are lined up behind Democrats. All fact checking sites are from the Left. The Left is well organised and funded by Soros, Democrats, and sone dark money sources. The Left understands this terrain very well and have insidiously build up mastery and control for the past several decades. Conservatives are new kids on the block and are mostly a disparate group of independents with people like Alex Jones of Info Wars, Breitbart News, The Federalists, The Gateway Pundit, Revolver News, Glenn Beck, Tim Cook, Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA, Joe Rogan, James O'Keefe of OMG Media, Dan Bongino the ex-Secret Service guy, Candice Owen, Wayne Alley Root, and many more. It is worth noting Beck, Rogan and Breitbart started out as Liberals. While the Left platforms have carte blanche, the Right faced political persecution, service denials and advertisement squeeze by big tech. The battle for free speech finally swing in favour after the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk in 2022. But for Musk, democracy would have died in darkness as one side of the political narrative is snubbed out. Trump owes much to a bunch of patriots who worked to bring conservative narratives to the fore.

Singapore opposition faces the great wall of state media. The parties all have Facebook accounts. Kenneth Jeyaratnam of Reform Party has his angry provocative blog, Chee Soon Juan of Democratic Party and Lin Tean  of People's Voice have their occasional videos. Facebook presence alone does not quite cut it because they circulate in echo chambers. As far as I know, only Goh Meng Seng of People's Power Party, has stepped up to have regular late night live stream sessions. Whereas previously Goh had been the bane of jokes by his detractors, in part for his colloquialism and somewhat shallow in content, I see some remarkable improvements in his contents lately that now has some meat. Overall the opposition lacks a proper strategy and technical strategists in this terrain. On independent fighters in this arena, the terrain is barren except for Alex Xu and his Online Citizen website.

Opposition needs two things. One is a strategy and strategists to position themselves and dominate the terrain with their narratives. They need a small army of influencers to amplify their messages. Two is less focus on populist tactics, that is, taking pot shots at mis-steps of governance and blasting in their echo chambers. Remember Alinsky's Rule #7. Their job is to convince fence-sitters and if possible, PAP supporters. This can only be done without the vehemence or show of anger. This is not a political rally where one works to fire up the base. It is a battle for minds, one that can be entertained if approached in a more subtle way. I don't see the opposition having the capability to make inroads into the more educated and upper percentile population with their current approach. This needs a more visionary and philisophical level of discourse which unfortunately is absent. For example, there are the usual noises that accompany each electricity price increase. But I have never seen anyone attenpting a big picture scenario explanation on the systemic grip of the forever price increases. The closest I think is Jamus Lim of Workers Party whose take on issues has been unbiased. He can do better if he marries his professorial lecture style with a bit more oratorical delivery.

Entertainment culture:

This is a big deal in America where Liberals dominate. Hollywood is unabashedly Democrat. I think lifestyle has a lot to do with tbis. Art pushes the envelope. Liberalism skews towards the abandonment to explore the limits. Conservative values hold one back. The music industry is no less different. Comedians are commentators of current affairs and have always been non-partisan, pulling pranks and jokes at the expense of politicians of all shapes and sizes on any topics. In the Biden era, only Ricky Gervais can get away with what he did at the Golden Globe awards ceremony when he told fellow Liberals to just come up stage, receive award, thank mom and dad, and fxxx off, don't give any political speeches. Any other comedian saying something like that would have been skewered in that cauldron of Liberals. But of course comedians can be Liberal heroes when it comes to Trump-bashing. Did you see Kathy Griffin holding a bloodied head of Trump?   Entertainment culture is totally pro-actively avid Trump-haters and it is a terrain conservatives have lost for decades.Entertainers have big megahorns and deep pockets as Democrat donors and totally dominate the politics. Only a handful of gutsy voices committed to faith can be seen in support of Trump. This includes Jon Voight, James Wood, Dean Cain, Vin Diesel, Mel Gibson, Kevin Sorbo, Scott Biao. etc. 

In the end, despite their dominance, Hollywood endorsements of Kamala Harris did not matter. Perhaps Alinsky's Rule #7 had a lot to do with it.

In Singapore there is hardly any significant nativist entertainment industry here that matters. The channel 8 TV stars are an artificially contrived lot of no importance in the context discussed here. What is important is for Singapore to recognise we are importing and consuming so much Western, predominantly American, culture. Most of us can appreciate but not necessarily agree the lifestyles of the artistes. We can like the music, but not the drugs of the bands. We can like Robert de Nero's masterly performance in 'Taxi Driver" but not his senseless, imbecilic, profanities against Trump. Unfortunately there are always the Amos Yee's amongst us that are vulnerable to these subtle cultural suggestions.

Whilst we are small time content creators, we are huge consumers of the massive imported culture. To that extent, opposition must have a strategy to immerse itself in the arena. Do you have any connection with the hundreds of thousands of Taylor Swift fans in Singapore? I can offer a sure win simple idea for Workers Party. Host a community talent time series. Live stream it. You get an inmense audience. Other details, get your consultants.

Sub-cultures:

These are smaller groups with distinct practices and beliefs. Examples are online gamers, niche hobbyists, tatoo afficianos, health enthusiasts, night clubbers, football fans, fight club alphas, investors, crypto traders, etc. I am wondering how much Kelce Travis and Taylor Swift got paid by the Left for monetising their love story in the football public stadiums. Did you notice the amount  of support Trump receives whenever he watches an MMC fight? The Workers Party has Kim Song but does not know how to utilise the resource. Kim Song is just an example. I am sure that are more names out there. A presence in all these sub-cultures pays dividends.

Traditional and heritage practices:

These are customs, practices and traditions passed down through generation. This is a terrain the ruling party doninates through various agencies like People's Association, the schools, grass root organisations, religious bodies, and their members sitting in various advisory boards. Opposition has and must continue to build their presence even though it is restricted to the various festive dates.

Global influences:

The government grants about 2,000 new citizens monthly. We have a huge foreign born citizenry in our midst. These have entirely different cultural backgrounds. Does the opposition have any presence amongst them?

Opposition must seek to dominate these culture terrains and it is not just for name recognition and familiarity, but to understand the cyltural  trends, the aspirations. the difficulties, all of which eventually impact policies. Be in a position to sell policy suggestions that matter to the particular culture terrain. This way opposition is not promoting populist narratives to their echo chamber, but propositioning to a particular segment of the population. Although the base is important, opposition must try to reach out to all Singaporeans which is best done in the culture terrains. In this battlefield, it is not about high HDB prices, inflation, MRT train breakdowns, etc. It is about the cultural values of the terrain.

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