Collin Ng's Blog

This article by Blomberg appears in Straits Times on 27 Jan 2012. Blomberg Editorial Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong isn't often taken publicly to task. But when you make $3.1 million a year to run a country, people tend to expect results. When they don't get them, the aggrieved masses turn to that lowest-of-common-denominator gripes: Hey, how much are we paying this guy? Lots compared with, say, Mr Barack Obama, who as US president gets US$400,000 (S$500,000) a year. Mr Lee's compensation will fall 36 per cent, and that of Singapore's president will drop 51 per cent to $1.54 million. The cuts were based on the recommendations of an advisory committee formed three weeks after last May's election, when opposition party candidates made hay with the pay issue - and the ruling People's Action Party won with the narrowest margin since independence in 1965. Such still-fat pay cheques may give pause. Yet let's applaud Singapore for what it...

Personal note: It seems that the poorer nations are required to help to bail out the richer and bigger nations than the other way around. The recent financial crisis started in the West and now, accusing fingers are pointed to the East for their own doing (the West), sigh. What logic is that? Read on... Quote By Andrew Torchia Reuters Mon, Jan 23 2012 RIYADH (Reuters) – Big emerging economies such as China, India and Saudi Arabia will not aid the West in its financial crisis unless they are given more influence in running the global economy, a senior figure from Saudi Arabia’s ruling establishment said on Monday. “The financial crisis and great recession were born in the West, developed in the West yet hit hard throughout the world,” former Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal said in a speech to a business conference in Riyadh. He said this showed the need to give emerging economies more representation and more authority in global bodies such as the Group of 20 nati...

It was to be our usual Tuesday ride on 17 Jan followed by an early lo-hei dinner for 8 die-hard GP Riders cyclists, namely Tomas, Peter, Arthur, Steve, Ernest, Leow, Donald and me. At about 7 pm, we rolled off from Aranda Club to the coastal road enroute Changi Village. Depending on our fitness and form, we do either 2 or 3 laps around the coastal road. The crème-de-la-crème of the group, Tomas, Arthur and Donald managed 2 and a half laps in pulsating pace while the rest including me completed in 2 laps at leisure pace. Call it, Enter The Dragon or perhaps a tad early now…Bunny still calls the shot with some days left but this lo-hei dinner which was initiated by our captain, Tomas was nothing but everything we were looking forward to after our gruelling ride. Still smelling sweat, we immediately settled down at Airfield Restaurant in Changi Village. In between order, I even made the waitress to guarantee we will ‘huat’ (发) after taking their yu sheng and that we will only pa...

Michael Aris, Aung San Suu Kyi and their first son Alexander, in 1973 Photo: ARIS FAMILY COLLECTION/GETTY IMAGES Personal Note: In Singapore, some of our politicians like to play to rhetoric tone, of willingness to sacrifice one's big salary to work for the people and much to my disgust, the minister's pay still remains a big debating subject, despite much efforts taken by the ruling party to meet varied expectations of the masses. This noble lady, Aung San Suu Kyi whose sacrifices for her own country, Burma easily put our very own politicians to shame. Salary was never the topic, choosing between country and family was...and she chose the former. I am proud to post her touching story by Rebecca Frayn, a writer and film-maker, 'The Lady’ which debuts on December 3, 2011. Quote Aung San Suu Kyi, whose story is told in a new film, went from devoted Oxford housewife to champion of Burmese democracy - but not without great personal sacrifice. When I began to research a scre...

Is our own government a responsible one? If we spend the way our neighbour is spending with borrowed money, we should be raising red flag too. Are we not? If we are not like our neighbour, why are we still complaining, anything from A to Z? Remember, we don't have oil and gas that shoot out from the ground. Quote By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal The Malaysian Insider Jan 11, 2012 KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 11 — Massive borrowing and irresponsible spending by the Barisan Nasional (BN) government will result in Malaysia becoming a fully indebted nation before the end of the decade, Lim Guan Eng said today. The Penang chief minister said that Putrajaya’s debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) ratio has increased yearly from 53.1 per cent in 2010 to 53.8 per cent last year and is expected to hit 54.8 per cent this year. “This is extremely dangerous, and even more disastrous when coupled with statistics from Bank Negara’s Annual Report 2010, which revealed that Malaysia’s household debt at the e...

This article is taken from a source. Quote By E.J. Dionne, Jr. Four years ago this week, a young and inspirational senator who promised to turn history’s page swept the Iowa caucuses and began his irresistible rise to the White House. Barack Obama was unlike any candidate the country had seen before. More than a mere politician, he became a cultural icon, “the biggest celebrity in the world,” as a John McCain ad accurately if mischievously described him. He was the object of near adoration among the young, launching what often felt like a religious revival. Artists poured out musical compositions devoted to his victory in a rich variety of forms, from reggae and hip-hop to the Celtic folk song. (My personal favorite: “There’s no one as Irish as Barack O’Bama.”) Electoral contests rarely hold out the possibility of making all things new, but Obama’s supporters in large numbers fervently believed that 2008 was exactly such a campaign. As the attention of the politically minded has focus...