'Do the right thing'... but beware divide and conquer tactics...

After weeks of dragging their feet, MAS has decided to act, but......

Oct 18, 2008
Do the right thing
MAS says priority will be given to lowly-educated retirees who lost money in its probe into mis-selling.

By Ignatius Low & Francis Chan

LOWLY-EDUCATED retiree investors who put their savings in structured products linked to the collapsed Lehman Brothers have been singled out by the Government for special attention.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) wants banks and financial institutions to give this group top priority when investigating complaints of mis-selling.

Instead of giving retirees priority, why not equally to all? Is it because retirees are mostly older and may not live as long as "non-retiree" investors? All investors should be accorded the same treatment. No one group should be accorded preferential treatment. The collective action by the victims forced MAS to act. By giving some priority over others, is someone hoping to split the group and then deal with them one by one? Hmmm........


Second incident, somewhat alike, the ongoing foreign worker dormitory at Serangoon Garden.

Serangoon Garden residents who don't want to 'guai guai' go along with gahment's decision to build a dormitory there have been making a lot of noise. So far Sporeans I have spoken to support the actions of these residents. Becos they too dislike the idea of having a worker dormitory so close to their homes and community. And crucially the unchecked import of such workers to alarming numbers in recent years.

But going by reports, articles and letters to the 148th, it seems like some Sporeans are very critical of Serangoon Garden residents and their actions. Words ranging from snobbish, xenophobic, racist, elitish etc were used to label the 'enemy'. Totally irrational and seems like a smear campaign to tarnish the 'enemy'.

To me it is very clear the 148th and their editors blindly support all gahment decisions or policies, and will chut all necessary patterns to wage a media war on whoever they perceive as 'enemy'. In such a war, anyone who is not pro-Gahment is the enemy, even if supporting the Gahment means being anti-Spore and anti-Sporeans!