While Halimah Yacob may have won a S$1.54 million-a-year lottery for the next 6 years, the real winner is Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. The dictator now has unrestrained free access to the country’s national reserves, which no one except himself knows how much the actual amount is. Losing tens of billions in the country’s kitty is no longer a problem, for at least the next 6 years.
Lee Hsien Loong sits as the Chairman of Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund (SWF) company GIC, while his wife, Ho Ching, sits as the CEO of the other SWF company Temasek Holdings. With his control, the dictator decides where in the world to invest/gamble with the people’s money. Along with the national reserves, the lucrative CPF retirement fund estimated at S$200 billion (again nobody knows how much is the total CPF funds except Lee Hsien Loong himself) are free gambling chips now free to Lee Hsien Loong’s taking.
Lee Hsien Loong lost S$9.78 billion CPF money in GIC after bailing out UBS in 2007
Temasek Holdings: We lost S$24 billion in a year
GIC post record losses, at least S$43 billion losses in FY2016/2017
The dictator Prime Minister also has a hand in the Monetary Authority of Singapore (under the Prime Minister’s Office) and the Ministry of Finance, which decides how much interest rate the SWF companies need to fulfil. The evidence of corruption is on the wall, with CPF interest rates depressed at 2.5% since Lee Hsien Loong took premiership in 2004. At 2.5% a year, Singapore’s CPF retirement system pays the lowest interest rate when compared to all retirement system in the world. GIC and Temasek Holdings are borrowing cheap funds and enjoying two options: 1) to gain huge returns and keep the profits to themselves, or 2) make riskier investments due to the lack of pressure to perform.
Halimah Yacob is the final jig in Lee Hsien Loong’s corruption plan. His father created the Presidency, hoping the people get to elect a President to stop a dictatorship government. Lee Hsien Loong put the Election Department under his Prime Minister’s Office and disqualified the opponent contestants, giving Halimah Yacob a walkover win. Voila.
Many would naturally question why such high level corruption is allowed to take place in first world Singapore, the answer was revealed yesterday at the Nomination Centre, with machine gun-armed policemen ready to make arrest, or if necessary, shoot any unruly disgruntled Singaporean. The dictatorship has a “pliant judiciary”, according to Harvard professor-to-be Li Sheng Wu, the self-exiled nephew of the dictator Prime Minister, and a buffet of anti-criticism laws from Internal Security Act to harassment and defamation provisions. Oppression is what keeps Singaporeans obedient, with many resorting to using fake profiles on Facebook fearing arrests from the Singapore Police.
CPF withdrawal limits have doubled from S$80,000 in 2004 (the magical year where Lee Hsien Loong took premiership) to S$166,000 today in 2017. CPF withdrawal age is now extended to 65 from 55, with plans to extend to 67 and 71 in coming years. Water price increased 30%, electrical tariffs jumped 9.2%, sugar tax is coming and a compulsory cashless transaction payment is also in the making. Where are these increased revenue going to? Only the dictator has the answer.