Given the fact that my main source of income comes from
being a business development manager for a liquidations firm, that hopes to get
work from the legal fraternity, this posting is probably an act of commercial
suicide.
However, the point that needs to be made is an important one
and it needs to be made regardless of my narrow commercial interest – the point
being the fact that Singapore appears to be run by a group of highly
intelligent a**holes who seem to be very good at what they do but not much else.
Its quite clear that the term “elite” has been misused in Singapore.
It’s this simple, if you want to be respected for being
better than other people, you really need to be better than others. It’s easier
said than done because it involves constant work. I think of the elite of the
British Army, the Special Air Services (SAS), which works on the principle that
they are never fully trained soldiers because they are constantly updating and
upgrading themselves to stay ahead of the pack.
One cannot simply be “elite” by calling yourself that and
then behaving in a way that is at best on par with the rest of us and worst
……well let’s not go into that.
In all fairness to the system, there’s little to disagree
with. We claim to be a meritocracy and success comes from ability rather than
birthright, race or religion. You can’t argue against that. We have a
“scholarship” system which nurtures bright young things for leadership roles in
government and in the private sector. Again, as my European and American friends
and family remind me, this is a good thing. You want the place to be run by
people with brains.
However, while there’s much to admire in the idea behind the
system, the practice has been rather different. Instead of getting new recruits
into the elite to challenge themselves, our system protects them. Ministry of
Education scholars for example don’t go to schools filled with problem kids.
They go to the schools where the kids are so bright, they’ll succeed whatever you
do and the parents will ensure that the kid will never have a “lazy” moment. On
more worrying concept, we promote our military scholars rapidly and ensure that
they are kept as far away from anything resembling a war zone. We had two
military men who gained international acclaim for being decent commanders –
namely Major-General Tan Huck Gim, who was sent command a UN mission in Timor
Leste and Rear Admiral Bernard Miranda who was sent to command anti-piracy
forces in the Gulf of Aden. For proving they could to the job, the military
promptly demoted them and sent them out to retire so that they would not come
close to competing with military men who earned their battle spurs in the
airconditioned office.
There is an obsession with the “elite” sharing their brains.
Our generals who earned their battle spurs playing computer games against an
enemy that will never actually shoot at them are then sent out to cut their
entrepreneurial teeth in monopoly businesses designed so that a monkey could
print money. The track record has been rather lacking. The big success stories
being Desmond Kwek, former Chief of Defense Force and CEO of SMRT who became a
hero to the shareholders by selling the company to the shareholders and then
there’s General Ng Yat Chung who had to sell a loss making company to someone
else to make it profitable and then had to hive off a monopoly media business
to non-profit that will be funded by the government.
Apparently, that’s called sharing talent between the public
and private sectors and that is somehow beneficial to us as stakeholders in
society.
Despite the evidence to the contrary, we are constantly
reminded that we need the “elite” to give us the “good” life that we are used
to. One of the most amusing ways in which is this is done was though an
“international” survey which showed that Singapore topped the list for the
“value-add” that the elites provided. The story can be found at:
Now, most of the public ire has been on former civil
servants who have been sent to run private sector companies. However, if we
look closely, the record of the “elite” who have been in the private sector all
their working lives, isn’t much better either.
This was exposed by the collapse of Envy Global Trading, a
firm which managed to get members of our elite, specifically from the legal and
investment communities to pump money into a firm that was not regulated by
regulator to perform nickel trades that never took place. The story can be
found at:
While “cheating” is rightfully illegal and morally wrong,
this incident has exposed our elite as being rather drab.
Let’s start with the scam. Like it or not, scams require
work. One of the most incredible scams that I know of comes from India. The
perpetrator spent years building up a reputation as a creditworthy customer
before pulling the plug on the banks. The family ensured that documentation was
in place and despite the best efforts of the Indian government to get them
extradited from places like Singapore, the UK and UAE, they’ve failed
miserably. Much to the frustration of the CBI in India, they’ve not been able
to get a “red” notice from Interpol.
Scams like this take planning and patience. The smart ones
lay low and don’t get involved in anything flashy. The perpetrators are aware
that the authorities will be all over them and so they keep their noses clean.
It’s a case of everyone knows but can’t prove it.
If you read the report, it is quite clear that Mr. Ng, who
pulled off the scam did it in the most obvious way. He showed people he looked
the part of a high roller and offered them wonderful sounding returns. It seems
that the greatest claim to Mr. Ng’s brilliance at making money was the ability
to afford a very lavish life, including the only Pagani Huayra hypercr in
Singapore. More on Mr. Ng’s lifestyle can be found at:
Now, if Mr. Ng’s victims were uneducated and fell for his
scam, it would be perfectly understandable. If his victims were educated but
didn’t have access to certain things, one might also be able to sympathise, especially
if he or she recognised their role in getting scammed.
However, this was clearly not the case. A good portion of
his victims are the type of people who have an abundance of experience in
investments and have the ability to find out anything with a single phone call.
Take the example of Dr. Finian Tan, Chairman, Founder and Chairman
of Vickers Ventures Partners, a firm that specializes in – making investments. As
can be seen from Dr. Tan’s profile below, this is a firm that has been around
for nearly 20-years. This isn’t a fly by night operation or a one-hit wonder
firm. There is a record of consistent performance, which would imply that Dr.
Tan has enough resources to know what he’s doing.
However, Dr. Tan was taken in by Mr. Ng, which, given the
most basic fact about the way in which Mr. Ng presented himself to investors,
lead us to question Dr. Tan’s competence. Despite Dr. Tan’s celebrity like
status, the question that many of his investors may well be asking is – would you
trust your money to Dr. Tan and if he’s fallen for one shady deal, has he
fallen for others? Let’s remember, Dr Tan is not your average Joe trying to
invest based on tips found in cyberspace. He’s officially one of Singapore’s leading
voices on investment with the resources to ensure he makes the best possible
decisions. This isn’t a case of bad luck and the market going against him. This
is falling for something based on very little solid evidence.
https://sg.linkedin.com/in/dr-finian-tan-58188888
Would you trust him with your money if he can fall for an
obvious scam?
To be fair to Dr. Tan, there is a case of choice. You can choose
whether to invest with Dr. Tan. The most worrying is the case of Ms. Pek Siok Lan,
General Counsel to Temasek Holdings, a company which has a role in investing
public money (money you the tax payer/ CPF contributor have paid).
If you look at Ms. Pek’s profile on the Temasek Holdings, you’ll
notice that she’s quite attractive. However, that shouldn’t be the main
criteria for the job that she holds. Prior to joining Temasek, Ms. Pek was an
in-house lawyer at ST Telemedia, a government linked company with responsibility
for legal, regulatory and corporate secretarial affairs. One of the criteria for doing any form of regulatory
and corporate secretarial affairs is “KYC” or “Know Your Customer.”
You would imagine that someone with Ms. Pek’s experience in
doing due diligence for a big firm, would have done something when it came to
her money. In her position at Temasek, she’s got the ability to pick up the
phone to get information at the highest of levels.
Given the role that Temasek plays in safeguarding public
money, one has to start asking questions about Ms. Pek. If she can approach using
her personal money with a lack of due consideration, who Is to say that she’s
approached conducting due diligence with public funds in a similar manner.
https://www.temasek.com.sg/en/who-we-are/our-leadership#management-pek-siok-lan
Investing Public Funds Requires Due Diligence – a Pretty
Face will not suffice.
Our legal system relies on people like lawyers fighting for
laws and doing what’s right. One of the most prominent legal families that makes
headlines is the Thio family, which has produced a number of “brilliant”
lawyers. Whilst I am openly opposed to their stance on revoking Section 377A
(the section that criminalises consensual anal sex between men), I do admit
that the Thio family have contributed to the legal fraternity.
However, one member’s investment does raise a question of
whether the Thio’s have been book smart rather than actually smart. We have Mr.
Thio Shen Yi, managing partner of TSMP Law, Senior Counsel, immediate past
president of the law society and Master Bencher of the Middle Temple, an
honorary elected position which has been conferred on only six members from
Singapore in over seven hundred years of history.
Mr. Thio is without doubt a very clever lawyer. He may
probably be one of the best in Singapore. You would expect someone like Mr. Thio
to be able to smell a rat. Yet, despite this, Mr. Thio still found a reason to
invest with Mr. Ng, despite the obvious give away.
https://www.tsmplaw.com/lawyer/thio-shen-yi-sc/
A close relationship with the All Mighty Does Not
Constitute Due Diligence.
These are just three of the more prominent names that have
been conned by Mr. Ng and one is already obliged to question the basics. Why
should we trust Dr. Tan or Ms. Pek to look after our money? Why should we trust
Mr. Thio to check on who he represents?
Mr. Ng is a crook and should be punished. However, like
former US President Donald Trump, he’s proven to be like chemotherapy. He’s
done us a favour by exposing exactly how elite the elite is. It is clear that
the class that describes itself as elite needs to be challenged more aggressively
so that it can justify its status as elite.
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