From Straits Times, S’pore:

“Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong addressed 500 leaders from Hong Kong’s government, business, academic and media sectors at the Asia Society Hong Kong Centre’s annual dinner. He described four broad attributes of successful political systems.

First, accountability and transparency were needed for long-term stability. Governments must govern with the consent of the governed, he said.

Second, governments must formulate policies for the long-term public good, even if these are unpopular in the short-term.

Third, there must be equal opportunities for citizens to compete and succeed. Only then can leaders enjoy wide support and ensure sustained growth.

Fourth is a culture of identifying and grooming talent for public service, to attract the best brains to join and work in the government.

Transparency ? Phtui !

Now I also don’t trust that nice old man, Pak Lah. He has abused the RAKYAT’s trust time and again.

To redeeem the trust, Pak Lah must call for a anap GE rightaway.

i recently came across a matter that is related to our EPF withdrawal.

The matter is regarding the A/C II where EPF allows us to withdraw to pay for balance of our housing loans.

With a simple S & P we are able to apply for it. Let say that we have 100K in A/C II, they will then immediately deduct the amount and pay to your mortgage loan.

But not many would take notice until too late, the total amount is not immediately transfered into the mortgage loan, but will be paid in an installment method just like what you’ve been repaying your loan eg. 50 months or so.

This is not fair to us as we are able to negotiate with the martgage loan concern for a better rate and save more on our interest.

The other bothering matter would be that amount is transferred to another undisclosed company to manage the monthly installments.

This company is it another link to the Valuecap??

Well this clearly shows the mismanagement of our EPF funds and another form of daylight robbery on our hard earned money.

I hope there would be an investigation into this matter as to ensure that the rakyats’ money would be accountable.

Thanks
Edmund

The RM300b sitting in epf is definitely and irresistably attractive to those who are greedy and also those who are desperate.

By the way what is valuecap? Heard of it but no clue as to what it actually does. Perhaps the umno government has been too transparent with this one. Cos I kant see it.

Khazanah, KWAP and PNB invested RM5 bil into the startup Valuecap in 2003. The trio also loaned RM5.1 bil (rumour indicates this too originates from EPF, in turn loan to the trio) to Valuecap, which will be due Febraury next year. That made up RM10 bil to enable Valuecap to gamble in the local stock market since 2003. That also makes the trio the shareholders and bondholders.

To snowball an investment from the equity market effectively, two factors are essential – large capital and long-term duration, coupled with the right strategies consistently as follows:

1. “buy low and sell high” at the right times to cash in and maximise capital gain.
2. “hold” blue chips that yields high dividend

One would think this is a killer strategy but I assure you there is no sure-win formula in the stock market gamble due to financial climate changes and risks, or else every player would be winner and there is no loser.

There is only one Warren Buffet, one Jim Rogers or one George Soros in this world. They are what they are, got rich being a fundamentalist or speculator. Don’t forget for a fund management company like Valuecap where it does not have any products or services to offer, there is substantial operating costs:

1. high fees paid to the professional fund managers
2. high interest in servicing the loan

Thus it is logical for you to become a skeptic when someone guarantees you an investment will reap large profit and return in the long run. In the long run, we are all dead. There is no free lunch in this world.

It seems Valuecap is unable to unwind its portfoloio of stocks to pay back the loan this coming Feb due to the bearish market, forcing it to refinance and extend the loan period for another 3 years.

To counter the declining trend of the market, one possible strategy is to borrow more money to buy more blue chips at times, praying that the market will bottom out and enjoy the rise of stock price later. This too can be risky and drain the cash hard, if the market slips further. It will be a disaster if the bet is way off.

There is always loophole and tendency for the government to mishandle public fund. In Argentina where the government has recently nationalise the private pension funds on the ground to protect the fund from further losses incurred in equity market following the global financial turmoil, there are critics that fear the government will “borrow” the fund money to pay off foreign due debts or the government risks defaulting the debts.

After all in our case, RM5 bil is just a small amount of the total amount exceeding RM330 bil in the EPF fund. Nonetheless, it is disturbing to find government to potentially repeat the act to channel money from retirement fund into its own purpose. Having said this, the question remains: Why should EPF loan RM5 bil to someone, without benefitting the members directly?

I am pretty sure when reaching my retirement age, I would still be able to withdraw all my money from the EPF pool, to enjoy my retirement life. For your children who are born today, I am not too sure if they can get all their money when this next generation retires.

If they don’t due to insufficient money in the fund, they may have to ask this question in front of the grave of Nor Mohd Yakcop who had guaranteed the sustainability of the retirement fund today.

It is a clear case of plundering of taxpayers money.