Thursday, September 03, 2009

Petition to Prime Minister - Reply by MAS

The Petition, signed by 777 people was sent to the Prime Minister on 26 August. The Prime Minister's office forwarded it to the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Here is the reply (31 August 2009) from Andrew Khoo, Director, Capital Markets of MAS.

The reply is disappointing, as expected. I have asked Andrew Khoo for a meeting for me and a few representatives of the signatories to meet with him. I have also asked the Prime Minister's Office for a similar meeting. I have not received a reply from both parties.

Tan Kin Lian

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Andrew Khoo replied rubbish that was expected
I think his reply contradicts the release by MAS.
he is trying retract.

Anonymous said...

What the investors can do now are to explain and get the understanding and support from the general public. Government will dot dare to ignore our petitions if the pulic opinions are with the investors.

Anonymous said...

( I am not an investor )

But I am sadden at the very "cold" nature of our "premier" institution.

In my heart, if there is half a reasonable opposition in my ward at next election, I will strongly consider putting in a protest vote.
(Previoulsy, my standards were higher, I had wanted a more than reasonable opposition before I vote for the opposition)

Anonymous said...

Do you seriously believe that they will schedule a meeting with you?

Tan Kin Lian said...

Reply to 5:40 PM
There is no need to reply to your question. It does not matter what I think. It only matters what the Prime Minister and MAS do, or do not do.

Anonymous said...

Now every body understand how bold our MAS in defending the interest of the FIs under the instruction of our top learders.They openly said the HK accross the board method is not acceptable. You think HK people are all stupid and we are smarter? The whole world thinks otherwise.
MAS said FIs are not using legalistic approach. I wonder what approach they are using? MAS is blind or twists the fact that FIs are forcing investors to take action becuse investors have no alterlative. How dirty was these tactics adopted by MAS.
Do you think you will have a fair hearing in FiDREC? Every FI can send 2 legally trained officers as defenders, and the RM, who mis-sell and mis-rpresent the products to us, will stand as witness. You are alone to fight against them.
Do you find the arrangement by FiDREC is rediculous?
The fight is over. The winner--FIs. Score--100 to 0.

Anonymous said...

Within my family we have 5 eligible voters within the same GRC. Ten years ago, we all voted for the PAP. Last election, 3 voted for PAP and two for opposition. Next election, all 5 will vote for opposition provided the opposition is credible. Otherwise, 5 will be spoilt votes.

What changes our mind? It is not the minibond issue but the many policies that disadvantage the Singaporeans, the relentless drive for economic growth and cost increases, floodgate for FT, no real distinction in benefits between citizen with PR and FT that drive us to change our support.

Anonymous said...

Don't hope for the general public to support your petitions. Most people live a comfortable & cosy lives. They have good jobs, food, wealth, holidays, big cars, houses, etc. Do you think they want to get involve in this petition unless they also got burnt badly. S'poreans are kiasi & kaisu so don't expect them to support you, the only way is to go for class action suit. Most people will still vote for garmen because they are afraid of change to their lives.

Anonymous said...

Let me use Nanjing Massacre as an analogy.

"We understand your anxiety. It was a painful experience. Well, it was caused by 2nd world war!. We responded promptly by asking the families of the dead to see the Jap soldiers who slaughtered. Follow the 3-step approach: talk to Jap soldier, talk to Jap soldier club, sue the Jap soldier but at your own costs.

Well the dead is from a range of strata of society who died eye opened. Case-by-case approach is better. the Jap soldier generally are not legalistic when defending them as murderer.

We investigated and found military police is everywhere. Also, the Jap soldier agreed not to kill or kill nicely next time.

The fact that you loved ones died did not mean the Jap soldier is liable. While not all agreed with the case-by-case approach. We have decided not to go to The Hague, the international court.

Anonymous said...

Can somebody post ANDREW KHOO's photo. Also, is ANDREW KHOO is his name in his NRIC. You know, when we write to the forum, we reveal our true identity. I hope ANDREW KHOO is his name as appear in NRIC.

Anonymous said...

From the way this government is reacting (playing "Tai Ji") and unwilling to take responsiblity (even we are paying millions for these "servants"), I think they know well they are slowly killing or ending themselves as they will not only lost 777 more votes but multiply of 777 votes as their families suffered as well....May not surprising they will quickly hv another round of pay increase in coming year before "ending their careers" in the general election..

Anonymous said...

No government would dare to ignore the investors’ complaints if the public opinions are with the investors.
But the situation here is that the vast majority Singaporeans (including many minibond investors) do not have a clear understanding on the real issues of the minibond saga. And worse, many of them even thought that it is just another bad investment.
The 777 investors should organize themselves and think of ways of getting more and more Singaporeans aware of all the real facts about this saga.

Anonymous said...

The term "Investors" may be misleading.
Many of the buyers of the Minibomb structured products were not aware that they were "investing". They thought they were buying bonds or placing FDs.
The terms "investors" give people an impressions that they are buying shares, and hence it is their fault if they loss.
The public may not be aware of it, and may have been misled.
The worst is many Minibomb "investors" also thought they were investing. When "investing" in shares, you can't blame others if you loss.
Their fault is in the signing of documents. They were too trusting.

A Tan said...

You don't turn up at HLG? So mean in $ for rally preparation and ST ad

You don't mobilise public sympathy?

Do you deserve anyone's help? Only TKL willing to help you. And even then you complain that he only talk.

One day I hope he realises the folly of helping people who think signing a petition and posting anonomous comments is doing something.

Not prepared to do anything -- then Move On.

Anonymous said...

if we can not go protest, can we keep sending petition to PM Mr Lee? I wonder Mr lee spent time read our petition or not. I guess his sectary read it and forwarded to MAS straight forward.

Anonymous said...

Our gahmen is very conscious of saving "face" and our local media is always protecting the "face" of our gahmen. It appears that we poor victims, despite the help and efforts put in by Mr.TKL are getting nowhere. I strongly feel that the only way to seek redress for the victims is through the international media. Unfortunately I am not capable of putting up our grievances on paper to the international media. I would like to suggest that we get the assistance of someone who knows the background and able to put up a good press release (someone like Andrew Loh of TOC)and pay him for his work to come up with a press release. I am happy to contribute to the cost and am sure that many others in the same boat would also be prepared to do so as well.

Sobri said...

Perhaps we should study the reasons why the government or MAS would not want the petition to succeed.

If the petition succeeds, it would make a mockery of the inaction by MAS so far.
It would also mean that Singaporeans can form pressure groups to move the government.
It would encourage perhaps even bigger demonstrations over less important issues.
It would of course mean a gigantic loss for the FIs.

I'm sure no one wants to be unpopular, and so would be Mr Andrew Khoo. If he could, I'm sure he would prefer to compensate all investors 100% and be halied as a hero. Why wouldn't he do it? He is just a civil servant. All civil servants, serve the people only in name. In actual fact, they simply have to carry out the policies of the ruling government.

Maybe we should be kinder to Andrew Khoo, because if we are in his shoes, wouldn't we be doing exactly the same thing?

Having said that, I do sympathise with the investors. I too almost got caught. I could be one in the future too, because of my limited knowledge of the financial world. I also don't think it is fair for the FIs to shift the blame to investors, knowing very well how the products were sold.

So if we want to safeguard our money, it is wise to support Mr Tan K L, and FiSCA. We cannot depend on MAS and the conscience of the FIs.

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