Chinese people loves gambling. Every Chinese knows that. bbqchickenwings used to gamble too. And during Chinese New Year, other than visiting relatives, it also became a time for Chinese to indulge in gambling which is 'permitted' during the 1st 15 days. Long queues are common in Singapore Pools outlets, especially on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Some people have no qualms throwing hundreds or thousands of dollars betting with bookies Singapore Pools on football. But everyone has to know a limit, especially with our 2 integrated resorts coming up. We don't want people going to the casinos thinking they can earn a fortune. Unfortunately, Ho Ching went over the limit.
It is reported that Temasek Holdings has lost a whooping S$58 BILLION from Apr 2008 to Nov 2008. The losses will probably be even more as they might have taken into accounts gains from selling our power companies for a combined $18.2 billion and a fund injection by MOF of $10 billion. Without disputing whether the losses are greater, lets proudly announce Ho Ching as number ONE. The number 1 person in the world to lose money at such a rapid rate.
Last time when she was CEO of Singapore Technologies, she took a bet and lost about $630 million in Micropolis in almost 2 years. That equates to about $1 million a day. The signs of her talent were already emerging. Even then, Dhanabalan defended her in IHT's article titled - Temasek's Chief, Ho Ching, likes to take risks:
Dhanabalan even referred to ST's purchase of disk drive maker Micropolis, which was liquidated soon afterwards with debts of 630 million Singapore dollars, saying Ho had had the courage to cut the losses.
Now as CEO soon-to-be-ex CEO of Temasek Holdings, her achievements were even better. 58 billion in 8 months. That equates to about $240 million a day, a 240 fold improvement. Surely she can lay claim to be number 1 in the world at losing money. (correct me if I am wrong because bbqchickenwings is too lazy to find out) She does not cut losses this time round, but steps down leaving a mess behind once again.
Some say its not her fault. All due to external factors, extraordinary circumstances. But the fact remains that she is the one who makes the calls and this is public money we are talking about. She took a bet and the bet lost. Only in Uniquely Singapore can someone lose $240 million of public money a day for 8 months and there is no public demonstration. She doesn't have to be answerable for the losses. No public statements from her, no apologies. No apologies needed because no mistakes were made, all these were long-term investments.
What to do? It has already happened. Let's move on.
Ho Ching will be stepping down in October. Can we just put her in charge of some small SME? This may just be the boost Singapore's fledging SMEs need. A high-profile personality as their symbol. Singapore cannot afford her to set another new personal best.
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Update
And why do Chinese like to gamble so much? It is in the genes, according to BBC, based on findings by researchers in Northwestern University.
Excerpts: The Northwestern University team found two genes that regulate the hormones dopamine and serotonin could predict whether a person would gamble.
Specifically, people with the short serotonin transporter 5-HTTLPR were far more cautious than those with the long version.
Similarly, people with the 7-repeat allele of the dopamine DRD4 gene took more risks than those with other versions of the same gene.
Take some Chinese and test for the genes! If true, maybe we can't blame Ho Ching after all.
