By now hor, you should have read about the latest and hottest news that the Gahmen has intervened to stop the proposed deal between Income Insurance and German insurer Allianz.
You must be thinking,
“Aiyo! Why like that leh? NTUC and Gahmen not friend-friend with each other one meh? Like that does it mean that their relationship with each other not very good liao?!”
PAP and NTUC got special relationship, call the symbiotic relationship
In case you never follow the news and don’t know what the latest update on this deal is about hor, here’s what happened.
NTUC Enterprise, the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) are BEST FRIENDS FOREVER (BFF) – hereby referred to as Ne Ne, Ah Tong and Xiao Chee respectively.
One day in July, Ne Ne, which currently holds a majority of the shares in Income Insurance, received a call from German insurer Allianz, who expressed their interest in buying a majority stake in Income Insurance.
If the deal goes through hor, it means that Allianz will own 51% of shares in Income Insurance, even though Ne Ne will still be a substantial shareholder.
Ne Ne, thinking that this is a sibei good deal because it will better protect his sisters and brothers (policyholders and shareholders), he excitedly go and share this good news with his BFFs Ah Tong and Xiao Chee.
At first, Xiao Chee who works in the financial sector, also thinks that this is a not bad deal. But for some reason, Ah Tong didn’t feel very comfortable with this deal. Maybe because of his 职业病 (occupational hazard) as a lawyer, he feels that this deal somehow infringes some of the regulations in Singapore.
So, the three BFFs had a talk over bubble tea and decided that they should further review the deal carefully and not go through the deal hastily.
You see ah, this story of the three BFFs Ne Ne, Ah Tong and Xiao Chee shows that true friends are people around you who constantly keep each other in checks and balances. They help you to spot blind spots you cannot see so that you can improve and grow to become a better version of yourself. Unlike those 猪朋狗友 (bad friends) who throw you under the bus when shit hits the fan – or when you get caught lying in Parliament hehehe.
And in the current context, this incident also shows Singapore’s check and balance system in action. When there is a deal, the Gahmen reviewed the deal, and weighed its potential effects on the local economy.
In this case, when the Gahmen ultimately decided against the deal, it demonstrates that Singapore has a system that is capable of intervening when necessary. Even though it was a business deal, the decision was based on broader concerns about public interest, not just the profits.
This shows that the Gahmen doesn’t shy away from making tough decisions when it comes to protecting the people and maintaining economic stability.
