Today PM Lee announced that he was stepping down and handing the reins of power, at least in public though like his dad he will no doubt be pulling the strings of his chosen puppet for many years from behind the scenes. Naturally state media has hit the ground running on its mission (funded with your money) to convince voters what a caring and cuddly creature and selfless public servant LW is and ignore his and the PAP’s utter contempt for Singaporeans.

In the coming general election will Singaporeans again say that there’s no need to hold the Government accountable? Will they ignore the fact the PAP refuses to provide answers to basic questions such as the size of the reserves? Will they forget that LW thinks that peasants like you and me don’t deserve to know how much the board of Temasek, appointed by the PM and Cabinet, paid the PM’s wife as CEO and continues to pay her as head of Temasek Trust, out of money that belongs to us the citizens. Will they also have forgotten how two senior Ministers came to be living in enormous state mansions on vast tracts of public land that should be yielding 10-100 times the rent they are paying? Will they ask why they are having to work the among the longest hours in the developed world for wages per hour that are well below even minimum wage in the US, UK, Australia and large parts of Europe while paying costs for basic staples far in excess of what consumers in these countries pay? Will they forget that a certain ex-PM promised them a Swiss standard of living when what they’ve got it is Swiss costs with Malaysian wages? Will they ask why the PAP insist on low barriers to entry to workers from other countries with no minimum wage and no safeguards for local workers? Or why foreign men are excused NS even when they easily acquire PRs and citizenship, thus giving them a big advantage over Singaporeans in the job market? Will Singaporeans ask why with upwards of $3 trillion of financial reserves and many times that in land reserves (the value of which is bolstered by using your money from the Budget in paying “subsidies” to HDB which go straight to the reserves), the Government says it has no money and fails to provide basic welfare to its citizens that’s commonplace in other countries?

LHL is no doubt looking to call a snap election, hoping to capitalize on global instability, and arguing, as his father did before him, that only an autocrat can keep Singapore safe and that the country will collapse if more Oppositon MPs are elected to Parliament and, heaven forbid, citizens find out dangerous facts like how much money the Government has. Will you continue to let the PAP get away with it? Remember who raised Ridout Road and persisted in asking questions even when SLA refused to answer until the Government was obliged to respond. When you hear the Opposition raising questions in Parliament about the reserves and who they are being safeguarded for when our native born population is declining precipitously, remember that I was the first to raise these questions, sometimes many years before. And then ask yourselves who is likely to be most effective in holding the Government to account and forcing it to improve the lives of the citizens.

Published by kjeyaretnam

I'm a Singaporean economist who became an opposition activist. I blog to provide an alternative to the porkies that the Pinkies tell. It just so happens that my alternative is the truth. That's why I've never been sued in any civil or criminal court no matter how hard hitting my criticism. I'm quoted and interviewed and asked to speak across the world but largely censored in Singapore in an effort to silence my political opinions. The left hate me because they think I split their vote and because I eschew their outmoded economic models. Models that don't work. The Right and the Conservatives hate me because I'm a liberal. I'm not sure what the middle think of me. I don't think there are more than a handful of people in the middle, here in Singapore. I'm a Singaporean born and bred, dual heritage, my parents Singaporean established here before the State of Singapore was created. I'm not Eurasian. I read economics at Cambridge and could be broadly described as from the Keynesian school but I believe in interventions. I was formerly a successful hedge fund manager. After economics and politics my greatest interests are history, film and Makan. I run but I run so I can eat like a Singaporean. View all posts by kjeyaretnam