I was shocked and saddened to read a few days ago in state media mouthpiece, AsiaOne, about the case of a Grab driver, 59 years old, who had collapsed and died at home. According to the report, his widow, who is herself deaf, said he had only $16 in his bank account. She said that 2 weeks after her husband’s death, she received a letter from Grab pressing her for nearly $2,000 for unpaid car rental, repair fees, towing fees and early termination fees. After being contacted by AsiaOne, Grab agreed to waive at least part of the outstanding amount.

AsiaOne didn’t provide many details and I’m aware of how eager the PAP Government is to use its asymmetry of information and disregard for laws on the protection of personal data to issue POFMAs. It’s an extremely useful tool for the PAP because even if one complies with the Direction, the PAP can still prosecute you, as they are threatening to do to me, and jail you for up to 5 years or fine you a sufficient amount to disqualify from running for Parliament. No doubt Shanmugam, Lawrence Wong and LHL must be laughing privately at the way it’s already had a chilling effect on Singaporeans’ willingness to ask tough questions. It’s true the Government may suddenly reveal that the unfortunate Grab driver had a lot of money in his CPF account, or even more absurdly that he had salted $50,000 under his mattress or had half a million in bitcoin. Nevertheless, unless he had over the Basic Retirement Sum (BRS) in his CPF, he would be unable to take out more than $5,000 of his money until he turns 65. Even if he had over the BRS, he would still only be able to withdraw the excess if he owned a property whose lease ran till he was 95. If this was not the case he would have to set aside the Full Retirement Sum of $200,000 or more. Since the report says he had been a PHV driver for the last 10 years, and CPF contributions from employers for gig workers only started from 2024, it seems unlikely that his CPF exceeded the BRS particularly as his CPF likely was used to pay for his HDB

Being unable to find stable well paying permanent employment when you turn 50 and having to turn to gig work is a common occurrence for Singaporeans. While Singapore is not unique in this regard, the lack of employment protections and government support and the deliberatly ineffectual PAP controlled unions, make it relatively easy for employers to substitute cheaper young foreign workers for more expensive and older Singaporean ones. This is despite the Employment Pass threshold having recently been raised to $5,000 a month after repeated calls from the Reform Party for it to be increased. The Government trumpets its SkillsFuture credit, which was recently raised to $5,000 in total for over 40s but the courses available on the MySkillsFuture portal don’t seem destined to lead to serious second careers for all but a fraction of those who need it, whatever feelgood stories Lawrence Wong relates in the Budget (perhaps LW can teach a course for nothing in his spare time in playing the guitar as a public service?). Many older Singaporeans have no option but gig work like this unfortunate individual.

The constant tightening of the rules on CPF withdrawal, despite what should be rapidly growing reserves likely in excess of $3 trillion, shows that the PAP Government is more preoccupied with locking up the people’s money so it can continue to earn an endowment profit over and above the rates it pays to CPF holders. LW and LHL take pride in having safeguarded the reserves for vaguely defined future generations, despite knowing full well that this is mendacious because the present generation of Singaporeans are dying out like the unfortunate subject of this article and too many of them are not having children. This is to a large extent because of the Government’s failure to provide adequate support. If we have at least $3 trillion in reserves, and it should be much more now after booming stock markets, then we should be able to spend up to 3% every year, or at least $90 billion extra every year. This would real spending, over and above the fake inflated spending levels in the Budget, a significant portion of which goes back into the reserves in a circular system. This additional spending can go on supporting Singaporeans through measures such as basic incomes, free or much more heavily subsidised health care, free university education, child benefit and old age pensions. However, while LW, LHL and the PAP are in charge, those who advocate for Singaporeans’ welfare will be dismissed as “f*cking populists”. They are determined to resist even a small fraction of the surplus they extract from the citizens is returned to them lest it detract from their desire to channel more and more money into the reserves, to what end it is is hard to fathom. The PAP don’t care that this poor PHV driver, who had a deaf wife, only had $16 left in his bank account despite working 10 hours a day, presumably for 7 days a week, and was still in debt to his employer.

Whilst Grab is not responsible for this man’s predicament, it has unjustifiably been given an easy ride by the Singapore Competition Authority and been able to gain a near monopoly of the ride-hailing app market to the detriment of Singapore consumers and drivers. Temasek seeded Grab and at one stage had a large shareholding though that appears to have been cut to zero now. Grab has also notoriously employed PAP MP Tin Pei Ling (which I wrote about here) until the conflict of interest became so egregious that she resigned after seven months. It has even employed some of the children of our Ridout Road residing Ministers (though I stress that I am not suggesting that Grab received special treatment from them for doing so). Will Singaporeans continue to put up with working some of the longest hours in the world for hourly wages which buy less than those of many of their counterparts in other global cities in countries with much lower GDP per capita? Singaporeans have to decide how much longer they will allow themselves to be taken for a ride.

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