At a press conference yesterday state media reported that you said that the actions of Lee Hsien Yang would “not distract the government from focusing on core issues that are important to Singaporeans”. However anyone with a modicum of intelligence can see how badly you are distracted by the dispelling of the mirage that you and your government work so hard to cultivate using taxpayers’ money. This is that Singapore is a shining example of rule of law, transparency and incorruptibility. Your government peddles the line that what does it matter if Singaporeans have none of the rights promised under the Constitution that thanks to your master is not worth the paper it’s printed on since Singaporeans enjoy such high living standards. However I have shown repeatedly that Singaporeans work some of the longest hours in the developed world for wages per hour that are considerably less than those in the advanced countries while paying far more for basics, including food and cars.

You say that your government is focused on the core issues that are important to Singaporeans. But the truth is that your government’s razor sharp focus is always on extracting surpluses from Singaporeans and accumulating reserves, which you refuse to disclose and constantly say must be safeguarded for the mysterious future generations, which at current rates of fertility will not include many Singaporeans alive today. Your deliberate policies of surplus maximisation have driven consumption down to about 30% of GDP while the current account surplus has risen to nearly 40%. I have inferred the total financial assets of the government to be in the region of $3 trillion. We can surely afford to spend at least $90 billion a year investing in Singaporeans. Instead your much touted Net Investment Returns Contributions go mostly into long term funds of which less than half of the inflow seems to be spent each year. Your government has a monopoly of land and housing. However instead of pricing the land for public housing at a level that would make housing more affordable you go through the charade of allocating billions in the Budget towards “subsidies” for HDB and house buyers which then go straight into the reserves when HDB buys land for housebuilding at high prices. You claim that this is “market” or below market but every economics student knows that a monopolist can set their price where they want.

Instead your government is focused on its core priorities, which is attracting ultra wealthy foreigners and expanding the foreign workforce, despite Singaporeans being unhappy with this. In the absence of a minimum wage and few employment protections the ease of employing younger foreigners, including male graduates who don’t have to do NS, puts downward pressure on wages and ensures that many older Singaporeans are more likely to lose their jobs and have great difficulty finding employment after 50 unless they resort to gig work. You say this is in the interests of Singaporeans but you refuse to share the benefits of increased government revenues with us. The influx of the ultra wealthy, who are fast tracked to PR and citizenship, has pushed up the prices of landed properties to the extent that not even the best paid Singaporeans can aspire to own a GCB. But the PAP Ministers are major beneficiaries of these policies which have made several centimillionaires, such as the Minister of Law who appears to have sold his average GCB for a record breaking $88 million having purchased it for $8 million only 20 years ago. Meanwhile inflation caused by rising land prices, COEs and indirect taxes such as GST erodes the value of Singaporeans’ wages. You claim that your GST Assurance Package of some $8.5 billion fully offsets the rise in GST but this is the amount set aside not annual spending which is a fraction of the headline amount. In any case it is only intended as a temporary measure whereas the GST increase is permanent.

You and your master continually hold Singaporeans hostage and gaslight us by claiming falsely that Singapore will collapse if your paradigm of squeezing Singaporeans to build up surpluses and relentlessly expanding the population is not adhered to. We’ve seen globally that voters have thrown out or punished incumbent governments who fail to make them better off, often by handing a landslide to the Opposition, even when the leader is a convicted felon, racist and misogynist. This is political competition and it’s just as vital as economic competition. I can only hope that Singaporeans lose their fear and start acting more in their own self interest. Finally we may be able to find out what you and the PAP Government are so desperate to conceal from us.

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