The Surprising Short-Sighteness of The SG Govt..

Just over a month ago, Finance Minister of Singapore, Mr. Tharman said in an interview with Bloomberg news that Singapore's model of growth- through exports mostly, with banking and construction of real estate also playing major roles- which has been the forefront of the Tiger growth in recent decades remain sound and will remain the main policy of the current government.

The ST has an excerpt of this interview and its over here.

But in the past week or so, Time Asia had another article about the Asian Tiger economies and reviewed how much exports almost dominated economical growth in the last few decades, and how inflated consumer spending in the West has led to an export, banking and construction bubble over in these Tiger economies.

The article is here.

I think, as a student of economics, one must always, as an economist, see the bigger picture, and to use current, and later data to not just predict this year, but the years ahead in a realistic fashion, and factoring in unpleasant stuff like risk of high unemployment, high inflation rate, unrealistically low unemployment rates in relation with interest rates, and inflation, and the amount of flow of migrants and immigrants, in and out of the country.

I think a country cannot sustain itself if it hitches on an economic model and expects it to go on forever and forever. And neither should it encourage everyone else to spend and spend, and then also promise more "Golden Years and/or periods, without any evidence whatsoever, and without considering the "what-ifs".

An economic policy that depends on economical bubbles is not an economical policy; instead its just an ad-hoc initiative that takes advantage of a sinful human habit(that is greed) and make it as if its gonna be our magic pill of growth forever.

Its clear that this government has lost its way in the economical front for a long time. They have had continued to encourage bubble growth by easing credit access for couples, even though they cannot fully afford the costs of these loans, CPF and banks in the first place. They have encouraged rich foreigners, to buy and sell, local landed properties without as much as any sensible regulation to stem any bubble; they have privately liberalise the banking industries by allowing rich foreigners to put in money here, in the form of savings, Swiss bank-type accounts, and in hedge funds the like; and then they allowed inflation to rocket sky-high, and even worse, didn't give the full picture of the amount of inflation in the first place, and the impact of it on citizens; didn't give the full picture of unemployment rates of local citizens in the bubble years; and finally only giving ad-hoc credit to some of the most vulnerable on a year-by-year basis, which is only not just inadequate, but also insulting.

And we haven't gone through the problem of GIC and Temasek investing in Western banks and losing more than tens of billions of dollars in taxpayers dollars.

To see Mr. Tharman, an esteemed economist, use his position to insist that the politicised economical model is still viable is simply stunning and shocking. This government either can't bring themselves to recognise that their model is now dead in the water, or they are just blind, and deaf to everything else that is happening around them.

It is sad when they don't realise it. It is sad when they refuse to recognise it. And its even sadder when they think that such a self-indulgent economical policy still has legs in it when its clear the days of such are long over.

Thus, to say that they deserve a chance to get it right, and to trust them fully, and completely- when they have clearly not kept their word is wrong. We should have known. And that's why if there's any snap elections in Singapore this year, let it be known that they cannot have their way anymore.

Its time to restore Parliament to its rightful place, and not make it be a rubber-stamp, yawn inducing institution anymore. Let us herald in a new era, whether the government likes it or not. Its time for transparency and accountability and the opposition will play their role if you give them a chance and trust them. Let us not waste this opportunity in these times of crisis to do something good for the future of our people, the future of later generations, and the future of Singapore itself.

Let us go and change this world. It is time.

Top 10 politicial videos for 2008 (cont'd)

4. Obama Girl- I've Got A Crush On Obama



5. Barack Obama's 30 minutes infomercial: American Stories, American Solutions



The 30 minute prime time ad($3m in total) that most TV networks broadcasted- and which a major league sport allowed the game to be delayed for at most 30 minutes for it to be broadcast on the last weekend before Nov 4th.


6. Hillary Clinton's concession primary election Speech "18 million cracks in the ceiling"



One of Senator(and now soon-to-be Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton's finest speeches, and an inspiration to all women and men.

I'm returning to Singapore this sunday...

Yes, I am.

But as I am packing my bags I had thought about this for a long time. First I need to clear a few things up. One of them is that while I do love my family, my friends, and my relatives, I also do have mixed feelings of Singapore at the same time. Second, I think my loyalty to my country while has remained steadfast, is not translated to loyalty towards the ruling party- because I think the country is bigger than any political party.
Thirdly, while I also feel that the current ruling party has done a lot for my country of birth, I also feel that the PAP has been stuck in the past, mired too much in past glories and has not fully established a true vision for the future for its people.

Instead what it has increasingly relied on is to use fear to force people to vote for them, by means of financial pressure through hidden charges using acronyms, by means of politicising the construction of national infrastructure(using taxpayers money) to only those who have voted for them, and to put people who don't deserve to be there on merit on the management boards of every single government corporation, and in every single government department for political, ideological reasons.

And the result is that Singapore increasingly has put its future further on the edge of a spiral. I mean, when a country is completely politicised from one end to another, it weakens all aspects of the country as a whole as the fundamentals have been shaken to its core. When a ruling party starts thinking of its self-interests as the country's self-interests, then that's when the rot starts.

The escape of Mas Selamat was merely the beginning. The fact that Singapore is the first Asian country to slip into recession is merely just another blip that the pulse isn't right. Then there is the minibonds scandal. And then now with the future of the IR heavily in doubt(of even being able to open in time), as with the F1, Singapore isn't looking very rosy.

Isn't it time Singapore has a better alternative than this? That we can do better than to depend on a party that has been ruling for 50 years? In politics, which is pretty much corrupting in the first place?

Its time we know we can do much better.

I now know Singapore is not an utopia, and shouldn't be viewed as one. For once, its time we took off those rose-tinted specs and really see the goodness and the flaws of Singapore at the same time, and know always that Singapore is always in a work in progress and as such, when time changes, we know we must change. And change can only come from those who do not belong to the status quo, who thinks that if we can do the same things for the last 50 years, somehow we will get a different result.

It is time.