The warning from the business community on choosing the next President

The business community here is making their worry public. They are afraid of what politics is morphing into in Singapore. Should I read their advice to vote for stability, predictability and hence business friendliness as a threat that rice bowls are at risk?

PE votes important for continued investment SBF - Presidental Election 2011

http://pe.channelnewsasia.com/stories/el...

Presidential Election 2011 news article

Why do we even have such an issue in the first place when we never had before? I think it is because we are polarizing into a society of haves and have nots. Up to the point when enough people feel that the social contract is unfairly stacked against them, especially when they think their children's future is bleak, they will take a chance with change.

This government provide handouts through complicated and hard to understand schemes. It is good that people receive help, but it is terrible that such help also diminish their self respect and hope for the future, again especially for their children. At the end of the day, nearly everyone wants to work rather than receive handouts.

I don't know what the results of this PE would be. The sense I am getting is that Tony Tan will win. If so, the SBF couldn't be happier.

I don't think Tan Kin Lian would win and I hope he doesn't lose his deposit. I am even starting to regret writing about this possibility, but only because he had publicly articulated the possibility himself.

Each of the other three candidates,  they bring with them different risks and possibilities if elected. I think we can make something positive from any of them.

In an ideal world, businesses would take care of their employees and customers. We don't live in such a world. The real world is one where businesses take care of senior management and shareholders. Everywhere in the world, government have the job of redistributing wealth to the masses. Very few tycoons are as farseeing as Warren Buffett who astutely recognizes that it is in the long term interest for his community to give more to the larger society.

The option to be more wealth redistributive will not meet with retribution from investors if our competitors are also doing the same. Given the economic and political winds elsewhere, I think that is coming and that would be the new price that would help our forever status as a price taker to tilt toward more socialism without the collateral cost of investors decamping.

The trick is to hold on long enough for the new global price. Better still, anticipating this, we act preemptively.  That is our salvation.

Update: 6.25am the next day, while waiting for my daughter to get ready for school.

TOC says, "Must watch, very the power" beautifully singlishly written. I am not a Tan Kin Lian or Tony Tan supporter though.