Yet Another Committee to Review Policies

Haven't we all seen this before? Yet another committee of young ministers and no sacred cows. Afterward nothing much changes. Many are skeptical and some are even cynical.

But I can guess one big change is coming: pre-school education. It will be taken away from the private sector. It is important for our meritocracy that everyone starts off on the same line in P1. I wonder what would happen to the Eton Houses?

My take is more conceptual because I don't want to write a book here. I think letting markets decide the outcomes no longer work as well as before. The servant of market is now often the lord and it yields outcomes that we do not want. Quite simply in One People, One Nation, One Singapore; when we allow the market to set prices and allocate resources, we get many People, a divided People. After a while you can forget about One Nation and One Singapore.

What we ought to do in the review is examine the places and conditions when market produce outcomes that are inimical to One People results. Then we cut down the instrument of using markets to size and put them in boxes which work well - as servants.

If these young ministers wear the old lenses to reevaluate policies, everything looks good even perfect. Any adjustment is sub-optimal and voters forcing their hands. This is wrong. Imagination and possibilities are circumscribe by our concepts and philosophies. Let's bear in mind the inimitable Keynes warning:

“The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.”

Don't tell me you are an eclectic pragmatist. There is no such thing! Confess who and what your gods are, otherwise we cannot have fruitful public discussions. It would be just song and dance to the public like before. Come 2016, we are forced to speak with votes again - A reckless and stupid idea.