Parallels between Singapore and China

I am only interested in this long article for its parallels to Singapore.

The story began with the outstanding achievements China had made under Hu and Wen. They are far more impressive than Singapore had achieved over the same period.

Then the story turned to the failures and misses. Again they were more glaring than those of the PAP government here. For all the visible success of the PAP government it received the lowest support ever. Similarly since the reopening of China under Deng, the Chinese had never been as unhappy.

What does all these tell us? We must bear in mind that leaders are rarely stronger than the currents that carry us along through space and time. So before pundits go running extolling the superiority of Chinese leaders bear in mind what we have repeatedly learned in financial markets: do not confuse genius with the bull market.

Genius leaders reverse the tides or perhaps separate the waters. Such leaders are in recession these days. Therefore forget abut the leaders and adapt accordingly to the currents of our times. In a visceral way, growing NIMBYism is an unfortunate result of adapting to change. Along with that is the rising decibel of various interest groups promoting their exclusive agendas. We stopped listening to our leaders and turn inward to ourselves, often pandering only to our narrow interests since we fail to see beyond. Worse, some elevate their priorities above others without bothering about legitimacy or concern for others.

To all and sundry, the Titanic was ably captained until it hit an ice berg. The mistakes leaders make often show up much later. Often it is the result of complacency but for above average leaders like ours and China, these are usually not for lacking intelligence or lapses of judgement, but courage. Hu and Wen epithets were cautious men. Over here our leaders call themselves steady hands. I would have preferred adroit hands.