Bad move Prime Minister. You could write or explain the trade-offs better than this former ST writer Andy Mukherjee. Why did you have to borrow his bad work? Yes, even you couldn't do an adequate job persuading the people on the painful trade-offs. Anyway Mukherjee is off the mark. Just because he saw one or two cockroaches, he began to imagine there are lots of them or at least there will be more. He missed the point and why did you join him too? As PM I expected a lot more from you.
The risk has always been there that views like Mukherjee might become reality here some day. We see that sort of attitude in many societies especially the French.
The greatest trade-off Singaporeans make is our unquestioned commitment to bearing arms serving in NS. As long as that commitment remains rock solid, would we be so unreasonable as Mukherjee is fearing and you joined him in his wagon? I can only be disappointed with you. I think you are just pleading with us to be more reasonable so that your job as PM is more doable. But I think we need you to do much better. No thanks to you for making it impossibly hard for us to choose a competitor. An alternative would have made your government work harder and better.
One of the most difficult things I had to grapple with all my working life is risk. I mean that in the professional sense e.g., investment risks. To the layman it might be easier to over simplify it as margin of safety. The problem with your government is that you insist and have the power to make sure that you enjoy a huge and unreasonable margin of safety at our expense. The man in the street who cannot think conceptually experience and complain it as: the government always win and I lose. Now margin of safety like risk in a society is subject to conservation laws, i.e., with our given level of knowledge and technology, unless we have new technology and resources, the risk bore by society cannot be reduced but can only be transferred among its members. Your government is guilty of transferring as much risk to the population as much as possible (no other society would allow this). Business people would understand this well. Just take the example of the shopping mall. The landlord always transfer the risks to the tenants. That is why the landlord often come up on top. Until recently when rising discontent forced your hand, you begin to assume more of the risk. E.g., your margin of safety in pubic transport will decrease in the new bus scheme that is coming.
In America they have another way of saying what I just have: socializing the losses. Of course, I might possibly understand this better than Murkherjee actually. When all our competitors socialize their losses we become uncompetitive if we do not.....but this are deep and complex stuff...that's why in some earlier posts I deplored your lack of foresight. Singapore lives off the foresight of its leaders or life is just chasing after the wind. Very tough and tiring. Just look at SQ.
Another way to decrease the Singaporean margin of safety is to sell ourselves cheap. It is just serendipity I came across an article tonight that explains it better than I could (Should PRs Leaving Singapore be Allowed to Keep All of Their HDB Sales Proceeds?) To you and Andy Murkherjee this is a necessary trade-off, but selling ourselves cheap? If is far harder and slower to upgrade our workforce (you need much foresight) and very easy to open the gates so wide like you did to chase low quality growth. We have terrible Total Factor Productivity especially in the construction sector.
If you keep up with policy making in this fashion, it is only a matter of time Singaporeans will lose their commitment to NS. At that time Andy Mukherjee would be right but for all the wrong reasons. So what are you harping about? Too afraid to scold us yourself and so you borrow from someone else? But you borrow from an inferior thinker. Your top three priorities are to build trust, trust and trust with the people. Most people have no time to examine your policies carefully. We all lead busy lives and we just ask and answer to ourselves this one question: Can we trust you? Trust is not about policies only but values and character.
You are probably the best PM in the world but it is your bad luck that Singapore the most unlikely sovereign state needs better.
Ah, this government is top student in a class of failures.
U gotta admit they do great as business
ReplyDeleteDont u think so?
Blood sucking business
Do you notice nowadays he talks less while his ministers talk more (some of them makes one goes bonkers). He seems lost in direction and lacking in leadership. Or am i just dreaming.
ReplyDeleteLately, the PM keeps highlighting articles that he likes. That makes me think that he has lost it as a leader. He seems to be seeking solace from the "noises" on social media. So instead of tackling the underlying issues, he sought out those who agrees with him. Our country is doomed.
ReplyDeleteI hope our PM is doing so "soul-searching" away from the noise. But he should also stay away from the influence of those who surround him for their own agenda. In this way, we can pray he will return like a phoenix re-born or else we will be doomed.
ReplyDelete