I think the
shift away from a manufacturing base economy to a service one is a
move in the right direction considering our size.
Remember Malaysia's Multimedia Super Corridor, and the
Iskander Regional Development each by themselves is much larger
than the island of Singapore. Every inch of Singapore has to be
covered with factories to compete with these
developments.
Singapore is
different from Israel and Switzerland, and have learnt from them in
the begining. The early founders like Dr Goh Keng Swee have
seen to that.
I agree that
Singapore maybe spreading out its resources too thin. Although
there are a number of developments that gives the appearance that
Singapore is much advanced that the neighbouring countries, I
believe this is because of the compact nature of our nation. Cities
like Shanghai and even Kuala Lumpur is in some areas much more
"advance" than Singapore. They can have a manufacturing and
services based economy, whereas Singapore can only choose one. If
it has been manufacturing, we would all have been regimented
factory workers now.
What Singapore has as a
resource is manpower, and this limited in number and quality. Thus
the need to "import". Singapore can stagnate or progress
at a slower rate, and be a sleepy pearl of the orient like Penang
and strive to attract tourist in Hawaiian shirts and straw hats to
savour the colonial settings.
Like it or not,
Singaporeans are just as voracious as any other nationality in
consumerism, and want to be so. I personally don’t think
Singaporeans as a whole will exercise humility and be not
materialistic. Singaporeans want, and will want the latest and the
best and also the cheapest. And this is what the government of the
day has to endeavour to provide for its citizens.
There are
numerous strategies to achieve this purpose. The ones that work
well are deemed correct, the one that is disastrous is considered
wrong, and all in between are open to debate. Therefore,
considering that Singapore’s only resource is manpower, the shift
to the various services industries should be in the right direction
as oppose to manufacturing. And also in as many in this field as
possible, and thus spreading the resources thin, as you have
brought out. This has its pros and cons, as those not viable are
left to their own demise, and those that take off are
nurtured.
That’s why the
government has my agreement on the importation of foreigners to
supplement our workforce. Then how they do it, and how you would
like them to do it, is the issue.
Your new position taken in this post is a far cry form your last
statement that claimed - "The economy need to be expanded to the max
possible, so that we can have the widest choice possible in goods
and services" .
Can it be true that "Singapore is different from Israel and
Switzerland, and have learnt from them in the begining. The
early founders like Dr Goh Keng Swee have seen to
that." - which I assume you are suggesting
now that there is no more to be learnt from Israel and
Switzerland ?
Your opinion reflects the sheer arrogance of the likes of
the PAP political leadership - who have not appreciated the
wisdom of the "early founders
like Dr Goh Keng Swee" - which is even more
relevant in the present times of economic challenges.
It is even more remarkable that you can appreciate -
"What Singapore has as a
resource is manpower, and this limited in number and
quality" - and will go into an
irrelevant tangent by continuing to
propagate further fallacies in your statements that
- (1)"Singaporeans are just
as voracious as any other nationality in consumerism",
(2) that you "personally don’t
think Singaporeans as a whole will exercise humility and be not
materialistic" - when there is no relationship with the
preceding point; (3) that "Singaporeans want, and will want the latest and
the best and also the cheapest" - to be
accomplished at any price (?).
If what you state is true that "this is what the government of the day has to
endeavour to provide for its citizens" - the PAP
Leadership has shown miserable success when one consider the
humongous and growing negative feedback concerning the rising
costs of living caused by the price increases in utilities,
transport, food, and now even public housing as seen in the growing
debate even in this Forum.
If "There are numerous
strategies to achieve this purpose. The ones that work well are
deemed correct, the one that is disastrous is considered wrong, and
all in between are open to debate" - it is obvious you
do not seem to know which strategy work well and deemed correct and
which one is disastrous - until it is too late, when
everything goes wrong and have a negative impact on Singapore and
Singaporeans.
It is obvious that LKY and the PAP Government had followed
this experimental trial and error method over the last five
decades, and which you have shown your unique brilliance
to continue the erroneous ways of the past.
LKY's arrogant decisions during the '60s, '70s
and '80s - have brought disastrous results that had
lasting effects up to this day - as seen
from his Family Planning "Stop-At-TWO" program that
was implemented in the late 1960s through the '70s that had
planted the small family into the minds of Singaporeans.
His insistence on Mandarin as the "Second Language" for the
majority of Chinese, which stunted the educational progression
of hundreds of thousands of young Singaporeans that could not
advance into tertiary education without a Pass in Mandarin.
There was the belated acknowledgement by MM LKY to his
mistake in helping to pass through Parliament - the
Women's Charter, that was drafted by his wife - and which
was made into a law that one man can have only one wife. He
did lament that this had resulted in those successful
businessmen with great genes not being able to have more
wives so as to produce more capable, stronger and larger
families.
Over the years, Singaporeans have consistently witnessed the
acknowledgement by MM LKY of his mistaken policies only
when his progenies begin to experience the hardships of his
past policies that remained stubbornly in place, and which have
already affected generations of past and present Singaporeans.
Is the importation of foreign labor the only solution for
Singapore's continued advancement - especially with the need for
low cost laborers to work in all the various menial jobs in the low
wage industries and enterprises ?
Whatever happened to the call for technological advancement in
tooling and training so as to make Singapore less dependent on such
cheap labor ?
Are you certain that the experience of Switzerland, Israel and
even Sweden has nothing to offer Singapore in the ways that
they have resolved their economic progress in the face of their own
limited human resource ?
Obviously you have no clue as to the dependency of countries
like the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Libya, and
other similar wealthy oil producing Middle-Eastern Countries that
are flooded by the large foreign labor pool that ensured the smooth
running of their economies.
The day will come when these countries will find themselves,
their country and their economy suddenly hamstrung when the cheap
foreign labor hold these countries to ransom - by suddenly
withdrawing their services.
Depending on cheap foreign labor is clearly sabotaging the
concept of Total Defense for Singapore.
