February 18, 2010
By Hurr Riyahi
After the release of the ESC’s findings, I notice a big sigh of
relief on the faces of the 66% of Singaporeans, the group that
votes of PAP without fail. I hear them speak about how the
government has put Singapore into a firm position to ride the
post-financial crisis storm. They proudly claim the ESC has charted
new directions that will take Singapore out of uncertain economic
waters. How good will life be for Singaporeans if only that is real
and true.
During the post 1959, PAP had an economic vision for Singapore.
They wanted to transform Singapore to become a manufacturing hub
from one that was purely a services hub. They wanted to achieve
this by luring foreign direct investments using cheap labour
resources. That was a clear economic vision as the agenda clearly
showed the type and number of jobs that can be created, the kind of
investments that can be attracted and the type of economic
transformation that Singapore will go through.
By 1980s the vision started to crack. The PAP government swung
into a new direction which was to develop its services and going
into high value added manufacturing. Things started to get more
tricky but this vision too has become too uncertain in recent
times.
The question now is what is the economic vision of Singapore.
Are we going to be a services hub or manufacturing hub or both?
What services and manufactuing industries are we going to focus on?
Well propaganda machinese, arm chair bureacrats and sexy ST
journalists may say we aleady have everything mapped out for the
next 50 years. However what is clear is that Singapore does not
have a long term economic vision.
A couple of years ago, it was growing the country using
immigration. That cant be a long term economic vision. Already it
has failed even as a strategy as conceded by the government backed
economists themselves. Currently the vision seems to be casino,
pharmaceuticals, petrochemical and finance. That is more like
strategies than economic vision. What is clear is that PAP is no
longer able to come up with a long term economic vision.
Singaporeans have to accept that.
Part of the requirements of an economic vision is that it must
show where are the newly created jobs in the longer term going to
be. The kind of strategies for Singapore only shows some industries
and its not something that all Singaporeans can rush into.
Part of the requirements of an economic vision also includes a
clear identification of how incomes are going to be generated. With
many of the newly created jobs going to foreigners and lack of
areas for Singaporeans to seek opportunities in, its very unclear
how are all Singapore families going to generate income in long
term. What is clear is only for some segment population and labour
force. LKY claimed that income gap can be rectified if jobs are
created. But there are jobs already being created currently and
income gap only has widened. Going forth this gap will only widen
further.
What the PAP has instead of a longer term economic vision is a
series of short term economic strategies stringed one onto another
to make it appear its a long term vision. 66% of Singaporeans are
naively watching this stringed rope of strategies with great relief
and continued confidence as a rope that which they can hold on to.
Its definitely a noose which offers no promise or security. In an
era where we are seeing neighbouring economies such as Vietnam
rapidly expanding, Singapore can be rest assured that it will one
day become a case study of a rich country that started ahead but
finished last with nothing.
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/02/18/what-is-paps-long-term-economic-vision/
