1 Much
has changed in the course of a year. When I was preparing my May
Day Message last year, we were in a very different situation. The
economy had a strong first quarter in 2008, and workers were
enjoying good bonuses from the year before. The US had already run
into difficulties, but we still hoped that the world could avoid
taking a major tumble.
2 Unfortunately,
the US problems grew into a major financial crisis which has caused
a severe worldwide recession. World financial markets are no longer
frozen, but things are far from back to normal. All the major
economies are contracting simultaneously, for the first time since
the Great Depression. The World Bank expects global industrial
production to fall by 15% by the middle of this year, and world
trade also to fall sharply, especially in Asia. Governments have
taken bold steps to boost their economies, but in this
unprecedented situation nobody can be sure what measures will work,
or how quickly.
3 Singapore
is doing all we can to buffer ourselves from the storm. We have
launched the Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience (SPUR),
and the "Resilience Package", which includes the Jobs Credit
scheme. We have focused on preserving jobs, because when people
have jobs they can look after themselves and their families. Unions
and employers have supported these schemes. They have aligned the
interests of employers and workers, and helped companies to think
of cutting costs to save jobs, instead of cutting jobs to save
costs.
This speech reveal the brilliance of
a matchstick in Singapore's PM.
It shockingly revealed that in the course of preparing his May
Day message in 2008, he did so without considering the stark
warnings that were written on the walls in Washington D.C. that
appeared as early as 2006 -
“"Expect
fallout, expect foreclosures, expect horror stories," California
mortgage lender Paris Welch wrote to U.S. regulators in January
2006, about one year before the housing implosion cost her a
job.”.
What happened to the researchers and gatherers of intelligence
and information that would have helped him get a better grasp of
reality ?
It seems that despite the writings on the walls, even his Old
Man MM LKY and his grand dame at Temasek were all similarly
wantonly ignoring the same signs that more astute investors would
have given serious attention - and in the process lost US$100
BILLION from Singapore's Reserves.
As early as March 2008 - at least a whole month
prior to PM's effort at preparing the May Day 2008 message -
investment gurus such as Warren Buffet and those at the US
National Association for Business Economics had warned that the
-"US
Economy is in Recession".
In the second paragraph of his speech - is there any use
for the PM to give a summary of what has been the daily dose of
economic gloom printed in the various broadcast and print media
?
If Obama paid only an annual salary of
US$500,000+ and can show decisiveness in seeking the
US Congress to pump US$3 Trillion into the US economy in support of
the banking sectors to the manufacturing sectors, and to rebuild
the infrastructure of the USA - why is our S$3.5Million salaried PM
less certain as to the outcome or direction
of his economic recovery policies ?
Compared to the US$3 Trillion Economic Recovery Plan proposed by
Obama's Team - the Million Dollar salaried Ministers in the
Singapore Cabinet could only think of petty program with an acronym
"SPUR" to further drive Singaporeans like horses
being moved forward by the sharp spurs on boots.
After urging Singaporeans to move forward by the "SPUR" of
their ministerial boots - they come up with another brilliant
plan to create "Resilliance Package" to soothe Singaporeans,
which will include "Job Credit Scheme" - in the usual
PAP "big stick and small carrot" approach used since the
1960s.
Can the Unions and Employers "create or save jobs by
cutting costs" - instead of "cutting jobs to save costs" ?
If we could reduce the million dollar wages from
the entire Singapore Cabinet, the sum total of all the
Ministers' Million Dollar Wages will go a long way to help many
jobless Singaporeans to become entrepreneurs.
The Total Annual Wages paid
to 22 Ministers and 8 Minister of State amount to S$75Million
- and this amount saved annually could be the seed
money to help jobless Singaporeans to start new
businesses.
His efforts at making the speech is so
painfully dismal - as seen in the opening three
paragraphs of his May Day message - that it becomes a drag to
read it entirely.
PM LHL has a long lead time to fix his next May Day
message for 2010 - and it will do him well to read the many
signs written on the Singapore walls, if he cannot read those clear
signs written in Washington D.C. in 2008.
