Speaking late Wednesday, Lee, 84, warned Singapore voters
against putting the opposition at the helm of government "in a
moment of fickleness or just sheer madness" when they get "bored"
at some point in the future.
Should this happen, "I think all bets are off because in five
years they (opposition) can ruin this place," he told hundreds of
delegates.
He stressed that, unlike many other countries, Singapore does
not have natural resources such as oil, gas, forests, timber and
aluminium.
"When you are Singapore and your existence depends on
performance -- extraordinary performance, better than your
competitors -- but that performance disappears because the system
on which it is based is eroded, then you've lost everything."
Lee, widely credited for shepherding the underdeveloped port
into one of Asia's wealthiest nations in one generation, said
younger Singaporeans often tell him he is "playing the
same old record" when he delivers his message.
Singapore's small opposition has only two seats in a parliament
dominated by the People's Action Party which has been elected since
1959.
Despite its economic success, local and international civil
rights groups have criticised the government for cracking down hard
on dissenters and political activists.
Street protests are rare and public gatherings of five people or
more are banned without a police permit.
Lee has maintained that Western-style liberal democracy is not
the right model for Singapore.
He said one ingredient for a country's success is putting able
leaders in government, but that this could be difficult under a
more freewheeling US-style democracy.
Lee holds the cabinet rank of Minister Mentor in the government
of his son, Prime Minister Lee
Hsien Loong.
He stressed that, unlike many other countries,
Singapore does
not have natural resources such as oil, gas, forests, timber and
aluminium.
LKY hankering on a failed logic.
Government of other advanced countries that have natural
resources do not directly engage in mining of these resources.
Yes, your point of contention has always been
natural resources. But do you know how mining industry works? Do
you think that the Australian Government is directly involved in
the mining and sale of these natural resources? Think
again.
While exploration and mining
can sometimes be conducted by individual entrepreneurs or small
business, most modern-day mines are large enterprises requiring
large amounts of capital to establish. Consequently, the mining
sector of the industry is dominated by large, often multinational,
mostly publicly-listed companies. See Category:Mining companies for a
list. However, what is referred to as the 'mining industry' is
actually two sectors, one specializing in exploration for new
resources, the other specializing in mining those resources. The
exploration sector is typically made up of individuals and small
mineral resource companies dependent on public investment. The
mining sector is typically large and multi-national companies
sustained by mineral production from their mining
operations.
A number of
large multinational mining companies including BHP
Billiton, Newcrest, Rio
Tinto, Alcoa, Chalco, Alcan and Xstrata operate in Australia. There
are also a lot of small mining and mineral exploration companies
listed on the Australian
Stock Exchange (ASX). Overall, the resources sector
represents almost 20% of the ASX market by capitalisation, and
almost one third of the companies listed. [8]
Mining
contributes about 5.6% of Australia's Gross
Domestic Product. This is up from only 2.6% in 1950,
but down from over 10% at the time of federation in 1900.
[9] In contrast, mineral
exports contribute around 35% of Australia's exports. Australia is
the world's largest exporter of coal (35% of international trade),
iron ore, lead, diamonds, rutile, zinc and zirconium, second
largest of gold and uranium, and third largest of aluminium.
[10]
Of the developed
countries, perhaps only in Canada and Norway does mining play as
significant a part in the economy; for comparison, in Canada mining
represents about 3.6% of the Canadian economy and 32% of exports
[11], and in Norway mining,
dominated by petroleum, represents about 19% of GDP and 46% of
exports.[12] By comparison, in the
United States mining represents only about 1.6% of
GDP[13].
Despite its
export importance, the mining sector employs only a small
proportion of the workforce - roughly 129,000 Australians,
representing only about 1.3% of the total labor force
[14].
Essentially what the government does is sell the
land to these stock exchange listed mining companies and leave the
sourcing and procuring of minerals to these private companies. The
government gets paid for the lease of the land in the form of
either a fixed sum or annual sum, alot like the selling of
commercial land in Singapore. The money obtained from the sale or
rental of these mines goes into helping the citizens of Australia
as claimed by you. But where has the money from the sale of
commercial land in Singapore gone. Unless you going to start
arguing with me, telling me that these publicly listed companies on
the stock exchange gives donation to the Australian government for
no apparent reason, that I have nothing else to
comment.
