From the past 40 plus years of Government there
is no doubt that this has been a government which taxes and hoards
monies from whatever way it could from the people.
It does not motivate its people to apply knowledge in every
field nor create technology start-ups to secure more jobs for its citizens.
It worship foreign investors and foreigners instead of
encourages its own citizens or local companies to survive or
compete in the world. Many years ago, I happened to take part in
some international construction project bidding and found that
while the big Japanese and Korean firms were always bidding with
their government and institutional supports our local firms were
left entirely on their own and unable to put in competitive bids
and compete with such government-assisted foreign companies.
Yet our government will offer all kinds of assistances and
incentives to foreign companies bidding in our projects for the
slighest reason and consider them foreign investors worth helping
under doubtful dubious policies of all sorts.
Our government is seen as interested only in
taxing, withholding spending of taxes on basic services to the
people and even if it does so, it will charge for all costs of such
basic government services. Such a system of governing the country
only runs down the economy.
Luckily, for some strange reasons people remain robust despite all
such draconian taxing and back-charging and hoarding of monies and
profiteering of the government to claim its own limited selfish
success.
Probably it is our strategic location which so far still allows us
to have some advantages in manufacturing and services so some of
these economic activities still stay here because they could save
time and transportation costs.
Government does not seem to bother with promoting applications of
knowledge or innovations and continues to take and take without
creating some benefits for its own businesses or people treating
them as suckers or money trees for the shaking.
The only skill government has is to take monies rather than helping
the people or its own businesses like lowering costs of doing
business or creating competitive facilities and environment to help
businesses grow. Of great urgency is the cutting off of all the
double charging in transportation like excise, COE, Petrol tax, ERP
etc. and profiteering by HDB, LTA etc which kills the
businesses.
If the government really wants the businesses to
grow and become competitive, the first priority should be to do the
right thing to grow start-ups and not keep taxing and charging and
making monies from all the lands and people's owned infrastructures
for that is the fastest way to run down the coutnry. It is the
monster government that kills the goose that lays the golden
egg.
Such watch again. It will not admit its taxing and hoarding system
is a mistake because the old man is too proud as a presumptive
world leader.
If there is another recession, Singapore economy
will again be the first to be fit and it will go down more and
worse as compared with other Asian dragons because of lack of
resilience in such a take-all-never-give monstrous governing system
because of one man.
Only luck in finding a motivating new leader will give us another
break. IR may not save us from doom or give us the chance as such a
take-all-never-give dictatorship will just kill the goose
again.