I happen to come across this article, read it, and yeah it make
sense. So copied here and share with my fellow Singaporeans.
1. Singapores economic growth miracle of the 1960s-90s came mostly
from added inputs, not from growth in productivity.
Hong Kong Singapore
Average growth p.a., 1960-85 6% 6%
Worker productivity increase, 1970-90 150% 100%
Savings rate 1970-90 20% 40%
Change in output per unit of capital, 1970-90 0% -50% source
In other words, Singapore had to invest twice as much as HK to
produce the same level of output. To compensate for the poor
productivity and diminishing returns of investments directed by the
state, its people had to save twice as much as Hongkongers, and
consume less. Pathetic.
2. The Singaporean people do not really have the fundamental right
to make their own investments. The Singapore government forces
people to hand over up to 40% of their net income, and it invests
most of it as it sees fit. The government allows people to
individually direct only a small part of these forced savings
(mainly into non-voting shares in state-owned enterprises). The
government tells Singaporeans how lucky they are to be allowed to
choose to use their savings for education, home purchase, medical
coverage, etc as if the money werent theirs in the first place.
Pathetic.
3. This is therefore a planned economy, in which civil servants
attempt to pick winners. As well as (mis)managing its peoples
savings, Singapores government also arranges subsidies to
encourage favoured industries. Needless to say, these subsidies are
at the expense of other industries. For example, the rest of the
economy has subsidized forex traders and fund managers (the last
people who need a subsidy) in order to push Singapore higher up the
list of international forex trading and fund management centers.
The government sells this to its people as a success. Meanwhile,
the government is ordering its state-owned business to expand
beyond the little city state. In their desperation to become
regional players, they are paying over the odds for assets of
doubtful quality. Pathetic.
4. One big mistake made by the controllers of the Singaporean
economy was to maintain a large manufacturing sector long after
factories would otherwise have been moved to lower-cost sites (as
they did in Hong Kong in the 1980s-90s). They have put their
peoples wealth into direct investment into local manufacturers, or
into tax breaks and other subsidies for inward manufacturing
investment. It is therefore left with a large and increasingly
unviable manufacturing base in such loser industries as
semiconductors. Pathetic.
5. Faced with such mismanagement, most people would complain. Not
Singaporeans. Their government effectively controls the media and
runs a highly effective PR campaign aimed at convincing the people
the government is wonderful. Many sincerely believe it. Those who
dont fall for it keep quiet, or wish they had. The few people who
dare to speak out suffer reduced career prospects or even spurious
legal action. Unlike Hongkongers, Singaporeans have no right, in
practice, to walk down the street handing out anti-government
leaflets and shouting anti-government slogans. It is a crime to
speak in public without a permit. Pathetic.
6. Democracy is impossible without free speech. Singapore is
therefore no more a democracy than Hong Kong (where the government
is appointed by Beijing). However, Hong Kong at least allows an
opposition to exist openly, and to present its views in independent
media, without fear of persecution or harassment. In Singapore,
opposition politicians who ask awkward questions can be (and have
been) sued for libel by ruling politicians and convicted (and
bankrupted) by a judiciary that mysteriously consistently sides
with the government. Neighbourhoods that vote in low numbers for
the ruling party receive lower government funding for public
facilities in retaliation for their lack of gratitude in flagrant
violation of the basic democratic principle that the government is
accountable to all its people, not just its voters. Pathetic.
7. Singapores father figure is Lee Kuan Yew. One of his
interests is eugenics. He believes that a more-intelligent
population can be achieved through selective breeding, and at one
stage Singapore encouraged people with high educational levels to
marry each other, and it offered financial incentives for them to
have children. (After hearing his ideas during a state visit,
Britains Princess Anne said, Well, Mr Lee, it doesnt work with
horses.) Social engineering continues today, with the government,
which used to go to great lengths to encourage people to have fewer
babies, begging them to have more if they can afford it. This
means unless youre Malay. Singapores schools systematically
leave Malays disadvantaged and stuck in low-paying jobs. They have
also tried to attract more (Chinese) immigrants from Hong Kong.
Dont all rush. Pathetic.
8. Singapore is famous for not being corrupt. It is true that if
you are Lee Kuan Yews eldest son you can become brigadier general
after just five years in the army, and six months later you can
become a member of parliament, and soon after that you can become
deputy prime minister. And then become the PM!!! And if you are the
eldest sons wife, you can be put in charge of the state holding
company (it holds key interests in 40% of the stock market by
market cap). And if youre Lees number-two son, you can run the
main Telecoms company. But thats not corruption, or nepotism.
Thats meritocracy. (No, that's pathetic.)
9. Cosmopolitan magazine
is banned. Pathetic.
