After the SARS, many hawkers and SARS related businesses were
badly hit but in the manufacturing, there were not much affected by
that epidemic. Some smart administrators started a wave of
retrenchment calls that even those profitable companies were seen
taking advantage of retrenching workers, worst still, some GLCs and
the govt were also taking advantage of the retrenchment call. Many
talented Singaporeans were seen driving taxi to keep themselves
afloat.
That indiscriminate retrenchment call after the SARS were the
biggest mistake in the economic history of Singapore!You need not
have to look far to see why it was a mistake in retrenching those
workers in those profitable companies. Just look at Malaysia, after
SARS, they were not panicky or so kiasu to retrench workers, and
their economy sailed on smoothly. In Singapore, many retrenched
workers have to sell their houses or cars because they have no
money to pay for the high instalment, that might have started a
chain effects in many other sectors, and the multiplier effect was
going negative that brought down the whole economy!
Now you can see those profitable companies that retrenched workers
are getting even more profitable and the top guns are paying
themselves fatter salary!shareholders may be just getting slightly
better divident but on the ground, majority of Singaporeans may
still die of self attrition!
The economy may have recovered, but the wavering effects for the
kiasu kiasi still linger on, many were seen saving hard and clinch
on to their purse for worry of being the next to be axed, the
economic activities on the ground is near dead or standstill!