February 5, 2010 - Temasek Review
Written by Our Correspondent
Reform Party calls for dismantling of GLC structure in
its response to ESC report
The Reform Party has called for the dismantling of the
government-linked company or GLC structure which is “out of step
with a modern economy” in its comprehensive response to the
Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) report released recently which
bears uncanny similarities to some of its core messages.
The ESC recommended that Singapore boost its R&D spending to
reach the level of the U.S. and EU.
While the Reform Party welcomes the move to increase investment
in R&D, it expresses its doubts if Singapore can achieve the
necessary economies of scale or whether “we just end up giving
wasteful subsidies to foreign MNCs.”
The ruling party has adopted a “top-down” approach in its
venture into R&D, preferring to spend billions of dollars on
state-linked agencies and companies to drive R&D rather than to
promote entrepreneurship at the grassroots levels as in the United
States.
Some of these GLCs are owned partly by Singapore’s two gigantic
sovereign wealth funds Government of Singapore Investment
Corporation (GIC) and Temasek Holdings which are headed by
Singapore’s octogenarian leader Lee Kuan Yew and his
daughter-in-law Ho Ching respectively.
Though the ruling party has spent billions of dollars on Life
Sciences and Biotechnology over the last few years, it has few
results to show for it.
Singapore remains the only first world country which has yet to
produce a Nobel Prize Laureate.
Instead of focusing on nurturing its own citizens, the ruling
party prefers to pick “winners” and splurges on accomplished
overseas scientists, one of whom arrived in Singapore with much
fun-fare a few years ago only to return to his native Scotland a
year later.
The Reform Party criticizes the GLC structure as an obstacle to
Singapore’s R&D efforts as it has “held back our private sector
and has probably had a stifling effect on innovation, not least
through the diversion of talent into secure, well-paid employment
rather than into more entrepreneurial roles.”
Singapore’s leading research agency A*STAR is currently headed
by Mr Lim Chuan Poh, a former Chief of Army who spent his entire
career in the Singapore Armed Forces.
The GIC structure is probably put in place to for political
reasons as well as it ensures that the brightest Singaporeans are
all on the payroll of the government rather than striking out on
their own which may pose a threat to its hegemony subsequently if a
“Thaksin Shinawatra” were to emerge among them.
Entrepreneurs are usually fiercely independent and are difficult
to “tame” by a paranoid regime bent on control everything.
The Reform Party was founded by respected late opposition leader
Mr J.B. Jeyaretnam in 2008 and is currently led by his son,
Cambridge-educated economist Mr Kenneth Jeyaretnam.
It has seen an increase in membership lately among young
professionals including two former government scholars.
Read the full report of The Reform Party here