A close friend recently complained to me about her irritation with blogs. She finds that there are an increasing number of blogs ranting about the inadequacies of our government. I am one of those bloggers she was talking about. I never thought of what I write about as senseless ranting and I still do not. However I have to admit I am too guilty of a fair amount of complaining, criticizing and finger-pointing n my posts. Therefore I decided today to cease with the criticism and instead try to provide some useful suggestions on some issues brought up by our Senior Minister Goh in the Straits Times a couple of days back.
The Senior Minister pointed out that there are 10 big challenges that Singapore will need to face in the coming future. I shall try to provide some of my humble opinions to 2 of these challenges. Much of what I will say has already been mentioned and discussed within the blogs and forums. Hopefully the some of these alternative views can find its way into the considerations of those that can make a difference and initiate some real progress.
How to maintain Singapore’s high economic growth and keep on improving our standard of living?
I echo the message of the Senior Minister to our ruling elite. Do not become a victim of your own success. The old economic model has worked for the past 30 years. Give yourselves a pat on the back and move on. Past glories do not guarantee future success. We need a new model. Importing GDP from the likes of Malaysia, China and India only serves to benefit a select few. For the rest of the masses, real income have dropped steadily, inflation far outstripped wage growth, public discontentment had grown to worrying levels and the wanton influx of immigrants threatens social stability.
We need to start thinking product design and development instead of product manufacture, private banking and asset management instead of back-office operations/processing, nanotechnology instead of textile manufacturing. GDP may reverse into the red for a couple of years if we purse a radical reform of our economy. Let the labor-intensive industries leave. New higher tech ones will replace them. There is a reason for a $15-$20 per hour difference in wage between a Singaporean waiter and an Australian one and it lies primarily in the oversupply of cheap labor which will persists unless companies realize that employment is not longer possible at $3 an hour.
This is some short term pain for a long term gain. The government can help ease the pain with its bulging coffers. When Singapore remerges from the reform and its economy starts singing to the new tune of the new world, the GDP figures will no longer be achieved upon the silenced misery of a poor middle-class, but from the benefits of playing higher up the value chain. In fact GDP growth is but a cash cow for the select few. Other measurements like GINI, real income per capital are much more representative of the peoples’ well-being. My proposal is a better way to improve these statistics from the pathetic levels they are at today.
How to satisfy transport demands of the next generation?
The billions and billions of dollars poured into improving our public transport system in our increasing overloaded city reminds me of a news report I heard years back. During the space race of the 1930s, US and Russia were competing with each other to explore the boundaries of our solar system. American astronauts needed to record readings up in space and could not find a pen that works in zero gravity conditions. NASA invested in US$30m to invent a pen that could write in zero-gravity. The Russians used a pencil.
There is a simpler solution to our transportation woes than building the most sophisticated and expensive MRT system to span the length and breadth of Singapore. Just stop stressing the system with more and more passengers!! We can never build enough tracks and buy enough trains to cater to the endless hordes of new immigrants. Less people, less jams, less discontent with our transportation system. By the way, the Senior Minister reminisced about the times when he used to cycle to school. Try taking the MRT in a weekday morning and I guarantee you that cycling to work is a much more attractive alternative if only we have proper cycling tracks and do not bear the significant risk of being knocked down by frenzied motorists trying to beat the morning ERP cut-off timing.
I will continue to contribute my thoughts to the rest of the challenges in another post soon. Hope this can provide some food for thought.
Haha, ya, there is a detachment from reality in everything our leaders say or do. Maybe if some mightily clever opposition party came along, change Singapore's living truely for the better, some day in the future we can say to our kids "I remember I used to take the MRT (with horror look on face) to work. Now you can cycle to work. You should be thankful!"
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