The following is an excerpt from ‘4 Tans in Presidential Elections’, a blog entry by Diary of A Singaporean Mind
Today, our concerns about our reserves goes beyond how it is spent by govt. There are concerns about transparency, investment losses and management performance. These concerns have heightened since the last financial crisis wiped off a large amount of our reserves and the public observing high profile risky moves to invest in failing western banks.
Having a president that sits between govt and reserves to prevent wasteful spending is does not address this concern. When govt spend, it is in the full view of the public – we know exactly how much and if we find it wasteful, we can simply vote the profligate govt out. The people themselves are the check and balance – if they have a good value system and are wary of populist govt trying to spend the reserves in an unsustainbale wasteful manner.If they are a people easily tricked and fooled by false promises and tempted by undeserved entitlements, they will vote for a govt that will splurge away the reserves and vote for a president that won’t stand in the way of that govt.
In that sense, the best guard against wasteful spending of the reserves is the people themselves – if they are educated and have a good value system, they will vote for a govt that will do the right thing.
Read the full article here.
