Dr Wong Wee Nam/
The following is an excerpt from an article first posted on sgpoltics.net
There is no doubt Mr. Tan Jee Say has plenty of courage. He was the first high-ranking scholar-civil servant to come out and fight a general election on an opposition ticket in May 2011. You need to have plenty of courage to do that. I know Mr. Tan very well. He is a man of principles. He is not an opportunist who will waver and compromise for selfish interest. This is why he did not use his great credentials to offer himself to other political parties except the one that shares his economic ideas.
There is no doubt he has abundance of economic knowledge and financial expertise. He has managed funds in the hundreds of million dollars. His grasp of money matters and how money flows comes to him as easy as turning over one’s palms, as the Chinese saying goes (易如反掌).
I spent one afternoon sipping coffee with Tan Jee Say and in that couple of hours, he could explain how we could derive the amount of reserves by working out from first principles. Like an expert financial plumber, he led me through the intricate routes of how money could flow in and out of the system and circulate all over the place. By the time I finished the coffee, the subject was as clear as a bell. Everything had become so transparent. This shows the man is very clear about his subject and has a good grasp of what he is talking about. I have met many economists, professors and what-have-you but none of them can explain a complex subject in such simple terms. One could not even believe there is a vibrant economy is Geylang!
For this reason, I feel that he is the right man for the job, even if you are just talking about protecting the reserves.
Read the full article here.
