Former SingFirst chief and member of the Singapore Democratic Party Tan Jee Say took to Facebook on Friday (25 September) to highlight a number of ways Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong can learn from late Singapore bureaucrat Ngiam Tong Dow’s unfulfilled ideals for Singapore in order to achieve PM Lee’s vision of a fair and equal society.

Mr Tan said that his latest post is a tribute to Mr Ngiam who is a boss, mentor and friend to him. The pioneering Singaporean civil servant who served four decades in the highest levels of the country’s bureaucracy passed away last month at the age of 83.

“How PM Lee can achieve his vision of ‘a fairer, even more just and equal society’ by learning from Ngiam Tong Dow’s unfulfilled ideals for Singapore,” he wrote.

In the post, Mr Tan stated that PM Lee’s legacy would be a Third World economy structure with plenty of inequalities. This means that there will be an elite class of crony capitalists, million-dollar earning ministers, but with a large amount of low wage workforce.

“Lee Hsien Loong’s legacy: a typical Third World economic structure of huge economic inequalities with an elite class of crony capitalists (as defined by The Economist), millionaire ministers, civil servants and managers of GLCs on the one hand and on the other, a large low wage workforce with one third of children going to school without breakfast,” he said.

Mr Tan who served as a member of the Singapore civil service from 1979 to 1990, went on to point out that PM Lee’s “grave mistake” was not exactly in choosing better advisers, but rather repeated “poor judgement of people in his choice of 4G ministers whose absolute incompetence was laid bare to the entire world with their mishandling of the COVID-19 situation”.

As such, the SDP member suggested that the first thing that PM Lee can do to prevent further damage to Singapore is to replace his 4G ministers. Unfortunately, Mr Tan said that there are no other ministers who have proven ability to replace the current 4G ministers as well.

“The next best option is to sidestep them, keeping them as ministers in name only but working directly with civil servants in the ministries,” he suggested.

He added, “In this, he can take a leaf from founding PM LKY who treated ministers as grassroots managers sent out to win public support for issues already discussed and decided upon with civil servants like Sim Kee Boon, JYM Pillay and Ngiam.”

Separately, Mr Tan also noted that in normal circumstances, PM Lee does not have to “intervene and act to establish command and restore confidence”. However, in the current situation with “broken” leadership by 4G ministers in handling COVID-19 pandemic, as well as “rotten” system in the Liew Mun Leong vs Parti Liyani case, such intervention by the Prime Minister is necessary.

Mr Tan added that it is not “disastrous” to change ministers amid the pandemic and a severe economic recession. He cited leaderships of Abraham Lincoln and Xi JinPing in which such change had occurred before.

“The 16th US President was losing the Civil War but turned it around after he replaced his generals and took direct charge, winning key battles and thereby preserving the Union of America. More currently, Chinese President Xi Jinping also replaced the officials in Wuhan for mishandling the coronavirus epidemic and won the fight against COVID-19 early and ahead of most, if not all. PM Lee, like Lincoln and Xi, should not be afraid of changing horses in mid-stream,” Mr Tan explained.

If that’s not all, Mr Tan also noted that changing the country’s Prime Minister should wait until Mr Lee fully restores the “economy back on a sound footing”.

“In these transformational times brought about by COVID-19, he needs the full term of five years to restructure the economy so that it can adequately support his vision of “a fairer, ever more just and equal society” that he stated in Parliament recently.”

Singapore must move into a modern advanced economy with high paying jobs

Mr Tan also went on to point out that in order for PM Lee to achieve his vision, he has to help turn “Singapore into a modern advanced economy of the First World with high paying jobs and a Gini coefficient of below 0.3”.

This figure is in line with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average of 0.29.

According to Mr Tan, this can be done in two stages.

“Firstly, reintroduce the high wage policy proposed by Ngiam 40 years ago. High wages will force the pace of economic upgrading and lead to high quality jobs for our people.

“Secondly, make full use of the return on our national reserves to increase state subsidies in essential welfare services, particularly healthcare and education.”

The opposition politician also said that when Singapore founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew claimed that the city-state has changed from Third World to First, he was only half correct.

This is because Singapore was First World in terms of its GDP per capita and modern physical infrastructure, but still not there in fairness, justice and equality in accordance with a Gini coefficient of above 0.4, said Mr Tan.

“We are still behind even now. But thanks to the sacrifices of earlier generations of Singaporeans, we now have the means namely education, skills and financial reserves, to achieve ‘a fairer, ever more just and equal society’ within our lifetime,” he explained.

“Does PM Lee have the ‘iron’ in him to get the right people to help him achieve his vision and complete the journey to First World that founding PM LKY set out for Singapore?” Mr Tan concluded.

Subscribe
Notify of
42 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
You May Also Like

Minister Wong evades WP’s questions on key executive pays in GIC and Temasek

In Parliament yesterday (8 May), WP MP Png Eng Huat specifically tabled…

允许歌诗达幸运号游轮靠岸 黄循财:从我国出发、本就预定返航

针对游轮歌诗达幸运号(Costa Fortuna)今早在我国靠岸,国家发展部长黄循财强调,有关游轮的游客早前就已抵达新加坡、并乘坐游轮从新加坡出发,原就预定要返航我国。 “我们同意接受(游轮靠岸),但就像我们对所有游轮一样,采取额外措施,任何曾到过可能曝露感染风险地区的游客,都需接受医生检测,并且确保他们下游轮后就直接往机场。” 他说大部分游轮乘客都会在今晚离开新加坡,所有乘客在一两日内就会离开我国。 黄循财指出,对于那些传出疫情的地区,我国已落实入境限制,但我国并没有阻止来自其他地区的旅客来我国,“他们仍可来本地参与各种活动,他们仍可坐游轮到访其他地方、邻国再回来,再者船上也有新加坡游客。” 他认为应该从更广泛角度来看该采取什么方针来管理风险,例如针对本地人该采取哪些失当的减少接触措施。 有关乘客月2000人的游轮歌诗达幸运号,刚在本月3日从新加坡离开,且乘客再登船前,都已根据游轮管理层要求,进行离境前检查旅行记录和体温检测。 歌诗达幸运号是在上月25日从新加坡出发,曾前往泰国苏梅岛( Ko Samui)和林查班(Laem Chabang),较后到柬埔寨西哈努克。上周二(3日)返回新加坡,之后在5日抵达马国浮罗交怡。之后原本预定将在普吉岛和槟城停留 据了解该游轮上有64名意大利籍乘客。由于马国和泰国不准该游轮靠岸,致使游轮无法前往泰国普吉岛和槟城停留,只得提前返航。

Record Number of Working Adults Keen on Further Education

Kaplan Singapore ranked top again among all private education institutions (Singapore, 19…