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PM Lee’s National Day Rally: the key issues which he missed out

From our Correspondent

In his National Day rally, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong issued a rallying call for unity across different races and religions. (read article here)

A large part of his speech in English was devoted to addressing the climate of rising religious fervour.

He said that social cohesion was critical to Singapore’s long-term success, and singled out racial and religious divides as the ‘most visceral and dangerous fault line’, potentially worse than the rich-poor gap or any divide between Singaporeans and foreign residents.

While nobody can deny the fact that racial and social stability is a cornerstone of Singapore’s continued prosperity, the Prime Minister is perhaps overly concerned about it at the expense of more pressing divides afflicting our nation today - namely that between the rich and poor and between citizens and foreigners.

Racial and religious fault lines will always be present in a multi-racial society like Singapore. Though it can be managed to a certain extent by the state, it can never be eradicated completely.

The government’s enlightened policy towards all Singaporeans regardless of race or religion since independence had led to mutual tolerance and respect between Singaporeans. We no longer see ourselves as Chinese from China, Malays from Malaysia or Indians from India but as citizens of Singapore.

Unlike our neighboring countries, all races have equal chances in education, work and to succeed in life as long one is smart, capable and industrious enough.

The communal riots in the 1960s are of the past and while it served as a useful reminder to the importance of racial harmony, it should no longer be evoked as a scare-mongering tactic to frighten or threaten the people.

Singaporeans are pragmatic by nature. Though some may feel strongly about one’s faith, at the end of the day, they will be more concerned with earning enough money to feed themselves and families.

Prime Minister Lee’s example of a conflict between a Chinese and Malay family over the use of a void deck is completely off the tangent. The issue has nothing to do with race and religion at all. In fact, the fault lies with the Town Council which should have informed the Chinese family that the premises has already been booked for a Malay wedding when the application was first made. (read article here)

The Aware saga was used again to illustrate the inherent fault lines in our multi-religious society. On the contrary, the episode shows that Singaporeans are mature enough to deal with such differences in a civil, rational and reasonable manner. The Christian camp who took over Aware was ousted in the EGM. There were no social unrest. Sometimes it’s better to let the problem surface and sorted out rather than to allow it to fester underground.

There will always be extremists and zealots in every religion, be it Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Hinduism. The government should simply be an overall guardian instead of over-stretching itself to micromanage every isolated incident like the trivial “conflict” over the use of a HDB void deck. Besides, the government has control over almost all the major religious institutions in Singapore through which it can exert its influence.

This perennial obsession with race and religion makes one wonder if it is another smoke-screen to divert attention from the real issues affecting the nation and the follies of the government.

The most important issue on the minds of Singaporeans is how the government’s pro-foreigner policy is going to affect their livelihoods, as reflected in 70% of the questions asked by respondents calling in to 93.8 Live.

There is no doubt that Singaporeans need foreign workers, but the question is, are we getting the real talents or the riff-rafts who end up displacing Singaporeans from their work?

In the past, foreigners working in Singapore can be broadly divided into two categories: the skilled professionals employed in highly specialized industries and the low-skilled blue collar workers taking on jobs that Singaporeans are not keen to take such as construction.

Nowadays, foreigners can be found literally everywhere. The clinic assistant of your nearby family clinic may be a Filipino. The waitress serving you at posh western restaurant in the city is most likely a PRC. Geylang is now a “Little China” with enterprising PRCs opening eateries, shopping marts and of course brothels there. Even the receptionists at POSB and Singpost are foreigners! With the exception of prostitution, which of these jobs can’t be taken up by Singaporeans? (though in recent years, there have been a rise in the number of Singaporean women doing “freelance” work including undergraduates)

To compound matters, these foreigners can easily obtain PRs and citizenships which leads to a relentless rise in the cost of living, including public housing. As they do not have to serve National Service, our local-born Singaporean men are at a disadvantage because they have to be away for up to 28 days a year for reservist training. Are we competing with these new-comers on a fair and equal basis?

The influx of cheap, foreign labor only helps to keep our GDP growth respectable, boost the profits of the major corporates and state-linked company and of course fatten the pockets of our ministers whose a segment of their salaries is pegged to the GDP. However, ordinary Singaporeans are not seeing the real benefit of the economy growth, especially the lower-income group whose pay has stagnated for the last decade.

A company’s ultimate purpose is to generate as much profit as possible. Therefore, it is only reasonable and logical for them to employ foreigners to keep their labor cost down. A government’s role is to take care of the people who voted for them and not economic growth at all cost. What’s the point of having yearly GDP growth exceeding 5% when the people in the street are toiling like a dog day in and out just to feed themselves without having any savings left for their golden years?

The second issue which the Prime Minister completely ignored is the rising prices of HDB flats, contributed partly by the influx of foreigners and the government’s policies.

Public housing should be kept cheap and affordable by the masses and therefore its prices must be strictly controlled by the government instead of leaving it entirely to free market forces.

A HDB flat is a necessity, not a luxury in Singapore. There will always be a demand for HDB flats. When we let in more buyers into the market, than demand is definitely only to increase in the face of a limited supply of flats. It is inevitable that prices will rise.

The Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Lim Hwee Hua said that HDB flats remained affordable as not more than 30% of the monthly pay of Singaporeans are used to service the mortage loan. Of course everybody can “afford” a HDB flat because the banks offer loans of up to 80% and one need only put down a payment of a couple of thousands dollars, but has anybody bothered to look at the plight of our citizens 10, 20 and 30 years down the road? Is it healthy for the nation to have more than half its population burdened with housing debts?

Supposed a Singapore worker earning a median pay of $3,400 monthly uses 30% of it to service his housing loan and 20% for his CPF contribution, he will be left with only $1,700. A single person may well survive with this amount of money, but it is barely sufficient to raise a family in this present time and climate where the cost of living has sky-rocketed. Last year, our inflation rate hit a record of 6.7%.

Assuming this faithful Singaporean who trusted the government entirely, slogging hard daily to earn a living and contribute to the economy, will he have any savings left for his own retirement when he grows old? Can he count on his children to support him then? Who is going to foot his hefty medical bills which remain “affordable” as claimed by the government? Singapore has no social safety net. Once your productive life has expired, you are as good as an invalid.

The third issue which the Prime Minister failed to address is the gigantic losses suffered by Temasek and GIC. He should at least offer Singaporeans an apology. Temasek and GIC are not private companies. They are (supposedly) under the charge of the Ministry of Finance which answers to the Prime Minister. There’s no way Mr Lee can escape his responsibility even if he is not directly involved in the investments.

How can a country which lost a few billion dollars of its reserves be so nonchalant about it? This is no small amount of money, enough to send a few countries into bankruptcy. How can our Prime Minister, as well as the other ministers pretend nothing has happened? Who is going to take the rap? Where is the accountability? Is there any transparency left in this government?

It is true that the global economic crisis is something beyond our control. And it is not the intention of the directors at both SWFs to lose money, but how does it explain the fact that some SWFs like the China’s and Timor Leste’s still manage to make a profit and Abu Dhabi making a tidy profit of $2.5 billion pounds from its sale of Barclay shares while we lost $500 million pounds? We put our trust in the government to appoint the most talented and experienced people to manage our reserves. Now that we have incurred such tremendous losses, which can be put to much better use to help the poor and needy in Singapore, surely somebody must take the blame? Or are we responsible for the predicament we are in?

The last, but most important point which the Prime Minister did not mention in his National Day Rally and one which most Singaporeans are not aware of is our obsolete one-party based political system - the greatest mortal danger to our nation, not race or religion.

The government of Singapore is a democracy in name only, but not in practice. It does not even resembles a one-party authoritarian state like China, ruled by consensus amongs various centers of power, each providing a sort of check on each other. What we have today can be best described as a “mandarinate” system like the feudal dynasties of China, ruled by one single authority whose words are edicts to be obeyed by all.

Democracy may not be a perfect system of government, but it is the least of all evils because it allows a free competition of ideas, civic participation and most importantly an institutionalized system of check and balance on the government. There is clear separation of powers between the executive and the legislative. It can be chaotic, inefficient and unproductive at times, but it is the only system which can build a society based on justice and equality.

Under the present incumbent, which controls the police, media and the state bureaucrary, elections are nothing more than an exercise to legitimatize its “mandate” in the eyes of the international community, not that they care much about puny Singapore anyway. No opposition can ever hope to achieve a sizeable presence to deny the ruling party its customary two-third majority under the present system in the next 50 years because the system is designed as such to ensure, promote and perpetuate one-party rule, or a “strong” government according to the Prime Minister himself.

After 44 years of independence, we are still ruled by an octagenarian who can never be wrong. Aren’t we pathetic? Some people in our country are more equal than others. No matter what mistakes they make, they do not have to pay for it and yet still able to command the respect, adoration and admiration of the people. Of course with our media putting even the Soviet Union’s Pravda or China’s Xinhua news agency to shame, even the world’s greatest mass murderer like Mao Zedong can be transformed into a saint.

Singapore’s system of government is poorly equipped for a future fraught with challenges and dangers. A society which does not tolerate alternative and dissenting views is one devoid of ideas, vibrancy and dynamicism. It may be useful to maintain social stability, but it can never inspire its people to take on the world to fulfil our nation’s potential. A people who is apathetic, cowardly and unthinking can only be followers and not leaders. What Singapore need are world-class thinkers, intellectuals and visionaries and unfortunately, they cannot exist in a closed society which does not foster freedom and independence of thought.

More importantly, this system of government makes it easy for incompetent men to masquerade as ”leaders” when they are not to exploit the country for their own selfish gains and we will have no way to remove them through legal means. We are blessed that we have quite a number of decent men and women now in the government, but who can gurantee that we will not let in a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” in the future? There is a Chinese saying: “Human nature is hard to fathom”. All we need is one Yuan Shikai to destroy the entire nation. We cannot afford to take any chances. (Yuan Shikai was a Qing general responsible for bringing an end to the dynasty when he refused orders to fight the republican troops belonging to Sun Yat Sen and forced the young Emperor Puyi to abdicate)

At this crucial juncture in our nation’s history, many questions remained unanswered and problems ignored by the establishment. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. When the government is “strong”, the people will inevitably end up weak, obedient and subservient, like a herd of blind sheep being chased around by the sheep-dog. The bitter truth we must face today is: Singaporeans are not the owners of their land of birth. We are no more than modern-day serfs toiling for the benefit of the aristocracy.