Tag: Elections

Why Singapore Is The World’s Most Successful Society

Singapore turns 50 on Aug. 9, 2015. Is Singapore the most successful society since human history began? Or, to put it differently, did Singapore improve the living standards of its people faster and more comprehensively than any other society?

The only way to answer these questions is with empirical data. The most basic needs of any human being are food, shelter, health, education and employment. Did Singapore improve the delivery of those basic needs faster than any other society?

When Singapore was expelled from Malaysia in 1965 and thrust into an unwanted independence, it was a typical Third World country. Its per capita income of $500 was the same as Ghana’s then. It was not desperately poor, but it had malnutrition. I know this personally as I was put on a special feeding program when I joined school in the first grade, drinking milk from a pail with a ladle shared by other children.

Table 1: Comparison of real GDP per capita

*Using constant 2005 USD

This malnutrition disappeared quickly. Singapore’s per capita income has shot from $500 to $55,000 today, the largest increase any newly independent nation has enjoyed. This spectacular economic success story of Singapore is clearly amazing. Yet, when I was Singapore’s ambassador to the UN in the 1980s, the then head of UNICEF, the American James Grant, used to chide me for speaking about it.

Table 2: Percent increase in real GDP from year listed to 2014

*Using constant 2005 USD

He told me that Singapore’s success in another area was even more spectacular. We had reduced our infant mortality faster than any other society, going down from 35 per 1,000 live births in 1965 to 10.90 in 1985. James Grant was right. Babies are the most vulnerable members of any society. When they live instead of dying, they reflect an improving social ecosystem that keeps them alive.

The babies who lived in Singapore went on to enjoy one of the best education systems in the world. The OECD ranked 15-year-old Singaporean children number one in the world in a recent global ranking of “Universal Basic Skills” in mathematics and science. Singapore students also topped the OECD PISA problem solving test in 2012.

There are many other areas where Singapore’s social standards top the charts. From the Singapore with slums that I grew up in, we now have the highest home ownership of any country in the world, with 90 percent of residents living in homes they own. Even amongst households in the lowest 20 percent of incomes, over 80 percent own their own homes. Rapidly rising salaries and strong compulsory saving schemes, through the Central Provident Fund, led to this incredibly high home ownership.

So why did Singapore succeed so comprehensively? The simple answer is exceptional leadership. Many in the world have heard of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew, the founding prime minister who passed away in March this year. Far fewer have heard of Dr. Goh Keng Swee, the architect of Singapore’s economic miracle, and Mr. S. Rajaratnam,Singapore’s philosopher par excellence.

Together, they made a great team.

This exceptional team also implemented three exceptional policies: Meritocracy, Pragmatism and Honesty. Indeed, I share this “secret” MPH formula with every foreign student at the Lee Kuan Yew School, and I assure them that if they implement it, their country will succeed as well as Singapore. Meritocracy means a country picks its best citizens, not the relatives of the ruling class, to run a country. Pragmatism means that a country does not try to reinvent the wheel. As Dr. Goh Keng Swee would say to me, “Kishore, no matter what problem Singapore encounters, somebody, somewhere, has solved it. Let us copy the solution and adapt it to Singapore.” Copying best practices is something any country can do. However, implementing “Honesty” is the hardest thing to do. Corruption is the single biggest reason why most Third World countries have failed. The greatest strength of Singapore’s founding fathers was that they were ruthlessly honest. It also helped that they were exceptionally shrewd and cunning.

Still, Singapore has its fair share of detractors. Its political system was widely viewed as being an “enlightened dictatorship,” even though free elections have been held every five years. Its media is widely perceived to be controlled by the government and Singapore is ranked number 153 out of 180 by Reporters Without Borders in 2015 on the Press Freedom Index. Many human rights organizations criticize it. Freedom House ranks Singapore as “partially free.”

Undoubtedly, some of these criticisms have some validity. Yet, the Singapore population is one of the best educated populations and, hence, globally mobile. They could vote with their feet if Singapore were a stifling “un-free” society. Most choose to stay. Equally importantly, some of the most talented people in the world, including Americans and Europeans, are giving up their citizenship to become Singapore citizens. Maybe they have noticed something that the Western media has not noticed: Singapore is one of the best places to be born in and to live in. Quite amazingly, a society destined to fail in 1965 has become one of the world’s greatest success stories.

Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

August 6, 2015
SPP’s Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss To Contest In Mounbatten SMC

Singapore People’s Party member Jeannette Chong-Aruldoss confirmed on Tuesday (Aug 4) that she will be contesting in the Mountbatten SMC in the upcoming General Election.

The former National Solidarity Party member had contested in the same ward in the 2011 General Election, when she lost to People’s Action Party candidate Lim Biow Chuan. She garnered 41.4 per cent of the vote and he, 58.6 per cent.

Ms Chong-Aruldoss, a lawyer at Archilex Law Corporation, first alluded to her interest in Mountbatten SMC in a Facebook post on Jul 24, where she said: “As I promised four years ago, I’ll be back at the polls in GE 2015. I promise to work even harder to win the hearts and minds of Mountbatten. Stay tuned.”

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

August 5, 2015
Senior Civil Servant Resigns, Hints At Entering Politics

The Second Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI), Mr Chee Hong Tat, has indicated that he is leaving the civil service to enter politics in the coming general election.

The 41-year-old, whose resignation was announced yesterday, told The Straits Times: “I hope to have the opportunity to continue serving Singapore and Singaporeans.”

In response to whether he was leaving to enter politics, he said that he enjoyed public sector work. “I find it is very meaningful.”

The Public Service Division, in announcing his departure, said his last day of work is Aug 11.

Public servants are required to resign before they can enter politics, so they are traditionally the last to be unveiled as election candidates by political parties.

The announcement of Mr Chee’s exit from the civil service came ahead of a meeting of People’s Action Party (PAP) branch secretaries from across the island at the party headquarters in Bedok last night.

Though they meet regularly, sources told The Straits Times that last night’s meeting had a decidedly election feel.

For example, the branch secretaries – the men and women who run ground operations in the PAP’s 87 branches – were told by party leaders to “expect momentum to pick up after National Day”.

They were urged to ensure that logistics, like activists’ roles during the campaign period, are settled soon. The branch secretaries also discussed where opposition parties had been sighted, and potential problems that could arise during the campaign.

One branch secretary, for example, feared that his team may suffer burnout before the polls take place, as they have been in “election mode” for a while.

The ruling party looks to be in the final stages of electoral preparation, with Mr Chee likely to be the last of its public sector candidates to tender his resignation.

The others include Ms Rahayu Mahzam, 35, the outgoing deputy registrar of the Syariah Court, and teacher Shamsul Kamar, 43, who is also serving out his notice period.

Another high-flier likely to enter politics is Chief of Defence Force, Lieutenant-General Ng Chee Meng, 47, who announced last Friday that he will retire from the Singapore Armed Forces on Aug 18.

Mr Chee has recently been attending community events with Bishan- Toa Payoh GRC MP Hri Kumar Nair, who is expected to retire from politics at the next polls.

An officer of the elite Administrative Service since 1998, Mr Chee graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with degrees in electrical engineering and computer science as well as in economics. He has held various appointments in such ministries as Home Affairs, Finance, Transport and Education.

He was Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s principal private secretary in 2008 when the late founding Prime Minister was Minister Mentor. He was also chief executive of the Energy Market Authority (EMA) from 2011 to April this year.

Mr Chee was appointed Second Permanent Secretary at the Trade and Industry Ministry last year.

His responsibilities included international trade policies, tourism, competition policy, entrepreneurship and enterprise development.

The Public Service Division said he was active in promoting a business-friendly environment and helping small and medium-sized enterprises, or SMEs, to raise their competitiveness through innovation, market access and developing their capability.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

August 5, 2015
WP, NSP In Heated Wrangle Over 3 Constituencies

A day after opposition leaders emerged all smiles from a three-hour meeting and declared that most potential multi-cornered fights had been resolved, it emerged yesterday that discussions were dominated by a heated tussle between the Workers’ Party (WP) and the National Solidarity Party (NSP) over Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency (GRC), Jalan Besar GRC and the MacPherson single-seat ward.

At one point, an NSP representative even threatened to send a team to contest in Aljunied GRC — which is held by the WP — if the WP refused to back down, sources who attended the closed-door meeting at the NSP’s Jalan Besar headquarters told TODAY.

The sources, who declined to be identified as the parties had agreed on keeping the discussions confidential, said the WP stood firm on its decision to send a team to contest Marine Parade GRC, where the NSP had lost in the 2011 General Election despite garnering 43.4 per cent of the votes.

The NSP had asked for the WP to withdraw its interest in Jalan Besar GRC, in return for the NSP to give up contesting Marine Parade GRC. The WP said no. There was also no room for negotiation on MacPherson Single-Member Constituency (SMC), which the NSP is also eyeing, the sources added. They said the WP maintained that it will not budge on the five GRCs (Aljunied, East Coast, Marine Parade, Nee Soon, Jalan Besar) and five SMCs (Hougang, Punggol East, Fengshan, MacPherson and Sengkang West) which it had declared its interest in, following the release of the electoral boundaries report last month.

Yesterday, both the WP and NSP conducted house visits in Serangoon Central — which falls under Marine Parade GRC — with the two entourages only hundreds of metres away from each other.

WP Non-Constituency MP Yee Jenn Jong, who is likely to lead the WP’s team in Marine Parade GRC, told TODAY that his party’s position on the GRC is “firm”. The NSP declined comment, referring to the ongoing discussions that will resume tomorrow.

In the 2011 GE, Mr Yee had contested and lost narrowly in Joo Chiat SMC, which has been absorbed into Marine Parade GRC for the coming elections. Mr Yee said that apart from continuing to walk the ground in Joo Chiat after the GE, he had also started outreach efforts in the rest of the Marine Parade GRC area since “more than a year ago”.

Apart from Mr Yee, WP potential candidate Terence Tan, 44, was also spotted at the party’s house visits in Serangoon Central.

Mr Tan, who was one of the speakers at a WP rally in the Punggol East by-election in 2013, is a lawyer. He is on the legal team representing the Aljunied-Hougang-Punggol East (AHPETC) Town Council in the ongoing court case against the Ministry of National Development. The ministry is appealing against a High Court’s refusal to appoint independent accountants to oversee government grants to the AHPETC.

For the NSP, central executive committee members Steve Chia and Spencer Ng were among party members and supporters canvassing support in Serangoon Central, several blocks of flats away from the WP group.

Political analyst Eugene Tan noted the guiding principle among some in the opposition circles that a party that had contested in a ward would have “the first right to contest there”. “The WP, however, has never explicitly agreed to that,” said the Singapore Management University law don.

While the WP could be seen by the NSP as butting into Marine Parade GRC, “voters may not necessarily see the WP as a bully if it were to contest in both MacPherson and Marine Parade”, said Associate Professor Tan. “They are likely to subscribe (to the belief) that voters should be able to vote for the best candidates from the opposition, rather than having opposition candidates foisted on them as a result of a political compromise.”

Assoc Prof Tan noted the absence of WP leaders Low Thia Khiang and Sylvia Lim from the horse-trading talks on Monday. On the WP’s firm stance on where it would be contesting, he said: “It’s effectively saying that other opposition parties going into a multi-cornered electoral contest with it (and the People’s Action Party) are doing so at their own risk.”

National University of Singapore political scientist Bilveer Singh felt that the NSP has “strong grounds” to contest in Marine Parade GRC and MacPherson SMC. “What happens when two rationalities clash? In politics you give and take, something the Opposition is not good at in Singapore so far,” he said.

He felt that opposition parties such as WP and NSP have “already put the cart before the horse and that is going to make horse trading next to impossible”. “Whenever the (opposition) parties clash among themselves, simple logic tells you that it will benefit the incumbent, the PAP in this case. The key to the game is reaching a consensus on where each party should contest.”

Source: www.todayonline.com

August 5, 2015
Goh Chok Tong To Stand In Marine Parade, Reveals ‘Likely Team’

Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong, who has been an MP in Marine Parade since 1976, said on Tuesday (Aug 4) that he will likely stand in the next election.

In a post on the Marine Parade Facebook page, he revealed the People’s Action Party (PAP)’s likely line-up in his five-member GRC for the next election.

Four of the five members of the current team will remain, except Ms Tin Pei Ling, whose MacPherson ward will be carved out as a single seat in the next General Election (GE).

The fifth member of ESM Goh’s team is likely to be first-term MP Edwin Tong, whose current Jalan Besar ward is part of the soon-to-be-dissolved Moulmein-Kallang GRC.

He will likely be fielded in the Joo Chiat division, a closely-contested single seat that will be absorbed into Marine Parade GRC for the next GE. Joo Chiat’s current MP, Charles Chong, is expected to contest the Workers’ Party-held single seat of Punggol East.

Mr Tong attended his first public event at the constituency, a National Day celebratory parade, on Sunday. He also attended the Joo Chiat National Day dinner the same day.

Said ESM Goh: “At my request, (the) party sent Edwin Tong to Marine Parade GRC to be tested for Joo Chiat.”

“This is likely to be the MP GRC team for GE,” he added, referring to a picture of himself, Mr Tong, Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin and veteran backbenchers Fatimah Lateef and Mr Seah Kian Peng

“As for me, a few friends have suggested that I retire as I have done enough for the country. But Marine Parade residents and many others urge me to stay on. They say the country and Marine Parade still need me.”

He added that he will explain his decision at the GRC’s National Day dinner to be held on Aug 14.

The PAP slate won 56.7 per cent of the vote against the National Solidarity Party (NSP) in 2011, which was the ruling party’s second-closest shave in a group representation constituency, after East Coast.

It was also the first contest the constituency had seen since 1992 by-election, and the first time the vote share in its history had fallen below 70 per cent.

The constituency is also shaping up for a tough fight in the next hustings, with both the Workers’ Party (WP) and NSP having said they intend to contest there. The Straits Times also understands that this was one of the flashpoints at an opposition meeting on Monday, with neither party wanting to budge.

Also on Tuesday, Mr Tan posted about the Joo Chiat National Day dinner on his Facebook page: “Appreciate the hospitality shown to both ESM and myself! We’d miss Charles but welcome Edwin Tong who will get to know all of you better, along with us in the team.”

Source: www.straitstimes.com

August 5, 2015