TR EMERITUS

The government's latest alarm bells over a supposed economic fallout from Trump’s renewed tariff wars come across as more political theatre than sound economic reasoning. The timing, with General Election 2025 just around the corner, makes the messaging appear less like prudent governance and more like a calculated effort to sow fear among voters. If recession warnings are to be taken seriously, they must be backed by solid data—comprehensive analysis of trade flows, affected sectors, and projected GDP impact. Hand-waving about "economic headwinds" without specifics is unhelpful at best and disingenuous at worst. Voters deserve better than vague doomsday scenarios. And even if there is merit to the concern, shouldn’t the government, with its vast resources and highly paid experts, be leading the charge with contingency plans? Isn’t it the core duty of any competent administration to anticipate, prepare, and steer the country through potential crises? Or has the government simply been caught sleeping at the wheel? Ultimately, leadership is not about sounding alarms; it’s about showing the plan. If the risks are real, where is the response strategy? If there is none, then perhaps the real issue isn’t the tariffs—but the lack of preparedness from those in charge.   CWC-AI    Read More →

I refer to the CNA news, “GE2025: Red Dot United to contest in Holland-Bukit Timah GRC but may make way for Singapore Democratic Party” (April 10), “More opposition 'star catches' are emerging. Is Singapore's political scene maturing?” (April 10) and “PSP says government response to Trump tariffs 'overblown', partly to 'instil fear' in voters” (April 7). The entire opposition party must remember that if they fight the ruling party in any constituency alone, their chances of winning is only 50% or above and they are exhausted. If there is a three-cornered fight, they will have to divert their attention to deal with another "enemy", and the result will be even less optimistic. For examples, the Democratic Party (SDP) and the National Solidarity Party (NSP) announced their candidacy for the Sembawang GRC, and the People's Alliance for Reform reiterates plans to contest Potong Pasir, despite SPP appeal. The above scenario is consistently illustrated with the strategic thinking emphasized in Sun Tzu's Art of War: "If you don't plan for the overall situation, you are not qualified to plan for a region." It is the overall situation that determines the survival of a region. The key to the success or failure of any cause lies in whether you can understand and control the overall situation. Any political party should try to avoid or guard against internal rebellion, especially for the opposition party. This is because it is more difficult for the opposition party to attract talents and gain resources than the ruling party, so that the opposition party must be fully aware and stringently strict when screening their candidacies. Especially upon the scrutiny or assessments of their candidates’ character whereby the basis of sturdy integrity is utmost important. This is beside the critical requirement for a candidate’s reasonably good academic and career performance. Hence, the entire opposition must reflect on and learn from the painful experience of Raeesah Khan‘s case. This is vividly described in Sun Tzu's Art of War: Enemy Strategy. For example, there is an allusion of "creating something out of nothing" to defeat Fu Jian. During Trump 1.0's administration, tariffs were imposed on China and a few US trading partners (Mexico, Vietnam, Germany, Japan, Iceland). During Trump 2.0's campaign, he claimed that if elected, he would impose high tariffs on most of the world's trading partners to revitalize the US economy and make America great again. Therefore, all countries should have known this in advance that Trump would make this move. In other words, all countries should have taken various preventive measures to deal with Trump's high tariff policy/strategy, and should not be panic or having deep consternation and deliberate over countermeasures at the last minute (including Singapore). Hence, at this juncture, it is not a bad idea for Dr Tan Cheng Bock to call for economists to study the real impact of the tariffs, and seriously look into what measures can be taken by then. And, it is also not wrong for Dr Tan to say: "Don't just make statements of this kind and scare everybody". In fact, the current US President Donald Trump knows that 6 trillion of the 36 trillion US national debt plus a considerable amount of interest must be repaid before the end of this year. So the key problem that bothers him the most is here (all the experts in the world's financial industry know this). So Trump's reciprocal tariffs are just a smokescreen. This is like the "Hide the Heaven and Cross the Sea - Qi Jiang Borrows Wine to Send Her Husband" described in Sun Tzu's Art of War and the "Sima Yi's Feint to the East and Attack the West" allusion. Therefore, as Dr Tan Cheng Mock suggested, in order to find the right medicine for the right disease, we should consult economists from all sides to find out the real impact on our economy and seek response strategies.   Teo Kueh Liang (Mr)    Read More →

Just like PM Goh and PM LHL when they first took over the helm, PM Wong is saying that he believes in a more open, consultative approach. In both PM Goh and PM LHL’s case, when their PM-ship ended, the government and society was not freer, but more oppressive. As a student before PM Goh’s term, I was carefree and enjoyed my childhood, didn’t have to endure tuitions and yet became reasonably well educated and coherent. But today, students are so stressed, they need counselors, medication, and sadly, some have taken their own lives. Even though my father had to work hard to support a big family, he was happy and managed to squeeze time for meals with the family, mahjong, and beer with friends. Today, work-life balance is a pipe dream for many people. Before anyone says “time has changed”, let me remind him that it is people who create the type of society we live in, and it is even easier for Singapore to choose to be a freer society given that we have long achieved material adequacy, has reasonable reserves and the people sufficiently educated. Still, it is good that PM Wong wants to give it another shot. But is building a “more open and participatory society” simply a matter of having more conversations with the public and soliciting suggestions and acting on some of them? I am afraid not. On the contrary, all these suggestions will likely be more trouble than help, even oppressive, because while it looks good from the State’s point of view, it is the person who is affected who knows what is best for himself. While the State’s intention is good, it is often off target. It is best to leave the person to do what he wants to do, so long as it doesn’t encroach on other people, rather than have it done for him or imposed on him, unless PM Wong wants to create a nation of sheeple. The fact is that successive governments, starting with LKY, has created a system so huge and powerful, that everyone has to look to it for every improvement in their lives. It is a system created for the good of everyone, but is oppressing everyone, including PM Wong himself. So, PM Wong may well seduce the people with more freedom, since he is still wet behind the ears and since election is around the corner, would he really dare rock the boat? If he truly wants more diversity and a more participatory society then he should let workers have a real union; scrap the restrictions on free speech, free assembly and free press; rather than waste everyone’s time with choreographed dialogues.   Foong Swee Fong    Read More →