TR EMERITUS

There are no two ways about it. The secret stays secret. Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh tried again in Parliament yesterday, asking to be enlightened about the size of Singapore’s reserves. Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat considered the question superfluous, telling the story told before of why it could not be answered, for national security and strategic reasons. He told Pritam off: “It is neither in the interest of Singapore or Singaporeans to repeatedly ask about the size of our reserves. We are in the middle of a storm, and I’m very disappointed that Mr Pritam Singh has used this occasion to raise this question again.” We can trace it all back to more than 20 years ago, when President Ong Teng Cheong’s dispute with the government started after he ordered a report on the national reserves. He was met with a stone wall, the government declaring that it would take 56 man years to produce a dollar and cents value of its assets. As President Ong would later recount: “I had a job to do, whether the government liked it or not . . . You see, if you ask me to protect the reserves, then you’ve got to tell me what I’m supposed to protect. So I had to ask.” After his six-year term ended (1993-1999), President Ong was told that the cabinet would not support him for a second six-year term. He maintained that he did not need the cabinet to support his re-election bid, but an anguished and dispirited President Ong eventually decided not to contest against the government’s candidate S R Nathan. So it doesn’t matter whether you are the President of Singapore, vested with veto powers over the spending of national reserves or the leader of the opposition elected into Parliament to be a bridge between the people and the government. You can ask till the cows come home but you will still not get an answer. The size of Singapore’s reserves – like the salary of Ho Ching – shall remain a state secret.   Augustine Low      Read More →

Soh Rui Yong I could not find a better description than 'Little Emperor' to describe Singapore National Olympic Council (SNOC) regarding their decision to drop Soh Rui Yong (SRY), our national distance runner from representing Singapore at the Asian Games in Hangzhou starting 23 September 23. SNOC's president is Tan Chuan Jin, a public figure whom I could have respected more but I don't. To begin, SRY is a potential medal winner and although his behaviours were somewhat unfortunate and undesirable and fellow readers can goggle to understand better, they were not fatal, so, in this case, we need to ask some pointed and relevant questions, ie, what do we see in SRY? I ask if SNOC is looking for a polished gentleman and his demeanour, his spoken Queen's English, his impeccable character, his educational level, his income level or his athletic prowess and potential? The answer is clear, ie, none of the mentioned except the last one. I would even go as far to argue that even if he is serving a short prison sentence for some minor offences but being a clear medal winner, we must be big hearted enough with foresight and magnanimity to allow him to represent Singapore, win some medals for Singapore first and he can continue to serve his remaining prison duration afterwards. Regarding SNOC's decision on this matter, I consider the organisation under the presidentship of Tan Chuan Jin lacks clear sense of balance, priority and vision. A spade maybe a big spoon to many suckers but to me, it is not! This little emperor certainly could have done better and I believe that many people are equally disappointed. Think.   Simon Goh      Read More →

I was greeted this morning, by the carefully choreographed news that Tharman will be resigning from his Ministerial post and from the PAP in order to run for President. This was a mild surprise as I had expected LHL to foist his wife on Singaporeans and that this is why she had resigned as CEO of Temasek to head up its charitable arm. (Now I am really concerned about why she stepped sideways but that’s for another day) I guess pains will be taken to ensure that Tharman is the only candidate and he will be elected unopposed. The PM has carefully tightened the criteria to exclude everyone who has not been a PAP Minister or run a sovereign wealth fund or been a Supreme Court judge or civil servant appointed by him. So it looks like Tharman will be the third Indian President out of the last four. The PAP will be hoping that Tharman’s general popularity will rub off on them in the impending General Election. To many he represents the acceptable face of the PAP and a success story of assimilation and integration of ethnic minorities. I know or knew Tharman personally. He was doing an M.Phil, a vanity degree at Cambridge when I was an undergraduate and during his time in the UK he and his Japanese Singaporean wife were friends with exiles such as Tan Wah Piow and Ho Juan Thai (at whose house i saw Jane Ittogi, Tharman’s wife, though she was careful not to introduce herself to my father and me.) He has demonstrated clearly to me that he will always choose money and career prospects over doing the right thing and that he is not a brave man. I considered him a good acquaintance at Cambridge and indeed we used to regularly meet for coffee after lectures where we discussed economics and he appeared to be quite left wing and to support Marxist economic theory. However when I tried to meet up with him in Singapore after graduation he was suddenly afraid to be seen with me even for a coffee. He’d started working at MAS by that time and was clearly afraid that continuing any contact with the son of the Opposition leader could damage his career prospects. Much in the manner that his wife avoided us at HJT’s house. He also didn’t continue his friendships with the exiles in the UK once back in Singapore. Another conclusion could be that he was actually already spying for the PAP in the UK and this is why he kept close to the dissidents in one group and to me at Cambridge. From his behaviour, I don’t see how he can represent all Singaporeans or do what is right when he was scared to even have a coffee. I wasn’t in politics at that time. This is a man who is too susceptible to pressure and the role of EP is supposed be above politics. Suffice to say I don’t see him as a man imbued with a great deal of moral integrity. But this is not just a personal view. There is also the matter of his criminal conviction for a breach under the Official Secrets Act. Whilst Director of the Economics Department he allowed journalists at a meeting to see advance figures for GDP growth which were written on a document that he had with him. The meeting was with private sector journalists and one of his junior colleagues. He was tried and acquitted of the original charge of “communication” of the figures but the court introduced a lesser charge of negligence. He also contested that but the court nonetheless convicted him and the other accused. Consider that for a moment. The role of EP being to guard state assets may go to a man who when in a senior civil service position was convicted of negligence in revealing our data. Or we can just hope that this works in our favour and that Tharman as EP, writes down the amount of the reserves and leaves that piece of paper in the view of foreign journalists. As a result of the conviction Tharman, the Director of the Economics Department of MAS was somehow fined less than the journalists who viewed his figures. For the conviction of negligence he was fined $1,500 which was just below the limit to disqualify him from standing as an MP. His co-accused were all fined $2,000. Surprise surprise, a few years later Tharman resigned from MAS to stand as an MP in Jurong GRC. Tharman’s lenient treatment stands in stark contrast with that meted out to JBJ who was barred from standing by the Presidential Elections Committee in 1993 which simply said he was not of sufficient moral character despite the Privy Council having told the Government that it needed to reverse JBJ’s false conviction for a non-existent offence and that JBJ had suffered a grievous miscarriage of justice. Changes to eligibility based on skin colour were introduced to keep Tan Cheng Bock out of the race yet as I said Tharman will be the third Indian EP in a row. More recently Lee Hsien Yang was advised that he was unlikely to meet the criteria to run for the Elected Presidency given a court finding in the Oxley Road saga. It is therefore quite astonishing that Tharman, convicted by a court, will face no such impediment. Sadly I fear that Singaporeans no longer appreciate the basic pillars needed for democracy such as checks and balances. If they even believe that democracy is a desirable form of government. A key reason for me, that Tharman should be disqualified from running for President is that he is a former Finance Minister and thus played a key role in presenting fraudulent accounts at every Budget. I have written extensively about the tricks the Government employs to hide money and to mischaracterize hypothetical future spending as current. In 2012 I wrote a letter to the head of the IMF pointing out that Singapore’s budgetary framework did not follow IMF best practice. Since leaving the role of Finance Minister Tharman has continued in the roles of Chairman of MAS and in 2019 was appointed Deputy Chairman of GIC (LHL is the Chairman) and head of its Investment Committee. It is a patently ludicrous conflict of interest to have someone who was in charge of the management our reserves to move to a position where they are in charge of checking on the past management of those reserves, just as you would not have an investment manager allowed to audit their own investment fund. As we call it : Ownself Check Ownself. I said earlier that the EP has to be above politics. I wrote an open letter to our current President asking for an Independent Commission of Inquiry into the SLA’s management of the Ridout Road properties and their tenants the Ministers. Clearly the Government cannot run their own inquiry into their own Ministers. She has not replied but also notably silent is Tharman himself even on the moral issues. I am not surprised given my knowledge of Tharman’s character and Tharman himself has also given the Press a very clear account of how he views the role of EP. According to his interview on CNA he would not even see himself as a co-driver but as a back-up driver defending the PAP government from the rear. Say goodbye to any checks and balances with this president. Interestingly Tharman’s humble “just part of the team” sports analogy doesn’t hold up with his love of tennis. He played singles tennis regularly with Tan Wah Piow and I have never heard that he stood in the back of the court allowing himself to be pelted with balls. For Tharman to be Elected President is just another example of the PAP’s flagrant disregard of any of the normal rules of checks and balances that apply in other countries. It is on a par wh the PM condoning or approving the appointment of his wife. At one point there was a kind of movement to forward Tharman as a candidate for Prime Minister. In response LHL and Heng Swee Kiat announced that Singapore’s government is a racist entity that determines a person’s value by their skin colour. I imagine the Presidency was offered up as a consolation prize to Tharman, for not making a fuss at the time. Although with his card marked by the earlier conviction he hasn’t really ever been in position to express an independent thought. Indeed the EP from the time when the first President was not able to find out the size of our reserves has always just been a Wayang used to demonstrate to the outside world that our government is not authoritarian and presiding over a virtual one party state.   Kenneth Jeyaretnam   About the author: I’m a Singaporean economist who became an opposition activist. I blog to provide an alternative to the porkies that the Pinkies tell. It just so happens that my alternative is the truth. That’s why I’ve never been sued in any civil or criminal court no matter how hard hitting my criticism. I’m quoted and interviewed and asked to speak across the world but largely censored in Singapore in an effort to silence my political opinions. The left hate me because they think I split their vote and because I eschew their outmoded economic models. Models that don’t work. The Right and the Conservatives hate me because I’m a liberal. I’m not sure what the middle think of me. I don’t think there are more than a handful of people in the middle, here in Singapore. I’m a Singaporean born and bred, dual heritage, my parents Singaporean established here before the State of Singapore was created. I’m not Eurasian. I read economics at Cambridge and could be broadly described as from the Keynesian school but I believe in interventions. I was formerly a successful hedge fund manager. After economics and politics my greatest interests are history, film and Makan. I run but I run so I can eat like a Singaporean.      Read More →