![](https://i.imgur.com/CLvY2jA.png")
09-08-2021, 07:51 AM
Yesterday night I thought alot about PM Lee's National Day message in which he acknowledged Singaporeans's anxiety and competition from foreigners for jobs and social friction. He concluded that we still need more foreigners. But really what is his VISION for our future?
The current crisis is prolonged but will no doubt end at some point in time and we will go back to business as usual. Besides rolling along on the same old game plan, is there more we can look forward to?
Look around us. We can see that without a clear vision countries are led to poor outcomes. Look at the USA. Look at Europe, Greece, UK and Italy - the quality of life peaked and declined even as GDP grows.
Look at countries that have done well - Norway, Finland and Sweden and what they have done differently and what underpins of their success?
If you ask a Singaporean if he knows what is our vision for the future, he will look lost. He does not know how to contribute to it.
We have been drifting along for far too long with the leadership just
using old formulas like importing people to boost GDP for 2 decades.
If we just drift along we will inherit all the problems of highly to troubled western societies. Inequality, social disparity and rising poverty. Importing more and more people pushes up the cost of living and worsens everything but it seems that is the only trick they know.
As record number of Singaporeans go through our education system to end up as food delivery workers and PHV drivers or under employed PMETs, clearly the heart of the issue is poor development of our human capital. We have the lowest quotas for students entering university among all the developed countries in Asia. We have a shortage of doctors and dentists but we failed to train more. We have a shortage of IT professionals.but import instead of train our own people. Equally small countries like Norway, Finland and Israel harness their human capital well and do not import anywhere near the number of foreigners as we do.
After 5 decades, we are still unable to break out of a paternalistic semi authoritarian rule in which a overbearing power elite structure rule over the citizens. Excessive remuneration, close ties and network of govt linked businesses leads is extractive in nature hence resulting in growing gaps, unlevel playing field and structural inefficiencies. State linked enterprises should be restructured over time and the practice of parachuting elites into them stopped.
As the song goes, "We have a Vision for Tomorrow"....so what is it? Does any one know?
The current crisis is prolonged but will no doubt end at some point in time and we will go back to business as usual. Besides rolling along on the same old game plan, is there more we can look forward to?
Look around us. We can see that without a clear vision countries are led to poor outcomes. Look at the USA. Look at Europe, Greece, UK and Italy - the quality of life peaked and declined even as GDP grows.
Look at countries that have done well - Norway, Finland and Sweden and what they have done differently and what underpins of their success?
If you ask a Singaporean if he knows what is our vision for the future, he will look lost. He does not know how to contribute to it.
We have been drifting along for far too long with the leadership just
using old formulas like importing people to boost GDP for 2 decades.
If we just drift along we will inherit all the problems of highly to troubled western societies. Inequality, social disparity and rising poverty. Importing more and more people pushes up the cost of living and worsens everything but it seems that is the only trick they know.
As record number of Singaporeans go through our education system to end up as food delivery workers and PHV drivers or under employed PMETs, clearly the heart of the issue is poor development of our human capital. We have the lowest quotas for students entering university among all the developed countries in Asia. We have a shortage of doctors and dentists but we failed to train more. We have a shortage of IT professionals.but import instead of train our own people. Equally small countries like Norway, Finland and Israel harness their human capital well and do not import anywhere near the number of foreigners as we do.
After 5 decades, we are still unable to break out of a paternalistic semi authoritarian rule in which a overbearing power elite structure rule over the citizens. Excessive remuneration, close ties and network of govt linked businesses leads is extractive in nature hence resulting in growing gaps, unlevel playing field and structural inefficiencies. State linked enterprises should be restructured over time and the practice of parachuting elites into them stopped.
As the song goes, "We have a Vision for Tomorrow"....so what is it? Does any one know?
![[+]](https://sgtalk.net/images/bootbb/collapse_collapsed.png)
