“He also failed to mention that Singapore’s AAA rating is due to the government’s intransigent on welfare spending thus generating persistent budget surplus.
That AAA-rating is bought at the expense of adequate social provisions and has no benefit to citizens as the government does not use the low borrowing costs implied by the rating to fund citizen’s well being. He knows very well that many countries, such as Canada, Germany and Switzerland just to name 3, are also AAA rated despite budget deficits of 2 -2.5% of GDP.”
Very well said, Chris.
The main problem is PAP has veered too far right in its policy and there is no other party in the parliament balancing them. That’s why our rich and poor divide is the greatest among first world nations.
Some people argued that PAP can self-correct itself and has now started implementing more social policies. Ask yourselves, are you happy with the current MediShield life announcements?
It’s like asking a millionaire who never believes in donating to the poor in his life but was suddenly forced to do so by circumstances. He then decides to give only $10. As pointed out by Chris, people like Tharman who is inside PAP for so long, is already biased towards a prescribed ideology. It’s hard for these people to change their thinking like the millionaire example.
So, I am not holding much hope that PAP can change itself from within.
If you want drastic change in the ideological thinking in this country, it will have to come from the outside, from another political party altogether. What is lacking now in Singapore is a another party with left leaning to balance the far right PAP, much like what you see in the other first world nations where their parliaments are balanced by political parties from both left and right.
John