Yes, Dr Goh did warn about Singapore’s dependence on FTs for growth way back in 1972. At the time, he was speaking in his personal capacity at a symposium.
He had previously discussed and sought the advice of his adviser, Dr Albert Winsemius. Their views were similar. So, Dr Goh felt that it was his duty as a Minister to air his views as a common citizen.
He warned that if Singapore was too obsessed with the rapid growth, this would result in a state where it would be out of control (not sustainable and probably irreversible).
Dr Goh asked then, “To be precise, at what point should we stop importing foreign workers and cease to encourage foreign entrepreneurs and capital to come into Singapore?”
“Because of our limited land area, industrial expansion together with population expansion that goes with it, will produce overcrowding to increasingly uncomfortable limits,” he added.
How prescient Dr Goh was in his prediction back in 1972. Some 40 years later, Singapore is exactly in the situation Dr Goh has described – “overcrowding to increasingly uncomfortable limits”.
In fact, it’s even worse than what Dr Goh predicted. He did not factor in the social issues that come with overcrowding. As reported by TRE, one foreigner has now openly said he wants to kick us out and see all of us dead so that we can be replaced by his countrymen (‘Posting on pinoy’s FB account creates online tsunami‘)!
Dr Goh also said that if the present conditions continued and the inflow of investment by multi-national companies proceeded without abatement, it might be to Singapore’s long-term interest to review the present policy.
So, did the PAP government after Dr Goh heed his or Dr Winsemius’s advice? Clearly it is a big ‘NO’.
Who get to benefit from all these so-called progresses and economic growth? Without doubt, the elites and the “connected” at the expense of the lower-income group. Make the lower-income group and now also the middle-income group even ‘poorer’, and ensure these people keep going back for handouts so that they will feel indebted forever.
You can see it in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6bECDhY5B0 – how mother and son came out to speak for Minister Lim Hwee Hua during the 2011 GE. Luckily, it couldn’t help much and Lim and her compatriots were voted out in Aljunied GRC.
With the uneven distribution of economic growth, our wage gap continues to remain high, which even ‘disturbed’ Dr Tommy Koh (‘Dr Tommy Koh disturbed by high inequality in S’pore‘).
So, even Dr Koh knows that things are not moving in the ‘right’ direction.
So, you tell me, is this government doing good for the nation or for the few?
How I wish Dr Goh could rise up from his grave now to come back and save us!
Edmund
*Edmund is a retiree who loves to use the Internet and go to the library to research old articles about Singapore.