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SingaporeInc

The expression "Singapore Inc" was used by EDB for a short period during the 80s as a statement of the integrated, national approach towards support for worthwhile economic initiatives, including of course foreign investment which is EDB's main mission. However, perhaps inadvertantly, it also captures a number of other features of Singapore. By using economic success as the main measure of national achievement, with public ownership and oversight of a large part of the economy including most of the large corporations and financial reserves held in CPF, GIC and MAS, with economic direction setting, whether casinos or biotech, that expects nationwide support, material or spiritual, and with the people regularly engaged in commerce-like transactions with government departments such as CPF, HDB, LTA, URA, and GLCs, everyone feels enveloped inside an integrated economic machinery.
  • If you compare the kinds of events that take place in annual shareholders' meetings of listed corporations with what people in Singapore say in relation to the government, you can easily conclude that the cabinet is like the board of directors of Singapore Inc and the citizens the shareholders, who look to the company managers to keep the business profitable and expanding, but grumble about not being kept informed and not being paid enough dividends. In fact, the Singapore government had occasionally distributed cash handouts but described these as "shares".

    Socially, Singapore feels very much like a company town, even when one is not an employee of a government department or GLC: there is a certain pecking order if you are employed within the "system", but even if one is with a multi-national or a non-government company, or an individual entrepreneur, one is aware of the need to deal frequently with people in the "system" and so the need to know the status relationship between the two sides in such transactions. This indirectly defines a status order between people in non-transactional camps as well, e.g., an american game designer meeting a japanese engineer would usually be aware of some status relationship between them that in some way depends on the dealing between their two companies, but even if such dealings are absent, their companies' respective places in their shared environment would have an effect, and in Singapore this environment is predominated by the government.

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    as an indicator of this company town mentality, the following ST report is of interest:

    after giving a talk at Nanyang Technological University. LKY noticed that the people asking questions comprised of

    Three from China, two from India and one from Vietnam - these foreign students lobbed six of the seven questions during the allocated question-and-answer session last night.

    Only the first question for Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew came from a Singaporean.

    But as the moderator began to wrap up the proceedings, MM Lee stopped him and asked: 'Is there no Singaporean who wants to ask a question?'

    -- Straits Times, 5 October 2007

    Obviously this is not an isolated case; even when the occasion is less august, if politics is the topic in talks to students at colleges and universities, even when Singaporeans outnumbered foreign students 10 to 1 in the audience, the majority of the questions would still come from the handful of foreigners.  

    I have facetiously suggested that in the future, political seminar organizers should get sponsors to provide prizes, and hold a lucky draw for anyone asking questions - we need to be creative and enterprising, and using such commercial techniques to promote political activism would be win-win, resulting in better politics and better business.

    I have written elsewhere on this topic of "climate of fear" http; I dont have a "solution", but again somewhat facetiously, I think it would help if the ST reporter and others who got sued for defaming NKF are given medals - that would definitely indicate that speaking out is encouraged!!

    • -----------
    Is Singapore a Quasi Democracy?
    Various opposition figures and foreign journalists like to say that Singapore is not truly democratic; what do they mean by this? If the definition of democracy is that elections are regularly held and the party with majority support (measured according to some well defined procedure which does not necessarily mean "most votes", e.g., Al Gore had slightly more votes than George Bush in 2000, but a well defined legal process eventually had the Supreme Court making the final decision that allowed Bush to take office) wins control of government, then of course Singapore is a democracy.
    When critics say "Singapore is not a 'real" democracy" and it does not have a "real election", what they meant is that the opposition have no "real" chance of winning the next election. I wont go into the issue of whose "fault" this is as it lies deeply into the social structure (those interested can read this long article http://sinazen.com/neoconfucianism); instead I wish to address the question "if electrions do not 'choose' the next government, what purpose do they serve?" The answer is they allow the people to give the government a "mark", i.e., the vote counts indicate how satisfied people are with the government generally, and with individual or groups of parliamentarians. A drop in the vote would cause re-evaluation of policies and candidates and allow changes to be made during the next term.
    This might be somewhat different from political science textbook definitions, but it is a logical and practicable concept. It has various consequences: the group that maintains longterm control will have to continually demonstrate its superioty over the opposition. Since the opposition has never been in government, you cannot really compare the past performances of two groups people and decide which to support, so this demonstration has to be based on other criteria, such as educational qualifications and past experience before going into politics. This makes politics a kind of career extension of successful people, and parliamentary candidate selection is like headhunting. I guess the reader does not require me to repeat that the description fits the Singapore democratic process to a T.
    SPH and Mediacorp

    I need to first declare that I have shares of SPH. (Mediacorp is not a listed company) However, I dont think this affects my impartiality.

    SPH and Mediacorp are the PR department of Singapore Inc, and are required to consider the economic interest of the country in their work. SPH, in addition, need to make a profit and face its shareholders now and then. When the two organizations were required to compete with each other with SPH operating a TV network and Mediacorp publishing a newspaper (Today), SPH had a harder time because it was less able to accept financial losses. The government soon saw fit to put a stop to this sibling rivalry.

    I myself find Straits Times a fine newspaper, but poor in commentary. Its own columnists hardly ever say anything new at all, and the few foreign commentary articles usually dont offer much either, because most of the time I have already read something along the same lines on the web. In any case, I do not grudge the 80c I pay now and then, and also advertised in its classified sections now and then.

    The ST Forum section has been Singapore's public advocate for many years, and SPH acted as the whistle blower in the NKF case. The whole saga says a great deal about the social system of Singapore.

    "To have spontaneous fun - here is how."

    Far eastern economic review, a regional economic and current affairs journal published in Hongkong, for over 30 years had an uneasy relationship with the Singapore government. A number of times its resident reporter in Singapore was denied employment pass renewal and had to leave at the end of his tour.

    The above headline was supposed to be on the front of Straits Times some day during the 80s, and FEER mockingly reproduced it as an example of the low level of spiritual life in Singapore. It was presumably also reaffirming Hongkong's cultural superiority. However, Hongkong suffered a period of low self-confidence after return of sovereignty to China in 1997 - one could perhaps trace the start to the problematic opening of the new airport (reproducing the bad experience of the KL airport opening a year earlier - both used the same luggage software that failed to work at first) followed by the Asian financial crisis and SARS, and some newspaper editorials even envied the Singapore government's firm handling. It was also during this period that FEER downgraded from weekly to monthly. However, with Chinese money flooding into Hongkong, complancency has returned.

    In the mean time, fun is very much in fashion in Singapore. I am unable to judge how spontaneous it might be, not being a fun person myself...

    mr brown - officially endorsed critic of singapore government http Singapore likes to remakes itself often http Election 2006 http Non-Constituency Parliament Members and Senators http Singapore's Elected Presidency http One party government http Press and Blogger Bias in Singapore http Today - singapore's second newspaper http"Catherine Lim, Prospective Politician" http The Implosion of Singapore Democratic Party http I am not a yesman http Singapore's man with a plan http Singapore Immigration http "climate of fear" http Taxation in Singapore / Shares http CLOB and SIAS http Singapore's Foreign Shares Bubble http　high value added http singapore elite wees http.man jumps to death at juring MRT station http the Temasek juggernaut http temasek's thai problems http Modern shamanism Democracy with Asian characteristics http Social welfare http the fertility bust http North East Line http The saga of Raffles Town Club http erps http PCCW saga http: COE (Certificate of Entitlement) Prices 1991 - now http Leninism, Asian Culture and Singapore http Political Singlish http Speak Chinese Also Can 讲中文也可以 http Now a Massage from Our Sponsor... http