Only way for business to thrive is to minimise regulations. No labour laws, no currency laws, no limit on foreign shareholdings etc.
But too much emphasis on capitalism will bring great volatility, and this is not good for the community.
During the time of the british, Singapore was already an established trading centre.
The only university in Malaya was in Singapore(mahathir studied there). All trains from Malaya stops in Singapore. Singapore has the only international port and airport to serve Malaya. All rubber/tin whatever that come from malaya, was exported from Singapore, and some from penang. Singapore already had refineries and was one of the busiest port during the british.
Singapore was not a swamp PAP and LKY wants all of you to believe.
After the british left, Singapore traders made money by smuggling, due to punitive luxury import taxes imposed by the then independent indonesia and malaysia.
During the time of suharto, unscrupulous businessmen from indonesia smuggled subsidised refined oil and sold to bunker companies in Singapore. Those money never came back, but indonesian taxpayers suffered as they had to pay the difference between the selling price and the subsidise prices. The subsidised refined oil actually helped the rich as they are the owners of cars and transport, and eleviated the poor, who could have got that money instead in the form of educational aid or grant for communal upgrade.
In fact, money from much of indonesia resources never came back but are parked in Singapore. So Singapore do not require any resource to be rich. Those resources include timber, coal and possibly sand which were underdeclared when exported.
Now you know why Singapore evolved into a financial centre. presently, it is trying to attract unscrupulous businessmen from china who are uneasy about parking their money in hong kong, which is in chinese territory.
The idea of a casino is more about money laundering than gambling tourist.
LKY hates dissent. hence anyone who challenge him will be put away under ISA or made bankrupt, if they decide to stay put.
Paying ministers and civil servants good money is how he corrupts Singapore. Because they are so highly paid, nobody will dare question LKY’s policies.
Cronyism exist in Singapore. Tat Lee bank belonged to his brother. It was rescued after 1997 financial crisis by merging with Keppel finance and after that both were rescued by merging with DBS. LKY’s son is current PM. His other son was the CEO of singtel, until he was discovered to be having an affair with a women in australia. He resigned, and is now living in australia, I suppose with the new girl. Funny enough, the women is from the company singtel bought at a high value called OPTUS.
If you regard LKY highly, then think about the fate of the current PM’s first wife, who was a doctor from Malaysia, who committed suicide, maybe due to the fact that their two children were albino and the other autistic. But I think it was more due to disappointed father-in-law who could not obtain a perfect grandchild who pressured her into the ultimate oblivion.
LKy’s father, I believe was from semarang. During WWII LKY was a translator for the japanese, whilst his chinese counterparts were fighting against them. The most successful anti japanese army was the MPAJA (Malaya peoples anti japanese army) which were mostly ethnic chinese. They were fighting the japanese because Japan conquered China and the fighting in Malaya was an extension of that war. After the war, the MPAJA transformed and became the CPM (communist party of malay) following the footsteps of China’s Mao Ze Dong. Anyone with any socialist inclination was jailed by LKY under ISA (intenal security act-no need for legal proceedings). The biggest challenge to PAP in the first election, incidentally was Barisan sosialis. The leader of that party have just been freed after many decades in confinement.
Temasek is now controlled by PM’s second wife, LKY’s daughter in law. In fact the whole of Singapore are controlled by one family. Nobody dissent because they are paid to be silent.
The two child policy of LKY rebounded on him. Singapore’s populations is now shrinking. In order to maintain the standard of living, the country now welcomes any rich people from anywhere to reside as PR or citizen. That of course includes many indonesians. These rich indivuduals will bring countless millions into the island state, i.e. making money without having to work is Singapore’s policy from the start.
LKy’s wife has a legal frim which controls the S&P agreement to all HDB flats. One of her junior partners was her ex-daugther-in-law (not sure divorce already or not) who married her second son, who was caught with an affair with a buxom australian from Optus. (Now we know why singtel paid so much for that australian telco).
In the 70’s most Singaporean can speak a sprinkling of bahasa melayu. Presently, the aid workers they sent to aceh in the tsunami aftermath couldn’t communicate with their indonesian counterpart.
Singapore is rich only because the natives of Nusanatara do not understand business philosophy and how the world revolves. As an example, people of timor who welcomed the australian army, only to be told that the gas under the timor sea now belongs to australia.
The natives of nusantara are so comfortable with their lives in the islands that they could not be bothered to sail just a little bit more and establish in australia. Because of this attitude towards life, Singapore has no competitor in the vicinity.
2 comments:
A lazy bum who's just plain jealous of his rich neighbour. Typical of someone who don't work but rather play his guitar when he's not hungry (if you get who am I refering to...)
Nice blog.
Actually, LKY's brother doesn't literally own Tat Lee Bank. The Goh Family did and they're among the most respectable families in Singapore. Instead, the merger was implemented by Lee Junior at a national level, not just Tat Lee. The financial crisis was just bad timing and it's loss of 30+ million was exaggerated because the bank still had billions in reserve and to it, it was a small blimp. Everyone misunderstood.
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