Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Musings Of A Singapore Administrator

With forty years in the civil service, and a ringside seat with the likes of Goh Keng Swee and Hon Sui Sen, Ngiam Tong Dow should have more war stories to tell about Singapore's history of governance, twists and turns, success and setbacks. Unfortunately the compilation of speeches, interviews and articles delivered and written between 2004 and 2010 quickly become repetitive, and the same anecdotes are sprinkled with each retelling.

Some are rehashed in the recent interview with Dr Toh Han Chong, published in the September issue of the Singapore Medical Association’s newsletter. Included are his pet peeves about F1 as a “frivolous” use of taxpayers’ money, what today’s younger politicians lack, and the folly of millionaire ministers.

In the light of Mah Bow Tan's revisionist recollection of the reason for his retirement (“There have been numerous rumours about why I resigned from the Cabinet, including bearing the responsibility for high HDB prices. I disagree."), some of Ngiam's quotes should be enumerated for posterity, lest our memories be challenged by unscrupulous politicians.

The secret origins of the COE:
Citing an example of creativity in government, Ngiam thought it was brilliant of Goh Keng Swee to put a tax on public utilities, arguing that the tax was small enough for people not to feel the pinch.
"Another example was is the Certificate of Entitlement. This was then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew's idea. It is quite a feat to create money out of nothing. It is only a piece of paper, but the revenues are substantial." (page 138)

Planning for the floods:
It was the Ministry of Finance's practice of "robust" brand of economics that established Singapore's Bird Park at Jurong before the Zoo at Mandai because, Ngiam wrote, birdseed costs considerably less than meat for tigers and lions.
"The Ministry of Finance also rejected flood alleviation works at the Bukit Timah Canal. As it flooded only three or four times a year, it was too costly to build flood control works to enable motorists to arrive home in time for dinner." (page 122)

Separating chaff from the wheat:
Indranee Rajah may be forgiven for not understanding why tuition is essential for the PSLE survival course. At the heart of it is some notion why there should A* and "ordinary" A's. Ngiam thought it makes for the difference between the competent and entrepreneurial.
"I suggested to the National University of Singapore that we ask external examiners to set two out of ten examination questions from topics outside the core syllabus to identify the brilliant from the merely competent. We need to differentiate the firsts from the upper twos.
They told me I had misunderstood the external examination system. In fact, our own professors set all the questions." (page 134)

The Trojan Horse identified:
The politically correct story is that foreigners are essential to address the declining birth rate. Then there is the other story.
"Singapore's GDP increases of the last twenty years were due largely to expansion rather than growth. Import large numbers of foreign work permit holders enabled the economy to expand at GDP rates of 6-8 percent. Productivity stagnated at one percent. In some years it was negative.
This is the Archilles' heel of the Singapore success story. We expanded but did not grow. We scaled up but failed to skill up." (page 6)

Housing before Mah:
Once upon a time, HDB flats were truly affordable. Then the Minister invoked the existence of The Valuer who alone decides how much HDB has to pay for land, with rates marked to market. Back then, the valuer used to be a nicer guy.
"The chief valuer does not take into account the potential commercial value of the land. The economic rationale is that it it the state that builds the infrastructure, such as roads, utilities, sewerage, and rail transit systems.  The community pays for public infrastructure out of tax revenue." (page 148)

Enough of the Mah bashing already; another hit of the hammer, and his short stature may not survive another diminishing whack on the head. Truth be told, the germination of greed started earlier.
"In the 1960s, Dr Goh Keng Swee's viewpoint was that a normal family has a household income of only S$400 a month. Therefore, the monthly rent could not be more than S$40. Lim Kim San had argued with him then and asked, "Isn't that like asking me to build slums?"
("HDB Should Also Build Condos", interview with Lianhe Zaobao, September 23, 2007, page 156)

30 comments:

  1. So in summary, let's vote in a Singaporean government rather than a PAP government.
    We need to improve the lives and livelihood of Singaporeans.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What's the difference what Francis Seow has said 20 years ago versus what Ngiam has said 20 years later?

    One is in exile and dare to speak up then, one is still in the club and speak up only now.

    Is not merely the civil service and politicians who will not do so openly against their pay master, I think the worst culprit and spineless lot is the entire law faculty of Lawyers to the Society with few exception of you know who.

    Francis Seow "All these Ministers, every single one is not worth the money they are being paid."

    Ngiam : "I don’t know whether Lee Kuan Yew will agree but it started going downhill when we started to raise ministers’ salaries, not even pegging them to the national salary but aligning them with the top 10."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ngiam has been speaking up - publicly - for a no of years. Ever since he left govt. While he was in, so to speak, he spoke up too, but privately. During his time, one gathers most top civil servants spoke up. Privately lah. Now, apparently, it's mostly Yes, sir.

      Sadly, through all these decades, most Sporeans didn't speak up. And they still don't.... Do you see protests outside City Hall? We keep expecting others to fight our battles.

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    2. They make the rules and the laws and interpret them according to a situational flux. They hold the power and advantage.Ordinary citizens can only do so much. Those brave enough need an audience. Are we ready to be the audience ? Nobody or very few dare to become political martyrs if they don"t stand a chance.

      Delete
    3. We have a law that states that one man assembly is illegal.

      Well, our workers' party MP agreed with this principle of law...

      Delete
  3. Guess where they will all retire in due course!
    http://in.news.yahoo.com/photos/singapores-prime-minister-lee-hsien-loong-canadas-prime-photo-113630126.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Can we raise Dr Goh from his grave and put the old fart in his place?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You meand exhume Dr. Goh's body(if there is one left) and put LKY into the hollowed out space? Sounds interesting.

      Delete
    2. Putting such a small man;
      Into a coffin of a big man;
      I'm not sure if it's a good idea.

      The phrase "filling in a big pair of shoes"
      or in this case "a big coffin"
      comes to mind.

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    3. it will be more meaningful if sporeans collectively engineer the outcome whereby old fart and his hopeless son depart for the grave together..asap !

      Delete

  5. "In the early days, Lim Kim San and Goh Keng Swee worked night and day, and they were truly dedicated. I don’t know whether Lee Kuan Yew will agree but it started going downhill when we started to raise ministers’ salaries, not even pegging them to the national salary but aligning them with the top ten. When you raise ministers’ salaries to the point that they’re earning millions of dollar, every minister – no matter how much he wants to turn up and tell Hsien Loong off or whatever – will hesitate when he thinks of his million-dollar salary. Even if he wants to do it, his wife will stop him. Lim Kim San used to tell me, “Ngiam, if you want to leave your job, make sure you have enough walkaway money.”

    When the salary is so high, which minister dares to leave, unless they decide to become the opposition party? As a result, the entire political arena has become a civil service, and I don’t see anyone speaking up anymore."
    Ngiam Tong Dow:


    Maybe that's the idea.
    To make the political arena sterile.
    So as to entrench the incompetents.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Money, lots of them, the magic glue that binds and muzzles the so called talents.Who wants to go against the flow? Muu zai see.

      Delete
    2. Not necessary be Minister, look at our MPs allowance and even the Opposition MPs dare not voice up anything..as their $16,000 allowance is waiting for them on the 25th of each month.

      Look at JBJ, no chance for him to earn the $16,000 a month allowance....

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    3. //..no matter how much he wants to turn up and tell Hsien Loong off or whatever – will hesitate when he thinks of his million-dollar salary. Even if he wants to do it, his wife will stop him..//

      The only minister's wife who speak up on salaries is Mdm Goh Chok Tong. She tried to encourage the highest pay to that corrupted NKF CEO by saying is peanuts what we were paying, and put a stop to his resignation. All other Minister's wives, well, at least they are doing it behind the curtain.

      Delete
  6. Ngiam Tong Dow is the Only Top Civil Servant that has ever put forth his wisdoms openly for the Rulers and the People to think about.
    Personally, me finds him much more enlightened and respectable than any in the Cabinet.
    He surely will a great President with executive power.

    patriot

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My apology for the Last Paragraph. It should be; He will surely make a great President, one that comes with executive power.

      patriot

      Delete
  7. The late Dr Goh was indeed a Great Man who considered the average household income to suggest a monthly Rental rate.
    Well , my late father was a Civil Servant and we moved into our SIT flat sometime in the late 50's .Rental was if I was not wrong, S$50 per month for a 2 bedroom, 1 hall with a veranda .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. late 50s -- brits in charge then.
      pap came in in 1959, but brits
      still in charge (if am not wrong).

      Delete
    2. You are wrong, Local government was in the hands of LKY and company. The Brits only took charge of Defence and Foreign Affairs,

      Delete
    3. bro, $50 per month in 1950s? How much is that today after the high inflation years of 1950s, 60s and 70s? For info, in 1950 the US median household income was US$300 per month, and your civil servant father paid $50 per month of rent?

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    4. OP is talking about SIT flats in the late 50's. LKY became the PM of self governing Singapore in 1959. HDB came into existence in the early 60's.

      Delete
    5. Right, think GKS or TCC wrote something of LKY missing in action " for weeks" after Singapore was "kicked out" from the Federation...

      Delete
  8. Goh is more pragmatic than harry, but only like Obammer is not like the warmongering Bush altho the line was crossed forever with Libya, and will be re-crossed soon elsewhere.

    Why? Goh's legacies are there for all to judge even tho Ngiam (one of his many proteges) tried to whitewash them - here is a sample: the fat GLCs is the main reason why "we scaled up but did not skill up" - you set up a bunch of state owned companies and feed them fat fat for 20 years with gramen contracts (like ST fed defence contracts and SIA with all the first class passage of the senior civil servants); to reward our generals and colonels he sent them run the GLCs to the ground. When they fail, they all turn around and say argh, see "Chartered Semicon did not skill up"?? Wtf. Goh shud have known the only viable industrial policy is to get the garmen out of the way, let the smaller start-ups compete the big fat GLCs to their knees in the 1980s and 1990s when the first generation of local u-grads come of age. Today we have fat fat GLCs manned by ex-civil servants with one eye on their retirement GCB another eye on their china mistresses, then a whole bunch of SMEs who cannot compete but survive because they threaten that without foreign labourers they will all lose to chinese copy cats. That is why the papigs have to continue to import FTs and why your sons and your grandsons would need a new passport. And the NS system, it was never for defence, it was more to solve the unemployment problems and youths joining the commies.

    I respect old timers' nostalgia here, but please, Goh is only marginally better in that he did not indulge in dynastic politics. Alot of today's ills and systems like a totally top-down industrial policy built on patronage network, scholarship system (the products of which like Ho Jinx, Ann, genederals A,B,C, D etc,), locking up your CPF so the MAS can on-lend them to the GLCs and TLCs to squnader away in Suzhou, the silly primary-three streaming system, all these are Goh's legacies. And let you old people not forget => GOH and his gang vehementy objected to Ong Teng Cheong's pet project of buildin g the MRT. Goh might not have built a dynasty but his gang of underlings incl your favourite EDB (self-declared) chairman emeritus and THL CEO are all part of his legacy.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Once a rat, always a rat....10/02/2013 5:36 PM

    Ask NTD which party did he vote for and which person did he vote for the presidency.

    Lest we forget, he was and still is part of the elite few that know many things.. but is totally impotent. Ask if he would provide consultancy for WP or any other opposition.

    Yeah, I thought so.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Truth be told, aren't all these GST, COEs, HDB land levies just another form of revenue generating tax which ultimately contributed to the million-dollar bank accounts of our Ministers & MPs (LKY & son included) in the name of beating making less prone to corruption ?

    And if that is supposedly the correct mindset, shouldn't our bank tellers, cashiers, financial controllers, etc., be paid a salary that is commensurate to the amount of monies they handled so as not be tempted to help themselves to the coffers ?

    But in their eagerness to enrich themselves, they forgot that those lower income earners are more affected by these taxes indirectly as a proportion to the income they earned compared to those who are in the high income brackets. Like is it fair for each taxi driver to bear the burden for the COEs built into their taxi rentals they have to pay to their taxi companies as compared to the resulting nett income they are earn after all those legal deductions ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Prime Minister tops the list of highest paid head-of-state. Many of his ministers make more than the President of the United States. There is simply no way to justify such salaries in any democracy. Having absolute power does not mean they are allowed to take whatever they want from the people.

      Delete
  11. How come Goh Keng Swee at that time never asked to be a paid a million dollar salary in order not to be prone to corruption or have his pay docked to the 8 highest income earners ? And why did LHL thinks he has earned this entitlement as the PM of this country ?

    Just because he thinks he & his team has squeezed enough from the people through all these COEs, GST, levies, whether direct & indirect taxes and the monies become too much for any uncorrupt person to handle ?

    Imagine can anyone goes to a job interview and ask that he be paid adequately in order to remain honest on the job ? And LKY thinks that is OK ?

    ReplyDelete
  12. An Illustrated Book of Bad Arguments
    - good summary of all the types of reasoning PAP inflicts on Singaporeans

    SOURCE
    https://bookofbadarguments.com/?view=allpages

    ReplyDelete
  13. Ngiam implied that ministers are over-paid, but why not much is said to criticize his successors and indeed some are his proteges for the problems created by the civil service? Policies are not written by politicians, they are pen-pushed by the elites in the Admin service: eg the ERP, the CoE, the FT, the PWP etc. And what about 30 year old superscale Admin service oppicers driving maseratis to work? What about directors buying $10m condos for investments? or P asses holidaying in france and boasting about it to the shitty times? Politics and civil service are both problematic, both must be revamped. In their deadly embrace, the road ahead will only be downhill.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I concur with @Anonymous10/02/2013 3:56 PM,

    Quote,
    "Goh is more pragmatic than harry, but only like Obammer is not like the warmongering Bush altho the line was crossed forever with Libya, and will be re-crossed soon elsewhere.

    Why? Goh's legacies are there for all to judge even tho Ngiam (one of his many proteges) tried to whitewash them - here is a sample: the fat GLCs is the main reason why "we scaled up but did not skill up" - you set up a bunch of state owned companies and feed them fat fat for 20 years with gramen contracts (like ST fed defence contracts and SIA with all the first class passage of the senior civil servants); to reward our generals and colonels he sent them run the GLCs to the ground. When they fail, they all turn around and say argh, see "Chartered Semicon did not skill up"?? Wtf." unquote.

    -------------------------------------

    (dialectic - Uchicago - University of Chicago)
    http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/dialectic.htm
    -
    (Epistemology - Webspace)
    http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/epist.html
    -
    Socratic Method - Society for Philosophical Inquiry
    http://www.philosopher.org/Socratic_Method.html

    Joshua Chiang

    ReplyDelete