One of the funniest things about living in Singapore is that you often get told off by people from elsewhere whenever you suggest that things in Singapore are less than perfect. If you talk to enough foreigners about Singapore, you’re going to looks of “what are you complaining about,” whenever you try and complain about Singapore. It’s not just the people from the developing world but you get expats from American and Europe pointing out to you that life in Singapore is pretty good. I’ll always remember a Dutch fellow telling me “Singapore – where else is there?” Leave it to our foreign-born friends to make the point that whilst our ministers are highly paid, they’re worth the pennies.
If you leave out the usual gripes of the online crowd,
there is a case for saying that the Singapore government has on the whole done
a decent job. By and large the majority have plenty to eat and shelter. Our
last riot was in 2013 and the one before that was in 1969. When people in
London complain about constant train strikes, we in Singapore have experienced
a grand total of three (3) major strikes in our history as a modern nation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labour_movement_of_Singapore
To enhance the feeling that the Singapore government
is the Rolls Royce of Government’s, the faults of the governments in the rest
of the region (specifically Malaysia and Indonesia) get highlighted. We’re told
that entering the Malaysian state of Johor is to volunteer the get robbed at
knife point. A good portion of us will inevitably have stories of being shaken down
for bribes in Malaysia and Indonesia which will inevitably be followed up with
the point that this simply doesn’t happen in Singapore. I think of IMPact 2013,
when the then Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. Teo Chee Hean was asked about
Singapore’s high cost. The reply was that other places in the region may look
cheaper but there were hidden cost unlike Singapore where “What you see if what
you get.”
I don’t doubt that there’s a certain level of low-level
corruption in the region which somehow doesn’t exist in Singapore. Not worrying
about being shaken down by anyone in a uniform is actually one of the better
things about being in Singapore.
However, that doesn’t mean that Singapore is going to
be “perfect” forever or that government officials in other parts of the world
are necessarily corrupt and incompetent. I’ve started to know this from three international
experiences I’ve had recently.
The first round took place around two weeks ago when I
had to stand in for my boss at the Restructuring, Insolvency & Governance
Conference 2023. The Guest of Honour was Mr. Rabbin Hattari the Permeant
Secretary of the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises.
Mr. Hattari speaks fluent English and has PhD in
Economics from George Mason University. It becomes clear to anyone who listens
to him speak that Mr. Hattari knows what he’s talking about.
One of the things that struck me about listening to
Mr. Hattari speak was the fact that he didn’t try to sugar-coat reality. He told
the audience that there would be pain in restructuring of state-owned
enterprises (people inevitably get fired through no fault of their own).
However, he then argued that this was necessary for the long-term health of
economy. It would lead to a greater sharing of wealth.
I can’t tell you if every Indonesian official is like
Mr. Hattari. However, the fact that Mr. Hattari has got wo where he has is a
good sign for Indonesia. ASEAN’s largest economy is slowly but surely getting
its governance right if it is getting people like Mr. Hattari into prominent
enough positions. It won’t happen overnight, but there are reasons for
Indonesians to feel optimistic about the future of its governance.
If Indonesia had reasons for some optimism, I was
stunned by Kazakhstan, the land that too many of us know as Borat’s homeland. I
had the privilege of being invited by the Kazakh Embassy to a conference on the
Astana International Financial Centre (AFIC), which is modeled on the Dubai
international Financial Centre (DIFC). The Governor of the AIFC, Mr. Renat
Bekturov, who has a Master’s Degree in Banking and Finance from the University
of Leicester proceeded to outline what Kazakhstan was doing to attract
investment.
Some of the things includes things like:
1. Presidential
terms of now limited to a single seven-year term;
2. Direct
relatives of the president are not allowed to work for the government;
3. Language
of commerce in the AIFC is English;
4. Law
in the AIFC is English Common Law; and
5. Judges
are hired from the UK.
It struck me that the Kazakhs had understood that
having rules was essential to success and ironically this conference took place
at a time when “super-strict” Singapore was loosening the rules on ministers
and the president doing things beyond their jobs:
Since I didn’t go to Dubai this week, I went to the
Poland-ASEAN Fintech Forum, which was held at the Singapore Business Federation
Building today (14 November 2023). The point was made that Poland, which was
effectively part of the Soviet Block 33-years ago, has now got a modern infrastructure
where Fintech companies can be built:
The Executive Vice-President of the Polish Association
of Banks, Mr. Wlodzimierz Kicinski, actually talked about trying to export “Blik,”
Poland’s payment system into Central Europe and beyond:
The message is clear. Places that were once poor and
desolate are waking up to the importance of having good people in government.
Their transformation won’t be easy. It won’t be as fast as it was in Singapore
(let’s never forget that Singapore is a tiny place where its easy to control)
but if they keep on this path, there’s no reason to suggests why they won’t be
able to achieve prosperity and stability.
As Singaporeans, we can no longer assume that we will
have the Rolls Royce of governments (if we actually had one in the first
place). Its therefore imperative that we always ensure that our government machinery
is always top notch. The rest of the world wants to catch up and they are taking
the right steps.
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