Singapore is a first world country that can’t produce and nurture talents

March 10, 2009

Statement by Mr Ng Teck Siong, Chairman of the Reform Party
10 March 2009

On 14 August 2008, Mr Lee Kuan Yew said: “They (the young generation) say, oh, let’s have multi-party politics. Let’s have different parties change and be in charge of the government … … Is it that simple? You vote in a Division Three government, not a Division One government, and the whole economy will just subside within three, four years. Finished!” (TODAY newspaper, “MM Lee questions younger Singaporeans’ desire for multi-party politics”, 14 August 2008)

On 05 March 2009 in the Straits Times, when asked why the CEO post in Temasek had been handed over to an expatriate American Charles Goodyear, Mr Lee said that there was nobody inside Temasek equal to the job, that Mr Goodyear has “a proven record, and we feel he was a better man than what we had within the system”. Mr Lee also said that Mr Goodyear was also “somebody exposed to world markets”.

The irony of the two comments within a period of six months shows how contradictory Mr Lee can be.
But what is most significant is that he can say that his so-called PAP Division One Government cannot produce a talent within its own system fit enough to take over the CEO post in Temasek, the role of managing our country’s own reserves.

So what sort of Division One Government is the PAP? Under its rule of 50 years, the system has failed disastrously to nurture and grow talents in Singapore. This great dependency on foreign talents must awake Singaporeans from their slumber of over-reliance on this so-called Division One Government of the PAP.

Mr Ng Teck SiongChairman, Reform Party