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Tony Tan has said that his past experiences will help him steer Singapore through the financial uncertainty lying ahead [1]. He claims that the most serious and urgent issue that concerns Singapore today, is the deteriorating global economy, and that his career background in Parliament, in GIC, and also in the private sector, will help him to advise the government on such issues on the economy [2].
Such an intention by Dr. Tony Tan – though undoubtedly worthy – is unnecessary. Our current finance minister, Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and his group of economic advisors, are capable to deal with the uncertainty in the world economy. Equipped with education in economics from London School of Economics and Cambridge University and a long tenure at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, he is a more trustworthy economist compared to Dr. Tony Tan, whose training lies in mathematics and operations research. Notwithstanding the latter’s experience with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Trade and industry in 1980s, his recent years of work experience lies in the private financial sector, whose objectives differ from the policy objective of the public sector.
Moreover, it is simply dangerous for him to believe that his judgement is better than the experts, given the questionable performance of the Government Investment Corporation during the financial crisis starting 2007 (see Jim Rogers’ criticisms on Singapore GIC in [3]) in which he served as Executive Director and Deputy Chairman from 2005 to 2011 [4]. Hence, the fear is that if Dr Tan were to lend his expertise once again to the affairs of economic policy-making, it would be at best, redundant, or at worst, counterproductive.
- http://www.temasekreview.com/2011/0...ent-an-evidence-based-and-strategic-approach/
Such an intention by Dr. Tony Tan – though undoubtedly worthy – is unnecessary. Our current finance minister, Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and his group of economic advisors, are capable to deal with the uncertainty in the world economy. Equipped with education in economics from London School of Economics and Cambridge University and a long tenure at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, he is a more trustworthy economist compared to Dr. Tony Tan, whose training lies in mathematics and operations research. Notwithstanding the latter’s experience with the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Trade and industry in 1980s, his recent years of work experience lies in the private financial sector, whose objectives differ from the policy objective of the public sector.
Moreover, it is simply dangerous for him to believe that his judgement is better than the experts, given the questionable performance of the Government Investment Corporation during the financial crisis starting 2007 (see Jim Rogers’ criticisms on Singapore GIC in [3]) in which he served as Executive Director and Deputy Chairman from 2005 to 2011 [4]. Hence, the fear is that if Dr Tan were to lend his expertise once again to the affairs of economic policy-making, it would be at best, redundant, or at worst, counterproductive.
- http://www.temasekreview.com/2011/0...ent-an-evidence-based-and-strategic-approach/
