- Joined
- Dec 30, 2010
- Messages
- 12,730
- Points
- 113
Since he has decided to campaign on his record, let us examine it and see how he stacks up.
Dr Tony Tan was the vice-chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) right up until he announced his intenetion to run for the presidency. He was entrenched within a system that kept the people at arms length from the GIC’s handling of the reserves – our reserves.
Make no mistake, the funds handled by the GIC belong to CPF savings of each and every Singaporean. Yet the GIC acts as if it is some private entity accountable only unto itself. It refuses to let us know the amount of funds it handles, how they are used and how much is made or lost in the investments.The Ministry of Finance tells us that “It is not in our national interest to publish the full size of our reserves. If we do so, it will make it easier for markets to mount speculative attacks on the Singapore dollar during periods of vulnerability.”
If this is the case then every sovereign wealth fund (SWF) would come under a similar threat and all would have to be as secretive. The SDP has shown here that this is not the case. Norway’s Government Pension Fund – Global (GPFG) runs the biggest SWF in the world and is a model of transparency and accountability. And it has not come under any speculative financial attack since its inception in 1996.
Telling us that we cannot know what is being done with our money because to do so would threaten the integrity of our funds is completely disingenuous. If the Norwegian government can tell Norwegians what it is doing with their funds, we expect no less from our Government.
Back to Tony Tan. Dr Tan was the vice-chairman of the GIC and was part of the setup that is keeping us at arms length from our money. It is a system that treats Singaporeans with contemptuous arrogance.
He now wants our votes to make him president so that he can safeguard our reserves. Does this sound even remotely sensible? A President Tony Tan would all but ensure that the GIC remains as secretive and unaccountable as it has always been.
- http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=7051#more-7051
Dr Tony Tan was the vice-chairman of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) right up until he announced his intenetion to run for the presidency. He was entrenched within a system that kept the people at arms length from the GIC’s handling of the reserves – our reserves.
Make no mistake, the funds handled by the GIC belong to CPF savings of each and every Singaporean. Yet the GIC acts as if it is some private entity accountable only unto itself. It refuses to let us know the amount of funds it handles, how they are used and how much is made or lost in the investments.The Ministry of Finance tells us that “It is not in our national interest to publish the full size of our reserves. If we do so, it will make it easier for markets to mount speculative attacks on the Singapore dollar during periods of vulnerability.”
If this is the case then every sovereign wealth fund (SWF) would come under a similar threat and all would have to be as secretive. The SDP has shown here that this is not the case. Norway’s Government Pension Fund – Global (GPFG) runs the biggest SWF in the world and is a model of transparency and accountability. And it has not come under any speculative financial attack since its inception in 1996.
Telling us that we cannot know what is being done with our money because to do so would threaten the integrity of our funds is completely disingenuous. If the Norwegian government can tell Norwegians what it is doing with their funds, we expect no less from our Government.
Back to Tony Tan. Dr Tan was the vice-chairman of the GIC and was part of the setup that is keeping us at arms length from our money. It is a system that treats Singaporeans with contemptuous arrogance.
He now wants our votes to make him president so that he can safeguard our reserves. Does this sound even remotely sensible? A President Tony Tan would all but ensure that the GIC remains as secretive and unaccountable as it has always been.
- http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=7051#more-7051
