ST Spin:Taiwanese enamoured over Singapore's system!

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

Of late I have noticed ST's insidious attempt at spinning that the Taiwanese are enamoured over S'pore's political system/governance as compared to Taiwan, in particular by publishing gushing Taiwanese perspectives from Taiwan's CommonWealth Magazine.

Ironically I recently read a personal article by ex DBS top banker Edmund Koh who now heads Ta Chong bank in Taipei where he relates his refreshing experiences in Taiwan and how he admires the Taiwanese traits for civic mindedness, creativity and entrepreneurship which he finds lacking in Singapore. In particular he is impressed by the strength and talent in Taiwan's SMEs.

 

[BlueCat]

well,what you expect him to say ?
he is working for an Taiwan's bank and station there.
those SME in Taiwan is complaining all the time and have difficulty surviving.
most of their big counterparts are already in PRC or planning to move there.

 

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

I got the impression from the article that Koh was sincere and genuine in his general praise of Taiwan and the Taiwanese. This had nothing to do with his bank.

well,what you expect him to say ?
he is working for an Taiwan's bank and station there.
those SME in Taiwan is complaining all the time and have difficulty surviving.
most of their big counterparts are already in PRC or planning to move there.

 

[chinkangkor]

I got the impression from the article that Koh was sincere and genuine in his general praise of Taiwan and the Taiwanese. This had nothing to do with his bank.

Taiwanese will never exchange their hard won democratic freedoms for S'pore's authoritarian efficiency.

 

[jw5]

I got the impression from the article that Koh was sincere and genuine in his general praise of Taiwan and the Taiwanese. This had nothing to do with his bank.

Did he have anything to say about ex president Chen Shui Bian?

 

[locky2ky]

Of late I have noticed ST's insidious attempt at spinning that the Taiwanese are enamoured over S'pore's political system/governance as compared to Taiwan, in particular by publishing gushing Taiwanese perspectives from Taiwan's CommonWealth Magazine.

Ironically I recently read a personal article by ex DBS top banker Edmund Koh who now heads Ta Chong bank in Taipei where he relates his refreshing experiences in Taiwan and how he admires the Taiwanese traits for civic mindedness, creativity and entrepreneurship which he finds lacking in Singapore. In particular he is impressed by the strength and talent in Taiwan's SMEs.

taiwanese enamoured with our system? they would not hesitate to condemn the old man when they know that he has been disparaging them!

 

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

From what I recall, Koh mainly focussed on his general observations of Taiwanese people in both private and public/business environments based on his first 100 days of living in Taiwan.

Did he have anything to say about ex president Chen Shui Bian?

 

[Alu862]

Taiwanese will never exchange their hard won democratic freedoms for S'pore's authoritarian efficiency.

How do you know that? People have suffered under democracies. Even in the US, people still don't have efficiency governments at the state and federal level. Democracy is not a neccessity for development.

 

[chinkangkor]

How do you know that? People have suffered under democracies. Even in the US, people still don't have efficiency governments at the state and federal level. Democracy is not a neccessity for development.

So people don't suffer under dictatorial, totalitarian or authoritarian political systems? The competition of political systems was over after the collapse of communism. Democracy is the winner and has been virtually accepted worldwide as the best political system.

US is still being rated as the most competitive economy. Its people are regarded as the most innovative and entrepreneurial, who have the good fortune and luxuries of not being psychologically constraint by a straitjacket of stifling authoritarian political system such as S'pore's.

 

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

Bro,

So you appear to be in agreement with Francis Fukuyama eh? Well you may be aware that our very own Kishore Mahbubani has been arguing along fundamentally different lines for well over a decade now together with his 'beloved' LKY first propping up "Asian Values" governance which took a hit after the Asian currency crisis debacle in 1998 only to be recently resurrected in another form i.e. "Beijing Consensus" with the Spence World Bank Development Commission Growth Report.

Now whether the "Beijing Consensus" can actually gain more solid traction would probably depend on whether such a model of governance can provide stability and prosperity over the long term in a first world developed society/country as opposed to the current relative succesful developing countries that are now trying to make the jump into the first world developed country league.

Cheers

So people don't suffer under dictatorial, totalitarian or authoritarian political systems? The competition of political systems was over after the collapse of communism. Democracy is the winner and has been virtually accepted worldwide as the best political system.

US is still being rated as the most competitive economy. Its people are regarded as the most innovative and entrepreneurial, who have the good fortune and luxuries of not being psychologically constraint by a straitjacket of stifling authoritarian political system such as S'pore's.

 

[chinkangkor]

Bro,
Now whether the "Beijing Consensus" can actually gain more solid traction would probably depend on whether such a model of governance can provide stability and prosperity over the long term in a first world developed society/country as opposed to the current relative succesful developing countries that are now trying to make the jump into the first world developed country league.
Cheers

The "Beijing Consensus" does not advocate a one-party state government as a development model. Its philosophy is mainly to be innovative, flexible, pragmatic and experiment to see what works and what doesn't.

 

[Alu862]

So people don't suffer under dictatorial, totalitarian or authoritarian political systems? The competition of political systems was over after the collapse of communism. Democracy is the winner and has been virtually accepted worldwide as the best political system.

US is still being rated as the most competitive economy. Its people are regarded as the most innovative and entrepreneurial, who have the good fortune and luxuries of not being psychologically constraint by a straitjacket of stifling authoritarian political system such as S'pore's.

Democracy is NOT THE WINNER UNLESS YOU ARE THE FUKYAMA TYPE. US ECONOMY IS IN RECESSION AND HAS THE HIGHEST UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IN ITS HISTORY.

DEMOCRACY IS NOT A PRECUSOR TO SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT.

 

[Alu862]

Go READ TODARO AND SMITH BOOK. MANY DEVELOPMENT ECONOMISTS HAVE SEE THE ILL EFFECTS OF NEO LIBERAL FREE MARKET AND LIBERAL ACTIONS VS THAT OF EAST ASIAN GROWTH

 

[chinkangkor]

Democracy is NOT THE WINNER UNLESS YOU ARE THE FUKYAMA TYPE. US ECONOMY IS IN RECESSION AND HAS THE HIGHEST UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IN ITS HISTORY.

DEMOCRACY IS NOT A PRECUSOR TO SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPMENT.

All developed economies go through cycles of growths and recessions. Only developing economies can have a sustain, high rapid growth for decades but when the economies mature, they too go through the same cycles.

Market economy is a necessity for development but representative government is not. Hong Kong is one such example where it has all the democratic institutions except universal suffrage for its people. It has a top notch judiciary system, independent media, low corruption, freedom of speech and assemblies etc

A free capitalist system with competent government, coupled with political and social stability will lead to good economic development.

All is well and good but when the economy matures, how does a society ensures that it continues to have smooth transition of power without power struggle that will lead to political uncertainties? How does it ensure that the political system is sustainable in attracting able and competent people to run for government?

So far, democracy has proved to be the only one system that is self-rejuvenating and sustainable in providing good enough solutions for the above issues.

 

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

Perhaps, but I get the impression that it is also not enamoured by the liberal democracy principles/concepts as espoused in the "Washington Consensus" model. More emphasis is given to "good governance' principles. In fact I think Spence himself in his recent lecture in S'pore stressed on an apolitical view, saying "good governance" was key.

The "Beijing Consensus" does not advocate a one-party state government as a development model. Its philosophy is mainly to be innovative, flexible, pragmatic and experiment to see what works and what doesn't.

 

[Porfirio Rubirosa]

Perhaps you have a point, but whether political history actually ends with western liberal democracy (as it now stands) still appears to be an open question. The hunt for Plato's "philosopher king" may not have ended even after more than 2,000 centuries

All is well and good but when the economy matures, how does a society ensures that it continues to have smooth transition of power without power struggle that will lead to political uncertainties? How does it ensure that the political system is sustainable in attracting able and competent people to run for government?

So far, democracy has proved to be the only one system that is self-rejuvenating and sustainable in providing good enough solutions for the above issues.

 

[chinkangkor]

Perhaps you have a point, but whether political history actually ends with western liberal democracy (as it now stands) still appears to be an open question. The hunt for Plato's "philosopher king" may not have ended even after more than 2,000 centuries

When you look at Asia, you can see that there are now more democracies as compared to say 50 years ago.