Runaway Elitism

It was only a few weeks ago that Vivian lectured the young doctors not to overcharge their patients, in other words not to be too greedy and raise the cost of living of the people. Chok Tong has followed up with a similar call on Saturday night when he spoke to his famous alumni, the Rafflesians, in a dinner to honour him with the honourable Gryphon Award. His main theme is about meritocracy, elitism and the entitlement mentality of the elite. He made a call for the successful luminaries to give back to society, to the less fortunate and the less able.

Elitism without compassion is bad. Sure. An uncaring elite class that has no compassion for others, thinking only of their entitlements and how deserving they are is not a good thing socially and politically. It is good to share a little with those who have little. Actually elitism is not a bad thing and can be a good thing with a little compassion, generosity and empathy. It is not much difference from a benevolent dictator or a king when he rules with a heart of gold and for the good of the people.

In reality, asking the rich and powerful to share their wealth is a naive idealism, an aspiration that is good to hear and talk about. Putting into practice is a different matter altogether. Many of the rich and powerful will be so busy scheming of how to take more for themselves and would not have the time to think of sharing. How can they share when they did not have enough?

There is really no need for the rich to share with the poor. All they need to do is not to keep on taking. Whatever they take, the money must come from somewhere. And the more they take, the more someone else will have to pay or to have less. It is a different matter if the money comes from outside the country. Not that no one pays, but the payers are not the citizens and it is easier to account to the people. When one takes more and the citizens have less, it will definitely create tension in the system, a widening income gap. Now you know the reason why the income gap is getting wider? Unfortunately all those who are taking could not see this, or they don’t have mirrors in their homes. They cannot see who is taking and taking and from whom.

And to make matter worst, they are taking not just because they are meritocratic and elitist, they are going to make their children and grandchildren elitist without a thought on meritocracy. Or the children of elite are meritocratic by inheritance.

Chok Tong spoke about the discussion between LKY, Devan Nair and Winsemius on the issue of accumulation of wealth. The ideal philosophy was that ‘all wealth should revert to the state on the owner’s death so that each successive generation would start on an equal footing, and success would depend on hard work and ability, not inherited wealth’.

Chok Tong said the idea was found to be impractical. By who? I think Winsemius must have been overruled. He added that ‘the Govt has tried to level the playing field by putting more resources into education, including preschools, and giving financial aid to the needy students’. So inherited wealth will not level the playing field and should be retained and estate duty abolished. How is this to measure up with the concept of meritocracy?

There is nothing wrong with inherited wealth. The family and descendants deserved to inherit the wealth of their parents. Their parents worked for it, or their parents took what they could from the system. What was practised in the old system was to retain a tax structure to tax some of the wealth of the deceased estate for the state to redistribute to the people in other ways. As long as the tax structure is reasonable, it is not a bad thing. To allow the whole loot, oops, I mean the whole lot of wealth to be passed down, is only to accentuate the inequality in society and definitely is not promoting meritocracy but elitism. There must be a balance between over taxation and zero taxation on inheritance. Inheritance is entrenched meritocracy and inherited elitism, not individual meritocracy. It is meritocracy of the family, of the tribe. It is not about levelling the playing field. It is elite protecting their elitism and wealth.

When one is bragging about the merits of meritocracy and level playing field, and then supports tax free inheritance, the contradiction is obvious. It is like saying one thing doing another thing. Anyone talking about entitlement mentality of the elite? My family and children and grandchildren are entitled to be elite.