CPF an asset or liability to the govt?

We have been told that our CPF is part, or a major part, of our national reserves. It must therefore be an asset. As such, it is good to keep growing the reserves with more and more CPF money in it. And as an asset, you don’t have to worry about returning it. Our national reserves cannot be used anyhow right? It would need the President’s approval, if I am not mistaken, to touch our national reserves. So to touch our CPF money, which is part of the reserves, is unthinkable. Can see cannot touch. It is sacred, part of the national reserves. A govt can only spend the surplus revenue it generated.
 
What if the CPF is a liability to the govt, a borrowed fund that must be returned? If our CPF is a liability, then there would be no incentive to keep it in the reserves but to reduce it when there is a surplus, to reduce the liability. And if it is a liability, the funds managing it must also be thinking about redemption by the members. When CPF members hit 55, they are going to withdraw their CPF savings. But when funds managing the CPF money do not think it is a liability that is subject to withdrawal and redemption, there is no need to ensure that the fund is liquid to meet such requirements. The funds can invest for the long term, and when there is no need to return, and the long term can be forever.
 
Why is the CPF saving the nation’s reserves when it is the people’s money that must be returned? Is this an international convention, an accounting convention, to regard the people’s savings as national reserves and an asset that does not need to be returned?
 
Can anyone clarify on these contradictions?

Kopi Level - Green