Singapore needs a new growth narrative to Cloud Nine

 The last two decades have been a time of open leg policy to boost the GDP with more heads to increase consumption. Yes, it is all but a consumption economy, blowing the balloon with hot air. Everyone knows that this cannot go on and on and the strain on the balloon is showing. With no real gain in productivity and technology, the only certainty is for the balloon to go bang.

Relying just on consumption of everything is so elementary and so fragile. The current inflation crisis is waking up all the drunkards just like the Fukushima nuclear disaster that stopped the snake oil sellers to throw in the towel on a nuclear powered Singapore.  We are totally dependent on food, energy, water and all the basic needs from external sources and supplies. The bigger the population the bigger the stress if the supplies are cut. We are stretching every inch of our land and water/sea to produce food and energy. 

The present crisis is still in its infancy and still manageable. If it is prolonged, another 6 months or a couple of years, our reserves would not hold up and the pressure would become unbearable for the paycheck to paycheck families.

Singapore needs more than just a consumption and rentier economy to go forward, to stay in the first world, with enough real growth to be sustainable, to be able to feed the millionaires and their million dollar salaries. The West have priced themselves out of the competition. Singapore is closely behind with the high compensation packages and it needs a new miracle to keep the balloon inflated. Applying low productivity and low technology formula for growth just cannot match the demands for a high income employee economy.

Maybe Singapore should revive its meritocracy policy, called it meritocracy 2.0. This time Singapore really need to employ the really talented to drive the economy. Put the best and most talented men and women in the right places to boot start the economy into top gear. No more joking. 

For a start, the top jobs in banking and IT industries must be filled by the best from India, as they are the best in banking, finance and IT. If the Indians can convinced the Americans and the West to let them be CEOs of their top corporations, they must be really good. We can bring them in to head all our GLCs and we will have world beaters. Similarly the legal industry, including the judges, should also be Indians as Indians are the best in laws and legal matters. The civil services should also be staffed by the Indians, they are the best civil servants trained and brought up by the British colonial system in the finest British tradition. Many archetype Indians have risen in the past to be top civil servants. This is proven, with good track records, and many living examples are still around. Indians made the best civil servants. And don't forget the foreign ministry. Indians made very good diplomats. They are naturally talented in diplomacy. And our neighbours are more comfortable dealing with Indian ministers.

Indians are also natural politicians. More Indians should be made ministers and prime ministers to raise the standard of our political leadership. They are really good in politics. Then not only Singapore can punch above its weight. Singapore can also punch China and the USA.

Indians are also very good soldiers and policemen. They were very well regarded and complimented by the British lords for fighting for the British Empire in Europe, Africa and also in China. They are also the best policemen in keeping peace in the British colonies. 

Education is a very important ministry. Who are the best teachers and professors? I think Indians are the best, highly educated, talented and eloquent. More Indian professors and teachers should be recruited to teach and educate our young, to be the best they could be, like the Indian professionals and super talents now in our midst. The Indians graduates are the most sought after talents in the West and also in Singapore. It is only logical to have them to teach our in our schools and universities, to raise the level of education of our students, graduates and post graduates.

Indians are also very good doctors. And you know where to get them. 

Indians also have very good command of the languages and they should run the media industry, to be editors, journalists, reporters and media presenters. We need the best to be in this field.

Singapore must seriously put the best talents in the right positions, based on meritocracy. Only then can Singapore move away from a consumption driven economy. And talents are not determined by a piece of paper. If a talented person with no degrees, or with a fake degree from the degree mills, can convince or con our super talents that he is a talent, then he should be hired for the top jobs. It is not easy to make our super talents think highly of another person. And having no degree super talents to run big organisations is nothing new. Many billionaire CEOs did not have degrees but have hundreds of PhDs working for them. This fundamental shift to look for real talents, not necessarily with straight As or from the best universities, would be a dramatic and innovative change in our policy on meritocracy.

Singapore needs to think differently to go to cloud nine, to remain in the first world. And meritocracy is the only way to go. Singapore must import all the world's best talents to be exceptional and to be able to pay everyone million dollar salaries. Those with only a piece of paper to show but with no talents to prove should make way for the true talents. Meritocracy is about real talents, survival skills in the real world, not straight As.

'Put the right people in the right places for an enterprise to flourish and not just Generals!'  Lim Tean 

Now you are thinking.

Thoughts of a mediocre mind