PAP, the unspoken miracle of Singapore

 Almost 60 years of PAP rule in prosperous Singapore, the people did not seem to be tired of the PAP. PAP is still the unchallenged ruling political party in Singapore. No political party could come near to PAP in terms of political votes. Parliament is still overwhelmingly filled with PAP MPs, more than two thirds majority. And this is not going to change.

Here are the reasons why. 

The PAP has the monopoly of talents in Singapore. Look at the PAP MPs and ministers and you cannot miss that everyone is a super talent, deserving to be paid in the millions or several hundred thousands. Practically everyone is paid more than the President of the USA, more or less there. The talents of PAP MPs and ministers are unquestionable, all proven by their very clever answers in Parliament when questioned by the opposition. They are always right and always put the opposition MPs looking like losers. Hard to find in any other Parliament.

The PAP is unchallenged and incomparable to any political parties in the world in their ability to make tough decisions in good or bad times, and always accepted by the people without any protest or objection. Look at the slate of increases in taxes and fees recently, in a time when practically every country is having trouble with inflation and stagnation or facing recession. The Singapore govt could still happily raise taxes and fees like business as usual. Many govts would have been brought down by mass protests like in Europe now, but not the PAP. They understand that the people are fully behind the PAP in whatever the PAP does. They believe that the people understand that everything the PAP did must be for the good of the people.  This kind of blind loyalty and trust by the people for a political party is unheard of in any country. Even China cannot match this.

And the PAP can fill the island with nearly 3m foreigners, practically one in every two person in the island is a foreigner. It could be even more if new citizens are included. And the people are not objecting. The people love it. The little ranting by the unemployed or underemployed are mere noises thrown up in the social media, nothing serious that would undermine the support for the PAP. The facts on the ground is that Singaporeans are awfully rich. Just look at the money they are willing to pay for public housing and for private car ownership. Public housing is now costing several hundred thousands for a 99 year leasehold, that would become 0 value when the lease expired. But the Singaporeans are so rich and so happy to buy them.

And the cars. A cheapo Korean or Japanese car is costing more than $100k when the cost of the car is likely to be about $15k. Just a certificate to have the right to buy a car, excluding the price of the car, is between $80k to $110K.  And still the Singaporeans are rushing to buy and own cars, as if this is normal. This means the Singaporeans are rich, cash rich. The saying that Singaporeans are asset rich and cash poor is just a myth. And quietly the Singaporeans must be very grateful to the PAP for making them so rich to be able to pay for public and private housing in the millions and cars at prices you can't find in any part of the world.

No where in the world can you find such a concentration of super talents in a single political party, all millionaires, a cabinet of millionaires, and the best talents in the island. If their salary is a measure of their talents, practically everyone of them is more talented than all the heads of states in the whole world.  They are paid according to their market worth. They can all command the same equivalent salary in the job market if they were to leave their political offices.

This is the unspoken miracle of Singapore. So many talents in the political leadership, but no talents left in the private sector that millions of foreign talents have to be imported to fill the vaccuum in the population. A no talent nation state led by a few super talents and still can be the richest state in Asia. come to think of it, this second part is also a miracle.