Running the country

Someone criticized me for not providing an alternative solution to the current practice of relying on scholars to run our nation.

I like the system adopted in America. The citizens elect the President based on the platform of policies presented by the candidate to the people. After taking office, the President appoints suitable people to manage the various departments and agencies of the government. These appointees have to be approved by the Congress – whose members were also elected by the people.

This system allows the Present to choose the most suitable candidates from the political, business, community and academic establishments. There is no shortage of talents. The appointees are people who share the President’s visions and strategies, which were also chosen by the people. Most of them are leaders in their own right and are likely to have wide knowledge and experience of their fields.

Critics may argue that the American system does not produce the economic success that is achieved by other models, such as Singapore or China. These critics overlook the fact that economic performance is not the only factor, although it is an important factor, that determines the election of the leaders. This factor has to be balanced against other factors, such as the social policies, quality of life and America’s role in providing security and leadership to the world.

The democratic nature of the American system gets the right balance of policies, that are suitable for the challenges of the time. They are even able to elect an African American to be the President!

A negative factor for the American system is the power of the business lobby. It has led to the wide gap in income and wealth – a factor shared by the Singapore system. I hope that under President Obama and the Democratic control of both houses of Congress, the situation will be changed over the next few years – for the better of America and the world.

The lament of the shortage of talents in Singapore is a product of our Singapore model. We reap what we sow.

There is a workable alternative to the Singapore model of using scholars to run the nation. We should examine if the American system can be adopted here. The small size of Singapore actually makes it easier for the country to be managed. We only need to have an open mind and explore other models.

Tan Kin Lian

Incidents at Changi Airport

I shared two stories about the security clearance at Changi Airport. The multi-million dollar automated system failed this morning. Read here.

Survey results - blogs of political parties

Here are the survey results, based on 33 replies. This is too small, and tends to be biased towards the opposition parties.

TKL Sudoku Vol 2

This book of challenging puzzles is now available for sale. Vol 2 has 128 unique puzzles. It replaced Vol 1 (which had many repeated puzzles).

I did about 50 puzzles and take from 4 mins to 10 mins. Most of the puzzles were done in 6 mins. Can you beat this? Give it a try.

To order: www.easyapps.sg/ishop

You can also buy the book at 7-11 convenient stores, Popular book stores and other major bookstores.

Survey: SMU Risk Management & Insurance

I have taught three terms of Risk Management & Insurance (about 100 students). Many of them have graduated and do not use their SMU email address. I like to get in touch with these students. If you were my student, please update your particulars here.

If you are in touch with other students in my past years' classes, please ask them to update their particulars also. Pass the word around.

Negative return from endowment policies

Dear Mr Tan,
Thank you for all your effort at this site and FiSCA (I just became a member). I really appreciate all that you are doing for us consumers.

Recently I have decided to give up 4 endowment policies. I have not actually terminate them but I have informed my agent of my desire. I have held them for 10 years and have another 10-15 years more to go. The current cash value is very low. I would only get back half of what I put in if I were to give them up now. Two policies were meant for my son's education and the other two are for my own savings.

I am thinking of cashing them out now and putting them in other forms of investment that would hopefully give me a better return by the time my son enters college. He is 14 now. I do not have a lot of time left as you can see. What is the best way to grow the money to meet that goal? The policies will only mature when he is 24 and 25. Are the policies worth keeping or are there better options?

I really hope to hear your advise on this.

REPLY
Please read this FAQ. I hope that it will help you to make a better decision.

You can also read other FAQs here.

Lost a job at 58

Read this story of a person who lost his job at 58.

High prices in Singapore

Dear Mr TAN
The prices of electrical and electronic engineering products and falling by the day reflecting the advent of sciences and technology, increasing scale of economy, reducing labour cost from cheap foreign labour, falling cost of capital, intensive competition and the substitution of labour with automation.

But the prices of financial services are rising significantly by the day, despite the advent of information technology, ATM humanless banking, increasing scale of economy, reducing labour cost from cheap foreign labour, falling cost of capital, intensive competition and e-documentation.

Is it NOT cheaper NOW to issue and process a bank draft or money order?
Is it NOT cheaper NOW to issue and maintain an insurance policy?

Also, there is a significant management failure in the efficacy, efficiency, economy of distribution cost in Singapore.

Examples: The exact same box of Nestle ice cream is sold in JB supermart at RM5.05 but it is sold in Singapore supermart at S$5.05. The exact same bottle of Narcissus rice wine is sold in Shenzhen China at RMB5.00 but it is sold in Singapore supermart at S$5.00.

Same Air, Train and Bus return trip tickets are sold in Malaysia at RM but in Singapore at S$.

Why are hawker stores NOT restricted to owner operators and instead, there is an intermediary sub-store landlord to increase the cost of operations. Please advise WHAT and WHERE distribution management had gone WRONG.

Thanks & regards
T E O