National Day Rally Speech: An opportunity missed?

Back in the nineties at the dawn of the Internet age when an upstart start up named Netscape looked about to eat Microsoft's lunch with its Netscape Navigator web browser, what did Bill Gates do? He redirected Microsoft's original stand-alone desktop strategy to one which placed the Internet front and center of its new focus and created Microsoft's IE browser. The rest as they say is history....especially for Netscape.

Similarly, Singapore's political landscape is at a crossroads with the landmark loss of a GRC at the recent general election. In this case though, unfortunately PM Lee Hsien Loong did not, in my opinion rise to the occasion and met the challenge as Bill Gates did.

In his speech, he appears to have identified the critical issues faced by his government much like Bill Gates had identified the need to get on the Internet bandwagon. Unfortunately, his speech did not articulate a road map with specific details of how his government would address those issues.

These issues are the result of policies that have been implemented for well over a decade. They are unlikely to be reversed and the effects felt by the ground within the timeframe of the next general election.

For example: "Singaporeans First" makes for a good soundbite, but details are scant of just how it is going to be implemented or enforced. The measures announced to address these issues seem like mere bandaids on a gushing arterial wound.

For example: Raising the income ceiling for HDB flats from $8,000 to $10,000. All it does is to make $10,000 the new threshold for appeals. Increasing university places by 2000? What about the 2001 person that just missed the cut? Increasing subsidies for more drugs and low-income earners? How is this going to be funded? If no additional taxes are going to be levied, then why was this not done before and only now after an election loss? Is the GST going to be raised to a nice round and easy to calculate 10%? In the current and forseeable inflationary environment, good luck with that. The government might as well stand down and let it be an oppositon walkover for the next election :)

I think PM Lee missed the opportunity to make use of the speech to lay out a coherent action plan to address these issues. Without such a plan being articulated there is no way to manage public expectations. The temperature on the ground is still simmering (witness the booing presidential candidate Dr Tony Tan received yesterday). Ad hoc measures like those that Mr Khaw Boon Wan had made in relation to housing issues are not enough. They give an impression of seat-of-the-pants fire-fighting and not of a government knowing what it needs to do and doing it in a coordinated manner. Perhaps we could have a post National Day Rally Speech speech do-over and this time, hopefully do it better :)