Jamus Lim: “Our nation’s reserves belong to the people, not the government”

SINGAPORE: In a Facebook post on Wednesday (Feb 14), Workers’ Party MP Jamus Lim (Sengkang GRC) reiterated a point he had made in Parliament earlier this month regarding the country’s reserves, underlining who they belong to.

In his speech, Assoc Prof Lim said, “Our nation’s eye-watering reserve stock was built on the backs of sacrifices made by the past and present generations for the sake of future needs. Our nation’s reserves belong to the people, not the government.”

On Feb 14, he explained the point he was making further, writing that “reserves are the endowments of our nation, which result from forgone consumption when we are taxed more than we receive back in benefits, or forced to save more than we would like, or made to accept a weaker purchasing power of our currency.

As such, reserves belong to us, the people; not to the government of the day, not to any ministry or agency, and not to any political party.”

The Sengkang GRC MP, who teaches Economics at ESSEC Business School and who is also on the council of the Economic Society of Singapore (ESS) since 2020, also underlined that based on the premise that Singapore’s reserves belong to her people, some “basic principles” should be followed when it comes to them.

These are “transparency (people should know what they own), accountability (the steward of our money needs to tell us what they’re doing with it), and consultation (we should be able to have a mature conversation over how our money is to be spent, rather than being told in a high-handed way than we should just trust whatever the government is doing).”

Three other WP MPs, Aljunied GRC’s Pritam Singh, Gerald Giam, and Assoc Prof Lim’s fellow Sengkang GRC MP Louis Chua, similarly made the case for greater transparency when it comes to Singapore’s reserves.

Mr Singh, the Leader of the Opposition, said that the Government should be more open about the reserves, allowing for mature conversations about them.

Meanwhile, Mr Giam argued that greater transparency would improve governance and “foster a more inclusive and informed discussion” about Singapore’s future.

In a similar vein, Mr Chua called for sovereign wealth fund GIC to “adequately disclose its detailed investment performance… as well as corresponding risk analytics on at least an annual basis,” arguing that Temasek Holdings already does so.

Earlier last week, Non-Constituency MPs from the Progress Singapore Party filed a motion calling for a review of the Government’s policies on the Budget and reserves in light of the financial burdens Singaporeans are facing, which the WP supported.

The PAP-dominated House eventually rejected the motion, although it passed an amended one by the PAP that ensures the government stays “fiscally responsible and sustainable.”/TISG

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