When Dr Tommy Koh voiced his objection on July 23 to the sale of Income Insurance (ex-NTUC Income) to Allianz, a German insurance company, his remarks could not have come at a more appropriate time.
Irene Ng, the former Straits Times journalist and PAP MP, had just launched her book, S Rajaratnam, The Authorised Biography, Volume Two: The Lion’s Roar. The former Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister would have joined Dr Koh in slamming the proposed move, if he was alive today.
Flashback to 2016. One of Dr Tommy Koh’s New Year wishes for 2016 was that Singaporeans would be less obsessed with money:
“My mentor, Mr S Rajaratnam, once said that Singaporeans were in danger of becoming a people who knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. We did not heed his warning. As a result, I fear that Singapore is in very grave danger of becoming a market society.”
And in this relentless pursuit of easy profits and returns, we lose sight of what is socially important and should be non-negotiable.
Dr Koh: “NTUC Income was founded to serve a social purpose and a social need. They remain valid today. I wish to argue that Income Insurance and FairPrice should never be sold.
Income Insurance started life as a co-operative of NTUC like FairPrice. The idea was to offer insurance to the people at affordable rates,” he said, noting that it became a corporate entity a few years ago.
“Now we are told that it may be sold to a German insurance company. I don’t think it’s a good idea to sell Income Insurance.”
Allianz planned to acquire a majority share in Income Insurance. It announced that it would offer S$40.58 per share for 51 per cent of shares in Income Insurance. The total transaction value would be $2.2 billion. The deal is pending regulatory approval.
NTUC Enterprise chairman Lim Boon Heng has said that Income Insurance will continue to provide affordable insurance for lower-income customers after the deal with Allianz:
“NTUC Enterprise will also continue as an active shareholder of Income Insurance to keep it to its purpose and deliver social commitments to its policyholders.”
The fact of the matter is that Allianz will be the majority shareholder, however “active” NTUC Enterprise may wish to be. The fate of a Singapore institution will be in foreign hands. If we cut everything to the chase, it is that simple.
That would be anathema to Rajaratnam – and the 1G leaders. Never let others determine your destiny. Do not downgrade the interests of lower-income or middle-income Singaporeans who have always trusted the NTUC Income brand.
Already, commuters who have been supportive of NTUC Comfort (when it was truly local in the past) have been shortchanged by decisions, policies and developments which have reduced the taxi service to the rump it is today and left, for example, the taxi-dependent elderly in the lurch and literally stranded on the roads.
Member of Parliament Liang Eng Hwa (PAP-Bukit Panjang), chairperson of the Government Parliamentary Committee for Finance and Trade and Industry, has filed a parliamentary question on the Allianz plan. He said his main concern is the affordability and accessibility of insurance, especially to the mass consumer market.
Actually, he should be more concerned about losing a local entity to a foreign company.
In his dinner speech in honour of Lee Kuan Yew’s 60th birthday on 16 Sept 1983, Rajaratnam said:
“If I correctly read the Prime Minister’s mind, his goal is not a nation of rabbits led by lions, or a nation of lions led by rabbits or, worse still, rabbits led by rabbits but, as befits the Lion City, a nation of lions led by lions…
He knows full well that as with great adversity, prosperity too, if improperly enjoyed, can transform lions into fattened rabbits.” Ready for the slaughter.
Tan Bah Bah is a former senior leader writer with The Straits Times. He was also managing editor of a magazine publishing company