Tan Jee Say’s rally speech and the things of SDP

Tan Jee Say looks like one of the more credible candidates to come out. From his online profile, he looks like he has experience in policy making and the execution of such policies. Of course, we would never know for sure. But sometimes, you just have got to take a risk to choose based on the current available information. He also wrote a 46page economic paper of which there is a summary by TheOnlineCitizen. Do take a look! For those with more time on their hands, I would suggest reading the full paper though. I have to say, it’s long. He starts off by saying of his $60billion national renewal plan as mentioned above. His suggestion was that it can funded by Temasek Holdings or GIC, or by using the National Reserves. Apparently his suggestion was rebutted by some PAP ministers that the sum of money is ‘no small change’. His logic at this point is pretty decent. I felt that the PAP’s counter response was a pretty weak one. The crux should be to address the issue on how this plan can be executed. It’s very easy to come out with a plan, it is the implementation and execution that would be a challenge. He then turns his attention to Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, which is the opposing candidate in the PAP camp for Holland-Bukit Timah. Apparently Dr Vivian Balakrishnan mentioned that he was astonished that Tan Jee Say said $60billion was small change, and that it took ‘perhaps a decade to accumulate that amount’. Again, very nice rebuttal by Tan Jee Say who said that in the 3 years from 2006-2008, the general government finance recorded a surplus of $75billion, which was $15billion more than his suggestion. I have not check out the figures for this, but perhaps a significant amount was due to investment gains. In any case, a very sound logic by Tan Jee Say. There wasn’t much else in the speech, since it is probably one of the opening rallies...

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