We all know the world is getting more and more Orwellian with privacy getting to be a joke as every little detail about us, from our blood group to our work history, is fed into databases. But the state and the government are affecting our lives in ways even Orwell didn’t envisage.
Take today, for instance. I went to work, had my dinner at a food stall and logged into my computer. And a government-linked company benefited at every step. The public bus belonged to a government-linked company, the food stall was in a public housing estate, and my Internet service provider is another government-linked company. This is Singapore. Praised as one of the world’s least corrupt, most competitive economies. Where government-linked companies dominate almost every sector of the economy.
In fact, we would have no public buses, no commuter trains, no radio, no television if these companies suddenly went out of business. Many of the people would lose all their savings too. Yes, one of the big banks too is a government-linked company. As is the biggest local supermarket chain.
In current economic thinking, which favours private enterprise and free markets, this might be seen as statism. But the evils of statism — poor service and economic stagnation — are curiously absent in Singapore. The government-linked companies do provide good service and chase growth and profits as zealously as the most ruthless multinational. A couple of years ago it emerged that the government-linked DBS Bank employed fewer people in Singapore than the multinational Citigroup. The government-linked media company Starhub will be raising cable television subscription charges next month. It wants to make more money just like any other business.
It might be asked why, if they are like any other business, have them at all. But they play a vital role. They have built up the infrastructure Singapore is famous for. They run the excellent transport system and communication network among other things. Of course, they have to be paid.
Not that every government-linked company bothers to ask before taking people’s money. The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) is one of Singapore’s richest companies. "Set up in 1981 to handle Singapore’s huge provident fund deposits, the GIC’s portfolio of well above $100 billion makes it one of the world’s largest fund-managing companies," reported the Telegraph in Calcutta (Kolkata) recently. The Indian newspaper reported that because GIC — along with Temasek, another government-linked company — wants a bigger stake in the Indian bank, ICICI. Let’s hope it makes a good investment for, after all, it’s the people’s money.
I am sure it will. Singapore does have a good nose for business. In fact, I read that Singapore government-linked companies owned more Australian assets than the Australian government itself.
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