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What Singapore can t each us

By Mat t Mil ler , Publi shed: May 2

f youve spent much time enduring the hassles, filth and indignities of LAX, Dulles and JFK, Singaporeshangi airport is a revelation. As former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew decreed, you get from the gate toaxi in 15 minutes. The mens room is sleek and immaculate, and even asks you to rate your experience

and thus the attendant) via a handy touchscreen ranking as you leave.

s close readers of this column will have noticed, Ive been a gushing fan of Singapores public policychievements since I began looking at them a few years back. Singapore spends 4 percent of grossomestic product on health care vs. Americas 17 percent, yet it delivers equal or better health outcomests at the top of global school rankings because (unlike us) it routinely recruits exemplary students into teaching profession. Yes, I know, Singapore still denies press and assembly freedoms we take for grantend has awful anti-gay laws on the books (which Im told go unenforced). But a few days spent talking fficials, businesspeople, students and government critics in the city-state that now boasts one of the

worlds highest per capita incomes have deepened my admiration for Singapores accomplishments. I alsame away convinced that last years watershed elections in which the ruling Peoples Action Party woust 60 percent of the popular vote and lost a group constituency (and three cabinet ministers) for the fi

me since independence in 1965 mean a more democratic political era is unfolding.

tart with what Singapore has delivered for its 5 million people. The place is a policy wonks paradise.hanks to what may be a historically unique blend of dedicated, highly educated technocrats and theuxury of decades of one-party rule, the government has always taken the long view. Pragmatic probleolving is its creed. Benevolent dictatorship never looked so good.

eyond world-beating health care and education systems, some highlights:

Development. Back when most developing countries shunned multinationals as evil exploiters, Singapomartly embraced global firms as indispensable sources of training, technology and jobs. As a result,ingapore grew in real terms by a stunning 8 percent a year on average between 1965 and 2010, and h

ecome a site of choice for top firms serving Asian markets. Even Uncle Sam now tries to emulateingapores savvy in courting foreign direct investment. The states latest economic strategy document,rafted with input from stakeholders across the island, reads more like a strategy consultants analysis thhe usual blue-ribbon mush. Were like a company, says Philip Yeo, who ran the globally admiredconomic Development Board for years before launching a new agency thats an innovative cross betweehe National Science Foundation and a venture capital firm. We have a plan.

Clean talent. Singapores government has always been clean and exceptional. The tone was set early oy Lee, who flew commercial to international meetings and was repulsed by African leaders who came inn private jets while their people starved. Lee ruthlessly punished officials who tried to use their post to heir pockets, insisting that the rule of law meant just that. Top students are offered full rides to placesuch as Oxford, MIT and Stanford, and then bonded to do, say, six years of government service

hereafter. Twenty years ago this culture was bolstered by the introduction of the worlds highest public-ector salaries, so that government could compete for the best and brightest. Im talking roughly $2.5million for the prime minister and $1.3 million for cabinet ministers (with bonuses tied to GDP growth). Pecame an issue in the last election and was recently scaled backfor top officials by roughly a third inesponse. But whatever the right balance, pause and think how smart it is to pay for the talent a countreeds to govern and how differently wed view, say, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithners approach to Wtreet reform if everyone wasnt expecting him to cash in when he leaves.

Transport. Singapore runs the worlds best airline (despite being based in a nation the size of New Yorkity, with no internal flights). The subways are gorgeous. The city uses electronic road pricing every

wonks dream to ease traffic at peak hours. Digital signs advising where ample parking places can beound dot the main thoroughfares.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/matt-miller/2011/02/24/ABBcOYN_page.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/03/AR2010030301396.htmlhttp://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/press_freedoms_lag_in_singapor.phphttp://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CDhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-07/singapore-s-people-s-action-party-keeps-parliamentary-majority-state-says.htmlhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-07/singapore-s-people-s-action-party-keeps-parliamentary-majority-state-says.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/world/asia/singapore-slashes-officials-salaries.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/24/world/asia/singapore-slashes-officials-salaries.htmlhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-07/singapore-s-people-s-action-party-keeps-parliamentary-majority-state-says.htmlhttp://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-07/singapore-s-people-s-action-party-keeps-parliamentary-majority-state-says.htmlhttp://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.CDhttp://www.cjr.org/behind_the_news/press_freedoms_lag_in_singapor.phphttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/03/AR2010030301396.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/matt-miller/2011/02/24/ABBcOYN_page.html

7/30/2019 What Singapore can teach us

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Housing. In America, public housing means ghetto. In Singapore, 80 percent of people live in publicousing and virtually all of them own their homes, having received mortgage assistance from theovernment. Its part of the national strategy to build assets and foster the positive social behavior thatomes with ownership.

Urban planning/climate change. A big chunk of the downtown bay area is now a reservoir via a feat ofngineering I dont pretend to understand but which experts tell me is remarkable. Meanwhile, Singaporefficials dont debate whether climate change is real but instead are taking such impressive steps to copehat one U.S. guru told me its actually embarrassing as an American to look at what they have done.

Fiscal stewardship. This may be the founding generations most distinctive legacy. The giants ofingapores independence Lee, economic architect Goh Keng Swee, and others were educated in thnited Kingdom and started out as Fabian socialists. But they concluded early on that Britains post-everidge commission welfare state would become unsustainable as the population aged and riskedndermining incentives to work, which they saw as the foundation of a strong society. The path they choor social security was thus a different form of nanny state high forced savings, under which workersypically must contribute 20 percent of earnings to their account in the Central Provident Fund, withmployers adding 15 percent more. The aim is to build up assets that can be tapped to buy homes, cov

medical expenses and prepare for retirement. To be sure, there are serious questions today as to whethmiddle- and low-income people have adequate savings for these purposes now that Singaporeans live to0, not 60, and new health treatments are pricey. But the culture of self-reliance this approach has imbu

s strong.

Whats more, the fiscal strength it has given the government to address emerging challenges is arguablynique at a time when Western democracies groan under the weight of trillions in unfunded entitlementabilities. Singapore, if youve followed how this works, has exactly zero unfunded liabilities. Since theorced savings accounts are done by the individual for the individual and are not legislated entitlements,heres no redistribution involved. While critics and reformers tell me the years ahead will almost certainlee Singapore redistribute more amply to elderly and poor citizens at risk of falling through the cracks, novernment is in a stronger fiscal position to update its social compact to cope with the age wave. In pahats also due to conservative budget rules and endowment-ethic investment practices that have leftingapore with more surpluses and reserves than virtually any other nation.

ingapore is hardly perfect. Critics make a good case that the long rule of the Peoples Action Party has complacent and out of touch. In some ways the governments decades of exceptional performance hav

lso created expectations that are impossible to sustain. Whats more, the great fruit of governmentsuccess, Singapores educated middle class, naturally seeks a greater voice now in politics (and is usherin a fascinating new era Ill discuss next week).

ut the big thing to take away from the Singapore story thus far is this: While Americans fight endlesslybout big government vs. small government yet do nothing to meet our biggest challenges, Singaporas ignored ideological claptrap and focused relentlessly on what works. Its low-tax, business-friendlynvironment is matched with major government activism in education, health care, infrastructure andousing.

ingapore thus stands as the leading modern example of how government as pragmatic problem-solver ramatically improve peoples lives. This ethos has virtually disappeared from U.S. governance at theational level. Liberals are wrong to ignore Singapores progressive achievements because of its (rightlyriticized) shortcomings on civil liberties. Conservatives are wrong to miss the lessons of Singaporesctivist, hyper-competent government.

t was roll-up-your-sleeves pragmatism that catapulted Singapore from third world to first in a few scanecades, and it is pragmatism, not ideological power games, that will be needed for American renewal.

When it comes to effective governance, to paraphrase that famous scene in When Harry Met Sally, weould do a lot worse than to have some of what Singapores been having.

Matt Miller, a co-host of public radios Left, Right & Center, writes a weekly online column for The Post