When WP Jamus Lim wrote in a Facebook post that ‘the government must not make money while citizens suffer’ he was just doing what an Opposition MP usually does, using emotive language to paint the government in a negative light even when it is not true.
Thus he looks with glee upon the surpluses the Government has accumulated and declares that these surpluses must now all be distributed to Singaporeans who are suffering from inflation. The Government should not be making money.
But nothing could be further from the truth.
All surpluses are returned to Singaporeans
Back in 2018, Minister Lawrence Wong said in Parliament – also in response to surpluses – that ALL surpluses are given back to Singaporeans in different forms.
And Singaporeans know this is true.
Think of the Pioneer Generation Package and the Merdeka Generation Package. These are $8 billion and $6.5 billion respectively. Where does the money come from? Surpluses.
Spending without bankrupting the country
The money set aside for the Pioneer and Merdeka Generation Packages ensures that the Government will be able to honour their promises to Singaporeans. Regardless of how the economy performs, and regardless of whether there is a recession, money has already been set aside to meet government’s obligations to the Pioneer and Merdeka generations.
The Government also regularly injects funds from surpluses into the various endowment funds like the MediFund, ComCare Fund and Edusave Fund. This ensures these funds are never depleted and the needy will have ready assistance.
In 2018, there were $7.7 billion surpluses and these were used in this way: the bulk of it was set aside for rail infrastructure and premium subsidies while some were distributed to Singaporeans via the SG Bonus.
More pressing challenges ahead than inflation
Leaders must be more farsighted than citizens. Leaders cannot be so narrow as to focus on one crisis while ignoring all the rest as what WP Jamus Lim appeared to do doing. He has suggested in a Facebook post that the increased in tax revenue that the Government collected, the so-called extraordinary surplus the Government has, be used to postpone the GST hike and rebated back to Singaporeans to help them cope with inflation.
Is it too much to ask of the Opposition?
