Oct 6, 2012

Lee Hsien Loong and Citizen-ownership Democracy.

Before the general election in May 2011, Lee Hsien Loong told voters, "Singapore belongs to you." This is reported by Channelnewsasia. (Here is another link from asiaone.)

Abraham Lincoln also said that the United States belong to their people, in his Inaugural address in 1862:

     "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it."

It took the Americans more than 100 years since Lincoln's speech before one state, Alaska, implements true ownership. Residents in Alaska have been getting annual income from being owners of Alaska.

Do Singaporeans have to wait 100 years before they can get annual incomes from being owners of Singapore?

There is hope. There is a world-wide movement for citizen right to a basic income just for being citizens in their countries. Brazil is doing it. Switzerland is doing it. Canada is doing it. Germany Merkel is talking it.  Macau is doing it. Mongolia is doing it. Alaska has already done it.

Even Singapore's neighbor Malaysia is doing it.

2 comments:

  1. For starters, we hope we get back our CPF.

    ReplyDelete
  2. How to hope for basic income when the defence spending keeps going up and the true performance of GIC and Temasek is in doubt.

    ReplyDelete