Monday, August 10, 2015

My view of Mah Bow Tan

Many people do not like Mah Bow Tan for the reasons given here.
http://www.tremeritus.com/2015/08/09/ten-reasons-why-mah-bow-tan-is-singapore%E2%80%99s-most-hated-minister/

I also don't like his management of the HDB policy when he was the national development minister.

But, I like to say a few words in support of him.

1) When he was in government, he acted decisively and most of the time, his actions were for the good of Singapore.

2)  He did well as communications minister, including the introduction of the ERP and COE. While they were painful to the pocket, they did make the traffic flow smoothly.

3) A few years ago, after I left NTUC, I had a rare lunch at Singapore Cricket Club. He saw me, and walked over to talk to me. He was humble and won my friendship. (Not like the haughty ministers and top civil servants today, who do not even reply to my emails! ).

1 comment:

yujuan said...

I could only pay tribute to his contribution in preserving Chek Java at Pulau Ubin against his Govt's destroying the swampy lands to build a shipping Port there.
Can't think of any other great contributions, but he's the culprit who holds back building more HDB flats, allowing the price explosion upwards, while opening the tap to large increase of immigrants into Singapore.

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