Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Town hall meeting with Geithner

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Town hall meeting with Geithner

I watch a CNBC broadcast of a town hall meeting with US Treasury Secretary Geithner. He answered many difficult questions posed by the American people regarding the economy, banking crisis and other issues.

I was impressed with the manner in which he answered the questions. More importantly, he was open and accountable. He addressed the questions presented by the TV hosts and the ordinary people.

I reflected. Surely, the MAS or the political leaders could have held a town hall meeting with the investors who signed the several petitions? What makes Singapore so different that they could ignore the petitions or refuse to meet with the people who were misled into losing their life savings. Are the plights of these people not important? Can they be ignored?

Is there accountability among our top leaders and civil servants?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...: Mr tan,
The Treasury Secretary earned less than 10% of the salary of our GCT and runs a economy that is 50 times of Singapore.

Yet, the Treasury Secrtary is accountable. Our GCT only likes to travel to China to teach other people how to run their country. He neglects his duty to the people of Singapore and collect a big, fat pay!; September 12, 2009 11:00 PM
Anonymous said...: They are still in the old mindset i.e. "I say you follow. Don't ask why because you depend on me."

The current US situation and the way President Obama reach out to the mass is good display of acountability and dedication to the nation.

This is what a good govt is all about.; September 13, 2009 12:11 AM
Anonymous said...: The US GDP is 15 trillions. What is SG's? not even 1 trillion, lah.
What about China's GDP? it is 3.5 trillion and the minister in charge is probably earning S$5000 a month. Our minsters are highest paid not just on this planet but in the whole universe.; September 13, 2009 12:14 AM
Anonymous said...: Fat salaries, dismissive and bo chap talk ("let's move on, you went in with their eyes wide open"), zero accountability, twisted words to explain things their way, ineffective policies that have no bite... the list goes on. Change the government.; September 13, 2009 5:49 AM
Anonymous said...: This is the main difference between governing by heart and governing by money.

When govern by heart, one is willing to engage and find the root cause of problem and nail them.

When govern by money, one is more willing to claim credit readily to increase monetary benefit and shroud responsibility and accountability when screw-up, blaming on other factors when in fact, it is self-inflicted consequences. Even better still, avoid giving transparency to cover-up for mistakes and giving nonsense and rhetoric.

Mr Tan,
can you imagine someone like our PM Lee who is once BG that rose the fastest in rank ? Isn't that dreadful to know that someone who hold the highest military is someone who disappear at sign of crisis which inflicted by his own decision ?

Reading at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Hsien_Loong
realize that how much nepotism and incompetency that destroy a country.; September 13, 2009 7:00 AM
Anonymous said...: In some "Democratic" countries, the leaders are the "masters", while the people are just the "poeple".; September 13, 2009 7:22 AM
Anonymous said...: Rex comments as follows:

I think one of the greatest forseeable tragedies of the spiralling high costs with disproportinate income streams of the political leaders is this - CORRUPTION wll increase.

Our dear leaders used to say that they have to have high pay. If civil servants are lowly paid, it can lead to corruption. Yes the really top people, they fulfilled the order and paid themselves highly, but a even greater majority are paid very much less whilst the real cost of essential items for middle class folks, especially accomodation and cars, are escalating like crazy!!!!!!!!

Therefore, it is a matter of time before corruption will increase in this country if the income gap continues like this. In particular, people who have foolishly spent beyond their means to purchase property, and running into financial difficulties, will be increasingly tempted to do corrupt acts to save themeselves.

The extremely high pay of the leaders and their policies which drive up property costs to the extreme, is a strong factor which will lead to more corruption. When the casino's open, even more social trouble will arise, because people are driven not by greed but by desperation, to acts which they mistakenly think will save themselves. Singapore is headed to a disasterous future, if we go on operating like Singapore Inc. without a care to other issues.
REX; September 13, 2009 8:46 AM
Anonymous said...: Corruption can be "legal" and it's happening here!

Paying oneself exorbitant salary and bonus with taxpayers' $$ without approval of taxpayers is "legal" corruption!!

CHANGE is imminent to remove "legally" corrupted GOVT!!!; September 16, 2009 1:37 PM