Mr Chee Soon Juan will be launching his book titled "It Starts With A Dream” on the 17th of this month . What is it all about ?
It is about the wrong economic model adopted by Singapore which is the cause of its high cost of living and gentrification in the island. He argues that “……productivity growth is the only way forward to ensure a better life. .… without productivity, we can't improve our quality of life in Singapore.The PAP, the governing party , has taken the easy way out to grow our economy. How? By attracting wealthy families from overseas and turning Singapore into a tax haven…. with dangerous consequences for our society..."
"The Financial Times wrote that Singapore is welcoming more than a dozen investment funds every month under a new scheme designed to lure money from tax havens such as the Cayman Islands, Mauritius and the Bahamas. How did we come from a proud trading nation to being compared to the Cayman Islands and Bahamas? “
"Well, economist Linda Lim tells us that Singapore is a favored intermediary and repository for the crony wealth of foreigners lured by state provided privileges like tax breaks, secrecy and expedited permanent residence, even citizenship...."
When you lure billionaires from overseas with residence and citizenship, you end up having these wealthy foreigners buying and owning land on this island, land that we are constantly told is scarce. …When billionaires come in, buy the hundreds and snap up expensive properties in Singapore, they raise land prices. When land prices go up, they drive up property prices for us, the common people, even establishment folks, are worried about this development.
…Singaporeans are being priced out of the private property market as a flood of foreign funds flow into Singapore. These foreign funds also drive up rent for businesses, which raises the cost of living for us all. And this is one of the major reasons why things are so expensive in Singapore.. There is another, even bigger problem on their hands. It's called wealth inequality.
“Can you understand now why I keep saying that the PAP is bankrupt of ideas and leading us to a very dangerous place? Sooner or later, something will have to give because this arrangement is simply not sustainable. Let me recap. Because it doesn't know how to boost productivity in Singapore, the PAP turns to an easy source of making money that is attracting foreign wealth. Foreigners buy up land and make life unbearably and unsustainably expensive for us Singaporeans.”
This is exactly what is wrong with our economic model, our private sector choosing the easy way out.
A recap on the increased gentrification in Mauritius:
Real estate activities accounted for some 70% of the Gross Direct Investment flows in Mauritius for the first three quarters of 2023. This development model or the type of development option, adopted by most of our politicians, (with the exception of the leftist parties) squeezes the population per sq km, (presently some 611.24 persons per sq km and ranked 18th in the world in terms of population density; the highest of African countries )on top of one another in the main cities while the ex-sugar barons and corporates speculate on our precious land to convert Mauritius into a real estate jungle peopled by outsiders without any concern about its impact on the local population, the environment, the future .
All of the mainstream political parties have done their utmost to advance the private sector’s interests by liberalising land to unlock massive potential for profits in real estate development for large land owners, granting more advantageous IPPs in energy, and promoting hotel development for the business oligarchs with consequent public infrastructural investments.
The real estate schemes pursued by our politicians have been decried by independent economists and by Rezistans ek Alternativ (ReA) as a speculative and unproductive use of the country’s strategic land assets by selling them to foreigners.(You recall ReA's clip , the " Mauritius for sale , kuma morisien pe vinn etranzé dan so prop pei" ). Land prices have risen out of reach of most Mauritian households, while the corporates have been extracted huge profits on their large property holdings, but contributing marginally to taxation. During the Sithanen-Mansoor years , we even saw the slashing of corporate taxation, huge promotion budgets to the tourism sector, and the channelling of EU compensation money for the restructuring of the sugar industry and for the sugar barons.
The IRS schemes were so designed that they fitted like a glove to the hand of the private sector in maximizing their land values, and also in its employment of foreigners, notably South Africans fleeing from black business empowerment, and providing them with owned or rented residences. Some of the conglomerates were strong practitioners of South-African dominated employment at the highest levels of its management, and not coincidentally, also executing parallel IRS schemes designed mainly for South Africans.
Like in Singapore, most of our conglomerates also reflect their excellence at less productive activities. The unproductive use of our country’s strategic land assets have surely generate wealth and some periods of reasonable growth but it is neither sustainable nor inclusive in the long run.
Should we be surprised then that the private sector is not forthcoming with investment in new sectors/pillars ? Why ?
Because this model of growth is providing them with a more than reasonable rate of return on the low hanging fruits. We have been building our future on quicksand and sowing the seeds for future recriminations by our progenies for putting in place policies that are promoting economic apartheid – a pervasive threat to our social and national cohesion- the end result is increased gentrification in Mauritius.
Kugan Parapen of the ReA had recently raised the issue of "Gentrification in Mauritius “. Our model of development has led us to the phenomenon of gentrification. Today , the smart cities , the gated communities, the new schemes for the silver economy, the new residential schemes offered to foreigners are springing up like mushrooms, accentuated by the liberalisation of the property market ; the local population is being displaced , pauperised and becoming a foreigner in his own land . And add to that the liberalisation of the labour market encouraging the corporates and the tourism industry to have recourse to relatively cheaper foreign labour at the expense of a wholesome human capital formation programme for our local labour force accompanied by higher wages reflecting their higher productive potential.
He argues for an alternative model that totally overhauls the status-quo and is a rupture to our present economic model- especially a rupture that will mean a limit to the construction of hotels, the encroachment of our public beaches, a genuine Climate Change bill and an end to the Real Estate and Smart City Schemes, among others.
He compels us to reflect on our model of development. The increased gentrification in recent years has to be taken seriously.
We should not be satisfied with the parliamentary opposition’s announcement that a PTR-MMM-PMSD govt will be declaring a “un moratoire sur les différents projets de morcellements fonciers (IRS, PDS, centres commerciaux) en attendant une étude approfondie sur leur impact sur l’environnement” .
As urged by ReA, we have to persist in questioning the different political parties -parliamentary and extra parliamentary -on the gentrification issue and ensure that its discontinuation is included in their political manifestos- not the vain promises/conclusions of an “étude approfondie”. !
(From Wikipedia :Chee Soon Juan is a Singaporean politician and political activist. He is currently the secretary-general of the Singapore Democratic Party (SDP), ...Chee was arrested and jailed several times for his unconventional political activities, mainly for making unauthorised public speeches as well as staging demonstrations without a police permit. He was also found guilty of defamation on multiple occasions for comments he has made about members of the country's governing People's Action Party -PAP).
