“State secrets” are at stake this election, and a PAP loss would mean public would have knowledge like Ho Ching’s salaries at Temasek Holdings.
At the centre of the secrecy is the Ministry of Finance. Present and past Finance Ministers Heng Swee Keat, Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Lee Hsien Loong, had repetitively refused to divulge any financial information on the state of Singapore’s national reserves.
The PAP minister also quickly issued a POFMA order when local news media picked up a Taiwan news report revealing that Ho Ching’s salaries is about S$100 million.
In the recent coronavirus support package debate, Minister Heng Swee Keat was unable to justify the S$100 billion spending. The PAP minister also stated the government is borrowing to fund infrastructural spending, but he refused to reveal how much.
Nobody knows if Temasek Holdings or GIC is doing well, and financial losses are only reported by foreign financial news media like Bloomberg and Financial Times.
Earlier in March, Bloomberg reported Temasek Holdings lost US$23.5 billion in the period January to March. This is before the circuit breaker lockdown on April 7th.
Aside from covering up financial losses, Singapore’s ruling party government is also covering statistics that may be used against them. The unemployment rate of Singaporeans are never reported in absolute figures, and the median income are always given in “household” instead of individuals.
Annual wage growth and income information for citizens are never given, and mixed with the 2 million foreigners workforce.