Tom Benner Reports

Op-ed published in Today, Feb. 27, 2013

By Tom Benner

It would not be like forward-looking Singapore to ignore the factors that will determine its future. Nor would Singaporeans, however upset some may be over the White Paper on Population, want a Government that isn’t thinking for the long term.

The 76-page paper is a thoughtful document with good underlying research and some important recommendations about how to tackle the problems of a rapidly ageing population with one of the lowest populations in the world. It seeks to engage Singaporeans in an adult conversation. Easing work-life issues, infrastructure needs such as housing and mass transit, and balancing future immigration levels against the Singaporean identity all have a place in the discussion.
Continue reading …

Op-ed published in Today, Jan. 30, 2013

John Kerry, then director of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, 1971

By Tom Benner

Last Thursday, I took a flight to Hanoi. An American tourist in Vietnam, I know, is a remarkably unremarkable thing, but for those of a certain age, the past poses questions for the present.

That same day in Washington, confirmation hearings began for Senator John Kerry to become President Barack Obama’s Secretary of State. And a few days from now, former Senator Chuck Hagel comes up for his confirmation as Secretary of Defence.

Before they become the two top members of the United States’ foreign policy team, Mr Kerry and Mr Hagel face the scrutiny of a third senator, Mr John McCain, a key figure in the nomination process and a respected foreign policy sage.

The three men have a war in common. Back in 1969, Mr Kerry was commanding a riverboat in South Vietnam. Mr Hagel had just served in the same infantry squad as his younger brother, Tom. Mr McCain was two years into his five-and-a-half year stint as a prisoner of war in Hanoi.

That same year I was 10, growing up in the safety and comfort of a small American town. Only occasionally did I hear the word Vietnam, generally in the context of someone we knew, a cousin we loved or friends of my older siblings, getting sent there. Continue reading …

Op-ed published in Today, Jan. 4, 2013

US President Barack Obama may have obtained a fiscal deal that he could live with, but his administration must now begin to prepare itself for ‘March Madness’ – the debate over the debt ceiling. Photo: Reuters Copyright © MediaCorp Press Ltd

By Tom Benner

The United States fiscal cliff – an end-of-year deadline for automatic federal tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts, set by leaders frustrated by their own inability to fix America’s budget problems – has been averted.

That is good news in the short term, because the fiscal cliff plan threatened to push the country back into recession. The trouble is, not much really got solved.

There are several ways of looking at the fiscal cliff deal that passed this week.

From a policy perspective, all the big issues were left for another day. There is no agreement on raising the debt ceiling, heading off the threat of a government shutdown and reaching long-term debt stabilisation. Continue reading …

Published in The Straits Times and AsiaOne, Tuesday Jan. 1, 2013

By Tom Benner

SINGAPORE, as we all know, is filled with streets, schools, hospitals and businesses named Stamford or Raffles, after Sir Stamford Raffles, the acknowledged founder of the place.

A new book sheds new light on the man, his exalted place in history, and the dark side of British colonialism. Yet despite it being the top-selling title at last month’s Singapore Writers Festival where it made its debut, the book has yet to prompt much in the way of a Raffles re-evaluation.

There is time for that; in the years leading to the 200th anniversary of the 1819 founding of modern Singapore, Raffles is sure to get a sizing-up by modern standards. Continue reading …

Op-ed published in Today, Nov. 22, 2012

Coming from a Boston native, the bus and rail system here is a pleasure to use, very reasonably priced; any inconveniences and breakdowns cannot compare to those in Boston. TODAY FILE PHOTO
Copyright © MediaCorp Press Ltd

I moved from Boston to Singapore a few weeks ago, and I can’t help but compare the two places. As someone who is interested in public policy and how it can enhance quality of life, I noticed a few things right away that work on Singapore’s behalf.

GETTING AROUND

In Boston, the much-maligned mass transit system is immortalised by the old folk song Charlie on the MTA, about a man who boarded the subway but didn’t have the nickel to pay the exit fare. So he rode the subway for good, his wife throwing a sandwich through an open railcar window to him each day at the Scollay Square station. He was, as the song goes, “the man who never returned”.

Investing in affordable and efficient mass transit just isn’t as big a priority in Massachusetts – too much competition and political influence from the suburban car crowd who insist on highways that are well paved, well maintained and well patrolled. Continue reading …