Today in Constitutional Law Prof V. was talking about how strange Articles 142-148I of the Singapore Constitution are: Do you realise how unusual it is that a country’s fiscal policy, which is the sort of thing in most other places would be fought out at the political level, would actually be considered a fundamental principle entrenched in the Constitution, and at this level of administrative detail? It took a while for that to sink in. I’m used to the idea that anyone looking at Singapore from the outside would find many political features of our system peculiar (EP, GRCs, NMPs, contract judges), but that our fiscal policy approach, our economic ideology, would actually be raised to the Constitutional level, I had not considered unusual until this moment.And, he added, do you know what else is so unusual about that? Us: That as a country we always were quite corporatised in our thinking? That too, he said, but the point he was making is even more basic. Do you realise that your country (Prof V isn’t Singaporean) is not in debt? Everyone in the room looks rather blank at this. (Huh? Of course we’re not in debt. Why should we be in debt? Not being in debt is a perfectly good thing!) It took a little while for us to understand his point, because of course we take this for granted: not only does Singapore sit on a pile of reserves, it expects that it will continue to have reserves. “Your Constitution is one written in contemplation of always having reserves!”
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