EDITORIAL-SG: The Straits Times says- Targeted relief for those most in need
The Straits Times
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Monetary Authority of Singapore announced a set of protective measures last week under which individuals can apply to their banks and insurers to defer payment of property loans and premium payments for life and health insurance plans. The measures also offer cash-flow support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), such as ensuring continued access to bank credit and insurance cover. Moreover, the Government is taking legislative action to provide relief to individuals and companies that cannot fulfil their contractual obligations. For example, if they have to postpone a wedding or business event, they will not have to forfeit their deposit to a hotel or catering firm. Landlords will be prevented from terminating commercial leases because of non-payment of rent if this is due to the virus. The law also is behind ensuring that landlords pass on property tax rebates in full to their tenants.
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These micro-economic interventions might surprise those accustomed to Singapore’s generally laissez faire philosophy, but they are necessary to stabilise the nation even as the budgetary packages of widespread relief measures work their way through a virus-hit society. Banks, insurers, landlords and other large and medium players are an indispensable part of the system. Their workings help to give the economy depth and efficiency of scale, so as to make use of the productive capacity and potential of citizens. Hence, the Government takes their interests keenly into account in the formulation of its policies. “Big business” is not a pejorative term in Singapore, as it is in many other places, because it has contributed vastly to the global scope of the economy without marginalising SMEs which, too, are critical to Singapore’s place in a globalised world.
That was in good times. In the face of the global medical emergency and the economic downturn occurring now, larger economic players need to be reminded that they too have a stake in the well-being of SMEs and individuals whose labour remains the bedrock of the economy. It is not that the interests of banks, insurers and landlords are being ignored. It is that the Government does need to intervene to level the playing field upwards in favour of the worker. The need to protect jobs is overwhelming when the International Labour Organisation warns of almost 25 million layoffs if the virus is not controlled. Dire warnings, such as that the pandemic would cause an economic crisis akin to the Great Depression, reveal the extent of the threat facing the world.
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This is the time for entities that have benefited from Singapore’s growth to come to the aid of less-endowed companies and individuals who contributed to their good bottom lines. Better times should return. Meanwhile, though, pain needs to be shared to be bearable.
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