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Leong Mun Wai is a Non-constituency Member of Parliament for the Progress Singapore Party and the CEO of private equity firm, Timbre Capital. He explains to PJ Thum about Singapore’s financial reserves, where it comes from, and how it is spent. They talk about the need for more transparency and accountability over how it is spent, and the inherently political nature of the trade offs between saving Singaporean income and investing it in social welfare and Singapore’s future. They also talk about the recent Monetary Authority of Singapore (Amendment) Bill, how it suggests a loosening of financial discipline and responsibility, and why it is potentially very troubling for Singapore.

Leong’s speech in Parliament on the Monetary Authority of Singapore (Amendment) Bill can be found here.

Thum Ping Tjin (“PJ”) is Founder and Managing Director of New Naratif. A Rhodes Scholar, Commonwealth Scholar, Olympic athlete, and the only Singaporean to swim the English Channel, his work centres on Southeast Asian governance and politics. His most recent work is "Nationalism and Decolonisation in Singapore: The Malayan Generation, 1953-63" (Routledge, 2024).