President S R Nathan’s office has been approving the use of past reserves to fund land reclamation projects since 2001 and land acquisition for the Selective En-Bloc Redevelopment Scheme (Sers) since 2002.

I don’t know about you, but I find it extremely troubling to have heard about this through a report of an interview, almost 10 years after the fact. Especially when it was claimed that in 2009, it is the first time that the government is tapping into the reserves to fund its budget deficit.

After that report, the state-controlled press became dead silent on this matter.

Leong Sze Hian, from the TOC, writes in his article, “How much of the Reserves has been really used?”:

To the best of my knowledge, I do not think anyone in Singapore knew about the use of the Reserves in the past.

Was this ever disclosed in Parliament or reported in the media?

…

Finally, I am rather surprised that with this explosive disclosure now, no one has asked or answered the obvious question – how much of the Reserves has been used?