The Singapore Democratic Party suffered a devastating blow in the last General Election, despite massive popularity garnered by the return of party chief Dr Chee Soon Juan.

His return to the political arena wasn’t just a simple one — the charismatic orator proved to be well-loved among the online masses, and thousands upon thousands attended his rallies to see him speak. Thus it was a great shame to the party when the results arrived — they amassed less than 35% of the votes in every constituency they fought in.

Embarrasing it may be, but Dr Chee still remains unbowed in his criticism in the way his country is being run. In his latest op-ed for Huffington Post, the man warns of Singapore’s impending meltdown and the failures of the government that has lead us to this point. You can read his full article here — or you can just read some key excerpts from his piece below.

On South Korea:

“South Korea was emerging from a long period of dictatorships and a command economy dominated by the the political elite and chaebols (conglomerates owned by wealthy families).

When Kim was elected president in 1998, he ditched authoritarian rule and took the country on a sharp turn towards democracy. The result? South Korea’s economy bounced back with a vengeance. Today, corporations like Samsung, LG, Hyundai, SsangYong, Kumho, etc. compete on the international stage with the world’s leading brands.

And it’s not just gadgets and cars that South Korea is exporting, the country’s pop culture have found its way into the hearts of people far and wide. Korean television dramas are popular not just in Asia but places as far away as Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. The musical genre of K-pop has become a mainstay in the teen subculture all over the world with the Korean boy band, BigBang, even becoming the “gods of pop” in Indonesia. In 2012, Korean musician Psy took the globe by storm with this Oppa Gangnam Style dance video.”

On Singapore’s low productivity levels

“…even before the 1997 meltdown, economist and Nobel Laureate Paul Krugmanhad pointed out that Singapore’s top-down, input-driven growth model was unsustainable: “One can immediately conclude that Singapore is unlikely to achieve future growth rates comparable to the past.” This is because, Krugman explained, “Singapore’s growth can be explained by increases in measure inputs. There is no sign at all of increased efficiency.

But instead of liberalising our society and encouraging the hard work of innovation like the Koreans did following the financial crisis in 1997, the PAP took the easy way out by transforming our city into a tax haven and attracting the super rich of the world. Instead of making policy adjustments to retain our local talent and investing in our people, our rulers found it expedient to bring in foreigners by the millions.

Of course, these measures generated GDP growth but it was growth that masked deeper structural problems of our economy. For one thing, labour productivity levels remained dismal even as GDP expanded. The problem persists to this day with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong lamenting that we have “maxed out” on easy ways of achieving economic growth – a tacit admission that Paul Krugman was right.”

On Singapore’s incoming doom and gloom

“And because we have taken the easy way out all these years, we are ill-prepared to weather the global economic storm that is about to descend upon us. There is gloom in our housing market, our dollar continues to weaken even as we spent $40 billion of our reserves trying to prop it up, our oil-rig builders Kepple and Sembcorp Marine are under severe strain from cancelled projects; our flagship shipping company Neptune Orient Lines collapsed under unsustainable losses and was sold off; household debt of Singaporeans soared to become one of the highest in the world and, perhaps most frighteningly, China’s economy seems on track to becoming the epicenter of the next global economic meltdown – an economy of which we are the biggest foreign investor.”