The MAS recently allowed the Singapore dollar to appreciate against a trade-weighted basket of currencies, a move to moderate inflation amid the prospect of a lingering global inflation.

But the veteran policymaker wonders if the policy would lead the central bank to repeat the mistakes of 1985.

In those days, rising wages, a strong Singapore dollar, loss of competitiveness and joblessness fed a downward spiral for the economy.

It took four or five years before the economy really recovered.

"I'm not saying they're wrong," he says of the MAS several times. "But please study the experience of 1985."

Singapore inflation hit a 26-year high of 6.7 per cent in March this year.

But, Mr Ngiam indicates, this pain may have to be swallowed.

Pointing to the oil shock of the early 1970s, he says countries tried to curb roaring inflation with kerosene-price subsidies plus other actions.

In contrast, the late finance minister Hon Sui Sen famously said: "Swallow our medicine in one gulp."

So Singapore allowed inflation to shoot up to well over 10 per cent in 1972.

"By doing that, we did not distort the economy and we were competitive."

However, Mr Ngiam is liberal with caveats: He knows circumstances have changed since 1985; he may be from the old school, and he may be out of sync with younger policymakers.

But he is clearly uncomfortable with the rising dollar. "Prices in the world are rising, whatever you do. A strong Sing dollar is not going to matter one bit."

"Maybe, in that way, I may be too extreme in my view, but I hate people who go around selling soft options."

If rice price rises, we just have to pay, he says. "You can't manipulate your exchange rate to curb inflation."

Suggest that rising prices are a political hot potato, and he responds: "Lee Kuan Yew has succeeded in life, in politics, because he has said from the beginning, nobody owes you a living. But the moment you try and soft-pedal issues and sugar-coat your medicine...they'll be asking for more and more."

He says Dr Goh Keng Swee, the nation's economic architect and his mentor, told him that if tiny Singapore makes a wrong economic choice, the effect is felt in six months.

Big countries may not feel it even in six years.