Ya its either that or all the leaders (with calibre) have been ‘roped’ early into the government side liao…

My personal opinion is that the “opposition” lacks a leader of calibre (at least equal to LKY) rally each one of those fragments together to move in one voice and spirit, in order to mount any credible progress.

Personally, me think it is the individualistic interests in politics that resulted in the impression of apathy. It is my opinion that the population itself is as fragmented as the many opposition parties that never seem to be able to ally themselves physically, politically and ideologically. There are just a handfull of very small opposition political parties yet they are so diverse and splitted; imagine the rest of the populace.

The postings in the Net regarding the 84th Birthday of MM LKY appal and sadden me, did the MM caused them such great sufferrings to generate such hatred? Policies might have resulted in much hardships but political abuses have not resulted in political killings and other extremities. The only extreme is the Parliamentarians remunerating themselves to World Record whilst their citizens faces unemployments and falling wages.

Here, we can see the many citizens that post without fears or even restraints, just that most are like talking about the subject individually. Many current political developments and topics are also similarly blogged in individual block, e.g Blogsite A has its’ own group and Blogsite B has another group discussing a similar subject matter.

My observations and assertion hopefully could be agreeable with other readers; thank you!

Yep, I agree with you. However, at the end of the day, it is up to singaporeans to step forward and participate. There is no use with setting up anything if singaporeans continue to be disinterested, or fearful.

Personally, I believe there is room for a lot more to be done by ordinary people. It’s just that the perceived fear or “big hammer coming down on you” is still quite real.

So, it takes time.

This will encourage people from all walks of life to participate.

Its also a showcase of individual talent from our nominate members.

Leadership degrade from one generation to another. Just like at LKY to GCT then to this Junior Joker Lee. The whole affair of Singapore has become a international Joke under Joker Lee.

I believe an independent avenue would be more objective, effective and attractive.

Jaron Liu:
Ya I think with you. TOC has that potential to be that avenue and answer as the government’s active partner/citizen in building Singapore together.

I would look at the following

1) Helping the people that build the coutry ( these are the old folks, sick and jobless )

Don’t ask me how, but I wont tell the people something they dont already know….Like work longer, dont depend on us too much, and we got not enough for old age….

A govt will explore ways and means to prevent these category of people from falling into this state.

This is what a govt should be like..telling us to work longer and not be choosy about jobs that are low paying is not going to cut it.

Its only normal, we have the greying problem as the cost of starting a family is considered a burden to most as in is related to job stability.

Through the peoples actions you are able to see whats the root cause.

No point coming up with schemes when we cant even identify and admit these factors. If you dont get to the root of the problem. Its just gonna get worse.

What do you think ? ERP is a good business for gov as it is really easy money. Imagine how much millions make in a single day ! Do you think gov will let such opportunity slip ? Due to lack of transparency and accountability is because as Singapore Incorporated, there is much profit to be make without competition from foreigner, just let the public be marginlized and exploited.

If you are the gov, i doubt that you will take away that too, especially if you don’t have to be accountable to anybody except yourself.

In fact, I starting to believe that the gov liberate and open themselves not because they want to, but of foreign’s pressure. It’s probably more effective to use foreign’s pressure than local just like Dr Chee does. Without Dr Chee, I doubt that foreigner will know anything at all, and continue to mislead by the propaganda machine and droids of ruling party. Had it not for internet, youtube, blogging, gov will not hesitate to catch those protesting today.

Would be good if we have a neutral site where concerned Singaporeans can put up their questions.

We should see what our National reserves are like, till today I really got no clue how it will benefit us ?

Also I understand that our CPF is sort of being used for investments. Correct me if I am wrong.. like shin corp, Barclays etc ?

Are there like any returns ?
and what happens if we burn a hole in our investments carried out by the investment arm?

How does that impact the local joe ?

Much appreciated.

This is the way to do if you have no guts.

Yes, there seems to be. But then again, the govt will say that they do have such avenues for the public, including the youths. For example, they have youth.sg and the Youth Park. In schools, youths are also encouraged to “do it yourself”. Indeed, our education system, for all the criticisms we may have for it, has changed and youths have more avenues to express themselves.

However, not everyone wants to go through these official channels and may prefer non-governmental channels. And perhaps this is where it is lacking.

In the wider public sphere, if organising a picnic, a cycling event and a peaceful walk are not even allowed, then it cannot but foster a sense of disenchantment among the public.

Thus, as I said in my article, the govt must and the people should demand for changes to legislation. So that we all know exactly what the govt is saying and what we can do.

Regards,
Andrew Loh

Your point noted. If you are correct, then probably the reason why most Singaporeans remain “apathetic” is because there isn’t an accessible, free-from-red-tape and appealing/relevant avenue for us to participate and make any signiicant contribution.

So maybe because of that absence, this creates that “like-that-then-why-bother?” attitude we all are familiar with.

You think so?

It would be great if the Govt could continue to “check” itself for ever and ever. Unfortunately history has proven time and again that a good government often goes bad after a while. Zimbabwe is a prime example. Robert Mugabe was considered an enlightened African leader when Zimbabwe got its independence. But something snapped in him some decades later and the current situation there is the result.

Do we want to wait until the PAP (as good as it is now) snaps before waking up? It would be great if there were no politics and we could have an independent, non-partisan govt watchdog. Unfortunately this cannot exist in the real world. Therefore the 2nd best solution is to have a good bipartisan system, where two equally able political parties keep each other in check, and can take over when the other is starting to do a bad job. I think it’s clear we have that gap now in our nation.