Comments on: A gracious society? I’d settle for a gracious government

By: Fong M.Y.

Fong M.Y. — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:25:38 +0000

I LOVE YOU, SIR. JOSHUA BENJAMIN JEYARETNAM.

YOU WILL BE REMEMBER FOREVER AS A CARING AND LOVING FATHER OF SINGAPORE.

GOD WILL BLESS YOUR KINDNESS CONTRIBUTED FOR THE PEOPLE’S IN SINGAPORE.

Yours Sincerely,
Fong M.Y. and Family

By: John

John — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 02:31:26 +0000

Things do happen and they have happened. This time round, the air smells different. Could it be some sign of more things to come ?

Signs that get manifested in the behaviour of our society because of shift of perception. Why ? Sometimes, it is easier to do something but it is very difficult or impossible to undo the results.

By: GRACE

GRACE — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 01:43:04 +0000

About 6 months have passed since TOC’s “gracious” posting, maybe it is time to revisit the subject as I see a lot of disrespect in society nowadays – younger people telling elders off, a foreigner being beaten, caucasians being arrogant, etc…..

By: edsperience

edsperience — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 08:51:08 +0000

A ‘gracious government’ is preceded and bolstered by a non-apathetic and vigilant society. Undo the latter, and the few fruits tossed from the autocratic table is perceived as evidence of a ‘gracious government’.

By: KB

KB — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 02:21:31 +0000

Personally, whether I am gracious or not would not really be affected by what our government do…I understand the point about how there may be a top-down influence, but I do not think that our ability to be gracious should be defined by our government’s actions. It does not mean that if our government is (as the article put it) “ungracious”, it justifies an ungracious society…Both the government and us Singaporeans should strive to be gracious.

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Sat, 26 Jan 2008 04:30:53 +0000

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By: Wastrels Anonymous » A gracious society? I’d settle for a gracious government

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:53:15 +0000

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By: saintmoron

saintmoron — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:36:57 +0000

The ‘gangster talks’ and knuckle dusters are only meant to intimidate his subjects.

See how friendly, courteous and even gracious he was and is with world leaders and neighbouring leaders. Did he ever ‘talk tough’ to his foreign friends and buddies?

By: Gerald C W Heng

Gerald C W Heng — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 15:29:07 +0000

Thanks for pointing out our Role-Models the Ministers MM PM etc as potentially affecting our mores and behaviour in a growing community within a small Island after a horrible Japanese Occuptaion of WW II. Mr Lee Kuan Yew the founding dynasty of the PAP government is a creature of time and circumstances, just as his Mentor was ,who at Cambridge Fitzwilliams College was a badly wounded WWI British Veteran of just one arm .

This Veteran was his admired hero. Since the 1959 elections MM Lee has used speeches that portray him as a Chief Gangster Mafia Leader,words like ” fix” “tough and rugged society” “meet you at cul de sac “for fights with knuckle dusters or hatchets. Such graphic speech was and still is intended to frightened and terrorise voters that the PAP leader and team meant business and control things.

After the WWII Japs Occupation this kind of language is almost God sent for a holy ordering of events and solidarity that Singaporeans never had. Just why the Ministers and his Scion PM Lee Hsien Loong imitate his genre of language style and the Hitman Scenario is really rather surprising and shocking to me and our Quitters from the Singapore that was merged in Greater Malaysia at one time.

Mr.Harry Lee Kuan Yew admittedly is also an Admirer of the Vatican System of the College of Cardinals in the PAP selection process, a system that points vertically like a pyramid to the POPE as the CEO and Chief Honcho of religion and in case of Singapore a Government of Pope Lee Kuan-Yew.

At least for the last forty years it has succeeded in really making a third rate country to a first rate one economically !The Pope and its Cardinal are infallible in Catholic Doctrines and their implements in the progress of their flocks to heaven. I have no doubt Mr.Lee Sr and his PAP see it that way and all that tough rough and fixing you talk is merely a tactical means to the heavenly end of PAP perpetual everlasting control, he loves Prince Machiavelli who will stop at nothing to keep political power in the process he has destroyed people who admire and even love him as a founding Pope of Singapore !

I would have thought after forty years Mr Harry Lee Kuan Yew has mellowed and softened his political touch and graciously retire into the sun-set,after all he has become rich and famous in the process of re-making Singapore ! We just hope his ungenerous surly and cutting or cleaving remarks will not continue to demoralise his people and indeed his Opposition into ineffective pigmies in the political process !

I may venture to say the Opposition today is more emasculated as any that I know in Western Democracies like in Massachusetts,USA,Canada and Britain ! Democracy especially Opposition Parliamentary Democracy require at least a sort of mutual respect if not affection for each other in political discourse!

Even when the late President Ronald Reagan on his horse and she was about to fart and defecate had to warn the Queen of Britain, his companion rider that it wasn’t Her Majesty that was farting but his horse was, that is the very essence of grace between two Heads of State, the USA that once was the Rebellion Country from Her Majesty’s Domains !

When Mr.Harry Lee Kuan Yew became Her Majesty’s CH___Companion of Honor, surely he was put there by representation of the Singaporeans,why should he be turning his fart and shit on his own people ? Affection and love for the people in Democracy is the glue that holds the Society together,the Queen does it by Love,Affection and Gracious Example,Singapore being a Republic has no such luck after being saddled with Lee Kuan-Yew. We should pray for his mellowing retreat soon for his permanent and gracious legacy after he takes leave from us all !

Gerald C W Heng
Boston/MA/USA

a Quitter since 1963 and was a Great and Fond Admirer of the PAP Old Guard Leadership led by LKY the Chief CEO !His co-teamers of the Old Guard never needed to have his kind of tough gangster talk !Dr.Goh Keng Swee, S Rajaretnam, Dr.Toh Chin Chye are rather melodious men in speech and behaviour !

I think Mr.LKY Sr. should gracious fade into the sunset of politics for a different genre of style to emerge! Nothing wrong with Love and Affection for your people see how the British Constitutional Monarchy keep their people unified and see grace under fire in Parliamentary Democracy of Opposition in Government !Nobody really wants to be Quitter from Singapore,Life’s Choices are Constitutional Rights of Liberty,Life,Property and the Pursuit of Happiness and Joy,Singapores should be given no less !

Gerald Heng

By: Clarence

Clarence — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 16:18:51 +0000

adding on to my previous comment, i think that the current PAP govt have grown too big for their seats and heads and abilities. if they’d shut up for a day, take public transport to and fro work everyday, take cab rides home after midnight (without claiming it from the government coffers), sit down and eat meals in hawker centres (without fanfare greeting them), then they’re qualified to comment at all on normal people’s lifestyles.

otherwise grow a brain or SHUT THE FK UP.

By: Clarence

Clarence — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 16:13:01 +0000

I think this is like a turning point for politics already. LKY and co. are taking “private ownership” the government and treating what they have now as taken for granted.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. And we thought the white PAP uniform was un-stainable? I just hope that we don’t see accounting or financial scandals within the government soon.

But who am I kidding? Even if it happened, it surely will never make it to print.

By: Ronin

Ronin — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 07:16:35 +0000

This article is damn right. Our ministers and MPs are leading us to the land of non-graciousness. It is all about MONEY in S’pore. Even our ministers demand top private sector pay.

When my son was in hospital, this doctor (who is a PAP MP) was downright rude and snobbish when he demanded to awake my son (who had very little sleep during the night before) for examination. The trainee doctors accompanying him looked very afraid of this doctor-MP. If this is the kind of leaders we have in S’pore, what can we expect of its citizens????

By: LEO

LEO — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:15:41 +0000

charles said politics is hardly gracious even in liberal democracies. Had he seen concession speeches by losing politicians in these democracies?. They may fight for every vote with nastiest tactics but the winning losing parties are always gracious to each other in the end. Here, even if you have lost the election, you will still be hounded if your are out of step. Just look at Chee, JB, Gomes and TLH.

By: mr.udders

mr.udders — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 09:11:08 +0000

Where is Robert HO? I miss him…

By: Charles

Charles — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 05:08:07 +0000

Politics is hardly gracious even in liberal democracies and political opponents sometimes use under the belt techniques to achieve cheap points. The problem lies not with what the incumbent government has said (even though many of those comments reeks of arrogance and elitism) but the political system that is inherent in Singapore. That opposition and civil society actors cannot rebut these “ungracious”, without being criminally investigated or sued for defamation.

When you have a system in which the government knows it can say almost anything and get away with it, and win seats in a farcial electoral processes, you are sure that they will make these comments again and again.

Wake up people. The emperor has no clothes…

By: Kew Kah Fatt

Kew Kah Fatt — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 00:59:25 +0000

With Lee Kuan Yew around, Singapore can not be a gracious society. How they, PAP, treat the oppositions and dissents are very ungracious. So how to expect the citizens to be gracious. The citizens imitate them and treat fellow poor and down Singaporeans disgracefully.

Graciousness comes from the top leaders, not the below up. Like the father behaving uncloth, the children will follow suit.

‘I will sue you’ mentality is not ingrained in most Singaporeans. Every now and then you can hear people voicing aloud this threat.

By: antz

antz — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:58:58 +0000

It’s impossible to have a totally gracious society in all…maybe yes…not in this generation but who knows when??,but majority maybe can but not as in the whole of population…no society in the world..can be called a gracious society unless it’s a country made of robots made of heart and brains with wires…that has been installed with wires of graciousness…we are human beings….sometimes we can just blurted out words of rudeness…but we are not even aware of them…so all i can say is up to the individual to make graciousness part of one’s life…it can be started by you,us and me..

By: Pandemonium

Pandemonium — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:51:31 +0000

An admirably written article. But what I’m not so clear about is – and sorry if this is too elementary a question – what is the meaning of a gracious society and a gracious government? Does the “gracious” in society mean the same thing as “gracious” in a government?

And it seems to me that this article implies that an ungracious government is responsible for the ungracious society. But from what I’ve observed, there are many societies that are supposedly gracious, but their governments are not if we were to measure by the same standards.

By: The Pariah

The Pariah — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 07:55:14 +0000

Applause to Andrew Loh for putting together a collectible collection of ministerial comments. Puts things in sobering perspective, doesn’t it?

As I quoted Shakespeare in my blog at http://www.singaporeenbloc.blogspot.com:

“Virtue is bold, goodness never fearful”.

In a way, we Singaporeans deserve the kind of government we get. It takes two hands to clap …

Just as I started with applause for Andrew Loh, I end with a soundless clap as a Singaporean!

By: 1/2 dDead Poet

1/2 dDead Poet — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 07:18:14 +0000

More gracious or not, I really dunno la. All I know is I prefer this TOC to the old one. The old one was getting a bit stale and smelly like my Bata slippers. This one Fresher, more variety, less losoh and lau piaoh.