It is up to the voters to decide what kind of oppositions they want. Lee KY has no rights to interfere in the voting process.

He’s lost it. No need to rationalize anymore.

Results speak for themselves whether it is China or India, many or 1 medal, big or small country. Nobody cares what method or philosophy has been used as long as it is not illegal or illegitimate. If u are good, people will know – no need to proclaim or preach abt your formula, nobody really wants to know. Everyone is searching and competing or innovating at the same time. Stop trying to tell people.

Please, no more ‘fixes’ from you guys. Every time you ‘fix’ something the citizen suffers/loses more. In fact we do not want your GRC system. And we don’t need more singers in your choir too.
If it takes some Div 2 ministers who will whole heartedly help the poor, nurture our students, look out for citizens looking for jobs, care for our old and down trodden, so be it. Because if these Div 2 ministers act as such, they will always be Div 1 i the hearts and minds of the People of Singapore.
The SS

If you imagine that one day an opposition party is voted in as the ruling party in Singapore, and of course they have no experience in running a country before and they are not comparable to the calibre of the ruling party, they will be considered as Div 2 or 3 la. But, the civil service, the army, the police, the judiciary, the finacial instituitions and so forth can the ousted party give them an alternative jobs? Will they continue to serve the country and look after their rice bowls? Where is their loyalty. govt or country? I am sure many of us will need to think about.

I can confidently say that no true blue Singaporean would want a Div 2 or 3 govt. running this country.

Based on the quote, is it implied but not stated that the current is of Div 1 quality?

Sorry no more Div 1….Premier League now. lol. The current Div 1 is the previous Div 2.

Semantics . . .

“They say, oh, let’s have multiparty politics. Let’s have different parties change and be in charge of the Government. Is it that simple? You vote in a Division Three government, not a Division One government, and the whole economy will just subside within three, four years. Finished.”

Why MM Lee need to worry his PAP Division One team will be defeated by a Division Three team?

The more the old man rambles on, the more damage he does to his legacy. He should just learn to keep his mouth shut.

Who categorised the current gov as Division 1 quality ? Of course from the self- praise. Lets hv more opp members in the parliament n I’m sure one fine day the qualified opp party can challenge n do better than the current one. U must give opp party a chance to prove that they can do/gov better than the current one.

The govt in the 60s up to early 80s was division 1.
LKY just cannot face the fact that his govt has dropped to division 3.
This is what happens when there is no competition and your 82 PAP MPs had it too easy.
Show me any govt that is div 1 and their star player, i.e. the PM who needs so many around to prop him up.
LKY’s selection process is also flawed and still thinks that he has the best talent.
The clever ones will never sign up with his PAP govt, not when they know this govt loves to probe every orifice.
The truth is there is enough talent in Singapore to form a div 1 team.

Dear People,

Tell me – who is going to volunteer and step forward to be some kind of Opposition ? Not me – I have family issues. So I do not know where the MM is going to find alternate voices to put into Parliament.

Ours is a depoliticised society where people avoid politics……..

“o I do not know where the MM is going to find alternate voices to put into Parliament.”

Don’t worry. They can even have their own ‘Independent Committee of Inquiry’ for Selamat which is truly ‘Independent’ by government standard but ‘Rubbish’ by World standard, surely they just can have their ‘Alternate Voices of Parliament’ as well, of course by Lee standard.
So what is the difference between independent and alternate ? Independent is a bad term since Selamat’s saga, now the oldman want to slain the word ‘Alternate’ as well.

since the oldman is writing his latest memoir, he may as well write the official dictionary of Singapore because the government has redefined the meanings of many words to their liking.

ya, the PAP are div 1 alright, NEWCASTLE utd they are!

I think he is referring to more PAP voices, something like 188 seats will be a splendid idea!

“We’ll find a way to have more voices inside the assembly, but not at the risk of voting in a Division 2 or 3 Government.”

Why not just put a large posters of the oldman and his henceman in the parliament and everywhere as a ‘Picture is worth a thousand words’,and a gahman picture is worth a thousand voices as well. It works in National Day, it surely work everyday.

Put more YES-man into the parliament and see how world class we are. Let us sing the same musical tune, the emperor tune of ever lasting dictator regime.

Well if people are happy with the government, they will continue to vote them in but the problem is that only the minority seems to be very happy with the PAP government.

Take the national day period for example. If hanging the Singapore flag outside the house means that they’re happy with the current situation now in Singapore. only 1 or 2 flags can be seem per block in where I live.

The only block that had a lot of flags is the one that the local RC help hang up.

the fact is, some of us (i am one of them) are not happy but we don’t have any opposition in our ward for us to vote. my ward has been dominated by GRCs for the longest time. want to vote for opp also cannot.

Thank you TOC for keeping everyone up to date. How about a follow up on the latest IBAHRI reply to Law Ministry ? I could not find any avenue to comment.
This latest report is absolutely relevant.
Everything about LKY and his system has no credibility if he does not openly debate with IBAHRI.

LKY realises most of his PAP MP’s have been pathetic in parliament and he is desperate to find a solution to generate more dialogue. Does not matter if the people still perceived it as BS. Most of us know it is anyway !

More voices in parliament means the PAP have to find people who can mimic whilst the pre-recorded speech is being played.
They can learn this from China’s Olympics organizers.
This is hoodwinking on a world stage.
And this is probably what LKY wants to do with more voices in parliament. LOL

It is most absurb by any measure of intelligence for telling people(the citizens) that they(the government) is the best . Somehow this is sheer arrogance. It also appears that a hint is given that a new “opposition” voice will be heard or created in the Parliament. This means return the present government so there will be zero risks of mismanagement of the country.

From past history the government has a habit of sounding out ‘new’ policies before a major speech and I am convinced that PM Lee will make that announcement in his national day rally. So the people will be sold the idea that the government does care for them with Team Opposition! To cap this off more ang pows will be given away spread over the next 3 years for the ””needy” in preparation for the next General Election.

Hey, we had Div 1 govt ministers who cant keep a limping terrorist in, we let people with wrong passports get out, we cant hold people in subord courts properly..so that is the Div 1 govt he is talking abt? Duh….

I find the concern genuine but the statement arrogant. Why do I say so?

1) A country without natural resources needs to be prudent with its economic policies. I agree.

2) Bad economic policies crumples all achievements quickly. I agree.

3) So bad leadership, whether from the PAP or the opposition, are undesirable. I agree.

4) PAP has contributed to the progress we have made since independence. I agree too.

5) And I can even agree that many opposition today exist to merely oppose the PAP and do not possess the same level administration and economic competency, thus putting whatever we are having today at risk.

6) However, I find it arrogant to imply that it is impossible to surpass the PAP.

7) Moreover, the level of political playing level field isn’t entirely fair enough (take gerrymandering for example).

8) What I would like to see is a system that is able to weed out useless opposition, while allowing capable ones to compete to raise the standards.

What is the point of a well-paid Division I (now EPL) team that plays like an amateur team?

Newcastle fans know the feeling. So do we Singaporeans.

As to the much cited country comparisons, S’pore is only a city. We don’t do so well on city comparisons.

“I find the concern genuine but the statement arrogant”: Well said dennis.

Someone already mentioned before why a small dot needs a MM, SM, PM ? This is crabs & BS. Wayang..wayang.

Strange, my last point didn\’t appear. I\’ll now post it to complete what I wanted to say:

8) What I would like to see is a system which weeds out useless opposition but retains capable opposition to raise the standard of competition.

Weird, it got cut away again. I\’ll try again here:

What I would like to see is a system which weeds out useless opposition but retains capable opposition to raise the standard of competition.

“24) dennis on August 15th, 2008 9.15 am What I would like to see is a system which weeds out useless opposition but retains capable opposition to raise the standard of competition.”

Just out of curiosity and what is you view, is the current system doing what you are proposing ?

Free and unbridled right of the candidates to stand and canvass for votes without artificial barriers on a LEVEL PLAIN and the PEOPLE at large to decide is THE SYSTEM.

The analogy of comparing ministers to EPL teams underperforming ala Newcastle can be extended further.

Man City last season (despite Thaksin’s money), Spurs (only one minor cup recently), Liverpool (where is EPL title?) and Arsenal (in Europe).

Now if our ministers were like MU, Cheski, Everton or Pompey, I would not be posting on LKY’s comment. Other than Everton all three have won trophies. And Everton is doing well considering its budget.

Look at ministers track record: why so late on casinos and F1? We could have cleaned out the competition if we had these in the 1990s. Those who suggested these were rubbished.

And what about SWF’s recent performance. Six? cabinet members on GIC board, so how come they pick mgrs that bet on UBS and Citi?

And govmin owns Temasek. So how come pick mgrs that bet wrongly on ML, Barclays and Shin. And never took us out of China banks?

Notice ML still negotiating with Kuwaiti Investment Authority on compensation for ML loss. If KIA gets cash and does not reinvest, ML shares likely to fall as mkt will wonder why Kuwaitis not following Temasek.