Forgive me for being cynical, I have heard this before oh since Goh Chok Tong days – “kindler, gentler”. Has there been really any opening up?

Restrictive laws remains the same and in some cases strengthen. Ok some might argue that more “controversial” issues are now being openly discussed. But in truth, the opening up in Singapore has been the result of events/technology beyond the control of the PAP. For example, the so-called allowing for political video on the Internet has been due to YouTube phenomena and the uselessness of enforcement against people who are determined to challenge the law — i.e. the SDP.

Any opening is hardly a result of any soul searching on the part of the PAP. When I hear Lee Jnr speak, he still speaks the same theme as had all before him. So I am not holding my breath.

LHL has deliberately left out following topics:

1. Escaped terrorist, recent booboos and complacency of WKS and Home Affairs
2. will Govt Ministers get a pay hike again and if that is not in poor taste?
3. By-election demands for Dr Ong’s seat

Also, hiring of FWs is calculated based on so-called Dependency Ratio set by MOM. This means that the no. of FWs an employer can hire depends upon the no- of local workers he has, and it varies for diff sectors. But there are abuses. Some employers I heard are prepared to hire and pay a local just a basic (cheap cheap) wage to sit around and do nothing (maybe make the coffee) just so they can hire more FWs.

Honestly, it is never easy to be in the govt these days with the complexities of the global environment and more literate and well-travelled population having access to up-to-min info. There will always be cynical and people who take issues with anything and everything. But is there such a perfect place? Maybe. I always look at bigger picture; having travelled much in my course of work. And I can say that despite some issues which can be improved or handled, overall situation of living in Singapore for Singaporeans is still bearable.

vincesgp,
frankly what do you expect from a country that is blessed with no natural disaster ? A natural disaster will post economic problem and hence large sum of money to take care of disaster, but Singapore is blessed as it does not have natural disaster and we wonder why Singapore gov couldn’t do it better and keep complaining money not enough for this and that ? Rather what I see is a stingy government that only see ROI, and in the end create own inflicted man-made disaster that end up wasting tons of money in investment, doing coverup and giving carrots to appease the public.

These are something that need to be questioned rather than just simply accept.
Are our government better off with example of ex-president of Taiwan for corruption. The answer is no , and I travel widely a lot too to see a lack of accountability to citizen and lack of public mainstream criticism on government is a sure recipe for corruption and siphoning of public money especially on one that has been a single party for over 4 decades and keeping citizen voiceless and helpless, and one that control both the military, law society and police. Will I be surprised that LKY still insist on staying in power up even now ? For nobleness ? Must be kidding me. I believe our has the worst corruption in the world simply because a government that is both governing and yet running the whole country as their own business with no accountability and transparency to the public. Read up on the ex-president Chen case and you find so much similarity between our oldman and him. It is a pity we do not have a Ma Ying-jeou to expose them.

Singapore cannot grow without the right value because these values are very much represented by our expensive and doubtful country leadership.

vincesgp,
as the reason to say why we have the worse corruption is when one is practising corruption in a legal way and telling publicly it is the way the system and merit works. I have more respect for country that is known to be corrupted with leader saying so without giving so much excuse of not having corruption.

when a system do whatever it must to destroy opponents and critics that doubt its integrity, it already guilty of moral corruption especially one can observe, see and judge for themselve. With moral corruption, money corruption is not far off.

I am hopeful, but at the same time, not really expecting much. As with Tan Ah Kow, I was naively encouraged by ex-PM Goh’s “kindler and gentler” approach until he verbally mauled Catherine Lim, challenging her to enter politics if she wished to comment about his being a “seat-warmer” for LHL. Even if Lim’s comments were unfair or hurtful, GCT response was far from “kind and gentle”. All he had to do was say “you’ll see, I’m my own man”, and I would say for the most part, he was his own man.

With PM Lee Jr., I’ll adopt a wait-and-see approach. How open can he be when he has been seen on TV saying things like (I have to paraphrase) “if there’s opposition in parliament, then I have to spend effort to ‘fix’ them”. Excuse me, sir, you “rebut” your opponent’s arguments and offer sound reasons why they maybe wrong … you don’t “fix” them …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1WhJKsYb50&feature=related

So, we can hope … but I, like a number of others here are doing, am not holding my breath for it.

vincesgp: what is yr big picture? Anyone can have a bigger picture until you cant see the warts and moles. But daily living means dealing at the micro-levels, amongst the iniquities and injustices you see everyday. Dont be so philosophical until you’re desensitized. Sure, no place’s perfect. But there are also lots of places I have travelled and saw that are more liberal, equally efficient, and where govt leaders dont stride around like gods and preach all the time, where there’s more humanity and the Press isnt controlled. We’re First World city now, it’s time you compare with those in yr league, not some third world nation!

sorry..im converted doubting thomas 10 yrs ago..if he has put so much thoughts (with all the rehearsed multimedia etc) into his speech..it isonly right that WE MUST consider carefully the hidden agenda behind the so called “liberalisation” heralded by him

As usual, anything that our MIWs said, me always took a large helping of salts.

Action speak louder than words, based on their past record, I’m not holding my breath.

Talk can be swee swee, but most times their actions sucks!

Hypocrites most times!

For all we know and experience before, it is highly to be another perennial speech to make citizen feel good. Since when the government has a track record to deliver its promise to citizen in term of citizen rights ?

The pattern is always so obvious. The son says this but cannot keep his promise. Next you have his senile old folk make the final call of why it can’t be done, and thing will then move on to another bread and butter.

Until the son is accountable to his promises , nothing will be changed.

With such inane statistics as the ERP charges.. how can anyone take the rest of the speech seriously?

Sure, the numbers MAY average out to the numbers he quoted but that includes countless weekend cars and also includes the uber elite’s multiple cars… some of which hardly see any usage, and if they do, will usually not encounter ERP charges.

But for those who are already paying ERP, that number will be growing a lot higher than those numbers quoted.

“3) vincesgp on August 19th, 2008 5.29 am Honestly, it is never easy to be in the govt these days with the complexities of the global environment and more literate and well-travelled population having access to up-to-min info.”

In life, it has always not been easy all the while. Just that in the old days, problems were downplayed / not really discussed in the MSM and like-minded people did not have the necessary platform / problems to consolidate views or problems which could have been serious enough to warrant attention if enough noise was made. Sometimes, people were even made to feel that their problems were isolated. Wrong ?

You know how our law works – 4-man assembly, no protests, etc all in the nice name of security. They must really think that Singaporeans are a whole lot of irresponsible hooigans.

They just want to fine-tune problems (fix it ?) at their own pace and we people at the receiving end have to wait and see, at the mercy how fast they would want to react to geniune problems.

“overall situation of living in Singapore for Singaporeans is still bearable.”

I always have a sense of quite cynicism when such beautiful words like “bearable”, “affordable” or “manageable” are mentioned. When you are at the top of the cream (or salary scale), all these adjectives will usually come out quite easily. Anyone care to buy me some peanuts.

So what do you think ? That some of the views / comments (though negative) are genuine concerns of a some deeper problems. Or people are just here to create trouble needing you to do some fire saving activities.

“We will progressively open up our system even more. If you compare today with 5 years ago, 10 years ago, it’s much more open today.”

–Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong”

Well, if the above is really translated into real tangible action giving the people a good spread of choices and opposition a qenuine level fighting chance. I may even shift my views on PAP. You just need balance and moderation in life.

It is the same old story, helping the poor, not enough babies, ERP, must be competitive, help to tackle high cost, this rebate, that rebate. Nothing special since Goh CT time. Chinese says, “change soup, never change medicine.” What is the use???

Quote: “It is the same old story, helping the poor, not enough babies, ERP, must be competitive, help to tackle high cost, this rebate, that rebate. Nothing special since Goh CT time. Chinese says, “change soup, never change medicine.” What is the use???”

Well said…I think I heard this quite a many years ago. I need to add the following, emphasis of an all inclusive open society..

Personally, I would like to say Tan Gu Gu…wait long long. Too much talk, I say. After all, talk is cheap!

..and the biggest joke..asking singaporeans to be courteous…it should starts from the TOP! Talking down is downright rude! Slamming different voices is downright rude! Sending people to jail for shouting out loud is downright rude! So what is he talking about?

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Yes, resounding yes it’s the same old stories – what about subject of ‘COMPLACENCY’ which I thought was a big national problem that deserves mention ????

” Easing of internet”

Please dont believe it. WHY?
Chiefly 2 reasons. First its just not in the PAP’s command and control culture cos we have not seen in mother nature that a leopard changes its spots.
Secondly, this come RIGHT AFTER the Internaitonal Bar’s DAMNING REPORT. SINKAPOOR’s international reputation is affected, I would dare say quite badly affected (any wonder why garmen did not sue, sue and sue over this???). So its for ’show’ my dear fellow TOC-ers.

Don’t believe what the government says…. a good example is the term Money Politics…. It all depend how you define money politics… you pay judges millions, you pay the top law enforcement millions, you pay MPs millions, you can just shut their mouth and conscience as they fight to maintain the status quo… please lah.. the world can see what is going on…

The government can control rent increases.. ask anyone who is currently renting a shop…..part of the inflation is due to the government… as for those not control by the government… has anyone look at the actual asset for LKY wife, family and relatives…. you will be very surprised !!!

It doesn’t matter what PM Lee says. He is not in charge.
His father is.

giving u what u should have in the first place ha ha really funny . this is basic right we have stop bullS#$% me

Ban or no ban, you can already get political videos on the Internet. Ban or no ban, people (i.e. SDP) are already demonstrating. Short of cutting off the Internet completely or shooting demonstrators, events have already overtaken mini-Lee. All he can do now is to give a figment of progress by spinning his move as “liberalisation” to hide a policy failure.

Knowing mini-Lee’s move, he’s so-call liberalisation move will most likely be, oh we’ll not change the law but we will enforce it with a lighter than light touch!

The PM threw some numbers to show that the loss in direct taxes from car ownership outweighed the revenue generated from ERP gantries.. but hey.. just a thought (i’m no economist) – if you allow the increase in the number of cars.. doesn’t that mean the cars need fuel to run on? Why hasn’t the figures on taxes the govt has earned from sale of fuel in Sg for vehicle usage been factored into the equation? You might get a different picture…

And judging from PM’s speech and LKY’s.. i think they have clearly acknowledged that (1) people ARE UNHAPPY with the rising costs; (2) the internet is changing the political landscape, whether the PAP likes it or not; (3) there is a loud cry for accountability and checks & balances in government, which prompted LKY to say this desire for more ‘opposition voices’ needs to be addressed. I think they ARE sitting up to the voices in the new media. SO, KEEP UP THE PRESSURE!!!!

Unfortunately, whether the noise in cyberspace translates into loss of votes to demand SUBSTANTIVE action on PAP’s part, is a different matter. There is a generation gap in the heartlands, and those of us who use the new media. The PAP has strong support in the older generation heartlanders.. and until the demographics change.. they can expect to get a healthy margin of voters. And of course, re-drawing the GRC boundaries now and then and threatening the masses with NO UPGRADE does the trick as well…But in time.. I think the demographics will change, and a more educated critical population will ensure that the leopard be forced to change its stripes. I am hopeful that will happen.. perhaps not in the next GE.. but the ones thereafter.

To Head scratcher:
#23

U are spot on, agree with you.

Allow me to add, I mentioned earlier, they are easing, just merely easing so please dont have FAT FAT hopes on anything that you might expect that they will liberalise ALL of a SUDDEN.

I am no pessimist here – but lets be more realistic knowing how they work – read/watch Martyn See’s ‘One Nation Under Lee, and probably will give you an idea how are they ‘moving forward’ (or backwards??)

Finally, I think the International Bar report recently hit them, not because of you and me, cyber forums, etc etc. (Maybe U-tube can take some credit for their ‘easing’). Its definitely NOT because of you and me !!.

yes, he said, its opening up.
That said, lets see what takes place in reality from now on.

Is it now more good years or swiss standard if living or is it now sweden standard instead? I am a lil confused.

anyways, the ‘catch’ or key thing to note, based on what i recall , is something like the decision on grey areas will still lie in the hand of someone who decides if one has violated. But what kind of people will be doing or is doing the censoring ?

I wonder if this is anyway in response to IBA?

What happened to IBA’s incident?

“Politics, while indeed serious business, should not be placed on a protected pedestal. The health of our body politic depends on political parties sharing their political views. It is precisely because politics is of such central importance that the political maturity of our citizenry needs room to develop. This means allowing citizens to choose from a range of political views, some polemical, others objective, and hone our instincts of political discernment.”

SG people have the intelligence to discern, does not need PAP’s. OPEN up the body politics if you are man enough. Daddy’s boy know what to say, does not know what to do with daddy watching over him. But daddy’s boy is a good boy. I give him that.

Silence on the IBA incident implies they agree with IBA’s report.
I agree with netizens view that this govt reacts only to international pressure.

It remains to be seen whether Lee Jr can effect change, not when the oldman is pulling the strings.
I would not go so far as to give Lee Jr a ‘A’ for his effort and I agree that there is no substance. Well, I will only be impressed if Lee Jr can engage the international media and accept phone-in questions from citizens on neutral ground. The internet has opened up a new world and the PAP’s old methods of propaganda is becoming less effective. Being the kiasu, kiasi, kiasuay and kiamsiap characters that they are, they have no choice but to change tack.
Lee Jr should know better that action speaks louder than words.

Mr LHL , could you care to share your dating experiences with your wife and how you court her ? It would serve as an example to all the young men in Singapore. We would be so grateful. I was so impressed that you bothered to share with us how you change a diaper for you child. I bet there are some singaporean father out there who never changes diapers for their children….

Government lost revenue in Cars ?? like real… the increase in the number of cars will also increase the amount of $$ from HDB parking etc… Fuel… parking charges… all these translate into an increase in revenue…$$ Don’t believe what is reported by the statistic expert… remember how he major in math in the first place….. by playing with numbers….

My barber speaks Hokkien, highest std passed PSLE. He said don’t believe the Cheng Hoo, they give you a drumstick, they take your whole chicken.” In other words the NS song “They give you 100 dollars and take back 99.” Now have to revised to $101 or more.

“Silence on the IBA incident implies they agree with IBA’s report.
I agree with netizens view that this govt reacts only to international pressure.”

Which means that Dr Chee and his accomplices have been doing something right by bringing international awareness of government oppression. For 4 decades, the PAP has been controlling to their advantages until the internet comes along. So will the strategy of the other opp party change accordingly to times or are they just want to play the same losing game to the ruling party ?

No one ever win a game who rules are set and design to be advantagous to a particular player, even more so if it is the player who make them.

With his hand up like that, he looked like he was saying,”Go forth and multiply!”

The ball is openly on the Government’s court this time- this time with “Government no stupid” as position stated upfront, it will be a very good follow up for government and people – timing is perfect run up to 2010 D-day. There is no room for ” I tell you this – but I do another ” as “people no stupid too”- the stage is set. ” You have taken too much from me……” (courtesy of Mr Brown’s Love Song ) and playing psychology this time around will be very costly.
Let us all really try to move on and be encouraging.

“swan lah” for the past days of GCK’s speeches, NKF, complacencies, salaries- let them have it (they probably deserve it from now on if there are no more Mas Selamats) , etc, and watch PM – encourage him, engage him – email him, and pray for his health.

I am hopely this time around, otherwise there will be still “Money No enough 3″ to enjoy. I have a good feeling – to get back the 100% trusting and admiring feeling I had long time ago.

/// 3) vincesgp on August 19th, 2008 5.29 am

Honestly, it is never easy to be in the govt these days with the complexities of the global environment and more literate and well-travelled population having access to up-to-min info. There will always be cynical and people who take issues with anything and everything. But is there such a perfect place? Maybe. I always look at bigger picture; having travelled much in my course of work. ///

vincesgp – good on you for being such a globe-trotting person with a macro perspective. Pray, tell me then, in all your gallivanting to the various corners of this planet, have you seen such obscene millions paid to ministers running a postage-stamp sized country?

“1) Tan Ah Kow on August 19th, 2008 3.13 am Forgive me for being cynical, I have heard this before oh since Goh Chok Tong days – “kindler, gentler”. Has there been really any opening up?”

Ah Kow, some politicians are very good talkers and will make you feel very very good for you just to make a decision at the right & most important moment for them to be business (in our case five years till the next election).

It works on basic human psychology and it works almost all the time. Humans have this feel good short term memory sometimes to the dangerous extent of masochistic extreme (e.g drugs, etc) on rewards / punishment.

Let us give our hats to them also. They have applied this technique very well on us by combining carrot & stick just at the right time.

I daydreamed that the key to all the problems that Singaporean is facing is in the education system. If we can fix this problem, like revamping the timing of school hours, to the curriculum,(Gracious society, values and morals) to CCAs,(grooming our young for sports.less FTs) transport (ERP) and less stress for parents,(More children means less FTs)
But after all, we have so many ministers throughout the years in Education with so much monies spent going around the world looking for the best which they claimed it was the best. The amount of inputs they brought to the ministry, I think it was just a dream. Back to my sleep.

Why does one tries like hell, (with statistics?) every year in the month of the hungry ghosts, to glorify oneself, telling how much one and one’s rich elite party has done and will do for Sinkies!

Yes, every 7 moon of the lunar year, we need to feed the hungry ghosts. In the same month, the son of the father also needs to feed his bloody hungry ego and paint himself a 10/10 report card for the world to see!

While most are sick and tired of his annual “mee siam mai hum”, he still triesvery hard to be a comedian. The one on “I (Govt) Not Stupid” was really stupid! The one on “Stop At 2″ really takes the cake! One up on his dad?

Then again, for $3.1million per annum (or is it $3.7M), he needs to show that that he is working harder and better than Bob Hope, Jerry Seinfeld, The 3 Stooges and George Bush put together.

With the ‘arrogance, greed and fear breeding” of the leaders followed by the veneered “msm knows best’ & “carry boss’s bollocks and looking down on you peasants” reporting, we have created a culture and “to each is own, dog eat dog, don’t mess with, but support PAP (even if you hate them)” mentality for most. A gracious society in Singapore? Tan Gu Gu (Wait Long Long)!

Look at the smile of PM and the the way the ministers talk down to the people (Eg. Bargain Hen’s insult of 55’s not being able to handle their own money with “a fling here and there” and Lim Sway Says “increase pay of workers increases inflation” crap) and you’ll know what I mean.

Where money talks all the time with this greedy bunch, we need to ‘Tan Gu Gu’ for a Gracious and Polite S’porean Singapore.

Good effort on the rally speech? Lau Hokkien would say, ” Chui kong, lumpar song!”. For the benefit of those not into Hokien dialect, it means ” Mouth speaks, testicles (bollocks) feel good!”

More Substance? We are being drugged again!

Cheers,

feedmetothefish

wow, Choo is really given enough media exposure by the mainstream press recently hor. well done. i wonder what is going on ? aiyoh, pure coincidence only lah folks. dont think too much.

i wonder where the people who censor the speech in honglim will come from ? NParks? which is …. and the people involved …. which are ….roots eating is nice and comes with privileges? too fanatic eyes blurred…bias is only subjective…knn is not cnn. knn means kontinue next night.

wow wow choo, (read wild wild west, hehe)

watch out man, now they play soft ball, hard ball is no longer the name of the game, be very vey alert, unwritten rules have changed. is it coincidence – csj was called psycho, nair was sent to imh, whats next??

looks like now soft ball and psychology is a deadly concoction on the menu.

also it reminds me stories of crying wolf and laughing tiger !!!

leaders should not tell followers that “if i can, you can” – especially since they know that they have better life than most because they are “the special/chosen ones” living in the ivory tower. i don’t blame them because they earn over $3m pa and i earn only $50k pa. let them try for a year – rushing to work and taking crowded mrt trains and buses, going through kids’ homework after work, waking up early to make breakfast & get kids ready for school, taking good care of parents and bringing them to see doctor at crowded polyclinics, etc .

if life is good in singapore, why are majority of people thinking of migrating overseas when they grow old ? time to wake up and do some soul-searching now !

Yeh, JFK said something familiar on putting country before self – difference is that JFK is not “professionally paid ‘ to say such; he was saying from his heart and he got killed.

It will be interesting to find out how many Government people have residences overseas, children studying and & remaining to work overseas ( & we are made to listen to shit from ivory tower based NUS professor making light of things) and finally who will be taking the first flights out of Singapore when war breaks out.

Stupid question: Why is it that MOE will only respond to questions by people (asking for general information about schools) who wish to remain anonymous? Questions like: Is it compulsory for secondary schools to seek parents’ permission for a child’s/student’s school activities by way of consent form or is verbal passing of message (from teacher to student and from student to parents) sufficient?

Why can’t MOE be more transparent? I am sure they have the answers for questions such as “this” regardless of what school the student is in.

We should have a PAP forum or blogspot for citizens to comment & vote on policies & issues before they are implemented.

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