Howard Lee
You know the recent floods are mighty serious when Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew weighs in on it.
On 22 July, Today quoted him as saying: “…whatever we do when we get extraordinary rains like we had recently, no amount of engineering can prevent flooding… Singaporeans expect everything to be perfect, which we try to do. But some things are beyond (that) – it’s is an act of God, unless you want to lose half the roads and have canals.”
We can only speculate if MM Lee is aware of the gravity of his statement. By publicly declaring that the floods are an act of God, Singapore’s most senior statesman has effectively provided the blanket dismissal of any monetary claims to be made by citizens and businesses affected by the floods, which could have been leveled against insurance companies and even the Public Utilities Board. Those affected are now pretty much on their own, by MM Lee’s inconclusive definition, since there is still no clear indication of on the cause of all the flood incidents to date.
Indeed, the “act of God” statement was challenged immediately. Today carried three letters in its Voices section on 22 July, each with a different suggestion on possible solutions to the flooding. The nation seems more interested in solving the flood problem than MM himself, who have so far only managed this shrug of a shoulder.
As my old geography teacher would say, while flooding is a natural occurrence, it becomes a disaster only when it crosses the path of human development. In its history, humanity’s strife has been less about preventing natural disasters from occurring, but protecting lives and livelihood from these occurrences.
MM Lee’s warning about losing roads to canals (forget the irony that, not so long ago, for a brief period, part of Orchard Road became a canal) felt more like the same extreme-ends ultimatums that Singaporeans have been constantly fed with – bear with the floods, or walk to work everyday. Perhaps it is not something for a man in his position, but the statement hardly reflected any imagination for the technical feats we can possible deploy to save lives and livelihood.
In truth, it would cost us seriously as a nation to protect us from floods, but there is really no way to defer this cost. The floods are no longer affecting our residential areas, but our central business district. Our efficient, business-as-usual, 24/7 reputation is at stake, and the longer term effect it had on our economy needs to be factored in the sums.
For the moment, the floods seem to have ebbed, but with the odd weather patterns that are knocking at our doorstep, there can be no telling when we will have to face this again. It would be more sensible for us to see it as necessary expenditure. We are faced with the reality of three options – major drainage upgrading, a comprehensive compensation plan for present and future victims to ensure a swift return to normalcy, or suffer the long term blow to the economy.
Sadly, all that seems to be the last thing on the minds of our politicians. Today reported on 20 July that 11 Members of Parliament (although the official record seems to indicate seven) raised queries about the floods, to which the Environment Minister replied with a to-do list for PUB, capped with an endnote that PUB is not the only one responsible, but residents and businesses also need to play a part to ensure that they are warned about floods and are adequately prepared to respond.
Flooding started on 16 June, and these concerns are now raised in Parliament? We should also note that the first to face public outcry was the CEO of PUB – not the Environment Minister or the MPs of the affected areas. And if these MPs have been busy on the ground helping their residents or canvassing for disaster funds since then, the media must have been really respectful of their private endeavours, since there was no coverage on them. Just as the floods are ebbing, another flood of politicians and their comments enter the fray. And of course, MM Lee deals the finishing touch. Should we ask why?
For lack of a better word, it is politicking. Votes count, and showing concern for citizens earns brownie points, even if that concern is nothing more than hand-wringing from a safe tower. So does showing a solid action plan, never mind that the plan is not based on a clearly defined problem to solve. Indeed, ambiguity helps to diffuse attention and provides space for maneuvering should the situation repeat itself. And of course, managing expectations, for the benefit of similar situations in the future, is best done out of the heat of the crisis.
Could the need for an ambiguous problem be the reason for the retraction of earlier claims about debris causing the 16 June Orchard Road flood, and that no conclusions were drawn for more recent floods? You are entitled to have your own take on that.
So, as a national issue, the floods are bigger than we thought. For the population and particularly those affected, this is the time to muster another level of determination, for odd weather seems here to stay and, by the rhetoric thrown around, most significantly by MM Lee’s decree, we evidently should not depend on our politicians to provide assistance, must less shield us from it.
And as for our politicians, God bless them all. This is a time when Singaporeans, weaned off the forced diet of ambiguous answers and dramatic ultimatums, or perhaps just plain tired of popularity posturing, will question the sincerity of every action and word. Failure to realise that might not lead to failure at the polls (feel free to wonder why), but it will surely lead to a lowering of confidence, and by unfair default, a growing impatience with the government agencies tasked to deliver the related public service.
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Oh, excuse me, having an “albino” grandson is also the act of god, my dear! No doctor can prevent that! No lawyer can illegalize that as well!
This TOWERING elderly stateman, has never failed to claim credit when things work and shift blame when things fell apart, this time round, he said flooding can be acts of GOD…
GOD ? does he believe that there is a GOD who does good and not all ruling party’s inventions ?
ok i learn already the tactics.
if the next time i does a big mistake and crew up in my work, i will tell the boss it is an act of god it is unavoidable coz i’m being created not perfect so i bound to do mistake even bigger mistake. do you still want to employ me?
guess what the boss might have to say?
my advice would be singaporeans vote them out completely. if one worms would be left behind that worm will manipulate the rest too and all come back to square one.
MM LEE don’t care about the citizen. if he really work hard to make a better living and future for singaporeans then look at the big picture. he is all while in his palace or either travelling busy meeting foreign president to carry balls and supporting the citizen there. he can travel world wide for it and waste all the money all this years but for singaporeans he just throw peanuts on our face.
peanut after peanuts what to singaporeans can archive? gold? bright future?
this is all about MM LEE running the country as if it is his own company labeling ”SINGAPORE PTE LTE”
stop them from damaging singaporeans future and vote them out all!
ya rite.. mm now gong jiao way… wat a pity for a once trully great pioneer of singapore.. lets see wat mm lee have to say if oxley rise (or watever place you are staying) starts flooding…
Please please never say there lee kon you was “once a truly great pioneer of singapore again! because his already big big big head will swell even more thinking he really did it completely on his own. As there were the honourable Dr. GKS, Hon Swee Sen, Chua Siang Chin, Ong Pang Boon, Dr. Tay Eng Soon, Ong Teng Cheong, Dr. Wilsemus, S. Rajaratnam, David Marshall to name some. And also are Dr. Toh Chin Chye, Dr. Tony Tan Keng Yam. These are all the real strong minded man who gave all the great ideas and implementations that laid the foundations and the processes for Singapore’s success story.
These truly great man of honesty and humility quietly kept one guy’s excessive ego and self righteousness in check. They slaved and slog for us all and left that guy to win GEs so that they could see their wealth of vision to fruition. But such honourable and self sacrificing men often are used by cunning men for their own modus operandi agenda. As all they ever think of is never trickery nor betrayal but servitude for us all. Servitude in the sense of serving and giving and never claiming for gratitude and not as “slaves”.
Who deserves due respect for their due diligence and successes of distinction in quiet humility? Or the one who endlessly self promote in claiming everything that was good as his very own. As he surely must mean they those capable men were nothing more then workers who carried out his orders? Only a fool of a man will clamour for such an impossibility that even a smart 10 yrs old child will not believe!
Foolish because “Respect is earned and not claimed nor self awarded” and they know NOT. Only men of greed and extreme alto ego and/or of self deception will be victims of such idiotic idiosyncrasy. Carried to extremes, they are NOT innocuous even to self. So here is a man who is “great” from self praise in high office. This can’t be further from the truth and reality.
Welcome to Singapore foreign talents of such makings! We are xenophobic. As if you are indeed an FT, you WILL understand our side of the thinking and story.
I don’t think it is too much to expect world class results when we pay first class salary. At the least, learn from other countries like Holland, if we cannot come up with workable solutions.
[Gong Li, Charmaine Sheh exposed as academic frauds] Gong Li, Charmaine Sheh exposed as academic frauds
In this era where information retrieval becomes increasingly easy, lying about your qualifications is risky. Especially when you are a public figure.
Hong Kong celebrity Charmaine Sheh’s school, International Hotel Management Institute, was blasted as ‘garbage’ by netizens, as the school apparently only had 200 students in total.
Superstar Gong Li was found guilty of a similar fraudulent act a few years ago.
While the actress claims to be a graduate of Beijing University, she turned out to have only taken a self-study Sociology course there.
When Gigi Leung first rose to fame, she claimed to be student-singer with high qualifications. Reports later revealed that Gigi only studied for two years at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and she did not even graduate.
Apparently, not only Hong Kong and China stars were said to commit academic fraud. Korean actress Son Ye Jin claimed to be a graduate from Seoul Institute of the Arts.
The truth?
She was expelled by the school after merely a year of study there.
they came to singapore to snatch our jobs too with fake cert? is this what MM LEE was telling they are the talented ones? check mate
On the same day he remarked that “no amount of engineering can prevent flooding”, he lamented that the waters in the foreground are muddy and unsightly, ruining what could have been a scenic blue waterfront. This could be the reason for the flood. Water for the waterfront, not an Act of God.
He continued further to say that it would be good if something could be done upstream to somehow filter the silt from the muddy water before the water reaches the waterfront. Implementing such filtering engineering into the water system is likely to cause more flooding upstream. No?
He is no engineer. But, a special politician who can utter such “wisdom” and get away with it.
Funny that the floods came only after The Ion came up on the empty park after the former rambling police station was demolished.
What does it say, I wonder?
Sure, the causes are likely multi-factorial but overbuilding with little ground space as nearby condos push gardens to mid-levels or roof-tops may well be one of them, eh?
The Pariah, http://www.singaporeenbloc.blogspot.com
Much has been written and talked about in forums….as to what happens..when MM goes.
But someone..once close to the heart of the matter..tells it like it is.
I pass it along as a community service announcement and for a wider read.
Here it is in full.
Make of it what you will.
You will not find this in the Straits Times.But no doubt it will be read by many there.
Some even will quietly agree.
===============================
There are some who think things will get worse if MM goes,
and eventually when he is no longer there. Then,
there will be no one to crack the whip.
One can be sure, despite all his Act of God claims, he’s kicking ass over the floods. and
the rising prices of public housing. According to reports, Yaacob
sat behind him looking like a whipped puppy when he made the cryptic
statement that ” not enough had been done” on the flood issue.
One certainly wonders if there will be anyone to come up with the
ambitious ideas that LKY had/has. And if they do, is there anyone serious enough and tough enough
to realise them.
Things like the cleaning up of kallang river, and the
building of marina barrage, whether or not it works, could never be
carried out by a “namby pamby” lot now.
He has caused the problems now and is also part of the problem.
He has stamped out potential leaders, in all areas; insisted on total
obedience and promoted materialism.
If he had retired, he could have been there to really advice those who took charge, instead of
having to go in to bat for them. It’s ridiculous that these guys are hiding
behind him and being so dependent on an 86-yr-old man.
But their poor calibre is the result of his policies.
There is also no one (brave enough) to rein him in, like
his old colleagues would have done in the early days.
They would have shot down this latest mad plan to have an intellectual
class, and talked him out of allowing so many foreigners into the country in such a short time.
He’s had an intellectual class all along. It’s not working. This lot go by the
rules and the numbers, completely forgetting they’ are not dealing with
robots. The social aspects of things are not factored in. And they dont know
what to do when things dont work out. Their minds are not flexible and
he wants still more of such crap?!
One can foresee bigger problems — Indonesia will cut back on gas sales.
There IS going to be a screwup on water. How much does it cost to
produce now next to mahathir’s 40 cents dd? Has anyone even asked?
Were there re-negotiations after mahathir left? One johor contract ends
in 2012. It does not look it will be renewed.
And how do you build homes underground in the future if there is already not
enough space for drains now? And for sure all his little new citizens are not
gonna just accept things like (us) the scared sheep do now….in 10 yrs time.
They’ll be screaming about having more foreigners.
Why is nothing being done about using our many islands — for homes, to grow food? They could
have food factories e.g highrise vegetable, rice growing units, on them.
Basically, some could even say he’s been a damned bad parent. He has not let his child go and
learn on its own, make its own mistakes.
One can sometimes feel quite sorry for him.
MM, that is.
For sure, he’s disappointed with how things are turning out, but no one
dares tell him it’s his fault, and being a stubborn egoist, he’s not going
admit it.
Not even to himself!
For all that he has achieved and done..and to be fair..he has achieved a lot… some might also believe ,despite his years, he still hasn’t learnt……….