~by: Elvin Ong~
This article is written as a direct response to Mr David Mason’s letter “Singapore’s Success: An Observer’s Concerns”[1] which was published in the Business Times on 25 October 2011, and re-published in the Review section of The Straits Times a day later, and also re-published as a note by the Young PAP’s facebook page.
Summoning the full force of the willpower within the greatest depths of my soul to avoid ad hominem attacks against Mr David Mason and the good folks at SPH and Young PAP who re-published his letter, I wish to expose and stridently argue against a most dangerous idea that was throughout the letter and which both SPH and Young PAP appear to endorse.
With the overwhelmingly simplistic rhetorical claims such as – “Singapore exists only because of economics”, or “the nation requires stability. Without it you are lost”, or “do not throw away what your forefathers fought so hard to establish”, or “The government was tough and restrictive, but for a good reason – to establish and prosper as a nation”, or “the lack of knowledge and sensitivity of the younger generation of Singaporeans” and finally, “Its younger management have been born since then and display two general problems.
The first is that ‘it has always been like this, so it will continue’ – an awful sense of birthright and complacency. The second is a lack of understanding of how the country was born in the first place” – the most dangerous idea that has been suggested is that young Singaporeans should quietly fade into the background soaked in old PAP ideology, and allow “the elders” or “the enlightened” to retake the lead to make “wise” decisions. And we know what this old PAP ideology is: the world is scary, other countries are competitive, we need to stay united to compete or else Singapore will go down. (Cue *roll eyes*)
Before I move on to argue against this most dangerous idea, let us consider the plausibility that Mr Mason might be correct in this description that “younger generations of Singaporeans” (like me and probably most of you reading this) “lack knowledge and sensitivity”, that we are complacent and lack knowledge of our history. Even if one were to accept that such a description might have a modicum of truth in it, I would suggest that our attention should be directed instead to the good civil servants at the Ministry of Education. After all, they were the ones, through their education policies, who brought up such young Singaporeans with an “awful sense of birthright and complacency.” The Ministry of Education better watch out!
But to return to my key argument – why do I say that this most dangerous idea is most dangerous? There are two reasons. First, as Mr Chen Show Mao so eloquently put it in his Parliamentary speech last week, what is an orchestra that can only play a single tune, or to have more tap water in a glass full of tap water? To have only one ideology, one perspective, one vision of Singapore was and what Singapore should be, is the fundamental cause of PAP’s dismal record in their various flawed public policies in immigration, public housing, transport, and other sectors for the past 10 years. Singularity, in the world of organic life, is the road to stagnation and extinction, not prosperity. Has no one ever heard of the utter folly of putting all your eggs in one basket?
Second, this most dangerous idea has the potential to set back the political gains made by the Singaporean electorate over the two elections in the past few months. Having finally awoken to the idea that political diversity is a force for good, rather than a source of trouble, the letter suggests that we should return to the good old days where young Singaporeans mindlessly drank from the PAP’s fountain of rhetoric. If we do so, then we would truly be regressing, in all senses of the word, rather than “prosper”, as the letter so suggests.
Perhaps it is an appropriate time to remind the good editors at SPH and the good folks at the Young PAP, that the stance of the PAP government has always been that foreigners should not be allowed to “meddle” in Singapore’s internal politics. I think it is a good stance. We surely welcome them to do business, but our internal politics is reserved for Singaporeans only, thank you very much. I’m sure it is just a communication breakdown between the PAP government and the good editors and good folks that allowed Mr Mason’s letter to be published. After all, the PAP government has a knack for admitting their weaknesses in communicating their own policies over the past few years. I’m sure this is just another policy communication breakdown that was overlooked, amongst the many others that were.
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[1] https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150350451128964
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The writer is undertaking the MPhil in Politics (Comparative Government) programme at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford.
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What this government “likes” to listen or write about them is okay whether foreigner or not. Remember Alan Shadrake’s ONCE A JOLLY HANGMAN and how he ended up.
Ang Moh paid to talk cock, that all!
Ang Moh Talk Cock30 October 2011
Ang Moh paid to talk cock, that all!
…………..
is it? than your iphone is a cork phone perhaps?
without the ang mor..leekingyou wouldn’t be in power today for such a long time…
do i see YOU condemed the citibanks ang mor when they give leekingyou an adviser highlypaid consultancy post?
David is right. Singapore is a tiny state without anything. Who are we to compare with the big countries? Norway has oil. China’s annual graduate population outnumber local Singaporeans. Who is Singapore? What are we? We’re too complacent with our success till we think we’re naturally invincible. Complacency is the first step to doom.
This is a one-dimensional ang moh. Simply put, he is just trying to survive. Perhaps soon to climb the lucrative political ladder like many, by just saying the right things.
Many people take Singaporeans for fools.
… by saying we don’t know what we want. Note that the “opposition” position here in the article below won.
Which would suggest they think citizens are clueless.
But the “proposition” also lost, which means the YPAP couldn’t convince themselves
that the govt had Singaporean’s interests at heart in their policies.
I wonder if they see the irony. Or is it just an academic exercise to them?
From CNA:
“Youths lock horns at Young PAP debate
Foreign competition in Singapore was at the top of young peoples’ minds in a debate organised by the People’s Action Party’s youth wing, the Young PAP.
Two teams of three debaters argued whether government policies are crafted considering Singaporeans first. On one side – the proposition, believe that government policies are made with Singaporeans’ interests at the heart. And this includes policies concerning housing and education.
Their opponents naturally disagreed, saying it is impossible to craft policies considering Singaporeans first because Singaporeans do not even know what they want.
Lee Junior, one of the debaters for the opposition, said during the debate: “Citizens want cheap rental flats as long as (it’s) not built by them, or foreign workers who are not clogging up the public transport… The government, if it attempts to bend to the needs of Singaporeans, will be akin to a cat chasing a laser pointer.”
In turn, the proposition argued that allowing foreign competition in Singapore sharpens Singaporeans.
Shirwin Eu, one of the debaters for the proposition, argued: “We want Singapore to grow. And can we grow internally, can we develop one iPhone, so to speak? Can you invent a Toyota car? Can you produce anything from your own resources, and not forgetting that Singapore – we do not have any natural resources. The only resource we have is our brain.”
In the end, the opposition won, getting 17 out of the 25 votes cast.
Previous debates held by the ruling party’s youth wing were members-only affairs. There was also no voting process to decide which side won. By throwing in voting and allowing non-members to participate in this debate however, the organisation hopes to reach out to more youths outside the party.”
Our dear PM recently quoted on CNA:
“This is not just a show, it’s not just theatre. This (Parliament) is a place where we are discussing very serious business and where we have to make very difficult choices for Singaporeans on behalf of our voters,” he said.
“And I think as government, it’s our responsibility to speak the truth to Singaporeans and I think it’s the opposition’s responsibility also to acknowledge the truth and to speak it, whether or not it’s politically advantageous to them,” added Mr Lee.”
This shows that rather than being open to all proposals, there are some that LHL already believes are sacred cows or, as his daddy would say, hard truths. But some of these “truths” are precisely what citizens want to question.
If reasons are valid, well and good. But you have to convince us. HDB pricing strategies, use of our money by GIC, CPF used for housing and which is insufficient for retirement, ISA for no good purpose, imbalance of growth vs well being – the list goes on. How can these simply be called “truths” independent of debate?
PM Lee also “said Singapore hopes to have quality growth – improved productivity for better wages.”
I sincerely hope this is not his final understanding of what “quality growth” means. If so, was he even awake during the recent parliamentary debates??? Will there be no emphasis on well-being once again? Has nothing changed?
From an argument’s point of view, elvin’s response is poor and does not address mason’s concern. It is always good to pay heed to a sincere warning of complacency and it should be viewed with sobriety and on the merit of its own. To accuse mason of interfering with our internal politics and saying this sets back our political ‘gains’ smacks of complacency and narrow-mindedness. I was hoping people would prove mason wrong but articles like this just reflects the opposite. I am sorry but elvin, you can do better.
“To accuse mason of interfering with our internal politics and saying this sets back our political ‘gains’ smacks of complacency and narrow-mindedness”.
You should know of course that this was just 1 point out of 3.
So if YOU are really being fair to elvin, rather than being like cedric fool and relying on strawman arguments, you would state how his other 2 points do not meet mason’s arguments.
In any case, the point about interfering with internal politics is aimed at the MSM and PAP, not mason.
If we grant your point that ALL arguments should be allowed, then the MSM and PAP should have no reservations allowing for anyone to talk about our internal politics, good or bad.
Are the MSM and PAP ready to accept the implications of your view?
anyone who speaks against the PAP, is their enemy, regardless of the facts and truths in what is spoken/written, regardless if you are forerigner or local.
anyone who speaks favorably on PAP, is opendly endorsed by PAP, publicised and circulated by the PAP-controlled media and their dogs mindlessly either without scrutiny, or with total disregards even to wold claims and lies.
watch “Talking Point” Sunday night with TOC editor, PAP MP Baey, a Prof? Topic is on the PAP law minister SHAMugan recent declaration that there ahs to be regulations n controls on the “new media” – meaning internet. MP Baey tried to parry away the need for Laws on new media by saying that it’s “in the interest of public”, “to protect individuals and public innocents from fraudsters, financial cheatsters”.
WHAT A LOUSY EXCUSE!!
Using US – Singaporeans – as their scapegoats and screens to enact their own lopsided laws so as to ensure the preservation of PAP control & power, to continue the perpetuation & endorsements of half-truths n untruths being published and circulated by the PAP media & their own PAP “new media”; to continue in their ‘beautiful lies’ to hide complete FACTS and total picture from Singaporeans, so that Singaporeans will be hidden from the PAP ugliness but only bombarded by the beautification of PAP! Their only purpose of enacting this new law, regulation, is the same as many other of the those in place which are only used selectively – to silence politcal opponents; to ensure that Singaporeans DO NOT KNOW THE FULLL PICTURE, THE FACTS, which will ultimately show the absolute ugliness of PAP and tear down their screens of lies!!
I DARE PAP TO PUBLICISE THE STATISTICS ON THE TOTAL NUMBER & INCREASE IN NUMBER OF SINGAPOREAN BANKRUPTS, SUICIDES, BROKEN FAMILIES, AND CRIMES AS A RESULT OF THE 2 CASINOS! The figures are out, why was it NEVER mentioned by PAP at all – not a breathe, not even a whisper of it! Instead, ST frontpage only publicises the GDP, so-called economic returns & the qtrly profits of the casinos! WHY?! Because SIngaporeans lives to PAP is cheap, just like peole living in dictator/tyrant-controlled states (N.Kr, gaddafi libya, large parts of china & india, etc) In the eyes of PAP, our existence is only for their own economic(and wallet size) gains.
do we even need to talk abt YPAP? Look at TPL – that’s the calibre and talent under PAP’s definition (bark)
I can see that DM is highly adept. Wonder if you had been here recently and responsible for the glowing writeups in the papers. You’ve definitely done very well in the political arena if you did.
Are you here to make money or is Singapore your well loved baby? Considering all the invaluable contributions and all your good feelings you have for our island state, I am sure Singaporeans will bid you welcome to be one of us. And I am sure the state will not fault you on your age too.
We must commend Mason for his candid take on reality. Every country with a part in global trade is feeling the heat from China, India and the upcoming few. Every company worth its salt in global trade is looking to capitalise on the value provided by these emerging powers.
This is becoming worse with internet and cheap communications. It used to be that the Chinese and Indians must set foot in the country to compete. Now, with internet and communications, job processes are parceled up into many parts and moved abroad with increasing speed.
The young Singaporeans think they are safe if the government “protects” them? How wrong they are. No country can “protect” itself from global life changing technologies like internet and worldwide communications. The very fact these young Singaporeans can enjoy youtube and iphone is because of these global developments.
The world is getting smaller. China and India are just next door in google, twitter and skype. No government in the world can “protect” you guys from these hardworking neighbours.
If we still can’t see that the PAP regime had run out of ideas years ago, in no time we will be boiled alive like the naive and gullible frogs. When they built not one but two casinos even though LKY himself was so dead-set against, and opening the floodgate to all level of foreigners into our country as cheap labours to shore up the GDP with lowered productivity, never mind suppressing the locals wages, all these clearly showed lack of ideas.
All these problems can be solved to a large extent with a creative citizenry and entrepreneurs which we sorely lack due to the PAP policies of control/suppression in all spheres of life with no freedom of speech and expression, specifically in education of the young.
Between suppression and freedom, they would rather choose the former in order to prolong their rule because they always think that with freedom will born more challenges and demands with an enlightened electorates. Just listen to what they have been currently talking about controlling the online media with all kinds of excuses when in truth, they are trying to silence anti-PAP voices. A classic case of self-serving thinking at the expense Singapore’s progress and competitiveness.
Therefore, David Mason’s view is not only dangerous but will lead to Singapore’s downfall.
Instead, we should have a free and enlightened citizenry and a two-party system to question and bring the government to account for wrong policies. Only then can we survive as a nation for the next hundreds of year.
well,i guess due to poor economy back home,some HOW-LIAN ANG-MOHS are trying to lesrn how to suck up…
times have changed lah
even COMMUNISTS are helping the CAPITLALISTs in their debt problems?
so,does CAPITALSIM still work?
…what is the world becoming really????
My fellow citizens, have you ever made a complaint to a Government department, Stat Board? MP even the PM. Do you receive a reply? Very rarely I suppose. When you do receive a reply do you not feel that the reply is useless because it does not answer your questions but answers its own questions which it presumes you have asked. So between deep silence and nonsense you are trapped and would very likely give up. Sometimes however you can’t give up because the assault by the State is on- going and your life is diminished by the continuance of the assault. To give you an example of what I mean, here is my story. There was a period of two years when the ICA would stopped me and my family at immigration checkpoints for nothing, just to humiliate us. One day at the Causeway checkpoint, I was told to park and go to a room for the usual waiting. I did not park but drove straight on. The whole checkpoints was then filled with the sound of sirens. Officers ran after my car and when I finally came out of the car it was a full 20 minutes. For 20 minutes that immigration checkpoint at the Causeway came to a standstill.
Still nothing was spoken to me or my wife about why ICA must stopped us then. I was allowed to drive off without waiting at the office.After that event, ICA ceased stopping us. Nor did they arrest me for not obeying the order to park my car.
You know why? Because the ICA knows that it is acting illegally. A prominent Law firm asked the ISD who in turn instructed the ICA to do the dirty tricks on us at immigration checkpoints.
If I had not reacted the way I did, that Law firm would have had its way with us. Embedded in David Mason’s article is the dangerous notion that we the citizenry should be passive punching bags for the elites to punch. ISD or no, I have got to fight it out.
During these fifty years , the lines of demarkation between State institutions and private elites have been blurred. Conflict of interest is everywhere. Symbiotic relationships are formed between State Institutions and powerful private firms and individuals to gain competitive advantage and facilitate preying on the citizenry. Coupled with deep Silence as a tool of oppression, the citizenry has no escape from bullying behaviour. The state of Singapore as described by Mason is a lie. We must never give up our freedom of speech, freedom to think for ourselves, freedom to protest, freedom to fight back.
Fellow Singaporeans, what “doppelganger” haD said is absolutely correct and true. I’m also a victim of powerful and financial influences of the private and public agencies. If you’re inexperienced and dare not fight back, you’ll be the looser. therefore, we must continue our struggle for freedom of speech and not let them have full control of everything.
By even crouching towards media control, they’re clamping us down and trying to silence all of us. TOC had been a victim and now with new enforcements, they’re trying to stamp out other blogs like TRE which is still suffering from the backlash and still unable to come online. If they shut all of us out, the where else can we make our voices heard?
One of my worst experience was with a Ministry where me and my wife was inappropriately treated and privacy invaded. When I seeked for our grievances to be addressed, from Directors of different departments to Permanent Secretaries, right up to certain Minister at the helm then. What were their reply? Complete SILENCE was what I got.
Next, I went right up to my constituent’s MP who was also a Minister (retired since last GE). What was his response? He’ll look into it and what happened next? Again, SILENCE was the cordial reply.
What comes next was even more shocking. I was accused of threatening an Officer In-Charge with words like “heads will roll” if my case was not appropriately handle as I warned that I would go to the press about it. A formal police report was made by that particular Officer and when I produced all evidences to the police, the case was dropped and I was served with a warning that I do not have such recurrence or I’ll be charged in Court and that report would be brought up again.
I have no choice but to swallow this incident as my wife fear other actions might be taken against us or I might be further framed. As I’m the sole income earner, I have no other options but to fear for my livelihood and that of my family.
Is this called Justice and Equality? I have to suffer in SILENCE and cannot speak up for what was done wrong to us, injustice forced down our throats and unable to fight back.
One fact here is that Singaporeans may have become too complacent but this is the result of the fear factors put in place to curtail our sources of information, depriving Singaporeans to have access to alternative form of views through the internet and SILENCE all of us Singaporeans. Think about Mas Selamat will bring all of us many questions and the answers provided were all so incredible and don’t you have doubts? The crux here is, they’ve given you their answers and you either take it or leave it.
That is also what had happened to ex-detainees of the ISA whom had wanted to give their side of the story, requesting for an inquiry of their detention but were all turned down with absolute firmness and no other way to seek redress unless you’re rich and influential. But we deserve the truth.
We, the Citizens of Singapore, must NOT SUFFER IN SILENCE, and unite as One United People of Singapore. A multi-party system should be the path to take for true liberty of democracy. Only this way, can we have proper channels to voice out and not colourful tapes to hinder the real progress of Gross Domestic Happiness of our country like Bhutan. This is what I would term as real success and progress of a Nation with sense of belonging and identity of a Nation.
It is true that economic progress is vital to the survival of our small nation. But without us, the local Citizens, where is our country going towards with no Singaporean IDENTITY and NO SENSE of BELONGING?
David Mason is an Ang Moh who has no stake in Singapore, yet he is interfering into the nation domestic politics. Highly suspicious of his motives!
Look at parliament! It is always so empty. PAP MPs are always absent as they are too busy making money ? their hearts and minds are certainly not into the welfare of the nation and it’s people.
DM does not identify with the average Singaporeans that are suffering from PAP policies. So, he can talk cock for all he care. When the nation fail and the people suffer, DM could still be enjoying life somewhere else in the world! Do you trust such a guy?
I do not doubt Mr Mason speak the truth from his circumstances, his beneficial status quo. Perhaps It was the “conceited greed” of Mason ‘s generation that lead to the upheaval of the recent wall street protesters with the illusion that the capitalist system has failed because of the greed and irresponsibility of the ruling elite.
Mr Mason probably does not have offspring who need to live and strive in Singapore presently. Would he spare a thought for our young generation who are grappling with pain and fear that their basic need for housing could be deprived due to the inefficiency of the execution of the government immigration polices.
The government policy to increase population through immigration has failed to consider providing adequate infrastructure in transport and housing to accommodate the increase. It has now fueled the escalation of our property prices which was propelled by break down of law of supply demand situation. The surge in our property prices is unrealistic and not correlated to the rate of our GDP growth rate despite the prediction of slow growth or even stagnation for next few years.
The rentals prices of property is unrealistic high too due to the sudden population boom and the y generation have to be baffled with this dilemma of whether to buy or not to when the home prices seem far fetched and unsustainable in term of economic growth and unresolved crisis in macro-economy.
Would the young be complacent with the government if they generate the view that they are slogging for their “ overpriced homes” because of the inadvertent execution of government policy.
I like to ask DM a few simo,e questions:-
1) does he have school going kids competing with thousands of foreign kids ( many on scholarships) in the Singapore education system?
2) does he need to pay for an overpriced HDB flat with a $2000 per month income?
3) does he need to take public transport everyday?
4) did he serve his NS?
5) does he have a foreign citizenship?
If the pap is too arrogant and not listening to singaporeans’ concern, criticism from outside is good.
Internal criticism in singapore is suppressed,some criticism from the outside will do good to wake the nuts up. Due to pap’s pride, they will be more likely to react to outside criticism. This may help singaporeans in return.
An analogy. Parents fed, educate and give proper education to their kids. Now the kids have grown up to be adults but parents still nag everyday until one day the kids gave some feedback. Parents get upset. Said kids forgotten where they were before, ‘no big no small’, bring disruption to family etc. Sound familiar
The fact that they are allowed to even publish a foreigner’s take on what is perceived as the country’s domestic politics speaks volumes about LKY’s rhetoric that foreigners who have no stake in our country should be allowed to meddle in our internal affairs.
So the whole thing about foreigners meddling in our domestic politics is just a damn lie altogether. So much for our hypocrite politicians.
In the past, PAP took a very hardline against foreigners when they publish articles critical of the PAP government. Now, a foreigner write something in their favour, bravo, you get this GLAMOROUS endorsement!. What a joke!
If Shadrake were to write in his book praises instead of truthful questioning the government about the unjust hanging of people he too will be given all the privileges and probably some good deals that prompted David Mason to behave like he did.
Similarly, Michael Backman who has been heavily lambasted by the state media for interfering in our domestic affairs for his truthful comments about our anti-people controls are probably not as worthy as compared with David Mason with our kind of self-centered and self-serving governance.
With this kind of morality and values, we are now being told that government is passing yet more laws and regulations to regulate people’s postings in social media for the good of the country.
Haha with all this kind of past records of manipulations of power for their own purposes and agendas to stay in power and exploit their capitalism, now who has the moral authority and wisdoms to say what are the right things and what are the right way that truly motivate all to change?
@ Ah Moh Interfering
are we sure he has no stake in singapore?
who knows? perhaps he should declare any vested interest(for example property investments) before he proceeds with his article.
there are plenty of foreigners who have vested interest in singapore whereby certain kinds of policies are beneficial to their vested interests,
but at the same time they do not suffer the side effects of these policies create since they do not live here.
So stereotypical of pap: they publish what they want you to know.
Its pap- controlled media friends!
It is irresponsible to publish DM’s articles in MSM without explictly declaring his vested interests in the nation!
If David Mason loves S’pore so much, why did he return to his home country??? Why didn’t he convert to S’pore citizenship? Why didn’t he volunteer to do NS like Mr Chen Show Mao?
The litmus test of any foreigner who wants to lecture/scold S’poreans on how “fortunate” we are is fgor that individual to convert to S’pore citizen…..and if he is male, do NS. Otherwise, it is just empty talk. Talk is cheap….in fact, talk is FREE.
Go tell these crap to the birds ! You cannot fool us TRUE Singaporeans any more ! So don’t waste your time and TRUE Singaporeans’ time lah !
PAP’s unsaid and unwritten policy is that foreigners can interfere with our domestic politics as long as they are praising or supporting PAP!!!
Wow at the blatant shameless ass-kissing..
Image Irene Ng leeching on taxpayers’ money to support old ang moh hubby!!!!
indeed, complacency is a poision.
I quote:
The day when we fail to challenge the System, is the day the System starts the slippery road to doomsday.
leave it to PAP, and assume all is well, or have a debate, argument, and confirm/verify that it is indeed well.
I’ll not leave it to chance.
I do not think it make sense to judiciously use geopolitical/strategic reality of Singapore to kill off debate and desire for change for a more competitive and people-centric government.
It is very dangerous to do so because it can unconsciously justify for a self-serving, egoistic and arrogant government.
The excesses of capitalism have in early days led to the rise of socialism snd communism.
With the fall of communism, now capitalism is coming back strongly with governments or those governments which have taken over the autocratic control of institutions practizing yet the worse possible excesses of capitalism such as the Singapore’s so-called leadership autocratic rule disguised as democracy to get along with the world order.
Under the peudo-democratic autocratic rule, government has succeeded to apply capitalism to create the survival of the fittest with taxing and profiteering from people’s assets and infrastructure to hoard monies as reserves claiming superficial success.
Sucking monies from people to create surprises and their own power is far from being a successful economic model.
It is at best exploitative capitalism. So do not be too quick to claim success. Only when leaders are subscribed to basics of national building like freedoms, transparency and accountability, leading by personal honesty and integrity and service to people can leaders truly motivate and empower people to compete on knowledge applications and true success.
The tone of this article justifies exactly what David Mason is warning against.
It is precisely closed (or closing) minds that is the strongest challenge to Singapore’s stability. That applies to both sides of the fence (since the Government also includes the next generation).
The usual criticisms prior to this comment and those that will inevitably follow will continue to justify that. Pure criticism with western-based platitudes and devoid of ideas.
Realism is that if Singapore becomes idealistic and takes idealistic approaches without considering if it works, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the end result but fools will not recognise it, even if faced directly with it.
The basic principle is that Singapore needs to survive by securing jobs for everyone. Without jobs, no food on table. Without an economy, there won’t be any jobs no matter how much freedom, transparency and accountability there are.
Assuming that Singapore will continue to have jobs is a fool’s hope. Ensuring that it happens is a full time job. Its about time people wake up their idea instead of just cluelessly criticising.
Companies drop employment like nobodies business. Look at US and Europe’s unemployment. Both bastions of freedom and democracy. If the next gen thinks freedom and democracy is all it takes, then bye bye Singapore.
The Government is doing one thing that it used to do before 1965 and should have done since which is to open its ears to ideas. HDB then was a new idea (an improvement of failed council housing). CPF an improvement of failed social security which the west can’t now afford.
The Govt needs to open its ears and listen. That was the criticism in the old days. On the other hand, what does the other party do when given the chance? Complain about letters written in good faith? lol.
How do you know DM write the article in good faith????
When someone says he’s a sympathetic observer, isn’t that meant in good faith? Clearly that wasn’t read in good faith.
Was the thrust of DM’s article to complain about the younger generation or to indirectly exhort them to avoid the pitfalls of youth thru greater knowledge whilst still maintaining positive cultural influences?
In the old days, when we got unfair criticism, what we did was either to prove that person wrong or ignore ignorance.
What has been the response to date? Complaints and worse, direct personal attacks (whilst he did not mention anyone specifically and even his negative words was principally in the last para). If there wasn’t a modicum of truth in his words, would that have elicited such a response?
I think many chose to read it negatively rather than to debate the actual logic behind the words.
The funny thing many people don’t realise is that Singapore has multiple generations. When he mentioned younger generation, did anyone suggest it could apply to the current PM as well….
@lim
I do not agree that when someone says he is a sympathetic observer, he automatically can be assumed to write in good faith. This is because people can LIE.
Do you know him personally to claim that he write in good faith? If not, your assertion that he write in good faith is flawed.
I rest my case. It was simple for me. I merely read his article in good faith and found it logical.
If you think he was lying, highlight the lies rather than calling him names like apathetic, one dimensinoal etc.
For me, I found the way he depicts certain scenarios clearly reflect society today e.g.
“Today, I hear dissent from many Singaporeans”.
Rather than bearing false witness, perhaps we should highlight the lies before we call someone a liar.
@lim
So, now you admit that your assertion that DM write in good faith is purely a personal observation.
Since it is a personal observation, it is fair that others can choose not to agree with this observation.
For me, unless I have a clearer idea of the man behind the article, I will not take him at face value. He is at best an apathetic observer and at worst someone with other motives behind.
I agree that others can disagree. That is democracy.
Sadly, that is exactly the reality today. Some chose to criticise without considering the points raised.
A man warns that there’s a hole in the ground and that we should avoid it. It is clearly our right to ignore the warning or others believe it is a right call the man names eg kay poh.
I would prefer to check if what that man says is true.
The warning can be made by a beggar, a rich man, a local or a foreigner. Why should a person’s background be relevant?
Even if a foreign beggar warns me that there’s pothole in front, I may not believe him but I’ll still keep a look-out. That’s just me.
Young lacking in knowledge and sensitivity instead of worldly wise? Is that not the final beautifuly baked product of decades of political repression, indoctrination and keeping them and Singaporeans in the dark of all truths about our society and what is really going on in Singapore in relation to the internet and technology-driven world of informed knowledge and competition??.
Social and political engineering has its UNEXPECTED AND NIGHTMARISHLY DESTRUCTIVE OUTCOME IMPACT showing its ugly head – now blame the Y-Generation for complacency and birthright focus. Alvin Ong is right of laying the blame squarely on the doorstep of our Ministry of Education.
VERY CONVENIENT OF POLITICAL SCAPEGOATING AND KEEP ADDING ON TO EVEN MORE SICKLY STUPID TORRENT OF REPRESSION OF INTERNET DISCOURSE – I am sure the division and darkness of truth will rip the inclusive integration faster that the fictional dreams of galvansing this country together in the global march for competitiveness.
Can I say one last word to DM, we, Singaporeans, don’t need you around and don’t want you and the MIWs around anymore.
YOU ALL HAVE LONG PAST YOUR USE-BY DATE OF FAILURES to be useful of gospel preaching and leading this country’s future forward.
@lim
I do not think I am unfair to label DM apathetic. He claim to be an observer so most likely he could be sitting in London have a romanticized idea of Singapore and all its associated intellectual geopolitical realities that he can dream of.
But in reality, quite possibly, he does not have a clue of the actual singapore and singaporeans.
@ lim
hi, my pet parrot is a duck, i declare in good faith that my parrot is a duck.
and on your part, if u read my declaration in good faith, then my parrot is a duck.
@lim
“It is precisely closed (or closing) minds that is the strongest challenge to Singapore’s stability.”
Oh I drink to that aspiration but the substance of your assertion is false – either ignorantly or mischieviously so. DM is one dimensional of “stability” which I believe is multi-facet.
For a start, if the MIWs wants stability, it should have been practicing inclusive politics decades ago instead of arm-breaking politics and “threatening” a sharper hatchet in a cul-de-sac. Such an unyielding discourse can’t add to stability then or in the future that now encompassing the new generation unaccustomed to thuggish political thoughts in relating to opposition and citizenry.
And for DM to talk about “stability”, I nearly fell of my chair reading how naively uninformed his fake preaching was.
Look at this possible dangerous scenario erupting. I hope it won’t happen to us. We got over 1 million foreign workers, not countiong PRs. In the event of another economic meltdown, these retrenched foreigners – jobless, indebt to human slave traffickers, won’t leave and instead starts a violent spree of wanton killing, looting and arson more terrifying than the Arab Spring uprising island-wide. How many policemen have we got in Singapore to deal with this contingency? And they are already over-stretched in handling “domestics” in very peaceful calm moments now. In any violent crisis, if erupted tragically, they will be outnumbered 30 to 1 or more perhaps, and the fire brigade, and hospitals and emergency services are overloaded as well. In the terror of violent bloodshed, looting and arson spree of curfew breaking by these foreign nationals, are we calling a division of our SAF from the military to gun down one and all in the streets indiscriminately – foreigners and frightened Singaporean alike fleeing from their burning house? What is the political and economic implications of gunning down foreigners in bloody massacre to restore law and order? It could be war with our neighbours.
My message to you is this – if we are really concerned about “stability”, our Government would NOT be so closed minded or closing of mind of such heavy reliance on foreigners in our country. we would not be taking in so many foreigners as the cornerstone underpin of our failing economic strategy as now when even compared to 3- to 5 years ago.
DM is naively uninformed and do not understand the local situation of reality on the ground preacing his gospelly virtue of “stability” – UTTER POPPYCOCK. Generation Y minset, if true of lacking in knowledge and complacent is nowhere near this dangerous volcanic-like terror eruption risks. He does not know what he is talking! and you swallowed lock-stock-and barrel too.
Am I talking of reality or you – not personal of attack of you or DM here but of critically examining the real issues of “stability” as relevant to Singapore’s context which this foreigner, DM, speak off eloquently of nonsense while sitting on his high throne in the ivory tower?
Are you still impressed or amused now?
@Tuning in … Emeritus, I am glad to hear from you. If the arrogance of the Ruling Elites snowballs and crosses a critical mass of affected people, than something will happen in society. In Egypt the insolence of the ruling elites is openly exhibited. People are dragged out of taxis and slapped by the political police. After Mubarak fell , I wonder whether they still do this. In Singapore we have to deal with the SILENCE and the Rule of LAW. Instead of simply producing an answer and putting a stop to the actions which cause grievance, the Ruling Party will bring the Law down on you or invite you to sue the State. If you do, who are the judges you will meet in Court? So, my friend we have to wait for the day when supreme arrogance evoke a supreme reaction. The Arab Spring would have seemed improbable just 12 months ago. Today, three Rulers have deserted their thrones . One of whom has to be dragged out of a sewer pipe pleading for his life. Strange turn of events?