Four Legs Good, Two Lees Bad

Were you taken for a ride?

Low Thia Khiang's response to Shanmugan's co-driver analogy was a real crowd pleaser at the Workers' Party kick-off rally in Hougang last night. He reminded the record turn-out, in English, Mandarin and Teochew, that wistfully hoping that the driver will bring you to your destination is not enough, "A co-driver is essential, especially as road gets tougher to navigate. The co-driver is there to slap the driver when he drives off course or when he falls asleep or drives dangerously."

Numerous studies have been made about the dangers of talking on a handphone while at the wheel. Interestingly, one finding is that carrying on a conversation with a passenger in the car does not have the same level of distraction. One conclusion is that the passenger tends to vary his communication according to the traffic conditions, thus prompting the driver to adjust according to the changing situation on the road.

MM Lee himself warned of a government on auto-pilot, blind to the realities of the moment. Wong Kan Seng is singing the tune that a terrorist on the loose was no danger to the country, just because he wasn't slapped out of his complacency stupor. Mah Bow Tan repeats ad nauseam that public housing is affordable, while omitting the inconvenient truth that a 30-year mortgage results in zero balance at the twilight years of retirement. Assuming that he can count, Vivian Balakrishnan must have known the expenses for the YOG were busting the budget, but there was no one there to restrain his intoxicated spending. Teo Chee Hean is having a field day distorting an opposition member's remark that spending $60 billion for the people is small change, but did anybody whisper to his ear about the 50 billions lost by GIC alone? And the 59 billions blown by Temasek? Lee Hsien Loong himself is holding on stubbornly to his Workfare solution for the poor, blinkered from the sights of little old ladies carting used cardboard to stay alive for another day. How will their suffering be salved by the snake-oil of Workfare? All these characters operating with tunnel vision, setting their sights solely on the GDP bonus, are running amok simply because the co-pilot's seat is empty. They may bleat in unison four legs good, two legs bad, but two Lees are definitely lousy for the country. Especially when one of them is way, way past the use-by date.

"Unless we have checks and balances in our political system, we cannot claim to be a First World country," Low summed up accurately.