According to Education Minister Ng Eng Hen, People's Action Party's Organising Secretary (Special Duties), nearly 200 tea sessions with some 260 individuals were held over the last 4 years and just 20 were selected after thousands of hours spent. We are told the PAP looked for "four essential qualities" in its search for candidates, they must be an activist (grassroots, not human rights), have a heart for Singapore (spelled with a $), have the guts for Singapore (but not enough for SMC) and be trustworthy (say "yes" each and everytime) . Based on the results we have seen so far, the bar couldn't have been set too high - if the wifey can't trust him to keep his word, can the nation?
Before "Hard Truths", Han Fook Kwang et al wrote "LKY: The Man And His Ideas."(SPH 1998). There's a chapter 11 ("I Did My Best") where Lee Kuan Yew confesses that being a politician has also made him more wary of people, especially those who might use their relationship with him for their own gain.
"I've got used to that and I think I'm pretty sensitive in discerning who's on the level and who's wanting to get something out of me. One of the qualtities that you need to have to last as a leader is you must be good at that, otherwise you get taken for a ride. You must be able to smell people out."
"It's got to do with being able to interpret body language. Watch the chap, his voice, whether he is dissimulating, what's his real position, the tone of voice, the tic in his face, his body position or whatever. You can see into a person and through a person." But even in his 70s, he knew, as he grew old, his faculties, his sharpness of eye and ear, like his sensory capabilities, was diminishing. (page 237)
The best two persons he had met with very high sensitivities were a Tan Teck Chwee, who was then chairman of the Public Service Commission, and Lim Kim San. On the other hand, Lee felt Dr Goh Keng Swee did not have the same discernment, and was always making mistakes. Lee said Goh's vey brainy, very thorough, very methodical, but lacking here. "And I don't know why. He doesn't see through people."
Lee mentioned Tan Teck Chwee once reported of a contact with a head of the Singapore Special Branch who later became a Malaysian minister, "When I shake his hand, I feel I want to wash it." You know, the oiliness of the man and the viciousness of the man - he just sensed it. It's a gift, Lee said.
We don't know about Ng Eng Hen's gifts, but some of the RazorTV videos of the candidates introduced to the public do tend to induce a sense of queasiness in the stomach. Not a good sign for Singapore. Not good at all.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
"One of the qualtities that you need to have to last as a leader is you must be good at that, otherwise you get taken for a ride. You must be able to smell people out."
ReplyDeleteWith a wife who said: "sometimes you don't do bad things, people still say bad things about you, you know." of course he is good at smelling.
"When I shake his hand, I feel I want to wash it." You know, the oiliness of the man and the viciousness of the man - he just sensed it. It's a gift, Lee said.
ReplyDeleteThere's an old saying: "it takes one... to know one"
why he never smell the con job in china? when temasek invested there?
ReplyDeletenow we really hope Lim Kim San rise from the grave and stopping some of these newbies
ReplyDeleteIf Mr Lim KS were to come out from his grave, my guess is that he will first head to Mah Bow Tan and knock him hard on his head for spoiling all the excellent work he had created and for destroying the legacy of what once used to be an organisation solely for the people.
ReplyDeleteTo anon 9:50pm
ReplyDeleteWell said! I hope to have the courage to do the same too. Maybe after he lose his ministerial post this election.
Wow, I just watched "Francis Seow: The Interview" on youtube today (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzOLJE2ysNw).
ReplyDeleteIn the interview, Mr Seow elaborated about LKY's eagerness to "smell out" others, and his stubborn refusal to admit his hunches might be wrong. Lee was utterly convinced that Mr Seow was a secret agent for the CIA.
At some point, while Mr Seow was staying in a hotel, he was tipped off by a hotel staff that a detective firm had payed to purchase the trash in his wastepaper basket. This private detective firm had been hired by none other than LKY; even after Mr Seow had left Singapore, LKY was still determined to prove to the world that he had correctly "sniffed out" Mr Seow.
Watch the whole interview to enter the mind of LKY...
"When I shake his hand, I feel I want to wash it." You know, the oiliness of the man and the viciousness of the man - he just sensed it. It's a gift, Lee said.
ReplyDeleteOMG Ah Fart has just described himself to perfection. Well done, Fart!
I just wonder when the old fart pays his ministers that kind of obscene pay, is it considered as oiling the path to make sure it is smooth sailing for his son ?
ReplyDeleteTattler, hopefully more and more sporeans learn to smell the PAP buggers out, see through them, that they are essentially self serving and have been taking sporeans for a ride.
ReplyDeleteto anon @9.50pm,
Lim KS will probably convince Mah BT to swallow same dosage as Teh CW followed by a dive from the highest HDB flat...just to be doubly sure.
ps: sporeans really ought to ask themselves, who can be more oily and more vicious than oldfart?
and does it make sense to vote for those serving oldfart?
The Gifted
ReplyDelete"Ne Win was once given a chance to run Burma and he made sense out of it. There is no doubt about it. He was not interested in being popular...So he was successful. And he is there to stay."
- SM Lee Kuan Yew, The Man And His Ideas, 1997
The Reality
"Once a hero of the independence movement, Ne Win died in disgrace, detested by many for turning prosperous Myanmar into a basket-case economy. The former dictator died while under house arrest."
- Straits Times, Dec 7, 2002
The Gifted
"One man, his attitude, his approach, his philosophy of development. He wasn't interested in building an empire...He was serious. It has to do with belief in God, democracy, justice and amongst other things, development. That's what he wanted. And because of that, Asean has prospered."
- LKY on Indonesia's President Suharto, National Day Rally, 1990
The Reality
"..the stink of nepotism and corruption around the Suharto government grew as he began promoting avaricious relatives and business cronies to the cabinet. It was the economic collapse of 1997 which sealed the president's fate...On 21 May 1998, President Suharto resigned, just two months after he had been re-elected for a seventh term by the country's rubber-stamp legislature."
- BBC, Sept 28, 2000