Many, like Mandela, lost youthful years in jail cells, at the evil whim of one man. Men like Lee Tee Tong (17 years) and Chye Thye Poh (26 years - 32 if you count the 6 years under "restrictive control"). Two who eluded the treachery of Operation Cold Store took up arms and became guerillas in the jungle. They were not the pen-pushers and paper-shufflers biding their time for an invite to a tea party. Some retired when the fight against merger ended with Singapore's independence. Till then they were true to their causes. Indomitable in spirit, all are inspirations in steadfastness.
Their dedication to duty puts to shame the recent lot who simply dropped their responsibilities of high office and left in a lurch. This includes a Chief of Army, a Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and Chief Executive of the Energy Market Authority. The message given out is that defence of the nation, maintaining the stability of the Singapore dollar, and securing a more sustainable energy future are expendable job functions - anyone can do it, even a Ken or Barbie doll. Or maybe they just happen to be like Tan Yong Soon, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, who maintains that "if you are a good leader, it is possible to go away for five weeks or even longer". As in a cooking holiday, not overseas assignment.
When DPM Wong Kan Seng said that people prefer evolution to revolution, he's inferring that they have the whole country sewed up, and everyone effectively neutered. Lee Kuan Yew alludes to same when he told Charlie Rose that Arab Spring won't come to China (or Singapore), "Public security is so comprehensive and tight". Nobody else is crazy like the Libyans.
"I think Singaporeans, too, will not welcome a revolution that will shake up everything and get them completely disrupted," said Wong. It would be nice to see him eat his words. Lee also told Charlie Rose, "Well, there are enormous economic problems—a disparity in income between the rich coastal cities and the inland provinces, and in income within the coastal cities. They've got to watch that carefully or they might get severe discontent and civil disorder."
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Nowadays a MP is just a job assignment (advancement?). PAP is simply a more sophisticated version of the Chinese Communist Party.
ReplyDeleteHow the world has changed? Sacrifice just does not have the same ring to it anymore. Nowadays, it's trying to get on the gravy train as all costs. PAP is not attracting the right kind of leaders into their midst. Then again, why should they care. They are firmly entrenched in power with all the resources of the state at their disposal. LKY is right you know. There will never be a revolution in Singapore.
ReplyDeletePAP leaders are saying this to local singaporeans :
ReplyDeletehttp://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_652162.html
The only chance to have a revolution is the day of someone's funeral you know. Because the world wide press will be there, and no way they will get army of tanks to come in and crush down on its people under the watch. Then we can know if they can truly perform a "miracle" like getting up from his grave to fight the fight the lepers..
Lui Tuck Yew said of Ms Tin ... is that rare flower that will bloom in the winter of adversity. Last hundred years I checked, Singapore never had a winter, always Summer. Looks like this one will wilt before it can have roots.
ReplyDeleteBesides, isn't it not too long ago someone said:
"We do ourselves a great disservice if we import unthinkingly and wholesale fashionable and hollow abstractions. So do not believe those few Singaporeans who tell you that with democracy, human rights and press freedom a hundred flowers will bloom and Singapore will prosper."
- Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng, Sydney Morning Herald, Aug 1, 2001
Unfortunately,those 6 man/women who are made of sterner stuff are not the right seeds. The difference is not in the weather, but the soil it's sown on. They belong to the almighty Gardener you see.
LKY used to boast that through all these years PAP has grown from strength to strength in picking the right candidates ?
ReplyDeleteIf you have the right candidates, why do you steal want to cheat at the elections by having GRCs ? What are you really afraid of ?
Singaporeans can use this coming GE to put PAP candidates to the ultimate test!
ReplyDeletei.e, make PAP the OPP party and see for themselves if the PAP buggers are made of sterner stuff.
personally, i have no doubt what they are!
especially when they choose to serve a despot who is the biggest coward and bully, also a backstabber, a habitual liar, and a vindictive power crazy maniac.
Thank you for making references to these Singaporeans who had the guts to fight for the causes they believed in.
ReplyDeleteI am always interested to find out the "other side" of the Singapore history. I hope this coming election will see some new MPs who have the same indomitable spirit to fight for our people. PAP is morally corrupted and long past its use-by date.
a re-writing of Singapore history will provide a clearer picture of what really happened and expose the shallowness of some of the historical accounts available
ReplyDelete不屈服于权势，贫贱不能移。。。
ReplyDelete为政者，应该先天下之忧而忧，后天下之乐而乐。
为政者，应该爱国，爱民，现在却恐吓人民！
恐吓，对真正新加坡人没用。我们宁可穷也不为强权所慑，不为金钱所欺。
做人要有骨气！人穷志不穷。死不足惜！
我们是新加坡人，别恐吓我们！