Sunday, May 1, 2011

The Art Of Persuasion By A Master

Will you trust these hands to handle the driving?
It is ironical that the-writer-who-is-director-of-the-National-Neuroscience-Institute chose to sing praises of Devan Nair, the subject of MM Lee Kuan Yew's vicious attack over allegations of alcoholism and sexual hi-jinks in Sarawak. In the same sanctimonious piece, she also writes: "..if he (her papa) thinks something is good for Singapore - whether it is popular or unpopular - he will try to persuade Singaporeans to adopt." Perhaps it's matter of semantics, but persuasion is not exactly what comes to mind when you read the following verbatim quotes in this morning's Sunday Times. BTW, please don''t shoot the reporter, he's simply documenting what was uttered for posterity:

Dissing Low Thia Khiang:
"But if he hasn't got a driving licence, what's he trying to do to slap the driver and cause an accident?"

Dissing Aljunied GRC voters:
"We accept the verdict of the people, but they must also accept the consequences of their actions."
"And as I 've said, if Aljunied decides to go that way, well Aljunied has five years to live and repent."

Dissing the Opposition:
"Let's not pretend that's just to form an opposition and keep the government on its toes. It is to form the opposition and trip up the Government. You've seen Low Thia Khiang in action."

Dissing Hougang:
"You look at Hougang. You think Hougang is better than all the other constituencies? It is the job of the PAP to look after its own constituencies first, right?"

Dissing Tan Jee Say:
"He has no qualifications to say that and he is wrong."

Dissing Chen Show Mao:
"I have no suggestions as to what he can do, (but) he can go back to China."

Dissing the future generation of Singaporeans:
"As I've told you, you have a foot loose generation that wants to try its luck, let's see some fun and games."

"I am 87. I am speaking the truth. I do not want to be hypocritical."

21 comments:

  1. "... they must also accept the consequences of their actions."

    Is this again not another veiled threat of PAP and coming direct from none other than the Mentor himself ? Maybe PAP win the Aljunied GRC this time round but does he know that with these kind of words uttered, he is actually slowly but surely sowing the seeds of anger and hatred towards PAP as a whole ?

    One fine day, PAP will face a rude shock to find out that PAP is the most hated political party in Singapore !

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  2. Dissing Barack Obama:
    "A flash in the pan."

    Obama won the election.

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  3. Obviously, we have failed badly in nation building after 40 years. Why? Because the citizens are political apathy and Constitution is deviated further to the other extreme of democracy. How could MPs not elected by the people can go into parliament via back door GRC system? How could Constitution be amended again and again without referendum? Where is the people's participation in politics and policy making process? We have badly failed in nation building. It is time to rethink what you as the Singaporean citizen can do for the country and not ask what the country can do for you (quote from US President JFK). The basic single thing a citizen should do is to vote wisely to uphold the original Constitution and seek the better the Constitution by reversing all the craps like GRC, NMP and NCMP, etc so that the government regardless of which party holds the office is fully accountable to the people. This is what you can do for the country.

    Having said that. The possible outcome of GE2011 could be again a clean sweep by PAP and nothing will be changed after that because Singaporeans are still apathy and afraid of change. Those dare to change are just minority. When this outcome happens, it is time to leave this place because there will be no hope anymore. Do you want to live in a place that you have no say on how it is being managed?

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  4. The younger generation is smart. He cannot threaten us anymore and is passed his use-by-date. Only older generation people who only read newspaper and belief what is written there can be fooled by him.

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  5. Voters of Singapore! Hougang and Potong Pasir residents showed you the way. They did not succumbed to his threats and faced up to the consequences.

    Vote for change! Do not delay. This is your last chance to do something for your children and grandchildren.

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  6. Being 87 is NOT a warranty of not being a deluded or pathological liar.

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  7. "As I've told you, you have a foot loose generation that wants to try its luck, let's see some fun and games." Unquote.

    INDEED! There is a dire need to have some funs and games instead of worrying about livelihoods all the time.

    HOWEVER, make it clean funs and fair games.

    patriot

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  8. The electorate isn't stupid, and should be outraged at MM and his threats. My only consolation is that he won't be alive at the next GE.

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  9. Honestly, sometimes with the ways in which people here feel so "indebted" to the incumbent, I wonder if we are suffering from Stockholm syndrome as a nation. We need to actually feel like we "need" the incumbent to "upgrade" and "manage" our country for us, when in fact, the country is ours, and we are the ones giving them the right to manage it, just as we can also remove the right from them as a people. Feeling like we "owe it" to any pne party just based on its past decades of rule is only going to screw us up big time.

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  10. The leadership of the PAP is seriously in question if a 87 year old has to campaign for the party. What "Ä" team are they talking about? Isn't it time to let go of the hand? What happens if you are not around? Speaking from the grave, haunting yr GRC for the next 5 yrs?

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  11. There are over 3,200 readers commenting on the Yahoo news report, "Aljunied voters will regret choosing WP: MM Lee.” Mind you, these are registered users, not anonymous users. And the overwhelming majority publicly condemns LKY's threats. If I were a PAP party member, I would be extremely worried. But who has the courage to tell the old man to shut up?

    Telling Chen Show Mao to return to China just shows how selfish and manipulative this old man is. Chen is a clear threat to Lee and his PAP party, but his presence in the parliament can only be a positive for the country. Yet Lee wants none of it so he can maintain his iron grip on power.

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  12. I hope the old despot keeps it up, turning up at every PAP rally and press conference to do most of the talking. It helps citizens see for themselves how useless the so called PAP candidates are, still depending on a 87 yr old to lead the way. LOL

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  13. It makes you wonder. Is persuasion like his tantamount to threatening? A friend of mine even said in response that it was like being a "threaten-teller"(a hybrid between fortune teller and threaten). I hate to think of what politics in Sg would become, should this kind of thing still get used as a technique of persuasion.

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  14. No PAP Ministers, MPs, candidates and members dare say anything because they hold him in such awe. It just goes to show who is really running this country. Such a sad state our country has descended to.

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  15. Francis Seow, in an interview with US media, had stated that no one in parliament--ABSOLUTELY NO ONE as he claimed--dares to challenge LKY in his words and demeanour and whatever.

    Who was the one who used verbal metaphors of violence to characterize how he would treat opposition members such as JB Jeyaretnam? "Everybody knows that in my bag I have a hatchet, and a very sharp one. You take me on, I take my hatchet, we meet in the cul-de-sac." “I will make him crawl on his bended knees, and beg for mercy.”
    (as reported by Devan Nair, 1981). Also, towards people who were challenges to authoritarian rule by claiming that they were "Marxists": “We have to lock up people, without trial, whether they are communists, whether they are language chauvinists, whether they are religious extremists. If you don’t do that, the country would be in ruins.” “Without the elected president and if there is a freak result, within two or three years, the army would have to come in and stop it” Well, no need to say anything further. The man is basically what he says, regardless of what he claims otherwise.

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  16. The more I hear from MM the more I believe that there are more than skeletons in the closet, he is instilling fear in the people because fear is gripping the PAP for the first time in 52 add years.

    But his greatest comment on the Sunday Times article was that whether Singapore as a MM or not does not matter. If that is the case, I ask the PM why are we wasting 4 million plus all the additional cost to support and mainatin the dying old man when it does not matter. Please answer

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  17. There will be tens of thousand from China coming to settle in Sin.
    How to tell that amongst the newcomers there won't be tens or hundreds of Chen Show Maos in them?

    patriot

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  18. I am afraid that the result of this election will be similar to the past elections which
    PAP wins all except one or two seats.

    Though WP rallies for Aljunied GRC attracted more than 15,000, many of them are from other constituencies. It is likely that of the 15,000, less than 10,000 are from the Aljiunied GRC. This (10,000) is only a mere 6.99% of the total voters of 143,148 in Aljunied GRC.

    If the majority of the 93.01% (133,148) voters prefer to watch TV and read Straits Times/Lianhe Zoabao, and WP has no other means of reaching these voters, then the likely winner of Aljunied GRC is PAP (the party that controls the MSM).

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  19. Me believes that Singaporeans are no more that gullible as before and even if they are so, they also know and see the dire need for change.

    Waiting for change five years or later from now will be too late and too risky. With uprisings happening frequently elsewhere around the globe, Singaporeans know the need to avoid those situations. Singaporeans are sensible and many have wise up recently or as some called; an awakening of the stark reality. Many see the need for change.

    The Alternative Parties are for the first time comprehensively contesting most of the seats and this is because some very noble folks have volunteered to fight the Incumbents to better the people livelihoods.

    I for one is very optimistic that change is imminent and will take place this coming election and I believe many share my reading.

    patriot

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  20. @93.01%:

    However, do not forget that 33% of the valid voters voted against the PAP in 2006. And that with even less turnout than 2011. There may just be a chance that something pulls through.

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  21. PAP has single-handedly created the high cost situation we have now through HDB flat pricing and CapitaLand stranglehold on the retail and office scene. It has also created the problem of excessive foreigners in this nation, a problem that they refused to admin and, I suspect, umable to correct. It also is morally corrupt in have casinos in Singapore, something that will have long-term repercussions for Singaporeans.

    This Lee Kuan Yew is one chap that I have great respect for when he was the PM of Singapore. Ever since he let his mediocre son run Singapore and his daughter-in-law run Temasek, I have come to totally despise him as someone with questionable integrity and zero respect for Singaporeans.

    If LKY is unable to see the problems Singapore is saddled with through the actions of his son, he has no right to take a single cent of taxpayers' money. Pay him and his ilk so they won't steal? Why, we should set up stations where robbers and thieves can legally go to to collect a million dollars here and there. Crime will be non-existent! Stupid reasoning, but that is LKY.

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