This by-election has brought out the worst in those professing integrity, pointing fingers at others, they forget to look at themselves in the mirror. One can truly sympathise with the angst expressed by one sensitive blogger:
"What saddens me more is how, if my Facebook newsfeed is any indication, some of my pro-PAP friends went along with the PAP and proliferated the smear campaign. I respect the choices they make in supporting the PAP, but I always wonder whether it comes across to them that the image that they are projecting of the party (and to a smaller extent themselves) is not exactly a positive one?"
In the "Hard Truths", Lee Kuan Yew was asked:
"People at the lower end feel that to some extent the system is stacked against them....
It's made for a more cynical society as well, at the lower end. Do you accept that there is a cost to that system?"
Lee's reply to the query is telling, "I feel some angst. I say this is unfair. But the world is unfair." That's easy to say for those perpetuating the unfair system.
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I am not against ruling party making use of all available resources to their advantage like media; carpark attendents; traffic police; grassroot helpers; civil servants etc. It is true that even if the opposition forms the next government they would do likewise. What I am against is instead of campaigning on real issues, fingers are pointing at other party on non tangible issue like failed business and not the best man for HG.
ReplyDeleteCome on, time to fight a clean fight by telling HG what they can do for them and let voters decide who they want. Br clean and mature like the West. Afetr all some one did promised Swiss standard of living for Singapore. Was that a truth or just lie?
//I am not against ruling party making use of all available resources to their advantage//
DeleteSo you find these acceptable?! That's 80% of the victory.
//It is true that even if the opposition forms the next government they would do likewise..//
How do you know? Has it happened before/yet?
//Come on, time to fight a clean fight by telling HG what they can do for them//
But you just said you're not against it earlier?! Or you think campaigning on real issues supersedes all above. Since when do SG have a political clean fight since time immemorial?
//Was that a truth or just lie?//
Truth is relative.
Lee's insight (and by extension is Party's too) can be taken as license to withdraw justifiable concern for those in relative paucity. Why care about people living on the so-called poverty line if they're not "really" poor? Look around, in Khaw's words - they really have not done a bad job he said. First world country, great billion dollar marina parks for the rich, roof above their heads, clean road, great schools what else is lacking? The poor has it best here in Singapore more than anywhere else in the world.
ReplyDeleteWho cares if the squat toilet was built decades ago but you have a roof right? Who cares if the lift is not on every floor, you have steadfast legs right? Who cares if the old flats were badly designed, you owned it right? Who cares if you don't have your wet market, you can walk further right? Who cares if you have no upgrades, you deserved it for voting blindly right?
Voters in HG or anyone who are unfairly stacked against for that matter, must understand the price of her peace of mind is that she/he misses out on what makes life such an incredible adventure in the first place while seeing all the foreigners coming into their orchard backyard, plucking off the lemons, peaches and all sorts of delicious fruits they have so toiled and labored for just to be told the orchard garden no longer belongs to them, but to a Govt who has turned and become the fruit-sellers, on their behalf. And for the price of not voting the right party, you are left with plowing the soil & paying your tax like everybody else. Before reciting the song "Home", the politician should have recited Charity Begins At Home, and he can start with Hougang upgrading, if his new heart is still beating with a new conscience.
Unlike politicians who are professional gamblers these days, the residents and average workers won't risk their live with a throw of dice for any promised upside. Nature does not know when a head is due at a toss of a fair coin. If someone has to pay, it would be the devil without the soul.
Well said. Hope those in power read this. I am sure many still have conscience. In the name of progress through GDP, they have pushed the disadvantaged lot to below ground level.Those beautiful parks and well lit streets means nothing to the poor if they still have to fight for the next meal. Come on, time to look back and help these poorer Singaporeans. Don't just blow the useless trumpets and glorify themselves with super high pay.
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7eMk68xr0o
DeleteMM Lee still thinks leaders are not paid very much to do their job & insists must be a bit of a sacrifice. No where did he mention the little people.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/734464.stm
ReplyDeleteNorway is having workers' strike!
Their workers rejected 4% wage adjustment.
Their inflation rate is 2.5%!
Here in Singapore, our worker forced to take 5% wage increase ($50) to be exact. Inflation rate is 5.4%.
Same first world country and same first world treatment? If this kind of Union can claim they have teeth, then all the workers should go on strike and can do a better job than these scoundrels.
Desmond is better needed in NTUC and fight for real wages before he come and claim $15,000 MP salary. There are 400,000 low wage workers who he can serve. These workers' cries are more real than the few he shed on the podium.
NWC proposal 5% is only a recommendation. Not a mandatory enforcement!
DeleteIt's true the world is unfair but it's also unnatural to have too much of something. An overinflated balloon will burst and an overfilled cup will overflow. It's just a matter of time when the 'unfair world' catches up with the perpetuator of the unfair system.
ReplyDeleteIs already happening.
DeleteYou can see a young supporter of Big Bully Party crying out they have been bullied, so is her god given right to retaliate by exposing the other side's family, including children too. Instead of man vs man, is party vs man, or man vs family.
Soon, all the schools on this island will be putting up a "No bully"
signages. You have to wonder where they learn all that from?
So ST sitirring shit up against WP supporters via that young attention seeker on cooling day. Ingenuous!
DeleteHG voters is reminded how toilet seat from PAP can flush up the shit instead of down.
When they say 'clean campaign', you can be assured is "anything but"
Yes, the world may be unfair. But isn't this more reason for those who govern to come up with policies to make the world a fairer place?
ReplyDeleteThe extreme consequence if things are not fairly balanced will be disregard for authority resulting in lawlessness and chaos in society. If that day arrive, we will be governed by the laws of the jungle.
well said.
DeleteIt is strange that LKY who fought for unfairness before basking in power tell the world it is unfair anyway after gaining power !
Delete"“But we either believe in democracy or we not. If we do, then, we must say categorically, without qualification, that no restraint from the any democratic processes, other than by the ordinary law of the land, should be allowed… If you believe in democracy, you must believe in it unconditionally. If you believe that men should be free, then, they should have the right of free association, of free speech, of free publication. Then, no law should permit those democratic processes to be set at nought.”
- Lee Kuan Yew as an opposition leader, April 27, 1955"
http://leewatch.info/quotes/
What kind of clown is this person who turn 180 degree change , and he expect his subjects to be honest and credible ?
PAP like to cry on the last day of their campaign ! confirmed by DC.
ReplyDeleteHe is crying outwardly. We are crying inwardly. As we have shed all our tears !! In fact , looking at what is happening in our beloved little red dot, my heart is bleeding.
Singapore belongs to Singaporeans not to PAP. Whether rich or poor, we are fellow singaporeans, why the discrimination ?
They built another 5 star hospital in our prime area in Novena, Obviously only for the rich !
sad.
Yes. For ordinary folks, you can go and queue for hours just to see a doctor who by the time looking at you have lost all interset because of prolong working hours.
DeleteThis is simialr to the poor girl selling matches on Christmas Eve. She only could light up one match at a time to keep herself warm while the rich are having expensive dinner in the comfort of a warmed up room inside a restaurant.
Singapore is no more a country for Singaporeans. Its for the super rich too. Government should not turn its head away. Please help Singaporeans regain their confident that it is really their home and is a place worth defending.
PAP has got to understand that both respect & trust need to be earned first. When they all started throwing shit at their opponents，they should at least make sure they don't smell like shit.
ReplyDeleteBy the way， it looks like Operation Broken Arrow doesn't need the Old Warrior to be around lest it becomes a total failure even before it starts. That probably explain why they even had to send that old MP away to represent Spore to maybe save his face.
If he was really that good at winning elections as he has always boasted，all they needed was just show his face isn't it？Even that conman who promised a Swiss standard still haven't showed his face，is there something obviously wrong？
Putting the Old Warrior in is like throwing in the kitchen sink, a desparate move that can backfire. Like Broken Arrow, it's equivalent to calling fire upon your own position and hope for the best. But they have thrown in Desmond Choo's toilets.
DeleteGive credit to the boy, he hasn't used the repent word yet, although he did insinuate as much.
Khaw insinuate just as much.
DeleteOn no upside with Png, and things can't be any worse but better under teochew boy.
Give credit to the boy because he is really not the man he claims to be. He is letting others do the dirty works for him, while pretending to be the auntie-killers. A+ for good acting. Failing which, he has bright future at TCS.
No one expects the world to be fair! Hougang voters already know this, they don't need anyone to remind them about this!
ReplyDeleteWhen you vote tomorrow, you ask yourself, do you feel better with the current PAP policies?
As one tearful owned-man said "4 years of the same thing is 4 years too long'. What he didn't realize about the irony behind is '47 years of the same thing is 47 years too eternal".
ReplyDeletePeople have their blind spots. That's why they need rear-view mirror, brakes, or co-driver whatever it takes, to remind them of men's hubris.
PAP already give hints..
Delete4 years is the same means PAP won't do anything for you lah.
Still treat the symptoms. Still the same ransom.
Actually things are improving in a way.
ReplyDeleteWhy?
Old Man LKY and GCT no longer need to run about fixing and changing the wet diapers of the PAP ministers (apologies for this analogy but this is the closest i can find as based on the "performances" of the many PAP ministers with portforlio and without)....now LHL is doing the job. And this is a good thing.
LHL need to get full control of the PAP...else it will splinter...or worst he gets "taken out" by his owned white clothed underlings/"allies".
That's the problem with the PAP...you can "buy" people but many don't stayed bought cos they will always want "more"...
That is the problem when you do not have a mixed independent think thank across the board folks in the team. Instead of always getting useless yes men/women and cronies clinging on to you not out of real loyalty but what u can always take from others and give to these undeserving scums of the earth.
Human theory 101.
ZZzzzZZzzzz
For PAP,it is simply black and white,when they point at others,it is grey area.
ReplyDeleteBut it does work with 60%+,plus an increasing captive audience of international admirers for PAP.
Mr Lee Kwan Yew and his admirers must be extremly proud.