Wednesday, September 25, 2013

The Emperor's New Clothes

There is a "live" forum program that lives up to its name, and it's called "Talking Point." The pathetic facsimile organized by Channel NewsAsia (CNA) last night turned out to be a cosy fireside chat with moderators Sharon Tong and Walter Fernandez.

Lobbing softballs at the Prime Minister, both were obviously trying very hard to protect him from the "tough" queries emanating from the public.  What was shown on the television screen were saccharine sweet tweets from obsequious sycophants, the grassroots type worshippers who would have sent mangoes to Michael Palmer.

The CNA website did have some real hard questions meant for Lee, but they took them down quickly - probably for fear of losing their jobs. Three such samples that survived the deletion:
  • Sir, do you know how stressful it is for us singaporean kids now? We no longer compete with our own people but foreigners as well. #askpmlee
  • How to have work life balance when we are all slogging so hard to meet the high end living demands in Singapore? #askpmlee
  • What can we do to promote racial harmony? Because, let's face it, racism is still common. #askpmlee
None of those above was aired, but of course that was expected. Still, one clever fellow managed to embed a paraphrased quote from Aung San Suu Kyi ("the visitor") to make it sound milder. What Daw Suu actually said was, "You can't expect everyone to agree with you, that is simply not possible... if you believe that what you are doing is good for the country, then you must be prepared to lose the next elections."

Lee nearly jumped out of his seat when the words sank in, and exposed the ugly self when he said he disagreed with the part about losing an election. In that priceless moment, we saw the emperor without his clothes.

The game was up, and the charade was painfully played out for the rest of the program. So much for wanting to forge a new way forward with all Singaporeans by answering questions “live”. Perhaps junior needs to take up private tuition lessons from the Burmese democracy icon who also said: “But transparency is linked to confidence. We need a leadership that has enough confidence in themselves to be transparent and enough honesty to accept criticisms and to meet it in the best way possible which is to say by redressing what needs to be redressed."
Liddat, how to rebuild trust between electorate and govt?

24 comments:

  1. Strangely, I only caught that segment mentioned about we should not expect the Government to cone up with all answers ! Well, I switched off after that .
    Very convenient of him, after getting paid sky high salary. Shameful
    Anyway, did his coverment act on suggestions given freely ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not only sky high salary.
      The PAP gahmen owns or controls large parts of the Singapore economy.
      And yet is so thick skin can still say we should not expect PAP gahmen to come up with all the answers.

      Lead, follow or get out of the way.
      Maybe someone more capable from PAP can take over as Prime Minister?
      Or better yet.
      Let's vote in an Opposition government.

      Delete
    2. OF COURSE, people expect Papigs to come up with all the answers as it is the Papigs who cause the problems in the first place. If not the PApigs, then who? The people arh? Why should the pple solve the problems PAPigs created?. They (the Papigs) jolly well solve them if not the people better kick them out.

      Delete
  2. Don't they all know that in the workplace, anyone who mentions work life balance is viewed by management as a trouble maker?

    Its almost a dirty word now! !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If we discount the new citizens, I am inclined to think the votes for the PAP has dropped to 50% or less. PM Lee gives the impression he is desperately trying to hang on to his die hard PAP supporters, hence the stage managed "live" interview. Any Singaporean with average intelligence can see it is nothing but a sham, taking into account he is supposedly the PM and without a doubt the highest paid on the planet. So where is his confidence to debate openly with opposition members? The PAP supporters should ask themselves why if they think PM Lee is doing a good job and his policies are actually benefitting majority of singaporeans and not hurting them.

      It appears his team of PR advisors put him up to this but I do not blame them, because I believe his advisors themselves know they have a dud on their hands.

      Delete
    2. That's why they are giving new citizenships to 25000 each year, a safety factor of about 4% between elections.Beyond that number, it will reach a point of diminishing return. Low birthrate is just a red herring.

      Delete
  3. He already lost touch lah.. Just sack him!

    ReplyDelete
  4. The Programme was made for PROGANDA.
    It just did not look 'live'.
    BUT, nevermind, Lee Hsien Loong is confident of handing over the Premiership to someone he and his Party are grooming. AND Sinkies are likely to accept the Selected Candidate.

    patriot

    ReplyDelete
  5. lhl is in his finest form when debating with junior college kids, lah. Any others it would be asking too much of him, so let's cut him some slack.....:-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. The Emperor's New Clothes --- are always PINK!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Is all to give visual psychology lah.
      He started wearing pink after he got cancer.
      So people can associate him with "in the pink of health"!
      Part of fengshui meh..

      Delete
  7. Are you all as curious as me that those "tweet questions" asked are so long? Tweets can only take 114 characters only right? Another wayang platform to made PM look "engaging" with people.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Fun fact:

    This programme would not have existed had the PAP not lost Aljunied GRC and the two by-elections after that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Does those loss make a difference when those wayang programme like NATCON, live discussion are still thick-skinly broadcast live from millions of tax-payers money to promulgate PAP's bullshit and propaganda using mediacock ? Remember that the bulk of mediacock money eventually go into which family's pocket ? How convenient for them to use taxpayer's money to fund PAP's activities at the cost of public monies .

      Delete
  9. Ideally we don't have another Lee Kuan Yew.
    And he still didn't answer the question if he will stay on as some sort of emeritus or created roles for himself after the so called successor is picked. And what if the new PM is from opposition?

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think Walter Fernandez tried to steer the forum back into the right track when he asked this:
    "You have said before there have been mistakes made, no perfect 20-20 hindsight, things could have been done differently, how do you rebuild this trust between the electorate and the government?"

    And what did LHL do? He talked and talked and talked, and kept avoiding giving a proper answer.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Better to have people think he is a fool if he keeps his mouth shut than to confirm it?

    ReplyDelete
  12. LKY is known to be a coward - he was never a believer of a fair fight. What he did was to make his opponents start at such a disadvantage that it was impossible to oppose the PAP. This approach continues to be taken by his successors in the PAP.

    This also resulted in the weakening of the PAP due to lack of 'testing' from credible opposition. It is then no surprise that current PAP, after years of 'protection' from LKY's policies, that they are ill equipped to handle and address any challenges.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I just refused to watch the program. Why get upset knowing all these are just "wayang".

    People have been crying loud and clear telling them of unfair employment policies by MNC; they tell them of high cost of living and medical fee; we tell them universities are taking in too many foreign at our expense; cramp trains and buses; over crowding population etc, but did they listen? So why bother about asking the PM. You think he will listen?

    ReplyDelete
  14. When it comes to public perception, our PAP leaders are damn good at it. Right behind those crococodile tears on TV, we now know that the media at that time were warned not to publish any smile on him.

    Then there is the fake voter support of old uncles & aunties at their election rallies to shore up the numbers by just feeding them with free food to keep them coming. Never mind the old uncles & aunties are totally clueless.

    With the NatCon, some of them tried to trick the public by planting their own people to ask the right questions, only to be exposed when the participants were recognised by netizens, just like that exposed grassroot leader who tried to setup the opposition by inviting false quotes for hawker ceiling cleaning.

    What the hell does the Party Against People need to resort to these kind of dirty tricks if they bragged they have so much political support from the people ?

    ReplyDelete
  15. I refused to watch this "live" bs..was it true though that he said the next PM should have qualities like lky??? cos i seriously beg to differ at this day & age, give me a Rhodes scholar as PM anytime pleaseeeeeeee....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Let's hope PAP gets another Lee Hsien Loong type to lead the party.
      Chan Chun Sing is a very good candidate.

      Delete
  16. Taiwan and Hong Kong got no Lee Kuan Yew.
    They didn't die right?
    In fact, doing better than Singapore.
    e.g.
    Hong Kong's MTR train system is bigger than Singapore.
    They don't have amateur problems like Singapore's MRT leh!

    ReplyDelete
  17. The empror's clothes of visible or invisible design and color look nice.
    However, does the wearer fits the clothes?

    ReplyDelete