Thursday, December 27, 2012

A Lackluster Performance

Anne Hathaway made a better Catwoman than a Fantine tugging at your heart strings with "I Dreamed a Dream", reputedly a performance aimed at an Oscar. Sorry, Russel Crowe's vocals made a splash only after his suicide soliloquy. Save Eddie Redmayne as Marius Pontmercy, the real singing came from those with stage experience, like Samantha Barks as Éponine and Daniel Huttlestone as Gavroche. Colm Wilkinson only makes a cameo appearance as the Bishop of Digne.  What a waste of talent.

One reviewer said Tom Hooper's film of the musical Les Miserables is an exceptional movie of a mediocre musical. Judging from last night's screening at Lido, more likely, it is the other way round. Just like the present cabinet is a mediocre version of the exceptional first generation of political leaders.

Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Keng Swee, Toh Chin Chye and other Old Guard ministers may have been renowned for their domineering and authoritarian style, but they contributed much with their robust debate of policy and administrative issues. Not for them the group-think that Lim Boon Heng shared crocodile tears over when he was asked to step down before GE 2011. Even Lee Kuan Yew noted that the sameness of political and public sector executives is in itself a problem; they do not challenge one another and are guilty of "intellectual in-breeding" (ST 12 Nov 1994). One consequence is the inability of the middle class to achieve genuine political participation except through PAP co-option (Garry Rodan, "Singapore Changes Guard: Social, Political and Economic Directions in the 1990s", Longman Chesire, 1993). And we are told, even those invited to tea decided not to sign up.

All we see on stage is a string of strutting generals, lacking in vitality, force, or conviction; uninspired actors with no commanding performance. Witness ex-Rear Admiral Teo Chee Hean's version of a town hall meeting, fending off every earnest question with a infuriating "What do you think?" The ex-Air Force Chief George "FM" Yeo had plenty pretty speeches to make, but when he had to man the barricades at Aljunied, he turned tail and blamed everybody else except himself for the "resentment against the government". The man who promised "I am not going anywhere. I am staying in Aljunied GRC." shifted loyalties to a Hong Kong employer instead of staying on for the fight.

One memorable scene in the Les Miz movie has Inspector Javert walking through pools of blood shed by the fallen. It brings to mind the words of Ong Pang Boon who bitterly objected to the creation of the elected presidency:
"In a parliamentary democracy, peaceful transfer of power, whether intra-party or inter-party,  is fundamental to the system, and must be seen to be so. Once this possibility appears to be closed, then violent revolutionary means would loom large.  I do not know if this is what we want." (Cited in "Singapore: The Ultimate Island", T.S Selvan, Freeway Books, 1991)

15 comments:

  1. When a cabinet is half filled with army generals, something is not quite correct. Not only our neighbours notice that, we the people in Singapore are wondering why so many ministers are co-opted from the forces. Are there no capable people from the private sector? We are running many MNC you know? So if lack of talent from privatesector is not the issue, what is?

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    1. PAP probably knows its regime end is near once the old fart fart off ?

      Read this and i could not agree more.

      http://www.voiddecker.com/2012/12/a-saf-military-infiltration-smrt/

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    2. Generals are trained in using fear to gather people up and send them to a sort of concentration camp and then to the gas chambers. If in doubt, just ask any NS guys.

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    3. It is just that no capable people want to board the sinking titanic. Those generals are arrowed with a mistaken belief that they are serving the nation.

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    4. Thats why the trains are very useful to the generals. In WW2, the Nazis used the trains to send the jews to the concentration camps of horror. History repeating itself.

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    5. Why so many generals and virtually no true private sector folks? Thats easy to answer.

      PAP wants "Yes"-men. You breed "yes-men" when you pick people from within the system, whether it be the civil service or army. The background is the same - outstanding PLSE results, top secondary school, joined white horse unit in army, Ivy League Uni, fast track thro civil service as long as don't screw up, sent for MPA in Harvard, back to civil service ...

      Anyone decent from outside the system will question status quo. And that's unpleasant. "They won't understand". So better to get like minded people.

      Are you then surprised by the net result?

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  2. What can one do to provide their own each with a good class bungalows after retiring? They can only set up so many "intermediate companies" to extract from you and me. And now that Myanmar has tuned to unca Sam, the days when rent can be extracted from the lords of the golden triangle are numbered. The cronies billionaires will have to shoulder the "burden", a million a year is, well, "peanuts" to the Kuoks, Lees and Ngs.

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  3. The KEY QUESTION is;
    ----------------------
    What were the merits of selling the software in the first place?

    What additional merits and value does a $2 company bring to the operations of town councils?

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    1. What do you think ?

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    2. Merits are
      1) to screw the alternative parties
      2) to screw the people who pay town fees
      3) to screw the justice system by making it a joke in their eyes

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  4. Another brilliant piece after the similar previous post!
    From: Admirer

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  5. They are so "good" that most self-respecting , righteous man or women will avoid the PAP.

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  6. If all the Military Men are NOT voted in in the Next General Election(2015/16), Singaporeans standsa better chance of avoiding a military regime. And that is all that voters need to do.

    patriot

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  7. My apology.

    Singaporeans standsa better.....
    should be corrected to read Singaporeans stand a better chance of avoiding a military regime.

    patriot

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  8. Basically politians everywhere are just a bunch of corrupt opportunists & mercenaries, all ready to backstab each other for their own selfish interests. Ours are no exception, however clean they try to portray themselves.

    Remember in our case, it starts with the old man and triggers down to that grassroot member who had to poison others because of mere jealousy.
    It's always the case of the evil heart trying to triump over others.

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