[nirvAnA]

Some people classify Singapore as a benevolent dictatorship, for those who don't know the singapore government has been ruled by the same party (the PAP) for the last 70 years and the government owns/controls all the mainstream media and many big businesses. EXCEPT the internet lol! Any "unauthorized public gathering" can basically constitute as a crime (which some might argue was used in the past to deter opposition) but that does not stop people in this day and age to go crazy and post really harsh stuff on the internet. Thats basically unavoidable and noone had the foresight to put that in the legislation i guess.

"Benevolent dictatorship is a form of government in which an authoritarian leader exercises political power for the benefit of the whole population rather than exclusively for his or her own self-interest or benefit or for the benefit of only a small portion of the population. A benevolent dictator may allow for some democratic decision-making to exist, such as through public referendums."

People like me are generally very happy with our lives in Singapore so there has never been an issue before but recent issues like the MRT failures are pissing people off, PRC students/drivers doing stupid things, underage scandals, 4 million minister "overpaid" annual salaries, etc its all stirring up emotions and making people look for someone to blame, and at often times it becomes the government. Increasing house and car prices are not helping. Basically every taxi driver i talk to about the government becomes a very angry man lol. Me and froggy were in the taxt and the driver butted in our conversation and went on and on an angry diatribe about the train break downs lol!! Anyway recent developments are quite worrying and most recently I just got this circulating in my email, sent by my 50+ year old auntie no less! Never seen people so ragey or in such turmoil before. Maybe because I never visited those sites till recently.

+ [Facebook girl open letter] +

Subject: An open letter to Lee Kuan Yew / Ex Senior Minister of Singapore



Brilliant article from a young Singaporean girl on Facebook. This is a very well written piece. I hope the PAP leaders read this and take seriously what the writer has written because it reflects the sentiments of a lot of people who are getting disenchanted with arrogance of the PAP.

To the Men-in-White by Neo Yu Wei on Sunday, 24 April 2011 at 22:14

Source TRE http://www.tremeritus.com/2011/12/22/dear-pap/

You guys were once my heroes. Wh! en I was young, I was so proud that I had a government that was indeed one of the world’s best, if not, THE BEST. Although LKY was (and still is) portrayed as a fearsome, if ruthless leader, he was much respected. When he appeared as our PM on the world stage, my heart never failed to swell with pride because it was obvious that he was also someone other world leaders respected.

But not now. The problem is, you are victims of your own success. And the world has changed, yet you remain stuck in the 1960s. This is why your once-fantastic branding is being eroded, why I find it hard to support you like before.

1) You were too successful

First, there was LKY and he was a great leader. He was like a god and still being treated like one. He “miraculously” transformed a small, poor, resource-less little island into a country that now has one of the highest GDPs in the world, where other countries are now! trying to learn from. No one can take that achievement away f! rom the! first PAP team and indeed, I would guess that this is also the main reason why many in the older generation are still your loyal fans. I may not agree to all the strategies you’ve used then (and some were downright questionable) but I can’t deny that you had some very good reasons to do so. But unfortunately, when you’ve set the standard of governance so high, every other subsequent PAP team that comes along can only look worse and worse. And it doesn’t help that you constantly try too hard to be perfect. The higher the bar is set, the more difficult it is for the PAP teams that come after to match it. In a way, I think LKY only does his own team a great disservice by publishing so many personal memoirs, recounting again and again how good he was. Because the more god-like he is, the more voters like me will wonder, how can we ever have another “god” like him to lead us? And the answers you propose will always be a disappointment. Because, against a god, everyo! ne will look like a mere mortal. Didn’t anyone tell you that you can’t replicate a god using your same old cookie-cutter?!! Great leaders are first of all rebels, don’t you know (and LKY was one too!)?

2) You were too smart for your own good

No one can or has been able to rival you in terms of your (mostly) rational and well-thought through, sound policies. Especially in terms of our economic policies. You’re so darn good with your cost-benefit analyses, your economic forecasts, your financial planning. Every policy you rolled out is justified using very rational arguments that the opposition and the public find hard to counter argue. You are top-notch, because you have a very brainy team, all with impeccable qualifications from world renowned universities. Unfortunately, this made you assume that only you have the brains and everyone else is just an *censored**censored**censored**censored**censored* w! ho needs only to listen and obey. The game of politics cannot ! be playe d by cold l! ogic alone. And it certainly can’t be won by treating your voters as morons.

An example of this would be the issue of bringing in the IRs. Yes, your cold, rational argument makes very good economic reasons for having casinos in Singapore. No one can argue against that. But not everything can or should be measured by dollars and cents or by the amount of GDP it will generate for Sg. We’re no longer the generation in the 1960s that constantly had to worry about money or material matters. We’ve moved up the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In fact, most Singaporeans work ridiculously long hours, are constantly too stressed to even go on dates or have sex (hence the low marriage and fertility rate) that we’re all very very disillusioned with the constant drive for wealth. Increasingly, we want to slow down, have time to smell the flowers and be with our families. And having casinos that will bring in more crime (organised ones too), encourage more addictive behavio! ur and increase broken families will not sit well with a population who now values quality of life rather than personal wealth. Yet, you bull-dosed these concerns and won yet again with your cold, rational, economic arguments because there wasn’t enough opposition in the parliament to stop you.

While people may buy into the cold logic of your policies now, your lack of empathy and human touch are slowly alienating voters. The breaking point may not be now, but you can be sure that the disconnection is getting wider by the day. It’s a time-bomb that will go off at some point.

3) You forgot evolutionary laws, history and your own past
While you’re very brainy, you’re mostly all technocrats and specialists. You’ve scorned the social sciences and the humanities, you think these are only for siss! y people whose A Levels don’t qualify them for specialist de! grees. Y et, if you h! ad been more well-informed in these areas, you might have learnt some valuable lessons about power. History, for example, is the best teacher that could have taught you that power never ever ever ever lasts forever. Indeed, the more you try to hang on to it, the more it will invite adversity. History would also have taught you that every regime was once in opposition. As Marx could have told you, the history of mankind is all about class (or power) struggles. You may be in power now, but one day you’ll be overthrown. However, you have hope of leaving your great legacy behind if you take a leaf from the pages of human evolution, which would have taught you that it’s human diversity that has helped the human race to overcome the odds, to survive this long. But instead of embracing diversity, you tried your hardest to kill off any form of alternative views, whether these come from within your party or externally. You only wanted to hear your own voice or voices that are ex! actly the same as yours. This inbreeding will eventually be your demise. Most of all, you forgot your own roots, where you were once an opposition party too. You focused so much on hanging on to your power, you forgot your original vision, you forgot your voters and you forgot why you are governing Singapore.

4) Power breeds fear and paranoia
In the beginning, you used power in order to stabilise the political situation so that you can give the masses homes, food, clean water and their livelihoods. That seemed a justifiable use of power even though it involved some ruthless and ugly tactics. But over the years, you started to crave power for itself. Again, you forgot the story of Macbeth (see, I told you the humanities are important!!) – where an originally good leader was so obsessed with his new power that he saw everything as a threat towards it. He became so paranoid that he even killed his best friend whom ! he thought was after his throne. He only heard what he wanted ! to hear from! dubious soothsayers (which turned out to be half-truths). Needless to say, Macbeth eventually had a tragic end. Like Macbeth, you’ve become so obsessed with winning overwhelmingly in every GE that you use every weapon you have, every trick up your sleeves to clobber the opposition to smithereens. Smear campaigns, legal suits, changing electoral boundaries, raising the cost of candidature, forming GRCs, threatening the electorate with upgrading…it’s like watching the Brazilian football team beat the Singapore team by 82-2, except in football the rules are fairer and the referee neutral. Why do you need to resort to such gangster-like ways? You could have won overwhelmingly anyway with all the talent you have! I’m not sure how long this bullying strategy can go on but sooner or later you’ll become the thug that the electorate can’t wait to get rid of.

5) Power corrupts absolutely
Power is not power with! out money. And in this aspect you’ve outdone yourselves by pegging your salaries to the private sector. You’re the highest paid politicians in the world and your income is >40 times that of the median income of the general population (only less than Kenya). Of course, you justify it with yet another one of your cold, rational arguments of attracting and retaining the best talents in the government. But seriously, how can you compare public sector salaries to the private sector? In fact, many of your candidates have never worked in the private sector before and one wonders if they’ll survive even for a day in a private company. Yet, they are paid private sector salaries, paid not from profits but from taxpayers’ money. And though I fully agree that politicians must be paid their worth, don’t you think getting 40x the median income is crossing into the lines of corruption? Ok, even if all our Ministers and PM are worth every cent of their $4m annual salary, it al! so means that they have to perform much much much better than ! any othe r government! in the world. Again, you have set the standards and expectations so high, you only have yourselves to blame when you cannot meet those expectations from the ground. And the more you fail to meet their expectations, the more the electorate will think you’re not worth your astronomical salaries. It’s a vicious cycle that you’ve started and it’s going to be very hard to stop now.

You talk about the so-called “crutch-mentality” of the poor, yet this same mentality can be applied on yourselves. When you’ve used money as the main means to attract people into your party, you’ve basically recruited people who value money above serving the country in the people’s interest. These politicians who are in it for the money will not have the incentive to think independently or to represent the people’s interests because they’ve got millions to lose if they don’t toe party lines. Because they’re paid millions, what incentives do they have to empathize with! someone struggling with 2 jobs to make ends meet? Very soon, the voters will feel that you’re just a bunch of corrupt officials, no different from those in many 3rd-world countries.

The way I see it, you only have yourselves to blame for this situation you’re in. The only way you can somehow reverse these trends is to learn from Madonna (see, you never thought popular culture could teach you anything right?). She keeps herself relevant not by sticking to the same old formula again and again. That would have killed her career long ago as it did to countless of other pop stars. Rather, she keeps re-inventing herself and her image to keep them relevant to the current times. And she pushes the boundaries. She’s always ahead of her time and like a true leader, she sets the trends not follow them. She’s a rebel. Yet, all you have done is to remain exactly the same as you were in 1960s. The electorate is increasingly tired of your same old scare tactics using HDB u! pgrading as a stick, tired of you saying that Singapore will g! o to rui ns if the oppositi! on wins, tired of you always using smear campaigns against opposition candidates, tired of your arrogance and lack of empathy, tired of you giving out inconsequential hongbaos before elections only to increase your own salaries by millions after.

You keep encouraging us to think out-of-the-box, yet you’re perpetually stuck in the same adversarial mindset towards the opposition. If you can only start to think of your relationship with the opposition as a mutual symbiosis – you share a portion of power with them in return for your longevity and credibility. Power is always temporary, but your legacy needn’t be. Just look at the current Conservative Party of UK which traces its roots back to the Tory Party in 1678. Do you think they could have survived this long without any meaningful opposition, no defeats, no radical internal reforms? Are you so politically shortsighted that you can only see your future in the next 10, 20 or 50 years? C’mon, think further!! An! d didn’t anyone tell you that in other to be the best, you need to have competition? Otherwise, how can the electorate be sure that you’re indeed the best, if they can’t compare you to any other party?

I’m no military strategist, but I do think that sometimes, you need to lose some battles first in order to win bigger battles later. It will not be a bad thing for you to lose a few GRCs in GE. In fact, if I were you, I will be celebrating. Because nothing gets people going like failure. Rather lose some small battles now than to wait for the big bomb to explode later. By then, not only will you disappear into the dust heap of history, so too will Singapore. That will be your ultimate betrayal to this country that you so painstakingly and successfully created out of a little red dot on the map.

I find her quite clueless (Or maybe im just brainwashed from reading lky's memoirs idk) but she brings up some good points and its certainly something to think about.

Further Reading:

Two popular "not pro-pap" sites

http://www.tremeritus.com/
http://temasektimes.wordpress.com/

And to be fair heres two "pro-pap" sites

http://catherinelim.sg/
http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/


Anyway since there are many Singaporeans now posting on the site, just curious as to what are your thoughts on these developments? Anything to be worried about?

[DM.MCZ.Polaris]

Agree that indeed Singapore is now in a disastrous state

[TCPLemminks]

I actually kinda like Singaporean history, it's pretty interesting after WW2

[crAzerk]

I think social media blows things out of proportion, with regards to MRT breakdowns and other things that Singaporeans can complain about. That's not the topic at question so I won't elaborate.

The younger generation will be part of the 'bomb' that she says may go off. They aren't just unquestioningly agreeing with everything the govt /LKY says, and are contesting anything they disagree with. One problem is an opposition-mentality where people support the Opposition just for the sake of being against the ruling party (kind of something like how non-Manchester United fans are against Man U) and not because they believe in what the opposition is doing.

I'm not sure with how the affiliations/differences between the online sites are, but is http://theonlinecitizen.com/ under TR ?

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:
	mGGNemesis:

[LennX]

I think some sources from the other side of the divide will be helpful too. Since the sources that you gave so far only pushes for one side of the story.

As for me, I'm still neutral about this. Both sides have their own plus and minus. After the ground breaking elections last year, changes has been promised. I'm willing to give it some time to see some changes.

+ [Some random thoughts] +

1) You were too successful

That is true. What LKY(and the PAP) achieved was too successful. In a way, they have became a victim of their own success. Then again comparing SG now and then, are you willing to trade your birthing place in SG to another other countries? Getting from 3rd world to 1st is hard. And the amount of time taken for SG to get this is astounding.

2) You were too smart for your own good

More time is needed to see how good or bad the changes will be. The writer also has not given a decent alternative way to proceed on growing the economy. Also, governments have to balance the sentiments of "for the greater good" well enough. Forcing a deeply unpopular plan will be their undoing as seen from the elections in Europe right now.

3) You forgot evolutionary laws, history and your own past

I'm wondering why social studies, humanities and/or GP (if you are taking) are compulsory subjects when you are schooling. Either the modules aren't clear enough or the writer has been just studying to ace the exams.

4) Power breeds fear and paranoia

Find me a country that does not do gerrymandering. Also elections ploys are pretty commonplace everywhere. One can either learn to see past them or just complain/enjoy it when the sweet Budget comes around every 5/6years just before an election to sweeten the ground.

5) Power corrupts absolutely

Comparing pop icons to politicians on how they stay relevant is like comparing a fish to a bird.
Salaries wise - I do find it to be decent. Also not every single minster get paid SG$4million a year. Also I wonder about the other income source for our minsters. Information on this can be hard to find.

All in all, it is fine to ramble. I will just prefer to have some hard facts when such letters are made.
Then again, everyone likes to have their own opinion heard on matters that concerns them.

Quick Comments

nirvAnA:

thank you! haha call me brainwashedd but im actually contented / "pro-pap"

[kellyMILKIES]

Agree with most of my peers that we would not vote for PAP. My first vote was last year.
There needs to be a change. Especially Education. People always say our education is superb. No.
I used to be in the "best" class in high school which was basically the Math and Science Stream. During the third year, I dropped my courses to pursue what I love - Art, Music, literature and history. (art stream)
Yet, I was treated like second class citizens, even though I spent more time working on my projects and acing my language courses than any other "math/science stream" pupils.

The problem with Singapore is that $ and cents are what counts. Hence people who take courses later on such as law, accounting, finance, business, banking, will ALWAYS always have good jobs.
People who pursue going to Art School are viewed as "oh, can't get into JC or Poly so they go to art school".
**** that. Entrance exams for the 2 prestigious art school in singapore (NAFA and La salle) are hard as ****. Depending on dance, art, or film (general broke down into sub courses later), you have to send in a tape, or your artwork, and then you have to go for an interview to try for a spot in the school.
My best friend took the piano entrance exam for music, they had like a few instructors in the room, along with like 10 cameras pointing at you, (fingers on piano, your posture, your expression on your face, etc).
The stress level of trying to get into art school is higher than trying to get into a JC or Poly here. (ok maybe not that much. but you know what im saying.)
What sucks is that, like I said, we are treated like second class citizens by choosing to pursue this.
Maybe I'm ranting because my parents denied me when I wanted to apply for art school. Because of how we are viewed in Singapore. In the end, I went to another school, and dropped out a year later because I really had no interest at what I was studying.

Sigh. Education needs to be changed.
Don't even get me started talking about the universities in Singapore.

Quick Comments

crAzerk:

art sch entry does sound more stressful than jc entry! O lvls ezpz

[kellyMILKIES]

Btw, I love LKY, that man is a genius and he is our father. Like the sun. I respect him and will always support him as long as he is alive. My granddad is actually part of the Ang Mo Kio GRC and he runs with Lee Hsien Loong.

[2ezy]

I love Singapore lived there for 2 years,

I doubt anything could really break the hold of the pap, they are too entrenched in every facet of the government from the military to big business.

It's been said that the pressure on kids to succeed is extremism high and you're pushed down a financial path. I watched this allot, nearly every kid that came out of Raffles seemed like the life had been removed from his eyes and replaced by a number driven program.

Anyway hope nothing bad happens over there >.<

[wTlzq]

Strict education *path* and media control

Other than that i love singapore

Quick Comments

DM.MCZ.Polaris:

[Theend]

Actually Singapore controlled the internet too.They always ban the action movie which all man love
As a citizen,it is a shame to say that i properbly wont be afford a house.
Survive in singapore = must earn more than 2x2k per month.
Otherwise really eat shit.
One more fact:when i was in primary, my friend new apartment of that time admiralty aready had lift at all level.
That was like around 10-11 years ago
Now my yishun the whole area not even a single lift upgrade done.

Quick Comments

nirvAnA:

hahaha "action movie!!"

[TCPKiaSu]

;lol I agree about the taxi driver thing....... the dude was ranting the whole ride and my dads just like: hmm yeah uhh uhuh yeah

[naviC]

I think the Singapore government has a lot of thinking to do. The younger generations don't seem to see eye to eye with the current parliament. Including all the fore mentioned points, you can see how distant the government is from its people.

Up till today, I still find Singapore's open door policies most destructive. It is true that Singapore needs foreign influx to continue to power our economy. However this is more of a short term solution, especially looking at our current PR/foreign ratio to citizens.

We always hear on the tele or someplace about new birth policies. But the root of the problem is always not being pointed out. Foreign Talent creates a greater sense of competition between everyone, increasing stress levels, employees getting overworked, less or even no time for leisure/romance. etc.

Yet at the end of the day, they say we need to depend on FTs because Singapore does not have enough talent. Why are we giving scholarships/work experience opportunities to foreigners when there already is not enough room for your own local population? Take for example the NUS Medicine course, Singapore is already facing a shortfall in doctors. Lawyers too, and yet they want to make Singapore a hub for entrepreneurs. Don't mistake me for being anti-FT, there's just a lot more that we can do before you go to the excuse of saying we NEED foreign talent ratio of 2:3 foreigners to citizens.

I feel its true that there's a ticking time bomb lurking within the current social structure in Singapore, if nothing is done.

It has already been seen what ruling with an iron fist will be replied with LKY in the GE of 2011. What the people want now is for the government to come down and understand the problems. But rather it seems what they have done is to ignore most of it, addressing a quarter of the problem and divert the attention to other issues. GDP may run an economy, but not the country. While it may have its perks to have a booming economy, maybe its about finding the right balance.

There is so much unhappiness with the rising costs, stress levels and life quality in Singapore. I do hope something is done. If not when I go away to study, I won't be coming back.

Quick Comments

	nirvAnA:
	SLCN.StoicWilly:

[sudragon]

there needs to be a more fun environment. its too stressful. especially the strong emphasis on grades from young