Democratic Society?!?!

Disclaimer: In between this post and the previous, there were lots of drafted entries, but were deemed by myself as disruptive to the local peace, thus the long break between the entries.


Last Saturday, 23rd of December, yours truly stumbled upon an interesting article in The Straits Times on the flight back from a mission trip in Myanmar.

In the Saturday Section, page S8 is this article about the 7 highly unusual traits of Singapore politics. Of course the usual single-party dominance is the focus but what caught my eye is the habit of 'Laughter is not the best medicine'.

If that is the case, what is with the lame attempts at humor all the politicians try at all their speeches? What about shows like Patch Adams that advocate laughter as an essential part of life?

Also mentioned under the habit is that George Yeo, coincidentally the MP of the most competed Aljunied GRC in which yours truly unfortunately resides at, said in 1995 that it is disrespectful and wrong of citizens to take on authority figures as 'equals'.

Hmm. Wait a sec. What's the Singapore pledge again?

We, the citizens of Singapore,

pledge ourselves as one united people,

regardless of race, language or religion,

to build a democratic society

based on justice and equality

so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and

progress for our nation.

So isn't what Mr. George Yeo said contradictory to the very pledge of Singapore? Or maybe it is because our society is not exactly democratic, so there is no need to base justice and equality to build our society?

If that is the case, isn't it a wee bit too reminiscent of a particular book by George Orwell called Animal Farm, a reflection of the Russian Communism? I quote from memory what the leading pig said, "Everybody is equal, but some are more equal than others."

How curious. And there doesn't seem to be any action to change for the better. In the very same article, another highly unusual trait mentioned is 'Whingeing and Whining', where Singaporeans complain a lot but still vote for the very people they complain about. Mr. Charles Chong, MP for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, says in the article that "The mentality is - I don't like you, but I know you can do the job." This MP KNOWS what is wrong, but he still made no effort to change.

Personally, my mentality is "I don't like you, and I doubt you can do a good job either." The new batch of MPs are yet to prove themselves, with the bulk of them spending their university time overseas, not exposed to local politics and happenings.

The opposition parties are not even given a chance to prove themselves either. Between the two untested parties, people vote for PAP because of what MM Lee did for Singapore, which is basically build up Singapore from scratch. He is indeed a real brilliant mind. But times have changed, people should not vote based on who did what decades ago, but based on who can do what, who can fulfill my needs in the future.

In the USA, even lumberjacks get to be elected because they know themselves what the people need. But in Singapore, the people we have for politicians see themselves as of a somewhat 'higher class citizen' than the others.

This is shown by the elitist view published by the blog of Wee Shu Min, daughter of Wee Siew Kim, MP in Ang Mo Kio GRC (the PM's GRC). Scathing comments like "Derek is a typical “wretched, under-motivated, over-assuming leeches” specimen of Singapore. He has a “middle-class under-educated penchant” for complaining and should get on with life." were made. Other comments include "This society is the survival of the fittest", "Get out of my elite uncaring face."

Sadly, this elitist view appears to be condoned by her father, MP Wee Siew Kim, and all the other MPs, including PM Lee, who is in the same GRC as Wee Siew Kim.

But the debate goes on.

If this society is the survival of the fittest, the people who would survive would be those who actaully been through the hardships of life, not those who are born with a golden spoon. Those with real human traits like compassion, humility, charity, empathy & humanity will be those who will be leading the people then.

In the current political system, it looks as if papers are looked at a higher importance than human traits, with scholars and technocrats being recruited in, not people with real caring and all.

This is also reflected in the educational system. A student who can do last minute revision for every subject will do better than a student who strives to grasp the concept of a subject. In simpler terms, people with real talent cannot make it, but those who can cram things last minute will do very well. In simplest terms, the education system is programming students to be like robots, which means they are taught to memorise and regurgitate things, not to really understand it. The lack of appreciation of human nature is rather disturbing in my point of view.

Personally, what I have learnt in my 4 years if secondary school life did not amount to anything at all the moment I entered the Media Course. Math, Science, and all the other subjects were deemed obsolete. As for English, I swear that I taught my English teachers more than they taught me.

The Republic of Singapore seems to be in strife if you look at it carefully, but the above written will most probably be labeled as 'nonsense from an attention-seeking kid', or 'the view of an anti-PAP person'.

But if *you* really care, think a depth further, research a bit further, and you will realise that heck, we're in trouble.








Recommended links by the author:
http://www.singapore-window.org/sw06/061029ST.HTM - Elitist article
http://www.rsf.org/ - Freedom of speech site (Singapore is in the bottom 10 globally!)


The Straits Times article mentioned above is available for lending from yours truly, just ask and you shall receive.

Till next time, God Bless.