... As long as PAP remains incorruptible.
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Feb 9, 2010 - ST Forum
Mandate assured ...
... As long as PAP remains incorruptible.
IN HIS letter last Saturday, 'Life after PAP', Mr Ng Kok Lim asserts that Singaporeans have the inherent and innate ability to prosper and flourish, no matter who leads the country. In support of his argument, he mentions how various changes of government in the region have not been detrimental to the countries involved.
Separately, in his letter also last Saturday, 'Politically vibrant Singapore', Mr Albert Tay advocates competition in the political arena, which he says can only facilitate advancement.
Ethnically, Singaporeans are no different from the countries they migrated from. If, indeed, all work ethic is equal, every country in the region would have scaled the same peaks as Singapore. That we have achieved a standing in the world beyond expectations says as much about our resourcefulness to overcome hardship as it does about the quality of our leadership in our country's formative years.
Sterling governance in Singapore has not diminished over the decades. Long- serving governments of other countries lost the trust of their electorates as the dominant political parties degenerated into inefficiency, racked by moral turpitude and roiled by scandal.
This is not the case with the People's Action Party (PAP), whose venal sin lies in steadfastly implementing unpopular policies with short-term pain while making long-term gains which only patience will see bear fruit. As long as the PAP maintains its moral probity while charting a clear course through the mine-laden future, it should retain a handsome mandate to rule, as changing horses in midstream simply for the sake of change is insensate.
The rules of the market seemingly dictate that competition brings efficiency and advancement. Yet, a look at the filibustering in various foreign Parliaments should tell us that non-constructive opposition to government policies is pernicious to a country, paralysing it with worthless rhetoric when firm and decisive leadership is needed.
One need only look at the unhealthy competition between StarHub and SingTel and the ongoing World Cup telecast imbroglio to confirm that conventional wisdom has its limits.
Dr Yik Keng Yeong
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You will never find scandals in a close knit family government.
PAP is one big happy family.
It's sad to learn that UK, US, Western Europe, Japan and Australia have all degenerated into inefficiency racked by moral turpitude and rolled by scandal.
Short-term pain while making long-term gains? It's more like making short term gains (for the government) now and paying short term (citizens) and long term (citizens) price.
What's so unhealthy about StarHub and SingTel in the handphone market? What's so unhealthy about the competition for World Cup telecast rights? An addendum, StarHub and SingTel aren't perfect competitive companies, it's a facade for free competition, but the actual holding company for both of them are the government.
The World Cup broadcast rights resulted in both companies working together submitting a joint bid, akin to PAP working hand in hand (not fixing them up) with the opposition for the betterment of Singaporeans.
Moral of the story, it doesn't matter who wins, so long as the winning party is not self serving like increasing his salary to afew million dollars. Ooops.....was I too honest and directly implicated some party.
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There is no such thing as incorruptibility if your perversion in holding office is related to $$$.
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According to a FT, perhaps paying themselves exorbitant world class salary is a new form of corruption.
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Originally posted by Fantagf:
According to a FT, perhaps paying themselves exorbitant world class salary is a new form of corruption.
This is no different from the communist in North Korea and the depictions of Napoleon and Squealer in Animal Farm. The Pigs in Animal Farm exploited the other farm animals to derive benefits, whilst maintaining a strong arm with dissension. If you ever go against the pigs in Animal Farm, the pigs will set their dogs on you. Hold on a second, this sounds all so familiar.
Are they making a parody of George Orwell's masterpiece?
Pigs Are Pigs!!!
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As long as PAP remains incorruptible
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Who actually believe that? sure 100% incorruptible?
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Originally posted by βÎτά:
This is no different from the communist in North Korea and the depictions of Napoleon and Squealer in Animal Farm. The Pigs in Animal Farm exploited the other farm animals to derive benefits, whilst maintaining a strong arm with dissension. If you ever go against the pigs in Animal Farm, the pigs will set their dogs on you. Hold on a second, this sounds all so familiar.
Are they making a parody of George Orwell's masterpiece?
Pigs Are Pigs!!!
Pigs are nice to eat.
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Originally posted by βÎτά:
This is no different from the communist in North Korea and the depictions of Napoleon and Squealer in Animal Farm. The Pigs in Animal Farm exploited the other farm animals to derive benefits, whilst maintaining a strong arm with dissension. If you ever go against the pigs in Animal Farm, the pigs will set their dogs on you. Hold on a second, this sounds all so familiar.
Are they making a parody of George Orwell's masterpiece?
Pigs Are Pigs!!!
I believe they will not want to associate themselves with the "Animal Farm". They are too arrogant to admit their mistakes.
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Originally posted by Chew Bakar:
Pigs are nice to eat.
Which part? The skin, nose, head, meat or the intestines?
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Originally posted by Junyang700:
Which part? The skin, nose, head, meat or the intestines?
I like pork ribs. Good for bak kut teh.
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Originally posted by Chew Bakar:
I like pork ribs. Good for bak kut teh.
No chinese tea to go with? -
Originally posted by likeyou:
No chinese tea to go with?The usual tie guan yin.
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The last time I ate bak kut teh is at Pontian. Best bak kut teh!
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Originally posted by likeyou:
The last time I ate bak kut teh is at Pontian. Best bak kut teh!
Haven't been there for ages.
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Originally posted by Chew Bakar:
I like pork ribs. Good for bak kut teh.
Ic.. I like skin best... Haha... Always order extra for Kway Chap and take a lot for steamboat! =)
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Originally posted by Junyang700:
Ic.. I like skin best... Haha... Always order extra for Kway Chap and take a lot for steamboat! =)
Must be soft soft.. shiok.
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Originally posted by Chew Bakar:
Must be soft soft.. shiok.
That stall got the wine chicken..taste shoik. -
Originally posted by Chew Bakar:
Must be soft soft.. shiok.
Yup! =)
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Ng Kok Lim demolishes Dr Yik Keng Yeong’s arguments supporting PAP’s continued political hegemony
February 10, 2010 - Temasek Review
By Ng Kok Lim
I refer to the letter by Dr Yik Keng Yeong dated 9 Feb 2010.
Dr Yik points to the unequal scaling of the economic peak by countries in the region to suggest that work ethic is not the same across countries. By extension, places that have scaled the same peak must necesssarily share the same work ethics. This is consistent with the observation that East Asian societies like Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan have scaled the same peaks as Singapore while sharing similar cultures and work ethics. Since the majority of Singaporeans originated from East Asia, it helps explain why Singapore is able to scale the same peaks scaled by other East Asians. Hence, Dr Yik’s ethnicity argument gives greater credence to the idea that a country’s fate lies more with its people than with its government.
Dr Yik’s assertion that sterling governance in Singapore has not diminished holds no water as Singapore lost billions in some recent transactions and experienced sky high inflation in property prices.
The countries Dr Yik refers to where governments have lost the trust of their electorates and which have then degenerated into inefficiency and depravity bear little semblance to Singapore in terms of social fabric and the ethical makeup of its people. We can always find other countries like those of the Western democracies where governments change regularly without their countries falling apart. Therefore, the countries we compare ourselves to must be appropriate in order for the comparison to make sense. Comparing ourselves against countries with similar work ethics like Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and even Thailand suggests that government change is no cause for worry for Singaporeans.
Dr Yik assets that the PAP’s venal sin is steadfastly implementing unpopular policies. But the PAP never has need to commit venal sins as it writes its own paycheck. The idea that short term pain must necessarily bring about long term gain is too often used to justify policies that have become inappropriate and not feasible both in the short term and in the long term.
Moral probity becomes obscured when the PAP pays itself better than what Chen Shui Bian could stash away over eight years. The description of the PAP charting through mine laden waters omits the many knee jerk reactions along the way.
Make no mistake Dr Yik, we are not changing horses midstream for the sake of changing horses. We are changing horse because the horse has decided to call the shots and take its owner for a ride.
The antics and noise that we see in foreign parliaments such as that of Taiwan’s should not detract us from the fact that their economies continue to pull ahead full steam. We should therefore not assume that the opposition is necessarily non-constructive and pernicious to our country let alone paralysing to it.
When a nation chooses to brush aside the grievances of its people as mere rhetoric, that is when the danger of totalitarianism is at its greatest. For when we surrender our independent judgement of what is right and what is wrong to supposedly firm and decisive leadership, that firmness and decisiveness can lead our country to total ruin and destruction. The most famous case in point being the surrender of the collective judgments of the German people to the firmness and decisiveness of Hitler and his Nazi government. History always repeats itself. Let it not repeat on us.
While the competition between Starhub and Singtel is indeed unhealthy, the solution isn’t no competition but perfect competition instead. When the nation wide broadband network is in place and many more internet / television companies come on board, the competitive power of each company will diminish along with their ability to engage in destructive bidding. If this doesn’t work, we can make use of anti-trust proceedings to break Starhub and Singtel into many smaller units.
Conventional wisdom has its virtues, we just need to be able to recognise them.
Thank you
Ng Kok Lim -
These people cant make up their minds. Say one thing say another thing. Pretty irritating to read them.
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Originally posted by Junyang700:
These people cant make up their minds. Say one thing say another thing. Pretty irritating to read them.
Which one?
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Originally posted by Chew Bakar:
Which one?
Overall. Both comments are very poor in presentation and sentence structure. Read liao "pek chek".
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Probably we have better writers in Sgf.