<Contributed by Joseph Tan KL>
Singapore’s survival was uncertain after independence and the foresight of our first-generation PAP leaders was what led to our initial success. As seen in the last elections, PAP merely uses this success story to gain votes for themselves. The reality is a different picture, however.
While Singapore still ranks highly on the world map now, one must understand that it is easier to manage a small country than a big country. Worse, cracks are starting to appear on multiple front: infrastructural strain, dubious imports of foreign ‘talents’ infiltrating Singapore.
What contributed to this initially success? In the early days, we had dedicated politicans and civil servants alike. People like Lim Kim San worked without pay for 3 years while Dr. Tan Cheng Bock was those who pushed for free parking on Sundays for family bonding while allowing parents to use their CPF for their children’s education.
By contrast, we have Ministers like now who do not even talk sense because they are too disconnected with the ground to even know what the average man feels. One said that everyone has a car while another even said that we cannot prevent MRT breakdowns if everybody chooses to take the MRT at once!
Their attitude is even worse with a nonsense “ownself-check-ownself” mentality, refusal to take blame for their mistakes (and can even stand up for people like Nisha), along with a complacent attitude that talks down to the opposition when they cannot even manage their own set of problems.
Singaporeans have been downright betrayed when they demand instant results and thus gave millions of dollars’ worth of scholarships to foreigners. And when one commits a mistake like Sun Xu, Pinky was quick to defend Sun while locals have to spend 2 years of their lives serving the nation.
Nowadays, opposition candidates have more dedicated men and ideas: Chee Soon Juan has introduced things like a mobile library while they are still going strong on their weekly walkabouts even though the election results are disappointing. For what? Because of a passion!
Singaporeans must also wake up to the idea that by voting for the opposition, such as the loss of Aljunied GRC in the 2011GE, this can lead the PAP to become more responsive and not have such a high moral loss. Remember how George Yeo initially said that people should not debate with the government as equals before changing his tone entirely after his loss?
Let’s work to give the opposition another GRC in GE2020!
Editor's Note:
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