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If everybody wants an MRT service, someone will have to suffer
the dust and noise of a station being built, perhaps near his
home.
And if roads are to be widened, people will have to accept that
some trees may have to be cut down to make space.
Citing these examples of trade-offs that decision-makers have to
make, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean on Wednesday sought to
show that not everyone will be happy with every decision made by
the Government.
Nevertheless, it is the Government's job to make decisions, even
when they are tough and unpopular, he said.
DPM TEO ON MERITOCRACY
'The people who rise to the top in such a system on the basis of
meritocracy have to understand and acknowledge that they have risen
not just through their own individual effort, but also through the
collective effort of others... Therefore, a person who is able to
achieve success, however defined, in such a system, needs to be
humble and recognise that he is not the smartest guy around because
of himself.'
ON WHAT LEADERS SINGAPORE NEEDS
'I'm always a little worried, a bit suspicious, about people who
are charismatic leaders, who are pure charisma, because I always
try to look below the words they are saying... you need something
beneath that, below that to have real substance.'
ON TAKING UP THE DPM POST
'You feel a sense of responsibility and you wonder whether you
are up to it... so many people have put their faith in you. You
hope that you can live up to that responsibility, and your greatest
concern is that somehow you failed in trying to do your best.'
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TCH contradicts himself. A leader will not gain respect
if he is self-centred and does not acknowledge the sacfifices his
subordinates have made just for him while claiming full credit for
everything when he only did 1% of the work. The fact that such
bosses are becoming the norm these days makes people gravitate
towards those who have charisma. If you work for someone horrible
you will definitely jump ship when someone offers an alternative
style and preaches about it openly. To win support and respect from
the grassroots, you need to make yourself popular with them first.
Everything else comes second. I also suspect this is a veiled
threat against the likes of CSM from Paya Lebar.
