By yaevlejunce
That so many Singaporeans behave like sheep and recite the
prescribed mantra all the time about our government (namely, that
we owe it all to them) really only reveals the plight of our
people. Not only are Singaporeans amongst the lowest earners in the
developed world in monetary terms, they are also
almost definitely the poorest in the faculty to think for
themselves, as a result of the education system.
Now that I am of age to vote, I am unable to vote for the PAP in
the coming election because there is such an urgent need to send
across a strong signal through their very thick skulls that there
is a problem in the way it’s running this country. I am not a
member of the Opposition, and I do not want the Opposition
to take over this country, but because there will always be too
many sheep in Singapore anyway, we need every vote FOR the
Opposition just to manage to produce a dent in the PAP’s smugly
expected results. There will always be the apathetic, the
boot-lickers, the cowardly, and the ignorant to ensure they win
eventually anyway.
The difference we can
make, however, is how much it wins by. Perhaps if it loses
a GRC or two (and the GRC is a PAP invention), they will shake off
their slumber and start ruling Singapore as a Republic, that is,
for the public, for the People (rather than for personal
interests).
Remember how LKY said he will send in the army if there ever is
a “freak election” and the PAP is voted out of Parliament? In every
other country, when the people vote out the ruling party, it is
called a mandate. It is only in Singapore that such a
vote is called a “freak election”. Also, whose Army is it anyway?
Is it the Army of the people of Singapore – who have just voted out
the PAP? Or is it the Army of the PAP?
I list here ten out of the many other reasons why I am unable to
vote for the PAP:
1. I will not render
unto Caesar what is not Caesar’s
Given that Singapore’s poor are amongst the Developed World’s
poorest, while living standards are amongst the highest in the
world, it is not difficult to see why the Government’s ridiculous
salaries are distastefully inflated.
The President earns $3.9 million, the PM $3.8 million, the MM
and SM $3.5 million each, all other ministers between $2 to $3.2
million and all ministers of state between $1.5 to $1.8 million.
These salaries do not include MP allowances, pensions and other
sources of income such as Directorship, Chairmanship, Advisory,
Consultancy, etc to government-linked and government-related
organisations or foreign MNCs, etc. And why are they allowed to
work for foreign corporations in the first place? Weren’t their
ridiculously-high salaries justified with the excuse that it’ll be
THIS excessive precisely so that they will focus on doing their
ministerial jobs? Where is the check and balance in this
government?
How much do you earn in a year?
In contrast, President Obama earns a more reasonable US$400,000,
with US$50,000 expenses. Our most junior ministers are paid more
than twice of what the most powerful man in the world gets! Hong
Kong, with the same scarcity of resources as Singapore, half the
developable land area, but with double the economic success,
only pays its Chief Executive Donald Tsang HK$37,1,885 (US$47,
678). That is good enough to show that the PAP rhetoric about their
paycheques is plain rubbish (incidentally, “rubbish” is one of
LKY’s favourite words).
Adding to that, it had the cheek to raise its own salary right
before a GST hike in 2003 and 2004. GST was raised again in 2007 to
7% from the original 3%. And of course, the PAP salaries have been
rising accordingly as well.
It claims it needs to be paid similar to the private sector, but
this is the public sector for a reason – you
choose to work in the government to serve the country, not your
pockets. Arguing that “talents” need this monetary incentive
to join the government only goes to show what kind of people are
being attracted – greedy, selfish, money-minded elites who see the
Civil Service as nothing but a more glamorous avenue to the
big bucks since their main reason for serving is not for the good
of the country, but for money.
I cannot vote for a government that decides its own ridiculous
salaries DESPITE a very strong public opinion against it.
2.
Incompetence
Despite paying astronomic salaries to these patron saints of
Singapore, there is much to be desired from their performance.
Surely, if we are paying the highest government salaries in the
world, it is not unreasonable to simply expect these people to do
their job. The recent Bukit Timah Floodings, however, is a case in
point showing why this expectation may be misplaced.
Environment Minister Yaacob Ibrahim said that the government
knew the diversion canal was not big enough to take the rainwaters.
He claimed that because this sort of “freak events” occur only once
every 50 years, there was nothing the government could do about it.
The Bukit Timah Canal was constructed in 1972, almost 40 years ago
– about time something that happens “once every 50 years” would
occur. Additionally, meteorologists reported that ‘this flood comes
three years after one of Singapore’s worst floodings in recent
history, in December
2006‘. 50 years indeed. But alas, our $2.8 million/year
Minister was unable to foresee such a simple thing – even while
knowing the canal was not big enough! Well, the PUB is planning to
work on expanding it now – pretty late or early (depending on where
in Singapore you live), since the next time we really need it will
be 50 years from now, according to the Minister.
3. Double
standards
It is a well-known fact that GIC and Temasek Holdings,
Singapore’s two sovereign wealth funds, are both headed by members
of the Lee family. Both have reported a ridiculous loss of
$41.6 Billion and
$39.91 Billion respective and have yet to answer to the
real stakeholders – Singaporeans – on how this could have happened.
No one has taken responsibility or issued explanations or
anything at all. In fact, the state media has been
glaringly silent on the issue. Why aren’t we Singaporeans hearing
anything about our money?
“When we invest, we invest for the long-term”, Lee Kuan Yew, who
heads GIC, said when Temasek Holdings purchased Bank of America
shares and then sold it off a few months
later, losing between US$2.3 to US$4.6
billion just like that.
That is more than $80 Billion in total from the blood and sweat
of Singaporeans, down the drain because of bad decisions made by
individuals whose multi-million dollar paycheques remain secure no
matter how many mistakes they make. In contrast, the Resilience
Package tapped into Singapore’s official reserves to withdraw $4.9
billion, and that effort to help Singaporeans in genuine
need required hours and hours of debate.
While we should rightfully acknowledge the good that the PAP has
done for Singapore, it is often taken for granted that Singaporeans
believe a blatant lie that the country’s affluence is owed to the
PAP and Lee Kuan Yew’s efforts. No, it came from the efforts of
all Singaporeans. Hong Kong did not have a strongman like
Lee Kuan Yew to dictate their lives from toilet habits to whether
they could hear their own dialect on TV, and yet they have achieved
double of what we have – and their people are involved in the
political process, not dead and apathetic like our population.
There is absolutely no reason to believe that Singapore, with its
strategic location and hardworking population, would not have
reached its present affluence under a less money-minded David
Marshall or someone else.
Moreover, the oft-used justification for the lofty salaries of
the government is that the private sector pays its leaders similar
salaries. Well, in the private sector, there is such a thing as
accountability. Where is Temasek Holdings’
accountability? Where is GIC’s accountability? Where was Wong Kan
Seng’s accountability when his Ministry slipped up time and time
again? Where is Yaacob Ibrahim’s accountability? What exactly
happens when a minister makes a mistake in Singapore? Where is the
Fourth Estate to play its role as a watchdog?
4. Blatant
lies
We are probably the only country in the world that has its MPs
blatantly lie in Parliament and yet achieve high rankings on
corruptibility. Anyone remember the mention of White Horses in
Parliament? Practically every NSF knows that there is such a thing
as White Horses, yet right there in Parliament, an affront to the
ideals of democracy, transparency and integrity in this
country, our leaders lied to its people. If it can do that once, it
could have done it before, and it can do it again. What is the
point of wearing white, trying to look pure, if you are a
liar? I cannot vote for such blatant liars to be my leaders –
especially when they lie about such things NOT for the good of the
country, but for their own interests, for the unfairly selective
comfort of their own children at the very expense of the equality
this country was founded upon.
The media in Singapore is entirely controlled via Singapore
Press Holdings, headed by a former PAP minister, Dr Tony
Tan. Masquerading as an independent paper, the Straits
Times, while not necessarily fabricating facts on its own
(at least I hope not), blatantly twists them. For example
(extracted from
here), the media was full
of praise of Temasek CEO Ho Ching for earning a few million dollars
on paper, but failed to highlight her disastrous investment
decisions such as buying the shares of Barclays bank at a high and
selling them at a low a few months later.
The Straits Times credited the Singapore Internal Security
Department for providing the crucial “intelligence” which led to
the capture of escaped terrorist Mas Selamat Kasteri by the
Malaysian Special Branch. It turned out that the operation was part
of a joint collaboration by the Malaysian, Singapore and Indonesian
police and the Singapore ISD actually played only a minor role in
the capture of Mas Selamat, but the Straits Times did not mention
this to give the public the full picture, choosing rather to
mislead Singaporeans into believing that ISD had indeed “redeemed”
itself.
Without a free press in Singapore, Singaporeans are robbed of
access to real and accurate news that does not include propaganda
and spins that mislead. They are robbed of a crucial check and
balance in the form of the Fourth Estate that acts as a watchdog to
ensure the government is doing its job. In the end, it is
Singaporeans who stand to lose.
5. Operation Coldstore
and the 1963 General Elections
The 1963 Singapore General Elections was the toughest
and most critical the PAP ever faced. It had already suffered two
by-election defeats and the number of seats it held was 26 –
holding a majority by just one seat.
On 2 February 1963, just a few months before the elections,
Operation Coldstore was launched and more than a hundred people
were arrested and detained without trial, including the
Secretary-General and other key members of the Barisan Sosialis,
the PAP’s biggest threat.
Despite the heavy blow, which was an obvious attempt to
undermine the Barisan Sosialis’ success at the Elections, they won
33.2% of the popular vote and the PAP took 46.9%. What do you think
the PAP would have gotten if it hadn’t carried out Operation
Coldstore?
And why do Singaporeans not know about such an important aspect
of their national history?
6. Lim Chin
Siong
Lim Chin Siong was recruited into the PAP by Lee Kuan Yew in
1954, and his immense popularity amongst the Chinese won a large
amount of support for the PAP. When Lim Chin Siong was arrested by
the British in 1955 for anti-colonial activities, the PAP promised
the electorate to release him if they were elected, in order to
gain votes.
At the age of 22, Lim Chin Siong was elected into the
Legislative Assembly, and he was so popular among the people that
Lee Kuan Yew was prompted to promise that he would be ‘our
future Prime Minister‘ (guess who became PM instead?).
However, he soon grew disillusioned with the PAP and left to
form the Barisan Sosialis in 1961. Under the pretext of being a
communist, he was detained without trial under
Operation Coldstore for SIX YEARS until he was forced to renounce politics and
went into exile in 1969. Up till today, there is no evidence
at all that he was ever a communist. It was simply used it as an
excuse to eliminate him from the precarious 1963 General Elections.
Imagine being removed from your family, being locked up for 6
years, NEVER given a trial, and then thrown out of the country, all
because you are popular and the government fears you?
Lee Kuan Yew himself said of him “I liked and respected him
for his simple lifestyle and his selflessness. He did not seek
financial gain or political glory. He was totally committed to the
advancement of his cause“. This was the kind of men who
sincerely fought with their lives for the good of the country. And
they were persecuted and crushed by the PAP in order to snatch
power. Contrast the lives of such men with the kind of PAP MPs we
have today.
[13th Dec '09 - Edit: Click here to read about Operation Spectrum,
launched in 1987 under that terrible ISA again. Over 20 people were
detained without trial under the accusation of a
Marxist conspiracy. After being released a few months later,
they repudiated their earlier confessions, alleged ill-treatment by
ISD officers while in detention, and were arrested the very
next day (how come this sort of efficiency is lacking
with real threats like Mas Selamat?). Ten days later,
the government announced that a proposed commission of inquiry into
the allegations made by the detainees was no longer necessary as
the signatories have since recanted their statement while in
detention. Hmm, I wonder why.
Excerpt from their statement:
"...we were subjected to harsh and intensive interrogation,
deprived of sleep and rest, some of us for as long as 70 hours
insides freezing cold rooms. All of us were stripped of our
personal clothing, including spectacles, footwear and underwear and
made to change into prisoners' uniforms.
Most of us were made to stand continually during
interrogation, some of us for over 20 hours and under the full
blast of air-conditioning turned to a very low
temperature.
Under these conditions, one of us was repeatedly doused with
cold water during interrogation.
Most of us were hit hard in the face, some of us for not
less than 50 times, while others were assaulted on other parts of
the body, during the first three days of interrogation.
We were threatened with more physical abuse during
interrogation.
We were threatened with arrests, assault and battery of our
spouses, loved ones and friends. We were threatened with INDEFINITE
detention without trial. Chia Thye Poh, who is still in detention
after twenty years, was cited as an example. We were told that no
one could help us unless we "cooperated" with the ISD.
These threats were constantly on our minds during the time
we wrote our respective "statements" in detention.
We were actively discouraged from engaging legal counsel and
advised to discharge our lawyers and against taking legal action
(including making representations to the ISA Advisory Board) so as
not to jeopardise our chances of release.
We were compelled to appear on television and warned that
our release would depend on our performances on tv. We were coerced
to make statements such as "I am Marxist-inclined..."; "My ideal
society is a classless society..." ; " so-and-so is my mentor...";
"I was made use of by so-and-so..." in order to incriminate
ourselves and other detainees."
This is another reason why I will not be able to vote for the
PAP. I cannot bring myself to support such a brutal and callous
government which treats its people as such. And I cannot support
its continued use of the ISA in Singapore, in spite of its
usefulness in handling terrorists (who is the real
terrorist here?), because time and again, history has shown that it
is innocent Singaporeans who will suffer most from such a law that
allows the government to conveniently eliminate all threats to
itself - not the nation - without trial, without evidence,
without accountability of any kind.]
7. Singaporean
students need to learn a fair and accurate history in
school
The fact that practically no young Singaporean knows about
important people like Lim Chin Siong, or even David Marshall, our
first Chief Minister, is testament to the spectacular failure of
our education system. All they ever learn about our country’s
history is LKY and Raffles, LKY and Raffles, LKY and Raffles, and
maybe a bit about the War. No wonder our students find history
boring. No wonder our students do not feel attached to this country
because their knowledge of its history is so shallow.
Why has MOE removed the important bits of Singapore’s history
from schoolbooks? The bits about Operation Coldstore (and the
realities behind it), the historic Anson by-election, the
real founder of the PAP (who, by the way, is not surnamed
Lee), our ex-President Devan Nair, Ong Teng Cheong’s request –
which was never granted to the day he died – to be given a list of
Singapore’s reserves (because as President he needed to know what
he is protecting, since the President’s role is to be Protector of
the Reserves – and did you know that the President’s role is that,
by the way?), etc. Why are Singaporeans being robbed of their
history and then accused of being apathetic?
8. Traumatic MP-experiences and MPs
who fear death by The Chair
The kind of PAP MPs that Singapore is ruled by today is a worthy
cause for
Trauma.
In short, a married couple went to see their MP because their
eldest son recently passed away from a naval accident while serving
NS. They explained that their younger son will be serving his NS
soon and requested for an exemption because of what had just
happened. They said that it’s been a traumatic time for them. And
the MP replied “What traumatic? After two months, you won’t be
traumatic”.
As if insensitive MPs are not enough, the PAP is fielding
hyper-sensitive wimps
behind the shadows with their GRC Trick.
The GRC, by the way, was invented by the PAP. The fact that it
engages in gerrymandering (drawing up election borders in its
favour) goes to show the extent it is willing to go just to stay in
power. The GRC is also unfair because constituents are forced to
vote into Parliament men and women they do not really want to have.
This whole system, however, was implemented without asking
Singaporeans, of course. The PAP decided it wanted to have the
GRCs, and it passed the law to have the GRCs. No say from the
people at all. Is this democracy? Is gerrymandering for the good of
the people?
With such people ruling the country, it is honestly difficult to
believe we are in good hands. Contrasted against the lives of men
such as Lim Chin Siong, it is hard to rule out the severe suspicion
that the MPs we have today are joining the Government for personal
interest, not the nation’s.
9. Money. Of course
it’s all about money.
Singapore claims it pays its ministers astronomical salaries
because “talents” need to be attracted from the private sector –
this is simply saying that our ministers serve the country just for
money.
Also, their pay is pegged to GDP growth – which is why it is no
wonder that everything in this country seems to be focused on the
economy. The government is so caught up in money-making because its
salaries are pegged to it! Moreover, if Singaporeans are attuned to
the mentality that money is all there is to life (and many, many
Singaporeans are), then they will be less bothered about the other
compromises to their civil rights, and less likely to be concerned
about what their government is really doing, so long as the money
keeps flowing in. What a cheap people we have become.
10. What Singapore
needs is change
Lastly, by voting for a significant change to the status
quo, Singaporean youths will become less apathetic, seeing
that, for the first time in their lives, CHANGE is really possible
in this country, and that they can make a difference in deciding
for the future of Singapore.
The PAP will also be less complacent if it meets with a stunning
defeat. Its cold Point 8-type ministers will also learn that it is
Singaporeans they are supposed to be serving, not themselves. They
will learn to treasure their constituents, to sincerely
listen their opinions and to truly help them – all these
are SUPPOSED to be their job in the first place.
People will also start to dare to join the Opposition. The only
reason why I do not wish for the Opposition to take over the
government is because it is incompetent, and it is incompetent
because talented men and women who are concerned about the
aforementioned issues, do not have the courage or faith in the
system to step forward and join the Opposition (hell no, not with a
law like the ISA in place). But if the PAP faces a defeat that is
significant enough, trust in the democratic system of Singapore
will finally be restored and the politics of Singapore can be
revived to more than just dead rhetoric.
Of course we are grateful for the many, many good things the PAP
has done for Singapore. It has been an excellent government in many
ways (especially economically – I wonder why). However, it has also
been found lacking in many aspects. Politics is not a charity, as
they would themselves say with regard to the Opposition, and we
cannot vote for a government simply because it used to
serve the people well. If it has lost its focus, then support for
the Opposition is the only way to make them regain this focus.
My vote counts. So will
yours. Vote wisely.
