January 10, 2010
By Richard Lu
“You know, the cure for all this talk is really a good dose
of incompetent government. You get that alternative and you’ll
never put Singapore together again: Humpty Dumpty cannot be put
together again…and your asset values will be in peril, your
security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other
people’s countries, foreign workers.’”
(Lee Kuan Yew justifying pay hikes for Singapore ministers,
The Straits Times, 5 April 2007)
Singaporeans are an apathetic lot, always afraid to express an
opinion or to take risk, preferring others to make the first
move. They are afraid that the vote is not secret and fear
losing their jobs if found out they voted the opposition. They are
afraid to express the truth about someone in power. They are
even afraid to speak up about things that effecting them directly
e.g. the high cost of living, unemployment and poor quality
life.
This is because they are quite unaware about their rights to free,
fair and honest expression. The ISA inherited from the
British and perfected by the PAP has a lot to do with this
“Politics of Fear” resulting in PAP getting away with intimidations
and threats. Consider these coercions:
a. Lee Kuan Yew (2006): “Please don’t assume that you can
change governments. Young people don’t understand this.”
b. Lee Kuan Yew (2006):“Without the elected President and if
there is a freak (election) result, within two or three years, the
army would have to come in and stop it.”
If we dare to dream and we live our dreams…….. then imagine
this:
Singaporeans get an opposition government and as promised, they
reverse some of these past bad policies e.g.
1. Revise ministerial and civil
service pay to a realistic level;
2. Revert to the original
constitution and strengthen citizen rights and abolish ISA, EP, GRC
and NCMP;
3. Abolish the following
appointments – Minister Mentor, Senior Minister, Ministry Without
Portfolio, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Minister of
State and Parliamentary Secretary; and
4. Repeal Newspaper and Printing
Presses Act of 1974 (NPPA) with all its attendant amendments
permitting state control of the media, Legal Profession (Amendment)
Act of 1987 (LP(A)A of1987), Public Order Act 2009 (POA), Official
Secrets Acts (OSA).
To prevent collusion, corruption and nepotism, the opposition
government then presses into law the following:
5. Limiting to one (1) Deputy Prime
Minister;
Limiting the
number of ministries and appointments to minister and deputy
minister only;
Limiting Prime
Minister and Ministers to a maximum two terms;
Limiting the age
of MPs to 65 years; and
Limiting MPs to a
maximum services life of 15 years;
6. Preventing MPs and civil
servants from sitting on boards of listed companies; and
7. Preventing PM and Ministers
from appointing their family members and relatives to GLC
companies, Temasek and GIC.
To assist Singaporeans and attain a good standard of living, the
opposition institute and implement the following:
8. Minimum wage;
9. Freedom of Information
rules;
10. Policies to regulate and limit foreigners
workers and new citizens into Singapore;
11. Polices to safeguard Singaporeans’
interests – good housing, health, education etc.;
12. Independent panels to oversee judicial
appointments, ministerial pay, civil service & military
appointments, election boundaries; and
13. Independent panels to oversee our
sovereign wealth – GIC, Temasek and CPF;
To liberalize the political landscape and level the playing field
for all political parties:
14. Free the local media from Govt. and PAP
control;
15. Establish permanent Judicial Commission to
hear complaints of political nature;
16. Reduce Govt.’s participation in commerce
and de-couple GLCs from Govt.;
17. De-couple the PA and NUTC from the PAP and
Govt. and passes law to prevent NTUC and PA from being associated
or controlled by any Government of any political parties;
18. De-couple the Police and the Military from
the Government and PAP; and
19. Ensure real competition on open and fair
basis for the telecom, electricity, power and gas industries;
Finally, to heal the country from years of political and mental
abuses, the opposition government should:
20. Apologize to all ex-political detainees and
political exiles;
21. Revoke all charges against all political
detainees and annul all judgments pronounced against them and
reimburse their losses (even if the Govt. has to compensate
them);
22. Ask all political exiles to return and
enjoin Singaporeans in the re-building of our political
landscape;
24. Pay a one-time token compensation for the
hardships, pain and sufferings caused to political detainees and
exiles by the previous government;
25. Allow and encourage all forms of open and
honest debates and discussions; and
26. Set up a Truth and Re-conciliation
Commission to enable the country bring closures and heal wounds
caused by the past government misdeeds.
Are we dreaming? Do we dare to live our dreams? It is
not time for us to move away from this politics of fear?
Singaporeans, I ask and urge you search your innermost conscience
and heart of hearts and see if the above are not what you have
always want, prayed for and wished for our beloved
Singapore? Yes, if we have the courage we can together
rebuild a nation – a nation free of fear and one that to be proud
of.
If so, Singapore really deserves immediately nothing less than a
huge dose of “bad” and “incompetent” government and we Singaporeans
must send to the PAP Government in no unintelligible terms
(and in the MM’s words) a “good dose of election signal” by not
voting PAP in the next election.
http://www.temasekreview.com/2010/01/10/yes-singapore-you-deserve-a-dose-of-incompetent-government/