October 6, 2009 by admin
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By Cheong Wing Lee, Guest Columnist
It has been 50 years since Singapore has been governed by the
PAP under the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew.
Is Singapore better off now than it was 50 years ago?
The answer from most baby boomers is that it is worse.
Despite all the gains in materialism and wealth in the country, the
majority of the ageing population is feeling no better than five
decades ago. Many are stressed out by the anxieties of the
absence of a dignified retirement plan, the affordability of
healthcare and the uncertain future for their children.
Fifty years ago, Singapore was a British Colony under British
rule. The majority of the population neither liked nor disliked the
British. They had no opinion and took it as part of life.
During the colonial days, most of the population then were born
to accept that the white people were superior. The population then
were mostly poor working class, lost without direction and living
from day to day.
Fast forward fifty years to present day Singapore and we find
the majority of the ageing population also neither like nor dislike
the PAP and can’t do anything about it. Most of them were born to
accept that the “Men in White” are superior.
The PAP has over the years designed policies and safe guards to
ensure that the party remains in power indefinitely. The
indiscriminate use of the ISD, rezoning of constituencies,
formation of GRCs, monopoly of the mass media and liberal use of
defamation lawsuits against opponents practically destroyed all
oppositions.
The aging population are generally poor, lost without direction
and like the population fifty years ago, living from day to day,
praying that their savings will be adequate for a decent
retirement.
To PAP’s credit, during the past fifty years,the old guards of
the PAP and MM Lee manage to bring Singapore from an improvised
third world country to the first world status.
I remembered I was then living in a small rented room in a
Chinatown shop-house with only one kitchen, one make shift bathroom
and one pull out bucket toilet. The shop-house was shared with 4
other families with a total of 22 occupants.
Within fifteen years I was able to buy a 5 room HDB apartment
and own a car. For that I was grateful to the PAP, especially the
old guards.
Back then in the seventies, Singapore was bustling with economic
activities brought about by Dr. Goh Keng Swee, then Deputy Prime
Minister, who led the Singapore industrial revolution.
For the next few decades, Singapore was hailed by the world as
an economic miracle . A country without natural resources and yet
able to propel itself from 3rd world status to 1st world status
with one of the highest per capita in Asia.
The country achieved so many “Number Ones”, i.e. No 1 airport,
No.1 container port, No.1 airline, etc, etc. that I lost
count. We were proud as citizens of Singapore.
We were proud of the PAP and we were proud of MM Lee. Many of us
would have died for the country and him. MM Lee would have left a
great legacy for generations to remember.
Ironically the past two decades had eroded that admiration. The
addiction of absolute power has made MM Lee developed a deep craze
to perpetuate his control of Singapore. It was no longer our
country.
Singapore has become his country, his personal property. Our
pledge for justice and equality for all is only but an aspiration
according to him. To MM Lee, only he and the PAP can effectively
govern Singapore.
All others outside of PAP with opposing views are treated as
Public Enemies. Under the disguise of self renewal and recruiting
new blood, the entire group of old guards were retired except for
himself. He brought in young bureaucrats, technocrats, and
scholars who will obey and above all fear him without
questions.
This dream team and MM Lee initiated a series of social
engineering. MM Lee’s dream is to create a perfect society based on
meritocracy. There will be no room for complacency. He wants
Singaporeans to be the best of the best.
In the process of social engineering, Singapore becomes a nanny
state where the government dictates to its citizens what, how and
when to do in every minute aspect of their lives. The ideal dreams
of the ordinary citizens turned to nightmares. The citizens are
hard pressed to perform to the government’s requirements.
The education system was revamped time and again to filter and
segregate the slow learners from the ordinary and the brightest
students at a young age.
The brightest students are given the best education, priorities
and scholarships with promise of top government jobs and top
salaries upon completion of their studies.
These super students are primed to be future leaders of the
country. The slow learners and the ordinary students are thrown to
the lower rungs of the food chain.
The numerous new education policies cause panic amongst parents
who do not want their children to be labeled as slow learners or
mentally challenged.
There is a huge surge for private tuition whereby children are
forced to endure hours of extra studies to keep up or be one step
ahead of the others in their pursuit of academic excellence. The
joy and happiness of growing up as children was robbed.
There was no time for children to be simply children. The
segregation system is based on an unscientific assumption that if
students do not perform well in examinations, they will not do well
in all aspects of their lives.
Maids are hired by almost every household in order for parents
and children to devote more time to studies. The repercussion of
the overuse of maids results in a generation of children not
knowing how to do simple chores like boiling water, washing dishes,
cleaning, hanging a picture frame, changing a tyre, etc. Few
children learn or do anything outside of textbooks. The children
are simply not street smart.
Perhaps the biggest mistake was the “STOP AT TWO” or “Two is
Enough” campaign where citizens were encouraged to stop at only
having two children by curtailing all medical benefits and
educational privileges of the third child.
The successful campaign resulted in a sharp drop in birth rate
and a mass exodus of emigrants who have more than two children.
Even more severe repercussions surfaced two decades later resulting
in the present huge influx of more than one million “Foreign
Talents”, mainly from China and India.
Just when the local citizens thought that they have met the
worst by working as janitors, food courts cleaners and other low
paying jobs, they are now challenged by foreign talents from China
and India who are prepared to work for less.
This challenge now spread to include regular higher paying jobs
like engineers, surveyors, healthcare workers, etc which are
traditionally held by local born Singaporeans.
Companies are openly advertising and recruiting the new foreign
talents in preference to the locals. The reason being that
companies need to stay competitive and be more profitable.
New immigrants or foreign talents are not burdened by national
service and reservist duty which put additional cost to the
companies. Furthermore, new immigrants are willing and able to work
for less pay and longer hours since most of them come to Singapore
by themselves and have no family obligations like the locals.
The entire working environment is working against the local born
Singaporeans. All of a sudden they have become strangers in their
own land.
The country they have sworn to protect has betrayed them. In
desperate times like this, when help and reassuring words from the
government should be forth coming, instead the local Singaporeans
receive advice telling them to lower their expectations. This only
add insult to injury.
What the dream team and high salaried ministers fail to
understand is that the people cannot go lower than low. Just try to
survive on a salary of $2,000 a month or less with a family, then
maybe they may understand the plight of the average
Singaporeans.
For those frustrated Singaporeans who wants to emigrate to other
countries to escape their present hopeless predicament, they are
walking into another brick wall.
Unknown to most of them, new emigrants to countries like
Australia and Canada are also foreign talents who have recently
obtained their Singapore citizenship. It must be heart breaking for
locals to find out that even the last escape route from their
desperate predicament is being challenged by foreign talents who
use Singapore as a stepping stone.
There are potential problems looming on the horizon with this
huge influx of foreign talents, permanent residents and newly
minted Singaporeans. The total number is between 1.6 million to 2
million people under these categories.
These people have no allegiance to the country. Their allegiance
is to money. If they do not get employment, they will not get the
money to send back to their countries to help their families.
The local born Singaporeans are largely of the “kaisu and kaisi”
non-violent type who only complain but continue to vote in the same
government election after election. However, the new immigrants are
more vocal and hostile. These people will not be easily intimidated
and bullied by the authority. The threat of jail to them is like
going to a holiday camp with free food and shelter. They have
endured much harsher penalties and hardships in their own
countries. They are battle hardened and not afraid of dying.
If these people do go on protest riots, it will be a security
nightmare. Logistically, the police does not have enough manpower
to cope with such numbers. Singapore has less than 10,000 regular
policemen. Each policeman has to deal with 200 violent protesters.
No matter how efficient the policemen are, it is an impossible task
even if the reservist NS are called in to help.
On the assumption that these people are contained, there are
simply not enough jails to lock them in. Changi Prison will have to
be increased at least one hundred times in size. The government has
only one solution and that is to keep them constantly employed to
maintain peace.
So when it comes to the question of whether Singapore is better
now than it was 50 years ago, should we be surprised at the
answer?
About the Author:
Cheong Wing Lee is an ex-Singaporean who is now living in
Vancouver, Canada.
Source:
http://www.temasekreview.com/2009/10/06/singapore-from-3rd-world-to-1st-world-to-lost-world/
a great article but some of the points u mention like 2m PR go
on riot is a bit over.
