But do you think the PAP has many outstanding people?
great question.
however, they certainly have well qualified, hard
gelled, side-parting technocrat who chalked up more paper
qualification than their years of service in their fold. their
servitude to the country is questionable since they will only work
if their pay is comparable to that of the (hi-end pay scale)
private sectors. never mind if they were to go out to the private
sector, probably half of them could not command the kind of
(obscene) pay scale they are getting now.
has one ever wonder what can happen to singapore if a
credible alternative voice is allowed to flourish? obviously
it is a moot question here.
analogically speaking, if prez bush were to changed its
constitution to allow for perpetual rule to himself, shut down
opposition forcibly, and declare any opposing views as threatening
to national security, starts to put his own people into his
circle of fiefdom, e.g. senior bush as president menthol, his
florida gov bro as defence secretary, etc., the usa will be
walking a narrow plank to national disaster. but of course, this
will not happen as the constitution and the political process
there protects this freedom of vote of the people. the reverse is
also true here in singapore.
in the current day and age, i have yet to witness any
meltdown of a developed country because of a change in political
leadership. the reverse is also true. it is those who
perpetuate their rule that is doing the country & its
people a huge disservice. think north korea, myanmar and
zimbabwe. you could also argue that singapore is still pretty much
3rd world from a political point of view since we still try to
cling on to absolute rule.
the question of whether there is (credible) opposition in
singapore is a postscript. the question we should ask
first is why such heavy-handed demonization of
the opposition is practiced by a so-called rational, level
headed crop of leaders? if we can practise and tolerate diversity
in religion, race, etc., why not political viewpoints? and the
bigger question we should ask ourselves is, why this current
government is setting up the country for failure? never say
`never', so the eventuality will happen. political winds
of change will come sooner or later; and when it happens, this
small, fragile, land locked, resource poor island will be
ill-prepared for this and come down hard with a loud thud. or
if by some freak results, the MIW loses its majority, can singapore
brace itself to continue on with minimal disruption? probably not,
all thanks to the kind of political process we have now.
either way, singapore loses.
