We the citizens were often told by the government about the
pitfalls of democracy with the government controlled newspapers
carrying many stories of lawlessness and unrests in other countries
turning to democracy like Myanmar, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand,
Indonesia etc.
The way our newspapers reported these unrests is always slanted to
make it look like democracy or free speeches etc were the cause of
unrest and lawlessness.
Is it true that unrests and lawlessness in many countries trying to
turn to democracy were caused by democracy?
Recently when I put up a proposal to the MPs to submit a motion to
parliament to revise the constitution to prevent tweaking of laws
like the GRC or usurping of power of other constituents of
government.
The first response from certain MPs was "we cannot practise
democracy like in the West because democracy has caused unrests and
lawlessness as seen in our neighboring countries like Myanmar,
Taiwan, Philippines trying to follow the path of democracy.
I replied to the MPs concerned that democracy is not the primary
cause of such unrests or lawlessness as assumed by critics of
democracy.
There is a fallacy that many countries which are turning to
democracy have gone worse. The fact is that many of these countries
with or without democracy would be the same due to other reasons
and democracy will not save them from disasters.
Anyway is such a conclusion drawn by our MPs valid? Have our MPs
asked whether these countries will succeed as democracy if they do
not follow the whole of democratic practices including respecting
the independence and accountability of the democratic institutions
like the judiciary and legislative. Is it good enough to claim
democracy just because of government being elected by the popular
votes.
Singapore is a young democracy which has not yet matured and
experienced the substantive goodness of true democracy. For over 40
years our democracy has been used merely as a facade to legitimize
the self-centred agendas of the power that be that happened to take
control of the machinery of democracy to serve their own purposes.
The leaders only claimed democracy on the ground of popular
election but have totally ignored the processes and institutions
needed to be set up and practised for greater accountability and
transparency for good governance.
Our democratic institutions the judiciary and legislative are
unlike the true democracy as practised in successful democracies
are under the control of the executive branch of government given
in to the wishes and desires of one man established as a power that
be, how could we succeed in such democracy.
Today after 40 plus years of democracy our judiciary and
legislative are no longer functional being usurped totally by the
self-serving power that be.
Judges are appointed and promoted by the PM. Defamation suits taken
by the PM against politicians critical of government simply gave in
to all the whims and fancies of the government and many politicians
were practically condemned without any fair trials. Many were sued
for the slightest negative remarks made in the heat of election
campaigning without justice.
MPs and judiciary alike are merely playing second fiddles to the
executive and over time due to the million dollar rewarding of
those who toe the line of the power that be. So there is a lot of
self-interests in such a system depending on who is holding
position of power. Today such abuses can be seen in problems found
in constant tweaking of laws to suit the power that be and many
problems were caused including those seen NKF, Shin Corp, regular
defamation suits against political process etc.
Democracy has been used as a mere facade to allow power that be to
use it to serve their own private gains. Even the one-man-one-vote
election process has been tampered with with some excuses like
racial harmony depriving of the right of citizens to vote the
individual best candidates of their choice. Any one who is a
quality candidate is unable to offer himself or stand for election
unless he finds some similarly minded candidates to jointly offer
themselves in some group representation constituencies.
Citizens however are growing restless with such facade and
hypocrisy as days go by. Every slightest mistakes made by our
so-called world's best ministers paid millions become targets of
mass unhappiness.
No one can blame the citizens for being uncooperative and critical
of the government who is only interested in non-stop taxing and
holding back spending on essential government services with all
sorts of schemes to hoard monies for government's own surpluses
which were finally lost by the billions all over the world in
dubious projects for their own glory and self-praise.
However the citizens are getting more educated and many are well
travelled and have worked overseas with knowledge of what were
happening in other parts of the world. There is no doubt that they
can now see all the flaws of our present political system and it is
a matter of time they will rise up en mass to demand change.
Although our leaders still are trying to paint a picture of success
using the recent recovery of the economy and property sector as
justification to claim continued success, the citizens see things
differently.
The current rosy GDP and property market recovery is merely a blip
due to world recovery while the basic problems remain. The economy
is hollow basically without restructuring to one based on
value-adding upgrading and technology driven start-ups needed to
catch up with rising China, India and Korea etc.
Because of failures in economic restructuring talked about for
years and our weak domestic sector the domestic sector is not doing
well even as foreign investments are attracted temporarily here to
catch up with the past slack due to world recovery. The seriousness
of the situation is such that many graduates especially those
reaching 40s were unable to find jobs. Many are resorting to
migration because of our own sluggish domestic economy.
As a result of many years of wrong policies aimed at promoting
their own elites and causing ever rising costs of living today the
economy has lost its fundamentals. Such failure has forced the
government to open the employment doors to all kinds of foreigners
to come in to take citizens' jobs in order to rescue the falling
economy.
Under such circumstance, citizens will have to think for themselves
and safeguard their own future.
Everything is so fake. For real progress of our little red dot
citizens now have to bear the responsibilities to look after their
own interests. Everything being put up in parliament is only for
show to cover up real problems. It is appeasement exercise now
because of too many unhappiness with rising costs due to
fundamental flaws in policies etc.
Just look at the way Minister Ng Eng Hen is still despite all the
unhappiness of the citizens trying again and again to justify his
open-door employment policies without the slightest consideration
for the citizens' interests and needs. There will be no change and
everything being done will be for show and appeasement with no real
change.
Citizens will have to work very hard to bring about the necessary
change by staying cohesive and united. Only then will the
government be willing to make amends and change.
Under such circumstance, there is no reason why citizens cannot
also invite capable foreigners like the Rudd, Howard, Clinton,
Blair to come in to take over our leaders' jobs which in any case
are over-paid and badly performed.