no way! our extraordinarily talented pap only has lessons to
impart but nothing to learn from others.
Singapore-Israel
A political comparison
Former Israeli PM Simon Peres explains why Labour Party lost the
election in 1977, in which Littlespeck reader sees a lesson for
PAP.
Dec 1, 2007
By Double Take
Dear Chiang Nee
I have just finished reading a very interesting book entitled
Battling for Peace, the memoirs of Shimon Peres, a Polish Jew who
grew up in Russia and left for Palestine in the early
thirties.
He was three times prime minister of Israel and was (as Israeli
foreign minister) a joint Nobel Peace Prize winner together with
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat in
1994.
In the chapter New Society, he tried to explain why the Labour
Party, which had ruled Israel from its inception in 1948 to 1977,
lost the general election to the Likud Party.
He wrote: In my opinion, there was an accumulation of events and
processes that together brought about Labours downfall. In
general, movements of social reform reach peaks and then slowly
sink into sloth and fatigue.
Power provides comfort and security, but it also steadily erodes
and corrupts. People in power begin to enjoy the trappings and
benefits of power, often falling into self-pity and
self-justification.
They harp on how hard they work and on how heavy a responsibility
they must shoulder.
They become insensitive to one of the infallible principles of
politics in a democracy: the more one enjoys wielding power, the
likelier one is to lose it
.
Party machines and party hierarchies, created originally to serve
the noblest goals, become bloated and parasitical in the eyes of
the people
.
The fire that burned in the bones of the founding fathers abated
with time.
Even these great social experiments (the collective kibbutz and
co-operative moshav) began to pall, radiating elitism, selfishness
and apathy, rather than concern for and involvement in the problems
of society.
In the early years of its independence, Singapore looked to Israel
for some lessons in survival. Peres mentioned Singapore twice in
the book although he did not say if he ever visited our island
state.
But the words quoted above, although written about Israels
politics, seem to be frighteningly and eerily appropriate in
describing Singapores current situation.
This is because words such as self-justification, insensitive,
parasitical, elitism, selfishness and apathy seem to be
similarly heard in our coffee shop talk.
Historically, Singapore has been in much less danger of
annihilation than Israel.
Thankfully too, Singapore has never fought a war. Yet Israel has a
functioning democracy, which allows opposing political parties to
replace each other in government.
What has stopped Singapore from enjoying this luxury?