Besides swearing to the defend the
Constitution, also included in the Oath of Allegiance is to obey
the President of Singapore - (who so far has always been a PAPa's
Man). If I am not mistaken, the pledge also require the swearing of
allegiance to the Government of Singapore.
Did MM LKY make any admission that 'Singapore needs a system' ?
I would not count on any news report in the free handout of
TODAY', which is a
misnomer as it reports only 'yesterday's news.
In the large tabloid The Straits
Times - which one has to pay, not handed out free - its
front page highlighted :
S'pore must preserve its
system of govt: MM
This statement is straight forward enough to mean that the
'status quo' shall be
maintained till eternity.
The aritcle went further in reporting :
"My ambition, having created this Singapore, is to preserve the
system that produces the answers we must have as a society to
survive," he said yesterday.
"MY hope is that there will be a government that is equal to the
job, as the PAP was," said Mr Lee, referring to the ruling People's
Action Party he co-founded in 1954.
"We have structured the system such that a competent group which
gets in will find a machine that works. Don't tinker with it. Run
the system properly on the basis of merit, not nepotism, and you
will always find a way out of the problem."
"My ambition is not to preserve the PAP," he
added.
If the above is not an attempt to
preserve the 'Old Ways'
instead of evolving an institutional system that meets with the
aspiration of the people in the 21st Century, what else can be more
obvious.
Will a winning team - that creates the ground rules to ensure its
monopolist susccessess, bother to change those ground rules to
adapt to the current societal challenges ?
The last statement must be the best understatement of the Year' - coming
from LKY, and probably intended for the consumption of the
delegates attending the IMF / World Bank conference.
Can we believe him in this seemingly altruistic statement ?
Of some concern to all Singaporeans is MM LKY's insistence
that :
the problem with Singapore was that it had "now reached a very odd
stage" - an electorate which wants the PAP in power, but also an
opposition to "squeeze" the Government.
"Well, that's all right. But if they become the government, that's
real trouble," he added.
"Our problem really is how to make the electorate sufficiently wise
and sophisticated to understand that these are the limits."
Beyond the limits, he painted two dark paths: one, which would
happen in the absence of the Elected President (EP) to protect the
reserves from rogue regimes, is a military coup.
"Without the Elected President, if there's a freak result,
within two to three years the
army would have to come in and stop it," he warned. "And once you break that, by military
intervention, you have destroyed a system which works on the basis
of who was voted into office."
Two, even with the EP, a corrupt government can still bankrupt the
country:
"Even with the Elected President, if they (the opposition) win a
second time, the reserves are open, because they can then arrange
for their president to be elected and the country comes to a
grinding halt," he said.
He believes the present opposition parties, if they became the
government, would cause Singapore to collapse.
"You have seen the candidates who have turned up. If they win, this
place goes down. And nobody doubts it," he said.
He added: "The day we can produce an opposition of the same quality
as us, that day we are in a safer condition."
The problem, he said is that the opposition, unlike the PAP, has
been unable to "induce" people of top quality to join
it.
Is the truth now not made more
obvious, in LKY's earlier efforts to ensure that the Heads of the
Civil Services, Judiciary, SAF and Police Force will be
constitutionally protected, and any new government of the day - that is
elected by the Citizens - will NOT have the authority to remove
these persons from their position of authority.
Can these heads of the various civil and military groups stay
neutral and commit themselves to their pledge of allegiance.
If ever the day comes when the PAP gets voted out of office, will
it be prepared to relinquish power gracefully, or will it resort to
the 'scorch earth policy'
of Third World Politicians ?
This uncalled for remarks from MM LKY begs the question : if LKY
intend for the PAP to utilise the SAF to create a 'Coup de'tat to regain political
power, IF EVER the day comes, when Singaporeans decide that they
have enough of the Lee's ?
The weakness of the Singapore system is quite obvious, as there is
no clear institution that is 'not
perverted' by the presence of a PAP person in the Civil
Service, the SAF and the Police Force.
This present situation is caused by the PAP refusal to acknowledge
that there are personalities, who are more capable than those whom
they have recruited, and have largely declined participation in the
political process.
Some who have decided to be involved and have decided to work with
the opposition - to present themselves as the Alternatives Solution
to the PAP - have been faced with abusively derogatory treatment
from the PAP members, and with a mentor to lead them in the worst
political behavior in the able LKY.
Is MM LKY justifying his position in the light of the big wigs from the World Bank and IMF
being in town ?
LKY's methods and history is familiar to those leading the World
Bank and the IMF; and the most telling criticism was said by World
Bank President Mr Wolfowitz - arising from the banning of the 27
Civil Society Activists :
Singapore would have to decide whether to show it was
"authoritarian' or "at the stage of success they have reached, they
would do much better for themselves with a more visionary approach
to the process".
Put it in plain local English :
"Either you are a Third World Authoritarian Country", or "if you
claimed to have arrived as a member of the First World, then it
will serve yourself well by taking part in the process as a member
of the First World".
