40 years' of progress - used for every year's ND speeches

last SG · 2005-08-10T11:01:14+00:00

At least Singapore's political climate gives rise to subtle and humorous sarcasm.

robertteh SG

PM Lee 2005 ND message keeps talking about past 40 years' of achievements. There is nothing about solving problems like high costs of living or overcoming the lack of technological competitiveness or self-reliance in our domestic sector of the economy.

He is encouraging everyone to stay complacent and remain where they are to be contended with having a good life. (for the elites and upper classes)

I notice that in recent ND messages our leaders have always been talking about past achievements or some difficult external conditions beyond their control and nothing about what we are doing to overcome problems.

There is the same underlying ND message this year - that we have developed, have arrived reminding all how fortunate we are in this or that implying there is nothing to complain or ask for. This has been led by this kind of laid-back mentality year after year over the past 20 years.

There is no sign of building up technological capabilities or restructuring the economic plans in all our major sectors or industries to bring in value-adding advanced models to compete with the world, like Finland, Switzerland, Denmark (despite the smallness and resource scarce economies), Korea, Taiwan etc.

No wonder we are so short of our own economic progress except for world-dependent blips of recovery or corrections of previous downturns for which the government is now claiming to be their doings.

Our leaders who have constantly claimed to be world-class should be forward looking, visionary and able to solve our existing problems as posted and not keeping covering up problems by talking of past achievements. What a look-good kiasu mentality.

PM Lee should solve the 20 major problems with autocracy facing the people as posted:

http://www.ospforohsopolite.blogspot.com

laurence82 SG

And why is it on economy, and not on people too?

Honeybunz SG

On the people will be.... Tell us to make more babies lor!
No money, nevermind. Just make babies.
Not married. nevermind. Just make babies.
Kenna retrenched and no job. All the more nevermind. Just make babies.

robertteh SG

Real talents migrated by thousand per year, so the government is desperate for more babies due to past policy errors - stop at two and graduate mother schemes.

Pro-foreign investment and employment policies become necessary because of over-emphasising pro-elite education in the past neglecting our own vital domestic economic self-reliances or development of our own entrepreneurs.

That is why MOM has to liberalise employment of foreigners to allow semi-qualified foreigners to come in and take over our jobs as talents (our own talents not given first bite of cherries for these jobs).

That is why we are at the hostage of foreigners who can set up any kinds of businesses to undermine our own domestic business viability.

All the government policies are anti-domestic and anti-progress due to the mess created by major policy errors.

Love Story SG

Make babies for who? SAF? I would rather not spoil my children's life and future

drawer SG

Yup,i would also want babies too,but not in Singapore......I hate this god damn government n i dont want my children to suffer under their dictatorship ruling.

ShutterBug SG

KNN (not the air filter for cars); every year same old speech. Glad I'm not watching.

Same sentiments here about babies; I wouldn't want my son end up dead during NS. If daughter? Well, I fear she might just fly away with some of the so many foreigners here, who are taking lower pay for the jobs we could have had.

mochou SG

one old guy told me the following things when we talk about young ppl nowdays always not happy with thier govt/society(not only in singapore).

"before u complain about the society, think how much u have contributed to the society"

"older ppl went thru the hard time to achieve the comfort for the next generations, the second generation still can understand the wat the first generation went thru, but the third generation wont feel much."

"if u think a leader is very lousy, let say u think PM Goh is one lousy leader, go ahead and write an essay with the title "if i am PM Goh". in your essay u should state wat he has done wrong and wat would u do if u were him. But dun talk about problems that have already been solved, talk about how do u solve the problems he and the country is facing now. Publish this essay and see how ppl comments on your essay"

Wat he told me may actually make young ppl feel offended, but i kinda agree to these things that he told me.

sgboy2004 SG

u can complain…but wat constructive suggestions u have???

robertteh SG

Such a view may be too simplistic assuming infallibility of the leaders or government. Today, the third-generation citizens are more educated and know that life is not so simple as to trust the leaders completely. The leaders might have their own agenda like promoting themselves as good talents and elites to enjoy higher pays and all the excessive bonuses like being paid to the CEO in NKF case. There are many problems caused by lack of accountable good corporate government since the 1980s. Unless these problems are solved fast by new policies as posted in the 7 points of true democracy, Singapore will lose out in economic competitiveness in the coming yeas.

The leaders now make claims for creating jobs because of world recovery not their genuine efforts, entrepreneurship or creativity in managing the economy. For more suggestions read the various posts given by forumers.

Cindyfeh SG

No offense mochou.

If you are Chinese and your grandparents migrated to Singapore in the 30's - 50's, try asking them
1. 'what you didn't like about China back then that caused you to migrate?"
2. "What have you contributed to the China soceity when your forefathers fought the Qing dynasty to create Republic of China and fought the Japs?"

Our grandparents are migrants from China, indians, etc. If they can migrate, so can we. Don't let the propagenda affect your thinking. It is your choice to migrate, just as it was in your grandparents' time.

I feel very upset that our gov labelled Singaporeans leaving Singapore as quitters because it will label our grandparents as the same since they left China.

Cindyfeh SG

In reality no leader will say his organisation is in bad shape.

I have stopped listening to the motivational messages by leaders from companies or countries. Why? Because its all creative writing. For another example of creative writing, you can read Enron's ex-CEO letter to the shareholders (year 2000) here: http://www.enron.com/corp/investors/annuals/2000/shareholder.html

To get the best gauge of the financial health of a company, I look at the salaries and the number of months of bonus. The same applies for country. I look at how much money is in my pocket. It is a simple gauge. Others might not agree, saying it is too simple and want to do all the GDP per capital, total wealth, blah blah analysis. In a perfect world with totally honest statistics, those analysis are fine. But in this world, I only trust my own statistics. That is how much $$ I have in my pocket.

robertteh SG

Hello Cindyfeh

Thanks for the enlightened Enron Letter To Shareholders now reproduced below:-

QUOTE: "Enrons performance in 2000 was a success by any measure, as we continued to outdistance the competition and solidify our leadership in each of our major businesses. In our largest business, wholesale services, we experienced an enormous increase of 59 percent in physical energy deliveries. Our retail energy business achieved its highest level ever of total contract value. Our newest business, broadband services, significantly accelerated transaction activity, and our oldest business, the interstate pipelines, registered increased earnings. The companys net income reached a record $1.3 billion in 2000.

Enron has built unique and strong businesses that have tremendous opportunities for growth. These businesses wholesale services, retail energy services, broadband services and transportation services can be significantly expanded within their very large existing markets and extended to new markets with enormous growth potential. At a minimum, we see our market opportunities company-wide tripling over the next five years.

Enron is laser-focused on earnings per share, and we expect to continue strong earnings performance. We will leverage our extensive business networks, market knowledge and logistical expertise to produce high-value bundled products for an increasing number of global customers." UNQUOTE

A country is of course a much bigger social and economic entity than a corporation like Enron. Yet from all the statistical and GDP point of view, the government like Envron seems to be only interested in telling what it wants its citizens to know.

Its ND shareholder report have avoided mention of problems like people's struggles with high costs of living and the shape of the economy ? How long can the government continue to withold truths like the NKF case especially I am sure when it wants to avoid being compared with Enron type of look-good corporate governance.

mistyblue SG

past greatness does not mean future success. Therefore failing to see the issues coming hard and fast ... Ostritch syndrom?
Had a friend who visited egypt and said that the people there kept singing their past glory days of the great kings and pyramids and did not see the current problems and failed to take action in the current times. So their country had to rely on tourist dollar to support them...

Actually ... I no longer care what the govt and sg want to do. I don't think this will be a good place to stay for long.

mochou SG

it's ok Cindyfeh Smile

it's not about migrating, actually he supports the idea of migrating to other countries, he said that watever place that u can earn a better living, have a better life, u can consider going there. It's not about specific country, be it china, sg or watever country in the world, where u are earning a living now, where u should contribute to. Let say one day u migrate to US, u work or do business there, u should contribute to the US soceity.
it's like a "take it or leave it" thing, if u think the govt of your soceity is that bad, just go overseas and get a better life, no point staying there and complain. Unless ur complains can make that soceity better, which not quite possible in singapore with that kind of "freedom of speech".

i agree wat u said about the quitters thing. That makes Lee KY, PM Goh, and all of us with a chinese surname become quitter's son/grandson/great-grandson etc.

"before u complain about the society, think how much u have contributed to the society"
for this, wat he mean is if u think u have done ur part but the soceity is not giving wat u deserve, u should be free to go where u like. But if u are the type that dont do ur part for the nation, u dun deserve anything.

"older ppl went thru the hard time to achieve the comfort for the next generations, the second generation still can understand the wat the first generation went thru, but the third generation wont feel much."
for this, it's very natural that the younger generations dun feel as much, cos they really didnt go thru such times. It's just a fact, he didnt mean to blame us(the younger generation) for not fully understand wat they went thru, but he just wish that we know more, like a rich dad who is not born rich will always want to tell his son how he worked hard in the past to assure such comfortable ilfe for his son now.

"if u think a leader is very lousy, let say u think PM Goh is one lousy leader, go ahead and write an essay with the title "if i am PM Goh". in your essay u should state wat he has done wrong and wat would u do if u were him. But dun talk about problems that have already been solved, talk about how do u solve the problems he and the country is facing now. Publish this essay and see how ppl comments on your essay"
For this, it's actually a very general idea that apply to many areas in life. like in a company, if u think ur boss is a useless bastard, just think if u were him, can u make the compnay better? when u watch soccer, that stupid italian guy with little pony tail cant even shoot on target in that PK shoot out, if u were him, are u sure u can do it with that kind of pressure and do u really have better soccer skill than him?

ya, it' true that no leader will say his organisation is in bad shape, that will drive away the ppl, the ppl that the organisation needs them to make things better. It's the ppl that plays the most important part to make soceity better, not the soceity itself or the leaders. That's why they hide the truth, in order to keep the ppl from going.

mistyblue SG

I've never seen a country that is so against its own people as sg

I've never seen a country that choose to educate its people and yet decide to lock them up in cages.

40 years already... I can only hope the next 40 would be better not worse. But its a wish that might be quite hard to acheive

dragg SG

it is true that the new generation of singaporeans expect too much.

timothytsgsg SG

My own NDP speech to the Singaporeans online here:

Dear friends, fellow citizens, young and old. It's now without a doubt that we have reached a milestone in our youthful country. We are only 40 years old. We are indeed lucky to be here. 40 years ago, no-one would have gave a chance in succeeding- but here we are.

But my dear friends- and even to my opponents, I say this to you: although we have succeeded in the last 40 years, we still have challenges ahead of us. And while I do share the Prime Minister's optimstic view of the future, I do share a big concern that we, as a people, as a nation, we are not doing it together. We aren't walking the talk and we aren't practicing what we preach.

Our challenges in the near and long term future are vast, large and quick. Each challenge will come down so fast that we will not know clearly when it starts and when it ends. Our challenges will need not just the government, but also the people. This means we, as politicians must work together- hand-in-hand, brothers-in-arms, as a community to face the challenges that lies ahead of us.

Our economy, even if it is posting a 3.5% to 4.5% growth- which Mr. Lee has stated just 24 hours ago, has a big problem. The ordinary people are facing rising costs and increasing taxes. In addition, global challenges to the world in terms of economic policy, politics, religious terrorism and increasing oil prices will ensure that the world economy will not be very stable for the short term period.

Another problem is that a 3.5% GDP growth will not benefit every Singaporean as the economic policy now is a "trickle-down" policy, not an "invest-and-grow" policy. As long as the ordinary people- which is you- remains in huge public debt due to increasing costs and taxes, the economic growth will not benefit the ordinary population- especially at a period when unemployment remains at an surprisingly high 5%.

The ordinary people also faces an extraordinary load of challenges in these days as well. In addition to costs, they face problems in their healthcare, in their education and also their jobs. Unlike in the past, where people could have a job which they will find security in, now they face the sack anytime and anywhere. And when they lose it, their immediate future- already cloudly- becomes even worse. While we cannot go back to the days of the iron rice job, we, the politicians, the private companies(both local and foreign) and the people must work together to solve the problem of unemployment.

Because it's true. If a man cannot have a job or can't have a job, not many in a society will view him as a useful person. So it should be our main priority: to help all ordinary Singaporeans find a job with decent pay- so as to allow him and/or his family to survive in these trying times.

That's why, on this day when we got our independence, I only want to hear this: I don't resort to just talking. Because talking doesn't solve anything if you don't do anything. I only ask of this from Singaporeans: If we are to continue to let the future generations to enjoy Singapore in another 40 to 50 years time, then we must work together. Hand-in-hand and like brothers and sisters. There's no-one to waste and no effort wasted. We must recognize ourselves as a community and we are all in this together, and we are all going up or down together.

My fellow Singaporeans, on this day, the 9th of August, let this be our message: To have a brighter future, we are all together as one. Let it be our cause to make Singapore a better place, let it be our cause to give every child in Singapore a country that is coming together, and not coming apart. A country of boundless hopes and dreams, a country that will inspire the rest of Asia and the world once more.

Let it be our cause in this year's National Day and other future National Days and our committments. My fellow Singaporeans: Somehow I still believe in a place and time called Hope. I hope you will too.

God bless Singapore and God Bless you.

SnowFlag SG

I think every year have to watch LKY's 1965 video? Very Happy

mochou SG

u shouldnt, it's a waste to watch it on a plasma TV.
if u insist, i advice u find one old Black and white TV(those u turn the knob to change channel) to watch it.