Originally posted by The Barracuda:
Disclaimer : I was not at the forum. I did not write this
article also. 
[b]'Climate of fear' a hot feedback
topic
This perception and the political apathy among S'poreans are raised
at forum
By Rebecca Lee
A FRESH graduate, he was unafraid to ask the first question at a
public dialogue.
But the request he made before he posed the question gave a
foretaste of the subject that was to dominate the dialogue last
night between Singapore's youths and a Cabinet minister.
He asked the media not to publish his comments.
He did not give a reason for his fear, but it symbolises the
climate of fear in Singapore that impedes public debate, said many
among the 150 attending the two-hour forum organised by the
Feedback Unit. The topic was whether today's Singaporeans are truly
apathetic.
Whether real or perceived, the participants agreed that the climate
of fear is a root cause for the political apathy in
Singapore.
Singapore does not have a culture that encourages political debate
and differing views, said the graduate from the National University
of Singapore.
'The signal one gets is that if you have a different view, you will
get into trouble,' he said, pointing to the current defamation suit
against opposition party leader Chee Soon Juan by Senior Minister
Goh Chok Tong and Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.
It prompted Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, Mr Lim Swee
Say, to explain at length on the need for a politician especially
to defend his personal integrity, as he needs to gain the trust of
the people in order to mobilise them.
Mr Lim was quick to add, to the group of youths aged between 17 and
30, that he does not expect them to agree with him fully.
The assurance notwithstanding, Mr Viswa Sadasivan, who chaired the
meeting at the Singapore Polytechnic, said that even if the fear
was irrational, the perception is worrying and ought to be
examined.
The need to create a more level playing field in politics so that
opposition parties are not stymied was another issue which
generated much debate.
One said the redrawing of electoral boundaries before a general
election created a non-level playing field while another said the
nine-day period of election campaigning was even shorter than that
for the election of student councillors at her junior
college.
Other issues the youths raised included the need for more critical
thinking in schools, the need for the media to use the space it has
more creatively, and for a distinction to be made between the
People's Action Party as a political party and as the
Government.
An executive in a multinational company questioned the Singapore
system, in which scholarship holders seem to be put on the fast
track to success, undermining the meritocracy that this society
professes to value.
Mr Lim countered by recounting his personal experience. His swift
rise at the Economic Development Board and later becoming a
minister was not handed to him on a silver platter.
He said he got where he was in his career through hard work. 'For a
simple reason. I can't even speak proper English,' he said,
professing that he can't even pronounce the letter 'R'
properly.
[/b]
I find this answer by LIM very interesting "on the need for a
politician especially to defend his personal integrity, as he needs
to gain the trust of the people in order to mobilise them." DO YOU
GAIN THE TRUST OF THE PEOPLE by instilling FEAR in them? 
On his other remark "'For a simple reason. I can't even speak
proper English,' he said, professing that he can't even pronounce
the letter 'R' properly ", obviously not everybody who speak proper
English had a "swift rise" in EDB. Reading it the other way, he
seems to say that "scholarship holders can have a swift rise to the
top even if he can't speak proper English. 
everybody in EDB work hard also you know,
minster minister....be fair to them.
