Woke up today and saw this comment:
RH: You are right to be disappointed with the fake elections LKY holds. He and his PAP RIG ELECTIONS!
My blog, entitled “I came, I saw, I solved it” proves that LKY and PAP rig elections.
That about says it all for the system that enslaves us.
Robert HO
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I decided to reply to the comment as a blog post. The first thing I must say is that Mr Robert Ho has misunderstood what I wrote earlier in my post about the NKF and the wisdom of crowds. I would like to clarify something.
I am disappointed at the state of the way we use elections as a mechanism to keep our government in check. I am disappointed in us - the people! While I understand and appreciate that the government has created an environment which has suited them (i.e. GRCs and the issue of HDB upgrading) it is us who has allowed the environment to thrive.
There are a lot of points to discuss here but I will talk about one - the issue of upgrading. There are those who do not like the fact that the government ties the issue of HDB upgrading to the elections by using it as an incentive to vote for them. The arguments for this is many and can easily be found so I won’t go into them. But with elections as a mechanism, the people could have rose above this and told the government, ‘NO. We won’t play by these rules. There are more important things then just getting our place upgraded and you have not addressed them!’.
Sadly, that is not the case. I feel in Singapore a good number of us are swayed by such short term incentives. And as long as we continue to vote because of what we are being offered in the short term, elections is nothing more than us going for a handout. While there are disgruntled people about the state of affairs, the fact that the PAP still receives a majority of votes show that most people think along a certain lines and are willing to have the PAP as our government despite the negative aspects. And so, my first point is that we have used elections to show the PAP what we are willing to accept and not what we want to be changed and they will continue to honour that.
Which goes to my next point. With respect to Mr Robert Ho, his blog merely suggests the PAP rigged elections and offered some ‘evidence’ that they did. He has not proved it. He has inferred certain things and while they are convincing, it is not proof.
Finally, I do not think the system we have in Singapore enslaves me. There are things I do not like, but there are many things that I do. I am not from a privileged family. I appreciate what the government has been able to do over the years, creating an environment in which I can go to school, study, learn and know so much about this world that I live in. I appreciate the stability that we enjoy here. I appreciate the fact that my female friends can go home late and we can be reasonably sure they will reach home safely. I appreciate a lot of things Singapore can offer and to me, it is because of what the government has done.
Does that mean they are perfect? No. Wanting certain things to be different and probably better is not to be mistaken with mere opposition. Let us not fall into the trap of being merely oppositions in the sense when they say left, we say right. Sometimes they might be correct and right only leads into an abyss.
Wilsonbb | 15-Jan-07 at 4:22 am | Permalink
Well I cant agree with your point that HDB upgrading is a “short term incentives”. Did Hougang receive any upgrading since 1991? I guess not. To me 15 years is not a “short term”.
Although my home address is hougang ****** but it falls under pasir ris-punggol , and my area is beautiful, with new playground, gardens and is fully sheltered from one hdb to another.
It is a big contrast to the HDBs across the street which are old and dirty.
its a “guarentee” that you wont have HDB upgrades or other benefits if your mp is from opposing party.
I agree with you, singapore is a safe place to live. No government is perfect, but hopefully they will think bigger and rule singapore like a nation instead of a company. Hougang residents are still singaporeans.
iantimothy | 15-Jan-07 at 4:46 am | Permalink
Hello Wilson. I understand what you mean. My grandfather is living in that estate which you are talking about and I can tell you that I feel very strongly that Hougang residents should be treated as Singaporeans no matter who is their Member of Parliament. My grandfather is old and has difficulty in walking.
That estate can be considered an old estate and have a good number of senior citizens and if there ever is an estate that needs a lift on every floor, that estate is one of them. My grandfather fell down sometime ago because he couldn’t walk properly and had to be hospitalized. He didn’t fall walking down or up the stairs but on normal ground. Can you imagine the worry we face when he has to leave the house? Being stubborn, he does not want to move house.
When I said ’short term incentives’ I meant that as a nation who vote for PAP to get such incentives as HDB upgrading, we are trading off the ability to tell the government via the election mechanism that we want more things (not necessarily monetary/financial/property benefits) from our government in the long term. If we all had refused to vote for them just because of upgrading, the government would have realised they cannot just dangle such a carrot. They would have seen us as a nation who would be willing as a people to give up our own upgrading for our estates because we see such carrots as an injustice to fellow citizens in opposition wards. But we do not do that. Our thinking is if I don’t vote, but other people vote, then I lose out cos PAP would still come into power anyway. And so we vote no matter how indignant we may be. And we lose the long term rewards of having a government who would really treat all of us equally, whatever the outcome of the elections.
I know this is naive and idealistic but I am still young and I can afford the heart. Maybe when I am old, it would be foolish to think like this, as it would show I have no brain.
Having said all the above, to be fair, not all of us just vote for the PAP because of upgrading. In my opinion, they are still the best people for the job when you consider the party as a whole.
JasonL | 15-Jan-07 at 2:23 pm | Permalink
The line “they are still the best people for the job when you consider the party as a whole” triggers some misgivings in my heart. I will not deny that they have done reasonably well as a whole, well most of it. But I cannot say they are the best people around. They have done their jobs with cold precision, that is all I say. They ensure that Singapore does not become a “third world”. A stable country presents good opportunities for growth. But the question is to maintain this stability, how many of our liberties that they have to take from us to achieve it.
Carrots for our liberties, anyone?
Jason L