The Dignity of Jobs
The 2020 budget was big on preserving jobs. That is so LKY. He did not just preserve them. He created them. Since 2011, the govt has been giving out money to every Singaporean. I have never been a fan of that. People do not want patronage. They want a political system that makes it possible for them to work and provide for their families, with dignity and self-respect.
Education: The Social Leveller
The 2020 budget was big on education. That is so LKY too. I have a friend (a respected auditor) who recounted to me his childhood living in an attap house, with a zinc roof. The Husband too, lived in a home where the toilet was a bucket system 15m away from the main house. made of wood. Both men owe their lives today, to LKY's education spending.
In the decade of the 2000s, the education system changed to this Teach Less Learn More b**shit, where kids with parents who could afford tuition could learn more outside school whilst the teachers taught less inside schools. As a result, rich people's kids did well. Poor people's kids did not. The Husband, who grew up in a wooden house and a bucket system toilet, would never have done well in such an education system.
Singaporeans First
LKY's government really did not care how people viewed it. It never hosted any Youth Olympics, nor any Formula 1, nor any Trump summit. Yet, just by focusing on looking after Singaporeans, LKY became a statesman respected throughout the world.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Health has told all healthcare providers in Singapore to reject foreign patients. This is to protect our healthcare resources from being overburdened by rich Indonesians. Wow! Since the 1990s, the PAP has been known as the government who sees money and face bigger than citizenry.
For me, it is mindblowing that the PAP government is saying "No" to rich people in order that even poor Singaporeans with Covid19 can be cared for. This is not something I expected of today's PAP. After all, this is the government who spent $20 million to host Trump and Kim Jong Un just to look good internationally. Face bigger than citizenry mah...
When I read that news, my thought was, "Let us not look good. Let us BE good." A woman who wears $8 t-shirts and $5 shorts cannot understand how one can spend $20 million just to look good. If Singapore needed to spend $20 million to look good just to be able to attract investments, I wonder how Phillip Yeo built the JTC.
Last week, without having to spend a single cent on branding nor marketing, our very own Lee Hsien Loong has been lauded globally as a statesman worthy of respect for his leadership of Singaporeans through the dark days of the Covid19.
- I watched Trump HERE.
- I watched Malaysia's Health Minister HERE.
- I watched Lee Hsien Loong HERE.
Like LKY, we did not have to spend money to look good. We ARE good. So, the world is singing our praises. For the first time in 20 years, I am actually proud of my Prime Minister.
Reagan-Thatcherism
From around the Year 2000 to 2011, Singapore politics lost its way in Reagan-Thatcherism. I blogged about it HERE in 2013. The Reagan-Thatcherism influence actually started in the 1990s. In 2013, thought leaders like Kishore Mahbubani began to question Reagan-Thatcherism. Reagan-Thatcherism influenced policy right across the Ministries. MOE began to look like a band of small time businesses competing for student share, with the top schools getting the best resources and wealthiest clientele. Certificates of Entitlement filled the roads with cars whilst the effectiveness and efficiency of shared resources such as buses became steadily eroded, and the rail network aged steadily from month to month.
Reagan-Thatcherism is all about enriching the top so that the top can lift the bottom. The past 2 decades have shown that when the rubber meets the road, this sexy idea skids right off the cliff. Useless!
When you bless the rich, the rich exploit the poor. Our Gini coefficient crept higher and higher.
Feeling Positive About Singapore
For the first time in 2 decades I feel very positive about the future of Singapore as a country and a home. Of course, I don't expect the way forwards to be easy. It was never easy for us, anyway. However, with leaders who now see citizenry bigger than money and face, the future holds hope.
Covid19 has thrown up some heroes.
Covid19 has thrown up some heroes.
We have Chan Chun Sing, who talks like a Private, but leads like the General he is. I just wish he were more handsome, and taller. Heh!
We have Ong Ye Kung, who has always appeared to me, to be a politician of conviction. In 2016, he was the first campaigning politician to NOT attack the opposition. Instead, he called for unity. Ong Ye Kung has beliefs. He tells us what he believes. That way, I know what he stands for. It is hard to trust a politician who speaks what the public wants to hear. So, Ong Ye Kung has explained the reasoning why schools are staying open. This is leadership. He is not just leading his Ministry. He is leading all parents. This one is quite handsome.
LKY was handsome too, you know! To my eyes, he stayed handsome right up to his 90s.
LKY was handsome too, you know! To my eyes, he stayed handsome right up to his 90s.
Still, I would prefer to vote in The Hunchback of Notre Dame over Justin Trudeau (hands down the most handsome Prime Minister in the world) if it meant that we can have LKY's brand of socialism back again.
No More Silos
Best of all, it has been a long time since it was clear that the Singapore government works as one. When I saw how closely HDB was building flats to the MRT tracks, and then noise barriers had to be erected (that reduced the walking space for technicians working on the tracks), I wondered if the Minister of Transport in the decade of the 2000s, worked well with the Minister of National Development, or did both leave their Ministries to run without interfering. After all, there was a particular Permanent Secretary who famously went on long leave to earn a Cordon Bleu certificate, saying that his Ministry would run well without him. The Ministry could for sure run but when the top man is absent, inter-Ministry work will suffer. No wonder it seemed to me that the government was functioning like separate silos.
When problems appeared on pathways in HDB estates and people had to run from PUB to NEA to HDB, unable to find a solution, I wondered if the top government servants left the silos to run on their own, instead of playing their part to co-ordinate between the silos reporting to them.
When problems appeared on pathways in HDB estates and people had to run from PUB to NEA to HDB, unable to find a solution, I wondered if the top government servants left the silos to run on their own, instead of playing their part to co-ordinate between the silos reporting to them.
Seeing how all the Ministries have pulled together seamlessly through Covid19 gives me great joy, immense confidence and hope.
How To Vote
Elections are coming. I would still hate to see a parliament with no opposition, though. I have not forgotten how my right to vote for a President in 2017, was just whisked away from me. I have not forgotten that the PAP lost its way for 2 decades. I am scared that it will happen again. What if PAP loses its way again, and there is no opposition to speak up for us?
Tell me something to take this fear away.
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