the people is not your enemy

Tan Soo Khoon is in the best position to offer a balanced advice to his new and old comrades. Be humble, respect people who disagree and not to question their motives and live a normal life. Being out of the system, no longer entrenched in it and with the vested interest of preserving and protecting the system and policies, it is easier for Soo Khoon to look at the whole picture as a bystander. It is always clearer from that angle. Be humble may be asking too much when one is already told that he/she is the best, the cream of society. It is ok to have that wow feeling, just don't get too swell headed. It is difficult to be surrounded by power and wealth and to live like an ordinary man who has nothing. Good, live it up, but stay rooted to the ground. Accepting different views and knowing that there will always be people who disagree with you is a sign of wisdom and humility. Unless one still believes in being god, supreme wisdom, and unquestionable. As for motives, there are those who have real bad motives. There is no doubt about that. But not everyone harbours evil thought. If that be the case, all those gossipers in the kopitiams should be put away. And there are thousands of them, and the taxi drivers or officer workers. Everyone has something to say, good or bad. Only when it arrives at your ear or not. Or is it preferable to pretend that there is no disagreement by shutting one's ears or cutting off people who say something unacceptable? Living a normal life, continue to drink coffee in the kopitiam may have to go. Not realistic because of time pressure, the activies and the bulging pocket. But there will be opportunities to sit in the kopitiam with the grassroots. Plenty of opportunities to do so. But do not pretend that the kopitiam is still the natural habitat. What is most important is not to see the people as your enemy. The communists like to swim as fishes among the sea of people. The people is there to provide the props and support to raise a leader higher. Cutting off the people with the slightest annoyance will eventually destroy the connection between people and leaders. A few more cases of brown soup will definitely draw a clear line between the ruler and the ruled and the widening of the divide.