8/21/2006

hsien loong's national day speech

A little light moment to remember. The most animate moment when he mentioned the name of Lim Kim San, he instinctively looked skyward to see if Kim San was there looking at him. I don't think he choreographed that. And anyone want to buy him mee siam, please don't. Mee siam apparently is not his favourite food. He didn't know that 'hum' do not go with mee siam. Now what is interesting in his speech, things that forumers will want to know? He spent quite a bit of time talking about the digital age and cyberspace. He discussed about how and why they did that to Mr Brown and the need to engage the people in cyberspace. He came out really fired up about this. But this is an area that he wants to do something differently but did not know how. This is best described by him quoting Deng Xiaoping, groping for rocks, one at a time while crossing a river. A case of wanting to let go, to engage the people but not having a formula to do it. Much as he wanted to talk to the people, or for his ministers/ministries to talk to the people, the big stick is still in his hand. He invited criticisms, and even talking about debate. But would there be any debate? In his view there was debate in Mr Brown's case when MICA responded. If that was the kind of debate that we are going to see, then one can expect nothing new. He talked about the new digital age and how to respond to this new challenge. But would the ministers/ministries think they are up to it to debate or discuss an issue over cyberspace? So far only one senior officer from the Foreign Ministry had the confidence to respond by writing back to Gayle Goh in her blog. Would there be more to follow suit and talk to the people instead of talking down to the people, or using the big stick? We will have to wait and see how they go about groping around, and carrying a big stick.

2 comments:

  1. Pm lee knows less people is going to vote for PAP , so he start to bring more new voters or immigrates to add to his future vote... i worried about more crowded mrt trains and SBS buses with so many new people or so called " talent"... our citizenship is not for sale or lay long(great singapore sale), understand MR PM .
    his new immigration policy will only result in more social problems and social friction among the races... what about social impact on our community?
    what is the difference beteween singapore chinese and chinese chinese? is ba ba a singapore chinese? why put more label on singaporeans and trying to divide us .... he is going worst and crazy ... trying all sick ways to stay in power...

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  2. hi cornered singaporeans,

    welcome to the blog. your choice of name is a reflection of how some singaporeans feel, cornered and no where to run. we used to have this sandwich squeeze. now we will face this population squeeze and foreigner squeeze.

    the intake of foreigners is not necessary a bad thing. there are many reasons for bringing in foreigners. one needs to be cautious as every decision has a cost. too rapid changes to our society will definitely be stressful to the people and system.

    now the strategists and planners probably have concluded that we need 6-8 million for us to be viable. they may be right, and may be wrong too. two child policy was right at one time and awfully wrong today. the premises used to plan for the future are as uncertain as the future.

    i think we are being too ambitious to grow like hongkong. the hinterland for hongkong is different from out hinterland. our hinterland might be there. they may build huge housing estates to sell to us. but they are also prepared to let them go to waste when they woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

    yes we are cornered, and squeezed.

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