12/10/2007

Throwing caution to the wind

It is necessary to seek alternative views and opinions. People who come out with different views and perspectives are not necessary the devils or trying to spoil the broth. There is a front page article on Ngiam Tong Dow in the Today paper. Ngaim is talking through his vast experience and is cautioning against this unquestioning righteousness and the arrogance of never wrong. He revealed, through hindsight, what had gone wrong of decisions that were then seemed so right and backed up by even Goh Keng Swee. History will vindicate what is right or wrong many years down the road. Many things are being sung tonight as the best decisions and the right decisions. Would they stand up tomorrow as the right things to do? The second point which Ngiam was trying to say, which we all know, is that the realities on the ground are more real than mere statistics churned our by statisticians. We need to read statistics wisely and carefully and not be lulled into a sense of well being when what is happening at the ground level is saying that things are not right. Ngaim's third key concern is the way we are pushing up our population growth. The consequences of what we are doing now at this maddening speed will tell tomorrow. By then it is too late to unwind. And the faster we hit the 6 million mark, the faster we will hit recession. Unless we continue to pursue population growth as an engine of growth and do not stop at 6 million. The question is what then when 6 million is reached? The convinced and believers will just believe blindly. But we need the doubters, the non believers to tell the other side of the story.

5 comments:

  1. The fault lies at the very root of representative govt. (Govt for the people, by the people, which leads to the HARD OBJECTIVE TRUTH : The Sheeple get the govt they deserve.

    You have a population who WILL NOT COOPERATE VOLUNTARITY to deliver services like transport, housing, healthcare, defense, justice, education etc., and so it is decided that a state be formed and a govt elected by the people put in place to manage the state and deliver these "services".

    And thus, throughout human political history you get *every* govt telling the masses that it is CORRECT: Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Regan, Nixon, Marcos, Soekarno, Suharto, Bush I, Bush II, Castro, Chavez, Musharaf, ... and of course The Lee's PAP.

    All of these adminstrations had one thing in common, despite their variations in political leanings: A FIRM BELIEF THAT WHT THEY ARE DOING IS RIGHT — objectively and morally and in the interest of the nation. If an administration is "open to ideas" it is seen to be politically WEAK.

    Arrogance is a strength, not a weakness when it comes to governing. You must do what you think you ought to do, regardless of other "opinion". In fact, it might be wise to SILENCE any opposition to your views. In human history, the silencing of opposition is all too common.

    So, no amount of belly aching on or off the net will change this. Remember, that a VAST MAJORITY (sheeple) believes the PAP is RIGHT.

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  2. Zzz...
    Put it this way... all big talks, but who really cares?

    If people think PAP is bad, how much better are those people in the first place...?

    Actually, who in Singapore is good? I so interested to know.

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  3. everything is relative. also, there is no absolute goodness or badness. nothing is all good or all bad. event he good food or vitamins you are taking are good in some ways and bad in some ways.

    only one is good. unless you are one.

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  4. Well, taking things to the other extreme - if you had real representative government, then all opinions be it good or bad would carry equal weight.

    When the majority rules and populism is in full swing - heck, just look at how Western democracies are tottering.

    Churchill once said, "Democracy is the worst form of goverment, except those which have been tried from time to time."

    Heh, whatever political system you have in place - the root problem still lies with HUMAN BEANS.

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  5. anon 904

    > Heh, whatever political system you have in place - the root problem still lies with HUMAN BEANS. <

    Exactly.

    Where did the govt come from anyway?

    From Mars? Uranus? Heaven? Hell?

    Of course not.

    The people who govern a society come from exactly the same social stock as the population it governs. And they bring with them all the cultural beliefs, the social memes, the zeitgeist....and now something new is added whcih sets these "same" people apart from the rest fo the population:

    ABSOLUTE POWER. (transparency and accountability optional)

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