3/08/2011

Ignoring the people

The flame that is burning in the Middle East is all about the rulers ignoring the people. There you have dictators and kingships and democratically elected leaders who are dictators in all counts of the word ruling the people at their own fancy. The people were just subjects or masses that could be ignored. And the leaders thought they own the people, the country and all its wealth. Now the time has come when the people no longer wanted to be ignored. They are taking their countries back. They are throwing out the dictators and royalties too. It is only a matter of time as the tide has changed. There is no where to hide and no where to run. The ignoring of the people have gone on for too long. Some may want to relate the crisis in the Middle East to the situation in South East Asia, and in Asia, with fingers pointing to China and praying that China should be the next to fall. There are differences. Every country is different. The oppression and subjugation of the people in the Middle East and their standard of living are all grievances that prompted the people to rise against the rulers. Relatively the people in Asia and South East Asia are fairing much better. China is a big contradiction but a country that is making the most progress to improve the livelihood of its people. Many are getting richer by the day and the middle class is growing. China and the Chinese have never seen such good times for several centuries. At the rate it is moving, China is heading towards its golden age. The rest of the western craps like freedom of expression will fall into place as the country grows in affluence and abundance and when everyone is well fed and well clothed. Singapore is another aberration. A little pearl of progress, a little shining light as far as economic growth and material wealth are concerned. Are the rulers here guilty of ignoring the people too? There were some demands, nothing critical, for more transparency. What are the assets worth under the wings of GIC and Temasek? The rulers have explained that for strategic and business reasons, cannot tell. How much assets are the elected President supposed to guard? Too complicated and will take many hundreds of manhours to tell. I think the rulers are still working on it, another work in progress. Both explanations are reasonable from the perspective of the rulers. Then what about the cost of building public housing? So far also no answer. There is no commercial or national consideration to keep this information confidential. Would the rulers tell? The people have been asking for so long and have been ignored for so long until the issue is as good as forgotten. After a few times of being ignored, case closed. Such issues are not life threatening and not telling will not make any difference. There will be no uprising over such minor non disclosures. No need to tell. No problem at all.

8 comments:

  1. Ignore at your own perils, be it the Rulers toward the masses or the peasants no wanting their Rulers to be answerable and accountable. When they ignore each others, it only means there is breakdown in communications and dialogues. That is they don't relate to each other.

    No one can guarantee infinite patience and tolerance, once the limit exceeds, peace and stability will be jeopardize as had happened throughout most regions. Do we have to come to such a state?

    patriot

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  2. A retiree had to undergo a number of diagnostic tests at a restructured hospital on the recommendation of the doctor who suspected that he may be suffering from cancer.

    The man has to pay cash for his medical bills as he could not use his medisave to pay for them. He will have to fork out more in the follow ups that he will be subject to.

    He has money in his Medisave account but he has little cash.

    Why is it so restrictive on the use of Medisave for outpatient medical treatments. If the patient is allowed to use his Medisave, he will have some ready cash, whatever little it may be, for his living expenses.

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  3. > Every country is different. The oppression and subjugation of the people in the Middle East and their standard of living are all grievances that prompted the people to rise against the rulers. <

    Actually there are more similarities than differences, if you look at this objectively.

    Any which way you try to slice it: people govern themselves, so the ruler who abuses his power is no fault of the ruler (he is an asshole, nothing will change him) but the fault of The People for allowing such an individual to rise to a position of control, and then hand over "authority" to that person for him to use at his discretion.

    The People Always Get The Govt They Deserve... and The People occasionally experience "buyer's remorse": the feeling you get when you so look forward to buying something, then you buy it, and after awhile you regret buying it so much you begin to get angry.

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  4. Investors who lost heavily in Lehman product being ignore when questions why Reference Entities such as "Temasek, Singapore Telecom" names being used to lure investors into thinking they are investing in safe product

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  5. Its the mindset as "rulers" that is the problem. They need to know, and so do the electorates, that they are servants. They work for the people, they serve the people. The senior ones are getting 3-4 million in maid levies, for goodness sake.

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  6. Hi DareToAct, welcome to the blog.

    It is all in the mindset. And what is in the mindset grows over the years and with time can be deeply entrenched.

    It is like saying, It's affordable. After sometimes, it just pops out conveniently. And it becomes a true belief, or a religion. Many people here are already believers of this new religion called Affordable.

    And do not disagree with the believers of Affordable. They know that it is the truth. They can afford everything.

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  7. The flame that is burning in the Middle East must sooner or later spread to some ASEAN countries including the Red Dot because of many countless grave injustices to the people. The political leaders repacious greed knew no bounds while the ordinary people by and large come to grip with the tortuous struggle to stay alive with their meager earnings. Once the flame of revolt is lighted no power can stop it until justice is done.

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  8. anon 924:

    > The political leaders repacious greed knew no bounds

    Agreed, so what? They are human. It is not them, per se, but the system. Anyone with that absolute power would do the same: that includes YOU.

    > while the ordinary people by and large come to grip with the tortuous struggle to stay alive with their meager earnings.

    Please lah, you exaggerate. Singaporeans are far better off than those rag-heads in the middle east. Even today -- with inflation and all -- you are better off in Hotel Singapore than you are as an average Jo in Arabia.

    > Once the flame of revolt is lighted no power can stop it until justice is done.

    Revolution? In Singapore? By whom? The docile Singaporeans?

    Get fucking real man!

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