Tony Tan’s presidential address in Parliament

Tony Tan said many things in Parliament in his opening address and there will be many follow up comments on what he said. He wanted the govt to do many things. What he has laid out are the bones, a broad framework and the govt would need to flesh them out with the details. That is the frightening part and I already have seen one, flashed in the media like Santa Claus in coming to town six month early. All I can see is nothing good. I will write about it subsequently in another post.

What Tony said in brief is that the Govt has screwed up big time and need to reflect on the failed policies and to rework on them. And he has laid them out, the areas that the Govt must redeem itself, to address the ills it has created in recent years. Ouch, no one sees it this way, and all were thinking that everything was fine and Tony was just reading a brief written for him and means nothing.

Another thing Tony made it very clear is that it is all about Singaporeans. In his speech, he has never mentioned a single word, the most offensive word in today’s context, about ‘locals’. Tony has made it doubly and triply clear, that it is about Singaporeans and those jokers that have been sputtering the word ‘locals’ better take heed. I hope Tony really meant what he said and the Govt takes note of this and erase the word ‘locals’ from their vocabulary and reports.

What else did Tony said? Oh, he touched on the political debate that is going on, where else but in TRE and cyberspace. He acknowledges that it was good and healthy for a constructive debate to improve the lives of Singaporeans. Destructive and crude attacks are not the right thing to do as they would distract the readers from the real issues. When people start to attack other people personally and viciously instead of addressing an issue, the debate ends there. The other party will just ignore what is being said and walk away. For a constructive debate to carry one to a fruitful ending, both sides must feel comfortable to engage. Confrontation politics is bad and must be discouraged.

Now this last sentence is a tricky one. Some opposition politicians have stood up to defend themselves. And some ruling party politicians have spoken smugly and derisively about opposition politics as if Tony was telling the opposition politicians off. Wait a minute. Is Tony addressing this confrontational politicking at the opposition? Who are the real culprits that have been indulging in confrontational politics? Who have been hitting below the belt, using all means and power to attack viciously at their opponents? Don’t look at me. Read Tony’s comments and ask yourself, are you the guilty one? Don’t always presume that it is always the other party that is at fault. Historical evidences and facts pointed to one direction, when politics were confrontational, vicious and destructive, you know who came up on top and who were the victims. Like that also cannot see, or still so thick, thinking that only other people must be at fault, and self is always an angel.

Tiok boh? Or did I read Tony wrongly?

Kopi Level - Yellow