The burden of Mao’s Thoughts versus Lee’s Hard Truths

China’s leaders of today lived through an era imbued with Mao’s Thoughts. The overly powerful leader in Mao turned him into a godlike figure where his words were as good as gospel truths. The lives of the Chinese population centred around reading, reciting and living the thoughts of Mao Zedong, for good or for bad.

Mao was the ideolog and his thoughts were in many cases idealistic ideologies. China was thrown into turmoil when the young followed the thoughts of Mao blindly and religiously. Many suffered, many lives were lost, arts and cultures were burnt and destroyed.

Then came Deng Xiaoping who brought some realism and pragmatism into the lives of the Chinese, moderating the extremes of Mao’s Thoughts and made them more relevant to the new realities of a new world. In the tussle between ideologies and pragmatism, China found a middle path to modernization. The thoughts of Mao are still there, vivid in the minds of the present day leaders, but in most cases, for recitation and to respect the great leader. In practice, Mao’s Thoughts were furthest in the minds of the new leaders in China.

A leader that has acquired a stature that is undisputed and held in awe could do good and also harm to the people and country. Blindly following old thoughts that have gone irrelevant is a recipe for disaster.

Singapore has a similar all powerful and influential leader in LKY, a deity like figure that still lives in the lives of many Singaporeans. LKY is still very influential in the lives of Singaporeans in the leaders and the common folks. The hard truths of LKY still linger in the thinking of many who had worked with him. His words are gospel truths to many and acted as guiding principles in what they are doing. Like Mao’s Thoughts, some of the hard truths, principles and policies have been overtaken by time and no longer relevant, obsolete. Sticking to them unthinkingly would do more harm than good to the people and country.

Unfortunately there are still many parrots parroting some hard truths as if they are the perpetual truths to be passed down to the future generations in the same manner when they have been overtaken by events. Though many of LKY’s hard truths would transcend time and have far longer usefulness and implications, there are surely some that must be discarded into the bins, or be modified to the new realities. It needs thinking and reassessment to use and apply the hard truths and wise quotes of LKY to be effective and useful. Blind parroting is a sign of trouble, of lazy and unthinking minds at work, of cheapo with no confidence and ideas of their own. The safest thing is to parrot the oracle.

The quoting of LKY’s hard truths and assumptions of things and policies will still be heard for a long time to come. Some quoting them knowingly, some unconsciously as the thoughts have been ingrained into their psychic for good or bad. Some will still apply them blindly without knowing that time has changed, things have changed, to the detriment of the people and country.

This is the curse of having leaders that have too overpowering influence on their believers and being too godlike, or elevated to the level of powerful and beloved deities. Would Singapore suffer the same curse and fate of gods and deities? Or would there be another equally powerful, respected and wise leader to emerge to moderate the hard truths and wise quotes of LKY, to make them relevant to the changes in time?

There are just too many parrots all over the place. You can hear them when they open their beaks to expose their bird brains.