Setting the agenda, calling the shot and making monkeys running around

Just when the cleaning of the hawker centre dispute was fading away, Vivian Balakrishnan threw down the gauntlet in Parliament, calling Sylvia Lim and Pritam Singh and the WP names and challenging them to sue him in court. Initially some might have thought that this was the position of a minister trying to make his mark. Then the PMO issued one statement after another to support the stand of Vivian and confirmed that it was the stand of the Govt to hold the WP to account for what they said and done in the hawker centre cleaning issue. The Govt is questioning the integrity, honesty and trustworthiness of the WP. The Govt is taking the fight to the WP and demanding the latter to pick up the gauntlet and do battle.

Low Thia Khiang has replied that he would not pursue this matter and have a run in with the PAP that would be time consuming, energy sapping and financially draining on the limited finance of his party. A drawn out battle is something that the WP would not want to be dragged into. They would rather continue with what they have to do to serve their constituencies and not politicking to win a battle with the time and place and agenda set by the PAP. They would want to leave the matter as it is and let the people decide whether they have done wrong or whether they are worthy to be voted in again.

The PAP has in a way decided that the WP is guilty and wanted this to be confirmed in this chosen battle, preferably in court, to be judged by the court. They are taking on the roles of judge and executioner. The WP chose to have the issue be judged by the people like in Hougang and Punggol East. Let the people be the final arbiter of who is right or wrong, or who is good or bad.

The question is how important is this issue over the other major issues that are left in the air and the many national issues that the people are unhappy about? Obviously the PAP would think that this is of paramount importance and needs to be settled. The WP may disagree and want to move on to deal with other more pressing and important matters, and would see this as simply politicking and bickering for votes.

At the recent DBS Insights Asia Conference, Hsien Loong was quoted to advise whoever governs Singapore to ‘try very hard to keep the politics clean and straight, constructive,’ and, ‘where you’re solving problems and not just slogging it out, fighting with one another’. There are two points here, keep politics clean and straight, and avoid bickering and politicking to score political points. How would these points measure up with the PAP upping the temperature on the hawker centre cleaning issue and not to let it pass and not to move on?

Politics is about power

In PS 101 the wet behind the ear political science students will be going everywhere talking about power in politics. Power is everything in politics. First year students will be made to think so as that was the first book on politics that they would be reading. And that would probably be their first assignment to submit.

As one progresses through the course, he would find that politics is about power but also about many other things. Any political leader that believes only in power will end up as a dictator, often a ruthless one who only thinks of himself and the power he wields. Familiar names like Marcos, Hitler, Mussolini, kings and military junta everywhere, all ruled for power and for their self preservation. The people are secondary or far down the line of importance.

Politics is about the well being of the people, the citizens of the country, not just about power and non citizens, not about the well beings of foreigners, not just about the existence of a state at the expense of its citizens.

When naïve political leaders got the formula wrong, thinking that politics is about power, about self preservation, about vested interests, about the well beings of foreigners, it is about time the people abandon ship and start to think of their own interest and own good.

Political leaders are like a ship and the people the water that keeps it afloat. The water can support the ship and sink the ship if they wanted to. Make no mistake about it. Political leaders that think they are there for the power to rule the people are in the wrong place and for the wrong reasons. Western democracy is afraid of the politics of power and has built in mechanisms to prevent the domination, control and abuse of power by political rulers.

One man one vote, 4 or 5 year term of office, limitation of tenure of the Chief Executive to two terms in office, separation of power, rule of law, the constitution etc etc, are all created to curb the power of power crazy politicians whose main interest is political power and monopoly of power.

PS101 and the politics of power is only a small part of politics. The political science students will go on to learn about different political philosophies, about govt, public administration, national interests, development economics, about benevolent leadership, about the well being of the people, about distribution of wealth, about jobs and the economy and a whole lot of other things. By the end of the course, a political science student would have all but forgotten about the politics of power unless his ambition is to be a dictator. And there will still be those who are obsessed with power and power is their only reason to be in politics.

No, politics is about people. No it is not about the people but about the citizens, the well being of its citizens. I must admit that this assertion about what is politics is youthful idealism bordering on being naive.

Vivian is right. In realpolitik, it is about power, about the contest for power and nothing else.

Sinkies now allowed to let go some steam

Did anyone remember that there were two protests regarding the 6.9m population held at Hong Lim Park? Briefly I could still recall being there and taking some photographs and mingling with other Sinkies that made it a point to be there, to protest. Ok, the Sinkies had their chances, two in fact, to say their piece about the population issue. Now everyone back to work, case closed.

Sinkies should be grateful that today they are given a chance at least to let go some steam. And they too went to Hong Lim one more time to release another fart on the MDA regulation to license websites reporting on Singapore affairs.

With the protests out of the way, with the issues of foreigners discriminating against Sinkies and Sinkie PMETs having difficulties finding appropriate employment forgotten, life goes on as normal. Nothing really changed, nothing.

The 6.9m population will be a reality. The MDA licensing means those affected will have to apply for a licence. The discrimination against Sinkies and PMET unemployment issue, … never mind, never mind, no more issues already. No one is talking about them anymore. Let’s move on.

Does anyone remember about HDB’s affordable pricing and not disclosing the cost of building a flat? Does anyone remember about all the HDB policies discriminating Singaporeans and disqualified Singaporeans from buying HDB flats but allowing new citizens to do so? Does anyone remember that their CPF savings, their hard earned savings, are locked up because some jokers decided to do so? The list can go on and on.

Singaporeans should called themselves lucky and be very grateful that they are now allowed to complain, to kpkb for a while. And the Govt is listening, but nothing will change. The Govt will do what it thinks is good for the Singaporeans, including not selling them HDB flats and keeping their hard earned savings by all kinds of schemings.

Poll results as an indicator of public opinion

The result of the earlier poll on whether the govt is a proactive one or just merely reacting to the haze problem is obvious. And the perception of the public across cyberspace is equally unanimous and there is no need to belabour the point.

This new poll has just started and 95 people have read and the perception is unanimous as well. One may claim that this is only the views of a small segment of the population that is highly critical of the govt and will see it this way. But if this is translated to 60% of the overall population's view, the govt is going to be in for a rough ride. And the harder the govt is pushing for this thing called 'integrity and trust' the more ridiculous it will look.

When a govt has lost the trust of the voters, no matter what it says or does, it is not going to be believed or accepted by the people. It will backfire if the heart of the people is no longer with the govt.

Unlike in the past when the people were fully behind the govt, anything the govt said will be accepted, even reluctantly. The people would just go along even if the policies were tough.

This is the stark and unpleasant difference between the current govt and the govt of yesterday. Perhaps the govt may want to hold a similar poll in reach and find 95% giving the exact opposite result and can feel good about it.

The PMO has spoken on the hawker centre issue

Today, 12 Jul, the PMO has issued a 9 point justification on why Vivian Balakrishnan had to take the WP to task on the issue of integrity in Parliament. I just quote the second point here and to use it for a poll I set up on the top right of this page.

‘Good politics is first and foremost about integrity. Singapore has succeeded because we have honest, upright people in politics: people who can be trusted to uphold the public interest, to speak the truth even when it is inconvenient, and to admit mistakes when things go wrong. This is how we have built trust between Singaporeans and their leaders, worked together to build the nation and improved everyone’s lives.’

How many people believe that we have honest and upright people that can be trusted to do the right thing? Please indicate your take in the poll on the right.

I want to clarify here that whatever a person votes, it may be right or wrong, but it is definitely what the person perceives or thinks so. For example if everyone thinks that the govt does have honest and upright people, it can be a statement of truth. And that is good. On the other hand, the majority may not think so, and this can also be a statement of truth, which then is bad. But if this is false, and if the govt has honest and upright people but the people do not believe so, this in itself is another problem. It simply means that the people do not trust the govt and have a very bad impression of the govt. And the govt really needs to conduct an investigation as to why it is like dat.

The best result is for the majority of the people to think that the govt has honest and upright people that can be trusted to do the right thing for the people, and that this is also the truth.

So please vote accordingly on what you perceive or think.

Cheers.

Let me add further that this cleaning of hawker centre thing is really a very small issue. It is nothing compares to the AIM issue and was best put away and moves on.

And I think it is a horrible mistake for Vivian to thrash it out in Parliament thinking that he can score a winning goal against the WP. More horrible is for the whole cabinet to think that this was a good idea to throw at the WP.

What is going to happen now is that this supposedly minor issue is going to open the Pandora Box and allow the critics of the govt to dig into a can full of worms and that may become quite embarrassing and difficult to put away. It is like the proverbial saying that people living in glass houses should not throw stones. Unfortunately things are heading in the wrong direction now. Unfortunately the emperor did not know that he is not wearing any clothes and is strutting around very confidently in his new clothes.

How would this minor issue (of course some people think it is damn big issue) end eventually and who would land with more mud on the face?