by Jack Sim/
It’s election time, a time for review and reflections.
I’m 54 but had only voted once before due to the walkover nature of our politics.
credit: ST
This time, opposition candidates will challenge almost every constituency.
Our political maturity has entered a new phase, but what does Singaporeans really want?
After all, Singapore is much appreciated by foreigners who are fed-up with their own countries and found it better here with jobs, safety, low taxes, and an almost predictable growth path.
Here are 9 Paradoxes that the government must grasp with our new political reality:
1. The more attractive Singapore is in attracting massive droves of foreigners, the more unattractive it is for locals. It feels like a crowded 6-Stars Hotel where people come and go. There is no distinction between treatment of citizens and foreigner. This creates an ‘unloved’ feeling among locals when the government’s emphasis that foreign talents are better than local becomes demoralizing. Singaporeans wonder what is the use of chalking up economic numbers by importing so many foreigners? Singapore and Singaporeans becomes two very different words.
2. The more government focuses on the Economic Growth Model; the less they focus on our Soul. The building of two casinos shows clearly the trade-off between increasing jobs (largely jobs for foreigner labor) and increasing the misery of gambling, broken families and hardship. The pursuit for economic growth model won over the soul here. It is even worse since the casino is located directly in the heart of the banking and civic district, instead of a further location or off-shore island.
3. The more the government focus on meritocracy (defined as good academic results), the more they made people think the same way. Creativity suffers when kids has no opinion of their own. Schools and parents improves academic excellence by getting kids to read and memorize past 10 years exams questions and model answers and regurgitate them well during exams. In addition, schools hold special sessions to train both parents and kids on “Exam Techniques” so as to score better marks for the glory of the school’s ranking. Whoever has the best conformist’s memory wins top marks. This cultivates the habit of looking the “the right or approved answers”.
Our educational system has thus transformed into a “Marks-Factory”. These kids grow up as deteriorated adults unable to have an opinion of their own, always looking for leadership by others.
4.The richer we are in our pockets, the poorer we become in our soul. In our rush for an ostentatious life-style, we’ve neglected the social need for nurturing soft-skills like love, acceptance, empathy, compassion, listening, harmonizing, and a Can-Do Spirit of Enterprise. This has led us into a culture of high conformism and extremely selfish safety needs. To build resilience in people as a nation, we need to first nurture strong value systems and a sense of community that comes from within our hearts and not prescribed by orders.
5. The more the government reminds the voters that “You are vulnerable but luckily you have good government”, the more dependency and expectation they create that the government will solve all problems. Naturally, disappointment is larger when expectation is raised high through the creation of such a dependency relationship.
6. The more Singaporeans are educated, the more they want to contribute in their own way in nation building. Yet, the prescriptive culture of the government does not offer effective channels for innovative ideas to get through. In the process, a great misunderstanding occurs when government sees innovators as troublemakers who are unappreciative of what the good government has done for them. The truth is most Singaporeans do appreciate the prosperity achieved, but they want to play a more active role in building their nation, not merely a passive recipient of goodies. Yet, the current government-supported channels are seen more blockers than listeners. By disallowing active citizenry and rejecting their diverse views, the government alienates the moderates and patriots at mutual detriment.
7. The more the government celebrates the foreign talents; the less they appreciate or notice our homegrown talents. These local talents are actually very much appreciated by foreign countries while we’re are so busy trying to attract foreign talents from abroad. The old adage that “prophets are not appreciated at home” is true everywhere but Singapore should a review this thinking so that good citizens can have their natural place in our society doing their best for the social good.
8. The more efficient the Government, the more they stifle innovation. Our current state of bureaucracy rewards people who make zero mistakes rather than those who made innovations (which requires some trial and errors).
“Get it right the first time” is a good quality control mechanism that is suitable for factory floor but totally detrimental to the promotion of innovative culture.
Innovation culture’s mantra should be “Dream it and do it till you get it”.
We need to re-design incentives to transform bureaucrats from rules-based workers into mission-driven people, unclogging the bureaucratic process and help our diverse range of talents flourish in ways most desired by society at large. An inclusive approach will bring out thought leadership beyond the narrow scholarly circles.
9. The final paradox is that while the people trust the government, the government does not trust the people. Absolute power in the past has also created a sense of arrogance in the bureaucrats and Members of Parliament. A recent message by the Prime Minister reminding his MPs they are servants and not masters is a sign of change that is so much needed. This new message will take many years to evolve into a culture in the government if the message succeeded in trickling down through the ranks.
The ruling party has every chance to listen and engage the people constructively to build a nation together. But they’ve chosen to go it alone.
There is a sense of “Statelessness” in many patriots here. These are ordinary thoughtful citizens do not want to enter the complicated political arena. They just want to contribute to make their country better. They are not content with being treated like a customer. They want to be embraced like a citizen, a nation-builder and a healer of social gaps. They are constructive if the government engages them constructively.
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May 5, 2011 at 5:22 pm
Josephine Teo threatening voters in Bishan-Toa Payoh is a classic example of PAP arrogance carried by by these minions.
May 6, 2011 at 12:30 pm
This article really speaks to me. I feel displaced in my own homeland.
“Singapore and Singaporeans becomes two very different words.”
50 years of progress for Singapore has brought us thus far. Let us not forget it was the efforts of the PAP who have led us on this long journey to excellence. Thank you MM Lee, sincerely. But the leaders of today are not the same men who once stood on the same line as the common people. The lines have indeed now been drawn. The current parliament breeds a group of politicians who are comfortably entrenched in their glass castle up there in the clouds, too far removed to empathise with us. Do we even see the same horizon?
Our feedback to them is mere babble. “Here’s $600 growth and share bonus for you. Be grateful! Please keep your voice down!” They do not empathise with our troubles clearly because they do not identify with it in the first place. What’s there to complain about? It’s all good in their castle.
My friends, a wise man said “You must be the change you want to see in the world”.
We want change. Let’s BE that change.
May 6, 2011 at 5:24 pm
Dear Mr Sim,
Your article is truly one of the best I have read during this election fever. Your observations are spot-on and there is much wisdom within. It definately spoke to my heart and soul. Thank you for sharing your wisdom and I sincerely hope that for the good of Singapore, the 9 Paradoxes you outlined will no longer plague us as a country.
May 6, 2011 at 6:11 pm
I am 57 and will be voting only for the first time!
May 7, 2011 at 7:53 pm
Once a Minister takes a salary that is so large that it looks like a heist in comparison with similar jobs in government across the Globe, he breaks the compact with the citizenry. His job becomes a commercial contract and should be gauged in a strictly commercial manner. There are standard methodologies for valuing jobs and the job of being Ministers is no exception. I suggest that if a substantial opposition gets elected in Parliament, it moves the motion to revalue the jobs done by the various Ministers. The parameters involved in such a valuation exercise includes estimating that portion of the GNP attributable to the Minister whose job is under appraisal. It also includes estimating a discount rate which consists of a risk free rate and a risk premium. Intuitively without doing the calculations now, you can see that the portion of attributable GNP is very different from the GNP itself. It has been touted by the PAP that they created the whole GNP, which is not correct because patently commercial, industrial and financial enterprises are the engines which brought the process of creating the GNP to completion. For instance the ministers do not operate, the finance houses, factories and every enterprise in the country. The share of the GNP created by each Minister is a sliver of the country’s GNP.
This sliver of GNP is then operated on by the discount rate to arrive at a figure of value of the job of each Minister..The risk premium ( which as mentioned above is a component of the discount rate) would be entirely absent in Ministerial jobs so that what remains is the risk free rate which name itself reveals the nature of Ministerial jobs- essentially risk free! You should find that the resulting figure of value of the job should bear comparison with figures of actual remunerations of the Parliamentarians in the first world countries, as Singapore prides itself to be first world. You will then see the utter absurdity of claiming that a Ministerial salary in Singapore is to be 6 to 10 times more than its comparable in the first world governments. Thus the present salaries of our Ministers would be found to be grossly wrong in fact. Whether they are also wrong in Law has to be investigated, given the fact that these Ministers in this one party Government of Singapore in effect drew up their own salaries scales and paid themselves from that self- serving blueprint..They are judges in their own cause. Moreover they went to war with the oppositions for 50 years using the legal apparatus of the State, destroying them and in the process remain the Ruling Party for all of 50 years and eradicating the concepts of Human Rights by unprincipled use of defamation Laws, ISD arrests etc.The next question is whether they should be asked to return the excess payment to the State, as many bankers and CEOs were asked to do so when it was found that they did not deserve such remunerations or such remunerations were extracted by false representations..
As citizens we should break up the nonsense of Million dollar salaries to Ministers on spurious claims of uniqueness.Singapore is on the same planet as New York, London, Beijing, Tokyo, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Amman. None of the office holders in these countries demand such grotesque salaries. Not only do we support a big heist but we also engender a colossal greed in these supposedly exceptionally noble people. One of the most ludicrous deeds instigated by such salaries is the pump priming of the economy by overwhelming the country with foreign labour. We will be sitting ducks for the next get rich quick scheme for the benefit of the PAP.
May 9, 2011 at 2:40 pm
Dear Jack Sim,
Please take up some grammar lessons.
May 9, 2011 at 10:12 pm
The Prime Minister has said sombrely on TV, right after the elections, which I now recall to contain the gist:. that members of the Ruling Party should be more humble towards the public. That to me is put things mildly. Not only are members of the Ruling PAP Party arrogant, their friends and supporters in the private sector are able to commandeer State Institutions to do their bidding.For example Elite Law Firms call up the ISD to soften their targets so that these hapless people may give up attempting to obtain justice at the Courts. The AG prevents the progress of certain actions which will reveal unsavory behaviour of certain people.. Some Judges take the side of the Elite and powerful with alacrity. The common citizenry is thus pressed to the wall. it is as if the Government extends to include these elite lawyers who can harness the State Resources they need for competitive advantage and win their cases.
I am well aware that to talk bad about the Police, Courts and especially judges is anathema to the Ruling Party. So many people have been destroyed because they dare to talk bad about judges and the legal system in Singapore.. I am not a fearless fool to stretch my neck out for the chopping block, but I reckon from the PM’s speech that he meant it: be humble and serve the people. It is no way to serve the citizenry when the Government and its elite cloud of connected folks present a monolithic structure to crush everyone in its path without heed of any notion of fair play.
I happen to mention Law firms because they are the foremost mediators of societal issues and because of my own experience.
I hope that an investigation be made by the PM to find out how rampant is the evil symbiotic relationship between the Elite and State institutions.. We the citizenry will not appreciate it much if the Ruling Party members become merely humble in demeanour but will crush any citizen illegally whenever such a one has the bad luck to cross an elite or his client in a conflict.
The Arab uprisings may be due to the arrogant disdain their rulers and the monolithic elitist ruling class regard their own people, more than the abject poverty and hopelessness that is their lot..
August 21, 2011 at 9:53 pm
U r asking the PM on these …… ?
Is he outside of all these ….. Or part of it ?
July 29, 2011 at 11:46 am
Dear Mr. Jack Sim,
Firstly, the ‘droves of foreigners’ flowing in to Singapore are what’s making our tiny economy work. The government is trying to attract MNC’s to set up business here, and with MNCs come foreigners who work in those firms. The government has also opened up the country to bring in foreign construction workers who build every building you see standing in this city – without them, you would not have the skyscrapers you see all across Singapore today. Most Singaporeans are a well educated lot, who look for jobs as white-collar workers, and with such a tiny population, there wouldn’t be enough people willing to take on a blue-collar construction worker job to build a bus-stand, let alone a 50-storey hotel, or condominium, or office block.
Secondly, the government’s decision to build casinos and not ‘focus on your soul’ is, quite frankly, a pathetic statement. If you have a gambling problem, learn to deal with it by yourself. You talk about how the Singaporean citizen grows up, unable to have an opinion of his own – here’s the perfect place for you to start thinking. Get an opinion, on whether you can handle gambling or not. Learn to practice what you preach.
You talk about how the government ‘ignores homegrown talent’. What an ignorant statement – homegrown talent is nurtured to lead; Singapore offers some of the best opportunities for entrepreneurial individuals to start-up their own companies; there are a multitude of MNCs that have set up shop in Singapore, where ‘homegrown talent’ is working, and earning well. The opportunities for ‘homegrown talent’ are plenty, and we are certainly not being ignored.
I can tell you one thing though, after reading your article – I will most certainly be ignoring you.