[This
is part of the book: Basis Of Singaporean Spirit - People Power, click here to go to the main page]
If you look up
dictionary.com for "play politics" you will see the following definition: "to
deal with people in an opportunistic, manipulative, or devious way."
But what exactly is Playing Politics? Is it
good to have it in organisation?
Well, first of all, we don't have a choice -
it is everywhere, no matter whether you like it or not.
Playing Politics can be good, depending on
what types of politics are people playing. For a start, we need to know that
there are 2 types of politics.
The first type is what I called "Baby
Politics". I called it "Baby" because this is what my little boy always played:
"He
is not my friend!"; "I don't want to share my toy!"
Don't laugh. This is exactly what happened
in the workplace as well as in the political landscape.
Surprisingly or not surprisingly, Baby
Politics is the main politics that people play. In Baby Politics, people formed
groups to defend themselves and fight against each other - at the expense of
the organisation.
Baby Politics divides. Baby Politics
destroys. Baby Politics is very bad.
Do you remember HDB Upgrading Carrots[i]?
Well, it is an example of Baby Politics.
Another example of Baby Politics is the infamous "fix the opposition" as shown below.
The next type of politics is what I called:
"Value Politics". Value Politics is the good politics.
In Value Politics, people look for
value-add to the organisation and fight to be the one adding that value.
Value Politics is usually played by very
smart people. And these are the people who are liked by all and constantly get
promoted as the organisation expands. A win-win for everybody and the
organisation is a nice place to work in.
Taking a step backwards, although Value
Politics is good, we need to know that people cannot play it when there is no
clear value, which is why, the basis of an organisation is important.
The basis of an organisation is the
value-add it provides to its ecology.
Only when we inculcate this basis within an
organisation, will we be able to see Value Politics in play.
BOSS Wisdom: "Basis and value are critical to any
organisation. When an organisation loses its core principle or deviates from
it, it loses its soul." - BOSS
[i] HDB Upgrading Carrots is an
election tactics PAP used. If you vote for PAP, PAP will invest in upgrading
your neighbourhood. BTW, note that the investment money is from Singapore, not
from the PAP party itself.
[This
is part of the book: Basis Of Singaporean Spirit - People Power, click here to go to the main page]
[This chapter was planned to be published later, however, since recently Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said that the poor pose election risk, I find it timely to publish it now. Please share. This article is not meant to support China or Hong Kong, but for academic discussion purposes.]
Recently, in an interview with foreign media, Mr Leung Chun-ying shared his concerns about 'poor dominating politics'. Conversely, with 'rich dominating politics', shouldn't that be his concerns too? Given that he said:
"If it's entirely a numbers game and numeric representation, then obviously you'd be talking to the half of the people in Hong Kong who earn less than $1,800 a month"
Which "politics" do you think Mr Leung believes Hong Kong is in today?
Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (has a daughter, not in the picture)
For a society to be
in harmony there must be unification of the 3-Powers (details of this is in the preceding chapters) and they must be working
in a collaborative manner.
In political science, these 3 Powers are present
as:
Power (权) – Represented by Politicians
Wealth (财) – Represented by Businesses
People (民) – Represented by Commoners
When there is disunity, we will have huge
problems. There are two types of disunity: Total Disunity and Partial Disunity.
Total Disunity Total Disunity represents a state where there is no
collaboration with any of the other powers. The
following are the potential issues.
Singular "Power"
When Power executes without regard to the
other two, it will manifest as political lockups, and people could be jailed
without trials.
This may be necessary in times of extreme
chaos, but ultimately, whether it is good or bad, it really depends on the
overall outcome. That is, do the lives of People get better or worse?
More often than not, Singular "Power"
manifests as dictatorship.
Singular "Wealth"
When wealth takes the centre stage, a
common situation that is observed is bribery.
In order to get things done, money is the
key differentiator. Money can enable a businessman to get special permit or
even special treatment and to avoid any punishment.
Singular "People"
When People acted alone, riots and
revolutions will be common events.
In a totally dysfunctional country, it is
not uncommon to see all of the three singularities happening at the same time.
Partial Disunity
Partial Disunity represents a state where
there is collaboration between only two of the powers, against the other.
Case 1: Wealth + People
In this case, we have a situation where
money can decide who will take power.
In countries where there are no rules on
political campaigning, rich people can inject huge amount of money to run
campaign to promote a given candidate.
In this case rich people will be calling
the shot, politicians will have to listen to the rich and implement policies as
told.
Case 2: People + Power
In this case, we have People who are very
demanding and willing to make their point by voting.
Depending on the nature of the People, and
whether their demand is logical and fair, the outcome can vary, but in general,
when People + Power is too strong, it may end up as an unsustainable
welfare state[i].
In the extreme case, it is likely that we
will have a situation where there are excessive taxes on the rich, not a nice
place to do business or live in.
Case 3: Power + Wealth
This is the worst situation of all.
In this case, politicians are very rich
themselves. Most, if not all of them, are highly paid and many are involved in
key appointments of the major corporations of the country. There is also a
strong tendency for them to remain as such.
Therefore, whenever there are any comments
or discontents, those will be silenced immediately through libel sue or
political lockup without trial. Interestingly, in democratic countries, we often find that this is the situation that People of the World often voted themselves into.
How is the 3-Powers
Distribution in Your Country?
In order to have a harmonious society, it
is important for politicians, businesses, and the commoners to understand that
the balance of the 3-Powers in politics is of utmost importance.
The above lists the various scenarios of
the political climate that you may be experiencing so as to allow readers to
understand their current situation and balance it accordingly, if desired.
So how is the 3-Powers distribution in your country? What do you think are the 3-Powers distribution in Singapore and in Hong Kong today? What do you think you could possibly do to balance it in order for the society to be in harmony?
I will be posting some of the other chapters in the online
version, so pleasefollow my blog and also like/follow my page on facebookto get updated on the chapter postings.
[i] Note the key word here is
"unsustainable". If it is sustainable, there is nothing bad about it.
[This
is part of the book: Basis Of Singaporean Spirit - People Power, click here to go to the main page]
[This chapter was planned to be published later, however, since there is a huge conflict in Singapore where a lady wreaked havoc on other's worship, I find it timely to publish it now. Please share.]
[This chapter was
initially written for Singapore. However, during the writing of this book,
there were conflicts in the Gaza area. Therefore, I would like to dedicate this
chapter to the People of Israel and Palestine too.]
A Dedication to Ms Yeo, Who Wreaked Havoc on Other's Worship
First of all, this
is a religious chapter. In a multi-culture and multi-religion Singapore, it
will not be complete without a chapter on this. If you don’t believe in religion or feel that it is
too sensitive for you to talk about it, please skip this chapter.
When we were young, we were told to be good
and kind, so that we can go to Heaven.
Heaven was described as a place full of
happiness and with all the kind people, while Hell was described as a place
full of suffering and evil people.
In general, there is a common understanding
that Heaven is a better place to go compared with Hell.
But the next question is: "How does one go
there?"
Different religions have different ways and
different descriptions on how Heaven really is. So who is right?
Let's assume everyone is right. If so, how
can this be possible? Well, maybe there are different 'segments' of Heaven,
where different people go to different segments depending on their beliefs and
approaches.
But if so, what is the difference between
Heaven’s multi-segment-model with the Earth’s multi-country-model? Don't forget that terrorists also have
their version of Heaven[i],
would we be fighting up there again[ii]?
Let's take a step backwards. Maybe, despite
all the differences in all the religions, could we possibly be talking about
the exact same Heaven? But how could this be possible?
Well, let's take another step backwards. I
am sure 99% of us had heard about the story of "The Blind Men and The
Elephant", right?
If not, the story goes like this (there are
slight variations of the story, but in general, it is as follows):
A king gathered 5 blind men to the palace
and asked them to touch an elephant and describe it. After they had each touched the elephant,
the king asked them to describe the elephant.
The first man who touched the tusk said:
"Elephant is like a spear!"
The second man who touched the ear said:
"Nonsense, it is so soft, it is like a fan!"
The third man who touched the body said:
"No, it is so hard and firm, it is like a wall!"
The fourth man who touched the tail said: "Rubbish, it is so thin and long, it is like a whip!"
The fifth man who touched the leg said: "It is obviously thick and firm, it is like a tree!"
Soon, an argument broke out and all the
men insisted on their views and refused to accept others' arguments.
The commotion was interrupted by the king's
laughter. The king proceeded to tell them that all of them were right and
advised them to share their knowledge by guiding one another on their
experiences.
After the experience sharing, all the
blind men were extremely happy and exclaimed that they finally got to know what
an elephant really was!
Isn't it amazing that this story had been
told in so many religions as well as in so many literatures?
Although the details are not exactly the
same, although the context may not be exactly the same, it points to the same
message - that elephant is a big creature that we need to collaborate and share
information in order to fully comprehend it.
Had it even dawn upon you that Heaven could
be the big 'elephant' that if we do not collaborate and share knowledge, we
would never be able to fully comprehend it?
Could these be our training ground that The
One up there had thoughtfully created for us to practice to be magnanimous and
encompassing so that we can all go to Heaven together, happily ever after?
Did you realise how The One had crafted the
training ground for all of us using the 3-Powers[iii]?(these are mentioned in earlier chapters, will be published later)
Heaven (Abstract Factor) - Religion
Earth (Physical Factor) - Country
People (People Factor) - Race
Only when we are able to transcend beyond
our beliefs, our locations, and our outlooks - to be indiscernible[iv]
and share among ourselves, would we be able to enjoy the harmony.
Do you know that there are 3 types of
Harmony? They are Compromise, Acceptance and indiscernible.
At the lowest level, it is "Compromise".
Compromise is about tolerating others, i.e. "I give you this, but you must
give me that", or as what my boy always tell me:
"If you want me to practice piano, you
must let me play iPad!"
Although there is harmony, it is not a true
one.
The middle level is "Acceptance". It is
about understanding the differences and accepted them as part of the overall
day-to-day life.
At the highest level, it is "Indiscernible".
At the indiscernible stage, we don't even realise that there are differences, so
how could there be conflict in the first place? This is the ultimate state of
harmony.
In closing, I would like to point you to the
following picture.
Figure 17: Picture of My Boy's Friends
Did
you see the picture with whale, Christmas tree, octopus, seahorse, snowman,
grapes, etc?
One day, when I went to fetch my boy at a
Kids' Club[v],
he showed those to me and said: "Daddy, can you use your hand phone to take a
picture of my friends?"
I was so touched because this is an example
of indiscernible - everyone and everything can be his friends. Some of you might think it is childish, but
let me assure you, it is not. He is a very smart boy and I am often amazed by
his thoughts and speeches.
Reflecting it back to ourselves, we were
all like him when we were kids, when had we become so calculative and
intolerant?
BOSS Wisdom: “Religion is just like a
stream, delivering the water to us. The water will look different and taste
different because it had been customised for our easy absorption; however, it
still comes from the same common source. Go beyond the boundaries of religion,
walk up the stream to the source. We will all meet there, laughing happily
together on how silly we were before, thinking that our water were the best,
which in fact, is from the same source.” - BOSS
[i] I supposed that you are not that naive thinking that terrorists do
what they did just to go to Hell, are you?
[ii] I came across a saying that if a person is not in a specific
religion, that person will end up in Hell. I have heard it from not just one
religion. So applying logical analysis, does this mean that they will end up in
each other's version of Hell? To me, that saying doesn't make sense at all.
Does it make sense to you?
[iii] Please refer to the chapter
"Introduction to Three Powers" for the background on the 3-Powers.
[iv] Not distinguishable.
[v] Kids' Club is a facility provided by most hotels where kids can
play under the supervision of hotels' staff while their parents enjoy themselves.
[This
is part of the book: Basis Of Singaporean Spirit - People Power, click here to go to the main page]
[This
is part of the book: Basis Of Singaporean Spirit - People Power, click here to go to the main page]
There are many ways
to categorise people, and how you categorise really depends on what you want to
discuss.
In this book, I am going to discuss the
problems we faced in this World today, so I am going to use 2 attributes to
categorise people: Intelligence & Humbleness.
For simplicity, Intelligence can be either
smart or not smart; Humbleness can be either the preference of being known or the
preference to stay unknown.
So this gives us 4 types of people:
* Type 1 – Smart and Want to be
Known
* Type 2 – Smart but Do Not Want
to be Known
* Type 3 – Not Smart and Do Not
Want to be Known
* Type 4 – Not Smart but Want to
be Known as Smart
To really understand why people do what
they did, and to better understand the list of problems that we had today, we
need to understand the 4 types of people in this World.
Type 1 – Smart and Want to be
Known
These are the people who are smart and know
that they are. Therefore, they felt that if their talents are not put to good
use, it will be a big waste and they will die with regrets.
These people are very eager to make full
use of their talents and desperately want to leave a name for themselves.
However, in doing so, they could end up being ruthless.
An extreme case of Type 1 person is Cao Cao[i]
(曹操). When he was young, a famous character evaluator once described
him as:
清平之奸贼，乱世之英雄
Meaning: "A treacherous villain in times
of peace and a hero in times of chaos."
Too bad, as the saying goes:
一山不能藏二虎
Literally: "One Mountain cannot host Two
Tigers."
If there are more than one Type 1 persons
at the same time and at the same place, there will be bloodshed.
Looking back at the history of Singapore, are
there any events that you can relate to the above?
Type 2 – Smart but Do Not Want to
be Known
Generally, this type of people is much
smarter than Type 1, and they preferred to keep a low profile. They would
rather spend time enjoying the peace and tranquillity than to spend it in
politics and meaningless fights.
An example of Type 2 person is Zhuge Liang[ii]
(诸葛亮), nickname: "Sleeping Dragon" (卧龙). If not for the
turmoil during his time, we would not have heard of him today.
Type 2 persons can make huge
accomplishments and leave a very good name for themselves, but only if the
circumstances are really bad.
You can never apprehend their thoughts and
capabilities. These are the people who can help to build an empire, yet will
not end up as a threat to Type 1 persons – A highly sought after talent, but
you must be able to inculcate the values and purposes of his role and
contribution in order for him to support you.
Type 3 – Not Smart and Do Not Want
to be Known
These are the vast majority of people. They
know they are average and contented being so. They typically do not have great
achievements, but are contented being who they are. These people are what we
termed as "commoners".
Type 3 persons can easily be found
everywhere.
Type 4 – Not Smart but Want to be
Known as Smart
These are the people, who thought that they
are smart, but in fact, average or even below average.
These people typically
fight to lead in anything and others had to come and clean up their shits. These
are what we termed as "trouble makers".
Given their urge to be in leadership
positions, as you might already expect, they are mostly concentrated in the
political landscape. Therefore, Type 4 persons are also commonly known as
"politicians".
To identify them, simply throw a stone into
the parliament, it is more likely that you will hit one than not.
Type 4 people are the major cause of
problems in today's World. They often came up with a lot of 'tips and tricks'
that they felt was so ingenious, but actually caused much bigger problems for
everyone.
So Which Type Are You?
If you think that you are Type 1 person,
well, with absolute certainty, you are one of the Type 4 persons that had given
us so much trouble. Please, we beg you, could you help us by not trying to do
so much?
If you think that you are Type 2 person,
well, you are just a happy Type 3 person. Anyway, being a Type 3 person is also
great, in fact, who would want to be a Type 2 when you can already enjoy the
peace and tranquillity of Type 2?
If you think that you are Type 3 person.
Yes, you are. Congratulation to you as you are a typical Type 3 person –
contended being who you are. But remember, continue to stay low and you can
still enjoy life to the max. However, once you become too eager, you could drop
into Type 4.
Well, if you think you are Type 4 person,
don't despair. At least you are much better than those Type 4 persons who think
that they are Type 1. The first step in solving problem is to identity the
problem, which you just did. Next, you just need to be more humble. Once you achieved
that, you can easily move up the scale.
In case you are wondering what type Calvin Cheng belongs to, well, he is a typical Type 4. Do you remember the recent comments he made about buying more MRT to solve the reliability issues and all the other issues are bread-and-butter?
What he was trying to do, apart from PLP, was trying to show to the World how 'SMART' he is that he can "see and summarise" all the problems into those. Imagine if the government is as stupid as him thinking it is so, then we will continue to have huge problems, thus the need for me to rebut him on his silliness.
Of course, he belongs to the more stupid Type 4, getting himself into more shit such as exposing his earlier price-fixing scandal. Interestingly, it is 'no-big-deal' for him and that leads us to ponder over the selection criteria of NMP.
[i] Cao Cao was a warlord and one of
the central figures of the Three Kingdoms period of China History.
[ii] Zhuge Liang was a famous statesman
and military strategist during the Three Kingdoms period, and is a classic
example of famous people from ancient China. He was known for his wisdom and
his strategies in winning battles.
[This is part of the book: Basis Of Singaporean Spirit - People Power, click here to go to the main page]
[This
is part of the book: Basis Of Singaporean Spirit - People Power, click here to go to the main page]
A peculiarity of
government agencies is that they like to publish statistics. Whenever, there is
any controversy, there is always a statistics 'readily available' for them to
support any claims!
Well, we all know numbers don't lie. But we
also know that statistics does! Why do I state that statistics is
unreliable? First, let's take a look at the definition below.
Statistics is the study of the collection,
organization, analysis, interpretation and presentation
of data. It deals with all aspects of data including the planning of data
collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments.
Noticed the underline words? Yes, any
faults at ANY of the underline words, either intentional or unintentional,
would make the statistics meaningless. So how reliable do you think statistics
really is?
I am always amazed with the efficiency of
how government agencies are able to publish statistics in such a short time.
Whenever there is any negativity, they
always seem to have 'ready statistics' to rebut. How could this ever be possible? Well, it
is possible, if they had used old data and surveys that were not meant for this
purpose.
Alternatively, they could also have sent
out surveys and questionnaires to people sitting beside them. So how can these
statistics be reliable?
A real survey may take weeks or even months
to design, not to mention executing them. Have you come across survey questions
that asked the same question but in a different way? Well, you are right, that
was intentionally designed to identify any wilful or careless answering.
Unless, you are able to inspect all the
data points and procedures used in the statistics, using statistics to convince
people is simply meaningless and stupid.
But is statistics useless? No, it depends
on its usage. Whenever statistics is used to support a claim or as proof, I
always take it with a pinch of salt.
Again, unless we can validate all the steps
taken to come up with the statistics, unless we can see how the survey and
experiment are designed, unless we can see how the sample pool is decided,
there is really no reason why we should treat it as any form of fact.
As a business process consultant, I love
statistics because that is how I measure the performance of organisation and
their processes and set KPIs[i]
to improve them! Without those statistics as a benchmark,
there is no reference for improvement initiative.
So remember, understand the basis of
statistics and don't treat it as a fact because it was never meant to be.
BOSS Wisdom: "Numbers don't lie, but statistics does."
- BOSS
[i] KPI stands for Key Performance
Indicator. It is a performance measurement. In simple terms, if you meet it,
you are good; if you don't, you are bad.
Singapore is a small
country with a very short history. The main political party is People Action
Party (PAP).
PAP
has been the only party to form the core of the Singapore Government since the
first day of Singapore's Independence; however, their support is on the
decline. Singapore has only 3 Prime Ministers (PMs) to-date.
Taking a closer look at their characters,
we can easily see the reasons why PAP support is on the decline.
First
PM: MM Lee Kuan Yew (LKY)
He was known to be a very strong and tough person.
He knew that Singaporeans' support was crucial for his success, and he knew
very well that as long as he did the right thing, Singaporeans would support
him.
In his rally speech on SIA Pilots Strike in
1980, he specifically mentioned the support from Singaporeans:
"... I gave them (SIA pilots) a choice:
continue this and I will by every means at my disposal, teach you and get
the People of Singapore help me teach you a lesson you wouldn't forget. And
I am prepared to start all over again. Or stop it..."
Many didn't like his way of treating
opposition parties, but he did the basis of a leader well - He valued us, and
he delivered.
In one of his later interviews, he
mentioned:
"They want jobs, if they don't get jobs,
and they have no income, and they can't feed their families, we have a
revolution!"
"How does the voting another man to be
the government and he can't produce the jobs, how does that help you?"
Apart from that, in his vision for
Singapore in the earlier days, he mentioned:
"... Keep Singapore happy and make the
people feel that they are wanted, not step children or step brothers but one in
the family, and a very important member of the family..."
Today, do you think Singaporeans are
worried about jobs? Do you think Singaporeans are treated as important members
of the family?
Second
PM: ESM Goh Chok Tong (GCT)
He was softer than LKY, not by nature, but
by decision. He decided as a PM, he needed to soften the approach LKY took.
Despite this, he still protected the People
and made us proud. The Michael Fay[i]
incident was a good proof of his brilliance.
In one of the interviews, he mentioned:
"... on the longer terms, it was good
for us, that Singapore is prepared to stand-up against mighty America."
Many didn't like his 'HDB upgrading carrots'[ii],
but he did the basis of a leader well - He protected the sovereignty of
Singapore.
Another thing that he did well is the "Public
Service for The 21st Century (PS21)", he revolutionised the public services,
which provided us with great e-services that we had today.
Those who didn't understand Singapore would
feel that Singaporeans are cowards, but Kishore Mahbubani (Former Ambassador to
UN), answered this very clearly in History Of Singapore (Discovery Channel):
"They (Singaporeans) have experienced
the most dramatic increase in standard of living that any people have
experienced, probably ever since the beginning of man. And then you ask these
people: Why aren't you revolting? Why aren't you going out on the street? But
why should they?"
Today, have our standard of living changed
for the better?
Now, let's take a look at our current Prime
Minister, in which you will see the huge contrast.
Third
PM - PM Lee Hsien Loong (LHL)
His approach is unclear, but generally
viewed as anti-Singaporeans.
Firstly, why would anybody support a leader
who kept labelling his People as racists, xenophobes and bigots?
Over time, context will be lost, but labels
will remain. Nowadays, whenever people are unhappy with Singaporeans, the quick
reasoning will be "because Singaporeans
are Xenophobic...".
Anton Casey's audacity was fuelled by all
these. If this is not stopped, more and more Anton Casey will come our way. Do
you think this is the type of Singapore we want?
Secondly, after the Little India Riot,
rather than condemning the act strongly (as was done for SIA Pilots Strike), in
the interview with Channel 8, PM Lee compared the crime rate of Singaporeans
with those workers and concluded that those workers have lower crime rate than
Singaporeans.
This is totally inappropriate; such comparison should not even
have been made in the first place. When People are worried about not having money to fund a university degree, the advice given was "degrees are not important". On the other hand, we have Sex Blogger being granted scholarship; we have Mr 'Dog' being granted scholarship. Of course, we have to welcome the new addition to our Foreign Talent pool - Mr Yang Yin. Can't you see that the problem we have today is not Xenophobia butXenomania instead?
If PM Lee continued to subscribe to foolish ideas such as those from Calvin Cheng, suggesting that today's issues are that of bread-and-butter or due to the "fight for Western liberal democracy" (see my response to him), then PM Lee deserved to fail and to be labelled as a CBL PM.
The basis of the problem is very simple, let's recall Kishore Mahbubani's speech below.
PM Lee, what do you think the life of Singaporeans had become after you came on-board? How much do you value Singaporeans? "Today, Singaporeans have experienced the most dramatic DECREASE in standard of living that any people have experienced, probably ever since the beginning of man. And then you ask these People: Why ARE YOU revolting? Why ARE YOU going to Hong Lim Park? But why SHOULDN'T they?"
Can you see the basis of the problem now?
Had PM Lee put Singaporeans' interest in the
first place, as what the previous two PMs did, the situation would be very
different today.
BOSS Wisdom: "The basis of a pilot is to
fly the plane. What is the use of a pilot who refused to fly the plane? The
basis of a leader is to protect his People. What is the use of a leader who
refused to protect his People?" - BOSS
When pilots refused to fulfil the basis, this is what Mr Lee Kuan Yew did:
In Mr Lee Kuan Yew's speech, do you know why he mentioned "start all over again"? This is because he understood the Importance of Basis, when the basis is wrong, nothing will be right. Think of basis as the foundation of a building. From Mr Lee Kuan Yew's viewpoint above, if the foundation is wrong, and the architect refuses to correct it, it is better to get another architect to redo the foundation then to build on a shaky one.
Many people admired Mr Lee Kuan Yew and viewed him as a role model. So what do you think Mr Lee Kuan Yew would do if he had a leader who is Xenomania and refused to fulfil the basis of a leader?
[Side Notes: I understand there are people who are against LKY as well as GCT. There are also controversies on the "To Singapore, with Love" by Tan Pin Pin. However, please note that this book is about the "basis", and looks at issues from the People's perspective (non-politically) so as to explain why more and more Singaporeans are abandoning PAP] [This is part of the book: Basis Of Singaporean Spirit - People Power, click here to go to the main page] [Please join the blog and the Facebook Page to be notified of new postings.]
[i] Michael Fay vandalised in Singapore
and was caned. Clinton came down to plead for exemption from caning. Number of
strokes were reduced, but not exempted.
[ii] 'HDB Upgrading Carrots' is an election tactics PAP used. If you
vote for PAP, PAP will invest in upgrading your neighbourhood. By the way,
please note that the investment money is from Singapore, not from the PAP party
itself.
[This
is part of the book: Basis Of Singaporean Spirit - People Power, click here to go to the main page]
If you are an American, imagine this: Your president, Mr Barack Obama, a talented leader with great charisma, good educational background, stated that in the best interest of Americans, he had to import huge number of foreigners[i] from various countries, including China, Philippines, Bangladesh, etc., in order to support the growth of America.
Some of the reasons cited were: "We need 'Foreign
Talent (FT)' to help to build America"; "Americans are too picky in jobs"; "Americans
cannot perform high level jobs effectively", etc.
Soon, there came an issue when your FT
neighbour complained that the food you cooked was too smelly (mind you, this
dish is your country's favourite dish that every American cooked and enjoyed).
In response to that complaint, Mr Obama mediated
and the solution was that you should only cook that dish when your FT neighbour
is not in.
Of course, with this high influx of foreigners,
there came a list of associated problems, such as long queues in the hospital,
insufficient beds for patients, public transport over-crowded, etc. The feeling
that you had were: "Hey, am I in America or in Asia?"
When you brought up the issues on the immigration
policies, Mr Obama replied: "We should not be xenophobes or racists; you are a
bigot for saying that."
Next, a scholar from China, whom Obama had
fully subsidised his studies in America using tax payers' money, publicly
stated that: "There are more dogs than humans in America". When this issue was
brought up, your ministry of education came into the news and stood by his side
and explained that it was due to his unpleasant experience with Americans. And
when there was a huge uproar on this, instead of condemning the act, Mr Obama
requested Americans not to get worked up every time someone misspoke, and that
Americans should not be so calculative and petty.
Soon, there was a riot that resulted in
many police cars and ambulances being burned by foreigners. Obama came into the
news and stated that: "Actually, the crime rate of foreigners is generally
lower than Americans' and that all of you (Americans) should not make swiping
statement that they (rioters) are trouble makers".
And to make matter more interesting, within
this pool of "Foreign Talents", there emerged a person who showed off his
Porsche and commented that those who took public transport were poor people.
There was an instance when his Porsche was
sent for servicing, and he had to take the public transport instead; immediately
after that, he commented on his Facebook that normal life could resume after he
had washed the stench of public transport off him.
When there was an outcry on the Internet
about this Porsche guy, the reply from Obama was that Americans should not
engage in cyber-bullying.
Later on in the months that followed, Mr
Obama made another statement that Americans must take the initiatives to
integrate with new immigrants because America belongs to everyone, including citizens,
foreigners on work pass, green card holders, etc.
With such a leader like Mr Obama, would you
still vote for him to be the president? (Assuming he is eligible for presidency
and also running for it).
Well, I am sure the answer is a resounding
NO!!!
But why? He is so talented, so charismatic,
and hey, you get another bonus for voting him because he is a lawyer too! Oh,
by the way, he is also a Nobel Peace Prize winner, aren't you proud of that?
I believe the answer is still a NO, and the
reason is simple.
BOSS Wisdom: "The basis of a leader is to
protect his People, failing which nothing else matters." - BOSS
Are you thinking that the above scenarios are too
extreme and unrealistic? Well, welcome to Singapore[ii]. [This is part of the book: Basis Of Singaporean Spirit - People Power, click here to go to the main page]
[i] Technically, there is nothing wrong with immigration policies. The
issues come about from the incapability of the leaders who do not understand
their own limitations and the associated problems that they created. See "Are
you a Xenophobe? Are you Anti-Immigration" for more details.
