If you require proof Khaw Boon Wan is no gentleman, read how he addressed Ms Sylvia Lim in his closing remarks of the MND Review “debate”:
“This is self-righteous and – pardon me for saying so – arrogant. Many of us in this House have been serving Singapore for decades, long before she entered this House. Please, don’t behave as if you’re the only patriot in this House.”
It kind of sets you thinking. Firstly, the oldest man in the House already said Singapore is not yet a nation – patriots are normally associated with nationhood. Then there’s this definition of a patriot as a person who loves, supports, and defends his or her country and its interests with devotion. But how can anyone honestly do that when our country has been raped beyond recognition by members in the House who have sold it out to foreign interests, and diluted the national core to a fraction of its original composition? Even the kids of the future generation are not spared the ravaging pillage and plunder of the rapacious horde.
It was only in April 2013 that we learnt there was once a dastardly system of awarding sites in Housing Board estates to private pre-school operators based solely on the highest bid. Everybody cheered the announced intention to halt this inflationary practice. And there was the welcomed news that families with a gross monthly household income not exceeding $2,000 could actually enjoy subsidised fees as low $10 a month.
Then everybody’s jaws dropped. A mother of two revealed that kindergarten and childcare fees at 22 PAP community Foundation (PCF) centres in Sembawang GRC have announced hikes of not 5, 10 or 15, but TWENTY percent from January 2014. And this is how Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (also PCF Executive Committee Chairman) Lawrence Wong justified it: “But the average fees will still be way below market and that’s how we have maintained our fees.” Leopards never change their spots. Like the Khaw Boon Wan practice with public housing prices, rates can be de-linked and re-linked to private sector numbers at their political convenience.
Thomas Paine once wrote: “These are the times that try men’s souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” The patriots, who are still standing bravely in spite of all odds, deserve better.
Tattler
* The writer blogs at http://singaporedesk.blogspot.com/