I was profoundly sadden as a fellow Chinese when Hong Kong Chief executive Leong Chun Ying made the following statement about the current political system:
“you look at the meaning of the words ‘broadly representative,’ it’s not numeric representation.”
“You have to take care of all the sectors in Hong Kong as much as you can,”
“and if it’s entirely a numbers game and numeric representation, then obviously you would be talking to half of the people in Hong Kong who earn less than $1,800 a month.”
“Then you would end up with that kind of politics and policies,”
When he classified the people who baked his bread, grew his rice and built his house, as arseholes who earn less than $1800 a month, he became a disgrace to humanity. When he implied that the policies and polities which the poor advocated are bad, I am sure god won’t forgive him. I’m not a Hong Kong citizen but I feel for the aspiring young individuals who participated in the Occupy Central protests.
As I reflected on his speech and the current situation we have in Singapore, I feel we are worse off. At least they have media freedom, and even though we have independence, Singaporeans are slaves of the unyielding rat race. We have become daft and easily manipulated. Then, I reflected on myself as a Chinese: What’s the difference between PRCs, Taiwanese, Hong Kongers and Singaporean Chinese? Why aren’t we helping each other? Independence is not a problem, is it? The people in Scotland were capable of deciding their own fate and leaders were ok to grant them independence referendums. Why can’t the Chinese leaders be mature about it and let their people decide? Why are they so fucking greedy?
Then I searched the web, how many independent countries are there where the Chinese controls the government. There are 3. Actually only 2 if you consider Taiwan not a truly independent country. We are only left with Singapore and China. Thanks to Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore was a miracle. Or is it???
My wise uncle once told me:
“We Chinese were made for slaves, our ideals and culture made us like that. Since time in memorial, we have always been ruled by emperors. Democracy is alien, Confucius is ancient, Marxism is dead and Communism is just a dream. Now, your government preaches Capitalism: Greed is the new capital. Kid, what can you see at the end of Capitalism? A perfect society? Kid, the Chinese race is addicted to Capitalism, we will probably go extinct in a few more generations.”
“Believe me, the signs are there… your government cares not one bit for you and immigration delivers cheap labour for the rich. They are rich, filthy and hoping you emigrate or die soon.“
I didn’t believe that we were born for slavery. I told him that the internet and education have made the new generations more socially conscious and politically aware. We have people who are rising up with plenty of support online and offline, soon.
“Haven’t you seen the number of people who attended the Workers’ Party rallies?” I asked.
“Kid, one day you will realize, its the rich who conjure power. Money talks now, haven’t you understood what I’ve just said? Your ’老李‘ (Old Lee) once advocated all the good stuff for the people. Then, only some got rich and he poured scorn on the ‘useless’ rest-of-the-population. I’m sure you read his books. Have you seen his statement advocating ‘good educated’ genes? (Heh, I remembered Hitler once said that!) Money genes have gone to his head. Diversity, justice and social equality? Did the national pledge you recite everyday bring real justice and equality? Or did it make you remember it by hard and say it just for the sake of it? and the meaning forgotten?
I am sure my uncle had lost all his hopes on the opposition. By the way, he used to be a PAP supporter and always said “Lee Kuan Yew is ruthless, he is right to jail dissenters because without him, Singapore is nothing! We Chinese are proud of him. Talk about welfare, you weaklings only talk about welfare.”
It was not until a few years back when he began to read more international news and got more western influences from the internet when his stance started to change. The last straw was when I showed him raw facts written by our minister stating that foreigners are preferred in our public universities and there were only 20-30% Singaporeans enrolled there in 2010. His Children couldn’t get into a local public university and he had to fork out money to send them to Australia. When he first visited his daughter for her graduation there, he admitted that life was much better there. He said “WE SHOULD EMIGRATE FOR A BETTER LIFE”.
He only realized he was daft and silly when he retired. He had to come out of retirement to fund his children’s university education. He has 4 children, 2 already graduated, 2 more to go.
Are your parents, uncles, aunts and friends daft and stubborn? Do they know what is government transparency and accountability? How much tax reserves have been collected and how much have been lost? How much have they spent on future generations and welfare? Do they even know what is welfare, the true notion of tax? Singaporeans, I urge you to help yourselves by educating them.
I shall leave you with 2 quotes from Tyson Neil deGrasse:
“No one is dumb who is curious. The people who don’t ask questions remain clueless throughout their lives.”
“To be scientifically literate is to empower yourself to know when someone else is full of shit.”
Cowpeh!
*The writer blogs at http://cowpehcowbu.wordpress.com/