Meet the CEO of Singapore League, Lim Chin. He was a former colonel and Chief of Artillery under the Singapore Armed Force. Nobody knows on what merit he became appointed to manage the Singapore football scene. Then, the how and why is not import but what happened after he took charge. Recently he downsized the number of teams in S League and got into a heated argument with soccer players and fans. On the annual awards dinner this week, he was booed and jeered upon by players and fans.
Meet Desmond Kwek, the former Chief of Army under the SAF. Under his supreme leadership, MRT breakdowns happened nearly every week. But that doesn't stop him from drawing more than a million dollars in the first six months of the year alone. MRT trains are more crowded than before, taxi rentals are at its record high and even the SMRT bus drivers from China conducted a strike against low wages.
Over at the political field, the Singapore government is literally a military junta. Lui Tuck Yew, a former Navy Admiral and currently the Minister of Transport. COE prices is at its record high, public transport fares kept rising and overcrowding is everywhere. We also have Lee Hsien Loong, a former Brigadier General and presently Prime Minister. His political party is currently facing falling popularity and it seems to be a matter of time the legacy left by his father will be wiped out under his incompetent charge. His policies led Singaporeans to falling living standards and caused much resentment among the public. Then we have Tan Chuan Jin, another Brigadier General and presently Manpower Minister who is screwing up Singapore's manpower policies. Most unhappy workers? Checked. Low wages and exploitation by employers? Checked. Next, Chan Chun Sing, a former Major General and the current Minister of Social Development. Increasing number of poor? Checked. More elderly begging on the streets? Checked.
SAF officers are incompetent and nobody knows why they get parachuted into leadership roles, which ended up having the people paying for the hefty prices of their screw ups. The only logical explanation behind their incompetence is that they have a dictator mentality been brought up in a mollycoddled environment where their soldiers are forced to listen to their bidding or risk persecutions. Army officers have everything done up for them and they have never encountered hardship in their career as the number one person in the army. Worst of all, they do not admit mistakes and lack the morality to resign. Shameless? Definitely.
Singapore will continue to deteriorate and eventually collapse if we continue to let army officers run the country like the army. It is a curse to have them as leaders.
Alex Tan
TRS Contributor