钟庆春与李光耀 – English Translated Article
The 87 years old Singapore rich woman, Chung Khin Chun, made an LPA to a guide from China, Yang Yin who eventually encroached into her wealth and properties. When the incident came to light, the case has since been the talk of the town and there was a public uproar over it. Henceforth, Madam Chung applied to the Office of Public Guardian to revoke the LPA held by Yang Yin. Based on the medical diagnosis and evaluation report of a senior consultant at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), the Family Court finally ruled that Mdm Chung is in sound mental capacity to make her own decision to revoke the LPA.
This case has drawn enormous public attention to elderly mental health problems which are now vividly before our eyes, one may wonder whether the elderly could handle their own affairs and those around them. This also reminds us the 91 years old Lee Kuan Yew, does he have a mental health problem?
Aging shall commence when humans are over the age of 40, both physically and psychologically. Those who reach 80 are considered elderly, 90 are called long-lived, and the higher the age, the more obvious are the organ degenerations and psychological changes. In general, 65 is the age to be defined as old age.
Just like dementia, elderly mental disorders is evident in the declining of ability of learning and dealing with daily life, as well as the ability to understand things in the surrounding. From a psychological perspective, the elderly is characterized by psychological changes in the direction of degeneration but not development. In another words, it can be said that psychological degeneration progresses with aging. From the physical point of view, sensory functions of hearing, sight, taste, smell and touch are all in decline. In addition, movement becomes hesitant and slow, memory deteriorates significantly, the abilities to recognise and recall are also in degeneration.
Under such circumstances, the elderly shall appear to have symptoms of loneliness, insecurity, conservative thinking, poor adaptability, and shall have erratic memories for the past. In short, when human reaches the age of 80 to 90, he becomes a lamp running out of oil and a candle in the wind, his ability of logical thinking has seriously degenerated, he is unable to work normally. However, in the subconscious of human, there are multiple desires, such as power, status, fame, property, sex drive, children, wife and concubines, slaves of the past, all of which are the contributing factors that prompted the elderly’s refusal to let go his work and control, he eventually becomes deadly stubborn, and this is the cause of emergence of dictators and eccentrics around the world.
On 10th November 1989, in the 5th meeting of the 13th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), a resolution was passed to approve the resignation of Deng Xiao Ping from the appointment of Chairman of the CPC Central Military Commission. Hereafter, Deng Xiao Ping left the government and became a civilian, he was then 85 years old.
Back in 1980, Deng Xiao Ping proposed reforms on the CPC and national leadership system, i.e. to abolish life tenure for leading posts. He was then 76 years old.
In 1987, during a meeting of the 13th Central Committee of the CPC, Deng Xiao Ping resigned from the posts of Politburo Standing Committee, Politburo member of the Central Advisory Committee, and the Central Committee and the Central Advisory Board. He honoured his words and had led by example.
Deng Xiao Ping’s explanation for his resignation was that it was for the future of the country and for the benefit of the party, he voluntarily stepped down to allow younger generations to take over. He demolished the life tenure system, for the subsequent administrations to formulate normative ruling timetable. This is an enormous contribution to the continuous rule of the CPC and is of incalculable significance.
LKY has repeatedly expressed his appreciation of Deng Xiao Ping’s vision, boldness and determination on reforms and open door policy. Nevertheless, he failed to learn Deng’s courage to retire. Up till now, LKY still holds office, and had not let go power. As we all know, LKY is holding many important positions in and outside of PAP, such as Chairman of the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau, MP for Tanjong Pagar, there is no sign of intention to make way for youngsters. Moreover, since he refuses to give up power, he created opportunities to appear himself in public, e.g. birthday party, tree planting, banquets, celebrations, meetings, award ceremonies, publishing of articles, garden tours, etc. However, he was seen to be helped and moved around in wheelchair by others during his appearance. He was not scruple to show his destitute image, and let people see his unsightly appearance. His real intention is to show that he is still in control of power and has no mental problems. He is too happy to play the role of “overlord”, he is like those rulers of the feudal era, rule the world forever.
China has a land area of 9.6 million square kilometers and her population is 1.3 billion. After years of extensive reclamation work, Singapore’s land area is just a meager 710.3 square kilometers and the population is merely 5.4 million. In contrast, Deng Xiao Ping managed such a large country, yet he kept his promise to step down voluntarily. In contrast, 91 years old LKY has refused to step down. He should feel ashamed of himself whenever he thinks of what Deng Xiao Ping had done. We have no idea of whether anyone in the PAP has brought up the issue of LKY’s retirement for official or private discussions, the fact remains that life tenure of the feudal era is reflecting from the English educated LKY. Is this a historical reality or history of irony?
Do we have the chance to see LKY undergoing those mental ability tests and psychological evaluations similar to what Mdm Chung has undergone, to determine whether he is fit to hold public office and to continue working? Would PAP, who has always emphasised self-renewal, keep such an elderly in the party for others to criticise or to be laughed at?
── 商丘羊 ──
2014年12月1日