I have great respect for Ng Kok Lim and his writing style: always backing up whatever he has to say with thorough research and proper citations. However, his recent article – “LKY wasn’t the visionary leader who brought success to S’pore” – did a great disservice to our Great Dear Leader. He has underestimated the man and his uncanny strategy of haze: not haste.
Let me explain. Ng Kok Lim wrote:
“Mr Lee wasn’t the visionary leader who brought success to the nation. Neither was he the man of imagination who pursued the unconventional. Instead, he pushed for import substitution, the conventional policy of developing nations then that eventually proved inferior to the less conventional policy of export industrialisation proposed by Dr Winsemius. Luckily for us Mr Lee’s plans were scuttled with our expulsion from Malaysia and in the end; it was Dr Winsemius’ export industrialisation plans that ultimately brought success to our nation. The qualities crucial to Singapore’s past success and big picture perspectives can thus be found in Dr Winsemius, not Mr Lee.”
What Ng Kok Lim overlooked is one important characteristic of our Great Dear Leader: his ability to change direction as and when it suits him. When LKY expounded the import substitution economic strategy he was trying to mislead the Malaysian government. He knew that Singapore would be joining Malaysia soon and he would need to have a good excuse to extract money from the Federation. What better excuse then to have an economic policy that is destined to fail! In this way, the Federation can’t tax Singapore or rely on a stable income from her to subsidise lazy people in Malaysia. He can’t even stand lazy people in Singapore let alone lazy people in Malaysia: “If native Singaporeans are falling behind because the spurs are not stuck into the hide, that is their problem.”
Another important consideration for this subterfuge is the need for a backup plan to trip up the Malaysian government just in case the whole merger thing doesn’t work because he can’t be the Numero Uno. At that time the Malaysian government was taking its cue from the Singapore government for its economic policies: it was an imitator. If there is one thing our Dear Leader loathed it is an imitator of his way of doing things. Thus deliberately expounding a nonsensical economic policy was his way of teaching the Malaysian government a lesson. It will lead them up the garden path. This is a clever hazy strategy: he was making haze while the sun shines.
Another hurtful accusation was that our Great Dear Leader wasn’t that great because Singapore was already right up there with the ‘haves’ rather than way down there with the ‘have-nots’.
“Mr Lee did not lead Singapore from Third World to First for Singapore was already Upper Middle Income status according to World Bank’s classification of our 1960 per capita GNP. At most, Singapore went from Next to First World to First World, led not by Mr Lee but by Dr Winsemius who was the leader behind Mr Lee.”
He obviously missed the point. Speed is the issue and not position. The concern here is how fast we were moving forward. If we were moving too fast it could have led to a bubble situation. The recent global financial meltdown in 2008 is a good example of a bubble trouble. Our Great Dear Leader gave us a good pace instead of a wild gyrating economic pace. Again I quote a good old English idiom and proverb: “More Haze, Less Speed”
On the subject of more haze and less speed did you notice how misunderstood the members of parliament from PAP were as compared with the seemingly hardworking members of parliament from the Opposition? The PAP members of parliament have all of the following adjectives and descriptions unfairly thrown at them: apathetic; asleep on the job; comatose; dallying; drowsy; dull; idle; inattentive; indifferent; indolent; inert; lackadaisical; laggard; languid; languorous; lethargic; lifeless; neglectful; procrastinating; slacker; sleepy; slothful; slow; slow-moving; somnolent; supine; tardy; torpid; unconcerned; unenergetic; unready; etc.
Just because some or most of them don’t show up for parliamentary sittings the public affixed these hurtful badges to them. What the public didn’t realize is that members of parliament from PAP are highly talented people who have made great sacrifices when they left their highly lucrative previous employment to serve our country. These are highly productive people. They don’t like to waste time on unproductive affairs. (Affairs in this instance refer to state matters and not private liaisons in some unlighted car parks. In the latter case they would prefer it to be unproductive.) Hence, during parliamentary sittings that are usually routine in nature, since they are duty bound to vote in sotto voce and singularly behind the party, they might as well be more productive attending some company meetings. Have you any idea how many directorships the average PAP member of parliament is holding? They have responsibilities to shareholders and their own family you know. Clearly, it is far better to go slow during parliamentary sittings by not even appearing rather than speeding up parliamentary sittings when we already have so little of it each year. More haze and less speed.
Ng Kok Lim also accused our Dear Leader of poor leadership with the following wild and mischievous accusation:
“All sense of hope and collective purpose is lost in Mr Lee’s leadership when he makes statements like these:
- If Aljunied decides to go that way, well Aljunied has five years to live and repent.
- If they choose the opposition, then I say, good luck to them. They have five years to ruminate and to regret what they did. And I have no doubts they will regret it.”
He obviously didn’t read enough wise English Idioms and Proverbs. One of the more endearing one is “Marry in haze, repent at leisure.” This is also one reason why during this current period of haze enveloping Singapore our government has wisely cautioned couples to postpone their marriages till after the haze has blown over.
Lastly, Ng Kok Lim claimed: Over the years, PAP has unashamedly chanted mantras and dished out promises like “More good years”, “Swiss standard of living for Singaporeans”, “no one left behind”, “no one deprived of healthcare”, “affordable housing”.
If you were to consider all these accusations you will realise they are absolutely true. I mean it is true what PAP has so called unashamedly dished out and claimed over the years.
For instance “More good years” could be referring to the enviable position of our Ministers. They are very well paid because of their talent and geniuses. They can expect more good years as a result of such talent. Who can deny this fact!
Then there is the often derided “Swiss standard of living for Singaporeans”. Let me ask you a question. Are PAP members of parliament also Singaporean? I rest my case.
With the current haze enveloping Singapore can you think of anyone that is left behind? Everyone is equally affected: especially those that can’t afford to buy purifiers or other solutions to ameliorate the crazy hazy situation.
Since when is anyone who can afford to pay for healthcare deprived of it? Ours is a capitalistic society and anyone who can afford to pay for services will get it. It is silly to claim people are deprived of healthcare: our economic system will not turn people away as long as there is money to be made.
The word ‘affordable’ is highly subjective. What is affordable to one person may be unaffordable to another. For instance during the current haze crisis the public is clamoring for the government to issue a stop work order just because the PSI reaches a dangerous level. This is most unfair to our Ministers. Only recently, they already suffered a huge pay cut. Their income is heavily dependent on good GDP numbers. By issuing stop work orders our Ministers will be effectively ordering their own pay cut. Is this fair? No! Our Ministers are hard-working people always going to great length to motivate us to be realistic and learning how to live with catastrophes. Why should they take a pay cut again just after they have agreed to a recent huge one? They certainly can’t afford more pay cut.
In any event the PSI reading is most definitely out of line with good conventional practices. We are taking the PSI reading averaging over a 24-hour period. Is our GDP averaged over a 24-hour period? Of course not. We calculate GDP by averaging it over a whole year. Our Minister’s income, which is based on our GDP, is also calculated over an average period for a year. It is thus fair that PSI reading should be taken over an average period of one year. I believe, as a concession to the public, PAP is currently generously considering taking average PSI reading over a month.
Who says they are not coming up with good solutions to the problem of the haze? That they are not hasty about it is a good sign. As noted earlier more haze less speed. That some of the companies that cause the haze problem actually belongs to our own government should also be looked at in a proper perspective.
It showed they are competitive and they are willing to make haze while the sun shines!
Apolitical