PM Lee is not fit to be PM if he is fixated on the survival of the PAP more than the problems Singaporeans are facing.
Someone posted a comment on PM Lee’s FB questioning whether the PM was more focused on matters concerning the PAP or on issues affecting Singaporeans. It got me thinking a step further on how true that sentiment could be. As i pondered, i began to feel a sense of fear, especially when i reflected on his recent dealings with the problems facing us in recent times, against his dealings with the opposition parties, and with his own party cadres.
The many key words being tossed about these days serve to question one another’s integrity, honesty and credibility. Where failings and shortcomings by governmental agencies and officials are concern, there are always that valid reason to bail each of them out. When there were no good reason, the PM would ask all to move on. Case close.
Numerous examples come to mind, the Brompton bikes, Aims, YOG, and that $8 heart bypass surgery to name a few. Did the PM ever once used grave words like “grave doubts” the way he used on the WP? Why didn’t he step forward to question Khaw Boon Wan on his publicly declared $8 surgery? Wasn’t there anything to trigger his mind that this was gravely doubtful? The YOG budget when first presented, why didn’t he question the minister in charge when the budget was later discovered to have missed the target by hundreds of millions? Did he show any grave doubt after that over the competency of that minister?
PM Lee cannot pretend not to know all these failings. Even if his advisers had been advising him otherwise, he cannot escape the fact that raw, blunt and direct sentiments have been expressed to him on a daily basis online.
It brings me to my main point. As a PM, his duty is towards ALL Singaporeans. This should and must be the first and foremost manta in his head. When the people around him talk to him, or give him advice, or share with him the situation on the ground etc etc, it is his duty to listen to both sides of the story and them make his own conclusion before deciding the course of action. This is what a true leader would do.
Unfortunately, we have a mediocre PM who tends to listen to only the side of the story he wants to hear, or the side that sucks up to him. Take the AHPETC for example; everyone can see it was a case of people hearing wrongly what the other was saying, or replying wrongly to what each individual had perceived was asked. In short, a clear case of misunderstanding. Both NEA and the WP had already closed the issue amicably.
Out of the blue, a short-circuited cowgirl who didn’t want to miss the opportunity to help his master with his Fixing Game, decided to empty her barrel at the back of the unsuspecting opponent. The PM got carried away with the fun, because together with his favourite bed partner, it was the opportune time to play the Fixing Game. By so doing, the watching masses, the citizens who were expecting parliament to make decisions to lighten their burdens, were left to watch the Fixing Game which have absolutely no bearing on what they were expecting parliament to produce.
This episode tells us that the PM is in no state of mind to help find solutions for the people’s daily living predicaments. The latest salvo from him and his office further impress on Singaporeans that the Fixing Game he is playing is more important than the Game Of Life And Death – where the lives of real Singaporeans in hardship are left to fend for themselves.
The PM is nothing but a PAP team leader. He is not fit to be a national leader if he does not start listening to the things he does not want to listen to.
The Alternative View
[source]: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Alternative-View/358759327518739