The SPH Chief must be as blur as a sotong these days, with the impending absence of the man-god he had worshiped all his life. His article today, "When Singapore had a dream", seemed to suggest that he either has no confidence in life after LKY, or, is not confident that Singaporeans would continue to keep the PAP in power.
As one of the individuals roped in to help LKY write his latest book, he said he left the book launch event "a little forlorn". This was in reference to LKY's admission that he "had given up" trying to repair the declining birthrate damage he had inflicted on Singapore.
Who can forget the extremely successful campaign against birth in the sixties? The barbaric and draconian punishments for families seeking to have more than two children are well-documented. Many older Singaporeans have their own stories to tell, of how they were coerced or forced to abort and murder their own unborn children. For those who had chosen to keep them, their lives were made terribly hard by policies which had sought to disadvantage them and their children.
Other theories bandied about was that he wanted to reduce the number of births among the illiterates, believing that only the educated would bring forth educated children good enough for Singapore. Children of illiterate citizens would only go on to contribute to crime rates as it had been the general belief that crimes are mostly committed by uneducated people. Till today, he still believes that educated citizens are the ones who would bring Singapore forward. The uneducated ones will have to fend for themselves. Better still if they do not have the means to raise 'defective' children. One can only wonder if such theory had any truth in it.
No doubt that people like Warren must have been made to feel important. No doubt too that he is one ardent LKY supporter who thinks he deserves to be treated as important as LKY had made him out to be. The self-importance is the main reason why the State Press is so often associated with being the PAP Press.
So then, where to from here for Warren and his gang? You can bet your last dollar he would want his life to be as less disruptive as possible. To make sure of that, he will certainly throw whatever weight he has left behind the man-god's son. Going by what he has written this morning, this would be helping the boy "play a bigger role to build a fair and just society", as he promised in the just concluded National Day celebrations. Singaporeans are left to wonder what the government had been doing these past years to cultivate a fair and just society. Why only now when it is something we pledge to do each time we recite our National Pledge?
Warren tries to play the patriotic Singaporean by questioning all other Singaporeans their drives to make Singapore work and their commitment to drive Singapore forward. As with the old man, he believes the foreigner has the bigger drive than Singaporeans. Another story to belittle Singaporeans when he cited the example of an Indian-American whom he felt as "being more upbeat and passionate about the city-state and its prospects than many Singaporeans". And the reason for this foreigner to feel upbeat about is because he wanted Singaporeans to view our position as the global stage, a window for the world and for people who would be drawn here to find their pot of gold, and to transform us into an Asian Hub. He insisted that we should not mind if this mean we have to accommodate 8 million people. This is the kind of so-called intellectuals Warren wants us to place our faith in.
Oh well, we will let him fight his own battles. We can see how desperate he is to rally Singaporeans to stand behind PM Lee and his comical men, even though he acknowledged that today "trust is not just a matter of blind faith". Still, he insisted that we should consider "how far we have come" and the brand name which had brought us here. Tsk, Tsk, tsk! Still clinging on to the old man's apron strings.
Trust him to issue his warning that "the Singapore story would turn out to be a tragedy if an earlier generation who, despite the odds and limitations, harbored big hopes of building a bustling capital of Asia to help secure their children's future, came to find that this bold aspiration ran up against a constraint they never imagined - that their children would one day shrug it all off as a dream that was just not worth the effort ...". Again, casting aspersions against our young generation and creating conflict between them and their parents.
Sadly, Warren is discovering the truth only now. The tragedy was already happening since the late eighties. If only he had seen this day 25 years ago like so many Singaporeans have seen it coming.
The Alternative View
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