May 2008

Nothing Speaks For Itself, Especially Not Reason

“When lapses occur, a mere ceremonial changing of the guard does not help” – The Straits Times announced (on April 23, 08). It was paraphrasing the Prime Minister’s defence, after a (two-month) investigation of a JI-terrorist’s escape from detention, that the Minister Of Home Affairs should keep his job despite the ‘lapse’. “Resign? It won’t solve the problem,” he declared. (The Home Affairs Minister is also the Deputy PM and is also in charge of internal security.)

A pal pointed out that this terrorist-escape fiasco isn’t the only ‘lapse’ to mar the State Minister’s record. There was that (gay) soldier who went AWOL with his rifle only to be caught in the toilet of a busy cineplex center. A convict was mistakenly caned. The bankrupt NKF director could make an ‘escape’ to Hong Kong. A murderer (of that little infant-girl Huang Na) made an escape walking across the Causeway past unsuspecting immigration officers into Malaysia, waving at close surveillance camera…

My pal also pointed out, “When we pay millions (to State Ministers whose salary, on record, is the highest in the world), we have a right to expect zero-defect.” My response? Actually I, myself, don’t want to see the DPM resign (considering that he is simply in charge and not the one directly committing the blunder), but like the casino issue (vs. traditional family values of a conservative society), the Government is now really arguing against its own principles (of accountability). “How come we can see it but they can’t or won’t?” my pal asked. “It’s intellectual dishonesty,” he added.

Sentiment of justice and problem of the nation nailed! Not that we dare venture to insinuate that it is, at all, a form of corruption! Better call it morality at a superior’s jurisdiction, if you will, for the benefit of the disgruntled.

However, the part I detest most is the immediate appearance of a letter in the ST’s Forum page on that very same April 23 day, declaring that “despite human errors, Singapore safer than most”. I don’t detest it for its face-saving agenda that we should see the so-called ‘bigger picture’, but the sheer transparent desperation of such a defence that will belittle our reputation as a First World country in the eyes of intelligent souls out there. Eh…there are hardly intelligent souls who would speak up about such matters and think us shameless? Pardon me, I forgot.

I have always felt a little sympathy for our current PM having to fill those big shoes left him by his daddy-o, the nation’s founding father, now the Minister Mentor. Doesn’t really matter that they’re big, but they’re big in an age when the Internet is so much bigger to, shall we say, sock it to! You think it’s easy to affect control like before, now that there’s the Internet to free the minds while asses follow? No wonder our PM has to resort to some of his old man’s tactics when put on the spot.

Like when challenged in Parliament by the opposition party leader Low Thia Khiang (of the Workers Party) that many “can’t reconcile the principle which the Government applied in looking at salary of the minister pitching in corporate world vis-à-vis when it comes to accountability and responsibility”. In response, our PM shot: “Let me ask the member whether he thinks the DPM ought to resign because of this? (Silence.) No answer. So, I think that settles the point.” (ST, April 23) Betcha a real kamikazi opposition leader like Chee Soon Juan would not hesitate to answer: “Yes, I think he ought to resign.” Get my drift, in more ways than one?

Anyway, I detect there a resemblance to the time of a TV debate when the Minister Mentor, questioned about the Government allowing younger bloods to take charge, challenged the young local undergrad speaker: “Do you want to see me step down?” We all know high drama reality-TV style, but really, who dares live through challenging the head-honchos of the Singapore Government? The same ones who dare tell God to step aside when they see the need to build casinos, by declaring: “It is NOT a religious issue!” Don’t even THINK there!
“That escape: Crucial issues aplenty, so let’s move on” – Chua Lee Hoong wrote in her Thinking Aloud column in the Insight pages of the ST on Apr 26. Yes, I can see some of you yawning away, thinking – but of course, when the Government commits a blunder, we should close one eye and just move on and live and let live. Eh-uh. Alas, I realize why Chua’s comment is so crucial. How else are all our sheep-aporeans gonna know what to think in a way that’s good for them if someone like Chua does not voice it for the moral majority? Whose voice can they turn to when the voice of reason doesn’t seem to be reasonable enough to go by?

So, think it out loud, Hoong baby. You are Hoong phai (trump card). We really need to hear you more than ever, now that we’ve all gone complacent even in the thinking faculty. Don’t tell me they call it apathy! Can’t be, since we’re always upbeat and pro-active, no? Maybe, for a start, you can tell us the difference between complacency and apathy.

Uniquely defined in the Singapore-style beyond prosaic reason, of course, ya? -- X’ Ho