Artificial Dynamism?
Once again, the Minister Mentor speaks, this time to a crowd of ypap fellas at St James Powerstation. http://news.asiaone.com.sg/st/st_20070423_113313.html
Suffice to say, there was the usual thing about how Singapore will sink into the bottom of the South China sea and what have you should Singapore get a "dumb" government, in this sense it seems to be that a "dumb" government is any government whereby the PAP is not in control.
But ignoring the "my way or your sis becomes a maid" kind of talk, his point about Singapore embarking on the pathway to be a dynamic international city is a sound one, and as this one has said somewhere in the depths of the past, such a solution is the only tenable one in the long run since there is no way Singapore can continue to compete with China and India just by relying on workers, no matter how skilled or unskilled they may be. However, as the saying goes, saying is one thing, doing is another.
It appears that despite the progress Singapore has made in the economic frontier, the progress in the socio-political frontier still leaves much to be desired. The ST, which continues to be a mouthpiece of the ruling party, the fact that Mr Brown got whacked and low blowed, the a/m "my way or your sis becomes a maid" kind off talk inter alia. It seems that while the MIW believes that a dynamic city is the way for Singapore to go, they have purely deigned to make cosmetic changes; for example the Speaker's Corner, the wooing of foreigners to add "diversity" to the society, the introduction of Crazy Horse and the IRs, so on so forth.
The above are similar by virtue of the fact that they are initiated by the PAP government. The "dynamism" is artificial more than it is spontaneous. At the end of the day the "chaos" in society will be the "chaos" that either they approve of or the "chaos" that they engineer. In a sense is this not similiar to the past where engineering society was the norm?
While one can argue that it doesnt matter what colour the cat is as long as it catches the mice, the fact of the matter is artificial dynamism has a rather poor track record. The Speaker's Corner remains rather empty and Crazy Horse has gone back to France. Meanwhile we have the MDA coming after Singapore's own talents such as Martyn See and the fella who created that book with Aaron Kwok, among other things. There are also the veiled threats against the netizens and the labelling of dissenters as ingrates, dummkopfs with no sense of proportion, etc etc. Thus it appears that while they are pushing for a dynamic cosmopolitan society, they have no tolerance for those who do not toe the line. This is rather contradictory.
While there are those who will throw the report card in this one's face, declaring that Singapore has a high GDP, largest reserves, so on so forth, this one will also throw another report card, of kingdoms and dynasties long gone, the Qin Dynasty http://aaron-ng.info/blog/lessons-from-the-qin-dynasty.html, the Byzantine Empire http://nedstark.blogspot.com/2007/04/blast-from-past-discussion-on-aarons.html, Imperial China, among others. The examples of these show that overwheliming concentration of power in the hands of one or a few men will and has resulted in disastrous consequences for the nation/state/ kingdom as a whole. It could be as short as 20+ years (Qin) or it could be 300+ years (Byzantine Empire) but one cannot deny the fact that there is merit in the idea of an alternative elite as espoused by Ngiam Tong Dow.
* This one wrote a long rambling post on Singapore http://nedstark.blogspot.com/2007/01/thoughts-on-singapore-singapore-is-like.html here.
** With regards to the oft mentioned point that Singapore has no natural resources but its people, there is one point which few have discussed. Namely, Singapore's location as a gateway, which was one of the reasons why Raffles decided to set up shop here, and the fact that Singapore is not subject to any natural disasters, thus adding to a certain level of safety in the country. For example a business man who sets up shop in Singapore does not need to worry about earthquakes and typhoons and tsunamis.
*** With regards to the use of long short cuts, this is because this one has no idea how to make it shorter. Perhaps someone would be kind enough to offer advice?:P
Once again, the Minister Mentor speaks, this time to a crowd of ypap fellas at St James Powerstation. http://news.asiaone.com.sg/st/st_20070423_113313.html
Suffice to say, there was the usual thing about how Singapore will sink into the bottom of the South China sea and what have you should Singapore get a "dumb" government, in this sense it seems to be that a "dumb" government is any government whereby the PAP is not in control.
But ignoring the "my way or your sis becomes a maid" kind of talk, his point about Singapore embarking on the pathway to be a dynamic international city is a sound one, and as this one has said somewhere in the depths of the past, such a solution is the only tenable one in the long run since there is no way Singapore can continue to compete with China and India just by relying on workers, no matter how skilled or unskilled they may be. However, as the saying goes, saying is one thing, doing is another.
It appears that despite the progress Singapore has made in the economic frontier, the progress in the socio-political frontier still leaves much to be desired. The ST, which continues to be a mouthpiece of the ruling party, the fact that Mr Brown got whacked and low blowed, the a/m "my way or your sis becomes a maid" kind off talk inter alia. It seems that while the MIW believes that a dynamic city is the way for Singapore to go, they have purely deigned to make cosmetic changes; for example the Speaker's Corner, the wooing of foreigners to add "diversity" to the society, the introduction of Crazy Horse and the IRs, so on so forth.
The above are similar by virtue of the fact that they are initiated by the PAP government. The "dynamism" is artificial more than it is spontaneous. At the end of the day the "chaos" in society will be the "chaos" that either they approve of or the "chaos" that they engineer. In a sense is this not similiar to the past where engineering society was the norm?
While one can argue that it doesnt matter what colour the cat is as long as it catches the mice, the fact of the matter is artificial dynamism has a rather poor track record. The Speaker's Corner remains rather empty and Crazy Horse has gone back to France. Meanwhile we have the MDA coming after Singapore's own talents such as Martyn See and the fella who created that book with Aaron Kwok, among other things. There are also the veiled threats against the netizens and the labelling of dissenters as ingrates, dummkopfs with no sense of proportion, etc etc. Thus it appears that while they are pushing for a dynamic cosmopolitan society, they have no tolerance for those who do not toe the line. This is rather contradictory.
While there are those who will throw the report card in this one's face, declaring that Singapore has a high GDP, largest reserves, so on so forth, this one will also throw another report card, of kingdoms and dynasties long gone, the Qin Dynasty http://aaron-ng.info/blog/lessons-from-the-qin-dynasty.html, the Byzantine Empire http://nedstark.blogspot.com/2007/04/blast-from-past-discussion-on-aarons.html, Imperial China, among others. The examples of these show that overwheliming concentration of power in the hands of one or a few men will and has resulted in disastrous consequences for the nation/state/ kingdom as a whole. It could be as short as 20+ years (Qin) or it could be 300+ years (Byzantine Empire) but one cannot deny the fact that there is merit in the idea of an alternative elite as espoused by Ngiam Tong Dow.
* This one wrote a long rambling post on Singapore http://nedstark.blogspot.com/2007/01/thoughts-on-singapore-singapore-is-like.html here.
** With regards to the oft mentioned point that Singapore has no natural resources but its people, there is one point which few have discussed. Namely, Singapore's location as a gateway, which was one of the reasons why Raffles decided to set up shop here, and the fact that Singapore is not subject to any natural disasters, thus adding to a certain level of safety in the country. For example a business man who sets up shop in Singapore does not need to worry about earthquakes and typhoons and tsunamis.
*** With regards to the use of long short cuts, this is because this one has no idea how to make it shorter. Perhaps someone would be kind enough to offer advice?:P
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