Re: 6.9mil population in 2030 / PM Lee admits govt lacked foresight
Doodles;951618 said:
on a serious note as a singaporean, my future is here. my children's future is here. i am not anti pap or anti government. in fact i'm very appreciative of what the government has done for sg. we live in a safe and comfortable environment.
however the system that we treasure and that has worked in the past is starting to breakdown and we need to look not for accountability but for transparency and solutions. meritocracy has morphed into an elitist system. policies crafted by our scholars are deemed to be too perfect to fail hence the reluctance to admit that things have gone wrong.
i know full well that the opposition will not provide (at this juncture) a credible alternative cabinet. yet when they win an election i'm ecstatic. i think it boils down to a burning desire for the government to hear the voices and to connect with the people on the ground. acknowledge that there are problems and take a consultative approach in crafting policies that shape our future. so far, everything that has been said or done borders on being patronizing.
Hear hear.
On an equally sombre timbre, I worry for our children - not merely for their future, but of their attitude & approach to that future of theirs. It's a brave new world, and yes, many of the old methods that brought Singapore to where she is today can no longer be applied, but the principles & the essence of those methods must remain true & infallible.
Hard work (and not necessarily for a fair wage), meritocracy (not mere academics) and a never-say-die ability to take the best punches and body blows that life has to offer, square on the chin & still be standing thereafter. Singapore was built on the backs of those who did all that and more (and truth be told, on the principles of a good, clean government that - at that time - did not overpay itself, did not surround itself with scholars-in-ivory-towers and certainly did not layer itself with a bunch of subservient yes-men all listening to Gold 90.5FM).
Yet, the generation (who are now of voting age, or will be coming into voting age) I see are now - with, I'm sure a few exceptions - mostly self-centred, loud-mouthed, ego-centric, molly-coddled pampered brats, whose only opinion that matters is his or her own.
This is a dangerous trend - and to a large extent, both the parents & the government of the day have to bear equal responsibility. "Stop at 2", ever rising costs of living, toddler care that costs $700/month per child, HDBs that cost more than a bungalow in some other countries - and many other these policies (or the consequences emanating from such) have created a citizenry that fear to reproduce in adequate numbers that will sustain the population.
So, the single child that does come into being is a precious, fragile commodity, to be lovingly showered and overly spoiled. And that same child grows up not knowing hardship and carries with him this seriously misplaced sense of self-entitlement. They think the government, their MP, the workplace, the world owes them a living.
And so, I worry for that same self-serving child - because, when it's time for him to cast his vote, I worry that his vote will be one that is bought over by the influence of the new media to which he subscribes; or one that is cast in anger, because some "foreign talent" who's willing to work harder, for less, has taken over his job.
I fear that in the future, that child will cast his vote not based on the question of how his vote can help shape a better Singapore, but rather, what's in it for him. And with 7 million people squeezed into 710 square km, should every child asks that latter question before his vote is cast, then that's a very scary thought indeed.
The only consolation I can see is that, by then, I'd probably be dead.
Monkey see, monkey do?
just kidding lah.
