What is going on in this thread is exactly the kind of debate that the PAP is unwilling to have with the rest of the country. As far as the PAP is concerned, the rest of the country is too lazy and too stupid to see the big picture. Therefore, it needs to be led by a group of elites who have proven themselves in the hungry race, and no dissent is tolerated. If you know your place, you will get some dollars thrown at you every election even if you have multiple condos and BMWs.
I have many friends who did not come from the best schools, or the best family backgrounds. Some did not study hard in their earlier years (loser according to RBB), but in each of them I see a decent man who is trying his best to provide good life for his family and children. I do not claim to know all Singaporeans, and neither is my experience of children as pessimistic as RBB (although I do think that some are too rich and spoilt for their own good), but I think there is space for everyone in this country.
As much as PAP wishes that Singaporeans will work harder and longer hours then the rest (We already are) and cheaper (wages for low income has not gone up for some time), I cannot help but think about how much of this is driven by their love of Singapore and their desire to see the best for the country, or their ambition to build an international city and legacy?
There is also an increasing group of haves who think that the rest of the country owes then a living. To them, the general population consists of lazy, shiftless people who cannot be trusted to hold themselves accountable to to the rest of the world unlike themselves. And since the domestic population is so useless, they have told their scholars with numerous blue-ribbon academic qualifications to do a study in which the conclusion is to load 6.5 mil people onto this piece of rock to make it a sustainable red dot on the global map. After the meeting everyone went home to sleep and here we are 10 years later with overcrowding everywhere and a general peon population that is very dulan with the way things are.
Those who have read Wee Shu Min's caustic post will get a taste of this attitude in the successful, elite strata of the Singapore society. She is a product of our education system, complete with the hunger and drive to excel - the rest please f-off and sleep in the gutter just don't block the drain when the rains come or my Orchard Road will flood.
Our education system schools tens of thousands of children every year. RBB talks about RI and RGS like all the rest of the neigbourhood schools deserve the factory jobs they get shipped to. The men-in-white talks about opportunities and meritocracy. But no one talks about the fact that kids do not start on the same base. The gap exists in every society yes, but as far as the elites are concerned - if you are hungry enough you can climb out of the gutter. However for every case of success out there are at least 100s of failures. MM Lee in his hard truths take the view that this collateral damage is inevitable in the course of human civilisation. After all, if your parents are not graduates, you are 90% condemned case so why waste resources to see if we can get 10% out to do better?
My question is - can we do better? Why must our school systems be structured as such? Anyone here who believes the primary school system is not elitist? Why can't we have the debate with more voices, and not just within PAP which is full of the elite themselves? Singapore has nothing but human resources. How can we not treasure the children put through our school system and ensure that they get the right values throughout and not just say that too for those who are difficult to help, too bad if you end up in the gutter. We are bringing foreigners in to replace you.
Nobody owes us a living yes. But we owe it ourselves to ask if we are getting the best of everyone who is here in Singapore, or are we taking the easy way out by importing bodies and telling the 30-40% who cannot score straight As or study 15 hours a day to sleep in the gutters?
Every five years people get to vote. If there is one thing I agree with you is there are more non-elites and elites out there. And their vote is as good as yours. Unless PAP wants to establish a dictatorship, some day we will have a debate about many of these issues - about the kind of society we want to be.
