Catherine Lim : "He is likely to carry this stance to his grave, believing till the end in his own misfortune of having an ungrateful people incapable of understanding him and appreciating all that he had done for them. Outwardly chastened but inwardly disillusioned, he must be particularly disappointed with his own PAP colleagues, for their failure to share his passionate belief that his was the right and proven way to achieve the well-being of the society. It is not so much megalomania as the sheer inflexibility that convictions sometimes harden into, something that will probably continue to give him a completely different interpretation of the devastation of GE 2011."
Link to her full blog post here. Must read.
4 comments:
HI TS, I read the full post at Catherine Lim's blog and I'd like to repeat the comment I made there:
Great piece, well written with lots of insight and empathy. I am a non-Singaporean admirer of Lee Kuan Yew, and have made an in-depth study of his life, his achievements and the contemporary history of his times. All I can say that this is a sad day for Singapore if most of the younger facebook/twitter generation question LKY's relevance. I fully agree with your assessment of what LKY might be thinking and I would agree with his thinking too - a new generation of better-educated, more exposed and sophisticated but shallow, ungrateful Singaporeans are unaware of what this man has done for the nation and when in future Singapore faces a real crisis, they will miss this great man.
Pandu
Don't get me wrong. I fully appreciate LKY's achievements and what he has done to build this country from zero to where we are now.
For me, letting go gracefully is where our political leaders have fallen short.
[btw .. I was quoting Catherine Lim in my post]
Anonymous,
Those who votes for the oppositions, is not a generation that forgets the works our PAP founders have put in to take Singapore to where it is today. I am sure in the school system, they are more than reminded and drilled to the vulnerabilities of the nation and how it becomes what it is today.
However to say that they will live to repent if they vote for the opposition, sounds like there is no choice but to vote for the ruling party. However a one party system has shown up the weakness in such a system by the numbers of issues raised in the GE2011. Amongst those who vote for the opposition are those who wants an alternative voice. The PAP is not always right and does not always knows what is best for the nation. This is the point that I feel you have missed.
@Sam,
One needs to understand at a deeper level the motivation for LKY and PAP's actions. History shows that democracy inevitably degenerates into a rule by the lowest common denominator, a rule by the mob. Singapore is very lucky that the PAP has put into place a system that allows for personal and economic freedom together with several mechanisms for feedback from the people. The PAP has built into its party structure a results-based, merit based advancement structure. MPs in the PAP advance if the outcomes in their district meet benchmarks, which are measured. For the people, there are district circles, meet the people events, a free press, and many other ways for Singaporeans to express their grievances. The PAPA MP has all this and internal party discipline to keep them on the straight and narrow. What Singapore does not have, by design, is a tower of Babel in the Parliament. If there is strong opposition in the parliament, it will oppose everything since its raison d'etre is to oppose the govt. Statements are made for publicity, for political games. The ruling party has to respond in kind, and soon this degenerates into anarchic non-governance of the kind we see in India. Singapore has achieved a high level of development, high integrity of political office, high level of personal freedoms - the holy grail of any democracy. Yet people want to throw out the existing MP for nothing more than that they don't like the party head's attitude or harsh words. Look at the results the PAP has brought you, and try to understand the perspective of the PAP old guard. They may sound somewhat disagreeable, but they mean well and more importantly they are right. Judging just on surface likes and dislikes is typical of the current facebook/twitter me-generation, with short attention spans, no sense of history and an assumption that life will be smooth sailing all the way. They need to experience the cold shower of reality for them to appreciate LKY's philosophy.
Fortunately LKY has had the foresight to build his ideas into the institutions of Singapore and the PAP, so hopefully the shining beacon of good government that Singapore is, will last many more years.
Pandu
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