Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Governing Singapore, Lessons from planning a holiday

I am going to write this up quickly so that I can go on to have breakfast.

The experience of planning our trip to the US west coast remind me of Singapore governance. Leaving everything to the PAP government is like joining a tour group. You just pay and let them take care of the rest. Of course, in this instance you keep paying (Pay And Pay).

If you want to have the freedom of exploring the destination on your own, you have to do the work yourself. Obviously the reward is much greater, but so is the work. Most important, you must have the confidence. E.g., I wouldn't try to navigate Russia on my own. We would join a group tour.

As Singaporeans become more confident and want to take charge of their own future, they will want the option of rejecting the tour packages of the government. In order to win elections, this government is trying to increase the number and types of tour packages. This is just expending huge resources against a long term and inexorable trend. If you want to go with the flow, you should aid and not resist the trend. Again and again I am reminded the PAP put the party interest above citizens. That is why you get the dichotomy of policies that are good for the country but bad for the people. It is the same with China, where the Communist Party is the skin beneath the clothes of country.

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