Monday, February 16, 2015

New Cardinals: Many called, few chosen like the PAP


We have come to know him as the Pope who is allergic to political correctness with a penchant for being real.

Twenty new cardinals have been called and I assume the church need all its cardinals, old and new. But for the Pope to say, "put aside pride, jealousy and anger" some of them are at risk of not being chosen in the fullest sense in the end.

Now our cabinet ministers are also like the cardinals. All were called but few were chosen. However watching how they regularly close ranks to bully and protect themselves, I fear but who am I to judge, none might be chosen. Until citizens began to wake up, it was a great career (not calling) with the trappings of power, status and wealth. There was a time they were leaders and not servants. Now we forced them to be servants. Really, I am still not used to seeing them besieged and even afraid. Who will lead us when we really have reason to be fearful? Churchill? He is dead and not Singaporean to boot.

I have never met him but Pope Francis speaks to my mind, my heart, my whole being. I am confident I am not alone with this experience. On the other hand my PM cannot even speak to my mind. I pray for his successful prostate op but he is always looking for willing suckers only to discover in 2011 there were fewer than he counted the last time. He runs a morally corrupt system which in time must lead to punishable corruption. Already government sloppiness and corruption have gone up and our position for incorruptibility in the league tables have gone down.

His Law Minister cannot even tell from simple sense making that the MA rates for residential and commercial units cannot be the same. That is as easy to grasp as why children pay less eating at a buffet. I don't even need TOC or TRS  whatever digging out the facts. Just use your head.

But that was used as a long sharp dagger into the WP, to make them look really bad, to deny them the $7 million grant for running their town councils. To fulfill LKY's warning that those who voted for the WP will live to repent. Residents of AHPETC, I hope you do not need to go next door to a PAP TC to throw your rubbish because your TC have no money to run the show.

Unless you had come through the fire, indeed they were all called but few are chosen.


Update: Feb 17 10:10 am

Blogging for myself and family I habitually do not make myself clear enough. I chose to compare the PAP with the millennial old Roman Catholic church to make the point that we cannot hope to do better than them in the long run. Our short run success of 50 years is partly due to luck but if we allow reversion to the mean, our present arrangement of the dominant PAP will produce leaders far lesser than what the RC could produce.

Someone in a comment reminded me of Abraham Lincoln words,

You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Adapted for our use, we can have the "perfect" government for only part of history and certainly not indefinitely.

In other words to stick with a dominant and increasingly corrupt PAP is to sign the death warrant for Singapore. It is not a question of if but when.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Peng You, no need to be despondent. Have more faith in LTK & his team. I'm confident they'll find a way to manage and not "go next door to a PAP TC to throw rubbish". To me, this is the equivalent of "Malaysia turning off the water supply to Sgp" situation -- LTK has a Nantah background, brought up in an against-the-odds background. When PAP refused to give any funds for Hougang to build covered walkways, etc, he found a way to do it. I'm confident he & his team will find a way out too of the "water being switched off" situation. You talk about fire? Well, the WP team is precisely being molded by this experience. In the long run, it can only be good for Sgp. In the process, he's molding his team to do in a way that is First World, and not stoop to as low as your opponents' tactics.

    And have faith in the people too. Most people may be confused by all the details, but don't assume most people can be easily fooled too. They've seen too many occasions of media hysteria to take things at face value. Partiuclarly when it comes to politics. Otherwise, why everyone so scared to enter politics against PAP right? Look at the thunderous reception given to the WP team when they made a previously scheduled sale of Hammer to Bendemeer & Whampoa markets yesterday. https://www.facebook.com/yeejj.wp. Know hope!!!

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    1. Thanks. Not a problem. Neither the PAP or the WP is going to decide the future. Let's get use to the uncertainty, welcome it and make the best of it. Parties are only means to ends. What happens outside Singapore will turn out to be more decisive than internally. The shape of the future is not clear but we must retrieve the same chutzpah our parents had. We do not know the names of our leaders yet but we must prevent the present ones not up to the task from stopping them.

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  2. The trouble with any organisational machinery is when it gets bloated up - with so many incompetent and worse, agents that are driven by their own private pursuits, it will get out of control and lose credibility. To cover the shit holes, the whole outfit has to dig deeper and deeper - into a bottomless pit. Besides, it is a total waste of energies and resources trying to patch up holes caused by reckless acts or creating ghost enemies instead of bettering society

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  3. Amen to that! Somewhere in that good book, it is said "there is a season for everything, a time for every purpose under the sun" To overstay with old ways as the world evolves is harakiri

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