COIs are too slow. We live in real time and want answers immediately. For leaders to tell us to stop speculating is just plain oxymoron. Even they can't help themselves with their speculation but couched in skeptical language and qualifications.
Did our leaders not realize the the least worst hypothesis for the riots are unhappy foreign workers? If that is the reason, it is the easiest problem to solve. Yes, even the easiest is very hard here but some are near impossible. No leader is honest and courageous enough to admit they made a mistake allowing too many of them to come here. Only the old man had the guts to publicly state his reservations long ago.
Oh, they riot because they had one bottle too many and because they are not trained as Singaporeans from young. They riot like any people would the rest of the world. I learned that Indian society is stricter with public boozing. We failed to notice and impose the same here. So we were careless as we were many times in recent years beginning with the escape of Mas Selamat....
Now I wonder how long it will take for the culture and quality of thinking at MDA to spread to the rest of government - in reality more like they help each other become like each other eh? No more a Dr. Goh who once went into MAS and clean shop. Lim Kim San did the same when he went to SPH. Confidence and standards at SPH is falling after they lost him. These men did such an outstanding job it takes a long time for the after glow to fade, a golden opportunity for lesser people to claim genius they did not possess because they occupy the late boss chair now, and also time for me to sell my SPH shares.
To me the ministers and the PM were quick on the draw that it wasn't workers' unhappiness (they have learned to be less emphatic by using 'no evidence') because they were traumatized by the bus drivers' strike. We must learn not to lose our nerve so easily because it clouds our thinking and impair our judgement.
Politically it would be cleverer to tentatively agree to reasons which you can immediately act on even as away from the public gaze you look for the real reasons for the riot. Also none of our leaders had the savvy to order the security forces to protect the emergency vehicles. See how terrible we come across when the major media organizations show them to the world. Readers and viewers will forget the details of the stories but never those photos and videos of burning and overturned vehicles.
We should be kind and generous to those who were not involved but severely punish those who took part in the rioting.
Update: 10:35 am
Post riot, excellent articles in the Sunday Times Think pages today.
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