It was a message that Obama was the most apt person to carry to the Malaysians.
Then I found that YouTube had this town hall meeting made available by the State Department.
He is long on ideals and short on delivery especially at home. That is the consequence of their political system. But ideals are important which Singapore is sorely short on. As Lincoln pointed out we need to get our compass correct without which you cannot lead. A better life is not good enough because we do not live by bread alone. In fact up to a point, we might trade surplus bread for a better society and humanity, and every year we throw away more food than the year before.
If we do not start taking care of the things that elude KPIs, in time to come there will be no KPIs at all.
Good observation!!
ReplyDeleteBTW, once upon a time, we were long on ideals as well. Remember the Singapore Pledge? That's one hell of an ideal statement, isn't it, given the prevailing conditions at that time. It came about because, right from the beginning, almost by fluke (perhaps never to be repeated again), we had a TEAM of forefathers, and their strengths mutually complemented each other. Rajaratnam was the chief "visionary", Toh Chin Chye was the "socialist", Goh Keng Swee was the economist. Because each of them was a mini-giant in his own right, the leader of the pack (LKY) listened to all of their inputs and through this process, the best decision for the country was made.
Compare that to today -- whether its a fear of being out-shined or a demand for 100% purity -- PAP top leadership is unable to attract "mini-giants", let alone a diversity of people. By default, we operate on an auto-pilot mode. The policies of today are merely tweaks and tweaks of yesterday's. Look at how complicated the CPF scheme is. What is the CPF scheme for - nobody can give a one-liner, simple answer today. Its too convoluted. Look at the COE scheme.
So the old formula gets peddled again and again - vote for the PAP, we'll deliver "more good years" (economic).