Don't over promise: President's Speech to Parliament

Many social political bloggers out there must be commenting on this. To me it is just a reminder that our government although still good is steadily on the path to becoming like any good but ordinary government. If you believe we do not need extraordinary government to keep this place going, good luck to you. If you think otherwise, this is worrying.

Six bullets which the President went on to elaborate on each.

Leaders elsewhere can make speeches like this or even better, e.g, President Obama. However he gets away with not achieving many things he wants to because his political system just prevents him. In our case, the government is unfettered and could do a lot.

Obama can make inspirational speeches that have no chance of seeing reality, not so for the PAP government. So theywant to be careful how they put your message across. Jaded electorates elsewhere have learned long ago to discount what they read and hear from leaders. Do we want to the same to happen here? Regularly our leaders are over promising and under delivering even if they often deliver at a high level vis a vis many other governments. Politically this is not smart and in the longer term they must drift to populism.

Make great speeches if you are stymied from delivering and so keep hopes alive and ask the people to be patient and keep trying. For SG, government must avoid promises which they cannot deliver well on especially when they are hitting several objectives which are antagonistic to each other. No one can have his cake and eat it. Be very careful about saying, "every Singaporean" because too many fall through the cracks.

When you are very powerful, words a few and there is plenty of action. When you have limited power, you use many words and patiently acquire as much power as possible to act, usually by persuading others to use their power. That is why unlike the Americans, the Chinese leaders do not say much. They just talk less and do more.

If you are confident that what you do is the right thing then just go and do it and let the results speak for themselves. Trouble is the results have not spoken well of their erstwhile policies. Therefore they are talking a lot to make up for under delivering.