Goh Chok Tong: SG as a garbage city

Well I am glad he is no longer PM. He is out of touch and worse he thinks badly of us.

I think much better of ourselves. If there were few foreigner workers (it is no realistic to think there will  be zero, only the stupid think that way) cleaning our garbage we will just simply develop the habits to keep it clean in our own way. Unlike our grand parents, we have become really proud of our homes and our beautiful island.

We have ourselves to blame for developing the bad habit of having others pick up our litter as help were so easily available. We will adapt if there are fewer of them. Nearly all of us do that when we no longer have a foreign domestic worker.

We wasted years not effectively teaching ourselves not to litter because in the early days we needed to get clean in a hurry. Back then we just want to be the cleanest city regardless of the method. The quick and convenient approach of hefty fines, shaming and foreign cleaners can never encourage the habits of public cleanliness that we want. Instead of being cognizant of how we got here the ESM and his successor chose to scold us instead. I wouldn't have minded if they also had admitted their unavoidable failure from the trade off  LKY government had to make but no, they are always right.

Update: Feb 2, 7:30am

VB listed three reasons whether people will avoid littering. They are the familiar ones any student can expect to hear from school principals, which had been repeatedly endlessly. They are not wrong, they are just incomplete.

Stepped up enforcement have doubled the numbers nabbed for littering. I get the feeling if they step up even further they can double the number of people fined again.

There was a time when people do not litter because they were really afraid of getting caught. That fear is gone. It was never wise to roll back enforcement without successful education. By and large the foreigners take their cues from the locals. When they see us do it, they assume it is OK. Do not forget that many come from places which are far dirtier. If what they used to do at home is allowed, they would happily indulge themselves.

Everyone think, we litter the cleaners come and clean it up. A terrible idea but often true until that last event in GBB. Some litter as a protest against the government. I don't know how many are in this category but I think they should be fewer now.