DAP MP Tony Pua: SG has no moral compass

The downfall of BN in Malaysia is a Black Swan event for Singapore which our leaders will not publicly admit. Evidence that this was not thought to be possible can be surmised from the writings of our brilliant but cocky Bilahari Kausikan. Unfortunately cockiness have the tendency to cause a brilliant person to over reach his intellectual abilities and foresight. Now reading Tony Pua's 2015 article must be a bitter experience which Kausikan would avoid experiencing.

My primary interest in the article is just one: Moral Compass. I agree with Tony Pua we have none. Not that we are immoral, we are just not moral but are principled as best as can be with respect to our permanent interests. It is a cynical way to view the world. From such a base trying to get the population to have ideals and reach for the stars can only result in hypocrisy. The evidence of that grows every year giving rise to a dissatisfied and unhappy people. The government is doing most things right and yet it has not gotten things right. How can this be? It is because we pretend to have found the meaning of Singapore and the meaning of our lives.

We got to get past from knowing to price of everything and the value of nothing. Without idealism there is no value in anything. Everything is reduced to commercialism and accounting. This is not sustainable. Any country wanting to take over Singapore, that is easy. Just do nothing and be patient. Given enough time the contradictions and hypocrisies of this society will cause it to implode.

Update: May 19, 9:10 pm

I wasn't expecting this. The timing was perfect. Thanks MP Seah Kian Ping

See Today Online.

Quoting from the end paragraph of the story:

It may be that there is no one policy – no matter how bold – that will address the most pressing problems of our times. It may be that Singapore today is a problem for the foxes rather than hedgehogs, but we will need first to recognise that foxes speak the multi-tonal language of values, rather than the universal language of money. We must therefore make the language of morality our vernacular in policy matters.

What is this language of values? Don't imagine we already know what it is. We could mostly grasped it as something idealistic, but how to make it real.

I sometimes remind my children if ever they found themselves to be in Lincoln's shoes then like the highly regarded Honest Abe, they must confidently say that they have no knowledge that the Confederates were here to sue for peace. Afterward go and ask God for forgiveness.