Monday, June 27, 2011

Hollow Men

It looks like social media and the current crop of politicians don't mix too well. Intended to overcome the inconveniences of queuing for inexorably long hours at Meet the People Sessions, and spare the parliamentarians from irate constituents carrying flammable liquids, the kind of responses found in MPs' Facebook pages will probably boost blood pressure several points higher.

The printed word provides a better platform for putting across ideas with carefully composed arguments, especially for those who lack the skill of speaking impromptu without the benefit of supporting research material at hand. When one receives a cursory brief response, one can only assume the author does not value your query too highly.

When Cheng wrote to Lim Swee Say that two weeks had passed, with no signs of the authorities on site to assess the situation at Simpang Bedok, where drunken FTs roam freely and a gang fight  actually broke out on a Friday at 5.13 am, all he got was a one liner, "Dear Cheng Denver, the Authorities are looking into the matter." Notice there's no specification of which "authority" was deputed to solve the problem, the town council, the police or a private contractor. And no time table is proposed - maybe proactive action will be initiated only at the next election.

Shanmugam had the opportunity to endear himself to a a young voter who wrote in seeking advice on how to approach cats who shy away from human contact. Instead of teaching the little girl about the cruelties of animal abuse, and how the tormented creature will always avoid a heartless prosecutor, he brushed her off with "afraid I don't have such powers!"  Yeah, like it's a nice reminder that he exercises his powers only to hang young men caught up in drug trafficking, and incarcerate do-gooders by labelling them Marxists. Ask your own dad about growing up to be a kind lady, he's too busy being minister to bother about the human touch.

But the hollowness is hard to beat when Cheah asked the major goofball of an ex-SAF general whether latter was prepared to lay down his life for this country and its people (meaning Singapore, and not the Langfang Republic). YES, Chan Chun Sing, raising hand, affirmed his willingness, "Because it is my country, our country. No further reason is required for me." Problem with that simplification is that, of late, the possessive adjectives "my" and "our" have lost much of their meaning given the dilution of ownership by the influx of foreigners. He should know better, if he had been listening to his soldiers as claimed, growing numbers of our young men in temasek green have been asking, "who are we defending anyway?"

6 comments:

  1. Unfortunately, it appears that these ivory tower dwellers have lost their common touch to connect with us commoners.

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  2. Hollow men indeed!
    A well known ex senior counsel and a so called Chief of Army, both hiding behind the GRC system to gain access into parliament. Cannot even fight fairly with substantially handicapped political opponents. Such is the calibre of those in the bloody PAP. These PAP buggers deserve my contempt.

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  3. Haha..!

    It is okay to be hollow in the head when the pockets can be filled and can have assets everywhere around the Globe.
    Curse me and my hollow head and why should I
    care or be bothered.
    You silly poor folks have empty pockets, You
    know???

    ReplyDelete
  4. Instead of giving out hollow statements like "arresting divorce rate" and "increasing fertility rate" why don't he come up with concrete plans and proposals on how MCYS intend to promote employers/workplaces to be more pro-family (without putting more local workers at the expense or disadvantage to the ever present & increasing FTs at work?).

    Asking people not to line up their ducks is like asking PM not to line up his quacking ducks to parrot PAP choice of EP!! Bright Actions talk louder than Words!!!

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  5. The ugly and hard facts are screaming loudly and clearly.
    People are NOT lining up their ducks and wait for the moons/sun/stars to align. In fact, they have given up looking at the cosmo and praying to the wishing starts altogether!

    Why don't he start off by looking at the 12,000 aborted babies by married couples who couldn't afford to keep them for economic reasons.

    Then look at the recent survey that indicated top 4 deterrents for marriage/family are :

    - future financial stability (like maybe they will lose their job to FT PMET?
    - cost of housing
    - cost of childcare
    - cost of education for children

    Once he take care of these "tangibles", then the people can start looking at the intangibles, isn't it. Basic Maslow theory, surely I don't have to teach the smart-ass scholar???

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  6. To Anon at 2.18 pm

    The (Retd) MG ex-Chief of Army may come up with crazy ideas like: (a) court martialling every soldier who isn't married by age 25; or (b) giving a double promotion or special bonus to any soldier who marries before age 25! Either way, with over 50,000 active servicemen (a big number of whom are young and not married), he will get a big spike in the marriage numbers!

    If CCS or his subs are reading this, please note that this is a JOKE, ok?!

    ReplyDelete