(From other forum) Quote: In his latest book, former MM LKY had reportedly given his verdict that Chen Show Mao, despite his impressive credentials, has been nothing special as an MP. Since we are on this topic of post-election performance, I would like to ask MM what he thinks of his son’s LHL, and the other PAP MPs performance too. Lets start with his son, LHL. And let us do it the most objective way possible – over the last nearly 10 years that LHL had been PM, do you feel that your life has been better or worse? Do you feel more, or less, confident about your future? More importantly, do you feel more, or less confident, that your children will have a better future than you in Singapore? I believe that unless you are an Elite, most of you will feel less secure and more anxious. And I think the ruling Elites are beginning to realise that (err .. after almost 10 years of LHL’s era) – look at the slew of actions they are now taking to reduce the income gap, etc etc etc. In other words, LHL’s era had been a major negative for Singapore, not just “nothing special”. Maybe, when it comes to his son, former MM LKY cannot be objective? I mean, let’s look at GDP growth. Our compounded GDP growth from the time LHL took office had not been significantly different from the other Asian tiger economies of Taiwan, S. Korea and HK. And to match their performance, we literally had to import boatloads of foreigners and dilute the Singapore core to just 60% — something none of the other countries had needed to do. That means that LHL had failed, hasn’t he? And do many objective observers find LHL’s leadership to be inspiring? Do you find him present during major crisis? Or do you find him normally MIA, while letting his Ministers take the heat, until the saga is over? Do Singaporeans find his leadership inspiring? I mean, PM LHL literally cried in the final PAP rally during the Punggol by-election, yet PAP lost by a landslide. In any case, which of PM LHL’s speech in recent years have you (the reader) find memorable? What can you remember about it? Compare that with say, Obama? Does he have the ability to build a strong team? I mean, LKY assembled a strong team of Lim Kim San, Rajaratnam etc. Does any of the current Ministers impress you? Or are they really just very ordinary technocrats, catapulted into a high level position primarily because they do not hold conflicting views? I mean, if any of them are really strong leaders, we would have seen a clear PM succession by now, won’t we? After all, LHL is fast approaching his 70’s? In other words, LHL is not a strong leader, and neither is he of the calibre to attract strong leaders or cultivate one. So would former MM LKY also said that his son LKY is “nothing special” ? And finally, lets not lose sight of Chen SM’s role. He’s just an MP. He’s not a minister, much less a PM. Put it this way – what must an opposition MP do, in order for him to qualify (in former MM LKY’s eyes) to be something special? If he advocates policy (like say, privatisation of public transport, or lower Ministerial pay, or say no the 6.9 million people in 2030, or minimum wage), he would have committed sacrilege, won’t he? In fact, even if his idea is good – like privatisation of public transport or minimum wage – the very fact that it came from the opposition means that this idea must now be shot down. In other words, by definition, any person who joins the opposition can never be “special” in former MM LKY’s eyes, correct? Because if he is “special”, by definition, the policy advocated by the PAP is wrong. Which means his son, PM LHL is wrong. How can that be right? Which father will say that his son is wrong? I mean, if you cannot even admit that “Stop at Two” policy in the 70’s is wrong, how can you say that your son PM LHL is wrong? For that matter, which of the almost 80 PAP MPs does the reader find to be “special”? Does former MM LKY find Tin Pei Ling to be special, now that she is elected? Is Teo Ser Luck, a minister, any special either as an MP or a minister? And some MPs like former Minister Raymond Lim has yet to utter a single word in Parliament since GE2011 – does that mean he’s special or not? I guess my point is this – when it comes to his own son PM LHL, former MM LKY can never be objective. By definition, if he praises any of the opposition MP or puts down any PAP MP, his son PM LHL gets put down. In other words, buy his latest book to read about his opinion about the outside world … but take his read on local politics with a big pinch of salt. After all, which father does not side with his own son?
Posted on: Thu, 08 Aug 2013 23:16:44 +0000
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