Are you ready for 7 million people on tiny Singapore?
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cimman:
while I can understand the concept of the party whip, it makes a mockery of debate if the govt choose not to listen to dissenting views or even addressing them. The opposition MPs can disagree with the White Paper, the citizens can disagree with the white paper and argue till we're blue in the face, but if the govt choose not to listen, and cracks the whip, then what can we do ? what can the opposition MPs do ? .....nothing....what will be will be.....till the next election...
You think that Singaporeans will stop ageing and start making more babies once the WP is voted in as the next gov? :rotflmao: -
firefly38:
If Bupashu joins in your discussion, lagi more fun..
Who is she ? A bird person ? Lady bird ? She interested in my bird ?crony.in.ksp:
[quote=\"Harlequin\"]
Psst... She thought we are the same person. :rotflmao: I received a PM from a kind member last night, about what she wrote on another thread... Hahahaha...you see, she has a \"thing\" about nailing whoever is/are her perceived suspect/s. You know, they call it an obsession.
She is a bird species expert, so, don't play play. :rotflmao: I don't have any bird, if you have any bird you better :siam: far far before she made your bird her private specimen collection :rotflmao: :rotflmao:
Take care, keep posting, I enjoy reading your posts... :rahrah:
:evil:
But.. But.. But.. Someone may speculate that the trio (supposesly to be the same person?) are playing 'self-talk' leh.. How? How? How? :scratchhead:
[/quote]Get herself a PI, if she is obsessed enough?! :evil:
Money is an effective tool to clear doubts, clear troubled minds and clear dark thoughts.... :evil:
On a 2nd thought, those that can afford usually won't be bothered lar, there are millions of way to enjoy their lives rather than hole up at a corner and stay obsessed; it must be hard to be this obsessed :salute: -
dorisp:
Obviously any planned policies will not be able to get 100% approval from all citizens. Becoming totally populist is also bad for economy as we have seen from the example of welfare countries in Europe.
So if opposition party is in power they will solicit for 100% green light from all citizens for all policies? :?cimman:
while I can understand the concept of the party whip, it makes a mockery of debate if the govt choose not to listen to dissenting views or even addressing them. The opposition MPs can disagree with the White Paper, the citizens can disagree with the white paper and argue till we're blue in the face, but if the govt choose not to listen, and cracks the whip, then what can we do ? what can the opposition MPs do ? .....nothing....what will be will be.....till the next election...
In the end, it is all a power play. The ruling party calls the shots, period. The debates, the Conversations are all \"soft touches\" to sweeten a policy that is already cast in stone.
However, setting national policies is not similar to setting company policies. In a company, your employees have to follow whatever policies you set even if they have no say in it. And if they refuse to follow it, you can always fire them. But a democratic country such as Singapore is not like a company. If the citizens are unhappy emotionally, they can always vote the government out. I know some people think that a lot of local citizens are easily swayed emotionally and are unable to see the big picture. But seriously, when they experience unhappiness and discomfort caused by flawed execution of policies already in motion, do we really expect them to be able to trust whatever the government has planned and that their interests are still looked after?
The citizens have no moral obligations to vote PAP in the next round of elections, and the current sentiments are slowly tipping towards the oppositions. Yes, the solutions WP propose maybe made without full knowledge of how our economy actually works and may be not feasible. But they echo the ground sentiments and resonate with what people actually want. Even if some posters here choose to believe that WP is 'making mockery of their supporters', but they are ticking all the right points in advancing their causes politically. -
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Dreamaurora:
If voters react emotionally to policies, at some point, they will get a government that panders only to emotions.
Obviously any planned policies will not be able to get 100% approval from all citizens. Becoming totally populist is also bad for economy as we have seen from the example of welfare countries in Europe.
However, setting national policies is not similar to setting company policies. In a company, your employees have to follow whatever policies you set even if they have no say in it. And if they refuse to follow it, you can always fire them. But a democratic country such as Singapore is not like a company. If the citizens are unhappy emotionally, they can always vote the government out. I know some people think that a lot of local citizens are easily swayed emotionally and are unable to see the big picture. But seriously, when they experience unhappiness and discomfort caused by flawed execution of policies already in motion, do we really expect them to be able to trust whatever the government has planned and that their interests are still looked after?
The citizens have no moral obligations to vote PAP in the next round of elections, and the current sentiments are slowly tipping towards the oppositions. Yes, the solutions WP propose maybe made without full knowledge of how our economy actually works and may be not feasible. But they echo the ground sentiments and resonate with what people actually want. Even if some posters here choose to believe that WP is 'making mockery of their supporters', but they are ticking all the right points in advancing their causes politically.
I've always said I fear the opposition supporters more than I fear the opposition parties.
Don't worry, you may get your wish soon. -
I think the Singapore electorate despite all the grumblings also realises that Singapore is among the most vulnerable countries in ASEAN simply by reason of having nothing but its people and good government to keep the country going.
Being a realistic and practical bunch, the grumblings is to alert the Govt. to the fact that not all of its policies are working or working effectively and to that end the Govt. being a political creation which needs to answer to the electorate every 5 years will take the necesssary corrective measures otherwise more of its MPs will be voted out.
The opposition is at a disadvantage as it does not really know what are the challenges the Govt. is facing and can only respond to what the opposition sees before it including the reaction of the citizens.
But LTK is also wise enough to know that it makes no sense to vote the PAP out of power at a time when there is insufficient opposition members of calibre who can provide policy ideas and lead the Govt.
The WP of all the opposition parties has the best chance at this time of providing some concrete and useful ideas to the Govt. because of its own experience of running its town councils including the difficulty of getting Singaporeans to do many of the low paying manual jobs in the town council as well as seeing how its constituents react to the FTs in the midst of their own constituencies.
The other opposition parties must step up with their own ideas of how to deal with the various problems as set out in the White Paper but it cannot just be motherhood statements or airy fairy hopes and aspirations of a good quality of life, better work-life balance etc.
There must be concrete proposals as to what must change now in a concrete way that will lead for example to an increase in the TFR or what must companies be encouraged to do in order for working mothers to have more children and yet not feel that their careers will be sidetracked. I am no longer interested in the same feel good statements that all opposition parties make that they are to provide an alternative voice etc. If the alternative voices are just noise then i can do without such alternative voices.
As for some opposition parties preaching greater human rights and democracy, all i say is thank you very much, next opposition party please. -
Just relax:
How can it be unrelated? Many advances follow in the west only after democracy was invented. How the mind thinks affect creativity and solutions for problems and it is partly molded by social circumstances etc...
As for some opposition parties preaching greater human rights and democracy, all i say is thank you very much, next opposition party please.
I'll say that if we we have many creative people that invent and create competitive products that sell to the whole world, many of the problems can be solved. Our problem is partly that we are so beholden to the MNCs, more than Taiwan, Korea etc... -
JannettLee:
Exactly!Benefits of good growth of GDP are not cascaded down to many Singaporean but everyone got hit by the high costs of living/inflation.
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Just relax:
Agree. It is easy to \"slap\" or criticize what you didn't like but how often are the alternate suggestions stronger and more effective than the first one.
There must be concrete proposals as to what must change now in a concrete way that will lead for example to an increase in the TFR or what must companies be encouraged to do in order for working mothers to have more children and yet not feel that their careers will be sidetracked. I am no longer interested in the same feel good statements that all opposition parties make that they are to provide an alternative voice etc. If the alternative voices are just noise then i can do without such alternative voices.
Still anticipating.....
:skeptical: -
If there’s an election tomorrow, PAP will surely lose. Voters are of course emotional since day in day out they are feeling the squeeze and high cost of living.
But the election is 3 years down the road. So maybe the announcement of white paper is well timed because PAP has 3 years to redeem themselves.
If voters are convinced over the next 3 years that this decision is indeed for the greater good of future Singaporeans and infractructure can be improved & cost of living becoming more manageable, then majority will still stick with PAP.
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