SINGAPORE: Singapore's Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has a simple message for voters in the heat, dust and clamour of the election campaign - he has urged them to look at the fundamentals.I also urge Singaporeans to vote wisely.
In a statement issued just two days before Nomination Day, he reminded Singaporeans not to risk their assets, property values, and job opportunities.
He said the People's Action Party is fielding 24 new candidates of proven character, of high calibre, and with a track record of performance that showed they will not fail in taking on responsibilities.
This, after the Party combed the whole of Singapore to select those with the highest integrity and ability to chart the way forward for the country.
Not only that, I will provide a few concrete & useful tips about how to vote wisely.
My first tip to Singaporeans is not to fall into the trap of mistaking the past for the present. What do I mean?
If you look back far enough across the decades, you will see that indeed, the PAP has had an excellent track record. That is why you will find that nowhere in this blog have I ever said anything bad about the PAP leaders of yesteryear - for example, the likes of Goh Keng Swee, Lim Kim San and S Rajaratnam.
For these men were highly dedicated, capable and resourceful leaders, men with vision, and truly committed to the nation. The result of their leadership speaks for itself - in the history of Singapore, in the story of how this nation rapidly transformed itself from a developing country into a developed nation.
The mistake we mustn't make is to believe that just because the PAP has had its past glories, therefore today the PAP is as excellent and wonderful as it used to be. Or that, going forward into the future, the PAP will always be as excellent and as wonderful.
Goh is dead. Lim is dead. Rajaratnam is dead. Lee Kuan Yew is 87 years old. Political parties are always changing, the faces come and go. This year alone, Jayakumar, Lim Boon Heng and Abdullah Tarmugi are stepping down.
What I urge Singaporeans to do is to recognise this inevitable truth - that the party is always, always changing - and just because the PAP may once have been a good party doesn't necessarily mean that it will be a good party forever.
Look, just look honestly, at this statement by Lee Kuan Yew: "Our new candidates are of proven character, of high calibre, and with a track record of performance that shows they will not fail in taking on responsibilities" ...
.... and then watch this video:
Tell me, how is it possible NOT to doubt Lee's words?? The PAP "combed the WHOLE of Singapore" to find candidates of the "HIGHEST ability" ... and this was the best they could come up with? Honestly?
What Singaporeans should do is carefully scrutinise the PAP government's performance over the past five years since the last elections were held. This will give you a much better indication of the current quality of our leadership.
Five years of stagnant wage growth; five years of deteriorating public transport; five years of escalating healthcare costs; five years during the costs of public housing shot up immensely; five years during which the income gap between rich and poor widened more than ever before; five years of increased GST.
Five years of continued failure to improve fertility rates; five years when the inequities suffered by NSmen vis-a-viz competing foreigners working in Singapore remained unaddressed; five years during which the Home Affairs Ministry let a terrorist almost nonchalantly walk out of a supposedly "high security" prison; five years when GIC and Temasek remained as opaque and unaccountable as ever, about how they handle the people's hard-earned money ....
In the past five years, has the PAP government achieved ANYTHING good at all?