There has been a tendency to become over-pragmatic and over-presumptuous in everything government does because of the nature of the government - autocracy.
Under autocracy, the MPs do not question policy assumptions and rationale and are too afraid of penalty for disagreements to disagree.
So one by one every policy made for good purpose and intention as stated became the bible or rule book and got carried away in implementation ad nausem and people end up suffering.
Meritocracy which was good in intent and purpose originally suffers badly today from over-zealous implementation to such an extent that it has reared its ugly head as elitism or snobbery smacking right on the face of people as witnessed by the Wee Shu Min episode.
Over-zealous corporatization of essential public services into various GLCs have resulted in double-charging on lands and infrastructures in the case of Power Supply and Hospitals resulting in raising the costs of living and losses of our economic competitiveness as experienced by PSA.
Now Foreign talent is becoming a runaway unruly horse in the hand of the civil servants who are likely to push it so hard for years that many local talents are suppressed instead while foreigners of tom dick and harry enjoy their bull run at the expense of the locals.
GST is going to be the same. People listen to some ministers explaining its rationale. Some innocent intellectuals pretend to know better and add some fuel to the fire. At the end, all agree and the civil servants will come in and propose GST increases year after year until it reaches unbearable proportion of 10-15%.
Come on, let us not be carried away about GST. Foresee one thing from past experiences. If people do not have a view and do not debate sufficiently, the leaders will take it for granted and the civil servants will cause an overrun or auto-piloting of policies until they really hurt the economy.
gst gst gst
so many darn threads on gst
continue in the sticky