It is to be noted that Minister Dr. Ng Eng Hen has suddenly developed a love of poetry, and in the final-day closing speech in parliament on 19.9.2007 urged his MPs to use poetry to sing praises of his intended retiremment annuities.
I would suggest to Minister Ng to get his MPs to put up some poetries to answer to the problems described in the The little red dot posted at this and other forums:-
THE LITTLE RED DOT
A one-man-one-vote democracy,
Anointed leaders of men,
To fight for justice and equity,
To serve them with humility,
Alas men when given opportunity,
Became obsessed with own talent
And became haughty and **@#ey,
Paid themselves highest salaries,
Not by contract of appointment,
But sheer power of legalistic wrangling,
Of Bills through own parliament,
To write their own pay cheques,
Of amount like winning lottery prizes.
Claimed such amounts will prevent corruptions,
Paid the world's highest salaries,
Surpass that of president of United States,
Bonuses, life-long fees, director fees not enough,
Quietly double the pay for working while retiring,
They tax, double tax and back-charge costs,
Hold back spending on services,
Make welfare bogey of medicare and facilities
Hoarding taxes as surpluses to claim success,
Services farmed out to private entities
Tax again on land and assets owned by people,
Billions accumulated from unspent taxes,
Surpluses used to buy votes with election goodies,
Not satisfied with one-man-one-vote election,
Claimed it will cause freak election,
So tweak the constitution and voting process,
Till no candidates can stand alone,
But in groups of two or three called GRC,
In name it provides for racial harmony,
Actually it deters individuals from the hustling
GRC creates monopoly of election,
It anchors ministers in GRCs,
To tail-gate all ruling newbies,
Who walks into walk-over or no-contest,
Rebates and upgrading goodies given,
To pacify peasants and potential rebel,
After election taken back with GST and fee increases
Public housing built on people's lands,
Sold at market price with discount called subsidy,
Forever taxes, fee increases and hypocrisy,
Government going into full-time business,
From banking to coffin selling and drive up prices,
State-controlled media becomes good news times,
That covered NKF, shin corp or Baclay,
But reported good news and world-class leaders,
Any bad news will be deemed honest mistakes,
Or some long-term investments,
Economic recessions due to failed restructuring,
In despairs turned to gambling resort,
Mass unemployed young a new phenomenon,
Wages of citizens dropped to the third world,
Blamed on democracy or red herrings,
Retirement funds bankrupted by shin corp loss
Annuities were given on last earthly days,
Over and over it is governed by excuses,
People became grousers, quitters lacking skills,
This was true true story of little red dot,
While world was bowled over by deemed success,
Like orderly police city with no robber,
Little did the world know or ever will,
Buried below MRT were corpses of bigotry aplenty.