We the citizens were often told by the government about the pitfalls of
democracy with the government controlled newspapers carrying many
stories of lawlessness and unrests in other countries turning to
democracy like Myanmar, Taiwan, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia etc.
The way our newspapers reported these unrests is always slanted to make
it look like democracy or free speeches etc were the cause of unrest
and lawlessness.
Is it true that unrests and lawlessness in many countries trying to turn to democracy were caused by democracy?
Recently when I put up a proposal to the MPs to submit a motion to
parliament to revise the constitution to prevent tweaking of laws like
the GRC or usurping of power of other constituents of government.
The first response from certain MPs was "we cannot practise democracy
like in the West because democracy has caused unrests and lawlessness
as seen in our neighboring countries like Myanmar, Taiwan, Philippines
trying to follow the path of democracy.
I replied to the MPs concerned that democracy is not the primary cause
of such unrests or lawlessness as assumed by critics of democracy.
There is a fallacy that many countries which are turning to democracy
have gone worse. The fact is that many of these countries with or
without democracy would be the same due to other reasons and democracy
will not save them from disasters.
Anyway is such a conclusion drawn by our MPs valid? Have our MPs asked
whether these countries will succeed as democracy if they do not follow
the whole of democratic practices including respecting the independence
and accountability of the democratic institutions like the judiciary
and legislative. Is it good enough to claim democracy just because of
government being elected by the popular votes.
Singapore is a young democracy which has not yet matured and
experienced the substantive goodness of true democracy. For over 40
years our democracy has been used merely as a facade to legitimize the
self-centred agendas of the power that be that happened to take control
of the machinery of democracy to serve their own purposes. The leaders
only claimed democracy on the ground of popular election but have
totally ignored the processes and institutions needed to be set up and
practised for greater accountability and transparency for good
governance.
Our democratic institutions the judiciary and legislative are unlike
the true democracy as practised in successful democracies are under the
control of the executive branch of government given in to the wishes
and desires of one man established as a power that be, how could we
succeed in such democracy.
Today after 40 plus years of democracy our judiciary and legislative
are no longer functional being usurped totally by the self-serving
power that be.
Judges are appointed and promoted by the PM. Defamation suits taken by
the PM against politicians critical of government simply gave in to all
the whims and fancies of the government and many politicians were
practically condemned without any fair trials. Many were sued for the
slightest negative remarks made in the heat of election campaigning
without justice.
MPs and judiciary alike are merely playing second fiddles to the
executive and over time due to the million dollar rewarding of those
who toe the line of the power that be. So there is a lot of
self-interests in such a system depending on who is holding position of
power. Today such abuses can be seen in problems found in constant
tweaking of laws to suit the power that be and many problems were
caused including those seen NKF, Shin Corp, regular defamation suits
against political process etc.
Democracy has been used as a mere facade to allow power that be to use
it to serve their own private gains. Even the one-man-one-vote election
process has been tampered with with some excuses like racial harmony
depriving of the right of citizens to vote the individual best
candidates of their choice. Any one who is a quality candidate is
unable to offer himself or stand for election unless he finds some
similarly minded candidates to jointly offer themselves in some group
representation constituencies.
Citizens however are growing restless with such facade and hypocrisy as
days go by. Every slightest mistakes made by our so-called world's best
ministers paid millions become targets of mass unhappiness.
No one can blame the citizens for being uncooperative and critical of
the government who is only interested in non-stop taxing and holding
back spending on essential government services with all sorts of
schemes to hoard monies for government's own surpluses which were
finally lost by the billions all over the world in dubious projects for
their own glory and self-praise.
However the citizens are getting more educated and many are well
travelled and have worked overseas with knowledge of what were
happening in other parts of the world. There is no doubt that they can
now see all the flaws of our present political system and it is a
matter of time they will rise up en mass to demand change.
Although our leaders still are trying to paint a picture of success
using the recent recovery of the economy and property sector as
justification to claim continued success, the citizens see things
differently.
The current rosy GDP and property market recovery is merely a blip due
to world recovery while the basic problems remain. The economy is
hollow basically without restructuring to one based on value-adding
upgrading and technology driven start-ups needed to catch up with
rising China, India and Korea etc.
Because of failures in economic restructuring talked about for years
and our weak domestic sector the domestic sector is not doing well even
as foreign investments are attracted temporarily here to catch up with
the past slack due to world recovery. The seriousness of the situation
is such that many graduates especially those reaching 40s were unable
to find jobs. Many are resorting to migration because of our own
sluggish domestic economy.
As a result of many years of wrong policies aimed at promoting their
own elites and causing ever rising costs of living today the economy
has lost its fundamentals. Such failure has forced the government to
open the employment doors to all kinds of foreigners to come in to take
citizens' jobs in order to rescue the falling economy.
Under such circumstance, citizens will have to think for themselves and safeguard their own future.
Everything is so fake. For real progress of our little red dot citizens
now have to bear the responsibilities to look after their own
interests. Everything being put up in parliament is only for show to
cover up real problems. It is appeasement exercise now because of too
many unhappiness with rising costs due to fundamental flaws in policies
etc.
Just look at the way Minister Ng Eng Hen is still despite all the
unhappiness of the citizens trying again and again to justify his
open-door employment policies without the slightest consideration for
the citizens' interests and needs. There will be no change and
everything being done will be for show and appeasement with no real
change.
Citizens will have to work very hard to bring about the necessary
change by staying cohesive and united. Only then will the government be
willing to make amends and change.
Under such circumstance, there is no reason why citizens cannot also
invite capable foreigners like the Rudd, Howard, Clinton, Blair to come
in to take over our leaders' jobs which in any case are over-paid and
badly performed.