Home > Speaker's Corner

Let all Cyber Counter-Insurgency Agents come answer this !!

• robertteh

  19 Apr 08, 10:01

  (Let all the Cyber Counter-Insurgency Agents of Minister Lui Tuck Yew come and counter this one) Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. What a simple yet effective way to look at our problems and go to the root cause to solve our problem. Evidences of power corruption can be seen in the following devillish wrong doings:- (1) Keep increasing taxes, GST, profiteering through farming out essential government services to GLCs to charge full market rates while hoarding our tax payers' monies for their own self-glory and other selfish agendas. (2) Keep denying problems with excuses using the media to carry good news while playing down bad news and pushing problems to the people. (3) Legalistic passing of all sorts of laws to undermine democracy e.g. GRC and approving their own million-dollar self rewards while avoiding answering to mistakes like Mas Selamat or Shin Corp. (4) Putting up good shows and falsehoods but failing to address the root causes of problems. If we have a government running the country with the above-stated happenings do we still have a good government one governing with compassion, honesty and integrity to serve the people. With this kind of records of serving its own selfish interests and agendas can we now believe that the opening of flood gates to let oreign workers in to practically take over almost every and any jobs (except top civil servants' and ministers' jobs) is like stated by Minister Ng Eng Hen going to create more jobs or good for the country or its people any more. It is clear that when a government through power corruption is no longer able to differentiate between simple good and evil even in making their own connected elites answer for simple acts of incompetence like Selamat, NKF, Shin Corp, Global Crossing or UBS it is way beyond redemption and reasoning. It is power corruption where the power is fighting to preserve its own interests and not that of the people. We need only simple wisdom to guide us the people. "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" is the wisdom we have to subscribe to. We need to go back to basic to realize and correct the root causes of problems. We need to have many civic-minded people who could make a good society to uphold high morality and honesty (without all the hypocrisy like calling people complacent for their own incompetence) like the good old days. Stop disputing among ourselves the citizens over petty issues and go for root causes of problems before we could make change and have high standard of governance for once after 40 plus years of hypocrisy. There is no other solutions or shortcuts.

• eagle

  19 Apr 08, 10:03

  Corruption by accepting bribes from non-government sources is way worse that having a high ministerial salary.

  That said, there's still no point in the recent increase of the already world's highest ministerial salary.

• robertteh

  19 Apr 08, 23:39

  Through control of the print and broadcast media government has become arrogant and refuses to change. It will continue with painting good picture of all its policies even if they are no longer relevant and are counter-productive i today's globalised world.
  
  In this way it keeps using the media to paint good picture of the economy and government's policies and ignoring bad news.
  
  We can see constant propaganda being portrayed in the news like constant speeches of ministers exhorting citizens to accept their assumptions that foreign talents will create jobs forgetting that we have many good or better local talents who are being neglected.
  
  Try to write an in-depth analysis about government policies which causes our rising costs of living with HDB wrongfully double-charging on lands owned by people in sale of low cost housing at full market prices; or the hoarding of people's taxes as surpluses which do not benefit the citizens, you can be sure that such letters will not be published no matter how refined you couch it.
  
  A government which uses its power to tell lies or withhold truths and information to deceive the people will in the long run become a rogue government.
  
  We are now seeing complacency in the whole government precisely because of such power-corruption.
  
  If people want to change to serve them better they have to play an active role in questioning their wrongful policies and demand honesty and integrity and keep splitting hairs over petty minor differences of opinions among themselves.
  
  Go to the basics of effective running the country - honesty, integrity, morality, service to the people, accountability and responsibility for results.
  
  Now what we want is to have a pro-people and pro-result governance without all the hypocrisy and constant denials of problems.
  
  Do we the people really know what we want of the government? If we still argue over petty and small issues then of course nothing will change.

• t_a_s

  20 Apr 08, 22:46

  GST will increase to 10% after the next GE. Please remember that, if you vote in the pap again, you will suffer another 5 years. The rich become richer, the poor become poorer,