PM to youth: S'pore's not centre of world
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PM to youth: S'pore's not centre of world
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,4386,242956,00.html?
Apathy of the young worries PM Goh, who wants them to understand that external events can affect their lives
By Eugene Low
THE bochap attitude among Singapore's youth is the greatest challenge they face, said Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.
Lamenting their 'general apathy', he told Shin Min Daily in an interview published yesterday: 'They think Singapore is the centre of the world, and the world revolves around it.
'They are not aware that there are big challenges happening outside, great developments in the region and that these would have an impact on their lives.'
Understanding and preparing for these developments are of paramount importance, he said.
But the young are likely to shrug off his view, Mr Goh acknowledged. Getting a good job, having a high income and buying a nice property are far more important to them.
'So, it is back to the so-called 5Cs,' he said, referring to the standard joke about Singaporeans' obsession with owning a car, cash, credit card, condominium and country club membership.
While he was quick to stress that such aspirations are not wrong, they have saddled the Government with its greatest challenge: how to bridge the gap in perception and help the young achieve their ambitions.
It's crucial for building trust. And when 'they trust you, they trust your judgment, they follow your advice,' he said.
To pave the way, he said, the Government must explain - and the young must understand - the big-picture challenges confronting Singapore.
As well, the policies needed to overcome them and the type of skills the young need to acquire.
For the youth who want to be rich, he had this advice: You must be able to create wealth.
'That means you must have ideas which people want to buy. So you have got to be innovative.'
Creating wealth is also necessary if the Government is to have the means to help poor Singaporeans, he said.
And at the heart of wealth creation is a competitive economy, without which it would not be possible to attract investments and, in turn, create jobs, said Mr Goh.
In giving help, the Government will also be more targeted in meeting the specific needs of different groups of Singaporeans.
He singled out the move towards means testing in health to make his point on the need to be even more focused to ensure the poor get the most from the limited funds.
'If you allow everybody to enjoy huge subsidies, then those at the bottom would have very little,' he said. -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/discuss-singapore/message/11042
From: "MADCOW"
Date: Tue Mar 30, 2004 1:45 am
Subject: Re: Wooden to youth: S'pore's not centre of world
This "general apathy" is not something new. It had been there for decades, it is just that the problem ballooned in recent years.
I have already noticed such "bochap" attitude back in early 1980s; especially after PAP govt had put down student movements in the 60s and 70s, and closing down of Nantah; Social awareness of students starting from 1980s has a suffered a dramatic drop. The so call "Marxist Plot" is another attempt of PAP govt clamping down of student activism. Thus, it is rather ironic that PM Goh is now lamenting the "general apathy" of students and youngsters here in
Singapore!
Putting all the blame on young Singaporeans for their aparent lack of interests in social problems and current affairs is anything but fair. PAP govt has to bear the full blame of this situation. It is their own karma or doing.
The systematic social engineering PAP carried out to "de-politicalize " the populace, especially the young ones, had been more than sucessful. The introduction of a stressing "streaming" system in the education system has effectively re-routed youngsters' attention from social-political development & problems to academic and materialistic considerations. The so call "elitism" has failed to produce socially responsible, concerned, active and aware elites but all for 5 Cs.
The further de-politicalization of Singapore populace through the introduction of GRC system and deliberate effort in destroying any political opponents and dissidents have deprived Singaporeans the right to their only "political" right of voting once every four or five years.
My dear Prime Minister on the go, you cannot have the cake and eat it. If your PAP govt has made deliberate efforts to shut people out from the political-social process, it is only reasonable to have a populace that is general apathetic towards our society, world and difficulties we face as a nation.
We are paying a heavy social price for all these deliberate efforts by PAP to keep its monopoly of power in Singapore. You may not live to see the ill-effects of all the policies your party had made so far, or that your future generations may not be in Singapore to experience such ill-effects, but Singapore will only suffer in the long run if political reforms as suggested by many other people are not being carried out immediately.
You have promised a more "open" Singapore when you seek your mandate to rule as a PM more than one decade ago. But where are we now? One step forward two steps back? Only a thorough political reform could save us from an expansion of a general apathetic citizenry that could easily result in mass exodus that we are beginning to experience right now.
While 500 thousands moderate, middle class Taiwanese could go all out walking on the street to protest against what they perceived as "unfair" democracy, peacefully without violence, another 500 thousands moderate middle class Hongkongers protested peacefully back in 1st July last year against the poor performance of HK govt, where do Singaporeans stand right now? Even if PAP govt allows political and social activists to go on demonstration against issues and govt policies, I don't think there would be more than a thousand participants. Who cares? Not forgeting the very successful installation of fear factor in Singaporeans every now and then! Just look at the pathetic state of our "speakers' corner"!
PAP govt has always cited "public order" as an excuse to deprive citizens the right to demonstrate, even though our constituition provided us this right literally. It is a joke indeed. The playing of "fear factor" of chasing away foreign investors if we allow disorderly behaviour is another joke. HK has almost weekly demonstrations, big and small, but it seems that foreign investors are still flocking into this tiny city! The active citizenry participations is viewed as a "matured" democratic process, rather than a source of instability.
Singaporeans have come to a critical point of total apathy, not merely "general apathy". Nobody really cares anymore, other than his own jobs, 5Cs, HDB upgrading, monetary handouts by PAP govt like ERS, NSS....whatever S. This materialistic approach and social engineering by PAP has turned us into an apathetic lot.
I do not think our Nation will be a feasible entity sustaining on "foreign talents" alone. Citizens are migrating out in hordes. If these citizens do not have the general concern and pride in being Singaporeans, there will be no real citizens left, so to speak.
We got to act now to prevent a hollowing out of citizens due to this "general apathy". This is a problem more than just "general apathy". If PAP continues to act like what it has been doing in the past decades, the hollowing out effect would be inevitable. -
read a few of the threads here... u can pretty much see that a lot of the supposedly anti-pap are essentially narcissistic in focus as well...
its true... and its not just the young... the young fortunately, can change. the "old ones" are the ones that pple should be worried about...
they've stuck to this formula all their life... they really dont know how to change or where they went wrong. -
CX, my worries is not with the old or the young. The old, well, will eventually fade away (with a particularly notable exception in SG's context). While most of the young, after a few years of living in the real world after leaving our education system, will come round to the hard facts.
What I worry for is the sheltered Elite that are put through the rose tinted world The System builds for them, who take these nonsensical ideas and views into the top leadership positions they've been groomed for simply because they're the frogs who never left the well. -
Perhaps the govment shall also be replace with 'Foreign Talent' to make sg more liberate!
HeHe.. -
We need a savior, we need to save our Singaporean people from THe Paptrix. *cough* Matrix. We must find the ONE. Only the ONE can lead our people to freedom.
Introducing the new action movie of the year:
*Leo (Dressed in black leather with yellow dyed hair)
vs
*Agent Lee (Dressed in white suit)
doing battle in hand to hand combat and bullet dodging effects.
Raintree Productions proudly presents
Pap-Trix.
Coming soon. -
We need a savior, we need to save our Singaporean people from THe Paptrix. *cough* Matrix. We must find the ONE. Only the ONE can lead our people to freedom.
Introducing the new action movie of the year:
*Leo (Dressed in black leather with yellow dyed hair)
vs
*Agent Lee (Dressed in white suit)
doing battle in hand to hand combat and bullet dodging effects.
Raintree Productions proudly presents
Pap-Trix.
Coming soon. -
who's smith?Originally posted by men_@_arms:We need a savior, we need to save our Singaporean people from THe Paptrix. *cough* Matrix. We must find the ONE. Only the ONE can lead our people to freedom.
Introducing the new action movie of the year:
*Leo (Dressed in black leather with yellow dyed hair)
vs
*Agent Lee (Dressed in white suit)
doing battle in hand to hand combat and bullet dodging effects.
Raintree Productions proudly presents
Pap-Trix.
Coming soon.
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The Singapore police force(ISA)! Remember those who is not unplugged can be any potential agent. Agent smith also dress in black!
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Smith could be LKY. The 1st Lady could be da Oracle.
Guys, i am gonna film a parody of SIngapore, making it like da matrix.