Tuesday, April 04, 2006
"Young people are not interested in politics." - Mr Fong Chin Leong, Singapore Democratic Alliance
I ask a question of my own in reply. "Do we have a reason to?"
Serious, why do people always have to bring that up when talking politics in Singapore? As if it's such a terrible thing? So what if I'm not interested in politics? It's a loaded question presuming politics is interesting, which I beg to differ.
I'm not ashamed to confess that I do not give two hoots about politics, Singapore or otherwise. Go ahead and classify me under "apathetic Singaporean youth who don't care".
I don't really think it's such a big deal. Truth to be told, PAP is doing a wonderful job, in my opinion. There is no major policy that I know of that I can honestly say I'll disagree with. Or maybe I'm just ignorant.
On "Is it necessary to have an opposition in Singapore?":
"If it's just one party, we are looking at a communist state. Democracy requires opposition." - Mr Muhd Ali Aman, Singapore Democratic Alliance
"If there is no opposition, can you call it a true democracy? We need the opposition for checks and balances. We cannot let the ruling party get complacent." - Mr Fong Chin Leong, Singapore Democratic Alliance
Seriously, do anyone else see the problem with these 2 people's statement? "Democracy requires opposition"? Laughable. Shows why the Singapore Democratic Alliance is not the ruling party.
Let me illustrate how Mr Muhd managed to contradict himself with just 3 words. An ideal, perfectly democratic society will, by defination, NOT have any opposition, because there simply is nothing to oppose. Imagine a perfectly democratic government, occupied by a single ruling party. In an ideal situation, all policies made, all decisions, all laws, indeed all things done in the name of the government will by defination be done in a completely democratic manner, which leave no room for opposition, because a purely and totally democratic decision-making system is what everyone (is assumed to) want.
Hence, by defination, a perfect democracy necessitate that there is zero opposition. We have opposition simply because the system is not perfect yet. It will never be, of course, but we see that the chief end of a democratic system is to have no opposition, because everything is done in a manner that everyone agrees upon.
People say there is no political freedom in Singapore. Are they nuts? Do they see the situation in Thailand and go, "Gee, how nice would it be if we could form a 40,000 strong rally and march from Istana all the way down Orchard Road"? Or, looking at France, go "Wow, I wish the NUS/NTU/SMU students would stage a mass protest against the fee hikes, shout some slogans and burn some cars"? These people have no idea what they are asking for.
Do I care about the coming election? Discounting the fact that I can't actually vote, the answer is most definately NO. What I DO care about, though, is that fact that I, at 20 years of age, is not eligible for the progress package. All I got was a measly $100 that goes to each NSF.
Damn you, PAP, why can't you give out the package next year!!!?
{/12:53 PM}
me