Daily Lesson from Life 02 October 2008

Surprisingly nothing significant to write about.

So I am going to talk about how to be gracious!

Reason for this is the condolence letter written by the PM of Singapore to the family of Mr JBJ who passed away recently through heart failure after a long and illustrious political career in the Singapore opposition party - Workers Party and most recently his newly formed Reform Party.

PM Lee commented about how Mr JBJ tried to bring down Singapore and the political system that served Singapore so well. That Mr JBJ was not applying himself properly.

Quote:

"He and the PAP never saw eye to eye on any major political issue and he sought by all means to demolish the PAP and our system of government," Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong wrote in a condolence letter to Jeyaretnam's sons Kenneth and Philip.

"Unfortunately, this helped neither to build up a constructive opposition nor our Parliamentary tradition. Nevertheless, one has to respect Mr J.B. Jeyaretnam's dogged tenacity to be active in politics at his age," the prime minister said.

Unquote

Quite a few forum contributors have protested at the appropriateness of including such remarks in the condolence letter. And you know what? I agreed with them.

The tone and theme of the letter is not appropriate. It read like a lecture being given to the deceased and he had no right of rebuttal or reply! It is better to acknowledge the tenacity, the dedication, and the conviction Mr JBJ has shown all his political life. That this is what we need to have in politic to be able to serve the democracy well.

I hope that PM Lee will realize this and that it is important to remain a human despite the confrontation and 'fighting' one had with one's political enemies. In Singapore, I do not think that the opposition parties are anywhere near toppling the ruling party. The ruling party is relative safe though increasingly people are feeling that the senior and top leadership have taken leave of mind from the grassroots and front liners.

Maybe someone has to acknowledge Mr JBJ before Singapore can truly turn a corner to become a truly free and democratic society.