One of the most important speeches by PM just concluded a little while ago. My takes on some of the key points to ponder over:
1. Success principles - multi-racial society, self-reliance and mutual support spirit and the good faith between the government and its people
I absolutely agreed with the principle of keeping Singapore a multi-racial and multi-religious society. To this end, the National Pledge has done its job of implanting that concept into the mind-set of our young and the old! There is can be NO MERCY shown to anyone who try to explore this vulnerability!
The recent widening and deepening of social safety net is in the right direction for sure as there are people, especially the elderly ones, that need help as they cannot help themselves due to their physical condition. Of course, the culture of 'no free riders' must stay. We absolutely cannot TOLERATE 'parasites'. We cannot have 'entitlement' mind-set to take root in the mind of our people. Actually that applies to the so-called elites and 'ruling class' too!
Good faith between the government and its people. Well, this one was built over a long period of time and the 1st generation leaders clearly did a much better job than the current one. It is not for lack of efforts by the current leadership though. The perceived 'mistakes' in the past 10 years like: inability to convince the voters the need to have foreigners to keep Singapore growing, the inability to convince Singapore needs to have 6.9m as expounded the harshly rushed 'Population White Paper', etc.
2. to be successful for the next 50 years - awareness of the external environment, lifelong learning and one united people
Yes. All strategists have to do an 'environment scan' regularly. With the 2 big neighbours there are not very much we can do except to make sure that we are the silent strong little red dot. There is no need to fight every battle. Let them know they are the 'big brothers' but they will be hurting too if they mess with us.
Lifelong learning has been touched on too many times so I won't elaborate but suffice to POINT OUT that "has the question of: 'If our local talents are competitive in our own backyard?' being answered?"
ONE UNITED PEOPLE - I am NOT SO SURE we are more united 15 years ago. The reason is the giant influx of migrants and foreigners and the increasingly sophisticated local population who are 'supposedly MORE EDUCATED' have different aspiration and the attitude of 'Government may not know BETTER than ME!'
3. policies and helps to be put in place for various social development for more babies (baby bonus, one extra week of paternity leave, proximity housing grant), special help for troubled families (fresh start housing grant, holistic approach to help them to help themselves0, etc
Personally I would have loved the government to be BOLDER much earlier!! It is really a loss of 10 years maybe as Singaporean couples would have tried earlier as some of the concerns these measures are addressing were VOICED and EXPRESSED a long time ago!
Question is: should childcare and pre-school system be better than just relying on grandparents to nanny the grandchildren?
As for the '2nd time HDB buyers ended in rental flat', it is laudable to use HOLISTIC approach instead of just giving MORE housing grant to help.
4. some calls that perhaps could have been left for another occasion - call for voters to support him and his party!, achievements in the last 10 years that supposedly HAD BEEN ACCOMPLISHED are just been rolled out e.g. MediShieldLife - effective soon and will need to be monitored to make sure it delivers the promised benefits,
I simply do not approve of the PM making the 'GE call' at the NDR. Just as I disapprove the WP MPs giving THIS YEAR NDR due to 'clash of events they had organized'!
5. interesting observations at the NDR and on CNA after the NDR - special mentions of Minister Vivian and Minister Lim Swee Say on how good and effective they were on the world stage representing Singapore. Could it 'positioned' to remind the voters that while they may have some not so positive impression of these 2 ministers, the PM think they are GOOD! Also the interview with MP Ting from MacPherson ward of the Marine Parade GRC is to showcase a motherly and more mature person who had a baptism of fire at GE2011?
If my guesses were right, then these arrangements are CLEVERLY done! Again, should the NDR be used to do 'general electioning'?
Well, that's all for now! Enjoy a great week ahead to all.
1. Success principles - multi-racial society, self-reliance and mutual support spirit and the good faith between the government and its people
I absolutely agreed with the principle of keeping Singapore a multi-racial and multi-religious society. To this end, the National Pledge has done its job of implanting that concept into the mind-set of our young and the old! There is can be NO MERCY shown to anyone who try to explore this vulnerability!
The recent widening and deepening of social safety net is in the right direction for sure as there are people, especially the elderly ones, that need help as they cannot help themselves due to their physical condition. Of course, the culture of 'no free riders' must stay. We absolutely cannot TOLERATE 'parasites'. We cannot have 'entitlement' mind-set to take root in the mind of our people. Actually that applies to the so-called elites and 'ruling class' too!
Good faith between the government and its people. Well, this one was built over a long period of time and the 1st generation leaders clearly did a much better job than the current one. It is not for lack of efforts by the current leadership though. The perceived 'mistakes' in the past 10 years like: inability to convince the voters the need to have foreigners to keep Singapore growing, the inability to convince Singapore needs to have 6.9m as expounded the harshly rushed 'Population White Paper', etc.
2. to be successful for the next 50 years - awareness of the external environment, lifelong learning and one united people
Yes. All strategists have to do an 'environment scan' regularly. With the 2 big neighbours there are not very much we can do except to make sure that we are the silent strong little red dot. There is no need to fight every battle. Let them know they are the 'big brothers' but they will be hurting too if they mess with us.
Lifelong learning has been touched on too many times so I won't elaborate but suffice to POINT OUT that "has the question of: 'If our local talents are competitive in our own backyard?' being answered?"
ONE UNITED PEOPLE - I am NOT SO SURE we are more united 15 years ago. The reason is the giant influx of migrants and foreigners and the increasingly sophisticated local population who are 'supposedly MORE EDUCATED' have different aspiration and the attitude of 'Government may not know BETTER than ME!'
3. policies and helps to be put in place for various social development for more babies (baby bonus, one extra week of paternity leave, proximity housing grant), special help for troubled families (fresh start housing grant, holistic approach to help them to help themselves0, etc
Personally I would have loved the government to be BOLDER much earlier!! It is really a loss of 10 years maybe as Singaporean couples would have tried earlier as some of the concerns these measures are addressing were VOICED and EXPRESSED a long time ago!
Question is: should childcare and pre-school system be better than just relying on grandparents to nanny the grandchildren?
As for the '2nd time HDB buyers ended in rental flat', it is laudable to use HOLISTIC approach instead of just giving MORE housing grant to help.
4. some calls that perhaps could have been left for another occasion - call for voters to support him and his party!, achievements in the last 10 years that supposedly HAD BEEN ACCOMPLISHED are just been rolled out e.g. MediShieldLife - effective soon and will need to be monitored to make sure it delivers the promised benefits,
I simply do not approve of the PM making the 'GE call' at the NDR. Just as I disapprove the WP MPs giving THIS YEAR NDR due to 'clash of events they had organized'!
5. interesting observations at the NDR and on CNA after the NDR - special mentions of Minister Vivian and Minister Lim Swee Say on how good and effective they were on the world stage representing Singapore. Could it 'positioned' to remind the voters that while they may have some not so positive impression of these 2 ministers, the PM think they are GOOD! Also the interview with MP Ting from MacPherson ward of the Marine Parade GRC is to showcase a motherly and more mature person who had a baptism of fire at GE2011?
If my guesses were right, then these arrangements are CLEVERLY done! Again, should the NDR be used to do 'general electioning'?
Well, that's all for now! Enjoy a great week ahead to all.
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