<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgbfr1 width="1%"> </TD><TD><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgF noWrap align=right width="1%">From: </TD><TD class=msgFname noWrap width="68%">sgnews <NOBR></NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate noWrap align=right width="30%">Nov-24 5:36 pm </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT noWrap align=right width="1%" height=20>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname noWrap width="68%">ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right> (2 of 9) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft width="1%" rowSpan=4> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>14197.2 in reply to 14197.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt>Back to the future, a sleepy fishing village
PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong's argument for one-party rule is cogent and compelling enough, yet those with acuity can sense what he, perhaps deliberately, left unsaid. Those who lack this instinct continue to extol the virtues of two-party democracy.
In the first place, Singapore, as we know it, was not meant to be. It is an illusion, a fabrication, a fantasy, even a lie. And because many of us cannot accept this, it is perceived only subconsciously rather than uttered.
The real Singapore was a sleepy fishing village before Stamford Raffles. When the British left, we had a problem sustaining this illusion and sought refuge in Malaysia. We were unmasked and expelled in 1965 but continue to nurture the illusion of a nation-state that was not meant to be.
PM Lee need not verbalise the peril and tragic consequences of tinkering with the established order or the real reason why a two-party system will not work. It stares at us daily. Despite our small size, physical limitations and an explosive ethnic mix, our achievements have been described in superlatives. Foreigners marvel at us with justifiable disbelief, for we are not meant to be what we are. We are an unnatural product, created artificially but, believing in our own illusion, we pretend to be an ordinary member of the world community. We are an oddity, an anomaly, that can survive only by being different.
Can we stop pretending and get real? Yes, but the outcome will not be pretty. Just be a natural country like all other members of the world community, despite our inherent peculiarity. As we lose our uniqueness, the two-party system becomes a reality. When that becomes a reality, illusion is redundant. Without illusion, all that was created under it, including our superlative achievements, falls apart. And because the antithesis of illusion is reality, inevitably we return to the real Singapore, one that cannot support a population of four million, the real Singapore that existed before Raffles - a sleepy fishing community.
Tan Yip Meng
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PRIME Minister Lee Hsien Loong's argument for one-party rule is cogent and compelling enough, yet those with acuity can sense what he, perhaps deliberately, left unsaid. Those who lack this instinct continue to extol the virtues of two-party democracy.
In the first place, Singapore, as we know it, was not meant to be. It is an illusion, a fabrication, a fantasy, even a lie. And because many of us cannot accept this, it is perceived only subconsciously rather than uttered.
The real Singapore was a sleepy fishing village before Stamford Raffles. When the British left, we had a problem sustaining this illusion and sought refuge in Malaysia. We were unmasked and expelled in 1965 but continue to nurture the illusion of a nation-state that was not meant to be.
PM Lee need not verbalise the peril and tragic consequences of tinkering with the established order or the real reason why a two-party system will not work. It stares at us daily. Despite our small size, physical limitations and an explosive ethnic mix, our achievements have been described in superlatives. Foreigners marvel at us with justifiable disbelief, for we are not meant to be what we are. We are an unnatural product, created artificially but, believing in our own illusion, we pretend to be an ordinary member of the world community. We are an oddity, an anomaly, that can survive only by being different.
Can we stop pretending and get real? Yes, but the outcome will not be pretty. Just be a natural country like all other members of the world community, despite our inherent peculiarity. As we lose our uniqueness, the two-party system becomes a reality. When that becomes a reality, illusion is redundant. Without illusion, all that was created under it, including our superlative achievements, falls apart. And because the antithesis of illusion is reality, inevitably we return to the real Singapore, one that cannot support a population of four million, the real Singapore that existed before Raffles - a sleepy fishing community.
Tan Yip Meng
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