[h=2]Catherine Lim refutes SG Consul-General Jacky Foo[/h]
June 16th, 2014 |
Author: Editorial
Jacky Foo
Last Saturday (14 Jun), ST published a letter from Singapore Consul-General in Hong Kong, Jacky Foo, who wrote to rebut Catherine Lim’s earlier open letter to PM Lee (‘An open letter to PM Lee from Catherine Lim‘). In her open letter, she said that Singapore is in the midst of a crisis where the people no longer trust their government, and the government no longer cares about regaining their trust.
In Mr Foo’s rebuttal (‘SGs trust their leaders – PAP Govt has won many GEs‘), he argued that Singaporeans do trust and respect the government.
Mr Foo said that since the time Ms Lim started talking about the government and the people being divided in 1994, “the ruling party has taken Singapore through a number of serious crises relatively unscathed – the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003, and the 2008 global financial crisis”.
“In addition, it has won four further general elections by healthy margins but still Ms Lim continues to regularly bemoan a collapse of trust and respect for the government,” Mr Foo added.
Mr Foo then cited the Edelman Trust Barometer, which showed that only 37% of respondents in the US trusted their government while UK scores 42% and Hong Kong 45%.
“Singapore scored a respectable 75 per cent,” Mr Foo proudly proclaimed.
Then switching to the issue of middle class feeling squeezed, Mr Foo attributed this to globalization.
“The government has openly acknowledged the problems of income inequality and slowing social mobility. It has done much to overcome them, and is doing more in a sustainable and responsible, not populist, way. That is why trust in government in Singapore remains high,” Mr Foo said.
In her letter to ST Forum which was published today (16 Jun), Ms Catherine Lim replied to Mr Foo, completely disagreeing with him.
“I share Singapore Consul-General in Hong Kong Jacky Foo’s admiring acknowledgment of the many achievements of the People’s Action Party (PAP) Government, especially its skilful handling of global-size problems such as the financial crises of 1997 and 2008 and the Sars epidemic,” Ms Lim wrote.
“But I disagree with Mr Foo’s argument that since the Government has achieved so much, since it has won every election and finally, since it meets the Edelman Trust Barometer benchmark, it surely has the people’s trust,” she emphasized.
“This depiction of the Singapore political situation fails to take into account its evolving dynamics and omits unflattering facts such as the shocking General Election of 2011. Even though the PAP won, it must have been forced to admit that the people’s trust had been seriously eroded as shown by the startling post-election effusion of apologies from the Prime Minister and his colleagues, and its promise to ‘listen more’, ‘communicate better’ and use the ‘light footprint’.”
Indeed, at the 2011 GE, things came to a head when angry Singaporeans started to vote against the ruling PAP. For the first time since independence, all the constituencies were contested with the exception of Tanjong Pagar GRC due to a technicality – the opposition team was disqualified for submitting their nomination papers 35 seconds late.
A couple of days before polling day, sensing problems on the ground, PM Lee said “sorry” to Singaporeans for his government’s missteps. This had never been done by any Prime Minister before and obviously PM Lee wanted to win back some votes or some “trust” from the people. When the results were announced, PAP, even though it won the election, had obtained the lowest winning percentage of votes in the history of Singapore.
At 60.1%, it was a slide of 6.5% from the previous 66.6% garnered in 2006. Furthermore, for the first time, PAP lost a GRC and 2 full Cabinet ministers in an election. Not only that, 3 other Cabinet ministers, even though they retained their MP’s seat, were forced to step down from the Cabinet, due to public discontent with their ministerial performance. Party elders Goh Chok Tong and Lee Kuan Yew also left the Cabinet.
Ms Lim continued, “Three years after GE2011, the trust has not been regained. The best proof lies not in the graffiti, the mass demonstrations or the raucous social media, but in the most unlikely place – within the PAP camp itself. Here, there are voices urging the leaders to connect better with the ground, reflecting awareness that the problem has become serious enough to warrant attention at the highest levels.”
And indeed, during a parliament debate last month, some of the moderate PAP MPs were asking the government to listen to even the raucous online voices (‘Moderate PAP MPs ask Govt to listen to online voices‘). East Coast GRC MP Dr Maliki Osman asked the government to trust its citizens by giving them the benefit of the doubt. He stressed that citizens should be engaged before they are judged.
On the recent defamation suit by PM Lee against Roy Ngerng, Mr Foo also defended PM Lee’s legal actions in his letter.
Mr Foo said, “Ms Lim is also wrong to claim that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s defamation suit against a blogger will further erode trust. On the contrary, Mr Lee acted because the government prizes integrity as the ultimate source of the trust it enjoys.”
“A leader who does nothing when he is accused of criminally misappropriating monies from the state pension system must engender mistrust in his honesty and leadership. The person making the accusations should have basis for the accusations, and should not be gratuitously lying,” he added.
In her reply today, Ms Lim said, “Although, as Mr Foo has rightly pointed out, the Prime Minister has every right to sue, to protect his reputation, the alarming truth is that an angry crowd will choose emotionalism over rationality, and insist that the defamation suit is one more instance of PAP bullying.”
“Mr Foo commented on my long history as a complainer. I have been writing political commentaries for 20 years now. Their central theme is the need for a robust, trusting relationship between the Government and the people, which, I strongly believe, is the only guarantee for a small country to survive in an increasingly perilous world,” Ms Lim concluded in her letter.
Last Saturday (14 Jun), ST published a letter from Singapore Consul-General in Hong Kong, Jacky Foo, who wrote to rebut Catherine Lim’s earlier open letter to PM Lee (‘An open letter to PM Lee from Catherine Lim‘). In her open letter, she said that Singapore is in the midst of a crisis where the people no longer trust their government, and the government no longer cares about regaining their trust.
In Mr Foo’s rebuttal (‘SGs trust their leaders – PAP Govt has won many GEs‘), he argued that Singaporeans do trust and respect the government.
Mr Foo said that since the time Ms Lim started talking about the government and the people being divided in 1994, “the ruling party has taken Singapore through a number of serious crises relatively unscathed – the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003, and the 2008 global financial crisis”.
“In addition, it has won four further general elections by healthy margins but still Ms Lim continues to regularly bemoan a collapse of trust and respect for the government,” Mr Foo added.
Mr Foo then cited the Edelman Trust Barometer, which showed that only 37% of respondents in the US trusted their government while UK scores 42% and Hong Kong 45%.
“Singapore scored a respectable 75 per cent,” Mr Foo proudly proclaimed.
Then switching to the issue of middle class feeling squeezed, Mr Foo attributed this to globalization.
“The government has openly acknowledged the problems of income inequality and slowing social mobility. It has done much to overcome them, and is doing more in a sustainable and responsible, not populist, way. That is why trust in government in Singapore remains high,” Mr Foo said.
In her letter to ST Forum which was published today (16 Jun), Ms Catherine Lim replied to Mr Foo, completely disagreeing with him.
“I share Singapore Consul-General in Hong Kong Jacky Foo’s admiring acknowledgment of the many achievements of the People’s Action Party (PAP) Government, especially its skilful handling of global-size problems such as the financial crises of 1997 and 2008 and the Sars epidemic,” Ms Lim wrote.
“But I disagree with Mr Foo’s argument that since the Government has achieved so much, since it has won every election and finally, since it meets the Edelman Trust Barometer benchmark, it surely has the people’s trust,” she emphasized.
“This depiction of the Singapore political situation fails to take into account its evolving dynamics and omits unflattering facts such as the shocking General Election of 2011. Even though the PAP won, it must have been forced to admit that the people’s trust had been seriously eroded as shown by the startling post-election effusion of apologies from the Prime Minister and his colleagues, and its promise to ‘listen more’, ‘communicate better’ and use the ‘light footprint’.”
Indeed, at the 2011 GE, things came to a head when angry Singaporeans started to vote against the ruling PAP. For the first time since independence, all the constituencies were contested with the exception of Tanjong Pagar GRC due to a technicality – the opposition team was disqualified for submitting their nomination papers 35 seconds late.
A couple of days before polling day, sensing problems on the ground, PM Lee said “sorry” to Singaporeans for his government’s missteps. This had never been done by any Prime Minister before and obviously PM Lee wanted to win back some votes or some “trust” from the people. When the results were announced, PAP, even though it won the election, had obtained the lowest winning percentage of votes in the history of Singapore.
At 60.1%, it was a slide of 6.5% from the previous 66.6% garnered in 2006. Furthermore, for the first time, PAP lost a GRC and 2 full Cabinet ministers in an election. Not only that, 3 other Cabinet ministers, even though they retained their MP’s seat, were forced to step down from the Cabinet, due to public discontent with their ministerial performance. Party elders Goh Chok Tong and Lee Kuan Yew also left the Cabinet.
Ms Lim continued, “Three years after GE2011, the trust has not been regained. The best proof lies not in the graffiti, the mass demonstrations or the raucous social media, but in the most unlikely place – within the PAP camp itself. Here, there are voices urging the leaders to connect better with the ground, reflecting awareness that the problem has become serious enough to warrant attention at the highest levels.”
And indeed, during a parliament debate last month, some of the moderate PAP MPs were asking the government to listen to even the raucous online voices (‘Moderate PAP MPs ask Govt to listen to online voices‘). East Coast GRC MP Dr Maliki Osman asked the government to trust its citizens by giving them the benefit of the doubt. He stressed that citizens should be engaged before they are judged.
On the recent defamation suit by PM Lee against Roy Ngerng, Mr Foo also defended PM Lee’s legal actions in his letter.
Mr Foo said, “Ms Lim is also wrong to claim that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s defamation suit against a blogger will further erode trust. On the contrary, Mr Lee acted because the government prizes integrity as the ultimate source of the trust it enjoys.”
“A leader who does nothing when he is accused of criminally misappropriating monies from the state pension system must engender mistrust in his honesty and leadership. The person making the accusations should have basis for the accusations, and should not be gratuitously lying,” he added.
In her reply today, Ms Lim said, “Although, as Mr Foo has rightly pointed out, the Prime Minister has every right to sue, to protect his reputation, the alarming truth is that an angry crowd will choose emotionalism over rationality, and insist that the defamation suit is one more instance of PAP bullying.”
“Mr Foo commented on my long history as a complainer. I have been writing political commentaries for 20 years now. Their central theme is the need for a robust, trusting relationship between the Government and the people, which, I strongly believe, is the only guarantee for a small country to survive in an increasingly perilous world,” Ms Lim concluded in her letter.
