What makes this this goondu think that there'll only be Barisan if there's multi-party democracy in Peesai? Fact remains that under 1 Familee rule, Sporns have becum worse than SHIT in their own cuntry. Surely, nothing could be worse than THIS!
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Coffeeshop Chit Chat - Would Singapore be better under Barisan?</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
Subscribe </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE class=msgtable cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="96%"><TBODY><TR><TD class=msg vAlign=top><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%">kojakbt22 <NOBR>
</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate noWrap align=right width="30%">Dec-3 8:30 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> (1 of 25) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft width="1%" rowSpan=4> </TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>3351.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Would Singapore be better... If Barisan Sosialis had been the ruling party for the past 43 years?
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I WOULD like to put these questions to academics and scholars: Would Singapore be better if Barisan Sosialis had been the ruling party for the past 43 years? Could it have brought Singapore to the rank of developed nation? Could its leaders have transformed Singapore to what it is today?
Perhaps there might be multi-party democracy, like one of the four Asian Tigers where MPs fight openly in Parliament during debates. English would never have become the working language, perhaps Chinese, and I am not sure we could have a multi-religious and multi-cultural society living in harmony and enjoying a high standard of living with good housing, transport, education, amenities and health care. I doubt we would have hundreds of billions of reserves in the kitty. Would our fortune really be different if Barisan Sosialis were the ruling party? You bet.
Take a look at the 2007 International Monetary Fund GDP per capita income of former colonies since independence and you will be surprised by the big gaps. Good examples are Myanmar (US$234 [S$358]), Sri Lanka (US$1,623), Jamaica (US$4,200), Malaysia (US$6,959), Hong Kong (US$29,750), Vietnam (US$829) and the Philippines (US$1,626).
Our GDP per capita income increases to US$35,163. While Hong Kong's is close to us, the rest, though they gained independence earlier by a wide margin, cannot even hold a candle to Singapore's achievement. The truth lies in each place's choice of political system and leadership that make the difference.
The wisdom and vision of the ruling party in power decide the fate of the country's fortune. Our three prime ministers with their teams from the ruling party have stuck to the visionary and pragmatic leadership of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's working model to steer Singapore and work hard with its people to achieve First World standard. Perhaps the secret to success of the ruling party is its sacrosanct faith in pursuit of its 'cardinal rules', with a steel-built mechanism for self-calibration, self-alignment and self-renewal.
Yes, the ruling party needs to be more receptive to voices from the ground and the opposition parties, and leave no room for complacency. True, we may not have the free liberal democracy like the West, but we enjoy a cohesive, safe and harmonious society sharing the values of multilingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious principles under a corruption-free and no-nonsense government.
When one political party has a formidable team of visionary and pragmatic leaders to challenge the PAP ideology, there will be two major political parties campaigning at the general election. Paul Chan
[email protected]
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->I WOULD like to put these questions to academics and scholars: Would Singapore be better if Barisan Sosialis had been the ruling party for the past 43 years? Could it have brought Singapore to the rank of developed nation? Could its leaders have transformed Singapore to what it is today?
Perhaps there might be multi-party democracy, like one of the four Asian Tigers where MPs fight openly in Parliament during debates. English would never have become the working language, perhaps Chinese, and I am not sure we could have a multi-religious and multi-cultural society living in harmony and enjoying a high standard of living with good housing, transport, education, amenities and health care. I doubt we would have hundreds of billions of reserves in the kitty. Would our fortune really be different if Barisan Sosialis were the ruling party? You bet.
Take a look at the 2007 International Monetary Fund GDP per capita income of former colonies since independence and you will be surprised by the big gaps. Good examples are Myanmar (US$234 [S$358]), Sri Lanka (US$1,623), Jamaica (US$4,200), Malaysia (US$6,959), Hong Kong (US$29,750), Vietnam (US$829) and the Philippines (US$1,626).
Our GDP per capita income increases to US$35,163. While Hong Kong's is close to us, the rest, though they gained independence earlier by a wide margin, cannot even hold a candle to Singapore's achievement. The truth lies in each place's choice of political system and leadership that make the difference.
The wisdom and vision of the ruling party in power decide the fate of the country's fortune. Our three prime ministers with their teams from the ruling party have stuck to the visionary and pragmatic leadership of Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's working model to steer Singapore and work hard with its people to achieve First World standard. Perhaps the secret to success of the ruling party is its sacrosanct faith in pursuit of its 'cardinal rules', with a steel-built mechanism for self-calibration, self-alignment and self-renewal.
Yes, the ruling party needs to be more receptive to voices from the ground and the opposition parties, and leave no room for complacency. True, we may not have the free liberal democracy like the West, but we enjoy a cohesive, safe and harmonious society sharing the values of multilingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious principles under a corruption-free and no-nonsense government.
When one political party has a formidable team of visionary and pragmatic leaders to challenge the PAP ideology, there will be two major political parties campaigning at the general election. Paul Chan
[email protected]
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