On the desperate need
to steer our country back to the right direction, the responsibility seems to have
fallen solely on the shoulders of the alternative parties. Whether they could unite
among themselves as one to take on the incumbents, whether they have the ability
in attracting candidates with sound credentials and good character, whether
they have sufficient outreach to the electorate and many, many other factors…..
apparently would all add up to forge that single key to wrestle away the power from
the incorrigible incumbents.
So much expectations
pinned on the alternative parties. And even more so after GE 2011. And expectations
turned into criticisms and fell heavily onto the alternative parties for either
being overly-confrontational or for not being sufficiently confrontational.
Some of us came down so hard on the alternative parties in the event of PE by-election.
Perhaps we have
sensed the urgency of the state of affairs in our country. There are already
obvious hints that another 2 million foreigners will be waiting at our door
step even before the Population Paper is released. Inflation is still as stubborn
as two years ago. And therefore the pressing need to reverse all the twenty-year-old
bad policies asap.
However, as much
as we can confidently blame our country’s sufferings on the incumbents, or
lament at the disarrayed alternative parties, little has been mentioned about the
role of voters/citizens who ultimately decide the fate of our country and our
lives. Precisely of the far-reaching impact of our collective decision, we
cannot just simply rely on the politicians alone, alternative parties or incumbents
alike, to steer our country.
冰冻三尺，非一日之寒。It takes more than a day to freeze three
feet of ice. Singapore
did not arrive at this sorry state of affairs just overnight. Detrimental
policies adversely impacting the social, economical and political health of our
country are accumulated throughout the decades.
Our ministers have been paying themselves fat checks even before 21st century. Legal
threats were already frequently in use in the 90s on opposition members and it
continues to this day. CPF minimum sum was introduced in 1987 and it did not just
grow into a terrifying black hole in a single day. 2 million foreigners did not
fall from the sky onto our island just last week too.
Yet, we allow the
incumbents to grow to this day and to this state, through decades of our endorsement,
be it in the form of direct electoral votes or indirectly through our silence,
indifference or ignorance of their self-serving policies and abuse of power.
Some individuals,
as early as the 90s, from the alternative parties had tried to raise issues concerning
the welfare of our country and people and consequently were forced to pay a
hefty price for their acts. And what did we do then? Some of us were part of
the group who were unaware of or were indifferent to these gestures/individuals,
or simply chose to look away in the name of saving our own skins.
The incumbents are responsible
for the mess that it created. However, the party who should shoulder the most blame
for the mess today, imho, is none other than the voters/citizens ourselves. Some
of us choose to live in the history and in continual self-denial that the same
party who led our country from the third world to the first world
infrastructure has deviated into a self-serving party which places itself above
national interests; some of us cannot even bother to understand and to think
deeper on how policies affect their daily lives; even in this day and age of internet
era, some of us choose the lazy way out by drinking in all mainstream media
reports at face value and are averse to thinking beyond the msm or making an
effort to find out more views through alternative channels; some of us self-deprecate as-a-matter-of-factly before the high and mighty incumbents; and of course,
there are some of us who prioritize self-interests above national interests and
will relish at the expense of others.
The various alternative
parties need to grow to strengthen our political scene but can we expect them
to thaw three feet of ice in a minute when we shy away in those decades? And if the majority do not think there are any crippling issues with our country even at this current state, there is very little the alternative parties could do.
Before we get into the blame-game again for the current mess, perhaps we should also learn to be a responsible and well-informed voter/citizen. For in order to move our country forward, the politicians could not and should not be on their own. That should be a collective effort coming from both the politicians (regardless of political party) and our people.
