MM Lee Criticizing Singaporeans
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Originally posted by DouglasBitMeFingerBoomz:
Article:
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2009
MM Lee: Singaporeans have become “less hard-driving and hard-striving.”National Geographic Magazine, Jan 2010
Over time, the MM says, Singaporeans have become “less hard-driving and hard-striving.” This is why it is a good thing, the MM says, that the nation has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants (25 percent of the population is now foreign-born). He is aware that many Singaporeans are unhappy with the influx of immigrants, especially those educated newcomers prepared to fight for higher paying jobs. But taking a typically Darwinian stance, the MM describes the country’s new subjects as “hungry,” with parents who “pushed the children very hard.” If native Singaporeans are falling behind because “the spurs are not stuck into the hide,” that is their problem.
Personal Opinion:
If i am to rephrase the last sentence posted in this article. MM Lee just asked us to go and ‘F’ Ourselves. if we do not push ourselves or our children very hard. Singapore is already a fast paced environment where money rules over time. If MM is trying to tell us that we have to push even harder, wouldn’t that make a materialistic and economical society that does not have any social interaction? This kind of life would be very difficult to grasp for Singaporeans, and is already showing in the early stages of immigration. If he wants the influx to continue or even expand, he would be contradicting the whole PAP and his own son, who are trying to change immigration policies to suit Singaporeans better.
According to Dr. Mahathir’s book “Malay’s Dilemma”, the mindset or attitude of people cannot be changed overnight, what MM Lee is saying ‘the spurs are not stuck into the hide’ means that we have to change our mindsets to drive ourselves more and basically be hungry to strive for better grades and so on… As shown in the case of the Malays in Malaysia, they have taken 50 years, and would probably need another 100 or 150 years to catch up with the Chinese in terms of economic power. If the influx of foreigners continue coming in, we would become a modern age Malaysia, where the ‘indigenous’people are disadvantaged by the incoming foreigners and their rulers. The Main difference between this comparison, is that this ‘sabotage’ in Malaysia happened during the british colonial ruling, so the Big Questions means: Is MM Lee just like a colonial ruler? he just sounds like one.Just some food for thought, feel free to respond to this comment
He wish he can do more social engineering and tell people what they should do with their lives. The cursed despot should just stay at home and look after his zombie wife while he contemplates the meaning of life.
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looking after his veggie wife
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What despots do.
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Leading Chinese Dissident Gets 11-Year Prison Term
New York Times - 17 minutes agoBy AP BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese court sentenced a prominent dissident to 11 years in prison on Friday on subversion charges after he called for sweeping political reforms and an end to the Communist Party's dominance. Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo with ..."
Imagine what other atrocities the Singapore cursed despot would have done if his eldest son did not get cancer in the anus and his wife did not become a zombie.
RETRIBUTION for persecuting activists, opposition, dissidents and taking massive amounts of public money!!!
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http://www.sgforums.com/forums/10/topics/385928
The Singapore Solution
How did a sleepy little island transform into a high-tech powerhouse in one generation? It was all in the plan.
By Mark Jacobson of National Geographic
If you want to get a Singaporean to look up from a beloved dish of fish-head curry—or make a harried cabdriver slam on his brakes—say you are going to interview the country's "minister mentor," Lee Kuan Yew, and would like an opinion about what to ask him. "The MM?Wah lau! You're going to see the MM? Real?" You might as well have told a resident of the Emerald City that you're late for an appointment with the Wizard of Oz. After all, LKY, as he is known in acronym-mad Singapore, is more than the "father of the country." He is its inventor, as surely as if he had scientifically formulated the place with precise portions of Plato's Republic, Anglophile elitism, unwavering economic pragmatism, and old-fashioned strong-arm repression.
People like to call Singapore the Switzerland of Southeast Asia, and who can argue? Out of a malarial swamp, the tiny island at the southernmost tip of the Malay Peninsula gained independence from Britain in 1963 and, in one generation, transformed itself into a legendarily efficient place, where the per capita income for its 3.7 million citizens exceeds that of many European countries, the education and health systems rival anything in the West, government officials are largely corruption free, 90 percent of households own their own homes, taxes are relatively low and sidewalks are clean, and there are no visible homeless people or slums.
If all that, plus a typical unemployment rate of about 3 percent and a nice stash of money in the bank thanks to the government's enforced savings plan, doesn't sound sweet to you, just travel 600 miles south and try getting by in a Jakarta shantytown.
Achieving all this has required a delicate balancing act, an often paradoxical interplay between what some Singaporeans refer to as "the big stick and the big carrot." What strikes you first is the carrot: giddy financial growth fueling never ending construction and consumerism. Against this is the stick, most often symbolized by the infamous ban on chewing gum and the caning of people for spray-painting cars. Disruptive things like racial and religious disharmony? They're simply not allowed, and no one steals anyone else's wallet.
Singapore, maybe more than anywhere else, crystallizes an elemental question: What price prosperity and security? Are they worth living in a place that many contend is a socially engineered, nose-to-the-grindstone, workaholic rat race, where the self-perpetuating ruling party enforces draconian laws (your airport entry card informs you, in red letters, that the penalty for drug trafficking is "DEATH"), squashes press freedom, and offers a debatable level of financial transparency? Some people joke that the government micromanages the details of life right down to how well Singapore Airlines flight attendants fill out their batik-patterned dresses.
They say Lee Kuan Yew has mellowed over the years, but when he walks into the interview wearing a zippered blue jacket, looking like a flint-eyed Asian Clint Eastwood circa Gran Torino, you know you'd better get on with it. While it is not exactly clear what a minister mentor does, good luck finding many Singaporeans who don't believe that the Old Man is still top dog, the ultimate string puller behind the curtain. Told most of my questions have come from Singaporeans, the MM, now 86 but as sharp and unsentimental as a barbed tack, offers a bring-it-on smile: "At my age I've had many eggs thrown at me."
Few living leaders—Fidel Castro in Cuba, Nelson Mandela in South Africa, and Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe come to mind—have dominated their homeland's national narrative the way Lee Kuan Yew has. Born into a well-to-do Chinese family in 1923, deeply influenced by both British colonial society and the brutal Japanese occupation that killed as many as 50,000 people on the island in the mid-1940s, the erstwhile "Harry Lee," Cambridge law degree in hand, first came to prominence as a leader of a left-leaning anticolonial movement in the 1950s. Firming up his personal power within the ascendant People's Action Party, Lee became Singapore's first prime minister, filling the post for 26 years. He was senior minister for another 15; his current minister mentor title was established when his son, Lee Hsien Loong, became prime minister in 2004.
Lee masterminded the celebrated "Singapore Model," converting a country one-eighth the size of Delaware, with no natural resources and a fractured mix of ethnicities, into "Singapore, Inc." He attracted foreign investment by building communications and transportation infrastructure, made English the official language, created a superefficient government by paying top administrators salaries equal to those in private companies, and cracked down on corruption until it disappeared. The model—a unique mix of economic empowerment and tightly controlled personal liberties—has inspired imitators in China, Russia, and eastern Europe.
To lead a society, the MM says in his precise Victorian English, "one must understand human nature. I have always thought that humanity was animal-like. The Confucian theory was man could be improved, but I'm not sure he can be. He can be trained, he can be disciplined." In Singapore that has meant lots of rules—prohibiting littering, spitting on sidewalks, failing to flush public toilets—with fines and occasional outing in the newspaper for those who break them. It also meant educating his people—industrious by nature—and converting them from shopkeepers to high-tech workers in a few decades.
Over time, the MM says, Singaporeans have become "less hard-driving and hard-striving." This is why it is a good thing, the MM says, that the nation has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants (25 percent of the population is now foreign-born). He is aware that many Singaporeans are unhappy with the influx of immigrants, especially those educated newcomers prepared to fight for higher paying jobs. But taking a typically Darwinian stance, the MM describes the country's new subjects as "hungry," with parents who "pushed the children very hard." If native Singaporeans are falling behind because "the spurs are not stuck into the hide," that is their problem.
If there is a single word that sums up the Singaporean existential condition, it is kiasu, a term that means "afraid to lose." In a society that begins tracking its students into test-based groups at age ten ("special" and "express" are the top tiers; "normal" is the path for those headed for factory and service-sector work), kiasu seeps in early, eventually germinating in brilliant engineering students and phallic high-rises with a Bulgari store on the ground floor. Singaporeans are big on being number one in everything, but in a kiasu world, winning is never completely sweet, carrying with it the dread of ceasing to win. When the Singapore port, the busiest container hub in the world, slipped behind Shanghai in 2005 in total cargo tonnage handled, it was a national calamity.
One day, as part of a rehearsal for the National Day celebration, I was treated to a veritable lollapalooza of kiasu. Singapore armed forces playacted at subduing a cabal of "terrorists" who had shot a half dozen flower-bearing children in red leotards, leaving them "dead" on the stage. "We're not North Korea, but we try," said one observer, commenting on the rolling tanks, zooming Apache helicopters, and earsplitting 21-gun salutes. You hear it all the time: The only way for Singapore to survive being surrounded by massive neighbors is to remain constantly vigilant. The 2009 military budget is $11.4 billion, or 5 percent of GDP, among the world's highest rates.
You never know where the threat might come from, or what form it will take. Last summer everyone was in a panic about swine flu. Mask-wearing health monitors were positioned around the city. On Saturday night, no matter how stylo milo your threads, there was no way of getting into a club on trendy Clarke Quay without a bouncer pressing a handheld thermometer to your forehead. It was part of the unending Singaporean state of siege. Many of the newer public housing apartments come with a bomb shelter, complete with a steel door. After a while, the perceived danger and excessive compliance with rules get internalized; one thing you don't see in Singapore is very many police. "The cop is inside our heads," one resident says.
Self-censorship is rampant in Singapore, where dealing with the powers that be is "a dance," says Alvin Tan, the artistic director of the Necessary Stage, which has put on dozens of plays dealing with touchy issues such as the death penalty and sexuality. Tan spends a lot of time with the government censors. "You have to use the proper approach," he says. "If they say 'south,' you don't say 'north.' You say 'northeast.' Go from there. It's a negotiation."
Those who do not learn their steps in the dance soon get the message. Consider the case of Siew Kum Hong, a 35-year-old Singaporean who thought he'd be furthering the cause of openness by serving as an unelected NMP, or nominated member of parliament. With only four opposition MPs elected in the history of the country, the ruling party thought NMPs might provide the appearance of "a more consensual style of government where alternative views are heard and constructive dissent accommodated." This was how Siew Kum Hong told me he viewed his position, but he was passed over for another term.
"I thought I was doing a good job," a surprised Kum Hong says. What it came down to, he surmises, were "those 'no' votes." When he first voted no, on a resolution he felt discriminated against gays, his colleagues "went absolutely silent. It was the first time since I'd been in parliament that anyone had ever voted no." When he voted no again, this time on a law lowering the number of people who could assemble to protest, the reaction was similarly cool. "So much for alternative views," Kum Hong says.
The Singapore government is not unaware of the pitfalls of its highly controlled society. One concern is the "creativity crisis," the fear that an emphasis on rote learning in Singapore's schools is not conducive to producing game-changing ideas. Yet attempts to encourage originality have been tone-deaf. When Scape, a youth outreach group, opened a "graffiti wall," youngsters were instructed to submit graffiti designs for consideration; those chosen would be painted on a designated wall at an assigned time.
Similarly, the government has maintained a campaign against the use of "Singlish," the multiculti gumbo of Malay, Hokkien Chinese, Tamil, and English street patois that is Singapore's great linguistic achievement. As you sit in a Starbucks listening to teens saying things like "You blur like sotong, lah!" (roughly, "You're dumber than squid, man!"), Singlish seems a brilliantly subversive attack on the very conformity the government claims it is trying to overcome. Then again, one of Singlish's major conceits is the ironic lionization of the flashy, down-market "Ah Beng" culture of Chinese immigrant thugs and their sunglass-wearing Malay counterparts. You know that won't fly in a world where the MM ("minister de-mentor" in Beng speak) has advocated "assortative mating," the idea that college graduates should marry only other college graduates so as to uplift the national stock.
Perhaps the most troubling problem facing the nation is a result of its overly successful population control program, which ran in the 1970s with the slogan "Two Is Enough." Today Singaporeans are simply not reproducing, so the country must depend on immigrants to keep the population growing. The government offers baby bonuses and long maternity leaves, but nothing will help unless Singaporeans start having more sex. According to a poll by the Durex condom company, Singaporeans have less intercourse than almost any other country on Earth. "We are shrinking in our population," the MM says. "Our fertility rate is 1.29. It is a worrying factor." This could be the fatal error in the Singapore Model: The eventual extinction of Singaporeans.
But there is an upside to all this social engineering. You could feel it during the "We Are the World" production numbers in the National Day show. On stage were representatives of Singapore's major ethnic groups, the Chinese, Malays, and Indians, all wearing colorful costumes. After riots in the 1960s, the government installed a strict quota system in public housing to make sure that ethnic groups did not create their own monolithic quarters. This practice may have more to do with controlling the populace than with true multiracial harmony, but at the rehearsal, as schmaltzy as it was, it was hard not to be moved by the earnest show of brotherhood. However invented, there is something called Singaporean, and it is real. Whatever people's grumbles—and as the MM says, "Singaporeans are champion grumblers"—Singapore is their home, and they love it despite everything. It makes you like the place too, for their sake.
The kicker is that things are about to change. In a famous quote, Lee Kuan Yew said, "If you are going to lower me into the grave, and I feel something is wrong, I will get up." But this is beyond even him. "We all know the MM will die someday," says Calvin Fones, a psychiatrist who runs a clinic at Gleneagles Hospital on Orchard Road. Fones likens his homeland to a family. "When the country was young, there was a need for wise oversight. A firm hand. Now we are in adolescence, which can be a questioning, troublesome period. Coming into it without the presence of the patriarch will be a test."
The great engine of cultural change, of course, is the Internet, that cyber fly in the authoritarian ointment. Lee acknowledges the threat. "We banned Playboy in the sixties, and it is still banned, that's true, but now, with the Internet, you get much more than you ever could from Playboy." Allowing pornography sites while banning magazines may seem contradictory. But attempting to censor the Internet, as has been tried in China, would be pointless, Lee says. It is an exquisitely pragmatic reply.
And so bloggers, like the satirist Mr. Brown and the urbanely pugnacious Yawning Bread, are free to broadcast opinions unlikely to be found in the pages of the government-linked Straits Times. As a result, more and more young people are questioning the trade-off between freedom and security—and even calling for freer politics and fewer social controls.
Last August, a wide-ranging speech by new NMP Viswa Sadasivan created a lot of buzz on the blogosphere: "I do lament our lack of freedom to express ourselves, and the government's seemingly unmitigated grip on power and what appears to be an inconsistent willingness to listen to public sentiment that does not suit it," Viswa said before parliament. "Accountability requires the government to go beyond lip-service in addressing the call for greater democracy … If not, people are likely to feel increasingly alienated."
Irked by Viswa's criticisms of the way some ethnic groups are treated in Singapore, LKY interrupted a medical treatment to angrily refute the "highfalutin" speech in a rare appearance on the parliament floor. The patriarch, in case anyone needed reminding, was not yet in his grave.
Singapore can be a disconcerting place, even to the people who call it home, though they'd never think of leaving. As one local put it, "Singapore is like a warm bath. You sink in, slit your wrists, your lifeblood floats away, but hey, it's warm." If that's so, most Singaporeans figure they might as well go down the tubes eating pepper crabs, with a couple of curry puffs on the side. Eating is the true national pastime and refuge. The longer I stayed, the more I ate. It got so I'd go over to the marvelously overcrowded Maxwell Road Food Centre, stand in the 20-minute queue for a plate at the Tian Tian food stall, eat it, then line up again.
On my last day, I climbed the hill in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, at 537 feet the highest point on the island and the closest thing in Singapore to the jungle it once was. In the unexpected quiet, I returned to what the MM had said about Confucius's belief "that man could be perfected." This was, the MM said with a sigh, "an optimistic way of looking at life." People abuse freedom. That is his beef with America: The rights of individuals to do their own thing allow them to misbehave at the expense of an orderly society. As they say in Singapore: What good are all those rights if you're afraid to go out at night?
When I got to the top of the hill, I thought I might be rewarded with a view of the entire city-state. But there was no view at all—only a rusting communication tower and a cyclone fence affixed with a sign saying "Protected Place" and showing a stick figure drawing of a soldier aiming a rifle at a man with his hands raised.
Later I mentioned this to Calvin Fones, the shrink. "See, that shows the progress we've made," he said. "Until a few years ago, we had the same sign, except the guy was lying on the ground, already shot." And then, being a Singaporean, living a life he didn't believe possible anywhere else in Asia, he laughed.
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MM Lee: “good thing” to welcome so many Chinese immigrants as Singaporeans have become less “hard-driving”
December 24, 2009
In an extensive interview with the National Geographic, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew continues to support the ruling party’s liberal immigration policies though he is aware that many Singaporeans are unhappy with the influx of immigrants.
“Over time, Singaporeans have become less hard-driving and hard-striving. This is why it is a good thing that the nation has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants.” Lee was quoted saying.
Lee describes the country’s new subjects as “hungry,” with parents who “pushed the children very hard.”
“If native Singaporeans are falling behind because the spurs are not stuck into the hide, that is their problem,” he quipped.
Desperate to boost Singapore’s flagging birth rate, the government opened the floodgates to immigrants which have changed the island state’s demographics radically over the past few years.
Foreigners now make up 36 per cent of the population, up from 14 per cent in 1990.
According to Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng, there were over 90,000 PRs and 20,000 new citizens last year.
A majority of these newcomers hail from China and India with Malaysians, Filipinos, Indonesians making up the rest.
There are few immigrants from developed countries like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia or New Zealand.
Even for Chinese immigrants, most of them originate from the poorer inland provinces instead of affluent coastal cities like Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Tianjin.
In a recent poll conducted by Gallup in July, Singapore is not even featured among the top five destinations for immigration for college students. Their first choice is United States, followed by France and South Korea.
Due to the difficulty in attracting the most talented immigrants to settle in Singapore, the ruling party has “lowered” its standards to such an extent that even construction workers, cleaners and masseurs are offered PRs and citizenship.
The state media reported a Chinese construction worker whose son just passed out as a SAF officer. He became a PR and citizen within 12 years of arrival in Singapore.
Another China national and Singapore PR, Mdm Song Jin, was sentenced to nine weeks imprisonment for torching the fish farm of a lover.
It is not sure how these China nationals are classified as “talents” in the first place and if they are really “hungrier” than locals.
Lee has long eschewed social welfare benefits, claiming that it will create a “crutch” mentality which will cause Singapore to go down the slippery slope of Western-style “welfarism”.
Under Lee’s draconian rule, Singaporeans are expected to work for as long as they can to support themselves without burdening the state.
On the other hand, the government is flushed with cash accumulated from years of budget surpluses.
Lee is the Chairman of Government Investment Corp and his daughter-in-law Ho Ching is in charge of Temasek Holdings, both of which are giant sovereign wealth funds owned by the Ministry of Finance.
A Wall Street Journal article in September reported that “Government of Singapore Investment Corp suffered a loss around 59 billion Singapore dollars (US$41.6 billion) in the fiscal year ended March.” (read article here)
Public opinion counts little for Lee who always thought of himself as the only person fit to govern Singapore.
As early in 1962, he warned Singaporeans of what to expect under his one-man rule:
“If I were in authority in Singapore indefinitely without having to ask those who are governed whether they like what is being done, then I would not have the slightest doubt that I could govern much more effectively in their interests.”
Lee’s authoritarian style of governance can only survive in Singapore. He would have been booted out of office a long time ago if he was in Hong Kong, Taiwan or Malaysia.
In a famous quote, Lee said,
“If you are going to lower me into the grave, and I feel something is wrong, I will get up.”
He should know that this is impossible even when he is being taken care of by the best physicians in Singapore.
The National Geographic also interviewed renowned Singapore psychiatrist Calvin Fons who gave an interesting analogy:
“When the country was young, there was a need for wise oversight. A firm hand. Now we are in adolescence, which can be a questioning, troublesome period. Coming into it without the presence of the patriarch will be a test.”
Young Singaporeans are ready to show Lee what they really think of him and his rubber-stamped party. The question is whether he will still be around then to witness Singapore’s very own “political tsunami”.
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Maybe , our children should not be required to serve NS and also so many years of reservist.
The gorvernment should feed their army based on Merits and have a pension plan for their soldiers.
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Originally posted by OH-FF:
Maybe , our children should not be required to serve NS and also so many years of reservist.
The gorvernment should feed their army based on Merits and have a pension plan for their soldiers.
not more pension thing -
MM Lee slammed by netizens for callous remarks on Singaporeans made in National Geographic magazine
December 25, 2009
Singapore’s octogenarian leader Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew was slammed by netizens for his callous remarks on Singaporeans made during a recent interview with the National Geographic magazine.
Speaking to journalist Mark Jacobson on how he had governed Singapore, MM Lee said he is aware that “many Singaporeans are unhappy with the influx of immigrants, especially those educated newcomers prepared to fight for higher paying jobs.”
“Over time, Singaporeans have become less hard-driving and hard-striving. This is why it is a good thing that the nation has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants.” Lee was quoted saying.
Lee describes the country’s new subjects as “hungry,” with parents who “pushed the children very hard.”
“If native Singaporeans are falling behind because the spurs are not stuck into the hide, that is their problem,” he quipped.
MM Lee’s insensitive and callous remarks about Singaporeans sparked an outcry in cyberspace with many netizens expressing their disgust with his views.
Over 60 comments are posted on Temasek Review’s report on the interview in one day alone.
Exposer asked why MM Lee is not replacing himself with Chinese immigrants then:
“Yes, why isn’t Old fart replacing himself with “Cheaper, Better and Faster” Chinese immigrants or hardworking citizen then? Fancy someone who is given few millions of tax-money salary for forecasting as hobby, and not working at all, travelling at Singaporean’s expense of tax-money, who is this Old Fart to say that Singaporeans are less hard-driving and hard-striving. Just because this old fart is “less hard-driving and hard-striving” then all Singaporeans are “less hard-driving and hard-striving” ?Old fart, please get out of our elite uncaring face !”
Wizard of Id felt that MM Lee was the one who made a mistake in the first place and he is now creating another problem for the nation:
“The old man is at it again. He conveniently forgot that it was he who proposed and oversaw the systematic decimation through abortion of hundred of thousands of Singaporeans when the stop at two policy was in place. I remember after my two sons were born, nurses from the Family Planning Board kept pressuring my wife to go for ligation. They badgered us at work and at home. Tax disincentives and draconian educational policies penalized those that went against official policy.
When they put together the stop at two policy they claimed that Singapore cannot support a high rate of population growth. Now they bring in foreign immigrants by the shipload to boost the population. Who knows, we could have possibly sent a potential made in Singapore Bill Gates or an Einstein into the sewer. They said less children will ensure that we can provide more resources to nurture and educate the young. We then created little emperors and empresses. Now they say that we have created a generation that is less hard driving and hard striving.”
Over at hardwarezone, his comments were greeted with derision by netizens.
Biogentics wrote:
“Nonsense remarks…. we Singaporeans will unite and turn hostile towards foreigners…. they are not welcomed in our country, you run the country to what we want.”
Shutterx wondered why the blame is always pinned on Singaporeans:
“Everything must point to sinkies as if we are at fault. Do we have a government that is so pure and never do any wrong?? It is their greed to boost the economy by importing large numbers of foreigners and increase the population to 6mil. now we are already at 5million. The pie is already so small, and now more people are fighting for it. Hungry people will become angry people. Let’s see how long the governmentt can be ya-ya.”
A discussion thread on the topic has garnered more than 80 comments on the Channel News Asia forum.
bw2003 felt that his remarks were uncalled for:
“These kind of derogatory comments directed towards citizens of the people who put him where he is today are really unwarranted… we work our butts out with or without FT’s … our children study late nights with or without FT’s ….”
watz poured scorn on MM Lee:
“Look at who’s talking – the very comfortable old man with plenty of money, no need to retire, country taking care of his health needs, free travel under the name of visits, etc. I was just thinking of voting for PAP next election but now I need to think twice! Old man and his crooks can’t do a proper job blame on the ppl. Typical PAP style! When things are good always in the forefront to claim credit!”
MP4 was obviously peeved with the choice of words used by MM Lee:
“We the citizens of Singapore will also want to stick some spurs into your party’s hide by voting in more oppositions so that you don’t become complacent even when you are paid higher than USA president. That is your problem”
As Minister Mentor, Lee is paid about SGD$3 million dollars a year, or $166,000 a month, more than 5 times the annual salary of U.S. President Barack Obama. The median pay of an average Singaporean worker is $2,600 only.
In a recent speech addressed to a Japanese audience where he lectured Japan on their seniority-based political system, MM Lee admitted that he is not doing much work:
“…….I’m the exception to the rule but…I’m not doing the work! I’m just forecasting.”
As the “forecaster extraordinarie” of Singapore, MM Lee once made a bold prediction that the PAP will remain in power for the next two elections.
Singaporeans should just prove him wrong in the next general election and make him eat his own words. It will a pity if MM Lee is no longer around by then to witness what Singaporeans will be “sticking” into his party’s thick “hide”.
The interview was published in the National Geographic magazine more than a week ago, but for some inexplicable reasons, the mainstream media had made no mention of it.
MM Lee’s remarks deserve to be publicized to a wider audience which will surely wake up Singaporeans from their slumber when they realized that their taxes are being used to pay the million-dollar salary of a man who thinks so lowly of them.
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As i said many times, same same as what MM said, people coming here had an agenda and objective to fulfil, nobody will leave their own motherland for the sake of just leaving, same goes to Singaporean going overseas and live, they will perform better, simply because there is a believe in them to succeed, to get rich, and to get a better life. Unlike Singapore, die die also must be here, like it or not, you become complacent, stagnated and careless about working hard and with a diminishing of population, there is said to be more old peoples then the youngs by 2020. And these old folks are not fighers anymore.
It is said that MM Lee is good in predicting the future, at least by 20 years ahead, frankly if you look into the current situation, with the increasing of old folks and the diminishing of population, what other alternatives can you recommend to sustain the singapore population to be vibrant and young in the next 20 years time?? Tell me. Clone? robots? or Avatars? You got be realistic, immigration policies was never going to be popular, but in 20 years time, you will the fruit of it, if you are still around.
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Originally posted by AndrewPKYap:
What despots do.
"
Leading Chinese Dissident Gets 11-Year Prison Term
New York Times - 17 minutes agoBy AP BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese court sentenced a prominent dissident to 11 years in prison on Friday on subversion charges after he called for sweeping political reforms and an end to the Communist Party's dominance. Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo with ..."
Imagine what other atrocities the Singapore cursed despot would have done if his eldest son did not get cancer in the anus and his wife did not become a zombie.
RETRIBUTION for persecuting activists, opposition, dissidents and taking massive amounts of public money!!!
-
Originally posted by DouglasBitMeFingerBoomz:
Article:
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2009
MM Lee: Singaporeans have become “less hard-driving and hard-striving.”National Geographic Magazine, Jan 2010
Over time, the MM says, Singaporeans have become “less hard-driving and hard-striving.” This is why it is a good thing, the MM says, that the nation has welcomed so many Chinese immigrants (25 percent of the population is now foreign-born). He is aware that many Singaporeans are unhappy with the influx of immigrants, especially those educated newcomers prepared to fight for higher paying jobs. But taking a typically Darwinian stance, the MM describes the country’s new subjects as “hungry,” with parents who “pushed the children very hard.” If native Singaporeans are falling behind because “the spurs are not stuck into the hide,” that is their problem.
Personal Opinion:
If i am to rephrase the last sentence posted in this article. MM Lee just asked us to go and ‘F’ Ourselves. if we do not push ourselves or our children very hard. Singapore is already a fast paced environment where money rules over time. If MM is trying to tell us that we have to push even harder, wouldn’t that make a materialistic and economical society that does not have any social interaction? This kind of life would be very difficult to grasp for Singaporeans, and is already showing in the early stages of immigration. If he wants the influx to continue or even expand, he would be contradicting the whole PAP and his own son, who are trying to change immigration policies to suit Singaporeans better.
According to Dr. Mahathir’s book “Malay’s Dilemma”, the mindset or attitude of people cannot be changed overnight, what MM Lee is saying ‘the spurs are not stuck into the hide’ means that we have to change our mindsets to drive ourselves more and basically be hungry to strive for better grades and so on… As shown in the case of the Malays in Malaysia, they have taken 50 years, and would probably need another 100 or 150 years to catch up with the Chinese in terms of economic power. If the influx of foreigners continue coming in, we would become a modern age Malaysia, where the ‘indigenous’people are disadvantaged by the incoming foreigners and their rulers. The Main difference between this comparison, is that this ‘sabotage’ in Malaysia happened during the british colonial ruling, so the Big Questions means: Is MM Lee just like a colonial ruler? he just sounds like one.Just some food for thought, feel free to respond to this comment
just read
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Oh no, more bizarre racial crap from the old fart. What an earsore. How to get rid of him?
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Originally posted by DouglasBitMeFingerBoomz:
But taking a typically Darwinian stance, the MM describes the country’s new subjects as “hungry,” with parents who “pushed the children very hard.” If native Singaporeans are falling behind because “the spurs are not stuck into the hide,” that is their problem.
As long as Singaporeans are under PAP rule, they must work until die. That is the PAP doctrine.
Work until die. All the money goes to government. Minister pay higest in the world. 87 years old still ruling.
That is the PAP doctrine.
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Originally posted by angel7030:
As i said many times, same same as what MM said, people coming here had an agenda and objective to fulfil, nobody will leave their own motherland for the sake of just leaving, same goes to Singaporean going overseas and live, they will perform better, simply because there is a believe in them to succeed, to get rich, and to get a better life. Unlike Singapore, die die also must be here, like it or not, you become complacent, stagnated and careless about working hard and with a diminishing of population, there is said to be more old peoples then the youngs by 2020. And these old folks are not fighers anymore.
It is said that MM Lee is good in predicting the future, at least by 20 years ahead, frankly if you look into the current situation, with the increasing of old folks and the diminishing of population, what other alternatives can you recommend to sustain the singapore population to be vibrant and young in the next 20 years time?? Tell me. Clone? robots? or Avatars? You got be realistic, immigration policies was never going to be popular, but in 20 years time, you will the fruit of it, if you are still around.
"It is said that MM Lee is good in predicting the future, at least by 20 years ahead"
Who said so ??
If it was said many years ago... maybe we can agree.
But not today.
The Old Man is 86 years old and suffering from cataract and myopia...
so he is actually short-sighted today, rather than long-sighted.
All his recent predictions have gone haywire... so how to believe in him anymore ??
"in 20 years time, you will the fruit of it, if you are still around."
We should be around, I hope...
..but thank God, he won't be.
As for the fruits..
once he is gone, the apple tree will start growing apples again ..
.. and there will be plentiful of fruits for all to share.
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Originally posted by Lionnosy:
"It is said that MM Lee is good in predicting the future, at least by 20 years ahead"
Who said so ??
If it was said many years ago... maybe we can agree.
But not today.
The Old Man is 86 years old and suffering from cataract and myopia...
so he is actually short-sighted today, rather than long-sighted.
All his recent predictions have gone haywire... so how to believe in him anymore ??
"in 20 years time, you will the fruit of it, if you are still around."
We should be around, I hope...
..but thank God, he won't be.
As for the fruits..
once he is gone, the apple tree will start growing apples again ..
.. and there will be plentiful of fruits for all to share.
Simi lanjiao fruit to share? Don't be a bloody lanjiao okay? You got the capability, you got fruit, no capability, you get shit. Farking A hell, Singapore don't need to feed lazy worms.
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Originally posted by Herzog_Zwei:
Simi lanjiao fruit to share? Don't be a bloody lanjiao okay? You got the capability, you got fruit, no capability, you get shit. Farking A hell, Singapore don't need to feed lazy worms.
Hello ArseholeDon't be a sore loser.
Just because you cannot win your arguements with Atobe...
You don't need to take out your frustrations on others.
You just make yourself look a bigger fool to others.
I don't care 1 shit about your comments...
so keep on with your rag, if yo must...
.. and don't bother to wait for any further response / reply.
I ignore idiots who cannot control themselves.
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isn't the new gen of e PAP govt become complacent as well?
1) PSA lost Evergreen & Maersk under then defence minister Dr Yeo Ning Hong. Finally the relations with the 2 lines are better now, though it can't be said for CMA CGM (not as w/ close ties).
2) The new bus interchanges or so called integrated transport hubs can't even handle heavy bus and passenger load. Look at Boon Lay, it can't move all bus svs over on 27 Dec
3) MRT is way too packed and not frequent. Other countries which uses BOT plans could end up produce way better MRT svs than us. I think the govt is proud for being SMRT no 1 in MRT profit in the world. Shame!
3) Property price. Back in 1980s, $70k is a flat now $270k is also a flat and it's affordable as 'land price, construction cost' all added. Isn't e land free as it's alrdy allocated for residential, industrial etc use?
4) I remembered years back when Dubai was blooming, our leaders say we can learn from Dubai. Yeah there was w/ study trips by e uni and so on. Now it crashes how? In the first place, it was a bubble ecoonomy, got $$ to earn say good things. In the first place, did we develop our country in tat manner? No?
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Originally posted by sbst275:
isn't the new gen of e PAP govt become complacent as well?
1) PSA lost Evergreen & Maersk under then defence minister Dr Yeo Ning Hong. Finally the relations with the 2 lines are better now, though it can't be said for CMA CGM (not as w/ close ties).
2) The new bus interchanges or so called integrated transport hubs can't even handle heavy bus and passenger load. Look at Boon Lay, it can't move all bus svs over on 27 Dec
3) MRT is way too packed and not frequent. Other countries which uses BOT plans could end up produce way better MRT svs than us. I think the govt is proud for being SMRT no 1 in MRT profit in the world. Shame!
3) Property price. Back in 1980s, $70k is a flat now $270k is also a flat and it's affordable as 'land price, construction cost' all added. Isn't e land free as it's alrdy allocated for residential, industrial etc use?
4) I remembered years back when Dubai was blooming, our leaders say we can learn from Dubai. Yeah there was w/ study trips by e uni and so on. Now it crashes how? In the first place, it was a bubble ecoonomy, got $$ to earn say good things. In the first place, did we develop our country in tat manner? No?
"they" talk and sing songs ... ... -
not to say now indirectly we're questioned abt our loyalty.
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Originally posted by Lionnosy:
Hello ArseholeDon't be a sore loser.
Just because you cannot win your arguements with Atobe...
You don't need to take out your frustrations on others.
You just make yourself look a bigger fool to others.
I don't care 1 shit about your comments...
so keep on with your rag, if yo must...
.. and don't bother to wait for any further response / reply.
I ignore idiots who cannot control themselves.
ATurdie lost because he had no logic.
And we all now know you have no balls to stand up for your fellow Singaporeans.
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Yes!
Singaporeans are "less hard driving and hard striving", just like the PAP government, that's why we need to welcome more opposition into government, so that LHL can use his time to find ways to "fix" the opposition.
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MM Lee had given the order to open up the immigration policy agressively during the past few years, in those Roadshow of welcome to Singapore exhibition held in India and beijing to attract talents (so called), the marketing strategy is to give a time line, just like a kind of one time offer stuff, be a citizen of Singapore, or simply work in Singapore, if you miss the chance, our door will not be so open in near future, and it will be harder to get into singapore permit to work or stay. Therefore you see many migration came here these few years to fill up city, and they can easily get PR and citizenship status, because they brought the offer make by Singapore.
Of course in any Sale, there will be time when the sale will closed, unless you talking about those $2 shops, alway on Sale, a frequent place for Uncles and Aunties. Therefore our immigration will cease to allow to come in, and that will happen next year before the election, after that, for the next 2 to 3 years, foreigners wanted to work/stay here will find it difficult to get the permit/grant and so forth. During these period, Singapore will do the filtering, mean to say that those who are find not suitable here will be ask to leave and permit or grant cancelled. When we reach a 2millions foreigners here, we filter out 500,000 of them out, we still get the 1.5millions among us, and from here we move on hoping that these 1.5 millions decendents will be able to produce and make decent true young Singaporean breed.
In whatever policies or program or any thing in life, so to speak, it must come to an end, no different in our foreign migration policies, it will stop next years, and we all will have a more equally diversified demograhic population which is our intention to have rather than having a greying population if we do nothing now.
By and large, in order for all these to success, which our MM foresight and brilliant thinking, we need to support our govt, there is not 2 ways about it, if we let go of the current PAP govt and vote the oppositions in, we may not see any light at the end of the tunnel, so, gentleman, for the sake of our future, and for the young people like me, please have a thot for Singapore, the future Singapore, bear with what we have to go thru, i can assure you, the future will be brighter. Majulah Singapura, Majulah PAP
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Originally posted by angel7030:
MM Lee had given the order to open up the immigration policy agressively during the past few years, in those Roadshow of welcome to Singapore exhibition held in India and beijing to attract talents (so called), the marketing strategy is to give a time line, just like a kind of one time offer stuff, be a citizen of Singapore, or simply work in Singapore, if you miss the chance, our door will not be so open in near future, and it will be harder to get into singapore permit to work or stay. Therefore you see many migration came here these few years to fill up city, and they can easily get PR and citizenship status, because they brought the offer make by Singapore.
Of course in any Sale, there will be time when the sale will closed, unless you talking about those $2 shops, alway on Sale, a frequent place for Uncles and Aunties. Therefore our immigration will cease to allow to come in, and that will happen next year before the election, after that, for the next 2 to 3 years, foreigners wanted to work/stay here will find it difficult to get the permit/grant and so forth. During these period, Singapore will do the filtering, mean to say that those who are find not suitable here will be ask to leave and permit or grant cancelled. When we reach a 2millions foreigners here, we filter out 500,000 of them out, we still get the 1.5millions among us, and from here we move on hoping that these 1.5 millions decendents will be able to produce and make decent true young Singaporean breed.
In whatever policies or program or any thing in life, so to speak, it must come to an end, no different in our foreign migration policies, it will stop next years, and we all will have a more equally diversified demograhic population which is our intention to have rather than having a greying population if we do nothing now.
By and large, in order for all these to success, which our MM foresight and brilliant thinking, we need to support our govt, there is not 2 ways about it, if we let go of the current PAP govt and vote the oppositions in, we may not see any light at the end of the tunnel, so, gentleman, for the sake of our future, and for the young people like me, please have a thot for Singapore, the future Singapore, bear with what we have to go thru, i can assure you, the future will be brighter. Majulah Singapura, Majulah PAP
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Of course sporean are hardworking.
With foreigners taking away virtually all the low end jobs, what can we do? Searching and looking for jobs. Many still jobless....we are not idling, but simply dont have jobs for us.
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cos we must be cheaper, faster & better by our minister!
speechless by his speech!