SM Goh: An army of sheep led by a lion is stronger than an a
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SM Goh: An army of sheep led by a lion is stronger than an army of lions led by a sheep
January 17, 2010
In a speech made yesterday to graduates of the first batch of youth leaders from a leadership programme in Marine Parade GRC, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong says it “is important to have good leaders in four sectors of the country – political, public service, business sector and the people sector.”
He quoted an ancient saying on the importance of leadership:
“(The ancient saying is) ‘an army of sheep led by a lion is stronger than an army of lions led by a sheep’. In other words, leadership is critical in battles; the leadership qualities, the courage and the ability and getting the team to follow you is crucial.”
SM Goh also said that leadership is important in generating economic growth for the country:
“If you track the performance of a country in the last 30 years, you will come to the conclusion that there is a co-relationship between the leadership of a country and economic performance of the country. The better the leadership, the better the government, more enlightened, more visionary. The more honest the government, the better the economic performance,” he added.
Singapore’s ruling party has the propensity of linking its performance to economic indicators like GDP growth – a certain percentage of their multi-million annual pay is pegged to the nation’s growth rates.
However, economic performance does not necessarily translate into a higher standard of living for its citizens. Many prominent economists including Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz has spoken out on the limitations of GDP which fails to take into consideration the welfare of the people.
Singapore is the second richest nation in Asia after Japan, but its people do not live the life befitting of a first world nation. While Japan has the lowest income gap between the rich and the poor among developed countries, Singapore has the highest.
A key reason is that we are a flock of hapless sheeps led by a small group of greedy lions for far too long. Being predators by nature, lions are perenially obsessed with keeping their stomachs full all the time and the poor sheeps will have little choice but to serve as fodder for them.
We need a people-orientated government – an army of sheep led by leaders within its flocks instead of lions from elsewhere. Only then will we be able to reclaim our rights as citizens of this country we call home.
As for SM Goh, he should not forget the fact that he is not a lion too, but a sheep like us being led around by the only real lion in Singapore.
Debunking the three fallacies inherent in SM Goh’s argument that good leadership is linked to economic performance
January 18, 2010
In a recent speech to youth leaders from a leadership programme in his Marine Parade GRC, Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said there is a relationship between a country’s leadership and how its economy performs.
“If you track the performance of a country in the last 30 years, you will come to the conclusion that there is a co-relationship between the leadership of a country and economic performance of the country…..The better the leadership, the better the government, more enlightened, more visionary. The more honest the government, the better the economic performance.” he added.
Perhaps SM Goh is referring to the performance of his political party – the PAP which has governed Singapore uninterrupted for the past fifty years since 1959.
Inherent in his arguments are three fallacies:
1. Economic performance is dependent solely on the quality of a country’s leadership.
2. The ultimate aim of a nation is to perform well economically.
3. The more honest the government, the better the economic performance.
While there is a co-relation between the quality of a country’s leadership and economic performance, it is more important to have a political system which not only sustain the economy over time, but distribute the fruits of the nation’s growth equally and fairly to all its people to enjoy.
Good leaders are found in all forms of political systems ranging from democracies, totalitarian states, dictatorships and feudal dynasties, but only good systems will be able to nurture good leaders and toss out bad ones from time to time.
The Nazi regime which ruled Germany during the Third Reich can be considered an excellent leadership by SM Goh’s definition for Germany’s economy grew the fastest between the years 1933 – 1938, propelling it to become an economic powerhouse from the ruins of World War I in less than a decade, but it was a fascist totalitarian state which brooked no dissent and did not have any mechanism in place to remove megalomaniac leaders like Hitler who soon led Germany into disaster.
Similarly, there were plenty of good leaders during 5000 years of China’s history. Emperors Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong were widely considered as the most capable emperors of the Qing dynasty and indeed, China’s economy grew by leaps and bound during their combined 120-year reign. However, the feudal system of the Qing government placed too much power and responsibility in the hands of a few and the empire soon went into decline when a series of weak emperors assumed the throne after Qianlong.
Like many other PAP leaders, SM Goh’s continued emphasis on economic performance as measured by GDP growth figures is both inappropriate and inaccurate.
Singapore’s ministers are so obsessed with GDP growth that a significant proportion of their multi-million annual wages are pegged to it which is hardly heard of in the developed world.
In Singapore’s National Pledge which is recited by every Singapore student since 7 years of age, we pledge “to build a democratic society based on justice and equality so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and progress for our people.” Nowhere was economic performance or GDP growth mentioned.
GDP is a simply a measurement of the total market value of all final goods and services produced within a country’s economic borders during a period of time.
It can be artificially increased like what the PAP is doing now, by mass importing cheap foreign labor from other countries to keep business costs down and to increase demand for goods and services, but for long can this sustain us?
Furthermore, the influx of foreign workers have depressed the wages of ordinary Singaporeans and only the employers benefit in the end, but not the common man in the streets.
The gains made by the nation’s stellar economic performance over the past decade are not distributed equally to all citizens as demonstrated by our widening income-gap between the rich and the poor, measured by the Gini coefficient, the highest among the thirty most developed countries in the world and ranked alongside that of third world countries like Kenya, Russia and Burundi.
The interpretation and use of GDP as a proxy of social welfare has received much criticism, which has come from some of the most well-known economists, including Nobel laureates (e.g. Simon Kuznets, Daniel Kahneman, Robert Solow, Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and Muhammad Yunus).
It is severely limited as an indicator for the social welfare of a nation’s people as it does not include a number of factors that determine the well-being of people, such as the value of non-market goods and services (e.g. natural resources), informal and unpaid activities and leisure.
Besides, GDP emphasises average income and in fact puts unequal emphasis on the expenditures of the wealthy rather than on similar income development of the poor.
Though Singapore has a developed economy as defined by GDP per capita, Singaporeans are not living a life befitting of their status as citizens of a first world nation.
The worldwide study conducted and released by UBS last year, titled “Price and Earnings 2009″ has some unflattering results for Singapore. (read report here)
Singapore has a GDP (PPP) per capita higher than Switzerland, but our wages are way below the Swiss. Zurich and Geneva have wage indices (gross) of 119.8 and 107.5 respectively. In contrast, Singapore has a wage index of only 31.3, comparable with Moscow (30.9), Tallinn (28.7) and Johannesburg (26.7).
Singaporeans also have low domestic purchasing power compared to other developed countries with a purchasing power of only 39.9, comparable to Kuala Lumpur (39.5), Warsaw (34.0) and Bogota (33.7).
The latest release by Ireland-based magazine “International Living” ranked Singapore as the 70th most liveable place in the world below the likes of Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia. Though Singapore scores highly in areas of healthcare, infrastructure and safety, it performs miserably in non-economic indicators like environment and freedom. (read report here)
Lastly, a honest government will not necessarily lead directly to better economic performance if its leaders lack ability, foresight and vision.
At the end of the day, it is the people who determine the overall economic performance of the nation and not the government which only plays a supervisory role to facilitate economic development and progress.
Though it is critical to have a honest government in place to lead the nation, it is more important to have a nation of “lions” and not “sheeps” to take charge of its collective destiny.
Take for example the United States which has seen a fair share of dishonest, incompetent and corrupted Presidents and lawmakers, but the nation is able to survive and prosper despite frequent changes of government because the Americans are a nation of “lions” and they can always find willing, capable and honest people to lead them.
Unfortunately, Singapore has turned into a nation of “sheeps” under fifty years of uninterrupted PAP rule which has seen its “lions” being incarcerated for long periods of time, exiled to other countries and bankrupted to live a life of poverty.
SM Goh must understand that Singapore is larger than the PAP which is merely a political party elected by the people to lead the nation.
In order for Singapore to continue growing and developing, we need to have a nation of “lions” led by themselves instead of a flock of hapless sheep following a frail, aging and blind lion which may drop dead anytime.
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hahahaha the sheeps are ready to be the lion's food at any time when the lion is hungry
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I only know Goh is lky's dog. That's all I know. Maybe lky is lion and goh is sheep?
I am a human, I am not sheep. I am also a coffeeshop pundit.
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and the lion provide them, the sheep, peanut soup only
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MAYBE LION SHOULD think of having mutton and dog meat soup.....
but then no dog will protect lion in the end and lion will be attacked by other neighbouring lions from other lands!so best lion ndun eat dog or else lion end up dead too!
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Lion should protect the sheeps...not injection needles to draw out the blood for them to drink. Sheeps very weak and kind hearted.
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nobody would be stronger.....it only would mean the weakling lion lasts a bit longer.
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Originally posted by Hitman_:
nobody would be stronger.....it only would mean the weakling lion lasts a bit longer.
Need to clone the lion. -
Originally posted by likeyou:
Lion should protect the sheeps...not injection needles to draw out the blood for them to drink. Sheeps very weak and kind hearted.
bla bla black sheep, got lots of wools for govt -
All the sheep must turn to lion and eat the old lion and his dogs.
Some dogs follow lion also suffer from delusions; think that he is also lion.
I heard that the meat of dogs is very sweet, I want to try dog meat.
I want to see whether the dog meat is sweet or bitter.
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dogs bark only, all sheeps run for life, scare until dun dare to give birth, so lion get in more foreign sheeps lor.
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ha......running dogs the best meat.
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Have you tried dog meat? The taste is sweet or bitter?
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Originally posted by likeyou:
ha......running dogs the best meat.
running dogs exercise a lot, so their meat is tender and tasty. I would like to try some sweet tender dog meat.
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who will win the battle?
1)army of cows led by lion
2)army of sheep led by lion
3)army of zebras led by lion
4)army of dolphins led by lion
5)army of crocodiles led by lion
6)army of chickens led by lion
Note:All can be eaten corcodiles tastes like chicken meat and xebra tastes like donkey meat
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me eat until sian, in taiwan, you hardly see dogs on the street, sure chop and eat up one, i see my own dogs also saliva dripping liao...
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I would really like to see a lion leading 100 sheep face off with a sheep leading 100 lions, and see which guy is willing to put their money on the lion leader.
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I heard that lky rears a lot of obedient dogs.
They run here and there, follow their master everywhere.
Master tell them to bark they bark, master tells them to bite they bite.
I think their meat must be very tasty and sweet.
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Few KING LIONS.
Groups of TIGERS.
Groups of RUNNING DOGS.
That make a formidable power.
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Originally posted by ztreyier:
I heard that lky rears a lot of obedient dogs.
They run here and there, follow their master everywhere.
Master tell them to bark they bark, master tells them to bite they bite.
I think their meat must be very tasty and sweet.
i still prefer those sheeps under the dogs, very guai guai one, should be very tasty, make satay very nice... -
it is much more than saying a lion lead army of sheeps!!tells me leaders have flaws in thoughts.
its as good as saying a sports car that is led by michael shumacher.sports car might be a domestic proton saga.
buy if da sports car is a car with a lormbarghini engine with 5000 horsepower or a rocket engine........it may be more powerful than race car driver a million times.,.,,,,,,but it will bring vast amount of fame n fortune!
however if he drives a car that has only as much power as an army of sheep then race car driver or the politician will end up in last place of all the othger drivers,gurantee card even.
as a result...the car with sheep power will be destroyed altogether and racecar driver or politician gets a job as a guy selling houses!
try figure it out...not rocket science of what goh ct or all the other politicians have in mind.
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Too many Lions spoilt the cook.
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I prefer dog meat.
Near my house a lot of dogs keep on barking, I get very agitated. Keep on bark and bark.
maybe I should go catch the dogs, kill them and see whether their meat is sweet.
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Those dogs will never do its task unless they know owners are coming.
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Originally posted by ztreyier:
I prefer dog meat.
Near my house a lot of dogs keep on barking, I get very agitated. Keep on bark and bark.
maybe I should go catch the dogs, kill them and see whether their meat is sweet.
hope you taste Rabies