Covid-19: Why the ‘Mishandling’?   The Seed of the Mishandling Sowed Right from the Start The seed of ‘missteps’ has been sowed right from the beginning when the Ministerial Task Force (MTF) was formed. Instead of assembling a team of medical professionals better equipped to understand how a novel pathogen could infect and inflict harms…

Strong mandate or strong alternative voices? By Yuen Kin Pheng, Francis There has been recent calls by the ruling party for a strong mandate to tackle the current crisis and the challenges ahead. It is puzzling why a strong mandate is needed when a government’s performance is not directly related to the number of seats…

Where has Frugality gone? By Yuen Kin Pheng, Francis The Merdeka and Pioneer generations will dearly remember the meaning of frugality as a value we were taught to embrace. This value has guided our early leaders in building up our economy and in accumulating a healthy national reserve. Unfortunately, this important value seems to have been…

COVID-19: WEATHERING THE STORM AND BEYOND By Francis Yuen, The economic overcast because of COVID-19 crisis has most of us reeling from all economic fronts and many businesses and families are under extreme financial straits. To ease the hardship, the government has, through the main Budget, two Supplementary Budgets and an additional top-up, used billions…

Reflections on Westworld by a Singaporean by Shaun Choo With some extra time on hand due to the lockdown, I decided to catch the third season of HBO’s Westworld. I had heard that it featured locations shot here in Singapore, and I was excited to see Singapore represented in one of the most popular shows…

重新制定社会契约的时候到了 By Yuen Kin Pheng, Francis   领导的目标和使命是激励群众同心协力寻求命运共同体。私企领导的首要任务是为其公司利益相关者寻求利益最大化。但对一个国家而言，领导者身上所承载的是更深层的担当和意义。这是因为民主国家是通过公开竞选，让人民筛选最有能力的领导者为人民服务。因此对这些国家领导而言，人民的利益高于一切。而人民同时也赋予政府绝对的尊敬、信任和支持，以回报国家领袖为提升民生所付出的努力。这一往一来的民生利益和信任支持就形成了政府与人民之间的无形社会契约。建国以来，新加坡人民与执政党之间就紧系着这么一种社会契约。可是，今天这神圣的社会契约已经开始逐渐变质。 首先，近年来人民对政府的信任因为许多承诺未能实现而遭严重削弱。这些承诺包括给人民带来与瑞士相等的生活水平及为人民提供廉价的公共房屋和医疗保健。更糟糕的是与此同时，收入和财富的分配不均正在明显地扩大。 其次，新加坡领导阶层的精英主义近年来已显著抬头。现在，执政党甚至把党的利益置于国家与人民之前，并不惜一切代价确保其能继续执政。傲慢的领导阶层甚至坚信只有他们知道什么是对国家最有益的。因为他们的特殊贡献，他们认为应享有更高的经济回报。 执政党这些富有精英主义色彩的想法充分的体现在近20年的许多政策中。这些政策包括开放门户让大量的低薪外国劳工和专业人员涌入，除了压低本地整体工资，也推高了本地中层专业人员的失业率；以市场定价原则推高公共房屋的价格，造成人民公积金储蓄的流失；将带公益性质的公共服务通过市场化转换为私企盈利性的服务；推行有利于跨国企业的发展政策而忽视了本地中小型企业作为推动经济增长的另一引擎。 对于这些指责，政府总能提出论点为自己辩护。所以，我们常听政府说引进外国劳工及专业人才是因为新加坡是开放经济体，而吝于提供福利造福国民是为了防止国家跌入福利陷阱。久而久之，这些论点造成政策越来越偏激。实际上，一个好的政府，必须在各利益群体间，除了通过妥协取得平衡发展之外，同时也必须聆听各方不同但有建设性的提议甚至批评。 另外，一个好的政府不应只领导人民追求物质上的成就。近年来政府对经济成长盲目无节制的追求，已经严重影响了年轻一代的人生价值观，使他们把个人的物质生活置于首位。所以我们有必要唤醒他们，呼吁他们用同情心关心别人，以建立一个优雅和爱老敬老的温馨社会。最后，政府更不应该实行只造福某个利益群体的狭隘政策。只有所有的利益群体的福利都照顾到了，人民才会得到真幸福。 所以，现在是时候重新评估人民与政府之间自第一代领袖执政时已经存在的社会契约。在建国初的动荡时期，新加坡有幸的出现了一批有能力的领导人，虽然人民对他们的“铁腕”政策稍有微言，但他们的无私奉献确实为广大群众造就了福祉，人民因此对第一代领袖心怀无限感激及尊敬。 时至今日，适逢这场新型冠状病毒的出现，让我们发现到了国家一党专政的治理体系存在许多不足之处。而随着人民的教育水准的提高，新加坡社会也日趋成熟，所以人民有能力也有必要退后一步，重新审视国家的治理方式。所以我们要问，一党专政的治理体系是否还真的符合国家的长期利益？或许我们应该赋予人民适当的思想空间，让不同的思想体系碰撞升华，进而帮助提升国家迈向一个新的里程碑。 更何况今天的新加坡，优秀的领导不再是一党独享, 他们已经出现在其它政党中，不畏惧强权献身政治，为群众及新加坡服务。他们是为群众服务的领袖而不是被服务的领导者。这些领导人不计牺牲献身新加坡，就如他们在国民服役时所秉持的理念，把国家利益摆在个人利益之前。 新加坡值得拥有更美好的前景。 阮健平     Disclaimer: The author of the above article writes in his own capacity with his views and opinion only to himself and are in no way a representation of the Party.  

Announcement   We are pleased to inform members that our Asst Treasurer, Ms Hazel Poa, has been appointed by the CEC as Vice Chairman. CEC member Mr Wong Chow Seng has also been appointed to take over as Asst Treasurer following Hazel’s relinquishing of the post We would like to congratulate both of them in…