I heard Ms Lily Neo was sad. Some days ago, she posted on her Facebook wall about how she felt down after not being able to help an elderly resident with an appeal to the CPF board. She had said that the regulations in place didn't give her the opportunity to help her residents.
(See: MP Lily Neo: I cant help S'poreans when there is too much red-tape surrounding CPF)
Ms Lily Neo is a popular MP, well loved and respected by the people under her constituency, widely regarded as one of the rare 'good' MPs among the whites. The points she made in her Facebook post were nothing new and have been part of the Internet "noise" for years. Since 'noise' and 'trolls' are generally ignored by all members of the PAP these days, it is a good thing the fallacies of our CPF policies are yet again highlighted by somebody who has a higher chance to win some golden listening ears from the PAP. But oh wait. Lily Neo is both a member of PAP and Parliament. Where was she when the White Paper was being endorsed?
As far as we can see, Neo Lily clearly endorsed the White Paper. Assuming Ms Neo was sober when she voted, very clearly that was the result of the Party Whip in place. This should set us thinking. Consider this, most of us will not doubt Lily Neo's sincerity to serve the people. A person like her does not maintain a good reputation for many years by patronising her people. From her Facebook revelations, it was clear that she did not think much of our CPF policies yet she was made to vote for something against her beliefs, against her .... conscience. Lily Neo was probably not the only one among the PAP ranks to fall under the whip. Perhaps this can serve as a classic example why we Singaporeans, even for those who support the PAP, should stop for a second and think carefully about the consequences of giving the PAP too many seats in parliament.
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You'll be surprised some Singaporeans are not aware that the Parliament and the President jointly make up the legislature of Singapore. As represented by the chart above, the PAP currently has 80% of the total seats in Parliament. With the Party Whip in place, the government will encounter no resistance with a minimum of 80% votes behind them every single time. This explains why every policy proposed by the government is being rolled out cleanly from the conveyor belt to affect your lives directly, whether or not it is good, bad or ugly for you. Simply put, you have no representation in Parliament, even if your MP is willing to hug and cry with you during the meet-the-people-sessions.
Consider living a life where your spouse make every single decision in your marriage, you can have a say but you must oblige by his or her final decision at the end of the day. I don't believe such a marriage set up will last very long. Consider working in an environment where you have to do as you are told every single day without room for meaningful inputs or discussion. You won't be working in such a company for long. Consider living an entire childhood without winning a single negotiation against your parents. You will run away from home before long. Even the meekest of us will fight for our beliefs, rights and privileges in our personal lives in our own little ways. So, it is unreal how Singaporeans are agreeable with such an arrangement such that the government is allowed to make every single decision which impact our lives without any available channel for us to discuss, negotiate or stop it.
This isn't about anti-pap or anti-government. The concept applies even if an opposition party takes over as the government one day. No party should be given the absolute power to do whatever they please because it will inevitably lead to self-serving policies or even corruption. (are the signs already showing?) How about voting a little wiser the next round, people?
A Singaporean Son
*The writer blogs at http://asingaporeanson.blogspot.com/