Singaporeans! Does it matter how old we are? Does it matter how much money we have? Does it matter what political views we hold? No. What matters is that we are Singaporeans and that we have ideas and that these ideas get to see the light of day.
An idea that is exposed to criticism, an idea that is filtered through different perspectives, an idea that is bounced around and able to make connections.
The CPF is a collection of ideas. This event here today aims to stimulate a discussion on those ideas and Reform Party hopes it will start a genuine debate.
Debate matters and that is why Reform Party is pleased to be here exchanging ideas .
Does it matter if we disagree on how CPF should work? Does it matter if our ideas are not the same? No. In fact the opposite is true. You can’t have a debate if everyone has the same opinion.
In point of fact, Reform Party doesn’t agree with some of the ideas put forward by the organizers of this event. We don’t, for example, want to see CPF tagged to Temasek’s returns. We believe that is a bad idea. We would prefer to see CPF completely revamped.
But that is not important. Although we may disagree on the details we all share the same misgiving. We all suspect that CPF gives Singaporeans a rotten deal. That is why Roy writes the “heart truths” because he grasps the heart of what matters, which is that Singaporeans are being shortchanged.
There is now a general lack of trust between the people of Singapore and the government we elected to manage our wealth. And make no mistake! It is OUR wealth!
The trust has been broken because the goal posts were moved when the minimum sum was raised.
The trust has also gone because the original promise for CPF has been broken.
But the key issue in the loss of trust, is that this government refuses to provide its people with transparency.
Why is transparency important? Because CPF is one idea but Democracy is a bigger idea and Democracy simply doesn’t function without government transparency.
Government transparency enables YOU, the Singaporean taxpayer, to hold your elected government accountable for how they spend YOUR money at all levels.
It is a distraction to think that we need transparency from Temasek or GIC or CPF. We need transparency from our government.
Transparency means making the financial information publicly available. It needs to be online, easy to use, readily available and in an understandable format.
Freedom of information acts, a free media, published government audits and the internet are some of the best ways to demonstrate transparency in a modern democracy. These demands for transparency are reasonable and normal in most of the modern world.
How do you strangle transparency? Killing the chickens to scare the monkeys is one successful way. People become afraid or too dependent on the government to speak out. They censor their own speech. They become aware of what we call the Out of Bound markers. Nothing kills democracy as effectively as defamation suits and a climate of fear.
Singapore not only has little government transparency but the government goes to great lengths to keep its people in the dark. What are they afraid of? If they have nothing to hide then let them shine a light on the figures.
As it is ,Singaporeans do not have the ability to hold their government accountable. Singapore is NOT a democracy.
Brave young activists like Han Hui Hui and Roy have grabbed that breakdown in trust and turn it into a good thing, a demand for transparency. The government should see this as an opportunity not a threat. It is an opportunity to restore trust.
Meanwhile The activists have done all of us a favour.
They have done Singapore a favour.
They have done democracy a favour.
Finally, even though Reform Party may have its own ideas , even though we may be a political organisation not civil society, we are still standing here today proud to be demonstrating solidarity with Roy and Hui Hui.
We thank the organisers once again for inviting us. It has been an honour and a pleasure. We hope there may be many more occasions to show solidarity in the call for democracy for the benefit of all Singaporeans.
Majulah Singapura!
Kenneth Jeyaretnam
*Speech delivered at Hong Lim Park, June 7th.
Source: http://thereformparty.net/about/press-releases/reform-party-speech-trust...