shanmugan: We are actually a very paranoid place. We are extremely paranoid about survival. We think of ourselves as a small place that has to constantly run very hard just to stay in the same place. So we never take these surveys and say we have arrived. We always worry about who will take away our lunch.

aiyoh, don’t want lah. i don’t want to live under a paranoid govt.

where got forever crisis mode wan?

i read the interview. without a doubt, he is saying we are not a country. as per the standard manifested throughout the pdf, quotes will be in italics. but the following passage is not. it expresses agreement with the author of ‘the myth of rational voter’, bryan caplan, the writer referred to below.

“This is where most people make a mistake. I have tried to explain that we are different. We are a city. We are not a country. He is the first writer I have seen who has said that.”

If we are a nation but not a country, so a fiction of a nation called Singapore is just an empty self-loathing song of aspiration of some highfalutin nonsense of hypocritical loyalty??

Is there NOT something radically WRONG with our very strange national pysche paraded on the world stage??

Quote: “Nair did not say those words, he quoted 3 example given by an UK writer…”

@ janetnt on Tue, 3rd Nov 2009 1:22 am:

Quote: “…how do you say Nair has to agree with all 3 reason when it is a MCQ?”

WTF are you talking about? Who the f*** is NAIR? What has he to do with Shanmugam’s idiotic Q&A session?
Have you got Gopalan Nair on that tiny thing you call a brain?

SHAN THE SHAM dun know the difference between a city-state and a country and you dun know your Shan from your Nair. You were made for each other.

This is not news. It’ll be REALLY VERY BIG NEWS if TR agrees with any part of what they said. Even a teeny bitsy part, the sun will rise in the west.

TR policy now is, every single thing also must disagree, fullstop. Disagree for disagree sake. Very long time ago, sometimes still can see 2 balanced sides. What a waste.

We might as well elected among ourselves a village pengulus ( head) to provide token, symbolic leadership -T IS CHEAPER, FASTER AND BETTER, wouldn’t that be the case?

This is reality, not stirring feelings that need education to anyone.

btw the City VS Country writing is also quoted in another TR article “Minding the gap between THE PINK & THE BLUE” which offer a clearer picture of that argument, be it right or wrong. This current article just want to stir up feelings without real educating or base. I became and supporter of TR around the time of the AWARE sage but is sad to see that they are turing worse.

Good one!