A disaster in the making: PAP’s “instant tree” mentality
March 7th, 2010 | 
Author: OPINION
After much discussion and debate on the Budget lately, only one MP dared to point out the glaring mistakes made by the PAP in the last few years and ironically, he is a PAP MP: its “instant tree” mentality.
“Crowded shopping malls, congested MRT trains and rising HDB prices – these are some of the problems caused by an ‘error of judgment’ by policymakers….The rapid intake of immigrants, coupled with breakneck growth, were both signs of Singapore’s ‘instant tree mentality,” said Mr Inderjit Singh during a recent parliamentary session.
He posed a question which we have been repeating ad nauseum on this site: the need to increase Singapore’s population at such a massive rate by one million within just five years and why infrastructure, especially public housing, has not been beefed up in advance.
In 2003, when Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced his ambitious plan to increase Singapore’s population to 6.5 million people, nobody dared to express a dissenting view.
The floodgates were opened suddenly without warning and too many foreigners were allowed to enter Singapore within too short a period of time such that it is almost impossible to integrate them right now.
As a result of its mistake, a $10-million dollar Community Integration Fund has to be spent to “integrate” the newcomers, an uphill task given the fact that immigrants tend to congregate within their own community.
According to a recent Wall Street Journal, the relentless influx of foreigners into Singapore has depressed the wages of ordinary Singaporeans, increased the cost of living, especially that of public housing, decreased labor productivity and led to an overall decline in the standards of living.
It is too late now to reverse the policy and Singaporeans are already feeling its negative impact in their everyday lives.
This oversight on the part of the PAP is nothing new – it is endemic in any political systems dominated by a single person or party with little checks and balances.
The PAP’s “instant tree” mentality leads to intellectual sclerosis, group-think and one-dimensional thinking which is potential disaster in the making since there is no way a credible alternative can emerge to challenge it right now.
Its classic modus operandi encapsulates three attributes:
1. Paternalism: an ingrained view that only it “knows best” of what is good for Singapore and only it has the “divine right” to lead the nation
2. Stubbornness: inability and unwillingness to listen to feedback from the ground and persists in doing things its own way even though it is wrong
3. Arrogance: refusal to accept responsibility for its mistakes made and covering them up with the help of the state media.
Many Singaporeans including even some PAP MPs had questioned the PAP’s “growth at all cost” policies in the past to no avail.
The key policymakers belong to a small group within the PAP and once the decision is made, e.g. to open two casinos in Singapore, nobody can change their minds.
The state media will be tasked to sell their ideas to Singaporeans and force them down their throats whether they like it or not. It is a recurring theme we see again and again.
As late as last year, the media has been parroting the PAP’s official stance that foreigners are needed in Singapore and now it has made almost a 360 degrees U-turn and focus on productivity again.
Amid the chicanery and cacophony, few Singapore realize the root cause of the problems we are facing now lies with the PAP’s “instant tree” mentality – that Singapore can only prosper under a “strong and effective” government which can make “bold and quick decisions”. We are now paying the dear price for the PAP’s “effectiveness”.
The PAP’s utter incompetence, ineptitude and impotence have become so obvious of late that even the sycophantic Singapore media is having a difficult time whitewashing them completely.
Though the PAP is the ruling party in name, the real seat of power lies in the hands of a few. Ordinary PAP MPs with no portfolios have very little say in the policy-making. They can comment, argue and debate like Inderjit Singh, but at the end of the day, they still have no power to effect changes in the policies.
Singaporeans must realize now that it is useless to vote for PAP MPs in parliament because though they may be willing to raise their concerns, they are powerless to do anything.
What we truly need is a strong opposition to deny the PAP of its traditional two-thirds majority to deprive them of the power of passing bills and legislation at its whims and fancies.
As Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Najib Razak admitted, the days of “government knows best” are gone forever. Singaporeans must reclaim the ownership of their country before it is too late. Singapore belongs to every citizen and not to any particular party, family or person.
Vote for change, vote out the PAP!
Posted in Opinion
32 Responses to “A disaster in the making: PAP’s “instant tree” mentality”
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Vote for change, vote out the PAP!
we may be seeing Inderjit Singh for long, would we?
sorry, shld be – may not be
Yes very well said.We must heed this advise denied the PAPies absolute power VOTE IN THE OPPOSITION in great numbers this is the the only way to SAVE SPORE and OURSELVES,before it is too late.
Let the Opposition into Parliament in great numbers let them train themselves for the next few years, so that they will be ready to take over the country in the next term of government.
The Papies day in power is numbered and must end let it starts now.
Perhaps 45 years ago paternalism was a good idea. But these days many people are much more aware and understanding of the things around them.
Mistakes have already been made. And we will pay dearly for them in years to come.
When would be the days when one would see several newspapers being sold in the open for the public. Newspapers that could be from different political affiliation just like in most countries with normal democracy like in Europe and for that matter, just within ASEAN, even in Cambodia one can read daily papers from different political affiliations…
That would be nice for the public to have a choice of different views being published.
Uniquely Singapore. Arrogant and ignorant pappies, and innocent Singaporeans are suffering from their follies. I reiterate, the more stupid and compliance the people are, the more they will have to pay for their government’s follies and the more expensive their government will cost the nation.
As usual the government will never admit they made a mistake! But just sit back and wait for the goodies to come your way to placate all singaporeans so that they will forget what wrongs were done and just focus on the freebies!
But with freebies comes pay and pay later down the road! I love my country but as the years go by I look for forward to my retirement and strongly believe that I will be going somewhere else to spend my retirement in less stressful environment.
It will be far too stressful to retire in singapore.As it is in time I will not recognise my own country. In stead of 4 races, we ill have to add a few more. One simply cannot package all races into a common “others” as it used to be!
Oh my singapore are you? You ae loosing your identity!
if that mp wants change, he should join the opposition.
he has proven that joining pap will NEVER result in improvement.
if he concedes that he cannot effect change within pap but chooses to remain in pap, then WE ALL KNOW HE’S IN FOR THE $$$.
to MIW,
since u are so kiasu and wish to have 84:0, why not just change your party name to Permanent Authority Party?
because you no longer take action for the people,
u should not call yourselves a People Action Party.
I hope that lightning strike on the merlion head was a warning and a sign for you.
Sorry that this feedback doesn’t quite do with this piece of write up.
May I suggest TR to consider not to use PAP logo for any write ups that are not really related to the party’s affairs.
Reason being that come election voting, people will vote with reference to the party’s logo. TR might be helping PAP to win more votes by subconciously making readers to register PAP in their mind by displaying their logo so often on the website together with the articles. TR is doing free advertisement for PAP by poping up their logo here and there and may result in more votes going to PAP. Unless this is TR’s intention, else please consider using other pictures for your articles. It doens’t seem to be so judging from TR’s persistent call of “Vote for change, vote out the PAP!”
In a democracy like Australia, the sitting govt of the day do actually negotiate with the various opposition parties on policies.
Erm… If you turn 360 degrees, you’ll just end up facing the same direction
o_O
the only consolation prize : ultimate retirement.
to MIW,
since u are so kiasu and wish to have 84:0, why not just change your party name to Permanent Authority Party?
hello……not Permanent Authority Party
but………….PERMANENT ASSHOLE PARTY
Many years ago,Mr David Saul Marshall(God bless his soul)formed a minority government,he has wanted to secure singapore as a free country and make singapore into a more egalitarian society with its people FIRST.
Lee kwan yew hijacked that vision,tarnished it and make singapore into a nepotism more than a democracy.and now we have a gov who literally shove policies and sh*t down ppl throats.
The usual defense when it comes to opposition politics has always been that the oppositions are weak and lousy and not enough to govern the country properly.As such,ppl jus simply out of fear or have the “if it ain’t broken,don’t fix it” mentality when they vote.
But post 65ers forget one fundamental historical fact.pap was once a opposition party and leeky was nothing more than a opposition leader.
Back then many ppl was willing to give him a bloody chance to run the country and the then ruling gov didn’t gerrymander around,nor did they form GRCs,nor did they purposely bankrupt leeky or his cronies with state media or whatever media tools they had back then.They(pap)were given a level playing field to compete and if they (pap)won,then the then ruling party would accept this loss graciously and try again next elections.
Not so when leeky came into power.What we saw what was a despot in the making under the guise of democracy.Political pork-barreling,gerrymandering,libel cases and now it has come to this,sgreans are treated worse off than foreigners.No citizens first but instead foreigners and gov interest first.
if the local ppl ever bothered to learn about sg history,they will have a thing or 2 to learn from their fathers and mother back then,that is to give oppositions a chance and see if they can do better and not opt for status quo.history tells us that leeky was at best a sub-par par leader (and yet the people then gave him a chance to perform)who would not hesitate to destroy any threat to him with whatever tools he had.even his profession,when compared with the esteemed Mr David Marshall was found wanting.
leeky and his cronies has been in power for too long and as a ancient saying goes,power corrupts,absolute power corrupts absolutely.
and in a more familiar quote:So this is how liberty dies… with thunderous applause….
Sgreans,think about how hard your life has been under pap,give oppositions a chance to do better,like your father and mother did for pap,vote opposition not only for change but for your children and your children’s children.
It is always easy to comment on the rights and wrongs of the others. No doubt that our government has an oversight but I dont think it is fair to simply judge by the consequences caused. We should also consider if the underlying intention of the policy was for the good of the country. Afterall, Singapore didnt become the Singapore today by sheer luck. I totally agree with the author – ” What we truly need is a strong opposition to deny the PAP of its traditional two-thirds majority to deprive them of the power of passing bills and legislation at its whims and fancies.” . Simply getting them out of power is not the solution and will not be.
This article is well said and it speaks up the opinions of many citizens. It seems the government know there is no turning back on their policies but to smooth things out as much as possible. From the way it is going, forsee the day the disintegration of the PAP will be coming. This will lead to more oppoistion parties rising up due to former MPs cannot find jobs themselves in the area of their expertise , who have no choice but to form/join opposition parties. That will be the day we see real oppositions.
Like cows, we are milked dry. After we are dry, they sent us to the slaughter house. We are but a product of their economic well being.
How many people have you garnered for change today?
I think those guys must have grown up loving Maggi Mee. Everything, they want instant.
Anyway, I guess the frank and truthful Inderjit Singh do not really mind not being an MP for long. He probably has spoken his “last words” before the death knell.
When they said that so many years ago to increase the population, I only made one statement to friends, our “infrastructure cannot take it” . Well today there are other repercussions and the most serious one are the non integration of the new immigrants.
The reason why South-East-Asia is still relatively backward is due to these dictators building Artificial Economy upon it…
We had Thaksin, Suharto, Marcos, etc… All in for it…
Oh not to forget Suharto is really LKY’s very very very angkat good friend! He was even commenting on why such a great leader of Indonesia was not given the credit he deserved???
That said alot!
Instant Tree same like instant noodle, they are always popular. What is wrong to have instant tree instead of waiting for the many years for a seed to grow into a tree?
What is the point of blaming the instant tree or instant noodle, blame it to those who want it and chase after it. For that I am afraid it will never change and the instant magic will forever works because it exactly what people wanted.
A day will come when Singapore will be as hot as the Middle East in summer because we will have so many cars on the roads owned by foreigners and Singaporeans alike. Cars increase the temperature though their exhausts. Last week as I was driving down the CTE the temperature recorded by the thermometer of my car was 37 degrees. 2 weeks ago it was 38C. I feel sad each time I drive down the CTE because it gets wider and wider and more and more trees were chopped down. This is the consequence of incresing the population by importing them because we have to build more roads and widen existing ones. Every year we see more and more trees being chopped down for widening of roads and expressways. Yesterday, I was exercising along Simpang Kiri jogging track near Canberra Link and to my horror, I noticed thousands(yes I counted thousands) of plastic bottles, styrofoam boxes of various sizes, plastic bags(with garbage in them), metal cans and even a wooden crate base floating down the canal the runs alongside the jogging track after the heavy downpour.I am not saying that foreigners caused this pollution. Singaporeans are guilty of it too. I wonder what it will be like when the population increases up to 6 million. I shudder when I think of it. The damage done to the environment is serious.
Wayang MPs and a wayang parliament. Aye or Nay?
A disaster in the making. The casino and other white elephants are all but just the catalyst…
Because he IS THE ONLY Male PAP MP I sincerely have respect for a long time!!! The other IS Dr. Lily Neo. And please DO NOT confuse her with that “Tow-the-line” Dr. Amy Khor with 11 fingers I think!!!
LONG LIVE INDERJIT FOR SINGAPOREANS!!! BRAVO MAN AND THANK YOU!!! As all the other ARE JUST Parrots that sleep in the day and wake up in the night!!!
Sorry… correction within inverted commas…
The PAP become A BANYAN tree… “SHOULD” dumb Sinkapooreans bring in with again only 2 Oppositions for another FIVE YEARS??? Will sleepless nights AND COLD SWEAT from now on!!!
When will so many Sinkapooreans ever learn never to volunteer by offering their souls to the… devil!!! Because humans AREN’T perfect as they are MOSTLY GREEDY… FOR Money AND Power!!! Perpetually IF they can!!! Like as if they don’t have to die one day!!!
The root cause of the problems are PAP’s “instant tree” with shallow-rooted trees from INDIA and CHINA.
INDIA……”India’s caste system : India has a hierarchical caste system in the society. Within Indian culture, whether in the north or the south, Hindu or Muslim, urban or village, virtually all things, people, and groups of people are ranked according to various essential qualities. If one is attuned to the theme of hierarchy in India, one can discern it everywhere. Although India is a political democracy, in daily life there is little advocacy of or adherence to notions of equality.”
CHINA…….”When the Cultural Revolution began in 1966 all forms of traditional culture, Chinese or Western, were suppressed, including to bring an end to the Four Olds. Temples and churches were vandalized by the Red Guards; Confucian morality was frowned upon; and a cult of personality surrounding Chairman Mao Zedong was promoted. “
I agree with the notion of getting a strong opposition into the parliament to deny PAP’s regime of dictatorship continues.
Without a strong opposition, who will be the one keeping those elite bastards on check?!
When they’ve won the coming GE again… the PAP would likely become A BANYAN tree… with all it’s roots sprouting down from all of its branches and into the ground below… joining up with it’s “mother” OR rather it “father” roots!!!…
THAT… WILL BE The Day When Fearful, Frightful, Morally Diminished and near Soulless Singaporeans who support PAP without question… Wakes up to their nightmares and start WORRYING FOR their children’s future… when they are all walking this land and TRIPPING ALL OVER those Pappy Banyan tree roots. In fact… When A BANYAN tree has been ALLOWED to GROW to that IMMENSE SIZE… ONLY IT GROWS OUT OF AND BACK INTO OUR LAND.. And YOU… Singaporeans… WON’T HAVE ANY WALKING SPACE LEFT TO WALK.. LET ALONE BREATH!!!…
This a A PARADOX… and I hope you understand The IMPLICATIONS I am trying my level best to relate to you of how… “ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS fallible humans ABSOLUTELY”… SO… NO man IS an exception to this human failing!!!… not lky or his pap!!!… NONE!!!
The BANYAN is a semi-PARASITE when it grows wild in the rainforest, where its many slender trunks use other trees for support. It may eventually STRANGLE A HOST a host but continue growing as a freestanding tree.
“Singapore will be left with the second tier of average people. Educationally, they would hardly measure up to the Singapore average. When they are given citizenship and the right to vote, they will use their new-found electoral power to demand equal access to social services as other Singaporeans. The difference is existing citizens would have paid for those social services over a lifetime of tax payments; the new citizens would not.”
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/opinion/breaking-views/38482-lest-we-become-strangers-in-our-own-land%E2%80%93ngiam-tong-dow