Some believe themselves to be at the unreachable center of the circle. The truth is, everyone treads towards the extremes, never venturing too far from the circumference.
Balance. Moderation. Cohesion. Integration.
It’s good to be balanced these days in a world of militant fundamentalists and extremist liberals who pose a worse threat to the world than melting icebergs.
Just look at the demons that have stirred trouble over the 377A issue, threatening to divide our society. Militant right-wing conservative Christians, fundamentalist gay activists. (Or is it the other way round? Does it matter?)
Repeal 377A and Singapore will degenerate to a state where gay parades are allowed and even gay marriages may be legalized. We reserve the right to send you to jail. But we generally won’t disturb you. It’s not like we are into having a religious state, after all.
We should all be glad to have wise leaders who are wonderful people who do not believe in extremes. They balance authoritarianism with democracy. They balance liberalization with regression. They respect the liberals and the conservatives but, of course, not the self-radicalized who need to be counseled by the ISD.
377A. ISA.
A+ laws. Sacred, as defined by the ruling Elite.
Yesterday, I read a Sumiko Tan article. She was apparently glad that the OB markers have shifted. She wouldn’t have dared to write an article about gays in the past. Thank the Good Gahmen that she can now do so.
Actually Tan may not realize that her article isn’t really an article about what she called the gay debate. (So, even debates have a sexual orientation). It’s an article about how important the “moderate” stand is.
Sumiko Tan and ST journalists are not alone.
A non-MIW politician also said something, with no reference to any particular issue, about being a watchdog instead of being a mad dog.
Great.
Let’s keep within OB markers all the time and let the Gahmen decide whether to shift the markers or not.
We are free insofar as we are allowed to be free. Let’s rejoice.
Oppositional politics is about letting the PAP remain in power while you bark every now and then to ensure that . . . the PAP generally maintains its hegemony.
We must be balanced, rational people. No room for impassioned activism. That’s too emotional and undesirable. The only good interest group is called the Nation, as the term is defined by those who have the power to define.
An injunction to tread the middle ground. Get out of the middle ground and you may be knocked down by a vehicle speeding in order to pass the ERP gantry before the exorbitant charges kick in. Be careful.
If you are not a watchdog, you are a mad dog. (Or you are not a dog at all.)
Resist only as far as what you are resisting allows you to. Rabies is dangerous.
Some believe themselves to be at the unreachable center of the circle. The truth is, everyone treads towards the extremes, never venturing too far from the circumference.
The circumference has no center.
- Bimbotic Fluff about Circles
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mollymeek- November 6th, 2007
- Kind PAP helps Opposition Wards Upgrade
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- mollymeek
- November 6th, 2007
It is wise to have an image of being cooperative and helpful. Residents in Singapore's opposition districts, Hougang and Potong Pasir, can now rejoice. There's going to be upgrading because the PAP and theterriblenot-so-bad opposition MPs are working together to make the opposition districts barrier-free. (They are "not-so-bad" because they are still inferior to the great PAP politicians, but they are much more acceptable than those mad dogs who only know how to protest and protest.)
No, your rheumatic legs still have to find their way up the stairs until everyone else in Singapore has got lifts. But your areas will go barrier free! So you can wheel yourself up to a HDB block - and camp at the void deck if the lift does not take you to the desired floor.
Nowadays, PAP politicians are getting kinder and kinder. (They do not even want to actively enforce 377A because they are such nice people.)
All the pre-election rivalry and post-election spite have dissipated. Before the 2006 elections, a particular Mr. Sitoh of the PAP demonstrated his generosity to Potong Pasir residents by installing solar-powered lights along a path leading to the MRT station. Thepoorfund-deficient Mr. Chiam See Tong could do not such thing for the residents. But Mr. Sitoh's bid to woo the residents failed and Mr. Chiam won.
So when the costly solar-powered lights were vandalized and required repairs, it was no longer Mr. Sitoh's job to repair the lights.
But what a kind person he is! Together with Mr. Eric Low, he "made the first move in approaching the [two opposition] MPs, who run the town councils" (Straits Times, 6 November) to make the opposition districts barrier-free.
As the good ST reports, "[t]his tie-up is a break from the past, when Mr Sitoh, for example, had avoided the town council by leasing state land from the Government to build solar lamps and a playground in Potong Pasir."
The good ST also notes: "National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan told The Straits Times last night the teaming up was a Government decision, prompted by the tight deadline to make Singapore estates barrier-free by 2011." (Oh, but I'm sure all the actions taken so far were done out of a good heart rather than out of a need to meet deadlines.)
But just to clarify: "Mr Mah stressed that this project is unlike the Lift Upgrading Project (LUP), which all constituencies will get, but Hougang and Potong Pasir are at the end of the queue as they are opposition territory." (Straits Times) In other words, if you vote for the wrong party, you don't get lifts. But your estate will be barrier-free. (As Molly suggested, now it wouldn't be a problem for you to get to the void deck. So you may want to camp there till the lifts arrive in 2014 - or later. Molly will not be legally responsible for your actions though.)
It is also important to note that "[u]nder the LUP, almost all HDB blocks will have lifts that stop on every floor by 2014." (Straits Times) That's right. "Almost all." In other words, not all estates will have lift upgrading. If the ST is technically accurate (it ought to be; it's the most reliable paper in the universe), those at the end of the LUP queue will have to wait . . . maybe wait till even Molly gets to benefit from the Compulsory Annuity Scheme (or whatever fancy name it now has).
I guess it depends on the sensibility of Hougang and Potong Pasir residents in 2011. Insensible voters are de facto second-class citizens, imho (in Molly's humble opinion).
Or perhaps the residents may get lucky if the gahmen decides that it sounds nice to be able to proclaim: "Now 100% of public housing have lifts that stop at every floor." (Except that the rest of the world would be wondering: "You mean, they didn't use to have that?!
