democracy & pluralism

in an email discussion with good friends after viewing Sylvia's speech in parliament on Minster's pay..alleging Minister's look away & all that..

http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/03/ministers-look-away-as-sylvia-lim-spoke-on-ministerial-salaries/

my 1st email contribution
Excellent speech by Sylvia…I always believe like attracts like, hopefully WP will attract many more like her…

my 2nd email contribution
To me there is nothing to it…when any others read or give speech we all do the same thing…in other parliaments they watch pornos or fall asleep..haha..people want to read what they want to read..they already decided…so (to me only) nothing worth bothering about useless to waste time on it :-)…that’s just my opinion…

To me, Sylvia (& her party) have depth and made very valid arguments, and PAP should listen and consider them. There are always many sides to an issue and many considerations to make. And PAP contrary to what some think, do listen and in fact have by repeated actions proven to be one of the rare dominant incumbent in anything (don’t talk about running a country just think of a small insignificant sport association that is turned into a fiefdom by people who have contributed >20years but just don’t know how to listen & walk away graciously like PAP stalwarts had done on a much bigger stage). It does not matter what PAP said in parliament or publicly, what’s more important is whether internally they are listening to valid alternative views and the value of an good alternative voice in parliament is that in fact you need good sensible people to speak up in parliament and more of them to do that and a good governing party like PAP who has been changing/evolving substantially over the years will in fact listen up.

There is nothing to what people said in public or following party lines. Ruling parties & opposition in every country do that, democrats & republicans do that everyday irrespective of what the other guy say what they believe or not believe such that people lose total faith in politicians…but if we believe in democracy & pluralism, we accept the good and the bad and in the free market place contest of ideas, the best will emerge & prevail over time, but people say truths & untruths kind & unkind things all the time and that is part of the process of democracy..

there are loads of venom hatred mean spiritedness on cyberspace today which decent people will largely ignore and accept as necessary for democracy & pluralism…an earlier episode happens with AWARE and these unfortunately are here to stay..there can be genuine movements for civic mindedness civil society decency…it does not mean to shut out the noises which you can’t and should NOT in a democracy, but it also does not mean good decent people cannot speak otherwise their own convictions and must jump onto bandwagon because it is fashionable to be anti-anything or to be nasty…and it does not mean people who speak against nastiness must disagree with (they can support) the issues spoken or ignored by those whose object is nastiness that they forgot what the issues were…

coming back to groupthink, I do not myself believe there is groupthink in arriving at decisions. Toeing party line whether in PAP or opposition or in a company doing what majority decided etc is not groupthink it is commitment to a group decision and humility to know that what an individual believe or think may not always be the best…a party that constantly renew itself that constantly innovate and objectively repeatedly perform superbly against the best economies punch above its weight in international affairs against the best in the world (Tharman chairs IMF policy advisory committee etc) cannot be having groupthink, not in touch with the ground, incompetent etc etc…what I think may be groupthink is not when a decision is reached but when a decision needs to be reversed, like education, COE, NKF, organ transplant etc etc that there maybe groupthink among most ministers & MPs until someone right on top change course (this is not good for the country in long run & more good responsible opposition in parliament who one day can take over PAP in a 2 party system is good for Singapore)..

but each issue need be viewed objectively, there is no greater groupthink than Bush regime under Cheney…to the extent of lying to invade Iraq, killed more Americans than 911 & >100k more innocent Iraqis, destroying undercover agents life in Fairgame the movie.. it is one hand covering the sky (只手遮天)..so that is one forgetable episode in an otherwise US democractic system but we need to open our eyes and not wear tinted glasses...