BK: September 22, 2013 at 11:12 pm (Quote) Almost every - TopicsExpress



          

BK: September 22, 2013 at 11:12 pm (Quote) Almost every politician is a butterfly. They undergo a metamorphosis. LKY was for all intent and purposes a socialist, he admired Lim Chin Siong and his ability to attract the masses, in fact, it was said he preferred communism to colonialism. But from the time he was in controlled after Singapore was kicked out of Malaysia, with no political competition, he preferred Machiavelli’s philosophy, better to be feared than loved. And indeed every politician has not one constituency, but at least two, the locals and the international community. He offered his left side to the local socialists, an anti-Western but pragmatic stance, and his right side he gave to the West a modernization and free enterprise polity, friendly to foreign investments. Is that a contradiction? Well, it is not if you are a politician. A gardener? That is not LKY. The imageries of a gardener is one who is tender, loves diversity, let in the bees and butterflies, making sure there is amber sunlight, and although he may sculpture for aesthetics effect, generally let the plants and vegetation bloom with patience and kindness. LKY is really an industrialist. A systematic and efficient manufacturer for exports. His intellectual nuances are acutely about control, protocol and zero wastage. Who can forget that his daughter reiterated a story whereby he asked his late wife to mend a shorts that is well worn. And yet it is not devoid of creative impulses. In respond to a BBC journalist who said: that chewing gum stuck to the pavements might be a sign that the desired new spirit of creativity has arrived. “Putting chewing gum on our subway train doors so that they don’t open, I don’t call that creativity, I call that mischief making,” LKY says. “If you can’t think because you can’t chew, try a banana”. If LKY was in opposition today. I think he would have been a totally different politician. But unique as he is, he is also a product of his times, the historical context of that period. A defense for him, although his apologists would not agree, is that whether it is Suharto, Mahathir, Marcos, are any of them less authoritarian? In a world of strongmen, would you find a libertarian? And indeed the political pulse of the people has changed. PM LHL talked about a generational change. But it is more than that, it is an experiential conversion from one of passive to active, it is an intellectual and philosophical arousal, it is not quite a tsunami, but the waves is slapping closer and harder to shore. Singapore image as a garden has a popular ring, perhaps Eden was a garden. But Singapore is not a garden. It is really a country. It is about citizens. We should not let reductive story tellers make us into nice smelling roses. We are quite matured. We do pee properly and aim right. But manners or not, we are individuals committed to Singapore. And the time for inaugural leaders are over. A new leadership is indeed called for, that reflects our hopes & aspirations.
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 04:58:20 +0000

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