by Lim Tean
I never thought I would see the day when the Prime Minister of Singapore would give as banal a speech as he gave tonight.
Our country has so many problems ranging from increasing unemployment , stagnating wages , astronomical costs of living , inadequate income for our elderly , ultra-low productivity and dismal innovation and entrepreneurship .
The PM chose not to address any of these pressing issues and instead chose to assume the mantle of Chief Doctor of the Nation and spoke about diabetes. Honestly , any doctor can advise his client on this matter. National Health education in schools would be more effective too rather than a speech by the Head of Government.
Even the section on pre-school shows no originality . It is modelled after what Barack Obama tried to achieve in his second term of Office.
And as for the Smart Nation, all Lee Hsien Loong’s speech demonstrated was how behind the curve the PAP Government has been in terms of innovation. It shows how despite the fact that Singapore is a supposed First World Nation , we are far behind many other nations in use of technology.
But we should not be surprised. PAP ministers have spent the last 30 years coming with various stratagems of cementing their hold on power instead of coming out with innovative ideas to move our Nation forward. They are still trying to persuade Singaporeans why it is necessary to have one-party rule and why only 30 % of students should go on to University education.
Don’t be fooled by the spin my fellow Singaporeans. Behind the PM’s words lie a party that is totally bereft of ideas of how to move to the next stage of our development both in terms of national as well as personal development.
Our National Day Rally is akin to the State of the Union address by the President of the United States. Imagine the American President giving a speech like what was delivered tonight. I think Americans will think that their President has absolutely no agenda to improve their lives. Dismal!
