by Lim Tean
To paraphrase Ronald Reagan – There they go again!
We heard yesterday from People’s Action Party (PAP) Ministers and the Emeritus Senior Minister a full rehash of their tired and by now totally discredited arguments for a reserved Presidential Election. For good measure, terrorism was also thrown in as part of the PAP’s staple of fearmongering.
Despite all the political sophistry, it is not difficult to penetrate the PAP’s fog of propaganda. Fair-minded Singaporeans know that this dastardly election is all about denying one man, Dr Tan Cheng Bock, the Presidency. The entire Establishment has connived in this dishonourable venture. History will not be kind to them.
This racially divisive election has the same effect as segregating our various races into seperate and isolated settlements. How can the PAP compare it with the Ethnic Integration Policy in Public Housing designed to promote racial integration? Multiracialism and multiculturalism are all about inclusion and not exclusion, which is what the reserved election amounts to.
A Party that once rejected Bumiputra privileges and made a ” Malaysian Malaysia ” their battle cry is now reduced to feeble arguments based on race for a policy that has hung, drawn and quartered our National Identity. A policy that snubs meritocracy in the face and has no belief that the cream will always rise to the TOP, as Tiger Woods, Barack Obama and the new Irish Prime Minister, who is of Indian descent, have shown the world. It is most interesting to note that the printed version of the Straits Times today did not carry that part of Goh Chok Tong’s speech where he admitted that this reserved election made a large part of the population unhappy as it is against meritocracy.
The PAP and the Establishment want to divide Singaporeans into Chinese Singaporeans, Malay Singaporeans, Indian Singaporeans and Others when we desire to be just Singaporeans.
My fellow Singaporeans, this is a seminal moment in our Nation’s history – our crossing of the rubicon. Arraigned against us are the dark evil forces of racialism, ready to tear us apart. Standing sentinel is the moral compass of Singaporeans who reject race as a determining force in our society. The coming battle is not only for our generation but also for our children’s generation – to preserve an ideal and a way of life that we know will lead to a United people regardless of race, language or religion. We have no choice but to defeat this dark evil force and their proponents.
Our National Pledge and creed may lie in tatters when this reserved election was put in place but on the 23rd of September, each and every one of us can create an even stronger Singapore identity and creed of multiculturalism and multiracialism, by rejecting those who have sought to divide us along racial lines.
A renewal of our Pledge in even more affirmative terms will be the strongest bulwark against terrorism and other security threats, compared to all the CCTVs of the world and other security apparatus, which are no match for it.
