by Brad Bowyer
Singapore and Singaporeans are trapped in a flawed and failing system that is enriching a few at the expense of the many while dividing them, putting them in competition with each other and blaming them if they don’t get ahead in a loaded system as they slowly sink in to poverty and hardship.
This is not just a local issue, it is also a global one, with the self-serving Neo Liberal economic model that has become the story and religion of the central bankers and elites around the world at the heart of it. A system that the current People’s Action Party (PAP) has fully embraced and is endeavouring to defend even while it is being rejected and thrown off almost everywhere else.
While they owned all the methods of information this narrative could be sold to the people and while the negative effects were not widely felt that narrative was accepted with little question. Now with the advent of social media, the challenges of income inequality and a disrupted and changing economic and geopolitical model causing stress, fear and dislocation that narrative is being seen through for the flawed system it is.
This is emphasized when our Prime Minister tells us we must “steal other’s lunches”, “cannibalize ourselves” and “tighten our belts and scale back our lifestyle and dreams” all while fighting for our survival and many other negative and disempowering statements.
The leading edge of many sciences and philosophies have now shown empirically that our natural state, and incidentally the state for the most successful ecosystems, is a combination of altruism and co-operation. This is the opposite of the one our rulers wish to keep us in because when we are united and cooperative that is a threat to their plans and positions and gives us a power and ability to thrive without them that they are understandably afraid for us to have.
I fully concur with the opinions of Dr Tan Cheng Bock and Mr Lee Hsien Yang who say the PAP is no longer the one of old and has lost its way.
Where once it was focused on society, community and advancement for all it now seems far more focused on power, control and self-preservation at any cost. Partly because of the manufactured nature of the current crop of MPs and ministers who were grown in a sheltered system which created entitlement and group think and partly because they do not seem to have the ability or wisdom to adapt and lead in the rapidly changing world. While everyone else is moving in to the 4.0 economy, Singapore is stuck in the 3.0 one and going backwards.
We are now in an economically challenging time, but you must notice that, unlike the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global financial crisis where Singapore stood stronger, now we are the only ones really suffering while our ASEAN neighbours are still doing okay and in some cases thriving. With a forecast regional average growth of 3.3% and the likes of Vietnam at 6.6% we will be lucky to register 1.5% (largely due to a flood of foreign workers and NOT due to real economic value added) and we will soon fall into full recession.
We can no longer accept out of touch rulers who tell us to fight with each other while they themselves are insulated from the effects of their poor, outdated and flawed self-focused decision making and economic management. We must come together once again as a cooperative community and bring in leaders who will use 21st century thinking and leadership to implement a new and socially conscious economic model and plan and turn us around from the divided failing nation we are becoming to a united and thriving regional leading one again.
I believe Progress Singapore can provide that enlightened 21st century leadership and it can’t come a moment too soon.
What do you think?
Singapore and Singaporeans are trapped in a flawed and failing system that is enriching a few at the expense of the many while dividing them, putting them in competition with each other and blaming them if they don’t get ahead in a loaded system as they slowly sink in to poverty and hardship.
This is not just a local issue, it is also a global one, with the self-serving Neo Liberal economic model that has become the story and religion of the central bankers and elites around the world at the heart of it. A system that the current People’s Action Party (PAP) has fully embraced and is endeavouring to defend even while it is being rejected and thrown off almost everywhere else.
While they owned all the methods of information this narrative could be sold to the people and while the negative effects were not widely felt that narrative was accepted with little question. Now with the advent of social media, the challenges of income inequality and a disrupted and changing economic and geopolitical model causing stress, fear and dislocation that narrative is being seen through for the flawed system it is.
This is emphasized when our Prime Minister tells us we must “steal other’s lunches”, “cannibalize ourselves” and “tighten our belts and scale back our lifestyle and dreams” all while fighting for our survival and many other negative and disempowering statements.
The leading edge of many sciences and philosophies have now shown empirically that our natural state, and incidentally the state for the most successful ecosystems, is a combination of altruism and co-operation. This is the opposite of the one our rulers wish to keep us in because when we are united and cooperative that is a threat to their plans and positions and gives us a power and ability to thrive without them that they are understandably afraid for us to have.
I fully concur with the opinions of Dr Tan Cheng Bock and Mr Lee Hsien Yang who say the PAP is no longer the one of old and has lost its way.
Where once it was focused on society, community and advancement for all it now seems far more focused on power, control and self-preservation at any cost. Partly because of the manufactured nature of the current crop of MPs and ministers who were grown in a sheltered system which created entitlement and group think and partly because they do not seem to have the ability or wisdom to adapt and lead in the rapidly changing world. While everyone else is moving in to the 4.0 economy, Singapore is stuck in the 3.0 one and going backwards.
We are now in an economically challenging time, but you must notice that, unlike the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the 2008 global financial crisis where Singapore stood stronger, now we are the only ones really suffering while our ASEAN neighbours are still doing okay and in some cases thriving. With a forecast regional average growth of 3.3% and the likes of Vietnam at 6.6% we will be lucky to register 1.5% (largely due to a flood of foreign workers and NOT due to real economic value added) and we will soon fall into full recession.
We can no longer accept out of touch rulers who tell us to fight with each other while they themselves are insulated from the effects of their poor, outdated and flawed self-focused decision making and economic management. We must come together once again as a cooperative community and bring in leaders who will use 21st century thinking and leadership to implement a new and socially conscious economic model and plan and turn us around from the divided failing nation we are becoming to a united and thriving regional leading one again.
I believe Progress Singapore can provide that enlightened 21st century leadership and it can’t come a moment too soon.
What do you think?
This was first published on Mr Bowyer’s Facebook page and reproduced with permission. He is a member of the Progress Singapore Party.
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