The reason behind Nicholas Tang Jian Ye’s belief that the city-state is too engineered is because “(we) routinely hand over the reins to the Government to manage our society.”
Mr Tang asserted that the Government must be held to account by the people, and the people held to account by their community. If the Government doesn’t return certain responsibilities back to the people, he envisions a Singapore that will never grow.
“As a society, we need to take responsibility for ourselves and seek first to resolve our problems. Singapore today is an engineered society. Sure, the country is cleaner, safer, more ‘courteous’, but this is all an artificial facade, the result of top-down policies that force us to behave in certain ways according to mandated ‘good behaviour’, robbing us of our right and ability to take our own actions and set our own values,” he said.
In a media press release by Red Dot United’s chairperson, Michelle Lee, Mr Yang expressed that he feels the “hidden underlying issue in society is a lack of empathy for the problems faced by some of the least well-off residents of our population”, citing the manicured gardens and spotless streets built on the backs of cheap migrant labour and the banning of personal mobile devices as examples.
“This empathy must be reflected in both our policies and mindset,” he declared.
Mr Tang has a law degree from King’s College London and is a legal engineer by profession. His experiences and the challenges he faces as a young Singaporean is the driving force behind his call for empathy.
“It is an increasingly daunting and globalised world; (my) goal of entering politics is to better understand the problems faced by his peers and to help improve the lives of future generations,” he remarked.
One member of the Red Dot United has yet to be announced. Mr Tang will join his team of five in possibly contesting in Jurong GRC.