Politics is actually quite a key ingredient to retirement.
It's not talked about much. I wonder why...
For me, I believe that people, humans, need to be... redirected.
People cannot have unbridled freedom.
Which is why Governments need to put in place policies to "encourage" the population to do certain things.
However, we also need a smart and educated population to understand how politics works and vote wisely.
The problem about discussing politics is that people tend to be "yes or no". You are either for the government or against the government.
If you support the government, you are known as a government dog.
Just look at the comments section of multiple news outlets. You won't see good debate. It's just name calling and pushing blame around.
What I find problematic about Singapore politics is that there is not enough discussion about it.
Since the olden days, people didn't like to talk about politics. Cos... they feared retribution. But discussion of politics... healthy discussion, is important for the people to get educated about politics and understand how it works.
For me, I see politics from a 3rd party point of view. I don't think, oh I like this party, or I don't like this party. I prefer to look at it from a holistic perspective. What is the ideal state which will benefit Singapore and it's citizens.
Politics is a game. There's a lot of mind manipulation and game theory and all that stuff involved. It's not as simple as vote for the one you like.
From a politician's point of view. The game is simple. Get into power.
You can/must say anything to convince people to vote you in. If you have the best intentions, you cannot do anything about it if no one votes you in. You can be super smart and have good intentions, morally upright. But if you don't say what the electorate wants to hear, they won't vote you in.
If you aren't voted in, you have no power and even with the best intentions, you can't do anything.
Remember that a politicians job is to get voted in, and to stay in.
After they are voted into power, the people tend to forget and ignore what they do for the next few years.
So they just cruise along. This is part of the game.
In Singapore, as a citizen, there are a few things to think about.
First, I think about Singapore as a country. And I think about me as a citizen.
So, somethings are good for Singapore as a country, but might not be important for citizens.
Somethings are important for citizens, but might not be important for the country.
BUT in the long term, what's important for the country will be important for the citizens.
What's important for the citizens will be important for the country.
For example, national service.
As a citizen, I personally don't like it. It's not fun. But yet, it is important for the country.
I wrote about that here. The price of peace.
CPF is important for the citizens, but as a country it's not really important. Until a lot of old folks cannot fund their retirement then there may be social issues.
It is my belief that CPF helps many citizens plan for their housing and retirement. It is "something", which is better than nothing. Otherwise, without CPF, it would be challenging for many young couples to fund their first homes and for many elderly to partially fund their retirement.
So there are things which aren't really important for someone living in SG in the short term.
For example, the issue of the race requirement for President.
As a citizen, it doesn't significantly affect my life. I mean. I have enough money to eat, shelter, live, etc.
So as a citizen, it's not important in the short term.
BUT, this could pose a very big issue for SG in the long term.
The ability for the government to change the rules of the game. That's an insane power. And very dangerous for any country. Potentially, they can do anything they want and this also means they can keep themselves in power by restricting the rules. It appears that there is a choice, when actually there is no choice.
Or the POFMAS law.
This is also potentially dangerous in the long run. But for me, a normal citizen, I'm barely affected. I can just go about living my own life. I mean, I'm not going to say anything radical about the Government. I just want to live my life quietly.
The problem behind this law is... the government can potentially dictate what is "real", but who can fact check them?
This was the case in ancient Greece, Galileo said the Earth went around the Sun, the authorities didn't like that idea and executed him for it for heresy. Doesn't matter if it's true or not, cos no one knows what the truth is, cos the government controls the "truth".
And potentially this law could be abused.
(Edit : Galileo wasn't executed as pointed out by Sinkie in the comments. Galileo was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1633.)
And yet, I understand that there is a lot of fake news going around, and many many people are just forwarding rubbish and fake stuff to each other, especially the older folk.
So fake news is a huge problem as well.
Same problem as the above... fake news ends up being the "real" news cos it's forwarded and many people don't fact check it.
It's a die-die situation.
HOWEVER... I also can't say the current Government hasn't done a "good enough job" in managing Singapore. Come on... there is no such thing as perfect politics. So the best we can have is to compare relatively against other countries.
Singapore is a power house in the SEA region.
Many Singaporeans have enough to eat, a place to sleep, sufficiently educated, etc.
It's enough such that it's life goes on for most people. We have a strong passport, strong enough currency which allows the citizens to travel.
If you are Malaysian and you earn ringgit, how long do you have to earn before you can travel to Europe or US or Japan? If you are from Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia etc... same.
So I have to say that as a country, our progress is/has been great.
I've said before, you can't take all the best parts of every county and stitch them into one perfect country. It doesn't work that way. Each country will have good parts and bad parts.
Singapore has been raised to the level of developed countries such as Japan, Australia, US, many Europe countries in many aspects.
Healthcare is good, citizen wealth is good enough, housing, education, etc.
Look, all countries, even the developed countries all have problems, there is no perfect country.
But for these countries, the general well-being of the citizens has more or less been settled.
But that doesn't mean the Government should have a free pass to do anything they want.
That's dangerous for the country in the long run.
Personally, I find the state of politics in Singapore abysmal. And the electorate as a whole, naive, or having a lack of understanding of how politics works.
The Government has somewhat peddled the fear that the opposition could suddenly come into power when they are not ready. Yes there is the possibility of a freak election. Rare but not impossible. But looking at the current state of politics in Singapore, it's highly unlikely.
The opposition has to STRUGGLE to win GRCs, STRUGGLE to win SMCs.
So for me, I feel that Singaporeans should be less fearful of voting for an opposition party.
EVEN IF the opposition doesn't win, it provides a very strong signal to the current Government to keep them on their toes.
Example : In 2011, PAP got 60.4% popular vote. The lowest since independence. What followed in the next few years were many favourable policies for Singaporeans. Pioneer Generation package, more HDBs being built, etc.
Then there's also the problem of dysfunctional politics. IF Singapore ends up having dysfunctional politics like America or Malaysia, then Singapore is probably finished. As a small city state, we cannot afford to have such politics. So there's also the risk of that.
And yet... there's the risk of having a political party which is too powerful such that they could potentially abuse the power.
Which results in the need of a Goldilocks situation. Where there is sufficient opposition in the Government, to provide a check and balance, and yet not so much such that it causes dysfunctional politics.
And of course that's hardly possible with the current opposition party. The opposition party needs to be given the opportunity to grow. Which unfortunately, the current government isn't making it easier for them to grow.
But yet, it's not in the interest of the current Government to allow the opposition party to grow. Remember what I said above, a politicians job is to get voted in and remain in power.
A stronger opposition is better for Singapore, but not good for the politician or the party.
This is like your boss asking you to train someone to take over your job, so that you can keep yourself on your toes. So confirm you won't want to train the other person well.
For me, I think this is a sad and tricky situation.
Singapore needs a better political environment, more critical thinking electorate, better debate and discussion about politics.
Needs a stronger opposition party.
And yet if the opposition grows too much and politics becomes dysfunctional, then Singapore as a country, would be in danger as well.
I feel that the ideal situation would be for the opposition to take up maybe 25% of the parliamentary seats, to provide a check on the existing Government.
So if we go back to, what is good for the country may not be good for the individual...
It's good for Singapore to have a stronger opposition.
But as a politician, you probably wouldn't want a stronger opposition.
But yet in the long run, it's probably best for the country, any country, to have a stronger opposition.
It's similar to having free or low cost healthcare for everyone, is good for the country.
But as a rich person, you wouldn't want free healthcare for everyone cos the rich are usually taxed higher.
What's good for the population, or the country, might not be good for certain groups within the population.
Everyone has their own agenda.
Another problem is that Singapore is becoming more and more of (or has already become) a nanny state.
Cos Singaporeans everything also blame the Gov, so in response, it's in the Gov interest to nanny the people.
And this mentality keeps feeding itself.
Singaporeans blame the Gov, so the Gov reacts and imposes some new law or policy.
Then the Singaporeans learn that the Gov is meant to nanny us, so they continue to expect the nanny-ing.
So the Gov continues to nanny the population.
On the flip side, if the Gov doesn't feed the expectations, then the citizens won't expect the Gov to nanny the people and it grows the other way. People stop expecting the Gov to nanny them. But this would also mean that more people need to take more responsibility of their own lives.
As someone who is living in privilege, it actually makes more sense for me to keep the status quo. Many things don't affect me.
From an academic point of view, I appreciate the right and ability of the population to stage protests, and freedom of speech and many other so called "Western Freedoms". But once it affects my life and my convenience, I don't like it.
Like in France, they have strikes. As someone who thinks about these things, I appreciate the idea that the people stand up for their rights. But once it affects me due to disrupted train service, then, I don't really enjoy the idea of strikes and protests. Cos the agenda of the strikes doesn't impact me, whereas the disrupted train services affect me directly.
So this also is the case for many situations in Singapore and the political situation.
In the short run, many of these issues don't affect me. In fact, somethings may even affect me negatively, example, potentially higher tax rates.
When I return to SG, I expect life to continue as per normal.
However, I do have concerns about the long term situation in SG.
Problems don't arise overnight. They grow slowly. And it's never a problem until it is a problem. We won't notice it til it arrives. And when that happens, it's potentially already too late.
And to me, that is scary for the long term survival of Singapore.
So what I'd hope for the politics of Singapore, is for it to mature and grow.
For the Government to be responsible and held accountable for their successes AND failures.
For the Government not to have policies which exclude opposition constituents. That's just dirty politics.
For the opposition to be given the opportunity to grow and develop talent.
For the electorate to grow and learn and discuss and talk about politics. Proper discussion and not just name calling or party politics.
For the people to be more mature and think of the big picture, it's not about party politics. Even if one supports the Gov, doesn't mean they blindly support the Gov, or if one doesn't support the Gov, doesn't mean every damn thing also blame the Gov. The Gov is not always right, and not always wrong, similarly, the opposition is not always right and not always wrong. Doesn't mean you vote for the opposition means things will be better.
I hope that Singaporeans will be able to, and willing to signal to the Government that Singaporeans deserve better, that the Government should do better, and not have politicians patting themselves on each others back congratulating each other on jobs well done.
Now, of course, I don't see this happening. The electorate doesn't care, doesn't bother.
As a population, I feel Singaporeans are like sheep. As long as there is food and drink and shelter, most people aren't really bothered.
If the shepherd takes some wool, they are ok with that. They just complain a bit.
The only problem is, maybe in future, the shepherd may not want just only wool.
Disclaimer: People may read this post or my other posts as thinking that I'm not happy with the current Government. I'd like to say that for me, the Government has done really well in bringing Singapore to it's current level on the global stage. And that the environment in SG is actually very beneficial for me to thrive in. If I look at it from a personal level, I cannot complain.
However, if I look at it from an academic level, or as a country, then I would say that I am concerned about the future of Singapore. Concerned. Not saying that things confirm will be bad, things may end up fine for many years to come, or things may not.
I for one, do not think that the current opposition will be able to do a better job. However, I do hope that there will be more opposition representation so that there will be more accountability and so that the Government cannot easily pass dangerous laws which might then threaten the survival of Singapore.
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