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- Dec 30, 2010
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But more importantly, the government must understand that the key issue is its failure to listen to the woes and interest of its citizens, again and again, when it came to population issues. Indeed, all that the PAP-led government has done the past two decades, willy-nilly augmenting our population, has been at best a raid on the rights and well-being of citizens.
How do you believe that a policy direction if for your good, despite all the hands-on-hearts statements by Ministers during Parliament, when this government has thus far failed to prove it has considered citizens first?
Perhaps a redundant question. It is clear that the PAP’s trust account with us is at an all time low, possibly in debt for some individuals. And the PAP has learnt, rather painfully through the storm stirred up by the White Paper, that the right to govern is not about how many ballots it received every election, but the constant demonstration through affirmative action that it has placed the people at the heart of its policies.
It did not do that. The basis of trust is not about talking your way out of an initial bad decision. It is about starting with the right position to begin with, a position that places citizens first.
If we focused on the wrong figures, such as the 6.9 million, if we are sceptical about whether it is a really a target or planning tool, if we are doubtful that we can ever upgrade our infrastructure in time for the impending population boom, if we question the effectiveness of the plans to integrate new citizens, raise productivity and improve the fertility rate, it is not because we don’t understand the White Paper or are just trying to make things difficult.
Rather, it is because we are exhausted and exasperated that the people tasked to run our country still think that governance is about communication, rather than commitment.
- http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2013/02/trust-lost-trust/
How do you believe that a policy direction if for your good, despite all the hands-on-hearts statements by Ministers during Parliament, when this government has thus far failed to prove it has considered citizens first?
Perhaps a redundant question. It is clear that the PAP’s trust account with us is at an all time low, possibly in debt for some individuals. And the PAP has learnt, rather painfully through the storm stirred up by the White Paper, that the right to govern is not about how many ballots it received every election, but the constant demonstration through affirmative action that it has placed the people at the heart of its policies.
It did not do that. The basis of trust is not about talking your way out of an initial bad decision. It is about starting with the right position to begin with, a position that places citizens first.
If we focused on the wrong figures, such as the 6.9 million, if we are sceptical about whether it is a really a target or planning tool, if we are doubtful that we can ever upgrade our infrastructure in time for the impending population boom, if we question the effectiveness of the plans to integrate new citizens, raise productivity and improve the fertility rate, it is not because we don’t understand the White Paper or are just trying to make things difficult.
Rather, it is because we are exhausted and exasperated that the people tasked to run our country still think that governance is about communication, rather than commitment.
- http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2013/02/trust-lost-trust/
