Unjustifiable demands?
The General elections were just concluded last night. Even though 1.2 million of us went to vote on saturday, the outcome was quite obivious. It was a land slide victory for the PAP. I was listening to the news-presenter last night and it got me thinking. This election has been mainly about the up-grading of the lifts, building of new covered walk-ways for HDB residents and other new building projects. Its funny to think that people will only vote for you if you promise to do something for them. Promise to build new walk-ways, lifts for every floor and whatever else.
John F. Kennedy said :
Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.
Knowing this, why is it that we Singaporeans will only vote for a political party when they promise you they will do something for you? Why is it, we cannot do anything for our country and we demand that our country do so much for us. It is fair to say that the government has to look after us but we cannot hold them at ransom. Its bloody blackmail. I'm not saying that we must do something drastic for our country. We cannot change the economy or anything but I'm sure there are small things that we can do.
Take the up-grading of lifts as an example. We demand that that the government build lifts for us that stop at every floor. So, yes, the government builds these lifts for us but look what happens to them. We, who demand that the lifts be built for our convenience, can't even look after them properly. We litter in these lifts, vandalize the lifts, some even urine in the lifts. Seriously, what is wrong with all of you Singaporeans? You demand something and when they give it to you, you don't even have the decency to look after it. Its the same with the walk-ways. Litter is thrown ever where. Vandals use marker pens to scribble obscenities all over the place.
But what can we do? Singaporeans are not the most civic minded people you will ever meet in the world. I'm not saying all Singaporeans are like that. There are decent people around, just not that many. So with that, there is nothing we can do about the elections or who has won, but maybe we can try to remember that its not always what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country!
John F. Kennedy said :
Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.
Knowing this, why is it that we Singaporeans will only vote for a political party when they promise you they will do something for you? Why is it, we cannot do anything for our country and we demand that our country do so much for us. It is fair to say that the government has to look after us but we cannot hold them at ransom. Its bloody blackmail. I'm not saying that we must do something drastic for our country. We cannot change the economy or anything but I'm sure there are small things that we can do.
Take the up-grading of lifts as an example. We demand that that the government build lifts for us that stop at every floor. So, yes, the government builds these lifts for us but look what happens to them. We, who demand that the lifts be built for our convenience, can't even look after them properly. We litter in these lifts, vandalize the lifts, some even urine in the lifts. Seriously, what is wrong with all of you Singaporeans? You demand something and when they give it to you, you don't even have the decency to look after it. Its the same with the walk-ways. Litter is thrown ever where. Vandals use marker pens to scribble obscenities all over the place.
But what can we do? Singaporeans are not the most civic minded people you will ever meet in the world. I'm not saying all Singaporeans are like that. There are decent people around, just not that many. So with that, there is nothing we can do about the elections or who has won, but maybe we can try to remember that its not always what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country!
posted by Rupen at Sunday, May 07, 2006
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home