Goodbye Gracious, Goodbye Courtesy!

I was watching TOC TV showing Low Thia Kiang's speech in parliament for not supporting the Elected Presidency. When the video hit somewhere around 1:12 to 1:16, I realized why it is so difficult for Singapore to be a gracious society. If our courtesy campaigns of so many decades cannot teach people to be polite enough to listen to others (or at least behave appropriately), I think the current "gracious clearing table after you eat" campaign is another waste of time and effort.

In any function, it is common courtesy to pay attention to speaker who speaks. Even if you have no respect for the speaker, you will not embarrass yourself by having another conversation or private joke with someone sitting beside you. Or is our stately parliament where laws are passed a less serious venue? Do they have a code of conduct for proper behaviour or do they have one which I'm not aware of? In the first place, do they even switch their mobile phones to silent mode when parliament is in session?

Our msm and politicians often berate and demean the parliament of Taiwan and other countries for their members' boisterous behaviour. The magic moment of 1:12 of the parliamentary video shows we are not much different after all. In a subtle way, does the magic moment of 1:12 show bad behaviour or even contempt of our ministers towards others?

I'm not surprise if children who see such 'magic moment' in CNA will do the same. No wonder teachers today are having such a hard time getting the attetion of their students in the classrooms. What happened to the good old days when we were severely disciplined by being caned when we did not pay attention to our teacher in class.

It is a crying shame that highly paid leaders of this country behave such.

They don't even have the basic rudiments of good manners.

So sad.

feedmetothefish