Is Our Pledge an Aspiration Leading to Expiration?

I read MM's Pledge/Aspiration Tsunami but after watching the video [link], my heart skipped a beat or two and I almost had another heart attack!

As a Singaporean Cheena who's old enough to sing "God Save The Queen"; "Negara Ku" and "Majulah Singapura" as a National Anthem, I'm shocked by MM's retort to Viswa Sadasivan. It was uncalled for.

In his typical pompous way (though not as loud now) of demolishing what he finds irksome, MM gave examples of Indians (Brahmins not in Sinda and Non-Brahmin in Sinda) and Malays (getting pregnant at a young age) which I and many of my Mat, Neh and Grago friends find racially sick and nauseating. Hello, does he not know that young unmarried Singaporean Cheena girls get pregnant too? Wouldn't it be more politically correct to use young Chinese prego instead of Malay as an example?

Isn't the rich/poor divide, the elites/heartlanders divide a greater cause for concern than the divide within each race. For heavens sake, there are arseholes and good guys in each and every race! Let the Brahmins and the Indians be. And please, the history lesson of America (with crazy dates all jumbled up) is better left unheard.

Instead of tackling Viswa's pleas for government's accountability in gerrymandeering; media control; locals losing out because of foreign workers/talents influx; helping the poor and, the elites/peasants divide, MM went on with his "knuckle-duster-meet-you-at-the cul-de-sac" rhetoric to bring Viswa and everybody else "down to earth" by saying that the Pledge is an Aspiration.

If that's not enough, the guy who mocks all 55-year-old male Singaporeans for their active libido [sad link here] has to put in his $3millon worth. Extracted below is Channelnewsasia's report on Ng Eng Hen's response to NMP Viswa Sadasivan maiden speech in parliament.

"Singapore and Singaporeans cannot afford to ape any model, but must choose or create a solution which is best suited to our nation."

Dr Ng added that the government had consistently presented a "frank accounting" of the realities facing the republic, and if the PAP government was corrupt or incompetent, it would be voted out.

Mr Viswa, in reply, said he had been misunderstood on some points. "I'm not saying that the government is stuffing ballot boxes or doing things that are unconstitutional," he said.

"I was highlighting a lingering perception that I sensed on the ground that politically it's not a level playing field, and if you don't address this, there'll be growing cynicism, especially among our youth, who choose to express their displeasure through angry postings on the Net, which is not useful," he added.

Mr Viswa also clarified that when calling for a repoliticisation of Singaporeans, what he envisaged was not riots on every street corner, but simply getting more people interested in politics. He said he believed this would help Singapore going forward.

And this came from the mighty MM: "We’re here today, we have this building, we have all these facilities, and all around us is evidence of our accountability. Without being accountable, we would not have been re-elected and there would have been no Singapore of today.” [link]

Just when will they stop their chest-thumping? It eats me up because we are here today not because of Lee Kuan Yew or Ng Eng Hen alone.

We are where we are today because:

We, the citizens of Singapore
pledge ourselves as one united people,
regardless of race, language or religion,
to build a democratic society,
based on justice and equality,
so as to achieve happiness, prosperity and
progress for our nation.

And we bloody well did our part by working hard (in whatever job/vocation we did/still do) to improve this land that we call home. And yes, I treat my Mat, Neh, Grago and cheena friends as my brothers with racial and religious sensitivity as we are sensitive souls who accept the funny labels that we give each other! Instead of aspiring, my Mat, Neh, Grago and Cheena friends whom I've grown up with have been doing and living the Pledge since we were playing marbles and huntam bola! In our tiny ways, though we joke about ourselves like Kumar does [link], we've done our part in making the Singapore what it is today. Please lah, it's the people, the citizens regardless of race, language or religion that make it! Without the co-operation and hardwork of its citizens, the government can't do squat!

So please be sensitive to the sensitivities of others. It's just not nice as a Cheena (in whatever high falutin postion one may be) to draw ill examples of other races to justify one's paid contribution to society.

In 1965, Lee Kuan Yew cried when a Malaysian Malaysia could not be a reality.

In 2009, a 58-year-old Singaporean choked when he heard that a Singaporean Singapore is just an Aspiration.

To every life, a little rain must fall.

My concern is whether Aspiration will end up as Expiration?

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