Today is the eve of Nomination Day for GE 2011. I have mixed feelings within me.
Looking back, this is the 10th anniversary of my involvement in partisan politics. However, if I look deeper to my consciousness, the seed of political activism has been planted into me 20 to 30 years back.
Reading MM Lee's comment on going back to fundamentals and not "rock the foundations" of this Nation really make me feel more righteous about my involvement in opposition politics. I have told reporters that it was PAP which has "rocked" the very foundation which this Nation was founded upon.
The TWO main pillars of our nation's Core Values are:
1) Social Justice and Equality
2) Meritocracy
The most important reason why I decided to take the plunge into opposition politics is because I realize that PAP has eroded these fundamental principles. The final push comes in GE 1997 whereby Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong made used of HDB upgrading as the carrot in pork barrel politics, threatening voters (especially Cheng San voters like me) that if we do not vote for PAP, we will not have HDB upgrading.
In this one master stroke, PAP has destroyed the sense of Social Justice and Equality as well as the Spirit of Meritocracy. Whether a HDB flat needs upgrading or not should depend on the MERITS like the age of the building, conditions of the infrastructure etc and not about who the voters vote for or anything else. I fear for my children and Singapore's future generations to live under an environment that is devoid of such basic Social Moral principles. This is why I have chosen to fight against PAP to reinstate such basic Fundamentals which we have depended on for success.
While I was still an undergraduate back in early 1990s, I was furious about Goh Chok Tong's plan of "Asset Enhancement Scheme". The Goh's Administration sold the idea of having our assets increase in value but it has not mentioned about the prices of new HDB flats would go up as well. As an undergraduate waiting to graduate, get married and start up a home, I was furious but NO ONE represented us. I have written articles about the ills of this scheme which will result in inter-generation wealth gap but all fallen on death ears.
This is why I am prepared to encourage young people in their 20s to stand for Elections. I have experienced such desperation as a youngster who could only just sit down an watch politicians selling away the future of my generation, helplessly. I believe youngsters should play a role in this parliamentary system because many policies made by the ruling party will have long term great impact on our youngsters in 10, 20 or even 30 years to come.
It was PAP who have changed the fundamentals of HDB as public housing. PAP has discarded its social obligation as the ruling party in providing cheap or even subsidized housing for Singaporeans. They have forcefully acquired our forefathers' land at dirt cheap price and they should carry the social obligation to provide cheap public housing for our future generations. Instead, they are more interested in keep growing the National Reserves by selling land at high profits for building HDB flats!
Yes, MM Lee, it is about going back to fundamentals. PAP should do a deep self reflection on what went wrong with its fundamental principles of governance. PAP has lost its socialist roots along the way and now, it has lost the political moral high ground to talk about fundamentals.
Regards
Goh Meng Seng
