The Sound of Silence - Is our PM competent?

This is not the first time it has happened. I mean the PM’s silence on a grave national issue. What am I talking about? The loss of investors’ millions of dollars. That’s what I am talking about.

Why is the PM so silent? Why it is the SM and not the PM who is talking?

Govt ready to ease pain
BAD times may lie ahead but the Government is ready to help, said Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong last night.

He sent out this message of hope even as he gave a realistic sense of the possible fallout from the global financial crisis.

He gave three reasons for why Singapore, as it prepares for a global downturn, can be confident of emerging from the crisis stronger than ever.

First, the Government is ready to provide help if bad times come, he said at a Marine Parade GRC Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration.

In fact, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has asked Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam to start thinking of ways to help Singaporeans, particularly lower-income groups, and companies in the Budget next year, he said.

Remember Mas Selemat’s escape? http://wherebearsroamfree.blogspot.com/search/label/Mas%20Selamat

It was Wong (kena) Kan Seng who did the talking and got the brunt of Singaporean’s criticism. And what was PM’s words when he (finally) said something? A nonchalant “It has happened, what to do?” remark!

So where is the PM, who is directly in charge of the Monetary Authority of Singapore? MAS used to be under the Finance Ministry but is now under the PM’s Office. Shouldn’t the PM rather than SM be making statements? Will PM when he finally says something again be, “it has happened, what to do?”

I find it amazing that PAP has been telling us that we need to pay top dollars to our top leaders. Yet, the leader of the leaders appears to be incapable of handling two national crises that happened in a period of less than 2 years.

What PM has shown that he is capable of, is to get the media to hyper up concerns that are mundane in nature. Most notable is the “Let’s clear up the tables” issue.

Here is an excerpt, highlighting PM’s point in his National Rally Speech. Hah, a PM talking about clearing tables when he’s supposed to be looking at national and international issues.

http://app.sprinter.gov.sg/data/pr/20080819982.htm
I think she must have been a very nice lady but the people who behaved so well to her flew the flag for Singapore. We don’t know who they are but we should thank them. We can do even better, of course. We have a Singapore Kindness Movement and it conducts surveys of social behaviours that Singaporeans consider important and not important and they showed me a list of the different things. Quite interesting – not important, or considered not important doesn’t mean really not important but considered important at least shows me where some of the problems are. So some of the things we are good at are sitting properly at the cinema. Don’t put your feet on the chair in front of you. Very difficult for tall people like me. Say thank you after being served – that people remember, But other things we are not so good. Say please is not so common. Clear tables and return food trays – we need to improve. We are trying to inculcate this habit. I don’t understand. Every national service man knows exactly what to do in his cookhouse. Maybe we need more reservists training. But at Suntec City, no reservists, no NSmen, it’s going to take time to change the mindset because the mindset is I go to the food courts to eat and not to clean tables. So I got a letter recently from somebody, a lady, an email, talking exactly about this, about how we should make Singapore a more happy place to live. And she mentioned this. She said “Actually we should feel quite embarrassed to leave our dirty plates and dirty tables for the next diner. In my Mum’s house, after eating we will clear our plates and clean the table. This is a good habit we should adopt outside the home”. Then she went on to add, “Oh yes, most importantly, no fines, no fines. Dishing out fines hurts relationships and no good image for PAP Government.” So I thank her for her good wishes. We shall try and find some ways before thinking about fines.

He got an email from a lady about clearing up tables, and he takes it up, but thousands of investors lost millions and he is silent on that?

Well, we have obviously overpaid an incompetent leader who is unable to handle national crises, so the media has to make him look good, highlighting a very mundane but pertinent domestic problem.

Putting it in another way, by the sound of (PM's) silence (on national crises), we know we have overpaid an incompetent leader to be at the top.

It has happened. What to do?