A THOUSAND CROSSINGS X

Dear Diary...
Religion and Ideology
dimanche 2 mai 2010

Hello, I back from my Sunday run :D

I believe in a Creator (:

I don't read about the Creator from a book, I just believe in the Creator. I view life as a book the Creator written. Do you remember those books where at the end of the page you have to pick a path and then flip to that page? That's what I think life is. Alright, maybe life would be a much thicker book but fundamentally, it's the same.

You see, everyday we make choices and "flip those pages". We are picking a path out of the infinite paths we could take. And every path leads you to a different ending.

I hope I'm making the right choices and flipping to the right pages so I get to a nice ending, at least don't let me end up in the tiger's mouth.

Hundreds of pages, pages, pages for words - Jason Mraz - You And I Both

I really think Singapore wouldn't be the same without MM Lee Kuan Yew. Our younger generation is politically apathetic? Maybe. But I think that scope can be wider, to include Singaporeans, most Singaporeans, almost all.

Well, that's not the point you see. Anyway, ask any person, someone the age of your grandparents, if they know who the Prime Minister is. There's a high change he or she is gonna reply "Lee Kuan Yew".

Ever since he stepped down from the position of Prime Minister, he never really left the political scene. He's perpetually, there. He's always there. Making sure things are in order, and things operate smoothly. He's magnificent, he's my idol, really.

Why is he not leaving the political scene? Well maybe he, and even I think the younger generation of leaders are not ready to take over and put on his shoes. MM Lee has left them shoes that are too big to fill, in my opinion.

I don't think he made many, or even any mistakes during his tour of duty. Well, any mistake can be forgiven or forgotten, or overlooked, or not worth looking when his achievements are far from ordinary. He transformed a sleepy fishing village to a bustling metropolitan city. Sure, it's cliche, but so what? It's true.

How about now. We see the government getting into trouble on a few occasions. Two years ago Mas Selemat, a JI detainee escaped from a high-security facility. Last year, Temasek holdings revealed a $39 billion loss. (Temasek Holdings is a sovereign wealth fund that owns and manages Singapore's direct investments). And last year as well, GIC reported losses of about $45-50 billion.

What would happen when MM Lee is no longer around?

The West often criticise Singapore as authoritarian, some call us barbaric and backward because we are not democratic and do not advocate freedom of expression. (In 1994, Australia called Singapore barbaric because we gave Michael Fay four strokes of the cane for vandalism.)

Sure, so beating people up on streets, waging wars, car jacking, vandalising public buildings with unsightly graffiti (as an amateur pencil artist and digital artist, I know what artistic graffiti is) is civilised behaviour? Convince me.

I don't see much of that behaviour in Singapore. But I see a lot of that in the West. So tell me, who are the barbaric ones?

Singapore, authoritarian? So what if we are. Maybe we are, and I'm proud of it. If we're an authoritarian country, I believe we're the only authoritarian country which has achieved such a high degree of success that is simply off the charts.

What's wrong with the Asian way of democracy? At least we don't suffer from sleepless nights, we have peaceful neighbourhoods and I get to go to school without having to worry about being kidnapped on the way there or back (although the bus is really cramped in the morning :/).

Au Revoir

yongliang

sorry for the poor vocabulary. But here's my excuse:

Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don't know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use. - Ernest Hemingway

he closed his diary at {17:50}