SINGAPORE: A local delegate to the Rotary International Convention held in Singapore at the end of May wrote a letter to the Straits Times Forum praising Singapore’s pragmatism.
However, others who read the letter did not 100 per cent agree with its writer.
Jack Sim Juek Wah wrote in a letter published on June 6 (Thursday) that the foreign delegates at the convention were amazed by a number of things in Singapore, including organization, efficiency, safety, cleanliness, transport infrastructure, housing policy, national reserves, and multiculturalism, to name just a few.
When asked for the secret behind Singapore’s success, Mr Sim talked about the great strides the country has taken since 1965, attributing its swift progress to having a stable government from the same political party for the past seven decades.
Mr Sim added that this shocked his listeners who proceeded to ask if Singapore is a democracy or otherwise. He said that in Singapore, leaders are judged not based on ideology but “according to the improvements in our quality of life.”
Because life has continued to improve, the governing party has continued to win elections. This is how he defined pragmatism as applied to the Singapore system.
He added that citizens are called upon to participate in nation-building, noting the presence of opposition parties “to keep the ruling party honest” and social media “letting us voice our views.”
However, when the letter was shared on Reddit, some commenters raised questions about Mr Sim’s points.
On the matter of the improved quality of life causing the governing party to keep on winning at the polls, one Reddit user asked, “So, what’s going to happen when a generation finds their lives are harder than in their parents’ generation?”
Another netizen opined, “Yes quarter billion dollars on a founder’s memorial taking up scarce land is very pragmatic.”
One commenter countered Mr Sim’s points with a quote from 2013 from then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, who said that the People’s Action Party (PAP) would “always stand for and defend” its democratic socialist ideals.
The netizen then asked what had happened to these ideals and, like other commenters, asked who the pragmatism referred to in the letter was for.
“Is this pragmatism for the rich billionaires who money launder here? Or is it pragmatism for the working class?”
The author of pragmatism in Singapore, of course, is the country’s founding Prime Minister. Mr Lee Kuan Yew once famously said:
“We are pragmatists. We don’t stick to any ideology. Does it work? Let’s try it, and if it does work, fine, let’s continue it. If it doesn’t work, toss it out, try another one. We are not enamored with any ideology.”/TISG
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