I love my country, even though at times I may feel I don’t belong, even when I find some of the things the Tali-PAP do to be quite repulsive…

I have definitely always make noise about what I found repulsive, and some of my friends have definitely heard or read some of my more radical and insane comments. But whatever those insane and dumb comments were, there’s always what can realistically be achieve, and what cannot. And having that realization is what separates me from the insane and the stupid.

Thus, I wrote a post to arguing that the opposition parties are in no position now to take over and it is my considered opinion they should avoid making a fool of themselves by doing that. From the way I looked at it, a people – government gahmen relationship is not that of a girlfriend – boyfriend relationship, but one more akin to an employer – employee relationship. For e.g. when we got our asses kicked out from the Federation of Malaysia, the Tali-PAP’s situation was more like that of a junior staff discovering himself being thrust into the position of a senior and it rose up to the challenge. Was the Tali-PAP ready for that? I doubt so when I remember MM Lee shedding his tears on national TV realizing just what a mess he has gotten himself into, for fighting for a Malaysia for all Malaysians.

But in the case of our opposition parties now, it is more like that of a fresh graduate looking for a job and with nothing much to show except for his FYP (Final Year Projects) or internships. For one to argue that the opposition has nothing to show and thus shouldn’t be allowed into parliament would be equal to the argument that no fresh graduate should ever be given a job for his lack of experience, or having no clue on how he should be doing his job! The fact that both Potong Pasir and Hougang have taken that step to vote in Chiam See Tong and Low Thia Khiang respectively, would say a lot about what they think a people – gahmen relationship should be.

Anyway, let me categorically say: the current system put in place by the Tali-PAP still works, or at least has worked for the past 43 years since our nation’s forced independence from Malaysia. There is nothing seriously wrong yet with the current system for Singaporeans to demand for a change in leadership. But there are kinks in the system that should be addressed, and it is my opinion that feedback over some of the kinks are not seriously address as mentioned in my earlier post here. But do note, unlike some of the unrealistic whiners out there, I am not saying everything I talked about in that post – from town council sinking funds to GIC investments – must be addressed, but rather the gahmen should look into what can realistically be addressed and do so without any serious compromise to our nation’s financial security.

Next, other than the kinks in the system, the gahmen should start treating us with a little more respect. And I am not talking about respect as in the gahmen should cower and fear us, but rather it should understand that most Singaporeans are a reasonable and understanding lot. Treat us as a partner in nation building, since we are clearly educated enough to be rational and logical. For starters, make some serious efforts in telling us why they are doing certain things. Once these things are explained nicely, most of us – with the exception of the unreasonable, irrational and illogical whiners – will really just accept it and find our own ways to work around them. Let me take for example here the ERP (Electronic Road Pricing).

Singaporeans find it really hard to accept ERP because they are sick and tired of the gahmen telling us that the ERP is a traffic congestion measure. Just quit trying to justify ERP’s existence by telling us which other countries have also adopted it. To us, all of that is really total bullshit. While congestion control might be one aspect of ERP, it is not much talked about ERP being a fairer method at taxing all road users for usage. We may have heard some mini$ter$ talk about how road tax has been cut to make ERP as cost neutral as possible to car owners, but it is difficult for someone who takes a cab regularly, or a company with a fleet of vans to see it as cost neutral to their activities. Is our gahmen not aware the cut in road tax has done nothing to alleviate the suffering of a person taking the cab, and a delivery company which has several vehicles passing under the ERP several times daily will hardly find that bearable?

Thus, it would have been just far more acceptable to tell us that ERP will gradually replace road tax as an attrition tax for the maintenance of our roads, and that all road users – not only car owners – are expected to do their part. It gives every road user no excuse from paying ERP and in a way they would be far less unhappy looking at ERP gantries popping out everywhere – even HDB estates – in the future. On top of that, the people may not like to hear it, but make it clear it also served the purpose of driving those people who didn’t like to pay it to use public transports. In short, it would be clearly obvious to a lot of us that ERP as part of a multi-pronged plan in dealing with the transportation matter as a whole.

And to address the complaints of those who are driven to use public transports that the system itself is inefficient, it must also be shown to them that there are plans in place, for e.g. to put in more MRT lines in the next 5 – 10 years. On top of which, it is also hope that the ERP will ensure there will be a steady ridership in the new systems as otherwise, there will be not enough users to justify their construction.

Simply put, the gahmen needs to seriously brush up on its public relation skills. On the top, the big picture maybe clear to the bigwigs, but Singaporeans may not necessarily understand all of them tie in together as they look at ERP as nothing more than a daily nightmare. Having the mini$ter respond to a question here and there once in awhile, or having the news comes out in disjointed parts doesn’t really help us Singaporeans to see the big picture. Just how many of us reads the White Paper or whatever shit anyway? Too many words and it bores us since we are also busy people trying to earn a living. The gahmen should make full use of SPH, and use one issue of Sunday Times or Nanyang Zaobao, to put all these things in simple graphical form to link them altogether to make it easily understandable – just like those pictures in letters informing us why we are getting GST rebates.

I am not asking for the gahmen to please us, but from what I gather from my friends and colleagues whenever we discuss some of these issues, giving us a proper, detailed explanation is what they expected. Do not just presume we can’t grasp something on a bigger scale. That shouldn’t be too hard for the gahmen to do, right?