A frog in a pot of water whereby the temperature slowly increases was once used to describe the situation Singaporeans are in. The reason being that if you increase the temperature slowly, the frog would not notice the temperature difference and jump out of the water.

It’s a good description but hardly apt. Because ultimately it kills the frog, and well, the Singapore gover-min would not have that, would they? They certainly do not want the frog to die, or jump out of the water [quit]. It would be a waste of the only natural resource this nation has.

Thus, the Singapore gover-min has perfected the art of making a spectacular amount of money out of the people, by spreading out the cost among everyone until the ‘losers’ have no incentive at all to fight back, but simply accept their losses and move on.

Take for example, the incessant fare increases by still profitable transport operators in spite of an obvious lack of improvement in service. It is clear that the transport operators reap huge profits from the hikes, even when it costs the commuters a mere 1 cent per trip.

Will the ‘losers’ – i.e. the commuters – in this case, want to spend more time and possibly money to try and fight the hikes? The answer is obvious.

Next, we look at the postage increases by SingPost. Local postage has gone up from 22 cents to 25 cents. And this will cost a 3 cents increase per letter posted locally.

Will the ‘losers’ – i.e. the people who use the postal service – want to spend more time and / or money to try and fight the hikes? The answer is again, obvious.

Finally, we look at mini$terial pay. Our mini$ter$ are the highest paid in the world and what does it cost each taxpayer? A mere 3 plates of ‘char kway teow’ a day, as it is claimed.

Will the ‘losers’ – i.e. the common citizens – want to risk their necks, and face possible loss of freedom, or run afoul of the law, to stage public protests and fight it? Again, the answer is pretty obvious.

Simply put, the Singapore gover-min perfected the art to make money out of its citizens by presenting them with nothing but a Hobson’s choice. It’s an apparently free choice that is no choice at all. You simply accept it because the other choice is so much more unacceptable. It is a choice between two undesirable options. The obvious choice is the one which wouldn’t kill you, unlike raising the temperature of the pot of water in which the frog is in.

So, a more suitable description for the plight of Singaporeans, is more of that of a rubber tree. Incessant, bit-by-bit increases is more akin to making a shallow groove in the rubber tree to tap its latex. You can continue to come back and make more shallow grooves to tap the rubber tree again and again without killing the tree. Just make sure you don’t tap too deep or it’ll kill the tree.

The best part of all is that a rubber tree doesn’t demand much. All it needs is fertilisers and water. That probably also explains why Singaporeans can take a lot of shit from the gover-min and yet get on with their lives. And if there is no water, the tree can’t blame the plantation workers, because rain is controlled by God, just as we can’t blame the Tali-PAP gover-min for bad economic conditions, because that’s the problem of external factors.

Not only are Singaporeans like rubber trees, they must also be like rubber. They must be flexible and soft so as to take a lot of stress and pressure. A Singaporean worker must be flexible enough to ‘upgrade his skills to stay employable’ and soft enough to take whatever our so-called trade unions and employers dishes out at them.

Thus, I, Darth Grievous, proudly proclaim all of us Rubber Trees, Singapore’s Only True Natural Resource.

Have a nice day, dude.