Sunday, May 11, 2008

A response to Catherine Lim's fears of disconnection between the government and the people.

Novellist Catherine Lim has blogged about the ramifications of Mas Selamat's escape and her opinion that there's an "increasing disconnect between the Government and the people". Link: http://catherinelim.sg/2008/04/27/more-comments-on-the-mas-selamat-scandal (accessed 11 May 2008)


I disagree with her view that:

The disconnect is due mainly to the PAP government’s failure, or refusal, to understand the importance of the affective component in a government-people relationship. Indeed anything outside their sternly pragmatic, rationalist, functionalist framework is viewed as just so much unnecessary emotionalism or ideology.


It is precisely because people are emotional that the government has to be "pragmatic, rationalist and functionalist". Strong emotions hinders people from making good and considered decisions.

The correct response is not a knee jerk response of sacking the chief of home affairs just because a political prisoner escapes or the public demands it. The correct response is to make long term, institutional changes - to vet the security procedures, to put in place monitoring systems and the like.

It isn't the time for scapegoat(s).

Ms Catherine Lim's agenda is to say that the people's feelings have been neglected. I say that the people's feelings have nothing to do with the crisis. A man suspected of a terrorist plot escaped. So the government's correct response is to 1) find the guy and 2) make sure it doesn't happen again.

We're one goal down and you want the government to take a pow-wow and sayang-sayang us a bit more? fuck that. 

This is Singapore.

Deal with the immediate problem first then let's talk sentiments.

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