Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Not Prepared To Concede Non-Success In Nation-Building Efforts

Sir, I think we are all idealists in this House. We all believe in this great social enterprise that we call Singapore. We have to, otherwise we would not have sacrificed our time to be here, we would not have heeded the call of duty and served... If we have reached the stage where money is necessary to draw able Singaporeans into public office, then I think we might as well pack up now, because we would have failed, because Singaporeans obviously do not see Singapore as a nation worth fighting and sacrificing for. Sir, I do not believe that to be the case. To believe otherwise, is to admit failure in our nation-building efforts. I am not prepared to do so. And I hope that the Government is not prepared to do so either, and will show that in future revisions. Thank you, Sir. ~NMP Siew on civil service salary revisions, full text here.

I mentioned a few days ago about the 'admirable sentiment' I see daily around the workplace. On Monday, NMP Siew spoke to the House, with optimism, rather than with pessimism and end-of-the-world scenarios. The Singapore Story has long being built on faith and idealism (cue your favourite national building story and NE song), hopefully it will continue for generations to come...

PS. My favourite blog is now the YP blog. It's incredibly interesting! I used to think that I was quite good at detecting satire. After reading the second paragraph of this article, I really don't know if I'm reading satire or not! It's quite a strange and disturbing feeling... The last paragraph is a real gem though! :)

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