Saturday, September 28, 2013

Trust is a many-splendoured thing.

This is the title of a magnificant article by David Chan in the Straits Times on 28 September. This is no doubt for the edification of Singaporeans for the enhancement of their political discernment, and in particular to the disoriented PAP leadership under PM Lee Hsien Loong in coming to terms with their predicament in GE 2016.

With due respect to the author David Chan, his treatise has been very carefully crafted with a view to admonishing the PAP that it is heading toward a political disaster in GE 2016. Only that being an invitee of the Straits Times to write, it would not be very civilised of him to be too explicit in his admonishment. But discerning Singaporeans reading the article will be left with no doubt of its oblique reference to the PAP.

David Chan has identified three major dimensions of trust which affect how citizens think, feel and behave and which may shed light on how and why the public trusts or distrusts the Government. They are competence, integrity and benevolence. Trust in competence  is about people's confidence in the Government's ability to perform and solve problems. It involves the ability to address issues affecting quality of life and also effectiveness in managing crises. Issues of infrastructure such as public transport lagging behind population growth raise doubts relating to trust in competence.

Trust in integrity is about people's assessment of the Government's character or extent to which they think it is not corrupt and is impartial. Trust in benevolence is about people's belief in the Government's intentions and motivations. Trust in benevolence increases when people believe that the intention of policy and government action is to serve their interests and is motivated by a genuine concern for citizen well-being, as opposed to being influenced by vested private or partisan interests. It gets eroded when people think that policies are formulated by an elite which is disconnected from ground sentiments, is unable to empathise, or does not care enough for the less fortunate or ordinary folk.

Let's examine the three major dimensions of trust identified by David Chan and see how the PAP leadership under PM Lee fare in measuring up to their strict standards. PAP ministers, including the prime minister, are more concerned with their astronomical salaries running into millions of dollars from taxpayers' money than with serving the people and would this not affect the Government's ability to perform and solve problems? It is a well-known fact that the transport problem, especially the SMRT, is in a dreadful mess with frequent breakdowns and overcrowding  and would not this raise doubts relating to trust in competence? And the rational PAP Government is planning to increase the population to 6.9 million in 2030 as their clever way of solving the overcrowding.

As for trust in integrity, we know that corruption is illegal but with the prime minister and his ministers paying themselves astronomically from taxpayers' money, is this what one would describe as trust in integrity? As for trust in benevolence, Singaporeans are branded as daft by the former Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew and it is precisely that because Singaporeans are daft that they believe that the intention of policy and government action is to serve their interests and is motivated by genuine concern for citizen well-being, as opposed to being influenced by vested or partisan interests.

We leave it to the discerning Singaporeans to form their opinion whether the PAP leadership under PM Lee deserve the trust in competence, trust in integrity and trust in benevolence identified by David Chan in his magnificent article.

2 comments:

Alan Wan said...

Just look at the way GLCs are profitting from the people's sweat & hard work, how to trust father & son are making the right decisions for us ?

Is it not a joke that our taxi drivers are forced to pay for the high COEs disguised as rental payments to taxi companies even before they are able to put food on their tables for their families ? When they are no better than just hired drivers or even modern slaves depending on how you look at it, is it not that the COEs resembles a kind of income tax forced upon these taxi drivers ?

Just imagine a S$60k COE is equivalent to S$6k tax per year, which other income bracket earning that level of pay that taxi drivers averagely earn has to pay this kind of tax bracket ?

And then father & son says if their Ministers are not paid that kind of obscene salaries, they may be prone to be more corrupt when they are direct beneficiaries of the policies they make ? Are they not greedy by any standards ?

anosh said...

أفضل شركه نقل عفش بالرياض
اليكم افضل النصائح شراء اثاث مستعمل التي تقدم لكم المساعدة في علي نقل العفش بأسهل الطرق المتبعة ودون اي خسائر او تلفيات لعفشك او اجهزتك كما ان تقوم شركات نقل الاثاث بالعديد من الطرق والتنوعة والتي لها اختلاف وطابع خاص عن باقي الشركات في نقل الاثاث فهناك العديد من الشركات التي تقوم بنقل الاثاث بطرق غير صحيحه وخاطئة تضر بالاثاث وتعرضة للتجريح والخدش فأن شراء اثاث مستعمل جدةتعد من افضل الشركات بالرياض التي تقوم بنقل الاثاث بأفضل الطرق المستخدمة والصحيحة في نقل الاثاث ومن تلك الطرق اننا نقوم بتغليف الاثاث اولا بالتغليف الحراري والذي له اهمية كبيرة وهو من افضل طرق التغليف علي الاطلاق ويتم استخدامه في العديد من الاستخدامات المتنوعة والعديدة ، وكما ان لدي اثاث مستعمل
التغليف الذي يسمي التغليف بالمفرقعات الذي يتم استخدامة في تغليف الاطباق والاواني بأنواعها والزجاج واي شئ يمكن ان يكون قابل للكسر فاعتمادنا الاساسي في تأدية مهمتنا هي ان نقوم بتوصيل اثاثك من دون ان يحدث له اي تلفيات او خدوش او كسرفي نقل اثاث بالرياض كما اننا نعتمد علي اكبر السيارات في نقل العفش واحدث الرافعات التي تقوم برفع عفشك في الاماكن العالية .
افضل الخطوات المتبعة بشركة نقل اثاث بالرياض
- الخطوة الاولي التي تهتم بها محلات شراء الاثاث المستعمل بجدة عملية الفك بالرغم من انها تبدو سهلة الا انها تحتاج الي متخصصين وفريق مدرب ولة خبرة طويلة في كيفية الفك والتركيب للحفاظ علية من الخدش او الثني والحفاظ عليه بشكل تام .
شركة شراء اثاث مستعمل بالرياض

-الخطوة الثانية وهي تغليف الاثاث بشكل صحيح حتي يتم حمايتة من الاتربة والخدوش التي يتعرض لها اثناء عملية النقل وكذلك نستخدم ممتصات لاي نوع من انواع الصدمات المختلفة التي تؤدي الي تلف الاثاث بأستخدام قطع القماش مع الفلين او بلاستيك الفقاعات او النايلون لبعض من القطع
شراء الاثاث المستعمل بالرياض
-الخطوة الثالثة وهي تركيب الاثاث وهي خطوة هامة ايضا عندما يتم نقل الاثاث الي المنزل الجديد بشكل سليم نقوم بترتيب الاثاث داخل المنزل التسليمة الي عميلنا في ابهي صورة كما ان لدينا متخصصين في تركيب الاثاث دون تعرضة لاي تلفيات بأحدث ادوات الفك والتركيب فهم عمالة مدربة بتقنية عالية كما ان شركتنا لها اسعار تنافسية ليس لها مثيل عن باقي شركات نقل الاثاث بالرياض
شراء اثاث مستعمل شمال الرياض