Sermon on the Mount

The original Sermon on the Mount was delivered by Jesus Christ to a massive audience which included his followers and disciples. So is it not appropriate to equate the National Day Rally speech delivered by the beleaguered PM Lee Hsien Loong to an equally massive captive audience at the Institute of Technical Education's new Ang Mo Kio campus on Sunday 18 August 2013 with Jesus Christ's Sermon on the Mount? Whilst Jesus Christ discourse was on humanity and how to save the world from iniquity, our PM Lee's audience was regaled with a bombastic discourse on how to avert the PAP from sliding into political oblivion in GE 2016, which even worried the befuddled ESM Goh Chok Tong who called it "mid-life crisis".

So whatever sweeteners the gallant PM Lee offered in his rally speech could only be with the ultimate  aim of restoring public confidence in a decadent PAP Government in time for GE 2016. While there could be no demur from the captive audience, it was quite a different reaction from the discerning Singaporeans outside, especially the netizens, who viewed his discourse with trepidation and scepticism. No doubt some of his offers went down well with some affected Singaporeans like the extension of the housing grant of $20,000 to middle-income buyers of four-room flats, for example.

Discerning Singaporeans are confounded by the so-called removal of the age limit of 90 for Medishield Life. How many Singaporeans will live up to 90 like PM Lee's pompous father Lee Kuan Yew who is obscenely affluent and well looked after without Medishield Life? Is this not a political gimmick as Singaporeans likely to benefit from this unrealistic scheme are minuscule. Netizens slammed it as a madman's scheme void of commonsense.

PM Lee touched on Health, Education and Housing in his rally speech but had scrupulously avoided the intractable transport problem which the harassed commuting public would only be too eager to hear his solution. Obviously this distressing subject will not score point for the beleaguered PAP Government as PM Lee will be at his wit's end trying to assuage the wrath of frustrated commuters whose voting power is relatively decisive and was therefore astute enough to avoid it. PM Lee would have found it hard-pressed to avoid the subject of nationalisation of the transport industry which would be an answer to the transport woes experienced by commuters under the present privatised transport system. A very cogent case for nationalisation of the transport industry was circulated on this website on 20-7-2013 which was also carried by the website TR Emeritus but the inexplicable attitude of PM Lee and his Transport Minister not to take cognition of it was incomprehensible. Why the PAP Government is so adamant against nationalisation is mind-boggling.

According to the Straits Times, liberal-minded Singaporeans were also disappointed that PM Lee spoke about getting the politics right, but said nothing about political change. No concessions were made on issues liberals care about, such as the Internet and media freedom or giving more space to dissenting voices. Opposition supporters noted that every sentence uttered by PM Lee was predicated on the assumption that the PAP will remain the dominant party in Singapore. But they will be living in a fool's paradise to think that the political situation will not change to their detriment in GE 2016.