9Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Big Girls Don't Cry - Fergie

To the unreasonable girl,
who is ever so resilient.


Disclaimer: This is a politically-inclined essay and these are the views of my own personal opinions. Please do not attempt to read it if you have any vile objections to the content of my writing as I don’t want to draw any flak. Comments are welcomed though. Thank you.

Have you ever thought of freedom? What does it mean to be a "free" Singaporean and living in this modern and so-called democratic cosmopolitan city, while at the same time, many other nations mock our citizens as "coward little twits" and being unable to stand up against a nanny-driven state government.

Why do we have to follow countless rules and regulations while living the Singapore dream? Is it really better for us or perhaps detrimental to the progress and evolution of our society? Just to let you know, I’m not talking about the unconditional freedom of human rights, but something more complex and debatable, like media freedom, transparency and even pornography and chewing gum. We’ll go in-depth with this along the way.

Since the independence of our island state, rules after rules were thrown at us whether we wanted it or not. We didn't really have much to say, why? Our country was just an island, rampant, out of control and there was no line drawn between what was right and wrong.

It was left with the ambitions of one famous man, LKY and his government to eradicate the vices of this country, and allowing it prosper into one of the world's most successful stories.

Let's take rights and freedom into two points of consideration; individual and communal.

A person is bestowed unlimited freedom. He or she is entitled to do whatever he or she wants. That's individual freedom. It would be just so perfect to live in a society where everyone enjoys his and her own rights. But, then again, that's a perfect world, isn't it? I don't think we are living in a perfect world.

People aren't perfect. There would be people who will use their rights for purposes beneficial to them and perhaps towards the society too, but, it's a fact that there will always be a handful that will never see eye to eye with anything.

Take smoking for example. A decade ago, when Singapore started banning smoking everywhere, from shopping malls to lavatories and hell, even taxi queues, everyone in the world was going "what the hell is wrong with these bunch of looneys?"

You see, smoking is a personal right, but here is this ONE GOLDEN QUESTION I would like to pose to my readers. Have you ever thought that being equipped with your so-called rights and freedom, there should be this question of RESPONSIBILITY? You get the jist now do you? You finally understand the whole load of crap that I just threw up the last few paragraphs.

You see, Singapore is a unique nation that has progressed tremendously in within forty years. We are the best in this and that, we have one of the highest GDPs and we are the cleanest country and whatsorts, but the people, ahhh, the people are still slowly adapting. After all, our country soared from third to first in within three generations! How fast can our people really swallow the whole evolution process? There are still people out there struggling with the internet for god's sake.

So, back to the point of responsibility. We are given our rights, but how much thought will we give to be responsible enough to know our limits. Take the taxi queue for example, you are smoking, that is your right, but have you thought of the people around you. Even though the smoke that lingers around is passive, people still breathe them in and in turn, they are affected by it! It feels great to be free and irritate others right? NO!

The fact that the government has so many stringent rules in place is to educate us on the morality, ethics and responsibilities of the various rights. As I've said, we're a young nation. As we all grown and learn, be better educated.

The government isn't being a party-pooper by throwing away what we are entitled to, but they are taking into considerations of our still highly conservative second and partially conservative third generation. It takes time for people to progress and if too much is given, an overload would take place and there would be disintegration within our society, leading to a collapse of our functionability.

One more example, the gay rights movement. Gays in Singapore are flummoxed over the government's slow reaction to addressing this problem of rights. It's not that they don't want to, after all, yes it's a dirty little secret, the pink dollar is very important, and the majority of Singaporeans still cannot accept them. The government needs to listen to its own people and not how forward homosexuality has progressed in other countries, it's none of their business. In fact, most gay Singaporeans are satisfied with the progress that the government has made with this issue so far and many more gays are moving out from more repressive areas and into gay-friendly Singapore. It's just a matter of time and a few more nudges from this small community before they widely received with open arms.

So, basically, as long as the majority of the people are open enough in the future, perhaps there wouldn't even need to be any need of silly laws at the end of day and the majority of the fourth generation that are being enveloped in western culture will rejoice.

On a lighter note, I see it as a precaution and a safety label to us all. After all, we still get our basic freedom in human rights. I don't see anyone complaining so far.

On my personal note, the fact is that the affairs of both national and international communities are going to the dogs nowadays, I don't trust a society that where total freedom is practice anyways, things would just get worse. I still get freaked out with the fact that guns are out of control in the States and where thousands of people die each day not because of shootouts, but just for the misfiring of a gun.

Now, let's take this from a different angle. Look at Asia. It's booming time for this entire continent. Everywhere we go, we see constant modernization and this has benefited the people of Asia very well. But, look at the flip-side of this coin and you see all the problems that also start to weed out into this beautiful garden.

Corruption. It's one of the major vices of this world. People just can't trust anyone now. I'm an Indonesian-Chinese and I've lived long enough in Indonesia to see the potential of this country to evolve into the likes of the USA and China, yet, amazingly, it's still left behind in the Asian Crusade to progress after decades and more decades.

Everyone says Indonesians are lazy and are deemed incompetent to run their country, but have you visited this country? Have you seen her people? Their passion and patriotic spirit to their country. Ironically, this is one thing that sadly, Singapore lags behind in. If we could just have one tenth of their mighty potion, HOHO!, you figure out the rest of the equation.

Now, to the point, the country suffers a rampant plaque of corruption. Even as it is publicly denied, it can just be seen everywhere. How would I know? I've seen it. That's how. This corruption factor is a detriment to the progress of this nation. If there were only people who were passionate and patriotic enough to lead their country for their people and not for their pockets, Indonesia would really be a different country today.

So, let's apply this into Singapore. It's a free and economically transparent country. Why? Because, there are stringent rules and regulations enacted to protect and secure the foundations of this country. You see, these rules aren't bad ones. They don't restrict competition nor do they prohibit this and that, in fact, they are healthy rules to foster more cohesiveness between the business and economic communities.

The government never interferes with you, unless you do something grave, like going bankrupt or you engage in fraudulent activities, such as well, embezzlement !(one of the most common cases we have here to date)

The fact that such rules are implemented, more businesses from around the globe would just flock into this island state and this is just awfully good news for us isn't it? See? What's wrong with having rules and regulations when they are implemented in the right way?

So, in a nutshell. Rights and freedom are carved by the people for the people. They themselves are a form of law that is intertwined by rules and regulations as well. My point in this essay is that:

1. Every person is entitled to their own freedom; it’s only the matter of responsibility. Excluding basic human rights, freedom should be earned and not be entitled, lest it be taken for granted.

2. Every society in the world has the right to implement their own declarations as long as they are doing it for the benefit of the people. Isn't this how society should work after all?

I've come to the end of this tad too long essay. It may have been a load bull of crap to some of you guys but I sincerely do welcome any feedbacks! No shit craps ok? You can keep them to youselves. Anyways, thank you so much for reading, that is if you've come this far!

Alright, since this entry was practically engulfed by my thoughts above (this blog works like my pensieve you know!), I’ll keep this entry short and simple.

My fever subsided this afternoon, but my body aches are still prevalent. It’s my third day on mc from work and I really miss my colleagues. I’m pretty sure I’ll be back for work this Friday! Yippee!

No swimming today too, it’s such a bummer because the sun was out! Gahh! I managed to go to school this evening. The Business & Accountancy Society has won the Best Society Award for the third year running now and we’re all so proud of ourselves. The trophy’s so much more glitzy this year too.

It was so glad to catch up with my friends and colleagues from Society. It’s been ages since I’ve had a good laugh. Everything is so free and easy. I miss all of them madly! Oh, it’s random but I like Indah’s new hair-do! It’s classy!

The ceremony was beautifully executed with NRA and the Barracudas performing. I bumped into many familiar faces including Louis the Fish! He received the half-colors for bowling and the National Achievement Award as a member of the NP Bowling Team. Congratulations!

The stage effects were also jaw-dropping. If only we could steal all the props for bAoc. That would be a blast!

Anyways, this year, the school went all out for the magnificent feast for its recipients and guests. There were countless rows of buffet tables and various stalls of satay, la mien and even sushi!

It was a grand affair, I have to say.

After that, it was island creamery to celebrate our success and after a picture taken to commemorate the event, it’s HOME!

Well, it’s very late now; I’m going off to bed!
Everyone, It’s the middle of the week tomorrow,
Just two more days to Friday!

;)
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