PMS

short for Prime Minister Says.

went for the PM Dialogue with Young Singaporeans and PM sure said a lot of things. few observations:

Theoretical Questions

there were many JC students there, of whom many asked questions. but the questions they asked seemed rather scripted, rather... impersonal. there lacked a certain sense of... personal involvement and passion in the questions that they asked. if felt like while they wanted to know the answers to those questions, those questions did not concern them nor were they truly concerned about the questions. they seemed ot have had researched their questions, but yet, their research is from statistics, from what they read in the papers, but very detached from the true gut sentiments from the ground.

Youthful naiveté

then there was this other guy who picked up on PM's answer a question. he was disappointed with PM's answer, saying that it was sending out a signal that we are still being very micro, bothering about the nitty gritties rather than becoming a more gracious society, a more holistically developed society, etc. basically, he felt that we should go all out to take care of people at the fringes. while i agree that we should help those who are at the fringes, i don't agree with the methods he proposed. we have to realise that there are other demands on our resources, other needs that have to be met and fulfilled so we really have to find the most effecient way of doing things. and that was PM's point. but that guy just felt that we were still being too concerned with economics, saying that that was being too concerned with the micro issues. i think it just demonstrated too much naiveté, too little understanding of the challenges it takes to build a viable nation. i also suspect that he's from a relatively well to do background and that he doesn't really know what most people in singapore are like (i.e. thinking that everyone's like him, educated, doing well, having the luxury of not having to wonder about where the next meal will come from, etc). my point being that while we should be idealistic, we should also know what reality is like. and 0nly then can we realise our ideals.

My question

i asked the following question (where i reproduce almost as i asked it): "i think the bloggers who got thrown into prison are stupid. not because of what they said, cos i've not read what they said and hence am in no position to comment. i think they are stupid because they got caught. i mean, they are male singaporeans, must have done NS. how could they have forgotten the golden rule of SAF: do anything you want, don't get caught? of course, i'm only joking. my point is that it seems that we are only abiding by laws because we are afraid of punishment not because it is the right thing to do, that we are being 'racially harmonious' because we don't want to be thrown into prison not because we really respect and understand other races, that we don't say nasty things about our teachers not because we respect them, but because we don't want to be expelled. now i know that it is impossible for a society to be without laws and punishments to enforce these laws. but i think it is possible that we move closer to that state where people do the right things because it is right not out of fear of punishment. so my question is, how can we move towards such a state?"

alas, i asked my question towards the end, when everyone was rushing to ask question and so the point of my question was lost. but it's ok. it got some people thinking. there were even people who came up to me after the session during what was supposed to be dinner to talk to me about my comments. there was this group of JC kids who came around. it started with 2, but then since a lot of the JC kids know one another, the group grew. so it was interesting. was telling them about what i think of education, about being critical, etc etc. and then there were these other people from NUS, Ngee Ann, etc. had some interesting conversation (X, if you are reading this, thanks for the entertaining conversation.)

actually... i've left out most of the details, cos what was discussed is supposed to be confidential. so cannot put here, hence only those things that i said (which i think i can claim the right to repeat) and my observations.

right. sleep time.