Sunday, October 23, 2011

Opposition who?

For starters, my blog has always been non-political and will continue to be that way. It is just a blog for random thoughts and from time to time I also share the thoughts of those around me. Recently, the parliamentary speeches has been the hot topic in the pantry. Worth noting was the speech by MP for Aljunied GRC, Mr Chen Show Mao, who clarified the position of the opposition party was not to create division and quote "It is the intolerance of differences that will be divisive." In his speech, he also quoted from former Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr George Yeo, "In a newspaper interview, former Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo related what a Roman Catholic cardinal told him about the late Pope John Paul the Second. The cardinal had drafted, “Even though we’re all different because we speak different languages, we are one”. The Pope corrected him. “No, it is not even though we’re different, we are one. It is because we are different, we are one.” Mr Yeo then said, “I thought that was so profound and beautiful. In my first speech to the United Nations, I repeated that story because in the UN, it is also because we are different that we are one. To be a human being is to be different."

Fellow MP for Aljunied GRC, Mr Low Thia Khiang, reinforced this idea in his speech and warned that "We should also be on guard against viewing trade-offs only from the Government’s perspective. We should always assess trade-offs from the people’s perspective, especially those who are severely affected by the policy." And also, "urge the PAP to step out of the shadow of the doom and gloom of certain pitfalls of western liberal democracy and work towards a First World Parliament in our own way."

While the above speeches by the Worker's Party (also known as the "opposition party") had drawn criticisms from ruling party (PAP) bench, there were those who were more positive like MP for Sengkang West, Dr Lam Pin Min, who in his speech sums it up by saying, "it is clear that all of us can agree on one fundamental tenet that we, as parliamentarians, will strive to make Singapore a better home for all Singaporeans" Indeed the ministers and members of parliament (MPs) should view themselves as serving the common good of all Singaporeans and not as separate political parties. Perhaps the term "opposition party" is partly the cause of the mis-perception that it is one that opposes the ruling government. But let's just say if the ruling party were to concede power to the other party, then won't that make the ruling party into the opposition party now?

Maybe it would be a good idea to just scrap using the term "opposition party" and just address a person by the appointment e.g. MP or call the party's name as it is when required. Unlike a school debate where there is a proposition team and an opposition team to a particular motion / topic, different parties will experience times when they have different opinions as well as times when they are in agreement on various issues that affect our nation - but the eventual objective of the discussion is to work towards creating a better Singapore for Singaporeans.

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