Mavericks with broken heads

March 30, 2005

Singapore Democrats

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The Rhetoric

“Your workforce must have the cohesiveness, but to make the big leap forward, you need your mavericks, your geniuses, your people who can think outside the box.”
– SM Lee Kuan Yew addressing business leaders at the World Brand Forum, in article entitled “Mavericks a must for nation’s growth,” Straits Times, Dec 2, 2003

The Reality

“(SIA) Pilots believe they are special, they got huge egos, I am told….I can assure you that in Singapore, when we decide that they are breaking the rules of the game, the unspoken rules as to how we survive, how we have prospered, then either their head is broken or our bones are broken.”
– SM Lee Kuan Yew issuing warning to SIA pilots at the same World Brand Forum, CNA, Dec 2 2003

SDP: What Mr Lee Kuan Yew really wants is a maverick who will do things his way. Surely a contradiction, no? But why not? The PAP itself is one big contradiction: It wants Singapore to be an information hub when it completely controls the media; Ministers like Mr Khaw Boon Wan admonishes Singaporeans to “grow up” and “not let the Government direct [us] to do this or do that” while the Government witholds our CPF savings even after we retire because we may “squander them away”. If anyone needs to grow up it is the PAP. The party’s infantile propaganda cannot fool the people all the time.