"The Emperor's New Clothes" is a fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen about an emperor who unwittingly hires two swindlers to create a new suit of clothes for him.
The tale is one of Andersen's most popular. It appears often in selected collections of his work and is frequently published in illustrated storybook editions for children. The tale has seen adaptations in animated film, and television drama.
Plot
An emperor of a prosperous city who cares more about clothes than military pursuits or entertainment hires two swindlers who promise him the finest suit of clothes from the most beautiful cloth. This cloth, they tell him, is invisible to anyone who was either stupid or unfit for his position. The Emperor cannot see the (non-existent) cloth, but pretends that he can for fear of appearing stupid; his ministers do the same. When the swindlers report that the suit is finished, they dress him in mime. The Emperor then goes on a procession through the capital showing off his new "clothes". During the course of the procession, a small child cries out, "But he has nothing on!" The crowd realizes the child is telling the truth. The Emperor, however, holds his head high and continues the procession.
Morale
How do you tell the Emperor that things are going wrong, or things that he does not like to hear?
He has to learn it himself through the hard way.
ReplyDeletestarlight
I can see a similarity between the Emperor (you know who, in Singapore) and the swinders, who are the global bankers invited to be in our international advisory panels. And the ministers are those who stood by, without the courage to tell the Emperor about the swindlers.
ReplyDeleteAnon 8.09 am
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with what you say. However in the story there was a little boy who was so innocent and spoke the truth. Is there such courage or innocense in Singapore??
Let's not be disillusioned. Singapore is not an empire; there is no emperor here. And NO ONE is above the law.
ReplyDeleteRon Paul, a US congressman and presidential candidate has initiated a bill in the House of Representatives to audit the Federal Reserve. It is now gathering pace with corresponding action in the US Senate.
See http://www.ronpaul.com/on-the-issues/audit-the-federal-reserve-hr-1207/
Is there really no mechanism to enforce a complete and transparent audit of the GIC, Temasek Holdings and the CPF Board? Let's think this through.
Steve Wu,
ReplyDeleteThere is. The Auditor General's Office conducts audits of Ministries, Stat Boards and even GIC and linked companies.
Anon 12:50 PM
ReplyDeleteAh yes, the Auditor General's Office. The same office which stonewalled the late President Ong Teng Chong's effort to determine the actual reserves to fulfill his constitutional duties.
We need COMPLETE and TRANSPARENT audits, not excuses about operational sensitivities and such. Safeguards about certain sensitivities can always be put in place.
Sad to report that the present elected president said nary a word on this issue although he is duty bound to do so. Our parliament, the elected representatives of the People and the assembly which has oversight responsibility over the government, has also failed to get any meaningful accountability out of these agencies.
I am not under any illusion of the present situation. A mandamus application (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandamus) may yet prove to be futile.
What Ron Paul is doing in the US might not work here. The laws are very different there. They have large and powerful lobby groups to impeach Presidents, and even force their resignations.
ReplyDeleteIn all honesty, do you think such methods will work here? This is sg, not USA. Mandamus is a dirty word.
To Steve Wu:
ReplyDeleteRon Paul, in spite of doing and saying all the right things for years, has been sidelined very early on in the recent presidential elections. In other words, even in the worlds most democratic country, someone like Ron may take years to make little headway or may not get anywhere at all in the end.
Now back to SG, you have said "Let's not be disillusioned. Singapore is not an empire; there is no emperor here. And NO ONE is above the law".
I say, are you kidding? My goodness you can say such things in the face of all the laws that have been tweaked to silence any opposing voices. And in the face of all the opposing voices that have been either bankrupted, jailed or exiled.
Anon July 14, 2009 11:36 PM,
ReplyDeleteI think, for a change, Ron Paul may have a fair chance to get this Federal Reserve Transparency Act to pass. As was noted, he was sidelined on many occasions not because of the reality nor the truth of his message (he wanted to abolish the Federal Reserve) but the fact that the US government has been too addicted to ween off the easy Feds monies. Since its inception in the 1930s, the Federal Reserve has always had private bankers as secret shareholders by design. This means that the Federal Reserve (including its secret bankers) receives interest revenue each and every time the US government borrows from the Feds to finance the recovery of an economic meltdown (like now) or to fight the wars in the Middle East and elsewhere. In the US, there is no business like the Feds business. All told, the ordinary Americans are the biggest suckers in the history of the world; the ordinary Singaporeans may well be a distant second.
We should learn that change will not be easy and it may not be soon. Indeed Ron Paul has spoken his conscience for a very long time (his entire career). So has Markopolos who had blown the whistle on Madoff (about 10 years). Without Markopolos, the SEC chairman would not have resigned so quickly under public pressure for the real investigation to take place.
Anon July 19, 2009 3:22 PM,
I share your indignation. We should all be really angry with the individuals who have sworn to be loyal to the People and to uphold the Constitution but went about doing the opposite. "And NO ONE is above the law" does not mean that justice could or would be served right NOW. If you take a longer view of things, injustice will eventually be righted. Just look at history: Hitler, Stalin, and later Mao and others.
We just have to hit it ever harder and ever so often in our own ways. The good news is there are so many of us and so few of them. For the sake of the future generations of Singaporeans, we cannot give up.