Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Courage and dare to change

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Courage and dare to change

I have heard these phrases used on many occasions, "be careful" and "don't down the slippery slope". They usually come out from people who are extremely cautious and do not wish to change the status quo. This attitude reflects the mindset of many Singaporeans.

I wish to quote the words of Dr. Goh Keng Swee in his last speech to Parliament in 1984.

Quote
Prudence does not mean that one must always take counsel of one's fears. In the course of our political struggles, we learnt tht in a desperate situation timidity leads to disaster. Safety can be won only by daring."
Unquote

5 comments:

Anonymous said...: How to be daring when you have the following at stake;

a)multi-million dollar annual salary

b)high expense lifestyle in order to maintain image consistent with success and high achievement.
- Can a minister stay in an HDB flat and still maintain an image?

c) high property and car loans to maintain image mentioned in (b)
- can a minister drive a China made Cherry car?

Goh Keng Swee's era in Singapore's history cannot be replicated.

Remember this old song?
"Those were the days my friend,
We thought they'd never end,
We'd sing and dance,
Forever and a day.
We'd live the life we choose,
We'd fight and never lose,
For we were young and sure to have our way

Source:
Mary Hopkin
Those Were The Days, My Friend; May 18, 2010 9:48 AM
Anonymous said...: If I were paid six time that of President Obama; governing a tiny country that is 14,096 times smaller; having no international responsibilities; doing a much smaller job with five persons (EP, PM, MM, SM1 SM2) instead of one; do you think I would want to rock the boat? You can say all you want that I am shameless, greedy, selfish etc. but I would do everything I could to maintain status quo and strengthen my position.; May 18, 2010 10:34 AM
Anonymous said...: World Country, but not 1st world wages.

http://www.asiaone.com/Business/News/Office/Story/A1Story20100517-216611.html

Ten years ago, my mentor working in the same position as me is earning the same pay I am being paid today. And you think that after 10yrs, my pay should be double what she earns 10 yrs ago but this is so not true.....; May 18, 2010 4:13 PM
J said...: I dare to be daft, and stick spurs into their hinds. The PAP has become less hard driving, less hard striving, old(!) and lazy and we need to vote in more opposition party candidates.

And hey Anon 10.34, when you said EP, it is more like sEP (selected) in practice. Plus, there are ministers without portfolio in the parliament...; May 18, 2010 8:31 PM
Anonymous said...: Some people like to invoke the "slippery slope" argument as an excuse for not doing certain things. The argument goes like this: if I do A to solve this problem, we get B as the side effect; soon I have to do C to solve B; but that leads to D. Then, I need to do E, F, G, etc to Z. Which lead us to trouble.

This argument on the surface, sounds plausible, but is fundamentally not rooted on solid ground. The real fact of the matter is, most slippery slopes are logically fallacious. To understand why, read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope

Incidentally, another plausible (but logically unsound) argument is the false dichotomy (or false dilemma):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_dichotomy

I am sure we hear a lot of this argument being put forward often as well by some people.; May 19, 2010 8:02 PM