In Two Minds

Inconsistent, conflicting and contradictory. These are not words you would want to use when discussing the policies of the your government or leaders. Consider the report in yesterday's paper about "Bigger, breezier hawker centre for Bedok". Stalls will increase from 6 to 13 sq meters while the roof will be built higher to improve air flow.

Yet when residents of Bishan complained that a new elderly care centre built on an open space near their apartments would block their view and be too cramped , ie: reduce air flow and light, their protestations basically fell on deaf ears. Dr Amy Khor almost choked out the reason on TalkingPoint (on ChannelNewsAsia) and I quote: "...due to constraints of SCARCITY of land", there is apparently no other choice but for those Bishan residents to bear with it. (I would suggest that they excavate a cavern underground and built the eldercare centre there, below ground!)

SO, the government ACTUALLY recognises that bigger and breezier is BETTER and is prepared to trumpet it when it suits them and earn them brownie points, otherwise why didn't they build the new hawker centre shoebox style? People spend at most an hour at a hawker centre for their meals, but they spend most of their lives in their apartments. A cramped stuffy hawker centre is an inconvenience people are prepared to bear, but an eldercare centre stuffed right in their faces is something they have to endure 24/7.

Mr Khaw Boon Wan, had the chutzpah to say that HDB flats have NOT shrunk over the years. But it turns out that this is only partially correct if non-usable areas (like aircon ledges etc) are included in the floor space. A 'trick' that his own ministry is supposed to regulate real estate companies from abusing. With regards to shoebox apartments, he is just going to "monitor the situation". We are not sure what he means by that.

When Resorts World Sentosa decided to test the limits of what it can do to attract Singaporeans to its (let's be honest here) casinos by providing free bus shuttles, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, the Minister then in charge didn't say he would "monitor the situation". He ordered the free shuttles stopped immediately. Compared to free bus shuttles, the damage caused by a need to reverse course on shoebox apartments is considerably higher. And Mr Khaw is dittering. He is unsure just which constituency he is representing: rich real estate developers looking to squeeze every last drop of profit or citizens of Singapore who will have to live in or put up with wastage of a precious resource: land, built with buildings not fit for purpose, "inhuman" as soon-to-be ex-CEO of Capitaland, Mr Liew Mun Leong put it.

Strangely enough, when it comes to culling wild boars, Mr Khaw is surprisingly decisive. He is prepared to rely on the flimsiest of trumped up reasons: "protect our babies" with apparently no need for further "monitoring" to essentially visit mass murder on innocent boars. Karma has its ways of evening things out in the
end. Who knows, Mr Khaw himself may come back as one :)

The government has employed every trick in the book when it suits its purposes:
The elderly (when building care centers without regard to existing residents and structures. I mean how can anyone argue against it? Can anyone be so hard hearted and inconsiderate to deny our elderly? Babies. This latest one from our Mr Khaw. Everyone loves babies! Yes lets kill the wild boars just in case a mere look from one will harm an innocent child. We wonder what the government will next use: Widows? Orphans?

So which is it? Big, breezy and spacious good or bad? The government can't have it both ways. When you lie and put forward courses of action that are so contrary to common sense, sooner rather than later, you will trip up and contradict yourself. And this is what we are seeing. While the government may be in two minds (saying and doing contradictory things, whenever it suits them), the electorate is increasingly aware that the government is not always acting in their interests and in this, they are of one mind.