One of the great memories I have of student days was watching “The American President,” in the US at the time of the Lewinsky Saga. The movie is about a President who is a widower, who falls in love with a lobbyist. His girlfriend gets attacked by his political opponents and he ends up screwing her for political expediency. However, at the end, he realizes his mistake and decides to fight back and one of the key lines of his final speech is “Being President of this Country is Entirely About Character.”
I am reminded of this movie because I’ve just seen a Facebook posting by the Fawning Follower, who is one of the more interesting members of the cult of Singapore’s Ruling Party. True to form, the Fawning Followers post is a long tirade against the people who “hounded” former candidate for Member of Parliament, Mr. Ivan Lim from running in the elections. I’m pasting a snap shot of the Fawning Follower’s posting and to get the full post you can click on:
https://www.facebook.com/CriticalSpectator/posts/2948815981892776?__tn__=K-R
The thrust of his argument is that we, the Singaporean voters should not be such namby-pamby babies because Ivan Lim has arrogant elitist tendencies. The Fawning Follower goes onto list a range of great men, who brought great innovations to humanity but were at the same time arseholes of the highest order.
The Fawning Follower proceeds to remind us that, “if you want to judge controversial people do it on their merit (or lack of it) not their character.” He makes the point that “being an a**hole is actually a strength.”
Like most cult members, the Fawning Follower misses the obvious points in his eagerness to defend the cult of the ruling party. His key failure is this – he forgets that we’re not talking about a cult that he belongs to. We’re talking about a political party and because that political party is a governing party, we’re talking about the government of a country. As a citizen of that country, I and every other citizen have a moral obligation to tell our government when they’re f***ing up.
I stress that I am not against the government or the ruling party. As often said, I think they’ve done a good job on balance. As long as I and my little girl have a safe and clean environment, I’m not going to complain too much.
However, there have been major f*** ups that have the potential to affect my basic life. First, there was the issue of exploding Covid-19 cases in foreign worker dormitories. This exposed what is essentially a slave racket and there was no defense for a part of the system that had failed from every standpoint
Then there’s the issue of Ivan Lim. As mentioned in my last posting, the entire saga brought into question the selection process of our governing party and the integrity of a candidate for public office. This wasn’t just a case of keyboard warriors having a issues with Ivan Lim, it was a sad reflection of how a party that normally wins elections by blinking several times was behaving like an organization that could not post letters. This is best explained by my former boss, Mr. PN Balji, former editor of Today in his article, which can be found at:
https://www.asiaone.com/singapore/pn-balji-3-steps-disaster-ivan-lim-affair
While Ivan Lim’s “arrogant” behavior got most of the online attention, the most crucial factor to the story was the fact that there was an allegation that he was involved in a corruption scandal in Brazil. While no evidence of wrong doing has come to light, the question is, how did a ruling party, which places so much stress on its integrity in governance, even consider someone who had an allegation of corruption attached to his name? Surely, the ruling party of the world’s most famous hypercompetent government would have screened a potential candidate more thoroughly. While Ivan Lim has denied he had any involvement in the corruption scandal in Brazil, there are reports that things may not be as he says:
https://mothership.sg/2020/06/ivan-lim-keppel-brazil/
I don’t disagree that high achievers can be difficult to work with. It’s often said that it is the “unreasonable man who gets things done.” Visionaries like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and dare I say Lee Kuan Yew were difficult but they had a vision and got it done.
However, the Fawning Follower misses the point completely. He fails to distinguish between personality and character. Ivan Lim’s personality is not the issue, it’s his character. Issues of arrogance can be forgiven if they are compensated by hyper competence. Issues of character and integrity are different story. Let’s remember, we are talking about someone who wants to represent people at the highest of levels. Why should we, the paying public, employ him to speak for us if there are reasons not to trust him?
I am reminded of this movie because I’ve just seen a Facebook posting by the Fawning Follower, who is one of the more interesting members of the cult of Singapore’s Ruling Party. True to form, the Fawning Followers post is a long tirade against the people who “hounded” former candidate for Member of Parliament, Mr. Ivan Lim from running in the elections. I’m pasting a snap shot of the Fawning Follower’s posting and to get the full post you can click on:
https://www.facebook.com/CriticalSpectator/posts/2948815981892776?__tn__=K-R
The thrust of his argument is that we, the Singaporean voters should not be such namby-pamby babies because Ivan Lim has arrogant elitist tendencies. The Fawning Follower goes onto list a range of great men, who brought great innovations to humanity but were at the same time arseholes of the highest order.
The Fawning Follower proceeds to remind us that, “if you want to judge controversial people do it on their merit (or lack of it) not their character.” He makes the point that “being an a**hole is actually a strength.”
Like most cult members, the Fawning Follower misses the obvious points in his eagerness to defend the cult of the ruling party. His key failure is this – he forgets that we’re not talking about a cult that he belongs to. We’re talking about a political party and because that political party is a governing party, we’re talking about the government of a country. As a citizen of that country, I and every other citizen have a moral obligation to tell our government when they’re f***ing up.
I stress that I am not against the government or the ruling party. As often said, I think they’ve done a good job on balance. As long as I and my little girl have a safe and clean environment, I’m not going to complain too much.
However, there have been major f*** ups that have the potential to affect my basic life. First, there was the issue of exploding Covid-19 cases in foreign worker dormitories. This exposed what is essentially a slave racket and there was no defense for a part of the system that had failed from every standpoint
Then there’s the issue of Ivan Lim. As mentioned in my last posting, the entire saga brought into question the selection process of our governing party and the integrity of a candidate for public office. This wasn’t just a case of keyboard warriors having a issues with Ivan Lim, it was a sad reflection of how a party that normally wins elections by blinking several times was behaving like an organization that could not post letters. This is best explained by my former boss, Mr. PN Balji, former editor of Today in his article, which can be found at:
https://www.asiaone.com/singapore/pn-balji-3-steps-disaster-ivan-lim-affair
While Ivan Lim’s “arrogant” behavior got most of the online attention, the most crucial factor to the story was the fact that there was an allegation that he was involved in a corruption scandal in Brazil. While no evidence of wrong doing has come to light, the question is, how did a ruling party, which places so much stress on its integrity in governance, even consider someone who had an allegation of corruption attached to his name? Surely, the ruling party of the world’s most famous hypercompetent government would have screened a potential candidate more thoroughly. While Ivan Lim has denied he had any involvement in the corruption scandal in Brazil, there are reports that things may not be as he says:
https://mothership.sg/2020/06/ivan-lim-keppel-brazil/
I don’t disagree that high achievers can be difficult to work with. It’s often said that it is the “unreasonable man who gets things done.” Visionaries like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and dare I say Lee Kuan Yew were difficult but they had a vision and got it done.
However, the Fawning Follower misses the point completely. He fails to distinguish between personality and character. Ivan Lim’s personality is not the issue, it’s his character. Issues of arrogance can be forgiven if they are compensated by hyper competence. Issues of character and integrity are different story. Let’s remember, we are talking about someone who wants to represent people at the highest of levels. Why should we, the paying public, employ him to speak for us if there are reasons not to trust him?
Let’s leave the issue of the issue of corruption in Brazil aside. There was an allegation that he was willing to put lives of foreign workers at risk:
Once again, the accusation has not been substantiated. However, there is an allegation of behavior that would suggests that Ivan Lim is not suited for public office.
Any normal person running for any elected office would have to be aware that one’s skeletons would be exposed. While nothing has been proven, he has merely denied that accusations and ran away as fast as he could. Is this the behavior you want in your elected representative? The fact that the Prime Minister himself had said that he was accepting the resignation because there was no time to hold a proper inquiry? Is this the reaction you’d expect from a leader whose told that there are serious issues about one his men?
Running for an elected office is entirely about character. Ultimately, the electorate can forgive you if you’ve got personality issues and if you make mistakes along the way. What they will not and should not forgive is dishonesty, particularly when you’ve been asked about serious allegations.
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