The outrageous PAP mayors

 The clown Chan Chun Sing was at his comical best for his outrageous display in defending the roles and functions of the CDC and the five PAP mayors. Even Bertha Henson, the literary celebrity, was flabbergasted by his bombastic utterance and could not even know what he was talking about. Chan Chun Sing is the prominent government face who gives frequent expositions, ad nauseam, of government policies and people are wondering if Singaporeans are finding his sermon on the mount amusing. Half-baked politicians like him are going to lead the government in future and I think Singaporeans will have to brace themselves to see what would happen in the future.

The salaries af the PAP mayors are definitely outrageous and are a reflection of the obscene millions of dollars PM Lee Hsien Loong and his mercenary ministers pay themselves from taxpayers' money. Workers' Party leader Pritam Singh made a very pertinent point in exposing the outrageous  roles and functions of the PAP mayors. It is clear that their position is untenable and it would be interesting to see what Lee Hsien Loong will do to mitigate the outrage. Pundits are wondering why there are still up to seventy percent of electorate who support the PAP at every election under the preposterous misconception that their livelihood will disappear if they did not vote for the PAP.

It is clear that PAP mayors are drawing salaries so astronomically higher than mayors in other countries and serving lesser number of residents . Pritam Singh has shown that their duties are superflous and could be undertaken by other units in the governments. It becomes abundantly clear that in order to heed the demand of the public, the mayor post could be abolished. But whether Lee Hsien Loong has the guts to do it, when he and his mercenary ministers are enriching nthemselves with taxpayers' money, is something for Singaporeans to see.

A look-back at the intricacies and intrigues of the political regime

 The protagonists were a pompous former PM Lee Kuan Yew , an iniquitous former permanent secretary Tay Seow Huah and  charlatan ex-president SR Nathan.

Sir Thomas Raffles discovered Singapore in 1819 and with his uncanny foresight and the entrepreurial industry of the Chinese immigrant turned this fishing village into what is the most world-renowned metropolis today. The British Colonial rule though not quite consummate was a lot better than the Dutch oppressive  colonial rule in Indonesia. The people's livelihood was quite liveable and there was always a privileged class with upper social standard.

The Japanese occupation had imparted a political change in the mind of the people and with the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) fanning the revolutionary feeling of the people it soon became an avalanche of political turmoil which taxed the British to the extreme of their prowess. The MCP's aim was to overthrow the British and establish a Communist Uptopia.

They started an armed rebellion in 1948 and in 1951 opened a second front called the Communist United Front to complement their faltering armed struggle. In1953/54 there emerged out of nowhere a dynamic CUF leader named Lim Chin Siong who overnight took command of the CUF obviously with the imprimature of the MCP. He was a student activst in the Chinese Hgh School who had evaded arrest and had gone underground.

At the same time there also emerged a Cambridge-trained lawyer Lee Kuan Yew  who had lofty political ambitions. But he was severely handicapped by not having a mass base and had to depend on Lim Chin Siong for this support. So it became a political tussle between Lee Kuan Yew and Lim Chin Siong for political prominence and eventually becoming prime minister.

It was abundantly clear that Lee Kuan Yew was no match to Lim Chin Siong in any electorial competition and if history was allowed its course Lim Chin Siong could easily become the prime minister of Singapore with Lee Kuan Yew likely as his prisoner. But then God seemed to favour Lee kuan Yew and provided him with two benefactors in the persons of Richard Corridon, a Special Banch Superintend, and Lim Yew Hock, the Chief Minister at the time. These two saviours made it possible for Lee Kuan Yew to become the prime minister.

Lee Kuan Yew became Prime Minister after the PAP won a landslide victory in 1959. He appointed George Bogaars as Director of Special Branch as soon as the expat Director E.J Linsell retired. Bogaars had no Special Branch experience but he made up with his excepptional intelligence and exquisite personality and almost overnight became so masterful in national security that it mesmerised Lee Kuan Yew so overwhemingly to a ecstatic state of invincibilty and invulnerabilty. Lee regarded Bogaars as some kind of a demi-god and relied so completely on security and even cabinet matters. He was promoted to Permanent Secretary of the Interior and Home affairs when Singapore became independent in 1965 and created a ceremonous post of Head Civil Service and appointed him the first Head.

But then the cycle of divine bebevolence must reach a zenith at some stage and may start to decline. What led to the eventual fallout between Bogaars and Lee Kuan Yew had remained enigmatic but I became the target of Lee's inquisition because I happened to be in the line of fire by my close association with Bogaars who defended me gallantly against Lee's scandalous defamation instigated by a iniquitous Tay Seow Huah. It was unbelievable but the whole process resembled a Chinese Dynasty intrigues where eunuchs denigrate each other before the emperor. I think my kismet was due and I had to go so I was rusticated into the wilderness. Bogaars was gradually eased out of his lofty position and he eventually retired.

SR Nathan was a more elusive character and he appeared to detach himself from from the high-powered political antics of Lee Kuan yew and Tay Seow Huah. Somehow he and Lee Kuan Yew were as thieves and it was Lee who proposed him as president. He was good at showing a deadpan face when faced with a scandal.

After Lees death I wrote an obituary portraying Lee a both a titan and a tyrant. Historians till now do not have a clear conscience to write his obituary.