I mean... Mr Prime Minister Lee.
You will probably never read this, but I'm hoping the spies who trawl the internet daily for posts related to you will. And I'm hoping they bring this to your attention.
It's entirely possible that your spies will treat this as another letter simply bashing you, your party, and your actions (and the lack thereof in regard to certain circumstances).
But it's not. Or least, I'm going to try avoid doing so.
Dear Mr Lee, aren't you tired? Aren't the people in your party tired? Tired of saying the same things, over and over again? Every few months or so, I hear the same message blaring from the party speakers:
"GDP GDP GDP GDP GDP!"
Even in discussions I have with friends about Singapore, that dirty word inevitably comes up. And I have to admit, I've only been seriously discussing for a few months, and already I'm sick of saying GDP.
Could it be possible that you're just as tired too?
Dear Mr Prime Minister, aren't you feeling guilty? Aren't your party members feeling guilty? Do you remember, not so many years ago, of a Mediacorp drama: 早安老师? Do you remember the theme song? A part of it went...
“你扮渔民，我扮海盗！” (Translated: You'll play the fisherman, I'll play the pirate)
It's a suggestion that the children singing the song actually had time to go out and play after all.
I was lucky enough to be born in 1986, and that meant I did not have to go through the craziness of lessons, tuition, CCAs, excursions, remedial lessons, supplementary lessons, musical instrument lessons, dance lessons, etiquette lessons, homework, revision, and all this in one day.
No where in there do I find any time to play. Is that what my younger cousins go through today?
When I think of my childhood, I remember a few instances of playing freely at the playground, of running around the block because I could, of kicking a ball around, because I had the time. Now that, was a childhood.
Do you think you could find it in your heart to grant our younger generation a chance to have a childhood too?
Dear Mr Prime Minister, are you a CEO? Are your party members Directors on the Board of Singapore Pte Ltd?
How come everything I hear and read about these days is about Singapore plugging itself (and I admit, the picture it paints isn't pretty) into China, plugging itself into America.
How come we're always so busy plugging ourselves into other countries?
Slightly nasty metaphors aside, what I mean to say is... why are seemingly all the policies business driven? Yes, I understand the need for a compan.. I mean country, to make money. Yes, I understand that if companies not invest in Singapore, we will dry up. Yes, I understand that if the people aren't trained (again, d'you see how nasty that image is?) we can't do our jobs properly.
But Dear Mr Prime Minister, we are humans, as much as you are. I do not believe I was created simply to work and work, for the betterment of the compa.. again I apologize, country.
As much as you wish to exploit your only resource, given Singapore does not have oil and natural gas and precious minerals, you must realise that your only resource, like all other resources, may end up being depleted?
Dear Mr Prime Minister, could you find it in your heart to let us smell the roses? We truly appreciate the hard work you have put in to make us work harder... but there would be no point encouraging us to earn all that money if we end up being unable to spend it.
There would be no point living in Singapore. There would be no point cultivating a national identity. There would be no need for a Singapore Spirit: because all you have taught us is the importance of money.
