Majority still have trust in Govt

Having read author Catherine Lim's open letter to the Prime Minister that Singaporeans no longer trust the Government ("Govt refutes author's claims over public trust"; last Saturday), I found her comments too sweeping and too heavily based on singular incidents that are independent of one another.

Arguing that the breakdown of trust between the Government and the people had "reached crisis proportions", Ms Lim cited in her letter incidents such as the anti-PAP graffiti sprayed on a wall at a Toa Payoh HDB block, the results of the 2011 General Election and the defamation suit against blogger Roy Ngerng, who alleged in a blog post that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong misappropriated Central Provident Fund monies.

But how can the pranksters at Toa Payoh be grouped together with Mr Ngerng and GE2011? I see the Toa Payoh vandalism and Roy Ngerng case as isolated incidents, which do not in any way reflect a deep distrust of the Government.

In a general election, many factors come into play.

These include opposition politics, local issues, MP performance, government policies and personal issues such as employment. Distrust may be the result of many of such factors.

If those who distrust the Government are truly that many, the PAP would probably be voted out of office.

What we do see are Singaporeans crying out for more personal space and an even better standard of living.

There are pockets of dissatisfaction, but certainly not any mass distrust or affective divide between the Government and the people.

What I see is an author who seems to be far removed from the reality in Singapore.

Sonny Yuen

This article was first published on June 18, 2014.
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