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Quote Ah Sook writes to Ah Loong - home truths of the first order Dear Loong, I opened up the ST and saw the photo of Dr TT flanked by the CJ and yourself. I was really concerned at the expression on your face. You looked shell shocked and it was apparent that there were many things troubling you as you stood there, distracted as Dr TT took the oath of office. ST should really have chosen a better photo for their front page but they could have been focussed on their ex-Chairman who looks good in the photo. I imagine you must be thinking about the events of the GE and the PE. Such an unexpected swing of voter sentiments following a short recession, a quick recovery and the fastest growth rate in the world. To your credit, you responded quickly during the GE, even said sorry a few times, retired some ministers and changed your cabinet and promised a more enlightened and transparent government. You are right in calling for unity and for all Singaporeans to come together and to try to heal the various fault lines that have surfaced during these two elections. But have you identified the true fault lines? There is probably an army of people now pouring through the voting patterns of various sub constituencies, analysing the socio-economic background of these people who voted for and against the PAP in both the GE and PE, and trying to identify the reasons for the results. I was wondering whether it was the PAP that first divided Singaporeans into two classes - those that voted for the PAP and those against. The lesser Singaporeans pay the same taxes and did their NS (just like Dr TT

He woke up with a start, covered with sweat. His wife was shaking him. "Wake up Dear! You are having a nightmare. You were tossing, turning and mumbling and waving your arms in the air. What is it?" He looked around him and was relieved to see his same familiar world. His wife's face came into focus. "I have been having these nightmares of facing these voters. The nightmares are getting worst as they are asking really difficult questions." "There was this middle age guy who said that his 68 year old mother had lost her cleaning job at a hawker center and was replaced with a young man from the PRC and asked me for advice." "He was not happy when I said his mother should either go for retraining to improve her productivity or retire and get maintenance from him." "And then there was this chap who said that Singapore and Hong Kong are the world's most competitive economies. How come Hongkong had a minimun wage and we do not have one?" "Somebody else stood up and asked me if it was true that our Singaporean workers had one of the longest work hours in the world." "And there was this idiot who asked me if the UBS Report was accurate that the average purchasing power of Singaporeans in 2010 was less than people in Kuala Lumpur and only slightly better than Bogota in South America. I told him he could go and live in Bogota in that case." "Another guy asked if it was true that our low income group saw hardly any increase in their wages over the last few years. He mentioned that the UBS report showed our average wages to be the same level as Moscow 's in 2010 . Again he wouldn't accept my explanation that having a job was better than being jobless." "And they wanted to beat me up when I told this 50 year old guy he did not look hard enough when he was unemployed a year back. He insisted that people are discriminating against older workers. I said it could not be since there are a lot of old ministers in our cabinet and retired ministers, civil servants and generals could easily find re-employment in statutory boards, GLCs and TLCs. " "Well it all goes with the territory. That's why they pay you so much. Why don't you do something to distract your mind from all these problems." "Yes you are right, Dear. I need to do something to make me happy." He reached out, opened a drawer and opened a well thumbed folder of documents and smiled. "Please Dear! You should not look at your CPF statements so often. It is very sway"