"clean and honest"

Is Our Government Really “Clean and Honest” ?

Singaporeans are wondering if legalized corruption is truly “clean and honest” , especially if the definition of corruption is up to the law.

President Halimah was speaking at the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau’s (CPIB) 70th anniversary event on 21 Sep 2022. Throughout her speech, she emphasized that our government is “clean and honest”, and that is Singapore’s competitive advantage.

Should a “clean and honest” government cost so much?

After all, whether something is a sign of corruption depends on whether it is legal. In this sense, maybe it is “clean” in legal terms. However, telling citizens that a lot of money is need to make sure that our government is not corrupted, is this really honest? Do we buy this explanation, are we left feeling like there is more to it?

Can we really say that our government is “clean” when some of their “successes” were created by leaving Singaporeans behind?

All these years of building our education system and somehow we are still not enough to compete with the world. Maybe being on the world stage because of how open we keep our doors to “top talents” is something to be proud of for them. In this case, can we still call it “clean” when livelihoods of Singaporeans are compromised?

Can we say that our house is clean when a lot of dust is in reality swept under our carpet?