7/07/2014

Good communications cannot substitute for bad policies


The govt seems to be putting the blame on bad communications as the source of unhappiness in the people. Is that so? The MSM also have been regurgitating that it was bad communications that have resulted in angry voices heard. The assumption is that policies are good and it was all because they were not well articulated to the people that is causing all the problems. It sounds more like the craftsman blaming his tools.
When policies are bad, they are bad. No amount of good communications can make bad policies become good. They could talk it away for a moment but once the people got a few moments to think about them, or when the policies start to hit them adversely, the anger will return.
 

Many salespersons would talk honey coated words to the clients to close a deal. But that is the beginning of the problem if the service or product is not up to specs. How many good or bad policies is there that can be better communicated? There are good policies that can do with better communications. There are many bad policies that no amount of communications can help.
 

Think CPF policies are good and can be explained away? Think the lost of jobs to foreigners are due to good policies? Think the policies on foreigners having a field day in property speculations here are good and only a little communications will make the people happy? Think the money spent on scholarships to foreigner students are good? Think filling up the academia with foreign faculty members are good, the unrestrained employment of foreigners in top jobs, the emptying of our talents in the IT and banking industries are good? The list can be pretty long on bad policies that cannot be explained away.
 

If bad policies can be explained away, it will be like you can bluff people some of the time, some people all the time, but not all the people all the time. That is the art of good communications to sugar coat bad policies at best. Using good communications to deceive the people when policies are really bad is a con job.

Kopi Level - Yellow

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, the PAP thinks that bad policies can always be corrected with good propaganda.

When there was only one source of information tightly controlled by the Government, the truth can be distorted with the daily bombardment of one sided propaganda.

It no longer is the same with the era of the internet. Information is freely available and when people realised that they have been short changed, they will start disbelieving what the Government says.

Control is a double edged sword. Using it sparingly and reasonably and people can be persuaded in the long run. Using it harshly and thrusting all bad policies into people's throat will elicit long lasting distrust that can never be corrected.

As someone said, it is very difficult for the PAP to win back one seat lost to the opposition if they continue to punish and deny opposition voters their equal rights as citizens.

Anonymous said...

/// Using good communications to deceive the people when policies are really bad is a con job. ///

When I was a civil serpent 20 years ago, we used to call the Ministers "koyok" salesman.
You know ... the medicine or "koyok" that are sold along the alleys in Deskar Road.

Anonymous said...

Let's hope PAP continues to spend more time & effort at better communications over their bad policies.
Bad policies exposes PAP's incompetency better than 10 alternative news website.

b said...

Blame game is a lame game but is always played by people who do not know what is going wrong or do not wish to know what is going wrong.

oldhorse42 said...

I see the PAP MP/Minister are all good speakers. With their good oratory, they cannot sell a policy. That could only mean one thing : the policy is bad and is unsellable.
A bad carpenter blames its tool!

Anonymous said...

Tiok. Bad policies can talk talk into good policies with the glib of the tongue. Good debaters are needed and an asset.

Anonymous said...

But..but..how can any policy of theirs be bad? We have the smartest, brightest, most expensive and meritocraziest bureaucracy in the world! You don't know what is good for you lah, that a dose of honest dialogue or simple language communication can set right. Can anyone dispute the pompous claim of the pompous Old Fart:

“You know, the cure for all this talk is really a good dose of incompetent government. You get that alternative and you’ll never put Singapore together again: Humpty Dumpty cannot be put together again… and your asset values will disappear, your apartment will be worth a fraction of what it is, your jobs will be in peril, your security will be at risk and our women will become maids in other people’s countries, foreign workers.”

Anonymous said...

Are our jobs in peril now? Is our security at risk when the island is flooded with foreigners with many given citizenships? Would our women become maids in our country first? One FT has already employed one of our women as maid in Sentosa.

Anonymous said...

Ya lor. You can sense his disdain towards foreign workers and maids, and then by a twist of his convoluted logic, he brings them here by the millions. Running out of ideas? It's like a snake chasing it's own tail, some call it a population ponzi. Bring in the workers and new citizens, you need more housing and infrastructure, which necessitates bringing in more workers and citizens, and so on.....

Oh ya, it's the GDP and the low TFR, Stupid. What is needed is good communication (LHL) to cure all this talk...or a dose of incompetent government (LKY), which BTW aren't we already there, courtesy of the son?