Comments on: Lee Kuan Yew on PURA

By: pankaj

pankaj — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:41:13 +0000

of all things said and ultimately it is the culture and quality of the people that will decide wether a nation progresses or not .eastern europe successfully transformed itself from communism to market economy without any fuss.

By: Dsylexic

Dsylexic — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 13:10:53 +0000

What after LKY is gone?. Is another ‘benevolent’ dictator going to step up to the plate?. I assume a heir will be chosen and he’ll have the great vision of LKY as well.

I dont believe dictatorship of anykind benevolent or otherwise is anything but a short term idea. A small central govt and freedom for localised decision making is much more stable and sustainable.Of course,for that,the wings of those currently in power will need to be clipped -thats a difficult task.Power usually corrupts.

By: Amit

Amit — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:29:07 +0000

Atanu, in the past, you have been very outspoken and come out in the defense of individual on two issues – one was certain rules for taxi drivers, and the other was in response to someone’s comment about elementary education (or rather, going to school) being mandatory. I think you’ll remember.

It’s not unreasonable to assume that under a dictatorship, certain freedoms of the individual (similar to the two examples above) will be curtailed. So are you assuming that in a dictatorship, you will be on the dictatorial board making decisions for others, rather than have someone else make decisions for *you*?

My point is different from shortcomings of democracy – which I am aware of.

By: baransam

baransam — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 07:55:24 +0000

“Baransam, not being able to imagine a system of governance better than “democracy” is an admission of personal inadequacy”

-> Bang on point. I can not agree more.

“Don’t confuse that with realty. ”
-> What is reality? How do you define ‘reality’?

I could not resist the above comments as I am a big fan of Morpheus. On a serious note and staying on the topic, I chose to believe in the self-sufficient-village centric distributed development model. (My opinion was largely formed by writings of one Amlan Dutta). My ideas shook on reading your (Atanu Dey’s) take on the issue. So thank you Atanu. I am still keeping an open mind on the issue, or as they say “jury is still out”.

By: pankaj

pankaj — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 03:53:05 +0000

Democracy or dictatorship we indians have the uncanny ability of messing up whatever we do ,so unless we change our mentality about things , i dont see any form of government being of much use to india.frankly we indians are a third class race who have got a wrong set of morals.India is in deep shit ,certainly says a lot about we indians being “smart and intelligent”

By: Amit

Amit — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 22:14:21 +0000

And dictatorship is better than democracy? How so? It’s interesting that you get your undies in a twist over nanny state, but are fine with a pappy dictator.

By: Atanu Dey

Atanu Dey — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:45:25 +0000

Baransam, not being able to imagine a system of governance better than “democracy” is an admission of personal inadequacy. Don’t confuse that with realty. It is possible that better systems can be designed that are beyond our personal imaginings.

By: baransam

baransam — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:52:46 +0000

In spite of all its faults, democracy is the best option available for India. I can not imagine a dictatorship (however benevolent, smart it might be) keeping India united in post-independence era.

By: sagarone

sagarone — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:55:14 +0000

“Singapore gets Lee Kuan Yew. India gets Nehru and soon enough will have Mayawati. Makes you want to weep.”

It sure does. It sure does.