The following is a note I have written to Nicole Seah after reading her article post "Ground Zero" on her personal Facebook.
Dear Nicole,
You may find it ironic or even feel that I
am just being "sarcastic" but I have to congratulate you of crossing
the most critical point of your life. Contrary to what you and many other
people think, I think 2013 is the best year you could ever have in your life.
From
what I have read from your post “Ground Zero”, 2013 is the year that provides
the most important opportunity of metamorphosis for you, both in terms of
personal as well as political development.
Although
I hardly write to you about anything but in private, I have raised the concerns
of your early political fame. Especially when you are blown out of the sky by
the initial political fame gained with so many people flattering you, there
lies the very danger of a devastating fall and destruction by the overinflated
ego.
There is
a Chinese saying, “少年得志大不幸”,literally
means that most of those who have early fame or success in life, will probably
end up with misfortune later. Right after GE2011, I actually felt guilty for
transforming you into a “famous young Star” by urging you to stand for
elections in Marine Parade which will inevitably put you into this dangerous
path of “early fame”. As I watched over the days, months and years of how you
have set your feet onto the sweet coated poisons of flattery and ego trips, I
felt even worse. When I was persuading you to stand for elections in Marine
Parade GRC, I have told you that you will definitely become famous or even a
star, due to Tin PL
factor of contrast and comparison. However, somehow I have left out the most
important part of the potential danger lying ahead after becoming famous.
I didn’t
write to you earlier because I know, there and then, you will not be able take
criticisms constructively when what you heard most, was flattery. Pride and
prejudice have become the biggest hindrance of your life. Anybody at your age
if put into your shoes, would inevitably become so.
When I
witnessed how you tripped and fell along the way with the various blunders you
made publicly in forums, talks or in private, I thought to myself, all the
efforts would be a waste after all. One will fall the hardest after he or she
has climbed to the highest of the ego ladder. This is a historical lesson I
learnt; the most effective way of destroying your opponents is to fan their ego
to the highest and then after, give them the hardest blow to make them fall the
hardest. They will never be able to stand up again to fight you. Strength comes
not from your physical construct, but rather, from your mind and soul. Once
your mind is destroyed by the fall from the ego ladder, no matter how strong
you are in physical terms, you will lose the will to fight again.
When I
read what you have written in this article “Ground Zero”, I feel so glad and
happy for you. You have finally gone through the most difficult phase of this process
of transition. Not many people can overcome this transition, a ruthless metamorphosis
that will strip you of mind and soul. Some have even perished, taken their own
lives for they cannot take the humiliation that comes from the fall from the
ego ladder.
Thus, I
have to congratulate you for making it through such enlightening process.
However, I still hope that you can reconstruct your mind and soul to continue
the political path which you have chosen to walk, with more wisdom and
patience. Intelligence alone is not enough for one to walk the difficult, risky
and uncertain path of opposition politics. You need wisdom, tact, patience,
learning, hard work, team play and building, apart from charisma and stardom,
to sustain and be successful in opposition politics.
When you
and other ex-RP people joined NSP and perform well in GE2011, I was extremely
happy. However, I am utterly disappointed on how you guys run the campaign and
later, demonstrate the impatience to take over the leadership of the party. I
have no problem to hand over the SG at all but I guess it is the wrong thing to
do after all.
Let me
explain why I think you and others who are new to NSP are extremely politically
naive and amateurish when you guys tried to take over the party. And why I
decided to let Hazel become SG and allowing my membership lapsed as well.
Politics
is not just about Stardom or Fame, not even about “talents”, be it “scholars”
or whatever it means. It is about numbers and people management. Apparently,
all of you have underestimated the strength of the “veterans” or “original
members” of NSP. All you have focused is about what you want but nothing about
the feelings or other people’s thinking or perception.
When I
first join NSP way back in 2007, I didn’t even want to hold any position in
CEC, although I was co-opted into it. But I still spent lots of effort and time
to help Law Sin Ling, the then SG of NSP in various work; discussion of press
releases, editorial of North Star, ground work as selling North Star etc. I
wasn’t interested in taking up the SG post even after Law left. Not even when
the veterans persuaded me to take over. The reason is simple: I was simply not
ready to take up the SG because I have yet to gain confidence of the members.
It will take time for anyone who wants to lead a whole group of people who are
mostly older than you, to understand them better and find out more about each
and every one of them. Else, any rush into such leadership position will be
suicidal.
Anyone
who tries to push you to take over such leadership position prematurely will definitely have
ulterior motives or hidden agendas. It is actually a DEATH TRAP because once you
take up that position, most probably you will not able to perform well because
you lack the basic understanding of each individual in the party, least their
full support, trust and confidence. Positions aren’t there for good showing
only. They come with great responsibility and you will be putting your own
credibility to great risk if you do not have the right conditions to excel.
Thus, it
was only after Ken Sun stepped down and knowing the GE was near, I took up the
post of SG. However, it is not without obstacle. There will always be others
who want to be difficult and try to undermine your authority or position. There was one
veteran who wanted to contest for the SG post. I told everyone, including him,
right before the CEC elections that if he could find two congress members to
propose and second him to contest for the SG post, I would decline nomination
and let him be SG. He could only get one member to nominate him but no other to
second him. The rest is history.
The
point I want to show through my own experience, is that never underestimate the
people around you. In politics, you cannot cherry pick but have to work with
people whom you may not like at all. This is what team work is all about. As long
as they are not there to destroy or sabotage the whole platform, you will have
to play ball as a team player with them.
But when
I saw how impatient the whole lot of you was rushing into demanding leadership
positions, especially the SG post, I could only laugh at such naivety. I could
have contested against Hazel and by now you should realize, most probably Hazel
won’t win if there was a contest between us. (see afternote) But I didn’t. I empathized with
your group’s plight, especially Tony and Hazel who have hopped from WP to RP
and last (hopefully), NSP. They felt helpless of such “party hopping” because
they felt that the main problem was that they do not have absolute control of
their destiny via controlling the party platform. Furthermore, most likely if
Hazel didn’t become SG there and then, your whole group would most likely leave
NSP. Your group will become “political nomads”, so to speak. It will be a
lose-lose situation for everyone of us. Even if I won the SG post, the whole party
would still lose because we would lose the whole bunch of good, though
politically inexperienced people.
However,
I also foresaw that Hazel and the rest will not succeed basically because she
won’t be able to commit the kinds of time and efforts demanded from a SG.
Furthermore, taking up such position prematurely without even first knowing the
whole party well inside out, will definitely handicapped her effectiveness as
SG. Running a party of ALL volunteers is MORE demanding than running a company.
This is because for a commercial entity, you can just hire and fire but not for
a political party of volunteers. You will have to spend triple effort in
managing PEOPLE, human beings who have different egos and characteristics.
This is
the reason why I have to let my membership lapse because of these predictions, I
do not want to be made the scapegoat for being blamed for Hazel’s failure. True
enough, from extraordinary long time in publishing the first issue of North
Star right after GE2011, to lack of leadership on the ground work front and
such, my predictions came true. It is just a matter of time before she fell
from that position.
I have
spent so much writing on these because I want to let you know, it will do you
no good to be impatient in taking up political positions in NSP CEC when you
cannot commit that level of efforts and time needed to be effective. Most
important of all, you will need to spend more time to understand everyone in
the party, not restricting to CEC members only. Else, even if you managed to get
whatever position you aimed for, you will find yourself stonewalled and
frustrated at all the time.
The
other point which you have raised in your article Ground Zero, is that you
realize you are not expert in everything. The truth is, if you want to be a
politician, even just as an opposition MP, you will have to know almost everything with certain depth, though
not to the expert level. It is good that you have such realization and you are
still young. You could still put effort in learning more policy matters; enrich
yourself with the learning of Economics, statistics or even sociology and
technology etc. This is an ever learning path for politicians.
Last but
not least, I do have confidence and hope in you to progress into an even more
potent political force after this great year of 2013. I always remind myself:
one learns nothing from being blown out of the sky by ego fanning but only from
setbacks and failures in life, one will get valuable lessons to prepare for the
future.
All the BEST to you in your
future political battles.
Goh Meng Seng
Afternote: Well, even if Hazel managed to win in a contest against me during that CEC elections, she would lose even more. She would be seen as an ambitious. anxious maverick who ousted the SG whom agreed to take them into NSP. She would be seen in the same light of those backstabbers. How could she actually "win" anything via such process? Such contest will do her no good at all. Thus, the only way to resolve such lose-lose situation, was for me to step aside willingly for her to take over the SG post because she would not stand down from the contest as she has been misled into such situation. All poisons are disguised with lots of good intentions and flattery in politics. Only amateurs fail to see through such plots.
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