Responsible gardening
All citizens of democracies must account for their choices
05:55 AM Aug 19, 2009
Letter from Sanjay Perera
I REFER to "Fault lines in our Garden of Eden state" by Dr Eugene Tan (Aug 18).
Dr Tan rightly points out that in the Garden of Eden there is temptation and "in the garden were the seeds of man's fall from grace".
But perhaps we need to examine this idea a little closer. The reality is not so much that the Garden of Eden has within it the cause of its collapse, but that it is the choice of each human being that decides how things evolve.
Each of us has the capacity of free will and can decide what is right and what is wrong. Singapore is at a happy crossroads where it can take effective steps to open up and develop as a mature society.
Part of evolving into a mature society is the recognition that people are responsible for the governments they elect. They are also responsible for the societies they allow to develop in their name.
What is stopping anyone in Singapore from forming groups of communities to help themselves, help society, or improve the environment? Or from engaging the government of the day as part of a democratic process?
Any situation of disempowerment can only be resolved by people taking full responsibility for their lives and bringing ideas forward from the ground up.
We can look at a maturing state like Singapore as a Garden State, in that we have evolving ecosystems of citizenry taking responsibility for themselves and others, as well as living in a harmonious state of cooperation, tolerance and reasonableness.
The Government leaders are gardeners who tend the Garden State and give direction, nurturing and allowing space for growth and variety to breed a healthy social resilience.
Each of us is responsible for the collective consciousness of our societies. And we need to put aside our excuses and start believing that we can create the country of our dreams if we only acknowledge our own part in it.
