c. With the "commercialisation" of the govt and civil service and the effective control of the mass media, a "false" sense of social propserity and security and a false sense of collective social consciousness about Singapore society and the welfare of its people, as is much prevalent in our society presently), which has been successfully propagated to the outside world and among its own Singaporean peoples, as originally intended by the PAP govt... Bottomline, with a present "weak" civil voice and a strong PAP Govt which has dominated our Singapore Society over the past 35 years, how does we inspire and "re-awaken" the "silent" majority Singaporeans to the actual truth about life in Singapore and to be socially and politically more active and responsible for their own life so as to nurture this collective social/civil voice/movement as the "social conscience/instincts" of Singaporeans in the near future, so as to be able to collectively and openly demand for increased transparency and public accountability for their various policies from the PAP Govt?

d. Personally and like many "unthinking" Singaporeans before me, I have previously thought that the present so-called civil rights movement in Singapore, is much a Western idealogy import, which was much "alien" to me, (and I believe, also to the silent majority in Singapore) as it is still in its infancy stage in Singapore. It seemed to be a a sort of "arm-chair, leisure hobby for some retiring rich and educated "thinking-Singaporeans" to indulge in, in their attempt to bring forth a more gracious and civic society within Singapore for our future generations", as one of the audience members has highlighted during the question time. "What will this civil movement/rights benefits future Singaporeans?" asked the same "skeptical" audience member. I know that he is not alone, as there are many equally-"skeptical-minded" Singaporeans. Thus the need for more public education for the silent majority about their civil/social rights as Singaporeans before collectively, they can effectively "internalise" this civil rights "emotionally" as their basic constitutional rights, which need to be closely guarded by way of collective self-preservation and social instincts?

e. How to promote civil/constitutional rights movement in Singapore, when the majority of Singaporeans are kept "busy" to earn a decent living and as "unthinking" Singaporeans and where the PAP Govt are allowed to easily change/revise the laws of Singapore to suit its own purpose, even to the extent of curbing/revising the civil/constitutional rights of the individuals from time to time?...Unless we "re-awaken" the silent majority in Singapore collectively about the present prevailing sense of "false consciouness" and false propserity/security among Singaporeans to the actual political realities of life in Singapore... But is now the right time to do this? (or/and the right thing to do, bearing in mind the implications of Maslow's Hierachy of Human Needs in our Singapore Society, as argued by some pro-PAP apologists?)

f. The civil rights movement in Singapore, in my view, is still in its early infancy stage and is "weak" as it is largely confined to the English-educated Singaporeans, as I can survey from last night forum participants/audience. In its present form, the "silent-majority", especially the Chinese-educated Chinese Community, will have difficulty identify themselves with. I'm not sure if you could agree with me on this matter?

g. I agree with Dr. Catherine Lim that it is so "tiring" for the various civic organisations to try to extract a little more civil freedom for the people from the present paternalistic PAP Govt and to loosen its control over its people. That Singaporeans has a basic civil/social rights to talk about politics in Singapore, without becoming a politician officially, is also without doubt and important for an average Singaporean. However, I do not totally share Catherine's pessimism in total, as I believe that with increasingly more educated and a more vocal younger Singaporean voter group, the need for more space and freedom for civil/social voice and rights will naturally emerge over time, by way of achieving a social equibirium among future Singaporeans.

h. I do also agree with Chong Kee that if Singaporeans were to strictly follow the PAP Govt, time will also come that PAP Govt will need to re-adjust itself again subsequently, as in time to come, a generation of weak,selfish-minded, pragrmatic and self-centred unthinking Singaporeans, who are good at following but not good at leading its own people, a scenario which is highly undesirable for the political future of Singapore, will emerge... There is therefore this intrinsic need to delicately balance the extent of political control to be achieved by the PAP Govt vis-a-vis its own ability to grant more of the desired grassroot political freedom to the average Singaporeans. I like to draw an analogy of the Govt-People relationship , to be like living in a family,like watching a growing-up adolescent girl trying to fight for her own rights of freedom and self-privacy against from her highly detached, autocractic, conservative and paternalistic Asian father. Thus, we have to ask ourselves, "At what age is the "girl" now and when she will be ready to be fully responsible and be accountable for herself, to be allowed to exercise her rights fully within the context and acceptable limits of her family?" Likewise, the need for the PAP-Govt to check itself in loosening its political control and allowing its people to exercise their civil freedoms, within the context of our highly fragile multi-racial, multi-religious Singapore Society... Thus, I find Catherine Lim's mention of the PAP Govt's rhetoric, "Freedom from who and for who?" interesting, in the context of what the PAP paternalistic Govt has done for Singaporeans in general.

i. Thus, to openly "confront" the PAP Govt for more political freedom is undesirable, as the ever-powerful PAP Govt is still "insecure" of its own power and not ready to "freely" and further loosen its control to its people at this point in time. The PAP Govt will only do so, at their own comfortable pace,place, timing and in the form that they themselves can accept. Morever, such a move risks creating unneccessary social tensions, which may unknowingly, dislocate the present "social equilibrium" in our so-called highly- fragile multi-racial, multi-religious Singapore Society.

j. To me, that the PAP Govt will encourage the development of a civil society within Singapore, is without doubt, provided the civil society-to-be, is one which they are comfortable with. Unfortunately, this is the harsh political reality in Singapore and regretably a fundamental issue of "who wields the real power and has the political influence in Singapore".

k. That each time the PAP Govt do have certain doubts about the certain directions of the civil rights movement development in Singapore, such as allowing the freedom of speech and free association to the fullest limits, they are allowed to decide and express it in the form of "unreluctunt" approval or/and token support for the proposed programmes, with some implicit OB markers, is clearly shown through their less-than-active "experimentation" of the "Speaker's Corner" at Hong Lim Park, in support of the people's cry for more freedom of free speech and free association. Thus, the issue is the timing and readiness of the PAP Govt to address the civil rights of its people, at a time and place and in the form which it is more comfortable with, rather than for/against civil right movement in Singapore.

l. If the issue of civil rights movement being allowed to be developed at the pace, in the form and as directed and decided by the PAP Govt, (presumbly in consultation with its people), will this not beg the same question, as " is it meaningful for us to try to develop a "civil society" with implicit self-built-in Govt-OB-markers limitations, within Singapore, which was originally intended and decided by the PAP Govt, as in the case of PAP Govt's "no-go" position for AMP to develop itself as the alternative Malay voice within the Malay Community in Singapore"

m. Likewise, within limits and not for long as I can foresee, the PAP Govt can ill-afford to totally ignore and to neglect its people, without hurting its own political control and risk losing the people's mandate in future elections, (irrespective of the state of the present civil rights movement), because of the silent-(but powerful)-majority in Singapore.

n. Any attempt to subjudgate the dominance of politics under civil rights, is, in my personal view, at best a "meaningless" time-consuming academic exercise, as without the neccessary political power to "contain" and "re-shape" the ever-powerful PAP Govt, either from within by having more pro-civil PAP MPs or/and from outside through a more credible opposition voice in/outside Parliament, it is futile to speak of developing the people's rights meaningfully until we have effectively "re-awakened", unleash and "re-channel" the dormant power of the silent majority into an effective vocal grassroot political voice for the people, capable of deciding of determining its own political destiny independantly and holding its govt to be publicly accountable for its various policies from time to time, instead of becoming the kind of "Govt-directed" society which the present PAP Govt has mandated for its future Singapore.

o. What does the present civil rights movement seriously hope to achieve that the PAP Govt is not doing for its people? Can the civil rights movement still be a viable and effective "civil/social" voice, without entering politics, in our present context where the PAP political dominance are so pervarsive where they can afford to continue to be "insensitive, arrogant and high-handed" in its policy implementation while the silent majority Singaporeans chose to remain socially and politically "apathetic" about its own destiny through an implanted sense of learned "social helplessness" from its Govt?

I have no definite conclusions/answers to some of the above issues raised myself at this point in time, as I have just decided to become a "thinking" Singaporean recently. I hope you can enlighten me more about the civil right movement in Singapore and to share some of your own personal views on the various issues discussed.

Thank you very much.