Somemore have Superman and his red brief one… MDA so happening!!

Balderdash has the full lyrics.

It is so painful to watch that I got angrier as the video progressed. This is how they are spending public money. On self gratification (look Ma, I’m a RAP STAR!) and amateurish “song” writing efforts. Even my daughter’s school skit is more enjoyable than this is. Considering how good the MDA is at cutting out parts of others’ movies, they should have done the most important cut in their career: the entire cut of this sad sad video.

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Coincidentally, this video with its sad bunch of middle aged wannabes reminded me of the equally horrendous bunch of MPs dancing at the Chingay Parade.

Sometimes I wish I had been living in the era of the 50s where Lee Kuan Yew and David Marshall had been fighting out their political battles in that fiery, eloquent, charismatic and passionate manner. No manner of such pansy posturing would have been tolerated in that era..

I remember watching videos of LKY’s and David Marshall’s political speeches and debates with my father, and I was floored by both their imposing stances, measured cadences and their arresting eloquence. That passion and that fiery belief… something very sadly absent in the current bunch of lembeh pansies.

Those videos are moldy now and we did not have DVDs back then. But thankfully the essence that is David Marshall, that sharp unerring wit and that acerbic mince-no-words passion is commemorated here. (Thanks to Dharmendra Yadav)

Some extracts :

..In my time, I tried to educate our people in an understanding of the dignity of human life and their right as fellow human beings, and youth was not only interested but excited about what I consider things that matter. Things of the spirit; the development of a human being to his true potential in accordance with his own personal genius in the context of equal rights of others.

Today, youth is interested in getting paper qualification and, as soon as possible, shoveling gold into their bank accounts. It’s a different world, even the law…

…I’ve got nothing against money. I’d like to have money myself! I’d like to have a house and a garden and dogs and a car and a chauffeur but, look, I’ve got a flat. I’ve got a swimming pool attached to the flat. I’ve not even got a car but I use taxis. I have a dignified way of life without being wealthy.

We have lost sight of the joy and excitement of public service, helping our fellow men. The joy and excitement of seeking and understanding of the joy of the miracle of the living the duty and the grandeur. We have lost taste for heroic action in the service of our people….

We have become good bourgeois seeking comfort, security. It’s like seeking a crystal coffin and being fed by intravenous injections through pipes in the crystal coffin; crystal coffins stuck with certificates of your pragmatic abilities.

…The government doesn’t see I do respect them immensely. They don’t see I’m a genuine friend. They only see me as a critic and to be a critic is to be an enemy who must be erased and destroyed. There is no such thing as an honest critic to the PAP. It’s a blasphemy to criticise the emperor, spoilt son of heaven….

…Try and understand that the law is a vocation and not a business. Respect your client irrespective of the fees. I used to charge $1 for a murder case if he was Malay because he had no money. I used to charge $1 to trade unions; all Malay unions, I charged $1 a year. And the $1 is simply because, if you do it for nothing, you are not liable in negligence whereas $1 makes a contract and, if you are negligent, they can sue you…

…Even today, my friends say, “Oh, David, stop it! Why do you have to keep making public noises that annoy the government? Live in dignity and retirement. They’ll respect you and you’ll have the honours.”

Ha, honours! I want to fight till I’m dead!

What matters most in life is the right of human beings to live fully in the context of their own genius. In one word, perhaps, to fight for human justice. I once said humanity’s cry for human justice reverberates down the corridors of the centuries, and it is still crying for human justice…

I am especially moved by the part I marked in bold. And he is so right. The Singaporean people are stricken by a paralyzing materialism today. Yours truly here is also not spared, but only on a smaller degree. Little Speck writes beautifully about the decline in collective morality and the increasing individualism and self reliance in us.

Ah, the wisdom of David Marshall. And if he was still alive, he would have the lembeh pansies for lunch.