In place of the usual timorous headlines, we’re seeing our dailies bristling with more strident ones announcing how feedback groups are calling for better political governance, more electoral transparency and a more level political playing field.

For Singaporean consumers of local news, deadened to openness by years of editorial censorship, it’s a strange feeling seeing the “sanctity” stripped off so many sacred cows. The most radical proposals even include changes to electoral practices such as making it easier for people to contest elections and limiting the use of the Internal Security Act.

So will the government go all out to inject some verve and buzz into a country that’s had its soul regimented out of it? Will it take the opinions of ordinary citizens, not the same old key members of the elite, and apply them to make a difference in how this country is run?

The jury is still out on this and while hopes run high they have to be held in check. After all, the ink has barely dried on the proposals of the various Feedback Unit groups whose suggestions were not conjured overnight. They were the result of one and a half years of painstaking research.

So it is only fair that the government should be given time to digest the information and decide what suggestions to apply, what to amend and what to jettison. Besides, many of the proposals, while commonplace in multi-party democracies, are rather radical for single-party Singapore, especially the ones on political governance.

Hopefully, the government on its part will not view these proposals as an affront to its authority, moral or otherwise. Instead, it should see this as a chance for it to prove to the people that it is putting its money where its mouth is. This will be the government’s litmus test. Perception being everything in politics and public life, how the government treats the political feedback group’s proposal will show how serious it is about true engagement with the people.

In any case, it is only by having constant and consistent evaluation of the political governance system that a fertile ground can be created for civil society to thrive, without which there can be none of the bustling creativity that our country so badly needs. If people are divorced from the decision making process a sense of alienation will set in and the result is a whole bunch of dissatisfied citizens itching to leave the country.

Indeed, according to a survey by pollsters ACNielsen, a poll of 1000 Singaporeans showed that two out of ten wanted to settle abroad permanently. The numbers wanting to migrate showed a rise from 14 percent last October to 21 percent in July this year. What is disturbing is that unlike in other Asian countries where people go abroad and then return, Singaporeans tend to leave permanently, taking all their wealth and reinvesting it in other countries.

Strange that in a country where the standard of living is superior to many First World nations there should be such a high proportion of its citizens wanting to leave permanently. Most studies on immigration show that movement is usually one way - from undeveloped countries (with their attendant lower quality of life) to rich, developed countries. This is not Myanmar or pre-communist era Russia. So what gives?

I guess it all boils down to a feeling of freedom and belonging. People want to stay only where they feel wanted. And how do they feel wanted? In somewhat the same way, I guess, as children are made to feel wanted in a well-adjusted family.

Children feel noticed and wanted when their cries of distress or dissent or their shouts of joy and anger are heard, dealt with respectfully and addressed. When the parents spend “quality time” with their children, the happy youngsters will not mind the time the parents are away from them and they will be more willing to accept their other short-comings as parents.

But if the parents repeatedly talk down to their children or give them short shrift in their attempts to communicate, there will be a disconnect, even a cooling of feelings between them and their children and the result is a dysfunctional family.

Then it should come as no surprise to the parents if the children pack their bags and quit the family nest as soon as they are old enough to stand on their feet. It should come as no surprise if the elders find themselves in a graying and uniform landscape where youth and vitality have fled

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