Skip to main content

Policy failures or political intended mistakes.



To laugh or to cry?
Elected Presidency is a policy failure as claimed by Kishore Mahbubani#1. It is just too simple to just call it a  policy failure after nearly 30 years later. Of course, we may call it an intended political mistake. It was designed to make rooms for improvements or reform at the first place, as in the case of the opening speech of President Tony Tan at 13th Parliament.


To the PAP, it hardly is a failure or a mistake.  The design of EP is politically intended to blur the voters. All creative political designs under the PAP are for the party, not Singaporeans. As times change, the PAP’s EP winning chances get threatened, they will have to find new solutions. So do the schemes for non-constituency members of parliament, Group Representation Constituencies and nominated MPs.      

The so-called political reform is another tool to strengthen the one-party rule in Singapore. And their excuse is the PAP has the strong mandate.  Even this so-called 'strong mandate' is man-made. The PAP knows it too well. Hence, they have to plan ahead to change the rules of the political game.

EP is a serious business. In a very rare happening, the PAP even agreed (and allowed) to a TV debate.#2


When the new parliament begins to debate on EP issues, we should check and compare the validity of the PAP positions now and then. Singaporeans should open their eyes ‘big and wide’ to see the logic behind the suggested improvements.    
Kishore Mahbubani at least admits EP (and stop at two)  is a policy failure and prefers a minority race to be President elected by the Parliament - the old bottle. This means all 2011 EP candidates cannot stand again as they are Chinese. This will push the history back to 1988, when there was a TV debate on EP.  Will the PAP engage the oppositions again to another TV debate on their proposed reform or improvement on our political system?

#1
http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/lets-talk-about-policy-failures-and-the-elected-presidency



 #2 
The debate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlI_3opTlaQ


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sub-standard PAP and the Singapore education system

I make a 'policy shift' when I hear the debate of right politics, constructive politics and sub-standard opposition. My original aim is to discuss about “Su Dongbo, Zhang Juzheng and Singapore education system”. The discussion will end with a sub-standard PAP, in particular from the assessment of the quality of PAP potential candidates. Another policy shift is to discuss it like a play, a drama and make it more entertainment rather than a sub-standard political discussion. Act 1 Gangster’s demand Imagine a sense in the Hong Kong's gangster movie (or a godfather movie), the gangsters' master is shouting at his poor opponent and demand him to give a price for his wrong act. The poor guy without any resources can only offer his body or his service to work for the master. Back in his own chamber, the master is still not satisfied and continues to shout 'don't play, play, you think you are hero, you think you are tiger, or superstar or acting ...
275 comments
Read more

EBRC objectives: Stop “Out of Aljunied”, Stop SDP Breakthrough and “Negative-Asset” Ministers.

First of all, we have to congratulate the Electoral Boundaries Review Committee for creating more competitions, especially, multi-cornered competitions in the East. When making changes, EBRC aims to achieve 3 goals: To prevent “Out of Aljunied” for Workers’ Party.  This is the most important objective. To prevent Singapore Democratic Party making any breakthrough in the North and Central.   To look for a solution to retire “negative-asset” ministers or reduce PAP damages. From the reported claims from different political parties, we will expect multi-cornered contests not only in single constituencies but also in group representative constituencies. The PAP hopes to have a repeat of 2011 Presidential Election. Then Tony Tan won the Presidency when he got only 35% of the votes, a narrow win.However, a win is still a win. He did in even in the very last minute, after recounts of votes.    How to achieve multi-cornered contests? By i...
65 comments
Read more

Is Prism Project Another Central Planning of the PAP?

There are 3 scenarios under the Prism Project#1 of Institute of Public Policy.  However, it looks more like the central scenario planning of the People’s Action Party. From the instructional menu of Prism Project Primer #2, participants were guided to a situation in 2022 and they have to imagine, within the Primer framework, to come out with 3 possible scenarios in Jun-Aug 2012.  2022. What a coincidence! Not long ago, PM Lee declared that he would like to hold the prime minister post for another 10 years. The other coincidence is the similarity between the 3 scenarios and the candidates of PE2011. How competitive and sustainable are the 3 scenarios to the people of Singapore and to the PAP?   Will the scenarios produce competitive and sustainable Singapore, Singaporeans or the PAP?  Perhaps, as what the Chinese say: planning cannot always catch up with changes.   And planning sometimes turns out the wrong, bad and unexpected results, espec...
50 comments
Read more