Good for S'pore to have strong govt & opposition: observers - 06Apr2011

SINGAPORE : Political observers said it would be good for Singapore to have a strong government and opposition, but for a two-party system to work, both sides need to attract the right talents.

They were responding to Tuesday's comments made by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong that such a system could never work for Singapore because it is tough assembling an A-team.

Mr Lee also noted that it is a challenge to attract talents from the private sector.

Of the 15 candidates unveiled so far by the ruling People's Action Party, two-thirds are from the public sector and labour movement. Only five are from the private sector.

And the party admits it has been a challenge getting private sector talents into politics.
And for opposition parties, candidates said even more is at stake.

Yee Jenn Jong, potential candidate, Workers' Party, said: "I know the uphill battle that an opposition MP would face and if I do get elected then I would seriously go full-time and put my business on the back-end.

"It's a particular challenge because the lack of resources on the opposition side means a lot of things you have to do it yourself. And if you have to serve the residents well, you have to make that decision, so I'm prepared to do that."

Mr Yee currently runs his own education technology company.

Unlike the ruling PAP, the opposition is largely limited to the private sector in its search for talents, said observers.

Political observer Zulkifli Baharudin said: "Maybe it's easier for those coming from the public sector to take up positions in government by joining the PAP, for example, and that I think is because you can see that as part of a promotion! That's quite a vertical movement for them."

Observers added that having a diverse group of talents in government is important. Private sector individuals, they said, bring their own set of expertise.

Mr Zulkifli said: "This government needs people who understand economy at large, understand the people and how they should be governed. So you need to have a good cross-section of people in government. I think most people in the private sector are fully aware of how the market economy operates and quite a few of them would have travelled a lot.

"If you see now, one of the rare exceptions of our government is that a lot of our ministers do themselves take the effort to travel and learn for themselves how things work. If not for that, it's going to be very difficult for them to keep pace of what's going on.

"The private sector person would be in a better position to appreciate this and be equipped with experiences on what's going on in this world and how things work or he would have a strong networking with people around the world of that level and that would be very important for a small country like ours."

Mr Gan added: "It is necessary for the government to constitute people from both the private and public sectors because there must be diversity of views. Therefore, I believe that a disproportionate representation from either the public or private sector will not be healthy."

Opposition parties have also been pushing for a two-party system. They said such a system will help Singapore in case the present government falters. But they have also admitted that at this point, they are not ready to form a government because there's not enough talent in the pool.

Observers said a two-party system can provide the necessary checks and balance, but they also sounded a warning.

"We have to be careful here. As far as we are concerned now, we have almost a one-party system that has delivered. I do not think a very adversarial system works well for Singapore. However, it does not mean that we do not want to have an opposition," said Mr Zulkifli.

Mr Yee added: "It's always about building the team and the reason why I joined (Workers' Party) is because I felt that the team has been credible so far and it has been building up to a certain momentum, such that it is ready for more people to come in and to really take the step so that we are ready to form the next government, at some point in time.

"Now, how fast we will take, really depends on whether people will give us the chance. If after all the talents come in and we do not get into Parliament, then Singapore is not quite ready for it yet, but I hope in this election, there will be some breakthrough."

- CNA/al

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