Saturday, July 14, 2007

Difficult to find a good law minister?

Today paper had an editorial about the difficulty of finding a good law minister in Singapore. The underlying problems, and possible solutions, are explained in detail in the article.

My view?

The root cause is our system of selecting ministers. They have to be selected from among the elected members of parliament. This reduces the pool of potential candidates considerably. (We follow the British system).

What is the alternative?

We can consider the American system. The citizens elect their members of Congress (ie Parliament) and a President.

The President picks his ministers (i.e secretary of the various departments) from the entire population. The nominated perons have to be approved by the Congress.

Many other countries also follow the American system. It gives a wider choice of suitable people.



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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

But isn't the PAP set to win almost every parliamentary seat? So what difference does it make?

I think finding a suitable candidate who is willing to give up his current career and to enter politics might be the prime difficulty.

July 15, 2007 1:24 AM
Khiat Han Hwee Adrian said...

In Singapore, success is often guaged by the amount of money you earns. Hence many people works extremely hard like a slave for money.

There are lesser and lesser people who works for passion and obligation for the country.

Thats the probable reason for the ministers' payrise. The govt need to use a money value to attrat and retain good ministers.

July 15, 2007 2:01 AM
Anonymous said...

Let's wait for the debate on section 377.As usual there two sides; The protagonists and antagonists. Who are the players, you all know.Meantime the stage is set for the wayang.
The law minister is the producer.

July 16, 2007 12:50 PM

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