Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Loss of Foreign Minister

Sunday, May 08, 2011

Loss of Foreign Minister

We have lost an experienced foreign minister, George Yeo. Here are some ways to get him back into this position.

The PAP can call a by-election in one of its SMCs. George Yeo can contest in the by-election and is likely to be returned to Parliament and can continue as foreign minister.
This requires one of the elected MP to be willing to give up his or her hard won seat for the good of the country. Any takers?

Another approach is to allow a minister to be appointed that is not a member of Parliament. Read my Open Letter to the Prime Minister here. This open letter was sent out a few days before the election.

Tan Kin Lian

17 comments:

Hermit said...: Hi Kin Lian.

I strongly object any form of return of G Yeo into parliament. Don't get me wrong. Nothing against him. It is we must respect the system and the voters.

The voters got him out and according to the system, he has to stay out. By opening a side door for G Yeo, we are making a mockery of the system, as well as an insult to the voters who have made their decision.; May 08, 2011 10:03 AM
Tan Kin Lian said...: Hi solo bear
The system of re-election through a by-election is used in many countries in the past, but I am not sure if it is still practiced today.; May 08, 2011 10:27 AM
Lye Khuen Way said...: It was the PAP's idea of a GRC ( specifically, GCT's) that resulted in two quite capable ministers losing their seats. The sad part is that there are more than two Not-so-likable PAP ministers that scrapped through.
"What-can-I-say", but I must say.
The PAP need to rethink this GRC concept. Minority representation can be ensure throught other means.
Let the million $ ministers crack their heads. For once, I refuse to offer any bright-ideas.

Mr Tan's suggestion of a by-election to let George Yeo have another go, is sensible.
As for the appointment of non parliamentarian as a minister, willl need Constitutional Amendment. Not an issue with > two thirds majority, nut will take time.
With LSL promising to listen more, that might have a chance.
I suspect, his apologies, did wonders in swinging enough votes back to the PAP, in many wards across the island.; May 08, 2011 10:29 AM
Chee Ming said...: There is an allegation against Miss Tin about a remark she made on the Cooling Day by the NSP. Unfortunately, from my observation, Miss Tin is not really popular amongst Singaporeans. Is it possible that Miss Tin get disqualified and her seat have to go through a by-election?; May 08, 2011 11:44 AM
Vincent Sear said...: I happened to be one of those who're familiar with WP Hougang and Aljunied groundworks and feedback. The decision to contest Aljunied was a foregone conclusion, it was just a matter of who joined Sylvia there.

The boundary map was so drawn that Hougang is an island within Aljunied that incorporates about a third of old dismantled Cheng San. Hence PAP made Aljunied a must-contest for WP and believed George Yeo popular enough to defend it.

However LHL compromised laymen perception of his foreign affairs competency by having LKY and GCT handling almost all the heavyweight foreign affair issues.

As for grassroot groundworks and popularity of WP in Aljunied, PAP complacently forgot that Hougang is in Aljunied containing a huge chunk of Cheng San. The gerrymandering backfired this time. The LTK effect wouldn't have been of this magnitude in another GRC where he's not so well known.

In any case, it was LKY himself who challenged LTK that if he's a good leader, stop hiding in SMC, come out and contest GRC. And it was also LKY himself who pre-declared that by-election shall be held to save any minister lost.; May 08, 2011 12:23 PM
LEONG said...: PAP govt would not call a by-election even upon the death of a seating MP previously. If they were to bring back George Yeo as you suggested, wouldn't it sound manipulative?
Much as everybody loves to have George Yeo back, but they created the Monster that is the GRC system, so they have to live with it.; May 08, 2011 12:45 PM
Vincent Sear said...: Correction to earlier post:

In any case, it was LKY himself who challenged LTK that if he's a good leader, stop hiding in SMC, come out and contest GRC. And it was also LKY himself who pre-declared that NO by-election shall be held to save any minister lost.; May 08, 2011 12:57 PM
Redstar said...: Let's not forget that "no one is indispensable" including good, old Harry.
Also, let this be a valuable lesson to humble the men in white. As the saying goes, the race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong - Ecc 9:11; May 08, 2011 3:18 PM
Hermit said...: Vincent, thanks for sharing with us the workings of how Aljunied was won over.

As a feedback, I feel that WP has to work the next 5 years to convince the minorities that WP is not just a Chinese oriented party. Here is my feedback.; May 08, 2011 4:43 PM
Vincent Sear said...: Solo Bear, thanks for your comment and feedback. CSM actually joined WP since 2007, but he only came back to Singapore about once every two months, so he wasn't widely know. He was only officially introduced to party members in January 2011 when he confirmed his commitment to stand for election.

Most got a plesant surprise and even pleasant shock like, where the hell they found this guy from? I understand he's a friend of Eric Tan (WP Treasuer and former banker with Royal Bank of Canada).

Anyway, fast forward to the future, yes, the next thing WP must ensure that the new Aljunied TC and MPS must be in place in time and be run smoothly so as not to disappoint the voters.; May 08, 2011 5:42 PM
bluexpresso said...: Was George Yeo a good Minister? April 2005 in Parliament – Goh Chok Tong:”Right from the beginning, I kept an open mind on the casino question. When the subject was first broached by George Yeo, the Minister for Trade and Industry, PM and many Ministers were against it. The project nearly did not see the light of day.
But George Yeo persisted. As the Minister in charge of the economy, he had to persist.” 20 Feb 1994 Straits Times – George Yeo:”Remember your place in society before you engage in political debate… Debate cannot (de)generate into a free-for-all where no distinction is made between the senior and junior party… You must make distinctions – What is high, what is low, what is above, what is below, and then within this, we can have a debate, we can have a discussion… people should not take on those in authority as ‘equals’.”; May 08, 2011 6:00 PM
michael13 said...: The best and fastest way to reform the PAP is to join the Worker Party now. Hope that Mr. George Yeo will seriously consider this possible option after a defeat in the electoral contest of Aljunied GRC on May 7th. This is NOT the end of the world for the PAP and its elites as popularly described by many.

In fact, many of our top political leaders are behind the curve in this fast changing political landscape of Singapore. Sad to say that.; May 09, 2011 12:26 PM
yujuan said...: Many people believe that the casino
is the pet subject of PM Lee, but he pushed George Yeo out to be the front
man to do the dirty work.
Poor old George, after the job is done, he is sacrificed on the chopping board.
Were very surprised he agreed to be the smokescreen, as he is a very pious Catholic, Christianity also against gambling, don't tell us George is not a real Christian.; May 09, 2011 12:33 PM
Vincent Sear said...: During the casino debate, two ministers were openly and directly championing the cause, George Yeo and Vivian Balakrishnan. LHL having just taken over PM tried to act neutral but it was obvious he was also pro and behind the idea.

There's no general right or wrong based on diverse personal moral values or religious beliefs, but let's look at the results.

Does it create jobs for Singaporeans as projected and promised? It's very grey since the government claasify PRs together with Singaporeans in their stats.

Does it cause social problems and burdens? So far as I can see, to be fair, nothing alarmingly excessive yet with benchmark to days of rampant illegal gambling dens era in 70s and 80s. But just a year into legalised casino industry, it's too early to tell.; May 09, 2011 4:09 PM
Singapore's 5 Minute Investment Diary said...: Respectfully
The loss of George Yeo as a Foreign Minister is a PAP problem.

It is not a Singapore problem.

Can we please keep PAP's internal affairs separate from Singapore's affairs.

PAP does not equal Singapore.
And Singapore does not equal PAP.

As the ruling party, it's their job to fix the problem.

It's not as if we have problems busting our salary budget to get the best talents for the job.

Anybody remember Chip Goodyear and Temasek?

Maybe top talent just isn't enough. There may be an additional "X" factor needed.; May 09, 2011 10:58 PM
captaincaveman said...: Dear solo bear,

how can the WP be a Chinese oriented party when 2 out of the 5 Aljunied GRC are from the minority race?; May 10, 2011 2:02 PM
Vincent Sear said...: Also in WP Moulmein-Kallang team, half (2 out of 4) are minorities. WP actually overfielded the statutory minority requirement. There's no intention to overfield to project a pro-minority image, just fielding the best candidates available regardless of race.

Why then are WP able to get the minority candidates to join? Because it's not a racial party and the members-to-be or candidates-to-be can see it for themselves. There's only one racial party in Singapoore, that's PKMS where all members are Malays.

By natural demographics, it's commonsense that unless intentionally restricted, all political parties and even other organisations will have about 70% Chinese in its membership or staff.

In fact, SDA originated in early 2000s when SPP and NSP hadn't enough minorities to contest GRCs, and therefore allied with PKMS for their Malay members. And PKMS joined because being a all-Malay party, they also need Chinese. Politics of convenience without sincerity or serious common cause.

SPP and NSP are no longer in SDA and it has only SJP and PKMS left. Talks are now going on between NSP, SDP and SDP for a new alliance or merger. Let's see.; May 11, 2011 12:01 PM