Alternative to elitist thinking

PM Lee said that a good mix is needed for the PAP team. But he lamented that it is difficult to find people who can both connect with the ground and come up with good ideas.

Why does he still persist in elitist thinking? 

We mainly need to elect people who can connect with the ground to understand what are the needs of the people. He can trust the "wisdom of the crowds". 

The ordinary people are not daft. They know that nothing is for free. They are willing to work hard. But they want to be treated fairly, to know that the reward from their hard work should be sufficient to give them a decent standard of life. They should not be stressed by high cost of living and housing.

The elected leaders do not need to be smart enough to find the solutions. They need to be smart enough to get the knowledge of the people with the expertise, experience and passion. This will produce a better outcome. It will also produce the flexibility to make changes, based on actual experience, and not on theory.

If the leader comes up with ideas on his own, they are likely to be bad ideas, and being his idea, the leader will refuse to recognize the failure and will persist in that idea. He will also refuse to allow other ideas to be tried. We have seen this kind of thinking in many of our failed policies.

If PM Lee persist in his elitist approach, he will continue to fail and things will continue to worsen.