Thursday, August 13, 2015

Advisory panel to advice the minister

PM Lee is really short of capable people to be in his cabinet. He has to change his style of governance. My suggestions are:

1)  Appoint an advisory panel for each minister. This comprised of experienced people, e.g. retired civil servants and business leaders with in-depth knowledge of the issues to be addressed.

2) The panel members will give advise to the minister using their practical knowledge and experience to supplement the scholars who are now advising the minister. (These scholars lack the practical knowledge and experience).

3) Being retired, the panel members do not have any vested interest to protect, including their jobs, and are able to think out of the box and take bold decisions.

PM Lee has to act fast, to stop Singapore going down the slippery slope. Things are now very bad!

This suggestion is also suitable for a new government from the alternative parties that maybe formed after the general election. It is a good way to rope in the capable people to help to run the country. It should be better than the current people who now comprise the LHL cabinet.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mr. Tan, I think the PAP government tried this method using Government Parliamentary Committees (GPC). Unfortunately, most of the committee members, if not all, are very closely related to PAP. This introduced a very bad groupthink, and not many new and useful suggestions ever came out of those committees.

Tan Kin Lian said...

For the advisory panel to work well, the members should meet every month and should be paid an allowance like members of the board of directors of a company.

Some of the members can work 50% of the time, like being a consultant on a retainer. This allows the minister to tap into their expertise and experience more effectively.

yujuan said...

Agree with Mr. Tan.
The panel should be non partisan outside of the PAP connection, and be paid an allowance. There are too much group think and yes men beside PM Lee, it's like in breeding in procreation between close cousins, resulting in stunted brains.
PM focuses too much on strengthening his position, by having meek, yes men whom he could control and manipulate so that no one could threaten his position. But mediocre, inexperienced, ex SAF, compliant men have self restraint, dare not offer good, practicable advice out of protecting ricebowls, or have same mental wavelength.
So all the more for such independent advisory panel to help Governance, the situation here is sliding backwards to 3rd World Status. Our Malaysian relatives say the LKY legacy is dismantling slowly, and some years from now, situation would not be pretty. Almost like Nero strumming the harp while Rome is burning.
It's that bad.

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