Gerontocracy in disguise

Say No to Senior Minister/Minister Mentor - Gerontocracy in disguise

First, there was one. Then, there were two. Now, we have three. Sooner or later, the number of senior ministers and minister mentors will catch up with the junior ministers, judging by the increasing lifespan of Singaporeans.

In companies, some CEOs retire to be Chairman of the Board. Some still collect salaries/bonus/perks as they do during their CEO days. The scrupulous ones will only take director’s fees.

Well, as they often have substantial stakes in their companies, we can’t fault them too much.In fact, most do contribute. If they misuse their powers, at most the company goes bankrupt. But, a country is slightly different.

Former prime ministers/deputy prime ministers do not own the country. The country belongs to the people. By promoting themselves to SM/MM and collecting salaries/bonus/perks as they do during PM/DPM days, they are practising gerontocracy in disguise.

If they fail to contribute or even worse, if they abuse their powers, the country will be in dire straits. In old communist China/USSR, we often see gerontocracy being practised and that has wrecked havoc on their societies. But they are huge countries, thus they have the strength to recuperate from misery. However, Singapore can’t afford to experiment with gerontocracy.

In ancient China, we often saw past emperor/empress or current prime minister acting as regent when the new emperor was young and inexperienced.

Those who eventually relinquished their regent duties when the new emperor was old enough were deemed wise, but unfortunately those who didn’t, history was not kind to them. Singapore government should do well to heed this historical fact.

In well-managed companies, people who resign/retire or promoted are asked to name their successors, else they shouldn’t resign/retire or be promoted.

Now, Singapore government said it is a world-class government, but from the latest addition of Senior minister Jayakumar, it is obvious they are not as good as they claimed to be. Reasons given for promoting Jayakumar are that he has important matters to oversee like national security, climate change, law and foreign policy.

Obviously, he hasn’t been training his understudy to take over from him. For national security, we have Wong Kan Seng, ISD and Mindef, are they for show? For climate change, we have Yacoob Ibrahim and NEA, are they sleeping?

For law, we have Shanmugam (touted to be the best lawyer in singapore), Chief Justice, Tommy Koh, etc, aren’t they experts? For foreign policy, we have George Yeo (who definitely speaks more eloquently than Jayakumar) and MFA and SM/MM,PM, aren’t they enough?

If Jayakumar isn’t imparting his skills to others, should we promote him? Say No to SM/MM as if their experience and connections are really important to Singapore, they can leave the cabinet and set up private consultancies to work for Singapore government at market price. Then, we will know how much they are truly worth. But, they will argue that they care for the country so much and that they need the cabinet titles to meet foreign dignitaries. One is even willing to wake up from the grave to put things right.

Well then, i have two suggestions. They can run for the president post, unless they think the president has no powers. Else, they can form a party to challenge PAP and still serve the country (that’s the advice LKY gave to his political opponents), unless they believe the electoral law are biased against opposition.

They may also argue that setting up private consultancies will lead to lobbying activities like those in US. This will not happen unloess they don’t trust Singapore’s laws.

If the ex-PM /DPMs are capable people, they should have no problem finding lucrative jobs outside. They should take a leaf from former DPM, Goh Keng Swee who was a former consultant to China after retiring from office. If they are incapable, which i doubt of, then that shows that high salaries/bonus/perks for their jobs is not for retaining talent as they stated.

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