PAP aims for good mix of candidates

PAP aims for good mix of candidates

By Peh Shing Huei, China Bureau Chief

The People’s Action Party (PAP) will continue to ensure a good spread of candidates to reflect the views of the young and also to take care of older Singaporeans, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said yesterday.

The PAP is confident that the core of the fourth-generation leaders will be in place by the next general election, added Education Minister Ng Eng Hen, who is in charge of the ruling party’s selection process.

In fact, Dr Ng revealed that a few candidates of ministerial calibre have been identified.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the secretary-general of the PAP, indicated to the media earlier this week that the core of Singapore’s fourth-generation leadership has yet to be fully assembled. He was speaking after a mid-term Cabinet reshuffle announced last week.

Mr Teo, who is the party’s second assistant secretary-general, assured Singaporeans that the work is in progress.

‘By the next election, we should have even more people in place to form the fourth-generation leadership,’ he told Singapore reporters here at the end of his two-day trip to China.

But while there is an emphasis on fresh talent at each election, with about a quarter of the PAP’s slate filled with new candidates, he said the party would balance it with ’sufficient ballast’ in Parliament to take care of the older Singaporeans.

‘We also have Singaporeans who are middle-aged who talk about families, their children, and the Singaporeans of senior age who think about their retirement, medical issues and so on,’ he explained.

Asked if he felt that younger Singaporeans could want change in political leadership like in the United States, he replied that what voters young or old want is good and competent government.

‘Any political party, any government who wishes to stay in power, has to continue to be able to meet those challenges, the needs, the requirements of the population, young or old. And I think that is the challenge,’ Mr Teo said.

Dr Ng, who accompanied DPM Teo on this trip, said the challenge of the global financial crisis has also made the search for new leaders more urgent.

‘With this crisis you want all hands on deck. And you would actually prefer those with experience. Yet at the same time if you don’t expose new and younger leaders to this, they won’t have the experience. There surely will be a crisis in the future,’ said Dr Ng, who is the PAP’s organising secretary (special duties).

‘So I think it is a balancing act of also retaining the leaders who have got the experience, as well as exposing the younger leaders.’

But he stressed that the final decision lies with the electorate.

‘All we can do is to assemble a team and present them to Singaporeans. Ultimately, Singaporeans must decide whether they have the ability, the empathy, whether they understand their needs and whether they can trust these leaders,’ he said.

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