Daily Lessons from Life 25 May 2009

Today is my son's 20th Birthday. Happy birthday son.

"MPs suggest changes to political system to make it more robust
By Channel NewsAsia Posted: 25 May 2009 2136 hrs

SINGAPORE: Singaporeans are becoming more vocal whether online or publicly on issues that they feel strongly about.

MP for Hong Kah GRC and chairman of REACH, Dr Amy Khor, said: “The limitations of our population and size imply that unlike USA, we do not have the manoeuvre room to embark on bold political experimentation without risking everything that has been painstakingly built up over the past few decades.”

However, nominated MP Siew Kum Hong suggested bolder changes. One idea is to create a hybrid system of government where the majority of seats are determined by a first-past-the-post system with a limited number of seats allotted proportionately based on voting patterns. He also called for Group Representation Constituencies to be downsized and more Single Member Constituency seats. Mr Siew said: "These moves, together with clear commitments to refrain from the constant re-drawing of electoral boundaries and to openly publish the reasons and justifications for any re-drawing of electoral boundaries will all go a long way towards restoring Singaporeans' respect for the political process in Singapore, and hence increasing their desire to participate in and engage with the political process. “The act of voting embodies participation in democracy and seeing the potential for impact embodied in their vote will naturally lead to renewed political consciousness and engagement.”

Political analysts said they don't expect drastic changes to Singapore's political system. But to begin with, they said the government might want to address often-made criticisms on issues such as allowing more representation of alternative and opposing views in Parliament. - CNA"

There was another report about SM Goh mentioning the 3 principles for more political fine tuning. And this piece of news on MPs' suggestions about how to go about doing it!

Interesting reporting indeed. I agreed with the experts that it will not change that soon. Especially those expounded by the NMP Siew.

Lessons for me are:
1. fine tune the system in which way you like but make sure all must follow the rules of no lines drawn on racial, religious and language by ALL parties. If Singapore is not one united nation, it won't work!;

2. more intelligent and credible opposition members in the parliament is a good thing as long as it does not descent into 'street fight' and argument for argument sake. Also, no pork barrel politics allowed. Can this be achieved?;

3. the incumbent party must work harder if it does adopt the political relaxation as this is the same party that once said it is not the duty of the incumbent to make it easier for the opposition! It must work harder to bring the intent to reality. At the same time, it needs to realize the people still want it to govern but just need a bit of the human touch. I am not talking about indecisiveness or weakness. I am talking about executing a rational decision making process while taking the troubles and making the efforts to explain tirelessly and without the 'you are nothing without us - the ruling class!' attitude or demeanour!

It will be interesting to observe where the 'political opening' will bring us...