Daily Lessons from Life 28 August 2010 - Whether PAP stays in power depends on talent pool Dr Balakrishnan - channelnewsasia.com

"Whether PAP stays in power depends on talent pool: Dr Balakrishnan - CNA 28 August 2010

SINGAPORE : Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister Vivian Balakrishnan has said whether the ruling People's Action Party stays in power depends on which party can attract, nurture and grow its talent pool.

This was one key point Dr Balakrishnan highlighted at a dialogue session with students.

About 250 students attended the inaugural Singaporeans in Conversation 2010. The theme was 'The Singaporean Dream versus The Singapore Reality'.

He also said the party has achieved a lot for Singapore as a matter of fact and that it operates an honest political that attract people with integrity and talent for Singapore voters to choose."

It is a fact that Singapore has progress tremendously since independence. Especially materially. There is no denying that. Seriously.

The next 45 years will require, perhaps, the ruling party to consider: humility and thoughtfulness on top of talent and integrity.

Lessons for me are:

1. it is increasingly complex to run a country successfully with the rapid and unpredictability of the macro environment accelerating. Hence, it is important to plan in an integrated manner by the Cabinet looking 10- -20 years out. The vision will be the 10-20 years out scenarios while the execution will be the immediate 2-3 years;

2. recent events demonstrated that the immediate execution is not showing comprehensiveness and full integration of the various dynamic parts of national development. e.g. we know we need to branch off to labour intensive service sector. We know that we DO NOT have enough such type of labour in Singapore. This means: need for more accommodation, need for integrating the new and the existing people in this country at work and play, need to balance between unemployed older and existing residents (PRs and citizens), etc. What we had were: rushing to build foreign workers dormitories. Spiralling property prices that the authority consistently denied were due to new PRs and new Citizens and the mass influx of FTs and FWs driving up the demand side. These statements did not seemed to have convinced the citizens;

3. talent is good. Integrity is even more important. At the same time, humility needs an airing. When one is humble, one will be more accepting that the best and conscious effort may not necessarily means superb performance. Of course, when we delivered, we must rejoice and enjoy. But all in a calm and self-assured manner. There is no need to blow our trumpet! When the results were less than stellar, we acknowledged the failings and move on to make sure that we learn the lessons and remind us NOT to repeat them in the future.

Singapore is a very small place with very limited natural resources. It is an open economy and is sway by the world at large. It has done well to plan ahead and execute well with most Singaporeans contributing. It has to constantly reinvent and make itself useful to the world. The ruling class must involved the majority of the populace for it to continue to move Singapore forward. It won't be easy but it is definitely worth a go at it!!