Daily Lessons from Life 25 March 2011 - PAP veterans to retire

"PAP veterans to retire - AsiaOne Fri, Mar 25, 2011

SINGAPORE - SENIOR Minister S. Jayakumar and Speaker of Parliament Abdullah Tarmugi announced they will be retiring as the polls come around.

They are also both Members of Parliament for East Coast GRC.

The Straits Times reported that Prof Jayakumar, 71, said he has been discussing his retirement with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong for some time.

The PAP leaders have said they believe in self-renewal, and that the new batch of candidates are very good.

In a separate development, Deputy Speaker and MP for MacPherson Matthias Yao also told The Straits Times that he will be retiring as well"

It is good to learn that these veterans are retiring and let the young people takeover.

Lessons for me:

1. when you have done your job sincerely and honestly, you should be contentedd and leave when the time comes. No point hanging on to a multimillion dollar pay if you can no longer contribute or the need to let the young folks takeover ocurred;

2. One of them is the only Senior Minister without being a Prime Minister and had really done, at least nothing visible, in the multimillion dollar job for 2 over years. It was really puzzling;

3. may the young guns taking over from these veterans have the vision of serving the people without fear or favour and not be distracted by the high pay!

Renewal can be voluntary or forced upon us by the unhappy voters. So, politicians beware!