Daily Lessons from Life 29 April 2014 - Changes in Cabinet, other appointments aimed at "important transition": PM Lee

"Changes in Cabinet, other appointments aimed at "important transition": PM Lee - CNA 29 April 2014

SINGAPORE: Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has announced another round of Cabinet changes and political appointments aimed at addressing Singapore's priorities and challenges as the country moves towards its next phase of development.

The latest move is the third round of changes after the 2011 General Election, and comes just eight months after the last round in August 2013.

PM Lee said Singapore is going through an important transition. There is a push to strengthen social safety nets through the introduction of measures such as the Pioneer Generation Package and MediShield Life.

Mr Lee said: "These major policy shifts require good political leadership, close coordination across ministries, effective ground implementation and strong support from Singaporeans."
Acting Manpower Minister Tan Chuan-Jin and Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Lawrence Wong will both be promoted to full Ministers from May 1.
Mr Wong will also be promoted to Second Minister for Communications and Information. He is currently Senior Minister of State at the Ministry of Communications and Information.

Mr Lee said Mr Tan and Mr Wong have performed well since taking office and mastered their portfolios. They have also worked hard on the ground, winning the respect and trust of Singaporeans, Mr Lee added.

The social sector is getting a boost with the promotion of Mr Sam Tan to Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth, and in the Prime Minister's Office.
He will coordinate the delivery of Singapore's social policies across multiple ministries and implementation on the ground.
The Health Ministry, which is also spearheading major policy reviews, will get an additional Minister of State with the appointment of Dr Lam Pin Min.
Mr Lee said Dr Lam will play an important role in the Health Ministry's efforts to review policies and develop new models of care, especially in the aged care and primary care sectors, as outlined in the Healthcare 2020 Master Plan.

He added Dr Lam's professional expertise as a doctor will be very useful in designing policies and engaging the community of healthcare professionals.
Observers say the latest round of changes is part of the government's continued leadership renewal process, with the country's fourth generation of leaders slowly taking shape.
PM Lee said he will make further changes from time to time to ensure that the best team for Singapore is in place."

Good to see the promotions and new faces to the national political leadership.

Lessons for me are:

1. MOM is a heavyweight ministry for now as Singapore talents must be so competitive and in abundance that the reliance on foreign talents can be reduced without causing any stress to the economic growth. MOM will have to work very closely with MOE and the MTI to get the 'matching educational knowledge and skills' for the type of industries and jobs the government 'foresee' as having a bright future! Foreign workers (FWs) are a totally different proposition especially when they are working on jobs that first world citizens of Singapore no longer aspired to do!;

2. MCCY is an interesting ministry and with a very interesting initiative - the creation of a Singapore Youth Corp. Hopefully we don't reinvent the wheels too many times as the pipelines to the Singapore Youth Corp should, theoretically be fed from the good work done at the MOE when our students are 'learning learners and not rote-learning and champion regurgitators' with compassion, problems solving smartness and integrity. More actions and less 'slogan  shouting' or 'energized bands that NTUC is giving to their workers on Labour Day that I just read!;

3. MOH has a big job to do. Healthcare costs are one of the most feared issues for Singaporeans. So much so that there is a very black joke in Singapore that: 'It is better to die than to live with serious illnesses!' Personally the challenge is to identify the 'cost drivers' and attack the top 3 for immediate relief. One of the potential root causes is: how much is decent and reasonable to pay a medical doctor that take many years of good training before it become obscene? How can we achieve lower cost with high quality (the mantra of most quality system and gurus)? Hopefully Dr Lam will have some ideas about what compensation is fair to the medical doctors? and the supporting medical healthcare professionals like nurses, etc.

As for the 2 mayors, I always have my doubts about what exactly these roles play. There seems to be some or many overlapping and duplication of coverage. I will leave them as I don't have enough insights about the roles of the mayor!

Mid-term after the watershed GE2011 and we had seen more attention being paid to issues that Singaporeans had raised many years ago. Let's see how the 'new' team will help to win back trust from some of the disillusioned voters. It is worth noting that the other 2, or even 3, ministries that got a lot of flak lately are not touched in this round of movement. e.g. MoT, MHA and MND. Guessed the PM felt that they are doing aOK. Let's see.