Daily Lessons from Life 03 May 2018 - Do what u hv been appointed to do!!

"Ministers have 'ultimate decision-making responsibility', must not be sidetracked by vocal minority: Shanmugam

SINGAPORE: Ministers have the "ultimate decision-making responsibility" to consider what is right, what is good for society, and not be sidetracked by a vocal minority, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said on Thursday (May 3). 

Speaking at the annual Police Workplan Seminar, Mr Shanmugam raised the example of the Public Order and Safety (Special Powers) Act (POSSPA), saying some sentiments expressed online had created the impression that there was "a lot of opposition" to it. 

The Act, which was passed in March, gives the police special powers to deal with serious incidents like terror attacks. For instance, the authorities can order people in the area to stop taking or sharing pictures and videos of the incident area that could compromise security operations.

Mr Shanmugam made clear he is confident that enacting POSSPA was the right thing to do, citing the example of the 2011 UK riots which killed five people and injured 205, of which nearly 190 were police officers.

“(POSSPA) gives a lot of powers to the police. It is probably legislation that is not very doable in many countries," he said. "I believed it was doable in Singapore because people trust the police that they will exercise their powers responsibly, and we need those powers to deal with the situations that are evolving.”

Mr Shanmugam noted that increasingly, legislation proposed gets opposed by "a small but vocal minority"."

I m not sure i followed Minister Shanmugam's point on "Ministers need to make good decisions" when matters of legilation is concerned. 

The parliamentary members (legislative) make laws. The judiciary interprets the laws. The executives administer the laws. So, the Minister uses the power given by the laws as he wishes. If the laws r BAD, the Minister can do bad!!

The vocal minority has no influence at all at the legislative branch of the government. It has no influence on the judiciary nor the executive.

So, it is no worth the troubles to bother about them.

The power has been vested in the Minister, do it as s/he thinks what the laws are originally passed to do. The citizens who r worried abt it may b abused just hv to wish or pray that the laws passed r GOOD Laws!!

In this case, saving emergency personnel lives is a good cause if live streaming of terrorists attack allows the killers to kill because some idiots think it is ok to live stream!!