A Bloated Cabinet

News has it that Singapore has a new Law minister.

This is not the news that stops the printing presses for me.

When one looks at the Straits Times Report of 30 March 2008 headlines. One will notice a total of 31 ministers and 5 parliamentary Secretaries 🙂

You will wonder why a country like Singapore will need 31 ministers. Do we have a complexity of life to require 31 Ministries? Or does the PAP make life in Singapore so complex that 31 ministers are required. When one adds the Parliamentary Secretaries into the lot, its 36. 36 Ministers versus 48 MPs.

Are 36 Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries capable of being held accountable for the sins of their ministries? Are they able to tackle the feeble questions from the remaining friendly aligned 48 MPs?

It looks like a certain mentalitiy runs within Parliament and the Cabinet – that numbers do matter. That the more men there are, the more work is done.

One wonders how then did Singapore get away with such success with 8 ministers upon independence?

There is a chinese saying that goes “The generation of next cannot match up to the generation before. Generation after Generation things get worse”

Is this what we are seeing in Singapore?

April 2, 2008 - Posted by Chia Ti Lik | Politics

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About Me

Who is Chia Ti Lik? Who is Chia Ti Lik?

2 persons had asked me that. Yes, right in my face.

One of them was an angry man. Angry with the way i criticised the Ruling Party in Singapore a.k.a. PAP. his point was that i should not have done that.

He had obviously had tried to hint that i was a nobody and make me feel small. He need not have done that.

Because i acknowledge my smallness and i do feel small. Small enough to be a digit in the blogosphere, small enough to be dismissed by anyone with fear.

In Singapore, and especially in opposition politics, one needs to grow an extremely thick skin. I have always prided myself for that, being small yet thick skinned. And why not?

To be a politician, one must be thick-skinned enough to step forward. Be willing to speak of things that are not so nice to hear. To persons whom many people in their sane minds would not want getting into their bad books.

But most of all be willing to speak when one feels right without the fear of being shown to be wrong.

At the very core of vying for political power, at the very core of acting on one’s beliefs. One must acknowledge that one cannot be right all the time. One cannot also try to be right all the time. For to do so would mean jumping on someone else’s bandwagon and picking up your rifle when the war is already over.

There will be times when a majority do not see the flaws which a minority can and public opinion is clearly against you.

Does the minority then choose keep quiet? For the sake of being politically correct? Even though the minority claims to be the alternative leaders who are supposedly at the cutting edge of problem highlighting and solving?

Fear is the last thing an opposition party should have. Fear is what paralyses a people when they face an arrogant and high-handed government.

An viable opposition party must dispel that fear and rise to the role it is supposed to take. You have to face the fear head on, look at it inside out – face the fear within you, come to terms with it and not be controlled by it.

When you are similarly paralysed by fear like the people you wish to lead. What difference can you actually make?

Singapore after GE2006, was abuzz with the recent growth of a potentially viable opposition. What can be the biggest internal impediment to a potential opposition challenger? Fear and Complacency.

I had set out from the Workers’ Party to do the things that are needed to be done. Pointed and marked criticism of the ruling party without fear.

If opposition party members are unwilling to engage and criticise the Government, do you think they will engage in robust debates with ruling party MPs in parliament?

I am one person who believes that what needs to be done must be done. I left the ruling party (the PAP) to strengthen the Workers’ Party when there was a need to do so. I have now left the Workers’ Party to cover a role left empty.

Time and truth will tell whether my criticisms alone amount to more barbs and stings to the Ruling party than that offered by our opposition parties.

I have in this blog, set up a record of my letters raising issues and potential problems to the mainstream press. Whether or not the press decides to filter this feedback, the record of which will be made for all to view. Available for all who care enough to search and wise enough to see.

The 2nd person who asked “who is Chia Ti Lik?” was myself.

Sometimes, you won’t know who you are until you are there face to face with the situation and face to face with the fear.

I have yet to find an answer to that question.

I have been content to sit in its silence for sometimes in silence, if you be still and listen, you might be able to hear echoes.

Echoes which herald the birth of something to come.

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