Our government was the best

by Sol

Someone asked me, “Is the (not our) government working for us?”. I say they used to work very well, given that our economic achievement was a miracle and we were often a role model for developing countries back in the 90s to 00s.

We reaped the benefits from that era of glory and glamour and have become complacent, including our leaders. We see an even more glamourous Singapore today with our first in the world F1 night race to attract the world’s attention and tourist dollars, but the underlying problems of widening income gap continue to exist without good solutions. Our leaders have enjoyed secure employment for as long as they could recall and are probably afraid to make changes to the system. They are inclined to protect the party’s interest. I can’t blame them as anyone in their position would do the same. One of the questions people often ask is whether the ministers are the right person for their assigned roles. Do they have the critical thinking and access to accurate information that would allow them to make good judgement? To what extent are they able to change the system and if they are willing to do so?

I believe that the government should get rid of incompetence within every ministry by doing what big companies do once in a while. Retrench and rehire. Get rid of incompetent middle management and even top management, eliminate the ‘fats’ that are clogging the nation’s arteries, and let in fresh blood and allow them to flow freely. It’s just like how foreign talents have created competition for us to keep us on our feet and make salaries affordable for companies to operate businesses in our high cost environment, the government has to do the same within their own organisations.