by Brad Bowyer
MURALI Pillai, who has his plate full as a lawyer and Member of Parliament, has proved his case that one can wear several hats and be successful at them. He is one of the three Senior Counsel newly minted on Monday. – reports Business Times
While I congratulate the 3 gentlemen on their appointments, the one for Bukit Batok MP Murali Pillai must raise some serious questions.
First, the legal profession is a demanding and time consuming one. And having been appointed the role of the senior counsel (SC), would I assume the demands and pressures that SC Pillai face on a daily basis. And so, how can SC Pillai have the bandwidth to fully serve the constituents that voted for him or the nation as a whole whom he represents when he is in Parliament?
Life today is far more complex, as are the needs of the nearly 30,000 Singaporeans living in Bukit Batok. Yet they will, by the simple fact that you can’t be in two places at once, receive only a fraction of the attention of their MP, even less given his promotion.
Similarly, we have more demands and challenges for the country and its Parliament so where will he have the time to adequately research and keep abreast of everything with his new increased workload and responsibilities?
These bandwidth issues and potential conflicts are precisely why we should only have full-time MPs to serve us in our Constituencies and Parliament and private careers should be put on hold during times of public service. As they say, you cannot properly serve two masters and in this case, one of them, the Singapore Public, should rightly be asking him and any who seek to represent them, to choose.
This was first published on Brad Bowyer’s Facebook page and reproduced with permission. Article edited to omit certain statements.
