The reliance on technocrats and the ability of these technocrats to create jobs, aim for full employment and keep the GDP going were the primary features. It did seem to work. My sense is that the son is just a poor leader and things are falling apart. Ever heard of a leader that disappears when there is a crisis on.
Dear Scroo,
Why would a PAP system in all its glory not select or call forth people like Paul T and the rest. People with credentials and or a social conscience. ? I believe that what a politician says in public and what a politician says in private are two differing things, but for some reason pre GE 2011, the competition amongst the ministers was a race to be who could be more hard core. Callous remarks abounded from KBW to VB, RL ignored the concerns of public transport, flooding was ponding, overcrowding was normal. We all saw a change in tune after 2011 and after the apology from the PM but who set the tune prior to 2011, who was calling the shots ?
The establishment live in a different zone from the rest of Singapore. Paying them well is one thing but finding people living from a different planet is another. Being rich but having a social and political conscience. ? A sense of duty , a sense of service, they do exist even within the establishment, but they will be smart enough to know when your values and theirs align or when and where u will be expected to align your values with theirs.
An out of touch leadership, a vanishing PM or an aloof PM. a grassroots which tells the leadership what they seek to hear all tied to a dated strategy, a dated ideology and an ideologue in the cabinet still defying change and modernity, such are the makings of an absolute disaster.
Locke