SG Talk

Tan Min-Wei |  June 13, 2023, 11:47 PM


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He agreed that political pluralism looked attractive in theory, but he had not come across any country outside of Scandinavia that had made political pluralism "work for its citizens".

Shanmugam added that one also needs to consider that Singapore is "extremely small" with various "natural insecurities".

On the other hand, he also said he had studied political systems worldwide and didn't find single-party dictatorships to work either.

He further elaborated that even democracies, whether single-party or multi-party, will eventually fail to achieve their country's full potential.

"If you were to look at the practice of politics, you will come away deeply pessimistic about the ability of any political system to deliver good governance."

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He then wanted people to look at Singapore now and said that if someone asked him if there's another system that would allow Singapore to achieve what it has now, he wouldn't be able to give a clear answer.

While Shanmugam pointed out that Singapore's system had worked thus far is not a guarantee that it would continue working, he cautioned against "copying somebody else's model".

"I will say this: When your political systems resemble that of others, then you must be prepared for the results to resemble their history."

Ultimately, he said, it is up to Singaporeans to choose good leaders "in whichever system they want" and whether they want more or less pluralism.


https://mothership.sg/2023/06/no-guarant...shanmugam/

Past results do not guarantee future earnings, it's a known clause. We saw how the PAP brand work marvellously when lky ruled but not so when lhl took over. Of course circumstances changed and the starting base too. But we went ahead with what was considered the best leadership (defined by then leaders) that could handle it.

Pulling the lens back to current reality, it just means that all the more we cannot blindly accept recommendation from current leaders as to what good leadership means. So far 4G is not impressive. A few bright spots in opposition ward but again the topics debated had been more of popularity in the likes of wealth distribution and social aspects. Nothing has been discussed about competitiveness of Singapore in the global arena. No discussion on how to enhance this nation's relevance and edge in the global economic front...

The playbook during lky's time was simpler and straightforward, lots of greenfield, more support for survival of everyone etc. We had to beg foreigners to come then. Now foreigners are here scheming and raiding in more ways that we can imagine...

Not easy lah.