Leadership Renewal
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Got this from littlespeck.com. Not sure where is this Andrew Tan from, Singapore presumably.
Leadership Renewal
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew stressed the need to continually induct younger talent into political leadership in a recent interview with China's CCTV.
There are a few ministers, now in their late 50s to mid-60s, who should retire by the next general elections after having served umpteen years.
It would be audacious to question their competence and commitment. But anyone too long in the job, in political office or in the private sector, risks becoming fossilised, mainly doing maintenance and slow to accept let alone initiate change.
Sure there's value in accumulated experience but a smug "I have done/seen it all before" attitude diminishes the experience.
There's a deliberate policy of early retirement for very senior officers in the civil service: permanent secretaries still in their youthful 50s have to make way for younger colleagues to facilitate rejuvenation of the public sector. (A great idea, but not so great to those told to move on.)
Similarly, as a general practice, ministers should serve not more than, say, three terms.
Starting as a junior minister in his or her late 30s to mid-40s and graduating later to full minister, such a minister would have had a compact, intensive tenure. And he or she would still be young enough to resume a previous career.
I suggest that the tenure of MPs should also be shortened lest some become fixtures too.
Do we have enough younger, capable and honest people to succeed the older political leaders if leadership renewal is accelerated?
Much has been said about the difficulty of finding the right people with a rare composite of scholastic excellence, proven ability, strategic thinking, integrity, political acumenÂ… I daresay the pool of qualified people is getting bigger, not smaller.
Salaries of ministers, once an impediment, have in recent years been pegged to the top performers in the professions and in the private sector.
They are no longer sacrificial as in the 60s to 70s; indeed they have been attractive enough to convert some into professional politicians not imbued with the same passion as the pioneers were.
Further being a politician under the PAP banner is hardly a hazardous job unless one were to wantonly do something stupid.
Getting people in is less difficult than getting people out.
For leadership renewal to proceed seamlessly, political (and corporate) leaders must know when to relinquish their power and accompanying perquisites. Don't imagine life will be worse in your absence.
Andrew Tan
Jun 29, 2005 -
It might go on of a tangent to the topic here, but will the future ministers be a virtual clones of the existing ones? One who will toe the party line and further the "glory", given that we do see the flaws of the present system, if the future "leadres" are just reproductions of the existing one, what good willit be for the society? What sort of renewal is that if its only benefits the few instead of the many?
