Suggested New Manifestos to the ministers
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The ongoing debates over the new manifestos unveiled by the Workers' Party perhaps has opened up a certain pandora box of sorts - are the existing manifestos of political parties including those of the incumbent party in power adequate to address today's needs and aspirations of the citizens.
For example, do they provide guidance and inspirations to the parties to strive to fulful fresh challenges in the new age. In my personal opinion, the new party Manifestos of today should cover the following basic needs and aspirations of the people:-
(1) Identify new challenges, set new directions and create social and cultural aohesiveness among the people to bring about a vibrant and caring classless society free from elitism and discriminations.
(2) Set high standards of morality among leaders e.g. leading by personal examples so as to more effectively mobilize the people to accept new challenges and sacrifices, acceptance of long-term pains for the sake of preserving competitiveness and survival, fiscal prudence through creating annual budget surpluses and reserves and charging of full market costs through corporations of essential medical, housing and transportation services.
(3) Regular review of policies that may cause problems and hardship among the less endowed section of the population e.g. meritocracy, granting of benefits like scholarships, employment or investment opportunities to foreigners etc.
In the light of the problems uncovered in the NKF saga and the white elephant fructus, it would appear necessary to re-examine basic policies and solve diverse problems, set direction so as to find new common grounds to better unite people into accepting discomforts of certain good but painful policies for the collective good of all. It is only through the new challenges that all citizens can be expected to strive for maximum good of the maximum number.
LEADERSHIP QUALITIES
Leaders of the new age in particular should be selected and groomed to lead people with personal examples and good corporate governance. Leaders in particular should be expected to possess certain basic qualities :-
(1) Passion,
(2) Ability to Motivate followers,
(3) Ability to get people to work with coordination and apply knowledge.
(4) Ability to translate complex goals and ideas into implementation processes to bring about competitiveness, technology start-ups and jobs etc.
(5) Invest monies and perform tasks with Accountability and Transparency
(6) Collective leadership by core team to make major decisions,
(7) Sense of integrity free from theoretical assumptions or controls that stifle mass participation in knowledge application.
PATIENCE AND DETERMINATION
Many a times, past policies failed not because of lack of intelligence or academic abilities but because of lack in other areas e.g. patience and determination to motivate and persuade people to common platforms for the collective good of the nation. Such beliefs should be practicable and attainable and of benefit to the people not just in the long term but short and medium term and should be free from conceptual stuffs which might cause wastage of time and resources and hardship.
HUMILITY AND RELIABILITY
:eaders should be selected from people who are in possession of visible humility of servant, reliability, sense of justice, empathy to attain social and economic wellbeing of all.
HONOUR AND INTEGRITY
He should be honourable, possess integrity and not engage in money, coflicts of personal or interest in contracts or self-reward or self-promotion or assumptions based on fallacies or rhetorics or empty promises.
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL VIBRANCY
Beside the above-stated basic qualities, leader should cultivate in-depth understanding of the intimate relationship between social, cultural and economic characteristics of the people so as the people could be made to nurture and unleash their skills and talents of the people through interactions to reach ultimeate vibrancy and excellence.
BROAD-BASED EDUCATION AND KNOWLEDGE APPLICATION
Leaders should strive to be practical and result-oriented not just on account of personal efficiency but the overall efficiency of the whole team. They should constantly equip them with skills and knowledge application abilities through broad-based practical education.
USUAL MISTAKES - JUSTIFICATIONS AND DENIALS
Finally, leaders should avoid resort to justifications or excuses or denials of problems thereby blurring the accountability or transparency in implementation of correct and equitable major policy or performance mistakes.
IMPLEMENTATION ABILITY THE KEY
Above all, leaders should be concerned with efficiency of mplementation and results of whatever policies and beliefs through carrying them out in tangible work processes to enable all to participate in innovation and knowledge application and compete together as a team.
Leaders shoudd not just be concerned with taxing and collections of revenues or accumulating them as surpluses but the wise use of such surpluses to benefit job creation or lowering of costs of basic services to his people.
Leaders shoudl practise people-friendly policies and avoid using petty controls and regulations, or artful creative accounting, double taxing and recovering of costs to avoid causing hardship to the people.
Leaders should treat people as true partners so that all will have a part to play as a team and all will be totally involved in decision making and effective implementation working towards results.
Above all leaders should work towards maximizing utilization of available resources e.g. empty properties, vacant lands, idle capitals to create jobs and realize innovations, entrepreneurship, application of knowledge and value-add competitiveness.
When leaders have identified all challenges, such challenges should be laid down in objective and accountable tangible work processes to empower staff so that the whole team will work towards attaining the objectives and goals without being hindered by any forms of self-centred or intuitive policies or assumptions.
Finally when over time, leaders should be prepared to "let go" and let his team manage tasks from overall perspectives and committed processes to produce team efficiency and productivity to attain larger results and objectives. -
got minister here meh?
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Just assume there is one lah ! !Originally posted by Ito_^:got minister here meh?
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By having more than 1 minister comment on the WP's manifesto, is telling the public that the PAP views WP more seriously than needed. I don't see the need for the ministers to get so excited and hyped up about the need to comment on their manifesto, considering that it WON'T even threaten much the PAP. Whatever the WP said in their manifesto comes down to the need to use of the reserves which could have an adverse effect long term.
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I guess the minister should work hard on their own plans, every party will have their own agenda so why talk about others as being bad. They should just execute their own adgenda and let the result of the election judge itself.Originally posted by nanren4ever:By having more than 1 minister comment on the WP's manifesto, is telling the public that the PAP views WP more seriously than needed. I don't see the need for the ministers to get so excited and hyped up about the need to comment on their manifesto, considering that it WON'T even threaten much the PAP. Whatever the WP said in their manifesto comes down to the need to use of the reserves which could have an adverse effect long term. -
i think a debate is good for everybody, especially us.
let it be a opportunity for education, let there be exchange. -
With or without libel suits?Originally posted by Salman:i think a debate is good for everybody, especially us.
let it be a opportunity for education, let there be exchange.
Is debate just saying yes to the papman or really bringing up things that the papman doesn't want to hear? ie NKF, white elephants etc. -
(Posted to Feedback Unit on 23.1.2006)
Hello Dreamknight,
Thanks for your response. I am glad today, more citizens are taking advantage of invitations of PM LHL to post their views and opinions on ministers' performances without fear or favor.
Ministers who only know how to repeat past habits of slamming people for presumed faults of the people without improving their own performance at the end will only portray themselves as "yes-men" who lack imaginations or creativity to solve bigger problems.
I notice that many ministers are still openly engaged in same old fallacies and making unbelievable childish pronouncements on various issues.
Such ministers often cannot see the points of the citizens and would withdraw into a shell without answering to factual argumenets in many feedbacks to them given in this forum. For example the feedbacks on high costs due to double charging on land and triple charging on vehicles are completely ignored to this date.
The ministers are completely avoiding the serious slump in asset values, heavy losses of their CPF retirements due to various governemnt schemes that backfired.
Yet they pretend there are no problems and would want to give the WP a big lecture on manifesto.
The ball is at the feet of these so-called talents who could not rely on feedbacks on various serious and fundamental problems caused by their incorrect narrow policies that only benefitted certain upper sectors of the economy.
I cannot see these ministers have the authority judging on their own records to give a lecture on WP's manifesto without first looking themselves in the mirror.
If they keep using the controlled media and high authority to make repeated propagandas and justifications, I don't think they have any real talents or leadership.
That is the sort of attitude which caused so many NKF problems for the past 10 years without solutions.
Now there are more problems. The police cannot see that the harmless RGS students are not subversive to require police intervention or warnings.
It is time scholars do not take the people for granted and get real to solve diverse problems e.g. double charges on lands, triple taxations on vehicles and the 20 major problems living which stifled economic growth or social and cultural vibrancy needed to compete in the next lap.
I am looking forward to our scholar ministers proving their real capability and not lean on the past policies too much as so far such unthinking utterances are not solving problems.
PM LHL may have to tell the people what he had in mind in his inaugural speech when he invited people to come forward to post their views without fear or favor or how much changes he really will introduce to past unworkable policies in the new administration. -
If the PAP is really that firm & steady, there isn't a need for the ministers to say or comment about any manifesto one. At the end of the day, it is action that speaks louder than words. PAP, if you've any better ideas than the opposition parties, it'd be better to walk the walk, & not just talk the talk. Please, if u can't fulfill any great ideas that u've came up with, better don't TALK BIG during the coming GE. It is really damn disgusting & pathetic. It's a total turn-off. Talk so much before & during the GE, then after that forget everything, & kick the people aside, treat the people like toilet paper. Use already then flush down the toilet bowl. Na buay, only know how to bootlick the people during the GE.
Imagine PAP in the United States or in China, god knows when will man get to explore the outer space. I think by now, man will still have not step foot on the moon. Tried & tested methods can only be applicable in certain situations, not all situations, understand or not PAP??? Change is permanent in this world. Steam engines aren't applicable for civilisations at this point of time now. Others already using Windows XP, u still use Windows 3.1. Do u get it or not PAP??? Really if the PAP still don't change, don't dare to try out new ideas, still stuck with the tried & tested methods, be prepared to be phased out. -
Absolutely true, change is what the leaders keep telling people to do but they alone cannot change. Just imagine, after so many years of brandishing the so-called value-adding economic restructuring, what have they achieved but prolonged recessions when other Asian Tigers have led the recovery.Originally posted by Spirit of Fire:Tried & tested methods can only be applicable in certain situations, not all situations, understand or not PAP??? Change is permanent in this world. Steam engines aren't applicable for civilisations at this point of time now. Others already using Windows XP, u still use Windows 3.1. Do u get it or not PAP??? Really if the PAP still don't change, don't dare to try out new ideas, still stuck with the tried & tested methods, be prepared to be phased out.
Look at our own domestic industries. They are in tetters so much so that our ministers have to give up hope of revitalising them. The value-adding model has failed to take off. It is a shame to talk about leadership and scholars when they cannot even achieve half of what others like the Koreans are doing with their international brands of Hyundai and Samsung. Yet the boast about leadereship and talents went on and on infinitum.
So with such facts to show their shortsighted old fashioned method won't work in new enviornments, what is so tried and tested about their high-profiled foreign investment model.
Other Asian Tigers have long ago realized the limitations of such model and have already gone further ahead developing their own self-reliant domestic sector when our leaders keep trying to use their media to talk up the market. Will their tried and tested method make a difference. Will all the boasting about attracting foreeign investments and talents make the difference? -
With our small population, do you think we'd be able to create and sustain self-reliant domestic companies that are competitive and viable?Originally posted by robertteh:Absolutely true, change is what the leaders tell people to do but they are the ones who cannot change. Just imagine, after so many years of much-talked- about value-adding economic restructuring, our own domestic industries are in tetters and have failed to take off. So what is so tried and tested about the old-fashion foreign investment model when all the Asian Tigers have long ago realized the limitations of such model and have already gone further ahead developing their own self-reliant domestic sector when our leaders are still boasting about attracting foreeign investments and talents.
Certain salmans would declare that our GLCs are the self-reliant domestic companies that will sustain sg. -
It is self-reliance that will carry us further. We need to but have neglected nurturing our own domestic wing for a long time. Now it seems to little too late to try anything except to hope that some of our own GLCs will somehow fill the big vaccuum created due to past neglect.Originally posted by SilverPal:With our small population, do you think we'd be able to create and sustain self-reliant domestic companies that are competitive and viable?
Certain salmans would declare that our GLCs are the self-reliant domestic companies that will sustain sg.
If our foreign investment incentive strategy will work better, it will be because we have developed a good domestic value-adding base.
When we are only trying to depend on foreign investments and failed to nurture and develop our own value-adding economic master plan to create more technology start-ups, we will be really hollow or empty inside.
It is wrong to keep building up only foreign investment model without tending to our own domestic sector. Now some efforts are being made to correct this past neglect but it is like too little too late. If we want more foreigners to come here to set up shops, we need to attract them with our own domestic technological excellence and support bases.
The cabinet needs a few more entrepreneurial technology hands-on people to lead in this area as lawyers and doctors are not good enough. Taiwanese urged in computer field since the 1970s because of the good fortune of finding good leaders who are passionate in setting whole array of supportive industries to lead in computers. -
It'll take some work to cut PAP's dominance.
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This workload is the responsibility of ALL SINGAPOREANSOriginally posted by Nelstar:It'll take some work to cut PAP's dominance. 
This work is not to be left to the Opposition Politicians only, as it concerns the FUTURE of ALL SINGAPOREANS.
SINGAPOREANS should wake up from the deep sleep that the Ruling Party has pushed us into - with a constant threat to "sleep peacefully or face the consequences"
The Opposition Parties cannot do the job without the support of Ordinary Singaporeans.
POLITICS is not something abstract.
POLITICS is about OUR LIFE, OUR VERY EXISTENCE in SINGAPORE,
POLITICS is the RESPONSIBILITY OF EACH and EVERY SINGAPOREAN - especially those who are disillusioned and angry with the past and on-going policies of the Ruling Political Party.
I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
Charles De Gaulle (1890 - 1970)
Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
Paul Valery (1871 - 1945), Tel Quel 2 (1943)
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
Plato (427 BC - 347 BC) -
Originally posted by Atobe:
I'm so
This workload is the responsibility of ALL SINGAPOREANS
This work is not to be left to the Opposition Politicians only, as it concerns the FUTURE of ALL SINGAPOREANS.
SINGAPOREANS should wake up from the deep sleep that the Ruling Party has pushed us into - with a constant threat to "sleep peacefully or face the consequences"
The Opposition Parties cannot do the job without the support of Ordinary Singaporeans.
POLITICS is not something abstract.
POLITICS is about OUR LIFE, OUR VERY EXISTENCE in SINGAPORE,
POLITICS is the RESPONSIBILITY OF EACH and EVERY SINGAPOREAN - especially those who are disillusioned and angry with the past and on-going policies of the Ruling Political Party.
[b]I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
Charles De Gaulle (1890 - 1970)
Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.
Paul Valery (1871 - 1945), Tel Quel 2 (1943)
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
Plato (427 BC - 347 BC)
[/b]
please with WP today and feel proud of them !!!! -
sad to say, the media in Singapor belongs to PAP, so their voice will always be louder than the WP.Originally posted by ahtansh:I guess the minister should work hard on their own plans, every party will have their own agenda so why talk about others as being bad. They should just execute their own adgenda and let the result of the election judge itself. -
The truth is I'm not facinated by either's approach.
