PM Lee unveils cabinet changes
-
SINGAPORE : Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has made changes to his Cabinet, which sees new Ministers appointed for Law, Education, Manpower and five promotions.
Most of the changes will take effect from April 1st.
A new addition to the team will be Member of Parliament for Sembawang GRC, K Shanmugam, who will take over as the new Law Minister from Professor S Jayakumar from May 1st.
Mr Shanmugam will also concurrently hold the appointment of Second Minister for Home Affairs.
Professor Jayakumar will continue as Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security.
He will continue to oversee foreign policy matters which cut across different ministries.
Professor Jayakumar will also remain in charge of foreign policy issues which involve legal negotiation or international adjudication.
He will also continue to chair the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Climate Change.
The new Education Minister will be Dr Ng Eng Hen.
He will relinquish his appointment as Manpower Minister and take over from Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who will continue as Finance Minister.
Dr Ng will continue as Second Defence Minister.
Mr Gan Kim Yong will be appointed Acting Minister for Manpower.
He will also be promoted to Senior Minister of State, but will give up his appointment in Education.
Dr Vivian Balakrishnan will give up his appointment as Second Minister for Information, Communications and The Arts.
But he will remain as the Community Development, Youth and Sports Minister.
Four Ministers of State have been promoted.
Mrs Lim Hwee Hua will be promoted to Senior Minister of State, keeping her appointments in the Finance and Transport Ministries.
Mr S Iswaran will be Senior Minister of State, continuing in the Trade and Industry Ministry.
Ms Grace Fu also moves up to Senior Minister of State, receiving a new appointment in the Education Ministry, while serving her present appointment in the National Development Ministry.
Also promoted to Senior Minister of State is Mr Lui Tuck Yew, who will be newly appointed to the Information, Communications and The Arts Ministry or MICA, while continuing with his present appointment in the Education Ministry.
Dr Balaji Sadasivan will give up his appointment as Senior Minister of State in MICA, but continue as Senior Minister of State in the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Mr Heng Chee How will be appointed Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office.
He will assist Mr Lim Boon Heng, the Minister in charge of ageing issues, on re-employment of older workers and active ageing programmes.
But he will relinquish his appointment as Minister of State in the Health Ministry.
Promotions and changes are also made to Parliamentary Secretaries.
Mr Teo Ser Luck will be promoted to Senior Parliamentary Secretary and receive an appointment in the Transport Ministry.
He will continue with his current appointment in Community Development, Youth and Sports.
Mr Hawazi Daipi will be appointed as Senior Parliamentary Secretary in the Health Ministry, concurrently with his present appointment in the Manpower Ministry.
Mr Masagos Zulkifli will be appointed as Senior Parliamentary Secretary in the Home Affairs Ministry, continuing with his appointment in the Education Ministry.
The last Cabinet reshuffle was in May 2006, after Mr Lee won his first General Elections as Prime Minister. - CNA/ch -
ho peng kee...it's time to move on, he has been a junior misnister for god knows when, now he has to report to someone who hadn't even been in charge of a ministry...triple promotion, mm lee branded ho a lousy politician, shamu is even more of a bulldog than jeya...
balaji was a prominent neuro-surgeon and businessman, got screwed big time by empty promises....
vivian had 2 lame portfolios, now left with one.....
teo ser luck with his face plastered all over, this promotion is not a surprise....
masagos continues to be the token malay representative....can't even make it to mos....
this shuffle is meaningless....adds nothing...except for bigger pay cheques for some....
-
Very stranged and damn shocked...
Mr Wong Kan Seng is safe.
No one "resigned due to personal reasons"
Prof J seems to be doing abit of WKS's job.
-
kan seng is relative, cannot fire one.....
-
Originally posted by Ponders:
Very stranged and damn shocked...
Mr Wong Kan Seng is safe.
No one "resigned due to personal reasons"
Prof J seems to be doing abit of WKS's job.
Family members rice bowl won't be affected lah, like diamond rice bowl. -
shanmugam is really helicopter promotion...
-
wait, whatis gonna happen to Raymond Lim, now that Gan Kim Yong is taking over his job at MOT?
-
oops sorry, read wrongly =X
-
so many senior ministers of states... xD.. LOL
-
Originally posted by 4getmenot:
so many senior ministers of states... xD.. LOL
more salary lor
all also bo xiao kan (no sperm fark)
-
Singaporeans will have to brace ourselves for a more uncertain future, if this present ''untested'' bunch will effectively hold their official appointments on such an ominous date as April Fools' Day.
We have seen the idiotic policies implemented and promises renegaded since this cabinet led by PM LHL assumed office from the last election in 2006.
Why will Singaporeans continue to doubt the untested politicians from the Alternative Political Parties, when these present untested ones are given free and unbridled control over Singapore taxpayers and also their Reserves ?
-
Fair enough GCT seems recently to have made some good points about the need for ministers to possess ability to connect to the people and persuade to accept their policies with good leadership and implementation ability.
May be after the last GE where he made the blunder to unfairly threatening Hougang and Potong Pasir residents with withdrawal of lift upgrading if they did not vote for PAP he is now repenting and trying to make amends.
Perhaps he realized from his greater contact with other world leaders he has learned to be more objective and know his duty to do the right things for the people or is he mouthing hypocrisy just to brainwash the people again politically.
He now said in the upcoming cabinet reshuffle ministers who will be promoted should be people with ability to connect with the ground and convince people with leadership and arguments to accept their policies.
As a test whether in the current cabinet reshuffle has the PM really exercised such judgment over the performance of the ministers.
For example has the Minister for Transport Raymond Lim really connected with the ground or got the people to accept the rationale of non-stop extension of ERPs everywhere without differentiation of whether the ERP roads are expressway, major road or local access road for filtering out of traffic from congested expressways to lesser roads in the implementation.
Indiscriminate extension of ERP to control all congestion is not a win-win situation to let motorists have the option to decide whether to go by ERP roads or filter out to lesser roads (major roads or local access road) as catching every one to pay ERP will not solve the congestion problem as such method will end up with heaving ERP without solving congestion short of giving up vehicles for which they already paid COE and the punitive excise duty.
Is Raymond really connected to the people or has he persuaded people to accept ERP-everywhere policy as a more effective way to solve the long-standing vehicle congestion problem?
If SM, MM and PM have the leadership ability, they should realize that many ministers like this or DPM WKS lack the ability to connect to the ground and make people accept their policies or implementations of policies with leadership or good convincing arguments or rationale.
Let the people be the judge as to whether PM knows how to judge the performance of such ministers as pointed out by SM Goh.
If he cannot then even the PM is not up to the standard to connect to the ground and convince people to accept policies.
If such government or ministers stay on they will only cause more harm and inconvenience.
<!--
if ( navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase().indexOf('mozilla') != -1 && navigator.userAgent.indexOf('5.') == -1 && navigator.userAgent.indexOf('6.') == -1 )
document.write(' ');
else
document.write('</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td valign="top" nowrap="nowrap"><div style="position:relative"><div style="position:absolute"></div><div style="position:absolute;left:3px;top:-1px"></div></div>');
//-->
-
Hi Folks!
I am now totally convinced, absolutely convinced
that there will not be much changes in the pore's
politcal scenes,
NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS.
I have made up my mind and started making plans for my retirement.
I am totally convinced now.
GoodBye.
-
Before anyone migrates, please give these people a black eye by voting opposition 1 last time.
-
Why don't you tell us whats wrong with every single one of them ?
-
Mr. K Shanmugam, new Minister for Law. What a miserable life.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Straits Times, the Singapore state controlled newspaper in a story dated March 30, 2008 "Loss to law profession, but gain for Singapore" is all praise for Mr. K Shanmugam, Lee Kuan Yew's Member of Parliament on his promotion as Minister for Law. Is this really, all glory for this man, or is it in truth, misery?
Just look at him. He is an Indian lawyer selected many years ago by Lee Kuan Yew to join his party and become a Member of Parliament. Knowing Singapore as a one party state under Lee Kuan Yew, you know how this works.
His main qualification from the beginning is complete loyalty to one man, Lee Kuan Yew. Meaning exactly that. A complete and utter subservience to him. And the willingness to carry out his any command, just as a dog will faithfully carry out his master's orders. His principle ambition being all along to catch Mr. Lee Kuan Yew's eye which he succeeded. Never mind what sort of a tyrant he may be.
Well he succeeded in his ambition to serve his master. He was chosen by Lee, lucky for him; or is it really? And all these years he does Lee’s bidding. Saying anything he wants said. Doing anything he wants done.
All because it is highly profitable.
And during all these years as Member of Parliament, no Singaporeans has any respect for him. None at all. Indeed they don’t even care who or what he is. He merely goes about doing his job. His job includes sitting at resident committee meetings and the monthly meet the people sessions, which he does mechanically. He always contests elections in Group Representation Constituencies because there is a doubt whether he will win a single seat constituency, because he is an Indian in a majority Chinese country.
But he always wins elections because his master, Lee Kuan Yew sees to it. Any opposition contender is defamed derided sued and sent to jail if they challenge him. With Lee Kuan Yew's blessing and protection, this man survives as a Member of Parliament and now as a Minister.
If the next moment, Lee withdraws his support, Mr. K Shannmugam will no longer be Member of Parliament, let alone Minister. He will be selling "thosai", the Indian pancake along Serangoon Road next to Norris Road. He won’t be wearing fancy suits anymore but instead the Indian lungi, and chewing betel nut! He is not master of his destiny, Lee Kuan Yew is.
Within Singapore, in reality he represents no one. No one is bothered about him, or even knows anything about him. In fact no body cares two hoots, whether he is dead or alive.
The state controlled newspaper the Straits Times will of course put out the standard propaganda that he is brilliant, that he is smart and that he is none other than superman. But just like everything else the state controlled paper will say; the people just ignore it.
This man may go abroad, meet foreign governments and politicians. But foreign politicians are not like him. They, being true politicians, truly representative of their people, look upon this man as nothing more than Lee Kuan Yew's page boy. They have no respect for him. They know he is not truly a politician. He is a mere employee selected by Lee Kuan Yew to play the part of a politician. Like me, they also know that the moment Lee tires of him, he will very probably, end up selling the Indian pancake at the aforementioned location at Serangoon Road.
If this man's life is a happy one; or a shameful disgraceful and miserable one, I leave it to you to decide.
Let’s look at someone else. Let’s look at Dr. Chee Soon Juan of the Singapore Democratic Party. Dr. Chee is not a Member of Parliament. In fact he is a bankrupt. He was bankrupted by Lee Kuan Yew because he crossed his path. He is not rich as Mr. K Shanmugam. He is defamed and demonized in Singapore’s state controlled paper by Lee Kuan Kew. Lee calls him a liar, a cheat and a rascal.
But despite all that Lee says, the situation is quite the opposite. The people respect him. The people know him as a true leader. He is not beholden to anyone. He speaks his mind; unlike Shanmugam who says what he is told to say. A great number of Singaporeans read what he has to say. They listen to his speeches and they are interested in his actions. Not only in Singapore, but throughout the world, Dr. Chee is respected. In reality, Dr. Chee stands as a giant, next to this man Shanmugam; no better than Lee’s poodle.
The European Parliament has honored Dr. Chee. He has won many world leadership awards. World leaders respect him as a force for freedom and democracy. He is unable to travel because Lee refuses to let him. He is in effect a prisoner within Singapore. But world leaders are constantly monitoring his circumstances. They care for him. They worry about him. They know him. They respect him. They continue to lodge protests against Singapore for denying his human rights. Dr. Chee is seen as a true leader, a true fighter for democracy and human rights. He is not a Minister in Lee Kuan Yew's cabinet but he remains a giant before this Mr. Shanmugam.
World leaders on the other hand have never heard of Mr. Shanmugam. Had it not been for the state controlled newspaper the Straits Times, Singaporeans would not have known him either!
Mr. Shanmugam lives his life at the mercy and pleasure of Lee Kuan Yew, the authoritarian ruler of Singapore because it is profitable. Dr. Chee lives as a free man with a conviction and a purpose in life.
Despite all the worldly pleasures, it can only be said that Mr. K Shanmugam lives a miserable life. He is not a free man. He is on Lee Kuan Yew's short leash. Dr. Chee Soon Juan on the other hand, is a giant, lives as a free and happy man; a man respected not only by Singaporeans but by politicians and people all over the world.
Gopalan Nairhttp://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/2008/03/mr-k-shanmugam-new-minister-for-law.html
-
You reject the straits times and you read his rubbish ?
-
I have freedom to read what sort of propaganda I like.
-
Fundamental laws like the constitution are good to have provided they spell out clearly the roles and duties of government versus the citizens to prevent abuse of power to serve the government's own interests or hidden agendas while ensuring that citizens are able to live their lives freely in accordance with general laws based on principles of justice equity and fair play.
In our case what do we see of our laws, law makers (parliament), executives (implementors of laws), judiciary and civil servants.
Are our laws serving our citizens' interests as described in the first Principle of Nation Building (see the thread of this name).
If the answer is blur or a qualified one then what is the point of having another great lawyer talent like Shanmugam if he is another law minister only interested in passing all kinds of laws to serve the power that be to increase their own salaries or GST or GRC or profiteering from all the lands and assets owned by people to enrich the state at the expense of the people.
I do not see the need to have another law minister paid millions just to come up with legalistic passing of more laws to entrench the power that be in power and to screw us the people.
It is better to have strategic independent planners and implementors who could see beyond laws and legalistic passing of all sorts of laws in puppet parliament just to look good.
What we need badly now is to have an anti-law result-getting ministers who could see the need to unscramble from too much laws and put up proposals to abolish some existing laws like the GRC or profiteering schemes of all kinds of HDB and GLCs to make our lives easier.
Keep the lawyers to the back room and not let lawyers dominate the government or prevent us from too much legalistic wrangling of the whole government and interfere with our political evolution to a more open and creative system free from lawyers' interference to build a more competitive economy.
-
The whole thing is like playing Musical Chair...... shift from one post to another.... but still the same branch of ppl.
-
The policy does not change.
The autocratic rule is still there.
As long as PAP rules Singapore, there will be no change.
My hope is that things will change once Lee Kuan Yew is dead.
These people recruited by Lee Kuan Yew will not dare to make a rash move if that bastard is still alive.
...As W. I. Jennings says in more than one place in his book Cabinet Government, "It is the Government that controls the House of Commons." This control is exercised through the Cabinet's control of the political party machinery. This power over the party machinery is exercised through control of party funds and above all by control of nominations to constituencies. The fact that there are no primary elections in Britain and that party candidates are named by the inner clique of the party is of tremendous importance and is the key to the control which the inner clique exercises over the House of Commons, yet it is rarely mentioned in books on the English political system...
...The idea, widely held in the United States, that the Commons is a legislative body and the Cabinet is an executive body is not true. As far as legislation is concerned, Britain has a multi-cameral system in which the Cabinet is the second chamber, the Commons the third, and the Lords the fourth. Of these three the Conservatives always have control of the Lords, and the same party generally has control of the other two. Legislation originates in the meetings of the inner clique of the party, acting as a first chamber. If accepted by the Cabinet it passes the Commons almost automatically. The Commons, rather than a legislative body, is the public forum in which the party announces the decisions it has made in secret party and Cabinet meetings and allows the opposition to criticize in order to test public reactions. Thus all bills come from the Cabinet, and rejection in Commons is almost unthinkable, unless the Cabinet grants to party members in Commons freedom of action. Even then this freedom usually extends only to the right to abstain from voting, and does not allow the member to vote against a bill. Although machinery for private members' bills exists similar to that in the United States, such bills rarely become law. The only significant one in recent years was an unusual hill of an unusual member from an unusual constituency. It was the divorce law of A. P. Herbert, famous humorist, and Member from Oxford.
This situation is sometimes called "Cabinet dictatorship." It could more accurately be called "party dictatorship." Both the Cabinet and the Commons are controlled by the party, or more accurately by the inner clique of the party. This inner clique may hold seats in the Cabinet, hut the two are not the same thing, since members of one may not be members of the other, and the gradations of power are hy no means the same in one as in the other. The inner clique of the Conservative Party sometimes meets in the Carlton Club, while the inner clique of the Labour Party meets in a trade-union conclave, frequently in Transport House...
-
Originally posted by Poh Ah Pak:
Mr. K Shanmugam, new Minister for Law. What a miserable life.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Straits Times, the Singapore state controlled newspaper in a story dated March 30, 2008 "Loss to law profession, but gain for Singapore" is all praise for Mr. K Shanmugam, Lee Kuan Yew's Member of Parliament on his promotion as Minister for Law. Is this really, all glory for this man, or is it in truth, misery?
Just look at him. He is an Indian lawyer selected many years ago by Lee Kuan Yew to join his party and become a Member of Parliament. Knowing Singapore as a one party state under Lee Kuan Yew, you know how this works.
His main qualification from the beginning is complete loyalty to one man, Lee Kuan Yew. Meaning exactly that. A complete and utter subservience to him. And the willingness to carry out his any command, just as a dog will faithfully carry out his master's orders. His principle ambition being all along to catch Mr. Lee Kuan Yew's eye which he succeeded. Never mind what sort of a tyrant he may be.
Well he succeeded in his ambition to serve his master. He was chosen by Lee, lucky for him; or is it really? And all these years he does Lee’s bidding. Saying anything he wants said. Doing anything he wants done.
All because it is highly profitable.
And during all these years as Member of Parliament, no Singaporeans has any respect for him. None at all. Indeed they don’t even care who or what he is. He merely goes about doing his job. His job includes sitting at resident committee meetings and the monthly meet the people sessions, which he does mechanically. He always contests elections in Group Representation Constituencies because there is a doubt whether he will win a single seat constituency, because he is an Indian in a majority Chinese country.
But he always wins elections because his master, Lee Kuan Yew sees to it. Any opposition contender is defamed derided sued and sent to jail if they challenge him. With Lee Kuan Yew's blessing and protection, this man survives as a Member of Parliament and now as a Minister.
If the next moment, Lee withdraws his support, Mr. K Shannmugam will no longer be Member of Parliament, let alone Minister. He will be selling "thosai", the Indian pancake along Serangoon Road next to Norris Road. He won’t be wearing fancy suits anymore but instead the Indian lungi, and chewing betel nut! He is not master of his destiny, Lee Kuan Yew is.
Within Singapore, in reality he represents no one. No one is bothered about him, or even knows anything about him. In fact no body cares two hoots, whether he is dead or alive.
The state controlled newspaper the Straits Times will of course put out the standard propaganda that he is brilliant, that he is smart and that he is none other than superman. But just like everything else the state controlled paper will say; the people just ignore it.
This man may go abroad, meet foreign governments and politicians. But foreign politicians are not like him. They, being true politicians, truly representative of their people, look upon this man as nothing more than Lee Kuan Yew's page boy. They have no respect for him. They know he is not truly a politician. He is a mere employee selected by Lee Kuan Yew to play the part of a politician. Like me, they also know that the moment Lee tires of him, he will very probably, end up selling the Indian pancake at the aforementioned location at Serangoon Road.
If this man's life is a happy one; or a shameful disgraceful and miserable one, I leave it to you to decide.
Let’s look at someone else. Let’s look at Dr. Chee Soon Juan of the Singapore Democratic Party. Dr. Chee is not a Member of Parliament. In fact he is a bankrupt. He was bankrupted by Lee Kuan Yew because he crossed his path. He is not rich as Mr. K Shanmugam. He is defamed and demonized in Singapore’s state controlled paper by Lee Kuan Kew. Lee calls him a liar, a cheat and a rascal.
But despite all that Lee says, the situation is quite the opposite. The people respect him. The people know him as a true leader. He is not beholden to anyone. He speaks his mind; unlike Shanmugam who says what he is told to say. A great number of Singaporeans read what he has to say. They listen to his speeches and they are interested in his actions. Not only in Singapore, but throughout the world, Dr. Chee is respected. In reality, Dr. Chee stands as a giant, next to this man Shanmugam; no better than Lee’s poodle.
The European Parliament has honored Dr. Chee. He has won many world leadership awards. World leaders respect him as a force for freedom and democracy. He is unable to travel because Lee refuses to let him. He is in effect a prisoner within Singapore. But world leaders are constantly monitoring his circumstances. They care for him. They worry about him. They know him. They respect him. They continue to lodge protests against Singapore for denying his human rights. Dr. Chee is seen as a true leader, a true fighter for democracy and human rights. He is not a Minister in Lee Kuan Yew's cabinet but he remains a giant before this Mr. Shanmugam.
World leaders on the other hand have never heard of Mr. Shanmugam. Had it not been for the state controlled newspaper the Straits Times, Singaporeans would not have known him either!
Mr. Shanmugam lives his life at the mercy and pleasure of Lee Kuan Yew, the authoritarian ruler of Singapore because it is profitable. Dr. Chee lives as a free man with a conviction and a purpose in life.
Despite all the worldly pleasures, it can only be said that Mr. K Shanmugam lives a miserable life. He is not a free man. He is on Lee Kuan Yew's short leash. Dr. Chee Soon Juan on the other hand, is a giant, lives as a free and happy man; a man respected not only by Singaporeans but by politicians and people all over the world.
Gopalan Nairhttp://singaporedissident.blogspot.com/2008/03/mr-k-shanmugam-new-minister-for-law.html
a p veloo...
-
Yay Miss Vivian - 1 portfolio. Actually should drop the other portfolio instead. She is damn suited for "Information, Communications and The Arts".
Opposition should enlist Alex Au for this post - the Andrew Sullivan of Singapore. Maybe then Mediacorp will revive in Singapore the tv program "Queer eye for the straight guy". Or better still "The Queer Guide to Theatre and Opera that PAP effetists like to watch".
If Uncle Ver become Minister for Arts, I promise WWE matches in the Durian and the unbanning of Playboy magazines. I will bring NASCAR into Singapore instead.
-
"What we need badly now is to have an anti-law result-getting ministers who could see the need to unscramble from too much laws and put up proposals to abolish some existing laws like the GRC or profiteering schemes of all kinds of HDB and GLCs to make our lives easier."
To be more precise its the excessive bureaucracy in running an island of 600 sqkm albeit population 4 million. But if you do things my way, unemployment goes up and I doubt people will go for it.
-
WKS (fortunately) has timing favouring him. had the MSK episode happened earlier, he would have faced the inevitable. it is too soon. also, if WKS takes the wrap, it shouldn't happened during a cabinet reshuffle. it will overshadow the overall positive message PAP wants to deliver. I still think it will be a matter of time for him to `retire', for as long as MSK is not found. if really nothing is done still, then PAP has a lot to answer for the incompetence they breed from within.
Separately, my read is that Vivian is also pegged back. His arrogance in the last few months shows how disconnected he is from the common man.
Personally, i don't read too much into the cabinet reshuffle overall. the same guys gets rotated.
Prof Ho should retire. I personally like Prof Ho.