Don’t just listen. Act

Lesson from ’84: don’t just listen, act

Shortly after the 1984 GE, the government set up a Feedback unit to better understand the concerns off the public. Dr Tan was appointed as its head.

In a video on his website, Dr Tan recalls how one minister asked him in a manner he interpreted unkindly: “Do you have any other worthwhile feedback to give to me?” Dr Tan, not liking the tone in which the question was asked, was angry enough to cut him off from his feedback loop.

Somewhere between 1984 and 2011, perhaps because of less brutally honest feedback heads than Dr Tan or a confusion of the act of listening for the actual need to act on feeback, the PAP lost sight of the anger at its policies and Dr Tan’s words have returned to haunt them.

PM Lee has taken an important first step at removing the unpopular ministers behind its proposals, but he needs to understand that a personnel reshuffle without a substantive change in policy delivery would create disillusionment and a backlash far worse than GE 2011.

Unpopular policies such as the income ceiling for HDB buyers, the government’s laissez-faire immigration policy, and their miserly attitude to social assistance have to be re-thought.

More fundamentally, the much talked about “transformation” of the PAP propounded by George Yeo has to be a principled one.

The root of the resentment that the PAP feels stems in large part from a sense that it does not play fair. Unless this sentiment is addressed, in the words of new PAP MP Tan Chuan Jin, the PAP’s moral authority will erode. As Mr Tan accurately notes, in politics, perception is reality.

The start to renewing the moral authority of the PAP should be the abolition of the GRC scheme and a reduction in ministerial pay.

These two issues form the twin pillars of visceral resentment against the PAP: the first is a noble sentiment for minority representation twisted for electoral self-preservation, the second runs contrary to the laymen’s sense of what public service should be.

For its long term survival, the PAP has to understand that unless these twin sources of anger are allayed, its vote share will continue to fall.

The PAP’s reliance on performance legitimacy will increasingly become less persuasive as the opposition continues to recruit better qualified candidates. Also, as Singaporeans become wealthier and better educated and move up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the attraction of a more pluralistic democracy will grow.

 

 

Source :http://www.zoroukah.com/toc/toc-editorial-bold-cabinet-line-up-now-for-the-follow-through/

 

source : www.tanchengbock.org