He did not elaborate more on what he meant exactly by
“leadership renewal”.
The Singapore government is indeed in urgent need of some
“leadership renewal”.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is already 58 years old this
year. The two senior ministers are above 60 years of age while DPM
Wong Kan Seng is 64 years old. Of course, there is the octogenarian
Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew who will be 87 years old this
year.
The retirement age of Singaporeans is 62 and so it is high time
that these ministers retire and make way for younger leaders to
replace them not that Singapore requires so many SMs, MMs and DPMs
to help the Prime Minister govern a country with a landmass of only
700 sqkm2.
Furthermore, their services do not come cheap. The Prime
Minister’s Office alone cost more than $10 million dollars annually
in terms of wages alone.
No country in the world has so many ministers helping a Prime
Minister. Malaysia, a country of 28 million people has only one
Deputy Prime Minister and no SM or MM.
Mr Teo exhorted Singaporeans to come forward to build a “better”
Singapore, but the PAP continues to hold on tightly all levers of
power in the country and refuses to let go.
Repressive and ridiculous laws are put in place to curtail the
civil and political liberties of Singaporeans.
Defamation lawsuits are employed frequently by PAP leaders to
bankrupt and cripple those who dare to voice out their
disagreements against them.
Mr Teo ended his speech by pointing to “Singapore’s reserves and
strong investment in defence as examples of big anchors that keep
the country stable.”
“So the question is: should all of you be so frightened that
all of you abandon ship straightaway? No, the answer is ‘no’.
What I’m trying to put to you is, you should have a well-founded
confidence in our own future. Why? Because even though we have
vulnerabilities, we have anchors against these vulnerabilities, and
indeed we have many, many strengths for the future,” he
said.
Singapore was reported to have lose billions of dollars of its
national reserves via its two sovereign wealth funds in failed
overseas investments last year.
Till today, the exact losses are not revealed to Singaporeans.
How can Mr Teo expect us to have confidence in our future when the
PAP appears to have so many things to hide from us?
Instead of talking so much, perhaps he should practice what he
preaches by replacing himself with a younger leader as part of his
proposed “leadership renewal” since he always appear to be
lethargic in parliament and was caught napping once on
television:
