The apology manifesto
Published 10 May 2011
personal perspective , politics and government58 Comments
The biggest sign midway through the recent election campaign that
the People’s Action Party knew it was in trouble was when none
other than the prime minister himself said “sorry” twice at a rally
held in the financial district on 3 May 2011.
But if you look carefully at what he said, the errors he admitted
were errors of execution or implementation. Nowhere did he concede
that any of his government’s policies were wrong or had caused
suffering. His promise to “do better the next time” was one of
smoother implementation of the same policies, not of changing
course.
Furthermore, the specific examples he apologised for were
accidents or acts of God that were poorly responded to, such as the
escape of Mas Selamat Kastari or the flooding of Orchard Road. The
big issues — widening income gap, immigration and preference
schemes for foreigners, public housing pricing policy that contains
an inherent bias towards escalating prices — he hardly touched on
in any substantive way.
I suggest you read the Straits Times article (at left) again and
see for yourself.
It was also noticeable that as far as I know, no cabinet minister
echoed PM Lee Hsien Loong’s words in the days following. Most of
them kept their heads down. As I have told several reporters who
asked me for an opinion, I do not know whether
(a) this was an election tactic or genuine on the prime minister’s
part, nor
(b) the promise “not to lord it over people” will not be forgotten
once the election passed, nor
(c) other ministers will block him from carrying out any meaningful
reform, even if Lee was personally sincere about it.
To mean anything, these words have to be backed by action. I think
the following ten-point plan should be the minimum proof of
sincerity:
The First
Manifesto
1. Drop the
following ministers from the new cabinet to be formed: Vivian
Balakrishnan, Wong Kan Seng, Mah Bow Tan, Lee Kuan
Yew.
2. Halve
ministerial salaries immediately.
3. Publish the full accounts for the Youth Olympic Games.
4. Henceforth publish the transactional prices at which the Housing
and Development Board pays the Singapore Land Authority for
land.
5. Henceforth peg
selling prices of new public housing as
follows:
(a) smaller flats pegged to the mean of the 3nd decile of houshold
income;
(b) mid-sized flats pegged to the mean of the 4th and 5th decile of
houshold income;
(c) larger flats pegged to the mean of the 6th decile of household
income.
6. Complete all urban rail projects on time and initiate
construction of two more metro rail lines by the end of the next
parliamentary term.
7. Promise to achieve a reduction of the Gini coefficient of
household income of Singapore citizen households to 40 by the end
of the next parliamentary term, with a longer-term Gini target of
something in the mid-30′s. The Gini coefficient of household income
is a measure of the income gap between the rich and the poor and a
reduction of the Gini coefficient means the shrinking of this
income gap; effectively it means lifting people out of poverty and
addressing the problems of an escalating cost of living. There are
multiple ways of doing this; the exact tools can be left to the
government to decide so long as the target is achieved.
8. No increase in
the total population (citizens + permanent residents + foreigners)
by more than 0.5 percent per annum.
9. Abolish group representation constituencies and create a new,
independent Elections Commission with rules as to how to draw up
electoral boundaries that are compact and topographically sensible
and with voter population in any constituency not to vary by more
than 10 percent from the mean of all constituencies.
10. Repeal the
Internal Security Act.
The above are what I think will be needed to mollify widespread
frustration, and banish scepticism that the apology is just an
election gimmick. But do not mistake the ten points for what will
satisfy me. These alone will not be enough to win me over. I will
want another ten more:
The Second
Manifesto
11. Introduce proportional representation for at least one-third of
the seats in Parliament.
12. Require all
members of parliament to work as such (and as heads of respective
town councils) fulltime, except if they take up political
appointments in government.
13. Lower the
candidature qualification requirements for the
presidency.
14. Publish
accounts of our sovereign wealth funds.
15. Detach all
magistrates, judges and judicial officers from the Executive
branch; locate them in a separate Judicial branch overseen by an
independent commission responsible to its charter and the
President; the commission to have the power to appoint judges. All
Supreme Court judges should have fixed tenure to retirement age and
no judge shall have renewable terms or term extensions as is
presently the case.
16. Set up a comprehensive healthcare safety net
17. Abolish the death penalty
18. Abolish the Societies Act
19. Abolish all censorship, leaving only a rating system in place;
abolish collateral controls (e.g. venue licensing, good-behaviour
bonds) that make certain rating classifications censorship in all
but name; and last but certainly not least,
20. Repeal Section 377A of the Penal Code, and inscribe into the
constitution guarantees for non-discrimination on grounds of gender
and sexual orientation, in accordance with United Nations human
rights standards.
http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2011/05/10/the-apology-manifesto/
