I don’t know Alex Castellanos as well as I know the Singaporean political commentators. But, Alex, in a CNN post election panel chat, said to the effect that the Obama election success and process is much like the open source movement and cited Eric Raymond’s 10-year old publication, “The Cathedral and the Bazaar”. Michael Tiemann also makes reference to this clip.

The clip above, is timely as we look at the tsunamis hitting the global political establishments. Malaysia saw an amazing clearing of the deck at the last General Elections as did various other countries in 2008. I think the time is now to revamp the Singapore political establishment as well with a ground swell of “doing the right thing”.

There is a growing discontent with the way in which tax payer’s monies are being “invested” via the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation and Temasek Holdings with absolutely no transparency nor accountability to the people.

This country of mine is too important to be left to the politicians to run. I’ll will grant credit where due and the (the Singapore government) has been very successful in providing for the people and building the nation, but if we want to build a 21st century country, the SG government has to get out of thinking that only they can do things. The Cut Waste Panel is a good start. Don’t stop there. Tap into the open source movement. NOW. I will be happy to lead the IDA as their open source advocate/ombudsman to make sure that their SOEasy does not become the pile of stinking ancient technology as it will be, given the way it was architected. The SOEasy model will run the dreaded MS Exchange which further locks in the government system and loads up client desktops with CAL-infested goodness.

To borrow Obama’s phrase, “It is time for Change”. Yes, we can.