If the PAP leadership is serious about reforming their thinking, they need to first change the fact the the cabinet is PG-rated. The Prime Minister has his father in cabinet allegedly as a “mentor” but really. A mentor? You mean the PM can’t do the job himself with the rest of the cabinet? Add to that, why have a Senior Minister position? What real value does the SM or MM bring that they cannot do so as external, non-elected advisers? So, it appears that both the MM and SM don’t really think the PM to do his job well.
Now, let’s look at how the PAP has fared in terms of over percentage of votes since 1988:
Prime Minister 1988 1991 1997 2001 2006 2011 Lee Kuan Yew 63.2 Goh Chok Tong 61 65 75.3 Lee Hsien Loong 66.6 60.1
So, looking at the percentages, with GCT as PM, he manged to get the PAP overall rating go from 61 to 75.3. LHL, on the other hand, has seen steady downward trend and his latest percentage is LOWER than GCT on GCT’s first elections. I guess, this explains why the he is a PG-rated PM.
Please read this great post as well.
GCT upped his vote share by using upgrading as a carrot in 1997 and had 9/11 fears to thank for 2001. Those tools are now exhausted. I don’t think he could have done better than LHL this time around.
That would be true, Jason. Especially 2001 with September 11 and all.
But having said that, LHL’s steady decline even after coming out of the SARS and Tsunami episodes and the 2008/2009 recession did not help him at all. Their upgrading carrot cannot continue as a lot of them have been done up already.
[…] So, now that both GCT and LKY are no longer in the Cabinet, it is no longer PG-rated. […]