the ology of charm

The PAP's 3 Rs: Retire, Renew, Refresh

The Straits Times, April 1 2006

It is good that the PAP has this renewal policy. It is not good to have too little new talent in the party, as when the time comes and the veterans need to step down, there will be nobody ready to replace them at such short notice. Furthermore, new talent means new ideas, and this can help to improve our lives and our country as a whole. To ensure success with new members, they should be inducted early so that they have enough time to learn how to do a good job.

To make room for new members, it is inevitable that older party members must step down, whether they are loved by the public or not. This has proved to be painful and sudden for some, and I am glad that the PAP is taking action and trying to minimize withdrawal symptoms, especially for those most loyal to the party. These people have literally made our country what it is now, and it is the least that can be done for them.

I think that the renewal rate is good as it is, because if party members leave too late you will have the above-mentioned problem. On the other hand if they leave too early and too many new people join, the party will be deprived of the older member's experience. They are needed to train the new members and to be advisers besides fulfilling their existing roles as ministers.

One other problem as stated in the article is the trend of Prime Ministers being appointed later and later. Although there have been only three so far, it is definitely not a good thing. It means that the existing Prime Minister has less time to run the country, as age will catch up with him; he is not able to run the country forever. A new leader will have a different ideology compared to the previous one, and it will definitely take a while for the people to get used to the change. If this trend continues and the people experience various changes over a short period of time it will result in social unrest. One example in history is Russia, where the Communist Party had seven leaders over a period of 74 years (average term of 10.6 years), particularly from 1982-1985 where the party had 2 leaders (average term of 1.5 years), because the second one was too old and died (Andropov was 70). Considering that it takes at least 3 years to train party members to be proficient enough to be full ministers (as stated in the article) that is an alarming rate and should be prevented at all costs.

**image from here.

posted by Charmaine @ 3:24 PM