Political viewpoint
The centre cannot hold
When the Old Guard goes, their influence will just be a memory, but the State faces a danger of decline. By leounheort
May 30, 2007

"When one voice rules the nation just because they're top of the pile doesn't mean their vision is the clearest." - Billy Bragg

The current Singapore Government cannot stand the test of time. When the Old Guard is dead and buried, their influence nothing more than a memory, the State faces a very real danger of decline.
The structure of the government will be its undoing.

Currently, the majority of State power rests in the hands of the executive. The Prime Minister, Senior Minister, and Minister Mentor hold the most political power in this country, by virtue of the authority of their posts.

Their power then flows outwards, infusing each member of their appointed Cabinet with authority over their individual areas of government.

The Cabinet rules through its day-to-day administration of the country, discussing and deciding public policies, and enforcing them through the arms of the State.

The legislature has been neutered. Officially, the legislative, represented by Parliament, sets the law by will of the people. However, Parliament has been consistently dominated by the People's Action Party since 1957.

Since the last General Elections, there are just two Opposition members in Parliament, out of a total of 84 seats. This overwhelming PAP majority, coupled with the existence of the Party Whip, almost virtually guarantees that any policy proposed by any member of the PAP would be passed, in some form or another.

No matter how vocal the Opposition may be, the sad fact remains that there are only two voting Opposition members in Parliament.

Without a strong political Opposition within Parliament, there is no effective check and balance against a despotic/authoritarian/majoritarian/rogue Government within the legislature.

The policies decided upon in the legislature twould fall under the purview of the State, and by extension, the executive.

In addition, the legislature does not formally check the actions of the executive through oversight committees; in fact, the legislature in Singapore does not even question the executive's policies when set in stone, and when there are no publicly-reported negative repurcussions. Consequently, the legislature has effectively become an extension of the executive, for there is nobody to stop it.

The judiciary has been tamed. In this country, rule by law has become interchangeable with rule of law. This is most evident in certain civic actions by the Government against the Opposition and other political dissidents.

Throughout Singapore's history, the Government has shown a willingness to file demation suits against individuals deemed to have slandered the State in one way or another. The judges have ruled in the Government's favour for virtually every case.

Chee Soon Juan is now a bankrupt. Joshua Benjamin Jayeratnam used to be one. These are just two individuals who had pitted themselves against the State - and lost.

This circumstantial evidence points to the potential co-option of Court and State, though naturally, both would deny their interdependence.

Still, there remains an underlying perception that the judiciary has become a tool of the executive to clamp down and discourage political dissidents through the use of law suits.
This means that there is no separation of powers in Singapore.

The legislature, the judiciary, and the executive have become one. The State is now all-encompassing, with no inherent checks and balances to prevent abuse of power. In such a system, power tends to be concentrated in the hands of a few people.

In Singapore's case, most of the political power rests in the hands of Lee Kwan Yew, Goh Chok Tong, and Lee Hsien Loong, currently the Minister Mentor, Senior Minister, and Prime Minister respectively.

A personality-centric system cannot stand.

The Singapore Government is focused squarely on the executive, with most power in the hands of three. These three men therefore have the greatest ability to imprint their vision on Singapore.

The State has embarked on an authoritarian form of rule, ruthlessly clamping down on political (and moral) dissent and nonconformism through lawsuits, the Internal Security Act, in the name of the common good.

These actions serve only to keep the current regime in power, and to further increase the powers of the State. Bodies like the Media Development Authority and the Film Censorship Board restrict expression against the State or the State's values, consolidating the State's power.

A perceived state-friendly media further increases control. When the triumvirate falls, through the deaths and/or resignation of any of its constituents, a power vacuum will result, because there will be nobody left to embody the power once possessed by a member of the system.

As history has shown, a power vacuum following the end of a personality-centric system leads to factionism and internal chaos: Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, and so on.

The prevention of a power vacuum necessitates the existence of strong, ambitious individuals willing to step up and assume the mantle of responsibility, and for the current system to accept these individuals.

In this way, because the successors have official approval, factionism and popular disapproval is less likely to result. A smooth transition of power would also prevent the formation of a power vacuum. However, in Singapore, this is not very likely.

Personality-centric systems, to outlast their founders, must seek out personalities similar to that of the founders.

These systems are built around a few dominant personalities, and so are attuned specifically to their leadership styles. Someone with a different leadership style would shake up the system, and cause it to crumble.

However, in Singapore, we cannot find another Lee Kwan Yew. Such a man would have long-ago been recruited by the People's Action Party, and would by now be placed in an important post.

A man with his combination of vision, ruthlessness, and political realism is a rarity; if another exists, we have not found him. Neither have we located a man similar to Lee; had we done so, there would be chatter about him on the political blogosphere and official media for quite a while.

Such individuals, after all, tend to produce such drastic, effective results, maintain a long-sighted vision, and are not afraid of publicity, so their very existence would not be kept secret for long.

Until otherwise reported, there is no second Lee Kwan Yew. Without a similar successor to Lee, the centre of the triumvirate cannot hold. He has the greatest political power in Singapore, because of the respect he enjoys from the length and breadth of his experience, and because of the nature of his post.

The system itself is centred on Lee, because of his power. When Lee passes on, so will the system: it cannot stand without him.

This is a worrying state of affairs. Lee Kwan Yew is not immortal. Neither is Goh Chok Tong, or Lee Hsien Loong.

When they pass on, a new generation would take over. The personality-centric system we have in place must collapse because of these differing personalities. It would definitely change, either for the better, or for the worse.

In order to prevent such a scenario, we must have a paradigm shift. The personality-centric system cannot survive the test of time. Therefore, we must replace the system with one of our own: the broad-based system.

In such a model, there is firstly a separation of powers: the legislature is separated from the executive, with oversight committees in place to ensure that the State does not overstep its jurisdiction; and the judiciary should judge based on the spirit of the law, not its letter, to ensure justice, especially in affairs of State.

Secondly, the people must take charge of political affairs, and take political power back from the State.

This is done through activism, single-issue groups, pressuring politicians, citizen journalism, and others. The entire scope of this system would be explored later, if at all; an overview should suffice for now.

The centre cannot hold. To prevent this, we need nothing less than political reformation.

http://leounheort.blogspot.com/2007/05/centre-cannot-hold.html