S'POREANS SHOULD GET USED TO A NEW FACE AS PRIME MINISTER

The GE is coming and as in any general election, a new man or woman could be thrown up as the new Prime Minister. This is normal and common in any democracy except in Singapore. Here the PM is like a life time tenure and would go to the PAP’s candidate. In this GE the PM in the aftermath would be Hsien Loong. There is hardly any doubt about this. Many things would change but the PM of Singapore after the GE would not change.

Let’s put aside this reality and go on a trip to wonderland and let’s say a miracle happens and a new party or coalition is swept to power. And Singaporeans would have to live with a new face as the new Prime Minister. Who would that face be, Low Thia Khiang, Sylvia Lim, Chen Show Mao, Chee Soon Juan or Tan Jee Say? Try to imagine that one of them would be the new Prime Minister. The feeling is quite strange.

Strange it might be, but would anyone picture Jokowi, a businessman, not an elite or a general, an unassuming man being the President of Indonesia? Jokowi has been the President of Indonesia for more than a year and is looking more and more like a President. And who says you need to have experience in politics and an apprenticeship to become a President or a head of govt?

In a democracy every citizen is good enough to be the President or Prime Minister. Singaporeans must get use to a new face as the Prime Minister sooner or later. Maybe not in this election, but it will come. Look at Low Thia Khiang and get use to his face as the PM. Or look at Jee Say or Chee Soon Juan, get accustom to their faces and get use to it that their faces could be the face of a PM. Imagine them in formal business suits and ties and looking dignified as the Prime Minister. I am not talking about the money type of dignity, but the dignity of the Office of the Prime Minister, the Head of the govt of a country.

It is just a matter of getting use to it. Get the idea? In a democracy you don’t need to be from the nobility or aristocracy to be the Prime Minister. There is no need to look noble and rich, just look like a Prime Minister will do. And the strange thing is that it will grow on the person in the Office.