What political candidates should have (not necessarily paper qualifications!)

February 2, 2010 by admin
Filed under: Voices of the People 

EDITOR’S NOTE: This post originally appeared on Chia Ti Lik’s personal blog.

A mutual activist friend of ours had earlier shared with both of us some very pertinent points about the supposed relationship between having good paper qualifications and being a good political candidate.

Ti Lik’s post is reproduced in full here as it cuts straight to the chase.

Also appended below this post is a Straits Times Forum letter I wrote concerning the same topic which was published on Saturday in the print edition.

By Chia Ti Lik
02 Feb 2010

A very learned friend was a participant in an IRC discussion.

The IRC discussion was about the local political scene purportedly mandating paper qualifications for credible candidature. I was told that a lot of good arguments were thrown up and they are in short summarized hereinbelow.

I have reproduced these with the kind permission of the author, which until he tells me that he does not mind being named, i shall not name him :)

  1. Having paper qualifications has little to do with integrity.
  2. Political education and savviness is not usually formally taught.
  3. Not having paper qualifications does not mean a person does not have an education, i.e., he can be self taught.
  4. There is also the question of who should decide what the formal criteria for the eligibility of candidates ought to be.
  5. The requirement of paper qualifications for candidates reserves the right to rule to the upper classes, which will entrench themselves and is therefore undemocratic.
  6. Politicians, even ministers, always have a team of specialists which they can consult. It’s more important to look at the qualifications of that team.
  7. In a system where money has incredible corrupting influence, politicians must above all have backbone, not simply paper qualifications.
  8. The quality of candidates should be judged by the people, not by some institution (schools).
  9. Candidates with paper qualifications is a bonus, but if they are one with the citizenry, they will be elected anyway, and hence no requirements for paper qualifications are necessary.
  10. Having an educated electorate is the priority, not highly educated candidates per se. This leads to a more sustainable political system.
  11. Putting point 4 and 9 together, mandating paper qualifications creates an aristocracy/dictatorship that will dumb down the public to maintain their grip on power. This is unsustainable.

In a short 11 points, the entire rubbish of elitism woven by the ruling party gets torn to shreds :)

I was taken aback speechless. And I now share this with you.

Straits Times forum page, 30 Jan 2010

Ex-scholarship holder in opposition? No big deal

I REFER to the report on a former government scholarship holder joining an opposition party (‘Ex-Admin Service officer joins Reform’, Jan 20).

While some have hailed this as a significant plus for the opposition, I view it as a non-event.

First, many talented graduates have joined the ranks of the opposition in recent years, but many of them have opted to keep out of the spotlight, preferring to build a credible profile first. For example, Workers’ Party secretary-general and Member of Parliament for Hougang, Mr Low Thia Khiang, mentioned recently that his party has been recruiting new members, many of whom are probably academically well qualified.

Second, I agree with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s assessment that we should not judge political candidates based on their paper credentials, but on what they can do for society. Using Mr Lee’s yardstick, I judge many opposition candidates favourably as they provide an alternative voice for the people, regardless of their qualifications. In fact, good grades are irrelevant to being a good politician, as the work of serving the community requires the heart more than the head.

It is time we look past superficial measures of success like academic credentials, and pay more attention to an individual’s track record at work and in community service, which are more accurate indicators of his calibre.

Ng E-Jay

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Comments

One Comment on What political candidates should have (not necessarily paper qualifications!)

  1. That unnamed guy on Fri, 5th Feb 2010 12:07 am

    2. Actually if you read the IRC log, the discussion wasn’t about Singapore. Of the all the participants, only I was Singaporean. The rest were American, Canadian, Chinese, French, Indian, Togolese, etc.

    Those 11 points were raised in response to a rather exasperated remark by a regular. He suggested for doctorate degrees to be required for those standing for elections, perhaps to properly ‘guide’ democracy. Everyone else objected. And these are well-educated individuals working in the high-tech industry.

    Most remarkable is the cross-cultural consensus that the single most important quality candidates must have is principledness.

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