Hi Roming thanks for the Article I remembered a speech by the PM he said an election candidate should be judged not by his academic ability but what he can do for Singapore and he asked Singaporeans to scrutinise opposition candidates as closely as they do People’s Action Party candidates. He was responding to a question at the Singapore Perspectives Forum, on recent reports about ex-government scholars joining the opposition.
PM Lee said: “For the opposition it’s a change – one scholar or two you think “wow” this is a luminous transformation. Well it is a significant development we will look, but finally let’s look at the person. Not what degrees he has, but what he is able to do for Singapore.
“I can tell you we interview many scholars and each time we field a few of them. And we interview other people too and we often field people who are not scholars. It is good to see it in perspective.
“We hope that anybody who enters politics is somebody of not just ability but integrity and commitment. These are young people who have got good records academically and been in the civil service. We wish them well but we hope Singaporeans will judge individuals like that as rigorously as they would judge individuals who join the PAP side. “In other words, it’s not just what degree you have but what sort of person are you and what can you do. That is a matter you can scrutinise before they come in and the PAP scrutinise very hard before they can come in. But it has to be scrutinised by the voters after they have come in and make a wise choice whom to commit.
“I can tell you we interview many scholars and each time we field a few of them. And we interview other people too and we often field people who are not scholars. It is good to see it in perspective.
“We hope that anybody who enters politics is somebody of not just ability but integrity and commitment. These are young people who have got good records academically and been in the civil service. We wish them well but we hope Singaporeans will judge individuals like that as rigorously as they would judge individuals who join the PAP side. “In other words, it’s not just what degree you have but what sort of person are you and what can you do. That is a matter you can scrutinise before they come in and the PAP scrutinise very hard before they can come in. But it has to be scrutinised by the voters after they have come in and make a wise choice whom to commit.
Posted BY Roming
(Editor's note: The voters' familiarity with party-list parties, on a scale of 1 to 10, is about 1.5 as noted by the author.)
The 79-page constitution (my copy) devotes only a few lines to the party-list system of national, regional, and sectoral parties. The Comelec has a list of 11,980 national/local positions at stake on May 10. Of this number 57 are party-list representatives and full-fledged members of the House of Representatives.
Selection only
One-half of the party-list seats shall be filled "by selection or election" from the labor, peasant, urban poor, cultural communities, etc., except the religious sector.
The space on the ballot provided for the party-list parties has made this document longer (25 inches) and wider (8.5 inches) or more than twice the size of a lined-yellow pad paper. To this hour most voters (of the 50 million plus) don't know the exact number of party-list parties printed on the ballot.
Who are the candidates
Worse, voters have no idea if the organizers are men and women of honest design and intention.
And the very word "one-half" of the party-list seats will definitely welcome some religious leaders who are not covered by "except the religious sector," a device of no known purpose except to invite religious "leaders" to the realm of politics.
Dubious sectors
The word one-half also favors Filipinos who may choose to speak freely in the House, though coming from dubious sectors (not necessarily gambling and other minor/major vices in various localities).
Can 57 party-list seats overcome or defeat purposes not fit for legislation?
They are only 57 members in the House of 287 representatives or one-fifth to cause any bother, problem or trouble. And not all 57 party-list representatives would honestly support the minority or majority course of action in the event of a showdown at unholy hours.
Jobs for jobless?
There are murmurs that the party-list system, as we know it now, has been converted into a recruitment agency. They offer, for a cause (or cost?), names deleted from the roster of active public servants: Retired generals, Cabinet members, senior officials of doubtful achievement, politicians of no known merit and achievement. Yes, it's like a gesture of accommodation or insult.
Disabled banned
The Disabled Pinoy Party (DPP) was disqualified, probably for a known reason: They cannot walk or move about fast enough to vote "yes or no" in the House, if called upon by the majority leadership.
Can the disabled think? Yes, they can! Franklin Delano Roosevelt was disabled by polio in 1921, but was elected New York governor twice, 1928 and 1930. FDR won four elections for president (November, 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944) and chosen by historians as second greatest president (after Lincoln) of the 44 who served since 1789 (Washington).
About the long/wide ballot
Writing on the mabilog na hugis itlog is not as hazardous as reading the huge ballot. Reading the names of candidates, president down to town councilors, is like a Marine obstacle course to the old, 65 years and up, and to the young without any practice in reading newspapers at least once a month.
In the countryside near the plain farms, on mountaintops, hillsides, and coastal villages voters use their ears, mostly to listen to news and events on AM (amplitude-modulation) radio stations in Manila.
They seldom read or write. Inside a hot and crowded voting booth they would feel dizzy and hungry, after forming a long line and passing the formalities before voting.
Test in distant villages
The size of the ballot alone cannot rest easily on a school desk to be read and filled. A time and motion study, probably conducted in Manila, has noted at least 10 minutes per voter to complete the act of voting.
Has the same study been tested by voters in the distant barangays, villages or small towns?
Old eyeglasses
Those with old eyeglasses, expected of old voters, may just delay the whole proceedings. Even retired teachers will have difficulty reading every word on the large ballot.
In the old system both young and elderly relied on their codigo, about one-fourth the size of a short bond, which they copied or memorized. Is this faster than shading an itlog after scrutinizing the giant ballot? We can decide this test after May 10.
If there's no pork
Meanwhile, of the 50 million plus voters how many millions of us are familiar with the party-list system without known candidates to be trusted? There's the rub!
If there's no pork fund to think about would the organizers still bother to devote time/money to uphold the party-list intent? (Comments are welcome at roming@pefianco.com).
(Editor's note: The voters' familiarity with party-list parties, on a scale of 1 to 10, is about 1.5 as noted by the author.)
The 79-page constitution (my copy) devotes only a few lines to the party-list system of national, regional, and sectoral parties. The Comelec has a list of 11,980 national/local positions at stake on May 10. Of this number 57 are party-list representatives and full-fledged members of the House of Representatives.
Selection only
One-half of the party-list seats shall be filled "by selection or election" from the labor, peasant, urban poor, cultural communities, etc., except the religious sector.
The space on the ballot provided for the party-list parties has made this document longer (25 inches) and wider (8.5 inches) or more than twice the size of a lined-yellow pad paper. To this hour most voters (of the 50 million plus) don't know the exact number of party-list parties printed on the ballot.
Who are the candidates
Worse, voters have no idea if the organizers are men and women of honest design and intention.
And the very word "one-half" of the party-list seats will definitely welcome some religious leaders who are not covered by "except the religious sector," a device of no known purpose except to invite religious "leaders" to the realm of politics.
Dubious sectors
The word one-half also favors Filipinos who may choose to speak freely in the House, though coming from dubious sectors (not necessarily gambling and other minor/major vices in various localities).
Can 57 party-list seats overcome or defeat purposes not fit for legislation?
They are only 57 members in the House of 287 representatives or one-fifth to cause any bother, problem or trouble. And not all 57 party-list representatives would honestly support the minority or majority course of action in the event of a showdown at unholy hours.
Jobs for jobless?
There are murmurs that the party-list system, as we know it now, has been converted into a recruitment agency. They offer, for a cause (or cost?), names deleted from the roster of active public servants: Retired generals, Cabinet members, senior officials of doubtful achievement, politicians of no known merit and achievement. Yes, it's like a gesture of accommodation or insult.
Disabled banned
The Disabled Pinoy Party (DPP) was disqualified, probably for a known reason: They cannot walk or move about fast enough to vote "yes or no" in the House, if called upon by the majority leadership.
Can the disabled think? Yes, they can! Franklin Delano Roosevelt was disabled by polio in 1921, but was elected New York governor twice, 1928 and 1930. FDR won four elections for president (November, 1932, 1936, 1940, and 1944) and chosen by historians as second greatest president (after Lincoln) of the 44 who served since 1789 (Washington).
About the long/wide ballot
Writing on the mabilog na hugis itlog is not as hazardous as reading the huge ballot. Reading the names of candidates, president down to town councilors, is like a Marine obstacle course to the old, 65 years and up, and to the young without any practice in reading newspapers at least once a month.
In the countryside near the plain farms, on mountaintops, hillsides, and coastal villages voters use their ears, mostly to listen to news and events on AM (amplitude-modulation) radio stations in Manila.
They seldom read or write. Inside a hot and crowded voting booth they would feel dizzy and hungry, after forming a long line and passing the formalities before voting.
Test in distant villages
The size of the ballot alone cannot rest easily on a school desk to be read and filled. A time and motion study, probably conducted in Manila, has noted at least 10 minutes per voter to complete the act of voting.
Has the same study been tested by voters in the distant barangays, villages or small towns?
Old eyeglasses
Those with old eyeglasses, expected of old voters, may just delay the whole proceedings. Even retired teachers will have difficulty reading every word on the large ballot.
In the old system both young and elderly relied on their codigo, about one-fourth the size of a short bond, which they copied or memorized. Is this faster than shading an itlog after scrutinizing the giant ballot? We can decide this test after May 10.
If there's no pork
Meanwhile, of the 50 million plus voters how many millions of us are familiar with the party-list system without known candidates to be trusted? There's the rub!
If there's no pork fund to think about would the organizers still bother to devote time/money to uphold the party-list intent? (Comments are welcome at roming@pefianco.com).
