This is especially true if you’re lowering the criteria for running for president: there is a higher probability (though still small) of nonsense person snatching that post. In such a situation, this person can wreck havoc to the functioning of the government.

On a separate note, I want to point out that your comparison of the US president and the Singapore president is ill-justified. The US has a presidential system of government (as opposed to Singapore’s parliamentary system), so the president is both the head of state and head of government.

To clarify, a head of state is a symbolic representation of a state (or country). In Singapore, it’s the president; in UK, it’s the Queen of England; in Thailand, it’s the king; etc.. They serve no role in the day-to-day running of the government. Instead, they have two roles: first is the intervention into the country’s parliament in certain restricted ways; second is the official representation to receive foreign dignitaries. In presidential systems like the US, it is unique in the sense that the head of government is also the head of state.

So when US citizens vote for the president, it’s more for the role of the head of government than the head of state. As such, it may be misleading to compare the two. On the lighter side, the other parliamentary government’s head of states I’ve mentioned are inherited instead of elected, so we’re still not so bad after all…

Lets look forward to Retirement with money in the bank.

I read a book called “When Genius Failed”. It was a story about the the rise and subsequent crash of a hedge fund called Long Term Capital Management. To cut a long story short, LTCM got into problems when they bet wrong on exchange rate spreads. Compounding the problem, when they disclosed their trading positions to investment banks to raise new capital, they got front-run, meaning that their positions got sold by other financial institutions because they saw a large sale looming (meaning prices will almost certainly fall).

Moral of the story: (1)Don’t make wrong bets on currency exchange. Failing that, (2) try to keep your positions secret.

(1) is obvious, but hardly assured. (2) means GIC/Temasek will have to remain “not transparent”.

PS: The book has many interesting facts, but I am highlighting only one facet to make my point.

Its not a big, unchanging PAP vs. the rest game.

The 10,000 investors learnt the sad way that TRUST can be unwise at times.

While people can Trust everything in life, a system still has to be inplace to show beyond any reasonable doubt that no similar problem will EVER happen.

But is it possible to have such a system considering that people can break a system?

Before proceeding I want to be clear that there is no evidence to suggest that there is a problem in singapore. At least, I do not have it. And the sole purpose of this is to discuss and share the concern about this aspect. Hope my stand is clear.

According to SCV channel 49,52,54 or 56 political commentary programes (very high quality programs indeed), it was alleged that though on paper or by law or by the design of the system, top secret info about money laundering given by International Anti Money laundering agency EGMONT Group, to the CHIEF of Taiwan’s Money Laundering Prevention Center (MLPC) , was leaked to TW ex-president Bian. This top secret info involves Bian.

As can be seen in the above hypothetical scenario / alleged incident that happened, a sound system can be bypassed easily by the people responsible, accountable, and tasked to uphold the INTEGRITY of the system.

The allegations or rumours generated by well-regarded political commentators suggested that Bian was very successful and effective in controlling his ‘team’ by not just using REWARD power but also more critically, ‘bar bings’ of his ‘team’. Can you imagine the effectiveness of such command and control?

Thus, I shared with all of you the interesting story of TW. This story is limited to TW only. For now.

Regards
Accountable Accountant Selamat wong aka Mee Siam Dulai very nice

It is skewed towards the lambasting of everything PAP/govt has done, treating every news with skepticism, with ulterior motive.
You can say the mass media is a propoaganhda machine .. but do you want to become one too?

I understand that writing during your freetime might mean time pressure to write without proper research or much thought into the pros and cons.

So, I feel a more balanced article would be one that takes up discussion of a topic with the pros and cons. It’s like doing our academic reports .. Get the Pros, Get the Cons, your thesis and Anti-thesis.. and synthesize the two…

1.) Entrench a comprehensive bill of rights
2.) Give judges security of tenure
3.) Provide legal aid for any citizen in criminal and bill of rights cases

No, George W Bush won because his campaign team and Karl Rove was better able to misrepresent facts, blow isolated quotes out of proportion, and be economical with the truth.

TOC used to have some integrity, but it seems to be like a propaganda machine these days.

thanks for the compliment.
i have to thank people like yourself who have contributed to my ongoing education in cyber discussion.

i am encouraged that my views have brought about a sense balance.

thanks again

Can we see the possibility of the same happening in Singapore when you have your wife, your father and a obedient President looking after the country’s reserves ?

Who can guarantee that such a thing cannot happen in Singapore ?

It’s not just the electorate which will scrutinize the candidates. In a competitive political environment, the candidates will do a much better job scrutinizing each other than some ivory-tower committee can, as we have seen in this year’s US primaries and general election.

Gosh, please go read up and do research on US govt. You think there’s no elitist system there? Do you know how well connected the Bush family, the Clinton family, Kennedy, Nixon etc are, and how entrenched and powerful the hidden powers in the US govt are? You seriously believe the US President is the most powerful person in the world? Come on! How many hidden powers pull the puppet strings on the Presidency la!

Come on, I’m not for elitism, but please go do more research before you quote and cite e.g. in other countries! You think there’s equal opportunities, and meritocracy in US? Please go read up, thanks! I hope you’re still young, so you have time to learn this, and perhaps go live in US for 10 years and witness the truth!

14) gemami – Excellent point. That is my hope too.

20) Donaldson Tan – No the ruling party can only override the President’s veto with a 2/3 majority vote.
21) Donaldson Tan – Again, the President CAN ignore the advice of the CPA, but Parliament can override him with a 2/3 vote. That is my understanding of the wording of the Constitution. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I’m not a lawyer.

All the new PM needs to do is to tell nominated president — “I got the mandate of the people.

You got what mandate? From whom?

You block what we want to do — I tell people you nominated president refuse to help people.

I then withdraw policemen from Istana and yr home.

Gd luck to you, brudder.”

By having nominated president, PAP is cutting their own balls off if they lose GE.
The nominated president’s mandate is from PAP govmin, not the people.

PAP did not realise that an elected president would be the focus of unhappiness with govmin. Ong teng Cheong showed this. So PAP moved to nominated president.

But this meant that he longer had mandate from people to oppose in-coming govmin’s policies.

PAP goofed up big time.

Why has it become irrelevant? It was constrained and overruled to perform what it was intended : the check excesses.

Fix it instead of conveniently dumping it.