Goh-ing Goh-ing Gone

our dear SM said some brilliant things yesterday. apparently, GRC helps to recruit top talent into PAP. according to him, if not for the GRC, good candidates might be put off because they won't be sure if they'll win and hence, it won't be worth the risk of failure for these people to even campaign.

right. let us consider. if that is truly a top-notch candidate, why should this person be afraid that he/she cannot win an electoral battle? what risk is there then? if we stop and think logically about it, the GRC does precisely the opposite: it allows people who are not good enough to win on their own to ride on the coat-tails of heavyweights. do we really want these people?

if we really need the GRC to attract people into politics, it therefore implies that the top-notch people don't want to join the PAP and all they can get are second rate people. and to attract these second rate people, the PAP has to resort to offering gaurantee wins to tempt these people to stand for elections. now, one then has to ask what motivations these peopele have for wanting to be MPs? can we be sure that these people are there because they want the best for the people? because if they do, then they should not be worried about the risk of losing and whatever opportunity costs that they would incur because of their loss. however, from what SM said, that does not seem to be the case. rather the way SM Goh puts it makes one think that the people that PAP are getting are concerned about their careers as much, if not more than, the people that they are supposed to serve. so if serving the interests of the people will compromise their personal gain, then the candidates that PAP get would rather then not serve the interests of the people. is that the type of MPs that we want?

further, the GRC is supposed to be a national policy, which is supposed to benefit the nation. it is supposed to be, in principle, non-partisan. however, if we were to believe the reason that SM gave to explain how the GRC attracts talented people into politics, then we must conclude that the GRC gives the PAP an advantage in elections. in other words, one now must really question, do we really need GRC or is it a ploy that gives the PAP an advantage in the polls? is this, at the end of the day, good for Signapore? or will it only bring in more second rate candidates which bodes ill for the future of our nation.