SPP candidate Jimmy Lee questions if civil servants themselves believe in the need for change. (Yahoo! photo)Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has to work hard to win members of the civil service over to his agenda of change, says Singapore People's Party's (SPP) Jimmy Lee.
During an hour-long interview with Yahoo! Singapore earlier this week, the 36-year-old, who was part of the SPP Bishan-Toa Payoh GRC team, questioned just how effective PM Lee's call for change and the need to relook policies from a clean slate would be.
Lee said the reason for his sceptism is because in casual conversations he's had with civil servants, he's heard terms such as "populist measures" to describe PM Lee's recent actions.
"I believe when you put a label like 'populist measures' on an effort to change, then you don't have the mindset to change," said the former Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) scholar.
"You are already injecting cynicism and constraining the space for possible solutions," added Lee, who himself served previously with the DSTA and the Ministry of Defence as an assistant chief information officer.
Lee believes PM Lee first has to win over the civil service -- from the ministers and superscale civil servants down to the rank and file administrators and junior and mid-level officers -- to his cause, adding that failure to do this would result in "pushback".
"(PM Lee) still needs to work with all his ministers down the line and then also the civil servants within the government," he said. "He has his work cut out for him trying to transform a lot of these institutionalised biases within the civil service."
"I think civil servants do take dressing from their political masters, so I would say that if we are hearing this kind of talk from the ground, then it has to mean that perhaps the ministers themselves have not bought in to the need for change as much as we hoped," he added, suggesting that PM Lee may need to convince his Cabinet first about the real need for change.
However, civil servants Yahoo! Singapore spoke to seem divided about Lee's comments.
"I think it's too early to judge, but at least PM Lee is showing that he is willing to take a step in the right direction," said a 27-year-old civil servant who declined to be named.
Another agreed, however, saying, "PM Lee definitely wants to win back votes, but if that means taking these actions, then why not? At the end of the day, politics is politics."
When asked about his plans within the SPP to stand for the next general election in 2016, Lee alluded to the possibility of giving way to new blood, even though this election was his first as a candidate.
"For me, it was a calling," he said, on the short history behind his foray into politics. "And for now, I see that the need to serve is there, it is clear, and I would say that I will be running."
He said that he has met and spoken to at least ten "highly qualified, very experienced candidates who are credible -- the kind you might have seen on the PAP slate", who could, to him, conceivably be ready to stand for the next election. These were on top of the four other candidates whom fellow candidate Benjamin Pwee had mentioned before in media interviews.
Lee said, "There is always a higher mountain, and if someone better able to do the job steps forward, I would always be open to giving way to newer candidates."
He added that from the pool of new members the SPP has seen so far, it is likely that the calibre of candidates to fielded in GE 2016 will be even higher.
"I'm also optimistic that many capable candidates will step forward in the next election and I do hope to see it happen," he said.
"And if there are so many good candidates that I don't have to run, hey, I'll be happy to support the alternative cause in another way."
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