Is Good Governance Really Good?

 

Saw an interesting letter in the Straits Times Forum (letter page – which I sometimes contribute to), entitled “Don't take good governance for granted,” which talked about how Singapore needed to take to remember that trust in a good government was something that could not be taken for granted.

Interestingly enough, I do recall being sent similar message from my favourite Young Muslim Politician during our General Election in the Middle of last year.

 

 The message can be summed up as “PAP = Good Government,” and Singaporeans should be thankful that the government they have is good. The further message is this simple – everything that one enjoys as a Singaporean is due to “Good Governance,” which in turn means “PAP Governance.”

Before any assessment can be made on whether the PAP deserves to be credited for good governance, one should perhaps try and define good governance. A helpful definition could be found in the following diagram from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (“UNESCAP”).

 

In fairness to the PAP, it does measure up pretty well on most things. We do have elections that are fairer than say North Korea’s. The government is famously efficient and effective and there is something called “rule of law,” in as much as courts are officially supposed to look at the evidence rather than to look at who the participants in the trial are.

One of the most interesting things I experience, is that everyone else seems to think that we set the standard in governance and the people saying it, are not just people from “shithole” countries. I think of the boys from the US Navy looking at me in the middle of Geylang and telling me, “If this is your worst area – come to America and we’ll show you a bad area.” I have a friend from Holland who, when asked where he wanted to settle down, said without a moment of hesitation “Singapore – where else is there?”

Covid-19 has also allowed the government to look good when compared to other places. For example, all our leaders have had the good sense to wear mask in public and our Prime Minister did lead by example in getting his vaccine jab. While our numbers spiked in April of last year thanks to the infection cases in the dormitories, our numbers and deaths remain low and our health system has remained functioning. You do not see images of doctors and nurses walking around in trash bags.

Having said all that, the question remains – can our ruling party claim to equate itself with “good governance,” based on the fact that it wins elections and everywhere else seems to be worse?

My personal take is that a government which needs to talk about how it provides “trust,” and “good governance,” is like a restaurant that needs to tell you that it makes “delicious” food. The problem lies not in whether the “good governance” is delivered but the fact that even needs to be said in the first place. This is particularly true when you consider the fact that Singapore’s ministers are the world’s best paid (because they’re supposed to the world’s best). Why does a political party running a rich and clean city where the opposition campaigns to be opposition need to tell its voters that they are lucky to have good governance?

Perhaps the answer is that things are clearly not as shinny as the ruling party imagines them to be. Our economic model is still over reliant on exploiting cheap labour from elsewhere in unproductive industries like construction and shipping (though since I work in liquidations, I should not complain). The Singapore government is struggling to find a winner. The last grand idea was “casinos,” which we had to dub “Integrated Resorts,” and rather than developing smart (as opposed to educated) people who come up with life changing solutions, our economy depends on the simple idea of getting people from elsewhere to pump money into the economy (A banker I once ran into called it “money laundering.”)

This struggle is visible in the complaints that the local population is being drowned out by people from elsewhere snapping up the cushy jobs and the government, who have helped to push up the price of everything except wages. Singapore is, as is often said, becoming expensive for Singaporeans and the government sees this as a problem during the election as was seen in the slate of immigration restrictions after the slap in the 2011 general election (the first time every seat got contested).

Then there’s the feeling that rule of law is not applied universally and accountability is….well, getting a little worn. The most famous incident was back in 2007 when a man with a limp walked out of a highly secured facility and while the guards were sacked, the minister and head of internal security kept their jobs without a hint of remorse. In fact, our then Minister Mentor started telling us off for being complacent in expecting the Minister to be accountable. The latest “bru-ha” involves the government reneging on its promise to use data collected from the “trace-together” app only for contact tracing of Covid cases to other things.

Government in Singapore is by no means rotten (though I’m sure the brickbats will come out for me) but it is by no means perfect. Let us say that the flaws in the governance we have are like little scars, which are little but if left untreated have a way of turning sceptic. Instead of applying treatment (more space for alternative voices etc), the ruling party appears more interested in trying to convince us otherwise. Think of this effort to remind the people that “good governance” is something we cannot take for granted as a dressing of a scar that will only make the scar come true.