The Real Celebrities are – Politicians

 One of my oldest friends who studied popular culture at the University of Southern California, told me once that he noticed that in Singapore, the real celebrities were politicians. My friend, who had spent a year taking up acting roles on local TV pointed out that while our home-grown media stars were “well known” they were given very little for their proverbial fame unlike their counterparts in Hollywood. Sure, MediaCorp did not pay the “stars” badly but they were still paid employees of the only broadcaster in town, which happened to be government owned and had to make their “real” money from product endorsements. My friend also pointed out that unlike their counterparts in Hollywood, nobody actually cared much about what our local celebrities did.

He then made the point that the only comparable phenomena to a Hollywood celebrity in Singapore were our politicians – specifically the politicians from the ruling party. His point was this simple – nobody in Singapore cares about what actors do or think but everyone seems to care about what the politicians do. While the actors are merely paid employees of the government, it is the politicians who grab the headlines and let’s not forget the money-making opportunities.

In fairness to Singapore’s politicians, they are not the only “political-celebrities” around. The US has plenty of examples of celebrities who became politicians. Donald Trump is merely the most successful celebrity to turn his celebrity status into political success. America is not the only place where the line between being a celebrity and being a politician happens. World famous boxer Many Pacquiao is a senator in the Philippines and the current President of Liberia is former Manchester City player George Weah. A list of celebrities who have become politicians can be found at:

https://www.businessinsider.com/famous-celebrities-who-became-politicians-2018-3#jesse-ventura-was-a-member-of-the-us-navy-underwater-demolition-team-a-professional-wrestler-and-an-actor-who-starred-in-action-movies-alongside-schwarzenegger-before-he-served-as-governor-of-minnesota-from-1999-to-2003-13

The link between being a celebrity and a politician is an understandable one. A celebrity is in a position to build a brand and a base and as its not unreasonable for one to want to use that brand and base for something else.

Then there are the former politicians who become celebrities by virtue of having held office. America’s list of ex-Presidents who have written books and gone onto lecture circuit. Let’s face it, certain events capture the imagination and the people who were “there” are inevitably interesting.

I don’t believe that being a celebrity should disqualify one from being a politician. There is no evidence that celebrities make bad politicians. Ronald Regan who started out as a “B” movie actor turned out to be a fairly effective President. Arnold Schwarzenegger ran California in fairly competent manner and was a Republican who listened to science and behaved rationally.

Then, if you live in a country where the political scene is fairly closed, there is a need for alternative voices. I remember former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong giving Catherine Lim, an author, a public dressing down for being “critical” over one of his policies. His main line attack can be summed up as “if you can only criticize politicians if you become one.”

Mr. Goh could use that line of attack because, well this was Singapore. The rest of us would grumble but wouldn’t do much. Ms. Lim was simply not in the position to do much either. Now, imagine if her celebrity status had provided her with the following and by extension the cash to take the Prime Minister on his offer? It happened in America we had the example of Donald Trump who ran for office after Barak Obama made fun of him in public.

However, there is a problem with celebrity-politicians – namely the fact that it makes it easier for the people in power to develop a “God” complex where they believe that they can do no wrong. Leaders need to have a thumb on the pulse of what is going on and “God Complex” stops that from happening.

The risk is particularly high in Singapore where politicians are constantly being placed on pedestals and government is seen as the solution to everything.

I do think there’s much that is worth commending about Singapore. We remain a pretty clean and green city and our politicians and civil service are pretty good when compared to many of their global counterparts.

However, giving them a “celebrity like” status has issues and these need to be aired. Firstly, we celebrities don’t understand the fact that just because they were stars in one career that they’d be stars in another. One only needs to think of Michael Jordan, considered the greatest basketball player of all time, who decided to become a baseball player for a while. The magic he had on the basketball court simply didn’t happen in baseball.

In Singapore, we perpetuate a myth that an academically brilliant person would make a brilliant military general who in turn would make a brilliant business person. One only needs to look at our train system, which was by two men who were “stars” at getting good grades, who then became untested generals and have become CEOs with a less than spectacular record of competence. In Michael Jordan’s case he was made to realise that he wasn’t going to be a star baseball player and quickly returned to the NBA. Our “star” civil servants don’t have that ability to recognize when they’re not doing a brilliant job.

The second point is that “celebrity” has a way of clouding personal judgements. Hollywood is filled with stories of well to do and well-liked movie stars who are great on the silver screen but awful in real life and can’t handle it (hence the drugs). Celebrities get so used to getting what they want that they forget that this isn’t necessarily a good thing.

While “God Complexes” make actors and musicians difficult people to deal with, they become dangerous in those who hold power. People in public office need to have a hold on the pulse of the public if they are to be able to do their jobs with some sort of competence.

However, when people in power spend time promoting a message to the point that they believe that this is who they are, they lose the ability to deal with a “reality” check. One only needs to look at the war on smiley faces. Is this an extreme that we want in the people who have power over us?