More Intellectual Class or Deadwood?

"You know American Generals – they don’t do well, they get fired and they give them a medal, they send a new general! I think we have to develop that approach to life." Lee Kuan Yew was obviously referring to General Stanley Allen McChrystal, who dared undermine his Commander-in-chief's efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lest you think Lee has had a change of pacemaker heart about Singapore's version of life-time employment, that edict is meant for lesser mortals only, not for his anointed elite class. Sorry to disappoint you folks, all men may be brothers, but some are big brothers.

Did Yaacob Ibrahim cringe when Lee said, "How can you say the response is sufficient?" in answering a reporter's query about the freaking floods? Was Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng fired for letting a terrorist climb through the toilet window? Will daughter-in-law Ho Ching ever be made to account for blowing $30 billion in bad investment decisions? Did National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan wet his pants when Lee said he deserves to lose his seat in the coming elections if he is unable to defend his HDB pricing policies? Can pigs fly?

Remember the CEO of Energy Market Authority who "stepped down" after the debacle of indexing electricity tariffs to wild oil price fluctuations? He's back in the office with another job title. A Permanent Secretary who retired recently was "rehired", and replaced Ho Kwon Ping as chairman of MediaCorp. Ho is a self made entrepreneur of resort hotels and former journalist for the Far East Economic Review. His successor is a nobody in the media scene. Philip Yeo once told the press the guy actually had the temerity to walk into Yeo's office to ask what else was available in the way of juicy appointments. You don't even want to know about the generals and admirals who were conveniently appointed CEOs of GLCs and statutory boards just before they hit the SAF retirement age of 45 (later changed for the benefit of a Malay career officer).
 
That's just a small sampling of the "intellectual class" Lee referred to: "We are going to have an intellectual class, about maybe three times as big as what you have now and that will give us the dynamism, the powerful engine to carry us forward faster." The reality is that more deadwood past their expiry dates will be clogging the drainage systems, drowning the country with a barrage of sycophants. Mini-Lee Kuan Yews they may be, but definitely not the mini-Goh Keng Swees the nation needs.