Choosing the next PM: Voters do not know how

Almost 70% of those they surveyed chose Tharman as the next PM. I recall he led all others in the poll by a long shot. For me I always know it isn't up to us. We vote for the MP standing in our ward but the PAP hope we will vote for them as a package, realistic to know we will not get all we want but as whole we are better than any competing alternative. However the problem is many voters do not make their calculations that way.

To put this across plainly, Tharman is basically saying we don't know him and I believe he is right. We only know him as a public figure, nothing beyond that.

In other words we the voters do not have the information needed to choose a PM. Even if we have the info do we know how to choose the best person? I don't think so. That is the take away I got watching and learning about the US Presidential Elections. Their founding fathers want to give the people the right to choose the government but at the same time decided that they cannot be trusted to choose wisely. Their priority was not good government but preventing tyranny. Therefore the US President is chosen out of an electoral college and not the majority vote. Gridlock is better than tyranny but Singapore must do better than gridlock or fail.

For us we have a well working system but a fragile one which can easily go wrong. Just look at our our last Presidential Elections, people were voting for a President to do a different job than the one enshrined in the constitution.

Voters are more emotional than rational and that in the long run is the danger we face. In the Philippines they are even more emotional and we always have a live show of what that produce. Duterte is going to create a mess for them. Aquino wasn't perfect but they would have done better to choose a someone who would continue on the same path and fix the traffic problems, income gap and crime. In America they would be cutting their nose to spite their face if they choose Trump who will waste the gains Obama got for them and worse. Even the Taleban have no respect for Trump much less fear him. The Brits have foolishly elected to go Brexit and they are clueless of the rush of the Tsunami after the present calm. Up north the HongKongers fail to appreciate that they are banging their heads against the wall trying to get independence from China.

Unfortunately people often will not listen and choose to learn their lessons the hard way. Wasn't that what Churchill nearly said about America? The US is leading only because at the final moment they made wise choices.