Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam gave a wide-ranging interview on topics such as politics and the economy to The Straits Times last week for its current affairs website Singapolitics.
Full transcript of the interview with DPM Tharman on 12 Apr 2013.
Full transcript of the interview with DPM Tharman on 12 Apr 2013.
ST: May I perhaps end with a personal question? You've been in politics for 12 years. What has given you the most satisfaction? And on a personal note as well, people who've worked with you have described how you are extremely hardworking and very committed to what you do, often putting in very late nights. What makes you tick?
DPM: First of all, you have got to enjoy your work. And politics is not something you should be in unless you really want to do it and you enjoy it. You must enjoy meeting people, you must enjoy listening to people and you must find it very meaningful to help them through small and big problems. If you treat it as a chore, you'd better not be in politics. Then everything becomes business. Everything becomes time being spent. Whereas if you see that as your core purpose, then time is not important. It's all about how can I do it together with my volunteers and the others who are helping out on the ground? How can we best do it? And getting satisfaction for the person you're trying to help is I think a very important part of what keeps our political system responsive.
One good thing is we inherited the British parliamentary system - where to be a minister you have to be an MP in a local ward. It's a very useful discipline because when you think of policy, you're instructed by all the realities that you know on the ground. Whereas if you have systems like in many other parts of the world, where you just appoint ministers based on their professional capabilities and qualifications, I think you lose something.