I’ve been asked many times by my delegates, “What is good public governance? Why is it so important?”
Well, there is a technical definition to what good public governance is but I often reply with the following reflection.
Do you worry when your child comes home late at night using public transport?
Does your child get a good education?
When your elderly parents are sickly, can they get good medical care?
Are you proud when you step out of the plane, into your own country’s airport?
Why did President Trump and Chairman Kim choose to meet in Singapore for their all important summit?
Singapore and good governance has always been used in the same sentence. Whilst Singapore and US share a good bilateral relationship, US has not been short of criticism of our way of governance. In an interview after the Kim-Trump summit, Amanpour of CNN asked Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee point blank, “…You do have a pretty strict internal logic to Singapore. You have made a little bit of liberalisation in terms of some areas of free speech and others, but not dramatic political plurality. Where do you think Singapore is going? Do you see any flexibility in the future? Can you open up more?” In his straight-foward manner, Mr Lee replied ” I think when you say “strict internal logic”, it is rather a loaded term. Because what you really mean is: why are we so repressive? The answer is we are not. Why is the political scene like that? Because that is the way Singaporeans have voted and it is an outcome of the elections. When does it change? It changes when the Singaporean electorate decides that this Government is not serving their interests…”
Singapore’s style of public governance has achieved for the city state beyond what could ever be expected. Despite all the rhetoric that has been said about Singapore, President Trump and Chairman Kim trusted Singapore’s way of governance. The challenge going forward is how public governance will evolve with the electorate. Public governance is never static…the day when leaders feel that they have achieved and stop evolving, is the day governance begins to slide down that slippery path.
Winston has devoted his last 20 years in the field of public governance. He has been involved in public administration, crafted public policies, trained thousands of public officers and consulted widely on public governance. He continues to be passionate about public governance.
His area of expertise include:
- Principles and Structures of Governance
- Fiscal and Government Budgetary Policies
- Public Procurement and Administration
- Whole-of-Government Performance Management
