Results from Singapore election is out. The ruling party manage to secure the mandate again by getting 81 out of the 87 seats in the parliament. Thats a whopping 94% of the seats.
Will such majority reflects an effective government? Personally I think – depends on the stage of development of the country. I believe in any country, there are different stages of maturity that will command different types of government.
Stage 1 – Undeveloped Countries
Not many countries are in this stage. This is a stage where the country has just came out of civil war or colonialization. This is the stage when the country realized that its time to move forward. Personally, the type of leader that I would want would be somebody who is visionary and different. He/She must the person that have the balls to lead a country who’s in turmoil, and now moving back to civilization.
Stage 2 – Developing
Developing country is a term generally used to describe a nation with a low level of material well-being. Since no single definition of the term developing country is recognized internationally, the levels of development may vary widely within so-called developing countries. Some developing countries have high average standards of living.
When one country is in this mode, the country would need to be focus in getting to be developed rather than trying to please the people. That type of focus is very important, but nevertheless certain principle must be obey to ensure that the country will grow in a mould that is shaped to what the vision is set upon. With regard to leadership type, personally I think the best type of leader in a country who is developing would be a dictator. A dictator type leader will ensure that what ever decision that he made that is critical to the nation, is done fast – and with very little resistance. But such type of leader are dangerous if chosen wrongly. They might just pull the country backwards, as the decision that is made by them is purely of personal interest rather than of the interest of the nation.
Mahathir Mohamad
Lee Kuan Yew
Individuals of this nature are like Mahathir Mohamad and Lee Kuan Yew. Regardless of what everybody says, these two individuals runs the country like a dictator (but in a democratic nation). Their decisions are somewhat final. No matter what ever that is said by other people, their say is key. But – those are two smart people. I give the hats to them as they are vital to the transformation of the nation. Without them Singapore and Malaysia won’t be where they are today.
Stage 3 – Developed
he term developed country is used to describe countries that have a high level of development according to some criteria. Which criteria, and which countries are classified as being developed, is a contentious issue and is surrounded by fierce debate. Economic criteria have tended to dominate discussions. One such criterion is income per capita; countries with high gross domestic product (GDP) per capita would thus be described as developed countries. Another economic criterion is industrialization; countries in which the tertiary and quaternary sectors of industry dominate would thus be described as developed. More recently another measure, the Human Development Index (HDI), which combines an economic measure, national income, with other measures, indices for life expectancy and education has become prominent. This criterion would define developed countries as those with a very high (HDI) rating. However, many anomalies exist when determining “developed” status by whichever measure is used.
At this stage the country, the economy is moving at fast speed and the focus of the nation is switched from trying to develop to trying to sustain where they are now. Typically, the citizens are a lot more matured and have the balls to decide who’s going to lead the nation (not relevant to communist type country like China).
The government that leads the country typically have a very balance ratio of representation from different types of party. This reflects the maturity and the need to have a balanced view in deciding on any issues and policies.
The issue is that sometimes, certain countries are in this stage earlier than the level of government maturity. Resulting is tremendous flaws screw up.
SO WHERE ARE WE?