TR EMERITUS

The happenings in recent months after Lawrence Wong took over as Prime Minister seems to suggest that he is losing control over his Cabinet and government.

The bad political optics of so many issues are really astonishing. There are so many U Turns which includes the U Turn reduced charges put on Iswaran, U Turn on Simply Go Ezlink, U Turn on NTUC INCOME Allianze Deal , U Turn mess in NRIC Saga plus the weaponized diarrhea of POFMA issued etc ...

In the past when there wasn't any POFMA law, the simple thing to do when the press, including foreign press, or anyone has made factual errors, is to issue statements of clarifications.

However now, POFMA is issued over so many nitty gritty issues which doesn't really matter to most people!

Such abuses will only undermine the Gov credibility because it means that the Ministers and Ministries have lost their basic discerning ability and overwhelmed themselves with bad judgement in determining what is really important and what's not so important.

In the end, nobody will really bother about POFMA anymore because everyone will be conditioned and numbed to jump into conclusion that, aiyah just another inconsequential POFMA over petty issues!

Lawrence Wong as the Prime Minister seems to have lost control of his various Ministers because POFMA gives the Ministers the power of discretion on what to POFMA. I really don't know whether they need to consult the Prime Minister or not but it seems that they are just doing more harm to the whole PAP Gov.

Maybe it is the PAP's DNA to smear its critics and political opponents but weaponizing POFMA will only hurt Singapore's international standing.

The most recent POFMA issued to Bloomberg is one fine example. It just demonstrates PAP utter intolerance of critiques and trigger happy in defending itself without due consideration to the wider implications on Singapore's international reputation, branding and standing. It either demonstrates that PAP is so arrogant that it has lost its way of diplomacy or that POFMA is free for all Ministers and the Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has basically no control and command capabilities to manage them.

PAP's arrogance is derived from its own spoilt brat attitude that it could make use of the laws it enacted at will to bully anyone in Singapore and we could only suck thumbs. But it has forgotten that we are just a tiny little red dot and PAP should not pretend to be a small little ant with oversized ego like a big fat guy in international arena.

It is time for Lawrence Wong to do a reality check on his own abilities and capabilities as the Prime Minister. If he can't put himself in firm control on his Cabinet Ministers, he should consider to step aside for next better guy.

Goh Meng Seng