Should politics be limited to the clever people?

Politics. That aspect of life some dive into, some avoid for their lives, and some just can’t be bothered.

Since we are a democracy, albeit the illiberal type, the question of political participation will be a critical question in the status of our democracy. The question I want to explore today, with advice from De Maitre is this: Should politics be limited to the clever people?

Of course, people will start questioning, what you mean by “clever people?”

Well, I’ll use a simple example to illustrate the difference between “clever”, as defined in this post, and “stupid”, its opposite.

Just imagine Sarah Palin beating Joe Biden to become Vice President of the US. Now that’s the triumph of stupidity.

Not putting down Palin, but here, stupidity clearly refers not to the politician’s IQ, but how aware the politician is with the local, regional and global issues affecting the country.

Someone who doesn’t even have the closest idea of the proximity between countries (Alaska and Russia), and the ideology of her commander-in-chief (the Bush Doctrine) can hardly be the first choice for a candidate in a vice-presidential election, but well, she was, but that’s beside the point.

So clearly, politics should be left to the clever people by this definition. Of course we want people who know their stuff to be handling the affairs of this country, especially when we are one of the most prosperous countries in the world today.


But extending the issue just a little further, the politicians certainly aren’t the only clever ones; there are people outside politics that are just as knowledgeable about the field they are in, or about the issues affecting the country. They may be even better than the MPs or ministers in the level of their understanding.

Yes, I’m talking about civic and civil society.

“Sounds the same to me.” You might think. There’s a subtle difference. Civic society refers to individuals who are actively involved in political or social participation. Writing letters to the press, or doing a blog post, like me now, are manifestations of the civic society.

Civil society refers to independent groups that actively promote a specific interest through cooperation or working with the government. In most democracies, trade unions, mass media, welfare groups will fall under this category,

But,

Singapore is unique. Trade unions, mass media, and some welfare groups are not considered civil society groups because they are controlled by the government. Therefore, in political science lingo, they are called para-political organizations.

So we are actually down to not many groups, most of which are not political at all.
The most (in)famous one for now: AWARE.

But the point is, these groups are constituted by people who are first, dedicated in their work, second, spent a great deal of time and effort on their work, doing research, submitting proposals to the government, third, and most importantly, they know their stuff.

That is, not “stupid”.


The difference between "clever" and "stupid" is a not a difficult one to acertain. but the problem is whether is fair to say that one is "stupid" because one doesn't wear the white shirt.

National issues should be the concern of every discerning Singaporean, and more important, the government can a good listener as well as a good doer.