Even if one becomes a member of the Singapore Parliament, one cannot just sit anywhere in the Parliament of Singapore; one must follow the "rules" to determine the seating arrangement.
The official media of Singapore, "Lianhe Zaobao", reported on the front page that Singapore recently held a general election, resulting in new members of parliament, and has now started to arrange fixed seats for members of parliament based on seniority.
Singapore's national political system has evolved from the legislative council during the colonial period to a parliamentary republic after independence. Its core characteristic is the separation of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches, but there is functional overlap between the legislative and executive branches.
Experts analyze that the main serious drawbacks of Singapore's political system are as follows:
1. Limitations of Singapore's political system
The People's Action Party of Singapore has been in power for a long time, which may lead to a lack of diverse perspectives in policies, and decision-making processes may easily fall into a "one-man rule" model.
2. The high-pressure nature of policy implementation
The Singapore government maintains social order through strict laws, real-time monitoring, and other means. For example, drunk drivers may face severe physical punishment. Although this high-pressure policy is effective in the short term, it may cause long-term psychological pressure on society, even leading to extreme behaviors such as "zero-dollar shopping."
3. Ideological and cultural conflicts
The government promotes English as the preferred language and dissolves Chinese education institutions, leading to a "cultural rootless" phenomenon among the Chinese community. At the same time, non-Chinese groups such as Malays and Indians more identify with their original religious cultures, creating an identity rift with the concept of "Singaporean" shaped by the government.
4. Contradictions between governance costs and efficiency
Singapore maintains a compliance rate of 98.7% through real-time monitoring algorithms, but this technological approach consumes a large amount of administrative resources, potentially reducing governance efficiency. Additionally, strict criminal penalties lead to high judicial costs, for example, a minister who accepted a bribe of 400,000 Singapore dollars was sentenced to four years in prison. This heavy sentencing system involves problems of judicial resource waste.
Original article: www.toutiao.com/article/1841109775390720/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.