A Team operating at less than full strength

When Hsien Loong took over the rein of the govt he inherited an A Team in his cabinet. Over the last few years it is obvious that the A Team is underforming. There is no doubt that he has the best of the super talents in his team. Everyone is a super talent, great leadership qualities and great abilities to run the country. In reality, many of them are not working at optimum capacity for one reason or another. LKY is working extremely hard and is everywhere. But as the saying goes, the heart is willing but the body is not. His ram chips, hard disk and motherboard all needs to be replaced. Otherwise he will be operating on an outdated and ageing system. The speed is definitely much slower than desired. Chok Tong, Jayakumar and Boon Heng were giants in their old days. They could do very much more. Boon Heng’s main portfolio, without a ministry, is to look after the oldies. Not sure what is Chok Tong’s main duty. Both could do very much more given their talent, youth and energy. Hsien Loong is another case of system go but a bug is there waiting to strike. Running at full speed may risk a system crash. It’s a pity that he could not go charging down the highway in maximum power. Things would have been very different. Kan Seng has had a very important portfolio in Home Affairs. His credibility took a disastrous hit by the Mas Selamat saga and it would take a long long time to rebuild his credential. Whatever he is doing now will always be viewed with a tinted lens. This could have affected his confidence and performance. Boon Wan found out that he had a bad heart. The surgeons opened it up and confirmed that the heart was bad. Though he had done a major overhaul, it is not easy to turn a bad heart into a good one. He may be excused if he wants to retire and spend value time in things that are more dear to him and his family. He has done his fair share of public service and no one will blame him should he retires. Mah Bow Tan is or was the most profitable minister and has done an excellent job in building the HDB’s coffers. And the people got to thank him for helping to raise their asset values for retirement. All they need is to downgrade or sell their properties to live out their golden years. The only little flaw is that the people’s CPF savings were depleted in exchange for the high value HDB flats. As for the young people he is working extra hard to help them buy their first property with great success. Though he has redeemed himself, he still has a lot of explanation to do and he is doing it extra time in his column on public housing in the main paper. That takes times away from his main job. The more people misunderstood him, the more time he has to spend to try to explain his good intention and the virtues of his schemes and policies. George Yeo the sage was doing an excellent job in Foreign Affairs until the affairs of the MFA were leaked. Now he would have to waste a lot of time in damage control. His effectiveness will depend heavily on his counterparts in the other countries. Though he is optimistic, I doubt things will be as easy as before. The third party is laughing at the dire straits he is in. Vivian is another great surgeon, and orator. Unfortunately he made a few slips in his comments, which were not too correct politically. His image has taken a hit since then. The YOG also did not give him the lift that he needed. All those people who fouled out in the process should be kicked in their asses. Otherwise Vivian should have been very well received given his charm and articulating skills. He must be feeling pressurized. The good thing is that his hair is still not turning white or thining like the other wise men. The rest of the A Teams are doing OK I think. Chee Hean and Tharman were the least tarnished of the Team. Oh, I almost forgot about Swee Say. He has done an excellent job in NTUC. He even leveled down to speak in worker’s lingo. He is getting betterer by the days. And the workers like him and his wise cracks. Think he is even much betterer than his predecessors. There you are, an A Team that could have done even better if all engines are finely tuned and firing. For those that I have not mentioned, let’s take it that they are performing as expected of an A Team member. Would the next A Team be the same or betterer?