I find it quite frustrating that a new special task force is quickly set up in response to sweeping US tariffs, yet we don’t see the same urgency when it comes to critical domestic issues like lowering the cost of living or reducing the cost of doing business. For years, these have been pressing concerns—exacerbated by the long-term influx of foreign labour, which has strained our public healthcare system, housing, and transport infrastructure. Yet, there’s no dedicated task force to seriously tackle these challenges head-on.
To me, it often feels like these task forces are just another layer of optics. They pull ideas from civil servants and then parade them as ministerial initiatives. A friend of mine who was an ex-MTI officer shared how policies are actually formulated: ministers give the general direction, but it’s the civil service officers who do the heavy lifting—research, writing, strategizing. These proposals are then vetted by senior management and presented all the way up to the minister, who might tweak them slightly before giving final approval.
So essentially, we are paying some of the world’s highest ministerial salaries to individuals who may not even have deep knowledge of their assigned portfolios. Many are parachuted into ministries and suddenly become the face of policies they didn’t design. Meanwhile, the actual cost of developing and implementing policy is high—both financially and administratively.
In my opinion, this system lacks accountability and efficiency. It’s also unfair to the civil servants doing the groundwork. There needs to be a more transparent and grounded approach to leadership—one that prioritizes the real issues people face daily and gives credit where it’s due.
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