Do we want to see Tin Pei Ling as appointed minister after GE 2011?

Not talking about elected minister position, but the big roles appointed by the Prime Minister's offfice. Okay I am just stating the unlikely worst case scenario, but think about it. Only elected MPs who have won their ward elections can appointed by the Prime Minister's office. Which means, if an appointed MP loses the election, the appointment is now open and a replacement must be selected from the remaining ones who did win the ward election. Its already projected that the alternative parties are most likely going to clinch more seats this election while still leaving the PAP as the majority party, meaning that the chance of incumbent ministers losing their appointments is real.

There are few GRCs where multiple offices are on the table. I.e Aljunied is one of few with technically 3 offices up for grabs. Minister of Foreign Affairs, 2nd Minister of Finance and 2nd Minister of Transportation. If the ward is lost, the PAP ends up with fewer eligible candidates to fill up the newly vacated positions, since appointments can only come from the ruling party. The implications are worrying.

Alternative voices in Parliment is important, but so is keeping the machine running while improvements are being made. To be fair, we must admit that some MPs ARE better at their jobs than others, and these should be retained even as we move towards a parliment with more alternative voices. But if one were to vote without considering the merits of the individual candidates, i.e. For ideology's sake, voting to voice one's displeasure, or deciding to voting out an experienced and more credible appointed minister just to get one of the better alternative voices in, we are diluting the pool of people from which the operational appointed ministers can be selected. If the PAP does lose many appointed ministers, we would really end up in a situation when the PAP would have to appoint less credible, capable, or proven ministers to office since the better ones lost as a result of mass protest votes Would you want Lee Bee Wah as your Foreign minister to be be able to handle herself in cross discussions with overseas politicians? Or Tin Pei Ling as home affairs minister?

Or we can evaluate the individual candidates, voting to keep the better ones and remove the worse ones.

After all, if we admit that we do not want to change the ruling party now, we would want to make sure that those that are left are the better ones, not just the left over ones. Or we can just not care and cast our votes impulsively.

Vote wisely indeed.

PS: I draw this line of thought from my own device, not from reading any state media or social media site. As I mentioned, I have not exposed myself state or social media to remain impartial. I really hope I was not the only one who has thought that far.