A Study On The Political Talents Thought And Practice Of The People' Action Party Of Singapore

Relying on the high attention paid to and scientific employment adopted by People's Action Party's for political talents,Singapore has made great achievements by developing from a shabby and dirty fishing village and spices and rubber market decades ago to the current internationally-renowned financial,commercial and shipping center,a garden city true to its name.Singapore has been pursuing elitism since the day it got independence,and the People's Action Party attaches great importance to elites,especially the selection,appointment and assessment of political elites.Lee Kuan Yew believed that elites could be classified into three types: ruling elites,power elites and social elites,from which the concept of political talents based on elitism was originated.Political talents are those people with great political potential.Unlike general social talents,they are quick in thinking and accurate in judgement while possessing a strong feeling of reality and the sharp political acumen.They can organize the people around them to accomplish arduous tasks while keeping incorruptible themselves.Meanwhile,they are also pillars of the country by possessing the spirit of devoting their whole life to the cause of the country.Talent resources are the foundation for the development of one nation,and only having enough excellent political talents can a country develop continuously.However,Singapore's reality is not optimistic because of its small population,insufficient reserve of excellent talents,and the political apathy of domestic outstanding talents.Private enterprises and opposition parties are also competing against the People's Action Party for political talents,which makes the People's Action Party accelerate the process of selecting and employing political elites.The successful experience of political personnel ideological construction and practice development in Singapore is not only worthy learning for the ruling party in other countries,but also deserves the attention of research parties in the academic community.The high importance attached to the political talents is an important condition for the People's Action Party to sustain its ruling status in Singapore.Taking the initiative to select political talents in the principle of fair play among the whole society,strictly controlling the selection process of political talents by adopting the “strict entry and exit” measure,and training excellent political talents within grassroots organizations and congress are preconditions of improving the competitiveness of People's Action Party.Rational allocation of political talents to realize their scientific development and retaining them through economic means are the keys for People's Action Party to improving administrative efficiency.Formulating the corresponding appraisal system according to the needs of political talents and social development reality,improving and innovating the methods and content of the evaluation,are the essential condition to keep vigorous vitality for the People's Action Party,which has ensured the improvement of professional quality and working skills of the political talents after entering the party to a great extent.Eliminating a part of the party members in accordance with the compulsory term of the People's Action Party and the party discipline,also with the dedication spirit of party members themselves,is an important way to promote the self-renewal and to maintain a good image of the People's Action Party.The first part of this paper,from the historical perspective,longitudinally discussed the establishment,innovation and development of political talents thought under the leadership of three generations of the People's Action Party.And then laterally expounded that how the People's Action Party selected,employed,developed and tested the political talents,which sorted out the internal relations of the political talents thought.At the same time,from the perspective of self-renewal theory and party image construction,this paper also discussed the elimination and proper placement of political talents under the management of the People's Action Party.“Foreign stones may serve to polish domestic jade”,the successful experience of the People's Action Party in the political talents thought and practice can be used for reference by other countries.However,because of Singapore's unique historical conditions and geographical factors,other countries should use their national conditions as the starting point and can't blindly copy.Talent resources always occupy a very important position in the development of a country,especially the political talents,the continuity of the ruling party status,the cohesion of national policies plays a crucial role,and is the bond of communication between the people and the political parties.Meanwhile,in the research field of political parties,the research on political talents is included in the elite governance strategy or the meritocratic generation,and the study of political talents as independent subjects is rare.Therefore,it is of great significance both in theory and reality to study the the political talents thought and practice of the People's Action Party in Singapore.