Elitism in PAP must end

"President is not — and should not be — a separate power centre." 

"These concerns can also be raised formally or informally through appropriate channels. The choice of channels to pursue depends on the individual situation." 

"One can, of course, imagine very different roles for the President that would require a constitutional amendment. But the Presidential Election itself is the wrong forum for this," 

"Candidates should run for the office that exists, not for the one they wish to have."

- Tony Tan

This concept of “the elite” is central to the operation of the Singapore system. It grew in the mind of Lee Kuan Yew into a self-conscious, self-righteous class of talented and brilliant people with strong character, who are imbued with a collective sense of purpose and a consciously collective understanding of the thinking of the group. Its apex and core lie in the political and administrative leadership, but its outer circles include the talented among all walks of society. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong recently described the elite as “a core group of people who occupy key positions of power and influence, and set the direction for the whole society and country”. Lee Kuan Yew described this elite many times, but this sense of self consciousness as an elite is perhaps best conveyed in a speech he gave in August 1966:

It is essential to rear a generation at the very top of society that has all the qualities needed to lead and give the people the inspiration and the drive to make it succeed. In short, the elite.

Every society tries to produce this type. The British have special schools for them: the gifted and talented are sent to Eton and Harrow and a few very exclusive private schools which they call “public schools”; after that they go to Oxford and Cambridge.And they have legends which say that the Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.

In this speech Lee also directly linked his elitism and his progressivism:
True, not every boy is equal in his endowments in either physical stamina or mental capacity or character. But all those with the potential to blossom forth must do so. That is the spearhead in the society, on whom depends the pace of our progress.

Lee’s elite has many characteristics in common with the English concept of “class”, whereby members of the upper class can speak of someone being “one of us”, but in Singapore this has been mixed shamelessly with the Chinese concept of a scholarly “mandarinate” to produce a peculiarly Singaporean conception that has, in the minds of its members, the best of both worlds.