15 officers are slated to be attached this year to grassroots organisations, where they can contribute and get an up-close experience of socio-economic conditions on the ground, revealed head of Civil Service Peter Ho.

“It is even more important that our officers are sensitive to ground issues and concerns” during this downturn when Singaporeans are struggling to cope, said Mr Ho. To be effective in policy planning and development, they “must be able to empathise” with people’s difficulties.

Source:  Today

It’s a laudable initiative by the Singapore Civil Service.  The Service has around 120,000 employees and if they could finally connect better with the ground, the benefits will be unimagineable.  But wow… 15 out of 120,000?  I guess his “empathy” will take a while to manifest itself.  We know that tokenism is a hallmark of the government.  Is this is yet another indication of it? 

This journey towards a more emphathetic civil service is going to be a long one.  Fasten your seat belts.

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