This will be my first piece in a series of articles I will be writing about Philip Yeo who is one key figure in the development of Singapore. His name is associated with the term “civil servant,” thus the first concept I want to tackle is the term civil servant before moving any further.
What is a civil servant in Singapore? According to Wikipedia, the Singapore civil service is made up of civil servants working for the government of Singapore. The principles of the civil service were inherited from the British colonial times. The use of the term is noted to be reserved for people who work in government ministries or other government affiliated organizations.
The services a civil servant can provide ranges from the administrative, legal, education, police, civil and defense. For those employed in statutory boards the term public servants are used.
According to the Public Service Division whose vision is to develop a “first-class public service for a successful and vibrant Singapore,” the “Singapore Public Service employs about 145,000 public officers working in 16 Ministries, more than 50 Statutory Boards and 9 Organs of State. Within the Public Service is the Civil Service, comprising about 84,000 officers working in the Ministries and Organs of state.”
And according to this blogpost here, everybody that works in a ministry is considered a civil servant. If you wear a uniform, work in a statutory board or a public hospital, or work as a judge you are not a civil servant.
Despite the distinction that civil servants work only in ministries I believe the lines can be blurred since Philip worked in various statutory boards and was known as a civil servant.
This is a list of the ministries in Singapore:
- Ministry Of Communications And Information (Mci)
- Ministry Of Culture, Community And Youth (Mccy)
- Ministry Of Defence (Mindef)
- Ministry Of Education (Moe)
- Ministry Of Finance (Mof)
- Ministry Of Foreign Affairs (Mfa)
- Ministry Of Health (Moh)
- Ministry Of Home Affairs (Mha)
- Ministry Of Law (Minlaw)
- Ministry Of Manpower (Mom)
- Ministry Of National Development (Mnd)
- Ministry Of Social And Family Development (Msf)
- Ministry Of The Environment And Water Resources (Mewr)
- Ministry Of Trade And Industry (Mti)
- Ministry Of Transport (Mot)
- Prime Minister’s Office (Pmo)
These are the key areas which make up the island-state.
Here is a list of statutory boards:
I was surprised to see the polytechnics on the list of statutory boards. Singapore Polytechnic, Temasek Polytechnic, Republic Polytechnic and so on are statutory boards. This is interesting. The unsurprising ones are Singapore Land Authority, Energy Market Authority, Housing Development Board, National Environment Agency and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Statutory boards are noted here to be one of the three forms of public enterprises in Singapore which are involved directly or indirectly in economic development. Based on my observation so far, statutory boards are an extension of the ministries. They help the ministries execute polices and innovate ideas for the benefit of Singapore in all key areas.
Key areas like land, urban development, energy, education, environment, tax, housing development and research are seen on the statutory boards list, and there are other less serious aspects like sports and arts. Other interesting statutory boards are hotel licensing and the regulation of hotel casinos.
Here is a list of organs of state:
- Attorney-General’s Chambers (Agc)
- Auditor-General’s Office (Ago)
- Industrial Arbitration Court (Iac)
- Istana (Istana)
- Judiciary, Family Justice Courts (Fjcourts)
- Judiciary, State Courts (State Courts)
- Judiciary, Supreme Court (Supcourt)
- Parliament Of Singapore (Parl)
- Public Service Commission (Psc)
- The Cabinet (Cab)
Seems like organs of the state are more judiciary and is made up of the Cabinet which comprises the Prime Minister and the ministers in charge of the ministries.
To conclude this section with respect to Philip Yeo, a civil servant is not involved in the politics of Singapore. A civil servant does not participate in legislation. A civil servant does not wear a uniform. A civil servant is a person who works for a ministry or a statutory board in key areas like defense, research, or economic development.
You can find the next article introducing Philip here.
Links referred to for this article:
1. https://www.gov.sg/sgdi/statutory-boards
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_of_Singapore
3. can singapore civil servants work in ministi
4. https://thebumblingtechnocrat.com/2014/08/05/public-or-civil-servant-there-is-a-difference/
