It's also quite likely harmful to the nation AND has little to do with morality. Allow me to explain.
If you want to have qualified people running the country they should be dedicated to it.
This is especially true in Singapore, where government cadres typically spend decades going through different branches of the administration before some of them rise to the top.
Understandably, then, they have to start young. Of course, when you are young you have dreams and expectations of your life – including your personal relationships.
Most people want to get married, start a family and be happy with their loved ones until their time on Earth expires. Who doesn't, right?
But you can't predict how your life is going to turn out, can you? Not all of it is dependent on you, after all.
So, is it fair to eliminate politicians on the basis of how their personal lives are going, after many years of public service?
In some, very specific, circumstances their behaviour could be inexcusable, of course.
Let's say a minister cheats on a pregnant wife or family with kids in diapers. You get married and then a year or two later you're caught with a hostess while your spouse is putting kids to bed. That's reckless and irresponsible.
Or, perhaps your partner is down seriously ill, spending months in hospital, and you get caught on a flight to Pattaya.
So, yes, in rare cases the breach of trust can be so egregious and appalling to the public that it destroys faith in such a public servant.
But not in all of them (not even in most).
You're telling me it's reasonable to disqualify someone who has spent years in administration, been married half of his life, has adult children, just because, perhaps, his marriage isn't as rosy as it once was?
Decades spent rising through the ranks are dumped in the bin overnight because he and his wife might no longer be getting along and he likes to spend time with someone else now?
Please explain to me how axing him is going to benefit the country?
Politicians get little respect everywhere in the world, with millions of average nobodies thinking they could do the job just as well – but that isn't so, is it really.
Like in every profession there aren't many people great at it. Why are we so eager to give them the boot them over something completely unrelated to how they discharge their duties? As I wrote earlier, you wouldn't do that to anybody else.
Someone said that politicians take an oath and can't be trusted if they break their marriage vows.
But doctors, lawyers, soldiers take an oath too – and yet you don't really care if they have a mistress, as long as they do their jobs well, do you?
I'd love to see people refuse to get appendectomy from a surgeon who has a side chick. I've never heard anybody exclaim "I can't trust you with that scalpel after what you did to your wife!".
This is the time when all the moralising types ride in on their high horses. "It's immoral! You've taken a vow! How dare you fool around!"
But how much does it have to do with morality, really?
I've never been married myself but most of my friends are or used to be. Probably half of the people I know are divorced or contemplated it – but it was never because they (or their partners) were dicking around with someone else.
It was because their marriage simply wasn't what it once was or didn't work out as they had planned it to. It's not that they wanted to cheat but rather that their relationship had deteriorated so much it was just a hollowed out shell.
You want to tell me it was somehow immoral for them to look for someone they felt better with, even though there was little else left of their current marriage other than a bunch of papers?
This is why I urge people not to judge.
It's easy to label someone a "cheat" without understanding what drove them to it. Yes, of course, there are unfaithful womanisers out there, but I would caution everybody about thoughtlessly labelling someone as one.
There are many reasons why people engage in affairs. Being lucky not to have found yourself in such a situation should also remind you that you may not understand what, how or why it happens.
Would you like anybody do that to you? Everybody likes to judge, nobody wants to be judged.
And, let me be clear, I do not condone cheating on your wife or husband. But I've seen enough to understand that you shouldn't jump to conclusions if you don't know the details.
And that personal decisions on private matters hardly ever affect professional performance.
