section_path: Recruitment and retention
section_name: Recruitment and retention
paragraph_text: Recruitment and retention
  
  Unlike many political parties in numerous other countries that rely on grassroots mobilisation and overt rewards for party loyalty, the People's Action Party (PAP) in Singapore adopts a highly centralised, top-down and meritocratic approach to candidate recruitment, in order to prevent nepotism, cronyism, branch stacking, entryism or any form of primary elections. Rather than progressing through local branches or factional networks, prospective legislators are identified through "talent spotting" (executive search) by senior figures in government and industry. This screening mechanism is designed to attract individuals with distinguished records in the civil service, the armed forces, academia, managerial executives from the private sector or non-profit sector, or professional sectors such as engineering, law, finance, mass media and health care. This unique preselection invitation system is designed to maintain the technocratic, meritocratic, realpolitik and pragmatic character of the PAP, and to avert any form of personalist dictatorships, populism and political polarization.
  
  Prospective candidates first emerge through recommendations by PAP activists, corporate leaders, Members of Parliament and senior civil servants. Each year, roughly one hundred individuals—many of whom have studied or worked abroad—are invited to "tea sessions" with 2–3 serving ministers, during which they engage in in-depth discussions lasting up to two and a half hours (sometimes unbeknownst initially by the interviewee, of the true intent of the tea session(s), which is an euphemism for informal prospecting interviews by the PAP, for candidacy in upcoming Singapore general elections). Those shortlisted then face two formal interviews conducted by a high-level panel at party headquarters; successful interviewees meet again with ministers, though final approval rests with the Central Executive Committee (CEC) before the successful interviewees are "invited to join politics". In the lead-up to an election, approved candidates are assigned to shadow incumbent MPs, and they receive training in public speaking and media communications.
  
  Furthermore, a small number of recruits—typically five or six per electoral cycle—are selected for additional psychological assessment based on a Shell-Oil-developed appraisal system. These candidates undergo a day-and-a-half examination of more than 1,000 questions to evaluate their personality and disposition, and are then earmarked as potential ministerial talent. While the PAP presents this elaborate, multi-stage process as a means of upholding "meritocracy" by choosing the "best man or woman for the job", critics argue that the heavy reliance on elite networks and professional pedigrees renders the system fundamentally elitist and prone to groupthink rather than genuinely open to wider society, especially the working class who may share a different socioeconomic environment and resulting worldview.
  
  Although only a fraction of prospective short-listed candidates are selected to represent the party at general elections, not everyone invited to join the PAP's candidate pipeline accepts the offer from the PAP. Many decline for personal or professional reasons—some encounter employer restrictions, others face familial opposition or simply feel that politics is not for them. Likewise, when it comes to retaining serving PAP MPs in Singapore, despite the elevated salaries for ministers and Members of Parliament in Singapore, a small number also choose not to seek re-election or step aside before any given election, citing similar personal, family, lifestyle or career considerations.