The new people have to be in the average better than the present lot. The present politicians are the ideologists but the job of running the country may have to come from a newer batch, not just professionals but people who can really move things. The present lot become the spiritual backbone of their parties, the magnets to pull in new people. If they dream of being the PM, they better change their career now. Same with the PAP. Any in the present lot who wishes to be PM in 2030 will need to compete fiercely with several others and it will be very unlike today - to to be just appointed. May also vary term by term.
Well if people dream of being the PM, they better change their career now, yes. But if they don't dream of being PM, would you say, they shouldn't dream of being the opposition leader? It's not customary in Singapore for people to dream of being the prime minister. Yes, I have no doubt that the first one dreamt of being the prime minister. The second one knew that he was a seat warmer although he was probably surprised to have warmed the seat for that long. Ong Teng Cheong and Tony Tan turned down the chance to be a seat warmer - they didn't want to be seat warmers. The third one was born to be a prime minister, and we don't really know if he dreamt of being the prime minister, or if maybe he's sick and tired of the idea of being prime minister. I don't know who the heir apparent is (which is shocking since the 10th anniversary of LHL is not far away) but I have heard names like Teo Chee Hean and Chan Chun Sing tossed around.
There are a lot of papers locked up and they haven't yet been opened and examined. Prime ministers are big guys who have biographies written about them. So far the only person who's written a biography on Lee Kuan Yew is Lee Kuan Yew.
So the question is: who in Singapore really dreams of being the prime minister? And a related question is: who in Singapore who is not part of the elite but is part of the opposition really dreams of being the prime minister? Or are they just a bunch of guys who think that they're revolutionaries, who dream of being revolutionaries but when the role of prime minister unexpectedly comes, start thinking, "whoa"...
In a way yes PAP new ministers are inexperienced, but the way that this system has been set up is that you don't have people who are truly inexperienced to be prime ministers. If you look at the experience of the top PAP people coming in, just do some research on what Grace Fu was doing before she entered politics. You can complain about top military people becoming ministers, but at least they have an experience of being generals before they get to become ministers / minister of states.
So the point is that opposition government ministers are people who are CEOs of big companies which are not affiliated with the PAP - how many of them will you get? Or they are people who were top civil servants but defect. Not many people in those two groups. OK, my guess is that somebody like Tan Jee Say dreams of being prime minister. Who else is there?