Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stressed that the People’s Action Party’s commitment to serving Singaporeans and Singapore remains unchanged.
In wide-ranging interviews with local media ahead of the leadership transition on May 15, Mr Lee, who is also the Secretary General of the People’s Action Party, reflected on the last 20 years leading Singapore.
Here are 8 key takeaways from Mr Lee’s interviews with local media on April 26 and 28 that covered wide ranging topics.
#1 People’s Action Party’s commitment to Singapore remains unchanged
“We certainly have changed. We have changed generationally, new leaders. We changed in terms of the policies, updated regularly. We have changed in terms of the way we pitch the policies. How do we reach out? How do we put it out? How do we explain it? It is not just going on to social media and TikTok, but the way in which you engage people to discuss it with them, modify your views as you go along and then finally present in an interactive way and get people to buy in. I think we have changed a lot over the years, and it is for the better.”
“Certain things have not changed. Our commitment to Singapore has not changed. Our determination to maintain high standards of integrity and competence, it has not changed. Our commitment to serve Singaporeans is the same. Our intention to keep on providing a high-quality government for Singapore, that must always be there. And Singapore depends on that, because if the PAP did not do that, I think any other political party would be hard put to do the same thing. It is a reality.”
#2 Singapore’s political system is special and once we “leave it”, we can “never come back”
“The way it has worked in Singapore is quite special and does not happen anywhere else in the world, democracy or non-democracy. There is consent, there is mandate and there is restraint and there is sustainable continuity. It is remarkable.”
“You leave it, you can never come back…Keep it like this for as long as you can. It delivers outstanding results, whether security, whether economy, whether housing, education, healthcare – everything. To make this Government work like this, to have this kind of standard of living in Singapore, to be able to have a leader who can say, “I have the support of the people. I have done my best for, the people, and I think I have delivered”. I think that is a very rare privilege which Singaporeans have. Keep it.”
#3 PM Lee has his views on whether Opposition raised standards of policies.
“It is not just the men in white who can do it. The opposition has its own definition. It wants to have more opposition MPs, and to them, this is the way to achieve better politics; they want to replace the PAP.”
“I think they are doing their best to act as a watchdog, hoping that Singaporeans will think that they will make our government more transparent and our policies better. Even better, they can dilute or weaken less popular policies. I think in this aspect they are doing their best.”
“But as to whether they can really raise the standards of policies, I have my views. I think for those less controversial policies, we can discuss them very calmly and objectively … But when it comes to economic issues, or education or health issues, it is hard to avoid politicking.”
#4 PM Lee and Singaporeans brought Singapore forward
“I didn’t try to run faster than everybody else. I tried to bring everybody to run with me. And I think we did have some success.”
#5 The new leadership team will be probed and tested
“People will want to see how the new leaders are, what their policy is, and what their personality is; his standing, his strength and support at home, and his ability to engage and to hold his own, and to be somebody to take seriously. I think DPM Wong is not completely new to this. He was my PPS (Principal Private Secretary) a long time ago, and he went to many of these meetings with me, so he has seen me. As Minister, he has travelled with me too, from time to time.”
“I think that the new team will be probed, certainly. Tested, well, maybe gently, maybe issues will come, and people might push a little bit harder, or maybe not. But we must expect that some probing will come, and we must be ready to respond. Not in a harsh way, but quietly to stand our ground and let people know that you know, we may have had a changing of the guard, but the new guards are prepared, and the old guards are still, giving hopefully useful views to the new team on how to do it.”
#6 PM will do his best to help Lawrence Wong succeed in his role
“Well, I talked to him (Mr Wong). I said, I will be here to do my best to help you to succeed, you have to be your own person. You have to make the decisions. You have to lead in your own way, persuade people in your own way.”
“But I will give you the benefit of my experience and my views. But you have to set the tone, you have to carry the decision.”
“Well, I hope that the people I know, the network of leaders I have met and who know me, will still be there for some time. They are getting old too and getting on.”
“Specific, sensitive policy, that is up to the Prime Minister to decide. If he arrows me to do it, I will take the arrow.”
#7 It would be very difficult to make racism “completely disappear” in Singapore
“I think it (racism) is less in Singapore than most other countries. We will work to make it better. To make it completely disappear, I think would be very difficult. We started off with the founding ideal to be one people, regardless of race, language or religion. And actually, we have gone very far in that direction by policies, by government indoctrination even, by the way we have built our society to be one people.”
“But to make prejudice disappear completely between different human groups who are going to remain different and keep our cultures, our heritages and our religions, which are not the same – I think to remove altogether any sense of that different distinctiveness, I think that would be very hard.”
“So, I think that we will improve, we will do more things to nudge this in the right direction. For example, the workplace discrimination legislation which we are working on. And I think it would make a difference.”
“We have to know what to do when we fall short of perfection, and something happens.”
“Because sometimes if there is a small incident and you overreact and everybody gets hyped up overnight because you saw one – somebody made a – foolish post, I think it is not really the wisest way to handle it. You have to see it in perspective, if it is wrong, I condemn it. Do not do it again. Let us move on.”
#8 PM Lee’s children have no interest in joining politics
“If they had an interest, and if they were not my children and if they had an interest – Yes. But they are my children, and the hurdle is higher. So far, none of them has shown any interest. My grandchildren are much too young.”
