Finding next Singapore PM and team ‘overdue’
By Zakir Hussain
THERE is no time to waste in the search for Singapore’s next prime minister and team of political leaders, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made it clear yesterday.
Both events are ‘overdue’, he said, adding that at age 56, he needed to prepare for a handover that would take place ‘not so very long in the future’.
‘We are doing this now because it is not early, it is time,’ he said.
He also explained that those with the potential to become Singapore’s future leaders need time to learn the ropes and win the trust of their peers.
He was replying to a question on leadership renewal that was posed to him at a dialogue with 120 business leaders at the Thomson Reuters dialogue yesterday.
‘We would like to have a deep bench and we need to deepen our bench,’ he said.
‘The way we have worked it is not to have no change, but to have change which is well prepared so that, by the time it happens, it appears natural but, in fact, a significant transformation has taken place,’ he added.
‘And that’s how we moved from Lee Kuan Yew to Goh Chok Tong, and that’s how we moved from Goh Chok Tong to me,’ he said.
Mr Lee noted that when these handovers took place, many people said there were no surprises, but that was because a lot of work went in before.
After last month’s Cabinet reshuffle, Mr Lee told reporters he was seeking political talent in their 30s and early 40s, and hoped one of them would emerge as his successor.
But he stressed it was for the younger ministers and others of their generation to decide who the next prime minister would be.
Said Mr Lee yesterday: ‘It’s a uniquely Singaporean approach, I concede. Very few other countries do this.’
The search was also not just about the next prime minister, he pointed out.
‘You must assemble a team which is strong enough so that there’s a range of abilities and skills which complement one another. And amongst them, they will work out the dynamics and one of them will emerge and be the leader accepted by the team and accepted by Singapore,’ he said.
Mr Lee was also asked what he hoped the United States’ foreign policy would be under its next president.
He said he hoped whoever was in charge would pursue free trade, take a firm stand on the struggle against extremist terrorism, maintain a constructive relationship with China and other major powers, and ‘also have a bit of time in the midst of his - or her - many other preoccupations, to pay attention to Singapore and South-east Asia’.
Source : Business Times - 07 May 2008
Singapore Property - Buy , Sell , Rent , Invest
Mindy Yong
(+65)91002985
mindy@mindyyong.com
Bishan @ Bishan St 22 »« Hougang @ Hougang Ave 5
