PERIOD OF UNCERTAINTY
Economic growth has slowed down sharply compared to the double-digit growths of the 1970s and 80s, incomes have become more unequal between the top and bottom segments of the population and there have been surprising political hiccups in recent years, including on the issue of leadership succession.
As a result, it is not uncommon these days to hear murmurings among the people when things have not gone well, that if “LKY were around….” or “he would have done it this way…”.
No one is saying Singapore needs another Lee Kuan Yew but neither has the intervening 10 years been so stress-free that there has not been the occasional wish for his counsel and vision.
In a period of uncertainty and rapid change – which the world now faces on the geopolitical and technological front – there is always a tension between wanting to break free from the past to chart new paths and a return to the good olds days of greater certainty and stability.
Singapore feels this pull more sharply because it has achieved so much in so short a time that memories have not faded completely, including of Mr Lee and his remarkable leadership.
On the 10th anniversary of his death, it is pertinent to ask what was his most compelling idea of Singapore that made it overcome the odds and shaped his thinking about its survival and success, and which might still be relevant today.
Most people when asked would trot out the usual answers: Law and order, corruption-free government, meritocracy and multiracialism. These are important, but they came later.
At the beginning, and more than anything else, was this core idea: Singapore is a highly vulnerable country with less margin for error than most countries, which is why it needs to be constantly tended and closely governed by the best and brightest who have to come forward to serve as leaders.
In the book Hard Truths To Keep Singapore Going, he put it this way: “This place is like a chronometer. You drop it, you break it, it’s finished… I’m not sure we’ll ever get a second chance… If you believe this superstructure is the same as other countries, you are dead wrong.”
This, for him, is the one idea that he would dearly wish would outlast him.
