Daily Lesson from Life 21 April 2009

"Possible Singapores, beyond Lee Kuan Yew - Channel NewsAsia - Tuesday, April 21

SINGAPORE: A People’s Action Party (PAP) split by internal schisms. Future leaders bereft of the "huge political legitimacy" that could be gained from endorsement by the man with unmatched moral and historical authority. These are some of the leadership fates that could befall a post—Lee Kuan Yew Singapore, as hotelier Ho Kwon Ping sees it.

And such "imponderable" scenarios could help explain why a "system of elders" is now taking shape in the political landscape.

"Perhaps it is to restrain factionalism, arbitrate disagreements, groom and assess future leaders, that the positions of senior minister and minister mentor have been institutionalised," said Mr Ho, who feels the PAP’s "extraordinary cohesion" over five decades has owed much to "the forceful personality of Lee Kuan Yew".

In the words of former Deputy Prime Minister Goh Keng Swee, after the PAP’s long monopoly of parliament was broken in 1981. "Failure happens when we fail to consider the possibility of failure." "

It is good to have the establishment pondered the imponderables. Will the strong leadership of Mr. Lee Kuan Yew allowed Singapore to survive him even thought it had an ex-PM that was not from the Lee family?

It is anybody guess really as the government up to today, in my opinion, delivered only on the economy front. And that achievement has been challenged with the most recent financial tsunami. The gap between the rich and the poor has increased, at least from the noises from the people who losed their jobs while the leaders are still drawing pay of above a million dollar, albeit some pay cuts were implemented, and smaller increases allowed where appropriate.

Lessons for me are:

1. when the leaders are strong and wise and delivered, things are fine;

2. when the strong leaders find their own strong and wise people with a system that they felt are the best despite some input that they only focused on IQ and not EQ; it cannot be everything are honky dory. Political leadership without emotional attachment to the constituents they served is simply not right. This is an area for improvement though the government of the day is not considering;

3. when one only delivered on the materialistic aspects of life, it is easy to be shaken when you no longer deliver the bacon and beef! The sense of togetherness and the sense of sharing pains and gains is not as strong as in the past, there is a weak link somewhere. I personally believed that the dominant policy of: high pay to attract and keep talents to serve the government has a flaw in it.

4. the 'elders system' is actually been seen as 'burdens' as their pay was not reduced and also invite doubts that may be the current PM is not able to rally his team to move in one unified direction? Having elders are good, but having elders who overstay their welcome is sad! Each generation must have their own leaders and let them find their own way as it is their future and not the elders' future!

May Singapore survived Mr. Lee. There is no doubt that he has shaped and moulded the country to where it is. In terms of delivering economic successes, he has done a great job. In terms of providing a truly majority supported government, it is not a sure thing since the last general election, more than 30% of those who get to vote did not vote for the PAP candidates.